Guild Wars 2

I started playing PvP (again) with S5, obviously being enticed to do so due to the rewards. The season wasn’t perfect from a technical perspective but I sticked around and finished in silver league. I can only assume that attracting non-PvPers to the game mode was what had been intended.

With S6 I was hoping for an improvement but the downgraded rewards have just made the various flaws so much more apparent:

• sub-par class balance
• class stacking still exists
• duo-queuing is still possible
• map quality varies wildly

From a strictly “fun” point of view PvP is now – again – barely better than WvW. I don’t see myself spending a lot of time on it.

Shwyx.8190:

So, an update after around 40 ranked matches.

I’m ranked ~1200 silver and I’m frequently seeing teams with 2 necros and 2 warriors. Class stacking is a nightmare. Competent duo queuers, esp. double warrior, just crush random teams unless you happen to have excellent support players on board. S6 “meta” seems to be all about stunlocks and conditions, even worse than previous season.

To add insult to injury, I’m seeing the same people repeatedly – at silver rating, mind you, and at EU prime time.

I wanted to finish the ascended backpack but I’m really at a loss. The game mode may be “active” in the sense that people are playing it, but it’s very clearly showing its neglect.

well they scrapped the “completely joke asc armor aquisition from that list of problems” i say give in due time they will get the rest.

This is by far the worst season. It feels like it’s still the off season lol. It’s just uneventful and nothing feels like an achievement. I agree with you entirely.

This casual here disagrees. I will probably play a similar amount of matches this season than the last, if my time allows for it.

I appreciate that the relogging/mid-match character change issue was fixed and the stricter decay system. I believe DuoQ is healthy for the game, expecially for newer and more causual PvPers. And why do you believe class-stacking is a problem? If I see more than one DH on the enemy team, I will not play memser but a class that helps my team to deal with them, like support Ele. Problem solved.

Kir Sakar.3647:

This casual here disagrees. I will probably play a similar amount of matches this season than the last, if my time allows for it.

I appreciate that the relogging/mid-match character change issue was fixed and the stricter decay system. I believe DuoQ is healthy for the game, expecially for newer and more causual PvPers. And why do you believe class-stacking is a problem? If I see more than one DH on the enemy team, I will not play memser but a class that helps my team to deal with them, like support Ele. Problem solved.

I believe DuoQ results in skewed matches, because a somewhat experienced duo will always have an edge over a completely random team. Holding a point or bursting enemies is significantly easier.

Class stacking is a negative because it enables multiples of exceptionally strong characters, but can also deprive teams of synnergies if “weaker” classes appear twice.

Both points are especially important at lower ranks, where people swapping characters is an outlier. In around 20 matches so far this season at ~1250 rating, I’ve experienced one (1) player on my team swapping … myself.

I can only speak from my anecdotical experience, but I usually see 1 duo and 3 solos per team, on both sides. Exceptions to the rule happen, but the matchmaker already tries to distribute duos evenly. So this makes your “advantage” argument moot.

So which one is an “exceptionally strong” class? I cannot think of one. There are classes that are a bit easier to pick up and to play solo in uncoordinated teams (DH, warrior). But even those have their counters.

So an the one hand you do not want DuoQ, which allows the classes that are weaker in pure SoloQ and depend more on team composition (Necro, Ele…). And on the other hand you don’t want the strong solo classes to stack?

This is a contradiction no matchmaker can solve. In the end, the algorithm has to work with the classes that people actually queue with.

• Class balance is actually in a decent spot right now.
• Class stacking restrictions cannot exist until class swapping restrictions exist, and people voted no on that one. Also, players can fix class stacking by swapping characters, failure to do so is not Anet’s fault.
• Duo Queue is the only way to play ranked pvp with friends, and the benefit from duo queuing is not only being over-exaggerated, but is also available to all players. If you feel it is such a huge advantage, then duo queue.

I jump around in Gold division and have been having a great time. Personally, I don’t need to be spoon fed ascended armor for a week of playing to enjoy PvP. I play PvP to see how high I can get on the ladder and to enjoy the matches, win or lose.

missed that yes on no class switching, Can only blame Anet not telling what would be the consequenses.

It’s going to be so freaking easy to get on the NA leaderboard this season lol, due to:

• The population
• Needing to have X amount of games played before the season ends to be on the leaderboard

Kako.1930:

This is by far the worst season. It feels like it’s still the off season lol.

