Guild Wars 2

What happened to all the high tier solo players, twitch streamers, Academy Gaming teams etc?? I normally got queued with people from Apex, or Radioactive, Team PZ, occasionally people from the Abjured and just other players of that caliber. Did they all just quit because anet can’t get their pvp act together? Seems all that’s left are the ESL teams who just do private scrimmages.

You’ll find the answer in many “unranked sux” topics

Can’t speak for others. But after getting to legendary rank the hard way in ranked and going against the players in that tier for a few weeks. Getting sent back to unranked is…almost painful. I have done probably less than a dozen matches sense the league ended due to it just not being engaging. And I don’t even have the benefit of working towards something to make it worth it.

The average quality of the match in unranked FEELs alot lower after what I experienced in the league.

So I guess the leagues actually worked in a way. This is just a negative side effect.

Aren’t the top 4 pro teams heading to finals? I’d guess that the other teams are scrimming the new balance for season 2 and a lot of the top teams are preparing for the Guild Challenger cup in private scrims aswell.

I’m still getting super low que times on Aussie hours which is off peak NA but I can see a lot of my friends list either offline havin a break between seasons of doing other game modes.

game is not dead yet but become worse state than before. What made anet to such state i guess is following:

1. Anet made core part open to f2p users and HoT for p2w users exclusively. This will never make new players valuable but become a feed of p2w users. Thus it makes f2p meaningless cuz under this logic anet cannot welcome their new users.

2. They mostly balance their game with their guild chat with their restricted esl players or reedit (from my guess). And i see many opinions going there is biased. Resulting in game unbalanced, therefore many thief, warrior players quit the game during season 1.

3. Too many changes, in last 2 years they kittened shoutbow, dd ele builds as well as lots of new builds came out. This changes made many common user result in exhausted in this game, cuz they don’t wannna spend new more time to be familiar with new build for this 4 years old game.

4. Pro league with tier system. this is honestly just fail. This will never work. I saw many twitch streamer quit gw2 for this reason a lot, and what they say is mostly like “idk, i just don’t play gw2 becuz of anet starting esports or whatevrr, i don’t want to esports…” this kinda thing and they went to Blade and Soul.

And etc, probably more reasons,

At this very moment WoW has 50 times more viewers on twitch than GW2. GW2 is pretty much a niche game in terms of twitch popularity.

online.1278:

1. Anet made core part open to f2p users and HoT for p2w users exclusively. This will never make new players valuable but become a feed of p2w users. Thus it makes f2p meaningless cuz under this logic anet cannot welcome their new users.

Really? Pay to win? You should go and check the difinition of the words, before you throw them around in forums. F2p is nothing more then a glorified trial, as it should be. The game is still very much PAY TO PLAY and not PAY TO WIN. It was said thousand times already – an expansion is NOT pay to win. Also you dont actually expect users who haven’t paid anything to have the same benefits as paying users, do you? If anything f2p did imho is bought more people into the game, because now people have the option to actually test the game, before they decide whether to purchase it or not. You didnt get that before, and it was in a way a leap of faith.

online.1278:

2. They mostly balance their game with their guild chat with their restricted esl players or reedit (from my guess). And i see many opinions going there is biased. Resulting in game unbalanced, therefore many thief, warrior players quit the game.

Did you slept over the last patch or something? Thiefs got nothing, but buffs in the last patch, and I dont think anyone can complain about them being not viable right now. If anyone still complain about thiefs, its marely a l2p issue.

online.1278:

3. Too many changes, in last 2 years they kittened shoutbow, dd ele builds as well as lots of new builds came out. This changes made many common user result in exhausted in this game, cuz they don’t wannna spend new more time to be familiar with new build.

If a game doesnt change for 2 years, then you know the devs are doing something wrong. Of course new builds will come into play, and old ones will drop off. Its up for the players to adapt around those changes. Those who do not want to, or are incapable of doing so gets left behind. Simple as that. It’s an mmo game – for every 1 player who quits, 5 new players are introduced into the game. And the game is very, very far from dead. Quite honestly I am getting a little tired of reading all of you doomsayers around the forums.

online.1278:

4. Pro league with tier system. this is honestly just fail. This will never work. I saw many twitch streamer quit gw2 for this reason a lot, and what they say is mostly like “idk, i just don’t play gw2 becuz of anet starting esports or whatevrr, i don’t want to esports…” this kinda thing.

