Guild Wars 2

Asrat.2645:

How is it disrespectful?
They screwed up the matchmaking, their update policy doesnt allow them to change it mid-season.
So, once your mm is spoiled, you wont be able to just fix it. Neither will they.
Now, why exactly wouldnt you play unranked? The mm is better, as a good player you are likely to have a good time, you dont have to care about wins or losses, you escape that toxic maximization-enviroment…

Look: All im saying is this: ranked sucks. Not for everybody, but according to this forum for a lot of people.
So why exactly do you keep playing it?
There is no reason unless you are just after the backpack.
Unranked is more fun. For people who cant really play due to the teams they get in mmrhell it might even be more competitive.

Personally I was riding winning streaks to mid ruby, when I first realised how flawed the matchmaking was.
Spawncamping is no fun, even if you are on the winning side of it.
So when I understood that little badge next to my name was completely meaningless, I went unranked and started playing thief again.
Its much better this way.
They will fix the problems we have eventually, but until then there is no reason to spoil the game for yourself by being stubborn.

…and this….

BUT… that is a hell of a sad indictment on the game. When something’s that broken I tend to just leave it alone.

Personally I don’t find unranked that much fun because it’s just organised chaos. It’s playing for kittens ‘n’ giggles – I prefer something competitive and quantifiable.

Fivedawgs.4267:

Exciton.8942:

It is natural to finally hit a wall with one’s skill level.

I am currently hitting my wall at legendary tier5/6. Almost every second match I got matched against some ESL names, Ostrichegg, Eura, Supcutie, sunfish. My team just doesn’t have the ability to overcome that obstacle.

Which wall are you talking about?? Did you even read the OP thread, if so what’s his wall?? T2 diamond or T1?? Or T5?

Totally – what wall?

The only reason he’s not plummeting down in a Losing streak spiral is because you can’t go down divisions… the fluctuations in this game are insane! The whole ‘Rank’ edifice is being held up by a weird division ‘one-way’ system. Without it people would be yo-yo’ing around up and down the rank table so much their head would spin.

On topic @ OP:

I main Thief and Engi -

I’m playing very little at the moment because Thief is comparatively too weak and Engi is too easy. Both my favourite classes feel unrewarding for different reasons.

I honestly don’t know how anyone can enjoy winning because a man in a development studio has tweaked numbers in your favour.

I lose on Thief with unfair odds against me – feels kitten
I win on Engi with unfair odds in my favour – feels kitten

I honestly don’t expect great balance in a game with so much diversity but the enormous gulf between professions and specs in GW2 is appalling for a game that is apparently trying to take its PVP seriously.

There is just no way I’m having it that skill is the most important factor in this game and anyone who thinks differently just hasn’t spent enough time playing games that actually are balanced. There are too many crutches in this game that Jimmy-no-brain can give himself just by dialling up metabattle and kidding himself he’s good.

As an example of what I mean by this – I know Thieve’s who are way better than me and can beat me 1v1 all day long. I swap prof to fotm faceroll on something I’m less familiar with and suddenly I must have had a major skill upgrade because I’m winning – that shouldn’t be a thing.

So yeah OP good on you… stop playing… you and many others I’m sure.

If you really like GW2 then you’re stuck… but if what you really like is exciting balanced PVP games – there are much better games than this.

Awesome! Down your weapons fellow thieves… be water!

Thief should be able to toggle stealth on and off, but not while in combat.

Dude, try PARAGON ($20 for early access, game will eventually release Free To Play and is DEFINITELY NOT pay to win) – well worth the $20 to get in now imo.

It’s a 3D Moba – feels slow at first but when you understand it – it’s incredibly strategically deep in comparison to GW2, and I’ve had some of the most intense PVP I’ve had in ages.

The PVP infrastructure for their players is nothing short of amazing:

They have a companion site: agora.gg – where you can see everyone’s MMR and breakdowns of every game you or anyone else has played.
Put in my username: Stackalee – if you want to see how it works (spoiler I’m not very good YET)

They also have IN-GAME replays (no need to ever record your own games) – check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ZryDqCU00
That is actual game play recorded from in game replays. You can post to youtube directly from the game too.

You can watch hundreds of LIVE Ranked matches with FULL camera control.
You can replay your own or anyone elses with FULL camera control.
You can check out other people’s builds.

It’s balanced, the matchmaking is spot on, everything’s transparent (MMR/ELO, wins/losses etc), they have great infrastructure for their players. It’s a breath of fresh air tbh.

GW2 needs to copy this stuff quick, Paragon is going to be big.

Mo Mo.1947:

Stop putting Sapphire players in teams with Ruby players.

I’ll wait in the queue longer if that’s what it takes. The wait for a long queue is shorter than the time it takes to jump up and down in pips from win-loss bouncing or lose streaks.

