Guild Wars 2

Allie Murdock.8152:

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

You guys really are out of touch with the community, sad.

The majority do not care if Skyhammer stays or not but I don’t think many people actually really want it to stay meaning it should probably be removed.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey all,

In case you haven’t seen some of the posts I’ve already made, I’m back! I’ll be covering PvP/WvW/Balance teams for community coordination.

That’s pretty much the short version. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here!

- Allie

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Welcome back Allie, did you do anything fun on your “break”?

Allie Murdock.8152:

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

First, appreciate the direct response on the issue after all this time.

But the answer itself is puzzling. The feedback on this map is overwhelmingly negative both here and in-game. Nobody wants it removed altogether, just taken out of the solo queue rotation. What exactly would it take to convince you that the majority wants that change made?

Honestly, it sounds like you guys are just kicking the can down the road because you don’t want to make a change.

Yasha.5963:

Allie Murdock.8152:

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

You guys really are out of touch with the community, sad.

no one wants it gone for good, just remove it from soloQ

felivear.1536:

We have proven without a doubt that a majority, a large majority even, of tournament players hate Skyhammer.

Can you provide the evidences ?
Seriously I do not feel Skyhammer is fair/balanced and do not like it for spvp. I would be pleased to have it removed but how on earth can you argue you have proven something ?
50 infinite threads on guys crying on a forum is not an evidence that large majority hate the map.
Maybe you have real figures…if yes where do you get them from ?

Allie Murdock.8152:

we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

You know what, ill help you out on this one.

What i can do is play a couple of 100 soloq games coming week and screenshot every single matchup. I can ask the players on those screenshots what they think about the map and if they think it should be out of the rotation.

I can make a nice spreadsheet for you so can see the results with your own eyes. I will start this research coming monday.

Kicast.1459:

Maybe you have real figures…if yes where do you get them from ?

That strawpoll with like 400 votes is allready quite reliable if you compare it to the active pvp community. But as i stated before in this post i will investigate it further.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Hey all,

In case you haven’t seen some of the posts I’ve already made, I’m back! I’ll be covering PvP/WvW/Balance teams for community coordination.

That’s pretty much the short version. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here!

- Allie

Dear Allie,
Welcome back.
Now that you in charge of PvP/WvW/Balance teams, can you briefly give your view on current balance situation:
- what is ok
- what needs to be adjusted
for both wvw and pvp ?

Sometimes we feel lost with the changes you (Anet) provide.
Better visibility on your (Anet) understanding of the game would be helpfull to better understand what you call “where we want the game to be…”

allo allie

Locuz.2651:

You know what, ill help you out on this one.

What i can do is play a couple of 100 soloq games coming week and screenshot every single matchup. I can ask the players on those screenshots what they think about the map and if they think it should be out of the rotation.

I can make a nice spreadsheet for you so can see the results with your own eyes. I will start this research coming monday.

Funny, I was thinking about doing something similar myself, just sending whispers to random players in say, the top 500 of the solo queue. Good luck (and thanks) if you do it, though I’m skeptical if they will even really care.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Josh isn’t gone, but his focus will be shifted. I’m not taking his job, he was actually filling in for me while I was gone. He’ll be around, and with us on Ready Up still, just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

Hey Allie, an idea that would help the devs simultaneously get feedback and satisfy the players could be to add a check box in the Solo Queue interface to ’’deny’’ a map, but only a single map (wouldn’t affect the queue times much). This would help determine the exact amount of players that dislike a specific map (or simply don’t like to use a specific build to be optimal in that specific map) , and it doesn’t force those that do like it to stop playing it altogether.

Players like me have been solo queuing Team Queue as a work around. Please help us!

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

Allie Murdock.8152:

Josh isn’t gone, but his focus will be shifted. I’m not taking his job, he was actually filling in for me while I was gone. He’ll be around, and with us on Ready Up still, just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

That’s because everyone who hates the map has just switched to solo-queuing in teamQ.

I recently made the mistake of doing soloQ again and landed in Skyhammer. I quit the match 2 minutes in because it’s an unbearable map to play.

Anyway, some hotter topics these past weeks were:

• The relative power of +/- 40% Condition duration food compared to all others (incl. traits).
• Thieves pushing all other roamers out of the PvP meta.
• Decap Engineers
• Downed-State/Rally mechanic possible reworks.
• Points-per-tick being a terrible scoring mechanism.
• etc.

