Guild Wars 2

Will you ever be able to play spvp with a friend or 2 on your team without having to use one of those tokens?

I don’t get why this isn’t in the game.

Tokens? What are you talking about?

You can play with your friends by joining a tournament.

Drew.1865:

Will you ever be able to play spvp with a friend or 2 on your team without having to use one of those tokens?

I don’t get why this isn’t in the game.

^^^

Another good example as to why pvp is not friendly to new players or casuals

I don’t think anyone just wanting to try pvp with their friends wants to start out in a tournament, maybe I’m reading it out of context but it sounds like from a league of legends point of view, you can’t play normals with friends only ranked?

I Play with my friends all the time in SMITE!

What I meant to say was, like your porno mag, this game is best enjoyed alone.

Seren.6850:

I don’t think anyone just wanting to try pvp with their friends wants to start out in a tournament, maybe I’m reading it out of context but it sounds like from a league of legends point of view, you can’t play normals with friends only ranked?

As Kline pointed out, the “structure” part of PvP is not friendly to new players. You can actually play with your friends in pick-up games, but you aren’t guaranteed to be on the same team all the time. Also, you can’t just form a party and join—you have to manually join your friend’s game, or choose the same PvP room number as him from the server list.

As for tournaments—they’re actually better for new players than hotjoin, since hotjoin has a high population of people just looking for noobs to farm. Tournaments guarantee that you can play with your friends on the same team. Unfortunately, tournaments don’t have any matchmaking either, so it’s pretty hit and miss. No matter how you do PvP, you can expect to do a lot of dying for a long time before you play a close match.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Seren.6850:

I don’t think anyone just wanting to try pvp with their friends wants to start out in a tournament, maybe I’m reading it out of context but it sounds like from a league of legends point of view, you can’t play normals with friends only ranked?

As Kline pointed out, the “structure” part of PvP is not friendly to new players. You can actually play with your friends in pick-up games, but you aren’t guaranteed to be on the same team all the time. Also, you can’t just form a party and join—you have to manually join your friend’s game, or choose the same PvP room number as him from the server list.

As for tournaments—they’re actually better for new players than hotjoin, since hotjoin has a high population of people just looking for noobs to farm. Tournaments guarantee that you can play with your friends on the same team. Unfortunately, tournaments don’t have any matchmaking either, so it’s pretty hit and miss. No matter how you do PvP, you can expect to do a lot of dying for a long time before you play a close match.

yes this is one thing i agree with but i was more leaning towards how spvp seems alien to new players and just joining the pvp and how its separated from the rest of the game making it it’s own thing

though the basic are explained by npc’s on how to handle the control’s and mechanics for spvp in a very intresting way. its still very daunting trying to figure out what everything is when you enter the the main isle of the mists for the first time.

basically things could be explained more thoroughly when you discover them
:like what is this free tourney i see for the first time? and what does it mean to me when i pvp, say i don’t pve what implication does these runes and sigils have. small stuff like that adds up and can aggravate or turn off a player because they feel overwhelmed by the stuff they have to learn (not saying everyone but a lot of people do)

as for casuals that’s a bigger issue because it has more to do with the lack of content catered to them and difficulty curve of entering turnys for the first time, making turnys basically require a group of people using Voip. turning off a potently large portion of a player base that Anet could have for pvp. while most people on these forums are yelling make a free to play client for just the mists, i could see some issues with this answer

mainly technical and financial, building a new free to play client for the mists then funding it so that client can happen. Anet would have to convince the higher ups that it would be profitable and a time/effort worth investment first

this is why i will not stop saying this THE MISTS NEEDS A CASH SHOP SECTION. PVP NEEDS TO BE PROFITABLE TO GROW, THINGS TAKE MONEY TO HAPPEN.

A free client would help, but they have so many people already playing the game it’s shame not to tap into those players. Most wvw’s adore the jumping puzzle for it’s small scale battles and often ask for a standalone version, yet these players have no desire to spvp in it’s current form.

I agree with OP. I have been frustrated that I can’t “Join as Group.”

There should NEVER be a pwf/join as a group option in spvp.

everyone that is saying there should either never played a moba or has ulterior motives.

I have played nearly every moba out there and every one has a problem with pwf/join as a group vs. random queues.

This is what happens. You get 6 tactical players all on team speak/ventrillo/mumble/whatever voip service their using VS. 6 randoms. the randoms get pwned hard and never play again. the randoms go to the forums to complain, and the pwf’s simply respond with “this is a team game”. In which the randoms respond “then why is there a option to join solo?”

