Guild Wars 2

Seems more like mindless Ele-bashing and ranting going on than actually constructive, relevant breakdown of problems with the class. I guess it’s the cool thing to do these days. =/

Considering it has been almost 8 months since release and there has been little development with the competitive side of PvP, I’m quite upset. They’re still trying to fix/strengthen the core game still, as well as deliver on features promised such as built-in streaming and custom PvP servers. By now, I’d thought we’d be a lot further along with all of this.

Also, the way leaderboards and rating have been set up, I cannot play on alts without potentially tanking my rank because it’s an account-wide rating. They’re trying to make this game like League of Legends as far as rating goes, and I don’t think it’ll work well. I want to feel guilt-free when trying to improve myself in a competitive scene on a different character other than my main and not feel like I’m committing “rank-suicide”. While the PvP side of the game has commonalities with MOBA’s, I think the mentality and connection to characters are much different than what we see in LoL and DOTA. We should feel progression with characters as an individual climb and not as a collective struggle across all characters.

I’d like to see the PvP Locker, concerning gear, be like how Sigils and Runes act. When “extracting” a Rune or Sigil out of the PvP Locker, the item is duplicated into your bags. Why have the hassle of having multiples of the same piece of gear when we could just have it act as a reusable skin? I don’t see many downsides to this and it’ll make gearing alts much less stressful. No more juggling around extra sets of gear that you want for your alts but don’t have the quick convenience of PvP Locker to store your goods.

P.S.- The way we gain PvP gear in general needs to be reworked. This RNG through chests does not feel that rewarding. I’d rather gain gear points of some sort where you could spend on specific sets. Some sets could require higher a higher Glory Rank (Shark, Dolyak, ect.) while the other ones require a minimum tPvP rating (once the leaderboards decrease in volatility and become more polished). Think Planetside with some rank/rating barriers to certain gear sets.

=)

I really hope that the core functions of the leaderboards will be up soon. I want to see ratings, classes, match history, personal position (rank) in relation to others, and all the sort of things you’d expect. Hopefully a dev will give us a little more details other than a “in the coming weeks/months” blanket statement. This is a step in the right direction, and I want ArenaNet to continue to alleviate the anxiety of waiting and wondering if and when we’ll see more developments with sPvP.

Jambas.6204:

Eley.1907:

No, don’t need such feature. One of the GW2 key principles is to play the game, not play the UI.

+1
Nor let UI play the game for you.

There is a big difference between having quality-of-life control over your UI and having features such as (those who are familiar with WoW) Deadly Boss Mods. We should have the ability to display important information that is very helpful in combat as long as it doesn’t make the player disconnected with the world and make it a necessity to have to play effectively. Flexibility is good.

I’m hoping to have a flexible UI in the future. Think of how Tera’s UI is malleable and changeable to at least some degree with transparency, placement on the screen, size, number displays, and so forth.

Personally, I’d love to be able to see all my weapon (or in my case, elements) skills. Even if I’m not in that particular skill set at the time because I’m able to keep a better track of cooldowns and simply see all of my spells so I can keep a lid on what abilities I have at my disposal. Also, we need to have better customization with boons/debuffs. For me, the size and placement of boons make it hard to really understand what is going on in a fight. I can’t keep track of what I currently am affected by, as well as what my enemy has. I’m not a big fan of the scrolling combat text in Guild Wars 2 between the way they scroll, amount of time shown before fading, and the style of writing used.

If we do not have the support or approval of addons that help give us these quality-of-life UI adjustments, then I feel that ArenaNet has the responsibility to supply us with the means to do so to a point. I should feel at home with my UI and not restricted or held back with its limitations.

Honestly, I don’t think we have to worry ourselves about visible leaderboards for a couple weeks at least. We might get lucky have have them come online within a week, but I would not hold my breath.

Class color/icons showing on the map for your teammates would be awesome. As for enemies being shown on the map as red dots, I think I’d prefer the calling out enemy locations rather than having to stare at my mini-map as if we had a UAV drone flyin’ around. Emotes, though, could have a lot of potential for solo-queue games. Smite does an excellent job at providing the necessary quick communication emotes for those without third-party programs such as Skype.

On a side note, Evan, I think you’re quickly becoming this (PvP) forum’s favorite dev.
:)

Evan Lesh.3295:

I looked into this and have updated character select to work with PvP equipment and town clothes. Whether it goes into this month’s patch is questionable.

