Guild Wars 2

Awesome to hear about all the stuff that is coming. Definitely looking forward to all of it.

One question though:

What about the future of tournaments? Are we going to see something like 8-team tournaments return or more Arenanet-hosted tournaments?

Should we break open our boxes or leave them closed for now? That’s what I want to know.

Should i start blowing through my glory boosters? cause i got tons.

What about the new pvp systems and maps? Do we get some information here? I thought people were getting crazy about this…and not about rewards? :/ this sucks man

So what about the glory issue that happened, will there be a solution for this?

I like the idea of finally earning gold through pvp, but there is no mention of improving tourney chests. Will this be remain the same way due to gear being able to be used in pve?

I don’t really like the idea of having the ranks removed since it gave an idea how high up you were (and at least some progression). Depends on the rewards we receive for divisions/seasons.

I think this thread shouldn’t be in sticky. No one reads sticky threads.

ronpierce.2760:

Should we break open our boxes or leave them closed for now? That’s what I want to know.

This

Really nice, im really exited about the upcoming changes..Seem right to me.
I would like to suggest adding skill skins too..
As long as they dont have huge impact at my screen.I would like to see certain skills have some awesome animations..

Imagine Rangers Greatsword instead of a Bear for Maul, a Santa Claus appear for limited Christmas period..

I love all the upcomming changes.

One of the things I’m worried about, is how much gold per hour will a player get on average in pvp versus how they would in pve. I hope they’re close enough in this regard. For example, 40 minutes of playing pvp should be a dungeon’s worth of reward (based on what Anet intends each dungeon to last on average).

Less is More, so I like the removal of ranks, glory and the like in favor of systems/ currencies that already exist.

does this mean that we will be able to buy any skin in the game (e.g. dungeon skins) with gold?

Currently you can buy dungeon skins via the glory box system. Glory gets replaced by gold, no?

I wouldn’t like this…

I also have a ton of spare glory boosters. Honestly I’m very disappointed in this change, because one thing I really liked in this game was how the PvP element was kept well away from the PvE element, I do not want to PvP, full stop. I do not want to feel that by not PvPing I am missing out on opportunities at easier rewards than going through the PvE method, such as in other games where it can be easier to acquire high end gear through PvP methods than through PvE. I do not want people who grind at PvP matches to earn gold faster than through PvE content, or to have easier access to rare items. I do not want to feel that to maximize my daily achievements I should have to do both the PvE and PvE goals.

Long story short, scrap all of this mess.

Removing the existing finishers sounds a little extreme — you guys should come up with another way to implement the current rank based finishers so that all of the man hours that went into their creation aren’t wasted. (and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who wants to see what Dragon looks like!!)

Also, I like how it takes a commitment to the game to unlock the current ranks/finishers. I just don’t want to see the high end rewards (analogous to shark/phoenix finishers) be too easy to get.

will I be able to wear my Arah set which I’ve earned in sPvP in PvE/WvW too? I’ve never been in Arah (dungeon) before.

Really excited about this. Looks fantastic. I would just like to mention one thing: If changes do in fact happen and things in this post change or are not going to happen, can you all let us know about it? It stinks when you get excited for something and it changes and we see it for the first time in game and it isn’t like what was said might happen. It would be great if iterations happen and you guys can tell us, "Hey, we decided that feature “X” no longer fits with our vision of what we want to do so we are toying with offering option “Y” instead. Keep in mind that might change too".

It makes it more bearable. Thanks. I also think it cuts down on forum rage too. If people know ahead of time it isn’t such a shock.

Its not a pvp patch. its a pve one.

-tomes (pve lvl) for gold
-4 more APs per day
- pve gear in pvp
-glory deleted
-rank deleted

this is so sad

Vincesco.8340:

- pve gear in pvp

I think this is quite cool. The other way around on the other hand…
I’d suggest to limit the currently earned sPvP gear (including dungeon sets) to sPvP only. Otherwise people who got through the hardest dungeons would lose their prestige-show offs in PvE/WvW.

From the blog post, it appears that the following will happen:

• PvE skins previously obtainable through PvP will now work in PvE as well
• With the removal of glory these skins will be available through gold
• Therefore, people can now use gold to gain access to the most prestigious armour skins in the game (dungeon skins and the like) for the whole game.

This, as far as I’m concerned, would be a very bad move and, if this is the idea you guys have in mind, I urge you to reconsider and implement safeguards to prevent this from happening. Let rewards previously accomplishment-based remain accomplishment-based.

sMihaly.1492:

you mean those hardest dungeons that they can buy for gold?

