Guild Wars 2

I keep hearing ‘dueling is something to do while waiting on an event’…well, I guess pleasant, polite conversation is a lost art now? It’s not my fault you’re socially inept, unable to understand and see the value in different view points so you have to resort to bannin-erm, I mean calling other people names and insulting them for the heinous act of thinking differently (‘carebears’…really do you think that makes you sound cool? Couldn’t be more embarrassed for you).

Aside from the lunacy of wanting 1v1 in a game that isn’t balanced around 1v1, I’m in the camp that if you want pvp head to the pvp zones. You can add your duelling option for the kids there (hurrah for condescending name-calling). The funny thing is when they add it (‘not high on the list’ isn’t a ‘no’ afterall) you can bet you’ll see a flood of ‘ZOMG THIEF OP-I CAN’T WINS DUELS!’ and demanding various changes based on that. Of course people will say the game wasn’t balanced around duels and so it doesn’t matter to which the most logical argument would be ‘well why bother adding a mode to the game if you’re not going to balance it’. Yeah…can’t wait till that happens.

When they add dueling I’ll just preemptively disable whispers…and I hope they added an auto ‘turn down duel request’ button simultaneously. Also expect to see a crapton of particle effects all over the major cities/hub if/when one resurfaces…who needs a stable framerate in towns anyway? Ah…I can just imagine what map chat will now look like as well…yup, looking forward to this degradation.

Imbune.5497:

I keep hearing ‘dueling is something to do while waiting on an event’…well, I guess pleasant, polite conversation is a lost art now? It’s not my fault you’re socially inept, unable to understand and see the value in different view points so you have to resort to bannin-erm, I mean calling other people names and insulting them for the heinous act of thinking differently (‘carebears’…really do you think that makes you sound cool? Couldn’t be more embarrassed for you).

Aside from the lunacy of wanting 1v1 in a game that isn’t balanced around 1v1, I’m in the camp that if you want pvp head to the pvp zones. You can add your duelling option for the kids there (hurrah for condescending name-calling). The funny thing is when they add it (‘not high on the list’ isn’t a ‘no’ afterall) you can bet you’ll see a flood of ‘ZOMG THIEF OP-I CAN’T WINS DUELS!’ and demanding various changes based on that. Of course people will say the game wasn’t balanced around duels and so it doesn’t matter to which the most logical argument would be ‘well why bother adding a mode to the game if you’re not going to balance it’. Yeah…can’t wait till that happens.

When they add dueling I’ll just preemptively disable whispers…and I hope they added an auto ‘turn down duel request’ button simultaneously. Also expect to see a crapton of particle effects all over the major cities/hub if/when one resurfaces…who needs a stable framerate in towns anyway? Ah…I can just imagine what map chat will now look like as well…yup, looking forward to this degradation.

“why do you guys want to fight i just want to talk”

Yeah that is probably the most carebear thing i’ve ever heard.

Imbune.5497:

I keep hearing ‘dueling is something to do while waiting on an event’…well, I guess pleasant, polite conversation is a lost art now?

This is an MMO. The whole reason to play an MMO is to get away from real life and social situations. Why do you want to do dungeons? We should all just sit around in LA and talk

PLEASE add dueling!!!! I would love to be able to duel friends in the open world.

Imbune.5497:

I keep hearing ‘dueling is something to do while waiting on an event’…well, I guess pleasant, polite conversation is a lost art now? It’s not my fault you’re socially inept, unable to understand and see the value in different view points so you have to resort to bannin-erm, I mean calling other people names and insulting them for the heinous act of thinking differently (‘carebears’…really do you think that makes you sound cool? Couldn’t be more embarrassed for you).

Aside from the lunacy of wanting 1v1 in a game that isn’t balanced around 1v1, I’m in the camp that if you want pvp head to the pvp zones. You can add your duelling option for the kids there (hurrah for condescending name-calling). The funny thing is when they add it (‘not high on the list’ isn’t a ‘no’ afterall) you can bet you’ll see a flood of ‘ZOMG THIEF OP-I CAN’T WINS DUELS!’ and demanding various changes based on that. Of course people will say the game wasn’t balanced around duels and so it doesn’t matter to which the most logical argument would be ‘well why bother adding a mode to the game if you’re not going to balance it’. Yeah…can’t wait till that happens.

When they add dueling I’ll just preemptively disable whispers…and I hope they added an auto ‘turn down duel request’ button simultaneously. Also expect to see a crapton of particle effects all over the major cities/hub if/when one resurfaces…who needs a stable framerate in towns anyway? Ah…I can just imagine what map chat will now look like as well…yup, looking forward to this degradation.

• Did other games with dueling remove chatboxes? No? Why would GW2 remove chatboxes just to add dueling?
• Thieves are already complained in a 1v1 already. It won’t be new here, maybe they’ll ask to buff thieves.
• I can spam meteor storm in the city and there is no dueling yet.

I think there’s a fundamental paradigm difference here. Those against a dueling mode in the open world are terrified of random people trolling them saying “1v1 me bro” or whatever. Right now, you can’t 1v1 easily, so refusal to go ahead for dueling cannot be construed as loss of face. This is something they want to avoid because it puts pressure on them to ignore someone thinking that they’ve lost face.

Those in favor of dueling however, see it as a light hearted way to have fun with friends , enjoying the scenic backdrop, being able to casually take a minute or two out away from the crowd so that you don’t have to endure the mind numbing boredom of waiting for an even to start.

These are completely two irreconcilable way of looking at things. Those against dueling need to realize that refusing to duel is not shameful or whatever. Or some may want to realize that losing a duel means nothing.

We can have a “report” option for people who go around challenging others to duels. Or something like that to send feedback to other players that this guy is a kitten.

People seem to have a lot of bad experience with dueling in mmo’s.
I remember in (BC) WoW a couple of years ago when I walked past some people duelling.

I stopped to look and noticed a person playing my class (mage) doing amazingly well. It made me get into the PvP scene and made me try out Arenas.

Afterwards I’d often semi-AFK to watch people duel and challenge eachother, it made the game feel much more awesome.

Ofcourse a duelling system needs: no duelling in cities, decline all challenges button in options, immune to buffs and heals from allies while duelling and so on.
I doubt anyone in PvE would run around harassing people to duel with, most of the community is very polight in PvE.

