Guild Wars 2

I think the league reward structure needs to change and here is why:

If I get to Ruby and I can’t make it out, the system has said that this is where I belong in terms of skill. If I have already completed the achievements I can get for the season, there is now no difference between ranked and unranked. I have basically “capped” my reward progression. So how do we keep people playing in rank for reward IF that is their incentive rather than just playing for fun?

1. Reward track progress boost per tier of play
Reward people in each tier with a multiplier for getting through the reward tracks faster. So Amber would be a 1x multiplier, Emerald would be a 1.25, Sapphire would be a 1.50, Ruby would be 1.75, and Diamond would be 2x multiplier. You can tweak the numbers but this would mean that you would complete reward tracks faster based when playing ranked over unranked.

2. Allow shards of glory to purchase non HoT ascended weapon chests. Make it high like 5k or something. That way you can farm ranked for shards and since ascended items are account bound, you don’t mess up the Trading Post

3. Introduce 3 legendary reward tracks that you can unlock each time you hit a Legendary rank. So you hit Legend x1, you get one unlock. You hit legend x2, you have another unlock. You can make one the Sunless reward track for Sunless weapons, you could make another the Cultural Reward track for cultural armor skins, etc. Obviously they would need to include non HoT content since you have a mix of HoT and nonHot players.

This would allow people to earn new skins that are expensive by playing the game their way and most of them are account bound so they won’t mess with the TP.

TLDR: Increase the incentive to play ranked by making reward track grind easier, make shards of glory more useful, create legendary reward tracks that reward with some of the higher rewards from the base game.

EDIT: Rather than deleting item 3, I’ll just propose this:
Allow new reward tracks as stated above for Legendary but instead of rank, have them be unlocked by tickets. Since legendary players will have tons of tickets anyway, you could tie it to that which would also allow players to save up their tickets. Legendary players would unlock those reward faster. Also, instead of it being a “Sunless” track, you can make each reward track tier be the same as a boss chest with the last chest being a Sunless chest. The RNG would still be the same.

I like number 1. I get all my pve gear through the reward tracks. Accelerating this would be nice.

3. is awesome as well. Although pvp generates reasonable income now compared to years ago, I still cannot afford many higher end items.

just playing ranked games should reward you with something that isn’t in unranked, even when you don’t cross tiers or divisions.

It doesn’t need to be big, but people would accept getting to the league ranking they belong to more if the system didn’t punish them for not going up anymore.

The feeling of being stuck is awful mostly because the system tells you throught its reward system that you are not good enough, instead of encouraging you to become better.

I also strongly agree with making shards of glory more useful. i remember when they were announced, they were promised to be something Pvp players can make money off, and now they’re basically a non currency.
maybe make shard of glory only available throught ranked play ? it’s hard to do anything about that now because there’s billions of them available for basically nothing.

One interesting metric would be to know the % of players who finished achievements that can’t even make the legendary backpiece because griding for two seasons doesn’t even get you enough to buy the stuff for the gift of Fortune lol;

Yeah some kind of rewards in divisions would be nice. I got legendary backpack. Now what? zzzzz

Definitely would dig if we could buy more things with shards of glory.

Add more stuff to buy with pvp tickets. Examples: glorious hero armor pieces, old armors (you can’t get anymore) like tribal set, and for example special items like special keys to open special chest.

Example

You introduce a pvp pure reward track. This means no blue/green dungeon stuff, tomes etc. only stuff useful to pvp players but in general with not stuff not useful for them. This reward track has X chest you can open with the special keys you can buy with pvp tickets. OFC repeatable. Lile black lion chest but for pvp players with keys you can buy with your pvp tickets.

And add a pvp tickets bonus for legendary prestige +1, +2 etc.

Said this, rewards need some improvement but the main goal shoud make the game FUN.

So first of all

. Fix Matchmaking: I repeat here. you need to consider builds and meta builds in the matchmaking . Build the template system (useful for pve/www and spvp).
.Premades vs soloer. Stop this we can’t see anymore a 41vs11111 or 311 vs 11111 or combinations like that. This kills the game for many players. At higher level is a big problem
. Avoid totally bowout in lower tier. I kept my win streak basically until diamond in soloqueue with only 2 loss in Ruby and just other 3 loss from amber to ruby. This means I literally ruined so many games for lower skill players where I didn’t suppose to be there. This is a combination of skill and broken meta build
. Balance: like I said before there are builds who can carry A LOT, much than others. This is a balance issue.

armor and weapon skins reward track. The ones you get with Black Lion Claim Ticket.
its ok if they are like x10 as long . account bound items from this will be fine to .