No it’s not. Season 1 was the worst season, and it’s gotten better every season since then.

People just being salty that rating is merit based now.

RedZebra.2345:

missed that yes on no class switching, Can only blame Anet not telling what would be the consequenses.

It was blatantly obvious what that poll was about. The only way to stop class stacking is to prevent class swapping otherwise people could queue up on a class that had quick queue times then swap to stack. IMO Anet should stop asking the player base about changes they are going to implement, just implement them and then ask afterwards if people liked it that way or the previous way. At least the WvW community is willing to try out new things while the PvP community complains that things suck but refuses to let anything change.

Edit: And to keep to the topic, I doubt I am going to play during this season even though I kept a 60% win rate last season. I just find the fact that there is only one mode for PvP boring, certain classes stack to well, other classes are pretty faceroll powerful (not looking at DH btw, that class is easy to counter), and there are also no rewards worth the time.

I can play 2 games in 30 minutes and get meh rewards or I could play fractals and get guaranteed rewards.

Crinn.7864:

Kako.1930:

This is by far the worst season. It feels like it’s still the off season lol.

No it’s not. Season 1 was the worst season, and it’s gotten better every season since then.

People just being salty that rating is merit based now.

Pretty funny when it turns out that you actually can’t do anything you put your mind to, that you’re not special, and that no one cares how hard you work.

I think for a lot of people, this is the first time they’ve really tried at something and actually failed. It’s a breath of glorious, fresh air to the “Everyone Wins!” mentality that plagues modern MMOs.

tl:dr people abused the easy acquire ascended gear last season and, now that anet has nerfed it, people are annoyed and playing less.

Told you guys, balancing around the top 1% absolutely never works. (Yes I’m talking about gutting high skill floor classes like Rev and leave alone (even buff) cancer low AF skill floor ones like Zerker, DH)

Enjoy your dead gamemode

And yeah, the rewards are kittening hilarious bad.

XxsdgxX.8109:

Told you guys, balancing around the top 1% absolutely never works. (Yes I’m talking about gutting high skill floor classes like Rev and leave alone (even buff) cancer low AF skill floor ones like Zerker, DH)

Enjoy your dead gamemode

And yeah, the rewards are kittening hilarious bad.

It’s not dead because of balance, jeez you sound salty af, it’s dead because they changed the reward system, so the new blood we were getting into PVP was basically cut off, since you can no longer get Ascended Gear easily(You need to have a lot of gold and profession crafting up to 500 now). It translates to not worth the time to many people, nor the headache and toxicity. Now before someone says it was the right decision and true PVPers don’t need PVE rewards, That is a closed and selfish mindset to have. True it’s not needed, for exclusive SPVP players but other players that are invested in Spvp might also play other aspects of the game(Fractals/Raids/PVE/WvW). By having that exclusive game mode player mindset, it’s setting the standard, exclusive Spvp players don’t need nice PVE skins aka dungeon skins, LS skins, etc on reward tracks. You reap what you sow, you don’t want PVERs in your matches enjoy long queues and the slightly less one sided match ups.

Meh, a PvP mode where all people care about is using it as an easy way to farm ascended gear is the same thing as a dead game mode. Trust me, anyone who was using season 5 PvP just an ascended farm will not be missed. If PvP fails, it will have nothing to do with the changes in rewards this season, but rather the balance and structure of the game mode itself.

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

Kreweless.2196:

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

i’m in the home of beelzebub, constantly checking the thermostat, hoping it gets low enough.

Shwyx.8190:

• class stacking still exists

You can thank matchmaking itself as one of the greatest culprits of this. If PvP was set so that only one of any given class could occupy any given spot on any given team, class-stacking would never be an issue.

Crinn.7864:

Kako.1930:

This is by far the worst season. It feels like it’s still the off season lol.

No it’s not. Season 1 was the worst season, and it’s gotten better every season since then.

People just being salty that rating is merit based now.

I don’t find that ratings are “merit based.”

Duo queue does not reflect the merit of the individuals, in my opinion.

Every season so far has included things along the lines of “smurfing,”, “leader board sniping,” “pay to afk” and the like. To it’s credit, ANET has tried to remedy this.

I have been castigated by an esl player for my objection to smurfing. That player claimed that the practice was honorable and demonstrated skill.

