Guild Wars 2

Hey all! So due to some real life constraints, I had to regulate myself to only one mmo a while ago. I chose World of Warcraft because I loved playing my class in pvp there (I main restoration shaman). Recently the game’s pvp has taken a terrible direction. To be honest, it’s been on this path for a while. I just can’t tolerate it anymore however.

Because of this, I’m very much considering coming back to GW2 for some pvp. I’ve truly always loved the pvp system. My question to you guys is: how is pvp right now? Are you guys having fun? How (in)frequently do they balance? How are classes design-wise? I played during seasons 1 and 2 of HoT just as an fyi.

I appreciate any and all responses, but please for my sake be constructive. I don’t want to slog through a bunch of qq right now. If I could also get responses from any mid to high rated players that have a solid grasp of the game’s state right now, that would be excellent.

Thanks!

Nox

Nox get your kitten back in GW2 you nerd.

You probably want to tell us why you think WoW PvP is bad, because if you don’t it is gonna be very, very much a case of “well, I am fine with this”, then you come back and, dang, you hate the pants off it … because WoW PvP would be fine with me too.

To the specific questions: pvp is good right now, but QQ is high because this season the changed your rank (bronze, silver, gold, etc) from “wins move you up, nothing moves you down” to “reflects your actual skill, by way of MMR”.

Which means a bunch of people who were “legendary” rank are now … not. They are not happy about this. (The MMR system is approximately the same as what WoW uses, FWIW.)

Lots of people are having fun. Addition of top tier armor rewards to ranked pvp mean there are a lot of new players in it, which has the good and bad you would expect of that, but of course, that’s all down in the bottom of the MMR pool for the most part – just as it should be. Gonna mean an infusion of people who decide PvP is fun and stick around though.

Balance happens between seasons, four to six times a year, plus the occasional emergency fix. It’s fast enough that you don’t get change every week, but you do get it before things get too out of hand if someone works out a clever but unintended strategy.

All the classes are competitive right up until you get to the very tip-top of PvP, and even there it’s reasonably spread. Plenty of people will tell you that X is overpowered or underpowered or cheese, but the value of X is “anything”, and all the descriptors applied to all the classes. Which is a sign of generally good balance.

Also, people QQ about MMR being wrong but, as noted, this is because their skill rather than play time is being reflected in ranking for the first time. Actual gameplay is usually pretty good, and you get matchups that rapidly converge on competitive.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 You just stare at these forums all day don’t you Nightpigeon?

I like to start my mornings with a cup of coffee and excess amounts of salt lol. Nah if you’re around late tonight or tomorrow all day hop in TS and I can fill you in.

My whole issue with WoW pvp right now deals heavily with improper tuning of damage numbers, and the removal of useful utility skills that allow you to assist/peel for your teammates and outplay your opponents. When I say “improper tuning”, I mean like numbers are actually insane and healers cannot keep up with damage at all. PvP feels like it is taking less and less skill to do well. I’m fine with bad players being able to hold their own, but if I’m good I want to be able to outplay people.

Nighthawk.4687:

I like to start my mornings with a cup of coffee and excess amounts of salt lol. Nah if you’re around late tonight or tomorrow all day hop in TS and I can fill you in.

I’m under the weather right now so off work. If I’m not on tonight, I’ll be on tomorrow for sure.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

You probably want to tell us why you think WoW PvP is bad, because if you don’t it is gonna be very, very much a case of “well, I am fine with this”, then you come back and, dang, you hate the pants off it … because WoW PvP would be fine with me too.

To the specific questions: pvp is good right now, but QQ is high because this season the changed your rank (bronze, silver, gold, etc) from “wins move you up, nothing moves you down” to “reflects your actual skill, by way of MMR”.

Which means a bunch of people who were “legendary” rank are now … not. They are not happy about this. (The MMR system is approximately the same as what WoW uses, FWIW.)

Lots of people are having fun. Addition of top tier armor rewards to ranked pvp mean there are a lot of new players in it, which has the good and bad you would expect of that, but of course, that’s all down in the bottom of the MMR pool for the most part – just as it should be. Gonna mean an infusion of people who decide PvP is fun and stick around though.

Balance happens between seasons, four to six times a year, plus the occasional emergency fix. It’s fast enough that you don’t get change every week, but you do get it before things get too out of hand if someone works out a clever but unintended strategy.

All the classes are competitive right up until you get to the very tip-top of PvP, and even there it’s reasonably spread. Plenty of people will tell you that X is overpowered or underpowered or cheese, but the value of X is “anything”, and all the descriptors applied to all the classes. Which is a sign of generally good balance.

Also, people QQ about MMR being wrong but, as noted, this is because their skill rather than play time is being reflected in ranking for the first time. Actual gameplay is usually pretty good, and you get matchups that rapidly converge on competitive.

Thank you for the fantastic response! I really appreciate how detailed you were. You pretty much told me everything that I wanted to hear lol. Balance I feel could happen a bit more frequently when needed, but that honestly doesn’t sound too bad. I’m actually super hyped to come back and play the game now, and I’ll be redownloading it asap.

Shadownox.5968:

Hey all! So due to some real life constraints, I had to regulate myself to only one mmo a while ago. I chose World of Warcraft because I loved playing my class in pvp there (I main restoration shaman). Recently the game’s pvp has taken a terrible direction. To be honest, it’s been on this path for a while. I just can’t tolerate it anymore however.

Because of this, I’m very much considering coming back to GW2 for some pvp. I’ve truly always loved the pvp system. My question to you guys is: how is pvp right now? Are you guys having fun? How (in)frequently do they balance? How are classes design-wise? I played during seasons 1 and 2 of HoT just as an fyi.

I appreciate any and all responses, but please for my sake be constructive. I don’t want to slog through a bunch of qq right now. If I could also get responses from any mid to high rated players that have a solid grasp of the game’s state right now, that would be excellent.

Thanks!

Nox

- how is pvp right now?

It’s interesting to say the least.

- Are you guys having fun?

I was having so much fun, that I uninstalled the game about 3 weeks, now I just pop into the forums every so now and then hoping to see that Anet is making changes, that’ll force me to reinstall the game. But that’s just me. I’ve moved to more dedicated, competitive and fun PvP games that I feel is fun and worthy my play time.

- How (in)frequently do they balance?

Not enoth in my opinion. They balance classes and skills maybe every 3 months some times longer. They are trying to come out with a expansion

- How are classes design-wise?

Depends on where you end up if you end up in bronze well you can just look at all the bronze posts on the forums about that. But if you end up in Gold or higher I hear things are like heaven up there.

I’m just going to add. It’s a system either you are going to completely hate it or you are going to completely love it. Their is really no in between. GL on your placement matches and may RNG forever be in your favor.

Avid player since release, first season or time since release I only play 1-3 games a day if lucky.

Combination of low skill entry builds like trap DH, match making putting vets and new players together, general lack of quality matches, discrediting peoples efforts into the “year of ascension” and so forth… Putting these concerns to Anet was met with silence so I can only assume captain has jumped ship and we the crew must do the same, game is nearly 5 years old after all.

At the end of the day, you gotta play what you find fun.

Edit: Just found this among the threads -

MOAR DATA: ~3% of matches have substitutes which could* cause the original problem in this thread. We are testing fixes now.

I actually have a tiny bit of hope again, hopefully they can address the other concerns people have as I do have them too… I hope Anet can take peoples anger as a sign of love and care for the game.