It looks like we will not be seeing the PvP Arena system at release. However this will be patched in after release. Oddly enough this seems to be tagged with Sign of Release
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(As we’re counting down the days until we’re ready to announce a release date for Diablo III, we’ve come to realize that the PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to hold back the PvP Arena system and release it in a patch following the game’s launch. After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
you dont know when they will implement the systems they previously had to keep out.. arena was a completely new system so its not like they are dropping anything they had in the previous iteration of the game.. other then host. but thats a different story.. they can easily put it in a patch just they said they will, they cant have every single ambition and system them want or the game will not release and diablo fans around the world would not approve.. ill speak for myself and the few others that said they wont be doing pvp till they know wtf their doing and until they get good gear.. idk why you're having a fit over something that they can easily put in a patch..
This is a sign of release.
Patch 14 fantastic. And it is just me or they are showing more sympathy toward PvP (by promissing multiple arenas, and even an rank system) ?
I guess I'm more patient than most, but what ever happened to the blizzard philosophy of we'll release it when it's ready? I guess that's out the window. Instead, the philosophy is cut it and ship it. Remove everything people were looking forward to.
I don't even care about PvP but I am pretty annoyed at the direction Blizzard has been going lately and I fear for the future. A lot of really cool stuff was cut out of this game and the only excuse given is omg we need to release this game for you! Really? They've been working on pvp for how long and it's holding back the release? Am I under the wrong impression? I thought it was basically a few arena maps and matchmaking. How can that really take much time to do?
unfortunately blizzard has postponed this game far too long and with issue after issue they can either make everyone hate them by releasing it at the end of this year, or get it out now and make most everyone happy and patch in the stuff over the few months after release
*tin foil hat*.
Even as someone who plays most Games for the PVP -- Diablo 2 probably not being 1 of them, I was and still am looking forward to PVP Arena Diablo 3 --- will probably spend thousands of hours in there, at first abit disappointed but the fact they don't want to delay the game for it is 100% correct, and the fact that this will give them a chance to just polish it up and making it that much more awesome, Aswell as I probably wasn't going to worry about seriously hitting the Arena until after Inferno on my Main and atleast rolled my hardcore/ other characters, so thats a good months or so, Best possible situation is that they patch in the Arena just as I'm getting ready for it
I really do hope it doesnt drag out a long period of time, but I'm sure Blizzard wont let us down
LOL. +1
Whether the game comes out later with complete PvP or they wait and patch it in we aren't going to be able to PvP till its done. The only thing to take from this is the rest of the game is coming out sooner.
Why not spend the time waiting for PvP preparing yourself for it? Hitting lvl 60 and wanting to PvP before the patch is released seems to be a prominent complaint, but if you are serious about PvP'ing then you wont be 100% ready for it by just reaching lvl 60. You'll need to find really good gear to compliment your build if you want to compete, which first means you'll need to grind it out with a MF build to find it or a GF build to buy it (im not including the option of buying with real cash because thats lame). Even then wouldnt you want more that one PvP character? I dont know about you guys but if you want to really compete in PvP i can see plenty of things that are required that this extra time window will allow you to do.
And is it really that big a deal that Blizzard is going to relelase a game with a system coming in a later patch? It's not the end of the world and im sure as hell its still safe for you to wear your Blizzard t-shirt out in public without the fear of people looking at you and whispering "hey is that guy wearing a shirt of the company that released D3 before PvP was complete on it, lets laugh at him".
But still, they always took their time in making their games but in exchange they always delivered. This time they took quite some time as well yet, they cut out certain systems, made reiterations, and now a delay. Something about this situation is just.. I just can't find the right word.. just doesn't feel right.
Hopefully the launch will be awesome enough to blast away all this, er, negative feelings.
On a lighter note it's always good to see Blizzard's sense of humor. Sign of Release lol
they removed world pvp from the game. as of right now it doesnt exist
J.W: "Hey guys we're removing part of the game that a lot of people were looking forward to. We'll probably add it after release some time (could be many months but we can't tell you how long we think it will be).
But guess what... the game is going to come out SOON-ER!!!!"
Everyone - "OMG HE SAID SOONER LOL WHO CARES ABOUT PVP. BEST NEWS EVER."
uhm... captain obvious? hell yea best news ever
notsureifserious.jpg
He didn't give us a release date. He didn't update us at all on the release window. Just more vague hand waving. There was nothing positive in that post at all. A major game system isn't going to be there at release (what happened to "when it's done" and "no one will remember if it's late, only if it's great?")
And yet people are treating this announcement like it's the best news we've had in months. I think people have finally gone stark raving mad from waiting so long for this game.