Guild Wars 2

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.

Took you long enough, but it’s a really good change.

This is Good News The 3 new maps need a little tweaking still but i like capricorn !

NotASmurf.1725:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.

Took you long enough, but it’s a really good change.

I don’t understand how the stronghold affected your life? Jealous to people who got to legendary only playing stronghold?

We should encourage Anet to make more game modes to PvP, not removing them. If we had 3 game modes and upcoming solo/duo queue, we could get a vote system for gamemode and then game picked randomly the map. That should be the goal to get PvP better again. Enough with this “e-sports conquest” already. Those gamers should have a little changing on their gameplaying too if they would need to practice 3 game modes and new strategies/team compositions.

Nice! No more stronghold legendary grinding!

Edit: New Capricorn is not bad too! I hope it appears in 6th season.

Mutaatti.2789:

NotASmurf.1725:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.

Took you long enough, but it’s a really good change.

I don’t understand how the stronghold affected your life? Jealous to people who got to legendary only playing stronghold?

We should encourage Anet to make more game modes to PvP, not removing them. If we had 3 game modes and upcoming solo/duo queue, we could get a vote system for gamemode and then game picked randomly the map. That should be the goal to get PvP better again. Enough with this “e-sports conquest” already. Those gamers should have a little changing on their gameplaying too if they would need to practice 3 game modes and new strategies/team compositions.

Problem is that Stronghold never became popular enough to get proper maintenance/balance. This means that climbing leagues with 2 modes out of which one is not “polished” means nothing in term of reflection of player skill. This last part is the purpose of the league system.
Now I think the game mode itself would be much more solo/duo friendly and could become popular if it had a proper advertisement. In fact I wish there would be a second league (separated from the conquest one) for stronghold only, open during conquest off-season. With proper rewards it would attract players and could then be appropriately monitored and receive the attention it deserves.

Mutaatti.2789:

NotASmurf.1725:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.

Took you long enough, but it’s a really good change.

I don’t understand how the stronghold affected your life? Jealous to people who got to legendary only playing stronghold?

We should encourage Anet to make more game modes to PvP, not removing them. If we had 3 game modes and upcoming solo/duo queue, we could get a vote system for gamemode and then game picked randomly the map. That should be the goal to get PvP better again. Enough with this “e-sports conquest” already. Those gamers should have a little changing on their gameplaying too if they would need to practice 3 game modes and new strategies/team compositions.

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

• Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
  • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
  • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

If you do not improve the camera in the points not because you set it to put in ranked, has been commented often and no change, since always you do not listen and it that you ask for it.

I second this. Skyhammer is not an awful map as it were before, but the camera work with the blocking pillars on side points is a major turn off and annoyance. Capricorn seems like a much better candidate for ranked, IMHO.

Archer.4362:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

• Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
  • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
  • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

If you do not improve the camera in the points not because you set it to put in ranked, has been commented often and no change, since always you do not listen and it that you ask for it.

NotASmurf.1725:

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

I do not understand why people use always the label PvE for Stronghold? Is that only coming from NPC? Then are MOBA’s consider PvE games as well? Was GvG in GW1 a PvE game mode because of how defending NPCs (attacking those of the other team) was an important part of the game?

I do not want to start a strong argument but I would like to understand the difference, if there is one.

Probably because you could, in a lot of games, completely ignore the other players and just focus on the npcs. Eg. Healbot Ele out-healing players trying to kill door breakers. Players slotting long stability skills that make interrupting the hero channels impossible. Players focusing on killing the lord rather than other players.

Y’know.. stuff like that

I hope you consider adding capricorn to the rotation too!

Ranael.6423:

NotASmurf.1725:

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

I do not understand why people use always the label PvE for Stronghold? Is that only coming from NPC? Then are MOBA’s consider PvE games as well? Was GvG in GW1 a PvE game mode because of how defending NPCs (attacking those of the other team) was an important part of the game?

I do not want to start a strong argument but I would like to understand the difference, if there is one.

Literally the best way to win on stronghold is to do nothing but heal the first 5 doorbreakers, kill the guards, make it to the lord room and kill the lord, ignoring any form of PvP. Match is over in 3 minutes and you do nothing but heal and kill NPCs.

It’s not a moba nor GW1 GvG, it’s an abomination.

Good call for stronghold. Skyhammer is just ugly in it´s current form, i am cautiously curious for a revamped version.

Sorry, but Skyhammer is still a terrible map.

NotASmurf.1725:

Literally the best way to win on stronghold is to do nothing but heal the first 5 doorbreakers, kill the guards, make it to the lord room and kill the lord, ignoring any form of PvP. Match is over in 3 minutes and you do nothing but heal and kill NPCs.