I miss the Gw2discussion thread about dueling. There is too much pro-dueling here and too little anti-dueling.

Scrambles.2604:

Imbune.5497:

I keep hearing ‘dueling is something to do while waiting on an event’…well, I guess pleasant, polite conversation is a lost art now? It’s not my fault you’re socially inept, unable to understand and see the value in different view points so you have to resort to bannin-erm, I mean calling other people names and insulting them for the heinous act of thinking differently (‘carebears’…really do you think that makes you sound cool? Couldn’t be more embarrassed for you).

Aside from the lunacy of wanting 1v1 in a game that isn’t balanced around 1v1, I’m in the camp that if you want pvp head to the pvp zones. You can add your duelling option for the kids there (hurrah for condescending name-calling). The funny thing is when they add it (‘not high on the list’ isn’t a ‘no’ afterall) you can bet you’ll see a flood of ‘ZOMG THIEF OP-I CAN’T WINS DUELS!’ and demanding various changes based on that. Of course people will say the game wasn’t balanced around duels and so it doesn’t matter to which the most logical argument would be ‘well why bother adding a mode to the game if you’re not going to balance it’. Yeah…can’t wait till that happens.

When they add dueling I’ll just preemptively disable whispers…and I hope they added an auto ‘turn down duel request’ button simultaneously. Also expect to see a crapton of particle effects all over the major cities/hub if/when one resurfaces…who needs a stable framerate in towns anyway? Ah…I can just imagine what map chat will now look like as well…yup, looking forward to this degradation.

“why do you guys want to fight i just want to talk”

Yeah that is probably the most carebear thing i’ve ever heard.

Carebears look like fight club in comparison to this post.

On topic: Duels are common in mmorpgs for many reasons, but most important its because they are fun. No mmorpg is perfectly balanced around 1×1, it can be as bad as rpc model, yet people will still duel. Nothing prevents you from NOT dueling so how is this a problem? Framerate drop because of effects as an argument? Just lol…

P.S. Did not want to insult anyone, that was just an expression of my different point of view.

There is no need to be insulting to one another, let’s keep this thread clean. Also updated the first post to hopefully answer some peoples concerns, as well as put the reasons I want to see dueling in this game.

Anybody who says dueling isn’t a part of gw2 is living in dreamland. Half of the highlight videos are WvW players in duels and every matchup has fight clubs running somewhere.

How hard could it be to allow WvW type interaction in pve areas? For all purposes WvW IS pve already, except certain players are allowed to attack each other.

Most players will probably never use duel. Many will though, and I think it adds a great deal to the atmosphere of the game just by existing and being seen. These kinds of changes should have significant priority even at the expense of some ‘convenience’ features that don’t really add anything to the overall experience

I get what Imbune is saying. Having duels can enable bad behavior because some people (mostly kids) feel they have something to prove and can become really obnoxious. Even if there was an option to automatically refuse duels some people would still harass and insult you for not wanting to duel them. In WvW it’s not so bad because you have to go through a few extra steps in order to whisper someone but even then I’ve been shouted at by people I’ve beaten while roaming.

Compared to most MMOs the GW2 community is fairly positive and I really enjoy that. Open world dueling just offers up more opportunities for immature people to be a nuisance when right now there aren’t many. Just look at this thread, already I’m seeing “carebear” being thrown around as an insult. I haven’t seen that used since my (very) brief time with Aion. That isn’t the type of atmosphere I appreciate. The current level of duel support feels more than adequate because you can do it if you want but also have the ability to ignore it completely.

It also cannot be overstated how imbalanced certain abilities are in 1v1 situations and I don’t want the devs to waste time banning or rebalancing things just for 1v1s that don’t prove or accomplish anything.

So of course the system will need a refuse duel requests option in the menu, but what of the players harassing you through chat? What is to stop you from simply blocking that person and you will hear nothing from them again?

Cynic.4805:

So of course the system will need a refuse duel requests option in the menu, but what of the players harassing you through chat? What is to stop you from simply blocking that person and you will hear nothing from them again?

That’s the thing though, right now I rarely have to deal with that because of the extra effort you have to put in to try and get someone to duel you. However if there was a readily available way to do it some will flame you for not wanting to bother with them. What’s worse is that even as things are now I’ve blocked one troll only for his friend(s) to continue the assault. I enjoy a bit of light-hearted trash talk but some people take it waaaay too personally. I would say this kind of behavior would happen much more frequently with open world dueling.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Cynic.4805:

So of course the system will need a refuse duel requests option in the menu, but what of the players harassing you through chat? What is to stop you from simply blocking that person and you will hear nothing from them again?

That’s the thing though, right now I rarely have to deal with that because of the extra effort you have to put in to try and get someone to duel you. However if there was a readily available way to do it some will flame you for not wanting to bother with them. What’s worse is that even as things are now I’ve blocked one troll only for his friend(s) to continue the assault. I enjoy a bit of light-hearted trash talk but some people take it waaaay too personally. I would say this kind of behavior would happen much more frequently with open world dueling.

Isn’t that a weird thing to assume to happen? I mean, if that’s the only reason you don’t want duelling I think it’s a non-issue because I don’t think people thát annoying exist in large numbers. Maybe the odd bored 13 year old during school breaks.

Clip.6845:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Cynic.4805:

So of course the system will need a refuse duel requests option in the menu, but what of the players harassing you through chat? What is to stop you from simply blocking that person and you will hear nothing from them again?

That’s the thing though, right now I rarely have to deal with that because of the extra effort you have to put in to try and get someone to duel you. However if there was a readily available way to do it some will flame you for not wanting to bother with them. What’s worse is that even as things are now I’ve blocked one troll only for his friend(s) to continue the assault. I enjoy a bit of light-hearted trash talk but some people take it waaaay too personally. I would say this kind of behavior would happen much more frequently with open world dueling.

Isn’t that a weird thing to assume to happen? I mean, if that’s the only reason you don’t want duelling I think it’s a non-issue because I don’t think people thát annoying exist in large numbers. Maybe the odd bored 13 year old during school breaks.

But I can say with a fair amount of certainty that there’s a significant number of people like that out there because it ran rampant in many MMOs I’ve played i the past. Some games you couldn’t walk through a hub area without numerous players running around spamming duel requests and if you had it turned off they would spout off crap like “come on dule meh u ______” and the like, and they were always on the class that was the strongest 1v1. It made the whole game feel more toxic especially when you’re trying to do something else.

