Guild Wars 2

Jon Olson.8439:

This post may be of interest.

Hi Jon and thanks for the reply. I’m aware of the new requirements; I guess what I meant to ask was whether they are already in effect (thus not invalidating my netbook after Sep 22nd) or if they’re somehow “activated” with the PoF launch.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It will probably still be able to access Core Tyria, but not the newer maps.

I have a potato computer, and I have no issues in Core Tyria, but a few certain areas in the newest maps can cause some issues for me.

I’m hoping my computer will do ok during the Beta Weekend. You can try yours out then, as well.

Good luck (to both of us…lol).

Thanks for the reminder regarding the beta weekend. I guess I’ll give it a try – although I’m not planning to leave core Tyria with the netbook. That’s what my desktop is for. But I don’t want to miss playing the TP just because I’m sitting in a hotel somewhere …

Hi there.

I’m using a small Asus netbook for private use when on business trips (Vivobook E200HA, Intel Atom Z8300, 2 GB RAM, Win 10 64 bit, external storage). Against all odds and despite displaying the “Warning: 2 GB RAM” message in the launcher, it’s capable of running GW2. Granted – lowest settings, 1366×768, long loading times, terrible FPS. But it’s enough to craft the daily cooldowns, check the TP and do dailies.

With PoF getting updated system reqs I’m wondering if my netbook will still be viable for the aforementioned tasks. It works with the recent update – in fact I last logged on today – but I’m wondering if there’ll be a change once PoF launches.

Thanks!

I have a certain level of understanding for people who /afk in hopeless matches. GW2’s PvP maps are prone to snowballing, and at a certain point, sticking around is a waste of everyone’s time.

This might rub those the wrong way who do play “for the pvp experience” but I highly doubt getting stomped for 4 more minutes at 300:50 is fun for anyone involved (on the stomped side, that is). End it with a forfeit, give everyone their “rewards”, and better luck next time.

So, an update after around 40 ranked matches.

I’m ranked ~1200 silver and I’m frequently seeing teams with 2 necros and 2 warriors. Class stacking is a nightmare. Competent duo queuers, esp. double warrior, just crush random teams unless you happen to have excellent support players on board. S6 “meta” seems to be all about stunlocks and conditions, even worse than previous season.

To add insult to injury, I’m seeing the same people repeatedly – at silver rating, mind you, and at EU prime time.

I wanted to finish the ascended backpack but I’m really at a loss. The game mode may be “active” in the sense that people are playing it, but it’s very clearly showing its neglect.

My issue with Stronghold is that we already have a PvP mode with PvE elements – WvW. sPvP as I understand it should be player competition with as little extra gimmicks as possible (which, sadly, most current sPvP maps don’t achieve).

It all boils down to communication. People don’t read chat, perhaps don’t even have it activated.

I’ve had moderate success with map pings and drawings (shift+right click). You can visualize a point of interest with the ping, and a route with the line you’re drawing. More often than not, I find people actually following this advice, instead of blindly running where they wanted to go.

No 100% chance of success, obviously, but better than furiously typing in chat, only to be ignored.

I don’t understand the strong focus on swapping sigils.

It’s essentially a gimmicky mechanic that goes contrary to how the game is played at any other point in time: you swap for melee/ranged or to access another skill.

Sure, a skilled player will now be able to reveal or steal a boon. Everyone else will probably lock themselves out of the weapon they need, or simply not utilize the mechanic.

PvP has a lot of other problems right now, and I don’t think sigils should be a priority.

Kir Sakar.3647:

This casual here disagrees. I will probably play a similar amount of matches this season than the last, if my time allows for it.

I appreciate that the relogging/mid-match character change issue was fixed and the stricter decay system. I believe DuoQ is healthy for the game, expecially for newer and more causual PvPers. And why do you believe class-stacking is a problem? If I see more than one DH on the enemy team, I will not play memser but a class that helps my team to deal with them, like support Ele. Problem solved.

I believe DuoQ results in skewed matches, because a somewhat experienced duo will always have an edge over a completely random team. Holding a point or bursting enemies is significantly easier.

Class stacking is a negative because it enables multiples of exceptionally strong characters, but can also deprive teams of synnergies if “weaker” classes appear twice.

