Guild Wars 2

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately since im not sure whether to stick around in gw2 or not. Not that I would ever be esports but just other games seems to have much better support and design for their pvp. Gw2 has one of the best combat systems I’ve ever experienced and even though I hate matchmaking and constantly find myself wanting to play cs go instead of gw2’s pvp, I just cannot find anything as fun and complex as gw2. And yet other games like cs go have more players, and more official events.

Anyways basically lets say Anet were not understaffed and they could make any change that was necessary and reasonable what would it take to make this game’s pvp popular and legitimate.

The main issue that holds their pvp back imo is balance and how often they do it. If they actually did balance changes more often than every 6 or more months then maybe the meta would also change more. Also, there are some classes that have a huge advantage over others and these said classes are left in their strong state for too long. This then causes an influx in said class and the other classes (Necros, rangers, mesmers) see lower representation. This is not to deny that the meta has not changed over the course of this games history though, but it happens very little and there isnt much balancing to keep every class in line. Might stacking is still strong, celestial is still superior for the current game modes in spvp, and often times when watching streams, players who dont play gw2 have no idea whats going on, they just see a bunch of players moving and dodge and spamming skills.

1) A balanced game
2) More than one game mode that didn’t revolve around breaking down doors
3)A game that puts it’s resources into #1 rather that peddling it away in tournaments
4)Fixing bugs on a regular basis, rather than leaving game breaking bugs in the game for years
5)A leaderboard that incorporates a team’s rating into it’s core mechanic, rather than by each players individual rating.
6) Frequent content updates, however if you can’t keep up with #1 and #4 then good luck with that.

You get the idea

Countless

1) Make PvP (Heart of the Mists) Free to Play.

Free to Play = Anybody can download it and play it, like LoL and soon to be Wildstar.

2) ????

3) Profit
-
You’re welcome.

I’ll send my consultancy invoice in the mail ArenaNet.

Balancing is a problem. For example, a build that can duel shouldn’t be able to handle plus/gank. Look at D/D ele and Cele Engi, just so braindead broken. At least the meta version of shoutbow is easy to gank compared to these duel/cele builds.

Bad decisions in getting casuals into the game such as Turret Engi when the proper way to get casuals into the game is to make Courtyard into a separate que. You could argue that they don’t have the technology to make it a separate que to attract casuals to spare them from knowing how to rotate, but still it’s just such a bad decision to keep it like this.

It’s really just the bad decision making is the root of the problem from arena net’s side.

Reducing particle effects would do a lot more for the game than you might think.

1. Frequent balance tweaking
2. Pre-Patch notes for devs to get community feedback before dumb changes (perplexity runes coming into pvp)
3. Other game modes
4. A proper ladder system (reimplementation of soloq would actually give me more incentive to play again)
5. Make the game easier to watch for viewers

actually continuing this list is pointless because if the devs have the entire worlds resources there is no amount of things they can add to make a game “esports,” they are created by other players not by devs, the devs made this mistake pushing for esports when it has always been player created, they lost this chance shortly after the game released when they lost ALOT of pvp players. The only way to make it more esports might be making pvp f2p but would still fall short given the short list I made (and it would be unrealistic for all of these things to happen knowing the pvp dev cycle). People should just have fun in this small community and not expect it to grow more than it has already.

1.Class balance overhaul.
2.Diversity of builds. seriously. you have no idea how important is to have many builds to watch. the game has become a game of meta to the point when you watch a match on twitch for example you know the result of each battle before even it starts simply by looking at their builds.
3. Maps that are more fast paced. Point holding is not always an exciting thing to watch. Capture the flag for example has more backs-and-forths to keep you on the edge of your seat while you watching.
4.IMO downed state is lame. good for pve and wvw but i think has no place in pvp.
5.F2P i strongly think that this game even if doesnt do the above, if it goes f2p will get massively popular. it not that is not a good game or something, but that the online games market is clearly moving towards this business model.

