Guild Wars 2

Shinies are fine for attracting short term players, but to get players to stay you want to attract players that like to compete and get better. This game has a very steep learning curve. To be good at the game you not only need to be good at playing your class, you need to know all the other classes well, know what matchups are favorable for your teammates, and know what objectives are the most important for your team. Here are a couple suggestions I have:

• Have a discord server, or something similar where people can go to have people watch them play and give feedback on what they do well and need to work on.
• Host training events vs. tournaments. Use a hot join server to work on certain aspects of the game with lower level players. Moderators would comment on what people are doing well and what they could have done better. Having separate ones for bronze, silver, gold players would help show what is needed to progress to the next level.
• Have a place for people to go to find dueling/practice partners.

It’s nice ideas but dev clearly abondend us and pvp – we don’t know even if they know what’s going on with population right now.

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

I agree on this one. Ever since SoloQ/DuoQ only my PvP guilds activity is dropping.
This is a shame considering we excist since 2014.

Mr Godlike.6098:

It’s nice ideas but dev clearly abondend us and pvp – we don’t know even if they know what’s going on with population right now.

What has the community done to grow the player base? If the answer is nothing, why would they commit resources to a game mode that people aren’t interested in? If more people want to PvE stories and raids then they will move resources there.

Terrorsquad.2349:

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

I agree on this one. Ever since SoloQ/DuoQ only my PvP guilds activity is dropping.
This is a shame considering we excist since 2014.

There are hot join servers. Is your guild organizing scrimmages for 5v5 for others to participate in?

Faux Play.6104:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

I agree on this one. Ever since SoloQ/DuoQ only my PvP guilds activity is dropping.
This is a shame considering we excist since 2014.

There are hot join servers. Is your guild organizing scrimmages for 5v5 for others to participate in?

We don’t feel we should farm hotjoin players by farming up a 5-menraid team in hotjoin.
And we previously had 5v5 scrimmages but as I said; the activity dropped alot since S6 so even that’s not possible atm.

Terrorsquad.2349:

Faux Play.6104:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

I agree on this one. Ever since SoloQ/DuoQ only my PvP guilds activity is dropping.
This is a shame considering we excist since 2014.

There are hot join servers. Is your guild organizing scrimmages for 5v5 for others to participate in?

We don’t feel we should farm hotjoin players by farming up a 5-menraid team in hotjoin.
And we previously had 5v5 scrimmages but as I said; the activity dropped alot since S6 so even that’s not possible atm.

Wasn’t suggesting farming hot join players. That is no better than farming people in unranked. You can use your own hot-join server to challenge other guilds or host scrimmages.

Faux Play.6104:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Faux Play.6104:

Terrorsquad.2349:

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

I agree on this one. Ever since SoloQ/DuoQ only my PvP guilds activity is dropping.
This is a shame considering we excist since 2014.

There are hot join servers. Is your guild organizing scrimmages for 5v5 for others to participate in?

We don’t feel we should farm hotjoin players by farming up a 5-menraid team in hotjoin.
And we previously had 5v5 scrimmages but as I said; the activity dropped alot since S6 so even that’s not possible atm.

Wasn’t suggesting farming hot join players. That is no better than farming people in unranked. You can use your own hot-join server to challenge other guilds or host scrimmages.

There are no other PvP guilds we currently know of.. They all quit seasons ago.. That’s the issue.. There is no incentive to play anymore

It can’t. At least not in NA. Top tier players really don’t want much to do with lower tier players and in some aspects I can’t blame them. There is this mentality on the NA servers of “I do what I want, you can’t tell me how to play.” All the help top players have offered just falls on deaf ears. I have told so many people in my non-PvP guilds that they should learn to play something besides thief but they refuse. No matter how many times you try to give tips on things people won’t listen.

“Don’t stomp that guy who is off point, let him bleed out. It makes it longer until he can be helpful to his team.”
“I’ll stomp him if I want to, don’t tell me how to play the game.”

“Thief could you cap home since you have the most mobility?”
Me: Watches as the thief goes far to die and the elementalist goes to cap home

“We don’t need 3 thieves, can two of you change?”
“I paid for the game I’ll play what I want.”