As with pretty much everything else, this is purely subjective. While a do agree season 1 of the leagues was very bad executed with all of the exploiters, bad matchmaking and the terrible bunker meta.. I don’t believe the idea as a whole is flawed. It has potential and time will tell if the changes they bring with season 2 will be successful or not.

online.1278:

And etc, probably more reasons,

Very much interested to see what those etc more reasons are, because from my perspective none of your previous ones were viable.

Personally, I and most of my friends have logged out since ranked was closed and only log in to do dailies.

online.1278:

MirrorOfNature.4279:

online.1278:

1. Anet made core part open to f2p users and HoT for p2w users exclusively. This will never make new players valuable but become a feed of p2w users. Thus it makes f2p meaningless cuz under this logic anet cannot welcome their new users.

Really? Pay to win? You should go and check the difinition of the words, before you throw them around in forums. F2p is nothing more then a glorified trial, as it should be. The game is still very much PAY TO PLAY and not PAY TO WIN. It was said thousand times already – an expansion is NOT pay to win. Also you dont actually expect users who haven’t paid anything to have the same benefits as paying users, do you? If anything f2p did imho is bought more people into the game, because now people have the option to actually test the game, before they decide whether to purchase it or not. You didnt get that before, and it was in a way a leap of faith.

online.1278:

2. They mostly balance their game with their guild chat with their restricted esl players or reedit (from my guess). And i see many opinions going there is biased. Resulting in game unbalanced, therefore many thief, warrior players quit the game.

Did you slept over the last patch or something? Thiefs got nothing, but buffs in the last patch, and I dont think anyone can complain about them being not viable right now. If anyone still complain about thiefs, its marely a l2p issue.

online.1278:

3. Too many changes, in last 2 years they kittened shoutbow, dd ele builds as well as lots of new builds came out. This changes made many common user result in exhausted in this game, cuz they don’t wannna spend new more time to be familiar with new build.

If a game doesnt change for 2 years, then you know the devs are doing something wrong. Of course new builds will come into play, and old ones will drop off. Its up for the players to adapt around those changes. Those who do not want to, or are incapable of doing so gets left behind. Simple as that. It’s an mmo game – for every 1 player who quits, 5 new players are introduced into the game. And the game is very, very far from dead. Quite honestly I am getting a little tired of reading all of you doomsayers around the forums.

online.1278:

4. Pro league with tier system. this is honestly just fail. This will never work. I saw many twitch streamer quit gw2 for this reason a lot, and what they say is mostly like “idk, i just don’t play gw2 becuz of anet starting esports or whatevrr, i don’t want to esports…” this kinda thing.

As with pretty much everything else, this is purely subjective. While a do agree season 1 of the leagues was very bad executed with all of the exploiters, bad matchmaking and the terrible bunker meta.. I don’t believe the idea as a whole is flawed. It has potential and time will tell if the changes they bring with season 2 will be successful or not.

online.1278:

And etc, probably more reasons,

Very much interested to see what those etc more reasons are, because from my perspective none of your previous ones were viable.

1. Yup. You have to have hot to equally fight. With core you cannot win. It becomes obvious when you 1vs1.

2. did you miss i put during season 1, which is before recent buff?

3. Did you check i said the game is not not dead? on the top? it is far from dead like you said. Do you have an eye?

I am glad you are a retired streamer because you make no sense at all. Still though,what are you doing around these waters?? It had been proven again and again that gw2 is pay 2 play not pay to win?? Which part of those words aren’t you getting??

online.1278:

1. Yup. You have to have hot to equally fight. With core you cannot win. It becomes obvious when you 1vs1.

2. did you miss i put during season 1, which is before recent buff?