It’s not a moba nor GW1 GvG, it’s an abomination.

Wow… I played Stronghold when it got released and stopped because guildmates did not want to play with me… i would not have expected the mode to become as such. That’s why some serious monitoring is required before it becomes the new Heroes Battle.

GladConcept.4650:

Sorry, but Skyhammer is still a terrible map.

agree,

step 1 remove everything that makes sky hammer unique and then put it into ranked que.

Seriously i hate that map and i literally find every other map more enjoyable to play.

I would have preferred Capricorn or Colosseum instead of Skyhammer tbh.
Also, are there any changes to Map Selection so that the voting system actually goes with the map that got the most votes instead of a roulette?

oh Skyhammer on ranked…

bye bye season 5, I’ll spare myself the torture

GladConcept.4650:

Sorry, but Skyhammer is still a terrible map.

Why Skyhammer and not any of other maps? It’s not really any better than those.

I vastly prefer the new Capricorn to the new Skyhammer. I think you guys (ANet) should use the feedback poll and ask the players if they’d rather have Skyhammer or Capricorn go ranked!

Skyhammer is still an awful map, but glad that you remove Stronghold from ranked

Gj on removing the stupid stronghold, but I’d prefer Capricorn over Skyhammer for Ranked. Please consider. Skyhammer isn’t as awful as it used to be but still rather bad.

I really, really like Stronghold. Can we find a solution that won’t totally decimate the population that plays it? Less people will play if it’s unranked during seasons and our pop numbers are, seemingly, already low.

Maybe give Stronghold it’s own reward track thingie so we can still get groups after this change without waiting an hour+.
Or maybe make a Stronghold League and then start developing new maps for it too!

Please support this game mode.
Thanks!

Hunnie.3451:

Please support this game mode.
Thanks!

As a fan of dungeons, I feel your pain. Even though I have avoided Stronghold like the plague.

NotASmurf.1725:

Ranael.6423:

NotASmurf.1725:

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

I do not understand why people use always the label PvE for Stronghold? Is that only coming from NPC? Then are MOBA’s consider PvE games as well? Was GvG in GW1 a PvE game mode because of how defending NPCs (attacking those of the other team) was an important part of the game?

I do not want to start a strong argument but I would like to understand the difference, if there is one.

Literally the best way to win on stronghold is to do nothing but heal the first 5 doorbreakers, kill the guards, make it to the lord room and kill the lord, ignoring any form of PvP. Match is over in 3 minutes and you do nothing but heal and kill NPCs.

It’s not a moba nor GW1 GvG, it’s an abomination.

So remove the ability to heal NPC’s and we are golden? If a team con not take out 5 other players while they waste time healing NPC’s then they where probably not very good at PvP to begin with. I’ve never seen what you talked about happen. I think the problem with stronghold is that it is one map, so it gets old fast, Stronghold should have lunched with 2-3 maps. Same as TDM. Courtyard should not have been the only map. Even conquest gets boring after a while. PvP really needs more game modes, not less.

Good decision for Stronghold. On the other hand, I would prefer Capricorn to Skyhammer. Might be only a personal opinion.

Capricorn is better than skyhammer, mainly because jump pads are still an awful mechanic, even tho better than before

On top of the fact that I burned out from farming hard for the backpack the last season, they’re not removing the only way of variety. Guess I’ll never play PvP anymore…

I might be the minority, but i really like the skyhammer adition to the rotation maps, i don’t see why not give it a chance, capricorn its good too!, if you want capricorn, why not simply ask for capricorn? no need to remove skyhammer without even trying it

BrotherBelial.3094:

NotASmurf.1725:

Ranael.6423:

NotASmurf.1725:

I’m all for variety but as you said, they should be adding more modes to PvP. Problem is Stronghold is PvE.

We need rewards that matter and make people care. Why should anyone in the world care about PvP titles as long as you can get them by grinding PvE on stronghold? It was a kittenty gamemode that had to go.

I do not understand why people use always the label PvE for Stronghold? Is that only coming from NPC? Then are MOBA’s consider PvE games as well? Was GvG in GW1 a PvE game mode because of how defending NPCs (attacking those of the other team) was an important part of the game?

I do not want to start a strong argument but I would like to understand the difference, if there is one.

Literally the best way to win on stronghold is to do nothing but heal the first 5 doorbreakers, kill the guards, make it to the lord room and kill the lord, ignoring any form of PvP. Match is over in 3 minutes and you do nothing but heal and kill NPCs.