Both points are especially important at lower ranks, where people swapping characters is an outlier. In around 20 matches so far this season at ~1250 rating, I’ve experienced one (1) player on my team swapping … myself.

I started playing PvP (again) with S5, obviously being enticed to do so due to the rewards. The season wasn’t perfect from a technical perspective but I sticked around and finished in silver league. I can only assume that attracting non-PvPers to the game mode was what had been intended.

With S6 I was hoping for an improvement but the downgraded rewards have just made the various flaws so much more apparent:

• sub-par class balance
• class stacking still exists
• duo-queuing is still possible
• map quality varies wildly

From a strictly “fun” point of view PvP is now – again – barely better than WvW. I don’t see myself spending a lot of time on it.

Shwyx.8190:

So, an update after around 40 ranked matches.

I’m ranked ~1200 silver and I’m frequently seeing teams with 2 necros and 2 warriors. Class stacking is a nightmare. Competent duo queuers, esp. double warrior, just crush random teams unless you happen to have excellent support players on board. S6 “meta” seems to be all about stunlocks and conditions, even worse than previous season.

To add insult to injury, I’m seeing the same people repeatedly – at silver rating, mind you, and at EU prime time.

I wanted to finish the ascended backpack but I’m really at a loss. The game mode may be “active” in the sense that people are playing it, but it’s very clearly showing its neglect.

I appreciate the replies, especially the strategy advice. However, I did not want to adress individual skill.

My issue is that WvW simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the game. GW2 as a whole is a casual-friendly game; most content is “no strings attached” and can be completed in small or large increments. There is no wind-up time, no penalty for taking breaks, playing short sessions or playing solo. None of this is true for WvW (or raids, but that’s another topic).

Perhaps that’s just the way it is. Maybe WvW is meant to be a homage to 90s and 00s MMO gameplay, where group content was all there was. Personally, I think it’s simply lacking polish.

Thanks for the various replies so far.

Odokuro.5049:

I’ll never understand why people need such a LARGE carrot dangled infront of them to have, “Fun”…

I’m not asking for handouts, which you would have noticed had you actually read my post instead of jumping to conclusions. I am asking for a coherent game mode, however.

Playing fractals rewards me stuff that helps with fractals. Playing PvP nets me insane rewards, especially considering I need no equipment at all for PvP. Playing WvW – where better gear actually means better chances (single digit %, sure, but still) and stat swapping would be amazing – nets me nothing that would help with WvW.

Jacion.6302:

Your post is a cry for help and we are willing to help but we need more information.

It wasn’t exactly supposed to be a cry for help, more a plea to whom it may concern. WvW isn’t exactly doing well (judging from the forums, Reddit and other sources) and I’m pretty sure the newcomer’s experience with it is one reason among many.

As for what I’m playing: primarily Ranger and Thief, and considering to gear my Engineer. I’m aware of Metabattle and the current builds. I’m also aware of the fact that copying a meta build doesn’t result in immediate success.

I’m not specifically looking to get better, as I’m well aware that this takes time and is at odds with a casual’s playstyle. What I’m wondering is why WvW isn’t as well done as the other game modes. Open world exploration, fractals, PvP, even dungeons: I can play these anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and achieve stuff, reap rewards and have fun. Especially after the recent fractal and PvP reworks. WvW, not so much.

I’ll try to make it short:

GW2 is appealing because it’s as close to an open world, “make your own adventure” MMO as you can get these days. On paper, WvW promises to be the PvP implementation of this idea.

Once you actually join the game mode, you’re confronted with:

• maps that are either empty or
• maps that are empty except for bored veteran roamers who shut down everything or
• maps where large zergs attempt to re-enact renaissance-era prearranged battles

Neither of these scenarios are appealing for a solo player trying to learn the ropes. If I do stick around, the following happens:

• I’m basically limited to capping camps and harassing guards / caravans
• it takes forever for the rewards track points to build up
• the rewards I do get are mediocre at best and
• (worst offender) the rewards do nothing to help me in WvW

I did stick around for some time, currently rank 70-ish. I also finished some rewards tracks (last one was Gift of Battle for my legendary). However, every time I do return, it ultimately ends in a dissapointment.

I’m very interested in PVP and WvW, because I enjoy a challenge, and because I’m a competitive person. I’ve reached rank ~70 in WvW and played through the current PvP season, currently ranked mid silver.

