Guild Wars 2

I would rather see tracks included in the upcoming league system.
They could give exclusive skins for like “Play X matches in League Y” or even class-related.
Maybe even coupled with specific spots like Top 10, Top 25, Top 50, etc..
(Rewards could include Ascended Items too)

Since I have not seen any similar post recently, I want to say thank you for the very fast hotfix on the issue with Power Block (albeit looks still a bit buggy).

P.S.: Thanks from Shad too.

Edit: Nevermind, has been a misunderstanding about Illusionary Warlock fix.

Be careful mentioning the Glassdoor-Reviews as stated in this thread here.
Just to let people know.

I would still like to emphasize how important a fair balance for the enjoyment of a league or ladder is (I also hope the league and ladder system are in-game systems).
Competitive players are way too fed up with things like Healing Signet, Spirit of Nature, etc. to be motivated to play in leagues or ladders. What was a somewhat fair balance was the balance between February 2013 and June 2013.
Also, I second that competitive players are moreso hardcore than casual.

Dota 2 is for me the undisputed king of competitive gaming. High complexity and high skill ceiling. Balance happens there also more often.
League on the other hand is simpler but has also a shorter balance cycle. Balance happens at least when a new champion is released and sometimes with hotfixes if a champion proposes too much imbalance.
These games have a differently distributed complexity in form of 4-6 skills and item choices though.
About shooters, I cannot say much but they are at least mechanically demanding and you have to hit well (at least in CS:GO). I am not sure about balance cycles there :>
As for fighting games, look at 1-frame links or any 2-3 frame actions, so they are surely mechanically demanding on top of tactical play with its pool of characters. Not sure about balance there either even though new games are released in short intervals like Ultra Street Fighter IV this summer.

GW2 now on the other hand has nice mechanics but its balance falls way off with so slow balance cycles in a game deemed competitive or wanting to go esports.

Foefire is fine.
It may rather need some change to Graveyard.

@ sorrow
Yes about Karsai and Niah, also Iisey (ExpelHax) is a multi-class-player.

Decrypter.1785:

Most of the Top players , are doing pve until spvp big patch on 18th lol true story

As funny as it is, I know it is true for a few.
I hope March will be promising.

garethh.3518:

Sari.9836:

I agree with an early release of patch notes to discuss them.

They tried a lil something like that and it went down terribly.
It was a mess of complaints and Anet couldn’t decipher the legitimate trains of thought from the QQ.

The patch was the one with diamond skin and whatnot.
As bad of a patch as they ever had.

That is why veterans and experienced players gotta be asked and their recommendations be weighted as much as broad or deep their experience is.
But Anet still gotta have an open communication about their plans and decisions.

I agree with an early release of patch notes to discuss them.
Additionally these changes:

• No broken MMR or uneven matches. I would like to see players be able to volunteer on such matches for a little reward but no change to their rating.
• More frequent balance updates and of higher quality, discussed with experienced players/veterans. Also make changes in terms of balance split off from PvE where it is necessary.
• Possibly making SoloQ unrated. I doubt the leaderboards are in any way authentic and a queue with MMR will ensure that challenge will be there.
• Proper tutorial with individual build-making. Right now, both ‘tutorials’ are not really thorough and present the player with only a few things. Having a new player make their own build and explain things meanwhile would be fly.

Edit: Balance has to have the highest priority past the introduction of leagues, ladders and changes to MMR.

March 18th 2015.

(I kid)

^
sPvP is region-wide, meaning whole Europe or North America.

What type of structure would you find interesting for leagues and ladders?

Divisions or tiers. From Bronze to Platin and even further. Highest division would open up to ‘professional play’ (like challenger division in League of Legends). Also possibly an amateur-division for players not being able to play more than 1-2 hours per day if they want to have more of a challenge.
Issue: Glicko-2 system and rating derivation among other issues.
Possible Solution: An Elo-rating on highest division with a decent decay. Lower divisions would have an Elo-Rating just determining their MMR. Lower divisions would have League points to get up to higher tiers in their division or even transcend to a higher division. Also, a certain amount of inactivity should result in a drop to lower tiers or divisions (possibly 3-4 weeks ?).
Possibly profession-based rankings for SoloQ, but account-bound for TeamQ.