3. Did you check i said the game is not not dead? on the top? it is far from dead like you said. Do you have an eye?

1. Yes the new elite specs are more viable then the core ones, but that still doesn’t make the game p2w in any way. Its just like any other expansion in every other mmo EVER. You want to stay competitive in some areas of the game? You buy the expansion. By your flawed logic every mmo out there, which released expansion at some point is pay to win. Do I really need to point out how redicilous that is?

2. Yes. I missed it, because you didnt actually mentioned ‘during season 1’ at all. Go read your -own- post again , and point me out where you make a mention of it in your second point. You can’t? Thought so.

3. Again, yes. I did. The way you expressed yourself is a commonly used expression implying that the game is not just dead yet, but it may as well be very soon.
Maybe try expressing yourself better next time, if you really didn’t mean it in this way?

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Really? Pay to win? You should go and check the difinition of the words, before you throw them around in forums. F2p is nothing more then a glorified trial, as it should be. The game is still very much PAY TO PLAY and not PAY TO WIN. It was said thousand times already – an expansion is NOT pay to win.

It depends on how you look it, I agree that the F2P is nothing more than a glorified trial, and really that is the problem, real F2P play games (P2W or not) give players a method (albeit normally a grindy one) to acquire everything in game outside of some conveniences / QOL of things, e.g – in LOTRO for example, at least back when I played, free players could grind out turbine points and buy the new character classes or even the expansions, so I can see why from a free players perspective the game is P2W in some sense.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Simple as that. It’s an mmo game – for every 1 player who quits, 5 new players are introduced into the game.

Not really, you have it the wrong way round, unless the MMO was WoW or EVE Online for a few years, the vast majority of MMOs follow a trend of a declining playerbase, occasionally interrupted by a temporary boost in numbers from going F2P or an expansion, but overall there are more players leaving than new players joining, it’s why these mickey mouse companies don’t give out numbers other than those out of context when it suits, like after going F2P for example.

ArenaNet did poor job at spacing the content, so after they disabled Ranked PvP black hole appeared and will last untill next season start at least.

Basically, they haven’t released announced WvW patch, announced next raid wing and they basically disabled matchmaking for a month and all that will be coming later instead of spacing up WvW, PvE and PvP releases so people can at least rotate between game modes when some are stale.

It’s basically huge downtime and there’s nothing related to GW2 to stream that people would watch with enjoyment. People may still stream in GW2 category, but they’re being watched for themselves as twitch streamers, not for GW2 gameplay.

zinkz.7045:

It depends on how you look it, I agree that the F2P is nothing more than a glorified trial, and that really that is the problem, real F2P play games (P2W or not) give players a method (albeit normally a grindy one) to acquire everyting in game outside of some conveniences / QOL of things, e.g – in LOTRO for example, at least back when I played, free players could grind out turbine points and buy the new character classes or even the expansions, so I can see why from a free players perspective the game is P2W in some sense.

Wrong, mate. You can’t just stamp a new definition on something, which already have a very clearly defined one, just because you look at it in a different way. When you look at a chair for example you see a chair, right? You don’t see a table….
GW2 is not entirely f2p game and comparing it to such types of games is not a viable comparison. f2p players may look at it however they want, and tell themselves its p2w game as much as they want, but it does not make it truth. Lets talk facts here and not subjective personal opinions.

zinkz.7045:

Not really, you have the wrong way round, unless the MMO was WoW or EVE Online for a few years, the vast majority of MMOs follow a trend of a declining playerbase, occasionally interrupted by a temporary boost in numbers from going F2P or an expansion, but overall there are more players leaving than new players joining, it’s why they these mickey mouse companies don’t give out numbers other than those out of context when it suits, like after going F2P for example.

Maybe I did got it wrong, maybe I didnt. Who can tell for sure? Of course my statement should be considered purely a personal opinion, since I have no numbers or any other information to back it up. Its a pure assumption. Much as your own statement by the way, because I somehow doubt you have the numbers to support your own claim as well.

Game is dead. Pro League players are only sticking around because they’re getting paid. Streamers such as Helseth, Tdm, and others who play GW2 enjoy BnS more. Almost everyone that I know have quit this game.

