Guild Wars 2

Skyhammer feels far better fighting on the side nodes. Still waiting for mesmer nerfs.

Few people loathed Skyhammer more than I did, but I must say the changes are amazing. The map’s really good now, it feels like sPvP rather than some minigame.

Spirit Watch, idk, there’s just something about it I can’t like, probably the layout of the entire map.

Still waiting for mesmer nerfs.

The introduction screen at the beginning of each map should be updated to reflect the new changes.

And please nerf mesmer…

This point is probably objectively inferior to the other more serious opinions that will be posted on here but while I’m glad that the PvPers got a different skyhammer now, it seriously hurt the custom daily maps since we can’t quickly tag and jump like before until skyhammer opens up and even then it can be easily trolled by someone capping skyhammer. Not important for actual PvP I know, I get it, y’all are going to say who cares about them but the reward tracks are wonderful things that tons of people enjoy and I don’t think any of the PvPers want this group of casuals who don’t actually PvP coming into their games now just to do PvP dailies. It used to be a really quick way to do my dailies if I didn’t have time to play. Skyhammer was great for quick daily maps so if we could have even a little hole to jump or such it’d be great as I don’t want to hurt the map for actual PvP play.

If I understand well, we were asked to move our comments to this post instead so:

I think Spirit Watch is great now. The frequency decrease means that you can actually focus more on caps, which is exactly what was missing. In my opinion, the map is now competitive.

Skyhammer is a map I hated before and I don’t anymore. Unlike OP I think the cannon is strong enough, full uncap is good against tanky teams. But I do agree it does not feel very unique. Basically, the cannon has become a toned-down “Tranquility” buff.

But overall great job.
Next, I would indeed love Courtyard back, as well as Raid on the Capricorn with balanced underwater combat :p

I really think spirit watch is nice and could make the game faster by allowing to decap very tanky teams. I would really love to have it added to the ESL rotations very soon

Raid of the Capricorn without water please

Map changes especially skyhammer were one of the best part of this patch.

i would increase the time between orb spawns on spirit watch and maybe award more points for it. 2mins is a bit short, would increase it to 3mins.

other than that, raid of the capricorn without water please?

oh and nerf mesmers.

I have yet to play the new Spirit Watch or Foefire, but the changes seem pretty decent from what videos I have seen. Orb spawn on Spirit Watch might be a bit too long though.

Skyhammer, however, is dead to me with the current changes. It was my favorite map. Now it’s just like the others. All uniqueness is gone. People complained endlessly about the floors and falling, but that is what made the map unique. It required slightly different play styles and more awareness. Without the ability to knock people off or break the floors there is nothing special about the map.

The hammer itself is incredibly lackluster. The decap mechanic works if you insist on having it. However, the enormous amount of time between shots and the barely noticeable knockoff areas up there render it mostly irrelevant.

Still being able to dodge the shots despite the time between them is also awful. It is incredibly easy to dodge. The frequent firing of the hammer before made it a real threat and required careful timing and keeping an eye on your endurance.

Completely removing the old features of the map is the wrong way to go about it. There is a way to meet in the middle I feel. Longer recharge on breakable floors? Maybe remove some on the side points?

I’d prefer the old hammer to what is now in place. I enjoyed being able to sit up on the hammer and rain death from above until someone intervened. I found great fun in the frantic fights to not be knocked off the hammer.

Regardless of what changes are made not everyone will be happy. Meeting in the middle would probably work out best between those who hated and loved skyhammer before, but the map needs to keep its uniqueness and difference in play.

Changes are pretty good. Maybe if only some of the empty areas would have more meaning.

Oh, and nerf the freaking mesmers. Like what the heck are you thinking?

Can we give feedback or opinions on skill balancing in this thread or is that not allowed/will be ignored?

It’s been 1 day. Ask again in a month to give people time to formulate their opinions before you try to fast track it into league.

And nerf mesmer.

