Guild Wars 2

when i play Yahtzee! I shoot for as many of the same number as I can get every single roll. Most games I play, however, I don’t even get four of a kind, then when I’ve finally given up and crossed off my Yahtzee I roll five 5s!!!
Surely the dice are not random!

EDIT:

ref.8196:

ref.8196:

The issue with discussing randomness in games is selective bias. Yes, the chances of getting a fractal sword 6 times (assuming you only do 6 fractals) is 8.82×10^-7% (yes, percent) (I actually don’t believe this happened until I see evidence). However, the chances of one person, out of everyone who plays, getting at least 6 fractal swords in their play time is significantly higher.

Odds of getting the same item 6 times in a role on a 1/22 drop rate(there are a possible 22 fractal weapons) is 1/22 ^ 6 ie 1 in 113379904 chance of happening. When such events happen I start getting skeptical.

The odds of getting a fractal weapon are 1 in 22, both the first and sixth time, and every roll in between.

Monadproxy.3489:

The Moa race isn’t temporary content like the dragon bash

:o Is this true?

KinkyGiraffe.4123:

FC YOU HAD SECOND

You go and send a 30 man squad to take briar in our borderlands, and then lose it 5 minutes later

Meanwhile youre losing Hills and Bay and your borderlands? You guys dont deserve second, goodjob DR!

W-we’re just slow

Nope, there are only two tiers of tournament gear, “Paid” and “Free.” Your PvP Rank has no impact on either.

It’s matches like these that make me feel like every second I play matters

http://i.imgur.com/43WmjUx.jpg

I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight if a gap doesn’t build up between DR and FC

You can say they’re easy fixes, but I guarantee if all of those changes were implemented (or even half) Elementalist would be severely overpowered.

Your post and blatant bias/recklessness in your suggestions just goes to prove how delicate an act balancing is.

JonathanSharp.7094:

this is something that’s already in the plans.

Hooray

That’s all I wanted to hear.

Class forums probably have a lot more build discussion, though I’m sure a majority of the SPvP players / posters over there aren’t all that good at SPvP.

A cool source for builds is here, although I know that’s not exactly what you’re asking for:
http://forums.intothemists.com/index.php?/topic/46-top-gw2-tournament-builds/

I’m sure the odd build thread will pop up over here, but you’re right it does mostly seem to be general discussion and feedback.

You probably shouldn’t expect to get much higher than 50% if all you do is solo queue.

If all you do is team queue, welcome to top 1000.

I honestly don’t think rank SHOULD play a significant role in matchmaking.

That’s not to say the current matchmaking system is good; I just don’t think rank disparity in games is the real issue here.

1.) Great spot
2.) Excellent spot
3.) Pretty good, general consensus is that it’s the best it’s been in GW2 yet, though some still think that’s pretty bad. Great balance for an MMORPG, but not comparable to game centered wholly around PvP, I guess.
4.) Pretty easy, I would say, mostly because you can have cross-world teams. You should look into joining the “Gee Dubya Esports Subreddit” guild.

Here is a great source for builds in the last tournament: http://forums.intothemists.com/index.php?/topic/46-top-gw2-tournament-builds/

runescape

cuz everything

milo.6942:

you haven’t yet?

Haha no, not quite yet. I’m still learning and find gratification in improving my game every day. That said, I would spend a hell of a lot more time in SPvP if there were incentives there… as is, it’s the last thing on my list and something I would like to do a lot more of, but there’s no reason to.

1.) New ranking and matchmaking system (with visible rating on leaderboard)
2.) Split queues (ranked & unranked at least, solo/team would be cool as well, though I kind of think ranked should require a team)
3.) Skill-based reward system (percentile based titles, rather than sheer quantity achievements)

Additionally (though it doesn’t make the list for me— sort of relates to point three), I think some more interesting PvP achievements could go a long way. Currently literally every achievement is merely quantity of games played, not really giving players anything to aspire to. Imagine if in PvE the only achievements were those in the “Slayer” category… there isn’t anything to do except keep cycling through games. Achievements like “summon a golem in a tournament match (as a result of 26 stacks),” “resurrect three allies in a single match,” “acquire Stillness while your team holds all three points,” “down 3 opponents simultaneously with a trebuchet,” etc. etc. are necessary if you want achievements to be of any interest to PvP players. You could even have ranked only achievements which grant titles or interesting rewards; achievements like “win 10 ranked matches in a row,” or various other non-cheese, skill-oriented achievements.