Now, maybe I’m just being overly cynical but my main reason for not wanting it is that I don’t want resources being put towards a duel mode when there’s more important things that can be focused on.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I get what Imbune is saying. Having duels can enable bad behavior because some people (mostly kids) feel they have something to prove and can become really obnoxious. Even if there was an option to automatically refuse duels some people would still harass and insult you for not wanting to duel them. In WvW it’s not so bad because you have to go through a few extra steps in order to whisper someone but even then I’ve been shouted at by people I’ve beaten while roaming.

Compared to most MMOs the GW2 community is fairly positive and I really enjoy that. Open world dueling just offers up more opportunities for immature people to be a nuisance when right now there aren’t many. Just look at this thread, already I’m seeing “carebear” being thrown around as an insult. I haven’t seen that used since my (very) brief time with Aion. That isn’t the type of atmosphere I appreciate. The current level of duel support feels more than adequate because you can do it if you want but also have the ability to ignore it completely.

It also cannot be overstated how imbalanced certain abilities are in 1v1 situations and I don’t want the devs to waste time banning or rebalancing things just for 1v1s that don’t prove or accomplish anything.

Gold enable bad behavior by begging. Remove gold please.

DaShi.1368:

If dueling is added, which I don’t think it should be, please keep it out of PvE. I believe that overall dueling will create a lot negativity and complaints just to satisfy a minority who have viable alternatives.

Idk, I really don’t think it is a minority that wants dueling. Much like your belief that it will create negativity and complaints, that is just an unfounded perception. If you could give examples that would help, otherwise, it just sounds like you aren’t open to the idea because you aren’t interested in it, or have had a bad experience in another game or community entirely. Either way, I don’t think players should lose out on something that would be perfectly fine, and realistically would never come to effect you other than the fact that you may see one happening somewhere. You can already block people, you will be able to block duel requests, and you are not forced to interact with these “minorities” that you wish to avoid.

Please explain how the complaints or negativity come in as a given part of it. Whether people duel or not, the rage/leaves and the “get the last word, then block” incidents still happen ALL THE TIME. Honestly, in some of those cases, it is the absence of dueling that allows things to escalate so far. People get frustrated and resort to the only thing they have: Words. Words are what go beyond the game and effect you irl, even if it just shatters your mood or upsets you, that does more damage than dueling or any other feature ever could.

1. reason i’m all for dueling:

no more listening to bad/rude transfer people that just zerged our duels telling me/us that if we aren’t in wvw to ppt we should gtfo the server.

^ welcome to the new hod. thanks a lot anet. srsly.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Clip.6845:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Cynic.4805:

So of course the system will need a refuse duel requests option in the menu, but what of the players harassing you through chat? What is to stop you from simply blocking that person and you will hear nothing from them again?

That’s the thing though, right now I rarely have to deal with that because of the extra effort you have to put in to try and get someone to duel you. However if there was a readily available way to do it some will flame you for not wanting to bother with them. What’s worse is that even as things are now I’ve blocked one troll only for his friend(s) to continue the assault. I enjoy a bit of light-hearted trash talk but some people take it waaaay too personally. I would say this kind of behavior would happen much more frequently with open world dueling.

Isn’t that a weird thing to assume to happen? I mean, if that’s the only reason you don’t want duelling I think it’s a non-issue because I don’t think people thát annoying exist in large numbers. Maybe the odd bored 13 year old during school breaks.

But I can say with a fair amount of certainty that there’s a significant number of people like that out there because it ran rampant in many MMOs I’ve played i the past. Some games you couldn’t walk through a hub area without numerous players running around spamming duel requests and if you had it turned off they would spout off crap like “come on dule meh u ______” and the like, and they were always on the class that was the strongest 1v1. It made the whole game feel more toxic especially when you’re trying to do something else.

Now, maybe I’m just being overly cynical but my main reason for not wanting it is that I don’t want resources being put towards a duel mode when there’s more important things that can be focused on.

More important to who? I’m sorry, but what is important to you is not the same for everyone.

The main concerns against open world dueling are:

Apparent degradation of the community: The Guild Wars PvE community has generally always been very polite and friendly, while PvP tends to bring out the worst in people. Many of these points have already been listed, and I think the Devs are aware of the concern. As for blocking people, I do not like to do so unless they are really bad, because I don’t enjoy reading a one sided conversation, and those people may normally be friendly, or perhaps it is just friendly banter that looks abusive.

Classes, skills, and balance: PvE skills are not balanced for PvP, nor should they be. You would see far more whining, and people demanding for skills to be changed, just because of duels. Arenanet would have to ignore these, or delete posts, which in turn leads to more whining about them not listening. It is a headache for other players and for Arenanet.

Npc’s; events; mobs; boosters; consumables; buffing from others before entering duels; preventing duelers from affecting others, and preventing everything else from affecting those dueling: This and more would have to be addressed. GW2 was not designed with dueling in mind. Designated areas for this purpose would make many of these issues irrelevant, and would require all participants to already be ‘opting-in.’

A lot of the reasons given for dueling, already have alternatives.

I am being realistic when I say there will be no way to fully reconcile this between those that want it, and those that don’t. Although many of us may be open to a more middle of the road solution, like designated areas created for this purpose.

If dueling were implemented, it should never be a daily or monthly achievement.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I get what Imbune is saying. Having duels can enable bad behavior because some people (mostly kids) feel they have something to prove and can become really obnoxious. Even if there was an option to automatically refuse duels some people would still harass and insult you for not wanting to duel them. In WvW it’s not so bad because you have to go through a few extra steps in order to whisper someone but even then I’ve been shouted at by people I’ve beaten while roaming.

Compared to most MMOs the GW2 community is fairly positive and I really enjoy that. Open world dueling just offers up more opportunities for immature people to be a nuisance when right now there aren’t many. Just look at this thread, already I’m seeing “carebear” being thrown around as an insult. I haven’t seen that used since my (very) brief time with Aion. That isn’t the type of atmosphere I appreciate. The current level of duel support feels more than adequate because you can do it if you want but also have the ability to ignore it completely.

It also cannot be overstated how imbalanced certain abilities are in 1v1 situations and I don’t want the devs to waste time banning or rebalancing things just for 1v1s that don’t prove or accomplish anything.