I totally support these ideas!

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

Make MMR transparent – There’s your skill level.

Dirtyrascal.1023:

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

Make MMR transparent – There’s your skill level.

Have said it once, if I have said it 1000 times. Agree. Stop hiding behind ‘MMR’ if you believe matchmaking not to be broken.

these are great ideas but i wouldnt want them to take the place of any meaningful changes, or even come first. players could see that as a quick fix and given the current climate anything to tip the scales should be avoided.

Thiefz.3695:

I think the league reward structure needs to change and here is why:

If I get to Ruby and I can’t make it out, the system has said that this is where I belong in terms of skill. If I have already completed the achievements I can get for the season, there is now no difference between ranked and unranked. I have basically “capped” my reward progression. So how do we keep people playing in rank for reward IF that is their incentive rather than just playing for fun?

1. Reward track progress boost per tier of play
Reward people in each tier with a multiplier for getting through the reward tracks faster. So Amber would be a 1x multiplier, Emerald would be a 1.25, Sapphire would be a 1.50, Ruby would be 1.75, and Diamond would be 2x multiplier. You can tweak the numbers but this would mean that you would complete reward tracks faster based when playing ranked over unranked.

2. Allow shards of glory to purchase non HoT ascended weapon chests. Make it high like 5k or something. That way you can farm ranked for shards and since ascended items are account bound, you don’t mess up the Trading Post

3. Introduce 3 legendary reward tracks that you can unlock each time you hit a Legendary rank. So you hit Legend x1, you get one unlock. You hit legend x2, you have another unlock. You can make one the Sunless reward track for Sunless weapons, you could make another the Cultural Reward track for cultural armor skins, etc. Obviously they would need to include non HoT content since you have a mix of HoT and nonHot players.

This would allow people to earn new skins that are expensive by playing the game their way and most of them are account bound so they won’t mess with the TP.

TLDR: Increase the incentive to play ranked by making reward track grind easier, make shards of glory more useful, create legendary reward tracks that reward with some of the higher rewards from the base game.

I agree strongly with the first two- people should be rewarded for their time in pvp at least comparable to time spent in PvE. The third I have some reservations about- pvp rewards should not be locked behind legendary. Sure, go ahead and give them increased speed as in your first suggestion, but any player, no matter how good, should be allowed to work towards the same rewards. A big part of the problem in recent seasons has, I feel, been people wanting the rewards from climbing in the league rather than necessarily wanting the badge for pride’s sake. Remove that incentive and you can make leagues as strict and skill based as you like without hurting anyone- aside from maybe a few egos.

Please just take all rewards out of PVP ranking. The MMR ladder system was much better and more transparent. A shame so much time and effort that could have been spent elsewhere has been wasted ruining PvP for both PvPers and PVEers. Ill conceived and poorly executed.

I actually like nr. 1 best, its a great idea.

It makes up for longer queue times/matches in legendary and gives a little extra.
At the same time, casuals dont get punished for not making it to legendary. They just dont get the little extra, which they can make up for with grinding – if they want. Without however grinding up the ladder.

I like the reward tracks in pvp, I think they are a great incentive for new players to give pvp a try, and I think its kinda sad to have a flat progression there.

If you just make a buff for pvp, like the call to the mist one, that increases reward track gain according to division rank… this solution is actually pretty easily implemented.

It might however affect the tp quite a bit, especially in regards to coarse sand.

/edit:
The more I think about it, the more I think its really the best solution. It caters to both, casuals and pros. Casuals can grind if they want to, pro’s get a badge and buff to show off, in addition to actually getting rewarded for putting in time in pvp.
Maybe add some more exclusive pvp items gainable via league-only reward tracks to the game, like the balthazar backpiece or the heroes for stronghold. Mini pets, outfits.

