Guild Wars 2

Here is an idea for a potential 2v2 PvP mode.

First of all, it seems that the majority of players have a desire to have some sort of Death Match mode (see the bottom of the poll by alemfi: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Opinions-on-the-New-PvP-Maps). However, plain Team Deathmatch or Elimination both have some problems. Highly mobile builds could technically run away forever, and 2 bunkers together could survive a long time which could get tedious. To deal with these problems, we simply put three mechanics in place. But first of all, this PvP mode is designed such that the team that kills the other team wins. Here are the side-mechanics:

1) There is a timer at 6 minutes, and the one holding a certain capture point at the end of the 6 minutes wins the round. The capture point otherwise does absolutely nothing. This will prevent stealth builds from just hiding all the time, because then they’d just give away the match.

2) At the first and fourth minute, a Barbarian will spawn at each side of the map. The Barbarian just stands there, but if you prove your strength by beating him up he will help you (the team that dealt most damage impresses the Barbarian). The Barbarian is tanky and doesn’t deal that much damage, but he uses big CC attacks after you win him over. Also, once he helps you and arrives at mid, the capture point will instantly change to your color. This means that bunker builds staying at mid will just lose the game if they don’t do damage. If both Barbarians are taken by separate teams and arrive at mid the color becomes neutral, and the game will last until one of them dies even if the 6 minutes are not up.

3) At the first and the third minute a life orb will spawn at 2 different locations, which can be communed to gain a respawn in case one of you dies. This creates an incentive to split up for various reasons. Mainly there is a tactical dilemma between going for the Barbarian and going for extra life. Also, this is a reward for mobility that only works if the opponent doesn’t move at all, by sitting on traps for example. Normally the teams should already be here in time, if the round isn’t already over before that time.

These mechanics prevent boring tactics, and basically the best tactic in most cases now is to just attack your opponents and kill them for quick victory!

Total match should be best of 3. Few players and fast games >>> short queues.

Love it! You’ve obviously put some thought to this so I can’t comment on the mechanics but having 2v2 deathmatches is the one thing missing from PvP atm.

Having to rely on 5 man teams makes the outcome of a match much too dependant on random group makeups and that I feel detracts from the overall PvP experience. Winning a match should be 100% about skill and right now it just isn’t.

2v2 makes it much easier to team up with a friend and at least have a reasonable chance to win based on your skills as a player.

Here’s hoping they implement something along these lines!

the mechanics looks well thought but might not be needed exactly like this. N1 is definitly top.
And yes 2:2 and 3:3 modes would be realy great ….

upvote for this, pretty well thought out to reduce ‘exploits’

Good ideas +1.

Thanks for the feedback. I added the explanation that the team that deals the most damage to the Barbarian is the team that he is impressed by, so no last hitting tactics here.

I honestly believe that if ArenaNet has the guts to implement a 2v2 mode (very much) like this, a lot of players would return to PvP.

Oh cool I thought there was a Barb for each team that you just had to hit to activate but that sounds much better

ThatNAESLGuard.6238:

Oh cool I thought there was a Barb for each team that you just had to hit to activate but that sounds much better

Yes, this way is better because of two reasons:

1) There is even more reason to deal a lot of damage, rather than healing and defending your own Barb.
2) It just doesn’t make sense that a barbarian getting beat up by the other team would betray his old comrades. Instead, he was neutral to begin with just chilling at his campfire near his hut/cave, used to beating any animal he comes across. Anything that can hurt him wins his respect, no matter the color of the clothing.

Keep in mind that attacking him if the enemy is mobile and hits hard, is simply very risky because you don’t want to be stabbed in the back while winning the Barbarian over. If on the other hand the enemy plays a defensive build, this risk isn’t nearly so great and it becomes a viable strategy.

Other than that, it could also be viable to split up. Let’s say that the enemy goes for one of the two and stays together. If it takes too long to hunt him down, the other player can potentially beat a Barbarian AND get the life orb. Once again, strong offence would counter this tactic. The surest way to deal with an enemy split would probably to allow 2 1v1s. But then the reactive team has the advantage of picking who chases who. All of this is very match-up dependent, so there is no obvious way to go other than just killing the enemy. Every profession will have viable situational tactics, but there is a bit of an advantage to mobility and high damage, which is honestly required for a 2v2 to be balanced.