Motar2k sponsoring teams winning with non-meta builds.

if you look at the most succesful Esports, they are all only pvp, that means you have:

1) All resources going for that game mode
2) You dont have to worry about breaking pve’s balance because you fixed pvp.

I do agree making the pvp f2p is the right call, you’d have a lot more ppl trying the game

I dont believe they’ll manage to make it an Esports, how big is the pvp community 0,5% 1% of total community, it isnt worth for them waste money on this, they might not even care about ppl quitting their pvp.

Rym.1469:

Motar2k sponsoring teams winning with non-meta builds.

I don’t think money is the issue here as Anet is so keen to hand out tens of thousands of dollars to its extremely tiny competitive scene that is comprised of like 3 teams in the entire world (lol)! Motar2k is awesome but he’s no dummy and will never (and should never) drop money on this game!

• Anyway to make GW2 esports, it needs an esports game mode! Conquest is not it! Stronghold will not be it either! Competitive games have high learning curves so only the most skillful players can become esports! No game mode that was advertised as “You don’t even have to be good at the game to perform well” will be esports! Guild Warts 2 is just too casual!
• To make GW2 esports, it needs more people to play and take the game seriously and strive to get better and compete, whether it be new players or existing players! No leagues, no leaderboards, no ranks, no progression, no incentive, and lack of accessibility all hamper the population! This in turn leads to awful matchmaking for the existing players!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet needs to balance the classes more frequently! When hambows became a thing, Anet waited 6 months to shave off 8% from Healing Signet! I’m sorry but that could’ve been done after a few days when you saw hambows dominate everything in both matchmaking and tournaments and Healing Signet was the most overpowered heal in the game (it still is one of the best heals in the game and you don’t even have to use it lol)!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet needs to have a better balance philosophy! Current bunkers have amazing damage output relative to their bulk! Sigil/trait/rune procs dictate how you play instead of your actual build! It makes the game random and anti-fun!
  When they decided to nerf turret Engis, and rightfully so, they did it in the most inane way possible! Instead of tweaking turrets to make the build viable, they simply nerfed it so it’s completely worthless in all 3 game modes! What’s more is that they tried to justify it by saying “Well turrets are in line with other forms of AI now” despite the fact that taking turrets renders the Engi severely weakened with no mobility, no weapon swaps, and no extra dodges! Plus unlike other forms of AI, Engi AI cannot move, cannot crit, cannot receive heals by traditional means, cannot receive buffs… What a nightmare! That’s not good balance!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet has to separate PvP from the rest of the game modes! They need to balance the skills differently between game modes just as they did in GW1 and they already do it with some things! Old Dhuumfire was 2 seconds in PvP and the full 4 second duration in PvE and WvW! Old Monk Runes gave 15% boon duration in PvE/WvW while its PvP counterpart only gave 10%! Revealed is 4 seconds in PvP and still only 3 seconds in PvE/WvW! So you see they already know splitting skill balance is an option but they are too afraid to fully commit! An alternative would be to ignore how PvP changes affect WvW and PvE, which isn’t as terrible as you may think it is seeing how PvE in this game is just a joke and WvW balance is atrocious anyway with food buffs!

Anyway, most of this stuff has been said many times before for YEARS! So good luck with the esports dream my frand! To fully answer your question, by now I feel like only an act of god will make GW2 esports! Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

snip

everyone who stopped playing and you, know there was a chance for this game to be good but thrown down the drain for a pve only experience with cosmetic skins.

(still lurking forums until soloq gets implemented again)

That was a joke, man.

This has been discussed numerous times but i’ll give you a brief summary.

^ A start to the Esports road.

The only reason this game isn’t “esports” is because they didn’t intended for it to be. Period. I’m tired of people saying “Anet made fail esports game”.
No, they didn’t. They Never stated such things.

pandagirlfans

No game should aim for esports at start.

