Over the past year I’ve been seeing a recurring scenario in World vs. World and Edge of the Mists; I enter a map and start the trek to my zerg alone. Right when I’m about to reach my zerg I see it: two or more people, one of them my ally, duking it out in the middle of the map. Whenever I do see this I, like the fool I am, only see an ally in need of assistance and decide to try and help fight them off. And as soon as I start attacking my ally immediately stops everything, backs off, and spams local chat with “STOP WE’RE DUELING.” Then I’m ganged up on by all the enemies that were in the area, and none of my team members come to my aide. Not only that but my allies will not even resurrect me when I’m killed, forcing me to go back to a waypoint and begin the journey back to my zerg again.
I understand that it was my misunderstanding that led to my death. I also understand that builds are different in WvW then in SPvP so there’s a need for people to test them in WvW. What I don’t understand is why the locations people have chosen for these duels are in plain sight of any passerby, or in the middle of high-zerg traffic areas. For example: In Edge of the Mists, there is apparently an unofficial “dueling area” that has become more frequently used. It’s right next to the Inferno’s Reactor, which is constantly passed by zergs or people trying to catch up to zergs throughout the 3 hour match period. I’ve also seen people dueling in front of SM in Eternal Battlegrounds, within reach of the cannons. People even duel right outside of respawn points. There are thousands of other locations that are much more inconspicuous than this. For instance, the ruins in any of the two alpine borderlands, or just off the road leading to the north camp (by the skritt or centaur camps). The Obsidian Sanctum JP also has a large flat area at the start, and many people who enter the JP will never attack anybody unless they’re feeling trolly. As for Edge of the Mists, there’s a large underside to the map that is far less traveled by zergs with many platforms that seem ideal for dueling. I know that there are duelers who chose to go to these more inconspicuous locations, and I appreciate that. For those who don’t, please try to understand that WvW has conditioned many people to attack on sight. It’s much easier to move yourselves somewhere safe then to expect everyone to just run by you.
But another behavior has developed off of these duelers that has become a real problem. There are many gankers who go to areas like the unofficial dueling area by Inferno’s generator and pose as duelers. Because it’s become habitual now for zergs to pass duelers the gankers are completely ignored. Then the gankers proceed to attack the tail of the zerg, without fear of reprisal. There are also people who are “observing” duels that will sometimes actively attack a passerby, even if said passerby has no intention of attacking them because they’ve recognized that they are dueling. It’s a sick behavior and it makes it hard for people to tell the difference between a dueler and a troll.
What I think would permanently solve this problem though is if Arenanet just creates the option to challenge anyone to an open duel. The challenged can chose to accept or reject the challenge, and the duel only continues until someone is downed. Many other MMOs have already had this feature in their games for years. Arenanet may have not included it because from the start they’ve wanted this game to be about teamwork and cooperation, and open dueling may seem a little too “loner” for their tastes. But dueling is a great way for people to socialize and to build their personal skill and, yes, to test a new build. Putting an open dueling feature in would clear up a lot of confusion and frustration that develops because of gankers, and give an outlet for real duelers to play the game they want to without having to go to extreme measures. To be clear, I don’t want dueling to go away, I just want it to be smarter.
