Guild Wars 2

Spvp, as many know, has so much potential but is being seriously held back. Now the current state isn’t exactly hopeless or far from breaking through, but a few more additions/modifications could really push this baby through.

After a year of experience, not too much has changed with the spvp. Here are my suggestions I have to help improve, grow, and bring back players to the spvp environment.

Please give constructive criticism on these thoughts, I’m no developer, merely a competitive player with extensive background in various games.

Also please provide any other suggestions you have that may help the cause! Please no flaming/arguing.

Ques
* Currently: ranked solo, ranked team
* The Issue: The only form of competitive play we’ve had since launch (free and paid Ques weren’t much different…and I’m leaving out hotjoin). This is a serious issue. Why? Because every game really means nothing. There is nothing to play or practice for. If there is nothing to play for, why play? The drive to actually play goes down to zero. If we had something to play for, real rankings, real standings, then you can create an esport. To grow big we need leagues or ladders, not pointless “tournaments”. What happens if I have one friend I want to play with? I’m forced to do team que which would only ruin my only form of ranking (Since everyone knows solo ques really mean nothing) . I don’t understand why players are personally individually ranked based on team performance…and that team isn’t even a real team 95% of the time. If I que with one friend I’m risking ruining my only form of ranking.
* Suggestion: Keep hotjoin. Keep solo que. Make the current team que into pug que. Keep the current prizes for incentive to play for average Joes. Get rid of rankings. Add in a 1v1 gametype with ranks (be able to filter ranks by class as well), this will give a legit individual rank. Add a team que. This que will be only for 5 man premade teams. Unranked. Finally, make a team league and/or ladder for ranks on teams. Players have to register on a team/guild in order to play, that TEAM is then ranked based on win/loss/points for/points against. I’d prefer a league in which there would be 6 to 8 matches, once a week, then X number of teams advance to playoffs. Prizes are then distributed. Prizes for league should be very big. Honestly even if there aren’t prizes it’s a way to actually determine the best teams. People will begin to take things more seriously which means more teams, more practice, more team ques. Really the only reason I play spvp right now is because of the hopes of there being a future and that I’m actually progressing my pve character. I hope THAT feature does not go away.

Teams
* Currently: To be frank, there are none
* The Issue: Nothing to play for really
* Suggestion: The above suggestion should help teams begin to form. Add in a recruitment thread as well as looking for guild thread. Add a feature in-game for recruitment, scrims, and ringers for team ques.

Conditions
* Currently: Overtaking the current meta
* Issue: Conditions have completely taken over and it’s locking us into certain builds. This wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the fact most builds have to give up so much for condition cleansing. This is why we are limited to so little builds.
* Suggestion: Let’s brain storm here, there are a lot of ways to address this, here are a couple things to ponder about. What about scaling condition damage with toughness like power does? Or introducing a stat that reduces condition damage as toughness does power? Maybe giving every class the ability to actively remove two conditions on a 30-60 second cd? What about capping the maximum stacks? What about a new boon that acts as our current protection boon but for condition?

AI
* Currently: A ton of passive play through AI.
* Issue: First and foremost…it requires no real skill. There is so much active AI that at times it’s hard to even see and/or hit your target. On a smaller mid point like temple…add aoe animations on top and it’s just a cluster f***. As a player it’s hard to even see what’s going in. From an esport point of view, this is very very bad. Not only is it boring to watch someone with an AI build play, but half the time you can’t even see what’s going on. Who would be attracted to that? Even playing it isn’t fun. Let’s say two minion mancers, a spirit ranger, and thief are fighting on point…thief uses thieves guild….do you think any audience is going to know what the heck is going on? Or let alone BE attracted to the game? This has to be handled.
* Suggestion: I don’t see anet ever getting rid of them but at least allow us to see what’s going on. Reduce the size of AI 50% (except for elites and clones) . This could be an issue with asura characters but that’s another topic. Ideally I would like anet to introduce new builds, more variety so that people could actually move on from the passive play. More rewarding, yet challenging manual builds. Passive builds should be easy but less rewarding. Active builds should be more challenging, yet more rewarding. This would make higher level pvp run less AI hence…would influence the less talented/proven players.

Gametypes
* Currently: Conquer only with each map having different side objectives.
* Issue: Although this gametype is not a bad gametype especially for esport, we lack variety of pvp…we get bored playing the same gametype everytime. This gametype also forces certain builds to be played (ie aoe conditions, bunkers, more aoe) which is why we have the meta we have today.
* Suggestion: Add a 1v1, 2v2, 5v5 deathmatch mode. Maybe even add side objectives within the deathmatch to make things more interesting. Capture the flag has also been discussed. What about a siege gametype?

And finally….please add in voice com feature…seeing as how team oriented and competitive this game can be, why not add in-game chat for party members? This would make solo, pug, team ques way more enjoyable. If someone is annoying simply mute him/her. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want this simple feature to be added.