Guild Wars 2

Do ArenaNet even realise that sPvP has basically died in the last couple of weeks? I don’t think I have seen a decrease in players like this in a while.

Could it be the re-release of the Gauntlet?

Of course is dead, there is nothing to play for.

But we have the LS Season 2!!!

WoW!

It could be a good thing.
Remember the pve going afk for rewards?
They are now in Crown Pavilion doing it.

How can it be dead? It was never alive to begin with.

I don’t feel its dead. It is very normal for things to slow down a bit this time of year. Kids are preparing for the end of school, mom and dad are busy preparing for graduations and summer vacations. Also when the patch in April came out there as a flood of PvE players that came to play, I would venture to say there where a few who decided to stop playing with us in PvP for what ever reason. It also maybe depends of time of day. I play mostly evenings and SoloQ and TeamQ are popping with very little wait especially in TeamQ. Hot joins are busy too however matches are unbalanced most of the time because of the extra servers added. Its time to take some of those added hot join servers away. Overall I don’t see it being dead.

The lack of communication is really disheartening. People can say what they want about Allie, however at least she was here replying, and keeping us in the loop. The only dev that even replies now is Evan. Anet said they where busy with the China launch, and that’s understandable. However there hasn’t been a dev post in months about pvp or the direction it’s heading. It makes it seem like they given up on pvp, and they wonder why the pvp community is so negative and bitter.

It just went back to pre-wardrobe population which was the norm. maybe more players doing spvp than before. I don’t see a big change imo.

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

They will return, theres much to look forward to i feel it in me bones!

Personal note, my pops are still pretty quick

Just compare SoloQ to what it was like 2-3 months ago. I feel so stupid for ever complaining about players back then. It’s so unplayable at the moment.

…and TeamQ – Do I really need to explain what TeamQ is like? TEAMS ONLY PLEASE.

jebro.6370:

….
They will return, theres much to look forward to i feel it in me bones!
…..

You might want to see a doctor … because good pvp changes are not the things you feel in the bones.
They wont return, nozthing wil change, I feel it in the air!

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The only reason to play PvP is ESL once a week….thats all. So why should ppl play TPvP or Soloq? Some ppl are just coming online to play ESL and then they go afk for 1 week.

Obsidian Lee.1462:

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The only reason to play PvP is ESL once a week….thats all. So why should ppl play TPvP or Soloq? Some ppl are just coming online to play ESL and then they go afk for 1 week.

This.

SoloQ time 10 minutes, for the “quality” of the matchmaking thats quite an indicator I think

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

They will return, theres much to look forward to i feel it in me bones!

Personal note, my pops are still pretty quick

ESL and ToL are extra tournaments, and only a super mega little % of all spvp players play them.

But we said this in another topic, there are not really reasons to play spvp in this game.

Super bad rewards, only 1 game mode, no progression.

This game needs reasons to be played daily, not una tantum.

It’s a lack of contents.

Proof that anet does not even play/know their own game (pvp or pve). In today news they said you can get 640 gems for 50g ….. You barely get 400 for that.

what’s sPvP again?

I guess I would have left the company too if they did not let me create eSport but casual stuff.

I wonder if the core PvP developers go home late night and fall in their wife’s/husband’s arms crying about the bad state of this game’s PvP.

At least I would if I had a girlfriend. Does someone want to be my girlfriend?
Text me: Noc.2459

jebro.6370:

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

The teams which participated in last weeks ESL have always been there, just because the really good teams left, so that they now see a chance at getting some free gems too.

When you play a SoloQ match, in which a top 10 player AND a %-player are in the same team, you know something went horribly wrong.

Haven’t done much teamq lately, but there’s no doubt in my mind soloq has slowed down somewhat. I blame Obama, Skyhammer, cheese builds, meta trash, condi spam, Kathy Griffin, Wildstar, ESO, low-fat ice cream, Christmas fatigue, China, decaf coffee, non-alcoholic beer, and dat lag.

I understand the frustration you guys are having.

You want to be rewarded and have a reason to log in daily and spend so much time playing the game, I got it. I talk to the top end of players daily, but I also speak to and play with the other end of the scale.

Rewards tracks was the start, dont think thats the end.

Balance wise, and actually class wise. I feel the games more balanced maybe atm than its ever been. There more varying builds atm than ever other than launch.

I knw you dont want PVE rewards but that was a way to get people involved from the PVE side and too also get spvpers into other parts of the game potentially and to earn them some cakitteno.

IMO PvP in this game died around March/April 2013.