It should first be playable and fun, from there it will start to grow its player base. Then you lay down the foundation like ladders and matchmaking to form a community for players that are competitive. Then you can throw money at it and go for esports.

when their “world grand finals” has 600 viewers, it looks like a fail to me

i’d start from the other side: what is esports?
esports in a simplified manner is 2 team playing a game against each other, while others watching this.
so what do we have?
we got 2 teams playing a game. to be able to watch them you need a kind of direct observer mode, which exists for custom arenas. next we need ppl who whatch this. Why ppl watch sth? because its interesting, you wanna know how it ends. you wanna see decisions made, you want be able to discuss this decisions with others, you want to see balanced matches, where from start on every team got a equal chance to win in the end. you want to see player training for it and how they do, what they tink about this, how they analyse their game, you want see some buildvariations (not always same op builds against each other and lag wins this), you want crazy caster showing you the right points of action…
A great example for this is sc2. There are 3 balanced (which does not mit its perfect, but they all got a chance to win if played on good level) races which all are played and got their fans. There are decisions,which can be analysed for training and casting. You can never with more than maybe 50% say how they play, what build they use and how it ends. There are great casters. … And there are tournaments been watched by more than 100k spectators.

So back to GW2.
Teams-check.
Balance- too much rps. Some classes dont even have a chance to play against others (thief vs turrent engi).
Decisions- 90% of decisions are made before the game starts. Classes and builds are picked and determine a lot how the team can react (5nec team can’t roam/5thief team cant hold point). Also the
Depth of strategies is realy low. 3 Points 5 Player. There might be a decision tree with depth 3 to decide what to do. Also only strategical decisions can be observed. You are unable to SEE why someone dies. There are only very few enimations that can be observed and evaded on the other side. You can not know if someone didnt dodge due to pindown or no endurance or just failed. you can not see if someone got all cd’s off. You can’t even see ppl targeting someone for a spike or sth like that. Usually you just see 4 ppl run into 4ppl and after 10 seconds 4 ppl are dead. Thats to fast. Noone can observe this. There are no turnarounds like one down, ppl get him up and other one down or fall back to wait for him to come back. It’s just to fast due to a missing protection class who can counter dps classes teamwise. The killtimes are about the same as gw1 times, but at gw1 there were healer keeping fights alive. GW2 fights just dies like flies. No matter how tanky your gear and build is.
And there is no penalty for dieing. you’re jsut down 5sec and then come back, so why try to avoid.
The combat system pvpwise is only balanced for 1v1 situations. on (X+1)v(Y+1) there is no way to survive fights for a single player longer that few seconds.

So all in all the following points are not yet ready for e-sports:
- Game Mode (tactical depth)
- Combat System
– length of fights/ damage migration
– balance (rsp, not one level with smal dis-/advantages)
– death penalty
– observability of single players

I’d say a ladder system can be set behind those points, due to only very few ppl take this “PvP” serious at the moment so climbing a ladder aint sth you’re pround to tell someone.

All esport games seems to be very bad so i think that gw2 combat is made too well and it’s too fast for esport kids.

for gw2 to be esports,
first, they need to remove themselves from nc soft
second, they need to align themselves with valve
both will never happen.

so gw2 will never become serious esports at all.
the best gw2 esports you can see is only a meager usd 50k tournament.
this year’s valve’s dota 2 ’s the international 5 already raked in usd 9,924,407.00 prize money and the value is still climbing steadily. i expect it to hit usd 20 mil this year.

…
…
…

tl; dr
gw2 will never be serious esports.

…

nc soft is only interested about making monies via gems, the gem store, and in their eyes, the pve player base seems to be better monetizable so the casual pve player base will always be their focus.

they do not care much about pvp player base at all, since in their eyes, pvp players are less likely to spend in the gem store.

Arenanet can’t become “Esports” at this point. At the peak of PvP they got like 3k viewers on WTS. Ever since then there’s been a decline in the PvP population.