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Grouch is in the “alpha team” now apparently. That means he MUST be working on pvp as we all know that the pvp is basically an alpha in that it doesnt even have all the features which are to be expected from a £60 game with a in game store yet.

aussieheals.6843:

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

Your wish is my command.

felivear.1536:

aussieheals.6843:

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

ain’t gettin on no hammer train

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

The big D-word? ………………………………………..

DESIGNER?

You don’t need to remove Skyhammer to satisfy most players. A better solution is simply to redesign some of its more aggravating and non-competitive mechanics. For example:

1. Continue adding guardrails and reducing breakable panels.
2. Remove the respawn timer for deaths resulting from knock-offs.
3. Halve the damage from canon blasts (or make them dodgeable).
4. Create an objective where we can obtain stability for a brief time.

This would at least retain map diversity, while addressing the concerns of most players.

felivear.1536:

aussieheals.6843:

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

I love the internet

Allie Murdock.8152:

I said won’t be as active. Not that he’s disappearing completely.

Welcome back. There’s a thread on the Mesmer forums I’d suggest you take a look at. It has to do with Mesmers no longer being viable in the PvP meta (and yet continuing to get nerfed):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/tPvP-Losing-motivation-need-pep-talk/first

Allie Murdock.8152:

Josh isn’t gone, but his focus will be shifted. I’m not taking his job, he was actually filling in for me while I was gone. He’ll be around, and with us on Ready Up still, just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.

As for skyhammer in solo arena, we’re kicking around some ideas (definitely not ignoring you guys, just fyi). As of right now, we have no plans to remove it. We’re not quite convinced yet that the majority of our pvp population want it gone, so we’re trying to get metrics on that before we make any changes.

I love Skyhammer.

I’ve been entering team queue since it’s rewards got buffed to be more than twice those in solo queue, and I’ve missed playing that map. Don’t let me vocal minority of Skyhammer haters convince you guys to do anything that isn’t in the best interest of the community.

I’m happy whenever any new map is added because there are so few. +1 for Skyhammer.

And it’s definitely not my least favorite map. I wouldn’t be devastated if they made the cannon dodgeable though.

Hi Allie,

Do you know if ANet still plan on doing GvG outside of WvW? It was mentioned at launch but still nothing for a while now.

Thanks

I hate skyhammer with a passion. Im 100 % certain that skyhammer and skyhammer like mechanics (1-2 shots) are huge part of the reason why GW2s spvp flopped so incredibly hard. At this moment pvp in this game a total waste of resources.

Listening to the few trolls that will insist that this map is great, will keep the pvp in this game in an everlasting downed state.

Hugh Norfolk.2798:

felivear.1536:

aussieheals.6843:

felivear.1536:

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Your new title says, “Anet Alpha Team”. What exactly does an Alpha Team member do? Your new title is intriguing. I’m thinking you’re now the member of an elite squad with black suits, sunglasses and earpieces. Maybe your work is classified.

Wait…don’t tell me..because then you’ll have to kill me.

Obviously, The A Team

Was so temped to create a meme with Grouchs face on Mr T, would of been epic

Why can’t I like this post more than once!!!!!!

Because you guys would have to hire more than one person to program it. Ewww…sweet burn.

Locuz.2651:

Listening to the few trolls that will insist that this map is great, will keep the pvp in this game in an everlasting downed state.

I didn’t realize my opinion was wrong and I was trolling you until you pointed that out. Thank you kind sir! You have a cheerful and pleasant way of helping us all. God bless you.

Josh Davis.6015:

felivear.1536:

what does this line mean: “[Grouch] just won’t be as active on the forums or behind the scenes.”

Hmm, that did sound a bit ominous! Don’t worry – I’m still here, I’m just switching to a different team. It’s true that I won’t be as active on these forums, but I should still be active “behind the scenes” unless someone forgot to deliver the terrible news to me. -.-

Guild Wars 2 PvP is the main reason why I came to ArenaNet. I’ll always have my finger on the pulse, whether that’s from reading the forums in my spare time, or logging in to play after work.

Something something, touching moment, something something, this is not goodbye.

Another pvp resource moved to pve land…

Are you red coat ?

Kicast.1459:

felivear.1536:

We have proven without a doubt that a majority, a large majority even, of tournament players hate Skyhammer.