I played more seriously back then and I felt the meta was more skill based. I felt skill mattered alot on necro to be honest. And now it matters very little. In fact most games now simply come down to team composition and bunkering 3 points.

The sustain of classes like thief and warrior have pushed the whole game into a forgiving experience where they can run into 2+ people at far point and not just get insta-gibbed setting your team back.

This is what it used to be like.

I personally gave up trying around April 2013. And have been on a downward spiral since then, being a terrible player now on the rare times I play (in between months off from the game). Although being terrible is actually quite fun because I can fight against other bad players and have fun.

I think back to those days with happiness. Team fights mattered then. Anyone could beat anyone back then because comp wasn’t everything. You have teams now winning 99 out of every 100 matches. It didn’t happen really back then because games were closer due to snowballing not being a real thing.

Necro became a bad joke too. Necro vs necro now is just a boring experience and lacks total skill. it used to be skill based. Necro in team fight used to take a ton of skill and so did thief/warrior/engi. Even ele took skill, even though it was brokenly OP.

There were a ton of decent pug groups (with ts) playing. They did really well. Even without a settled team they did well because individual player skill mattered alot. Now it doesn’t matter at all. It is all “rotations” (aka running to points) and bs like that. So people want a comp now, and they want players who know how to play that broken comp.

This makes the skilled pug groups quit the game because it is just not a level playing field. Back when you could pick up a group of skilled players and trash “proper teams” running meta set ups it was good.

And it was before dhuumfire that the whole thing went to kitten. It was months before this in fact. But dhuumfire really started things downhill. Then it was just an express train to failure. The game became dominated by mediocre players who win because playing a certain set up matters so much. And playing with a settled team matters so much. Gone are the days when pugs could come together with a bad set up and just let their mechanical skill do the talking. When people see the game dominated by mediocre players they quit. When those mediocre players NEVER lose to these skilled pugs they quit forever.

tl:dr – the game doesn’t reward individual skill.

Answer to OP’s question: No.

There’s a dip in player activity because of the very long filler patch that is not very rewarding for veteran players. The dev’s inactivity on these forums due to the Chinese launch did not help, either.

Things will get busy when season 2 starts. I am not worried.

when i go in the mists now it looks like the Elonareach mists before the megaserver patch^^

Obsidia.5127:

Do ArenaNet even realise that sPvP has basically died in the last couple of weeks? I don’t think I have seen a decrease in players like this in a while.

In the last couple of weeks? lol…more likely since one year ago…15th patch was just the last blow..

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

And you know they’re right mate…come on more viewers for 2v2 ESL last night than for 5v5, and this means that hom is now full of pvers (The ones who care most about dueling, 2v2 and all that stuff)…good teams still are those made up from old players i actually can’t see totally new teams going somewhere near to ele, tcg and so on…we just must thanks those guys for still playing but competitive pvp is going nowhere..if not dieing for sure it’s not growing at all…and the reasons are well known since one year ago pretty much…but long story short: This pvp is boring, filled up with no skill casual friendly cheese (Favoring random spam and hardcounters instead of skilled play) and there are no rewards to push someone into competitive side. But now it’s really too late to do something…this pvp is already ruined, they killed it on 15th patch and gg…nothing left to save..

jebro.6370:

Balance wise, and actually class wise. I feel the games more balanced maybe atm than its ever been. There more varying builds atm than ever other than launch.

Interesting. I feel it is all about high sustain and low risk.
Except the Elementalist being viable again, in a build with a lot of sustain off course, and Thieves returning to their high sustain build: S/D, absolutely nothing has changed.

There is little team variety and it is incredible boring to fight heavy sustain teams all the time.

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

Obsidia.5127:

Do ArenaNet even realise that sPvP has basically died in the last couple of weeks? I don’t think I have seen a decrease in players like this in a while.

In the last couple of weeks? lol…more likely since one year ago…15th patch was just the last blow..

That’s what I am basically saying.

Hello frands! Vee Wee here retired #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Who cares about rewards! PvP players have never gotten rewards! If we really wanted rewards, we’d play PvE! PvP is just too b-b-b-b-boring! Only 1 game mode for 2 years! 2 years! Soon it will be over 2 years! Same thing! Every time! What a waste! This game had so much potential! Hopefully the devs can make this game better soon so Vee Wee, retired #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80 can come back and play!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Lordrosicky.5813:

…
And it was before dhuumfire that the whole thing went to kitten. It was months before this in fact. But dhuumfire really started things downhill. Then it was just an express train to failure. The game became dominated by mediocre players who win because playing a certain set up matters so much. And playing with a settled team matters so much. Gone are the days when pugs could come together with a bad set up and just let their mechanical skill do the talking. When people see the game dominated by mediocre players they quit. When those mediocre players NEVER lose to these skilled pugs they quit forever.

tl:dr – the game doesn’t reward individual skill.

