Guild Wars 2

Wondrouswall.7169:

https://youtu.be/fe5pvGDgoSg

Thumbs up for this build – you’re raid ready with the 11111 spam ^__^

Abelisk.4527:

I love it when a player goes to the forums to vent their losses

It’s even better when you dunk super hard on someone, watch their whole team quit, and then see their post pop up on the forum right away!

Like they literally alt-tabbed mid-match to kitten on the forums.

witcher.3197:

..said no one ever LUL

omg I clicked this thinking I wouldn’t get trolled.
#triggered

Xillllix.3485:

Kreweless.2196:

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

But then duo queue would be OP because full teams would have a huge advantage.

/sarcasm

Haha that’ll be the day in 2019 when the forums are alight with these kittenholes QQing that it should only be SoloQ in 2v2 Arena, because that’s the only way to ensure it’s fair.

And you know what? ArenaNet would probably listen.

If Conquest is dead then… 2v2 Arena WHEN

You should check back after reset and see if it’s changed.

I get the feeling they’ll either give the proper amount of points for the win, or at the very least remove the points lost. The devs commented that they don’t make those changes until the next server reset though.

It’s easier to track if you have an account on gw2efficiency.

Crinn.7864:

Kako.1930:

This is by far the worst season. It feels like it’s still the off season lol.

No it’s not. Season 1 was the worst season, and it’s gotten better every season since then.

People just being salty that rating is merit based now.

Pretty funny when it turns out that you actually can’t do anything you put your mind to, that you’re not special, and that no one cares how hard you work.

I think for a lot of people, this is the first time they’ve really tried at something and actually failed. It’s a breath of glorious, fresh air to the “Everyone Wins!” mentality that plagues modern MMOs.

Gretzel.6790:

I haven’t played 200 games of ranked in two days. That’s impossible.

Uh…

Gretzel.6790:

Nearly 200 matches played and its never been this bad but what the kitten is going on?

I guess you meant something else.

Gretzel.6790:

None of these losses are my fault

These types of posts are as old as the forum itself.

Gretzel.6790:

So I bought the game recently

You’ve only been playing Guild Wars 2 for a couple of months (see your quoted post from 2 months ago).

If you are north of 1200, I’d be proud that you’re above the average Skill Rating. That means you’re better than half the players! According to gw2efficiency, the median skill rating for players with less than 500 hours is only 1083.

Fear not, buddy. You’re just finding out that you’re not as good as you thought you were. In order to win in this game consistently enough to get to Legendary League, you have to be better than EVERYONE on both your team and the opposing team, every time. If I were you, I’d focus on small ways you can improve your game:

• Learn how to counter-pick, that means learning all the matchups and how to play builds that counter the team you’re facing
• Learn how to adapt to your allies / opponents skill levels — based on your posts it’s clear you have a pretty fixed playstyle

Gretzel.6790:

I bunker down on a point

• Find a DuoQ partner and learn as much as you can from them
• Learn to rotate, if you’re as mechanically sound as you claim, your team could really use your help in the critical team fights, regardless of whether they’re on a point or not

Just a few pointers here to troubleshoot your game, bearing in mind you’ve been with the game for a whopping 2 months.

• Consider how your teamchat rage affects your teammates. Most players will shut-off and AFK when they feel they’ve been disrespected.
• Consider how your individual gameplay (I’m willing to bet you’re the SoloQ bruiser / roamer / hero type) works with the professions you’ve chosen. You might want to solo-push far into outnumbered fights with something besides Necromancer.
• 200 games played with only 2-3 days of the season so far? Probably take a break. Maybe get a job.

Serious Advice
• Try out some more of the builds from Metabattle, Rev and Necro might not be for you
• Always duo-queue
• Improve your attitude / it’s better to just play your best than spam chat and pings
• Review your understanding of the game / you might be as smart as you think
• A lot of these losses are probably directly your fault, maybe own up to that

WIDE RIM GLASSES

Just think of all the refund requests (and rightfully so) they’ll have if they nerf the size.