Is it adequate? Do you duel with the current resources? I’ve seen that statement a lot from anti-duelers on this thread. You say you think what we have is adequate enough… how can you say that when you personally don’t duel, and have no interest in it? That’s like me saying “I’m hungry” and you say “I think you’ve eaten enough” if it was enough, I wouldn’t be hungry, much like if this was adequate, this forum thread would never have gone so far.

1v1 scenarios happen in pvp matches, as well as roaming. Please give examples of those “certain abilities” that are imbalanced, as I have no idea what you are talking about.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

The main concerns against open world dueling are:

Apparent degradation of the community: The Guild Wars PvE community has generally always been very polite and friendly, while PvP tends to bring out the worst in people. Many of these points have already been listed, and I think the Devs are aware of the concern. As for blocking people, I do not like to do so unless they are really bad, because I don’t enjoy reading a one sided conversation, and those people may normally be friendly, or perhaps it is just friendly banter that looks abusive.

Classes, skills, and balance: PvE skills are not balanced for PvP, nor should they be. You would see far more whining, and people demanding for skills to be changed, just because of duels. Arenanet would have to ignore these, or delete posts, which in turn leads to more whining about them not listening. It is a headache for other players and for Arenanet.

Npc’s; events; mobs; boosters; consumables; buffing from others before entering duels; preventing duelers from affecting others, and preventing everything else from affecting those dueling: This and more would have to be addressed. GW2 was not designed with dueling in mind. Designated areas for this purpose would make many of these issues irrelevant, and would require all participants to already be ‘opting-in.’

A lot of the reasons given for dueling, already have alternatives.

I am being realistic when I say there will be no way to fully reconcile this between those that want it, and those that don’t. Although many of us may be open to a more middle of the road solution, like designated areas created for this purpose.

If dueling were implemented, it should never be a daily or monthly achievement.

If it is confined to designated areas, then we just shouldn’t bother. It would completely negate the purpose of being separate from pvp.

It would not be difficult to drop all boons/conditions/food/buffs on entering duel mode. Nor would it be difficult to make it impossible to gain outside buffs etc. from others.

PvE and PvP skills have been increasingly unsplit. WvW IS PvP with (mostly)PvE skills, and it works fine, even when roaming.

PvE community is no better than the PvP community. Primarily playing PvE, I have had , and have seen MANY verbal altercations happen over ANYTHING, while in PvP, I play it less, but have had 0 verbal incidents. WE ARE ALL ONE COMMUNITY.

Adding in a PvP feature, or generally any feature, is not going to transform a community into something negative. That negativity is already as prevalent as it will always be.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

The main concerns against open world dueling are:

Apparent degradation of the community: The Guild Wars PvE community has generally always been very polite and friendly, while PvP tends to bring out the worst in people. Many of these points have already been listed, and I think the Devs are aware of the concern. As for blocking people, I do not like to do so unless they are really bad, because I don’t enjoy reading a one sided conversation, and those people may normally be friendly, or perhaps it is just friendly banter that looks abusive.

Classes, skills, and balance: PvE skills are not balanced for PvP, nor should they be. You would see far more whining, and people demanding for skills to be changed, just because of duels. Arenanet would have to ignore these, or delete posts, which in turn leads to more whining about them not listening. It is a headache for other players and for Arenanet.

Npc’s; events; mobs; boosters; consumables; buffing from others before entering duels; preventing duelers from affecting others, and preventing everything else from affecting those dueling: This and more would have to be addressed. GW2 was not designed with dueling in mind. Designated areas for this purpose would make many of these issues irrelevant, and would require all participants to already be ‘opting-in.’

A lot of the reasons given for dueling, already have alternatives.

I am being realistic when I say there will be no way to fully reconcile this between those that want it, and those that don’t. Although many of us may be open to a more middle of the road solution, like designated areas created for this purpose.

If dueling were implemented, it should never be a daily or monthly achievement.

Also, just to be clear, if by designated areas you mean not in major cities, then that is a decent compromise. If you mean, only in designated small areas of certain places, that is pointless.

Add dueling plz

so if you play PvE, you get 80 levels to try out each skill and trait. In the time it takes to 80, it’s hard not to experiment with every skill, even the ones that end up rarely used.

If you want to play PvP, there is no hand holding. There is no slow introduction to skills/traits, and their effects on other players. You get a full lvl 80 character and you are expected to know what to do with it. Or you can try WvW, which can be just as, if not more overwhelming.

Dueling fills the gap, by allowing players to experiment with skills and their effects on other players while leveling up. PvE players might be more likely to play PvP if they are able to dip their toes in the water instead of being forced to jump into the deep end.

Sir Arthur.8905:

BurrTheKing.8571:

I get what Imbune is saying. Having duels can enable bad behavior because some people (mostly kids) feel they have something to prove and can become really obnoxious. Even if there was an option to automatically refuse duels some people would still harass and insult you for not wanting to duel them. In WvW it’s not so bad because you have to go through a few extra steps in order to whisper someone but even then I’ve been shouted at by people I’ve beaten while roaming.

Compared to most MMOs the GW2 community is fairly positive and I really enjoy that. Open world dueling just offers up more opportunities for immature people to be a nuisance when right now there aren’t many. Just look at this thread, already I’m seeing “carebear” being thrown around as an insult. I haven’t seen that used since my (very) brief time with Aion. That isn’t the type of atmosphere I appreciate. The current level of duel support feels more than adequate because you can do it if you want but also have the ability to ignore it completely.

It also cannot be overstated how imbalanced certain abilities are in 1v1 situations and I don’t want the devs to waste time banning or rebalancing things just for 1v1s that don’t prove or accomplish anything.

Is it adequate? Do you duel with the current resources? I’ve seen that statement a lot from anti-duelers on this thread. You say you think what we have is adequate enough… how can you say that when you personally don’t duel, and have no interest in it? That’s like me saying “I’m hungry” and you say “I think you’ve eaten enough” if it was enough, I wouldn’t be hungry, much like if this was adequate, this forum thread would never have gone so far.

1v1 scenarios happen in pvp matches, as well as roaming. Please give examples of those “certain abilities” that are imbalanced, as I have no idea what you are talking about.

I actually do duel at least once or twice a week which is why I find the current accommodations fine. The only real issue is if you’re current WvW opponents aren’t interested in dueling but no system is going to fix that. The whole point of WvW is to instill a sense of companionship with your server, not to fight it.