As much as we all want a revamped system, there are simpler ways to add incentive to PvP in the meantime, otherwise we’re all going to burn out.

PvE requires new content or it will get stale, while PvP is a constant dynamic environment since you’re against real-life players and not programmed encounters. That. coupled with shifts in meta should keep PvP fresh in itself; notice how League of Legends doesn’t need new map releases to stay interesting to its millions of players.

That said, we do obviously need some patches to get things rolling. The developers have been good about posting here, and it’s pretty obvious there will be some PvP-oriented patches in the near future. Unfortunately, PvP elements require much more finesse than a simple event, because if they screw any little thing up in PvP, it could take away all the fun (see BM Hunters @ beginning of MoP, shadowmourne warriors, etc). I would prefer to wait a month or two with the satisfactory balance we have now (note I say satisfactory before you flame me, not excellent) for a fine-tuned to fix the balance issues currently around.

I would definitely like to see a new PvP structure ASAP (a crappy release would do no harm, seeing as the leaderboards are already worthless), but PvE releases have literally no connection to PvP releases, except both may require a patch to release so they might cram them together. They’re different projects worked on by different people.

Sprawl.3891:

Demonsoul.9271:

I would argue the exact opposite, that AE increases the skill cap and perhaps even the floor by a margin. Area damage allows zoning, requires constant movement, and is entirely avoidable by players. It also requires good placement by the caster. Single target damage requires…

pressing a button.

Your post really does nothing to prove your point of AE actually removing skill of the game. Judging by your attitude of “this takes no skill”, you don’t want single-target button-mashing spells (although you did say “direct dmg spells”), so what DO you want? Single-target, aimed projectiles? In theory that would be fun as hell, but it is unfortunately impractical, because varying latencies and server delays would make the registry wonky as all hell. Not to mention that would just make the game seem more of a cluster-kitten, which seems to be your issue with AE in the first place.

As for CC, I like the minimal CC approach GW2 currently has. Each class has enough CC to do what they have to do, but they don’t have enough to skilllessly lock out an enemy. This is a preference thing, although I don’t think instant 5 second stuns have any place in GW2, and I don’t think stunlocking or fear spamming has any place in any game.

ya hitting someone with AE who has to stay inside a small circle is extreme skill cap brah. Or AoEing people trying to rez somone, mad skillz

As opposed to a direct damage spell which can’t miss?

Not to mention AE damage is generally not even close to powerful enough to keep a downed opponent downed when they are being rezzed, nevermind downing a rezzing opponent.

Yes, hitting someone with an AE who has to stay inside a small circle takes more skill than a single-target spell, because it actually requires placement, and acts as a zoning tool, the player has to get out of the AoE as opposed to simply getting hit once and forgetting about it.

I don’t mean to glorify the simple act of placing AE, I just don’t understand how it takes any less skill than any other type of ability in the game. I’m still waiting for you to elaborate on this. What DO you want, and what is it about AE that you think makes the game take less skill? Your only real point thus far seems to be " its like your constanrly taking splash damage," which makes it seem like you just need more skill to deal with this AE… you realize GW2 has very prominent spell sprites and mesmer clones are actual models running at you before they explode, right?

Perhaps you should train a bit more in PvE to learn how to not stand in fire and read boss’s animations before you set foot in TPvP.

Sorin.4310:

laokoko.7403:

45? the ring you can put 10, back 10, accesssory 5, amulet 5? Correct me if I’m wrong.

