Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m an ex-WoW (Frost Death Knight PvP) and ex-Rifter (Markman Rogue PvP). Though I love battlegrounds and warfronts dearly, I no longer have time for the gear grind to stay competitive in those games. I remember from the couple weeks I played GW2 (December 2012) that PvP has no gear requirement, as everyone has the same advantage. This sounds perfect to me right now. Hell, I’ve always wanted an MMO PvP that was based purely on skill and ones knowledge of the arena and class.

My questions are as follows:
- Are queues long for quick random sPvP matches?
- Are there a lot of people who still PvP?
- Are there guilds who solely PvP in North America?
- Hypothetically, If I never PvE (outside of getting some weapons), can I participate in WvW and get my gear/stats bolstered to be on the same playing ground?

Is there anything else I should know?

Thank you!

Arthur.1963:

Thank you all for the responses! That is quite sad to hear that sPvP isn’t alive and kicking. I’ll checkout the L.F.T. forum to get a glimpse of what’s going on.

Do not listen to people who say spvp is “dying”; people have been saying that since soon after the game launched.

You can 1) join a game on demand 24/7 with no wait time in gw2 (hotjoin), 2) join solo queue tournament (you get a personal ranking score) wait times range from one to several minutes depending on time of day (remember the game is trying to match you against similarly ranked players), or 3) get a team together and join a team tournament (the most skilled level of play, get a ranking) which again can take a few minutes to pop.

If you are waiting for a team or solo tournament to pop you can hop into hotjoin (which is fun) so there is no downtime.

There are pvp guilds, or you can just easily start your own pvp guild and invite people you like. One person can be in several guilds, so you can just have a spvp guild as a way to keep in touch and link up with other players interested in spvp.

I played both the games you came from and have played both those classes. I loved the bgs/wfs in those games. GW2 spvp is also great, but it is so much easier to play and to test your skill because of the lack of gear requirements and ability to freely swap to any class. You will most likely love it, especially if you lack time to grind gear.

1. Quick/Random (HOtjoin) Matches you can join instantly. No queues. tPvP queues can be longer. Team Queue is typically longer than Solo Queue.
2. There are enough, but not ‘a lot’.
3. A few.
4. When you enter WvW, you are scaled up to level 80. Your gear is still no where near as good as a full 80’s, so you’ll be at a significant disadvantage.

sPvP is pretty unprofitable atm, grindy, and kind of dying. Still enjoyable to play casually, though.

Hotjoins have no queues. Ranked solo matches usually have ~5 minute queue (less during NA peak hours)
There’s a fair number who still play, but it’s not a very massive scene.
Yes there are guild who specifically play team queue + tournament PvP, check the “Looking for a Team” forums.

Arthur.1963:

- Are queues long for quick random sPvP matches?

There are two types of PvP: Hotjoin and queue. Hotjoin is instant, yet of lower quality. Queues can take between 2-5minutes.

- Are there a lot of people who still PvP?

Yes.

- Are there guilds who solely PvP in North America?

Not many that I know of, but I think there are a few. There are quite a few WvW guilds, however.

- Hypothetically, If I never PvE (outside of getting some weapons), can I participate in WvW and get my gear/stats bolstered to be on the same playing ground?

It will take some time; at least two weeks of about an hour a day in WvW to gear up to the max. Leveling to 80 will take 2-4. To get ascended, it takes about two weeks of daily PvE, which is about a 6-8% increase.
edit: in WvW, “up-levels” are at about a 30-40% stat disadvantage. Skill matters enough, however, for one to still be somewhat viable. I highly recommend grouping until you are level 80.

Is there anything else I should know?

There shouldn’t be any gear grind in the future for WvW. Ascended is promised to be the last tier.
And of course…
Welcome to GW2!

Thank you all for the responses! That is quite sad to hear that sPvP isn’t alive and kicking. I’ll checkout the L.F.T. forum to get a glimpse of what’s going on.

Yes and no depends on time of day. Fill it in with hotjoin.
- EU is better than NA for players it seems.
- Yup but they arr small and getting smaller. Since you are interested in WvW look for a WvW guild that dabbles in Spvp and youll be fine.
- You can gear up via WvW but its not instant like PvP. You get scaled up to make it easier but there will still be a difference thats felt when you operate as an individual. Run with a herd and its negligible.

Other info?
Persevere when kitten gets hard. Class balance in about two weeks.
Spvp is sort of restructuring itself.
Oh and once you get in stay away from the forums unless you are quitting. Place is pessimistic and slighly toxic but we all love a good “I quit” story if you’ve got one.

ensoriki.5789:

Yes and no depends on time of day. Fill it in with hotjoin.
- EU is better than NA for players it seems.
- Yup but they arr small and getting smaller. Since you are interested in WvW look for a WvW guild that dabbles in Spvp and youll be fine.
- You can gear up via WvW but its not instant like PvP. You get scales up to make it easier but there will still be a difference thats felt when you operate as an individual. Run with a herd and its negligible.