I think those are all good ideas. I will probably never unlock a legendary this way but I really don’t care since they are available otherwise so it is only fair for pvp only ppl to get that.

i also agree with points 1 & 2 and think they could go a long way to encouraging people to keep playing at higher ranks, rather than switching to an alt account to get faster games, it would have the benefit of as more people get to diamond/legend there would still be a bunch of people queueing there so their queue times would gradually go down a bit too

i don’t like the thought of (#3) having anything of value locked behind having to make it to legendary, as there’s too many people that will likely never make it there (i know i won’t as i don’t have enough time to improve myself to reach anything higher than maybe diamond if i have enough days off in a row to play), and i feel like this would go against anet’s philosophy too much.

but the first 2 options definitely seem like they’d be good for the game, it would just be a case of makign sure that people didnt then get to fly through tracks too quickly otherwise there could suddenly be a flood of mats/items that weren’t there before (+ even more pvp shards)

1. seems to be getting dislike due to items being locked behind tiers. But think about this, if you casually pve, you won’t just magically get a legendary weapon or complete map completion at the same rate as someone who is playing “hardcore”. The same barriers and walls exist in pve. They are just perceived differently because mob ai is << player intelligence.

Jak Shadow.2864:

Please just take all rewards out of PVP ranking. The MMR ladder system was much better and more transparent. A shame so much time and effort that could have been spent elsewhere has been wasted ruining PvP for both PvPers and PVEers. Ill conceived and poorly executed.

Yes take out all reward for playing PvP. Do you have any idea why they added the rewards to PvP? Because PvP players asked for them. They wanted to be able to get stuff so they could dip in and out of PvE, but with out having to invest alot of time in PvE so they could Play PvE. Seeing as you do not need any specific gear to play PvP, this was a fair ask. Now if you take away rewards, you’ll get the same complaints again, player numbers will drop as you’ll be getting nothing for your time other than, I’m better than you but as you can’t see my MMR, I can’t prove it. A PvP game that needs a team of 5, can never be skilled based unless it’s points for kills only. The 2 game modes we have do not lend them self’s to personal skill, only team skill.

So yeah, no rewards in PvP would be pointless, and all but kill off the mode.

I do like the OP ideas. I for one fully plan on stopping once I hit ruby. After the pain of the last week, I really do not want to put myself through any more. I know I’m not diamond material.

Thiefz.3695:

I think the league reward structure needs to change and here is why:

If I get to Ruby and I can’t make it out, the system has said that this is where I belong in terms of skill. If I have already completed the achievements I can get for the season, there is now no difference between ranked and unranked. I have basically “capped” my reward progression. So how do we keep people playing in rank for reward IF that is their incentive rather than just playing for fun?

1. Reward track progress boost per tier of play
Reward people in each tier with a multiplier for getting through the reward tracks faster. So Amber would be a 1x multiplier, Emerald would be a 1.25, Sapphire would be a 1.50, Ruby would be 1.75, and Diamond would be 2x multiplier. You can tweak the numbers but this would mean that you would complete reward tracks faster based when playing ranked over unranked.

I like it, but let’s not have the scaling go too far ahead. Off-season unranked will give the impression of being substantially less rewarding. I am thinking more 10% rather than 25% increments..

Thiefz.3695:

2. Allow shards of glory to purchase non HoT ascended weapon chests. Make it high like 5k or something. That way you can farm ranked for shards and since ascended items are account bound, you don’t mess up the Trading Post

Be careful with this, Shards of Glory can be traded on the TP, there will be a noticeable effect. Even 5000 shards would be immensely cheaper now to purchase, so they will spike considerably and since they are involved in Legendary Creation…you can see the impact already.

Thiefz.3695:

3. Introduce 3 legendary reward tracks that you can unlock each time you hit a Legendary rank. So you hit Legend x1, you get one unlock. You hit legend x2, you have another unlock. You can make one the Sunless reward track for Sunless weapons, you could make another the Cultural Reward track for cultural armor skins, etc. Obviously they would need to include non HoT content since you have a mix of HoT and nonHot players.

This would allow people to earn new skins that are expensive by playing the game their way and most of them are account bound so they won’t mess with the TP.

This is an AMAZING idea and you are right on all counts!. My favorite idea really, have each new SPvP season carry 2 unique legendary tracks where you can earn various normally difficult or time-consuming weapon/armor sets or even ascended accessories and provide an additional motivation for players to keep climbing to legendary! Where is my box of +1s?

Thiefz.3695:

TLDR: Increase the incentive to play ranked by making reward track grind easier, make shards of glory more useful, create legendary reward tracks that reward with some of the higher rewards from the base game.

Golf Clap Another step towards making SPvP a worthwhile horizontal progression path. Kudos to all of your ideas if they were ever implemented!

@BrotherBelial

You really think so. GW PvP was always based on the idea that you did it for fun not for gear. I kept playing PvP in GW1 cos it was fun. I play PvP for fun.

