Guild Wars 2

(English is not my primary language so plz do not mind the strange grammars)

The developers seldom mention e-sports nowadays, likely due to the game being unready since launch. We saw that it was really messy when the game tried to launch an un-favored world cup with a broken condition meta and an angry community~

~but after the recent December 10th patch——

1. We now have a much bigger playerbase
-Internally more players of this game will actually play its PvP aspect
-Externally, it is much more proper now to advertise GW2 as a PvP-oriented game.

2. The latest balance patch has brought all 8 classes back to the game
-Build diversity is increased thanks to the rise of support builds and weapons that were under-used before (such as staff elementalists) are showing up
-Fairness is looking healthier than before

3. Spectator-ship is improving
-Spectator mode is well in place with much friendlier user interface
-On the field, visual clarity is much better with the LOD technology

4. The community can finally work with the developers. This is a good thing from both sides.
-The community always has wanted to help the game grow, and have constantly come up with great ideas
-The developers made the right choice by changing their attitudes. They have started listening and incorporating several demands from the players, even creating CDI for intensive communications. This will go a long way towards sustaining a bigger and growing playerbase in the future.

I think we are readier than before.

If you ask me what is the best thing I would like to see in 2014’s gaming world—-it’s Guild Wars 2 as an e-sport. After all, we did make it into Major League Gaming, didn’t we?
What do you think?

Since things didn’t go as well as expected, it would be unwise to start hyping esports too much.

It’s great that since the last patch, the pvp base has grown somewhat! I’m hopeful that with the new pvp roadmap, if changes don’t come about too slowly, it might continue growing.

(inb4 all is vain posts :P)

Rallad.3802:

Since things didn’t go as well as expected, it would be unwise to start hyping esports too much.

It’s great that since the last patch, the pvp base has grown somewhat! I’m hopeful that with the new pvp roadmap, if changes don’t come about too slowly, it might continue growing.

(inb4 all is vain posts :P)

Yep, let’s hope the devs have the steel to back up their words of bringing real ladders, more game modes and an whole new reward system— I am somewhat content with the current one, though. As long as I can buy cultural gears.

(gf left me anyway might as well just~
wait.)

The lack of proper balance-knowlege on the side of A-Net and the flawed infrastrucutre will slowing down the process of reaching an acceptable level of PvP. Still hope the game will get on a good level though . . .

Let’s hope the new game modes and ladder come quicker than everyone is thinking. And when it comes to balance, no memo has ever achieved balance when it comes to wanting to have diversity in builds and such. I just don’t think its possible. I would love an esport scene as well.

The balance is not there, for one you can’t have a esport when countering an attack depends on animations and no cast bar when you have character models that are so tiny that you can’t see them with the naked eye, Anet would need to add enemy cast bars.

Another thing Anet would need to do is fix overpowered class builds, nerf conditions by a lot as of right now to many classes have it far to easy with conditions, this will result in every player just playing the same classes in a esport setting.

Another thing is classes with loads of pets, meaning condition Mesmers with 15 clones, Necros with there 72 demons and spirit Rangers playing the game for them, those classes have a unfair advantage over other classes and builds, the skill floor is super low and the effective result is super high, pretty much facerolling to victory.

Anet would also have to fix the skill caps and floors for each class, you cant have a esport when some classes can do the same as another class with half the effort.

Anet should just forget about the idea and focus on doing the best they can in making the game fun, adding content and so on, to make this game an esport game would be a waste of time by now, you want esport, you’ll have to go with FPS combat or moba games, MMO games are just to tricky to pull.

Warjin.8942:

The balance is not there, for one you can’t have a esport when countering an attack depends on animations and no cast bar when you have character models that are so tiny that you can’t see them with the naked eye, Anet would need to add enemy cast bars.

Interestingly, ANet has been pretty insistent in not making the cast bars, saying they want players to look at animations not UIs. I’m sure many of you know more about this than I do. Only time will tell if they can admit asura’s animations are simply too hard to read, even at melee range.

Warjin.8942:

Another thing Anet would need to do is fix overpowered class builds, nerf conditions by a lot as of right now to many classes have it far to easy with conditions, this will result in every player just playing the same classes in a esport setting.

