Guild Wars 2

@Zoose, awesome bro thanks for engaging with us about this.

I’d like to know if theres anything they plan to attract people into doing spvp. I’ve always felt that if people could progress in spvp , as opposed to wvwvw, or pve then many leveling casuals would choose to do so. Even if HOTM itself has no gold/gear/level differences (which i support). It doesnt mean the overworld toon can’t level up because of HOTM. Pvp population needs help, and this would help more casuals spyher through it than anything else i can think of.

Secondly, i want to know about further balance adjustments. I know your ele got toned down a bit, but is still far as i can tell (at least on this new map especially), the strongest class. I feel a really tiny additional adjustment is needed. I also feel engineer/warrior need more love. The recent flamethrower buffs where insuffcient to make it worth taking.

I’ll think of more stuff.

Nord.5360:

Hey folks,

It’s about that time again.

Date: March 14th, 2013
Time: 12PM PST (8PM GMT)
Guests:
ArenaNet Game Designers Jon “Chaplan” Sharp and Tyler Bearce
Xeph (EU) from Team Paradigm
Zoose (NA) from Nonstop Nonsense
Where: GW2Guru Twitch Channel

Feel free to respond to this thread with any questions or concerns that you would like to see addressed. I can’t promise that everything will be covered, but I do my best to represent a wide range of opinions, hardcore and casual players alike.

Here’s a link to our announcement thread on Guru.

If you feel more comfortable reaching out to me personally, feel free to shoot me an email at sotg@guildwarsguru.net.

Thanks guys!

This probably going to be about the big pvp update and some other goodies we will be getting.

3 facts that i believe the greatest part of the community would like to know about

1. How are you going to address the solo vs. premade issue ?

My rating is going like a yo-yo. After winning for a couple of times, i end up facing premades.

I lose, and go back winning.

Rinse and repeat.

It’s frustrating.

2. How are you going to address the issue regarding learning a new profession and testing its viability without affecting rating ?

Right now, i can’t go back to learning any other proff aside the ones i know how to play, because my rating will drop like a fly on fire.

It would be cool ( aka: needed) to have separate ratings.

3. Are you ever going to balance those professions ? are you ever going to do this REQUIRED PvE/ PvP split ?

In PvE things work just fine and there’s a lot more buld diversity thanks to customizable stats.

In PvP it’s a whole different story. There’re only 1-2 viable builds per proffs with all proffs aside few ones.

80% of weapons/utilities are worthless for all proffs.

At least 2-3 traitlines per proff ( on average) are subpar, and even those 2-3 good traitlines that are there, are filled with useless traits with only 3-4 good choices, that obviously got picked by everybody ( reason why there’re only a handful of competitive builds available).

Please do something, this is not LoL, we have no 100 champs to choose among.

We have only 8 proffs, and some diversity would be very much appreciated ( aka: NEEDED).

I already can anwser all of this, we are aware of this and we are working on it but we cant say too much right now.

Will there be a hard counter established for stealth later in the future or do game designers think it already is in a position where they want it be?

In my personal opinion, stealth in this game seems to be an exemption from the checks and balances gameplay that other games, especially esports games, seem to have.

I really only have one question. Are we ever going to have build diversity in this game? And I mean maybe 3 to 5 viable builds with in one classes. And 1 to 2 strong counters to our builds and other classes builds. Conditions countering specific bunkers, and Burst countering specific bunkers and etc.

I am not saying there should not be one REALLY good build, but it should not outshine so much to the point that it is clear these other abilities suck. And there is no point in me even trying something new. When it will just go back to the way things were and will always be.

So again, my question is. Can we have some build diversity in Guild Wars 2? Reward the players that make different builds, and the ones that try something new that everyone says won’t work. Do not nerf the only viable option players have, give us a variety, and more choices.

EDIT : Also would it hurt if dyes were account bound, and not strict to a certain character?

