Guild Wars 2

Acandis.3250:

Let’s pretend for a second that the people that make these decisions frequent this forum and care about what any of you have to say…

LOLOL – how long did you last before you started giggling uncontrollably? Didn’t take long for me, what a fun game!

Fluffball.8307:

If the forums really are filled with the small minority of elite players, list to the 3 pages (soon to be how many?) of people saying this is a bad idea.

Anyone that posts to the forums by default is automatically a “forum-goer” and therefore a minority. And we all know what to do with minorities! Kick ’em to the curb and tell them they cannot share our water fountains. Therefore, even if there are 3 pages worth of pure whining and complaints by this over-entitled minority population, it does not matter, because the silent majority have spoken. And they love the changes. All of them.

Also – welcome perplexity! Hell – bring the un-nerfed version, let’s make sure no one plays spvp anymore even faster.

Yeah, those perplexity runes will be a fantastic addition to balancing pvp. I too look forward to more of these amazingly well though out, incredibly useful and constructive, do I say it, even GODlike changes they are making. The only one I am confused about is the 8% nerf to Healing Signet? Why so much – with changes that big, you wonder what happened to the shave once a year approach. Really, I get that Healing Signet is over-powdered, but really, I think we could have gotten to the same place by maybe taking off .5% at a time.

Why not just drain the water and keep the map…….?

Wow… what the hell are they smoking?? I can only rationally conclude they legitimately want to remove pvp by making continuous poor decisions for the health of pvp, or that they are completely clueless.

This only will buff (considerably buff, massively buff) condi specs, and crap all over those classes that rely on lots of skills to survive.. like, oh, say an ele? Do they even think this stuff through, or is there some suit that doesn’t play the game just looking at stats and saying, “hey, use all runes in pvp, why waste developments.”

This patch…. another nail in the coffin.

Zenith.7301:

I’d like to see how can you just autoattack people with at best 15k hp as they autoattack you back for similar amounts. Because thief sword auto easily hits for 2.5-3k autoattacks, and they can lock you down with pistolwhip.

I think the OP stated this idea was for hotjoin only… in which case any build flies.

But valid point – LH autos basically will bring you up to par with some other classes autos. That’s the other downside to conjures… They’re really only good for their utility, and that’s about it – so aoe/deep freeze on frost bow, KB/KD/Stun on Lightning Hammer, blast finisher/fire fields on Lava Axe, and blocks/invuln on Earth Shield. FGS is decent, but then.. it’s an elite. So the question is – what do you do when you’ve used them for their utility? Autoattack…? It’s a respectable AA on LH, but everything else is crap (minus FGS).

I’ve tried using LH in pvp some, and at the end of it all, I just felt like a very weak hammer warrior… I don’t think that the trait will change that. HS + natural toughness + cleansing ire + stances is far far greater than being immune to crits.

I think the issue with conjures, regardless of build, is that they will always fall into the same problem. If they are used as a core to the build, then they remove a significant advantage eles have – options. If they are used simply for their utilities and then discarded, then it does not make sense creating a build based solely on conjures.

saVdoom.2067:

Indeed, i just wish the changes that occur would also be based on the conversations we have around these forums…. but seems to be that decap engineer, PW thiefs, warriors… despite all the feedback are not an issue for them currently.

That’s because they are only an issue for this minority of a minority, and thereby deemed irrelevant when compared with the very loud and true metrics that are never shared.

Thank you reds for making the forum more colorful red.

This is a pve game. The rewards are in pve, acquired by running pve, and best used in pve.

It’s not Anets fault that you fail to comprehend that pvp is a mini-game / cancelled side project.

Once you figure out that the upcoming “Soon” patch is really a Pve feature patch that negatively impacts pvp, you will begin to understand the rationale behind removing pvp rewards. One valid reason is to encourage players incorrectly spending too much time pvping to try out pve, as that is the real game.

Sir Arthur.8905:

WE ARE ALL ONE COMMUNITY.

Well, actually,we are all insignificant minorities representing minority (and therefore completely irrelevant) viewpoints of the community.