I’m in Ruby hell now and while I can see the merits of matching Rubies in the top tier against Diamond players, I can’t understand matching against people in other divisions when they are in the middle tiers. If you wanna pit me against Diamonds when I’m in tier 6 Ruby, bring it on, but once a series of Diamonds beats me down to tier 5, please just stop that nonsense… I really can’t believe the Diamond matchups continued after I got beat down to tier 4 from tier 6. :/

Right now I see tons of Diamond players standing around and tons of Sapphire players standing around, and a few Ruby. Yet I keep getting either matched vs Diamond or teamed with Sapphire.

Please match Sapphires and Diamonds with their own division. Stop giving Ruby players so many Diamonds and Sapphires in the middle tiers of Ruby.

Also stop this kind of matching behavior for all divisions, while you’re at it.. :/

Bad Matchmaking = Reduced Player Base = Even Worse Matchmaking = Even Smaller Player Base etc…

Sorry to say it will only get worse this season.

morrolan.9608:

Dirtyrascal.1023:

Once you’ve finished laughing at how bad I am, have a good look at what they are doing there. Expand the games, see how they match the average MMR of the teams, take into account other important (for that game) statistics Kill/Deaths etc. Remember their player base is much smaller than GW2 at the moment but they’re managing to create good games with very reasonable queue times – max I’ve had is about 7 mins, usually 2-3 mins.

So they match 10 players within an elo range and sort them into teams so the average elo is around the same?

This looks exactly what GW2 should do, I doubt it will happen though because they don’t appear to want transparency. And there is the problem of the ascension achievements.

OTOH I was flip flopping on trying Paragon, I don’t like mobas that much, however your post has convinced me to try it cause I know how committed Epic are to providing a good gaming experience.

“So they match 10 players within an elo range and sort them into teams so the average elo is around the same?”

- Yup, seems the case and it’s a really nice experience. Had some amazing games. It’s really interesting after a game to see how the match was formed. Also I’m satisfied that my ranking is entirely fair and that when (ahem) my MMR increases it will indicate that I have genuinely improved as a player.

I’m definitely not suggesting Paragon is better/worse as a game than GW2 – it’s a completely different genre but GW2 could definitely learn/copy from the way they are handling matchmaking, E-sports and MMR transparency.

Whatever Anet decide to do – a HARD reset of everyone’s MMR before the next season is needed.

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a really great analysis. I appreciate all the work you put into this. We recognize the problems that the season 2 matchmaking is causing and are looking into solutions that will provide a good experience and satisfy our goals for the league system.

So pleased to see a post like this!

If you’re looking for solutions could I suggest you take a look at the new MOBA called Paragon (not openly released yet so $20 for early access).

It’s not a substitute at all for GW2, and how it fairs as a game is too early to say, but the way they handle their matchmaking and divisions has E-sports excellence written all over it.

The matchmaking challenges are similar to GW2: 5 vs 5 class based PVP, majority Solo Queing.

They have a companion website for their players: agora.gg
Go there and put in my account name: Stackalee

Once you’ve finished laughing at how bad I am, have a good look at what they are doing there. Expand the games, see how they match the average MMR of the teams, take into account other important (for that game) statistics Kill/Deaths etc. Remember their player base is much smaller than GW2 at the moment but they’re managing to create good games with very reasonable queue times – max I’ve had is about 7 mins, usually 2-3 mins.

Importantly see how beautifully transparent it all is, and what an amazing resource that is for players. I’m able to see so much about who I played with and against, find new people to invite to teams or add to my friends list. Also you are able to look at the builds of your team mates and opponents while in-game.

Something akin to this for GW2 would propel it in the right direction.
Reward tracks can exist ‘In-Game’ (like Season 1) but an external E-sport focused transparent resource site like this, that is a pure MMR ladder would create a real, meaningful competitive environment – and of course THEN matchmaking can happily try to make even, fair matches between similar MMR teams. Everyone gets what they want:

- Fair games
- Reward track progression in-game (grind-able… put in the effort, reap the rewards)
- Division ranking that’s meaningful (on external site) – e.g. You’re in ‘Gold Division’ with 2600 MMR then Yeah you’re good – it’s not arguable.

This isn’t a quick fix but GW2 needs something that isn’t a quick fix. To be taken seriously it needs transparency and Division placement that the player base TRUST is a reasonable reflection of player skill.

Actually I think Cynz nailed it here, in another thread: and the bolded bit is why I think Thief is the worst class atm – certainly for Solo Queing.

Cynz.9437:

Thieves used to be able to 1v1 fairly well and participate in team fights. Anets idea behind all nerfs in 3 years was: oh thieves are so mobile and do high single target dmg, they should be squishy and useless in 1v1. Then they threw any common sense and their own logic out of window and made revs.