Awesome! I’ve been wanting this since day one.

Whatever the case is, there needs to be more emphasis on PvP development in my opinion. It could be a flourishing aspect of the game that can attract millions of potential players and yet we’re over half a year after launch either lacking or completely missing many features.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Okay, both are fixed. They won’t be in tomorrow’s patch though. Fixing the vengeance and vapor form also fixed another issue that would be happening. The damage log would clear as soon as you resurrected. If you were to rally, then die a few seconds later, you would still only have logs from those few seconds. The log will still clear once you reach 100% health.

This has been bugging me since beta! It’s almost as if no one has said anything, haha. Thanks for pointing that out Marcus, and Evan for cracking down on it.

=)

I agree that the game’s loot system in general is very lacking. I don’t like the idea of all the RNG involved in getting better loot for sPvP. There also needs to be a greater variety of skins that we can obtain.

[…]two teams fight, we have ratings that track how well the players do, and the game uses matchmaking based on those ratings to determine which teams fight. In the future, we’ll use those ratings to show the best PvP players in the world based on their rating on our leaderboards.

-Colin Source

I understand that it may be early to give any specific information on how the sPvP ladder will work in the future, but the recent comments in the February update leaves me a little worried about how the sPvP ratings and how people will be able to see where the rank in relation to others.

When Colin says that the “best PvP players in the world” will be shown on the leaderboards, it seems like he means to say that it’ll be something similar to the QP leaderboard. If that is the case, I would be very disappointed. I want to see competition at all ratings where people can be proud of whatever rating milestone they achieve. Limiting that sense of accomplishment to, lets say, the top 100 people would downplay on that excitement of the rest of the players looking to move up the ladder. I want something tangible and visible that I can see my progress. Think of something like the WoW Arena Ladder or the Starcraft ladder. Both reach this goal.

TL:DR- I want a ladder like Starcraft’s or WoW’s and not like what we have with the Fourm-post-QP-leaderboard.

Oglaf.1074:

d) He steals your Personal Story and it becomes his Personal Story of how he got the Pact together and lead the charge into, and eventually cleansing, Orr. Your character is reduced to nothing but a loyal side-character. A toadie.

I never really thought about that! Wow, you know what, you’re completely right. Now I feel wronged in a way. In the future, there should be a much greater emphasis on your own character’s story and journey.

No, I would not. I think the biggest thing GW2 has going for it right now is the fact that it’s non-subscription based. If people get bored, they can take a break and then come back when they get an urge to play. During the Lost Shores release, they said they were running to 95% maximum data server capacity because so many people came back to check out the event. Now it’s just a matter of ArenaNet fully realizing/utilizing the Gem store to make a healthy profit without making it pay-to-win. So far they’ve been successful, but tournament tickets are in dangerous territory in my opinion.

For me, it’s the voice acting and dialog. That can go for a few of the main character like Zojja as well. To me, they feel really forced and come off as sub-par personally (no offense to the voice actors). When I hear character talk in game, I want to feel weight in their voice, if that makes sense. I want take what they say seriously, and the way ArenaNet handled a lot of the dialog makes that hard.

In future installments, I hope they make it more down-to-earth and more realistic. I can do without most of the comedic relief as well. I want to connect with these characters. When their voices come off as being calm and disconnected when an dozens of people just died before our very eyes, it really takes away from the story and immersion of the game.

RotC falls under the category of a “fun, casual” map that isn’t supposed to be played on competitively. ArenaNet has said several times before they’re not afraid to occasionally release these kinds of maps to deviate from the norm and keep sPvP fresh.

I think it’s fair to say ArenaNet hyped sPvP to beyond extreme levels considering what they had in store for us for release (and to this point in time). It was a marketing tactic, no doubt, which I guess I can’t blame them for doing, but it’s very clear we’re not going to see Guild Wars 2 PvP take off until at least the first expansion. There is too much missing from PvP in it’s current state (alternate modes, monthly tournaments, dueling, streaming, achievements, ect.), as well as things that really need to be polished up (Hot Join UI and interaction, gear progression, UI customization, ect). We can only hope that ArenaNet puts more effort into developing PvP content and fulfill the expectations that this game had initially.