Currently the only rewards seem to be for players who have spent a lot of time playing PvE or PvP – do you plan on introducing skill-based rewards for good players who don’t have time to play all day?

E.g. unique weapons for solo-ing svanir, chieftan, guildlord -type bosses (but tougher obviously).

Or unique titles for good kill/death ratios across matches etc etc.

Wanderer.5471:

Currently the only rewards seem to be for players who have spent a lot of time playing PvE or PvP – do you plan on introducing skill-based rewards for good players who don’t have time to play all day?

E.g. unique weapons for solo-ing svanir, chieftan, guildlord -type bosses (but tougher obviously).

Or unique titles for good kill/death ratios across matches etc etc.

“Be in the top 50 ranks in sPvP” is a skill based achievement.

Larynx.2453:

Wanderer.5471:

Currently the only rewards seem to be for players who have spent a lot of time playing PvE or PvP – do you plan on introducing skill-based rewards for good players who don’t have time to play all day?

E.g. unique weapons for solo-ing svanir, chieftan, guildlord -type bosses (but tougher obviously).

Or unique titles for good kill/death ratios across matches etc etc.

“Be in the top 50 ranks in sPvP” is a skill based achievement.

not rely, it just means you farmed hotjoin a crapload. lol.

I am very happy to see that Zoose will be saying something, (get better soon btw buddy). Zoose has great ideas on how game balance works and I hope he will put forth some of those ideas. I feel as this is the final stand for structured pvp in this game sadly and we really need to get these concerns out and fixed as soon as possible.

-Gibbly [JFK]

Zodian.6597:

Larynx.2453:

Wanderer.5471:

Currently the only rewards seem to be for players who have spent a lot of time playing PvE or PvP – do you plan on introducing skill-based rewards for good players who don’t have time to play all day?

E.g. unique weapons for solo-ing svanir, chieftan, guildlord -type bosses (but tougher obviously).

Or unique titles for good kill/death ratios across matches etc etc.

“Be in the top 50 ranks in sPvP” is a skill based achievement.

not rely, it just means you farmed hotjoin a crapload. lol.

Top 50 rank, not rank 50. They’re adding rating.

Do NOT turn the show into a developer interview.

Monitor the speech time, 20 minutes for each player and 20 minutes for Anet (the 2 devs). Notify people by private messages when their speech time is running out rather than aloud as it breaks the pace of discussion though.

Have talks about the current state if the game rather than future development – so we can avoid the annoying “when it’s ready”

Make sure the talks are actually technical and complex enough to justify having top players. For example, there’s no point in talking for ages about how eles are good on the new map, or that premades shouldn’t face pugs of the same rating, we can all read the forum for that:p

Ideally you’d want to mix a high level of theorycrafting with strategies, tactics and Balance/mechanics as played on the top tier. -which let’s be honest wasn’t always the case In the previous shows.

For me this game need LADDER NOW…for a very high competitive match

Hugs.1856:

Monitor the speech time, 20 minutes for each player and 20 minutes for Anet (the 2 devs). Notify people by private messages when their speech time is running out rather than aloud as it breaks the pace of discussion though.

This is especially true for J Sharp. If you’re reading this, please keep it concise.

Still dont know why we have to wait until mid march to get the question in this thread answered. I mean the devs already see the questions in this thread, hence they should be able to answer already now.

Gallifreyan.1467:

sPvP question will rank 10s that solo Q still get matched against teams of rank 40s over and over ??

cause thats getting old fast.

so, did you realize that rank means nothing in matchmaking as your rating based for it to calculate matchmaking is a different and independent value?

I’d like to know what they are doing regarding Build diversity.

Thief has only one viable high lvl tourney build (25 / 30 / 0 / 0 / 15) which is depressing. I would also like to know if they are happy with the current burst bunker meta or if they intend to change it a bit, because it’s very boring.