And the list goes on…

As primarily a solo que’r who plays mostly mesmer(also que necro if we have a ele on team), I’m not gonna be feeding points to players alt accounts again this season because they don’t wanna que on there mains. Also the fact that DH hard counters mesmer and warrior is almost as bad a matchup to me, impossible to fight on point against either and they usually take up 3-4 spots a team. Basically if your not solo que’ing as DH or warrrior don’t bother trying to push high unless your duo que.This seasons already over for me.

Shadow.1345:

It can’t. At least not in NA. Top tier players really don’t want much to do with lower tier players and in some aspects I can’t blame them. There is this mentality on the NA servers of “I do what I want, you can’t tell me how to play.” All the help top players have offered just falls on deaf ears. I have told so many people in my non-PvP guilds that they should learn to play something besides thief but they refuse. No matter how many times you try to give tips on things people won’t listen.

“Don’t stomp that guy who is off point, let him bleed out. It makes it longer until he can be helpful to his team.”
“I’ll stomp him if I want to, don’t tell me how to play the game.”

“Thief could you cap home since you have the most mobility?”
Me: Watches as the thief goes far to die and the elementalist goes to cap home

“We don’t need 3 thieves, can two of you change?”
“I paid for the game I’ll play what I want.”

And the list goes on…

I don’t find theif take home is always a good call at higher tiers of play. Send someone with some swift access and some anti gank potential.

Faux Play.6104:

Mr Godlike.6098:

It’s nice ideas but dev clearly abondend us and pvp – we don’t know even if they know what’s going on with population right now.

What has the community done to grow the player base? If the answer is nothing, why would they commit resources to a game mode that people aren’t interested in? If more people want to PvE stories and raids then they will move resources there.

Really? My answer is this – community is gone → there is no player base. Did you played any ranked match lately? Why we got some many treads about population right now? Why mmr stopped working for some many? Because many can’t get teams made from their divsion. If your at bottom of platinum you have 90% chance that you will fight Sind/Misha duo that will blast you to space (heh even in unranked I have to fight Sind). How it’s even possible that to get to top 250 you just need to GET to platinum!? Compere top 250 with season 5. It’s a joke!

I am wrong with one thing…with word abandoned. We just don’t know. Anet is silent. We can only say:
- maybe anet see something wrong with population right now…maybe not
- maybe we will have sigil and skills balance update soon or not
- maybe we will have automated tournaments…or not (because they just said they like the idea…not that it will happen)
- maybe there will be an official tournament…or not
- maybe they will do something about rewards…or not.

Ehh we need new Grouch.

guys ANet didnt abandoned PvP yet. they just put it in maintenance mode. meaning it will no longer be improve just maintain.

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

guys ANet didnt abandoned PvP yet. they just put it in maintenance mode. meaning it will no longer be improve just maintain.

Really? You think people will be back for season 7? After this season!? If there will be no changes?

people will only get better if they want to. if they don’t they wont. no matter how much “help” they are given.

BrotherBelial.3094:

people will only get better if they want to. if they don’t they wont. no matter how much “help” they are given.

Exactly. Players have very little motivation to become better. If the game mode is not inherently interesting enough for more players to join, then it won’t grow.

Correct me if I’m wrong. Didn’t GW have tutorials for pvp and pvp mechanics that were compulsory and rewarded you for completing?

Maybe this is an idea?

Anet needs to try to make more guides and link youtubers. I don’t see anything in game that tells me where I can watch good pvp guides.

A simple guide such as showing the advantages and disadvantages of capping nodes I feel would help new players drastically.

It was a lot easier to get better watching videos. Now, with streaming and stuff, we get to watch the queue for half an hour.

You dont need a special server, event or extra mentors to make people better.

All you need is a bunch of good streamers or a replay option !
When i played lots of strategie games i either watched replays of pro players to get an idea what to do and later ich watched my own to analyse my decisions/mistakes/shiny moments.

The problem on gw2 that hinders many players getting better is the insane variety of classes, specs, playstyles, effects (block, blind, stabi, invus, Resistance, Daze,…) that requires very good observation abilities.
Next thing is a missing replay option, only a few streamers, no tournament replays of players perspective and a matchmaking system in alpha/beta version.

shion.2084:

Shadow.1345:

It can’t. At least not in NA. Top tier players really don’t want much to do with lower tier players and in some aspects I can’t blame them. There is this mentality on the NA servers of “I do what I want, you can’t tell me how to play.” All the help top players have offered just falls on deaf ears. I have told so many people in my non-PvP guilds that they should learn to play something besides thief but they refuse. No matter how many times you try to give tips on things people won’t listen.