People have also mentioned being harassed by others through duels, etc… I don’t even see other people wandering out in Tyria, so… not sure who would even be there to harass me, lol.

You will have the toughness, I will grant you that. I will also remain open and test it once “soon” comes.

That said, here are the problems I see with it:

- Conditions, as you rightfully mentioned. Yes, Earth focus is powerful – but anytime you drop your conjure, you lose much of your viability. (Granted, a swap to fire followed by a typical rotation will still hit hard, but you will have to time out 12seconds before getting back into earth again. Might work out ok.)

Regardless, it’s not just clearing a stack of condis once you collect enough to hurt – its that a single immobilize will wreck you – you have a handful of choices:
1) Sit and tank the follow-up (which could be quite bad)
2) Drop conjure, do a condi clear, and pickup/recast new conjure.
3) Ether Feast and hope you are not interrupted (to be fair, same problem anytime you use EF, and a decent ele will recognize how to use it effectively with LOS and/or luck)
4) Slot Cleansing Fire. This along with EF might be enough (and then focus for further anti-condi if pressured). Would buy you a nice clear while using a conjure though.

Stuns, KBs, and KDs will also hurt, but, perhaps less so than they do as is due to the crit + toughness. Still, I am not sold on simply the ‘no crit’ saving us.

I have ran a hybrid build in WvW based on 30/10/30/0/0 already, and it was initially conceived being built around Earth Shield. It still just felt a bit too clunky to be useful, and still very squishy. Conjures seem neat on paper, but in practice they just work out to be fairly awkward. Maybe I am just too used to jumping around the attunements for the right spells though.

While we are discussing ideas, I am more excited about Blinding Ashes, that could provide a bit more survival to a full glass build potentially. Earth XIII may be interesting though.

The examples they use to demonstrate the potential of the new skills just explains a lot. Specifically that their internal group of players plays very differently than the majority of us. Or, since the forum users are such an insignificant minority, maybe we just all experience a very different game than everyone else.

Doesn’t matter, Anet will do as Anet does.

We are minorities of minorities, and so unfit to do more than scribble on meaningless walls. Understand that and a lot more makes sense.

Besides – there are very compelling business reasons for the company to not pay any attention to pvp in this game.

Sure, I’m down, as long as they implement these…

Thedenofsin.7340:

I don’t think this new Grandmaster is going to work the way they are intending.

LOL, maybe they think +230 to your heal is worth diving 30 into the tree? The balance devs are fairly out of touch with the way spvp currently is played and how certain mechanics work out.

Its ok though – this might be adjust in 6 months to 1 or 2 years out, be patient.

Dahkeus.8243:

Whit.2385:

Also – why is this in spvp forum and not the ele forum?

Answer: This could affect the sPvP meta.

I respect your hopefulness, but I strongly disagree. This will be a fun option, but not change anything in any significant way. As it stands, conjures are fun, but I just cannot see them being viable, as crits are not the only reason eles melt. Maybe I will be proved wrong, which is ok too.

Liewec.2896:

Whit.2385:

Also – why is this in spvp forum and not the ele forum?

ah i was thinking more about pvp hotjoin fun, i’ve recently been playing with a water conjure build (for the 20% more damage vs vulnerability) in hotjoin and its been great,
but VERY squishy.
so the idea of taking on warriors and thieves with crit immunity really got me excited

besides, the pvp forum could use some chilled post patch theories and build idea sharing,
i figure its a nice break from the usual rage and cursing

Fair enough – I just don’t consider hotjoin much of anything – less than even the mini-game that teamqueue is. Sorry, just my opinion. In there, conjures are already viable, knock yourself out, they can be a lot of fun.

Its an idea that’s been floating around the ele forums for a bit now. It will probably function ok, but I expect you to fold quite easily while using a summoned weapon, unless you swap out to use some of your other abilities. And once you swap, you lose your summons (the whole basis of your build). The cast time is longer than a simple weapon/attunement swap, as is bending over to pick up the 2nd summons.

That said, it could be interesting, certainly fun for a change of pace. I would recommend changing your fire trait – you won’t need the additional charges most likely. (Well, I would build it somewhat differently to be honest, but building around summons and Earth XIII is interesting).