The idea of rewards for PVP, particularly for ladder climbing, is ruining the game. The old ladder was so so much better than this piece of junk.

You don’t think player numbers will drop after the disaster that is season 2. I do almost nothing but PvP and have well over 5000 games but if season 3 is as poor as season 2 I will be looking for a new game. No amount of PVP rewards are gonna change that.

Agreed.
The system making decisions about what your MMR is killing the game for me. I never expected to get to diamond or legendary. I felt as a skilled player who only plays casually now (very casually) that mid sapphire would be a fair goal. I don’t partner, I don’t use any VOIP etc..however i surpassed that goal and now I’m in MMR hell. There is no reason for me to keep playing. Either my MMR will tank out entirely and next season I will be trash tier as far as the system is concerned and there is no reward that makes that worth while. It is better to quit while a head.

the game feels I am meant to be in top tier sapphire/bottom tier ruby and I agree that is pretty much where I should be. So petty rewards etc aren’t incentive enough for me to tank my MMR considering each season they don’t MMR reset. Good players will always rise..great players will rise further…average players will have their results, but currently I am paired with enough grinders that my win/loss is now 50/50 so it is time to resign the rest of the season so PvP in the future remains competitive and fun me. No current reward is incentive enough for me to continue.

Jak Shadow.2864:

@BrotherBelial

You really think so. GW PvP was always based on the idea that you did it for fun not for gear. I kept playing PvP in GW1 cos it was fun. I play PvP for fun.

The idea of rewards for PVP, particularly for ladder climbing, is ruining the game. The old ladder was so so much better than this piece of junk.

I don’t think, it is fact. If you have been playing GW2 from the start you know why rewards where added to PvP. Because the PvP players asked for them. Sure it also helped bring in people who never tried PvP before, which is a good thing. But come on. When alot of the player base is unhappy, like they are now, you don’t take things from them.

Remember ANet want Esport, to have an Esport you need lots of people playing. Sadly PvP dose not have the balance to hold up to fun alone. But hay everyone thinks differently, you clearly seem to think that PvP should be played by Hardcore PvP people only, and people who play mostly PvE have no right to ask for anything when it comes to PvP, and that only the Elite players get a say. Is this about right? I ask as this is the impression I’m getting from you.

OP has some strong ideas.

+1

the problem is still here. you wont see much ppl imporve because there is not much incentive to imporve. more than ever in S2 where basically you told you belong in amber or diamond base on luck or soloq with grind players.

the progression should be base player achievement and base on his build or role
if i did right in the game and my role is dps and i achove high dmg output or high kills or decaping etc… i should get rewards for it

i see lots of ruby players which are good at their class but thief can hardly carry a team. or an ele if his team constantly die or rotate badly.
i had a team who died in mid 3v4 in 4 sec. wipe in 4 sec . you can dodge twice and block for 6 sec so common….

so before each match you choose your role. if you manage to gain enough point to fullfil your role you will get points as it mean you are good player (i post other thread on this idea)

The rewards are more than generous already.

Short: For the joy of winning, stomping others and being more skilled than someone else.

To be able to give good feedback, the community needs to first see your answer to this question:

Q: Are you aiming at rewards that anyone can achieve with enough time invested or are you aiming at rewards that truly reward player skill in pvp?

We need to know what the real goal is here before giving any good feedback and take some time before answering it as it is a very good question. Adding a legendary item that is only accessible through pvp, with the idea that anyone can do it, given enough time, has brought in these types of attitudes in to the mists:

• Doesn’t care for the competitive scene, doesn’t even have fun playing pvp but must have the legendary item.
• Focuses more on achievements than winning matches. As example: would rather play warrior, lose 10 matches and win 1 for a count towards an achievement, than win 10 matches and lose 1 on a class they already possess an achievement on.
• Is more than happy to leave and never return to pvp after the legendary is obtained.
• Ect.. ect.. the list goes on with attitude types that dirty up a good competitive scene.

These above attitudes that the pve type grind rewards have brought in, are attitudes that no one likes to play alongside of. The way these rewards are currently obtained, right down to the achievements required, are bringing in the wrong types of players in to the spvp scene.

Why am I taking the time to say all of this? Because the mechanics of your rewards system in pvp is synonymous with who shows up to obtain them. It is very important to consider and requestion what the weight of a reward system can do to promote the health or sickness of a competitive community.

