Guild Wars 2

Since hitting 80, I’ve be focusing on tPvP. I love it and want it to grow and be sucessful. However there are some issues and topics that I think need to be addressed soon. My goal of this post is to open up some thought and discussion about these topics in hope to inspire a better direction for PvP. These are my thoughts and my opinions and please do not take them for law or think I’m just QQ’ing.

PvP for casuals
If you are not part of a PvP guild or have lots of buddies that like to Pvp, it is very difficult to get into PvP. There is quick joining 8v8’s and solo que for tPvP free, however these aren’t nearly emersive enough. We’ll get to 8’s later on, but solo que is awful. You will either get placed with other Pugs or incomplete teams. With that you get a team that is a random mess of classes and builds,and limited communication. It is rare to get past the 2nd round with a pug group. Some of these things can be fixed while addressing other topics I will list later on.

Balance
Everyone will agree, class balance is vital to a sucessful PvP game. I think Anet has been lacking a little bit on this part. Some classes and builds are really rediculously good and required to be successful in tournaments. Other classes and builds literally get laughed at. There are some glaring issues to machanics as well. These issues don’t seem to be getting addressed, and if they are, there is no transperancy between us and the devs. When there is no discussion, it makes it seem like nothing is being done to address the issues.
One thing I’ve loved about GW2 is that is didn’t have the “trinity” of classes. However this is quickly not becoming true in tPvP. It is required now to bring your bunkers and your burst spikers. If you don’t have those, you are just shooting yourself in the foot. I’ve been forced into playing the guardian bunker because it is crazy powerful at point sitting, instead of playing my ranger because sustained dps is laughable against good bunkers. The survivability of bunkers needs to be toned down, as does the burst dmg spikes. Lets bring the game back to not requiring roles and specific builds that is was originally supposed to be.

tPvP
I’ve been so excited and anious ever since I heard about paid tourneys and the rewards from them. I practiced with my guildies to get ready for these. Now it seems like no one will do them outside of the 10 really good teams that are the only ones queing up for them. The que times are really long because there isn’t a big player base wanting to join these tourneys. People do not want to risk wasting 5 tickets without an optimal team and practice before hand. This is fine, but after getting 4 others together and practicing, someone will get burnt out or have to leave after a few rounds of free. Then the cycle restarts, no one will want to que for paids yet because they aren’t “ready”. I say lower the ticket price so more people will be enticed to que. Build up the player base, then do what you want with the ticket costs. As it stands now, people don’t want to risk the cost playing against the same 5 skilled teams. Maybe even through in a reward that will seduce the PvE’ers to try their hand at PvP more.
I’d love to see paid tourneys become a big esport, and draw in the attention it should deserve, but there are some many issues in the way it’s really turning people away from PvP and the game right now.

Continued in 2nd post

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sPvP
I hate sPvP’s 8v8! I can’t stand it anymore. It’s a zerg or be zerg game now. The glory system as it stands rewards you for running with the zerg from point to point instead of strategics and defending. I’ve seen people completely ignore the battle around them just to squeeze out more glory in a battle, even if it means loosing the game. The maps aren’t build for 16 people either. There needs to be a change in glory rewarded for defending or holding a point longer or something to that affect. Maybe split the glory from getting a kill if more people “tag” the person that is killed. It’s a joke right now, and I will probably forever be stuck in my rank 20’s because I refuse to play those zerg maps. And tPvP doesn’t reward glory quick enough because there is too much down time.
Maps and Game Types
I know I don’t stand alone in saying we want more maps and game types! I’ve heard people complain about all the attention PvE gets, while PvP sits in the dark. I’d love to see more game types, maps, or even custom rules and tweaks on maps you can host once those come out. I think it would be fun to add an element of randomness in tPvP tourneys as well. Toss in random maps and a few different game types. Then lock players into their class and build once the tourney starts, and weapon sets once the game starts. That would force teams to play well rounded instead of sitting in a particular role.

What are your thoughts? There are mine. Please keep feedback constructive, and feel free to offer ideas. I’d love to see what Anet has to say on some of these topics as well.

I think… that arena.net is a honey badger, and pvp players are just one more snake.

Robomath.3085:

The survivability of bunkers needs to be toned down, as does the burst dmg spikes. Lets bring the game back to not requiring roles and specific builds that is was originally supposed to be.

Regarding balance, for me this has been the main issue with tPvP since the release of the game. A.net needs to fix or at least tweak the bunker/burst DPS mechanics in order to successfully take roles out of the equation.

Its just too boring to play more than a couple times a month..

It just degenerates and becomes too static too fast.

For me the PvP is also getting boring very fast. It feels way to much like a DOTA game. The interaction/team work between classes feels too limited (maybe a side effect of removing the trinity).

It feels that damage overshadows utility/control by way too much in team fights. For me this leads to PvP becoming too ‘zergy’ for my taste…

I have an issue with finding a good guild that actually sets up times to practice and get strategies down. When I enter the sPvP it is either good or bad. Either there is 4 or 5 thieves on the other team or it is somewhat balanced in that there isn’t a butt load of thieves. That is the only thing I have noticed that really kills sPvP for me. I can handle pretty much any other prof. given on my cool downs and how well each of us play.