Guild Wars 2

Hi!

You know, I don’t need much to have fun in PvP. CS was fun for me for close to 4 years. I played it daily and loved it. Same with Dota2 and League of Legends.

However, sPvP is so frustrating atm with the awful balance. Thief and mesmer roll over anything atm. Usually 50% of the population of a battleground is made up by mesmer and thief, sometimes you fight against a team with 4 thiefs and 3 mesmers, which is completely absurd.

And no, my “main” I use is actually a thief and my alt is a mesmer. Guess why. I know how to kill those classes and I know what they can. However, there is no way to kill a good shatter-mesmer in a 1v1. In teamfights they are amazing too, they bring so much disorientation and burst damage to the fight. With my alt mesmer I can usually 80% -> 0% any squishy with a shatter-combo and phantasm, all this while having tons of defensive abilities (3 stunbreaker, 2 stealth and a 900 range-teleport). In teamfights I drop quickness for my group which gives us a 100% win chance for the fight. In case the enemy has strong condition-speccs, I just put null field in the bar, which is probably the strongest boon/condition-remover in the game.

Thief isn’t nearly as bad as a shatter-mesmer.

I mean, as soon as I log on my necro I have fun in the beginning (A tanky power-specc). However, as soon as a thief or mesmer with skill appears, i’m kittened. Same with my ranger, warrior (which was btw the first class I played) and engi (Second I’ve played).

I mean, am I the only one who thinks that mesmer are broken overpowered and take the fun out of the game (sPvP and WvWvW)? Just make one, get a shatter-specc and gogogo.

You’ll get both perspectives on here about whether you’re right or wrong.

Personally I feel the problem with spvp is more funadmental in their design, such as map size and point award, as opposed to mostly being individual classes being imbalanced. Don’t get me wrong I agree that balance hasn’t been right with the profs in game since BWE3, when they knee jerked thieves and mesmers to actually make them into pvp factors, which they overdid obviously.

tPVP, I think most will agree, is the better option for these maps based on their size and pt award dynamic. However, that game mode came flawed for different reasons. Obviously lack of mmr and premade/pug situation.

I think the dev’s actions have actually confirmed both these problems. They have tried fixing hotjoin spvp by offering 5v5 to those not interested in zerging, though that isn’t really working in my experience due to the flaw pt award system and lack of incentive for defense, and not to mention it seems impossible to stay in a full game with people constantly leaving from frustration. They also thought they were fixing tpvp problems, as they clearly stated, with paids. Though I think we all know how thats worked out.

Ultimately, I dont hold it against the people spewing such vitriol on these forums, though i think it could be done constructively. People, including myself, are angry with how this game has devolved over the last few months and they come here hoping they will either get some answers for the future , or at least someone who seemingly cares about why they’re angry. I know I often alt-tab when playing after having been steam rolled in tpvp by a premade, or zerged into oblivion in spvp, and usually have to restrain myself from making emotional posts.

I guess I just hope its not too late for this game. I realize it will be easy for people to come back, with there being no subs; but I do fear that reputations may have been irreversibly tarnished and expectations so resoundingly let down, that players may stay away out of spite. I, for one, hope that is not the case.

I think the stealth mechanic needs to be minimized in PVP and devs need to find other ways to compensate those classes (thieves and mesmers).

Even if a stealth class is balanced with other classes, the high frequency of stealth abilities detracts from fun in PVP. I mean if it was a long CD stealth like 3 sec per 60sec then that is one thing, but when people are stealthing every 9 seconds it really makes for a annoying PVP experience.

It may be challenging to play against, but not very fun. I am not referring it to being OP, I am just saying stealth is not a fun mechanic in itself.

What exactly would change with different gamemodes? Classes who dominate in 1v1 and teamfights will dominate on every other gamemode too.

gwawer.9805:

I think the stealth mechanic needs to be minimized in PVP and devs need to find other ways to compensate those classes (thieves and mesmers).

Even if a stealth class is balanced with other classes, the high frequency of stealth abilities detracts from fun in PVP. I mean if it was a long CD stealth like 3 sec per 60sec then that is one thing, but when people are stealthing every 9 seconds it really makes for a annoying PVP experience.

It may be challenging to play against, but not very fun. I am not referring it to being OP, I am just saying stealth is not a fun mechanic in itself.

Stealthed players don’t need 0% opacity. Give them something like 15% opacity, so in a 1v1 fight we can just barely see them (I’m talking like just a hint of a body outline/shadow). However, in big team fight with abilities going off nobody is going to see a little Asura thief with 15% opacity, so stealth will work exactly like it does now in team fights.

There are classes that are skewed to dominate 1v1s, but there are still ways of outplaying those classes, yes it will be tough until balancing is figured out. But no amount of balancing will help you if you’re constantly being steamrolled by sheer number or coordinated teams of a higher ability level.

The fact is the problem will not go away until the game begins to offer more even or slightly uneven fights where there are opportunities to win. This will never happen in the current spvp game mode until it stops emphasizing zerging. where there is so much chaos that all anyone is doing is spamming their abilities and negating the core design of the game: Coordination, skill timing, and synergy.

Watch some high level paid tourneys on youtube or something and you’ll see what this game can be when the fights are competitively matched. Sure, 99% of us will not be as good as the 1% of pros, but we’ll be playing at our level and it will be competitive and not the forgone conclusion it is when you see the zerg coming over the hill or the premade in your free tourney.

So my post was trying to say: fix the fundamental game mode problems first and give us a chance in fights to outplay people of our skill level; as opposed to those who have the luxury of a team and voice chat (and are probably better anyway), or those running around in zerg packs.

I have won more 1v1s on my ele against both classes than I have lost. With high burst opponents you just have to know the optimal time to use your defenses.