If GW2 whole balance revolves around and is done for a 5vs5 setup its kind of a logical development.
To balance team vs team you have to make sure the individual player skill is not the determining factor on the outcome. As the saying goes; there is no “i” in team. Playerskill still matters, yes, but today your class and build has more impact on the outcome of a match.
I think it was a conscious decission by Anet to “streamline” PvP so hard that your “average joe” can win simply by playing, and not by playing better.

And conquest makes this even worse. In other team games, like CS or Dota, an individual can carry an underpowered team to victory, just due to playerskill, the games allow it to happen.
Can you reliable carry a 4vs5 in GW2 in conquest?

tl:dr – sPvP is dead or rather was never really alive

Nimrod.9240:

Lordrosicky.5813:

…
And it was before dhuumfire that the whole thing went to kitten. It was months before this in fact. But dhuumfire really started things downhill. Then it was just an express train to failure. The game became dominated by mediocre players who win because playing a certain set up matters so much. And playing with a settled team matters so much. Gone are the days when pugs could come together with a bad set up and just let their mechanical skill do the talking. When people see the game dominated by mediocre players they quit. When those mediocre players NEVER lose to these skilled pugs they quit forever.

tl:dr – the game doesn’t reward individual skill.

If GW2 whole balance revolves around and is done for a 5vs5 setup its kind of a logical development.
To balance team vs team you have to make sure the individual player skill is not the determining factor on the outcome. As the saying goes; there is no “i” in team. Playerskill still matters, yes, but today your class and build has more impact on the outcome of a match.
I think it was a conscious decission by Anet to “streamline” PvP so hard that your “average joe” can win simply by playing, and not by playing better.

And conquest makes this even worse. In other team games, like CS or Dota, an individual can carry an underpowered team to victory, just due to playerskill, the games allow it to happen.
Can you reliable carry a 4vs5 in GW2 in conquest?

tl:dr – sPvP is dead or rather was never really alive

Yeh I agree

yeah it is dead, but if u want to try pvp just play war or thief sd. Ranger and mesmer is garbage.

I don’t know about pvp but this forum is surely dead. Few topic, few answers and same discussion going.
If it aint a evidence it’s a hint.

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

And you know they’re right mate…come on more viewers for 2v2 ESL last night than for 5v5, and this means that hom is now full of pvers (The ones who care most about dueling, 2v2 and all that stuff)…good teams still are those made up from old players i actually can’t see totally new teams going somewhere near to ele, tcg and so on…we just must thanks those guys for still playing but competitive pvp is going nowhere..if not dieing for sure it’s not growing at all…and the reasons are well known since one year ago pretty much…but long story short: This pvp is boring, filled up with no skill casual friendly cheese (Favoring random spam and hardcounters instead of skilled play) and there are no rewards to push someone into competitive side. But now it’s really too late to do something…this pvp is already ruined, they killed it on 15th patch and gg…nothing left to save..

This is very opinion based I understand, but sometimes its good to step back.

I dont feel as if its boring and the same as usual. But thats just my viewpoint.

Team Exaltation is a good example of a great up and coming team and some others.

Check the last two podcasts I did with TCG and BooN. Both teams agreeing at times that the meta atm is definitely more fun and varied.

I respect your opinion, just saying Im not sure the community spvp wise is really repped well in this thread, I play with many people in the community that are actually having a lot of fun atm, but what I think most people are talking about is really the high end competitive crew of gw2.

That population really is small guys Im afraid in comparison to the numbers that casually are playing, can you blame Anet for not focusing on that top 10/5% of the GW2 community?

I think theres big change coming. All Ill say is just wait and see

jebro.6370:

That population really is small guys Im afraid in comparison to the numbers that casually are playing, can you blame Anet for not focusing on that top 10/5% of the GW2 community?

The short answer would be yes.

The slightly longer answer would be: If they do not, then tpvp will never have a solid foundation. Why? Because Anet is catering to people that are not all that interested in pvp in the first place. Even if some of those people were to become more serious about their play, then they too would be affected by the casual friendly aspect of Anet.
(And this is comming from a casual btw.)

I would much rather have Anet focusing on those serious players and balance the game accordingly. I do believe it would benefit the rest of us and the pvp in this game if they did.