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

Arena net was smart enough to know this and fix it before this problem ever started.

PWF in spvp should never be an option.

NeedCoffee.1402:

There should NEVER be a pwf/join as a group option in spvp.

everyone that is saying there should either never played a moba or has ulterior motives.

I have played nearly every moba out there and every one has a problem with pwf/join as a group vs. random queues.

This is what happens. You get 6 tactical players all on team speak/ventrillo/mumble/whatever voip service their using VS. 6 randoms. the randoms get pwned hard and never play again. the randoms go to the forums to complain, and the pwf’s simply respond with “this is a team game”. In which the randoms respond “then why is there a option to join solo?”

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

Arena net was smart enough to know this and fix it before this problem ever started.

PWF in spvp should never be an option.

You could not be more wrong. If you think about this for a second you will realize that GW2 is most popular mmo this year, yet its most competitive side sPVP is almost dead. There are 290 sPvP servers and most of them are empty at all times. While if you look at dota or Lol, there are millions and millions playing it at any moment. You might ask yourself why is that? Well because its fun and you can play with your friends.

I want to play game with my friend, what are my options? Enter sPvP and prey we get in same team? Or joining some other websites and trying to cooperate with other 7 teams which could last hour until everyone is ready to have match ? I don’t wanna waste my time like this. I just wanna have game or two with my friend if I feel like it. As it is, you cant do this in GW2.

Anet is trying so hard to improve sPvP or rather tPvP, but main problem is not everyone wanna be top competitive, they should look more for semi casuals. Its crucial for community to have big casual scene, and from there you will grow some competitive. However not having this option to play with your friends, trust me its killing interest of many.
Anet should look at how dota and LoL made it big and simply copy system.

Duncanmix.5238:

NeedCoffee.1402:

There should NEVER be a pwf/join as a group option in spvp.

everyone that is saying there should either never played a moba or has ulterior motives.

I have played nearly every moba out there and every one has a problem with pwf/join as a group vs. random queues.

This is what happens. You get 6 tactical players all on team speak/ventrillo/mumble/whatever voip service their using VS. 6 randoms. the randoms get pwned hard and never play again. the randoms go to the forums to complain, and the pwf’s simply respond with “this is a team game”. In which the randoms respond “then why is there a option to join solo?”

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

Arena net was smart enough to know this and fix it before this problem ever started.

PWF in spvp should never be an option.

You could not be more wrong. If you think about this for a second you will realize that GW2 is most popular mmo this year, yet its most competitive side sPVP is almost dead. There are 290 sPvP servers and most of them are empty at all times. While if you look at dota or Lol, there are millions and millions playing it at any moment. You might ask yourself why is that? Well because its fun and you can play with your friends.

I want to play game with my friend, what are my options? Enter sPvP and prey we get in same team? Or joining some other websites and trying to cooperate with other 7 teams which could last hour until everyone is ready to have match ? I don’t wanna waste my time like this. I just wanna have game or two with my friend if I feel like it. As it is, you cant do this in GW2.

Anet is trying so hard to improve sPvP or rather tPvP, but main problem is not everyone wanna be top competitive, they should look more for semi casuals. Its crucial for community to have big casual scene, and from there you will grow some competitive. However not having this option to play with your friends, trust me its killing interest of many.
Anet should look at how dota and LoL made it big and simply copy system.

I wish I was wrong, my friend.

You are correct about 1 thing though. Team games are more fun.

sure you and your friend want to join a queue together. maybe a few others will do the same. But your missing the bigger picture. How many players will abuse this change you want?

You mentioned lol and dota, so I’ll assume you have played them. last I checked dota2 had a player base of around 15k and lol is in the millions. you and your friends queue up a game together vs a bunch of randoms. you are all on team speak together coordinating your attacks and dominating your opponents (randoms)…is that fair?

of course it isn’t. Where is the level playing field?

Arena net seems like the kind of company that takes things like balance and equal grounds seriously. with the way the attack hackers and bots, or make sure gear is balanced and every player has a fair chance by allowing everyone to have the same stats in pvp.

Isn’t allowing PWF in spvp an unfair advantage?

I played lol, and dota2. heck i played dota when it was just some W3 mod.