My main problem with duels is classes like Thieves and Mesmers spending most of the duel avoiding the fight. Sitting in stealth for 10+ seconds at a time isn’t fun to fight and you know the die-hard duelers are all going to run them for the most part. The imba abilities would be mostly Thieves Guild and Moa and a few of the transformation skills. Some classes are “sneaky” or “cheap” by design and go against the whole spirit of what it means to duel. Warrior V Warrior V Guardian V Ranger V Engi can be fun (you can argue the balance of Supply Crate cause some classes don’t have enough AoE to deal with it effectively 1v1) because you spent most of the duel exchanging blows. Sitting around waiting for a stealth class to heal up isn’t fun for most and is generally a waste of time.

Also, while what is important to me isn’t important to everyone I’m pretty sure the community at large would prefer they spend more time polishing the game as opposed to adding more features that have a big potential to be buggy or exploitable and take God knows how long to fix.

Sir Arthur.8905:

WE ARE ALL ONE COMMUNITY.

Well, actually,we are all insignificant minorities representing minority (and therefore completely irrelevant) viewpoints of the community.

People have also mentioned being harassed by others through duels, etc… I don’t even see other people wandering out in Tyria, so… not sure who would even be there to harass me, lol.

It’s obvious that Dueling generates a lot of interest. Which, is something I find pretty strange.

Guild Wars has never been about a 1v1 experience. In fact, Guild Wars 1 was strongly positioned against it. Guild Wars 2, while more suitable for dueiling (I suppose), isn’t exactly designed for such gameplay. You can certainly duel, it is possible – obviously. However, what’s the purpose in regard to an outcome? You 1v1 until one build is proven better than the other. If you lose, you adjust your build to counter their build (pending they haven’t changed something to more-so dominate your build). The cycle continues until the excitement putters out. That’s why 1v1 on Guild Wars is referred to as “Build Wars.” There’s no point to it at all.

With that being said – why would the Devs spend their time (and Anet’s money) developing and implementing a feature on the game that serves absolutely no function? You can duel in custom arenas. At least your “PvP” format is somewhat supported. I’m not complaining about the fact that there’s no HA style competitive play where maps progress with the same team… I’m not complaining that there’s no GvG style game play wherein Guilds can competitively play each other on maps with complex objectives that require coordination and skill. (Well… maybe I am.)

The ONLY way I could see dueling being a legitimate feature in the game is through either dueling in the Hall of Memories itself (Near the Profession NPCs), or implementing an NPC that brings both players to an instanced mini-zone in which to duel. This could be incredibly beneficial to conceptualizing builds and practicing/teaching new builds. For these purposes, and in this format, dueling can be a benefit to the gameplay.

However, dueling in PvE isn’t a viable option. It’s distracting for PvE players who are playing casually and learning the game, it’s incredibly annoying to receive random duel invites, it’s an inefficient use of Dev time, etc… Think about how much effort would go into just making it so the AoE damage would only affect the dueling participants, and not the environment such as surrounding enemies, any ambient creatures, etc… and nullifying enemy aggro. You WOULD want enemy aggro nullified while dueling, right? (If you say no, and that you’d just duel in little outposts, what’s the difference in hoping into a custom arena?) So why couldn’t 2 players “duel” each other and just not fight… and run from LA to Malchor’s Leap without aggro? – Exploitative.

I just feel that any and all PvP should be confined to The Mists. If you really want dueling, it should be a feature for learning and teaching purposes and NOT associated with any kind of leaderboard or ranking system.

Bring on the mobs, best part of wow dueling is when someone gets hit by a boar at the end of a duel, with only 1hp remaining. It adds a bit more… excitement

Cynic.4805:

Bring on the mobs, best part of wow dueling is when someone gets hit by a boar at the end of a duel, with only 1hp remaining. It adds a bit more… excitement

I used to hang out near orgrimmar on my alliance druid and pick off duel losers with their one health. Good times!

Sir Arthur.8905:

If it is confined to designated areas, then we just shouldn’t bother. It would completely negate the purpose of being separate from pvp.

It would not be difficult to drop all boons/conditions/food/buffs on entering duel mode. Nor would it be difficult to make it impossible to gain outside buffs etc. from others.

PvE and PvP skills have been increasingly unsplit. WvW IS PvP with (mostly)PvE skills, and it works fine, even when roaming.

PvE community is no better than the PvP community. Primarily playing PvE, I have had , and have seen MANY verbal altercations happen over ANYTHING, while in PvP, I play it less, but have had 0 verbal incidents. WE ARE ALL ONE COMMUNITY.

Adding in a PvP feature, or generally any feature, is not going to transform a community into something negative. That negativity is already as prevalent as it will always be.

While you have some points, you also miss others.

I did not say it transforms the community, but that it tends to facilitate in bringing out the worst in people. Removing buffs when you enter duel, that is easy, although making people lose boosters when they might not expect it is a different issue. Keeping everything from interfering, is more difficult, especially when the framework for dueling does not exist because it was not planned. To implement it will require a lot of work on things I don’t think people are considering.

Small list of issues and concerns directly involving dueling
Event scaling/credit/rewards/etc., for those that may try to use dueling to get around event mechanics/grief others; how many duels are allowed in an area at a time? How far away must each duel be from one another? How to ensure that outside buffs, fields, etc., do not influence a duel, or even their visual effects, while allowing others to see the duel? Do they create an artificial wall that those in the duel can’t leave; would it be possible to knock someone off a cliff during the duel? Would npc’s/mobs be allowed to enter or exit the duel area? How best to prevent them from interfering (granted, most npc’s this would be irrelevant, but mobs would cause problems)? How to stop people from standing on top of your duel and just be annoying (of course solution here is just go somewhere people aren’t, which leads to the question of why not designated areas?), while also not allowing the duel to block others from going about their business, activating events/missions/jump puzzles/reward chests/gathering nodes/and the like? What about environmental weapons/consumable weapons/ogre whistle/etc.? Do you adjust the level of the duelers to 80 or to the level of the map? If level of the map, what if the duel takes place at the transition between areas, like it does at Vigil Keep near the Mystic Forge/bank? What about duel time limits and forfeiting?