That is off course just my opinion.

Considering a lot of yous have been saying PvP is dead for the past year, I will say that PvP is less dead that it has been since the first time someone utter the phrase “PvP is dead” about 1 year ago.

So no, OP, PvP is actually less dead. Now if you want to say they are less “TOP” players well that might be true, but that ultimately only matters to the very small percentage of players that visit the forum, or idealize other gamers for some odd reason.

Btw when we say “spvp population is small” and for this reason anet don’t focus on pvp we simply forget that this spvp deserves to be small.

A good spvp can attract a lot of players.
For sure 60/70% of pop. always will play pve, but there is a big difference between 5-10% and 30-40%.

A good spvp can grow, a bad can’t.

jebro.6370:

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

And you know they’re right mate…come on more viewers for 2v2 ESL last night than for 5v5, and this means that hom is now full of pvers (The ones who care most about dueling, 2v2 and all that stuff)…good teams still are those made up from old players i actually can’t see totally new teams going somewhere near to ele, tcg and so on…we just must thanks those guys for still playing but competitive pvp is going nowhere..if not dieing for sure it’s not growing at all…and the reasons are well known since one year ago pretty much…but long story short: This pvp is boring, filled up with no skill casual friendly cheese (Favoring random spam and hardcounters instead of skilled play) and there are no rewards to push someone into competitive side. But now it’s really too late to do something…this pvp is already ruined, they killed it on 15th patch and gg…nothing left to save..

This is very opinion based I understand, but sometimes its good to step back.

I dont feel as if its boring and the same as usual. But thats just my viewpoint.

Team Exaltation is a good example of a great up and coming team and some others.

Check the last two podcasts I did with TCG and BooN. Both teams agreeing at times that the meta atm is definitely more fun and varied.

I respect your opinion, just saying Im not sure the community spvp wise is really repped well in this thread, I play with many people in the community that are actually having a lot of fun atm, but what I think most people are talking about is really the high end competitive crew of gw2.

That population really is small guys Im afraid in comparison to the numbers that casually are playing, can you blame Anet for not focusing on that top 10/5% of the GW2 community?

I think theres big change coming. All Ill say is just wait and see

Well competitive players are 5-10% now because let’s say one year ago, maybe more, when TP was still up we had many more good players around, not many top teams but way better playerbase overall for sure…problem is that they made almost everyone leave because of all those well known problems. Henry for example, like many of us, kept saying this since one year ago if i remember right, then he just stopped playing like many others (Come on i had my first account banned from forums because i kept asking for devs looking at competitive side, instead of giving answers they went on giving infractions and banning ppl asking uncomfortable questions)…when you see noone cares about player’s feedback and all they want is to just bring more casuals farming hj or going tpvp not even knowing dafq are they doing just for pve rewards all you can do is quit. They had competitive side, they had mist league, they had ppl streaming and viewers…thay didn’t care and now everything is gone…and probably will never get back. And talkin bout boon, if you ask empa for example i think he has the exactly same idea…if he’s still playing btw cause i didn’t see him for a while.

How could pvp be dead when it was never alive?

RoRo.8270:

How could pvp be dead when it was never alive?

Hello frands! Vee Wee here retired #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

Well that’s a thilly question! Not being alive is the very definition of being dead!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh

Am I the only one who laughed a little at this?

Just because, it’s 8 teams. I know the weekly tourenys can be considered not a huge deal because they are ran so frequently but come on 8 teams? WOW! PvP must not be dead!

That’s 40 players out of everyone in EU, 40 people signed up.

To me personally, that just seems really laughable.

And as other people have said, top players getting put in games with low ranked people is a warning sign as to the tiny size of the community.

Lordrosicky.5813:

IMO PvP in this game died around March/April 2013.

I played more seriously back then and I felt the meta was more skill based. I felt skill mattered alot on necro to be honest. And now it matters very little. In fact most games now simply come down to team composition and bunkering 3 points.

The sustain of classes like thief and warrior have pushed the whole game into a forgiving experience where they can run into 2+ people at far point and not just get insta-gibbed setting your team back.

This is what it used to be like.

I personally gave up trying around April 2013. And have been on a downward spiral since then, being a terrible player now on the rare times I play (in between months off from the game). Although being terrible is actually quite fun because I can fight against other bad players and have fun.

I think back to those days with happiness. Team fights mattered then. Anyone could beat anyone back then because comp wasn’t everything. You have teams now winning 99 out of every 100 matches. It didn’t happen really back then because games were closer due to snowballing not being a real thing.

