Guild Wars 2

I’m posting about why I liked/played this the season the most out of all of them.

(WARNING: POSITIVITY AHEAD)

Because of the reward/matchmaking systems I managed to get rewards and enjoy the games and didn’t suffer from a salt overdose in team/mapchat.

I like the fact that pvp has ascended gear (am I the only one?)

I also liked that simply having a afk or trolling player didn’t completely ruin your whole season. (getting 3-4 pips is better than losing them, losing division points sucked as usual.)

The new divisions need the kinks worked out but wasn’t pianful in a play through.

I did repeatedly play with or against a few dudes that are now on my friends list.

The matchmaking was mediocre but I’ve played games with worse.

I do hope the current separate division and tier reward systems stays.

Please bring the reward tracks back next season with the pips as reward tickers.

The idea of matchmking divisions being separate from reward tiers was probably the best move in ranked so far. :-)

I’ve been a huge fan of this game and have enjoyed pvp a bit too much.
The community is one of the greatest I’ve encountered in games so let’s discuss this topic constructively.

I’m honestly not sure if this is sarcasm or not. But I guess I’ll take it as not.

Matchmaking is the worse than in any game I’ve ever played. I like the pips as participation rewards, mostly because matchmaking makes winning really a luck based game. I have hard time even bothering to que though, since it’s basically 50/50 if you get 10 winning or losing streak next.

It’s actually so bad, that even in winning games it doesn’t matter if one player is afk or not. Maybe it’s different in other tiers, but in silver 1 ranked or unranked it’s around 2 or 3/12 games where loser gets over 300 points. The majority of matches the winners just facerolls around from start to end. Even if I try my best and feel like I’m doing ok, the impact never is enough to win the game, if we are winning, the enemies die so fast I don’t even get to hit them. It’s so much “fun” that basically only reason to play is for rewards.

The community can be nice, it can be bad. I guess generally a little bit nicer than in other games I’ve played. Well maybe a lot nicer, really.

Yeah, at least connections in this game’s pvp is better than in some games, it’s a pain when in the other games when each player on the teams are on different continents and lag previals.

I also find this season good and the system goes in the right direction but still flawed.

Main faults this season:

A.) Placement matches to impactful and volatile. (I fear the damage is permanent unless resetting MMR).
MM has serious flaws in side balance (At least Evan is working on it).

B.) The long term problem since HOT (or the trait rework)

Build diversity is low. Focus lies on one maximum two builds per class to be “Meta” (In an MMO like GW2 diversity is a key for long term exitement).

Whout should be done (My opininon)

1.) Drop placement matches. Set new players MMR acording to their PvP level but at maximum mid silver and let glico do the work. (Maybe MMR reset is needed. The alt accounts in top ranks must go or the leaderboard stays a joke and it is one main part of PvP).

2.) Rework the matchmaker so it balacens sides after selecting players (MMR, class and teamwise)

3.) Lock class swap with map roll and use per class MMR.

I don´t want to add the next things to the list, because it´s effort needing the will to do it.
Invest more into class reworking. Lots of traists and skills are unused and need love to allow more build diversity.
And please don´t do power creep with further elite. I know its a selling tactics but is severly impacts diversity and is only valid for short term moneymaking usually destroying a game in the long run. (You get fans to pay but loose playerbase)

I agree that matchmaking is better this season than the prior ones. That’s not to say it’s great, but just that it improved upon a lot of awful mechanics from before. With the rankings/rating, it at least pulls the curtain back on the system as well.

However, there is a fundamental flaw which no matchmaking system will ever fix. Spvp is a team game. You’re one of 5 people, so you will never be able to fully influence the outcome of a match. It centers around team play, yet the system is designed in a way that extremely limits that. How much coordination and team play can you have when 3-4 members of your team are essentially pugs?

Guild wars 1 had a good pvp system because it had a team system. You could choose your team mates, organize, and thus have full control over the outcome. Support and team builds made sense because you could coordinate. In solo queue, you just dont have that no matter what you do with matchmaking.

I’m fine with them having a soloQ tournament, but they should bring back organized teams as well. 2 separate queues. That way, the people that want elite and high quality matches can get them.

Matchmaking does seem to be the lowest point this season.
The reward tiers are the high.

I think the build diversity was lacking as always, but I did get yelled at less for running my off meta builds (I still topped my teams most of the time)

The matchmaking does need a rework.

I like how people reroll a lot more to avoid class stacking or just having a more balanced team.

Wargameur.6950:

I like how people reroll a lot more to avoid class stacking or just having a more balanced team.

I’m often the only mesmer in the match but I often see thieves being stacked… a bit of tweaking to the team algorithm could fix that, then there would be no more 4 thieves and a necro on one team while the other has an elementalist, warrior, gaurd, and mesmer.

Wolfric.9380:

I also find this season good and the system goes in the right direction but still flawed.

Main faults this season:

A.) Placement matches to impactful and volatile. (I fear the damage is permanent unless resetting MMR).
MM has serious flaws in side balance (At least Evan is working on it).

No, they aren’t, and I really, really wish ANet had simply placed new players at MMR 350 instead of doing the placement matches. It would have been absolutely the same effect, but much less whining — the placement matches make people feel like it matters, when it really, doesn’t.

Also, the bug with replacements when people don’t accept the queue and stuff suck, but you would be hard pressed to present anything like proof that they are a significant minority, let alone majority, of games.

(Evan, hint, hint, some actual numbers would really help here. Please stats it for us?)