It’s not a moba nor GW1 GvG, it’s an abomination.

So remove the ability to heal NPC’s and we are golden? If a team con not take out 5 other players while they waste time healing NPC’s then they where probably not very good at PvP to begin with. I’ve never seen what you talked about happen. I think the problem with stronghold is that it is one map, so it gets old fast, Stronghold should have lunched with 2-3 maps. Same as TDM. Courtyard should not have been the only map. Even conquest gets boring after a while. PvP really needs more game modes, not less.

I dont think you get how bad it was.

So we are a 4-5 man group vs 2-1-1-1 group. We are running 1 rev, 2 eles and a mesmer.

The eles are shout heals and the mesmer is giving quickness and the rev is feeding boons. We just tell the 5th person on our team to follow.

Ok so i have done this with my guild and even against other premades they were not ready for it.

Towards the end of S2 which is when we quit playing stronghold, the other who was a premade of there own similar team comp. I think they ran double mesmer 2 druids and a ele. Either way we both grabbed door breakers and both of us raced towards the lord. They won because they had more dps.

Simply put this was a terrible map. You have to escort the NPC, yet it is near impossible to keep them alive playing a offensive build.

Making it so you cant heal the NPC also means quick burst builds would quickly run to the door breakers and kill them, 15 minute matches all the time. For instance i could run a full trap ranger and a friend could run full trap DH and we would just drop traps near the doors. You cant heal the NPC so they are now dead.

Ill give you another for thing my guild did. We ran 2 eles 1 DH and 2 MM necros. The 2 MM necros went on defense and used rise against the door breakers and the enemy team. We were winning our 2 vs 3/4/5 fights and the 3 people on offense ran straight to lord. When the 2nd gate went down we would run in there and use rise again. We both had around 8 minions up all the time with 28k health and lots of toughness.

Stronghold just doesnt fit with the HOT specs they put out, if we want to be honest HOT specs are kind of broken in raids/PvE/ WvW and PvP.

if we want to be honest HOT specs are kind of broken in raids/PvE/ WvW and PvP.

I think that was already clear for everyone, a power creep nerf patch is needed, a heavy one

Ivantreil.3092:

if we want to be honest HOT specs are kind of broken in raids/PvE/ WvW and PvP.

I think that was already clear for everyone, a power creep nerf patch is needed, a heavy one

I agreed, elite specs, do make the game easy mode. Core is so easy with them. But then, you need them for the HoT maps. As core builds lack the power for the groups in HoT.

I also like capricorn.
But I think skyhammer is in a better position in terms of balance. So I think it is a good pick among all the maps.

Ivantreil.3092:

if we want to be honest HOT specs are kind of broken in raids/PvE/ WvW and PvP.

I think that was already clear for everyone, a power creep nerf patch is needed, a heavy one

I just watched WP videos and all he talks about is why balance is so off and how he doesnt want to believe the Anet Dev team cant be this lost.

They nerf mesmer boons because of WvW which messed up raids. I find it funny because before HOT came out a ton of PvP players said there is to many boons with the HOT specs and there were those who were clueless and said L2P.

Here we are years later and Anet still hasnt split WvW/PvE/PvP. They created a expansion with HOT that is really only for farmers and raiders and everyone else seems to be getting frustrated.

Like Mike O’brien said “if your really into WvW then your really into PvE” which im guessing isnt true with the way forums are looking.

Can you guys add spirit watch and Capricorn please. Both are fantastic maps. So is the new coliseum map. One of the problems I had with season 4 is the map choice. I literally ended up playing foefire and forest 95% of the time. It made me want to pull out my hairs because it became so repetitive.

Good changes.
/15charlizards

I will miss stronghold, but it rarely ever popped for me (I kept BOTH options checked). I thought it was a nice change of pace when it did come up for me, but I wouldn’t want to do only stronghold. Too many people opted out of doing stronghold so there was never much of a chance for people to play that map. If it had been put in as one of the random map choices maybe it would have gotten played more often by more than a small group of people.

Why not add all the maps? All now are good and so is best for each solve the maps like, already has long left alone with these 4 maps.

I’m so sad about Stronghold being removed from Ranked

I know that I don’t have a popular opinion, but Stronghold is the only PvP-mode I REALLY love to play ( yeah … not everybody likes Conquest, you know… I’ve always hated it :/ )

I solo/duoQ all 4 seasons on Stronghold, struggling with matchmaking for hours late at night as there were too few players queuing for it at that time, but it was always quite fun playing that map !