This is correct. Also it’s relevant to note, for OP and others who may not be aware, that AP rating is affected (effected? I will literally never know) by fractal level for how agony is mitigated. Useful link on wiki here:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony

Generally speaking, affect is a verb and effect is a noun.

e.g. Those lights have quite the effect. They’re not even affected by the snow!

now you know (sorry i turned you into a liar)

On-topic: That link is definitely indispensable to anyone getting into the painstaking process of gearing for Fractals.

Neutral party here:

I think it’s pretty obvious that there is no correlation between individual player skill and world tier. That said, it is undeniable that the commanders of higher tiered servers, if not more abundant, are more skilled at strategizing and coordinating a group. By extension, I think it’s safe to say higher tier groups, on average, have more synergy and understand certain components of world versus world better than their lower-tier counter parts.

Due to the low competition in lower tiers I think it’s unrealistic to assume that your group is better than one of an equivalent size in a higher tier, because they have more experience against a greater quantity of adequate commanders. That said, it is possible that a large disparity in individual player skill could have the lower-tier team prevail in a fight between groups with <10 players. In any realistic WvW scenario (sieging a tower, zerging a keep, etc) I think it’s foolish to think any higher tiered group wouldn’t have the advantage, if for no better reason than because they play in a more competitive environment and have the experience.

Regardless, I think you all need to cool off a bit. None of this matters in the slightest in any way, inside or outside of the game. When you take your ego/pride this seriously on an online forum you should take a break.

I would argue the exact opposite, that AE increases the skill cap and perhaps even the floor by a margin. Area damage allows zoning, requires constant movement, and is entirely avoidable by players. It also requires good placement by the caster. Single target damage requires…

pressing a button.

Your post really does nothing to prove your point of AE actually removing skill of the game. Judging by your attitude of “this takes no skill”, you don’t want single-target button-mashing spells (although you did say “direct dmg spells”), so what DO you want? Single-target, aimed projectiles? In theory that would be fun as hell, but it is unfortunately impractical, because varying latencies and server delays would make the registry wonky as all hell. Not to mention that would just make the game seem more of a cluster-kitten, which seems to be your issue with AE in the first place.

As for CC, I like the minimal CC approach GW2 currently has. Each class has enough CC to do what they have to do, but they don’t have enough to skilllessly lock out an enemy. This is a preference thing, although I don’t think instant 5 second stuns have any place in GW2, and I don’t think stunlocking or fear spamming has any place in any game.

For real, this is plain unfair
!http://i.imgur.com/wDbtZoF.jpg?2!

huehue

Ferg here

Even though we seem to be getting beat pretty bad, I had a lot of fun in WvW today. Had some intense zerg on zerg fights in EB, though it’s a marvel you were able to conquer our borderlands keep while also zerging around EB

Keep it up HoD

ET idk what happened to you guys, but the fact that you guys were able to get a keep in our borderlands while not holding any elsewhere frightens me.

Zodian.6597:

what if they just removed rank and built a PvP crafting system where people can use glory to purchase free tourney chests (to salvage for basic mats) + all of the different tokens through a vendor, then lvl up light armor/heavy/medium/weapon crafting and be able to create the stuff that they actually wanted to wear rather than pure RNG and grind. They could even make a pvp auction house for people to buy/sell the gear skins for glory even -for those who don’t want to participate in crafting at all. Just my two cents on this matter I suppose.

I don’t get it.

You do know this is already a thing, right?

Master Charles.7093:

There is no 1v1 because balance isn’t good at all, due to a pve design.

The go-to excuse is “It’s a team game, with objectives”, but I’m not buyin’ it.

I don’t like any game where a player can kill me just because he chose one class and I chose another. And 1v1’s are at least a momentary factor in conquest.

It goes like this: thieves and mesmers faceroll people with little skill involved, then they say: “Oh, but I can’t hold a point because of stealth, so you really win”

In reality, they (like most) don’t care about the meaningless conquest scores, they just wanna beat and destroy the hell out of people, and they do.

You’re honestly just wrong on all accounts…

I don’t want a game balanced around 1v1.

It creates a more interesting and team-oriented environment when different classes are better at fulfilling different roles. If everyone was equal in a 1v1 environment, the game would be very static and uninteresting.