Without further ado, here are my ultimate suggestions, with a few comments on the side:

• Reward tracks are the right idea. Leave them as medium tier rewards at best that anyone can achieve. Make sure they are not good enough of rewards to draw in pve grind attitudes. Make sure the pve players have every reason to grind more wealth else where.
• Get rid of these kitten ed pvp achievements required to obtain special loot. They have no place in a competitive environment. Players should be focused on winning matches and nothing else. If you want to keep achievements, they should be achievements that support strong competition and winning, not simply playing and losing until you get lucky and it happens, such as: “get a 5 win streak” “get a 10 win streak” “Deal over 750,000 damage in a single match” ect.. ect.. things that give people incentive to play hard and win matches. This is what we all want, achievements and titles and reflect player skill level, not simply grind time.
• Division needs to reflect upon actual MMR. You should lose pips/tiers in every division and also drop division if you would lose a match to do so. Yes this would essentially make MMR visible to everyone and we have all been asking for this for four years now.
• Leave the rewards for legendary wings exactly the way it is now. Too many people have worked too hard towards those achievements to change the system on them at this point.
• Any new items introduced in future seasons should be special and unique to only that season. If it had been up to me, the legendary wings backpiece would have been only obtainable during season 1 and they would have been sent through in-game mail at the end of the season to those players that achieved legendary rank. “If division reflected actual MMR as in my suggestion, this would work wonderfully” of course there would have also been unique rewards for those who placed in diamond and down as well, essentially 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place trophies.

But again we all need to know: Are you aiming at rewards that any player can grind given enough head bashing against a wall? or are you aiming at creating trophies that actually mean something for competitive players?

Two things are certain:

• Grindable rewards are bringing in the wrong kind of players in to spvp.
• The wrong types of players in spvp are making the right types of players, leave.

Make it might fall Division at least …. before creating rewards

I love the reward track booster idea depending on division! That will keep me in ranked, something that makes ranked better than unranked when you have found your ‘home division’.
Offering sunless weapons and cultural armor however, is a bit much imo. They should be obtained the way they are now.
I wouldn’t mind a way to get ascended armor/weapon boxes as a guarantee in PvP however, since many PvE people can farm Vale guardian to cap their magnetite shards and farm ascended too. Swings and roundabouts my friends.

I love the OP’s suggestion.

It provies for players who wish rewards to continuing to fight in legendary and provides continues rewards for those who reach the division that matches their skill level so they don’t feel like there’’s no more point to playing anymore.

Hope anet implements for S3!

Trevor Boyer.6524:

To be able to give good feedback, the community needs to first see your answer to this question:

Q: Are you aiming at rewards that anyone can achieve with enough time invested or are you aiming at rewards that truly reward player skill in pvp?

We need to know what the real goal is here before giving any good feedback and take some time before answering it as it is a very good question. Adding a legendary item that is only accessible through pvp, with the idea that anyone can do it, given enough time, has brought in these types of attitudes in to the mists:

• Doesn’t care for the competitive scene, doesn’t even have fun playing pvp but must have the legendary item.
• Focuses more on achievements than winning matches. As example: would rather play warrior, lose 10 matches and win 1 for a count towards an achievement, than win 10 matches and lose 1 on a class they already possess an achievement on.
• Is more than happy to leave and never return to pvp after the legendary is obtained.
• Ect.. ect.. the list goes on with attitude types that dirty up a good competitive scene.

These above attitudes that the pve type grind rewards have brought in, are attitudes that no one likes to play alongside of. The way these rewards are currently obtained, right down to the achievements required, are bringing in the wrong types of players in to the spvp scene.

Why am I taking the time to say all of this? Because the mechanics of your rewards system in pvp is synonymous with who shows up to obtain them. It is very important to consider and requestion what the weight of a reward system can do to promote the health or sickness of a competitive community.