Balance:
As often mentioned, the lack of balance and the glacial pace at which balance patches are released is pretty bad for PvP. In other games, like DotA2, you can see adjustments to heroes/skills within days. In GW2, you’re happy if they manage to do something in less than a couple of months.
It’s also kind of boring if all you ever see are the same classes and builds all the time.

Viewing experience:
In my opinion, one of GW2’s pvp’s biggest issues is that it’s just not fun to watch. I tried it a couple of times on twitch and most of the time, all you can see are a couple of rat midgets jumping all over the place and covering each other in spell effects. Eventually one or some of them will die or be forced to retreat, but i cant make out what play/crucial skill actually lost/won the fight.
In DotA2 for example, it is way easier to see if a well timed ultimate or disable just saved the day and turned the fight around.
I dont know how to fix this, honestly. It’s very likely that it cant be fixed at all cause it’s tied to the combat system and its speed. The combat system is amazing, but just not made for spectating. As long as you closely watch a battle between 2-3 people, whose builds you know, it’s fine. Anything beyond that is too much to keep an eye on.

How fun to watch it is might be the biggest reason. Look at Hearth of the Stone. A pretty simple game and i would say except for actually building a deck, theres very little skill involved. And even if it is, the amount of skill required pales in comparison to all the kittening RNG involved. But it’s entertaining to watch thats why it has quite a lot of viewers.

They had the opportunity to make the game’s spvp more popular if an esports mode was introduced on release. The population then was healthy enough to create a viral effect. Instead, you had to pay a premium to participate at the most competitive level in-game (similar to ranked)

I really like the pvp mechanics of the game. But as ArrDee pointed out, it’s saddening when they do stuff like permanently cripple one of the main builds of a profession i.e. turret engie. The engie build I play has constant mobility and main damage skills with very short CD. The turret build lack those properties and is easily countered. Why the brutal nerf to something that’s been untouched since release when whiners could have learned to counter instead.

Khalisto.5780:

when their “world grand finals” has 600 viewers, it looks like a fail to me

Oh you mean the almost 12k viewers that saw the WTS NA in Boston? Not on level of LoL and such but darn, that was a huge impressive number of viewers imo.

SuinegTsol.1729:

i’d start from the other side: what is esports?

What is Love?

A miracle.

/15chars

More flavor. /15 asura

- Some form of prestigious pvp in game : daily tournaments, king of the hill ( like heroes ascent in GW1),..
- Removing current meta builds, so people actually learn how to play on capture points and not rely on some OP build. Solo queue is quite a lottery these days… Strategies are never followed, people cannot do simple moves as killing treb,…

Hm i understand the issues of balancing, viewing the game mode, the tournaments etc.

But what exactly is the problem with conquest? And what is a better game mode? I’ve always thought the problem with gw2’s pvp was there was no easy game mode for people to simply practice mechanics. Like In other games you can practice offline with bots or you can play simple deathmatch to work on mechanics. Conquest seems complex enough the way pros play it. Like helseth’s stream the other week where he went over old matches. It was amazing how much thought went into his play. Maybe that is not representative of everyone, but whenever i go up against good premades they know how to shut my team down, or at least it requires a lot of movement to get back up.

A competitive scene.
Since its inception there’s been a focus on the high-end and low-end while ignoring whats in between completely.
They keep pushing twitch/streams which I understand but if you have no1 playing/interested than you can push it all you want, it won’t be a succes.

Automated tournaments (daily/weekly/monthly), a better reward infrastructure (Skill over time, team over solo, pvp exclusives, etc.), a replay system (atleast for AT’s and other tournaments), better ladder (it’s still trash), etc.

The big boys of esports, be it Dota clones, or CS, or Starcraft all had 10-15 years to fine tune their core gameplay. Shooters had 20 years of getting it sorted which game modes work and which are less popular. Most of the innovation associated with those games happens with the business model and the promotion efforts that go along with these titles. The gameplay of those games is a wheel that does not require reinventing. GW2 is essentially a new game and tries control points, which has been a rather unpopular mode.

