Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

So I’ve been thinking quite a lot lately about what’s missing in GW2 and what Anet could change to fix these things. I came up with 4 things they could do. Two of which are PvP focused.

For those who don’t like long reads here’s the video edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485Kt4gE2XI&feature=youtu.be

- Separate Elite Specs selection from their Trait line selection:
This one is self explanatory. Elite specs being attached to trait lines is just a tad too limiting. We need a way to select our Elite Specialization without the need to equip the trait line (check the first image added at the bottom of the page for an example of how this can be implemented). If we didn’t need the Reaper trait line to play the Reaper or the Scrapper trait line to play the scrapper, there’d be a few more builds in circulation right now but because we’re restricted with what feels like an uncomfortable restriction (I use this expression because that’s genuinely how I feel when I think about it), the builds we make for these elite specs usually fall under a similar pattern. Rather than the variety that should be delivered when an expac launches, we’ve been playing the same builds for almost 8 months now.

- Make the Trait System more open:
What do I mean by this? Instead of the current system, why not make it more free-form. For instance, instead of telling us we must pick 3 trait lines, why not let us just pick 1 trait line or 2 trait lines if we so desire? And let us pick 9 traits maximum from the amount of trait lines we’ve decided to choose (check the second image attached below to see an badly photoshoped example of this). It would bring a new meaning to the word ‘Specialization’. Of course there should be restrictions within this system.

The restrictions would be, we’d have a maximum selection of 9 traits but we’d still have to pick minor traits in order to have access to choosing major traits and so on. That said, we can then decide to pick all 9 traits within one trait line (as seen in the second image attached below). For instance if I’m a warrior, I can pick all 9 traits in Defense or as an Engineer, I can decide I want to go Firearms and Alchemy and just pick 4 traits in Firearms and 5 traits in Alchemy. I think this would go a long way to make GW2 more interesting and fun for the theorycrafters out there.
A lot of the fun in GW1 came from testing a build out, failing at it and tweaking that build to perfection. The magic was there when GW2 started but it’s been 3 years and the new trait system hasn’t invigorated theorycrafting that much. If this suggestion is implemented, you’ll see people spending hours just tweaking silly, dumb and amazing builds for hours. And aren’t games supposed to be about having silly, dumb fun?

- Give us Automated Tournaments that are better than Guild Challenger League:
I don’t think the Guild challenger League is doing much to invigorate participation in GW2 pvp. And to fix that, I’m suggesting anet create an automated tournament outside of pro league, that has smaller rewards than Pro Leage but more significant than it currently is. How do you achieve this ‘more significance’ thing? Well, remember that authorized shoutcaster program that you were running before? Yea, do that again but this time, notify casters about Automated Tournament matchups based on the High MMR teams playing against each other.
The casters who are available will cast these games on twitch, building themselves a fanbase, whilst also promoting GW2 pvp, whilst also giving good players some exposure, making those players confident enough to play in things like Pro League… does that sound like a win-win to you? ‘Cos it sounds like a win-win to me.
Also make the first place rewards $500 and a legendary weapon of your choice that isn’t account bound (so it can be sold – this may not seem important but it is!! Think about it!), Second place can be $250, gems or a combination of those two things and third place could be just gems and gold. Just make the rewards miniature versions of the pro league so if these players never compete in pro league, they can at least feel like they are getting something for their time.

And finally;
- GIVE US STRONGHOLD TOURNAMENTS

Nuf’ said.

Thanks for reading and hope you implement something that keeps me playing.

I don’t agree with needing to separate out elite specializations from the rest of the specializations (no longer called traits). They made their decision to keep it easier to balance in new elite specializations. Separating it out right now, but keeping 3 specialization lines would just be increasing power creep.