But I also played LoCo and SMNC and I have seen exactly what I am talking about happen over and over. The LoCo regular players have actually admitted to me (among other horrible things) that they prefer pubstomping randoms over fair fights.
In SMNC the developers actually tried to fix the pubstomping PWF’s vs randoms by creating a queue system that revolved around good players getting grouped with bad players. This fixed alot of problems for them, kudos to ubernet for attempting to correct this atrocity that plagues most pvp games. Do you want to guess who hated this change? Only the hard core SMNC players that like pubstomping randoms complained.

as to your comment about allowing PWF in spvp as an attempt to build spvp player base? It wont. And your silly for thinking so.

NeedCoffee.1402:

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

What a lying little kitten. In a vast majority of those game if you queue as 5 you will only get matched up with other groups of 5. Same with if you queue as 4 or 3 or even 2. Clearly you are the one who never plays MOBAs.

demonwing.5843:

NeedCoffee.1402:

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

What a lying little kitten. In a vast majority of those game if you queue as 5 you will only get matched up with other groups of 5. Same with if you queue as 4 or 3 or even 2. Clearly you are the one who never plays MOBAs.

Ive played them all, and then some (RoI, demigod, even awesomenauts which is like a megaman looking moba)
let me know what I can do to prove it and Ill do it.

as to your comment, sure some of those games match party of 5 with a party of 5. But that’s not the point. What happens to the players who solo queue and they get paired aginst 5 PWF’s?

Are you saying it doesn’t happen?

you know you can swap teams in spvp.. press b and you can swap to your friends side.. might have to wait till there is a space.. thought I’d post even tho most will just rubbish my comment..

NeedCoffee.1402:

everyone that is saying there should either never played a moba or has ulterior motives.

You’re correct, I do have an ulterior motive: fun.

But hey, I hear E-sports do really well when you only have a couple hundred people playing because “fun” isn’t a design priority.

NeedCoffee.1402:

demonwing.5843:

NeedCoffee.1402:

lol, smite, DotA2, smnc, LoCo, HoN, and pretty much every other competitive pvp game has this problem.

What a lying little kitten. In a vast majority of those game if you queue as 5 you will only get matched up with other groups of 5. Same with if you queue as 4 or 3 or even 2. Clearly you are the one who never plays MOBAs.

Ive played them all, and then some (RoI, demigod, even awesomenauts which is like a megaman looking moba)
let me know what I can do to prove it and Ill do it.

as to your comment, sure some of those games match party of 5 with a party of 5. But that’s not the point. What happens to the players who solo queue and they get paired aginst 5 PWF’s?

Are you saying it doesn’t happen?

Thing is, it seems you had lots of pain with dota, lol or those other games and you had bad experience. Maybe because you played solo a lot, and were matched against teams. But for majority of players they have like 2 or 3 friends, and sometimes they just wanna roll game and play. Situation you described is minor. Having ability to play with your friends its most important thing if you want to have fun. Not having this options is ruining fun for almost everyone who have friend. I’m sorry I guess that you don’t have friend or two you wanna play with but you cant only think about yourself.
And if you think anet doing god job with sPvP just look at numbers of people that are playing.

As for dota2 only 15k playing thats wrong. I remember when steam announced that dota2 was second most played game on steam. And don’t forget dota2 is just in beta state. And I was talking more about dota 1 which is played a lot. Those games simply have huge success.

It would be insane if they allowed parties to join hotjoin – even 2 people that use voicechat and strategies in 5×5 hotjoin can make a huge impact, not to mention if you join as 5 people. When I play with my friends in hotjoin we try to spread in both teams to make it challenging for all of us, since I never understood the point in going as a team to farm randoms at public servers.

So in short – things like party joining to hotjoins should not (and probably will not if devs have any kind of sense) be implemented.

Also stop using MOBA as an example, these games are two different genres, so why not use CS then?

Lukin.4061:

It would be insane if they allowed parties to join hotjoin – even 2 people that use voicechat and strategies in 5×5 hotjoin can make a huge impact, not to mention if you join as 5 people. When I play with my friends in hotjoin we try to spread in both teams to make it challenging for all of us, since I never understood the point in going as a team to farm randoms at public servers.

So in short – things like party joining to hotjoins should not (and probably will not if devs have any kind of sense) be implemented.

Also stop using MOBA as an example, these games are two different genres, so why not use CS then?