In my opinion, GW2 needs to take that step converting PvP into a f2p experience. Because with each expansion, the cost of getting into PvP is going up, while the costs of getting into every other competitive game is a race to the bottom.

FourthVariety.5463:

The big boys of esports, be it Dota clones, or CS, or Starcraft all had 10-15 years to fine tune their core gameplay. Shooters had 20 years of getting it sorted which game modes work and which are less popular. Most of the innovation associated with those games happens with the business model and the promotion efforts that go along with these titles. The gameplay of those games is a wheel that does not require reinventing. GW2 is essentially a new game and tries control points, which has been a rather unpopular mode.

In my opinion, GW2 needs to take that step converting PvP into a f2p experience. Because with each expansion, the cost of getting into PvP is going up, while the costs of getting into every other competitive game is a race to the bottom.

Honestly it makes no sense for them not to go f2p with pvp. Other games don’t do it because of hackers and cheaters. Gw2’s combat system is complex enough that cheating isn’t nearly as viable as in other games. The only possible influx would be from scammers and gold sellers but that can be fixed by creating restrictions on f2p accounts.

Numbers.

Creating numbers means getting players into PvP which seems like something they are against. No dueling, not enough PvP modes, forced to que in the mist, 5v5 games make new players feel like they lost the game for everybody, bad point system means even good players being called out in chat, which leads people to leave games early.

Premades getting huge advantages over solo players. With 50% map choice, pre- assembled parties of choice (since there is no leveling), Downed state mechanics give voice chat a HUGE advantage as you can react faster to players being focused, downed or losing points. Close nodes on some maps allow premades with voice chat to maintain a 1v2345 ratio at all times.

Traits need to be reworked as well, people complain about certain build because classes are being pigeonholed into using them. If more variety of builds were used less people would be getting hard countered and a better sense of balance would be created.

Hate

War or hate , change dramatically a person in a very short period of time , and he never repeats the same mistakes :P
(This War of Mine)

free pvp client!

ArrDee.2573:

Rym.1469:

Motar2k sponsoring teams winning with non-meta builds.

I don’t think money is the issue here as Anet is so keen to hand out tens of thousands of dollars to its extremely tiny competitive scene that is comprised of like 3 teams in the entire world (lol)! Motar2k is awesome but he’s no dummy and will never (and should never) drop money on this game!

• Anyway to make GW2 esports, it needs an esports game mode! Conquest is not it! Stronghold will not be it either! Competitive games have high learning curves so only the most skillful players can become esports! No game mode that was advertised as “You don’t even have to be good at the game to perform well” will be esports! Guild Warts 2 is just too casual!
• To make GW2 esports, it needs more people to play and take the game seriously and strive to get better and compete, whether it be new players or existing players! No leagues, no leaderboards, no ranks, no progression, no incentive, and lack of accessibility all hamper the population! This in turn leads to awful matchmaking for the existing players!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet needs to balance the classes more frequently! When hambows became a thing, Anet waited 6 months to shave off 8% from Healing Signet! I’m sorry but that could’ve been done after a few days when you saw hambows dominate everything in both matchmaking and tournaments and Healing Signet was the most overpowered heal in the game (it still is one of the best heals in the game and you don’t even have to use it lol)!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet needs to have a better balance philosophy! Current bunkers have amazing damage output relative to their bulk! Sigil/trait/rune procs dictate how you play instead of your actual build! It makes the game random and anti-fun!
  When they decided to nerf turret Engis, and rightfully so, they did it in the most inane way possible! Instead of tweaking turrets to make the build viable, they simply nerfed it so it’s completely worthless in all 3 game modes! What’s more is that they tried to justify it by saying “Well turrets are in line with other forms of AI now” despite the fact that taking turrets renders the Engi severely weakened with no mobility, no weapon swaps, and no extra dodges! Plus unlike other forms of AI, Engi AI cannot move, cannot crit, cannot receive heals by traditional means, cannot receive buffs… What a nightmare! That’s not good balance!
• To make GW2 esports, Anet has to separate PvP from the rest of the game modes! They need to balance the skills differently between game modes just as they did in GW1 and they already do it with some things! Old Dhuumfire was 2 seconds in PvP and the full 4 second duration in PvE and WvW! Old Monk Runes gave 15% boon duration in PvE/WvW while its PvP counterpart only gave 10%! Revealed is 4 seconds in PvP and still only 3 seconds in PvE/WvW! So you see they already know splitting skill balance is an option but they are too afraid to fully commit! An alternative would be to ignore how PvP changes affect WvW and PvE, which isn’t as terrible as you may think it is seeing how PvE in this game is just a joke and WvW balance is atrocious anyway with food buffs!