“Don’t stomp that guy who is off point, let him bleed out. It makes it longer until he can be helpful to his team.”
“I’ll stomp him if I want to, don’t tell me how to play the game.”

“Thief could you cap home since you have the most mobility?”
Me: Watches as the thief goes far to die and the elementalist goes to cap home

“We don’t need 3 thieves, can two of you change?”
“I paid for the game I’ll play what I want.”

And the list goes on…

I don’t find theif take home is always a good call at higher tiers of play. Send someone with some swift access and some anti gank potential.

You’re missing the forest for the trees, man. In high tier(aka pro play) play all 1v1s are decided before they are initiated based on the players. I am talking about your everyday 5 man solo pugs when you have 4 classes that are strong in teamfights and a thief, but the thief thinks he is Ezio Auditore and is going to rekt that DH with his traps set at far waiting for him screws the team by not going to pick up that easy cap at home.

Well sending thief to cap home is the worst thing ever.

Kolly.9872:

Well sending thief to cap home is the worst thing ever.

Not necessarly, it is probably the least risky opening in solo queue :
- If you let it go far, you have to expect him to win the 1v1 and have your team handle a 4v3 middle for 10-12 seconds in the average scenario
- If you let him go mid, it’s not going to bring a good damage output on a 4v4 battle opening (with all buffs and stuffs), and it’s fairly easy to die considering the amount of passive and condition damage

Abazigal.3679:

Kolly.9872:

Well sending thief to cap home is the worst thing ever.

Not necessarly, it is probably the least risky opening in solo queue :
- If you let it go far, you have to expect him to win the 1v1 and have your team handle a 4v3 middle for 10-12 seconds in the average scenario
- If you let him go mid, it’s not going to bring a good damage output on a 4v4 battle opening (with all buffs and stuffs), and it’s fairly easy to die considering the amount of passive and condition damage

Omg thief not necessarly MUST GO on a freaking point at the start of the match. Playing thief, you decide to go where do you think is better for the team at that moment but I hate when ppl want me to cap close. I cap close than what? If anyone that is not a thief is crossing I cannot defend the point just capped, if no one of my team leave the teamfight at mid and come back, my best option is to leave the home point for a free enemy decap instead of wasting time fighting on a point I will lose in a matter of seconds.
Usually when a match start, I as a thief tend to scout the map by going, stealthed where usualy the enemies crossing to our close should go. Thst way if one enemy is crossing I can show him in map for my close capper and I can start to attack him on the road outside the point. If my close capper is good enaugh, he should come for help and 2v1 the fight should be over fast. At the point looking at the map if there is 3v4 mid I go far for a free decap, if they are still 3v3 I go mid. I always look at the map and try to guess enemy option before I make my next move. Sometimes I make bad decisions too but usually it’s my teammate that don’t know how to rotate properly.
But above all, sending thief to cap close at the beginning it’s the worst thing ever. Thif it’s a roamer and scouter but not a point holder. The problem is that ppl still don’t look at the map because if they look, they should know where and how many enemies are, if they habe a good thief in their team

Offer yourself to help people from which you realize aren’t that great of players and could use some tips to better themselves.

Caedmon.6798:

Offer yourself to help people from which you realize aren’t that great of players and could use some tips to better themselves.

So much this. Offer yourself and those who want to get better will listen. The rest will ignore you and fester in their failure to improve. Sadly, it’s hard as a community to organize training events without sponsorship from the company and many offers players have made for those things have been ignored by Anet (Mostly cause they have other things they are working on)

Kolly.9872:

Abazigal.3679:

Kolly.9872:

Well sending thief to cap home is the worst thing ever.

Not necessarly, it is probably the least risky opening in solo queue :
- If you let it go far, you have to expect him to win the 1v1 and have your team handle a 4v3 middle for 10-12 seconds in the average scenario
- If you let him go mid, it’s not going to bring a good damage output on a 4v4 battle opening (with all buffs and stuffs), and it’s fairly easy to die considering the amount of passive and condition damage

