I think one of the biggest drawbacks to the pvp at the moment is in the combat, but not necessarily on the numbers side of things, but rather on the visual side. One thing they have always stated about GW2 is that they want you to “watch the game, not the UI,” which they fail pretty kitten in my opinion. This is mainly because of the lack of proper telegraphing of skills built into the animations.
Players just end up spamming the skills, because there is not much to really react to and that not only just makes the pvp messed up for the players, but also halts any potential in GW2 could have as an esport, and it can just confuse the viewers even more so. This is one thing they need should get on this asap if they want pvp to take off.
As an example I personally have always loved DragonNest’s pvp because I always loved the telegraphy they build into the skills. You can generally see and react to things at a very fast paced combat speed as well as understand enough to tell whats going on as a viewer most of the time to get the general picture (two things stop it from being popular imo; one it’s a bit too much on the cartoony side for some people, and two it’s hosted by nexderp =_=’ ). Not the best example, because I was not that high tier of a pvper, but here’s DN’s version of a VIP match type (starts a little into the first round:
The ones in the roman-esque helmets are the captains (changes each round; kill the enemy captain first to win the round (like I said VIP lol)).
The key thing I want to make a point of with that vid, is that you can see the skills go off when a player uses them, and there is often a good visual cue on the kind of attack a player is using (whether it’s a big strong or high utility attack; ex. the purple homing arrows that I use, or the charged arrow shot… or a weak “poke” attack).
There also isn’t a huge UI blocking the screen either (as it would also be pointless, considering everything is about reading visual cues in DN).
Bringing it back to GW2; having proper animations that cue players (and to another extent, viewers) in on when an attack is happening, whether it’s a bigger harder hitting attack or a lesser “poking” or probing attack is definitely something they need to work on and would go a long way in improving the games pvp if they still want to pursue an “action-oriented” combat system where players are acting based on visuals rather than essentially text and bars.
There are other things that would definitely need working on, but I believe that working on the combat telegraphing would put GW2’s pvp a big step forward.
The other thing would be working on aoe clutter and the spirit/clone clutter. Both of these combined can just create way too much chaos on screen for not only any potential “esport” viewership, but also is irritating for the players as it just feels like… spam.
Maybe limit the number of spirits and clones a player can have out at a time? Something like maybe one spirit; not sure what would be a good number for mes clones though… =_=’ well details are up to anet to test lol…