Guild Wars 2

Hello Folks,

First the Kudos: By standardizing stats and opening up all the skills and building points for all users you have created an environment of equality that favors skill.

What you are doing wrong: You only support team play.
Why this is bad: you force pvp to depend on other people. Other people are unreliable and this creates an unending cycle of blame, and causes extra frustration.

All the Fantasy battle games claim that it must be this way, as the game is not balanced around 1vs1. This is a complex way of saying that the game is simply not balanced. I get it. Abilities are complex and can be abused. If you opened up 1 vs 1 and suddenly engineers dominated the entire format this would cause you to need to nerf them, and suddenly they would not be able to cope in the more common group scenarios, creating a vicious cycle.

But, that’s not really the case. With creative control you could apply a global buff/nerf to the standing of various classes based on performance.

Imagine that Necromancers dominate the field and after a hyped event 90% of the top players are one class. Then you could apply a dominator debuff for the next season of a couple of percent of damage. Likewise the underrepresented class could get a buff. This would be part of the game, all above board and understandable to the players. Those that play the nerfed class would do so with pride because it represents their domination. “That’s right! I owned you, and I was running at a 4% debuff!” Or , “Wow, Mesmers have been doing terrible! That buff is up to +6% in solo PVP. I think I’ll see what I can do with it!”

Quick events could be run with 8 players, the winner of each 1 vs 1 progressing to the next round for three round. This is the most basic tournament format and nobody uses it.

Change is the only constant.

-Osiris

Agreed, the setup for Guild Wars 2 PvP is amazing, with skills and traits unlocked from the get go.

However:
Balancing a game around 1v1 does not mean that a game is automatically balanced. Even if theoretically all classes were balanced for 1v1, some classes would still be better than others for teamfighting and support by their very nature.

By the same token, a game does not require 1v1 balance in order to be well balanced. Balance by definition is both teams having an equal chance to win without a mirror match-up, i.e. different builds/classess/whatever. We already have this.
Yes there are very powerful builds and very weak builds, and rangers aren’t in the best spot. But that doesn’t mean the game is unbalanced, as pretty much every viable build has a place, even if that is niche.
I know this isn’t a moba, but if we compare “builds” in GW to “champions” in league of legends, then we can see how this works. League of legends has well over 100 champions, and almost every single one has a slightly different role. Some are weak and some are strong. But they all have a place, and something unique about them that makes them interesting/fun to play/viable. But they don’t have to all be the strongest! Often the strongest champions change with the meta without even direct changes, and previously “weak” champions become the top picks with zero buffs! I feel guild wars isn’t as well balanced as league, but it also isn’t too far off.
The top teams try new things, breaking the metamold and showing something else is viable. Hell, Toxic Communication showed how a full power necro can turn 55HP Monks into mush with the plays.
You can fit many different builds into a team and make something work around it. Some are weak and some are strong atm, but as I said, I think they all have a place. The important thing is that these are dynamic, i.e. capable of change.
So I agree with your last point, but not the means. I appreciate the discussion of balance though, and this is a useful discussion

Relying on team all the time kinda blows. Every day I get a match that starts 4vs5 in SoloQ. Everyday I see in team chat “**** this game”

Every day.

That is the current experience.

Yeah, before they do any of that they need to fix the 4v5 matches. How hard can it be to simply add an “I am ready” button, and unless this button is clicked before the match begins everyone will be put back in queue. How hard can that really be?

You are into something! They need to do constant updates, small hot fixes and just show presence in the forums. They need to take feedback seriously and not do big radical changes, but small shaves / boosts here and there to test things out.

If this game is ever going to become esport they need to do this.