I am no longer playing WvW …

• because the rewards are exceptionally bad compared to any other game mode
• because there is no dynamic open world PvP (basically what it’s advertised as), but instead you either play a lone wolf fighting NPCs, or you join a zerg fighting NPCs as well and avoiding other zergs

I will stop playing PvP the moment the season ends because …

• the map pool is volatile, ranging from decent maps like Foefire to gimmicky, frustrating maps like Kyhlo
• there is no check for mulitple (or triple, or quadruple) classes
• most importantly: because the oh-so-friendly community of GW2 drops its mask upon entering the PVP queue, rivaling and at times even surpassing the LoLs and Battlefields of this world. Exceptional hostility over rather trivial content.

I do not feel rewarded for playing WvW, and I am not having fun in PvP due to imbalances and the player base.

Argol Vazin.3061:

So I have entered ranked to try and get ascended gear. I am a lvl 1 bronze, so really, nothing special. I have over 100 games played in pvp. but most of that was from before HoT and just in unranked.

Now that I am trying to play serious the flaws of PVP come to light.

Hard to read confusion
I play Smite, I play Overwatch and I play paladins. For the sack of comparison I will stick with smite since the other 2 are FPS.
In Smite, thanks to a slower pace in terms of both movement and skill usage. plus the closer perspective. it is much more clear what is happening. while I don’t expect this from GW2, what I should expect is that characters have voice lines that make what they are casting noticeable. Hearing Scylla shout sic em, follow by the gnashing and barking of her wolves, you know she just used her skill 1 and can react.
while this isn’t always the case. for the most part, you learn the unique sounds, like the cracking of Bastet’s whip, and the yowling of her pounce. A lot of sounds in GW2 jumble together.

Of course I understand part of the reason Smite has casting voicelines goes with the fact that it is a skill shot based game. where GW2 is targeting based so hearing the casting might not save you anyway cause it will home in. but hey, thats what dodge and blocks are for.

Another contributing factor to the chaos is not knowing who you are fighting at a glance. GW2 lacks on glance identification, there needs to be some kind of floating icon above their head that displays their class.

Bad mini map.
The mini map needs to be a simple layout map instead of a detailed one. and I would probably opt for simple dots instead of the class icon. because when there are multiple characters in the same spot. that class icon is unhelpful since that point on the map is a jumble of icons

lack of Callouts
A voice line system would go a long way towards facilitating teamwork. Callouts like “Attack Home, Attack middle, Attack Far, Defend the base, Attack the enemy lord, Attack Svanir, Attack the Chieftain, Help, Retreat, Enemy incoming”

Has it crossed your mind that GW2’s PVP is fine as it is, and it’s you that has to adapt, not the other way around? Perhaps the game doesn’t have to spell out who you’re fighting, but you have to take a look. Perhaps the mini map is just that – mini – and not meant to be a huge strategic tool.

You freely admit to being a newbie but already you feel experienced enough to point out “serious” flaws? It’s not like your input is invalid, but I have ~150 ranked games played in total in GW2’s PVP mode, 90 of these in the current season, and I wouldn’t even know where to begin voicing feedback of this kind because I have to be honest: I know almost nothing, and any input would be flawed because of this.

Smite, Overwatch and other games might be more comfortable. Doesn’t mean that GW2 has to change.

Luna.9640:

I think that the placement matches for next season should be at least 50 if not more so the system better seed out the players.

Sure. Make it 100 matches. 200. 500. Let the system pinpoint exactly where your skill is … only to come back to the forums, complaining, because the system couldn’t pinpoint your skill variation when you had a bad day and felt you were treated unfairly.

Placement matches are just that, placement. And for the vast majority, they’re working perfectly fine. I know, I know, except for that Legend material that is currently cluttering the forums, who were all unfairly placed in the middle ranks, where they most certainly don’t belong.

Bardly.2571:

2.) Bad Sportsmanship from “Good” Players: I’m not ashamed to admit I’m in Bronze 3 right now. Through my fights I have found myself paired up with a lot of Dragon Finishers, many of which have a very negative attitude at their placement and seem determined to ruin things for everyone else trying to work their way up through bronze.

This has to be the single most important and frustrating issue from your list.

