Right now there are a few things that I find are very problematic in PvP (also in WvW). Now some of these are less prevalent in tpvp, but I still believe they are an issue.
Problem #1:
First lets start with something that I see a lot in PvP. Too many have such independent roles. What I mean by this is take for example the DPSers of the game currently. The main people who I see are doing DPS are Warriors, Thieves, Mesmers, rangers, and necromancers. Now some of these are very good DPSers. I find that Thieves, mesmers, and necromancers are currently the best DPS classes. The problem is that they are so good at dps and the lack of cast times/noticable casting animations/tells causes pvp matches above 5v5 (sometimes 5v5) to become too cluttered and not enough counterplays. When I’m in a battle in 5v5 or higher, I have to watch a mesmers animations, his clones animations to watch for shatters, watch a necromancer for his marks, watch a thief, and then watch the other classses for their changing animations. If I am fighting with guards nearby i have to watch them too. That means if all these things focus on one enemy, that enemy to defend himself has very limited choices. If I miss a thieves heartseeker, boom there goes 7k of my HP (this is 1/5 of most classes hp, and it comes from a skill that can be casted again right after). If I see the thief and dodge his burst combo but don’t see the mesmer, boom there goes 7k hp from his burst combo. If I don’t see the necromancers condi combo boom I have every condi in the game.
What does this mean?
This means that defensive damage negators (things that negate damage that you do yourself. Things like blocking, invurnabilities, stealthing, aegis, protection, etc) take the reigns in the meta because they can help negate the damage from multiple sources. So classes that don’t have a ton of these (such as necromancers whom are poor in the defensive aspects) cant really get dominated quickly when they get focused. This means classes with a lot of these, such as guardians, can be very good tanks/bunkers.
What would be good:
I think if classes took more reliance on boons to perform things well and had to get these boons from other sources would be great. In order for a class to do 8k or more, a target needs to have at least 10+ stacks of vunability on him and the classes themselves who are capable of doing this insane DPS can not apply these. This would increase teamwork by a ton. Same with crit chance and fury, tank classes and what not.
tl;dr #1: Too many classes can performing amazingly well at rokitten th dps and tanky wise. This mean large battles are insanely hard to survive getting focused from mass CC or having one character off screen just decimate you in a couple of hits. Put more emphasis on classes working together to perform roles extraordinarily well.
Problem #2:
AoEs. There are way too many AoEs and Cleaves in this game. Both support and offensive wise. This takes a huge chunk away from battles on the personal level. It also makes it very hard to counter roles. If someone get’s focused hard, his allies don’t have a lot of direct support skills that they can work together on to try to negate that CC.
What this means:
This means that classes that have a lot of AoE skills that do considerable amount of damage or support will become very popular. Mesmers for example have amazing utilities and weapons that have some sort of AoE effects, on top of their shatter skills. Guardians have some of the best AoE support skills.
What could be done:
Honestly you’d have to rework and redesign a lot of skills to reduce the AoE in the game. This could take a long time. However, I think this PvP in it’s current state might not survive. I am hoping that it does though.
tl;dr #2: Too many AoEs, reduce AoEs overall and it could make large battles more immersive on the player level rather than the group level.
Side Note: One of the reasons I make these is not because I like to whine or complain, it is because I care about this game. Many players do this and others simply insult them. Most players wont come on the forums and complain if they truly hate the game. The players that do actually care about the games survival and suggest things that in their eyes might help it survive. Me personally, I’m really scared for this game. I have no idea the community for this entire game will react when the other big name MMOs are released, some scheduled for later this year. I’m hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.