Hey there =)
Dont know about you guys but I find sPvP “slightly” annoying and frustrating. I’ve played a lot of games and I’m a heavy pvp player, usually play support or tanker classes. I’ve come to GW2 since there was no healers (in the classic sense) that made it interesting to try out. After a few rounds I’ve noticed an interesting “standard” in pvp:
1. No “Holy Trinity” – While its a new and interesting system, it has its flaws. What is your role? What you can do? Anything. On paper. In reality you are either a heavy dps or a bunker. Support is not existant since its bleeding from so many wounds its just not worth it. Especially in a Hot Join. Its rather bland tbh. No tactic or strategy involved. Just who can busrt down the other one faster. We have rolls (yeey xD) but thats really limited control to keep dmg flowing.
Every class can do whatever they want. Again on paper. Most classes have only 1-2 working builds. They play next to eachother not with eachother. Huge difference.
2. Team play thats lacking team play – This is the first game where I feel that there is no actual “team” play involved in spvp. I love to play team games, however its extremely frustrating, that the whole “teamplay” involves moving in a big blob and kill everything unfortunate bumping into it. Ok, there are other games where this happens too (like Warhammer) but at least there I could play in team, since I knew who had what role + could rely on a pug member to some extent. Here ? No xD
sPvP dont really encourage people to play together.
3. Welcome to Bunny Land! – When I played my very first pvp matches I wasn’t able to help myself that it feels/looks hilarious. Everybody is rolling-jumping-leaping-evading on the screen, it makes me feel like I’m watching a circus show xD Add the lot of fire/explosion/spell effect/smoke screen/ect + the clones of the mesmer(s) present and you really start to feel you are watching a Cirque de Soleil show :P Its just kitten annoying to actually able to see anything in this mess and time the rolls/skill you’d need to avoid death x)
4. Professions and balance – Its nothing new I guess. Its an old topic in the game + on the forums that there are some faceroll classes and some weak classes when it comes to pvp environment. I wont start with the thief and mesmer, you guys already know all about it. They are quite powerful. Period. The only rule is the faster you can kill somebody the better. Some classes excel in this. Some just… not. Engi + necro cant burst down anything as fast as a thief or a gs warri or mesmer could. Maybe thats why I see them rarely.
5. Armor class is just cosmetics – This was the part that made me puzzled the most. Wearing heavy, medium or light armor wont change a thing. The small amount of difference they had in stats is so minimal it just wont make an impact. A dps specced guardian could be as low on armor as a thief or necro. It wont matter. IF you spec to it yea, you can be hard to kill. But its a rather bad concept that a heavy armor user and a light armor user will be on the same survival line if they spec for dmg. I’d expect a heavy armor to mean something. Not just be a cosmetic fluff :/ One would think its there for a reason ^^;
6. sPvP maps are not favoring long range encounters – Speccing for long range (900-1500) is rather pointless in spvp. As the maps are designed + there are just so many gap closers (and not too many gap keepers) its rather easy for a melee to get in close and personal. Oh… and if you have a crit build, you just use the condition remover sigil (60% chance on crit to remove a condition) making ranged combat a “bit” questionable at best.
Not to mention, melee abilities always hit harder, so there is little merit to range. And I havent even mentioned stuff that completely ignore cripple like leaps, teleports, ect. And if somebody comes up with “needing better CC options means you are a bad player” thats complete bs. I dont have problem with competetive pvp play, I love it. But if I’d like to play only ranged then make it possible I could keep the distance with skills I can use. If I use it badly than its my bad. But I find that a 3s cripple on a weapon is anything but not CC. I’d need to sacrifice utility slots to keep somebody at range, usually with long CDs (40+sec is an eternity in pvp lol) and some classes dont even have additional relyable CC options in their utility. As an engi for example, on paper I have some options, but most of them can be countered/ignored (glue shot, slick shoes) quite easy with dodge only (net shot, net turret, glue shot) or hamper myself roo (rocket boots).
Ok, I end my wall of text rant :P Flame on ^^
Puts up protective gear