The way the leader board works is through an invisible rating system which is based off of who you win and lose against. Lose against lower rated players and you lose a ton of rating, lose against higher rated players and you’ll lose less. Not sure of much beyond that, or whether or not a significant climb after 100 wins is feasible. Assuming there are enough people for you to be placed against closely-ranked individuals, so long as you win more than you lose you will gradually go up, but I’m not sure if you’ll be able to shoot up in rankings with ten consecutive wins or anything like that.

It should be noted that your regular wins are unrelated to your leader board standing— it is solely tournament based.

Coffee.6394:

i cannot disagree with anything you just posted there, demon, but then most of what you posted was opinion. it’s hard for myself personally to share your optimism when the bulk of the actual work on guild wars 2 post-release was put into pve land.

hell, i’d rather be pocket-healing sins and turtles. it’s more interesting tbh.

I see what you’re saying, and in part I agree.

It is indubitable that in-game PvP right now is quite shallow— there is no visible rating, no rewards, nothing to aspire to except ranks/pvp exp which garners virtually no gratification. All gear you can get opens up only every ten ranks, with no real point to any levels in between, and the gear is generally lackluster until rank 80. The only gear which is impressive looking is tournament gear, which can be acquired from rank one, and you’ll likely have all of that before rank ten. There is a leaderboard, but it’s largely dysfunctional due to premades and solo queuers being clumped together, no display of rating, and no in-game support.

The way the game displays it, PvP is more like your typical bomb defusal match on CS:S. It’s fun in the moment, gratifying to win and to have good teamwork, but there’s really no point to it and to some it will get stale. Personally, I don’t mind this and I enjoy playing solely to improve and win more frequently.

That said, now there is a lot of incentive being derived outside of what the game supports. Organized teams are forming, there are tournaments popping up, and despite there being no official system to support it, there’s finally a real point to honing your skill. Custom tournaments allow you to scrim against players whom you know are of a high caliber. If you look at CAL, MLG, etc. you’ll see that systems like these definitely have the ability to expand. None of those leagues ever had any sort of in-game support like League of Legends, but all were incredibly successful due to a thriving and persistent community.

We don’t have to rely on the developers, that’s why I’m optimistic. Although I’m sure they do have further plans for PvP.

Overall I agree with this, which is kind of surprising.

I think Ranger and Necro could both use a negative sign, but I suppose that’s debatable.

Thankfully this tier list isn’t as significant as one would be in other games; typically the bottom tier is practically unplayable while the top tier is required for any top team (or makes any team an instant top team). I honestly don’t think there’s a huge disparity between Warriors and Rangers, though there is obviously a gap there. Only one Ranger build is really over the top, and that’s only based on it’s 1v1 capabilities. Warriors can still be very successful in pubs. I mean, really, the teams in the last tournament’s finals had only one ranger and they also had one warrior. While that isn’t an argument to prove balance, it clearly demonstrates how small the disparity currently is.

The only reason Rangers are currently S-tier, is because of the meta I think. A meta change-up to afford less dueling would really shuffle everything around, bringing Guardians and Eles up significantly, while hitting Mesmers and Rangers hard. It would even bring warriors up due to their sheer firepower and the possible support.

Just some food for thought.

Guild Wars has been out for seven years.

Guild Wars 2 has been out for nine and a half months.

If your only qualm with the game is a lack of content and depth, perhaps you should return in a year.

Personally, I’m enjoying what the game has to offer and I think it has a very solid base with a ton of future potential, so I plan on sticking around refining my skill for when PvP really takes off (whenever a new PvP system is implemented). PvP is really shallow right now, but it’s still quite fun in the same way an FPS is fun. Now that we’ve got custom tournaments we don’t even need to wait for the devs to begin community-driven events, so that’s what people have been doing. I honestly believe GW2 is only going to grow from here, despite people’s negative first impressions (which are really unjustified, considering many were made based on the Beta’s PvP… realistically WoW was in a worse place a year after release than GW2 was in Beta).