Merit based? I don’t agree.

For me it’s the utter failure of a balance patch to do anything meaningful that made this season not worth it. I mean it didn’t even shake up the meta mostly it changed a lot of PvE/WvW abilities to what they were in PvP from beginning of season 5.

The rewards nerf is an additional kick to the nads too.

Velimere.7685:

Shwyx.8190:

• class stacking still exists

You can thank matchmaking itself as one of the greatest culprits of this. If PvP was set so that only one of any given class could occupy any given spot on any given team, class-stacking would never be an issue.

And then the players would log into other classes because they can. The player base voted to allow class stacking, so that’s what they will get.

Azoqu.8917:

Velimere.7685:

Shwyx.8190:

• class stacking still exists

You can thank matchmaking itself as one of the greatest culprits of this. If PvP was set so that only one of any given class could occupy any given spot on any given team, class-stacking would never be an issue.

And then the players would log into other classes because they can. The player base voted to allow class stacking, so that’s what they will get.

No, they voted to be able to still change class at the start of a match incase they ended up with a silly composition to a good one. ANet never said they would eliminate class stacking if they locked your class when you hit the queue button only that the matchmaker would try not to.

Considering to a matchmaker mesmer, necro, engy, revenant and thief would be a non stacked comp that faces say necro, ele, guard, war and thief another non stacked comp we would all lose from this kind of frustrating matchmaking. It’s very clear the second team would have to play pretty bad to lose that fight and it wouldn’t even be close on similar skill levels of all players by virtue of the first team getting royally shafted by comp.

Lucentfir.7430:

XxsdgxX.8109:

Told you guys, balancing around the top 1% absolutely never works. (Yes I’m talking about gutting high skill floor classes like Rev and leave alone (even buff) cancer low AF skill floor ones like Zerker, DH)

Enjoy your dead gamemode

And yeah, the rewards are kittening hilarious bad.

It’s not dead because of balance, jeez you sound salty af, it’s dead because they changed the reward system, so the new blood we were getting into PVP was basically cut off, since you can no longer get Ascended Gear easily(You need to have a lot of gold and profession crafting up to 500 now). It translates to not worth the time to many people, nor the headache and toxicity. Now before someone says it was the right decision and true PVPers don’t need PVE rewards, That is a closed and selfish mindset to have. True it’s not needed, for exclusive SPVP players but other players that are invested in Spvp might also play other aspects of the game(Fractals/Raids/PVE/WvW). By having that exclusive game mode player mindset, it’s setting the standard, exclusive Spvp players don’t need nice PVE skins aka dungeon skins, LS skins, etc on reward tracks. You reap what you sow, you don’t want PVERs in your matches enjoy long queues and the slightly less one sided match ups.

Oh so its all about artificial attention to a gamemode (rewards) instead of actual genuine interest and fun. Good job dude.

Azoqu.8917:

Velimere.7685:

Shwyx.8190:

• class stacking still exists

You can thank matchmaking itself as one of the greatest culprits of this. If PvP was set so that only one of any given class could occupy any given spot on any given team, class-stacking would never be an issue.

And then the players would log into other classes because they can.

Please actually read my message which you replied to.

XxsdgxX.8109:

Lucentfir.7430:

XxsdgxX.8109:

Told you guys, balancing around the top 1% absolutely never works. (Yes I’m talking about gutting high skill floor classes like Rev and leave alone (even buff) cancer low AF skill floor ones like Zerker, DH)

Enjoy your dead gamemode

And yeah, the rewards are kittening hilarious bad.

It’s not dead because of balance, jeez you sound salty af, it’s dead because they changed the reward system, so the new blood we were getting into PVP was basically cut off, since you can no longer get Ascended Gear easily(You need to have a lot of gold and profession crafting up to 500 now). It translates to not worth the time to many people, nor the headache and toxicity. Now before someone says it was the right decision and true PVPers don’t need PVE rewards, That is a closed and selfish mindset to have. True it’s not needed, for exclusive SPVP players but other players that are invested in Spvp might also play other aspects of the game(Fractals/Raids/PVE/WvW). By having that exclusive game mode player mindset, it’s setting the standard, exclusive Spvp players don’t need nice PVE skins aka dungeon skins, LS skins, etc on reward tracks. You reap what you sow, you don’t want PVERs in your matches enjoy long queues and the slightly less one sided match ups.

