[Trexmaster]

The new positioning as it stands is catastrophic for PvP, yes. 1v1 battles always start each participant in 10 range of each other, while this isn't inherently awful, it heavily favors builds that require little to no setup time and can take advantage of being that close every time (VAs, damage stacking gunners, some duelists)

In team fights, it becomes a massacre if one side gets more initiative/AoE potential. As already stated, due to being in a roughly 3x3 area, nearly every AoE in the game can and will hit every single party member on Round 0. This makes having an AoE KD and having *immunity* to an AoE KD vital to not being trivialized before your turn even pops up, not to mention the possibility of sheer AoE burst damage wiping you as a casualty for not being tanky enough. Before, AoEs only became party-wiping if your group carelessly huddled up or got grouped up to eat them, now you don't have a choice unless you can move first.

Either further distance or a more spread out formation would balance it out for team battles, one on one will simply need more distance perhaps.