I haven’t seen dungeons in the trading post yet :P

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Vincesco.8340:

- pve gear in pvp

I think this is quite cool. The other way around on the other hand…
I’d suggest to limit the currently earned sPvP gear (including dungeon sets) to sPvP only. Otherwise people who got through the hardest dungeons would lose their prestige-show offs in PvE/WvW.

It’s way harder to earn a lot of those sets in pvp. It takes more time. I understand where you are coming from, but specific armor sets take way more time to even be able to earn and then you have to have good RNG to even get them.

Iason Evan.3806:

It’s way harder to earn a lot of those sets in pvp. It takes more time. I understand where you are coming from, but specific armor sets take way more time to even be able to earn and then you have to have good RNG to even get them.

but… can’t you craft them?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Corrupted_Orrian_armor

The top things I’m worried about.

1. Skill reward. It is nice to see that you guys are doing away with glory, never really liked it. However, gold I’m unsure about. If what you say in the future months is your plan, you could make gold even more focused on the games progression. Be sure that players are being rewarded for their skill, not how much gold they have. Last thing I want is to see the TP flippers in my guild who have tons of gold and sit in LA all day devalue the skill representation of PvP rewards. Same goes with PvE players. This also works vice versa. It feels so bad if its true that I will be able to buy Arah gear with gold.

2. Ladder system. I like this. PvP specific rewards are awesome.

3. Finisher changes, I like this also.

4. PvE experience with tomes. I like this again. Most of my friends in PvE just craft level their alts now a days. Heck, most of them did it with every alt. Only played through the actual game with their main. I really hope you keep the glory in there. Do not make it just gold. I fear this will have a large impact on the market of crafting and lower tier materials. Plus again, people wont be using PvP for PvP. Just make a tons of gold, hope into PvP and level a level 1 to level 80 and grab a full set of arah gear. That player

With those points being raised, here is my suggestion.

1. We need some kind of currency that can only be obtained in PvP and make these vendors require this. Without glory, the game could be too centered around gold progression (it already is heavy in this). You could tie it to achievements. Maybe a “point” system like alliance points from Gw1

2. PvP rewards from ladders should NEVER be obtainable in PvE. No achievement boxes, none of that. That being said, dungeon/fractal skins should not be able to be bought in the heart of the mist with gold then converted to PvE skins. You can not do this, this will devalue the skill representation of these items by a ton. You’ll see a similar outcry like with the flamekissed armor. I wont go as far to say that you shouldn’t even have those in PvP because they make up a huge point of progression in PvP.

So all in all, the biggest thing you need to be careful with Anet is how you devalue the skill representation of these items. Players should still have to work for dungeon, fractal, legendary, and pvp specific rewards. You shouldn’t be able to just buy them for some gold. Other than that it’s looking great.

a suggestion

Anet want’s to equalize PvP and PvE armor in the longterm. People already have earned gear like dungeon-gear in sPvP. In the future they will be able to wear that armor in PvE.

Anet could…

• add a special effect to current PvE dungeon gear which the sPvP counterpart hasn’t. So PvErs could show off their skill via having version 2.0 of that gear while people who have earned the same set in sPvP will only have version 1.0.
• alternatively the 2.0 effect could get unlocked by dungeon-achievements and it would be optional to activate it or not.

I guess this isn’t feasible, though

After reading the upcoming SPVP changes I am truly begging for you to keep the ranks and finishers because I don’t want to feel rushed to get to Dragon finisher (last rank, which I won’t because I will need to spend MONTHS and with this change I won’t now).

I was actually playing SPVP casually which I like to do when I finished my monthlies/living story achievements, but this is unacceptable Arena Net! I know you’re reading this, and could reconsider, but I am not happy with this change.

easier to realize:

you can use PvE skins in sPvP
you can’t use sPvP skins in PvE

another suggestion:

A full dungeon set earned in the PvE dungeon unlocks a specific title.

It’s a long term goal of theirs, not something that is happening in the next 2 weeks.

If you want the ranks and finishers start working on SPvP some more.

Mega Messiah.1734:

It’s a long term goal of theirs, not something that is happening in the next 2 weeks.

If you want the ranks and finishers start working on SPvP some more.

Aww hell nawh!

I have to say I didn’t like the initial feeling in my gut either as it seems everything worth earning is being taken away update after update with no real inclination towards permanent achievement.

If its a good ways out, I’m glad they gave forewarning. I hope there is time.