GW2’s PVP is an incredibly casual affair and still people get worked up over it like there’s no tomorrow. People with a lot of apparent experience or time spent in PVP (judging from skins, titles etc.) will pause mid-match to scream insults, or simply stop playing, or generally behave bad enough to warrant a block and a report.

Experienced players should be happy that their game mode is getting an influx of players. More activity, shorter queue times, and – if they’re actually as good as they think they are – cannon fodder in the form of newbies. Instead, it’s a never-ending torrent of negativity.

What ruins PVP for me is that slowly but surely all competitive games are turning into League of Legends. People will scream, shout, hurl obscenities and insults for no reason whatsoever, or simply go batkitten insane when losing.

I’ve found myself playing with chat more or less disabled a lot, and now that I’ve finished the Byzantium chest, I wonder if I’l bother with the rest of the season. GW2 has a rather casual PVP mode, its balance is alright, the maps are fun and the matches are short. Why people get mad over this is beyond me.

Unhinged teenagers using the internet to vent their frustration doesn’t hurt my feelings or anything, but you do pause and wonder why you even bother, when you could be doing more enjoyable things instead.

Bandlero.6312:

Shwyx.8190:

If you want to fix PVP then tackle issues like class stacking, duo queue abuse or punishment for afkers and toxic players. Just because this massive negative echo chamber called the forums (and ultimately made up of bronze-gold players thinking they deserve better) claims something is an issue doesn’t mean it actually is.

PVP is more active than ever and that’s a good thing.

Being in Gold or lower does not make a person’s perspective or opinion irrelevant or less than someone who is in Platinum or Legendary. And, neither is the expression of that person’s opinion de facto or by default “negative.” Just because your experience is different, does not mean your experience/opinion is fact or more truthful than others – it just means you’ve had a relatively better experience.

You’re going off a tangent here because neither did I call opinions below gold “irrelevant”, nor is my experience different. I’m currently ranked mid-silver.

However – and I think there’s the big difference to many others in these ranks – I freely admit that I belong in silver. I know how to play two, maybe three classes, I barely know how to rotate after around 90 matches in the new season and I very often die having no idea why I died.

A vast number of players in the middle ranks act like they’re temporarily embarassed Legends, only a winning streak away from being “where they feel they belong”. For some of them, this may be true. Some may actually be stuck in what they consider “Elo hell” due to a quirk of the system. The majority, though, is just where they should be, and dramatically overestimate their skill.

Some food for thought: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

If you want to fix PVP then tackle issues like class stacking, duo queue abuse or punishment for afkers and toxic players. Just because this massive negative echo chamber called the forums (and ultimately made up of bronze-gold players thinking they deserve better) claims something is an issue doesn’t mean it actually is.

PVP is more active than ever and that’s a good thing.

I applaud A.Net for being one of the very few studios actually implementing a solo/duo queue. From every no-name indie studio up to Blizzard themselves, you’ll see solo queuers getting slaughtered in competitive game modes due to matchmaking placing them against premade teams.

Yes, it sucks that you’re not able to play with your friends in a social game. I get it. But someone has to draw the short straw and at least this one time, in this one game, it’s not the solo queuers ¹.

¹ … I am aware of duo queue abuse at higher levels but on my “level” it doesn’t matter, and I am a very happy solo queuer.

Guardians are easy to play because unlike several other professions, they have a very clear design concept. With the current meta build (longbow/sword+shield), it boils down to:

• sword/shield for melee combat and blocking
• longbow for AoE and ranged combat
• traps for bunkering

You do not have to manage (a) pet(s), there’s nothing to overload or shatter, not much of a rotation due to the lack of mobility. You have a clear role – defense – and a very simple set of tools for that role. This makes the profession so attractive especially for newcomers to PvP.

And if you’ve played a guardian for more than a handful of matches, you’ll also know how very limited this toolset is. You are slow, you have to rely on cooldowns, your stationary traps are a major part of your damage in a gamemode revolving around mobility. If there’s nothing to defend, you’re just an extra.

Many players playing Guardians / DHs is the logcial result of many players trying out a recently revamped game mode, and settling for the path of least resistance. Perhaps they’ll stick with their DHs, perhaps they’ll move on. You should be happy that there’s an influx of new players to begin with.

Do you expect some kind of black magic to result in nothing but fair matches for you?