Personally I’m surprised to see that nothing was mentioned about:
- Build Templates
- Queuing up outside the mists (AT LEAST it should be allowed in custom arenas)
- and a personal plug about using shards of glory to maintain custom arenas…

So you want the trait system that we had from launch that was only replaced last year on June 23rd…

No.
No.
Definitely.
No.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

So you want the trait system that we had from launch that was only replaced last year on June 23rd…

No. The old system only allowed you to pick 7 traits maximum and you could only pick 3 traits in any given line. The system I’m suggesting is only like it in the most minute way.

alemfi.5107:

I don’t agree with needing to separate out elite specializations from the rest of the specializations (no longer called traits). They made their decision to keep it easier to balance in new elite specializations. Separating it out right now, but keeping 3 specialization lines would just be increasing power creep.

Personally I’m surprised to see that nothing was mentioned about:
- Build Templates
- Queuing up outside the mists (AT LEAST it should be allowed in custom arenas)
- and a personal plug about using shards of glory to maintain custom arenas…

How is it easier to balance when people are still complaining about power creep right now anyway? What would be the big change if they were to separate it really? Other than giving people more freedom and frankly more reason to just enjoy theorycrafting in GW2.

- Introducing build template won’t automatically give classes new builds and new ways to play. It’s would be nice but it isn’t a game changer.
- Queueing up outside the mists, also nice but not a game changer
- Shards of Glory to maintain custom arenas, I can definitely support that but it’s also not going to do anything to make the game more interesting or keep people logging in.

Exedore.6320:

No.
No.
Definitely.
No.

Why are you scared of having fun?

The funny thing about you guys saying that this whole thing will bring power creep is that, I’ve actually gone and looked at the possibilities and what builds people will be able to make on certain classes. My conclusion was, people will still have to sacrifice what was big parts of their current builds in my suggested system, for them to find new builds. Which creates a nice counterbalance to the builds that could be made. That’s not to say some crazy builds won’t be made, they probably will but, it will have weaknesses because of the nature of the system. At least…. based on the angle I’m viewing it from. If you guys can come up with a build that you think would be OP, I’d be happy to debate things based on that.

Dirame.8521:

… isn’t a game changer.
…but not a game changer
….not going to do anything to make the game more interesting

Your Opinion. Your Opinion. Your Opinion. Player Interest needs to be from the ground. I’ve introduced quite a few people to pvp, and some of the first things that occur after they’ve set up a build are “do I have to stay in the mists?” Queuing outside of the mists was in the game before, it shouldn’t be THAT much more work. Just don’t allow it in PVE if the devs are afraid of people dismissing queues and giving themselves dishonor.

Build templates are admittedly not NEEDED. but they can’t be that difficult. Just change the weapon area that they use from using a weapon in you inventory to just a “skin” selector, temp equip a dummy weapon with that weapon and boom. Probably should have limits for the number of builds, (3-5 per character I think would be good).

Your specialization changes are just what you subjectively think would make the game better. Stronghold tourneys are fine, I think the mode needs more exposure. Automated tournaments requires infrastructure.

Honestly, I’m willing to put up with supporting streamers on twitch, but Anet makes it REALLY difficult with the queues.

A real class balance to make all weapon and trinkets for more tactics and diversity…..

Automated tournaments sound like a perfect thing to schedule for a 5-roster of players looking to have more competition than leagues allow, which is very little.

Seems like it would be easy to facilitate a tournament signup from the ‘TEAM’ tab in the guild menu, and have a sequence of queue pops for a daily tournament, starting at 8pm in a central time zone of each region.

Have the brackets & team progress displayed on the UI, fully contained in-game.

Gem or skin rewards based on placement would be amazing.

As for things in the OP like trait reworks, I’m just gonna say that I’d rather not, as there are other ways to have a fun, functional skill balance if ArenaNet so desired any builds to be used in PvP besides going with what the Elite Spec dictates you do.

Chaith.8256:

Automated tournaments sound like a perfect thing to schedule for a 5-roster of players looking to have more competition than leagues allow, which is very little.