I don’t mind sPvP being a source of income for ArenaNet by means of the cash shop and gems. However, I do not believe that we should have Paid Tournaments as it is just another barrier into an already near-empty portion of the game. Once rated teams are live, I see no reason to have paids. Skins, boosts, cosmetic features, ect. are all fine, but being allowed access to part of the game through buying something with real money should stay out of the equation.

Qualifier points are fine as long as it is on the a high amount to get into the monthly tournaments. The bar should be high enough to weed out teams that are not dedicated to actually participating and it’s fair to say that there needs to be a line drawn somewhere. However, this doesn’t mean that people should be pressured to grind for days on end hoping to make the cut. The OP has the right idea, but perhaps make it a monthly requirement (similar to how achievements work).

Some good ideas, more or less (not sure I agree with the Gem wagering =P). I think sPvP in general needs a really big makeover. Everything from the GUI for the hot join and tPvP lists, adding dueling, trait profiles (they said they’ll come eventually), gear progressions/obtainment, achievements, and so much more.

I thought the team color background around your teammate heathbars were fine. I don’t know why we needed an extra source of our team color.

Hey OP, they said that the PvP content is primarily in Feburary and March (I’m inclined to say sPvP changes are designated for mostly March). They said this patch would be small in comparison to the next two months. I don’t understand why everyone is surprised/upset. They’re clearly testing the waters on a few key features such as the 1-team vs. 1-team match-ups to get gather information, refine their designs, and create a final product.

rmBossa.4621:

My guess is their planning on doing away with the ticket for tourny system anyway. With the matchmaking/ ladder that is planned to go live in the big pvp patch (Feb.?) they want to test the 1 team vs 1 team system for this.

But the only way they have to test this is with the current system, that revolves around tickets and qp’s

More or less my thoughts. I really do hope that they backpeddle from the ticket system as they roll out the ladder system.

Why are people surprised when there was little done with s/tPvP this month? ArenaNet even said that this was going to be a very small release compared to what is coming in February and March, especially on the PvP front. I’m as upset about the lack of PvP content as the next person, but lets use common sense people and stop frothing from the mouth just because this patch isn’t the saving grace we needed (it wasn’t supposed to be). However, I was expecting a lot more done with class balancing, admittedly.

While I guess that Paid tournaments are a necessary evil in tPvP’s current state (as in no ranking/ladder system), it should be removed in the coming months with the new additions to PvP. There is little reason to limit people for competing at a competitive level by using tickets as a gate for inexperienced players when there is an active personal rating. If people want to just play casually that night while still aiming to do some tournaments, the “Free tournaments” are great (should be renamed to Unranked when ratings are added).

In the short run, tickets are fine, but they need to be phased out as the ladders are brought in.

There is just so little discussion about the game and where it is headed outside these vague blog posts. I want something where we don’t have to speculate and wonder what is going on behind the scenes at ArenaNet. Sure, we are told that features like matchmaking are being worked on, but we are left in the dark as to what it exactly is and what we can expect from it in finer detail. Things like this can be generalized and highlighted for a time, but at this point, we have received so little information new since the Tip-of-the-Iceberg post which was over 3 months ago.

Give us a bone to chew on. Let us know what is heading our way instead so we have a reason to continue to be ambitious and excited about playing the game. Rehashed old news is not something that we were expecting to see in the 2013 blog. There must have been some sort of development/progression with some of the features mentioned, so why so much secrecy? More transparency would be appreciated.

Candiru.5279:

Gilgamesh.2561:

……………
Every feature they mentioned is the majority of everything people wanted. Well, except dueling. …… That is, easy and open.

and except more game modes (capture flag….)

I expect maybe one new game mode by the end of this year. There’s too much work to be done on just the Conquest mode and giving sPvP a base to build upon to even think about a new mode till at least Q4, I believe. It’s sad, but the wait will be worth it if we actually see a rebound with PvP. The next couple months will be a huge factor in how PvP will play out up until the expansion.

You know, about dueling, I was hoping they’d have it included with the PvP updates. I remember a few times where I spent literally all night dueling outside Orgrimmar in WoW. It’s such a fun, casual time-killer that helps bring people to a centralized location to converse, talk builds. give constructive criticism, and make new friends.

To those who haven’t seen the new 1st half of 2013 blog post click here.