If u allow parties in hot join that would not be hot join anymore. And again you mentioning some rare cases where 5 people would stomp random people. But in reality most of people have like friend or two and wanna play with them. Many times when I was playing dota, I create game with my 2 friends and 2 random join us. And enemy many times had 2 or 3 people playing together. We didn’t even care if full team of 5 join. Only thing that matter is ability to play with friends. You cant do this in sPvP.
tPvP last too long to organize, its another design fail in my opinion. And as a result you have very little interest in sPvP all together.
I’ll say this again since its not reaching some people: Playing with your friends its MOST IMPORTANT aspect of game. If you cant do this, its gonna be boring for many including me and my friends.
Sorry if you don’t enjoy playing with your friends.

Well first of all I enjoy playing with my friends, but playing together is not equal to being in one team – it is as fun for me in killing them as it is fun getting kills together. Also let me repeat my statement “…stop using MOBA as an example, these games are two different genres, so why not use CS then?”

“Only thing that matter is ability to play with friends. " One of the main things that matters to me in pvp is getting better than my opponents and defeating them, thus creating a feeling of “fun” which is a second main thing to me.

Lukin.4061:

Well first of all I enjoy playing with my friends, but playing together is not equal to being in one team – it is as fun for me in killing them as it is fun getting kills together. Also let me repeat my statement “…stop using MOBA as an example, these games are two different genres, so why not use CS then?”

“Only thing that matter is ability to play with friends. " One of the main things that matters to me in pvp is getting better than my opponents and defeating them, thus creating a feeling of “fun” which is a second main thing to me.

I personally didn’t play CS that much, but from what I remember there are many servers some have 10 vs 10, some 20 vs 20 or even more so you can find server where its easy to change team. Also another thing is that if I remember you can pick side in begin of each game. What is mostly important I remember it was easy for me to play with my friend. So yea CS have option to play with friends and its easier then here.

Respond to your last part is again your opinion. You can enjoy playing alone, while for many players its deal breaking. Don’t you think its a bit selfish to just have your own opinion system implemented? Ok you have your hot join, its not very popular. Why not implement dota system for people who might enjoy that more. Maybe the game would grow. Maybe other people will get interested to play it. You can have different systems in one game. Having people to play certain way they don’t like will make them lose interest. And I think good indication is activity of sPvP.

Actually cs had the same option of playing with your friends as gw2 has – you could theoretically switch teams when enemy had a -1 member there, but you can do the same in gw2 press B press + and leave the team you currently are to the team your friend is playing also more and more public servers forced you to join the team in “auto assign” that is what we have here in gw2 for similar reasons – to not demolish other team if few coordinated members join one team. Also since I usually play with 3 of my friends there is almost no chance that the team would get a -3 people in public, same goes in gw2.

Yes last part is my opinion – I imagine the problems this implementation would cause, since on how many “friends” stacking do you put a cap? If 1 then people with more friends could start complaining, if unlimited then I promise you: there would be “teams” aimed just to farm randoms in hotjoin and get as much glory as possible.

Also these topics are meaningless – there was no development for pvp at all during these 5 or 6 months, so I seriously doubt that anything new would be implemented. They promised such basic things as some kind of wonder (like ranking/ladder for example) that it perfectly shows the competence in pvp development.

P.S. Just had an interesting solution to this problem – they could create new modes for lesser amount of people (2×2/3×3) that would keep hotjoins intact and you should not need +4 people to start something more competitive. But in this speed of development I would guess that these kind of thing will probably be implemented in 2018.

Or people that loved dota system could have that, and you have your own hot join system. I would not force you to play my way.

Also respond to your comparison with cs is just wrong. I played on server where after each game you could choose team. So if me and my friend wanted to play terrorists we would just go and click that in begin. Another thing is that in gw2 you depend on others if you will play with your friends. If game is 5v5 and you got on oposite team, then obviously you have to wait someone leave and join with your friend. That could happen or not but its ruining game for us. Now if I wanna play with 2 friends its almost impossible to get all 3 of us in same team. Not to mention random team switching after the game. In CS game start we choose terror and that’s it.
I understand you had bad experience with stacked teams or at least it sound like you had bad experiences, but there are many people who had good experiences with it. I had years of fun with dota simply because I could play with my friends. And many other people did.

@Duncanmix.