Seems like it would be easy to facilitate a tournament signup from the ‘TEAM’ tab in the guild menu, and have a sequence of queue pops for a daily tournament, starting at 8pm in a central time zone of each region.

Have the brackets & team progress displayed on the UI, fully contained in-game.

Gem or skin rewards based on placement would be amazing.

Perhaps I got distracted by the rest of the OP’s content in his post, but after the presentation of the idea of automated tournaments in this manner, it does sound fun/feasible. I remember participating in pugquest, got second place, was fun. I’m just curious though, would this really be able to build the competitive scene more than just regularly scheduled community organized tournaments? It will remove burden from the community sure, but assuming we did have these regular tournaments again, would it have a net benefit between automated vs. community tournaments?

alemfi.5107:

Chaith.8256:

Automated tournaments sound like a perfect thing to schedule for a 5-roster of players looking to have more competition than leagues allow, which is very little.

Seems like it would be easy to facilitate a tournament signup from the ‘TEAM’ tab in the guild menu, and have a sequence of queue pops for a daily tournament, starting at 8pm in a central time zone of each region.

Have the brackets & team progress displayed on the UI, fully contained in-game.

Gem or skin rewards based on placement would be amazing.

Perhaps I got distracted by the rest of the OP’s content in his post, but after the presentation of the idea of automated tournaments in this manner, it does sound fun/feasible. I remember participating in pugquest, got second place, was fun. I’m just curious though, would this really be able to build the competitive scene more than just regularly scheduled community organized tournaments? It will remove burden from the community sure, but assuming we did have these regular tournaments again, would it have a net benefit between automated vs. community tournaments?

The problem with the community tournaments is that they’re not introduced to players as part of the in-game progression, and not always consistent.

alemfi.5107:

Your Opinion. Your Opinion. Your Opinion.

Your specialization changes are just what you subjectively think would make the game better. Stronghold tourneys are fine, I think the mode needs more exposure. Automated tournaments requires infrastructure.

My opinion indeed. And Automated Tournaments requiring infrastructure is not something I’m oblivious to. I’m just suggesting it alongside some level of organised promotion.

Chaith.8256:

As for things in the OP like trait reworks, I’m just gonna say that I’d rather not, as there are other ways to have a fun, functional skill balance if ArenaNet so desired any builds to be used in PvP besides going with what the Elite Spec dictates you do.

All you guys say is, “I’d rather not” never any examples of why you’d “rather not”. You’re killing me man, killing me!!

Dirame.8521:

All you guys say is, “I’d rather not” never any examples of why you’d “rather not”. You’re killing me man, killing me!!

“..as there are other ways to have a fun, functional skill balance if ArenaNet so desired any builds to be used in PvP besides going with what the Elite Spec dictates you do.”

I think that separating the traitline from the rest of the Elite Spec goodies will hardly influence the builds we’re using. Just not a change that will improve the game or PvP. Everyone will still need to take Celestial Avatar, Function Gyro, Reaper Shroud, Facet of Nature, etc, which are tied to the traitlines. You’re still restricted in exactly the same way.

And as for selecting opening up the option to double or triple up on the amount of traits you can take from one traitline, that’s just going to exasperate the problem of OP traitlines. Some traitlines have multiple good choices that would be broken in that system, and some only have one good choice per tier in PvP.

Especially stacking Elite Spec traits that all have huge synergy, but had that synergy limited by only being able to pick one at a time. I could make a broken Scrapper build with Adaptive Armor, at the same time as Final Salvo, Rapid Regeneration at the same time as Mass Momentum, and protection on heal at the same time as Perfectly Weighted. It’s just something unnatural that would undermine how the traitlines were designed to limit choices.

But TL;DR is that they’re just whims that are oddly specific and don’t aim to fix anything but a perceived lack of fun. I’d personally rather they do a simple balance pass on weak utilities and weapons.