I do agree that condition builds are a bit to mainstream now. Still, axe warriors and sword guardians are showing up and supporter builds have received their buff quite a time ago. So well~ I think it’s safe to say that build diversity is not good enough, but better than before.

Warjin.8942:

Another thing is classes with loads of pets, meaning condition Mesmers with 15 clones, Necros with there 72 demons and spirit Rangers playing the game for them, those classes have a unfair advantage over other classes and builds, the skill floor is super low and the effective result is super high, pretty much facerolling to victory.

As a necromancer main, I agree completely. I myself use the dagger/warhorn and I see that our MM comrade is being too user-friendly, whereas power builds have to work much harder to have a even chance. But as a casual PvPer I can beat MM since AoE wells kill the pets very fast~~I won’t go into details because again, I am a casual player so a lot of you know much better about balance than I do.
I’m just saying that as long as I can beat an “OP” build with my own “not-OP” build I am content.

I would be so bold to raise a comparison that is Protoss vs. Terran in StarCraft 2. Players of this game know that Protoss is a race that has much more automatic systems whereas Terran requires very intensive control. On the higher level of skill, Terran players actually perform much better than Protoss players do because automatic system can only get you so far.
Same applies for MM and spirit rangers I believe. It was a big shame that the last world-cup ended with both teams having spirit ranger but ANet nerfed spirits afterwards, so ~

Warjin.8942:

Anet should just forget about the idea and focus on doing the best they can in making the game fun, adding content and so on, to make this game an esport game would be a waste of time by now, you want esport, you’ll have to go with FPS combat or moba games, MMO games are just to tricky to pull.

I agree that being fun is the 1st priority. Right now, though, there are no MMOs out there being a legitimate e-sport, so if ANet can pull this e-sport off, it would be the first and ever in the industry. Imagine the glory (and profit).
They nearly did it with GW1 (which, I agree is the superior game PvP-wise). They can do this with GW2 given enough dedication (and support).

@nicknamenick
I too know it is a sad way to reply to him and hope I could do better.

Ferik.3127:

~but after the recent December 10th patch——

This patch change nothing.

GW2’s e-sport failed on so many levels, that i don’t know where to begin.

If i had to start somewhere, it would be the interface.

I’m looking at this from the perspective of a new player.
Accessing SPvP is confusing.
Joining a team is confusing.
Leaving a game is confusing.
Ranks, Traits, Gear, Weapons.. all confusing.
GW2 seriously needs tooltips for all this.

GW2’s SPvP tries to fuse a First-Person Shooter browser with an MMO. This is very bad. It needs to replace Play Now with Random, to make it more clear. The whole browser needs a revamp though.

The combat would be next. GW2’s combat doesn’t work well with PvP, because it’s combat is based on the Fantasy genre. Skills are wasted if you use them while out of range. This is bad, due to the long coolodowns. There isn’t any target-of-target, so it’s combat is random and unpredictable, and not skillful.

I could go on, but there really is no point. SPvP will never radically change the way it should, since it’s devs have a different vision as to how it should be. It would take a total revamp of the combat system, which will never happen.

nexxe.7081:

GW2’s e-sport failed on so many levels, that i don’t know where to begin.

If i had to start somewhere, it would be the interface.

I’m looking at this from the perspective of a new player.
Accessing SPvP is confusing.
Joining a team is confusing.
Leaving a game is confusing.
Ranks, Traits, Gear, Weapons.. all confusing.
GW2 seriously needs tooltips for all this.

GW2’s SPvP tries to fuse a First-Person Shooter browser with an MMO. This is very bad. It needs to replace Play Now with Random, to make it more clear. The whole browser needs a revamp though.

The combat would be next. GW2’s combat doesn’t work well with PvP, because it’s combat is based on the Fantasy genre. Skills are wasted if you use them while out of range. This is bad, due to the long coolodowns. There isn’t any target-of-target, so it’s combat is random and unpredictable, and not skillful.

I could go on, but there really is no point. SPvP will never radically change the way it should, since it’s devs have a different vision as to how it should be. It would take a total revamp of the combat system, which will never happen.