First rule of acquisition…

I felt I’d share my Season 6 SoloQ Placement results for a few reasons:
• 7 out of 10 were pretty close, some even had dramatic comebacks
• Notice how volatile the rating changes are, and how they throttle back over time
• It was relieving to see the d/c loss didn’t result in lost skill rating, you have to wait until the next day’s reset to see the results

I’m starting off this season in Silver 3 — not the best, but I’m looking forward to climbing again. Last season I SoloQ’d from 1248 to 1435, and I was generally happy with that.

It sucks to think that ArenaNet might actually consider spending resources on solving kittenhole-behavior in their game, when they should be spending resources making it funner / better / more varied / more balanced.

AFK boohooing is rampant in NA, but is it the same in EU?

The ranking loss should disappear after the next reset. Check back on your stats in an hour.

Hevoskuuri.3891:

How’s everyone’s ten first games?

Calling it quits for the night after SoloQing to 4 wins and 3 losses, but we had a d/c during one of the losses. I’m gonna wait until reset to see if it’s still there.

Hevoskuuri.3891:

I stepped foot in PvP for the first time in mid-season 5 (and went with unranked to get to lvl 20), so this will be my first actual league! I’ve done reasonably well in my opinion, after all I have 1000 hours clocked into WvW so dueling and GvG are very familiar to me.

Welcome to PvP! The gametype should benefit from your being here.

Sharen Graves.1276:

Just doing dailies… in ranked…that’s how hard.

Yikes. But I guess you have the right to play how you want.

Bugabuga.9721:

We’ll see how updated matchmaking and less shinies will drive the new season. Maybe things will be better?

I’m actually hopeful for Season 6, but I’m an endless optimist. I think most of the jaded pros are gone, so we’re the new generation of GuildWars2 PvPers.

It’s possible that enough people are sick of the stagnant meta-builds that we could see some inventiveness in Ranked this season; being unpredictable can actually throw people off their game. I saw some fun stuff in Unranked during the off-season and it was really refreshing to face something besides the usual 8-9 builds you always see.

Wow, I’m surprised at all the positive comments so far! Thanks for your comments.

• It’s interesting that most people seem happy with reaching Platinum.
• I definitely agree that DuoQ is a firm advantage over SoloQ, provided you’re both happy with the skill-level of the pair.

beatthedown.2651:

The meta does not excite me at all. Probably trying out some funnier builds instead of the ultra-predictable-not-even-that-good standard setups.

@beatthedown I totally like that you intend to have fun with some inventive builds. Imagine that! Fun in a video game! xD

• I think anyone that wants to compete should study the meta-builds, but not be afraid to deviate. The unpredictability can be strong enough to swing duels through a whole match.

• Duo-queue only with your best friend — meta-paired builds and comms
• Peak hours / off hours — queue-dodging stronger players
• Counter-comp picks

Just throwing some ideas out there. I personally think I’m gonna avoid learning any new classes during the season and just stick to what I know. Probably won’t SoloQ at all during the season. I guess it just depends on the quality of the matches and whether I feel like I’m having any effect on my climbs or descents through skill rating.

What lessons did you learn from last season about the placement matches and how will you apply those lessons during Season 6?

What skill rating is good enough for you? It’s extremely unlikely to end up in Legendary, so is Platinum the “I made it” league? How do you feel about Gold?

Ookamikun.6472:

“lekittening”

lol wat

Solstace.2514:

They essentially made them worthless.

Adorable hyperbole.

They still count towards the Ascended Gear everyone is freaking out about. You just have to spend a little more; it brings it in line with the other ways to get your shinies.

Solstace.2514:

It was a mistake to have them as valuable as they were.

You’re right.

Solstace.2514:

bait and switch

I guess ArenaNet owes everyone free kitten; I genuinely don’t understand the QQ everytime they nerf a farm. Get over it.