TLDR: The new trait still won’t give you enough survival to rock summoned weapons the entire time.

Also – why is this in spvp forum and not the ele forum?

That post didn’t say anything they hadn’t already said. Useless, but a lot of nice words.

Also – I think it should be blatantly obvious to everyone by now that this game barely develops – glacial is quite accurate Flytrap.

I still would say that thief is a valid scapegoat not because mesmer is bad, but because thief has an inherent advantage vs. all glass (assuming the impossible equal competency and all that).

People stick around with games for a lot of emotional reasons, not necessarily because it is in a good state. I mean Warhammer only closed servers, what? a year or 2 ago? That game was in such a poor state within a few patches that the majority of its population bailed quick.

I’d also say that a decent amount of the posters here are no longer playing the game in any real capacity.

Also – never forget you, and me, are simple minorities of minorities, and as a result our opinions and ideas are worthless and inconsequential (including this thread, and all of our collective posts).

The spvp ship sailed a long time ago, and as it remains there is little to no reasonable business incentive to waste more resources on a failed mini-game mode. They honestly shouldn’t even worry about spvp at all anymore, and just focus on the parts of the game that are successful – play to your strengths, and GW2 does have them (just not in spvp).

This is a PVE game – understand this, and it becomes infinitely easier to understand their decision making process.

The change is good for pve. It is good to drive activity in the open world, and it is enjoyable for explorers, achievement junkies, and pvers in general. If I was a pver, I would be delighted at the way the new traits are being implemented.

This change is not good for pvp, which has been mentioned several times. I am glad things are supposedly somehow “on their radar,” too bad the radar has not been used to address problems in the past – so we have little hope it will be used to address them in the future.

BUT, none of this matters, nor do these forums. We are a very very small percentage of the pvpers much less players in the game. We are also assumed frequently to have drastically different viewpoints from the anonymous and silent players, so it really does not matter how well you phrase your arguments, what ideas you put forward in this thread – they have taken 6 months to figure this out, so they will implement it how they want, and that will be that. Now calm down and go back to your pve-ing like a good Tyrian.

nekretaal.6485:

This is a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’

I expect the cooldowns of all Mesmer interrupts other than F3 to be increased, and I expect the Mesmer staff interrupt field staff #3 I think to get the kitten nerfed out of it.

Staff 3 is the iWarlock phantom that doesn’t interrupt. I think you mean Staff 5 – Chaos Storm – and the only time that was a reliable interrupt was when it was bugged to hell, but its not bad at hoping for a proc if dropped on a group.

I’d be surprised if they nerf the ability to interrupt – it sounds like half this thread has never come across a lockdown mesmer before (with good reason, its higher-risk spec that requires the presence of mind to learn other’s animations and not a brain-dead passive/ai, aka meta, spec)

Lockdown and interrupt mesmers already exist, and there are already cool traits for them. Chaotic Interruption (Chaos XI) is nice, Bountiful Interruption (Chaos VIII), Halting Strike (Dom II), and Confounding Suggestions (Dom XII) are all solid. Furious Interruption (Dueling XII) would be nice if it weren’t for the massive ICD on it too. The problem with lockdown is that they typically don’t burst quite as hard as a full on shatter, but are only mildly less squishy, and they don’t have the mouth-breather drool factor of PU or phantasm builds.

Yes you are a minority – you are on the forums, hence a minority, as confirmed by red posts.

On that note, no – a lot of us enjoy pvp, especially those of us in the pvp wasteland of a useless forum. We enjoy it, but see glaring flaws with it, and a huge differential between what it could be and what it is. This upsets us, but Anet has not touched the issues at hand with anything more than “soon” or a handful of minor changes that made things worse. I enjoyed pvp at release more than I do now for example. (But I am just one voice, so an irrelevant minority – just like you)

RaZaC is correct, however. GW2 is lucky that there are no other good alternatives out at the moment, which is unlucky for us as players as 1) there is no motivation for Anet to invest and do anything to improve the current situation, and 2) we have nowhere to really go to find an enjoyable pvp experience. There are other games, but each has enough flaws (including gw2) to make them all unappealing.