These are decisions that teams have to figure out solutions for, while also coming up with other potential issues and concerns. It is not as simple as a few lines of code and you are done. Even a simple ‘feature’ can actually be quite complicated, due to everything else that must be considered and dealt with. I admit I am not sure how every other game gets around these issues, or if they even try. Some of these concerns would not exist in other games. I don’t really care how they addressed them, although it is something Arenanet would look at, if only to see what works/doesn’t work. My concern is for GW2.

Designated areas around the world, with an npc restricting access until you ‘opt-in’ gets around most of these and other problems. But as you show, some people won’t even consider that as a solution, and I can’t even say it would be a good solution, as it takes up open space.

Mythoryk.7984:

It’s obvious that Dueling generates a lot of interest. Which, is something I find pretty strange.

Guild Wars has never been about a 1v1 experience. In fact, Guild Wars 1 was strongly positioned against it. Guild Wars 2, while more suitable for dueiling (I suppose), isn’t exactly designed for such gameplay. You can certainly duel, it is possible – obviously. However, what’s the purpose in regard to an outcome? You 1v1 until one build is proven better than the other. If you lose, you adjust your build to counter their build (pending they haven’t changed something to more-so dominate your build). The cycle continues until the excitement putters out. That’s why 1v1 on Guild Wars is referred to as “Build Wars.” There’s no point to it at all.

Many MMORPG are not designed for 1v1 and still have dueling.

With that being said – why would the Devs spend their time (and Anet’s money) developing and implementing a feature on the game that serves absolutely no function? You can duel in custom arenas. At least your “PvP” format is somewhat supported. I’m not complaining about the fact that there’s no HA style competitive play where maps progress with the same team… I’m not complaining that there’s no GvG style game play wherein Guilds can competitively play each other on maps with complex objectives that require coordination and skill. (Well… maybe I am.)

Devs should spend their time because dueling is fun.

Dueling in custom arenas does not work because it is griefable.

The ONLY way I could see dueling being a legitimate feature in the game is through either dueling in the Hall of Memories itself (Near the Profession NPCs), or implementing an NPC that brings both players to an instanced mini-zone in which to duel. This could be incredibly beneficial to conceptualizing builds and practicing/teaching new builds. For these purposes, and in this format, dueling can be a benefit to the gameplay.

How about no?

However, dueling in PvE isn’t a viable option. It’s distracting for PvE players who are playing casually and learning the game, it’s incredibly annoying to receive random duel invites, it’s an inefficient use of Dev time, etc… Think about how much effort would go into just making it so the AoE damage would only affect the dueling participants, and not the environment such as surrounding enemies, any ambient creatures, etc… and nullifying enemy aggro. You WOULD want enemy aggro nullified while dueling, right? (If you say no, and that you’d just duel in little outposts, what’s the difference in hoping into a custom arena?) So why couldn’t 2 players “duel” each other and just not fight… and run from LA to Malchor’s Leap without aggro? – Exploitative.

PvE players can just turn it down and Auto decline.

Small list of issues and concerns directly involving dueling
Event scaling/credit/rewards/etc., for those that may try to use dueling to get around event mechanics/grief others; how many duels are allowed in an area at a time? How far away must each duel be from one another? How to ensure that outside buffs, fields, etc., do not influence a duel, or even their visual effects, while allowing others to see the duel? Do they create an artificial wall that those in the duel can’t leave; would it be possible to knock someone off a cliff during the duel? Would npc’s/mobs be allowed to enter or exit the duel area? How best to prevent them from interfering (granted, most npc’s this would be irrelevant, but mobs would cause problems)? How to stop people from standing on top of your duel and just be annoying (of course solution here is just go somewhere people aren’t, which leads to the question of why not designated areas?), while also not allowing the duel to block others from going about their business, activating events/missions/jump puzzles/reward chests/gathering nodes/and the like? What about environmental weapons/consumable weapons/ogre whistle/etc.? Do you adjust the level of the duelers to 80 or to the level of the map? If level of the map, what if the duel takes place at the transition between areas, like it does at Vigil Keep near the Mystic Forge/bank? What about duel time limits and forfeiting?

• Why is dynamic event scaling should be a problem? People get rewards based on the damage it does to mobs. So even if you afk, you don’t get reward. If you duel right in the Dynamic event, and hit nothing. You don’t get rewards. If you do hit a mob, they are helping the dynamic event.
• Any duels allowed at any time anywhere.
• Prevent buff by outside preventing buffs.
• No need to create a wall or anything.
• Yes, we should be able to knock players off a cliff.
• NPC mobs should enter.
• Go somewhere else if someone is bothering you. And in designated areas, there will be griefers that will stand around in your duel more.
• Do nothing about environmental weapons/consumable/ogre whistle. Players can restrict it themselves.

These are decisions that teams have to figure out solutions for, while also coming up wit other potential issues and concerns. It is not as simple as a few lines of code and you are done. Even a simple ‘feature’ can actually be quite complicated, due to everything else that must be considered and dealt with. I admit I am not sure how every other game gets around these issues, or if they even try. Some of these concerns would not exist in other games. I don’t really care how they addressed them, although it is something Arenanet would look at, if only to see what works/doesn’t work. My concern is for GW2.

I can think up a hundred of question on the wardrobe feature when it was suggested. But, will it stop ANet? No.

Naysayer

• I am afraid of duel requests.
• I am afraid dueling will make PvE players toxic.
• I am afraid that forums will discuss about 1v1 balancing.
• I think that duel rooms are a viable alternative for dueling.
• It doesn’t interest me so I want ANet to use resources on something that interest me.
• I worry that the duelers might get distracted by outside forces.
• I am afraid that duelist will interrupt something that I’ll do.
• I am afraid of seeing two duelist fighting each other.

These are what I get from the naysayers. Anything else to add onto the list?

I think everyone needs to open their post with “Dueling is not ganking, we aren’t talking about adding ganking”

Every one of the people opposing the dueling I think continue to imagine it as wow alliance v horde. People would just like to be able to right click > duel.

If it’s a decline, I think most people move on. As some people above have said, if someone wants to run around you and /whisp you just to be annoying, they can do that all the same now. Adding dueling wouldn’t make it more common.

