Guild Wars 2

Specifically conditions and stacking. I’m not sure about you, but I find it hard to enjoy a match when it takes less than two seconds for a player, at full health, to be downed and killed.

Everyone is essentially boxed in to particular metas because of how absurdly powerful they are. Right now that meta is “CC then destroy with conditions/burst damage”. I can deal with people slinging insults and giving me instructions on how to uninstall your game, but I’m having a hard time dealing with how absurdly imbalanced PvP is.

Are there any plans, pre- or post-expansion launch, to address the combat issues? Do you plan on addressing or experimenting with condition stacking?

I know PvE content also suffers from this in various ways.

My decision to purchase your next expansion, or any future content, will depend on whether the combat system undergoes an overhaul to correct the problematic systems currently in place.

I don’t need complete balance; I just want more strategic and varied fights.

Thanks for reading.

PS. Another thought: new structured PvP modes. Things like Last Man Standing, 3v3v3, Capture the Flag, and Mission Based goals (such as one group defends a lore-based location while another group, aided by a champion or some such, tries to break in/destroy it). I’m sure there are issues with these I haven’t foreseen, but as of right now I can’t say I find PvP fun.

Why do you provide your feedback?! Aren’t there pages and pages of ideas for PvP improvements? Can’t you see the new expansion will not bring something new to PvP?

Years have passed with requests for new game modes, for diversity, for new maps, for balance, for something… anything. And now the new expansion comes with PvE content only (no PvP and no WvW).

Please, by all means, keep providing your feedback for PvP… if you clearly, and absolutely, don’t have something more important to do in PvE.

Maybe mounts are intended for PvP. Perhaps these huge zones are going to be PvP enabled for a good match of hide and seek. I certainly don’t know, and I would hazard a guess you don’t either.

I get being frustrated by lack of communication here, but we need to keep providing feedback if we want anything to change.

Edit: I’m just looking for some info on whether they are even looking into it. I added thoughts on top of my initial query.

PvP dominated by power builds and yet conditions are the the problem. Always funny. I’d provide a counter argument but they already exist in the thousands of other condi QQ threads that have been likewise dismissed by Anet.

I wouldn’t count on condi changes. New game modes? Not likely, but more realistic chance of happening. It’s at least possible.

All right, cool. Sounds like nothing will get fixed and therefore I won’t be buying the expac or spending any money on any of their IAP.

If you don’t enjoy the game, that is probably a smart decision.

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

Pretty sure Anet could lose every PvP player and not care due to the much much larger PvE playerbase. PvP is just a side mode. This is a PvE game.

Ithilwen.1529:

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

To be fair, don’t you play in Bronze or Silver? I suspect the success of your build has more to do with the quality of your opponents rather than the element of surprise.

Well maybe if anet actually nerfed the crazy amount of defences and damage professions got with their elite specs instead of removing amulets, people wouldn’t die so fast. The PvP team was doing what they were allowed to do. They can’t do anything about balance, but they can at least remove amulets. But that all that did was make everyone squishier when they didn’t have any defences available because damage was still insanely high, and fewer stat combos reduced diversity as well. It’s really too bad that this is likely to happen again with PoF unless the balance team finally steps up and does their job well instead of just letting the PvP do the job of the balance team.

They have already stated that they release pvp updates on their own cadence and are in the process of changing traits and releasing a balance update in q3 that will affect condi. What these changes do remains to be unknown for the time being but it is coming.

Anet haven’t announced any content besides mounts, specializations, and living world. I think they will announce more features week by week. Raids haven’t been announced and of course there will be raids. They just haven’t announced it yet. And I’m holding out for pvp announcements in the near future. I just think they didn’t want to tell us everything all at once. The new director is adamant about not overhyping anything. He’s delivered so far content consistently in the last year. I say be patient. I think we will hear a pvp announcement sometime soon. And I want a CTF mode more than anyone.

Shaogin.2679:

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

Pretty sure Anet could lose every PvP player and not care due to the much much larger PvE playerbase. PvP is just a side mode. This is a PvE game.

Ithilwen.1529:

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

To be fair, don’t you play in Bronze or Silver? I suspect the success of your build has more to do with the quality of your opponents rather than the element of surprise.

