Guild Wars 2

To be honest, I’m here because my team got destroyed last night. The score was 40-500 on Forest of Nifhel, no premades, no afk’s, no d/c’s. So after that game I took a break and decided to figure out why the enemy team was so OP and how my builds need to be buffed LOL! During my break period I realized that we lost game simply because we couldn’t hold a point (No way). But, I wanted to know why we lost so hard. I mean 40-500 is a score you’d expect if there was an afk, or if one of the teams had superior communication to the other. Its not a score you’d expect from a full random match with zero afk’s. I looked at the team comps for both sides. My side (red) had me (tempest, cele, d/wh), a Mesmer (no idea what build, she was never alive long enough for me to see her skills lol!), a Dragon Hunter, a Daredevil Thief, and a Druid Rangers (specced for damage). The enemy team (blue) had 3 Scrapper Engineers, and 2 Dragon Hunters. The only reason blue team was so dominate in the match was because the Engineer and Guardian profession kits are geared toward defensive play (i.e holding a position).

Instead of crying fowl on what’s overpowered and what’s not, I thought about the meta. The meta has always consisted of builds that provide CC, AOE damage and AOE support. The professions and traits my change, but in general if your build does 2 of those 3 things you are meta. I wanted to know why is that meta? and the answer is simple, its game and map design for pvp.

Map and Game Design: All ranked maps consist of 5 objectives. In the conquest game mode there 3 points and 2 point buffs/weapons. Ideally a team would send 1 player to each objective, and whichever character could consistently win their matchup would win that objective for their team. The same is for stronghold, you have 1 player for the treb, 1 for supply, 1 to get buffs, 1 for attacking and 1 for defensive. So why don’t we see more 1v1 matchups in games? This is because the maps are so small. Its easy for players to rotate from objective to objective and there truly isn’t any risk of doing so. Any team can easily 1 up another team if they choose too. So why is the meta CC, AOE damage and AOE support as opposed to high mobility zerkers? The reason we see the meta of CC, AOE damage and AOE support is because most of the fighting happens in the enclosed areas (on point/on obective) with multiple people. Builds that rely on mobility for survival have no advantage on objectives. Any build that is not suited for a toe to toe smash session is at an extreme disadvantage. Particularly in 2vX situations where any squishy target can be zerged. All player skill aside, if your build does not fit the meta (CC, AOE Damage/Support), then you’ve put your team at a disadvantage for 2 reasons; 1) Your team fighting capability is limited and 2) if you’re not in the team fight you can’t help your team win the fight.

So how do we open the game up to more build diversity? I say its simple. Make the maps bigger. That way a team will be truly invested if they decide to leave home open to roam far. Widen some objectives so mobility builds can function in a team fight. And maybe, just maybe consider implementing the raid party system into a pvp map so its 10v10. That would truly change the game forever!

I hope y’all will make some more contributions to this thought! I want to know what y’all think works on a map/doesn’t work on map/game design!

Also- for A-nets’ eyes only, if you truly want e-sports to catch on with GW2 you have to open up the pvp for individual play. Some people liked the Chicago Bulls and some people didn’t but everyone loved seeing Michael Jordan play because of his skill.

Considering the setup you had, you should have won. Damage rangers should have wrecked the DHs/Scrappers on points, mesmer can also 1v1 any DH who is trying to hold a point. Seems like your team was outplayed and thats it. Many of your points are invalid, for example the meta-type ones.

a 10v10 would be awesome but anet doesnt have the balls.

I was thinking about the same thing last night. Bigger maps and/or more capture points would spice things up quite a lot I think.

I had some idea partially formed where objectives could have mini objectives. For example lets say mid had 2 mini objectives near it, mid would be worth double ppt if you controlled those a long with it. The side points would be much futher away and be worth the same as now..

—I had to edit to clarify by mini-objectives I don’t mean one time buffs that take 2 players out of the game forever.. I mean actual capture points that cap quicker, are smaller and are always there.

I had an idea, it’s probably stupid, but instead of capture point giving points, they allow you to hold an area of the map. Any enemy killed in the area provides bonus points say 5+3. If the points don’t help an area, maybe they should just provides a bonus score to kills rather than a ticking score.

These are all awesome ideas for game types. New game types lead to new builds. Does anyone get the sense that PvP excludes at least half the builds available to the classes?

I had the same idea but doubtful anet would modify the maps.

Rarely can you win 4 vs 5 and teams in these league games (or premades in unranked) basically try to enforce an outnumbered game by zerging on the other team. This means less players in the field and even if you come back and win it’s such a grind you can’t enjoy it.

In unranked you often get 2 random teams who tend roam solo. You get more 1v1 fights without 2 of their teammates showing up. It’s basically what you are suggesting without having to change anything. The scores are closer and everyone puts in more effort as the 500 approaches. After the game win or lose you get a lot more people saying how fun that game was. No match manipulation – no team build manipulation – no 4 minute tank on tank fights. If you get a string of premade fights just try again later.

You shouldn’t be using WH, its the worst ele weapon.