Forum pvp, however, is better than in-game pvp ultimately, and the red posts do make oh so many logical blunders, its no wonder spvp ended up as it has – a trash minigame of a beautiful pve mmo.

Yeah, honestly I’m confused by the complaints here. Granted, it will screw me as an ele because almost everything I do can be interrupted, but I think it is a decent buff for the class. Most mesmer’s won’t run it anyhow, regardless of what you perceive the skillcap in a lockdown build to be, you can’t argue that it is easier/as easy as their current passively easy options – PU anything / phantoms.. Most players will run the path of least resistance. I swear if there was a build that autopiloted 100% for you, people would play it and just watch the screen thinking they did well.

Both solo and team queue match making is still messed up. It’s a population thing (and sorry Anet – hotjoin/wvw/etc population doesn’t effect soloq/teamq pop, and the pve achieve hunters that run/afk their 3 games and leave only adversely affect us all.). It’s also a problem with the MMR algorithm on some level I would imagine, as well as – get this – the state of pvp in the game!

You can run a full team of decent players, but if they’re all glass roamers, they won’t win. You can run a full team of relatively crappy players that all run AI/passive meta builds, and they stand a better chance of winning.

Soloq is a mess, do more teamqs (don’t worry about teams, they are almost non-existent, and running into them occasionally is still better than randomly getting skyfail and happens less often). That said, teamq is also mess – but marginally less so.

OR… pick a play-to-win meta build that can potentially carry (bunkers are a decent choice, since less people seem to run bunkers), and hope for the best.

Enjoy the mini-game that is spvp!

Soon we will all know Voz and how much we miss him.

Vash Past.4385:

Also, this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Collaborative-Development-Topic-Game-Modes

Why even bother asking in the CDI if you’re going to do whatever you want anyway guys?

Good question. We are a very very small percentage of a tiny population of a mini-game – it makes no sense to have these forums or waste money on server space or personnel, as these forums have zero value to a-net (by their own admission).

Ugruk.4069:

These are not changes for pvp, these changes target the players that sit afk in Lions arch to have something to do and try new things in WvW, not to balance spvp man dont kid yourself

Couldn’t have said it better.

Grim.4795:

Whit what you say in my opinion is correct and a huge part of what gives thieves the upper hand in duels and becoming the only roaming profession in SPvP. What i don’t agree with is the need to conform to the passive faceroll (sorry for the description – i know it doesn’t feflect all the meta builds, but most) builds in order to win or contribute to my team. That is exactly what needs to be changed, if the meta, and in topic discussed above, thieves get some much needed changes then professions like mesmer and elementalist and unviable specs might finally get a chance to see the light in SPvP solo and team ques.

I also dislike the current “meta” and passive builds. They’re boring to play, boring to play against, and unhealthy for the pvp population in general. That said – if you truly want a “play to win” team, then go with a proven meta comp (not only for you, but the entire team).

BUT, that’s really only the case if there was a competitive scene here, and let’s be honest – there isn’t. And because there truly isn’t a competitive scene, you can run anything effectively.

Mesmer is still a decent roamer (personally I dislike them due to being slow, but that’s just me). Hell, I main a glass ele and use it as a roamer… One thief means the game just got much trickier (and if he’s at all competent, I’m down for most of any fight he is a part of). It just doesn’t matter though. There is no competitive scene, MMR doesnt mean much (and given either the population or algorithm you end up fighting a small group of people repeatedly from all skill levels anyhow), and Rank is completely meaningless (beyond knowing map basics and awareness, I still cringe at sub-rank 10s).

Since winning is meaningless (beyond simply wanting to win – like skirmish during practice), and there is no real competition – play what you want. Or play to win if you find that fun.

Shadow Blade.1324:

coming soon: ascended gear grind for spvp

This would be great, should implement this along with the bunker ammy suggested in the other thread.