Game has been dead for over a year. Anet decided to give a small amount of money to some dudes so they have try harded. There is about 20 or 30 people in the world who take this game seriously. Probably been that way for 2 years. There is no serious element to the game. I know for a fact the pro players are nothing special at all, because there is o competition. Dead game is dead. Has been dead and will always be dead because it sucks

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Wrong, mate. You can’t just stamp a new definition on something, which already have a very clearly defined one….

Wrong yourself, it doesn’t have a clear definition, it has a subjective one.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

GW2 is not entirely f2p game and comparing it to such types of games is not a viable comparison. f2p players may look at it however they want, and tell themselves its p2w game as much as they want, but it does not make it truth. Lets talk facts here and not subjective personal opinions.

You seem to be under the delusion that your subjective opinion is ‘fact’, whilst everyone else just puts forward ‘subjective opinion’, the game was not marketed as adding a free trial, but getting to play for free, that is fact, my comparisons are perfectly valid, unlike your baseless objections that are mere empty rhetoric.

zinkz.7045:

Maybe I did got it wrong, maybe I didnt. Who can tell for sure? Of course my statement should be considered purely a personal opinion, since I have no numbers or any other information to back it up. Its a pure assumption. Much as your own statement by the way, because I somehow doubt you have the numbers to support your own claim as well.

It is not a claim, it is simple fact, it is why most MMOs go through a series of server merges over time, or why logins on MMOs that give out that info on their API like Rift, LOTRO, etc decrease over time, or why server population statuses drop over time or why revenues decrease over time, etc, most MMOs simply don’t do what WoW did for years and grow the population, they do the opposite.

You know what burst my bubble? Is when Anet comes out with a show like GuildChat just to talk about something completely uninteresting such as last episode on creature features. Instead of discussing subject that really matters such as fixes & direction of the game in month to come. Come on! Do you really think that showing us how Quaggans animates in the game will bring ppl back? Really ArenaNet? #*Sigh #rolling my eyes #nod my head in negativity #palmface

Everyone is playing Blade and Soul aka Leagues Season 2 waiting room

yea, noticed the few streamers i follow, like helseth doing more blade and soul too. Started b&s myself too, because unranked is awful.
Though kitten b&s requires me to level pve to play pvp, which is just as painful as gw2 unranked i guess.

Still waiting for a balance patch since june 2015. Instead, the game keeps getting more and more imbalanced. But what are the alternatives ? There’s MOBA everywhere: 647 characters with 3 skills ? BnS that forces PvE to have decent PvP, and that’s only 1v1 and 3v3, as other game modes are pay 2 win and requires non stop gear grind. Crowfall is coming in 12-18 months.

I want to murder the guys in charge of balance at anet. They are the worst people ever. And I just learned they have QA for PvP. I guess she gets banged daily by the higher ups to be of any value to the company.

Oh they also have community managers, but they never come here, NEVER.

Ashkew.6584:

yea, noticed the few streamers i follow, like helseth doing more blade and soul too. Started b&s myself too, because unranked is awful.
Though kitten b&s requires me to level pve to play pvp, which is just as painful as gw2 unranked i guess.

Well it takes like 2-3 days maybe to lvl max, it’s not hard at all. You can pvp before that but you take the chance of being pitted against those with all skill unlocks. Though there are still lots of low lvls in arena to fight too especially since it gives you dailies for it early.

Personally I haven’t played since patch and only log on for a few mins to say hi to friends.

Private scrims and secret plans. That’s what makes the pros so silent these days.

Nick.7621:

Game is dead. Pro League players are only sticking around because they’re getting paid. Streamers such as Helseth, Tdm, and others who play GW2 enjoy BnS more. Almost everyone that I know have quit this game.

yesterday i was watching TDM’s, i believe tapdatmouse, twitch and he said reason why he doesn’t play gw2 was becuz he just don’t want to participate in esports stuff.

I think he pretty much like to just have regular pvp without esport level of seriousness and some duels.

Well i kinda agree.

Becuz if the game pushes its people to get into esports, it will be a lot harder for steamer to show his/her win to his/her streamer, unless the streamer is real real pro-gamer.