Oh so its all about artificial attention to a gamemode (rewards) instead of actual genuine interest and fun. Good job dude.

If you’re wondering why the game mode is dead compared to S5 yes. The people who’ve genuinely enjoyed spvp for a long time, that player pool has always been small(smaller now), hence why we have what we have now, it’s just reverted to the pool of main spvpers, (not to mention pvp is sorta content droughted). Not to say the players that farmed the game mode only for ascended armor (Throwing matches semi afk)weren’t exactly good for the gamemode, but do you really believe every single person that joined because of the rewards initially on S5 didn’t become genuinely interested in Spvp after a bunch of games? Conquest isn’t perceived as a fun game mode at first glance, since the general base of the game mode is to capture and hold objectives nodes, though play it long enough and it starts to grow on you and you start to find enjoyment out of it

The rewards acted more of a push into the water for new players. The people that despised the water(game mode) got out of the water asap(after they got what they came for) while others didn’t think it was so bad and stayed in and they were getting a fun experience and benefiting from it. Though i guess keep thinking balance is the sole cause of S6 queue times being the way they are.

Kreweless.2196:

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

But then duo queue would be OP because full teams would have a huge advantage.

/sarcasm

Xillllix.3485:

Kreweless.2196:

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

But then duo queue would be OP because full teams would have a huge advantage.

/sarcasm

Haha that’ll be the day in 2019 when the forums are alight with these kittenholes QQing that it should only be SoloQ in 2v2 Arena, because that’s the only way to ensure it’s fair.

And you know what? ArenaNet would probably listen.

So, an update after around 40 ranked matches.

I’m ranked ~1200 silver and I’m frequently seeing teams with 2 necros and 2 warriors. Class stacking is a nightmare. Competent duo queuers, esp. double warrior, just crush random teams unless you happen to have excellent support players on board. S6 “meta” seems to be all about stunlocks and conditions, even worse than previous season.

To add insult to injury, I’m seeing the same people repeatedly – at silver rating, mind you, and at EU prime time.

I wanted to finish the ascended backpack but I’m really at a loss. The game mode may be “active” in the sense that people are playing it, but it’s very clearly showing its neglect.

Seems to have gone down hill to me. I’ve only played 15 matches, but 5 of them so far have had someone quit early either on my team or the opponents. I define early as before 250 pts. Seems to be a large skill gap on the teams. Some people are very strong and others are just garbage in comparison which is probably contributing to it.

Yeah, so far this has been absolutely kittening horrendous. When I hop on necro, I get easy wins. Mesmer gets 15 loss streaks. I really liked the pvp in this game but this season is such utter trash I’ve pretty much stopped playing the game altogether. Clearly, anet does not give a kitten about this aspect of the game. The rewards aren’t even worth the time when 90% of the matches are such utter trash.

Faux Play.6104:

Seems to have gone down hill to me. I’ve only played 15 matches, but 5 of them so far have had someone quit early either on my team or the opponents. I define early as before 250 pts. Seems to be a large skill gap on the teams. Some people are very strong and others are just garbage in comparison which is probably contributing to it.

I’ve played 40~ matches so far and gotten only a few even matches out of the bunch. Had three in a row with a duo queue who 2-capped home and then sat there for the rest of the match and 95% of the matches has 1-2 people who love fighting on roads or 3-man chasing a single enemy away from a base. The placement matches were actually good and almost all of them were even (except the 3 with that aforementioned duo-q), even had a few 500-490~s, but since then its just one-sided trash almost every single match.

Yes, I’m done with Season 6, no thanks. There’s fewer players and match quality is evidently lower. I managed to achieve position #184 playing exclusively base necromancer last season and it was fun, but this season is just disappointing. Good luck to those who still play casually or try to reach top 250, you’ll have one more free spot.

The problem is that from a psychology point of view. ANET gave super easy rewards in Season 5 to encourage PVE players into PVP. Then this season they went overboard with the amount of grind necessary to get the gear. Since PVE players by definition can get ascended gear by other means it is now easier and most likely more fun for PVE players to get their ascended gear in their preferred game mode.

The ascended gear from PVP is in no way an enticement for those players anymore,

Yes pvp players will play but that’s not the point. PVP has a population issue. The S6 rewards do nothing to bring players who may not really care for the game mode.