Fire.7459:

For me this game need LADDER NOW…for a very high competitive match

ladder wont help when there is no players

Nord.5360:

Hey folks,

It’s about that time again.

Date: March 14th, 2013
Time: 12PM PST (8PM GMT)
Guests:
ArenaNet Game Designers Jon “Chaplan” Sharp and Tyler Bearce
Xeph (EU) from Team Paradigm
Zoose (NA) from Nonstop Nonsense
Where: GW2Guru Twitch Channel

Feel free to respond to this thread with any questions or concerns that you would like to see addressed. I can’t promise that everything will be covered, but I do my best to represent a wide range of opinions, hardcore and casual players alike.

Here’s a link to our announcement thread on Guru.

If you feel more comfortable reaching out to me personally, feel free to shoot me an email at sotg@guildwarsguru.net.

Thanks guys!

Please do me a favor and make sure developers answer concisely and to the point this time.

If somebody asks what MMR system GW2 uses, we simply don’t want to hear 2 minutes of monologue about what other games are using as an answer (see the last SotG).

I don’t even care if what I hear is to my liking, I simply want clear answers to the questions asked.

2 bad state of game is useless if they just dodge important questions

Sanis.1096:

2 bad state of game is useless if they just dodge important questions

Ya I stopped watching because of this reason.

Defektive.7283:

Sanis.1096:

2 bad state of game is useless if they just dodge important questions

Ya I stopped watching because of this reason.

I’m assuming the important questions were pvp ones right? Not overall the game because truth to be told this game is fine, but just not in pvp depending on which classes you play.

For instance I know warriors can have a little more than what they have now.
Not all warriors are

1) Rage, hack and slash brutes waving war banners in the air acting like they don’t care.

Some warriors can be disciplined into magic as well like for a example temporary enchanted weapons or poison and I’m not talking about pvp sigils either. These could be boons that can last up for 10 seconds. The game did not want to take that direction though like in other mmo’s. They pretty much made them soldiers on the battleground master of arms and that’s it.

I’m sure other professions can back themselves up too that truly need help, but I’m supporting warrior for now. They need more than what they have now to become fun to play like having more defensive boons, traits is nice and maybe more flavor to our weapon skills combos.

I think that the statement I am about to make is a blanket statement for what most pvp classes/players are experiencing (I main ranger myself).

Most classes right now are pigeonholed into particular weapon sets, trait setups, and utility choices. It is more of an apex predator (that the choices that are made are made because they are the most useful and viable options available) problem than anything else, and the issue that is making the game stagnant is the lack of build versatility.

If this is an agreeable statement, I hope to see it addressed in the state of the game and that the attention is held on the topic so that the devs don’t try to use avoidance and misdirection to stray away from answering in some way that lets us know that they are aware of the specific issues and working to provide necessary changes.

People need to consider that the devs aren’t entirely free to say what they would like, there higher ups place limits on what they can discuss. But ask the questions guys. I mean i know you cant bust there nuts about it, but you can ask.

@ the devs, in case they read this thread. Figure out something up and coming that you CAN talk about, and have that ready.

Zoose please mention the lack of variety in builds and ask them when they will organize + combine all the kittenty traits in every class. I really want to know when we will be seeing more variety in builds.

daydream.2938:

People need to consider that the devs aren’t entirely free to say what they would like, there higher ups place limits on what they can discuss. But ask the questions guys. I mean i know you cant bust there nuts about it, but you can ask.

@ the devs, in case they read this thread. Figure out something up and coming that you CAN talk about, and have that ready.

if the policy is “we talk about stuff when it’s ready” = that is bad for them and bad for community…

I want to be absolutely clear that all of this is tentative, and until it’s on the server it’s not a guarantee! We want to keep you guys as up to date as possible with the current development, but it must come with the understanding that features slip & dates slip, and what we’re giving you is our best possible projection of what and when.

Devs should just preface their conversations with stuff like this^ from the Ps2 devs.

I really would like to know if the devs play GW2 PvP.