Every Conquest map feels like the same now. Capture 3 points and some extra thing for more points, like lord killing, orb capturing, beast killing and other extras for advances for teams. For me Skyhammer was different. I had great and funny moments on that map, with the pushing or pulling skills combined with the breaking platform. Now it’s just capture the three points. Simple and boring. However the change on Legacy of the Foefire is one thing I expected and waited. Since I experienced at Stronghold that the Lord needs to be killed with Finisher I thought maybe this feature will be added to Foefire. PvP needs more match types in my opinion. 6 Conquest maps and a selectable Stronghold map. No offense to other players, I see that most people like the changes (saw many negative ingame comments toward Skyhammer and Courtyard) and simple maps with the same rules, but after 1000+ pvp matches those maps are not enaugh to keep me playing for more. However it’s not only that. The new expansion and new skills however are always interesting and makes the player think “oh now I can test my new character/skills” (or in my case – I don’t have HoT) “let’s see how the oldschool can stand against the new and much stronger”. Also it’s rare but there are good team fights like a 2v2 on a capturable point that last long and people are working great together.
I hope for more changes and some new good maps

I loved the idea to get these to ranked rotation aswell, because it was getting pretty boring playing those same maps over and over again… But I think if you are not gonna make new maps in future, try to focus on one map that isnt in ranked and make it perfect for competitive play, and then introduce other “new” map (new design) in next patch to next season. Then we would have something fresh in PvP next season too.

Oh, and would you please nerf mesmer? ^^

I feel like removing all of the edges from skyhammer killed the map.

The breakable panes where over the top but the edges should have stayed.

Crinn.7864:

I feel like removing all of the edges from skyhammer killed the map.

The breakable panes where over the top but the edges should have stayed.

The map was very much dead before.

Hello anet thank you for your continued work on improving pvp. Here are my thoughts on the maps.

SKYHAMMER

It feels pretty plain. I don’t think putting the breakable floors back would be a good direction to take and I don’t think the hammer is good the way its implented (probably one of the few good aspects of old skyhammer was knocking people off that tried to use it).

To keep the fight focused on capping points I feel you should have skyhammer as a 1 time only hit with a timer. Make it available 5 times during the match. The team that manages to launch it on a point automatically caps that point regardless of who currently has control over it.

Probably a way out there kind of idea, but it would make competing for skyhammer similar to competing for tranquility.

SPIRITWATCH

Pretty fun the way it is now. It would be cool to have the points earned from orb normalized to 20-25 points regardless of the point you take it to. The difference being if you take it to a point you own, it will create a knockout affect with damage similar to tranquility affect. If you take it to a point owned by the enemy you decap the point. Taking it to a point that no one owns automatically caps the point for you.

RAID OF THE CAPRICORN

For real bring this back and replace the water with sand. I don’t understand why you can’t bring it back. It was my favorite map and would be good even in ranked matches.

Yeah, need mesmer nerfs.

Edit: I like skyhammer more now.

SKYHAMMER: I continue to not like the jump pad mechanic. Other stuff is fine.

SPIRIT: Orb skills are pretty useless, you’re basically always forced to drop the orb almost immediatly if anyone attacks you. Maybe you can add just strong Skills 3-5# and unlock them ONLY if there is too much difference in score, just to have a better chance to carry the orb (dunno for example strong teleport skills only available for the loser team if the difference is 150 more pts.). Respawn and score is fine.

But honestly I’d really prefer test these maps in a OFF SEASON RANKED.

Skyhammer

Good changes so far – feels better than the original. But I still think the many elevated platforms favor ranged classes more than melee.

Spiritwatch

Good changes so far – brings more focus on point teamfights and skirmishes; 2 min Orb respawn time seems well paced.

P.S. Nerf mesmer. Bring back Power shatter back. My grandma plays Condi Mes and beats my dad a cousin 2v1.

both maps feel more solid now great job on that
on other topic nerf memser, ele surv, buff power necro X_X great job on thief btw

Here’s my feedback for Skyhammer.

Positive observations:

1. New design promotes fair matches.
2. Skyhammer de-caping was a clever idea that manages to keep the crucial role of the cannon.

Negative observations:

1. Total elimination of the breakable glass floors made the map less interesting and less unique.

Suggestions:

These are aimed at making the matches more interesting by stimulating map awareness and strategic thinking skills while maintaining a high degree of fairness overall.

1. Bring back breakable glass floor BUT make it only breakable by Skyhammer (This will ensure fairness).

2. Add a secondary structure bellow breakable floor so if a player falls (knocked, feared, bad step) the player can run back to the upper platform (This will promote strategic thinking skills).

3. Once floor is broken, keep it broken for about 20 seconds (This will stimulate map awareness).

End result? Interesting, fun, fair and skill based matches in a unique map.

I actually like skyhammer now.

And the change to Nhifel was amazing.

Spirit watch was awesome, but I felt the orbs should spawn at specific minutes, unless I’m mistaken, they spawn 2 minutes after being capped now, so only the first one is at a specific time. Either way, it was a great experience, and I would love to see this, maybe with a few touchups in ranked this season. One of my favorite maps. Sadly, few are voting for skyhammer and still haven’t gotten in.

ps: Nerf mesmer (read the threads)

Skyhammer iis MUCH MUCH MORE playable, Actually being able to see on the nodes due to the reduced amount of pillars colliding is long overdue.