Chaith.8256:

Especially stacking Elite Spec traits that all have huge synergy, but had that synergy limited by only being able to pick one at a time. I could make a broken Scrapper build with Adaptive Armor, at the same time as Final Salvo, Rapid Regeneration at the same time as Mass Momentum, and protection on heal at the same time as Perfectly Weighted. It’s just something unnatural that would undermine how the traitlines were designed to limit choices.

But TL;DR is that they’re just whims that are oddly specific and don’t aim to fix anything but a perceived lack of fun. I’d personally rather they do a simple balance pass on weak utilities and weapons.

Awesome! Okay. The question that I have to ask is, what are you losing when you pick Final Salvo, Adaptive armor, Rapid regenration, Mass momentum and protection on heal? And I’m guessing you’re going to put the 3 remaining traits in Alchemy to get Protection Injection, Self Regulating Defenses and HGH right? And based on what everyone runs with the meta Scrapper, they would normally take inventions because it pretty much provides infinite regen and a good level of sustain…?

Hmm, so to get all that stuff you just mentioned, you’re losing mobility when out of combat (Mecha legs), a heal reset (Automated Medical response) and near infinite regen and extra damage (Bunker down). And let’s not forget cleansing synergy, it’s a pretty good adept minor trait.

Sure the build you made is good but… you’re still losing something. You’re still sacrificing something useful to get it. You still have a weakness.

And the whims are aimed to fix build diversity or more like, build “possibilities”. Which then = fun.

Dirame.8521:

Chaith.8256:

Especially stacking Elite Spec traits that all have huge synergy, but had that synergy limited by only being able to pick one at a time. I could make a broken Scrapper build with Adaptive Armor, at the same time as Final Salvo, Rapid Regeneration at the same time as Mass Momentum, and protection on heal at the same time as Perfectly Weighted. It’s just something unnatural that would undermine how the traitlines were designed to limit choices.

But TL;DR is that they’re just whims that are oddly specific and don’t aim to fix anything but a perceived lack of fun. I’d personally rather they do a simple balance pass on weak utilities and weapons.

Awesome! Okay. The question that I have to ask is, what are you losing when you pick Final Salvo, Adaptive armor, Rapid regenration, Mass momentum and protection on heal? And I’m guessing you’re going to put the 3 remaining traits in Alchemy to get Protection Injection, Self Regulating Defenses and HGH right? And based on what everyone runs with the meta Scrapper, they would normally take inventions because it pretty much provides infinite regen and a good level of sustain…?

Hmm, so to get all that stuff you just mentioned, you’re losing mobility when out of combat (Mecha legs), a heal reset (Automated Medical response) and near infinite regen and extra damage (Bunker down). And let’s not forget cleansing synergy, it’s a pretty good adept minor trait.

Sure the build you made is good but… you’re still losing something. You’re still sacrificing something useful to get it. You still have a weakness.

And the whims are aimed to fix build diversity or more like, build “possibilities”. Which then = fun.

I don’t really want to theorycraft with you but if you’re saying the good balance between meta builds we’ve struck will stay, and every profession will equally benefit from unlocking the trait restrictions, that’s just a laugh m8. Not worth, let’s just alter balance in more controllable and deliberate ways

Chaith.8256:

I don’t really want to theorycraft with you but if you’re saying the good balance between meta builds we’ve struck will stay, and every profession will equally benefit from unlocking the trait restrictions, that’s just a laugh m8. Not worth, let’s just alter balance in more controllable and deliberate ways

That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is, regardless of what build is made, the player is sacrificing something they would normally take just to make that build. This guarantees there will be holes, or weaknesses and weaknesses can be exploited.

This change wouldn’t be that crazy but that’s just my opinion.