Malediktus.9250:

Terrible. I thought everyone should be equal in sPvP

They are. Some are just more equal.

garethh.3518:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/traits-unleashed-forty-new-traits-and-more/

New grandmasters for every class, 40 new traits, and more! They weren’t kidding when they said big changes, particularly hyped for that lockdown Mesmer buff!

The game needs to avoid strong passive or AI specs since the game isn’t team centric. Team based fighting is social, which gives allot of lee-way, it also in and of itself adds allot to the skill-floor and skill-cap making mindless specs and traits seem allot less mindless. GW2 doesn’t do that, which means it needs, it kittening NEEDS dynamic active specs.

So…
Seriously?
These are their ideas to make the game better?
Click-and-forget-me bonuses to vitality or healing or attack speed…. like what the kitten?
Are you sure they didn’t say PvE patch on the 15th???

I mean the elementalist one is the closest to a PvP change (if useless) I’ve always saw allot of good potential in ele-healing, it is allot of fun and positioning and teamwork related.
To do that, they really should have focused on revamping a few skills though, to make it more play/counter-play centric, and stronger, so it could be a viable, entertaining mid.
Like adding channeled heals or more lingering aoes that heal.
Passive buffing what healing eles have already at the cost of a tier 3 trait… it’s not bad, but it’s sure as hell not good either.

jmatb.6307:

All I did reading that article is lol

Guys this is a PvE WvW game. Period

It kittening sucks.
They have no will to make PvP anything more than a mini-game for PvE’ers.

Of course there have no will to make it anything more than a mini-game, and with good reason. I’ve got a post about that on here somewhere. In any case, they stopped calling this a pvp patch a long time ago – it’s a feature patch for the game, the main part of the game being pve (and the other part being wvw).

Thunderclock.7390:

Another productive sPvP thread.

These forums are useless anyhow – minority of a minority of a sub-game that reads and posts here. They’d be better off just shutting this forum down and saving server costs / personnel costs.

Drafigo.4690:

Flumek.9043:

Dhuumfire was a hotfix , took 3 weeks and was the best life-saving move for the game. and im a necro

I agree and play necro as well.

Regardless as to why things are not fixed in a timely manner the answer is the same. Poor management. That could be people, time or simply people. These things don’t get fixed because we are viewed as a small portion of this games community and because someone is poorly managing these aspects. I have managed for years and was once a financial manager for one of the largest communications companies and if I had managed this poorly I would have been fired. Because listen if your cell phone isn’t working and your not working on that issue 2 days before the public finds it your months behind the competitor. Right now GW2 isn’t losing because nothing bigger and better is beating them other then that game we shall not mention but there are some big titles coming and the poor mismanagement of things like these simple hot fixes that should be done weekly or bi-weekly will begin to move the population enough to get some attention. I just hope that these changes and builds and so forth are completed before the population of good vetren players are gone for good. Because lets face it. Vetren players will move on and not come back regardless of the update because they have moved on and dedicated their time to something else.

It’s being managed well. It just seems to be managed poorly, because we have the perspective of being primarily pvpers (and a very very small percentage of pvpers at that, so we even differ from most pvpers). I have a long post here explaining why I believe this is being managed properly – albeit with poor outcomes for pvpers, it is being managed properly for GW2 as a game (which is a pve/wvw game – pvp is not a part of the long-term plans, and shouldn’t be for financial reasons).

I think this is a great idea, but because there are no offensive stats, this should be compensated for. Perhaps by going +798 vit, +798 tough, +798 healing, or alternatively adding other bonuses, such as vigor (5s) every 5s.

To give people more to do in pve was probably the primary motivator, with the side effect being that it may “shake up” things in pvp.

Warr stability lasts quite a long time (balanced stance: 8-14s depending on traits), and lockdown mesmers traditionally are not tanky. But it would work nicely once they are out of stability, if the mes is still alive.

It’s not just mesmers that suffer, its all other glass trying to roam, and the bigger reason is simply thieves demolish glass anything. It’s not that the combo is easier to pull off, etc…. its just that in glass v glass, the first one to land a substantial hit wins, and thieves control the opening of a fight normally.

To answer your question though, if you play to win, play one of the few accepted meta builds.

