PvP Tournament...

[FireIceTalon]

8 vs 0 pots:
Now the thing about using 8 pots was not really about the "drinking extra pots" or whatever you call this kind of cheating. When you play 0 pots the problem still exists.
In Poland we used to play 8 pots till 2000-2001 then it was 4 pots, then 2 pots in 2002 and later on we switched to 0 pots although warrior vs sorc was 2-4 pots for a bit longer due to the sorc>warrior imbalance. The main reason was the length of the duel - after discovering the phasing+fb bug (not sure if it really is a bug maybe that was blizzards intention) back in ~1999 (we call them "homing fb's") and revealing it to the masses later on game style changed to more defensive due to being more efficient and (mana) cost-effective - phasing costs 4 mana instead of 15 (teleport) and it doesn't require you to target it while you still can target your homing fb which makes it easier to dodge fb's. The duels became waaaaay too long and thats why we decided to play 0 pots finally - a Best Of 5, 0 pots duel beetween 2 high (skill) level sorcerors = ~15-20 minutes anyway.
The homing fb works with other spells as well because its actually homing a spell with another one - a targeting bug. It works with arrows as well - thats why rogue involving duels reduced the pots to 0 as well.
And the homing fb was just the beginning of a revolution in dueling, a begining of a new chapter in which a lot of other bugs/tricks/tactics were discovered.
Warriors had the vertical line bug anyways so they also agreed to 0 pots. And the sorcerors with over a 1000 mana with 1/3 dmg reduction (MS) benefited more with every extra pot. Oh, and warriors also changed their configs from dragons/zodiac to dragonsons and ruby whale which gave them a bit of an edge.
The last thing is warrior vs warrior - the style changed to pure steel due to being more skillfull (not really my opinion - i think playing with elemental dmg requires different type of skill and just is a bit more luck based). WvW became a bit like chess - a 0 pot BO5 could even last more than an hour - trying to keep them longer was absurd.

Poland which was and probably still is the biggest diablo 1 community in the world - we never really tried to cooperate with other communities - there wwere more than enough of us ;p. And whenever we tried dueling foreigners even on their rules we just raped them. Im not trying to offend you or anyone else - its just the thing that the more people there are (and our scene was strictly about dueling, tournaments and clan war) the more solutions/tactics you can find and the more expirience you can get.
Too bad POL-1 accepted duped items (the "lets bring it down to pure skill" way of thinking) - whenever we tried to explain something about dueling, foreign communities just replied "stfu u dupe omg!!!1!1!!11".

I havent read the whole thread but a few thing hit me:

Warrior isnt the strongest dueling class, in fact it is the weakest one, especially with your rules - allowing fast block, hit recovery, high ac in any match-up makes sorc even more imbalanced than he is without them.
WvW WvR duels with using spells is just f***ng dumb. If i had the oportunity i wouldnt use them anyway - its too easy to get stunned (or however you call that) while casting and even easier to escape from the spell due to the horizontal line bug.
Not allowing item changes is even more stupid especially if you allow elemental dmg in WvW. Playing with elemental dmg - basically 3 equipment configs - spark, schaefers and lsoh works like paper rock scissors - one config beats the other one. So it will come down to disscussing/switching equipment for an hour before the game and then eventually when both players will most likely agree to use the same one it will come down to pure luck - the one whose spark/schaef/lsoh will be more lucky to deal higher total damage from the 1-10 or whatever elemental hits will win. "Skilless" and stupid.
I could show you a lot more but its pointless.
Im not going to convince you to change the rules, but I hopefully a few Polish people participating in the tournament will make you think about that.

Oh, one last thing:

" didnt even touch on same class duels, but eh, these arent nearly as exciting as interclass pvp anyway."

You couldnt be more wrong. Same class duels are the most exciting ones. Try one day - thats a "must-do" ;]

Sorry for any mistakes - my english isnt perfect ;p

"We just raped them"

Interesting. Ive dueled a number of polish warriors using FireIce, and ive beatin them on several occasions {using your guy's rules too :P ) Havent dueled too many sorc's from there, but the 1 or 2 i did duel got smashed pretty handily. Then again, Rogue owning Sorc is quite common anyway regardless. Not trying to sound arrogant or anything, but you guys are NOT the only great duelers on the face of this Earth. Not by any means.

As far as elemental damage in WvW and eq changes, this wont be an issue as ive said before, as all duelers most disclose their setup before they even cast a guardian, and both must declare they are ready as well. So in such a situation, elemental damage being used will be known ahead of time. It takes maybe 2 extra mins for a player to disclose everything to one another so the duel is as balanced as possible.

Same class duels can be interesting IF they are done right, but this is rarely the case unfortuantly. I find interclass duels to be much more strategic because the players have different objectives on what they must do. Rogue (bow) vs Warr is by far the most exciting and dynamic duel in D1, in my opinion. In same class duels both players have the same tactics more or less, even if both players move different. But in a interclass duel, the tactic used by each player is very different. To each his own I guess.

As far as the "homing" fireball and arrows you speak of, that is a well known tactic called Auto-Aim. Its much harder to do it with fireball, then with arrows, due to the mages fast cast rate. Its basically the same thing as a warrior's telekill except there is range involved.

Strongest dueling class, its pretty balanced between the three. But ive dueled with all kinds of players over the years with various styles, items and tactics......after wasting more hours dueling on this game then I care to mention, I would say all in all, the warr is the strongest overall dueling class, if by a slight margin. People THINK he is the weakest just cause of his slow cast rate and high dependence of good EQ, but this thought is nonsense. There is no stronger opponent then a careful, calculating and patient warrior. I use all three classes to duel, rogue is my favorite. But warrior overall is strongest dueler (tank mage perhpas has advantage over warrior, but standard mage or rogue?? Hardly). I know warriors who can tear anyone up regardless of class, on any given day. Some of them are participating in this event:)

GL to all participating ^^