.. rushers abusing arenas.

Just curious what y'all think about this.

Was fighting in the Ascalon Arenas when I met this fellow named Sango San. I wasn't paying attention to him at first--until he killed me. Since he was my last selected opponent, I was watching his spells--and imagine my surprise when Ether Renewal (elite) popped up on a level ten character, along with a number of other nasty lightning spells.

Huh!

He later confessed to having "top-notch" armor, armor I can only assume was from Draknor's Forge.

While it's not illegal, I'm curious what other people think about this. You know, being rushed to Draknor's Forge and then coming back to the Ascalon arena.

Sounds like a lame newb who can't stand to lose. So he tilts the odds in his favor by power-leveling and twinking. Happens in every game that allows it

One thing I like about this game is the fact it's not too linear, in that you can pretty much get to any area without having to keep doing missions.

However, this is where i have a little issue with the game. The Story Line.

It's a great storyline, don't get me wrong about that, but when it follows a story and you can get to areas that would only seem accessible by following the story, and enables these so called rushers to obtain this armor and some of these elite skills, that would seem to be for lvl20's only, is it about time, ANet, made it almost impossible for these people to get these elite skills unless you are lvl20 and ascended and to get to Draknor's Forge before you have even found out what certain Enemies/Allies(Don't want to spoil for any new players here) are getting up to, seems a little wrong.

Ok, i know people are playing this game for PvP in the arenas etc, but there is also a SIngle Player/ Coop Style element to this game as well. In most other games of this type, they wouldn't allow you to get to the end, without following the storyline.

So, either they make it so this armor elite skills are for lvl20 arenas only or for lvl20 characters only?

Just my thoughts.

Well, that's rotten sure as anything and isn't any better when he gets to the next arena. I hope that you talking to him opened his eyes to his own cheating, and that he'll avoid lower level arena's where he has an unfair advantage.

I don't want them to take away Lornars Pass though. It was my favorite part of the game. The first really challenging thing I've done in the game.

I don't like how the storyline transports you to new areas. To me it takes away from the exploration of the world. My friend and I have walked everywhere before we take the mission to get there. I like that I've had to figure out the winding trails and open up the map on my own. I don't want to have a storyline shoved down my throat.

They could put more slowing mobs in Lornars I guess, maybe some de-buffers to stop sprint and regen. At most a level restricter, say maybe 12, that stops this.

I'm in Draknar's armor before ascension but I fought for every bloody inch of it without running.

It would suck yea, but cheating.. no. If he is able to get there with these skills etc then so be it. You don't earn or gain anything from the arena except a little fun and some practice and the only "bad" thing would only be the /deaths count going up a little more.

It's not skills to be rushed with a bunch of level 20s.

/argree

No way was he able to make it to droknarrs with just npc's from Beacon. A single L20 would have issues making that run by themselves.

I'm sure it'd feel annoying, but it's really not a major issue. Winning, losing, the arenas are pretty pointless anyway. Just something to do when you're bored, and the only thing you get out of it is exp. (actually, have 4 friends on my list whom I met in PvP arenas. Great friendly people who I worked well with, and we still keep in touch and talk on occasion.)

That, and the skills and equipment are scaled to be appropriate for 8 vs 8 lvl 20 team battles.

Just enjoy the fights that aren't with such people, remember that while skill plays a major role in the game, obviously, equipment+skill advantage can be pretty impacting, and that your losses to such people aren't necessarily indicators in your lack skill. That, and they'll eventually level past the arena and get bored, and hopefully not be your problem anymore.

It's easy for a L20 to run the way to Droknar's. I do it all the time.

I find your blase attitude about blatantly unfair advantage disturbing. First, are you the arbiter of what part of the game is "pointless" or not? Well, Mercury Angel says it's pointless, guess we should all go home. What arrogance. So, to recap, because it's pointless to you, we shouldn't do anything about a blatantly unfair advantage that at best uses a loophole in a competitive environment. Cheating is ok to you because you don't fight there. I don't post here much, I play the game more, but I keep hearing stuff like this (and frankly it makes me think you are one of the rushed-to-Droknar's people fighting in the arena, which you'll deny, and nobody will be able to prove one way or the other), where people basically condone something because it's done to someone else. When something doesn't effect you, we humans use something called empathy, where we imagine what things would be like if we were in their shoes. The lack of it I find so often is disturbing as well.

Sounds like a poor lame noob that sucks in reall life.
Theres no problem with giving your new character good equipment and money you found with the older ones.
Elite spells and droknars armor with help from the guild is fine also.

But keep both out of the Lowlevel arenas ffs!!!!

A few level restrictions would be good. Lvl15 requirement for Draknor's armor and the set before it and lvl15 max in the Ascalon Arena wouldn't be too restricting, but it would also allow newbies to have an arena in which to play people that are similarily powerful.

Final Fantasy Online had a good idea for kind of thing. If your over the level of certain maps it drops your level to the max level range. So for Ascalon area a lvl 20 can join his newly joined lvl 8 friend as a lvl 10 etc. However the drawback is your limited to using only the skills you would have at the max lvl (in this case 10). So basically the devs just need to put level caps on certain spells. So that they can enter certain arenas, but not use elite skills in the lvl 1-10 arenas etc etc. Same with armor, put level requirements on it so that you can't wear it in a lower level arena.

It's only blatantly unfair if you can't do it yourself, which you can
Arena is "pointless" because there is no real effect on you - you dont win or lose anything. That's a factual statement, not an opinion.
And besides - it's random. The guy might spawn on your team. - It's a team game, so worrying about individual power is like worrying when playing a mesmer and then landing a team that doesn't support you.
Empathy is only important for suffering - being empathic towards someone who's merely annoyed is not necessary to being a good human being :P

Oh, and, in GvG games, every now and then you're bound to meet a group who has such overwhelming skill that you're hard pressed to beat them. Just think of twinked and rushed characters as an "emulator" for such experiences, to prepare you for later :P

Wait a second, Draknor's Forge has state of the art armor??!! I have yet to see it. I got there today and the armor there is decent, but not worth the plat to spend on it if you upgraded in Amnoon. Just my take from a monk's perspective.

video?

What the hell is wrong with you people calling the guy a noob? First of all, I understand if you have ill feelings towards his advantage (his FAIR advantage) over other low level PvPers. However, first of all, he is NOT a noob, as is shown by his relationship with other high level characters. Even a noob who has friends in high places will learn the ropes from them, such is the case with this particular "noob."

Second, don't hate him just because he took the time and effort, as well as his friends, to help him attain such skills/armor. You can all do it too. In this situation, everyone who flames this guy is like a person who decided not to unlock every skill and used a template PvPer who loses against someone who took the time and effort to build a custom PvPer. Then you go and blame the unlocker with his "unfair advantage" of more skills, etc. Utter BS. If you dislike it so bad, then you should go run Lornar's so you can PvP with this guy on more even terms. It's not like it's impossible for you.

Just like every other advantage in this game, it is gained through luck, time, and/or help from others. The only UNFAIR advantage would be the use of hacks, cheats, and bug exploits.

nah having a level 10 with draknors armor and elite skills from later in the game, its cheating the game system, which is cheating

Lornar's pass is a way for people who do not wish to Ascend to get to Droknar's.

So someone uses it at a lower than usual level. How is it cheating? There is no difference from a lvl 19 using Lornar's than a lvl 3.

People at level 19 want to feel more accomplished than a level 3. So that is the problem