Guild Wars 2

If you guys look at Riot and League of Legends, you can make a comparison because each company’s balancing methods and get a better understanding of why Anet’s methods feel inferior.

Riot is consistently updating their old champion kits with new technology AND healthier skills. Anet, in contrast, is still stuck to the old “excel number tweaking” method that has always proved unpopular by the community and uneffective at bringing us an excellent pvp meta game.

The interesting thing is that Anet was at Riot’s level during the elite spec era. Not only for elite specs but for guardian’s shield changes, which brought new technology and a more effective skillset. But now they’ve downgraded back to unpopular “excel number tweaking” balance changes that rarely fix any core issues with profession’s mechanics and flaws.

If it is a lack of budget, then Anet as a whole should consider investing more on their balance’s team budget. Professions are a key component to this game’s success in the past and in the future, and we should be getting a lot more meaningful changes than merely “number tweaks”.

So far, Anet’s work on elite specs was the highlight of GW2’s entire profession balance/ design process over the game since launch. With each developer working on 2-3 specs and giving their full attention to its deeper problems and interacting with the playerbase about it, they were able to hit the right spots quite more often and underline (and, whenever possible, fix) the core issues identified for each prof.

In contrast, January’s balancing patch was a downgrade and a back-to-the-past situation. Generic, vague, underwhelming, scattered, unfocused.

Pre-HoT Anet showed many signs of evolution and improvement on their profession design and balance process. They were pretty much at the level of Riot/ League of Legends. January’s patch was a downgrade. It seems like the much superior development approach that Anet adopted for elite specs was scrapped, and we’re back to old-Anet, old-balancing-style, old-disappointment.

I’ll post again my suggestion to Anet’s balancing team: reestructure your team and development method so that it takes into account the method that you used during the development of elite specs. Have each dev specialize on 2-3 classes and have them talk with the playerbase in the profession boards.

Remember what you did with Guardian’s shield? Skills were retooled, new technology was used, and the whole thing feels much nicer to play with now. This is what you, Anet, need to do with every other existing weapon set and trait set. Not just number tweaks on cooldowns, timers or damage values. Do you know why Ele’s Scepter is still broken? Because it has no tools to aid Dragon Tooth, because the auto-attacks are generally bad, because water #2 has no purpose and because offensive eles have no meaningful active defenses that are not reliant on defensive stats to work. And what have you done? A smaller activation time here, a 10% buff there… Do you know what this feels like? Shooting in the dark and hoping that it’ll hit the right spot.

What has happened to Anet’s pre-Hot moment of brilliance? Was it temporary?

Balance changes were not enough considering how few we’ll get them per year. However, I think the amulet changes were smart, though, and so were revenant’s.

My biggest problem with Anet’s balancing team/ method, is that it seems to lack personality. It’s very generic, with some numbers toned down or up and hope to see if it works (or not). Mechanical issues, clumsy interactions, poorly-placed traits and mechanically ineffective skills are a large problem of GW2’s balancing, but anet’s balance patches seem purely mathematical.

To be honest, I think developers showed a lot of personality during the time of elite spec reveals. There was a lot of attention to detail and interesting creative changes to non-functional skills and traits. In contrast, anet’s typical balancing patches seems to lack that individual touch and personality. Some balancing done was needed and right to the point, but most changes are usually vague, scattered, shy and many times irrelevant because they do not seem to fix any core issue. It’s as if the balancing team is out of touch with each profession’s playerbase’s desires, suggestions and playing experience. That’s wht I mean by “lack of personality”. Most balancing notes were unfocused and generic.

Also: balance patches shouldn’t be nerfing grounds only. They should also be a hyping tool. For every nerf done to a spec, there should be an attempt to bring new specs to meta. This wasn’t done to all professions, it wasn’t done enough to each profession, and when it was done, most of the times, it was unimpressive and random.

My suggestion is that the balancing team would probably benefit from following a similar method as the team for elite specs did: put each dev behind 2-3 professions and have them heavily analyze and focus each profession’s issues and playerbase complaints. This would allow a more focused approach to balance, I think. Currently, it feels as if anet’s balancing team focus too much on what seems right and what seems wrong from a macro scope, while failing to deliver from a micro scope.

Malchior.5732:

Well, it’s like a ranged weapon with poor kiting skills (like Rev Hammer). If you can’t keep a target where you want it, then the weapon is bad.
So if Sword can’t isolate targets, why are Sword 2/3 only good at damaging isolated targets? It makes no sense and you depend too much on your opponents playing badly.

I think OH sword #5’s range is the real culprit. It you could trigger it from a bit further away, it could be pretty cool. But trying to connect it at 130 melee range against moving targets leads to a lot of missing and makes it hard to position yourself the way you would want to. Even a small buff to 300 range could make a big difference.

Malchior.5732:

DiogoSilva.7089:

Malchior.5732:

Varezenem.2813:

Probably reducing the radius to 300 , increasing projectile speed by 200% and prioritizing players should make it usable.