Get rid of the forced 50% win rate in unranked. I’m tired of most of the new players being on my team just because I have a plus score. Got my wings by the way but still hope to at least make Diamond haven’t done ranked since I updated my progress (still have the 5 game winstreak and one win from T4 Ruby). It’s to the point now where I have a headache from screaming at my monitor because my teammates would double camp nodes and wouldn’t care if I’m being focused down (when you all complain about people not playing healers, whose mobility relies on limited actives with cooldowns combined with being prime focus targets now you’ll know why). I don’t care I won’t switch from thief even with four other thieves in the team because the slowest gazelle gets eaten by the lion, and if four other people have shortbow 5, three dodges, Signet of Agility, Shadowstep, and stealth then I don’t want to handicap myself by being a back packer. Better to run with the rabbits than the turtles.

Also the problem with more build diversity is you’d have far more to keep track of and passive defensive stats in a game like conquest are heavily favored, even moreso on small maps where a warrior can plod along from clocktower to windmill in a timely enough fashion to contest the node, where with his defensive powers and actives (blocks, invulns, the passive invuln, etc.) will ensure teammates will have enough time to join and help the tank, and that’s a major problem with conquest. Might has stacks and isn’t percent based whereas protection gives 40% more toughness. Why not scrap might stacks and make it percentage based? It could be just like protection and boosts could be traited. Might can give 33% increased base power. This will also ensure that tanky builds don’t scale up too much (especially if weapon skills already scale too well).

Dirame.8521:

That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is, regardless of what build is made, the player is sacrificing something they would normally take just to make that build. This guarantees there will be holes, or weaknesses and weaknesses can be exploited.

This change wouldn’t be that crazy but that’s just my opinion.

As an example, if something was extremely overpowered in lots of matchups, but still had a counter, that’s not very comforting. Make balance worse just to be able to click multiple combinations of traits in one line? Na, it’s smarter to just wait until more elite specs or weapons/utilities get buffed, or indirectly become better by strong options being nerfed.

It’s actually quite a game changer to the meta builds when you comb over every elite spec possibility, traits would have to change in order to fit. Let’s just hope ArenaNet just runs sensible balance patches with the goal of polishing existing weapons/utilities over time.

Chaith.8256:

Dirame.8521:

That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is, regardless of what build is made, the player is sacrificing something they would normally take just to make that build. This guarantees there will be holes, or weaknesses and weaknesses can be exploited.

This change wouldn’t be that crazy but that’s just my opinion.

As an example, if something was extremely overpowered in lots of matchups, but still had a counter, that’s not very comforting.

It should be! Isn’t that what technically won TCG the matches they played? Rotating to give themselves the best match-ups?

I’m not going to deny that there won’t be builds that need nerfing. Increasing choice comes with it’s problems obviously, but it’s really not going to change the status quo all that much. We are still dealing with what people consider to be “OP” classes here, there and everywhere and everytime I play what I consider to be the counter class to said profession, I notice a huge uptick in my chances of winning that match.

So you can say “We don’t want OP set-ups” but there is no getting away from it, no matter what weapon or Elite spec they create. The best Anet can hope to do is create counters, create openings, and give every class an opportunity to be in the meta. And this change, that I suggested in the OP, could do that.

Dirame.8521:

Chaith.8256:

Dirame.8521:

That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is, regardless of what build is made, the player is sacrificing something they would normally take just to make that build. This guarantees there will be holes, or weaknesses and weaknesses can be exploited.

This change wouldn’t be that crazy but that’s just my opinion.

As an example, if something was extremely overpowered in lots of matchups, but still had a counter, that’s not very comforting.

It should be! Isn’t that what technically won TCG the matches they played? Rotating to give themselves the best match-ups?

I’m not going to deny that there won’t be builds that need nerfing. Increasing choice comes with it’s problems obviously, but it’s really not going to change the status quo all that much. We are still dealing with what people consider to be “OP” classes here, there and everywhere and everytime I play what I consider to be the counter class to said profession, I notice a huge uptick in my chances of winning that match.

So you can say “We don’t want OP set-ups” but there is no getting away from it, no matter what weapon or Elite spec they create. The best Anet can hope to do is create counters, create openings, and give every class an opportunity to be in the meta. And this change, that I suggested in the OP, could do that.