So, now … the fun will be gone next season … no ranked Stronghold, no league season 5 for me … it’s a shame, and I’ll miss playing that map on Ranked

You, guys, should really keep it for future seasons, I’m begging you ! PLEASE :s

zoneg.3058:

I’m so sad about Stronghold being removed from Ranked

I know that I don’t have a popular opinion, but Stronghold is the only PvP-mode I REALLY love to play ( yeah … not everybody likes Conquest, you know… I’ve always hated it :/ )

I solo/duoQ all 4 seasons on Stronghold, struggling with matchmaking for hours late at night as there were too few players queuing for it at that time, but it was always quite fun playing that map !

So, now … the fun will be gone next season … no ranked Stronghold, no league season 5 for me … it’s a shame, and I’ll miss playing that map on Ranked

You, guys, should really keep it for future seasons, I’m begging you ! PLEASE :s

If it goes back, im sure it will not be as you remember

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

• Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
  • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
  • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

Let me get this straight…A map that has been in rotation for several seasons is being removed instead of fixed??? Now we are provided with even less diversity in game play versus more.

Just wondering…How many games/seasons do you really need to watch to see the issues and problems? Stronghold has been around a long time now.

Who sat around and said…“Yeah…this map is so bad and unfixable that we have to remove it even though we allowed it in Ranked for several seasons and awarded Legend from it.”

With this decision, it means you guys either seriously screwed up before now or aren’t capable of fixing whatever “issues” currently exist. Neither is flattering.

Why don’t you guys just fix things like underwater combat and maps with NPCs or any diversity from CTF?

I’d be pretty embarrassed that every attempt to do anything but land based capture the flag (courtyard, stronghold, raid on capricorn) has been a failure and unfixable.

SPESHAL.9106:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up regarding some changes coming to the Ranked Arena map pool for Season 5.

• Skyhammer will be added to Ranked Arena on a trial basis.
  • Reasoning: The current iteration of Skyhammer is a far cry from what it was when it was released in 2013. We’ve made an effort to remove gameplay elements that prevented it from being a competitive map, such as deaths from fall damage and unavoidable secondary mechanics. We’re looking forward to seeing how this map performs in the ranked environment and will be keeping an eye on your feedback throughout the season.
• Battle for Champion’s Dusk (Stronghold) will be removed from Ranked Arena.
  • Reasoning: One of our main goals for the revamp of leagues is to make divisions a more accurate reflection of skill. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to achieve this goal when players can opt out of playing an entire game mode within the league system and never face a significant proportion of the PvP player base. That said, we’ll be removing Stronghold for Season 5 while we evaluate the game mode for ranked play for future seasons.

Let me get this straight…A map that has been in rotation for several seasons is being removed instead of fixed??? Now we are provided with even less diversity in game play versus more.

It’s a gamemode that needs it’s own pip league structure because they’re two completely game modes. But… it’s not popular; it doesn’t have nearly the player base for a whole new pip system so that’s an unfortunate, unrealistic, choice.

It should be removed until fixed. Anet is doing right by this.

I’m glad that stronghold is removed from ranked. It didn’t really belong there. It is a good map for unranked though.

lol @ skyhammer being added. ANET just won’t let that map die. As others have said, capricorn is a better candidate for a trial.

Stronghold was never in the equation when I played ranked. I think it’s a good move.

Good change for stronghold.

Like others before me have said, I’d much rather see Capricorn be added to the ranked rotation rather than Skyhammer. Neither are bad maps, but I feel Capricorn has a much more similar feel to the other maps currently in the ranked map rotation than Skyhammer does.

I love the Stronghold concept, and the matches were fun when you had two teams that were at least somewhat coordinated. I understand the reasoning for removing it from ranked, since so much of the community opted out of playing it.

However, I don’t feel like Anet has given Stronghold a chance. The mode has been out for well over a year since the first beta, and we’ve really seen no significant improvements made to it. There have been multiple times when devs asked for community feedback, and yet nothing ever came of it.

Can we get some resources dedicated to improving the mechanics so that it becomes a real option? Can we get multiple maps on the SH mode? How about an Anet run tournament for it to attract the pros and get better visibility into its strength and weaknesses?

Well it is too bad Stronghold is coming out of ranked PvP.
Played conquest for 3 years, I am over it. Stronghold brought me back to sPvP. I like the whole idea and strategy behind it. Liked it so much that I would stay 1~2h in queue to get those matches.

Anyway, seems like I will be out of Season 5, and since I know there are no PvE updates during ranked season I will just work on some of my achievements. Hopefully the unranked stronghold won’t die during the season.

Please let us know the team thoughts regarding Ranked Stronghold once the season is over, looking forward to it.