How long should a season last?

3 months
Issue: Stretching out a season for too long or keeping it too short.
Reason: 3 months allow for a reasonable amount to get to higher tier when many matches can be played per day. It is also not too long and doesn’t necessarily allow players to go on a break and rush to the top near the end of a season.

What would motivate you to play in one?

Issues: No competition, no rewards, no recognition.
Solution: Certain changes in terms of MMR (no 4vs5s) and first and foremost balance (and that way more frequent for a game wanting to be competitive or esports). Then exclusive rewards and a chance to be recognized by a broad playerbase.

What types of rewards would you like to see?

Possibly exclusive skins (and maybe finishers), exclusive capes or backpacks similar to the gold trim capes back in GW1, possibly a similar star as world map completion with the colour of the division and number of season I have participated in at the end of a season. Fancier the higher the division gets. And what Countless said, being on the Wall of Champions is also a suitable reward.
(I personally like Skins and capes as well a mention on the Wall of Champions the most)

How would a player earn these rewards?

By ending up in a specific devision at the end of a season. Maybe even with various positions in possible tiers in each division, kind of like tier 1 to X.

How would you encourage players of all skill levels to participate?

One is the recognition out of participating in leagues and especially being in a higher division. Then there are exclusive rewards to show it to others. And lastly, working MMR and more challenging gameplay. Right now, the balance is off with slower gameplay (past quickness nerf) and certain design choices (high viability of passive things, AI, invulnerabilities/hard counters, very low frequency of balance changes, difficulty vs reward) and if leagues are introduced to SoloQ, MMR has to be fixed so 4vs5s are not possible and if someone leaves and won’t come back in 1-2 minutes, they can get Dishonorable and the empty spot can be filled by someone volunteering (possibly not getting any rating but a specific reward). These 2 things play a very, very important and essential role in the enjoyment of the game and has made many players quit or switch to PvE/WvW, especially competitive.
In terms of leagues for various game modes, I think this idea should not be left out and checked in competitiveness and fairness to have it be implemented for other game types, possibly even further splitting things (in terms of skills) between game modes to allow for competition and fairness.
Also, please keep TeamQ and SoloQ and further add unrated queues to these.
And remove Skyhammer and Spirit Watch from SoloQ.

From a sPvP-standpoint, it is fine and has been since beta. Guardians have many options to avoid damage (e.g. mace or focus) or heal some up (e.g. staff).

I wholeheartly agree and I would also like to mention that I hope we go with an ELO system later. We have no metrics for our rating on the current Glicko-2 system thus not allowing us to thoroughly analzye our rating and its determinants and possibly take something new and helpful out of it. An ELO system allows for more freedom in rating too. (And thank you for linking my post :D)

AI builds should never reach a high status of viability (and reward) and work only in lower or medium brackets of play. And that goes for Spirit Weapons too.

TeamQ still has some authenticity since certain randomness is taken out. (Put balance aside)
SoloQ on the other hand, forget it.
The other leaderboards are not really what I want to see. I wish they would have dungeon-related leaderboards with speed-clears (Blizzard did it) and GvG ones with designated GvG maps (or at least one) to queue for and face each other off.

Lord Kuru.3685:

It seems they’re doing another CDI on CDI instead:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Format-Proposal/page/4#post3669003

Thank you.
I just saw monday being mentioned there, so I gotta wait (as do others).

I thought it should have been there on the 19th or did I miss something ?
I am curious.

Disclaimer: This is more of an argumentation towards design choices rather than current balance. Balance is more complex than just nerfing Healing Signet only.

There have been many complaints about Healing Signet and the recent balance approach of nerfing the passive by mere 8 % has brought up heated discussions.
However, 8 % won’t cut it for this simple reason: Its passive heal heals without restrictions. Applied poison also has the warrior just heal for 262.64 health/second (without any healing power). The passive effect is just too good to pass by and compared to the active, it just requires the warrior 9 seconds to survive to heal the amount the active use of Healing Signet would offer. And when considering the cast time of the active it comes down to 8 seconds.