So implementing esports stuffs unless the game has like league of legends level of player base wouldn’t be good idea.

Btw TDM also been doing amazing job in blade and souls as well. Haha

Lordrosicky.5813:

Game has been dead for over a year. Anet decided to give a small amount of money to some dudes so they have try harded. There is about 20 or 30 people in the world who take this game seriously. Probably been that way for 2 years. There is no serious element to the game. I know for a fact the pro players are nothing special at all, because there is o competition. Dead game is dead. Has been dead and will always be dead because it sucks

Partly agree with you. The “competitive” scene probably involve 30 people at max. Abjured, TCG and oRNG have been dominating since forever with absolutely no other team getting close. That alone say enough about the “competitive” scene of this game. It doesn’t have enough players.

The reason it doesn’t have enough players are because they failed at launch. There was a bunch of streamers and top players from other MMORPG’s coming to try this new take on the genre, but they all left when ANet kept neglecting the community, screwing up balance and not doing a single thing to fix it for over half a year. If they do something wrong or screw up their balance they need to fix it ASAP, not after 6-12 months….

All these pro players and popular streamers left when they understood that ANet don’t give a kitten about PvP or WvW. Balance have never been high up on their priority list and it never will be. The game is good though, and I LOVE the combat, which is why I have stayed for this long, but the balance is a complete mess. Elite specs completely OP compared to all the other trait lines so that you have to buy HoT to be competitive. Well played ANet, wp..

Nighthawk.4687:

What happened to all the high tier solo players, twitch streamers, Academy Gaming teams etc?? I normally got queued with people from Apex, or Radioactive, Team PZ, occasionally people from the Abjured and just other players of that caliber. Did they all just quit because anet can’t get their pvp act together? Seems all that’s left are the ESL teams who just do private scrimmages.

Did beat Five Gadget / Chaith yesterday night with The First Straw (he was soloqing, nothing he could had done).

Actually we are off-season, people play other games. Some will come back, some will not. (Blade of soul, Fallout 4, Heroes of Storm… many other MOBA planned for 2016 that are action based with dodge!!)

We are not gaining enough of new serious competitive players with high skill ceiling versus the number we lose each balanced patches.

High level players don’t like the others, cause they are their direct competitors. Many of those did FLIP so many times teams, that they don’t deserved honor nor valor and trust

Wait for next season to come up. For meta build (that the lamb are waiting for) to settled, then we will have more serious people to play with. But it would never be like the golden age of sPvP in between Tol1 and Tol2.

Dal

For any who are wondering,some of the top players that left (see above mentioned) because they were not challenged on a skill vs skill base game. When one team can be terrible at their individual play BUT can rotate to points well, is not the kind of skill that pushes high level players to anything but frustration. Add in some very bad matchmaking mechanics, and serious balance issues that get a flavor of the patch favorites, what did you expect? Was actually watching TDM’s stream and he wants e-sports, just not the gw2 formula of point capture. He made a great point about the WvW roaming aspect of the game that got trashed and neglected more than a red head stepchild ever did, and pushed everyone to PvP. Skill gets rewarded over at B&S, bad players loose badly, good players rise to the top. There is no bad players who are just good at capping points there. If you like this formula and flavor of the patch metas, keep playing gw2 .

Ranked gave me a feeling on some progression being made,something to work for.Theres no ultimate goal in unranked,it’s just random matches,and lotta people have done 5 – 10k matches in all these years,maybe more w/e.Think lots of people are getting bored of just playing to play with nothing to really go for or show off why youve been playing so long and oftenAlso i doubt those top teams have alot of actual resistance in pvp if they go unranked now.

Caedmon.6798:

Ranked gave me a feeling on some progression being made,something to work for.Theres no ultimate goal in unranked,it’s just random matches,and lotta people have done 5 – 10k matches in all these years,maybe more w/e.Think lots of people are getting bored of just playing to play with nothing to really go for or show off why youve been playing so long and oftenAlso i doubt those top teams have alot of actual resistance in pvp if they go unranked now.

+1
Daylies and collecting gear is somthing players like to do. Of course after 3 years ….