I think a good measure of if a build is OP or not is how many 1v2’s it wins even accounting for hardcounters.

Don’t see anything relation to terrible matchmaking in ranked nor class stacking. Try again.

Here’s another:

GET RID OF THE LEAGUE SYSTEM.

Dirame.8521:

Exedore.6320:

No.
No.
Definitely.
No.

Why are you scared of having fun?

I like fun. I don’t like bad suggestions.

Elite spec trait separation
Elite spec abilities, weapons, and traits are tied to together because they’re supposed to create a coherent gameplay style which feels different enough from the core. The initial round of adding a weapon, new mechanic, new utilities, and traits was overboard. And some specs lack coherency. ANet should’ve done some new things, but maybe not all for every elite spec.
So while I agree some elite specs should be toned down through removal (ANet will never do it), splitting them apart doesn’t help anything. It ruins the coherency and creates a balance nightmare for future elite specs. Elite specs are mutually exclusive to limit balance permutations while keeping the style unique and interesting.

Psuedo-Old Trait System
Anyone who asks for the old trait system doesn’t understand balance or design. The new system is much better and allows expansion, i.e. elite specs.
There are two fundamental problems in the old trait system which made it a pain to design and balance:

1. Low-Hanging Fruit: There are always more powerful traits which are low in some trees. That causes forced choices and makes it so that going higher in a few trees is rarely viable. Each trait had to compete against every other trait, but had a penalty for weaker pre-requisites.
2. Mutual Exclusion: The only way to prevent a player from having any of two traits at the same time was to make them both grandmaster in the same line. If two traits had too strong of a synergy, the only way around it was to make them nearly out of reach (see previous problem) or to nerf them to the point where they were only viable together.

The new system addresses both of these. It limits breadth to a reasonable amount and depth no longer feels like a punishment. It also allows far more mutual exclusion within trait lines. This makes the developers lives a lot easier and should lead to better balance. However, ANet seemed to have stopped halfway:

• Lack of Focus/Synergy: In the old system, talents which would stack together nicely were scattered around in order to prevent players from having them all. In the new system, they should all be in the same line for a coherent feel, using the increased mutual exclusion to limit overly strong synergy. Each line should have a clear focus which goes hand-in-hand with gameplay style.
• Too Many Traits / Too Much Power: In the old system, you had 14 traits. In the new system, you have 18. Not only that, a lot of old lesser traits were combined. You probably have the equivalent of about 20 traits in the old system.

Stronghold Tournaments
Stronghold is a mess right now and widely regarded as a failure. Fix stronghold so that it’s more than a “protect the doorbreaker” PvE race before even talking about tournaments for it.
Further, few competitive players prefer stronghold to conquest for competition. Why have tournaments if your target audience for tournaments doesn’t want them?

Exedore.6320:

I like fun. I don’t like bad suggestions.

Elite spec trait separation

So while I agree some elite specs should be toned down through removal (ANet will never do it), splitting them apart doesn’t help anything. It ruins the coherency and creates a balance nightmare for future elite specs. Elite specs are mutually exclusive to limit balance permutations while keeping the style unique and interesting.

Ruins the coherency how? And creates a balance nightmare how? Genuinely asking because I can’t see your perspective on this.

If an Elite Spec is released even as it is in this iteration of the game, it would still have to be balanced with other trait lines in mind. Separating the Elite Spec from the trait line does not change that. You won’t lose coherency with the Trait line it came with because it was built with that trait line in mind, you won’t lose coherency with other trait lines because that wouldn’t make any sense and it wouldn’t be a balance nightmare because when creating the new Elite spec, they should’ve already balanced it alongside the other trait lines anyway.

Exedore.6320:

Psuedo-Old Trait System
Anyone who asks for the old trait system doesn’t understand balance or design. The new system is much better and allows expansion, i.e. elite specs.

Read my post again and look at the examples I gave. I’m not asking for the old system, I’m asking for a modification of the new system.