You can make thief works in current meta but it requires a lot of experience ( you need to be by mile better player than anyone in the match, you also have to rely on your team to survive in team fights) and frankly not worth it if you got rev anyway.^The class is legitimately middle finger from Anet to every thief player out there.

Lexander.4579:

i’ve done legend in under 90 matches playing only thief so no matchmaking is pretty good to me

GW2 PVP will never be a balanced E-sport – too many facets to the game.

GW2 can be a popular spectator sport – because so many people love the game.

In 2012 Anet set out to give the masses a grind-free MMO experience, with a constant feeling of progression, acquired from simply enjoying doing what you enjoy doing in the game. Progress by playing it your way – was pretty much the Mantra. They set new standards and did a great job.

Anet: sit back, work out why you’re alienating your core audience.

IMO it’s because this game/company has lost it’s Sense of Humour.

Start there.

HoT Elite specs in sPVP should have been sold as ‘Early Access’ – (3 – 6 months).

They should now be opened up and attainable via the PVP reward track.

suffish.4150:

I play ranked pvp for fun. Winning close games is fun, progressing through the leagues is fun. While I am yet to have a truly terrible loss streak this season, I did have both a 10 game loss streak and an 8 game loss streak in the same day with a win/loss/win/loss/win/loss run in the middle so I think I do know how it feels to be losing progress however hard you try. It sent me all the way from diamond tier 6 to the beginning of tier 4 in one day. However unlike some people, i keep trying and never stop until I achieve what I want to. Yes, when I lose a game I should have won or get on a huge loss streak it makes me feel absolutely awful, as bad as a game has ever made me feel but when I win a very close game or make a big comeback it is the best feeling a game ever gives me. One example of a game like that happened just today where my team came back from 400-490 down to win 500-493. Those games are the ones I find fun and are why I play pvp.
What I am saying is that sometimes pvp can seem unfair and can make people extremely angry and frustrated but if you just never stop trying to achieve what you want to, you will inevitably have a really good run of games that, if you enjoy pvp at all, you will find fun. That is what I like about leagues at the moment.

Good for you my friend… Your loss streaks though are pretty trivial in comparison to what a LOT of people have been experiencing.

Re. Paragon…. Early Access released today… been playing it all day and it’s really good – No Cheese, balanced, skill based…

… just like GW2… oh hang on…

A very different style of game though… If only Anet could get their game feeling as FAIR after 4 years, as Epic have got their game on Day 1 – I’m not even joking!

shrek.1046:

shagwell.1349:

Dirtyrascal.1023:

I’m logging in, playing a 2 or 3 games and logging out wishing I hadn’t bothered atm. Sad for what has been one of my top 2 games since it’s launch.

So in a search for ideas: What are you all doing in game (PVP) to have Genuine Fun?

Most fun is to not log in.

I’m taking a break as well and reaping the benefits. I’ll probably give the season 1 more go but if there are no or minimal changes for next season I’m gawn with games like Overwatch starting up.

I think Anet are underestimating how much competition for class based PVP is on the horizon.

Their speed of action – and I mean interaction with their community is not good.

Overwatch, Battleborn, Paragon, Black Desert Online, Blade & Soul to name just some…

If they don’t get the PVP in this game sorted out soon… by which I mean- ALL classes viable, more maps, open world queing, FUN PVP matches then I’m predicting that yes – The Sky Will Fall.

Even the ‘Old Faithfuls’ who stream and shoutcast GW2 are hedging their bets. I mean even Jebro YouTube’d a Paragon guide this week.

It’s such a shame but until they actually stop trying to pander to their ‘Pro-Players’ AT THE EXPENSE of their main player base PVP’s going to dwindle.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Some awesome ideas there ;-)

Off to get me some dem book fings… Anet making people more cleverer since 2012.

Evan Lesh.3295:

This is a great topic and I’d like to hear what other ideas people have that could incentive league play in a system where division matches skill level.

Make MMR transparent – There’s your skill level.

Whatever is done for season 3 I want to see this:

Hard Reset Everyone’s MMR at the beginning of the season.

I’m logging in, playing a 2 or 3 games and logging out wishing I hadn’t bothered atm. Sad for what has been one of my top 2 games since it’s launch.

So in a search for ideas: What are you all doing in game (PVP) to have Genuine Fun?

Evan Lesh.3295:

Matchmaking doesn’t count pips past the end of legendary, so prestige count won’t affect queue times.

It was said already, but with an accurate or prestigious ladder you get people on each extreme with long queue times as the population to pull from is smaller. Queue times in unranked are never this bad because we expand the mmr search range quite far over time. We could do the equivalent expansion of the ladder search range, but there will be just as many (if not more) people then complaining about all the legendary players in their ruby matches.

To summarize the issues people have brought up:
An accurate ladder rewards skill at the cost of queue time.
Reducing queue time would require frustrating players with imbalanced matches (either by skill, or just visual ladder badge).
Making the ladder more about grind gets more players to legendary, but there is no prestige.