Without further ado, here are my ultimate suggestions, with a few comments on the side:

• Reward tracks are the right idea. Leave them as medium tier rewards at best that anyone can achieve. Make sure they are not good enough of rewards to draw in pve grind attitudes. Make sure the pve players have every reason to grind more wealth else where.
• Get rid of these kitten ed pvp achievements required to obtain special loot. They have no place in a competitive environment. Players should be focused on winning matches and nothing else. If you want to keep achievements, they should be achievements that support strong competition and winning, not simply playing and losing until you get lucky and it happens, such as: “get a 5 win streak” “get a 10 win streak” “Deal over 750,000 damage in a single match” ect.. ect.. things that give people incentive to play hard and win matches. This is what we all want, achievements and titles and reflect player skill level, not simply grind time.
• Division needs to reflect upon actual MMR. You should lose pips/tiers in every division and also drop division if you would lose a match to do so. Yes this would essentially make MMR visible to everyone and we have all been asking for this for four years now.
• Leave the rewards for legendary wings exactly the way it is now. Too many people have worked too hard towards those achievements to change the system on them at this point.
• Any new items introduced in future seasons should be special and unique to only that season. If it had been up to me, the legendary wings backpiece would have been only obtainable during season 1 and they would have been sent through in-game mail at the end of the season to those players that achieved legendary rank. “If division reflected actual MMR as in my suggestion, this would work wonderfully” of course there would have also been unique rewards for those who placed in diamond and down as well, essentially 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place trophies.

But again we all need to know: Are you aiming at rewards that any player can grind given enough head bashing against a wall? or are you aiming at creating trophies that actually mean something for competitive players?

Two things are certain:

• Grindable rewards are bringing in the wrong kind of players in to spvp.
• The wrong types of players in spvp are making the right types of players, leave.

So what you are saying is. You want PvP to be fore the PvP elite. You don’t want anyone who is not completely PvP focused to play PvP. If this is so. Why do you even need a legendary item? It’s not like you need the filthy PvE stats. From the sounds of it, you want a leaderboard to you can sit there stroking your kitten.

I have a better solution. If the elite players want ranked to be free of the filthy PvE players and anyone else who is not “Pro elite” put up and unranked league. Where the PvE players along with everyone else can work/grind out there wings, and have a special snowflake one for the “pro’s”. So they can feel superior, with out the majority of the “other” players having to put up with there cry baby BS.

Thiefz.3695:

I think the league reward structure needs to change and here is why:

If I get to Ruby and I can’t make it out, the system has said that this is where I belong in terms of skill. If I have already completed the achievements I can get for the season, there is now no difference between ranked and unranked. I have basically “capped” my reward progression. So how do we keep people playing in rank for reward IF that is their incentive rather than just playing for fun?

1. Reward track progress boost per tier of play
Reward people in each tier with a multiplier for getting through the reward tracks faster. So Amber would be a 1x multiplier, Emerald would be a 1.25, Sapphire would be a 1.50, Ruby would be 1.75, and Diamond would be 2x multiplier. You can tweak the numbers but this would mean that you would complete reward tracks faster based when playing ranked over unranked.

2. Allow shards of glory to purchase non HoT ascended weapon chests. Make it high like 5k or something. That way you can farm ranked for shards and since ascended items are account bound, you don’t mess up the Trading Post

3. Introduce 3 legendary reward tracks that you can unlock each time you hit a Legendary rank. So you hit Legend x1, you get one unlock. You hit legend x2, you have another unlock. You can make one the Sunless reward track for Sunless weapons, you could make another the Cultural Reward track for cultural armor skins, etc. Obviously they would need to include non HoT content since you have a mix of HoT and nonHot players.

This would allow people to earn new skins that are expensive by playing the game their way and most of them are account bound so they won’t mess with the TP.

TLDR: Increase the incentive to play ranked by making reward track grind easier, make shards of glory more useful, create legendary reward tracks that reward with some of the higher rewards from the base game.

1. yessssssssssssssss
2. yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
3. errrr yes

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

If you want to make the legendary backpack achievable by everyone by playing and grinding then remove the requirement for division crossing and simply make the relevant achievements achievable by simply playing across the 4 seasons of the year. Players would care a lot less about what division they’re in and the constant backsliding within tiers due to the inconsistency of matchmaking would not be so psychologically wearing.

BrotherBelial.3094:

So what you are saying is. You want PvP to be fore the PvP elite. You don’t want anyone who is not completely PvP focused to play PvP. If this is so. Why do you even need a legendary item? It’s not like you need the filthy PvE stats. From the sounds of it, you want a leaderboard to you can sit there stroking your kitten.

I have a better solution. If the elite players want ranked to be free of the filthy PvE players and anyone else who is not “Pro elite” put up and unranked league. Where the PvE players along with everyone else can work/grind out there wings, and have a special snowflake one for the “pro’s”. So they can feel superior, with out the majority of the “other” players having to put up with there cry baby BS.

