The matters concerning the PvP mode in ‘Diablo 3’ seemed to be more or less clear to everyone; when Blizzard suddenly decided to withhold it indefinitely, speculation being that it will be released some time after the game itself. That means that the information we got from interviews and Blizzcon footage may prove to be different from the end product. What we know for certain is that ‘Diablo 3 ‘, unlike ‘Starcraft 2’, is not being developed with professional e-sports in mind, therefore Blizzard does not intend to host any sort of competitions or tournaments.

This state of things gives us at D3CL a chance to step in and take it upon ourselves. Provided there won’t be any sort of technical issues, we believe that our extensive experience from ‘Diablo 2’ will enable us to put together events, offering a high degree of professionalism, valuable rewards, as well as a live cast for the audience. Of course whether we’ll be able to do this or not, depends on the PvP mode itself, and that is still largely disclosed.

All we know is that there will, most probably , be an arena system that is totally separate from the standard PvE game mode. Each arena will be able to accommodate a certain, small number of players, most likely smaller than in a ‘Diablo 2’ game. We’ve also seen environmental obstructions, giving the games a small degree of tactical flexibility; there were also healing potions appearing on the arenas, further enhancing the number of options available to the contestants.

The PvP ranking itself will, most likely, resemble that used in ‘League of Legends’, i.e. teams will be matched up based on the amount of points and their position on the ladder. The gameplay itself will closely resemble the team deathmatch from FPP games; after death the player characters will respawn and continue fighting until the time limit runs out.

Another almost certain matter was that there will be a system of medals and achievements, rewarded for PvP, things that, let’s be honest, aside from making us feel good, will have no impact on the game itself.

The most important, however, are the things we don’t know anything about i.e. will there be a degree of customization to the PvP games available when playing off ladder. Will we be able to match the teams up ourselves? Could we withdraw the spawning of healing potions or even abandon the deathmatch mode of play entirely?

It is very possible that the probable things mentioned above will end up in the game unchanged, though the lack of beneficial rewards for PvP e.g. game gold may be unappealing for some. However, if customization options will be absent our initiative to host tournaments will not be possible at all. If that happens, we will have to focus on other things like: managing web pages, forums and blogospheres; providing information on the PvP scene; developing new strategies and builds for each character class and generally expanding the database on the game.

Whatever happens we promise to work diligently on enhancing your ‘Diablo 3’ experience in any way open to us, and ask you to stay with us and help build an international Diablo community.

Beneath we have a movie showing 2v2 battle on Arena.

Added 2012-07-03

When the PvP patch for Diablo 3 will be released?
Blizzard has announced that PvP will come with patch 1.1. At present, 1.0.3 is the current version so there's still a long way to go. They also have confirmed information that there won't be additional cost for PvP. Such a rumor has appeared once on the Blizzard's official forum, but hopefully was eventually denied. It seems that PvP will be released at the end of 2012, so in December. Unfortunately, this would be compatible with the original Blizzard's announcement posted few months ago.

PvP patch release, according to Blizzard's announcement will be preceded by a meeting with the players on the Reddit portal, where people will be able to ask question and suggest their solutions. Certainly, we will inform about this fact.

Blizzard has also confirmed that PvP will be held only on special arenas. Fighting in the way known from Diablo 2 won't be available. Maybe someday this will change, but there are no such plans at the moment.

RoGH 2012-07-05 13:34