Guild Wars 2

Great job by the developers for finally introducing balance patches that have made the game new and refreshing for the majority of players. Although there is a lot of whining and complaining on the boards, this is mostly due to hardcore players unwillingness to accept change and adapt new strategies for an ever evolving game.

I really hope that the game continues to have weekly and monthly balance patches, not just to improve the game as a whole, but also as a means of creating slightly new and evolving metas which keep the game new and refreshing. Even a perfectly balanced game would get old and boring eventually.

Yeah, all hardcore players should stop crying.
Roll a necro…

This meta is the worst ever, and everyone who was a “name” in tPvP (at least to me) has now rerolled.
Helseth (Mesmer → Necro)
Xeph (Mesmer → Necro)
Phantaram (Elementalist → S/D Thief)
Teldo (Engi → dunno exactly, but he mentioned engi is no longer necessary, so…)

See? Hardcorelers are adapting, but they allso all stated they hate being pressed in professions they don´t really want to play.

A perfectly balanced game would have an infinite number of possible viable setups. Thus leading to amazing meta-mobillity. The meta would change in blinks of an eye because its not about playing the only viable setup, but about countering the currently most played with something else. That being countered again and so on.
New compositions would evolve day by day because the game would no longer be balanced around one spec per profession (or less).

The game is better now than it ever was. But balance patches will continue to improve the game.

Sabre.1275:

The game is better now than it ever was. But balance patches will continue to improve the game.

“Improvements”, and “being better than before” are fine when you have a very solid balance base in place. GW2 does not.

For each of the 8 classes, there are generally 1 or (if they’re lucky) 2 specs that work – which specs work changes nearly every time a new patch is introduced. A year in, we don’t need incremental nudges toward better balance. We need solid balance, with a few outlying issues that are dealt with via incremental patch changes. Anet is still making massive changes to classes nearly a year in, and that’s not a good sign IMO.

In addition, the lack of a PTS is still galling. Not having a PTS is equivalent to saying “We don’t really give a kitten about the PvP community” – it can’t possibly be cost effective to test these changes in house. Set up a PTS, and give us the ability to extensively test your PvP oriented changes before they go live. kitten, charge us for PTS access it if you need to, those of use who see the potential in this game will gladly pay it. Just stop this cycle of knee-jerk, poorly tested balance swings that make this game so laughably unstable.

The game is better now than it ever was. But balance patches will continue to improve the game.

I think its pretty subjective that the game is in a better state then it ever was. Granted that the aim of balance patches is to improve the game, I don’t think they have achieved that yet. When the difference between what people consider are the best classes/builds vs the worst classes/builds is close enough that it is competitive then you can say the game is achieving balance.

Set up a PTS, and give us the ability to extensively test your PvP oriented changes before they go live

+1. In another thread about the meta the so called elite players were talking about how anet should really only listen to the top 2% because they understand the meta better then say the other 98% etc etc etc. Anyway if there ever is a PTS this should be the arena where the upcoming changes can be critiqued by the hardcore elites because they would actually be able to give useful feedback. Then you could open it up to other tests on a larger scale to see how changes play out. Would definitely be better then releasing them blindly to the public as if it was never tested before. I’m sure anet does some/alot of internal testing but for whats it worth, I don’t think its entirely working out to make the game better.

Blimm.5028:

Yeah, all hardcore players should stop crying.
This meta is the worst ever

18k backstab meta.

Nik Rane.6431:

Blimm.5028:

Yeah, all hardcore players should stop crying.
This meta is the worst ever

18k backstab meta.

IWAY.

Obvious Anet employee post is obvious.

Please stop blindly calling all top players elitists because they think certain builds are too effective for the amount of effort it takes to play.

Please stop blindly saying all top players can’t “adapt” and that’s why they’re complaining. Most are running these builds like necro, s/d thief, spirit ranger and still staying on top. It’s just not nearly as fun anymore because it’s a much simpler game. When we can switch classes, play it for a day, and beat players/teams that have been playing that build for the past month+ then I think that gives us at least a little bit of credibility when we say these builds are too effective for the amount of effort they take. Right?

Follidus.8027:

Please stop blindly calling all top players elitists because they think certain builds are too effective for the amount of effort it takes to play.

Please stop blindly saying all top players can’t “adapt” and that’s why they’re complaining. Most are running these builds like necro, s/d thief, spirit ranger and still staying on top. It’s just not nearly as fun anymore because it’s a much simpler game. When we can switch classes, play it for a day, and beat players/teams that have been playing that build for the past month+ then I think that gives us at least a little bit of credibility when we say these builds are too effective for the amount of effort they take. Right?

Exactly.

Abbilities and combinations that have a huge impact on the outcome of a fight should be relatively hard to pull off. But sadly enough they arent in the current meta.

So the current ideal comps are really cheesy, shallow and relatively easy to play. And thats something that noone who cares about the pvp in this game wants (in the long run).

Sabre.1275:

The game is better now than it ever was. But balance patches will continue to improve the game.

…

Engels.8537:

Sabre.1275:

The game is better now than it ever was. But balance patches will continue to improve the game.

…

pretty much Eng….. lol