I have gone over the list of skills every class offers in the Healing skill slot and all skills are interruptable (albeit a few can be tricky to interrupt and Withdraw is instant). Healing Signet won’t have its active be used in its current state, its passive is too good and will probably be with just a nerf of 8 %.

In terms of signets, no class has an access to such healing mechanics.
Guardian’s Signet of Resolve just removes a condition every 10 seconds (or 8 if traited) and its active has at least a cool-down of 32 seconds if traited.
Signet of Malice just heals on any hit on a foe.
Signet of Restoration triggers when a spell is casted.
Signet of the Ether requires to have active illusions on the battlefield.
Signet of Vampirism heals when one’s own character is struck by a foe.
And rangers have a utility slot signet heal of 62 health per second.

So what I recommend is to have Healing Signet have its mechanics reworked. An option could be to have its passive trigger per attack, similar to Signet of Malice. And meanwhile a more drastic nerf to around 300-320 health/second.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Pretty sure they are true tbh. Buffing AI is the sort of thing Anet love, and not actually nerfing anything like spirit ranger/warrior/s/d thief.

The notes are legit. I am confident of it. Maybe not the most recent set of notes though I guess….

Not every possible change stated on the leaked patch notes may go through. Happened in the past like that.

I think making Glory Boosters into Rank Boosters as I read here in a different thread is a good solution. This gives people who invested into this game by purchase of these Boosters to keep their investment.
With the upcoming league system exclusive and hopefully rare rewards are being given out. This would mean additional rewards are being added and ones which are being distinguished from the rank-related ones thus not being a point of conflict, I hope.

Allie Murdock.8152:

We aren’t second-class citizens. I know it kind of seems that way right now, but big things are coming that we just can’t talk about. We’re still cranking, trust me!

Sorry but I do not see any hard proof supporting that. I cannot give that statement any trust.

Wow, back from the dead.

Some old players still playing: Gengar, Azron, Rom, Helseth, Karsai, Iisey, Super, Posi.
And a few more maybe but they are not focused on sPvP atm.

As for what has changed:

• Better reward system
• Leaderboards for TeamQ and SoloQ. SoloQ isn’t really authentic though.
• League system coming up in the upcoming feature patch
• Many new skins
• Several tournaments with gem prizes or real prices (summer opener in may with 2,5k $ prize pool, I think)
• And 2 new maps, but one of them is being frowned upon at least

I still hope for exclusive rewards coming from the league system and its ladder and seasons.
If not…well…a slap to the face, especially for Player B with thousands of hours.

Romek.4201:

Sari.9836:

I agree that it is bad design choice but without it, Engineers would just drop dead.
There are inter-connected issues over all the classes so necromancers have to be revisited too.

only the bad ones and they deserve to “just drop dead”

engineer worked fine before, without AR, and people talked bout engineer as the class with most skill

now its just broken and FACEROLL

Certain build options weren’t available before June patch with power-metas dominating the scene before. That means Elixier R and Elixier S were picked, or even Flamethrower. Teldo also used a Rifle One-Shot build at some point. There was also HGH…okay that build was a pain and it was played with a Necromancer in the team-comp.
But anyway, I meant that it is bad design choice anyway, but it would not be a good balance decision to change it without changing other class-interconnected issues.

I agree that it is bad design choice but without it, Engineers would just drop dead. :D
There are inter-connected issues over all the classes.

PvP: What would you like to see from a League system?

