Player vs Player

Overview

There are three types of PvP in CoX: the Arena, PvP Zones, and Base Raids.

PvP Zone Combat

Combat in the four zones is probably the most popular form of PVP. It has a freewheeling style and all kinds of strange builds and teams show up there.

All four zones have a level requirement to enter; the lowest is level 15. All contain various Badges, Temp Powers, Missions and mini-games designed to tempt PvE-oriented players into PvP land, or perhaps to give PvPers something to do while waiting for the enemy to show up. All also contain NPCs. Some are aligned to the Hero or Villain factions; others are neutral. Neutral and enemy NPCs will give you debt if they defeat you.

Three of the zones allow PvP combat only between Heroes and Villains. (At least until some joker throws a Confuse-type power into the mix.) In Warburg, you can fight players of your own faction, but still can only team with members of your own faction.

PvP Arena Combat

Arena battles are set up in advance by players for the format they choose in a controlled environment. There are many options: duels, two teams, multiple teams, large scale free-for-alls, various types of limits on levels, power use, classes and victory conditions. The Arena uses special maps which are chosen randomly for each match.

Two common formats for Arena battles are 1v1 duels and 8v8 battles between Supergroups who focus on PVP. The latter mostly occur on the Test server, described by Positron some months ago as the official cross-server PvP area. (This would be funnier if he had been kidding.) Test is also a good place to find pickup PvP matches.

SG 8v8 battles usually feature a team of players with Level 50 builds specialized and drilled to complement each other. A typical SG match is best two-out-of-three 20-minute rounds. Today, Hero vs Villain SG matches are unusual. This is usually attributed to stronger or advantageous Hero powers which Villains cannot match.

The PVPEC created two SG ladders, one each for Hero and Villain Supergroups. After an initial tournament to determine ranks, the SG ladder opened on August 3, 2007 with seven ranked SGs. Matches conducted within this system are usually called official matches and organized on the official PVP Arena board.

Base Raids

Main Article: Base Raid

This is a battle, or a set of two battles, between two Supergroups, both of which have suitably equipped bases. The battles are set in the target SG's base, which may be fortified by special defenses used only in a raid.

At one point, the Devs planned to have raidable bases house one or more Items of Power, which could be stolen by a raiding group. However, as of this writing, the Cathedral of Pain Trial during which the IoPs are obtained is unavailable. Prior to Issue 13, base raids were just done for fun and bragging rights, however with the release of Issue 13 the base raid feature has been turned off.

PvP Builds

Players who enjoy PvP will typically play certain Powersets and develop specialized builds with them to maximize their PvP advantage.

Characteristics of PvP builds

• Specialize in their role: damage, disruption, or support
• Single target attacks for damage dealers
• Perception advantage (buffs for you and teammates, debuffs for foes)
• Slotted Movement powers (the Leaping pool is very popular)
• High To-Hit, Damage and Recharge
• Fitness pool (some builds can forego it)
• Escape powers such as Phase Shift or Hibernate

Characteristics of PvP Powersets

A dedicated PvPer will often play a Powerset they find advantageous. For example, the Scrapper Broadsword or Spines sets are usually thought stronger choices than Dark Melee or Katana, and Regeneration better than Super Reflexes or Dark Armor. However, a skilled player can overcome the limitiations of a "gimped" set that they play, especially if they don't face off against the most powerful players running the most powerful builds and teams. And in the zones, numbers and skill are both more important than build.

In any case, give careful thought to Powersets and build before going to PvPi, and especially before creating a character especially for PvP. Bear in mind also that dueling, team Arena, solo zone play, and team zone play all differ in what is most advantageous.

PVP Servers

While PVP can and does occur on any server, more PVP players means a better chance to get into a fight, if you're looking for one. There is no official position on this and some debate, but after the server transfers Freedom and Infinity have emerged as popular live PvP servers for holders of US accounts, with Infinity stronger in the Arena and Freedom more active in the zones. As a venue hosting both players and SGs from any server and permitting ready duplication of toons and enhancements, Test remains the central server for high-level Arena play.

PvP Gameplay Differences

PvP fights in City of Heroes follow an extensive set of changes and additions to the rules covering PvE gameplay.

Base Damage Resistance

Players receive a small amount of Damage Resistance for free simply for being in a PvP zone. The amount varies with AT.

Travel Suppression

In PvE, Travel Suppression always lasts 4 seconds, has no effect on teleportation, and is only triggered by attacking. In PvP, it lasts different amounts of time depending on what caused it, it disables all teleportation and portal-summoning powers, and it can be triggered by using attacks, by using some non-attacks, and by getting affected by enemy powers.

Diminishing Returns

In PvP, many character attributes are subject to Diminishing Returns. In general, a single buff will have near full effect, while additional buffs begin to offer less and less benefit. The specific numbers vary from attribute to attribute and from AT to AT. For instance, a Tanker's Resistance and Defense can be raised higher than a Blaster's.

The calculation is based on the sum of all buffs, so the order the buffs are applied does not matter.