Omg thief not necessarly MUST GO on a freaking point at the start of the match. Playing thief, you decide to go where do you think is better for the team at that moment but I hate when ppl want me to cap close. I cap close than what? If anyone that is not a thief is crossing I cannot defend the point just capped, if no one of my team leave the teamfight at mid and come back, my best option is to leave the home point for a free enemy decap instead of wasting time fighting on a point I will lose in a matter of seconds.
Usually when a match start, I as a thief tend to scout the map by going, stealthed where usualy the enemies crossing to our close should go. Thst way if one enemy is crossing I can show him in map for my close capper and I can start to attack him on the road outside the point. If my close capper is good enaugh, he should come for help and 2v1 the fight should be over fast. At the point looking at the map if there is 3v4 mid I go far for a free decap, if they are still 3v3 I go mid. I always look at the map and try to guess enemy option before I make my next move. Sometimes I make bad decisions too but usually it’s my teammate that don’t know how to rotate properly.
But above all, sending thief to cap close at the beginning it’s the worst thing ever. Thif it’s a roamer and scouter but not a point holder. The problem is that ppl still don’t look at the map because if they look, they should know where and how many enemies are, if they habe a good thief in their team

Let’s look at foefire for this opening:
Say their comp is war/dh/ele/engi/dh and yours is ele/engi/necro/druid/thief
It’s most likely their war will go to their home because he has the best 1v1 and no team support. Given the teamfight about to happen at mid, you can win it with the other 4 on your team if they are there so who gets home? The thief, he has the highest mobility, can escape ganks if someone rushes and given they don’t have a mes or a thief there’s no stealth play coming from the other team that will burst you before you can bd and shadowstep away. If they rush you get to outnumber mid 5v3 and sweep it quickly. If they go for the standard split your team wins mid and home because you can get to mid in a matter of seconds and make it 5v4 long enough to sway the fight to your favor if it isn’t already there and you get a decap on far once the war engages mid.

Sending the thief home gives you 2 points whereas “scouting” the map like you said loses 2 points and probably home in the snowball plus kill points. Going far you lose the 1v1 to the war or you waste too much time getting a successful duel while home, mid, and far all get snowballed.

“Scouting” the map is the worst possible thing you can do. You want to scout? Look at the minimap. Otherwise, contribute to the team and cap home so you can snowball the game properly.

Even if they have a thief or mes on their team, if they rush your close you go mid and snowball the 5v3 then split home and far for free kills and points.

Edit: Just because you cap close to start doesn’t mean you hold it. You just start the point gain for your team before you gank a low cd or low hp target at mid. Then move for the far decap once mid is mostly secure without you.

Man you’re talking as you know what the enemy team is doing before the match starts. There are too many variables and the thief should be your +1 man where needed. Of course there is the chance that you could do a 3v4 mid at the start of the match if they don’t cross and send war at close as you say. But you’re talking as the 3 of us mid will get wiped in a matter of seconds. Instead therr are a lot of scenarios that will open in that situation but good reaction and adaptation is needed as fast as you can. And nowadays all I see is a lack of reaction and of map scouting. People only knows 1 kind of opening: thief close and the rest mid or sometimes 1 crossing far. But if you play with standard tactic, you’re gona be predictable. I like to be unpredictable and I make my decisions during the match and not before, that’s why I hate when ppl ask me to go close because that is the worst opening ever. Sometimes I make bad choices cos I’m not Sindrener but it’s a game and I try to learn from my faults. The problem in this game is that it’s hard to see and understand how pro team play when you try to look at their matches so people still don’t know how to rotate. But I have played since 2012, my main is thief and I have seen a lot of pro thief playing during these years from Caed to Sizer to Sindrener nowadays and I have never seen one of them capping close as a match opening. just my2cent
I will keep playing as think it’s better
EDIT: also foefire is the easiest map to play and make rotations. I know that mid is important to get but you can also win rotating on the 2 side nodes. Usualy if I have a mesmer with portal I prefer him to go cap home, but the distance from side node to home is so small that you can send almost anyone but thief to cap home. And the mid is so large that 2 half bunker classes could easily survive vs 4 for the whole match. If people nowadays don’t know how to do teamfight if they are not 4v4 everytime, it’s not the thief fault but this game that allows pvers in pvp matches

Kolly.9872:

Man you’re talking as you know what the enemy team is doing before the match starts. There are too many variables and the thief should be your +1 man where needed. Of course there is the chance that you could do a 3v4 mid at the start of the match if they don’t cross and send war at close as you say. But you’re talking as the 3 of us mid will get wiped in a matter of seconds. Instead therr are a lot of scenarios that will open in that situation but good reaction and adaptation is needed as fast as you can. And nowadays all I see is a lack of reaction and of map scouting.