Can you provide the evidences ?

feel free to log in and ask people what they think of the map and how many of them would actually pay to have it removed.
that is the lengths some of us would go through to have skyhammer out of the normal rotations (hotjoin too so we don’t have to keep changing servers repeatedly each time it gets to skyhammer)
its a troll map created for trolls to annoy anyone who is not running a trollhammer specific build.
it doesn’t belong in normal queues.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Just because we don’t have any plans to remove skyhammer from solo arena right now, doesn’t mean we aren’t kicking around ideas. I can’t get into much detail about it, but we’re trying to figure out how to measure it’s effect on solo arena.

Unfortunately, one straw poll of 300ish people is a very, very small amount of our active player base. It may not seem like we have many people playing because we are all spread over different servers, but our active numbers are much, much bigger than that.

What I meant by behind the scenes, is that I am coordinating the PvP/WvW/Balance community effort, and Josh will be focusing on other things. I didn’t want to say he’s leaving, because he’s not (refer to his post in here). He’s all about the PvP. We’re not “losing him to PvE”. Sorry if that sounded ominous.

Why not let us block it off of solo queue individually? Let those who like playing it, play it; and those who don’t, don’t.

Seems like the best solution. Even Bliz finally did that, which made sense.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Unfortunately, one straw poll of 300ish people is a very, very small amount of our active player base. It may not seem like we have many people playing because we are all spread over different servers, but our active numbers are much, much bigger than that.

Based on my personal experiences — talking to people about PvP, seeing the same people in consecutive matches — and the way the numbers/percentiles work on the leaderboard, I really wonder how many people actually are active in sPvP.

My guess is it’s in the single thousands or low tens of thousands at most across the entire game. National political polls gauging the sentiment of millions of people are conducted generally with sample sizes of around 1,000, with very high accuracy.

A straw poll is not as rigorous, but that doesn’t mean its figures should be summarily discarded especially given a lack of contradictory evidence.

I’m glad to see someone from Arenanet now at least discussing this issue, but I think you are not looking at this in a neutral way if you really don’t see a very strong current of opposition to having this map in solo queue.

How hard is it to understand this cancerous map is bad for any skilled play? The team with more Engineers or Thieves using stealth pulls/knockbacks wins every single time. If you are put on a team of people who hate the kittenty map and don’t change to their specially made kittenhammer character you will get a guaranteed loss. Remove the kittenty map first and then think of how to improve it.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

Ahh the “real” hidden metrics card. Much the same as being told to do something and when asked why; “BECAUSE I TOLD YOU TO”. Care to share?

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

edit: I’ve talked to a lot of people personally, and the feelings are mixed. I’d say it’s actually close to 50/50. Regardless, talking to random people is not a real metric for the consensus of the playerbase.

Look, we know how passionate some of you feel about this, which is why I’m talking to you about it and why we’re looking into options for what we can do.

Why not allow us to block if we don’t want to participate?

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

I can be told, “I have this data here that i can’t show you that proves otherwise” but it’s going to be difficult to convince me away from what I see.

When I Solo Q and Skyhammer comes up, the first thing you see in almost all the matches is “GOD….WHY THIS MAP” or, “great skyhammer again”, or “The SPvP Gods hate me….Skyhammer again.” That doesn’t happen for any other map that I’ve played.

If so many people hate it, why not pull it out of the rotation while you guys, “look at your datasheets for answers” or whatever. Don’t make us suffer while Anet looks into it. Because we know the speed of Anet.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

Okay, so ballpark, how many GW2 players play at least 1 solo queue match per week, for example? Can you tell us?

Allie Murdock.8152:

edit: I’ve talked to a lot of people personally, and the feelings are mixed. I’d say it’s actually close to 50/50. Regardless, talking to random people is not a real metric for the consensus of the playerbase.

No, but it’s a strong indicator.

But really, even if it’s 50/50 — and I have my doubts that half the people like that map and want everyone to be forced to play it — that’s pretty horrible. Can you imagine any business sticking around if half its customers were unhappy? This isn’t a business, but still, that’s a terrible satisfaction rate for something that people have no way of avoiding short of not playing solo queue or shafting their teammates.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Look, we know how passionate some of you feel about this, which is why I’m talking to you about it and why we’re looking into options for what we can do.

And just to be clear, though I’ve already said it 2 or 3 times, this is a vast improvement over 600-post threads with no red in them, so thank you again.