I am not sure about any possible matchmaking yet, I do not like Glicko-2 though due to its rating derivation leaving too few freedom. Also divions-only matchmaking. As zone.1073 wrote below.
As for the division tiers, rewards for anyone but legendary skins for top division, ascended skins for second highest division, so we have a high incentive to get in these there. Tier-specific Finishers like the ones for WvW would be a good idea either. Maybe with a number somewhere indicating which seasons that finisher is from ?
As for other possible rewards, I am not sure. Gold Trim Capes would be nice for top teams.
But the few competitive players probably still want to be heavily recognized by many players, so work on a much bigger playerbase with the league-system too. Make this game more skill-based in PvP at least. This includes balance which may have to be completly seperate. (Sorry, a proper PvP-game needs its own focus, GW2 doesn’t have it for now it looks like)

Edit: It is hard to pin down how long seasons should last since WoW suffered from some players just rushing to a high rating at the end of the seasons. I am not sure if it is really bad, but I still want to mention it.
And yes, this is not the real CDI thread, but it can’t hurt to already have a discussion ongoing!
Oh and bring back free weekends and have them happen more often to let have people test out all the new upcoming stuff.

You just got respect from me, Justin.
Good to hear there is a consensus on a thing like Hambow.
Also nice seeing you play lock-down mesmer and Teldo engineer build.

Justin ODell.9517:

o_O Where to people come up with this stuff?

ALL of us play PvP. Though, I’ll give you that I’m no where near as good as Powerr, Grouch, Roy, Hugh, and Tyler. I’m pretty sure they’ve all made it to the top 100.

I play on Isle of Janthir, and you can usually find me in Solo Arena as Flux or Aegir.

Now people may leave when they see these two names…ah, I am just joking!

Powerr and Grouch used to be competitive players so this is no wonder but I am surprised about the other three.
What do you guys take from your occasional moments in sPvP however ? Which metrics ? Which impressions ? Any recent examples ?

I do not think their current path is any good even if it is easier.
It just gives the players less freedom. Invulnerability on burning speed just counters direct damage for a short time frame. This means for a short time a certain aspect is hard-countered. Same goes for Diamond Skin on Elementalists or Berserker Stance on Warrior.
I find that bad design.

Shortbow and Withdraw effectively pressure a mesmer. They can evade any shatter or phantasmal berserker with these evades.

Edit: I used full berserker in duels.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Generally speaking, it’s not hard for us to find out or know what builds are over the top. Obviously, we need to find a good middle ground to encourage people to play underused classes while balancing out the classes that are a little too dominant.

Balancing is difficult because it affects all areas of the game. This is more to get an idea of what class you guys feel is hurting the most right now, and fix it where it’s hurting. That’s not to say it will be the only thing we work on, we just want to make sure that your feedback is being heard, so we had to find a way to get it more specific and take it one step at a time.

I will be rather cheeky but why such a slow change on over-dominant builds in sPvP with outcries for a longer time (since June with very slow and rather ineffective changes). :D
And can we get more splits with more frequent updates to avoid staleness ? Some issues cannot be fixed by common balance since it would bring power-creeps in sPvP, e.g. condition buffs for PvE or the player-scales in WvW compared to sPvP. Every game-type can benefit from more splits. There are just different enviroments.

Edit: Sorry for slightly being off-topic.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Now that they are trying to find a way , so we can <<change maps>>

Would you prefer if they <<sucrifice>> a map (getting even more hateful that skyhammer) and acted as Open Beta ?
A Ncp that sells every Utilitie + Trait (nered-buffed or new traits) + Weapon (nerfed-buffed +new ) , while your character is stipped from everything ?

And if dont fancy to participated , you Vote for somthing else ?

A step-by-step or much more restricted enviroment is good for a test server, on live servers it would mean suicide for the game.
But there are still very frequent updates on the current test server if nothing has changed. Issue is though, only selected few from PvE, WvW and sPvP are on there and I think most do not play (example: 2 gw1 player posts on reddit, more than a year if not 1.5-2 years ago). There is only small feedback if any.

/bump
What has happened to this ?
Also, I agree that only certain skills and traits should be banned rather than traitlines to open up enough options.
I would also allow class stacking, though not every class stacking team composition.

I am sorry to break the rhythm, but from a competitive viewpoint in sPvP, every class has to be looked at. Some are more in need of balance changes. I would also recommend looking at the time frame starting at the 26th of February 2013 and ending at the 25th of June 2013. I know many competitive players liked that meta as it was fairly balanced, with every class more or less represented in competitive play.