You can duel in swtor, and I think I was only ever invited once. I declined. Game moved on.

runeblade.7514:

Naysayer

• I am afraid of duel requests.
• I am afraid dueling will make PvE players toxic.
• I am afraid that forums will discuss about 1v1 balancing.
• I think that duel rooms are a viable alternative for dueling.
• It doesn’t interest me so I want ANet to use resources on something that interest me.
• I worry that the duelers might get distracted by outside forces.
• I am afraid that duelist will interrupt something that I’ll do.
• I am afraid of seeing two duelist fighting each other.

These are what I get from the naysayers. Anything else to add onto the list?

These people dont seem to realize that dueling will help people get better, spend time having fun practicing, and probably make a lot of new friends (duel buddies)
When I played wow dueling was the best part of the game since queue times were like 20 min. It wasnt about bragging rights for the most part, it was just about practicing and having fun.

Just being in the area of an event scales it. You don’t have to do anything to make it harder on others. AFK players can get credit just by being there and getting attacked by a mob. In some cases, you get credit for events by just passing through as well. And just because one person wants mobs to interfere, someone else may not. If you allow mobs to interfere, can they attack the duelers? What about the dueler’s aoe skills, can they affect the mobs, then? What about training mobs into a duel, intentionally or otherwise? Can the duel move over a large area, or if you move a distance away does it end the duel? It is a lot more complicated than you think, and cannot be made simple without rendering it a pointless waste of time. Want to knock players off cliffs? That turns dueling into actually killing, which others implied they did not want.

You see a simple solution but aren’t taking into account the myriad of other factors, factors that the Devs must and will consider.

Designated areas would be able to prevent more than those dueling from entering the dueling areas. Think of Queen’s Pavilion and fights in the raised chambers for instance. No I’m not saying to do it that way, but to restrict it in similar ways. There’s a number of ideas that could be done, each with it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

I don’t think anyone here thinks we are discussing turning GW2 into a Player Killing enabled server. If that was done, you would see many just walk away, but that won’t happen so it’s irrelevant.

I do not see a point in continuing. Concerns have been laid out, and I feel it is a discussion that should continue between players and Devs, not players and players, because minds are not going to be changed. I don’t expect to change anyones mind one way or another, anyways, but I do want people to realize they are not asking for something simple, that there are a lot of factors that have to be considered, as well as, it would take Developer time and resources away from other aspects that require attention.

Jaxom.7310:

I think you don’t really know what everyone else is talking about here. I think you are thinking that dueling = ganking. A dual is a mutual fight accepted between 2 players.

I know exactly what they are talking about because it has been brought up and shot down countless times before. The point still stands that the vast majority of duels would be Thiefs or Mesmers. These two classes can stealth repeatedly and frequently. Stealth in this game is a cheap cover for skill. Anyone worth their salt in PvP knows this.

All you would ever see are Thiefs standing around waiting for someone to accept then just stealth around till the other persons skills are on cool down then try to take him. Much like all the Thiefs in WvW.

Also, no it does not take any skill to play any type of stealth class in this game. Hell, hardly anything in this game takes skill, but the stealthing, high evade, highly mobile class is the definition of cheap.

Do I have problems killing these “Pro” Thieves? No. They are jokes but the stealth in this game is ridiculous and needs to be changed so maybe one day the class can be slightly skill orientated instead of the spammy shamble it is now.

Also, your so called open world dueling is more of a “who can stack the most stats” rather than “who is more skilled”. If you want to duel then go duel in the Mists in one of the open servers, there are plenty of them as sPvP is dead.

Lastly… this game was produced (at least Anet said it was at the launch) as a TEAM orientated PvP game. Therefore, the balance will never suit for a 1v1 system.

Vanthian.9267:

Jaxom.7310:

I think you don’t really know what everyone else is talking about here. I think you are thinking that dueling = ganking. A dual is a mutual fight accepted between 2 players.

I know exactly what they are talking about because it has been brought up and shot down countless times before. The point still stands that the vast majority of duels would be Thiefs or Mesmers. These two classes can stealth repeatedly and frequently. Stealth in this game is a cheap cover for skill. Anyone worth their salt in PvP knows this.

All you would ever see are Thiefs standing around waiting for someone to accept then just stealth around till the other persons skills are on cool down then try to take him. Much like all the Thiefs in WvW.

Also, no it does not take any skill to play any type of stealth class in this game. Hell, hardly anything in this game takes skill, but the stealthing, high evade, highly mobile class is the definition of cheap.

Do I have problems killing these “Pro” Thieves? No. They are jokes but the stealth in this game is ridiculous and needs to be changed so maybe one day the class can be slightly skill orientated instead of the spammy shamble it is now.

Also, your so called open world dueling is more of a “who can stack the most stats” rather than “who is more skilled”. If you want to duel then go duel in the Mists in one of the open servers, there are plenty of them as sPvP is dead.

Lastly… this game was produced (at least Anet said it was at the launch) as a TEAM orientated PvP game. Therefore, the balance will never suit for a 1v1 system.

We arnt talking about a rated 1v1 dueling system, we are talking about the ability to 1v1 anywhere you want for fun instead of just afking in town or logging off or afking while waiting for something to happen.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Just being in the area of an event scales it. You don’t have to do anything to make it harder on others.

To keep a consistent level of difficulty along with increased participation, an event will scale dynamically based on the number of active participants.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_event

Test this yourself, go to a dynamic event and afk.

runeblade.7514:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Just being in the area of an event scales it. You don’t have to do anything to make it harder on others.

To keep a consistent level of difficulty along with increased participation, an event will scale dynamically based on the number of active participants.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_event

Test this yourself, go to a dynamic event and afk.

I dont understand why people think this is an issue, none of the pve in this game is even remotely difficult, how would some people dueling nearby effect it for others in a meaningful way?

This might be a solution:

What if instead of having the option to ‘Disable’ duel requests, you must ‘Enable’ them instead (bare with me). If you’ve Enabled the ability to receive duel requests, you’ll have a PvP icon somewhere on your portrait.

This would make it obvious who might, or absolutely won’t be up for a duel, since you presumably need to right click their portrait to ask to duel in the first place.
Perhaps you should only be able to request duels from people that have this ‘Tag’ on?

It would also make it an active choice to allow duel requests, rather than it being an active choice to disable these requests. Point with this is that it would make a difference in mentality; Instead for being a boring snob for not accepting duels, you instead have people actively showing their interest.

Zirith.6429:

runeblade.7514:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Just being in the area of an event scales it. You don’t have to do anything to make it harder on others.