Solstace.2514:

I have no problem with them making a system that encourages more people to play. That’s good for pvp, not bad. Matchmaking should be able to sort out the good from the bad, but having a small and continuously diminishing player base is never good.

That doesn’t take into account that there are incorrect ways to incentivize people to try the game-type.

Let’s say you had an open-water swimming club, and you wanted to see big numbers at your next big lake crossing. Offering free beers to anyone who shows up to the event would garner a different result from offering free beers to anyone who completes the swim. What’s the difference between the two groups that those tactics would attract?

We’ll have to see what the numbers are like for Season 6. I have a feeling North America sPvP isn’t doing that well — we had about 25 players in Legendary League at the end of the season where EU had about 125 — not counting alts. But American players showed they were more willing to game the system and kitten on the forums than play Conquest.

Maybe it’s time to immigrate!

All of the Living World story characters have gotten new outfits for Season 3. I’m expecting Kasmeer Meade to show up in something new for Episode 5, with a gem store entry as well. Hopefully, it’s her Southsun bikini.

archangeles.5298:

Most people in here just want to use their shards. Why did some get to use theirs and not others?

They didn’t take anyone’s shards away. The problem people have with this change is that their shards have less value during Season 6 than they did during Season 5.

But they had too much value during Season 5. Getting nearly a full set of Ascended Armor for playing (not even winning!) a few games of ranked is way out of balance compared to:

• Grinding to 500 Crafting Discipline
• Time-gated / Expensive materials

They just brought the acquisition-method into line with the other ways; and hopefully the people that come to Season 6 will be here for competitive-pvp instead of handouts.

Crinn.7864:

The system does not ensure that 1% land in legendary, rather the Division benchmarks where set by Anet to be where they expected the 1% to be based on past seasons.

You’re right the system doesn’t ensure that anyone lands anywhere. But an algorithm directs skill ratings when it gives and takes away points after wins and losses.

Go look at the data and see what you think.
• gw2efficiency
• gw2armory NA / EU

I’m not saying that the system hardcaps the top 1% into Legendary; it directs skill rating movements, in aggregate. That’s why Top 100 players get 1-2 points for a win and lose 20-25 for a loss.

The system tries to normally distribute the player-base; it will only reserve severe shifts in skill rating to the tippy-top players. Why does EU have more players in Legendary? Is it because EU has better players? That wouldn’t fall in line with how we’ve seen the system act. They can only have more players in that league, because they have more players in total.

Rozalina.3196:

It was good there was more people in pvp because it means shorter ques and what’s wrong with that.

I’ve seen a general consensus in the forums and map chat that people would prefer higher quality matches over shorter queue-times with bad matchmaking. More people could be nice, but only if those people actually want to play the game.

Rozalina.3196:

Anet seriously needs to let all those people that saved their tokens a chance to use them before the next season starts.

They did.

Rozalina.3196:

This would show the gw2 community that they do care and didn’t mean to screw them out of their rewards they worked hard for this season.

No one that got ascended gear during Season 5 worked for it. You got it after you spammed a number of games, regardless of wins or losses. Granted, it was an easy way to get the gear — but it’s totally unbalanced from the other methods for getting that gear.

Just grind out the crafting skill, and eat the small gold cost. You’ve still got your tokens, and you can “earn” more this season to get your full set.

I hope they change the pips mechanic so players only earn them for wins, otherwise they’re just rewarding losers.

A cursory glance at metabattle shows every power build relies on Air/Blood sigils — a nerf to those would probably force some interesting choices from power players.

I think the proc-on-swap sigils promote “active” gameplay, since you need to be in melee and push a button. It’s better than the passive stun-breaks and turn-off-damage actions we see (looking at you Warrior and Engineer, specifically).

On-kill sigils don’t necessarily need removal — They’re useless until you actually get kills — so there’s risk/reward play there.

Forcing condition builds to consider precision is a good idea. Currently, power builds require power/precision/ferocity to deal good damage while condition builds only need condition damage (3 > 1).