To be fair.. I’ve just come from a long night of PvP and a tourney round. I defeated multiple players wearing “x legend” titles.

“I suspect that had more to do with the quality of my opponents than the element of surprise.”

Perhaps that shows the value of legendary rank? Or any rank?

Shaogin.2679:

PvP dominated by power builds and yet conditions are the the problem. Always funny. I’d provide a counter argument but they already exist in the thousands of other condi QQ threads that have been likewise dismissed by Anet.

I wouldn’t count on condi changes. New game modes? Not likely, but more realistic chance of happening. It’s at least possible.

I disagree.

You have support builds and bruisers like heal bot ele. Engy and ranger support healer whose jobs is to sustain 1 vs 1 and heal other players.

The main players in 5 vs 5 teams typically are necros and mesmers who play mostly condi.

Even warrior was better in its condi form then power when it came to fights because you had to play a certain way to avoid condi damage where as the passives from certain skills, invulnerability make it hard for power warrior to survive.

Also condi application forced the meta into the game. Because 1 mesmer or 1 necro and apply such huge amounts of condi in 2-3 sec you need to run certain skills to remove condi. This goes for every class.

Before HOT you could be on a team where 1-2 players skills were based on movement or CC which brings up the next problem.

There is 2 much CC, with all the condi going around it makes sense why we have builds the way we do.

A condi thief Maygi ran d/d and its basically a signet for more dodges, a ability to stun break, stun break or condi removal and what ever pick of elite skill. Got to plat2 or what ever running this 3 then dodge skill.

So yes you are correct that there are alot of power builds in the game but run into that combo of a necro mesmer who apply a ton of condi and are impossible to kill because they have support player around them.

The meta is based off of team condi sources of damage.

Shaogin.2679:

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

Pretty sure Anet could lose every PvP player and not care due to the much much larger PvE playerbase. PvP is just a side mode. This is a PvE game.

Ithilwen.1529:

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

To be fair, don’t you play in Bronze or Silver? I suspect the success of your build has more to do with the quality of your opponents rather than the element of surprise.

Yeah, don’t make it sound like Legendary is some prestigious thing. Or like Bronze is terrible. The skill floor between these is probably quite small.

I’m in Platinum for example, and I don’t think I deserve to be. Especially since my duo partner is a Silver tier player and she is a bigger reason for the success than I am.

Warcry.1596:

Shaogin.2679:

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

Pretty sure Anet could lose every PvP player and not care due to the much much larger PvE playerbase. PvP is just a side mode. This is a PvE game.

Ithilwen.1529:

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

To be fair, don’t you play in Bronze or Silver? I suspect the success of your build has more to do with the quality of your opponents rather than the element of surprise.

Yeah, don’t make it sound like Legendary is some prestigious thing. Or like Bronze is terrible. The skill floor between these is probably quite small.

I’m in Platinum for example, and I don’t think I deserve to be. Especially since my duo partner is a Silver tier player and she is a bigger reason for the success than I am.

that’s because ranks don’t really mean much in this game, i was placed “bronze” and climb to gold in under 30 games. I still dont beleive i belong in gold but in plat, Most of my friends are plat level and don’t have the knewledge i do in terms of 1vs1, or 5vs5 and agreed that i belong to a hire level “rank”.

Matter fact i met a friend in my guild whos new to spvp and was placed silver and after a week of playing with him can tell he doesn’t belong in “silver” his understanding of the character he plays plus ability to listen to calls places him above most silver players already.

Rank is noting but luck and title based for bragging rights, they hold no real purpose or reward for anyone to even care. people get the “badge” and instantly believe their pros because they got 20 games played in rank. The elo system in gw2 is easy to beat, and out play.

Warcry.1596:

Yeah, don’t make it sound like Legendary is some prestigious thing. Or like Bronze is terrible. The skill floor between these is probably quite small.

I’m sorry but the skill gap between Bronze and Legend is enormous. Players just never realize this because the matchmaker keeps them in a bubble.

I’m in plat and have played against legend players on several occasions. I’ve also taken 5-stacks of new players into unranked to teach them. I’ve seen the full range of skill in this game, and the skill difference is massive.

The fixes to combat will be a power creep introduced to pvp similarly to HoT release. When the new class elites enter the battlefield you will have something completely different to complain about.