I agree with you, but you’re giving the answer in your own post. You kinda " know " how people are going to play in solo queue, since there is lack of reaction and map scouting. In solo queue, i like trying to play the least risky possible and prevent the usual headaches and try to get safe wins.
Your examples about top players belong to team queue usually, and there’s no need to argue about praying that teammates aren’t going to die in 5 seconds on mid point in that case. Any opening is willing to work then.

Kolly.9872:

Man you’re talking as you know what the enemy team is doing before the match starts. There are too many variables and the thief should be your +1 man where needed. Of course there is the chance that you could do a 3v4 mid at the start of the match if they don’t cross and send war at close as you say. But you’re talking as the 3 of us mid will get wiped in a matter of seconds. Instead therr are a lot of scenarios that will open in that situation but good reaction and adaptation is needed as fast as you can. And nowadays all I see is a lack of reaction and of map scouting. People only knows 1 kind of opening: thief close and the rest mid or sometimes 1 crossing far. But if you play with standard tactic, you’re gona be predictable. I like to be unpredictable and I make my decisions during the match and not before, that’s why I hate when ppl ask me to go close because that is the worst opening ever. Sometimes I make bad choices cos I’m not Sindrener but it’s a game and I try to learn from my faults. The problem in this game is that it’s hard to see and understand how pro team play when you try to look at their matches so people still don’t know how to rotate. But I have played since 2012, my main is thief and I have seen a lot of pro thief playing during these years from Caed to Sizer to Sindrener nowadays and I have never seen one of them capping close as a match opening. just my2cent
I will keep playing as think it’s better
EDIT: also foefire is the easiest map to play and make rotations. I know that mid is important to get but you can also win rotating on the 2 side nodes. Usualy if I have a mesmer with portal I prefer him to go cap home, but the distance from side node to home is so small that you can send almost anyone but thief to cap home. And the mid is so large that 2 half bunker classes could easily survive vs 4 for the whole match. If people nowadays don’t know how to do teamfight if they are not 4v4 everytime, it’s not the thief fault but this game that allows pvers in pvp matches

With a mes on the team I prefer to let them far and either win the 1v1 or leave a portal and go mid for a moa play. That’s just my preference though as I think mes has a stronger 1v1 in the game than thief and putting the portal down puts pressure on the team to guard their backpoint so they can’t go all in on mid without getting decapped in the process.

As for knowing what the enemy will do, 9/10 matches I am completely right in what I judge splits to be as I have also mained thief since the release of the game and have had to adjust my play based purely off of analysis of likely splits many a time. You get to be quite accurate after awhile but you probably know that already. But like it’s been said, soloq has a very strict way it’s played as you’re with pugs who will generally want to run the safest splits possible to try to ensure the cleanest match openings. Hence why the thief home cap is so popular. For organized teams, doing different splits is definitely a better choice as the thief’s utility can be a strong early game boost to your team depending on map and matchup.

Everyone has their preferences like you said, not that yours won’t work because it obviously does if you continue to do it, but for soloq I find it’s best to go with a thief home cap and then scout and play as needed from there. If nothing else it gives time for everything to get into place so you can start molding the game how it benefits your team the most.

Edit: Can we take a moment to acknowledge that despite foefire having easy rotations people just don’t do it at all? Thief grief is real.

I have a very easy suggestion: make unranked 5v5 only and cut off the PvP dailies in ranked. Unranked should serve as a stepping stone to ranked but it doesn’t feel like it is imo. If players are looking to get some experience in a pure 5v5 format then a game mode should be specifically implemented for that matter. When they feel enough confident in their role and in their rotation (s), then they can move on to ranked in a solo/duo environment or they can learn the hard way by only playing hotjoins if they can’t/don’t want to play in teams.

Mutaatti.2789:

Allow teamqueue. End of discussion. Then there will form teams, PvP guilds and competitive gameplay on itself.

Team queuing should never have been changed.

Expanded to training maybe but not changed in such a drastic and incomprehensible ‘throw you to the ignorant in your roll of the dice’.

Better yet I have an idea: How about Tourney SOLO, DUO, TRIO, and skip four and FULL TEAM of 5?

The game in all modes is suffering horridly. Four years, six months plus some days and it’s not as fun as it once was and certainly not as well managed as it should be by now.