in light of recent news of upcoming changes to spvp, i’d like to share some thoughts. Just quick background, I’ve been active in esports both as a spectator and a competitor at top tier/ even pro level once for over 10 years, including gw1, warcraft 3, starcraft 2, and WoW.
The upcoming ladder change seems good. However, I cannot stress enough, the current meta, conquest format, is no good for esports. It encourages stalling, point holding, and cheesing over real combat. People want COMBAT as a spectator and competive format. They want action, mayhem, and death. They want to see good reflexes, and creative combos, not snail paced fights and no skill spam builds.
I feel like the current spvp format is a ‘lose-lose’ situation. You’re either defending a point against greater numbers, basically a punching bag, or you’re very likely being back-capped while you fight with your group at another node. Thus you either are getting pummeled by being outnumbered, or are losing another node and losing the meta. I want to play with friends in pvp, and that means fighting alongside them. In this format we’re always split.
On top of other things, there’s still alot of things that need to be addressed, like bugs. Again, why are there still obstructed bugs on projectiles? Why are there still teleport bugs? These are very big problems, particularly the projectile bug, that have been around since release and dramatically effect the outcome of a fight. For example, one of my favorite skills, scorpion wire, is amazing… when it works about 50% of the time…
So many things in this game seem casual because they weren’t fully thought out, and seemed to be implemented as an experiment or on a whim. Case in point: underwater pvp. Why is there no condition weapon for engineers? Why are so many slots and elites disabled for water, thus greatly effecting balance? Warriors and mesmers are insanely overpowered in water. The warrior’s spear for example: an adrenal skill thats an AOE Skullcrack, #2 is high dmg, #3 is the thief’s scorpion wire without occupying a slot skill, and #5…. a tracking, moving, 100 blades…. This sounds like a better weapon than any of the warrior’s land weapons…
Now onto the maps… Variety is good, but, for sportsmanship, a well balanced, non gimmicky map that has stood the test of time should still be used, and used frequently. MOBA style games use the EXACT SAME map that was produced all the way back in Warcraft 3’s mod, (discounting Eul’s version, Guinsoo and onwards). All the MOBA clones, DOTA2, LOL, HON, use the exact same map, and millions of players play it over and over on a daily basis. Why? because it’s balanced, and nongimmicky. Gimmicks that constantly interrupt your flow of battle are extremely upsetting. It does add a strategy to the map, but then the strategy becomes map specific. This takes away from the core pvp strategy of knowing class builds, and diverts it to how well you can ’ cheese.’
For these reasons, GW2 has never been taken seriously by anyone i know of that has had competitive gaming experience. In fact that is also the primary reason for fallout of heavy pvpers: because they feel like there is nothing noteworthy or meaningful to compete for. I myself, only play, because i love the artstyle, and core gameplay very much, but will never compete in this game for the above reasons.