Make it single target, increase speed by 200%. If Sword is about singling out targets, then it shouldn’t even be AoE. Even then, Reflects will make you cry, but at least it’ll be somewhat usable.

The AoE effect is actually an weakness that punishes you for not singling out targets. That part is fine, imo.

I think that it’s the projectile hit box that needs to be a little bit bigger.

Oh ok, I’ll try to single out that guy in the crowd with my Sword 5 that barely helps and is melee range or I’ll try to separate that Ranger/Mesmer/Necro from their pet/illusions/minions.
Should be simple, right? Sword is SO good at singling out targets after all.

Sword MH is good at damaging isolated targets, not isolating them. :P I haven’t used OH sword yet, still sticking to the shield. But now that the shield’s heal was nerfed, I might consider it…

Glint/ Shiro revenants should fare decently against thiefs.

Malchior.5732:

Varezenem.2813:

Probably reducing the radius to 300 , increasing projectile speed by 200% and prioritizing players should make it usable.

Make it single target, increase speed by 200%. If Sword is about singling out targets, then it shouldn’t even be AoE. Even then, Reflects will make you cry, but at least it’ll be somewhat usable.

The AoE effect is actually an weakness that punishes you for not singling out targets. That part is fine, imo.

I think that it’s the projectile hit box that needs to be a little bit bigger.

Lorelei.3918:

I have a idea. Create two amulet slots, a armor slot and a accessory slot. Take the existing amulets and cut their stats by half. Now you can mix and match stats to your hearts content.

Like for my guard I would ideally like to mix Assasins with Cleric.

And then toughness+healing power gear, full tank gear and any other extreme-building gear would fall from the skies like rain and drown pvp forever. :P

Malchior.5732:

“oh, only use it in melee”
What a great solution for a RANGED skill that can be reflected in my face, has a very obvious animation and can just target random crap whenever it feels like it. Gee, we’re so lucky.

Sword #3 can also auto-cancel for several clumsy reasons, be dodged away, and deal no damage against multiple opponents. Did that make sword #3 a terrible skill?

My point is: I know sword #2 has flaws, but don’t judge it solely by its flaws. Stay near your target, just as you would when you are AAing. The perma chill and the 4-5k damage IS nice.

scerevisiae.1972:

The total lack of attention to ventari’s usability is pretty disturbing.

I think the problem with ventari is that it needs larger changes than just number adjustments. It needs mechanical changes, imo. Especially to streamline it.

Malchior.5732:

Nerfs could be fine, but we got 0 compensation.

See, this is a complete lie.

Either you think precision strike’s buffs make a difference or not, they ARE there. 100->300% damage buff and 2->4.5 chill duration are not small numbers to go by, even taking into account how avoidable this skill is at ranged.

You can say that sword was rebalanced, with power being taken to the strongest skills and being given to the weakest one.

if it was a meaningful change or not, that’s another question.

Malchior.5732:

Then there’s the people who are really spiteful and just want classes trashed because they don’t like them in PvP. Is that correct?

That I agree with you, but I still think it’s less one-sided.

Drayos.8759:

funny how anyone in top tier SPVP or pro teams is saying they’re still very strong, yet the Lowly Rev Reroller FoTM Love are QQIng that they’re now bad..

If you go by the word of all the folks that lurk in the profession boards, all professions are in a terrible state.

The problem with the profession boards is that they are biased towards a single point of view. There’s very few people who main other professions to go (t)here and tell otherwise.

Most of the crying posts in the profession boards would probably be laughed at if they posted in, say, the pvp board.

People gain affection for their favourite builds, so when they see them nerfed, they react very violently against the changes.

But to be honest, revenant’s nerfs were well thought out and all completely logical. Sword and hammer were too spammy because each of them had a single, spammable skill that was overtuned. Glint’s heal was too strong and too flexible, and in order to maintain its power, they had to tone down its flexibility.

And precision strike is a good skill now. Cry at me all you want. Precision strike is pretty decent. It may be clumsy at chasing targets because of how easily avoidable it is, but just ignore that it’s a ranged skill. Use it at melee just as you would with your other sword skills. Precision strike contributes to your burst with a good chunk of damage every 4 seconds and allows you to perma chill your target for no meaningful energy cost.

Trepidation Lost.3469:

sword 2 now doesnt work on downed players gg

This bug can actually be quite convenient. If there is a rezzer, they’ll eat the full precision strike’s damage.

So far, I’m finding precision strike’s buff to be really useful in pvp.

Female: cool outfit with unfitting boots that you can’t remove.

Male: hideous, as expected from anet’s male gear.

Buran.3796:

Coming back to the “pattern” theme, they already have announced their way to “fix” the problem of the excessive sustain in the meta:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Upcoming-Changes-to-PvP-Runes-Sigils-Amulets

Essentially they will remove from PvP those amulets:

Soldier’s
Settler’s
Celestial
Sentinel

You see? The way Arenanet “solves” problems of balance isn’t trying to figure a way to keep some pairity between classes or ofering alternative viable builds for each class; but instead REMOVING things.