Other info?
Persevere when kitten gets hard. Class balance in about two weeks.
Spvp is sort of restructuring itself.
Oh and once you get in stay away from the forums unless you are quitting. Place is pessimistic and slighly toxic but we all love a good “I quit” story if you’ve got one.

I’m not exactly interested in WvW, but I figured I’d give it a try as it has a PvP aspect to it!

I’m glad to hear there’s some game balancing happening in PvP. I just came from Rift, PvP seems to be an afterthought at this point.

Arthur.1963:

ensoriki.5789:

Yes and no depends on time of day. Fill it in with hotjoin.
- EU is better than NA for players it seems.
- Yup but they arr small and getting smaller. Since you are interested in WvW look for a WvW guild that dabbles in Spvp and youll be fine.
- You can gear up via WvW but its not instant like PvP. You get scales up to make it easier but there will still be a difference thats felt when you operate as an individual. Run with a herd and its negligible.

Other info?
Persevere when kitten gets hard. Class balance in about two weeks.
Spvp is sort of restructuring itself.
Oh and once you get in stay away from the forums unless you are quitting. Place is pessimistic and slighly toxic but we all love a good “I quit” story if you’ve got one.

I’m not exactly interested in WvW, but I figured I’d give it a try as it has a PvP aspect to it!

I’m glad to hear there’s some game balancing happening in PvP. I just came from Rift, PvP seems to be an afterthought at this point.

WvW these days is much more often zergs playing PvDoor rather than PvP unfortunately. You can give it a try if you like, but I personally find it boring.

WvW is large scale conquest any attitude/ play you find here you will find there on a larger scale. Up to you if you like it brah.

ensoriki.5789:

WvW is large scale conquest any attitude/ play you find here you will find there on a larger scale. Up to you if you like it brah.

Meh, well I despise Conquest in Rift, which is one of the reasons I decided to leave Rift. In Rift, you have to participate in conquest to get high-end PvP gear, and I don’t want to have to work on a game in my free time.

I think I’ll just avoid it and straight-up PvP, like I did in GW1. Man I miss RA and TA – that’s what got me on the PvP kick to begin with!

Hi dude ! If u want PvP, delete GW2 and go back wow, or rift.

I’m sorry to tell it that ! But GW2 is the WORST PvP GAME EVER CREATED !

This game is only casual PvE ! I advice you to wait others MMO.

PvP is definitely fun and yes – no gear grind, I think solo queue is good for a decent game.

Don’t spend all your time in “HotJoin” though (the quick “non competitive” queue), you get this kind of people in it:

Hi dude ! If u want PvP, delete GW2 and go back wow, or rift.

I’m sorry to tell it that ! But GW2 is the WORST PvP GAME EVER CREATED !

This game is only casual PvE ! I advice you to wait others MMO.

I really don’t understand you guys, when you hate gw2 so much, why you are still here every day, and still playing, and posting here? Either you are just pathetic, you it’s a kind of love – hate relation.

Either stop your gw2 hate, or leave us alone! We are having fun playing, and appreciate gw2, and we can definitely recommend everyone to try out gw2 spvp!

• Are queues long for quick random sPvP matches?
  One unrated queuing system called ‘hot-join’: you can jump in when ever you want, and leave whenever you want. Two formats: 5vs5 or 8vs8.
  Custom Arenas: Similar to ‘hot-join’, but with more customize able options like changing the numbers of players to 10vs10 or 1vs1, sometimes with a password.
  Ranked SoloQ: Join alone, but still play 5vs5, everyone has to join alone.
  Ranked TeamQ: 5vs5, (but you can join with less than 5 people, and will get people assigned who are also not joining as a full group, but I’d not recommend it, since you’ll mostly have to play against a full group of 5 people.)
  The rankedQ Times both SoloQ and TeamQ may vary depending on the current time and your ranking. I have never waited for more than 10 minutes, mostly between instant invites and 5 minutes.

• Are there a lot of people who still PvP?
  Yes! More people are playing hot-join than tpvp, and more are playing soloQ than teamQ. Some of the top-tpvp team have gone away, this is unfortunately, but that does not really matter for us mid-ranked players.

• Are there guilds who solely PvP in North America?
  I’m playing on EU, sorry can’t name you one.

• Hypothetically, If I never PvE (outside of getting some weapons), can I participate in WvW and get my gear/stats bolstered to be on the same playing ground?
  Yes! Still’d not recommend it. Until you are level 80 and average equipped, you might die very often, and not have enough fun.
  There are some parts in WvW like the karma trains, where you can level up your character to 80 very fast, but that will most likely not be the case mostly.
  The highest item tiers in gw2 are exotic and ascended. Exotics are very easy to obtain, and there is practically not a high difference between them and ascended. Ascended weapons f.e. are easier to obtain via crafting, but you can still hope for a drop in WvW.