Adding or reworking sigil procs with more obvious cues might add to the visual noise; it’s unclear whether that would promote more active gameplay.

Crinn.7864:

That’s not how it works. The smaller the playerbase the higher the ratings.

[…]

There is no evidence that EU has a larger population.

It’s really easy to show how you’re wrong here. You can look at the statistics and how the ratings spread on gw2efficiency.com. ArenaNet rates players based on their win/loss ratio relative to the rest of the active players. It’s designed to push the average player towards 1200.

The top 1% fall in Legendary, the top 10% in Platinum, and so on. If you have fewer players, it becomes tougher to climb — because there are fewer slots. You can see it when you compare ratings between NA and EU. The reason they have more players in platinum is because 10% of more is… more.

Kuya.6495:

Vyrulisse.1246:

Kreweless.2196:

gishalicious.3510:

the original way was a GREAT WAY for PVP players to obtain full sets of ascended gear

Translation: the original way was a GREAT WAY for PvE scrubs to come ruin the game-type players to obtain full sets of ascended gear

“Why is our game type dying?”

“Hi guys, these rewards really drew me in and it’s kinda fun. I might stick around.”

“REEE GET OUTTA HERE PVE SCRUB NOOB!!!”

Exactly

You will absolutely not strawman me like that.

If someone likes it, wants to try, and will stick around — great.

The problem is players that don’t try, don’t want to improve, and are literally only there for the Fractals equipment. Don’t even act like there weren’t a ton of farmers last season. Good riddance.

Have you considered immigrating to the EU servers? I heard it’s night and day between the two regions in terms of general skill level.

I think NA is plagued by quitters and players that never intended to stay past the Fractals equipment.

I’m gonna play Season 6 on EU as long as the ping is tolerable, and after five seasons in NA — I bet I’ll have some interesting findings.

Cynz.9437:

Anet would be forced to balance pvp properly

Making a logical leap here when you don’t need to. Dal is merely proposing a true free-to-play mode for PvP. He feels like allowing pvp-minded players to download Heart of the Mists — the game — could build the player-base, which is like Step-1 in improving everyone’s experience.

Cynz.9437:

they used imbalance to make extra money (HoT specs + revs were made OP so players that want to compete are forced to buy HoT).

Revs in 2017 #lol

But seriously, yeah power-creep is inevitable in any MMO. I’m sure the internal conversation at ArenaNet felt silly to the developers that wanted PvP to stay true to the original zero-grind for PvP philosophy.

I’d love to hear the real no-bullkitten reason PvP doesn’t allow full access to HoT-specs for free-to-play players. I saw something the other day that said something like 95% of players have the expansion at this point… Like, what do they have to lose?

tobascodagama.2961:

Silverkey.2078:

At the risk of not being very popular, not being able to cast damaging phantasms while remaining in stealth sounds good to me.

Yup, completely agree. You should have to choose between lurking in stealth or using attack spells. You shouldn’t be able to do both.

inb4 QQs about Ghost Thief

I seriously didn’t know there were so many PU roamers out there. I thought everyone played the Helseth build from metabattle, which has zero stealth. #TIL

Orrrrrr, the only people who are vocal on forums are the ones who play crutch builds in WvW. Get outta here with that cheap kitten.

choovanski.5462:

https://youtu.be/90L5Rw1YdwQ?t=200

gw2 will never be this good again. i would drop current gw2 for a retro server in a heartbeat.

Dude this was SO ENTERTAINING to watch!

And it’s simple 2v2 combat. That’s the part of GW2 that is fun.

Arena styled, fighting game styled, easy to watch, easy to stream, easy to shoutcast is what could take this game to the next level.

Jekkt.6045:

battlerite on steam. community isn’t that big but still bigger than gw2. you have to like arena style pvp tho, which i didn’t. afaik, teldo also plays/played it.

Wow thanks for pointing out BattleRite, I might give this a try when I get home from work.

But yes, this exactly.