The algorithm behind the MMR will never be perfect, nor could it be allowed to (because then your queue times would be endless). As for the lopsided match: from personal skill to class composition, there’s a thousand reasons a match can be decided that clearly. Sucks that you lost, but you’d be lying if you’d claim this has never happened in your favor.

At the end of the day, matchmaking works as an average. Perhaps not a single one of your games will be fair on its own, because that’d be impossible to achieve. But at the end of the session (or the season), you’ll have had a somewhat “fair” experience in total.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Obtena.7952:

General Health.9678:

You didn’t offer a different perspective, you just said “there’s a way to make money that I’m not going to tell you about”. That isn’t an alternative strategy.

Actually, it’s very reasonable. Crafting doesn’t need to cost you money; that is a VERY different perspective to what most people think. Just because he doesn’t spill the beans on how to do it doesn’t mean he’s not helpful. I know most people just want things handed to them but you know … this is worth the investigation if the player doesn’t want to go broken crafting.

It’s not helpful, because it’s too vague. People say all the time you can make easy money off the TP, but those who do already know the techniques that allow ‘easy money’ — it takes some effort to become familiar with the markets and tools to do so.

I agree that it’s worth saying that it’s possible, but let’s not confuse that for actually helping most people find the alternative.

What you’re asking for isn’t “helping people find an alternative”. It’s “spelling out, step by step, what they have to do”.

That is something I am not going to do, for what I think are obvious reasons. Call it selfish, but it took me time and a certain risk (in the form of gold invested) to make a profit off crafting disciplines. I am not going to give that away just like that – both to protect my potential profits (small as they are) and as a matter of principle.

As I said, there’s a wealth of knowledge available for everyone interested in spending a minimum of time and learning something new. Everyone else can just get on the forums and complain that crafting is too expensive.

Meanma.5623:

Shwyx.8190:

I recently leveled Leatherworking to 500 while still making a profit.

Shwyx.8190:

Obviously won’t go into detail what items I chose.

So the point of your post was what exactly? Bragging?

The point of my post was to offer a different perspective. A large number of players see the step from 400 to 500 (in any given crafting discipline) as a neccessary evil and a waste of gold, and don’t even consider alternate strategies. They’re there, though, and sometimes just stating this fact is all it takes.

I recently leveled Leatherworking to 500 while still making a profit.

I dropped around 30g on 1-400 with the help of gw2crafts.net, and then reached 500 within three days by crafting several items and selling them on the TP (sell orders). Disclaimer: It did require multiple rounds of crafting and selling, as well as some starting capital (around 100g). Some of which still is locked up in sell orders which I expect to go through within a couple of days. When all is done, I’ll have made around 80g in addition to having “finished” Leatherworking.

Obviously won’t go into detail what items I chose. There are a ton of resources available regarding crafting and trading, including several websites dedicated specifically to these topics. LW 400-500 will cost you 100g, however, so you might as well make some cash along the way.

mauried.5608:

Simply sounds like GW2 isnt the game for you.
Move on to a better game.

This may be news to you but the world isn’t black and white – I can voice criticism for aspects of the game I otherwise enjoy.

I’ve played GW2 on and off for some time and only recently got HoT. I’ve been playing (again) for around 2 months now. My feedback thus is from the perspective of someone still relatively new to the expansion and the game in its current form.

Everything I want to do is locked behind something else, often not even remotely related.

I need to finish event chains in order to unlock activities. I need to unlock (high) scores in activities in order to unlock masteries. I need to unlock masteries in order to unlock map elements, or means of travel, or QoL changes. And so forth, and so on. Layer upon layer of stuff I need to do first in order to do the stuff I want.

Two specific examples that really grind my gears:

A) At 61 mastery points spent, Gliding and Legendary Crafting are the only ones that feel “worth it”. Almost all others I only unlocked because I had to, or because they were a means to an end (Exalted Mastery for the specialization collections is the worst offender here)

B) Jumping puzzles. I am sick and tired of them. There are too many, a ton of content is locked behind them. From mastery points to legendary crafting … jumping puzzles everywhere. Why? I am playing an MMO, not some indie platformer.

To a certain degree I understand the design, since there’s probably an interest in promoting other game modes. But it increasingly feels like a chore. What happened to “you can have fun instead of having to prepare to have fun first”?