Hugs.1856:

Do NOT turn the show into a developer interview.

Monitor the speech time, 20 minutes for each player and 20 minutes for Anet (the 2 devs). Notify people by private messages when their speech time is running out rather than aloud as it breaks the pace of discussion though.

Have talks about the current state if the game rather than future development – so we can avoid the annoying “when it’s ready”

Make sure the talks are actually technical and complex enough to justify having top players. For example, there’s no point in talking for ages about how eles are good on the new map, or that premades shouldn’t face pugs of the same rating, we can all read the forum for that:p

Ideally you’d want to mix a high level of theorycrafting with strategies, tactics and Balance/mechanics as played on the top tier. -which let’s be honest wasn’t always the case In the previous shows.

Don’t pretend ANYONE watches these for anything other than seeing what the devs say. The last one was good because it told us what was going on and let us see the devs vision. They have to limit what the players say because there really is no interest in what they say, we can find that out anywhere like checking the forums. I really dont think its productive or interesting to see what 1 or 2 players think except to help ask questions to the devs which they feel represent the part of the community they come from. I hope the sotg revolves primarily around the developers and getting answers from them.

Rename the show devs interview and don’t invite any players then:p

evilapprentice.6379:

Is it someone’s job to transcribe these interviews and post them on the boards as text?
If not, it needs to be.

I hope we’re able to transcribe this time around, or at least provide links to specific topics inside the video – I think it would make a few people happy, anyways.

Tarisuca.3142:

I really would like to know if the devs play GW2 PvP.

They do well from what the Jons told us in the recent State of game. They run a 5man engineer team in tournaments. In a way that nice that a group of engineers can manage to excel in tournaments, but also it means not every profession can do that which loses out on variety that can participate in tournaments and be viable especially in higher tier brackets.

I’d like to know if they have anything in store for competitive teams anytime soon and im not talking about ladder.

I made a separate thread, but I found this one again and decided to paste it here since there’s a bigger chance someone actually reads it. If it’s been suggested already, excuse me, I had no time to read everything.

A quick suggestion I’d like to give and ask about your opinion regarding the SotG in March.

I, for one, believe that while SotG should touch topics like the new map, matchmaking, rating, upcoming ladder/something/custom arena/observer mode, it shouldn’t focus on these things.

Heck, we can as well write the usual answer on a blackboard behind Grouch and frankly the devs can say whatever they want. We learned it changes nothing until it goes live.

My suggestion, proposal and request is to make it more profession/balance/vision oriented.

Give each profession few minutes (fair share!) so that devs can elaborate on how they designed the profession, how they see it now and where are they taking it in the near future (strongest spots, weakest spots, weapon sets, etc.) Basically something compared to the short note from designer team in a December patch (link to the post)

What I think the community can agree with is we should also talk about where we are regarding Tank vs spike vs physical DPS vs condie DPS and AOE balance (also in the post linked above).

What I personally would like to get answered is the recent change to Death Shroud that now doesn’t allow for a weapon swap as well as get info about new DS UI that was said to has been worked on more than 2 months ago.

guza.6170:

I already can anwser all of this, we are aware of this and we are working on it but we cant say too much right now.

When it’s ready.

Don’t worry guys, these features are coming. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Just stay with us a bit longer, come on. Don’t leave, please.

Thanks for doing this again Grouch. Only thing I have to put forth at this point is that you’ve got two great players(Xeph, Zoose) that have a deep knowledge of the game and how to improve it. Allow them to have adequate time to ask the right questions. I think it would be better this time to push the devs on how they feel about the overall balance between classes is at the moment, even specifying further about certain problem areas.

Examples:
-Mesmer/Guardian still required. Why aren’t these integral roles that these classes have expanded to other classes? This is limiting an insane amount of build variety and comps right there!
-Elementalist bunkers. How have the changes affected the class in terms of balance and what else must be done.
-Thief damage and build versatility.
etc.