What would make legendary players happy to keep playing the game? Is it just quicker queue times? What if you could do other things while waiting? What if there was something other than leagues all together like unranked arena that legendary players could go to until more players make it to legendary?

After all the feedback this forum has given you THIS is the question you ask the community.

How about ’What would make NEW and AVERAGE/CASUAL players happy to keep playing the game?

You STILL don’t seem to know what side your bread’s buttered on.

Take a look at the choice of multi-class PVP games coming out this year. Blizzard & Epic Games say hello…

E-sports is a CONSEQUENCE of POPULARITY – Not the other way around.

FUN>POPULATION>E-SPORT.

Alienate the casuals at your peril.

Separate, and related:

Fear mechanic should not path people off ledges in PVP.

Basket of Boxes.1976:

drgast.1469:

Basket of Boxes.1976:

The people enjoying the game are probably you know, in it playing and not crying on the forums. The people who are not happy will always be the loudest and that’s why it is mostly what you will see.

So you are enjoying this season? Or you are crying about people crying and not playing? Or both? Or you are not enjoying this season and are simply crying about other people crying? This is confusing.

This season is 100 times better than season 1 so yes I am enjoying it, I can play less matches and progress just as fast.

I pop onto the forums once or twice a day to see if there is anything good posted but its usually just a page about people crying for nerfs or crying about bad team mates. Occasionally there is something interesting or something worth reading though, plus the whining can be funny at times.

Honestly if people hate PvP so much they should just stop playing it. They know there will be no changes till the end of the season, and they aren’t doing themselves any favours. Lots of people are only participating for the back pack so they can easily go PvE in the meantime instead of bashing their heads into a wall.

Drgast’s point was that logically, by posting you are invalidating what you are saying.

You also belittle and flatly ignore the validity of LOTS of people’s opinion.

I think you’ll find that people complaining on these forums don’t HATE, but LOVE PVP and because of this are upset when the game mode they LOVE gets ballsed up.

The OP was asking whether people are enjoying this season, not asking for people’s opinions about other people’s opinions…

…On topic:
Love GW2 PVP.
Don’t love matches where the outcome is obvious 1 min into match.
Don’t love that the balance difference between the Meta and Non-Meta proffs is unreasonably large.
Don’t love MMR not being reset at beginning of season.
Don’t love that you can’t go down divisions.
Don’t love being individually judged in a TEAM game with no Solo Q only option.
Don’t love quite bit atm…

Konoha.4613:

Check out my channel if you think thief is weak…

Clicked the link in your sig.

YouTube says ‘This Channel Does Not Exist’

Maybe that was a dry joke because you’re saying Thief really sucks so there couldn’t possibly be a channel that has thief doing well on it????

…..or maybe your link’s bad.

/15charsorthereabouts

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

S1 is very bad, in terms of balance and MM. (5 man premade vs all solo) not to mention smurfing, taking advantage of the pip system boosting players to legendary.

S2 is not perfect but now more forgiving to soloQ players which i like. and lack of unkillable bunkers make the game fun. also the short Qs makes it all better.

Is this that game where you say the opposite of what is true?

JTGuevara.9018:

We are now at three weeks and there are STILL reports of blowouts!

Season 1 was better than this.

Confirmed – teams are so imbalanced it’s just not fun.
Knowing with absolutely certainty the outcome of the game after the 1st minute is getting really old.

Losses are hopeless losses with team mates who genuinely don’t know what to do.
Wins are empty facerolling roflstomps with no sense of achievement.

It’s just an MMR coin toss.

Vieux P.1238:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

I think the real question here is why is a thief complaining that mesmer is broken. A good thief completely shuts down a mesmer.

True.. only the bad thief players looking for easy kills are complainers. The good ones shuts down pretty much all classes.

No he doesn’t. Yes a thief can blow you up if you’re sleeping at the wheel, and is certainly a threat… but to suggest Thief hard counters/shuts you down is really a L2P issue on your part.

Cheers – yeah it comes up as green stat increase – thought it might be something like that. Never really thought about it in all these years… huh… shame.

Duke Nukem.6783:

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

No offence but what I read from OPs text is that s/he is pretty new to sPvP or haven’t play much PvP atleast.

The map mechanics in the game is fantastic and 5vs5 is the best number in GW2, they had 8vs8 before but it was too much even if I want it back it is not atleast a ranked mode.

How long someone survives comes with build and player skills, sounds like it works as intended as long as a tanky build can’t tank 3 players and not die. I am far from a pro but I have never seen that this season.

Also if you go 1vs1 on all 3 points you will have two more players who doesn’t know how to play.

3 years of pvp i mostly AFK the dailies at this point, i dont think i have EVER killed any1, i cant think of another pvp game in the history of mankind where its possible to never kill any1 at all even when you try, the skill floor in this game needs to be cut by about a thousand percent

Sorry but that post, with that name. . .