Huh?
Joining PvP – go to PvP menu
Joining team game – click join team queue
Leaving game – wait for it to end?
Ranks, traits, gear – just like all other MMOs
combat? Best combat an mmo has. It requires skill rather than percentage. If you use a skill outside of range that’s your fault and requires basic “skill”.

Only thing I can kinda agree with are how weapons work since traditional MMOs don’t do this thus it might need some explaining but it tells you at the beginning of the game. And maybe change play now to random but that’s so minimal its not really a big deal and pretty obvious that clicking play now will put you in a random game. If you’re a true beginner at this game as in you’ve never played an mmo before then you need to play it for a bit which every game requires before you even try to start playing it seriously as an esport.

If this is why you think it can’t be an expert than you are way off base. You can’t play a game professional as an expert as a beginner and this has nothing to do with esport material.

^ I zzzzzzzzzz at combat in gw2. Vindi beats the s.. out of it.

Scoobaniec.9561:

^ I zzzzzzzzzz at combat in gw2. Vindi beats the s.. out of it.

Vindictus? Vindictus’s PvP is horrible lol, and dead. The combat is cool yes but not as good as gw2. All it has is button smashing on your mouse and dodging nonstop. You don’t even really have different abilities. I wouldn’t even consider it a real mmorpg as its all instanced based and isn’t even that big but I won’t deny its boss battles and such are really cool and for its style of game its a cool idea but its nowhere close similar to normal MMOs. There are games like eqnext and black desert that might be better in the future but as it stands now, gw2 is the best imo. It is all about personal preference though.

Cush.4063:

Scoobaniec.9561:

^ I zzzzzzzzzz at combat in gw2. Vindi beats the s.. out of it.

Vindictus? Vindictus’s PvP is horrible lol, and dead. The combat is cool yes but not as good as gw2. All it has is button smashing on your mouse and dodging nonstop. You don’t even really have different abilities. I wouldn’t even consider it a real mmorpg as its all instanced based and isn’t even that big but I won’t deny its boss battles and such are really cool and for its style of game its a cool idea but its nowhere close similar to normal MMOs. There are games like eqnext and black desert that might be better in the future but as it stands now, gw2 is the best imo. It is all about personal preference though.

But at least its fun. Some stuff is horrible simply bc they dont have resources. Rebember it is just a korean mmo while gw2 is aaa title. And in my personal opinion gw2 is a joke as aaa title. I know about black btw. olny 1 thing for sure, i won’t touch any 12345 mmos anymore. And thats my point; gw2 was promoted as action mmo, but its far from it. Sure it has dodge mechanic, but other than that its like every other mmo.

Btw..gw2 pvp is also dead what does it mean?

Also looking at both games in my opinion vindi takes definitely more skill than gw. Ranget, spirits, rdy, goo smashing 1.

If you like competitive GW2 matches, blu42 does a lot for this games in terms of really really professional casts and you should check it out. Here’s his youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/DocterBlu?feature=watch

Writetyper.1985:

If you like competitive GW2 matches, blu42 does a lot for this games in terms of really really professional casts and you should check it out. Here’s his youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/DocterBlu?feature=watch

Awesome! Thanks for sharing
I think this channel has been pasted around for quite some time, yes? Saw the 2013 in PvP video before.

I don’t know how hard it is to do, but this game needs a seperate free to play PvP client. It would help grow the PvP playerbase. I have friends who want to try the PvP but don’t want to buy a full game.

eksn.7264:

I don’t know how hard it is to do, but this game needs a seperate free to play PvP client. It would help grow the PvP playerbase. I have friends who want to try the PvP but don’t want to buy a full game.

This wouldn’t help at all. Just look at SC2, SC, or even GW. Plenty of people would be willing to buy the game if it’s good.

nah

I definitely want to see it too. PvP has been awesome the past few weeks, and the game (at least in my own opinion) is headed in a good direction. Dont get me wrong though we have a long way to go, but I am hopeful we could see some awesome stuff by the end of next year.

Tournament viewership numbers have started going up as well (ESL Weekly cups for instance were getting around 5-600 viewers where they only had 2-300 previously) and with more and more events popping up in the coming months stuff should start to get really interesting. The support from you guys on the viewership end has been awesome, and if you keep it up, some cool stuff may be on its way.

