Guild Wars 2

There is alot of discussion regarding overpowered classes. In the vast majority of matches the loss comes down to teamwork (or inexperience), not overpowered classes. Everyone knows that balance is impossible, I purposely avoid playing “flavor of the month builds”, or even researching what builds people post, choosing to try different things myself. Oddly I don’t find the same problems many others do in beating such overpowered classes. Maybe because I am slightly naive, but I have thousands of games under my belt.

If you are working well with a team there is NO build that can overcome superior strategy except in a narrow set of circumstances. It’s the ebb and flow of the match, the quick thinking on the fly and ability to execute. It’s the reason I started the Solo Arena with 50 MORE losses than wins at one point and then I realized (outside of the horrible string of 4 man teams I got), that the best thing I could do was take charge, bark orders and try and coordinate the team. I found that too often five players would stand around and just go without any coordination. I was able to get down the difference between my losses to wins to single digits (now since crept up slightly) simply based on a willingness to communicate and encourage others to do the same during the match.

I have a winning record in TA with limited play, the biggest difference to me is the communication. If you communicate in SPVP your chances of success increase greatly. If anything I would love to see them develop some sort of communication improvements, as it stands we only rely on pinging the map and targetting enemies. Maybe we could have players click a drop down menu that states what they are doing (“bunking” etc.) and which location they are at (“far”, “mid”)or headed to in a quick fashion. As it stands we currently type this quickly in chat instead of there being a quick glance option to view it all simultaneously.

I know there is the map and team information and locations that is ongoing that one needs to pay attention to, but if I were going to do anything to spvp to improve “balance” this would be my choice. Obviously many in TA use voice comm, but for solo and even hotjoin (for those who try to win), such improvements might focus the attention on what is important for success outside of the latest popular build.

If anyone disagrees with me I draw this example: would anyone suggest that say, the winning team of any major tournament that Aanet runs; running NO warrior and engineer decap would lose to another average or even above average team that ran only those top “overpowered” classes and/or builds? I would place my money on the coordinated, tournament winning team everytime.

Thank you for your time. Criticism and opinions welcome

For the most part you’re definitely right, but op builds mean the difference in two teams with similar comms/strategy and most teams are the same on that front as there’s only one game mode. For your end example, I’d say take 10 players of similar skill level, give one eles, dps guard etc. and the other hambow, decap engi etc.. want to take bets on which one wins?

Saying that your point on making progress up solo que via good comms is sound – but comms only works if people willing to pay attention / engage.

Thanks for the response sendmark.

I agree with you in regards to people willing to engage, I find that if you do it in a “non-authoritative” manner, it helps. I ask others their thoughts during the countdown to the match (for those who are there) and reiterate simple instructions such as “mid and home only plz” or, “dont overextend”, “who is on such and such”. Sometimes it can be frustrating but all you can do is try. Also, it’s important to accept others input and bring weight to it, accepting good ideas and orders during the match.

Ultimately, I think some communication upgrades would help, especially as people become more competitive and driven to move their way up the ladder. Some simple improvements without them being cumbersome go a long way.

Useless wall of text.
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Thank you for the feedback, you’re too kind!

@OP: You never want to say OP classes. There are no OP classes. There are just OP specs within each class.