Guild Wars 2

As the title suggests, there have been massive changes with HoT, I have played a week before commenting so I could give it a chance…

I personally find it easier to solo camps than before and towers are much much harder but sill manageable, but the vast majority of players I have spoken to find it very difficult to solo camps and haven’t even tried to solo towers because of the auto-upgrade.

Taking down a wall takes forever solo, even with a guild cata… using the front gate just isn’t viable as the guards respawn and kill the ram

Keep soloing is just insane, you can just march a golem up to the lord and press 1 until he dies but who wants to do that? You used to be able to kite the lord around and kill them but now the Perma CC they kick out is ridiculous, no exaggeration… it is ridiculous (especially in the new bay)… for a small group or for a zerg it is not an issue but soloing is just not fun, it takes about 30 minutes to get to the lord… 30 minutes of just pressing 1… without auto upgrading it didn’t used to be like this…

The size of the maps makes it very difficult for roamers and solo players to be effective especially if they don’t have perma speed increase or swiftness.

The mechanics applied to some areas mean you have to change your build/skills to effectively solo them at pace… I used to be able to keep 1 build (many different characters with different roaming builds) for the whole maps, from camp capping to soloing SM, again this is annoying for solo players but is not an issue for larger groups.

Looking at all the changes I cannot see much that has been implemented that supports solo play

Nightcapping means when a solo player logs in, in the morning they have a choice run for an eternity capping all the camps (used to be able to clear alpine BL in under 20 minutes) or spend over 20 minutes staring at the screen pressing 2 on the keyboard for every wall they want to get down… also because guild catas now need double the supply to build, it takes a long time shuttling supply to build it out… With the guards placed on the outside of the walls now this causes more issues. So to put it more clearly…. old play: 20 minutes get loads done, cap loads, get xp and loot…… new play: Spend 20 minutes pressing “2” and still not have a wall down.

In summary, with the changes solo/small scale play is not nearly as fun as it used to be, a lot of players I have spoken to don’t like some of the changes you have made, it almost feels like you are picking on solo/small groups of players

I have always felt that if a player manages to take down a massive objective by themselves or 1 player kills a large group of enemies the rewards should scale, is there something planned like this?

Is the hate for solo players going to continue? Are solo players going to get any love in future? Or do solo players need to go and find a different game to play?

@OP

This is my opinion, but I think ANet vision of WvW is this:

1) It’s called WvW because it’s a World of people vs a World of people. When you have that much people in game…you need to have tasks that scale accordingly. The basic unit for getting anything done should be groups.

2) Provide content that appeals to the largest population base that plays GW2. PvE content provides an automatic & continuous growth mechanism to the WvW population by attracting players from an established game mode.

3) Provide an environment that protects single players from groups. Large areas to traverse & Upgraded structures are used to provide a sanctuary against the many groups that roam the WvW landscape.

That’s the basic 3 point vision that I think they’re using to develop WvW under.

Has anyone seen a formal WvW Vision definition by ANet anywhere?

Diku.2546:

@OP

This is my opinion, but I think ANet vision of WvW is this:

1) It’s called WvW because it’s a World of people vs a World of people. When you have that much people in game…you need to have tasks that scale accordingly. The basic unit for getting anything done should be groups.

2) Provide content that appeals to the largest population base that plays GW2. PvE content provides an automatic & continuous growth mechanism to the WvW population by attracting players from an established game mode.

3) Provide an environment that protects single players from groups. Large areas to traverse & Upgraded structures are used to provide a sanctuary against the many groups that roam the WvW landscape.

That’s the basic 3 point vision that I think they’re using to develop WvW under.

---

Has anyone seen a formal WvW Vision definition by ANet anywhere?

You’re implying there is a vision for WvW.

Not just WvW. HoT is not very solo friendly at all.

In b4 people say define one of the Ms in an MMOs when we’re talking about options.

Solo players can be extremely effective. A single PvP specced thief or mesmer, for example, can quickly kill well intentioned but group-specced blob people who split off to solo a camp or sentry.

A thief can solo a grp? Is this a condi thief with plex runes?

I typically run with a small group and it is pretty discouraging to WvWvW right now. All we can do is flip supply camps and hope to encounter some other roamers. Usually we just end up sitting there for hours with no action though.

For me and my friends WvWvW is indeed dead.

I’m not going to judge WvW too harshly at the moment with the release of HoT still only a few days past. However, the size of the Borderlands really has me concerned that solo roaming will consist of much larger periods of down-time. Sure there are smaller objectives scattered around (shrines and what-not), but I don’t really see how I’m going to run into other roamers with any frequency whatsoever.

It isn’t that I’m opposed to a larger-scale map making zerg movements mean more (as it takes longer to make moves, longer to get places, and therefore adds meaning to death), but I’m not sure how roaming is going to pan out. If that was a sacrifice to make the larger-scale fighting more meaningful I can see that decision making sense, it’s just a bit of a bummer for me personally.

Cogbyrn.7283:

It isn’t that I’m opposed to a larger-scale map making zerg movements mean more (as it takes longer to make moves, longer to get places, and therefore adds meaning to death), but I’m not sure how roaming is going to pan out. If that was a sacrifice to make the larger-scale fighting more meaningful I can see that decision making sense, it’s just a bit of a bummer for me personally.