Dahkeus.8243:

Nettle.9025:

TainoFuerte.8136:

Rofl, just like I thought. Selling out sPvPers who got the game on the premise that we wouldn’t have to grind skills and other such nonsense to play the sPvP. I knew it was too good to be true.

Frankly, F you. F you, and F you some more. I’m going to Wildstar. GG.

Complains about having to spend some tourney winnings to unlock 5 new traits….

Decides to pvp in a different game with both pvp gear and amp (trait) grind.

:)

^ Pure gold. I think some people forget how good they have it as a PvP-centric player in GW2 compared to other MMOs.

Umm, being a pvp-centric in GW2 is foolish. Pvp is a side project mini-game here, that realistically should be receiving no further development (as it is not a worthwhile investment). I find Taino’s post hysterical for other reasons, but not because GW2 is a good pvp game. 6 months without much more then “soon” … that’s not good, that’s crap.

Encouraging players to pvp would be detrimental to the game. It is better to encourage pvpers to pve.

Just play wvw. Spvp has completely different builds, and honestly, why do you need practice blobbing?

1v1 is not part of wvw, and if you really had 3 warr, 2 guard… well, you should have crushed most comps. Including wellomancers and thieves (lol… warriors complaining about wellomancers…)

If you want to improve, start paying attention. Necros have death shroud and a health bar, and they do not heal while in death shroud….

Move on, or move back…. it’s not happening here.

Err, sorry! It will happen soon… just not yet.

JinDaVikk.7291:

It is interesting they mentioned which line some traits where in but not the others.

Which traits will they remove/change?
Obviously wonder what the other traits are?
How long will it take to balance these?
What pve crap do we have to do to “unlock” them? Seems like soon we won’t have free pvp but level up system pve does….

Seems like pvp is becoming pve mini game. I hope not.

Pvp is already a mini-game.

As for your questions: I suspect it will be one new GM trait per line, don’t think this means that they will remove traits (although it’s Anet, so who knows), and balance… lol – never! er, I mean soon.

Dahkeus.8243:

Whit.2385:

This is counter the very premises of spvp laid out in the beginning of the game, and what made spvp such a wonderful departure from other mmos. Spvp should be completely even playing field, even access across the board.

On the otherhand, this type of change reinforces my concepts on how they are approaching the spvp feature(ette) in this game anyhow.

It’s actually a quite elegant fix if you think about it:

GW2 solved the issue of PvP players being at a disadvantage to PvE players by separating PvP and PvE gear. However, the problem it created was a lack of rewards to strive for.

By attaching new talents as rewards, it allows players to still PvP without being at a gear disadvantage while still giving them something to work towards.

Yes, newer players will have less traits to compete with, but newer players are also learning the game/their profession, so a limit of options isn’t that problematic.

A similar system existed in GW1 and it was one of the reasons that GW1 PvP has such a strong legacy.

I find it an elegant fix, as I believe it marginalizes pvp further, and reinforces the company’s justified core dedication to the pve side of the game.

I don’t think that having traits as unlocks is what made gw1 pvp loved by many.

A limit of options most certainly is a problem if it locks them out of useful builds. If they cannot play that useful build, they will not learn it.

But honestly – new players?? lol.. sure… they will come soon I suppose.

This is counter the very premises of spvp laid out in the beginning of the game, and what made spvp such a wonderful departure from other mmos. Spvp should be completely even playing field, even access across the board.

On the otherhand, this type of change reinforces my concepts on how they are approaching the spvp feature(ette) in this game anyhow.

Not sure why they pushed the acquisition of the traits back. This just makes early-level even less interesting. As for survival, I don’t think it will matter much, I never slotted defensive stuff for leveling pve anyhow.

Sometimes
One wonders just what they are thinking
Of when they implement things, but it is not for us to comprehend, we are
Not capable.

The mesmer lockdown trait is nice, but you guys are both blowing it out of proportion, and not realizing its potential at the same time. Currently if you interrupt a heal, that person is likely dead anyhow – halting+no heal+another burst = dead.

All because a dev thinks it’d be great on a heal… well that just demonstrates that perhaps they do not have the experience with current lockdown to see why this is not novel.

