Hello,
So if what I heard was right about the fractal leaderboard, it is a huge mistake. If the fractal is based on who gets 50 first, this creates a two main problems.
1. A group will get to 50 then have nothing else to work for till the next 10 levels are added
2. It relies on Anet continuing outputting content quickly.
Lets be honest here, on more than a few occasions you underestimated how quickly players complete content. 2 week living story change, ascended gear, and I’m sure it will eventually be a leaderboard change.
When I look at PvErs i notice one common thing that most will think about. How to complete a dungeon/fractal as quick as possible. It is why so many want berserkers. IT is why warriors are so popular. They output so much DPS so quickly that they allow the completion of dungeon things quickest.
Design the leaderboards around this philosophy…speed. Speed runs are insanely popular in PvE and its the only competitive PvE I’ve seen in the gaming industry. Make the leaderboards based on how quickly one can complete a fractal or dungeon. Or make it how quickly one can kill the final boss. Then recording this so that players can spectate it and see how players who are “pros” do it.
Doing it this route is a lot better than the current design. For starters most of oyu will be saying its not about speed, its about having fun and playing the content. The problem is that the current leaderboard doesn’t promote this at all. This leaderboard still promotes speed despite what you may think. So why not go balls to the wall and embrace it.
Here is how it would work.
First you must get to 50, give players more reason to get to the end fractal. Then each time you want to do a speedrun for the leaderboard you must “register” your team with the scientist in the lobby mist area before fractals complete with a name and an emblem. This would cost lets say a total of 10g (2g per person). Most of the time hardcore PvErs are rich compared to the other hardcore people of the game modes (unless they spend real cash). You are given the choices to have your guild sponser it for a decrease in price (down to 6g) and it displays their emblem/name on the leaderboard, you need a certain level of a guild upgrade to do this however. Once your team is register than you score will be documented accordingly. Either it be speed of completion of the fractal or just how fast you kill the final boss.
Bonuses that this will give you.
1. You can easily find exploits. Don’t ban players for finding and taking advantage of exploits in dungeons. Instead use the top players routes to find the exploits, fix them. Every month or so release a patch that fixes them then reset the leaderboards. Not only is this a quick and easy way to find and fix exploits, but also gives a reason for PvErs to come back.
2. Guilds become more important in the competitive scene in this game.
3. The leaderboard has a sort of decay since you find exploits and fix them and reset the board every month so that those who get to number 1 then quit/no longer support the game aren’t promoted.
4. You can balance PvE around this. Right now as many will agree the PvE isn’t balanced. Finding the team comps and why these teams use these comps is one way to find ways to balance the game around something.
I’m really worried about this LW release. From the people I’ve talked to in game and on other websites besides the forums, it is the most negative I’ve seen since release. I wish you guys luck tomorrow. Since I’m not too big into the PvE scene I’ll probably watch videos for the lore
.