• Is there anything else I should know?
  You can play spvp as the same level and with the same stats as everybody, but in WvW/PvE you have to level up your character. They share their level and equipment there.
  GW2 does not have a monthly fee. I’d recommend to try out every part of the game, and if it does not met your standards come back later, and try it out again.
  Don’t let yourself get scared away, gw2 has a lot of whiners on the spvp forum.

Wow, you left 6 month ago. So you don’t have any clue, how the game looks like now, AND you have nothing better to do that to come to the forum of a game, you don’t like, and want to press everyone your own opinion on the eye… congratulations!

You know what? There are different opinions out there! There are people who can actually have fun in gw2. Maybe let the new players experience the game on there own, and come to a conclusion whether they like the game or not. On the free trial weekends, they don’t even have to pay a cent for that!

You are not helping anyone with your posts, so please stop them!

Actually Chrom is right.. nothing new.. except a new npc that trades old tickets for a long gone gamemode.

Oh and we might get some new gamemodes on regurgitated maps using regurgitated systems..

(I have been waiting to use that word.. regurgitate for a while now in refference to gw2, was saving it for the next big upset in spvp.. but might aswell use it now.. Rrrrrrregurgitate..)

You guys know, that the most popular game titles all have practically only one game mod? (f.e. counter strike: deathmatch with a bomb, lol and dota the 5vs5 map with 3 lanes).
Ofc all the titels have different game modes for diversity, but they are all very little played.

GW2 is a big difference there, every map is not only different aesthetic wise. but also with a different secondary mechanic. F.e. When you take ‘Twink Peaks’ and ‘Warsong Gulch’ they are basically the same, but ‘Battle of Kyhlo’ and ‘Spirit Watch’ are different to play on, and a require a completely different tactic.

Well, What news since 6 months teutos please ?

(Nothing fun)

When did they introduce the soloq? I think that was not 6 month ago.

lol, soloq, lol

Teutos.8620:

When did they introduce the soloq? I think that was not 6 month ago.

he is right they did implement a box with names and numbers!

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Actually Chrom is right.. nothing new.. except a new npc that trades old tickets for a long gone gamemode.

Oh and we might get some new gamemodes on regurgitated maps using regurgitated systems..

Well, since Chrom is right and that GW2 is the worst “pVP gamz evar creATe”, you will both be delighted to know they’ve just released a new patch for WoW – hopefully associated with a new set of shiny PvP gear.
Don’t forget to send us a postcard!

Lol soloq lol !

SO FAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, for make a soloq in game, you need more than 1 years when you have a ton of developer in your company !

You know, If my son have the choice in futur, to be a thief, or to be a developer in anet. I think that devs on anet will be the better choice, because he will steal in total legally ton of people who just seek fun !

Flamfloz.6732:

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Actually Chrom is right.. nothing new.. except a new npc that trades old tickets for a long gone gamemode.

Oh and we might get some new gamemodes on regurgitated maps using regurgitated systems..

Well, since Chrom is right and that GW2 is the worst “pVP gamz evar creATe”, you will both be delighted to know they’ve just released a new patch for WoW – hopefully associated with a new set of shiny PvP gear.
Don’t forget to send us a postcard!

ARF, blizzard, a company who devs work ! Hush hush, anet don’t have to know that ! That can give them some ideas !

(~“) ~(oo)~ o(”. )

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

(~“) ~(oo)~ o(”. )

=D
Beautiful house.

Rift hasn’t added much to its warfronts over the years either. Has WoW added anything new bg wise (I haven’t played wow for a while)?

One of the things I like about Rift and WoW spvp is the different game modes; the GW2 devs refused to budge on extra modes for a long time for what appears to be some kind of ideological viewpoint. Luckily they have finally caved in and GW2 will also be seeing some new modes down the track, which will bring that aspect of spvp up to par with other games.

The conquest mode with the various maps is really well done though- if the new modes are of the same quality its going to be something magic.

Yasha.5963:

The conquest mode with the various maps is really well done though- if the new modes are of the same quality its going to be something magic.

+1, but since how many time we cry for a new mode ?

6 month, easy !

How many time we will have to wait for new mode ?

6 month, EASY !

Jesus, Chromosome, thanks for hijacking my thread and adding nothing useful to it. For the rest of you – thank you for your private messages and public replies. I will be giving this game another chance!

I just said what I think ^^ Pvp in this game suck (for me).

Well, I dont know if I can write it in english but

Arthur, Have a good bored on GW2 !

I spent a solid chunk of time this weekend PvP’ing with ever class and some recommended builds that I found on intothemists.com. I freakin’ fell in love with the warrior. I’ve never loved Pure melee classes, but my god, it was so much fun ROFLstomping

I have quite a bit to learn with the mechanics, but I am enjoying it thus far. Thanks again to everyone who commented here – much obliged!