Ive been on both sides of the fence. I have some rl friends the are hardcore lol addicts and I play with them sometimes. Yes, playing with your friends is fun.
I played way too much w3 back in the day for that rts gameplay to keep my attention for long. So I tried other moba’s. LoCo, smite, smnc. Those are where I ran into the pubstomping. and I realized how unfair it was. Fun doesn’t supersede responsibility.
saying YOUR fun is most important in a game where other players are trying to “have fun” as well is selfish and irresponsible.
and just because dota 2 was the second most played game on steam doesn’t mean they have more than 15k players. The most played game on steam is/was/im sure still is TF2. secondly, your right dota2 IS still in beta and you have to answer a questioneer about DOTA to even be considered to get in. I wasn’t making that number up. I saw it on some steam server count page. If I could remember how to get back to it I would.

@Lukin
were only using moba as an example because its the only thing out there that is competitive, yet keeps the fantasy theme. Infact after most realized wow pvp was a joke, is why moba became so popular. Or at least thats how I see it. the time frame fits.
lol came out in 08 or 09 and that when wow player base started to drop.

But the problem is, you are playing it the way you want already. Hot join is the way. And my friends don’t wanna play and are not interested in this system. I’m bored of it because I cant play with my friends. And so are other people. So the selfish one is you because you already have it your way, why cant they add our way? I’m not trying to deny hot join. Let it stay, and those 500 that are playing it can be happy I don’t mind. But why are u against dota system or any other game where u can play with your friends i have no idea.

U saw number 15k at some point, but that’s just number of people playing at one moment. Also again I was not talking about dota 2 but dota 1. Just now there are 150k-200k people on garena mostly playing dota. That is just one client. Even with dota2 beta out that game is so popular. Your spvp have barelly 500 people playing at best.

The bottom line is, games are so much more enjoyable while playing with friends. And also yea u might be hurt by some people owning you if you were alone all the time, but most of my games were 5v5 where both teams had some groups. Rarely u will see groups of 5 randoms. Someone will join my game and ask for slot for friends. I would gladly offer because playing games with friends is what people enjoy.

@OP
I don’t understand.. there’s a “Follow Friend into pvp” button for hot join games and a roster que for free tournament games.

I have no idea what tokens you’re talking about, maybe paid tournament tickets? for paid tournaments?

Pick a 0/10 server and set up camp.. most people will leave you alone if you ask nicely, and if they don’t just zerg them down till they leave.

@Duncanmix

I see what you did there. well played.
Isn’t there a saying “you can only play the victim when you admit defeat”?

anyway When they add custom arenas you will get what you want that way.
if that wont make you happy then my suspicions were correct.

Friends are overrated

pretending groups don’t happen right now in sPvP is pretty naive.
my brother and I usually play a bit of sPvP each day if we’re on a similar working schedule. we look for a 11 person server and the one on the larger teams swaps right after joining. why wouldn’t we want to play together? if we’d want to play solo, we could join on separate servers.
right now it’s quite a hassle but works most of the time. if they’d make it any harder for us to play together, we would quit pvp and do more dungeons, at least we can play in a group there.

also, whenever I enter the mists I usually make a quick detour to the tourny announcer and look if there’s one scheduled. I’d really like to try it out some time, but of course, I’ve never ever seen a tourny in progress or in queue. the list is always empty. so either I completely misunderstood the whole system (then how would I actually go about finding out if a tourny is running soon?) or my server (and/or tPvP in general) is just completely and utterly dead.

tl;dr: I want to play with my brother – in sPvP it’s pure luck if it works out after the first match (i.e. when the teams are the same size) and I simply can’t get into tPvP – not for lack of trying.

if you go to the tourny npc.. talk to him click im ready show me the browser. click free in the left hand side.. then click create roster bottom right.. then invite party for your mate to join then hit submit.. should get you in the tournys

firebreathz.7692:

if you go to the tourny npc.. talk to him click im ready show me the browser. click free in the left hand side.. then click create roster bottom right.. then invite party for your mate to join then hit submit.. should get you in the tournys

yeah, I know about the roster, I usually try every button to see what it does ;-) but shouldn’t I see if there’s a tourny which needs 1-2 groups more to start even without being in a roster yet? I’d really like to just check if something is starting soon and then look for additional people in mapchat. I only like to pvp for about an hour or so, after that I get bored and want to level alts or do a dungeon run or repeat one of my favourite JP’s or run around in wvw or whatever else I’m in the mood for ;-)

Oranisagu.3706:

also, whenever I enter the mists I usually make a quick detour to the tourny announcer and look if there’s one scheduled. I’d really like to try it out some time, but of course, I’ve never ever seen a tourny in progress or in queue. the list is always empty. so either I completely misunderstood the whole system (then how would I actually go about finding out if a tourny is running soon?) or my server (and/or tPvP in general) is just completely and utterly dead.

tl;dr: I want to play with my brother – in sPvP it’s pure luck if it works out after the first match (i.e. when the teams are the same size) and I simply can’t get into tPvP – not for lack of trying.

