Guild Wars 2

The reason I enjoy Guild Wars 2 is the combat system. It’s more dynamic and fun than any other MMO I’ve tried and feels like a more skillful version of fast paced hack and slash gameplay. I love the dodge system and how every weapon on every class is unique.

My two most played classes are thief and necromancer, and I consider them polar opposites in terms of gameplay.

Since the major necro buff my experience in t/spvp has been mostly negative and I was thinking what is causing this.

Here’s my list:

-AoE: The availability of AoE on certain classes promotes stagnant, non-tactical gameplay. For example, on my necromancer I can have literally a full bar of AoE skills with staff and wells and plague form. Not only does this mean every skill I have is incredibly easy to aim and connect on, it means I don’t need to worry about moving, camera rotation, or even dodging a large part of the time. AoE continually plays an imbalancing role in spvp, tpvp and wvw.

-Artificial intelligence: If you want to find what builds are easiest to play, look no farther than the ones that rely on AI. The fact is that the incentive for using AI remains too high in pvp and not high enough in pve.

-Defensive mitigation: Aegis, invulnerability and stealth simply aren’t fun to play against and are currently too spammable. On my thief, if I’m losing I can simply run away and no one will catch me with the combination of stealth+ mobility. I’d be willing to trade an increase in survivability or damage for that, and it would be more enjoyable for both me and the person I’m fighting.

-Conditions: Simply put, certain builds have out of control condition application currently. Conditions are a nice mechanic, but in the end I’d like to see them toned down especially on ranged attacks and AoE skills.

-Ranged attacks: I’d personally like to see the pay off for using melee weapons in this game be slightly larger, especially on certain warrior weapons. I’ve always found it far more difficult to stay on a dodging/moving target with a melee weapon than spam ranged attacks and I’m sure most people feel this way

Creating an environment which promotes tactical, well timed gameplay should be of paramount importance to Arenanet if they wish to have a successful tpvp community.