Tons of topics for sure so specifics might have to be avoided a little bit but I have full confidence you guys can pull it off.

@condiments

As far as thief damage is concerned, there’s very little they can do about it short of completely redesigning the profession. If they nerf it too much, then thief is utterly useless. If they buffed it, it’s even more unfun to play against for hotjoins. Frankly I don’t think the damage is overpowered. The issue is in the reliability of the damage and possibly the general lack of other options.

So lets say for example Cloak and Dagger and Mug both crit. You’re probably going to one shot a nonbunker who eats the full thing. But what if they don’t? Well their health is now down to 50%. This is probably the biggest example of why RNG just doesn’t work for competitive games. A simple solution would be to make them always crit, or never crit?, but make the damage a bit more moderate. It’s not 100% of your health, and not 50%, but it’s maybe 75%.

There’s going to be a lot better solutions, but this is probably the simplest and easiest. Maybe they can have some sort of requirement like Backstab does with Hidden Killer? Maybe they can add a utility like elementalists that makes the next 3 abilities crit.

Updated original post. Check out the changes!

Also, thanks for the feedback. Once again, I can’t include everything, but I am checking all of the posts!

Talk about each professsion individually! thats a great suggestion.

How do you feel about where the warrior is, the ele is, etc etc.
Build variety! Some classes, like the mesmer are balanced/strong. But have basically only 1 build thats used.

What is your current stance and aim about turning this into an esport? as i remember Arenanet did mention that they wanted to tap this market.

(while personally i wont have enough time its still nice to have the opportunity)

If I just may throw in something here:

I’m actually very glad you got Tyler Bearce into the SotG now. While Jon Peters mostly seems unresponsive and very passive towards players, Tyler always seems to get stuff right.

(If it continues like this I might just wanna vote for him as the new head of the pvp department. If we would get to vote ofc…)

Zoose & others, Engineer forum really need you to ask THE question :

Why the nerf on kit refinement? While the nerf doesn’t seems to fully work yet, adding a global cooldown over an individual cooldown on a trait that will affect non-FOTM build (HGH unaffected,100nade is affected, but not so much – Multikit build (hardly viable) are affected really hard) seems to be a really weird move. We are really wondering why did that happen?

Do you consider engineer downed state balanced? Compare it with Mesmer, thief, Elem. Especially number 1 and 2 abilities.

Like someone else asked :
Do you consider making some subpart build better? Ex : Engineer Turret, Necromancer Pets, Warrior banner, Trap thief, Non DD/SD Elem.

Thanks!

1. what goal is to reach with the custome arenas and ladder
2. any plans for a revamp of the raward / rank system?
3. why do you still think ignoring solo qs is the healthest way for the game
4. why do you still think the best way to bring new players into the game is to hold on the capture the point system?
5. why dont you speak about upcoming features in the future and miss the opportunity to involve the community into the development
6. why do you think the pvp forum is full of ’Solo Q / game modes topics?
7. getting rid of the 3-stage paid system was for me the reason to stop playing, because at this i had not the competition i was looking for. the 1 map tournie made this even worser for me. what plans do you focus for tpvp now?

Battosai.5620:

why the kitten would you drop zoose?

im curious about this aswell? just LOL

Speculation has it, that it was because he was going to be tough on the developers. Confirm/Deny Grouch?

He did not back out. He got replaced today.

Battosai.5620:

why the kitten would you drop zoose?

he had a car accident, maybe he won’t be able to get well in time.

Mrbig.8019:

he had a car accident, maybe he won’t be able to get well in time.

Zoose did not resign, he just got a mail he’s being replaced.

Question I’d like answered:

Was the bias for large guilds (represented by reward system and restricted new content of latest update) a deliberate trend? Or are there plans to do something for the small guilds?

Those of us with very small guilds would like to know whether to hang on to them or give up and disband.

Thanks — I look forward to the show.