To keep a consistent level of difficulty along with increased participation, an event will scale dynamically based on the number of active participants.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dynamic_event

Test this yourself, go to a dynamic event and afk.

I dont understand why people think this is an issue, none of the pve in this game is even remotely difficult, how would some people dueling nearby effect it for others in a meaningful way?

They try very hard to show much dueling will affect them negatively.

We could ridicule their responses or we could crush their worries all the way down. I rather use the latter.

I’m in the support wagon to implement dueling system in GW2. Speaking from a view of a player that started to play GW2 since it launched, here’s why,

1.Living story fun only last for…… a week? While the fun of Dueling last forever. Dueling at anytime, anywhere, thats kinda epic. Dueling at the highest peak of Maelstrom? It could even further develop a culture for players to record down the duel. Why do you even bother wasting time creating a new pvp map? The vast beautiful terrain of PVE contend was already the best place to pvp!

2.It helps newbies to horn their skill while preventing them from being thrashed at the current hotjoin, or custom 1v1 map. Newbies got the chance to select their newly meet friends, not being slaughtered without knowing a reason in hotjoin.

3. Through my experience of mmo for 10 yrs, i make the most friends in dueling during end game. We would meet at a certain place and time and duel the hell out till we are contended. Hence, implementing Dueling system would be a way to keep veteran players in GW2, from the way i see it.

Now dear Arena, what is the main reason from holding you guys to implement the dueling system?

Zirith.6429:

We arnt talking about a rated 1v1 dueling system, we are talking about the ability to 1v1 anywhere you want for fun instead of just afking in town or logging off or afking while waiting for something to happen.

Neither was I. Open world dueling is just a failed idea because it will be populated by a majority of Thieves and Mesmers as stated. Plus, why would you want to fight a bunch of PvEr’s anyway? They are not geared towards nor accustomed to doing PvP. What could you possibly gain from fighting a bunch of PvEr’s?

The almost all pure PvEr’s will just deny the request for a duel, so in essence this is nothing more than a plea for people to beg for duels from PvEr’s and then call people cowards for not wanting to fight.

It is easier and less clutter for everyone else in PvE if you go duel in the area designated solely for PvP. Go to the Heart of the Mists and duel in a empty server. There are literately at least 5 at all times (even though some say they have 1 person in them most of them don’t, at least in my experience). Not only will that take you out of PvE but it will also take away your hyper inflated stats and make the fight more profession/skill based.

Vanthian.9267:

Zirith.6429:

We arnt talking about a rated 1v1 dueling system, we are talking about the ability to 1v1 anywhere you want for fun instead of just afking in town or logging off or afking while waiting for something to happen.

Neither was I. Open world dueling is just a failed idea because it will be populated by a majority of Thieves and Mesmers as stated. Plus, why would you want to fight a bunch of PvEr’s anyway? They are not geared towards nor accustomed to doing PvP. What could you possibly gain from fighting a bunch of PvEr’s?

The almost all pure PvEr’s will just deny the request for a duel, so in essence this is nothing more than a plea for people to beg for duels from PvEr’s and then call people cowards for not wanting to fight.

It is easier and less clutter for everyone else in PvE if you go duel in the area designated solely for PvP. Go to the Heart of the Mists and duel in a empty server. There are literately at least 5 at all times (even though some say they have 1 person in them most of them don’t, at least in my experience). Not only will that take you out of PvE but it will also take away your hyper inflated stats and make the fight more profession/skill based.

What will be gained? Fun?
If its not fun for you, it could be fun to others, isn’kitten I don’t know about you but I do not see if server being populated with Mesmer and Thieve as a problem at all. In all essence you are just being fear of the negative outcome, rather than a positive outcome.

Of cause, it is valid that you are afraid of people’s bad behavior from Dueling system, however i think it could be solved as it only enabled Dueling Invitation to your Friends in your list. Isn’kitten

I used to play as a low level 40 mesmer and thrashed lvl 80 players in wvw. Gear doesn’t matter, it is the sense of achievement from pulling through from an impossible odds. And THAT is fun for me. And i wish i could do that in PVE content with close friends in open dueling, ya know, the crowd? The cheers? =D

Vanthian.9267:

Zirith.6429:

We arnt talking about a rated 1v1 dueling system, we are talking about the ability to 1v1 anywhere you want for fun instead of just afking in town or logging off or afking while waiting for something to happen.

Neither was I. Open world dueling is just a failed idea because it will be populated by a majority of Thieves and Mesmers as stated. Plus, why would you want to fight a bunch of PvEr’s anyway? They are not geared towards nor accustomed to doing PvP. What could you possibly gain from fighting a bunch of PvEr’s?

The almost all pure PvEr’s will just deny the request for a duel, so in essence this is nothing more than a plea for people to beg for duels from PvEr’s and then call people cowards for not wanting to fight.

It is easier and less clutter for everyone else in PvE if you go duel in the area designated solely for PvP. Go to the Heart of the Mists and duel in a empty server. There are literately at least 5 at all times (even though some say they have 1 person in them most of them don’t, at least in my experience). Not only will that take you out of PvE but it will also take away your hyper inflated stats and make the fight more profession/skill based.

You really seem to have no idea what dueling is :/ if people do choose to play perma stealth survival specs while dueling then other people just wont duel them and the other guy could just leave the area or concede (they would have to add at least 1 of those features), there is nothing to gain from anything you do in this game it is just a time sink; Some people want to enjoy dueling wherever they want while wasting their time instead of wasting even more time going to a server where they cannot test roaming builds or be sure that no one will interfere.

All this fear about thieves/mesmers being the only ones going around dueling is absurd. Besides, anyone who willingly enters a fight with these classes knows what they’re doing. If you think you can’t fight a thief….don’t! There are plenty of others you can. Just because you have a problem with a thief doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t know how to kill one.

And just like any duel in the mists, rules will be laid down, time limit, areas of demarcation etc. Has anyone seen youtube videos of duels? You’re polite, you /bow, there’s no stomping, and duels are confined to an area.

This is like saying “Oh, you can never kill a decap engi 1v1. Hence dueling sucks!” Yeah right. No one will continue to fight a decap engi once they know what they’re doing. And there are some guardian/warrior builds that are pretty impossible to kill while they themselves do no damage.

You will not see duels involving these builds. People are not crazy.

The “oh, only thieves and mesmers will duel” is nothing but FUD.