Exedore.6320:

Stronghold Tournaments
Stronghold is a mess right now and widely regarded as a failure. Fix stronghold so that it’s more than a “protect the doorbreaker” PvE race before even talking about tournaments for it.
Further, few competitive players prefer stronghold to conquest for competition. Why have tournaments if your target audience for tournaments doesn’t want them?

Some people like the Protect the Doorbreaker PvE race. Catering to one audience “The PvP elite” won’t always get a company more viewers or participants. If Anet wants to build a big game, they have to ask, who is playing Stronghold and who enjoys it? Let’s create a tournament for those people.
So far because Anet has let the PvP elite tell everyone that Stronghold sucks, it’s become a thing that everyone echoes, Stronghold sucks.
This is not to say that Stronghold doesn’t have it’s issues, Elite capping, Archers being useless half the time, etc. But the fact is, even in that state, its still a fun map, let’s cater to the audience that enjoys it and ignore the ones that don’t. They’ve got Conquest right?

Dirame.8521:

Ruins the coherency how? And creates a balance nightmare how? Genuinely asking because I can’t see your perspective on this.

If an Elite Spec is released even as it is in this iteration of the game, it would still have to be balanced with other trait lines in mind. Separating the Elite Spec from the trait line does not change that. You won’t lose coherency with the Trait line it came with because it was built with that trait line in mind, you won’t lose coherency with other trait lines because that wouldn’t make any sense and it wouldn’t be a balance nightmare because when creating the new Elite spec, they should’ve already balanced it alongside the other trait lines anyway.

Some people like the Protect the Doorbreaker PvE race. Catering to one audience “The PvP elite” won’t always get a company more viewers or participants. If Anet wants to build a big game, they have to ask, who is playing Stronghold and who enjoys it? Let’s create a tournament for those people.
So far because Anet has let the PvP elite tell everyone that Stronghold sucks, it’s become a thing that everyone echoes, Stronghold sucks.
This is not to say that Stronghold doesn’t have it’s issues, Elite capping, Archers being useless half the time, etc. But the fact is, even in that state, its still a fun map, let’s cater to the audience that enjoys it and ignore the ones that don’t. They’ve got Conquest right?

If all elite spec utilities and weapons were not restricted to people running that elite spec, it severely limits how unique and different the subsequent elite specs can be. Why? Cause players would have the ability to cherry pick the best weapons, profession mechanic, and utilities. It would amplify balance problems, cause instead of having another overall balanced elite spec, you’d have to micro balance the budgets of each category, weapons, utilities, traits, etc.

Plus, themes clash. Fiery Berserker weapon spells on a conventional tank will just get noped by any developer.

Re: Stronghold, you can’t insinuate that it’s unpopular simply because influencers in the community don’t fancy it, /facepalm. The content will speak for itself, and we’d actually have a loyal Stronghold fan base if it were appealing to any demographic of PvP players.

The new game mode should have catered to those PvP players who don’t like conquest, but as it turns out, that player group isn’t partial to ignoring players and PvE racing either.

Stronghold doesn’t have a significant enough fan base to warrant not changing it heavily, to my knowledge. There is nobody passionate about Stronghold to cater to.

I would propose Stronghold change to have a strong emphasis on players living/dying to progress, as opposed to whether NPCs live or died. No more ignoring players until you kill guards/door breakers/Lord then retreating, if applicable, no more ignoring players and stability capping mist essence. The whole experience is PvP adverse, PvP sometimes doesn’t happen during a game.

If ArenaNet wants to have Stronghold thrive, they need to do more than throw a tournament for an extinct competitive Stronghold scene.

Stronghold is boring to me period. It might be because the objective use AI to break down the walls and not my team directly.

Chaith.8256:

If all elite spec utilities and weapons were not restricted to people running that elite spec, it severely limits how unique and different the subsequent elite specs can be. Why? Cause players would have the ability to cherry pick the best weapons, profession mechanic, and utilities. It would amplify balance problems, cause instead of having another overall balanced elite spec, you’d have to micro balance the budgets of each category, weapons, utilities, traits, etc.

