This won't be a real long post, but, I'd just like to point out some changes that have occurred in PVP in the last couple years.
Pre-LE Evades were king in PVP. This is undeniable, everyone opted for evades, and evades were king. Evades in PVP meant you could withstand more attacks, last longer, and zerg the longest, withstand the most punishment, while still retaining some HP at the end of a battle to continue zerging/warping/killing towers.
Post-LE AR was king. Somehow, with research adding more AR than evades, and several items (ahem, ofab) adding significant amounts of AR, AR became the new evades. AR was king post LE. AR meant you could land your FA and burst, and everyone and their dog rolled a soldier (note, also Dshark landed ingame at this time too). Post-LE, evade professions went downhill, steeply. Some evade profs got a few tricks to use, but nothing substantial. (noteably, MA's got an evade buff that stacked with RI, Advies got a lot more static evades (mother wolf, improved stare, procs that fire), crats got some mean OFAB to seriously add to their evade ratings. Evade profs were made very evade-y, non-evade profs became much less-so. MP's were a mixed bag, with an option of a shield or a high powered weapon, Enforcers were given items that confused many people, and fixers didn't need anything.
Pre-Xan - In this late stage where people had attained proficiency with mixed ofab/combined armour, high AR setups, and play-to-kill setups, the game was not doing too badly. There were no significantly OP'd profs, and most profs had a few setups that worked quite well.
Post-xan - The xan booster pack introduced a new aspect to PVP: Aimed shot spam from 3/4 of the AO population. (count it: Agents had it, traders and MP's had it, MA's had it sometimes, fixer's had it, and add Advies, crats, docs, engies and soldiers = 10/14 profs) AS spam (real spam), meant that even worse than in the Pre-xan playability, evade profs are becoming obsolete. Moderate evade profs (advies, MA's, traders, keepers, shades) are in a much worse position, except that, Advies still have excellent heals AND excellent evades AND great HP rating. Meaning, keepers, Shades, and MA's are getting spammed with much more damage than they have EVER been subjected to in any patch previously. MA's, on top of that have lost Form of Risan stacking with RI (meaning, not only are we taking more damage from specials, but, apparently we're supposed to be taking more damage from non-100% to hit specials/perks/normals).
The trend here is clear: AO has moved away from evades (defensive), towards AR (offensive) and almost completely towards capping 100% to hit specials (super-offensive).
In most people's opinions, AS is too widespread. TOO MANY PROFS ARE USING IT EFFECTIVELY. 10/14 profs is far far far too many. AO should not, and should never have been Aimed shot Online. It was clear though, with the addition of the Aimed shot pistol, that this was the objective.
An equalizer? Sure, but, it equalized only those profs who could use it. The rest of the profs, namely keeper, MA, shade, melee advy, and enforcer were left out in the cold (improper attention paid to enforcer perk systems has allowed enforcers to play super-offensively and they too can compete). So, ultimately, MA, keeper and shade have been fully deprived of mass PVP compatibility in the last 2 major patches.
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Originally Posted by Obtena
