(edited by Demosthene.2195)
Entry-level complexity of Necromancers and Mesmers is high. Thieves, Engineers, Elementalists and Rangers are somewhere in-between in this regard. Warriors and Guardians are easiest to pick up, but their feedback loop is much more subtle when it comes to maximising their performance in a match, especially when it comes to Warrior.
Based on tournament play alone, Warrior seems to be the profession with highest skill cap and biggest disparity of individual player skill among general populace, which at the low-end of the spectrum might give you the wrong impression of "overplayed, easy profession for noobs".
If you are aimless in WvW and wander about picking flowers, mining ore and enjoying the view then you will be repeatedly and mercilessly killed by any rivals that spot you.
If you are poorly organised and charge about with 50 other poorly organised people trying to knock castles down with your daggers whilst standing under the boiling oil and in range of the defender’s cannons then you will be repeatedly pounded until all your armour is destroyed.
If you team up with a few other people and systematically approach key objectives such as taking and securing supply camps before then taking and defending a tower then you will still be killed and your armour will still be damaged BUT you will have earned significant experience, karma and, most importantly for the armour repair bill, coin. Do it right and you will earn significantly more coin than you have to spend repairing your armour just by following the objectives and their associated events.
A single player, properly build, can take out dolyaks with their escort, claim territory points guarded by veteran NPCs, take out whole supply camps alone as well as neutral creature camps (Ogres, Moles, Hyleks). In order to escape ganks, you’ll need stun-breakers, anti-CC and speed boosts, among many other things.
Lone players can lay quite a devastation to enemy team, by drawing off entire groups of players in a futile chase, starve keeps and towers by taking their supply down and destroy abandoned siege engines that the enemy could use later. 2-3 player groups are even more deadly, completing their objectives before they’re spotted, complementing each other’s build with added support/control/damage synergy and even ressing each other on the spot when things go awry.
Compared to that, zergs are pretty predictable and static, both in their behaviour and performance. The game-changers are these lone players sabotaging enemy lines and communicating information back to their squad, guild and server, as well as many compact player groups making blitz attacks, stealing orbs or collapsing on the enemy camping the gates or shooting with their siege engines from the hill.
(edited by Demosthene.2195)
My main gripe is that WvW exotic armour and weapons are lv 60. We were told before the game launched that we would have all the levels, skill points, gear and gold necessary to play in WvW, just by playing WvW, but now it turns out that we are forced to take part in normal PvE activities, or at the very least buy crafted exotics off Trade Post.
"So to all new players…follow Dsmac’s suggestions to earn a lot of points. Save playingproperly for when it counts, aka tournaments."
Which, interestingly enough, brings us to a catch-22 scenario, where over time entry barrier for tournament play will become so high, that learning curve will turn into a "learning cliff" unapproachable by 98% of players, leaving these players to the hell of hot-join "casual" PvP with no ladders to climb separating players based on skill, and no incentives for winning because it’s all about racking up glory points anyway.
Another problem is that there is nothing in-between tournament play (dominated by pre-made teams of really good players) and hot-join PvP. WvW is not PvP, so let’s leave it out of the discussion for the moment. Yet another issue I have is that "player skill" is tracked by glory, because there are no leagues and ladders to speak of, either in hot-join or tournament play.
What I’d like to see is a re-design of PvP at large:
a) hot-join casual PvP, 8v8, solo queue on server of your choice
- glory system, revamped and more context-sensitive, you get about 40-60% of available glory points by winning the match, can get the remaining 40-60% points through individual contribution, if you lose the match you only get points for individual contribution
b) solo queue semi-competitive 5v5 PvP, no pre-made teams allowed, automated match-making
- glory system, all glory points awarded for winning the match
- leagues and ladders to climb, separating players by skill in automated match-making
c) pre-made teams competitve 5v5 PvP, tournament play, automated match-making
- glory system, all glory points awarded for winning the match
- monthly and yearly tournaments
(edited by Demosthene.2195)