I like pvp but as I said before if I don’t enjoy the season (for whatever reason) there is no additional incentive to keep playing. May as well be in WvW with its super slow rewards.

Sounds like PvP is going to suffer until people get good rewards, and are rated based on their personal fighting skill in a balanced scene.

Who woulda thought?

Season six is better if even just because of the better decay system and the banning they did at the end of season six appears to have cleaned up a lot of the shennanigans. In North America there was so much fishy nonsense going on in season 5 the leaderboard looks much better so far. Most of the bot accounts are gone plenty of regular joe type players in the top 250 not someones third alt account.

In other words, s6 is s5 without the bugs.

Saiyan.1704:

In other words, s6 is s5 without the bugs.

Pretty much.

Crinn.7864:

Saiyan.1704:

In other words, s6 is s5 without the bugs.

Pretty much.

& poo rewards

Shwyx.8190:

So, an update after around 40 ranked matches.

I’m ranked ~1200 silver and I’m frequently seeing teams with 2 necros and 2 warriors. Class stacking is a nightmare. Competent duo queuers, esp. double warrior, just crush random teams unless you happen to have excellent support players on board. S6 “meta” seems to be all about stunlocks and conditions, even worse than previous season.

To add insult to injury, I’m seeing the same people repeatedly – at silver rating, mind you, and at EU prime time.

I wanted to finish the ascended backpack but I’m really at a loss. The game mode may be “active” in the sense that people are playing it, but it’s very clearly showing its neglect.

really? i play power necro and thats my only class,never swap.failed in my placements and got into mid bronze.however since then i win most of my games and got to gold in day and a half.i dont feel any problems vs duo queue teams or class stacking.it really feel like if you are decent player you can dominate at 1200 rating.but then again i also see lots of ex plat players in my games that lose and then complain about random stuff….make me start to think there must be something wrong with s5 rating system if they really use to be plat+ and play at this level now.
as for how rewarding season is i preffer to have people in my team that are there because they wanna get better and get rating and enjoy the competitive environment of the game then some guy who is there for only 1 reason to get some random reward that he will use in PVE.if you ask me remove all of rewards midseason and give way better rewards for top 250.and if you dont like it that much well its a game not a job just dont play it go do something else that is fun,i am sure there still will be prenty of players left to queue.
btw queue times are really good never waited more then 5-10 sec.and there is new people in my games all the time.i dont think population is low or season is dead at all.atleast not at gold rating.

Spartacus.3192:

The problem is that from a psychology point of view. ANET gave super easy rewards in Season 5 to encourage PVE players into PVP. Then this season they went overboard with the amount of grind necessary to get the gear. Since PVE players by definition can get ascended gear by other means it is now easier and most likely more fun for PVE players to get their ascended gear in their preferred game mode.

The ascended gear from PVP is in no way an enticement for those players anymore,

Yes pvp players will play but that’s not the point. PVP has a population issue. The S6 rewards do nothing to bring players who may not really care for the game mode.

I like pvp but as I said before if I don’t enjoy the season (for whatever reason) there is no additional incentive to keep playing. May as well be in WvW with its super slow rewards.

Which begs the question as to why PvP has a population issue.

It all comes down to gameplay and general balance. Yes, the meta might be balanced, but a strict majority of players aren’t going to prefer playing the meta.

Most people would just rather not play than play something they don’t enjoy playing.

Build diversity is what defines format success. I mean look at WvW. Most of the HoT problems are fixed, and yet it’s dying faster and faster, because patch by patch the diversity gets even more restricted, which before HoT, it had the most represented build diversity of all formats, despite a few OP’s.

Bottom line is that for many, particularly competitive players, the game is just no longer fun. This has been expressed repeatedly by the pro players, too. Everything is too strict and not open for much experimentation, and most of what’s good just breaks the “is-fun” aspects of combat like passives, CC deflection, and build denial.

DeceiverX.8361:

Spartacus.3192:

The problem is that from a psychology point of view. ANET gave super easy rewards in Season 5 to encourage PVE players into PVP. Then this season they went overboard with the amount of grind necessary to get the gear. Since PVE players by definition can get ascended gear by other means it is now easier and most likely more fun for PVE players to get their ascended gear in their preferred game mode.

May as well be in WvW with its super slow rewards.

Which begs the question as to why PvP has a population issue.