And speaking of MLG for you guys in NA check out the MLG gamebattles ladder! If we get that active and rolling we could have some real competition starting up!

i dont care for e-sport and there will never be e-sport when for arenanet its not even possible to make there gamemodes fun and fair for the players so people wanna play it

teamQ worsed thing ever – teams farm randoms – seriously? and to force solo player to go in this crap with more than double rewards to have canonfodder for the 5-10 e-sport teams is just pathetic

stop stupid e-sport and bring the fun

i buyd a game and not a twitch channel

BLUna.7928:

I definitely want to see it too. PvP has been awesome the past few weeks, and the game (at least in my own opinion) is headed in a good direction. Dont get me wrong though we have a long way to go, but I am hopeful we could see some awesome stuff by the end of next year.

Tournament viewership numbers have started going up as well (ESL Weekly cups for instance were getting around 5-600 viewers where they only had 2-300 previously) and with more and more events popping up in the coming months stuff should start to get really interesting. The support from you guys on the viewership end has been awesome, and if you keep it up, some cool stuff may be on its way.

And speaking of MLG for you guys in NA check out the MLG gamebattles ladder! If we get that active and rolling we could have some real competition starting up!

I actually really apreciate your work Blu but it’s really sad to have only so few hundreed views.Imo even at 10k would still be a joke for an Esport and that current game state is not that promising.Even the spectator mode is hard to digest, half the time you can’t even see what’s going on between all the ai, teleports and spell effects into a clusterkitten mass of leprecons, rainbows and unicorns smashed together and blown by a nuke on the screen.
Not even mentioning the obvious lack of skillbased combat that allows a player to read the combat like casting bars, wich is a must for real competitive play.Besides other huge inbalances like some classes have melee range telegraphed ccs/attacks with very obvious animations while others have ranged, instant, unblockable with no animation counterparts.
Gw2 is really far from an esport scene and tbh even insider gw2 pvp is rather dead.

They completely ruined the image and the name of its predecessor.

From 2-300 to 5-600, awesome, i guess .
It’s like when they said we doubled the pvp playerbase with our new rewards for pvp, yeah, that’s because u had like 200 playerbase, so doubling is easy and of course u don’t compare that number with the best numbers, when the hype was at it’s peak, because then the picture would be awfull.

Ferik.3127:

1. We now have a much bigger playerbase

The playerbase is really small. Thereis less than 1k people seriously playing pvp.

Ferik.3127:

2. The latest balance patch has brought all 8 classes back to the game

This is not true. The game is still hugely imbalanced, classes like the ele are unplayable in competitive PvP, and anet has clearly shown that they don’t understand about balance, reward vs skill, active play and instead make OP passive builds

Ferik.3127:

3. Spectator-ship is improving

No, the only thing you can see is many aoes and pets running around. The situation was already terrible and their 10th december response has been adding another spirit, which clearly shows PvE is the priority.

4. The community can finally work with the developers. This is a good thing from both sides.

I agree here

Marcos.3690:

1. The playerbase is really small. Thereis less than 1k people seriously playing pvp.

2. This is not true. The game is still hugely imbalanced, classes like the ele are unplayable in competitive PvP, and anet has clearly shown that they don’t understand about balance, reward vs skill, active play and instead make OP passive builds

3. No, the only thing you can see is many aoes and pets running around. The situation was already terrible and their 10th december response has been adding another spirit, which clearly shows PvE is the priority.

4. I agree here

1. At the very least, it is growing back. Not pretty, no, but we all have to start somewhere. Besides, I don’t think the developers would announce the plan for new Ladder system if the playerbase isn’t that big

Also, I assure you, this forum, especially this PvP section, is one of the most responsive in all the forums I browse everyday. Plus, I think it is the participation that matters. I am not seeing that many posts, yes, but I am seeing a high frequency of replying to each thread. There is always new topics to discuss (and new QQs to make. Yep~^_^). Kindly I invite you to ponder on how this is possible if the playerbase is that small, as you so stated.