Yeah updating these would be a great change to thief… … +1 for Lexander’s thread!

Voice chat just for people you party up with would be good.

Easier than arranging teamspeak with every random you occasionally team up with and keeps unwanted noise out.

Asrat.2645:

Probably depends on what level and situation youre in. CV right in the middle of a team fight is indeed tricky. I usually expect to loose my point anyways, so I have no problem with dodging to a safer spot to use it.
I have used withdraw in a recent build and I have to admit, that it is still an amazing skill to heal and as a panic buttom.
Not exactly sure, which one will prove to be more effective. Might just be depending on what you like better personally.

Yeah different playstyle. Definitely one of the benefits of Withdraw is not needing to leave the point. With how tanky/cleanse-y this build is you can hold/delay losing a point 1v2 for a decent amount of time usually. 1v1 you can kill/hold point against pretty much anything – with DH can be touch and go. One thing you’ll very rarely do is die.

Jack Daniels.5270:

I had to remove the chat just to enjoy the game, the matchmaking and meta is making people insulting eachother very often, contrary to the attitude that attracted me to gw2 where i found a really nice comunity.

This is so true

fluidmonolith.3584:

I have been using a similar build (staff/sb with trickery and critical strikes, and paladin amulet).

I can agree with OP that the cast time on CV is unfortunate – sometimes I even interrupt it myself if I start channeling but then need to dodge right away, and then it’s on full cd. I’ll probably switch to Withdraw as you use.

The combo of paladin + staff in my experience gives the sustain needed to stay in fights a bit longer than with marauder. I use Invigorating Precision for even more sustain, but I also use a more aggressive rune (Pack).

I haven’t tried out Fist Flurry yet, I’ll need to do that.

Yeah Scrapper Rune really helps with survivability (7% less damage is noticeable) and Signet of Agility makes up for losing Pack Rune. You have to play with Fist Flurry quite a bit to get a feel for it. Realise early on that not getting the Palm Strike off when your enemy is not stunned is still worth it for the burst damage to finish someone off.

Zilvereen.2091:

your opener/burst should be

(weapon skill) + steal +fist flurry

As weapon skill you can either go with staff#4 or staff#2

You can also use Bounding Dodger as opener and hit Steal just before you land on the ground.

Also, you can start by throwing Impairing Dagger for even more burst.

Yeah absolutely! When specced into dagger/pistol, pre-casting a Heartseeker is totally worth it.
With staff my preferred skill is Staff 2 but I tend not to use it if I’m using Basilisk venom and want to get a Fist Flurry off because after staff 2 the stun wears off just before the Palm Strike.
With staff skill 4, again with Basi Venom the blind has worn off by the time Palm Strike stun is finished – and without Basi I’d usually rather Steal>Vault than Blind>Steal.

Without Basi Venom up though, I agree – Staff 2 > steal is nice damage.

Asrat.2645:

I see. I always considered escapist absolution by far enough to deal with condi, but then again I had either pain response or shadowstep as an emergency clear on most of my recent builds.
However most of the benefits withdraw brings to the class are already covered by unhindered combatant, and channeled vigor is a strong heal with even moar dodges.
The tenacy will also lower the cd of your main stunbreak.
If you steal stability or retaliation it is a potential gamechanger, protection or even a few stacks of might should make up for the damage loss.

OK – tried this out for about 15 games.

Thoughts:
Evades for Daaaayyyssss – which is nice.
CV heal has 3/4sec cast time – having it interrupted by random CC in team fights happens too often.
Channeled Vigor heal is never used with full endurance so heal is not substantially better.
The Withdraw build does more damage and has better survivability.
Bottom line:- in the heat of battle Traited Withdraw is just much more reliable than Traited Channeled Vigor.

Also 7% extra damage just FEELS like I’m in a sweet spot for damage. I 100-0 Marauders in a burst, but without that 7% I found myself often JUST shy of finishing people off.

You can combo Signet of Agility into Channeled Vigor for a good heal, but that’s pretty situational. I really wanted it to work because all those evades are strong, and keep the cleanses rolling – but that 3/4sec cast time! I died in too many situations where I would have lived, if my heal hadn’t been interrupted. Now if it was instant cast with a slightly lower heal – yeah THAT would be a thing!

Lexander.4579:

im pretty sure this build will get stomped by a random rev or scrapper since they have bigger sustained damage and bigger survivability

also zero chances against druid or elem, simply lack of crit damage wont let you overpower their sustain and you’ll eventually have to move away because unlike your endurance bar their heals are endless

fist flurry is absolutely useless unless you carry enough stuns to be able to land it succesfully and basilisk venom + chain from bandit’s defense is far from being enough

Much better success rate against Scrapper and Rev with this build. In fact I can pretty much hold a point against a Scrapper indefinitely. Engi is my 2nd most played prof though (about 1600 games). Scrapper damage is fairly easy to avoid. If the Scrapper isn’t good I can out sustain him – just need to get his Elixir S proc out of the way then Basi>Burst. Most Scrappers are Marauder so once they’ve blown hammer will often switch to Elixir gun and this is pretty much a free 9 seconds of wailing on them because you can cleanse everything. 2 rotations of that and it’s generally a dead Scrapper. If he pops Sneak gyro just Vault into it – he’ll leave the point in a hurry.