I never said anything about separating the unlock of weapons from the Elite Spec. I’ve only talked about separating the Trait Selection from the Elite Spec selection. So basically, if you want to use the Elite spec, you don’t have to use the trait line BUT if you want to use the trait line and the weapons, you have to use the Elite spec. I do hope I’m making sense here ’cos I know it can genuinely get confusing.

Just as I illustrated in the first image in the original post, I photoshoped in a new tab for the Elite Spec selection and the trait lines selected were core trait lines. That’s all I was suggesting they do.

Chaith.8256:

Re: Stronghold, you can’t insinuate that it’s unpopular simply because influencers in the community don’t fancy it, /facepalm. The content will speak for itself, and we’d actually have a loyal Stronghold fan base if it were appealing to any demographic of PvP players.

The new game mode should have catered to those PvP players who don’t like conquest, but as it turns out, that player group isn’t partial to ignoring players and PvE racing either.

Stronghold doesn’t have a significant enough fan base to warrant not changing it heavily, to my knowledge. There is nobody passionate about Stronghold to cater to.

I would propose Stronghold change to have a strong emphasis on players living/dying to progress, as opposed to whether NPCs live or died. No more ignoring players until you kill guards/door breakers/Lord then retreating, if applicable, no more ignoring players and stability capping mist essence. The whole experience is PvP adverse, PvP sometimes doesn’t happen during a game.

If ArenaNet wants to have Stronghold thrive, they need to do more than throw a tournament for an extinct competitive Stronghold scene.

You’re right in the sense that if the content was great, it would have a stronger playerbase but the issue is further exasperated by no real push to show it off by anet. But yea, it needs fixing.

As far as stronghold goes I think we need to have a gamemode where both sides try destroying gates and the gates can be healed and it would have a maze like layout with plenty of dead ends. Then at the end of the map whoever charges for the full duration on the flag wins. You’d have areas where thieves can’t shortbow 5 up to and others where they can to avoid making thieves too overpowered. Since it isn’t a point holding map tanky sustain builds won’t be as important and the emphasis shifts more towards mobility and damage. You’d have choke points, vantage points, and other features that make for a great map.

Agemnon.4608:

As far as stronghold goes I think we need to have a gamemode where both sides try destroying gates and the gates can be healed and it would have a maze like layout with plenty of dead ends. Then at the end of the map whoever charges for the full duration on the flag wins. You’d have areas where thieves can’t shortbow 5 up to and others where they can to avoid making thieves too overpowered. Since it isn’t a point holding map tanky sustain builds won’t be as important and the emphasis shifts more towards mobility and damage. You’d have choke points, vantage points, and other features that make for a great map.

Yeah I dunno about mazes and charging a flag or what it is that you suggested being necessary. I don’t see how that changes the way you approach stronghold.

Stronghold will be a fine map if the lane pushing mechanics are changed so wiping out the defending players is the key to progressing.

• Idea #1: Supply system is changed.

Players can now carry a high amount of supply points. Archers and Doorbreakers spawn at set intervals. Instead of supply equalling a minion 1:1, supply goes towards levelling up the base, increasing the starting slow spawn rate of minion waves.

Here’s the important part: killing players will drop a significant amount of supply in addition to whatever supply points they possessed at death. Keeping players committed to lanes by constant waves, and rewarding ganking those lanes – this is of utter importance.

The Supply Depot in the middle of the map would offer a much less rewarding source of supply points than securing kills, but would still be significant enough to fight over.

This simply makes it so teams that are killing players will snowball their lanes fast, and player deaths are more of a focal point than the current: “Kill Guards and Door Breakers at all costs – who cares if I die?”

Perhaps player respawn times could be lengthened as the game progresses as well. Anything to create a reward structure for killing players.