Because over exaggerating makes everything feel better

I agree with most of what Trevor Boyer posted, BUT dont give out items that can only be achieved by gaining legendary rank, except for stuff like minis, gemstore stuff, or things that can be obtained in pve (like the new raid weapon designs etc).
This would cause too much discontent otherwise.

I really hate those profession achievements. They make people play professions they have no clue about and can ruin a match so fast, no matter what mmr. And they feel so out of place, nothing to do with backpiece or season at all… just… as if someone ran out of ideas.

You know what makes non-progression based PvP games work so well? 9/10 they are fun to play. The problems facing sPvP right now:

• The gamemode is incredibly stale

• Power creep has ruined any semblance of balance

• The previous progression system (rank 1-80) has been so trivialized that it isn’t even noticable anymore, and has 0 meaning.

What makes some other PvP games work? And how can GW2 improve on them?

• Balance (the biggest, most important issue to any competetive pvp game, along side gameplay)

• Gameplay, the combat is excellent in GW2, but with the cluster!$@# of particle effects, power creep and lackluster game modes to play tend to bring it down. It doesn’t even feel like you are playing anymore, you just mash a ton of AoE skills on point and hope for the best.

• Cosmetics, before leagues this was slightly true, with the Glorious armor sets, but that is a single set of armor for non-hardcore PvP players to go for. GW1 had an excellent system where you could slowly unlock a wardrobe of skins from PvP using tournament points. (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/PvP_reward) The thing is…when you get the look that you WANT, the game has to be fun to play so you can enjoy it more, playing Dressup and going afk will only take you so far.

• Side progression, classes should have some side-progression tracks you can achieve in PvP with classes, which accumulate into a grand rating (kinda like LoL champion mastery)

• Gamemodes, multiple if possible, but at minimum one that has a clear FUN goal to achieve (Sorry Devs, 500 point borefest is NOT a fun victory condition) Stronghold has the right idea, but shoved too much PvE elements into the mix that players can abuse (ele/druid breaker/lord healing anyone?). Players should have the bare minimum actual interaction with NPCs possible. Imagine if you could heal and res/move the Nexus in LoL?

• More maps, variety is the spice of life, but all in all, you wouldn’t need more maps if the gameplay was the primary focus, that kinda needs to get fixed first. But having some map effects that are not NPCs would make for a good start, something even akin to Wards and Bushes from various mobas.

• Solo Q, Team Q, and Guild Q, these should be the 3 primary settings. Hotjoin is practically dead, and Spectator mode was the final nail in the coffin, so these 3 should be the new “go-to”.

• Spectating, rework the current server browser to be a spectator browser instead, listing the current Ranked matches (diamond or above?) being played (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Observer_mode) but with a delay. Also allow players to select “Spectate match” from right-clicking friends to view their non-ranked games as well. Add a separate tab in the same window for custom servers (hotjoin/player-made) so players can still have those rooms available.

Ideas for some other gamemodes? Well looky here: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Player_versus_Player

Things like TDM with side objectives, GvG, Capture the Flag (remove player skills on pickup), Kill Count, Tug-o-war, Annihilation mode, etc.

• A new tutorial wouldn’t be bad either: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Needed-PvP-Tutorial-for-New-Players/first#post4761977

• Or some new ways for players to communicate! https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Communication-in-game/first#post3767047

• Or some new reward tracks! https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/PvP-bag-reward-track/first#post4434214

Not sure but since when pvp and incentive to play it, had something to do with rewards?

Sigh.

Ooh, I like the idea of adding more awards for shards of glory, league tickets, and reward track completion. Maybe add PvP legendary trinkets and armor that can only be acquired through PvP. To add to our super shiny wings! Give the Armour the same crystal golden look.

separate legendary acquisition from progress through divisions by creating a reward track only accessible during ranked play. offer league tickets and other things needed to build the legendary in the track, along with its own weapon set that can only be acquired one at a time (and or: make the track longer than a normal track to slow down the acquisition of this set). grant league tickets for crossing divisions in smaller amounts, and balance the difference between now and this division crossing nerf by placing the tickets in the reward track (which is repeatable, so grinding gets moar!).

allow divisions to truly represent skill by making them approximately zero sum, instead of the current >0 sum which incentivizes grinding games to progress through.

allow players to drop divisions.