Don’t remove Skyhammer from PvP, just remove the glass parts that break and you fall through. And nerf the hammer a tad either damage, knockback, make it blockable, slower CD, or something. Why? Because compare it to Khylo trebs. The treb can hit most of the map, has to be manually aimed both direction and distance, can be dodged, and can be destroyed. The hammer? hits the entire map, no brains aiming, can’t dodge it, can’t destroy it.

You could still get pulled off, you still need to fight away from the edge if you don’t want to get ganked, the hammer area is still small to fight over, but at least we won’t have invisible thieves scorpion-wiring you into oblivion and mesmers removing your stability and pulling or pushing you to your death.

Or even have an area underneath so if you fall through you wouldn’t die but you would be certainly inconvenienced having to get back up (with one of those launcher things).

Solstice.1097:

Don’t remove Skyhammer from PvP, just remove the glass parts that break and you fall through. And nerf the hammer a tad either damage, knockback, make it blockable, slower CD, or something. Why? Because compare it to Khylo trebs. The treb can hit most of the map, has to be manually aimed both direction and distance, can be dodged, and can be destroyed. The hammer? hits the entire map, no brains aiming, can’t dodge it, can’t destroy it.

You could still get pulled off, you still need to fight away from the edge if you don’t want to get ganked, the hammer area is still small to fight over, but at least we won’t have invisible thieves scorpion-wiring you into oblivion and mesmers removing your stability and pulling or pushing you to your death.

Or even have an area underneath so if you fall through you wouldn’t die but you would be certainly inconvenienced having to get back up (with one of those launcher things).

I would be more about a revamp. I like that the mechanics for skyhammer are different. Control classes get their chance to shine. It places a premium on player positioning. I am not saying that it is perfect. It needs changes. I also think people need to be more creative than, “Get rid of it in Solo Queue”.

Well since we are all here
#EvanLesh4PrezandCEO2014

Allie Murdock.8152:

Nope, it’s much, much higher than that. We have real metrics to observe these things.

edit: I’ve talked to a lot of people personally, and the feelings are mixed. I’d say it’s actually close to 50/50. Regardless, talking to random people is not a real metric for the consensus of the playerbase.

Look, we know how passionate some of you feel about this, which is why I’m talking to you about it and why we’re looking into options for what we can do.

Thank you for speaking to us about this issue. I am really hoping that you’ll find a way to solve this issue in the best possible way. By the way, there are many haters & naysayers about this game but personally, I kittening love the PvP. There are just a few things which make the experience frustrating at times: skyhammer and 4v5s being in the top. Some classes/abilities need fixing but I think there is nothing absolutely overwhelming like other games I’ve played have had.

50/50 becasue 50% of the classes get to troll the other classes on that stupid map.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Just because we don’t have any plans to remove skyhammer from solo arena right now, doesn’t mean we aren’t kicking around ideas. I can’t get into much detail about it, but we’re trying to figure out how to measure it’s effect on solo arena.

I love how this is such a typical ANet response. Keep everything extremely vague in order to keep the concerned pacified while the devs do less for the game than the players do (just look at the Balance forum). There is absolutely no transparency here, and quite frankly, it’s extremely frustrating for those of us that are actually concerned about this game. The next balance patch, from what we’ve been hearing, is still ages away (though, not surprisingly, even a rough time frame is difficult to determine due to ANet’s policy of keeping everything as vague as possible), and people want to know that things are going to change for the better if they actually have to wait for that long. These types of responses are not helpful to the community whatsoever.

Unfortunately, one straw poll of 300ish people is a very, very small amount of our active player base. It may not seem like we have many people playing because we are all spread over different servers, but our active numbers are much, much bigger than that.

You don’t need a straw poll in order to determine that certain classes/builds have a massive theoretical advantage over others on that terrible map. Sure, keep it in hot join; hot join is meant to have fun, and even though the map is poorly designed, at least it can be enjoyable. However, SoloQ is meant to be competitive. The entire point of balance is to give classes equal footing. However, Skyhammer goes completely against this idea, and gives some classes a massive advantage over others. For instance, thief is nearly inviable on Skyhammer, because of its lack of stability and CC, as well as its frequent reliance on skills like Withdraw, Roll for Initiative, and Shadowstep that call for a more open and less hazardous battleground. On the other hand, engis and warriors are able to get tons of CC’ing ability via AoE stability and lots of knock backs/pulls. If SoloQ is going to be held as a “competitive” game mode (which is a pretty terrible joke even without Skyhammer due to the ridiculous ranking system) then maps like Skyhammer have to go.

…Sorry if that sounded ominous.

When doesn’kitten