Thoughts on the new PvP Grand Battle

From what I read, pretty much Bishops / Phantoms / Paladins / Battle Mages were "God Tier", while DS, Mages, etc were "High Tier" and everyone else "Mid" / "Low Tier".

Although I never heard of the "Summons = Uber damage".

Yep, sounds about right from my experiences. Further supports my points too...

Bishops have the capability of staying alive indefinitely provided no one is teaming up on you. Their (imo, incredible over powered) full Heal combined with their Holy Shell, Invincible, and super broken Magic Guard makes them completely unkillable unless you're funded out the butt... but even then, you'll never be able to stand up to them directly without dying several times. In a room with unfunded players... it's such a depressing sight... Too many unfunded Bishops are making it into the higher levels simply because of their endurance. Another depressing sight to see is watching your attacks instantly slaughter all the poor thieves, pirates, and archers around while this Bishop can tank a dozen of those (technically, they can tank indefinitely). The problem I have with this class is that they can actually soak up damage while guarding/avoiding while other classes can only guard/avoid (no class other than mages can actually do the taking hits part).

Phantoms are super squishy but when they're fully buffed, hitting them is pretty much rolling a dice. There's nothing really intuitive to hitting Phantoms since all it is is a huge gamble. Cannoneers of old had this horrible mechanic with their 35% counter rate (spoken as a veteran PvP Cannoneer) but Phantoms take the "gamble on successful hit" mechanic to another level. In my experiences, whenever I see Phantoms, I would never know the outcome of the fight. Most of the time I would be at 1%HP and I would instantly down a healthy Phantom by getting a lucky hit off. <I see a Phantom pass by? Give them a poke and ? oh, missed, oh well. Another passes by? Give them a poke and ? oh, he died, cool.> Other times, I could be repeatedly attacking a 1%HP Phantom for maybe half a minute and they suddenly just turn around and instantly kill me with Fusillade or Mille. The reality is that they get downed just as fast as other classes but everyone is given a handicap by flipping a coin whenever they attack them. This handicap probably contributes the most success to Phantom than any other factor... without it, they would be Dark Sightless DBs unless they steal Dark Sight.

Same thing with Paladins, they are are super squishy (squishier than DrKs but around the same as Heroes) but Divine Shield is so unbelievably good. When it procs (60%), you get a 12 hit cushion which is plenty to be able to survive nearly any class that isn't a Bishop, Phantom, Battle Mage, or another Paladin. The thing about all those hits is that it rolls over to the next cooldown (I believe is 30 seconds) which means if you can keep it to 12 hits per cool down, you're effectively invincible. Their self heal is nothing compared to Bishops (never was, never will) but it does provide a bit of longevity, especially if you're able to keep Divine Shield up the entire time. However, without Divine Shield, Paladins are just Heroes and will die just as fast. When I play my Paladin, the most dangerous/vulnerable time is after buffs and before I fight: if Divine Shield fails to proc at all, I'll just die. This makes you extremely vulnerable to one-shots... just shows you how squishy every class is and how good defensive skills are. And you know what's sad? Heroes are basically Paladins without Divine Shield

Battle Mages are pretty gimmicky because they have like... a AoE slow effect around them, (I think) 40% passive avoid, 10 second invincibility from BBBA, invincibility from Party Shield, and invincibility from Tornado. In old PvP it was somewhat manageable... but in new PvP, their cooldowns are so close together that they can be in an almost-perpetual state of invincibility and any small window you find will get eaten up by their great avoid. But, because they don't have Magic Guard, if you manage to hit them once, they'll probably die.

DS because they can block hits and that reflect... Generally very squishy so they definitely can't take a hit. DF management is such an awful thing to work with especially since all the classes that use to have some debilitating cooldowns are now instant with only MP as a factor.

Mages+Evans are nothing unique other than they can actually take hits. There's really nothing separating them from archers, pirates, and thieves other than they can actually take hits and not die instantly.

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Anyway... I just wanted to gush my feelings of PvP... I'm going to bed now...