Anyway, most of this stuff has been said many times before for YEARS! So good luck with the esports dream my frand! To fully answer your question, by now I feel like only an act of god will make GW2 esports! Wahoo! Bye frands!

That’s exactly what I was thinking, you took the words out of my mouth.

Visually hard to understand what is going on and not exciting to watch no real build up or clutch plays. There are other reasons but I can’t remember atm. People that think making the pvp aspect of the game f2p will suddenly make the esports make me laugh.

RoRo.8270:

Visually hard to understand what is going on and not exciting to watch no real build up or clutch plays. There are other reasons but I can’t remember atm. People that think making the pvp aspect of the game f2p will suddenly make the esports make me laugh.

Well it can be pretty exciting to watch, just not every round. But i think that is more because of the difference in skill level between teams. For example some of the games tcg has played has come down to lord rushes or some good portal rotations. That can be exciting and can change the tide in a losing match. Also the WTS matches were absolutely fantastic to watch with some brilliant clutch plays. But yes it doesn’t happen as often because unless both teams are equally skilled one can’t really come back.

1. F2P PvP/numbers
2. Seemed like the consensus used to be that Conquest was just boring. Watching people sit on points. Stronghold maybe? Who knows.
3. Bigger PvP community.

Need more people playing is all. Free or insanely cheap pvp only mode would help.

What it would take?

Management and developers with experience developing and managing a succesfull pvp game.

Jasher.6580:

1) Make PvP (Heart of the Mists) Free to Play.

Free to Play = Anybody can download it and play it, like LoL and soon to be Wildstar.

2) ????

3) Profit
-
You’re welcome.

I’ll send my consultancy invoice in the mail ArenaNet.

“Heart of the Mists” Now in your local stores!

Like F2P would help… This game has had huge numbers. They don’t stick. Pvp doesn’t stick. There are reasons for that (having to buy the game not being one of them).

Above all it need to
1- Slow down.
This game watches as, player1 a moves from A to B, player1 reaches A and faces player2, explosions go off, playerX wins, all in the span of 15 seconds, it is uncasteable and impossible to follow. Further more, there are no tactical choices that actually matter, no build up nothing. It kind of like American Football, its not played with the feet despite its name just like guild wars is not about guild wars, its a mess of bodies clashing with each other and watching it is not about the game but about getting drunk enough to enjoy it.

This is not so hard to address actually, pvp gear exists removed from the rest of the game, so you could easily tailor amulets to favor more defensive/bunkerish builds over offensive ones. That ought to slow the action enough for people to actually get an idea of what is happening.

and
2- Be clearer to watch/cast.
From 1 comes 2, no cast bars, too many particles and so on make it difficult for the casters to make it interesting for the watchers.

A rework of many procs. Rebalance and cast times in many instants. 2v2 annihilation BO3 with an arena that is fairly level with a few los pillars, not a bunch of terrain and junk like in courtyard.