In spirit watch adding a bit more obstructions could be nice to improve kiting on this map. Not that it’s bad. It’s good and I enjoy playing it. The new orb mechanics are awesome.

However I still don’t see why people like skyhammer. I mean, it’s not as bad as before and my team of unranked plebs isn’t fighting for the cannon anymore for most of the game however the platforms still feel glitchy. They send me up when i dodge or when i teleport as revenant. If there’s a platform on the way I’m sky high. Once in air its very difficult to end up on a platform especially after unexpected jump.

I’d prefer it if those jump pads worked more like the mushrooms in HoT maps, with a well known landing position and getting there fast. Other than that all other improvements are very welcomed

What was the reason you blocked off falling down on the sidenodes? You did remove the temporal floors. I tried to dragon push an annoying mesmer today and he bounced off the wall. Not cool :U It took me like 4-5 seconds of positioning to make sure he’s at the perfect position to flip over the edge :UUU

The changes feel great.

2x mes 2x rev – yeeeey- itll be even better than season 1 since the rest is actualy back closer to base levels.

Thanks

I’m going to honestly say… i dont like the new skyhammer. The map feels unengaging and boring. It always used to be this completely different map – centered around a massive cannon, effectively a fourth point to fight for that could pretty much dominate a map. It was a huge mechanic, and i thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Right now, especially since i just played thief on it, the mechanic feels incredibly underwhelming, and you can almost safely ignore it at the levels of PvP i play at. So what points get neutralised – they swap hands constantly anyway. Its a few seconds of gain at best, and by far not worth the time it takes to actually cap the thing.

But, more than all of that, its lost its identity.
Skyhammer was “The falling map”. The meta got completely turned around on it, and meta builds could fall off simply because they relied on sustain too much and were easy to end by being solidly smacked on the floor, while many things that are rarely ever used were provided fun opportunities to play. I’ll agree, old skyhammer didnt fit into ranked – but to me, it was fun. I would much enjoy seeing old skyhammer back in unranked, and new skyhammer in ranked. That, i feel, would be a nice system.
But never getting to play old skyhammer again… man, am i going to miss that. It was honestly my favorite map. And with falling all but gone (Skyhammer imo needs at least a few fall-through floor panels, and not have “100% fall-down safe” all across it if you ask me), it just doesnt feel the same.

I know many will hate me for asking it, but at least for unranked.. please, i’d like old skyhammer back. A bunch of my friends concur, too.

Ok jokes aside.

The maps feel solid at first, no mega cheese tactic thats totally different just for a specific map showed up on my radar.
This is still first day but i probably wouldnt mind playing a AG tournament on the new maps.

The problem skyhammer had was that it had edges + breakable floor + jump pads + the laser itself.

Those mechanics on their own are fine, having all of them on the same map is painful. It’s the same problem EOTM and DBLs have – excessive mechanic density.

My beef with the patch is that Anet decided to fix the density of skyhammer by removing everything but the hammer. Which makes the map feel redundant since we already have a artillery strike mechanic in the form of Kyhlo.

Personally I think the map would have been great if they removed the cannon and lowered the density of the breakable panels and left everything else.

Do something about the camera angles when fighting on the side nodes of Skyhammer. Anytime you fight with the pillars at your back all you can see are the pillars.

FoeFire lord is still too easy. It is still solable

I don’t hate skyhammer now! Plz DON’T change it back!

The changes are amazing honestly. This needed to be done a while ago as no new maps for over 3 and a half years is a contributing factor to alot of people quitting. The maps should be put in the ranked rotation asap

Skyhammer used to be a fun, unique map, now it is just a boring, bland hack-and-slash-athon on point like every other map out there. Change back please

The sky hammer changes and new mechanic are amazing, might be my newest favorite mechanic. And mechanic that puts an emphasis on fighting and killing because they create neutral nodes has my approval. The spirit watch changes are in the right direction but the orb feels a little bit off at the moment for me.

I am very impressed. All of the changes across the board seem to be solid decisions.

Skyhammer:
+Leap pads work much better.
+People like this map enough that it is being selected regularly.
+The center node B is more open to fighting, and the elevated areas and sub area are much more useful for evasion without granting too much benefit for ranged DPS.
+Cheap kills from CC have been eliminated.
+/-Skyhammer as a weapon feels less potent.