In response, I’m wondering if we may see a separate PvP blog that delves into many of the questions and concerns that were left unanswered in this update.

The portion on sPvP quickly breezes over information that we pretty much already know and acts as a reassurance that what they said is being worked on is on its way (sooner or later). I can say that I’m a little disappointed because I was expecting much greater detail into the plans, ideas, and actions ArenaNet is taking in 2013. It’d be much comforting to the PvP community to get a peak at the currently promised features such as leaderboards, custom arenas, and everything else anticipated by March.

Along side that, I’d like to know if anything is being done about the problems we see in live sPvP such as the poor GUI for Hot Join PvP. I thought it was just a temporary thing until a more polished page could be complete (concept design for Hot Join GUI). Paid Tournaments, to me, seem to be a hassle with the tickets and may discourage a huge percentage of players of actually playing them, leaving only a few competitive teams left who mostly dominate 1st and 2nd place. Also, I want to see a more informed discussion of what we may expect with 1v1 team matchups (alternatively to an 8-team tournament ladder) coming soon to be beta tested in Temple of the Silent Storm and what it means down the road to the competitive scene as they would likely be the preferred sPvP option because of the limited time dedication.

There’s so much more as well that can be said for PvP. As a PvP’r who saw Guild Wars 2 as a beacon of light in the MMO PvP scene prior to release, I can say I was hoping for more stable PvP functionality by now. As a customer, I’d like to see what the future may or may not hold in the next couple months. As it stands, what we know now is vague with only a few sentences to draw conclusions from on quite big introductions to PvP.

Thanks for the post, Jon. Clearly some people are never satisfied no matter how many bones you throw them. I’m really looking forward to the official blog. I do hope there is some long-needed progress in s/tPvP. Also, I hope this online rankings business is only temporary while the dev team works to make an in-game interface.

CharrGirl.7896:

Is there a chance we will get increased view distance and camera issues resolved ?

This times a million!!! I had a bug awhile back where I was able to zoom my camera out maybe three times the distance as you can now, and it was glorious! I was able to see everything going on around me in sPvP and allowed be to play better. It honestly made this game much more enjoyable and was reminiscent of past MMO’s camera controls (in a very good way).

Remember what happened when they gave everyone mics with their Xbox 360? Yeahhhh… I think they should concentrate on other areas of the game before thinking about in-game voice chat.

I would save your breath. People will be crying foul on each other till the end of time on how their class is the most under-powered while others are OP. Besides, this is the forums. It’s where everyone goes to complain. Not much different than every other MMO forum, hehe.

I’m anxious to see their news post on what we can expect for the next 6 months or so that’s said to come about within the first half of January. Maybe we’ll get a better idea at exactly how long and if we’ll have the proper PvP features to make a healthy, fun addition to the game. I’m really starting to think that if the Feb/March release doesn’t pan out as we hope for, we probably won’t see any redefining PvP updates until a new expansion. =/

Air Rage.4870:

You’re on the precipice of losing your PVP community Jon.

This update best bring a change to sPVP, I’m sorry if I come across as harsh, but after 5 months of sterile PVP you can understand our indignation.

The original crowd that flooded into the PvP content at release is virtually gone with only a small portion of people left who have stuck around. At this point, I personally think it’s more about building a new base of players rather than trying to salvage those who are left. It’s a question of how long will it be before all the necessary features are added before the masses will start becoming reinvested in s/tPvP. I really hope these updates will revive the interest in what this game has to offer.

There are many levels and filters that important content information such as the future PvP features need to go through before being publicized as something that will be slated for release. All of the content is subject to change and can be dramatically altered by the time it is ready to be pushed into live. Things may look good on paper and while under development, but may not pan out that way and they’ll have to go back and make adjustments.

People cry lack of transparency, and when info is given but unexpected problems push back time tables or ideas are scrapped, people cry foul. That’s why When-it’s-Ready™ and Soon™ are thrown around so much. I’d be lying if I said that I’m not beyond impatient right now for new PvP content, because that’s why I was so interested in GW2. I’m disappointed we haven’t seen key features yet, but they’ve already said it’s definitely on the way in Q1.

As for single-round tournaments, I don’t expect them to have something like that until later this year (no earlier than Q3). However, I do agree that 40 minutes is too long of a time investment considering it’s our only option currently. Single round match-ups need to be a thing.

