Guild Wars 2

If SoloQ rank doesn’t really show your skill, and matches are won or lost based on many, many random factors…all outside your personal control…

…then how should you judge how “good” you are? And whether you are getting better?

Do you keep a record of the 1v1s you win? Maybe your class is at a disadvantage 1v1 and that doesn’t matter.

If you play support, how do you know you are making a difference? What would have happened if you were not supporting a fight?

Some people greatly overestimate their ability. Others do not give themselves enough credit.

GW2 is fun, but all the RNG factors make it tough to really know how well you are doing…in my opinion.

Looking forward to thoughtful non-simplistic replies, from perceptive people. Thanks.

Get carried in team ques

killing liadri the concealing darkness takes some skill in terms of being able to dodge red circles, and positional awareness.

takes more skill than some “faceroll” pvp builds…

liadri was hard

Laserbolt.6731:

…then how should you judge how “good” you are? And whether you are getting better?

When you start noticing opportunities and you take advantage of them as soon as you notice them

Laserbolt.6731:

Do you keep a record of the 1v1s you win? Maybe your class is at a disadvantage 1v1.

Keep track of your 1v1 wins is good for knowing if your specc is good for 1v1s but nothing more than that.

Laserbolt.6731:

If you play support, how do you know you are making a difference? WHat would have happened if you were not supporting a fight?

This all depends on your specc. If your specc is all about healing, you’ll notice it by how fast your teammates drop when you’re not there. If you’re specced for bunkering, you’ll notice it by how long it takes for anyone to stomp anything because they are too afraid of taking cleave damage and you’re the only guy who isn’t.

Excalibur.9748:

killing liadri the concealing darkness takes some skill in terms of being able to dodge red circles, and positional awareness.

takes more skill than some “faceroll” pvp builds…

Sry, what? Liadri was a faceroll mob. I rebember all i had to do was rifle 111 (war) and running in circles, 0 effort. Was a bit harder at light up the darkness, but still..

Its was also possible to burst her down before phase 2 started.

Scoobaniec.9561:

Excalibur.9748:

killing liadri the concealing darkness takes some skill in terms of being able to dodge red circles, and positional awareness.

takes more skill than some “faceroll” pvp builds…

Sry, what? Liadri was a faceroll mob. I rebember all i had to do was rifle 111 (war) and running in circles, 0 effort. Was a bit harder at light up the darkness, but still..

Its was also possible to burst her down before phase 2 started.

did you take her down with any other class?

Getting to top 100 solo queue with a “barely viable” thief build was my moment of clarity :P

Excalibur.9748:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Excalibur.9748:

killing liadri the concealing darkness takes some skill in terms of being able to dodge red circles, and positional awareness.

takes more skill than some “faceroll” pvp builds…

Sry, what? Liadri was a faceroll mob. I rebember all i had to do was rifle 111 (war) and running in circles, 0 effort. Was a bit harder at light up the darkness, but still..

Its was also possible to burst her down before phase 2 started.

did you take her down with any other class?

Im playing olny war in pve howered it could be done with any class this way. My friend used that tactic with condi necro spamming 1 on scepter also without troubles so..either hes a pro or liadri was easy.

Liadri.. hahahahaah pve dudes up in this mofo.

There’s no way to tell really.. just don’t worry about it and pretend you’re the best like every other gw2 player.

Oblivion.8307:

liadri was hard

liadri was buggy as hell

When you’re smart enough to make a warrior, then you have mastered the art of being skillful…just ask them, they’ll tell you.

i had to cheat and use the energy regen food

I just thought of a good answer to my own question.

If you are on a regular team in TeamQ tournaments and your team is near the top in wins, and your teammates say you have skill and like how you play…then you are good.

Maybe we should accept that GW2 has a comparatively low skill-cap, especially when it comes to mastering a class. Sure, situational awareness and class knowledge factor in as well but when it comes to actual play, there’s not a huge difference between someone in the top 200 and someone in the top 600.

Random factors outside of your control play too much of a role when it comes to determining success.

So we can easily reach the point where we can say, X is just as good as Y.

I know we like to think there are always differences in skill and that Y is so much better than X, but the tools GW2 gives the players are far too limited to make such a clear distinction.

