Guild Wars 2

I’d like to see you try out d/p in arenas and report back on the "op"ness. Prior to the patch I’d say every sPvP arena had a thief or 2, but post patch that has dwindled dramatically. I know they didn’t decrease crit dmg in pvp, but there is something nerfy with the thief atm. I was using my thief in d/p mode (ala Caed) pre patch and I switched to a regen warrior post patch…no traction in pvp atm.

On the flipside, I don’t think I have been beaten by a solo thief in arenas post patch. 2 tagged teamed me yesterday and slaughtered me quickly, but apart from 2v1 they are a LOT easier post patch.

Remember there’s a lot of PvE players that are in WvW doing PvDoor and gathering bags. Destroying players there isn’t the same as being OP. Most players are used to NPCs, were doing these 11/28/4/7 or whatever builds that forced Anet to simplify it, and freak out when faced with a real player.

saVdoom.2067:

krow.4836:

I play a thief and a warrior and I would say it takes substantially more skill to play the thief. As a bunker/banner warrior I just shield slammed/bashed/condi horned them till they gave up. Warriors are just much easier to play and have a much higher utility for the team than thieves.

Thieves are not part of any typical meta. They are considered leaches in WvW and everyone groans in sPvP when there’s more than one. They are strong 1v1, but that is SUCH a small part of pvp (especially with no dueling mechanism) that it’s not super relevant. Although I find the thief more fun to play I usually play my warrior since it’s more accepted in groups.

How come you missed the part where it was mentioned several times that thiefs are part of -any- competitive tournament team?

You can’t balance a class around the best players…ie above several people mention Caed as showcasing how OP thieves are when < 1% of thieves can pull off what he does. Similarly, not many engis had the success of Ostrich Eggs. 99% of players play in pickups, solo queues, etc and that’s the point of balance. Sure, exceptional thiefs are accepted by their group, but that same player would be accepted in whatever class they played. You might as easily say that Guardians are OP since they also appear in every tournament. If the composition of winning teams is 4 thieves and a guardian than you can conclude that thieves are OP.

I play a thief and a warrior and I would say it takes substantially more skill to play the thief. As a bunker/banner warrior I just shield slammed/bashed/condi horned them till they gave up. Warriors are just much easier to play and have a much higher utility for the team than thieves.

Thieves are not part of any typical meta. They are considered leaches in WvW and everyone groans in sPvP when there’s more than one. They are strong 1v1, but that is SUCH a small part of pvp (especially with no dueling mechanism) that it’s not super relevant. Although I find the thief more fun to play I usually play my warrior since it’s more accepted in groups.

Super awesome…game needs more of this.

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Congrats, Anet, on getting the feature pack out and in the hands of your players. I’m sure that took a lot of time from the team over the past several months.

I’m sure you have projects a-foot to optimize the elements and complete implementation, but could I put forth the suggestion that you revisit WvW and PvP? The leagues and seasons are a lot of fun, but the underlying system could really use some retooling to hold player interest and improve the quality of the gaming in WvW especially.

Improving the commander model, disincentiving Zergs and promoting defense would improve a core gameplay (wvw) that keep many of your players coming back to GW2. Without some vision and affection I worry that players will start moving to other games with large scale PvP options.

Thanks!

Arriving late to GW2, and primarily for PvP, I was surprised that there wasn’t a duel option. You could make it an option only in the mists if people will find it annoying in LA (I would probably). It would give life in Mists and decrease the trash talking since people could work out who sucks in a duel.

Dueling brings out a community that makes movies and promotes them. Views lead to interest, which leads to purchases of the game and gems.

I apologize if this aspect has been discussed, but I’m also not in favor of these unlocks in sPvP. Many good reasons have been voiced, but my addition to that is having unlocks will confuse new players more than promote progression.

How will it confuse new players? I will give you just my POV, but I came to the game in September. I really got interested in sPvP in January. By then the “meta” was in full effect and learning sPvP for a class was challenging. Charging in with what you did in PvE resulted in prolific insults and very little success. To improve my game I went to these forums and looked at the posted builds (which will all change, unfortunately) and watched great players in my class (Ostrich, Caen, etc). Since you can completely duplicate the BUILD and gear it gives you a starting point to work from…after I figured out why they chose different traits I would adjust it to fit my game style and (lack of) skill. Grandmaster traits will make taking a build off the shelf to learn from it and make it virtually impossible. I know you’re not removing traits, but when the new grandmaster traits are good everyone will want them, pushing all those builds into the meta and making them inaccessible for the new player.

sPvP is complex and hard in GW2. There’s a lot to consider and that’s the depth I really appreciate as a casual hard-core player. Being able to take a build and try to play it well has been a LARGE aspect of the fun of the PvP. Progression is thru skins, rank, etc. It could be better for sure…and I would suggest more cosmetic options rather than putting a trait out of reach to new players. That will just make it MORE confusing and inaccessible for new players.

I agree…it’s extremely fun and very beautiful. All this for a f2p game is extraordinary IMO. Great patch and nice to see people talking about how fun it is.

Thanks Cheese.

Hi Anet,

I know you’re not ready to reveal the glory changes, but with the new system will we be able to level? I have a lvl 50ish warrior and some glory saved up. Either I would by Tomes of Knowledge to lvl, or chests to advance the gear collection.

Thanks.

Last night the server crashed 4-5 times during a 1 hour play session. It’s been like that each prime time this week. Not all the crashes were the fault of ANET and this post was more about a 72 hour ban vs something more manageable like 6 hours as a first warning.

Hi Anet, all;

I’m newer to GW2 and just discovered sPvP with the last patch and the option to purchase tomes to level. Now that I got a taste of how fun this mode is I’m hooked. If the upcoming changes get more players to try sPvP I think it’ll add a lot of new players to that element.

However, with the recent server instability at night it’s become VERY hard to sPvP in NA prime time. Being new I had no idea what the dishonorable debuff was all about until I reloaded after a crash and found myself with a 3 day ban. That is a motivational killer. I realize the importance of debuffs like this to promote good gameplay, but 3 days is way to long for a first offense. That debuff should build over number of offenses from something short like 1-2 hours to something like 2 days, but 3 days is crazy long and steals from the community of players.

We all know something phishy is happening to NA servers during prime time. Now I will be very reluctant to play if it looks like the servers are not stable. That’s rewarding who ever is perping this and punishing both the player and ANET.

Great video.