You should put your feedback on the CDI topic if you want them to see it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/CDI-Topic-Rewards-in-PvP/

Do not like the finisher changes as I like my achievement not being time gated, but that’s a personal thing, I admit.

Please focus future achievement structure on permanent achievement; comparing stickers for how many days you showed up is nice and all, but please keep these things open. Achievement in my mind is not time gated. Once again, personal opinion.

A suggestion that may lower the barrier for sPvPers to try PvE:

Unlock one waypoint on the maps until each PvE map shows one waypoint. Now it’s easier to join your guild members on guild missions, events and dungeons.

ronpierce.2760:

Should we break open our boxes or leave them closed for now? That’s what I want to know.

Me tooo

Should we start dishing out our glory points on the vendors asap?

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

sMihaly.1492:

you mean those hardest dungeons that they can buy for gold?

I haven’t seen dungeons in the trading post yet :P

You obviously don’t use the LFG system, 3 paths of arah done in under 30 mins (Because sometimes you have to wait for the paths you don’t have!), costs around 10gold.

Hardly worked for.

I’ll post in this one since it appears to be the official discussion thread on it.

First, let me start by saying that this blog post was great. I have posted many threads over the past year stating what I think should happen to PvP and almost all of them has been done now or has been stated as planned. Obviously, that means I’m happy. I do want to break down how I feel about each one:

Gold and Experience in PvP

• This one is huge. I’ve played PvP since head start. I leveled my thief to 80 via crafting, and I had to buy gems to do it. Otherwise, I’m made almost no money.
• The same issue is with character progression. I acquired skill in PvP and I had no way to immediately carry that over to WvW because I was at a major level disadvantage. Like I said, these 2 changes alone make my day. I also love they are coming on the 10th.

Removing PvP and PvE gear difference

• Again, this is something I totally agree with. See the above bullet points for gold/experience. After 1,000+ hours in PvP, I shouldn’t walk into Lions Arch looking like a trial account. Love it.

Achievements

• This is one of my few concerns. Although, I really love this addition, I don’t like the timing. The reason I say that is the MMR issue. Currently, MMR is too high for new players. They are pooled by default in with the veterans. What this change does is guarantees that you are going to have an influx of new people in PvP. Where are those new people going? Straight for ranked tournaments, the place they least belong. I’ll reserve full judgment here, but I am mildly concerned.

Setting goals for gear

• Although they didn’t give a lot of details, I’m pretty sure I understand what they mean. I think they mean where you identify a piece of gear you wish to obtain and then through a journey of sorts, you obtain it. This is what has been missing in PvP. Currently, it’s just a random mess of gear being dropped all at once, then nothing to work toward after. I love the idea of putting in a lot of hours to achieve a specific item.

Glory being retired as a currency

• This one really has me puzzled. Not that glory is being retired, this is also something I’ve suggested. The weird thing is that it’s being replaced with gold. Who has the most gold? PvE players. Who has the least gold? PvP players. So, what prevents a PvE hero from coming in here and dropping all of their gold on everything day one? Your aesthetics should be a sign of your skill level. The other part of this, and possibly the most concerning, is the fact that gold can be bought with gems. If you have the best rewards tied to gold, and gold bought with gems, doesn’t that mean you can purchase the best rewards in PvP? I’ll have to hear more on this and just hope for the best for now.

Removing Rank

• I personally love this. I think rank in this game was a really bad initially implementation. Rank was gained by glory gained, not winning. The fastest way to gain glory? Farming hotjoins with builds that weren’t conducive to team play. I think the whole rank system is a farce and I’m glad to see it die.

Ladders

• Yes please! This is the true progression. More than gear or anything else, a ladder creates the progression that is the most meaningful…skill progression. You travel through each tier as you get better by playing with people in your same skill range. The top tier people should get the best rewards and when you see someone that has those rewards, you should immediately know that he/she is a beast.

Unknown
So, there are 2 things that I was really hoping to hear in addition to all the other goodies.

• I have hundreds of chests. Should I wait to open them?
• I have a bunch of glory boosters, hundreds of each of the tokens, etc. Is there any plan on finding some way to convert those items to gold or glory? It seems like all of those rank tokens would be completely wasted if there is no way to convert them to a usable currency.

In summary, thanks for the blog. I am hopeful for the things to come. I’m mildly nervous for the time frame (next few months) only because of what that has meant in the past. Hopefully the devs will understand our skepticism with that.