Example: Under the old system, Aim + Build Up might provide a combined +67% ToHit buff, while under this system, that combo might provide only +49%.

Note from Castle: The Combat Attributes tool will not always report the results of Diminishing Returns accurately, at least initially. This is specifically true of Damage Buffs, which always display the Pre-Diminished value.

Status Effect Protection

In PvP zones, effects that normally provide Protection against status effects provide Resistance instead. It is not possible to prevent effects like Holds and Immobilization in PvP – only shorten them. (Knockdown, Knockback, and Knockup are not included in this. Protection against these can still be found.)

Status Effect & Knockback Suppression

Every time a character recovers from a Hold, Immobilize, Disorient, Sleep, or Fear status, that character becomes immune to all five of those effects from other players for 15 seconds. Every time a character suffers a Knockdown, Knockback, or Knockup effect, that character becomes immune to all three of those effects from other players for 10 seconds. These two timers are independent.

Healing Decay

Any time a character receives healing from any source, including Inspirations, that character suffers a +20% Resistance penalty to subsequent healing for 8 seconds. Each healing effect applies its own separate penalty, and they can stack up to 80%. Healing Resistance follows the same formula as Damage Resistance.

Base Hit Chance

Main article: Attack Mechanics

Players are naturally harder to hit than computer-controlled enemies are. The base chance of hitting another player is 50% (before factoring in Enhancements and all the different buffs on both the attacker and the target). The base chance of hitting an equal-level computer controlled enemy – even in a PvP zone – is 75%.

Elusivity

Main article: Attack Mechanics

Many Defense-boosting powers, particularly those in the protective power sets of "non-squishy" ATs, also add a bonus to another stat called Elusivity in PvP zones. Elusivity's effects stack with Defense to make a character even harder to hit.

Stealth and Perception

Main article: Stealth and Perception

All players (as well as all critters) have two different Stealth totals: one that's used when a player is trying to see them, and one for when critters are doing the looking. Stealth-buffing powers give different bonuses to each. Also, Stealth will prevent an enemy player from targeting you if you gain enough of it in the middle of a fight with him. This is different from PvE, where a critter that has aggro on you knows exactly where you are and ignores Stealth and Perception totals until it gets tired of fighting.

Individual Power Differences

Any power can be coded to produce different effects based on the character using it, or what it's used on, or what kind of zone it's used in. This feature is used heavily to balance powers differently for PvP and PvE. The following sections list some reliable generalizations, but they don't come close to accounting for all the differences. Almost any effect of any power may be different between PvP and PvE – sometimes so subtly that it's not even noticeable. One good place to see differences is to check and uncheck the PvP button in the power's own Detailed Info window.

Damage

The relative amounts of damage done between different attacks within a power set, between different power sets for the same AT, and between different ATs all follow different rules of thumb. From Castle:

• Powers now calculate damage based on their activation time, instead of their recharge.
• Lower activation time powers get a slight bonus to damage, due to chaining low damage powers being difficult in PvP.
• Longer recharge time powers also get a slight damage bonus, so higher level powers with long recharge times deal extra damage.
• Damage has been adjusted for all ATs, reducing the damage gap between each AT.

Controls

The strengths and durations of status effect-causing powers follow different, simpler, and more consistent rules in PvP.

• Most status effects have a consistent base duration of 4 seconds for Controller and Dominator powers, and 2 seconds for all other ATs and for pool and temporary powers. These durations do not increase with level. (This may not apply to some APP powers yet.) The relevant status effects are Disorient, Sleep, Hold, Immobilize, Fear, Confuse, Untouchable, and Intangible.
• The Dominator's Domination mode gives no bonus duration to status effects. Instead, it causes the them to apply for their full duration regardless of resistances.
• Taunting powers have a consistent base duration of 6 seconds for Tanker sets, and 4 seconds for Scrapper, Brute, and pool sets. These durations do not increase with level.
• Placating powers have a consistent base duration of 10 seconds for Stalker sets and 4 seconds for Soldiers of Arachnos sets. These durations do not increase with level.

PvP Zone or PvP Target?

Powers can have different effects based on whether they're used in a PvP zone. Powers can also have different effects based on whether the target is a player or a critter. The difference is important if you fight street spawns in PvP zones or you engage in PvP fights versus pet-using opponents. The first type of powers cause PvP effects on hostile critters, while the second cause PvE effects on them.

Effects that Don't Change

Some power characteristics cannot be made to vary. You can safely expect these to stay the same between PvP and PvE:

• Endurance Cost (although crashes and ongoing per-target losses can vary, since they are not costs)
• Activation Time
• Recharge Time
• Interrupt Time
• Inherent Accuracy Multiplier (although effects can have individual ToHit modifiers, or gain or lose autohit status)
• Attack Type Tags
• Range
• AoE type and size
• max # of AoE targets

External references

• PVP 101 by Nicci (Outdated due to Issue 13 PVP changes)
• PVP Zone Guide by ColJasmine
• Issue 13 PvP Powers Changes by Castle (Developer)