1. Power Up For PvP.
Cryptic insists they're building Champions Online so that stats and powers are equally viable in both PvE and PvP, but some powers may be slightly more equal than others when it comes to PvP. "The might power where you rip up a chunk of ground and hurl it, that has an advantage on it that will disable travel powers," James explained. "If you're in PvP and someone's flying, you can literally throw a rock at them and knock them out of the air, then clobber them when they land... I keep comparing it to deck building in a CCG, where you find a few good combos and then kind of fill in the gaps."
Rob continued the thought: "It'll be interesting to see how the community goes through the powers options. There are no classes, so it's not like 'just roll feral' or 'just go ranged DPS.' So there will be those builds, like 'I just picked the three powers that maximize my crit, and I have an anti-fly and a self-heal, and I'm self-sustatining.' That's as far as powers.
2. Don't Sweat the Stats
Statistics provide the baseline for the effectiveness of your powers and the survivability of your character, but the devs urge you to pick your powers first, then mold your stats to suit. According to Rob: "As far as stats, I think players' preferences and the builds that they pick will determine what stats become PvP or PvE stats. The guy who likes to throw big chunks of rock; if he has that power and he has strength as his primary stat, he's going to do more damage and knock people back farther." And with new UTC arenas like the lava-based one soon to be revealed in beta, knockback distance could potentially be devastating.
3. Start Small
Cryptic introduces PvP through duels and Ultimate Tournament of Champions Online Gold(arena-style team deathmatch) early in the game for a reason: BASH (free for all PvP starting at level 21) and Apocalypse layer objectives on top of straight PvP, so these formats naturally come later. For example, consoles summon reinforcements in the first Apocalypse tier, so a team that communicates and summons more sigs at just the right times will beat a team going full bore at deathmatch-style play. Use duels and UTC to get comfortable with your powers and roles before taking on the tougher formats, even if you start PvPing later in the game.
Keep in mind that PvP loot tends to be better at the end of each tier, rather than at the beginning. While a level 19 and a level 12 would both fight as level 20s, not only will you have more powers and power ranks at the end of the tier, your loot opportunities will be better as well. "At the low levels of a tier, you want PvE drops. At the high levels, you want PvP drops to kind of get this back and forth," James explained. "Even if you're just doing PvE, it's still worth your time to duck into PvP for some good gear."