I kind of feel the opposite of you. Guild Wars 2’s system requires much more independent skill regardless of comp compared to WoW arenas. So many comps in WoW allow at least one member of the team to tunnel vision targets, while the healer baby sits them and the third member peels & does damage. I feel like having to take care of yourself 100% of the time means players require a lot better self-awareness than in WoW, where you just have to keep LoS and kite when your healer’s CCed.

Team play in this game is still a very important aspect, the only real difference is the lack of baby-sitting. You still have to look out for your team; interrupting stomps, peeling damage, focusing targets, & calling cooldowns, the only difference is you have to be more adamant in taking care of yourself while doing all this.

The way the holy trinity promotes teamplay is through dependence, which is not the right way to go about things.

EDIT: Also, if you feel every class/build is the same and fills the same roles, you clearly haven’t played this game enough or kept up with the competitive scene.

I like the " cripple removed and given to mind stab" idea, but I don’t think Mesmers need a nerf solely because a duel-oriented build beat you in a duel.

It is possible that Mesmers need some adjusting, but let’s bring necros and warriors up to par before we worry about micro adjustments. Also, if all of your proposed nerfs were applied to Mesmer in one patch I have no doubt they would suddenly be awful. That said, if one or two of these changes were introduced all seem like fairly good options to bring Mesmers down a tone without overly nerfing them.

Seriously like the cripple on Mind Stab ability though… Mind Stab seems pretty lackluster right now (hard to land, very little damage, and only removes a single boon), while Phantasmal Berserker is already good by its own merits (high aoe damage, & it’s a phantasm).

BlackhawkSOM.6401:

Get your kitten together devs.

implying

from WoW:
40-man raids (they got rid of this)
hotbars
a fairly solid ranked (team) arena system (definitely could be done better than blizzard, though)
a separate, larger battleground system (specifically CTF)
unrated arena skirmishes (they got rid of this)
world drop boe epix (back when there was only like 5 of them and they had a .0001% drop rate only from high level zones)

from SW:ToR:
Huttball

from Planetside 2:
airplanes and rocket launchers

You make some valid, constructive, and interesting points.

It’s a marvel that you aren’t a member of the balance team instead of those clearly incompetent employees at ANet who are capable only of one extreme or another, making two garbage class and six immortal gods.

It is especially unfortunate that your main is one of the only classes which isn’t godlike; the other being irrelevant since its performance versus your class is lackluster by nature.

IGN: Snekky
Main Profession: Mesmer
Alternate Professions: N/A
Account name: Demonsoul.9271
Practice Availablity: Any time, for now.
Current PvP rank (Not Leaderboard): 13
Level of Desire: Active Tournament Play
NA or EU: NA

I’m not ready for anything serious, however I would like to get a jump on more organized play.

Only one person can contribute towards capping a point.

In other words, stop following me when I backcap open points. >:|

In the same boat as you. I sent in a ticket, hopefully they’ll be able to reimburse us our chest somehow.

RAVVSlathotep.5463:

snip

See, now you make some valid points, rather than just saying blank is kitten and blank is good at everything. That was my qualm with your post; those are literally just opinions.

To start with, I should clarify when I speak of survivability, I mean practical and useful survivability. Yes, you can escape fights all day as a thief, but while you run, regen, cleanse, you’re achieving nothing. What I mean by thieves having next to no survivability ONCE CAUGHT is that if you react fast enough to their openers and/or avoid them altogether, you should have no trouble taking them down in mere seconds. Thieves are always the first thing I target in a fight (maybe next to warriors), and even if they escape the fight it is at least easy to force them out of it almost immediately after they show their face. I think a duel versus a thief is almost always a skill match up, save maybe some glass cannon builds. They shine in picking off glass cannons in cluster kittens then getting away, but they don’t have any large advantages against a team with good awareness.

Just because BM rangers have aoe on traps doesn’t mean they are on par with other classes in teamfights. They lack in teamfights and excel in duels, that’s it.

I’m not going to lie, I’m going off of hearsay on the guardian point, but from what I’ve seen and heard, guardians are definitely the go-to bunker class. Elementalist support is potentially stronger (I think they both have larger support impact in different situations), that’s why I specified guardians have “some of the best utility.” I would agree Guardians’ build options could use some expansion, but that doesn’t make the game unbalanced. They are excellent tanks, as they were designed to be, and can fill a couple of niches in any team comp.