The tPvP browser is not explained well, but I assure you that free tourneys are happening practically all the time.

Basically, tourneys are cross-server, so the entire region (north america or europe) is put together in a single tourney. HOWEVER, the tourney npc conversation only shows the information from your specific server. So even if there are 7 teams queued up for a tournament across the region, the npc will probably show only 1 or 2 queued up.

Other information about tourneys that isn’t really explained anywhere:
—you can join as an individual (or party of 2/3/4); the game will fill your party to 5 before the tourney starts
—you may get the “waiting for a full roster” message while queueing because someone on your team left the queue; in that case, you’ll need to re-submit your roster because the game doesn’t have a system for replacing the lost party member
—the word “tournament” sounds intimidating but actually there are a lot of low-level and casual players doing tournaments because you get to play with your friends and the problems of hotjoin are lessened (zerging, leaving, auto-balancing, etc.)

Hope that helps! Try submitting your roster to a tourney sometime—wait times are usually between 30sec-3 minutes in the evenings.

Edit: the tournament npc also has conversation options reserved for special, scheduled tournaments—there haven’t been any of those yet, they just wanted to have that stuff in place for when they do organize special tournaments. Just ignore those options (I believe they’re at the top of the conversation box) and go to “free tournaments.” Those are the kind that happen all the time.

NeedCoffee.1402:

@Duncanmix

I see what you did there. well played.
Isn’t there a saying “you can only play the victim when you admit defeat”?

anyway When they add custom arenas you will get what you want that way.
if that wont make you happy then my suspicions were correct.

I’m not here to win argument against you, I’m here hoping anet will look into this. The bigger this thread becomes the more chances are of that happening. Also it wont hurt to share my opinion, after all forums are place where u exchange opinions.

Oranisagu.3706:

pretending groups don’t happen right now in sPvP is pretty naive.
my brother and I usually play a bit of sPvP each day if we’re on a similar working schedule. we look for a 11 person server and the one on the larger teams swaps right after joining. why wouldn’t we want to play together? if we’d want to play solo, we could join on separate servers.
right now it’s quite a hassle but works most of the time. if they’d make it any harder for us to play together, we would quit pvp and do more dungeons, at least we can play in a group there.

also, whenever I enter the mists I usually make a quick detour to the tourny announcer and look if there’s one scheduled. I’d really like to try it out some time, but of course, I’ve never ever seen a tourny in progress or in queue. the list is always empty. so either I completely misunderstood the whole system (then how would I actually go about finding out if a tourny is running soon?) or my server (and/or tPvP in general) is just completely and utterly dead.

tl;dr: I want to play with my brother – in sPvP it’s pure luck if it works out after the first match (i.e. when the teams are the same size) and I simply can’t get into tPvP – not for lack of trying.

Thank you for telling everyone the truth.

do you and your brother tend to dominate when you pair up? Do you think organized teams roll randoms?

@NevirSayDie:
now THAT’s some information ANet really should make more accessible. I expected the tourny master to explain this stuff. this also explains the always empty tourny browser – my server is pretty desolate (after lots of guilds left because of some kindergarden, sorry WvW-drama) so it’s no wonder there are no tournies of our server.
thanks a lot for your explanation, I’ll try it tomorrow and see how it goes =) and it can’t go worse than losing – which doesn’t count towards the monthly but at least in groups of 5 there can’t be 8 thiefs on one side, so it should be rather relaxing ;-)

NeedCoffee.1402:

Thank you for telling everyone the truth.

do you and your brother tend to dominate when you pair up? Do you think organized teams roll randoms?

since we both are only pretty casual pvp players mostly just doing the dailies (rest of the time we do dungeons, fractals and leveling alts) it’s not that big of a difference, but yeah, of course it’s a lot more effective if you run around together and have each others backs instead of random groups which leave you fighting 4 enemies while they sit idly on an already captured point.
that said, while it certainly helps against uneven odds (say 3 against us two is still possible), if it’s a 1v1, we’re both capable of holding our own – it’s not just a family-mini-zerg ;-)

