A lot of people claim it was overpowered because you can't target, or that it made you really hard to see (the latter I find funny because it's ridiculously easy to see people with the Ring of fog, but whatever).
Personally, I enjoyed doing a pure melee build where I just max DEX with the Thief blade and hide like Predator in the forest and 1 shot backstab people. I remember playing for like 4 hours straight without dying and obtaining over 5 million souls, which is around 200 PvP kills. I was rewarded for using a "gimmicky" kind of weapon and for pumping my DEX stat. I was rewarded for dodging enemy attacks to get behind them to backstab them. I was also rewarded for knowing how to aim without any targeting assistance, as 90% of other players used the Ring of Fog too.
Now that Ring of Fog is nerfed, any pure melee backstab build that doesn't have any magic is severely gimped. Any player can now just press the target button and the Ring of Fog's effect is now gone. I just feel really saddened by the fact people rely on the targeting system so much that they felt the Ring of Fog was overpowered. Was it really that difficult to manually aim your attacks? I've played a lot of Monster Hunter, and that game is kind of comparable to this (except Monster Hunter is a lot harder), there is no targeting system in that and there's no need for it to be. Advocates of the nerf will say "just learn to adapt", but if anyone should have learned something, it's the advocates learning to attack without targeting assistance. I am extremely disheartened that the developers believed that not being able to target players was unfair.
For example, my build against turtling tanks? You have to hope they suck or otherwise you pretty much can't hurt them. Not only is their poise insanely high that any frontal attack isn't possible, but their ability to target you makes backstabbing almost impossible when combined with latency. So now any players that created an agile character focused on DEX/STR is gimped against tanks. You can't attack them with their shield up because you will drain your stamina faster, and neither can you backstab them after they attack because the targeting system auto-corrects their aim and when they swing weapons like Zweihanders that have nearly 180 degrees of swing coverage, it makes it practically impossible to actually hit them.
A typical response to this is "use the shotel!" Really? I have to use a gimped weapon that can only penetrate the turtle's shield with a heavy attack, where unless the tank opponent has fallen asleep - they will abuse their high poise and just wreck you while you're attacking. Even then, is it good design when I am forced into a certain playstyle that doesn't match the character I built it for?
For Spellcasters, they have homing soulmass and that push-back AoE spell which can 2 shot you. With DLC, they have even more tools which make 1 shotting even easier. It's got the point that a SL50 or something can kill me when I am at SL200 just because I was unfortunate enough to pick a build that isn't viable, when it should be.
It's pathetic that the one item that made pure melee viable was nerfed into oblivion by tanks/turtlers/spellcasters/hybrids or in other words, any non pure melee class.
I suppose I can break up the problems with PvP into 4 areas to make it simple: Enchanting, shields, magic and overall balance design.
Enchanting
As we all know, lightning/fire/chaos enchants make it so some guy with 15 DEX/STR does equal damage to someone with the same weapon no matter how much DEX/STR they have unless that weapon has A or S stat scaling, which I believe requires over 80 of that stat before it deals more damage. I don't believe I even should spell out how awful that is for balance because it limits pure melee and buffs the hell out of hybrid/spellcasters. I can't think of one good reason why enchanting is so powerful, I really hope it is heavily nerfed in DS2.
Shields
My problem with shields is that playing without them is pretty much gimping yourself. With how ridiculous magic is, you're essentially forced into using a shield to mitigate the damage because rolling doesn't suffice any more. That and the fact that shields block so much melee damage and gives you an opportunity to counter attack effortlessly.
Magic
Ok, so magic was bad in DeS, we all know. What isn't cool is that Magic became ridiculously overpowered.
I don't want to hear "just use this spell/item", again, forcing players into certain playstyles is dumb balance. Sure, not all builds can be optimal, but they should all be viable with most dependance being on player skill. Spellcasting combined with ridiculous enchanting gives hybrids and all spellcasters an advantage over pure melee because they have all the strengths of melee until a high SL but have magic that can 2 shot or instant kill on top.
