I have more fun with dw PVP, been making multiple builds that play differently since May and still getting surprised at how much there is. Skill ceiling is way higher, if you look at any montage the combos are clean as hell. Parry-based combat is also one thing that makes dw stand out, there’s no true hitstun combo you just got read like a book
AO PvP at the end of the day is just 3d bullet hell and sparrow thrust
I don’t recall ever saying anything positive about deepwoken, but at least that game doesn’t punish you for actually trying a niche and unique build that isn’t totally meta
Let’s compare two mechanics that serve the same purpose but likely have completely different goals due to their very obviously differing designs. 
But based on what? 
I like to think that design decisions can only be appropriately judged based on the goal that they are meant to accomplish, but with a lack of knowledge of both and clear differences in intention, how will we ever come to a conclusion that one is better than the other? 
It’s hard to compare the two coz they’re rlly different but I tend to prefer deepwokens pvp more
maybe maybe i was also gonna scale their competitive scenes but both are shit lol
Is the AO comp scene even alive anymore?
surprisingly yes but its all aoe mages with 0 skill so i avoid that community all together although i like pvp
We had a size limit in my clan
I’d argue Deepwoken’s exploration is miles better than AO’s
Oh yeah, without a contest
Tbh, 99% of the exploration content in Deep is 3 year old and NOTHING has been added to it since 2022, yet it still outclasses AO’s by such a huge margin that’s it’s kinda funny
(Also Deepwoken’s UI is so much simpler and less clutered I love it)
Frankly, I feel like AO’s combat system just gives players too much mobility to the point it’s really not worth blocking outside of attacks you just can’t realistically dodge
the builds are so bad it might as well just be a punishment when you get ganked by a guild
I’d actually disagree, because at very high lvl pvp, stuff is so fast that AO’s desync because a HUGE issue, you can’t dodge stuff since it WILL desync and hit you, you HAVE to block/parry, if you look at experienced pvp players clips, they’ll block EVEN if the attack has no chance of hitting them simply because of the risk of desync.
people really be talking about progressive lore as if thats not a negative
typically in pvp games every upside has a downside
for example:
you do high damage - > you have lower health
you have high health - > you do lower damage, or you move slower
you are fast - > you have lower health
etc.
in AO you can give these concepts the middle finger and have all of the above with little downside
“Gee, how come you get to have decent health while also dealing high damage and having attacks that cover 1/4th of map?”
Isn’t pvp in deepwoken something you want to avoid tho because losing a fight also means losing like 8 hours of progress
chime of conflict. also some people are sociopaths