I don’t know what you meant by the last sentence, but I’m merely trying to have a discussion on game balance, I don’t mean any personal offense nor do I have the arrogance to believe my opinions are the be all end all on PvP balance.

I merely think balance is in a good place right now, possibly the best I’ve seen on an MMORPG (although that isn’t saying much). Of course it can stand to be improved, but any drastic changes right now would probably just make balance worse.

RAVVSlathotep.5463:

It’s like the OP isn’t even playing the same game as me.

snip

How the kitten is this balanced?
Some classes are good at everything, others can only fill a niche and others are just bad.

The classes that fill a niche perform in said niche significantly better than the more well-rounded classes.

Nobody is going to take your arguments seriously so long as you spew subjective non-sense without anything solid to back your broad claims.

Thief’s survivability is some of the worst in the game if you’re able to catch them. Their ‘survivability’ relies wholly on remaining untouched, which won’t happen if your opponent outskills you.

You only focus on one ranger build, which is the absolute best 1v1 in the game while offering very little team support. In other words, it’s a balanced niche spec.

Guardians, as you said, are probably the best bunker right now. Outside of the bunker spec they offer some of the best utility and have the best inherent survivability in the game. Any sensible Guardian build is pretty well-rounded.

I could go on, but really if I were to remove your biased undertone and change your crumby points for the warrior I’d feel I was advocating a pretty balanced game.

I honestly prefer the more personal system of actually having to talk to people. The less mechanical the process, the kinder and more patient people are, I find. Nobody wants to take the time to explain a boss when they can re-queue and find a more competent group mate. Nobody wants to be friendly to all 50 people when they cycle through eight random groups in a day.

As a relatively new player, this is my impression:

Overall I agree, the game is very well balanced currently. There is no class which I have an abnormal fear of, nor have I ever thought “oh, they have two blanks that’s an easy win.” People can complain all they want about builds not all being perfectly on par, however any logical build is most definitely viable from what I’ve seen. As a Memser (suddenly half of you hate my opinion, but I’m trying to be objective here) I know I have at least three great build options: shatter build, phantasm build, and condition build and all of these can be varied within themselves.

If the game’s balance was unchanged from here I would be completely content playing any class in PvP, and that is quite a feat. for an MMO which is also balancing for PvE. When the community complains too much such as some of you are doing is when developers frequently over-adjust and make for crappy balance. Yes, some minor tweaks would certainly help, as could the adjustment of some specific traits and weapon skills, however overall balance is more than satisfactory and I hope the devs take it slow from here.

I think now would be an excellent time for some adjustments within the PvP system itself. I also think those of you incredibly unhappy with the system need to just play the game how you want to and take some time away from the politics. It’s easy to be upset that you consistently lose to a certain class, but it’s more fun to find a way you can often beat them, and this game offers enough specifications that you will be able to find a way to beat at least a certain build of said class a majority of the time. Reading forums flooded with people complaining (as they always are, especially the pvp sections) will only amplify your irritability.

I enjoy systems like this and hope they keep it in place. It gives a huge long-term goal that is immensely satisfying to progress towards since only a few people in the world will achieve it.

That said, I look forward to when they implement a more skill-oriented system in addition to this one.

You guys have to realize a system such as this isn’t meant to bring instant gratification, and there are other roads you can take toward that satisfaction (e.g. leaderboards).

There’s no doubting the skill is good as it is, but it could stand for some quality of life improvements. Namely less RNG (which direction & how far you travel can vary a ridiculous amount), not allowing us to glitch passed terrain (I escape way too often by suddenly being passed a wall where no one could ever possibly find me.. unintentionally overpowered in this way), and (this is debatable) not requiring a target to use it. I’d be okay if they completely removed the stealth or clone aspect from it if they let us cast it when we can’t target an enemy, because that’s just anti-fun and slightly luck-based, depending whether or not an enemy is around.