Rev is a winnable fight, once you’ve got them on the defensive. Save shield for UA, steal for the slow, evade their heal etc.

In the current meta – glass builds with small high damage windows lose to sustainability because of all the passive defensives going around

Thief usually has something better to do than 1v1, even with Marauder/Deadly Arts are you really going to waste time 1v1’ing a Druid/Ele?

Fist Flurry is awesome – takes practice but totally worth it. Can pull it off quite nicely on targets that aren’t stunned – with good timing. And it’s absolutely Godly for +1’ing and for poaching enemies beast with last hit in Niflhel.

Sounds like you didn’t actually try this out – you should. This build does enough damage… not omgwtf damage – but you don’t need it. The damage you lose is well and truly made up for by the sustain.

zxstanyxz.8769:

Aggrostemma.1703:

I would be absolutely fine getting kicked out of queue if on a loading screen.

What about a pop-up message?

“You are about to change instance. If you continue your queueing will reset.”

“Stay in the world / Enter”

so long as i dont get kicked when waypointing from death

Surely this is why there is about 1.5mins wait time in the starting area of a sPVP map… that’s Plenty of time to wait out a loading screen.
Not being able to queue while in the Open world is a massive technological failure of GW2. The fact it hasn’t been sorted out speaks volumes to the flexibility of the base code in this game – unless it’s an actual design decision… but I can’t imagine that.

Ravenmoon.5318:

The never ending losing streak is a mix of a lot of things.

Sometimes the elitists are correct when they tell you that you are not good enough. I VoDed myself and saw some mistakes, which I’m correcting and the games are less of a blowout. However they are not completely correct.

Sometimes the system matches you with a complete baddies versus people with high MMR who are given free pass to climb the ladder.

^ This is the problem with the matchmaking.

We get it. Good players need to climb the ladder faster. However, I can guarantee that these good players do not like the blowouts they do every single time until they reach diamond.

The system should be smarter than this. Matching first timers who .. i dont even know how … climbed into ruby, with average players who understand the mechanics of the game and try to play the game.

And make no mistake. The difference between average and pro in this game is the choice making. Whether you’d run to +1 a 2vs2 fight or decap nearby point and +1 or fight 1on1 for few minutes or give up the point to +1 a fight elsewhere and snowball from there.

Most average players are mechanically good and can kite/juke just as well.

Sadly I’m never matched with such :c

In the majority of my games, now that I play mesmer, I place a portal at far and avoid a fight with a scrapper/reaper to +1 mid. We win the fight which resulted in 3vs2 thanks to me doing the +1 I open the portal and surprise surprise. I’m the only person going into the portal. Which makes me cringe because I know I’ll fight scrapper/reaper for couple of minutes alone.

But yeah, I can’t force people to teamplay. Especially when they don’t know how to do it.

Yah matchmaking is whack…

This here though: ‘Good players need to climb the ladder faster.’

This is said a lot… but rather ‘Good players should climb the ladder faster’

- because they’re better, not because they are given a free pass. Why should ‘better’ players not have to work for it as much as everybody else?
Why should some players be exempt from having teams with wildly differing skill levels like average players are having to contend with?
If a player is that much better let them rise from the same level playing field.

I’m fully an advocate of a hard MMR reset at the beginning of the season and free movement up and DOWN divisions and tiers.

A lot of ‘good’ players will get a hell of a wake up call.

Ravenmoon.5318:

MadVisions.4529:

Ravenmoon.5318:

Actually there are 2-3 viable thief builds against revenant. Go figure.

revenant 80% – thief 20%
(on same level of skill)

How precisely? If they run the meta power shiro with the shield it’s a losing game for them. I can agree that things change when they put on an axe. You are likely to dodge the precision strike, you have 3 second block followed by a knockdown to prevent their unrelenting assault (or stealth, which breaks it). The stolen ability slows them down and with improvisation you slow them twice which should give you enough time to use basilisk venom/regain initiative/steal cooldown to set up another burst in their face.

Superspeed shiro is nasty because of the sword’s 3rd hit but you can wait that out in stealth or shadowstep away and they’ll be forced to switch legends to regain the energy.

IMO even the pre-HoT D/P meta build would be able to annoy or pressure them immensely with shadow arts instead of daredevil.

Of course that’s just theory talk. Most revs I’ve faced are bandwagoners that can’t play i guess.

