Guild Wars 2

Sounds great! I was just getting back into the game and would love to be in a guild like this. Message you in game tomorrow as I’ve just logged off

No, that is a misrepresentation of what I said, this would be more accurate:
1. This game is not meant for ‘pure support’ if you don’t do damage you’re being lazy
2. If you do damage you get rewards

There are several problems with rewarding ‘support’ as mentioned earlier in this thread that would make a system very vulnerable to cheating.
Also: the aim of this game is basically to kill things, so in the end only doing x amount of damage is what this game is all about. Now I’ve stated above after a post where you acused me of underestimating the role of support that support can be helpful in staying alive and doing more damage: but don’t lose sight of the objective here: ‘baddies’ don’t drop dead because of you awesome water spells, they drop because they recieve damage.
Now you also keep mentioning other ways of looting/recieving badges. Just to be clear I could not care less one way or the other, let me loot them, recieve them automatically or mail them. My only point in this thread was in response to OP who claimed he deserverd to get more badges for spending four hours doing nothing but ‘pure support’: a phenomenon that wasn’t aimed for in this games’ design and that in my opinion, should not be encouraged.
So to round of my argument: If someone plays the game the way it is meant to be, he or she will get rewarded. That this is based on the amount of damage that person does is only practical (prevents cheating) and is in line with the aim of the game: kill npc/enemy players by doing damage. All your other spells are just there to aid you in the objective of doing damage. Don’t turn means into ends of themselves.

Guild Wars 2 was designed not to have ‘pure support’, so why would you even play like that. Not a whole lot a of damage is required to tag a mob/enemy player: a few bounces with your ‘Chain Lightning’ are enough.
Only standing behind the players doing actual fighting, throwing down the occasional Geyser, Healing Rain, Static Field and Unsteady Ground, without a single damage contribution should not be rewarded in my opinion.
The reward for every player to do damage, dodge incoming damage, heal themselves and others and cripple/stun foes is both loot and increased chances of survival. Not only elementalists, but every class in game can, should and, in my experience, do all four of these. There should be no need to alter the reward system.

Ah sorry, I thought OP wanted to reward “pure support” instead of support while doing dmg. Given the fact that you also do dmg in between support spells and therefor get rewarded for the dmg done, I didn’t see a problem

My experience with fellow players has been that they are very aware of their non-dmg spells and while guardians and mesmers catch my attention more than other profs, i often see banners, invisibility fields, etc.

But if your experience has been different and you think a better reward system could get ppl to pay more attention to non-dmg parts of a fight, i have no opposition to that. I wouldnt like to see rewards for ‘pure support’ implemented though, it basically means that you’re not playing the game very well, neglecting the essential dmg part.

Ofcourse not. Every class in this game “wastes” time with spells that dont do dmg, but provide a benefit for a group or a single player. The OP suggests that the reward system should be altered to provide “support” players with more benefits. My argument to that is that this game really wasn’t designed with “pure suppport” players in mind.

Everyone has the time to do dmg, in fact we have so few “support spells” (large fight: big heal, small heal, static field, earth leg-breaker bar) we would be standing idle part of the time if we limited ourselves to 1 role. If im afraid i wont get enough dmg as to get rewared i just let my electricity bounce between all nearby targets in between heals/cc. It takes very little effort, and is actually playing the game the way it is designed.

Look at the green numbers when you throw down a healing field: your heals might save someone from downed state for a second, but they dont really “heal” anyone up like a healer in a traditional mmo. It was never meant to: everyone in a group has to do all things themselves: dmg, dodge, heal, cc.

Im not saying only dmg counts, im saying you need to do all 4, as should every other player. Mesmers, guardians, thieves, warriors, necromancers, engineers all have non-dmg spells they (should) use. I think many in this thread overestimate the ‘support’ elementalists give and underestimate their capacity to deal dmg between non-dmg spells

Sorry but “just playing support” in a game where most ppl can support themselves is just a little bit lazy imo. I love playing elementalist, but while my water heals are on cooldown i can easily switch to earth or fire for some nice dmg. back to water and sometimes air for boons.

This game isnt a holy trinity game, all players can pretty much heal themselves and others, dont just stand there while your 2 water heals (that really on their own would never keep a player alive like ‘proper’ heals from a dedicated healer) reach their cooldown but throw a few dmg spells around.

The currents system promotes all players to do their part: dmg, dodge, heal (mostly themselves, others can get minor heals/regen, but there isnt a proper heal for others in this game)

Fellow players and ANet,

A few weeks ago I started dabbling in some PvP and I found the whole experience somewhat problematic. Now with the Winterfest event these problems seem even worse. So I go to the Heart of the Mist or to the Festival Lionsguard and get thrown with some random people into a map. The start up time is very short, and during this start up time the map resets once or twice: on my necromancer I’ve just summoned all my pets, and then they’re gone again. In Winterfest I’ve just selected my role, and suddenly I’m a different role again.

During the fight too teams get reset constantly. One moment you’re in a fairly balanced 8v8, the next you’re overpowering a single blue or red person 4v1, the next moment you find yourself alone or with just 1 teammate opposing a force of six people. I try my best to stick with a group, Ctrl+Target, do some cc etc. but with very little communication it is just a mess. Winning or losing in sPvP seems more a matter of random chance then strategy or skill.

As a casual player who enjoys PvE, WvW and some PvP I am not in a guild dedicated to sPvP, in fact most hate it. Asking around in Lions Arch for a group to PvP with so that at least some form of strategy or coordination is possible, or at the very least group size won’t change from minute to minute, yields no responses.

So my question to the community and/or the company that makes this (otherwise wonderful) game is: How is a casual player to play sPvP (esp the Christmas event)? Do I stand at the Queue-person spamming /s and /m with my request for fellow group players, is there some magical way to stop the continuous map and group resets, do other players have a procedure done that gives them four hands: two to PvP with, two to chat to their team, and is there some magical way to make these teammates then reply and follow some sort of plan?

I used to play “that other MMO”, and I am fully aware that there is a league of difference between the random zerg groups and the “pro hardcore” PvP ers. I certainly don’t expect to find that last style of play with random people, but even in a random AV, AB, WSG, EoS, SoA, IoC, BoG, TP someone would /bg a strategy that others could follow. In WvW this seems to work as well. But in sPvP there seems no time to do this and when I try, my ever changing group of teammates can’t or won’t reply, suggest or follow any plan.

I’ve done my PvP dailies a couple of times now and while some matches were enjoyable and I do like the "sportscast’-style of sPvP I’m always glad when I see that chest and know that it is done. Most days I don’t bother because it just seems like a horrible waste of time and I’m not even really learning anything because of the randomness and quickness of it all.

TL/DR: How do I make sPvP an enjoyable, strategy over random chance, learning experience instead of just running around with or without an endlessly changing group against an endlessly changing group?