Its not a sacrifice – nothing is meaningfull on the new border. No matter where a zerg is, it only represent a threat to the specific keep its at or another zerg. Its not a ramping up threat to the map as a whole since towers no longer have a purpose (ie being enemy held locations in siege range of keeps) and side keeps no longer have map control via waypoint.

So yeah, roaming is not meaningful and zerging is not meaningful. Sucks to be all of us.

With all this auto upgrading they weant to force you to use the MF more. Everything in this expansion is set to get more money out of you.. You and many other have been robbed

HoT destroyed roaming, im forced to go into eb… and now theres only condition roamerws. My main gameplay is ruined.

Take camps/temples/sentries/escort yaks/kill yaks/destroy siege/kill roamers/tag waypoints+keeps/scout

There’s plenty for Roamers to do, this content isn’t intended for solo play. I don’t see a single roamer taking on a group/party of players unless its a bunch of clueless sub-levels.

Ben Mason.8641:

Take camps/temples/sentries/escort yaks/kill yaks/destroy siege/kill roamers/tag waypoints+keeps/scout

There’s plenty for Roamers to do, this content isn’t intended for solo play. I don’t see a single roamer taking on a group/party of players unless its a bunch of clueless sub-levels.

It’s not about whether there’s something to do. I used to take camps/kill yaks/etc. back in the old Borderlands. It’s about the odds of running into other roamers on such an enormous map. I can take camps all day, but if I don’t run into any other players, the experience is watered down.

I’m a bit concerned the size of the maps is going to lead to local zergs just circling around each other taking objectives without any fighting, since responding defensively will take a fairly significant amount of time.

ArchonWing.9480:

Not just WvW. HoT is not very solo friendly at all.

In b4 people say define one of the Ms in an MMOs when we’re talking about options.

Its not friendly at all… you can’t even zerg that map because of all the vertical inclines and booby traps… not to mention it took a team of 15 people with 3 superior catas like 10 minutes to get through a keep front gate that was uncontested… its pathetic… They overscaled the monsters, the map is cancer… pretty much 95% of the changes they made are the death of WvW… solo players might as well not even enter the battlegrounds… just boycott the kitten new maps and lets make them understand just how bad they are. If they get no traffic (which they already aren’t, I am in T1 and there is nobody on our maps when they used to be maxed for WvW) Anet will have no choice but to either re-design them or put our good maps back… for now I will just play on EBG and EOTM where there is at least a few spots to actually fight people instead of doors…

Chips.7968:

A thief can solo a grp? Is this a condi thief with plex runes?

Do pay attention, Bond! I said, “group-specced”, as in specced for fighting in a group, as opposed to being specced to solo a thief (if such a thing is possible).

I’ve heard nothing but bad things unless you’re one of the top 3 blob servers that face each other every week, you’re not going to get any real action outside of EB.

Primetime is a smaller window than before to have fun, outsideo fthat it’s a massive ballache to get anything done offensively.

It’s unfortunate too, because I personally think the new Borderlands map is gorgeous. They put a lot of love into the intricacies of the design, so I’m hoping things pull out of the doldrums and people start to enjoy them.

I go in and do the daily of a sentry or to kill a yak and that’s about it on the new BL (and I’m on both t1 and lower servers). New maps that are larger, take longer to get around to attack or defend and with (it seems) less to do on them – I think thats the main reason for the lack of people currently . I really am struggling to see any positives shrugs

You really need to roam in groups of a few players to do well in the Desert BL.

The upgraded camps will easily kill you if you are not prepared to deal with the stuns,pulls, blind, poison, knockdown, & weakness. I watched a warrior die to the Desert BL’s T2 camps before , but maybe it was a PvEer running berserker armor.

The barricades take ages to break through with 2-3 people , especially if you are a condi-spec roamer instead of power-based. The barricades take ~50 to 60 damage from auto-attacks.

If solo, you don’t have enough supply to build a ram or catapult so at a minimum two players with 15 supply or 3 players with 10 supply each is optimal.

The one thing a solo player can do well is taking out the sentries before a group rolls through. On YB we typically have a single thief or mesmer take out the sentry , marking only one person THEN have the larger group roll through. That way the enemy sees only one person when you have 10-15 people.

Taking a shrine is relatively easy with a single player as well. It is especially beneficial when taking the air keep since the knockback turrets are really annoying.

Killing yaks and defending yaks is much less important now due to the way upgrading has been changed. Refreshing siege is not as important now that you cannot waypoint a keep.

P.S. For the WvW guild missions (cap a camp, cap & hold a camp, cap 2 camps, cap a sentry point, cap 3 sentry points, cap a tower) they require 3 guild members.

its not hard at all to cap camps.
the only issue with solo roaming on the new maps is that ur solo roaming and the other not. i did roam alot since the patch and on the new borderlands i allways had to fight 1 vs 2if they r thieves/mesmers or 5+ .. and a majority of em play condis now.

Infusion.7149:

The one thing a solo player can do well is taking out the sentries before a group rolls through. On YB we typically have a single thief or mesmer take out the sentry , marking only one person THEN have the larger group roll through. That way the enemy sees only one person when you have 10-15 people.

not very clever if u only have 1 thief on the map doing so u need multiple thieves to take down more then one sentry at a time or its still obvious where u guys r

it’s one thief/mes per roaming group ofc