Basilisk venom these days hits through their blocks.

Thief Block ’Bandit’s Defence’ is 1.5secs. The knockdown ‘Reflexive Strike’ won’t land while Rev is evading during Unrelenting Assault.
That being said Bandit’s Defence will block Unrelenting Assault BUT if Rev uses UA on cooldown it will be available while Bandit’s Defence is still on cooldown – unless Thief is traited to lower the cooldown of physical skills with Brawler’s Tenacity.

Also fyi – applying Basilisk Venom (1sec cast, 40sec cd) mid fight to break through Rev’s bubble is hardly a counter to it.

I’m not saying OMG nerf Rev – but you’re making out like thief counters Rev which is odd considering Rev is more commonly believed to be replacing Thief in a lot of previously Thief-y roles.

Asrat.2645:

Looks nice enough. Pretty much what i would be playing if I hadnt too much fun trolling around with zerker.
Just two quick suggestions:
-U use trickster but only a single trick. I’d recommend bountiful theft, brawlers tenacy and Channeled vigor as heal.
-I personally like vampire runes. Healing seems better than toughness on our class.
Of course one can never predict, how changes will actually impact combat performance, but I think it could be worth a shot.

Yeah interesting suggestions. The main crux of the build is to gain the (really quite epic) survivability that you get from the: Paladin’s Amulet – Scrapper Rune – Escapist’s Absolution combination. Then mitigate the damage loss by getting back the majority of the lost damage stats in other ways.

I really like Channeled Vigor[although it can be interrupted] but it needs to be used with Brawlers Tenacity which loses out 7% damage, and the damage output feels just right on this build atm. Again, I really like Bountiful Theft but the on demand condi clear of Withdraw is worth traiting to lower it’s cooldown. Withdraw will pretty much always clear 2 condis because it’s also an evade so will proc Escapist’s Absolution.

They’re my thoughts – I’ll give it a go though, coz why not!?

Stand The Wall.6987:

Jourdelune.7456:

5. RESET MMR each YEAR. Many high MMR players got there because of their 2014 META build and stop playing. When they come back, they play 2 games and they are back on TOP. This cause some actual High MMR player to drop the MMR chart for obsolete PLAYERS. Many bads got carried at high MMR (playing off peak time hours) and they should get back to where they stand.

this is really interesting if true. i had no idea this was possible. sounds extremely ridiculous at first, but if its really happening, then wow lol.

Dirtyrascal.1023:

5. Queuing in the Open World —- I would so love to actually play the other content in this game. World of Warcraft allows you to queue anywhere for Battlegrounds and after the battle you’re teleported back exactly where you left off. This would be bliss in GW2.

More PVE’ers would PVP… more PVP’ers would PVE – Win/Win!

wasnt this possible shortly after launch? might be trippin, i didnt pvp much at all during that time. anyways, im pretty sure anet addressed this and gave decent reasons for why they havent enabled the option.

Not sure about open world queuing but until fairly recently (less than a year) you used to at least be able to play hotjoins while you waited.
The only explanation I’ve seen for not being able to queue in the open world is that if the queue pops while you’re in a loading screen it can cause issues. Other games manage it mind you. . .

Cyanon.1928:

Inspired by the very useful post from Sirendor.1394 @ the WvW forums.

Lets share constructive posts on this subject!

The folks at ANET like it better that way

Here are my Top 5:

1. Limit class (profession) stacking to a max of 2 only in RANKED matches – Promotes more balanced matches and less player frustration.

2. Don’t allow changing characters after a RANKED map is loaded – This is necessary in order to avoid class stacking w/o affecting queue times too much. Allowing, spec/skill slot changes is good enough imo.

3. Don’t match high MMR teams against low MMR teams – No one enjoy it that way – Good players get bored of non-challenging matches and bad/average players lose interest to progress (enjoying a fair match is better than only caring about winning or losing). This will also eliminate the need of playing only the meta builds in order to stand a chance while encouraging build diversity. In addition, you will bring back the soloQ viability that popularized sPvP in GW2. It’s a win/win for u ANET.

4. Allow players to duel at the PvP lobby (Happier better experience while waiting queue, even if they are longer) – This will buy you time for better matchmaking as a trade-off for longer queues w/o making people feeling desperate/tired of waiting.

5. Add crafting stations to pvp lobby – Same effect of suggestion #4

Yes to all this but for my number 5.

5. Queuing in the Open World —- I would so love to actually play the other content in this game. World of Warcraft allows you to queue anywhere for Battlegrounds and after the battle you’re teleported back exactly where you left off. This would be bliss in GW2.

More PVE’ers would PVP… more PVP’ers would PVE – Win/Win!

Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBFOhVmCGmC8PhFyiyLASgCYu279ifLDHrNE-TJBFAB/XGggDBAAHBg73fAA

Couple of notes:

I only solo Q, so wanted a build that can fulfill the thief roles, BUT also fill in the void when my team needs picking up somewhere it’s lacking… notably in sustained team fights.