Alot of people claiming the rating system means nothing, but I’d put my money on a legendary or plat player before a bronze or silver player any day. No idea why people keep bringing up what rating someone started at. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is where you settle, and if you constantly settle in bronze/silver all the time, no I am not going to take your advice about how effective your build is and the effects of the meta.

As for that tournament participation Ithilwen, you’ve posted multiple times how much you hate it because you get knocked out of the tournaments in the very first match. Sorry, but you’ll have to excuse my skepticism on the effectiveness of your build.

kdaddy.5431:

The main players in 5 vs 5 teams typically are necros and mesmers who play mostly condi.

If you look at 5s teams, the main players are Thief, Mesmer, and Ele, because those are the only 3 classes that have 100% representation in 5s. Many of the EU teams have dropped necromancer from their lineup. NA still uses necromancer almost constantly, but NA has always been known to be necromancer heavy.

Also necro is taken in 5s for it’s boonrip and down cleave. If power necro offered the same amount of boonrip as condi necro, teams would be running power necro over condi necro since power necro has better survivability and is more flexible.

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

One less player who doesn’t understand the counters to the condi meta (hint, they exist) and cannot adapt. I would rather the playerbase be 10 players large but actually decent than 200000 players who cannot theorycraft and adapt.

zoopop.5630:

Warcry.1596:

Shaogin.2679:

Dropdown.7460:

Yup. One less customer and one less PvP player in an already shallow pool.

Pretty sure Anet could lose every PvP player and not care due to the much much larger PvE playerbase. PvP is just a side mode. This is a PvE game.

Ithilwen.1529:

TDM and defending have both been tried, with poor results.

There are non-meta things that work. I play a vanilla PU Mesmer with some success. I think it’s partly because people have trained themselves to respond to specific builds and “rotations”.

My PU build doesn’t do what a Mesmer is “supposed to” do. No one streams it. Hence… many players don’t know how to respond.

That’s one of the dangers of having such a defined “meta.”

To be fair, don’t you play in Bronze or Silver? I suspect the success of your build has more to do with the quality of your opponents rather than the element of surprise.

Yeah, don’t make it sound like Legendary is some prestigious thing. Or like Bronze is terrible. The skill floor between these is probably quite small.

I’m in Platinum for example, and I don’t think I deserve to be. Especially since my duo partner is a Silver tier player and she is a bigger reason for the success than I am.

that’s because ranks don’t really mean much in this game, i was placed “bronze” and climb to gold in under 30 games. I still dont beleive i belong in gold but in plat, Most of my friends are plat level and don’t have the knewledge i do in terms of 1vs1, or 5vs5 and agreed that i belong to a hire level “rank”.

Matter fact i met a friend in my guild whos new to spvp and was placed silver and after a week of playing with him can tell he doesn’t belong in “silver” his understanding of the character he plays plus ability to listen to calls places him above most silver players already.

Rank is noting but luck and title based for bragging rights, they hold no real purpose or reward for anyone to even care. people get the “badge” and instantly believe their pros because they got 20 games played in rank. The elo system in gw2 is easy to beat, and out play.

I’d say the rating system is pretty accurate. The placement system, on the other hand, is not. And how could it be? You only play 10 games! However, the more games you play, the more accurately your rating will reflect your skill level relative to other players.

You’ll know when you hit your skill ceiling because you’ll find it difficult to climb any higher and a challenge to maintain your rating when you do. Bad luck happens and you’ll sometimes lose rating for reasons beyond your control. But if you belong at that level, you’ll inevitably gain it back.

People want to complain about matchmaking because it doesn’t always produce fair matches. But when you play hundreds of games the luck factor becomes ever smaller. Everyone else is dealing with the same thing, and your rating is ultimately a reflection of relative skill within the context of 5v5 conquest.

Take a look at win/loss ratios. Aside from the players at the very top or bottom of the spectrum, most players who have played hundreds of games have close to a 50/50 win/loss ratio. And unless you believe that the system arbitrarily decides that you’ve been on a win streak too long and throws you bad matches in response, the obvious explanation for this is that you eventually hit your ceiling and stop advancing. The more time you spend at this point, the closer to 50/50 your win/loss ratio becomes.

Call me crazy, but I think the system works. Bad matches/luck and all.