Could you imagine an arena fighter with dedicated static characters in the Guild Wars 2 engine? I would cry if something like that got announced — and we’ve seen the PvP team make attempts to move away from Conquest (RIP Stronghold 2016-2016).

Champions of the Mists (Let’s call it) wouldn’t need any new assets, could use existing skills, would be immensely easier to balance than Conquest and — with a few minor tweaks to camera and skill effect — could be extremely easy to spectate.

You don’t have to understand frame data to get hype when you’re watching Street Fighter V.

• A camera that dynamically centers on the two players, like in fighting games
• A timer for matches and lifebars that drain towards the center
• Static characters (i.e. builds are set, maybe choose your elite but no more)
• Arena maps from in-game assets (maybe add some line of sight)

Jourdelune.7456:

@Kreweless

Thank you to put other word in a better syntax/grammar than mine.

No problem Dal — I’m sure your English is far better than my French xD

NotASmurf.1725:

There’s literally only Sindrenerr right now and even he doesn’t stream daily. There are no PvP streamers left in this game.

Well it’s in between seasons, so there’s not much PvP to stream. And besides that, this game is tough to watch even when you know a lot about it.

Exedore.6320:

In a MOBA, you have characters with fix abilities and roles. It’s very clear what each does or is supposed to do.

What would you guys think about a 1v1 or 2v2 arena fighting game with GuildWars2’s engine, but with fixed characters/builds? This is all fantasy, but wouldn’t that solve the balance issue, the watchability (streamability) issue, and still leave players with the core of what we love about PvP.

The really tragic thing about potentially losing PvP in this game is that, at its heart, the combat is really fun.

shox.1586:

Unranked doesn’t have a reward track ?or i’m missing something? and everyone says “oh it’s unranked we don’t care” then team up 3 gold,plat and crush others all day . .anyway gw2 PVP and some players are looking even more to moba players,imo.

Shox, I know the forums are a dedicated place for you to air your grievances about the game, but this complaint must never be taken seriously.

Find a few friends and jump in discord or teamspeak and queue together if you fear premades so badly. Guilds spam ads in map chat all the time, and you can find guilds here in the forums as well.

Try joining the community instead of ripping into the groups of people that — you know — congregate, join each other, play the multiplayer game with… (gasp) multiple players.

usnedward.9023:

You are losing for other reasons.

I ain’t losing punk, 1v1 me xD

Talonblaze.3175:

If PvP itself is frustrating with its balance and isn’t fun for most.
And the rewards are now just as much of a chore.

Why would anyone bother?

This hits the nail on the head. But with the spin-up for new raids, new fractals, new living story and ultimately a new expansion (perhaps late 2017), you gotta ask yourself why you still WvW/PvP in this game when it gets little to no love from the development team.

I’m still of the mind that the best reward would be a fun game, but…

• A dedicated dueling game-type
• SoloQ/TeamQ Leaderboards to 1000 instead of Ranked and Unranked, like before
• Skins-only rewards (this appeals to all players, but makes more sense than Ascended)
• Automated tournaments, like Helseth was encouraging before Denial went to Smite
• Access to elite-specializations for free-to-play accounts

Would be a good start.

Guild Wars 2: The Massive Multiplayer Online Game that people want to play alone.

You know, there are a lot of great single-player games out there. Why does ArenaNet listen to these complaints?

I’m still waiting on a dedicated 1v1 game-type, but everyone insists that SoloQing with randoms in a TEAM game is better.

For every Helseth that quit there’s a Sindrener that stayed; So, I don’t buy that “all the pros quit” stuff.

Making the full PvP experience free-to-play gives competitive players a risk(cost)-free way to try the game. Right now, you have to invest $25-$50 just to get the meta builds.

Crinn.7864:

The current incentive system does not provide any motivation for losing.

Correction: The current incentive system does not provide any motivation for trying.

Obviously, there are plenty of hybrid players out there. There are plenty of people trying to win. And it’s all moot now, because they nerfed the free-ascended gear in PvP for Season 6 anyways.

