Guild Wars 2

So, the tournament is over and I wanted to offer some feedback on the structure of the event, so that the next one we get is improved. I want the Devs to know that they did a lot right with this tournament, but that it still has some way to go before it is clearly where we want it to be.

The Good -

The timing was just right. The four week structure worked really well and just as everyone was tiring from all the effort, it came to a natural end. Compared to the last tournament, this was spot on.

The new end of week reward structure was also good, again in regards to timing. Everyone could put in some effort and got almost immediate results. Likewise, servers no longer had to struggle for a far off ranking to get rewards – they could win a week, lose a week etc and measurably get something out of it.

The Less Good -

The mistforge weapons are going to need replacement soon. I think we all got some skins we wanted, but these are no longer going to be worthy prizes. Much like the gemstore, we need a new skin set for the next tournament or tickets wont have value.

The maps are really getting old. Two years we have fought on them and unless the main maps see a change – I don’t see wvw surviving. Edge of the mists was not a WvW update and notably, the tournaments have nothing to do with it anyhow. The maps served us well and were much fun, but time is up.

The Just Plain Bad -

The lack of a concrete end of tournament reward really makes our effort look wasted. We didn’t even get a temporary finisher this time round. Compare to pvp “tournaments” where precursors are tossed around like candy corn. Servers who consistently ranked highly should see some sort of reward beyond yet another week of 200 tickets.

Ruins still suck and at the very least should give WvW xp for their capture, or for the capture of bloodlust after the timer. We get WvW xp for pointlessly repairing a wall, but for fighting hard over a ruin and coordinating with others to get bloodlust, we get nothing. This must change.

Siege Disablers made attacking unreasonably frustrating, to the point that garrisons were no longer being considered as viable targets. These items need to be adjusted at the very least in their area of effect. One disabler should not be able to shut down AC’s on either side of a gate or a whole line of rams. Alternatively, adjust their timer.

We all experienced repeated matchups against the same servers, often for several weeks in a row. It wasn’t even “less likely”. Again, whatever system was put in place to avoid this simply did not work and change is needed.

Overall Judgement

I give this tournament “a near miss”. It was good in many ways, but WvW is wearing very thin at this point and change is sorely needed. I think we all enjoyed these four weeks, but with a few alterations, the tournament could really have shone. Lets hope the next one hits the mark.

Tournaments are a total farce while population and scoring issues still exist. End of story.