Guild Wars 2

I just read a great post by Aboulia, which gave me an idea which I think would be great.

So there is a problem for making PvP enjoyable at low skill levels. There is no logical ladder system at the moment. Why don’t we have a proper ladder system? It can’t be that ArenaNet didn’t think of it, so it must be that there simply aren’t enough players to consistently create 5v5 matches.

Here is the the thing that can solve a lot of issues:

Give us back the GW1 Henchmen. If you don’t know what that is: It is an NPC of the profession of your choice, that you take with you into battle.

The AI for this mostly exists already. New AI could be created for 3-4 basic roles you can assign to each NPC before battle.

So how would we use the Henchmen?

Before you start competitive PvP, you have to do placement matches 1v1, with your choice (or some automatic/default choice) of Henchmen. This is done in the Practice League, or some more original name for it. Practice League would only be for players who are low at the new ladder system and for placement matches. After the placement matches, players advance to have 2v2 battles with 3 henchmen at each side, then 3v3 with 2 henchmen at each side, and so forth. The number of Henchmen gradually decreases as you go on to fight at more serious levels. A fight at higher level would never involve Henchmen.

Furthermore, this should not mean players can’t fight normal 1v1 battles in PvP. Hotjoin can remain the same, except for one extra possibilty. The change is that hotjoin also allows players to manually set battles with a chosen number of Henchmen, for those who just like to fight this way.

Share your thougts.

EDIT: typos and more fitting title

So why do we want this?

5 reasons:
- More players in PvP
- Natural PvP progress
- PvP Easy Mode
- Better Experimentation Ground
- More Fun and Victory

More players in PvP
Many of my friends come to PvP once or twice, get their face obliterated, and then never come back. The Current PvP system isn’t very inviting for new players. PvP battles are complete chaos in the beginning, and it’s hard. With this system, players can do well on their first try making them stay and improve. More players are important for improving the PvP realm.

Natural PvP progress
Right now, players are just thrown into the deep with PvP. Your level increases regardless of your skill. There is no actual way to measure your success you play hundreds of ranked matches. Since with this system you only need one other player to test your skill, you can start working your way up from the bottom while learning the game gradually. The higher your skill gets, the more actual players will be in the teams, and the more complicated the fights will be. By the time you start doing the real 5v5’s, any player will be confident about what is a good strategy. The player will have earned lots of victories and rewards.

Easy mode
Sometimes you feel like fighting without being overly focused. Just relax and enjoy, it doesn’t matter if you win. This is normally hard, because your teammates need you. There is peer pressure, and you just can’t suck in front of your team. Why not enjoy a mode that works, but is much simpler. Assign some tasks to Henchmen so you know exactly what is going on, and fight it out with one other player (hotjoin).

Better experimentation ground
Battles are always different, and therefore often impossible to compare. With henchmen, you can just try different strategies against a friend in hotjoin while the teammates are doing almost the same as last time if you set them to. This can provide a lot of insights on what is an effective playstyle and what isn’t, as long as you remember it is more of a simulation than the real thing. Miles more useful than the few profession NPC’s in the Heart of the Mists, and way more enjoyable.

More fun and Victory
I don’t know about you guys, but I often just want to have a random challenge between me and a friend. 1v1 isn’t exactly it, as dueling is just too unfair. PvP is about the capture points mostly, and 1v1 running around capping all points is just silly. But a fight with your friend about who can make the best henchmen team and win, is actually interesting. Its not meant as a serious format, but its nice to fool around with it and get a sense of personal victory rather than being happy with good teammates. And if you don’t like it, just go play actual Arena matches instead! This is meant to smooth out the learning curve anyway.

Many people at the forums here are skilled already, but consider what it could do for the player base.