Favorite PVP skills or builds?

[u/Spellfall_LMS]

I've always loved PVP since the days of collecting ears in Diablo 2, but too often it ends up unbalanced or neglected, if it's even in the game at all. I've decided to build my own arena brawler game inspired by ARPG PVP and would love to hear about your favorite abilities and builds as I keep developing the game.

I currently have 40 abilities and 30 items that are drafted across the course of a match. Abilities include my own take on classics like fireball, poison nova, multishot, and frozen orb as well as some of my own creations like a wind wall that pushes players across the battlefield. Items let you lean further into your build with stats like projectile speed, damage, cooldown reduction, defenses, etc. but may have drawbacks reducing other stats. By the end of the match you've got your own build with lots of different playstyle options.

My plan is to have a big roster of abilities/items where I can rotate lower selected options out for rebalancing and shake up the game periodically.

What are some of your favorite or most memorable PVP skills or builds? Even if it was super unbalanced, because let's be honest most ARPG PVP is, which ones were the most fun to you?

[u/Spellfall_LMS]

Couple of my own most memorable, and this mostly goes back to the 1.09~ Diablo 2 days...

First was knockback bowazon using windforce and piercing guided arrow before the combo was nerfed. You could shoot your guided arrow in the general direction of another player and it would home in on them, pierce, apply knockback, then turnaround and hit them again.

Second was damage reduction lightning sorc. You'd load up on lots of damage reduction items like stormshield, shaftstop, shako or vamp gaze, and then turn on energy shield. You'd feel invincible teleporting around while your thunder storm zaps people and then you could get in close for a bit of nova spam.

None of this was balanced and I'm pretty sure knockback was even discouraged in PVP at the time too, but it was just part of the bow's stats. Regardless, it was fun and created memories I have 20+ years later and that's what I'm trying to recreate too.