It all comes down to gameplay and general balance. Yes, the meta might be balanced, but a strict majority of players aren’t going to prefer playing the meta.

Most people would just rather not play than play something they don’t enjoy playing.

~snipped for brevity~

Both of these ideas are headed in the right direction. Lack of rewards means fewer PvE players. The narrowing of the builds is a factor in reducing the fun.

Teammates, (on other classes,) tell me that I got my rotation “wrong.” Obviously, as a Mesmer I "should " have done x,y and then z.

Playing a core build Mesmer this season is surprising some folks. I’m currently @ exactly 50% win/loss. At least it feels more like a Mesmer.

Unfortunately, ANET seems to be driving toward single builds, at least in PvP, for each class.

I would be astounded if any video game can make a game without an optimal choice.

Fluffball.8307:

I would be astounded if any video game can make a game without an optimal choice.

It’s not about a lack of optima but rather the magnitude of how viable a non-optimal build is.

For example, you look at the WvW scene from pre-HoT, and in small-scale play, any build could be made useful if it jived with the team. Small groups ran plentiful mixtures of different builds and specs to fit into their styles, and fair-numbers fights in this respect were pretty much always balanced. Even blob tactics weren’t as strict; a good thief or periph group could carry a GvG. Most players could find success in sPvP with whatever build they ran, aside from the very top tier (and even then this had some pretty big occasional outliers). Now it’s just not the case.

It’s the difference between a game with an S/A/B/C/D-tiers for picks and a game with an S-tier followed by a C-tier, because nothing fits in the realm of A/B to be competitive with what’s in S.

The fact I can equip a meta build that I’ve got very little experience on and immediately see obvious, huge performance boosts over builds I’ve tuned to the absolute maximum and have spent thousands of hours playing on is only indicative of a massive disparity between the optima and “the rest.”

Because ultimately that’s what makes for a successful PvP game; “the rest” should largely be good enough.

DeceiverX.8361:

Fluffball.8307:

I would be astounded if any video game can make a game without an optimal choice.

It’s not about a lack of optima but rather the magnitude of how viable a non-optimal build is.

For example, you look at the WvW scene from pre-HoT, and in small-scale play, any build could be made useful if it jived with the team. Small groups ran plentiful mixtures of different builds and specs to fit into their styles, and fair-numbers fights in this respect were pretty much always balanced. Even blob tactics weren’t as strict; a good thief or periph group could carry a GvG. Most players could find success in sPvP with whatever build they ran, aside from the very top tier (and even then this had some pretty big occasional outliers). Now it’s just not the case.

It’s the difference between a game with an S/A/B/C/D-tiers for picks and a game with an S-tier followed by a C-tier, because nothing fits in the realm of A/B to be competitive with what’s in S.

The fact I can equip a meta build that I’ve got very little experience on and immediately see obvious, huge performance boosts over builds I’ve tuned to the absolute maximum and have spent thousands of hours playing on is only indicative of a massive disparity between the optima and “the rest.”

Because ultimately that’s what makes for a successful PvP game; “the rest” should largely be good enough.

DeceiverX.8361:

Fluffball.8307:

I would be astounded if any video game can make a game without an optimal choice.

It’s not about a lack of optima but rather the magnitude of how viable a non-optimal build is.

For example, you look at the WvW scene from pre-HoT, and in small-scale play, any build could be made useful if it jived with the team. Small groups ran plentiful mixtures of different builds and specs to fit into their styles, and fair-numbers fights in this respect were pretty much always balanced. Even blob tactics weren’t as strict; a good thief or periph group could carry a GvG. Most players could find success in sPvP with whatever build they ran, aside from the very top tier (and even then this had some pretty big occasional outliers). Now it’s just not the case.

It’s the difference between a game with an S/A/B/C/D-tiers for picks and a game with an S-tier followed by a C-tier, because nothing fits in the realm of A/B to be competitive with what’s in S.

The fact I can equip a meta build that I’ve got very little experience on and immediately see obvious, huge performance boosts over builds I’ve tuned to the absolute maximum and have spent thousands of hours playing on is only indicative of a massive disparity between the optima and “the rest.”

Because ultimately that’s what makes for a successful PvP game; “the rest” should largely be good enough.

This is spot on.

with season 6 losing hype. crappier same rewards, even fewer players… PVP is basicly in maintenance mode where Anet found its happy place to just ignore it and let it run on its own.