I honestly believe the devs never anticipated people to play hybrids, because it makes no sense that a "jack of all trades" character is an "ace of all trades" in reality.
Overall balance design
This part is where balance philosophies will clash.
I've been reading threads about Dark Magic (this is for an example), and a lot of people claim its fine because you can use the pendant or you can use great magic barrier, or havels shield. Ok, there problems with each suggestion:
1. Not all people will have the pendant, if they do, they need it equipped because its risky to try and equip it mid fight.
2. Not all people roll hybrids or are spellcasters, and shouldn't need to, no matter how "optimal" it is to roll either.
3. Not everyone has 50 STR for havels shield
I am a big fan of any strategy working provided you play it right. I don't like being forced into certain playstyles because my opponent has a certain item or skill. Not every build should be optimal, but all builds should be viable with skill being the largest deciding factor.
Is it good design that when I see an opponent has magic, I have to change my weapon, items and armour? If you think yes, then I honestly don't understand you. I believe if I made a shieldless backstab DEX build, that its possible to backstab them to death without needing to be 10x better than my opponent. You literally can only win based on the mistakes of your opponent. The skill floor for competitive PvP playing a pure melee without a shield is insanely high compared to playing any hybrid/spellcaster build.
The best part is that the same people that believe you should be forced to use a certain item to beat their strategy, are the same people that complained Ring of Fog was overpowered when they didn't need to change their strategy - they just needed to improve their own skill at targeting.
How funny is that? An item that required your opponent to be more skillful REGARDLESS of build gets nerfed while items/spells that require you to have certain builds/other items are completely fine. How are people fine with that logic?
The same thing applies with what was aforementioned. I HAVE to use a shotel to beat turtlers while they can do anything they want to beat me if I don't have it. Skill isn't a factor here, only items are.
The game's PvP has been designed for build and items vs build and items with player skill being a very small factor. I am a fan of there being counters to certain skills/items, but when the counters are only other skills or items? That's just stupid. It's the same as saying "I spent more so I should win", in that case, allow every FPS game to come with aim assist in multiplayer if they spend $50 more, or RTS games to have infinite resources for the same.
Again, I believe there should be optimal builds. But optimal builds shouldn't win just because they're optimal. Player skill should be the largest factor, and if you seriously can't hit a player without targeting assistance, then you deserve to lose to a build that is high risk and high reward.
In terms of builds, is pure melee viable provided you aren't tanky? I like agile classes, and I don't want to be forced to use magic to win, and neither should you. It seems my build has the shortest stick possible because I need to force myself to use certain items and I have to use other weapons just to beat another players. The one item that allowed builds like mine possible got nerfed because other players can't aim without assistance, and because they can't stand being backstabbed while their god-like shields are up and their 180 degree swipes can't hit me.
I can only kill around 20 people before I die now in the forest. Now while people will say "that's still heaps", 20 people is a lot different to over 200 which I could do before. Also, people will say that sounds ridiculously OP that anyone could get 200 kills before dying. Let me tell you why it was fine:
1. Everyone was using Ring of Fog, so I was just better at aiming without assistance (i.e. I am the better player)
2. My build is reliant on backstabs, without a backstab I do no damage (a huge trade off)
3. A big handful of those people were really low SL and I could kill without backstabbing
4. Casters spells could 1 shot me if they hit me
5. Tanks could kill me if they hit me once because I have no poise
Does that sound balanced now? You would be insane to think otherwise. Now a pure melee backstabbing build has 0 redeeming qualities about it over hybrid builds. It seems they designed the game for hybrids only.
Without a doubt, there will be a response saying "What about the OP hybrid/spellcasters that use it?" Well, what's the difference? You just have to aim at them manually, nothing else changes...
Another issue is how they put limits on magic spells. Limits on spells just screams for magic to be overpowered. What better reason to combat accusations of your build being overpowered than to say "but I can only do it 5 times!" 5 instant wins or 1, it doesn't matter, it's still overpowered.
They should consider removing spell limits and just nerfing damage output for all spells in DS2, everyone wins.
Last edited by Desenrascano on Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:05 pm; edited 1 time in total