how can this game be taken seriously when there’s too many formats that encourage zerging, and cheese-ing? well it can’t, and that’s why its pvp has never risen in the esports recognition. real pvpers demand combat, and victory through strategy and combat. spectators want to see good fights, and the best fighter rewarded.
spvp is still a disgrace. the inconsistency in 5v5 and 8v8 is still a sign there’s unclear vision amongst the dev team as what spvp should be. It’s also nicknamed ‘bunker wars,’ for a reason. bunker wars is not fun. It requires very little skill to play a bunker spec, the margin of error is very large, and the reward is low for everyone, as there’s little gratification in fighting a stalemate for 10 minutes.
Anet needs to understand… spvp was never well thought out, and was only really played because it’s the only option outside of wvwvw, which is mostly a zergfest. Few people enjoy defending, or capturing points, that is why people have farmed for kills up till now, and even still.
PVPERs WANT FAIR and REWARDING COMBAT that is the bottomline.
SPECTATORS WANT TO SEE DISPLAY OF PLAYER SKILL. that is the key to esports.
a bit about my background: i have been in the esports scene for nearly a decade. top 100 in warcraft 3 NA ladder, Guild Wars 1 3rd place in world, Starcraft 2 Masters league, and WoW top 10 arena season 1-3. I know what real competitive play is like, and why a casual and a hardcore would want to participate.
now onto the suggestions:
If you’re going to keep conquest, change the method of capturing: rather than sitting on the point, one must activate it intentionally. One successful case is Arathi Basin from World of Warcraft. This is a highly popular and well loved map. To capture a point, a player must channel a flag at the point for about 10 seconds. Any direct damage and he’ll be interrupted. What this means is, a team must either successfully repel the enemy, or completely eliminate them at the node. In other words, they MUST FIGHT. In Bunker Wars, one doesn’t have to fight at all to hold onto a point, just survive in the area. Are there still ways to stall/ cheese this method? of course, but not nearly to the degree of current conquest mode.
need to add pure combat based ladder pvp for a serious ranking system:
- this is the biggest reason why I, a competitive and former pro-gamer, and many others i know of like-mindedness, have never got that interested in GW2 pvp: there is nothing to work for, nothing to try to achieve, because all the achievements are superficial and meaningless. Titles and ranks are all a grind. Where’s the hierarchy of skill? I want to be rewarded for wins, and equally punished for losses. I want to know the opponents i’m facing are worthy, and the players above me on ladder are actually more skilled. This is not just for pride, but also to celebrate in the victories of the deserving, and also learn from their skills. This, is what creates a flourishing pvp community: where there’s e-celebrities, dialogue, and mentoring.
finally there has to be an option for deathmatch. That is the biggest test of player combat skill. no gimmicks, just mano a mano. I think i speak for most people: i don’t care how well you bunker a point, or how far you can run, or how long you can hide. I want to see how well you can kill, either by yourself, or with a team.
GW2 is a fun game, it is fast paced with elements of action games, it has great art and sound+music, but it just needs a few tweaks in its meta-game to make it truly enjoyable.