No Dragon finisher?
Rank finishers were a really nice incentive, i wish i could still work towards them after these changes. /rank emote should still be developing

The Blog

Once ladders are implemented, ranks will be retired. To honor the effort that players have put into the rank system, existing players will be able to keep all unlocked rank finishers and will earn a special title based on your rank to show that you were there from the start. Variants of existing rank finishers will move to the ladder system and will be used to show your current standings on the ladder from season to season. The original finishers will not be earnable again.

Oh for pity’s sake.

We just spent WEEKS trying to convince the Living Story Devs that one of the worst things you can possibly do is take away existing content and create short time spans to complete achievements… and here you are DOING IT AGAIN.

Leave this part of the rewards scheme alone. I’d be far more interested in playing PvP for a permanent recognition built up over months than to fiddle-fart with it for a just-for-a-moment place on the ladder of the hour.

Filthy, loathsome PvP casual reporting in.

My feedback from the bottom of the barrel is thus: it’s nice to give existing PvPers stuff, but there’s zero reason for me to care about this update. You give PvPers gold, and that’s good, but it’s probably not going to be competitive with the best gold gains in PvE. You give them access to PvE skins, but I already have access to those skins in PvE. And you take away prestigious elements like the finishers and haven’t shown anything in particular replacing them. As a filthy casual, I really don’t see any incentive to give PvP another go and get that sweet, sweet reward.

May I offer a constructive suggestion or two?

1) You have class specific skins. Embellish them.

Players love those thief hoods and necromancer facepaints, and top tier players wear them all the time. Take those items and run with them. Add unlocks for each profession that provide prestigious versions of each set (normal thief hood, thief hood with pattern, thief hood with metal outline and cooler pattern, etc) which are unlocked through the class specific victory achievements. Suddenly, really good players can show off how awesome they are with a specific class.

2) You have a back item slot. Give it some love.

The back slot is currently poorly represented in item diversity, doing little besides acting as a participation prize for Living Story content. But if you had billowing scarves and dazzling adornments as prizes for certain PvP achievement tiers, it would help round it out. Oh, and speaking of flourish…

3) Capes.

For the love of Melandru’s magnificent melons, make cape physics work and PvP will flourish. You want people to look cool? Capes are cool. You want people to want to climb higher in the ladder? Rank based capes will make them climb. You want people to care about prestige? CAPES!!!!!!
.
.
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I recognize that this update will help existing PvPers, but if you want new blood from loathsome casuals, you need to give us some meat, something that makes us hungry. I get that there are long term plans, but sometimes simple and cheap shinies can really help out in the short term. Slower or more monotonous access to existing PvE stuff isn’t going to give people like me a reason to give PvP another go. And while the elites may think that is fine…it’s the filthy, loathsome casuals who provide a sufficient playerbase to create more elites for a healthy game. The elites certainly need their due support, but throw a bone to the bottom of the barrel.

I’m glad you guys started listening. Or played GW1 and decided to revive some features. Either way its a great start. New game modes will restore a lot of my lost faith in the pvp system.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Vincesco.8340:

- pve gear in pvp

I think this is quite cool. The other way around on the other hand…
I’d suggest to limit the currently earned sPvP gear (including dungeon sets) to sPvP only. Otherwise people who got through the hardest dungeons would lose their prestige-show offs in PvE/WvW.

Agreed on both counts. People used to PVP on the legendary skill capture characters in GW1 in their FoW armor, don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to in GW2. I was actually disappointed this connection didn’t exist in GW2 like it did in GW1.

On the same hand, there needs to be a least two to three SPVP only set skins that look absolutely baller. It would be cool if the person chould be able to wear it as a skin in PVE, but only earn it through SPVP… so its kind of like a title.

My concern is somewhat stated already: I don’t like the TP “stock broker” crowd moving into spvp to buy things purely with gold. I hope Anet has the sense to keep some sort of spvp only reward that controls who can buy what, and makes it earned purely in spvp.

This seems really, really cool.

I don’t PvP much, but I have a friend who PvP’s a lot and is always complaining that he won’t WvW with me because his character looks horrible and he doesn’t have good gear, this will help out a lot.

Can we pleeaaaaaaasssseeeeeeeee get trait templates so we can save different trait allocations?? Pleaaaaaassse

The fact that glory will be deleted and gold will be the main currency, so it does mean that I just have my credit card and i can have all pvp contents/skins in the next patches?

Please, we want a way to save our build, i’m tired to change each time I want to change my gameplay

Can we see the actual dragon finisher before you take it away?

Whilst having your long term plan revealed is a great step in the right direction, that alone is not enough to keep the population from bleeding out in the short term.