My list for urgent balancing consists of these 3 classes:

1. Warrior
2. Ranger
3. Necromancer

(Further adding up to it:
4. Elementalist
5. Thief
6. Mesmer
7. Engineer
8. Guardian
9. Caed :D)

It has to be considered that the sum of certain skills, traits, runes, sigils and amulets (so basically builds) are too dominant in the current meta, over-shadowing other available builds right now. They are just a really decent option to take.
The thing is, certain skills and traits have to be looked at.

• Warriors: Let us talk about the heavily discussed Healing Signet. Guardians have a signet with only condition cleanse every 10 seconds (untraited). Engineers have no signets, basically just active skills. Rangers have mostly active healing skills too, while the Water Spirit has a random chance to heal allies. Thieves have Signet of Malice but their passive heal is only triggered by attacks. Elementalists have Signet of Restoration and that is triggered by use of skills (or spells as said in the tool-tip). Mesmers have Signet of the Ether which passively heals heals of various amounts depending on the illusions they have out. I do not like that design choice since it is a more independant passive heal but it has some restrictions to its effectiveness at least (It also supports an AI build, urgh). Necromancers have Signet of Vampirism which triggers its passive on being stuck by a foe but that can be counterplayed by heavy burst.
  A warrior’s healing signet is the only healing skill which passively regenerates health without any restrictions. Poison on the warrior will reduce it to 274.4 healing per second without 30 points into Defense. That is still a high amount. Couple that with one of the highest base healths, stances like Berserker Stance or Endure Pain, Condi-Removal via Cleansing Ire or Signet of Rage (coupled with Lyssa and possibly Signet Mastery), Dogged March, etc. and you have a powerhouse.
  Passive, unrestricted stuff like this should not be in sPvP. Nor should be hard-counters like Berserker Stance. That is too forgiving.

• Ranger: Spirit of Nature is similar to the Healing Signet. Passively heals for 480 right now even though it should be 320. It also clears conditions coupled with probably 30 points into Wilderness Survival for Empathic Bond and 30 points into Nature Magic for Spirits. Rangers still run any of these options: Shortbow, Sword, Dagger, Axe, Torch. There is a lot of condi pressure possible especially with Carrion Amulet (I am not sure how much the use of it has differed since June or July last year).
  Spirits are also random with their procs which isn’t a good design choice for competitive play anyway. RNG makes it somewhat more exciting but also takes out control from the player. Control which could allow for more depth and difficulty.
  Melee AI may still be rather easily kited in a circular route without any swiftness or movement increase. I remember e.g. Ravens not being able to kite since they have a different, straight pathing.

• Necromancer: Dhuumfire has a similar fate like utility skill spirits. It procs randomly on crit which at least doesn’t include conditions since they cannot critically hit. However, scepter #1 is still spammy and can proc Dhuumfire for example.
  It is good to move it to Deathshroud but I am not sure if it is a good choice. I think Signet of Spite is also being looked at by now. (I sadly did not duel any good necromancers since I came back from my break, so I cannot say much about it, although spectral wall and terror used to be broken. Terror got a nerf past June however, if I am not mistaken)

All in all, every class has to be revisited though. There is already a power-creep in the current builds. Things like Diamond Skin should also not be in this gam for example.
Less AoE and more emphasis on single target damage (single target > AoE in damage and effectiveness), less AI and more character-centered play (more control over the options given and therefore a broader playing field), less power creep to conditions and more emphasis on power damage. Less invulnerability and more emphasis on blocks (a good recommendation from Vuh on sPvP-forums about making current evades rather block than give invulnerability) (more error possible and higher skill ceiling due to punishment on more occasions).
And look at key skills and traits in builds.

Edit: Look at Flanking Strike, Larcenous Strike and Evade spam please too.

K U T M.4539:

Except Anet isn’t planning any expansions for gw2.

So, yeah

I know that Anet tries out stuff outside of live servers and I heard something about an expansion (autumn/winter), I am not sure how authentic it is though.
This game will at least be released in China, Brazil and Russia among others later on this year, according to a Eurogamer article.