This build has very high mobility, excellent condi clear, very tanky, decent burst and high sustain damage.

Permanent Fury, 83% crit chance and 180%crit damage.

Condi clear: On demand from Heal and Signet.
DD trait Escapists Absolution is incredible in team fights – evading through necro wells/DH traps actually cleanses you.

You can tie the enemy team up in 1v2’s and 1v3’s and they just can’t touch you with all the evades, damage mitigation and cleanse you have.
But you can still put the damage down when you want.

One Vault will pretty much finish off anyone on 20%hp.

Burst/Opener: Basilisk Venom > Steal > Fist Flurry > Palm Strike > AA > Vault

Signet of Agility could be swapped out for anything you prefer, probably Shadow Step or blinding Powder. Signet of Agility is nice though because it’s a passive damage increase, and active condi clear + extra evades which are direct damage mitigations AND condi clears.

Anyway Bullkitten aside… build works: Kills stuff, moves quick, doesn’t die (and is fun).

Practiced Tolerance trait in Critical Strikes line grants Fury based on 10% of your precision.

Using Signet of Agility increases precision by 180 but doesn’t gain the effect of Practiced Tolerance.

Is this intended?

Yeah new matchmaking is seriously fantastic.

Every other game ends by someone going /sit afk after the first 1-2 mins.

Yeah it’s annoying…. kind of understandable (because most games have obvious outcomes early on)….

….but THIS is the environment the new matchmaking has bred.

SERIOUSLY FANTASTIC.

I’m sure there are better ways of ensuring everyone has access to the back piece than jeopardising the League with a meaningless Rank system.

Yasi.9065:

Dirtyrascal.1023:

Yasi.9065:

You will be able to earn the rewards through work. Last I checked my calender, 2016 isnt even 1/3 done. You just wont be able to complete everything this season.

Congratulate yourself for making it to ruby in first weeks of the season and do the same the next handful of seasons. You’ll get your rewards, just not the shiny title and
black gem reserverd for better players.

Only someone REALLY REALLY new to the game probably wont make it.

I think you have monumentally missed the OP’s point.

The point is that rank does not have a direct correlation with skill. This is so patently obvious I’m not going to get drawn into an argument about it.
He raises two of the issues… people on organised teams could have lower skill levels but be carried because they will mostly be playing pugs.
People who play fotm are absolutely not required to have as much skill – That’s Why You Roll FotM – <IT’S EASIER>.

Also you can’t go DOWN divisions which a LOT of people would have been doing who are currently sitting in Ruby. Just look at all the people complaining that their team mates in RUBY don’t know the basics.

Yes people have choices but to just state Rank=Skill —-- High Ranks are Better Players is kitten.

So what? The current system allows you to just form a new 5man premade, play matches with them until you are at mid diamond and then you are out of ruby range.

Of course, for players that lack skill, this will still take a long time. But in last season, if you made a new 5man premade, you got matched against proleague teams. You got severly punished for being a new team.

So yeah… you dont lack the skill? Then get a teamspeak channel on one of the thousands open gw2 teamspeak servers, get 4 others in ruby to join you, teamqueue only with them and get out of ruby range.

If you look up at the clouds that thing you see flying over is what I wrote.

Ananeos.4587:

I’m talking about the learning curve for new players wanting to get into mesmer because they saw the shiny seal of approval making it “as good as reaper or scrapper”. Then they drag down the game by queing into ranked mode for the first time with mesmer which they think will carry them the game but is actually dragging your team down.

I have a feeling everyone is missing the point I’m trying to make here…

Fay’s explanation is top notch… your point is not Mesmer specific.

New fotm re-rollers generally suck balls at first regardless of prof.

Yasi.9065:

You will be able to earn the rewards through work. Last I checked my calender, 2016 isnt even 1/3 done. You just wont be able to complete everything this season.

Congratulate yourself for making it to ruby in first weeks of the season and do the same the next handful of seasons. You’ll get your rewards, just not the shiny title and
black gem reserverd for better players.

Only someone REALLY REALLY new to the game probably wont make it.

I think you have monumentally missed the OP’s point.

The point is that rank does not have a direct correlation with skill. This is so patently obvious I’m not going to get drawn into an argument about it.
He raises two of the issues… people on organised teams could have lower skill levels but be carried because they will mostly be playing pugs.
People who play fotm are absolutely not required to have as much skill – That’s Why You Roll FotM – <IT’S EASIER>.

Also you can’t go DOWN divisions which a LOT of people would have been doing who are currently sitting in Ruby. Just look at all the people complaining that their team mates in RUBY don’t know the basics.

Yes people have choices but to just state Rank=Skill —-- High Ranks are Better Players is kitten.