But Season 5 had enough players who showed up purely for the participation rewards that it ruined plenty of experiences for people who wanted to play competitively. They took an expensive and time-gated set of equipment, made it free in PvP, and didn’t even bother to require players to win to receive it. Just grind out the matches—it literally didn’t matter if you afk’d the whole thing, and you now have stat-capped armor and weapons. What did they expect?

I mean, do you really want the “Best Sportmanship” ribbon at the end of the sportsball season? No, because it makes the “We Won at the Competitive Game that Traditionally has Winners and Losers” trophy look stupid.

Dal’s philosophy towards — and correct me if I’m wrong — expanding the PvP player-base is to appeal to gamers that don’t currently play GW2 but like PvP games.

I think this is a fundamental shift from what we’ve seen ArenaNet try in the past: which is to try to appeal to gamers that currently play GW2 but don’t play PvP.

When you bring in PvP-thinking players, the game-type benefits from stronger competition, higher levels of gameplay, and more user-content with purposeful focus on PvP.

When you bring in GW2 players that haven’t had or don’t have an interest in competitive gaming, you get a temporary spike in player-base while carebears farm their ascended gear, a noticeable increase in toxicity where tryhards intersect with casuals or afkers, and a general decrease in the health of the game-type.

Granted, for every 99 players that came purely for PvE rewards, maybe we got 1 person who genuinely enjoyed the experience they might not have tried without the incentive who stayed with the intention of improving their gameplay and becoming a more competitive player. But you’re foolish if you lean on that as an argument to keep PvP rewards the way they are.

100% agree with you Dal! ::thumbs up::

Crinn.7864:

You can’t stop bad players from queuing and there no difference between a PvE’er and some random new guy with delusions of grandeur.

Indeed there is a critical difference between a player that is just here for their participation reward and a bad competitive player.

The desire, or at least interest, in winning.

These guys regularly — in game and on the forums — admitted they had no interest in the outcomes of the matches they were ruining. They were just there for the gear.

That really fudges the experience for anyone who wants to win, or improve, or enjoy themselves. You know, the type of player that likes PvP.

If they left everything as is from Season 5 and made only a small change, we’d see an overnight change in match quality.

Put the rewards in Unranked.

Remove all rewards from Ranked—the only thing you’re playing for is a spot on the leaderboard.

Then, you let the carebears follow the incentive into their “farm”

And the players that actually want to be competitive don’t have to deal with that nonsense.

The players that came to “farm” PvP Ranked matches for their free ascended gear did nothing for the game-type, except enrage those of us who were actually trying to win.

Taxing them into a different lane, maybe the autoattack-fests in map-meta-events, is totally justifiable. I don’t buy it for a second that participation rewards expand the player-base in PvP.

We should promote changes to the game that attract competitive game players, not try to entice carebears into a game-mode that they’re not interested in with giveaways.

Lucentfir.7430:

But you can just trade ascended shards for skins…already.

Yeah but only for Ardent Glorious Armor. He’s talking about the pre-wardrobe days when PvPers got all kinds of skins for their lockers.

Segregating the player-base between game-types was better, but we had more PvPers back then. They’re all playing Overwatch and Smite now.

Watch Mighty Teapot’s Minstrel Mesmer build video and use Monk Runes instead.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Cleric/Minstrel_Tank

gishalicious.3510:

the original way was a GREAT WAY for PVP players to obtain full sets of ascended gear

Translation: the original way was a GREAT WAY for PvE scrubs to come ruin the game-type players to obtain full sets of ascended gear

Apolo.5942:

PvP rewards are the only thing that made it worth it last season, congratulations on kittening it up.

Take your PvE focus somewhere else sir.

Probably to PvE.

Credit card farm always works for me, probably needs a nerf tbh

Donari.5237:

That was so popular they designed in more permanent bonuses to other legendaries.

What other effects are out there? I had a lot of fun with this and would do it again for other effects. I want the purple aura or confetti from Quip a lot.