Mind you, I've only been playing for 3 or so weeks now, but given that the majority of that time I've spent killing other players, or dying to them... I'm going to give a little insight on my impressions on the environment.

For starters, it's fast.  For those of you that like long drawn out battles, with plenty of back and forth - this game is probably not for you.  If you like a quick and dirty fight that's reminds one of a good FPS then this is more your style.  The trick isn't really killing the guy, it's remaining alive.

All in all, the reason it's so fast is because of design decisions on Turbines part on Damage vs. Armor.  They have monsters with 60-100k hit points, so damage has to be fairly high to kill them, and of course - no player has that sort of hp.

This raises some interesting scenarios, as they attempt to balance the classes vs. monsters more and more, they are nerfing damage on several spells/buffs (which is good) but also nerfing the ability to increase your AR (This is bad).  The damage decrease is a great step in the right direction towards longer and more tactical pvp battles, however the ar decrease will simply offset that and we'll be back at square one.

I happen to like square one, with the quick battles - however it's something that gets boring quick as there isn't a lot of room to grow.  In AC1, people are still learning and improving pvp dynamics, in AC2 most feel they've already peeked and hope that future patches will increase the tactics available to them.

Some numbers for level 50 pvp:
Currently, a good player will have in the neighborhood of 400-420 armor rating without a shield.  (Add another 120+ for players with a shield, when they're facing their target).
Currently, prime weapons buff to around 420+ damage as their base attack.  Spells/Abilities then add damage over top of that, generally either 75, 200 or 260.
Player hit points are generally between 1000-1312 and in some rare cases 1500+ (Though with vastly lower AR).

So this leaves us with the following; players with great armor can take between 25-50 damage only from an auto attack that uses no special spells or abilities, and ~300 from someone using a 200 or higher spell.  Doesn't seem like too much, does it?

Unfortunately, it is.  With the speed of combat, and the variety of double hit and stun spells, damage can put you on the floor before you can even spam a heal.  Turn the combat into 2 on 1, and the single player rarely wins though melee's with stun stand a decent chance (about the only role they're any good at).

This removes a ton of complexity from PvP, with battles being over in less than 5 seconds there is no time to do standard tactics such as separation, patience and timing.  You just hit your hotkeys as fast or faster than the other guy.

Hell, very few people even move ;P

I'm very disappointed at the AR Nerf that's proposed by Turbine in July, the damage decrease was absolutely a step in the right direction - but with the decrease in armor rating a month later we'll just be back to where we started.

You may have noticed I don't seem all 'that' upset about this, I'm not.  I like the current style of pvp, although I do feel it will become boring in the future.  It needs to grow, I just don't think Turbine is entirely aware of how to do that.

Here's how;
Decrease Damage, as you're already doing by nerfing spells that increase weapon/player damage.  Kudos.
Leave Armor alone, More armor longer combat - There is no point in nerfing weapon damage if you're going to destroy armor aswell.  At least not for PvP.  I understand your reasons for nerfing percentage spells that increase armor, with higher level gear coming in the future, but you cannot leave pvp by the wayside until that point.
Decrease effect of Stun/Tangle spells, Everyone likes the option that a stun or tangle gives them in combat, but the actual effect is a little over the top.  The speed decrease of stun is insane, lower it abit allowing the player to still get off heals if necessary (You can currently get one off near the end of the stun, if you start casting when hit with it).  Leave stun as a defensive measure, rather than offensive.
Aggressively nerf the top classes, As with any pvp world, some classes are just better than others at it.  Nerf them.  The human mage in groups is absolutely insane, every group has one... as the group that doesn't generally loses.  This is a huge tip that this class needs a look at, which you're already doing.  Good for you, keep it up.
Give players something to fight about,  This is key.  KvK is of course, the way you're trying to go about doing this, however - it doesn't satisfy the two needs that all pvpers have.  Greed and Egotism.  Let players loot, let players gather heads of opponents.  Players already become lootable corpses when they die, there is just nothing in them, shouldn't be too hard.  Bounty boards, Kill quests, the whole nine yards.  Naturally, this is too much work for most companies that don't realize the huge dedicated pvp population who will be paying through the nose for 5 accounts just to try and 'win'.  Look at UO, Look at the rabid followers of DT in AC1.  It's assured income.  Players get bored of killing monsters and turn to PvP, understand and support this.

That is all,

-Kynn

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