New players (and possible new viewers for events) will most likely not be able to afford a Custom Arena nor its time tokens for a longer time, I assume, if they only enjoy sPvP and want to purchase other items as well.
Here are some calculations (using only TeamQ metrics with matches won).

Custom Arena Starter Kit:
Glory: 154 matches
Gold: 427 matches

Time Tokens (5 Days):
40 matches (8 per day)

Time Tokens (20 days):
128 matches (7 per day)

I agree that a Custom Arena Starter Kit should give a permanent Custom Arena and not be monetized through the Gem Store, same for Time Tokens.
Instead: Announcers, more skins, etc..

Now they just have to make smarter balance decisions rather than hard-counters like Berserker Stance and Diamond Skin. No invulnerability, more active single-target play and less passive stuff, AIs or AoEs. They can be there but not be so strong and effective.

And we need a more open communication between players and developers since past implementations were done without common consensus between developers and players and that got us into this mess. (Especially when Alpha is not open for everyone)

aussieheals.6843:

Hypothetically great suggestions, you’re just forgetting that no matter which way you go about it people are going to complain.

That is ineviatable. Still, there are a few things a competitive game has to have:

• More frequent changes: The more frequent updates/changes are, the more challenged players are in adapting to slightly or heavily different enviroments. It is an additional challenge where a player’s success can vary due to their learning speed. Skill peaks are independant of it however.
  It also brings more variety to the game in smaller time intervals.
  Even if possible balance changes are independently from PvE and WvW and thus making things more complex, it brings further challenge and new things to learn.

• Risk vs Reward: A competitive game should have options available for various levels of risks and rewards. What should not happen is a low risk high reward build which basically allows for easy results. A more skillful player should be able to pull off more difficult stuff while also getting more rewarded for it. (Builds with passives, AI, full focus on AoE should rather be like said Grenade Launcher here (from a different game))

• Information flow: An issue I see with such a low frequency of changes is that a build stays strong or is used by players for a long time. A temporary skill ceiling can easier be reached in a stale meta.

• Transparency and Open Communication: While I have seen some changes in the past about transparency and open communication, it is not enough, especially with marginal changes and ones I cannot understand. 8 % Nerf on Healing Signet while it has a flawed design (constant healing and no requirements) ? Invulnerability on Burning Speed while other things are an issue ?
  It is the same with the July Patch last year, changes which were not asked by the competitive community and which just work maybe as a band-aid fix.

So what I personally really want to see is more support for players which mainly enjoy the gameplay and mechanics. These are the main demographic group for sPvP and many have left, some still stick around.
If they still want to make this game highly competitive, there has to be more open communication with the competitive playerbase and an independant focus on sPvP.

Dota 2 may have some sweet system with unlocks. (In GW2: X Unrated matches to be able to join rated Queues)
Also, there is still no proper tutorial. Not even any cinematic showing new players what to find where in the mists and so on.

Pyriall.5027:

Sari.9836:

Pyriall.5027:

The pvp pool is understaffed. Have you viewed the pvp map creation power point? When they discuss “CANNON”, they show some images of the “entire” pvp staff (there was 5 or 6 people).

Sadly not that part, I watched the map’s images though.
If this is true, it is really sad. For (competitive) players and these 5-6 developers too.

The very first slide, “Initial Meeting”. “We kind of start off with getting the whole pvp team together…”, Six people in the room.

I saw it earlier, thank you. It doesn’t look good.
I am not sure how effective 5-6 people may work on the issues and solutions.
Even less so if feedback from experienced players (of whom some quit last year already) may further be neglected.

Pyriall.5027:

The pvp pool is understaffed. Have you viewed the pvp map creation power point? When they discuss “CANNON”, they show some images of the “entire” pvp staff (there was 5 or 6 people).

Sadly not that part, I watched the map’s images though.
If this is true, it is really sad. For (competitive) players and these 5-6 developers too.

Pyriall.5027:

This whole experience with GW2 mirrors my, as well as others, experience with Trion and Rift. Low staffing, slow balancing, continuously not listening to the playerbase, and followed with the “WHY YOU GUYS NO PLAY NOMOAR?”