When you can kill Svanir and Chieftain without dying! =]

When you consistently win matchups that counter you, whether it be 1v1 or 1vX.
When you consistently make plays that turn teamfights around.
When you can actively keep track of your CDs, the CDs of allies around you, and the CDs of enemies around you.
When your foes tremble at the mere mention of your name.

When you win a lot in solo queue.
When you never lose mirror matches. (1v1)

if you know how to sing and play instruments. just like me. ^^,

Laserbolt.6731:

How do you know you are skilled?

You play a warrior.

Laserbolt.6731:

If SoloQ rank doesn’t really show your skill, and matches are won or lost based on many, many random factors…all outside your personal control…

…then how should you judge how “good” you are? And whether you are getting better?

Do you keep a record of the 1v1s you win? Maybe your class is at a disadvantage 1v1 and that doesn’t matter.

If you play support, how do you know you are making a difference? What would have happened if you were not supporting a fight?

Some people greatly overestimate their ability. Others do not give themselves enough credit.

GW2 is fun, but all the RNG factors make it tough to really know how well you are doing…in my opinion.

Looking forward to thoughtful non-simplistic replies, from perceptive people. Thanks.

You have asked a very hard thing, personally I don’t like to think in terms of “good” or “bad”, instead I like to think of improvements or putting an effort into certain improvements. This is much more easily tracked that trying to rely on a system with too many variables to accurately judge your ranking. Meaning solo queue random team comp etc. For support you can’t really tell for yourself (as you cannot witness what happens when you are not there) you will mostly know by the people you play with, or how well you can peel for your fellow team-mates.

Anyway, set yourself some in game goals to accomplish. Some sample ideas to help you get started, and don’t try to improve on too many areas at the same time or you will just feel overwhelmed. Just add on one to two more things you want to focus on for a week then gauge how far you have improved on it. Personally I should get back on doing that

Solo Queue:
-Pay more attention to the minimap and the new system implemented for seeing enemies on the minimap. (allows for smart rotations)
-Call out numbers in every teamfight and audbily say when someone arrives or leaves a teamfight.
-Use call target and assist target more often.
-Peel out of fights where your team has over-commited players (only if you are not a tank)

Team Queues:
-Call out numbers in teamfights
-Call out timers (respawn on forests, buff timers on temple)
-Call out stomp timers

You won’t get thoughtful replies I tried this already the thread was unrealistic skill levels which posited that any system a-net came up with people wouldn’t be happy because everyone thinks they are great. Solo queue is only meaningless now. It meant something before apparently when it put everyone on teams according to rank like this half the time: 100, 150, 300, 350, 500 vs 700, 800, 10000000, 100000000001, 10000000000000010. The people in the first five well its too hard for them carry bads now lol. Meet the new bads same as the old bads.

kirito.4138:

When you can kill Svanir and Chieftain without dying! =]

i can do it as d/p thief w/o big trouble..perma blind ftw o.o
that is hardly skill though
/chews on troll pie

I did get some intelligent and thoughtful replies here so far. Thanks.

Now that I know a lot more about the game and the class strengths and counters, I see that in the past I was disappointed that I didn’t win in situations where now I realize winning was just about impossible. I was actually not doing too bad.

The early, noob, assumption is that you will win all your games and all your fights…if you are a great player. So sure, roll a mantra mesmer and try to win all your fights against any class, ever, that tries to take you on.

Not gonna happen. As we all know.

Really, the only thing that makes real sense is being on a regular team and learning the strategies and inventing some with your team, and carrying them out. That seems to be what GW2 PvP combat and maps were designed for.

Being thrown onto a random team with no voice communication is just too…random! So much is out of your personal control.

I will say that spectating some really good players does open your eyes to the kinds of things you should be doing, but didn’t think were possible. It’s a learning experience.

At that level it is very fast paced. No time for thought. You see and your fingers do. You react. You anticipate and know the classes and the builds and you sense cooldowns and rhythms.

People who say this game has a low skill level are demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger effect, in my opinion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

From Wikipedia:

“Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

-Tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
-Fail to recognize genuine skill in others;
-Fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;
-Fail to recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they are exposed to training for that skill."

Knowing what you don’t know is the beginning of wisdom.

Laserbolt.6731:

People who say this game has a low skill level are demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger effect, in my opinion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

It’s not low nor high. What people probably meant and what i think is that it has low skill level compared to WOW during BC and WOTLK.