2. I remember that a few months prior, Mesmer was the class seen widely in hotjoins but almost extinct in tPvP (which was even before the supporter-theme patch). People posted about it here, saying Mesmer is basically unplayable as a competitive class. Now, we almost do not see ANY of those threads.

I believe Elementalist is currently in the same situaton. After Dec.10th I am seeing more and more eles on server 001~020—i dare say it is a good sign. But yes, it is true that Elementalists almost never show up in tPvP nowadays, while Mesmers do. Again, I am a casual player so I am not sure whether this is simply that “Community has yet to adapt to the new meta” or there is something in the class design that is preventing Elementalist from entering competitve play “again”(Almost a year ago, D/D Ele was dominating everyone~! Such irony..).

3. Spirit Ranger needs another shave, I agree. I think the nerf, if any, has to be even bigger than what they have done to D/D Ele for the players to actually feel the effect. Even in the days when D/D Ele was boss, it at least required the player to actively control, not drool while his pets do just about all the CC and attacks.
I am unsure what relation between the Water Spirit and “PvE priority” you are referring to. Is it because these new healing skills are not used as often as the traditional ones in PvP?

4. I appreciate that you take the time to debate. The more debates and less anger we carry, the better improvement for the game. Uh, I am lecturing again, sorry ’bout that. :P

Passive gameplay ruins the competitiveness. Fixing it requires an entire overhaul (not just some balancing and tweaking of numbers).

We still need lots of features that have been requested…like… pre-launch?

I’m not an sPvP’er but i can tell you, when a game like snowball mayhem is more fun to watch and play than your sPvP matches, you’re doing it wrong. Hell, even kegbrawl is more fun. Capture the point is utterly boring to watch and even more so to play IMO.

It’s not the ele community that can’t adapt.

There isn’t any combination of traits, utilities amulet and runes for the ele that is as good as the other classes except maybe super tanky and pushing far. And still, engi does it better

butch.8136:

Passive gameplay ruins the competitiveness. Fixing it requires an entire overhaul (not just some balancing and tweaking of numbers).

We still need lots of features that have been requested…like… pre-launch?

Baldric.6781:

From 2-300 to 5-600, awesome, i guess .
It’s like when they said we doubled the pvp playerbase with our new rewards for pvp, yeah, that’s because u had like 200 playerbase, so doubling is easy and of course u don’t compare that number with the best numbers, when the hype was at it’s peak, because then the picture would be awfull.

Exactly, it’s the little victories that count these days.

Have no E-sport with some ridiculous traits and skills (Automated Response and Desperate Decoy for example…)

BLUna.7928:

Baldric.6781:

From 2-300 to 5-600, awesome, i guess .
It’s like when they said we doubled the pvp playerbase with our new rewards for pvp, yeah, that’s because u had like 200 playerbase, so doubling is easy and of course u don’t compare that number with the best numbers, when the hype was at it’s peak, because then the picture would be awfull.

Exactly, it’s the little victories that count these days.

Advertisements, maybe? We need someone to post here everytime your channel is updated. Back in the days Helseth’s faithfuls posted every week when a new Rant of the Week goes up.

By all Six Gods, I kinda miss Helseth

Ferik.3127:

BLUna.7928:

Baldric.6781:

From 2-300 to 5-600, awesome, i guess .
It’s like when they said we doubled the pvp playerbase with our new rewards for pvp, yeah, that’s because u had like 200 playerbase, so doubling is easy and of course u don’t compare that number with the best numbers, when the hype was at it’s peak, because then the picture would be awfull.

Exactly, it’s the little victories that count these days.

Advertisements, maybe? We need someone to post here everytime your channel is updated. Back in the days Helseth’s faithfuls posted every week when a new Rant of the Week goes up.

By all Six Gods, I kinda miss Helseth

oh hes still around :P But anyway, yea Im trying to get the word out more about my channel. Also would help if I kept to my own upload schedule lol, but it’s very much a work in progress trying to juggle everything else in my life. Hopefully I can work it down to a routine soon enough, because I think there is a pretty big audience that can be gained from people hearing about the game over youtube, especially from shoutcasted matches. Spreading the word as best as you guys can definitely helps me out though, and I am extremely appreciate of the support you guys have been giving me over the past 7-8 months now. <3