As for the question of whether organized teams do sPvP – I wouldn’t think so. at least not as a full team – because while its possible without too much trouble (a few joins/leaves) to get 2 people together on one side. to get 3 or more, it takes lots of luck. in theorie three would work if two joined a 11 people server (pushing it to 13), got on the same side and waited for another player (now 14 people) before the third joined (as the 15th, he can swap as well). that already takes quite some luck and a bit of coordination. for 4+ it’s pretty much impossible. so my guess: if not the whole team is online, the rest will go into sPvP and they’ll try probably to group up.

conclusion: it’s pretty much impossible to get more than 2 people together on one side in sPvP – but that’s exactly one of the gamemodes which are lacking.
personally I’d love some more variation, servers with random placement (no swapping), others with group-join, several team-sizes (3, 5, 8, 12, 16), servers without capricorn, disabled environmental stuff (cannon, trebu, lord, chieftain/svanir).. while it might fracture the player base, it would also show which features are not the players favourites (my guess: capricorn) and could help ANet improve into the right direction.

Oranisagu.3706:

@NevirSayDie:
now THAT’s some information ANet really should make more accessible. I expected the tourny master to explain this stuff. this also explains the always empty tourny browser – my server is pretty desolate (after lots of guilds left because of some kindergarden, sorry WvW-drama) so it’s no wonder there are no tournies of our server.
thanks a lot for your explanation, I’ll try it tomorrow and see how it goes =) and it can’t go worse than losing – which doesn’t count towards the monthly but at least in groups of 5 there can’t be 8 thiefs on one side, so it should be rather relaxing ;-)

Certainly. It kind of looks like Anet didn’t expect tournaments to be played by anything except hardcore 5-man teams on voip, and they didn’t really add any features/explanation for casual/semi-casuals who want to try it out. And yes, I find it much more relaxing than 8v8, and more exciting at the same time. Remember, it doesn’t matter if your server is dead in PvP—tourneys will pop all the same. There is a chance of running into a high-level, well-organized team and getting stomped, since there’s still no matchmaking, but I consider it well worth the risk.

Yep, it’s yet another thing to add to the list:

• It’s not possible to play casual 5v5 for more then one match, as the next match turns into 3v2 or 2v1
• Because most players are playing 8v8, as it is much easier (just follow the zerg) and offer the same rewards as 5v5
• There are no rewards that passes over into PvE or WvW, so players who play these modes the most, don’t see a reason to start playing sPvP
• You don’t have any real guidelines as to how you can make a lasting build in sPvP, and there is no such thing as starter builds or templates
• There is no restriction on players who are a much higher skill level, so they can freely trample you down, which is easy if you’re playing with a bad build
• It’s difficult to join a match with your friends, so you can’t really offer them any advice on playing

All of this makes the entry point to sPvP ridiculously steep.

tried it today – and of course you were right – I was placed into a group nearly immediately and had a few matches. in that regard, it worked rather well.
but I probably won’t do it often (except trying to get the monthlies). looks like the only reason they even added the hotjoin for single players is to give organized groups some cannonfodder before they reach a tier where they get the rewards. it actually seemed like an even worse zergfest than 8v8 =) the zergs were smaller, but much more tightly knit as they probably were on TS together.
as I have no inclination of finding a guild and training with 4 other people due to my limited time, it’s pretty clear I’ll have to stick to 8v8’s. no matter how much I train, my skill, no matter how good I became, couldn’t ever offset the lack of coordinated zerging/teamplay. was an interesting try though.

@kasama: I completely agree with your points (except the implication that only 8v8’s are mainly zerging) – (t)PvP is very clearly not meant for people playing every aspect of the game (pve, dungeons, wvw). it rather seems, in their blind quest to get a moneygenerating machine for esports, they deliberately put up barriers to attract different crowds. might even make sense in some twisted way, but I think it’s time for me to take the hint – I’m definately not in the target crowd and should stick to 8v8 as they are at least somewhat casual-friendly.

As a member of a guild that focuses mainly on PvP most of my guildies quickly lost interest in sPvP. Their number one complaint? Can’t play with friends.

They spent most of their time in WvW. Most of them have drifted away from GW2 with a handful messing around with World of Tanks. The upcoming updates sound nice but so far I am not convinced it is enough to draw PvPers, and my guildies, back to the game.