Wolfric.9380:

B.) The long term problem since HOT (or the trait rework)

Build diversity is low. Focus lies on one maximum two builds per class to be “Meta” (In an MMO like GW2 diversity is a key for long term exitement).

It’s interesting to note that toward the top of the ladder, people don’t play the same “meta” builds, they play things that work for them. Almost as if it was the majority of people who don’t really understand PvP using them, because they are told they are the “best”.

Sadly, that’s a people problem, and can’t be solved by technology. WoW has amply demonstrated that if you have less than half a percent DPS difference in real world measured performance, people will treat it as if the entire world has ended, and you have “god tier unstoppable” vs “trash, couldn’t kill a level one creature in a week” level differences.

Wolfric.9380:

1.) Drop placement matches. Set new players MMR acording to their PvP level but at maximum mid silver and let glico do the work. (Maybe MMR reset is needed. The alt accounts in top ranks must go or the leaderboard stays a joke and it is one main part of PvP).

You, uh, know that the only thing the placement matches achieve is to give you ten games thrown into the MMR system before you finish placement matches, right?

Like, if you had 20 placement, or 0 placement, you would still have the same MMR system making the same changes. There is no “anchoring” from whatever your MMR starts at.

Wolfric.9380:

3.) Lock class swap with map roll and use per class MMR.

That’s something I’d certainly agree with.

On class-swapping:

I may be biased, because I am one of those people who tries to make sure I’m up to my skill-level on 3-4 classes every season, so that I can swap pre-match for better team balance, or to create/avoid counters.

With the matchmaking system as it is, locking people to the character on which they queue would create a lot of problems. If you’re going to lock people, you must also change the way the system builds teams to avoid being dealt, at equal skill, a bad hand. This means longer queues. Plus, they’d have to think of another daily to replace the profession win, and who knows how long that would take?

(Yes, we’ve all won games where the matchup was against us, but if we aim to have teams balanced by skill, and we progress toward that, then you’ll reach a point where you lose by dint of team composition RNG, unless the team-building system is also adjusted, not only to prevent stacking, but also to recognize roles . . . which then gets you into the system recognizing builds, map requirements, etc.)

This season’s rating-based system is far better than the awful progression-based system of the past year. It still has a few issues though:

• Decay The implementation isn’t very good. It should only affect the top tiers, stopping once decayed reating has reached a set number. Decay should be based on amount played in a week rather than consecutive days not played (e.g. playing 20 games one day and 0 for the next 5 should not cause significant decay). Some part of decay also needs to be permanent.
• Leaderboard The very top is sparse and volatile. Having a leaderboard based directly on rating will show the same volatility. A better system for a leaderboard could probably be created, but isn’t a huge issue as the people at the top should be there. A better decay system will address a surplus of alt accounts.
• Rewards Ascended shards of glory need to be smoothed out over a longer period of time, with no cap. Repeating the final chest should award some shards.
• No Team Queue The ability to queue as a full team needs to return in some form.

NOT problems:

• Placement Matches Placement matches just mask the relatively dramatic rating swings in your first few games and serve as a way to convey that they may not be the most evenly matched games.
• Rating System in General It’s working fine. People who complain about their rating are simply not as good as they think they are. Many people have shown that’s possible to go from bronze to platinum in a reasonable amount of games.
• Profession Stacking Players should communicate and adjust their team before the match starts. If stacking a profession is too powerful, then that should be addressed with balance changes.

A return of team queue would be inviting season 2 back. Pure solo queue would be far superior.

I just posted something on this myself, but then saw this thread. thought I’d copy and paste my thoughts from my post..

Long time player(beta)/ first time QQ’r
I’m sorry, this is my first time posting something so negative about ranked PvP..
I have played since Beta, have invested a lot of time and effort into this game…
So I will say.. The PvP community is bigger than it has been since launch..
However, it’s also the worst I’ve ever seen. With the introduction of Ascended Armor, and Legendary backpack prior.. I see a TON of people in there who quit after 1st push. They earned their points for the match and give up. Why? Because they are just there for pve gear.. This is going to happen I know. I report them for idle etc.. Yet, do I really have to deal with this 2 outa 5 matches at the least?? With only being able to Duo Queue up, all I keep getting is at least 1 pug with this BS.. Please put regular matchmaking back. This is complete crap that I can’t guild group in pvp with even a 3rd. Also, this effects missions.. I’ve had people yell at my guild. Legit getting kittened off anytime we do a 5 man in Unranked. Is this really the state of the game? True competative teams having to join unranked just to group up, then everyone in unranked crying about it because we have no other choice?? It’s not even fun. Getting ready to go to another game, and I never thought I’d say that.
I play GW2 for PvP and some WvW. Yet, you over listen to your community. Who votes on the forums? Upset people.. people who complain a lot on here, like I am now.. Yet, you let them vote on such a crucial thing as single or duo in ranked… THIS IS BACKWARDS! Solo or duo in unraked!!! Not in ranked! It makes zero kitten sense to have your competitive mode weaker groups than in unranked. What a joke. Please FIX!

Thank you all for your thoughts. It seems that Matchmaking appears to be the biggest issue, the reward tiers seem have more than a mite of popularity in contrast.

I will agree Khorg, the whole “I got my participation token I’m going to afk.” Is rather vile, I wonder if they don’t know that top stats reward pips, because they could halve the time spent in pvp if they tried.
The duo Q limit does seem odd, they should put teamQ back & tweak the MM a bit.