Spirit Watch:
+All classes are equal when carrying, finally.
+Fundamental design for conquest works well, as both close nodes are easily accessed from spawn.
+Orb frequency makes it less of a snow ball mechanic. It feels just right to be honest.
+Skirmish at the beginning while racing to mid is fun and unique: Death Race 2016.
+/-Significant advantages exist for teleport skills.
-Another map where Portal is arguably too strong.

If the aim is to bring Skyhammer to competitive (meaning ranked play) viability, then the removal of insta-kill map mechanics nudges Skyhammer in the right direction and the changes should not be reverted. “Insta-kill map mechanic competitive map” is an oxymoron, the two concepts cannot coexist in the same design. The downside is that the changes have robbed Skyhammer of some of its trolly charm, where indulgent gratification could be had by punting nerds down to their death. Going forward, I would reconsider the number and placement of jump pads, because there is a lot of dead space in the current iteration where professions with Z-axis movement abilities are at a huge advantage.

As for Spirit Watch, even before the changes it was one of the best tPvP maps in the game, if not the best. No jokerino, I’m totally serious. BUT (and it’s a biggun) only when played in a full 5v5 team setting with voice communication. For solo queue or partial teams Spirit Watch is pretty much the worst possible map, because the objectives are too complex for your average PUG to tackle. Trying to get a PUG without voice comms to coordinate nodes and the orb at the same time is like teaching quantum mechanics to a chimp. You’ll get a lot of yelling and eventually poo flung at you. The reduction in orb spawn frequency helps but will not completely eliminate the problem. I’ll reserve judgement on the secondary mechanic for now, I need to play the map more. Regardless, Spirit Watch still needs a heavy quality control sweep on terrain collision. There are far too many places with pathing issues and “no valid path to target” occurs even on level ground.

Skyhammer is better now that I don’t fall off the edge constantly like before and people on my team don’t yell at me for breaking the glass they were standing on causing them to fall. Haven’t had a chance to try spirit watch, no 1 will pick it when it comes up on the voting screen. Also I haven’t been killed by any mesmers yet so I don’t know what everyones complaining about. Necro still feels the strongest to me.

Honestly, I may repeat myself, and I know it is early, but I would love spirit watch to be included in the ESL rotation as soon as it starts again. This is a map which I feel has a different flow than the other and would be interesting to watch.

I really hope at least Spirit Watch is included in the ranked rotation soon. Kudos to the feedback that led to the changes to both Spirit Watch and Skyhammer, by the way. I no longer want to stab myself in the face when these maps are selected. I prefer the new Spirit Watch to both Forest and Temple. Skyhammer still comes in last, for me, but at least it’s on the list, now.

In all, this was a great part of the patch for me.

i like the new map changes.. it’s actually fun to play skyhammer now.

ps: nerf mes + rev :d

I love the skyhammer and spirt watch changes. Absolutely amazing. Now anet has one thing left to do, one final thing.

Fix RAID ON CAPRICORN.

Too much empty space on the maps. I like minor secondary objectives that force a choice between the point and the objective. Use more of the open space for secondary objectives.

i’d like to see more new maps in pvp, playing on the same maps is kinda boring

So many are fine with the new skyhammer and this is a bit sad.
It´s not that the map is bad now. Its indeed a map useful for conquest and well playable for “Normal” fights. The problem is see is it´s nothing realy diffrent. It had been a fun map with tactical options. Yes falling, pulling kicking players down was the good thing on this map making if very diffrent. The canon change was good. I did´t like it and we have a map with shooting (Khylo). It feels a bit like less diversity the map is more normal now.
Foefire: On one side lord chage was good. On the other side it now more or less denies the loosing side a last minute turn of the outcome, which makes the map even more booring because its already a very narrow, fast group fighting map without much tactics.
It´s a base thing. Do you want all maps in a way where only the better team dominates or maps where tactics and map rotation can turn a fight. Foefire is now even more the map where the stronger team will dominate.

Something is missing from Skyhammer to get a sense of value out of controlling the canon. It feels too much like Temple.

My 2cents on skyhammer: Its now just like the other maps. There is no real uniqueness to it anymore. At least bring back the breakable floor panels. They at least gave you something to have to think about instead of just fighting like on all the other maps. The wall around the map is fine I guess since it was always open which potentially didn’t give you as much of a chance to escape like the breakable floor ones. The hammer change I guess is all right, though it doesn’t seem to really affect the match.

If anything changes with the map, I would just want the floor panels back.