I do not know if there is any understuffing but Click Here.
For more information about weird or non-optimal decisions Click Here.

In the first link, as part of the answer to the first question:

‘As for dwindling investment, it appears to be a myth: ArenaNet had a whopping 300 people when Guild Wars 2 launched, and now… now there are 350 and counting – ArenaNet is hiring.’

In the second link, there are some very interesting reviews which can further explain the situation we are in.

Blu has mad respect from me for shoutcasting even after such a long time.
To be fair, the real issue does not lie in shoutcasting but rather in how this game is currently shaped.
@ Erwin: Keep in mind that some players may participate in mentioned tournaments (e.g. Helseth).

Edit: I also understand Countless’ frustration (with the game) though.

Qaelyn.7612:

I’m not disputing that there are issues, and that things that have been promised haven’t been followed through with. I just dispute that it’s either appropriate or constructive to vent on a new (or newly reassigned) community rep because of them.

The thing is though, she may just be our only active middleman. (And the one brave enough to jump into the lion’s den)
So she will get a lot of feedback, whether positive or negative.
I admit she and others before her were sort of scapegoats, but this is partially due to the frustration (and I would say sort of despair out of passion about the game) from the playerbase. A playerbase which had to have a lot of patience and was still let-down as there was no clear and proper communication.
There is for example still no open test server even though I heard good stuff about Anet (from a recent Eurogamer article) (increasing general work force).
These Glicko-2 leaderboards would not have come through if they were tested by many beforehand. Neither certain balance changes.

Qaelyn.7612:

Pyriall.5027:

You reap what you sow.

That also applies to communities that are abusive towards community reps.

I wasn’t playing the last time Allie was responsible for this area, but regardless of the past, it seems to me that it would make more sense to encourage and work with her rather than act insultingly towards her.

As much as I would like to encourage her and work with her, there are still glaring issues which have been discussed by the community and not been acted upon reasonably.
Why is the broken matchmaking still not fixed ? Why is there Skyhammer in the SoloQ-rotation even though the spvp community posting here is mostly for its removal ? Why is there a skill like Berserker stance with full condition immunity for 8 seconds ? Why are there traits like Dhuumfire and Diamond Skin ? Why are there no more frequent balance patches ? Why is there still no balance from top to bottom ? Why is it still not heavily split ?
I have patience yes, but I cannot stand any hypocrisy in form of empty promises, misleading use of words or phrases, missing transparency and communication.
Okay, we have communication, but what is it being acted upon ? A joke of a nerf on healing signet which is by design flawed ? Invulnerability on Burning Speed ? The issue is still the dominance of easy to play and very rewarding builds (or more so certain skills and traits). These band-aid fixes won’t do.
This game won’t be heavily competitive and even less so esports if it isn’t understood that there has to be a high skill ceiling for competitive players and an easy access to PvP for casual players and viewers (unlocks in sPvP after their initial promise ?). How is this AoE-Spamfest in any way enjoyable nor skillful ? What about the plans from 2012 or early 2013 to tone down AoE ? (I cannot find that news post about “Looking Ahead”)
This is not about Allie though, she is just a Community Coordinator.
All in all, after not having listened to substantial concerns from players before, some experienced, some not so, they, the ones who made the final decisions, reap what they saw.

Edit: Okay, there is some more transparency with the Ready Ups, but they may still keep going with their ideas and plans which may not be the most optimal solution for sPvP. (See e.g. Healign Signet Nerf of 8 %)

1. Guardian
2. Elementalist/Engineer
4. Mesmer
5. Thief
6. Necromancer
7. Warrior
8. Ranger

Guardian on numero uno as it is my main.
6,7 and 8 cause I can’t feel hipster with these classes anymore.
I don’t like pet mechanics, so Ranger is last.

I am not entirely sure if it is either R70 or R80.
I doubt it is any rank bracket below, for sure not from Rank 1-50.

Basically Dota 2 Matchmaking sytem, I guess.

Laurels for stuff we can use as sPvP’ers (cosmetics, skins): Yes.
Laurels for unlocks in sPvP: Never.