1. Balance: A lot of players have mentioned it, and have said the reasons why.
2. Numbers: It needs a crowd. Be popular. Have a casual audience that is interested in the game because more people watching means more companies/big sports teams (EG, C9, Liquid, etc.) will want to sponsor the tournament/have a team in it. Thus having money flowing in these tournaments means more people will want to enter to get said money.
3. New game modes: This is one that will draw more people because not everyone likes conquest, but these game modes will only be good and draw that crowd if the map has good design. For example, Courtyard, fun game mode, poor map design (and if they are going to bring a new game mode, they need to have a few maps for it).

ArenaNet is the biggest issue. Ironic, a great PvP system being held back by their own creators.

The key thing for any esport is a community. Which, ArenaNet has killed time and again with Dhuumfire, stun bug, turrets, each time PvP blossomed ArenaNet let problems run wild.

The best plan for GW2 being an esport, is rebuilding the community.

Step 1.
Bring in Random Arena’s from Guild Wars 1.

• Fight with a random team until you lose or get 10 wins. Why this isn’t in GW2 is absolutely beyond me, no dedicated healers so… What’s the hold up? It’s a fun mode, it was popular in GW1. ADD. IT.

Step 2.
A refined Practice and Warm Up mode.

• Now, you can hop into any custom match, get dailies and max out the progress bar. Fine, but if you go into a random server with a new build on a new class. You will get PUNISHED. Have a practice mode that will net you 500 for winning OR losing, as long as you are playing on a class you play the least. I have 5,000 games on my Elementalist, why practice with my thief? When my Elementalist will get me rewards, faster. As for Warm Up mode, that SHOULD be what practice is right now. 500 for winning, 200 for losing. Bring the class you have 1000 wins on, leave the class you have 8.

Step 3.
Polish the maps!

• Skyhammer. Throwing people off the map is to easy and to rewarding, teleport falling people back to base IF they have over 50% of their health with a 5 second DAZE. Not stun, DAZE. You can use a stun breaker and start leaping back to home point or run slowly. Also, if you had under 50%, you will fall to your death, preventing throwing yourself off a cliff as a viable way to escape. This will add a level of strategy and skill to the map and won’t make it unbearable. There are other maps that can also use some polish but Skyhammer has the most sins.

Step 4.
Add a new exciting mechanic.

• Having it that when certain skills hit a player, it will instantly kill them. No down state, instant death, a Death Strike. Like, add a Death Strike to most of the Warriors burst skills, thief sneak skills, Necromancers Life Blast. Have fun with it too, the Guardians Binding Blade, give it a Death Strike. If your opponent reaches 0 health while hexed with that, they will instantly die. Meteor Shower can be even more scary as it’s an AoE rain of instant death. With instant death around more, you can buff revive skills like Glyph of Renewal or Signet of Undeath. This will mold players thoughts on what weapons to bring and what role they will play.

Step 5.
Feel free to balance/all the above.

• I couldn’t care less about elite spec’s right now ArenaNet. Bring back the community. Then you can balance, make fun sigils, change up some runes, have it so you can only have 1 rally per death, etc. A balanced game doesn’t mean anything if no one is around to play it

Class balance wont make this game esport
If by definition everyone does the same equally just some must press more buttons.
Unique classes will. And not this horrible game mode.

Extreme.8350:

Class balance wont make this game esport
If by definition everyone does the same equally just some must press more buttons.
Unique classes will. And not this horrible game mode.

Please NO. Mentality like that kills games. More stuff doesn’t mean more fun, it doesn’t equal more game.
We don’t need more stuff to play with, we need more stuff to do with the things we have.

Rebuild the community, that is the most important thing GW2 can do right now.

In a word? Balance.

GW2 will never be an Esports, better mmos will be released and 80% of the community will move to those mmos.

Honestly, this game just isn’t that interesting to watch, play yes, watch no. All the fights are just blurs of particle effects, so it’s hard as heck to understand wtf is going on. In most esports type games, it’s relatively simple to see and understand what a skill does and who used it. Here, not so much. It’s so fast paced you can’t keep up.