I need to learn to read better. I thought the CTF, Arenas, and F2P Mists feature was actually going to be a thing coming in Q1… So heartbroken right now…. Absolutely crushed. =(

SupahSpankeh.8452:

3) Remove the DS GUI so we can see our buffs, and give us a HP meter with numerical values instead of the silly green bar we have.

This would make it a merry Wintersday indeed.

Attended / No Loot / Received Mail

Rezz.8019:

well… some balance updates next week, and 2 new maps in february, I dont really see pvp going anywhere

Can someone provide a source to the two new maps in February? I know there is going to be a lot of PvP content coming out, but I haven’t heard anything specific.

In short to the OP’s rant, I agree with the PvP spotlight really fading. It’s because there is a huge lack of features that the community needs to build upon such as a ladder, proper dueling, team rosters, custom PvP servers and player-hosted tournaments.

Most of this is promised in the near future (within a few months), but the problem is that it’s a few months too late for some people. ArenaNet understands that, though, and is putting one foot in front of the other and trying to get these features online so that when they do, they’ll really hit home.

I don’t have the exact quote, but they’re gunna try and push a ranking system, custom servers, and other similar features in first that will form the foundation for competitive sPvP before they start concentrating on expanding on game types. My personal guess is not until at least May before we see CTF or other desired modes.

Evan is a total bro. You’re gunna have to get through me before you’re allowed to kill him. >:)

React.4915:

1. THERE NEEDS (not want) NEEDS, to be a “Duel” option. Everyone likes to be able to have that option, whether or not you accept to duel someone is different. But it is nice to be able to just battle it out at any lvl in any zone, with a buddy, and fight.

Agreed. I think most will pull for it being implemented.

2. THERE NEEDS to be 1v1 pvp matches and tournaments, as well as 2v2.
These two should be standard in GW2 and I am not sure why they have not done it yet.

There is no “need” at all for 1v1 and 2v2 matches. The game isn’t balanced around a 1v1 philosophy. Are you talking about Deathmatch? I wouldn’t mind them having an option to do something like that, but should only be just for fun. Keep the balancing concentrated on 5v5 sPvP.

As an Elementalist, maybe it’s just me, but I feel infinitely more valuable in a tPvP match compared to being in 8v8 sPvP. It just feels way too crazy and simply pointless to try and deal with 5 or 6 people at a time on a single capture point. I get burst down in a second flat unless I use an invulnerability. Trying to stay within the cap zone is a death sentence and feels like I’m sacrificing myself for the greater good to deny the cap. There’s no hope or chance of surviving unless you’re a ridiculously built bunker facing unskilled players.

Yes, please keep it out. I really don’t want to see people flaunt their K/D spread. It’s just bad taste and smells of Call of Duty. A kill counter would be fine! A straight up K/D counter is a huge turn-off for me.

How about:

-Svanir/Chieftan/Keep Lord kills
-Base captures/neutralizes
-Players healed (up from downstate)
-Most kills from a Trebuchet in a match

Stuff like that. Use your imagination!

Awesome post, Verteiron! I was indirectly thinking about this as I thought about how seemingly shallow the current situation is in the main story. We have this union of orders fighting the dragons, and a pure good vs. evil scenario is developed. There’s no middle ground that I can see between these two groups. I hope in future installments we’ll be able to see a better fleshing out of the evolving plot that can incorporate a more realistic situation, or rather not everything is painted black and white. I want to see some real Guild conflict within the current order and potential new groups. I want to be able to form my own story and path rather than feel like I have training wheels all the way through guiding me on what is the morally correct road. Choice is everything, and ArenaNet still has the capability to capitalize on it.

I’ve been saying that all along. So long as mounts don’t become too goofy, move the same speed at players, and have proper procedures to avoid people blocking important NPC interaction such as merchants, it’s a no-brainer to include them. They’ll act as a gold sink helping the economy, something else to collect, and burns time for those at max level.

Couples Dancing... Hm, I like the sound of that. Gunna rename the thread to that =). Sorry to hear about your arch troubles, Don, but hopefully one day ArenaNet will deliver some Waltzing awesomeness.

Yep, just type in /dance *

You have to do it within a 1-2 second window within each other to make it work. Pretty nifty if you have a large group!