Following the recent siege battle, several issues have come up regarding PvP and Nexus crafted items that are used in combat. While the defeat of the defenders can surely be blamed on themselves in a large way, the battle was surely decided by the use of various items by the attackers. These range from specific potions, arrows, enchants, and a certain type of armor. Whether you agree or not that these items should be removed, nerfed, etc., everyone realizes that they play an enormous role in the outcome of PvP engagements.
I have been on this server since August of 2011. That being said, I've have taken part in several wars over the years, under a range of plugins that changed and morphed how PvP functioned. At times, PvP was almost vanilla. Other times (such as now), PvP is completely different from regular MC. During the 2nd map (Asulon), there was a large war between the Orcs and the Dwarves. There were no potions, barbed or explosive arrows, alchemist fire, etc. Diamond armor existed, but was quite rare. Anyone that participated in that war can say that PvP then was more enjoyable than it it now. That can be said of most wars before such items that affect PvP so greatly were added.
The items in question are not easy to obtain. Whether it is diamond armor or whichever item in question, the materials are difficult to acquire, take a high skill to make, and require many hours to craft. This difficulty in making these items are meant to make them rare. However, certain groups on the server have dedicated their entire time spent on the server in making as much of these items as possible. This is in an effort to give them a huge, unmatchable edge in PvP. When someone looks into these groups, they will find little to no RP behind them. All of there time, effort, resources, and manpower is used to make them PvP items. I was even told by a member of the attacking side in the recent siege that they "had 6 blacksmiths spending a full month making that diamond armor".
When these groups go to war, they have a clear advantage against anyone. That is, anyone that doesn't do the exact grinding that they do as well. This would mean they too would have to spend almost every moment on the server crafting these PvP oriented items. This forces any group that would be militarily threatened by the PvP group, and that wishes to match their PvP ability in order to have a chance at winning when fighting them, to also have little to no RP behind them as well. This can turn into disaster when a roleplay server is now on the brink of losing it's roleplay mentality, replacing it with a PvP mindset.
That all being said, I am now going to list a few of the items that I see as issues when it comes to PvP. Also, this is merely a list of items I see as changing PvP dramatically. In my opinion, not all need to be removed/nerfed (I actually want diamond armor to just be harder to obtain, not removed), however I see that many people want various items from this list removed/nerfed in the event of changes to Nexus PvP.
1) Diamond Armor
2) Stoneskin Potion
3) Smoke Whispers Potion
4) Barbed Arrows
5) Explosive Arrows
6) Alchemist Fire Potion
7) Sharpness Enchantment
8) Protection Enchantment