Honestly I don’t know how this can be improved. Last season I got to Ruby and was so over it I stopped playing the game for a month. This season I’ve again just crossed into Ruby, and again am over it so am likely to just drop off the planet again til next season. No reason to keep playing since the rewards are useless. Well, I like getting more dyes but it’s not worth it after a certain point. That and the shards or whatever are pretty much just taking up bank space. It’s going to take over a year to get the wings, and from the text at the vendor by the time you’re able to get them they’ll be something different you have to work for so all this work is for nothing.

Maybe next season PvP could be just that.. Player vs. Player… not Team vs. Team. Seems common sense that if you want to award individuals you do so based on their performance and not screw them with a broken mmr system.

If you want to satisfy everyone, the best option is to simply give players the ability to choose. There is no one size fits all, you won’t please everyone but you can certainly ease the gap. Folks in legend rank are having trouble finding games because like all games the higher up you go the fewer players play at your skill level. Other players are frustrated when stuck at a particular rank, but the problem I would say isn’t that they are stuck, its actually that they are stuck getting division crossing needed to make the legendary backpiece. Once this restriction is gone, people wouldn’t care about hitting higher rank and instead focus more on their game play+skill also would allow dropping to where people’s true skills are.

A-Net should just remove “divisions” and add number ELO or rankings like before and in order to fix queue times, you can add an option to give people in higher ELO an option to play against lower tier players but give their team more “ratings”, similar to that of the first season. People who don’t want to play against people their own skill won’t be punished and those who just want to have fun can without the wait time.

Like all things with PC gaming, giving people more options is never a bad thing. Only thing you need to do is bring back the old system for those who want it.

I would like to have an option of pure gold reward track. Currently its not clear which track is best gold gain.

Every stream i ask says he/she doesnt know. However if u can get precursor from mystic forge then any dungeon track will be best gold due to a chance for a precurson. Still its only chance, not stable gold gain, thats why i dont like it.

I’m somewhat thinking that the Legendary wing achievements and the League rewards should swap places.

Wing achievements keep people playing until they’re completed, win or lose.
League rewards give high-value currencies, some of which are needed for wings, some of which are not.

Alternatively it’s possibly worth adding some high-value rewards to League tickets, like T6 bags.

Urejt.5648:

I would like to have an option of pure gold reward track.

Also the option of all dungeon tracks unlocked without having to go do PvE… Maybe a storyline reward track before unlocking the reward track for armor boxes.

+1 for the OP’s suggestion.

I do not agree with this. A ladder is its own incentive. If it isn’t, then this mode isn’t for you. Go elsewhere. The absolute last thing the system should do is incentivize play further for people who don’t care about (or are incapable of) winning.

Dirtyrascal.1023:

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

Make MMR transparent – There’s your skill level.

Show MMR to the player with a private/public switch – There’s your reward for pvp players.

The idea of making the game an esport, I think has done more to ruin the game than anything else. I enjoy, not right now, but have enjoyed pvp for the last 3 years. I felt matches were decent and it was just fun. The original MMR latter moved slow, but is reflected progress over a time. I felt rewarded that I was getting better because the matches were good. For me the reward has always been the ability for me to get better by being matched with people that are similar to my skill not so far below that I smash them or so far above me that I get smashed.

For tangible rewards my suggestions:
-provide more items to buy with tickets and tokens and make them pvp unique.
-Remove the gold sinks
-getting dyes as reward is something I really like
-provide a chance for black lion keys to drop from pvp chests like they do from pve monsters.

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

I think we would all be more interested in hearing what ideas the well paid professionals responsible for delivering have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

Maybe asking for a discussion on your ideas before implementing them, might avoid a lot of the problems you are now seeing.

Actually there dont need any special reward for playing ranked compared to unranked.
I would like if there are no rewards for playing ranked at all. For many its probably just a grind for a legendary.
Use all leagues for porgress where you can loose pips/tiers so amber-ruby means something except you played a lot of games. Or if it is too late to unbind the legendary and put it in a extremely long reward track that could only be progressed in ranked matches create badges for certain treshholds in ruby/diamond/legendary-tiers. Currently amber unti ruby shows you spent some time in pvp, diamond shows you spent some time in pvp and play mid tier, legendary you play pvp good. There is no difference between you reached ruby because of grind and are now stuck in tier1 or you are good in pvp but not good enough to reach diamond so you are stuck nearly before reaching diamond.

Also like the pvp-backpiece is tied to climbing in the leagues there should no rewards that are directly tied to reaching a certain divison.