Necro became a bad joke too. Necro vs necro now is just a boring experience and lacks total skill. it used to be skill based. Necro in team fight used to take a ton of skill and so did thief/warrior/engi. Even ele took skill, even though it was brokenly OP.

There were a ton of decent pug groups (with ts) playing. They did really well. Even without a settled team they did well because individual player skill mattered alot. Now it doesn’t matter at all. It is all “rotations” (aka running to points) and bs like that. So people want a comp now, and they want players who know how to play that broken comp.

This makes the skilled pug groups quit the game because it is just not a level playing field. Back when you could pick up a group of skilled players and trash “proper teams” running meta set ups it was good.

And it was before dhuumfire that the whole thing went to kitten. It was months before this in fact. But dhuumfire really started things downhill. Then it was just an express train to failure. The game became dominated by mediocre players who win because playing a certain set up matters so much. And playing with a settled team matters so much. Gone are the days when pugs could come together with a bad set up and just let their mechanical skill do the talking. When people see the game dominated by mediocre players they quit. When those mediocre players NEVER lose to these skilled pugs they quit forever.

tl:dr – the game doesn’t reward individual skill.

Quoting for a higher chance of people reading.

Risk vs Reward needs to be balanced. Bring back the game which has so much potential.

Mjgander.1905:

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh

Am I the only one who laughed a little at this?

Just because, it’s 8 teams. I know the weekly tourenys can be considered not a huge deal because they are ran so frequently but come on 8 teams? WOW! PvP must not be dead!

That’s 40 players out of everyone in EU, 40 people signed up.

To me personally, that just seems really laughable.

And as other people have said, top players getting put in games with low ranked people is a warning sign as to the tiny size of the community.

No you’re not xD

jebro.6370:

Seifer Thalaen.7869:

jebro.6370:

Pvp isnt dead.

Last weeks ESL weekly cup gave us 8 teams, the first time in a few months now tbh.

The reason people feel its dead is maybe they see a lot of the top end players have left or arent playing as much.

And you know they’re right mate…come on more viewers for 2v2 ESL last night than for 5v5, and this means that hom is now full of pvers (The ones who care most about dueling, 2v2 and all that stuff)…good teams still are those made up from old players i actually can’t see totally new teams going somewhere near to ele, tcg and so on…we just must thanks those guys for still playing but competitive pvp is going nowhere..if not dieing for sure it’s not growing at all…and the reasons are well known since one year ago pretty much…but long story short: This pvp is boring, filled up with no skill casual friendly cheese (Favoring random spam and hardcounters instead of skilled play) and there are no rewards to push someone into competitive side. But now it’s really too late to do something…this pvp is already ruined, they killed it on 15th patch and gg…nothing left to save..

This is very opinion based I understand, but sometimes its good to step back.

I dont feel as if its boring and the same as usual. But thats just my viewpoint.

Team Exaltation is a good example of a great up and coming team and some others.

Check the last two podcasts I did with TCG and BooN. Both teams agreeing at times that the meta atm is definitely more fun and varied.

I respect your opinion, just saying Im not sure the community spvp wise is really repped well in this thread, I play with many people in the community that are actually having a lot of fun atm, but what I think most people are talking about is really the high end competitive crew of gw2.

That population really is small guys Im afraid in comparison to the numbers that casually are playing, can you blame Anet for not focusing on that top 10/5% of the GW2 community?

I think theres big change coming. All Ill say is just wait and see

Well, from my point of view I think that the high-end of PvP feels the same like the guy above.
New teams like exaltation are just filling the blank space that the older top-teams created by leaving. To have a good PvP you need to take both POV’s (casual and competitive) into consideration, while A-Net is only focusing to get PvE-Players into PvP. And PvP withouth competition is as boring as sports without competition (e.g. Formel 1 this year).

A-Nets strategy is not sustainable, but leaves the actual core of PvP, the dedicated players that only PvP, frustrated and left alone. There is no cooperation between the ppl that actually understand the game and A-Net. Why do you think changes like the Dhuumfire-patch or immobilize-stacking has found its way into the game?

Allthough I like the optimism of you, there is no change seeable in the near future, that would make this game interesting again. Only thing that gets ppl back will be the ToL 2. Again not a sustainable way of doing it.

Guts.4967:

Wake up, pvp died 2 years ago

When i see that now people are happy to play in Tournament Of Legends to win a legendary weapon ( which is free from Anet ) while the first tournament had a cashprice of 10.000$… just make me laugh.

They said this game was esport, lol.

^ THIS