At the same time, 10s lockdown on other critical skills is nice. Well, certain skills. Lockdown currently suffers due to Asuras, particle effects, and instant casts.

Also, as Sensotix rightfully pointed out – this does not help vs. Thief. But the thief problem is one that several glass roamers face, not just mesmer. Also, for all the thief fans, no – I’m not saying nerf thief, but I am saying that thief is the best roamer, hands down, simply because equally played, they will crush any other glass roamer and provide the best reliable burst for team fights.

Made a new post that was in response to some other forum post, but also addresses the 2 latest posts in this thread.

I think this is a lesson in managing expectations. Certainly, mid-April may seem like a long way away, but to some, that is soon after mid-December.

I’d replied to a thread that I suppose got censored before my reply got in… so.. umm, for the 2 people reading that thread, here’s my reply.

(The OP had claimed Anet may as well just delete spvp)

Umm – they already have.. They just haven’t explicitly said so, because that would be a bad business move.

Let’s examine the situation a bit more, using a few assumptions:

1) PVP has not performed well as a game mode in retaining players, or getting new players interested.

2) PVP does not generate as much revenue from the gemstore when compared to the PVE or WVW side of the game. This is likely partially due to simply the low population, as finishers and skins work for both game modes, but there are plenty of pve/wvw-centric items, such as gathering tools, boosts, perma-salvage, and other convenience items.

3) PVP lacks a competitive element which limits the current pvp population, and any potential viewership or following.

4) PVP is not the reason most players continue to enjoy GW2.

PVP is performing poorly as a sub-mode of the game. The other 2 modes are performing relatively well in that PVE has a diverse population, and while it may not cater well to the “hardcore” crowd or the raiding crowd, it does cater well to the casual crowd, the exploration based crowd, among other demographics. In short, PVE is doing alright, as is WvW (if we are to believe the posts – yet more uncertainties).

So what would you do if part of your product’s sub-population is doing poorly, not delivering, and requires a substantial investment of time and resources to adjust? Furthermore, any adjustments at this point most likely are too late for the current population, and as such would have to be rather phenomenal to attract a large enough new crowd to justify the investment.

Well – a very compelling option, from a business perspective, would be to cut the losses, and double down efforts on the parts of the product that are performing well. This is where money spent will garner a decent return. But, to straight out cancel or discontinue an element of the game would send a very negative message to shareholders and the gaming community (read: the target market). This in turn could have a negative effect on the population of the game that is currently performing well. So, instead of straight cancelling it, you slowly cull it. Discontinue any substantial projects, or simply assign a skeleton crew to them. This allows you to continue to honestly claim that pvp exists and is a feature, but does not require any real investment.

This focus would allow the game to grow where it does perform well (pve/wvw), and in terms of mmorpgs, fulfills two major gaming populations (the casual pve crowd and the rvr crowd). Any further losses of the pvp crowd are likely to be minimal, and some will crossover into wvw/pve anyhow.

Let’s also examine their revenue model to see why this makes more sense. B2P + gemstore. So, they do not lose a lot if someone who does not spend a lot at the gemstore leaves the game. They lose in the sense that that one player may no longer encourage friends to join them (buying the game), but that would only happen if the game was good enough to recommend, and pvp currently is not. We have already assumed (perhaps incorrectly, but let’s go with it) that pvpers do not spend substantial amounts at the gemstore, so losing a pvp-centric player is not really a terrible loss.

In short, economically, using the assumptions listed, it would make a lot of sense to discontinue focus on pvp, and instead redirect any resources and investments towards pve (and some wvw).

Now you may say, “Wait! They announced details of the soon patch, and there are balance things potentially going on! New traits even!” Well, new traits affect pve, and they were quite smart in the way they are implementing them as they cater to what is arguably one of the stronger elements of the game: Exploration. The new traits (and a rework of the existing trait acquisition) are offered as a reward for the different type of pve and exploration (map/dungeon/etc). Yes, you can simply buy them, but regardless, the exploration option excites a large part of their core playerbase.

TL:DR – Carry on then.