Guild Wars 2

Lets collect your guys thoughts on how to improve GW2 pvp, here is a list of things I’ve come up with.

COMBAT

Combat should be interesting, look flashy and require thought process. When an ability is executed it should not look like a “normal” attack, a specific ability should stand out from the rest and serve a unique purpose compared to the rest of a classes skillset. While I feel guild wars 2 does this pretty well to some extent, there are a few abilities that just aren’t standing out from the rest IMO.

BALANCE

This can be considered apart of combat to some extent. Balance means each player has a fair shot at winning, when it comes to the execution of abilities alone. There is the exception of skill potentially being a determinant of balance should a player have the potential to exploit their skills more than intended. This is one thing I feel GW2 needs to focus more on, they have a GREAT pvp system but the lack of balance is hindering the potential of this game

Things to consider when looking into class balance:
-1v1 combat
-small group vs small group combat
-group vs group combat
-class + class synergy
-class vs class

COUNTER PLAY

This is THE most important subject of this post imo!. Counter play means that a skilled player can dominate an incompetent player. In GW2, skills with a .75s cast time or greater provide a large enough time frame which allow you to dodge and then prevent damage taken, as long as you see the attack coming. IMO Skills in this game with large burst and skills with great returns should always take at least .75s or longer to complete, they should also have nice vivid animations which are dead giveaways so that counterplay may exist. Most abilities which provide a disabling effect (knockdown, fear, stun, daze, launch) should usually take at least .75 seconds to cast and have a good indication of when they are cast so they may be countered.

UTILITY

The utility you can bring into a fight means everything. IMO the more options the better. Since some players may be overwhelmed by many skills its good to have some classes that don’t have as many skills. One of the best things guild wars 2 has done IMO, was invent classes like the Engineer, Elementalist, Necromancer, whom have many options when it comes to utility.

SKILL CAP

Skill cap does intertwine with counter play to an extent. A high skill cap means keeping loyal pvp players around for a long time. It means not being able to master a class after a few days or even months of playing it. This may sounds a tad redundant, but in order for a game to take skill, skill shots should play a big role in the game. I’m talking about abilities which you must aim, opposed to selecting a target and then hitting a button. Skills which allow you to block should require precise timing. Guild wars 2 dodge system is a great example of this, the blocking system? Not quite so much.

Bump, I feel it is necessary for the GW2 staff to see this.