There are a number of things that need to be done in order for the current (and the future) PvP system to be enjoyable.

1. AFKs need to be taken care of. There’s an easy solution for this, add a ready check right before the queue pops, if not all 10 players accept, boot the AFKs from queue and restart the search. Simple yet efficient.
2. Balance needs to be rolled out faster. The last 4 major balance patches let hell lose and very little (if anything at all) was done to alleviate the issues that you created, so people just left. You need to immediately recognize if a change you made is greatly affecting gameplay and hotfix it immediately. I can already tell you the Dec10 patch is not going to be rainbows and unicorns, you need to have the balance team on standby ready to rollout hotfixes. We do not want to play a broken game for months.
3. Lastly, please for the love of everything that is holy, remove Skyhammer from solo queue. It’s a poorly designed conquest map with many disincentives to play properly. It gives great advantage to a few classes over the others and forces players to not only adapt, but to play dumb unviable (in conquest) builds. It’s not doing anyone any favors by staying in the solo queue rotation. ~80% of the community wants it gone! (consult poll for proof: http://strawpoll.me/737903/r)

Mainly I want to see you guys stop ignoring your community and working things out not solely as you see fit.

I think most of these are a great step in the right direction. As mentioned above it would be awesome if there were pvp-only skins that could be ported into pve and look awesome!
However I think the removal of rank and the associated rank-finishers should be rethought. This was an aspect of gw1 pvp that showed not only skill but also veteran status. I don’t want my finisher to be tied exclusively to the ladder. It also favors all the sky-hammer farmers who exploited their way to rank 50-60+.

Make a Tld version with bold black letters and give some examples

Reading is overstamated for the pvp community :P
Dont expext from us to read across the lines for : <<What kind of rewards you want in PvP ? Skins , titles or rank finishers ? etc>>

For people crying about not seeing Dragon finishers, I’m assuming these new finnishers will be revamps of the current finnishers. So Dragon finishers for those on top of ladder would be a pretty safe assumption.

Edit:
I’m very optimistic towards all of the changes that are planned, looking more like the guild wars I assumed was coming out last year.

did we get some gold if the systems goes live at 10.12 for previous tourney wins to step up a little with pve-guys via post?

what about skyhammer farmers? bann them now. if the system goes life they will inflict dmg to the market trought massive converting glory into skillpoints and skillpoints into high tradable items.

I don’t understand where you guys are going.

I’m really concerned with the change to gold as pvp currency. Gold as a pvp reward is nice. Gold as the only pvp currency seems illogical. You have enough currencies in pve to bring down a pack mule and you think one is too many for pvp? With a shift to gold, you get the following.

• Anyone can buy levels. Is this intended? If so, I get it. But, I really am curious if you’re okay with it.
• A pvper has to spend gold to get new skills. (You must buy levels to get the skill points. IE: Antitoxin Spray would cost 25 levels). Seriously? If you’re going to make pvp’ers need XP. You’d better add it as a passive to the match. I don’t understand why pve gets xp for free and you make pvp exchange their rewards for it. If you want to leave us an option to buy them to power level an alt, I’m okay with that. That’s what people do with crafting anyways.
• Anyone can buy the pvp stuff. When you shift to gold, you’ve essentially opened it to everyone. You guys are even removing ranks so that you can’t even require people to play some matches first.

Rank removal.

• I like ranks. I know others don’t. Disregarding the farming debacles, ranks show an investment in pvp. I think they should be removed from the scoreboard. But, I think they should stick around. They give you something that lasts. WvW XP lasts. AP and luck bonuses last. Fractal levels last. Why get rid of the one lasting thing for pvp?

Lastly, can we get clarification of the following.

With this change, we will not only reward winning in PvP more than losing, but formats where the competition is higher will receive greater rewards.

Does this mean that higher placed leaderboard matches will scale rewards? Or is this some marketing speak saying “these changes will make rewards better for formats where the competition is higher!**”

Disclaimer: These changes may or may not happen. They are subject to change. Batteries not included. Some assembly required. Warranty void…

I still would like to see some armor skins exclusive to just pvp.

Justin ODell.9517:

Although ladder rewards will be time gated, PvP will also likely have other rewards that are not time gated as well rewards relevant to living story and holiday events. It depends on what you guys would like to see.

I’d like to see an overall “Rank” that unlocks various permanent finishers as I advance.

Just think how easy it will be to code it…

(Leave the Rank system in place and ADD divisions and ladders to it!)