Hello everybody, I have to warn you this is going to be a long text, since there are many things I’d like to talk about, and probably have thought to do it for quite some time. Also a fair warning, English is probably my third language that I’ve learnt, so there might be some mistakes.
For you to better understand my viewpoint, I will introduce myself. I have been playing gw2 since the first beta event, it was my very anticipated game because of the pvp mechanics. I like the idea of gear equality, skill based pvp where you have to dodge/block/avoid incoming attacks and not depending on numbers (for example block 25% chance) and no healers to fix your mistakes for you. My previous games were L2 (till c5) and WoW (till wotlk) where my pure focus was on pvp, also for about 10 years I have played cs. So as you can guess I like playing against other people and not computer controlled characters.
Now to go into the main part of this topic. The comparison between gw2 PvP and PvE content and updates. As you may already know yourself: these parts are not equally developed.
So to begin with the most equal part of both fields: the gear looks – as far as I know, you can have every PvE gear look available at PvP (maybe not so easily obtained, but still it is possible to have).
Now about the less equal part, where you play the game – Maps. I think it would be unfair to compare all the PvE maps from lvl 1 to PvP maps available. So I’d rather compare the closest thing to pvp maps mechanics vise – instances or dungeons. If google is correct – gw2 has 8 instances with multiple paths and two modes, story and explorable. I personally went to only one of the instances, so there may be a mistake. But lets assume this is true, so you get 8 maps * 2 modes = 16 (not counting the different paths, since its not really important). Now I know that pvp has 3 maps used in tpvp and 1 that we don’t really want to talk about. Also 1 mode only 4×1=4. So at the playable places variety PvE is leading 4 times at least.
But we may think that these inequalities are being addressed via updates. From the top of my head I have noticed 2 events that added new content: Halloween and the current Shore one.
So first about Halloween event additions. For PvE:
- New quest chain
- New gear
- New usable items (food, recipes)
- Jumping puzzle
- Most of the pve maps had doors added into another plain, so also 1 more map
- Various hide and seek type modes in that new plain
- Costumes and fights with them (no it does not count as pvp content)
- One new instance
For PvP:
- Green fog in the mists
- New skins on few npcs at pvp map (Svanir, Lord, gate archer guard)
- Did not think of the 3rd one, but will try to remember later and add it here <-
Shore event, since it is currently still not fully released (i think – don’t really track these events) I will talk about things that were implemented till now. PvE:
- New gear
- New map
- New instance with many maps inside (the ones that I went was: swamp, water level, sieges with chars, ice lvl, climbing to free a giant, and some cave if i recall correctly). So at least 6 new dungeons.
PvP:
- One new map
- 10 man spvp servers were created (not really a content, but still an addition)
So basically in my opinion pvp lacks more places to play (maps) and more modes to not make it stale.
There is an argument, that ANet is not developing other modes because they will not be as balanced as conquest, since they only balance it in perspective of this mode. Maybe, maybe… But I would rather have duels, 2×2, 3×3 ranked matchups, ctf, even dm and object based missions (one team defending, other attacking as fast as possible then switch like in UT) with the balance issues, but have modes to choose from instead of 1 thing to do as a pvper. I have played many unbalanced pvp for example: during wow wotlk DK were probably the most unbalanced class in entire game with high survivability, magic shield block, healing, snares, silances, also the healers were almost unkillable 1×1 for most classes, But I still had fun dueling/playing against in arena with them and creating strategies how to win. Same could be told about L2 duels. So fighting against an opponent that is controlling a slightly overpowered class is still fun, besides the current gw2 balance issues are no where near other mmorpgs, but it may be more noticeable, since there are no healers to buffer this out.
So to conclude: Gw2 needs to pay a LOT more (!!!) attention towards pvp content, since currently it is just a one sided development that can cause very big problems in the future of pvp.
Or am I mistaken, that PvP content is currently very lacking, without even the basic things you expect in mmorpg?
(edited by Lukin.4061)