I think you misunderstood anet’s intentions with the amulet changes.

They aren’t trying to balance the meta, they are trying to shift it into something different. Likewise, they aren’t “simply removing” amulets from the game as much as they are replacing them with new ones.

Anet’s goals are to create an offensive-oriented meta and avoid extreme burst or extreme bunker builds. Because stats are a big part of that, especially for the bunker builds, they are replacing all amulets that offer massive sustain and good damage with somewhat more offensive/ less defensive alternatives.

So in this specific case, it’s not simply about removing things. Anet is clearly modifying an existing meta by replacing/ introducing new stat combos with a very clear purpose.

Fade to Black.7042:

AA nerf wasn’t needed and -20% dmg second hit it’s just overwhelming ….

If you think a 10% and a 20% damage nerf is overwhelming, then you’ll faint with the +200% damage buff vs single targets that was given to sword #2.

Seriously, this is one of the biggest buffs I’ve seen Anet do to a single skill in the history of GW2’s balance. The balance patch following the next one might potentially have the new precision strike nerfed.

But that’s how the profession forums work, I guess. People love to be victims. They purposefully undervalue or ignore any buffs revealed so that they can cry in peace about the nerfs.

Burtnik.5218:

Noone care, it remain a trash skill due to it projectile nature with speed of a turtle. On top of that cus of damage nerfs on auto we are even weaker vs “pet” and teamfights classes as half of the damage will go towards random trash

Having an unique playstyle with clear play and counterplay opportunities is not a bad thing. It’s healthy to the game. It allows for high risk/ high reward plays, which is exciting both for players and viewers. In contrast, low counterplay abilities with mediocre damage is bland and boring.

Precision strike might might have a lot of “drawbacks”, but when you maximize it, it’s going to be explosive. And that’s what’s fun about it. It rewards good plays and good players.

Overall changes to sword are terrible, basically just damage nerf with no compensation and it doesnt seems to have anything with “singling out enemies”.

If you “single out enemies”, the new precision strike will hit 3 times and apply chill 3 times to your target. Do not understimate a 3x buff – that’s a massive number, and it’s going to burst down a lot of players in pvp for sure.

Lmao. Watch it guys. Already easily countered skill gets even more of a nerf. Is there any reason for it whatsoever?

In my opinion, it was the only way to balance it. Its instant cast effect was making it too strong.

Also, it’s not as easy to counter as you may think it is. You can intentionally enter a large-damaging field the moment you cast it, like a guardian’s trap or a fire field, for example. Opposing players can’t cancel their area-of-effect skills when they are already put down in the ground.

Every time a new balance change comes out, people always get blinded by the nerfs listed and become unable to see anything else.

Sword was not nerfed. Skill #1 and skill #3 became slightly weaker, while skill #2 became significantly stronger. Significantly stronger. In fact, I won’t be surprised if the newsword #2 gets to be nerfed in the future, because x3 more damage and massive amount of chill at a low energy/ cooldown cost is not to be taken lightly (plus, 3x a whirling finisher, if I’m not wrong?).

Also, sword’s playstyle just became less generic and more unique. It’s now less about spamming AA and more about spiking down isolated targets.

It was a well thought out change, but some people are unable to see it behind their nerf glasses.

The new amulets are more offensive-oriented while still having defensive stats. This seems good to:

1. avoid extreme bunker or extreme burst builds;
2. move the meta towards a more balanced-offensive state without going too far into it;
3. promote builds with clear strengths and weaknesses stat-wise (aka, no celestial);

In theory, I’m happy with those changes. There’s not too much defense in there, while also avoiding instant-kill builds. I hope those changes work well in practice.

Basically:

If you have a permanent and expensive item, 700 gem is fair.
If you do not, 700 gem is incredibly high.

For your average player that wants shared slots for stuff like keys and gear, 200 gem for each (and a max of 10 or 20 instead of 5) would be far more appropriate.

They do have the golden cave music (for guilded hollow, at least), but last time I picked it, it was bugged and it wouldn’t repeat upon re-entering the map.

Pittcrew.6592:

The issue that they have is that they have made some super exclusive/valuable items that people only want to have to get one of, and in order to give us a lot of shared inventory space, they would need to make exceptions to these items, which would just be complicated. I would like it if they added like a 20-bag slot for equipment, crafting stuff, keys, loot bags, consumables, etc. and keep these 5-10 individual purchased slots for the super valuable stuff like infinite-use items.

And that is the biggest problem.

This feature is balanced around super exclusive/ valuable items, like permanent bank tabs. For all other players that would love to get some shared slots to put half a dozen of keys, this is not for them.

In other words, anet’s implementation of shared slots is elitist and is not properly fine-tuned to all those that want it.

A possible solution would be to have different slot tiers. Tier 1 slots would be relatively cheap (say, ~50/ 100 gems for each) and then players could spend more gems to upgrade those slots to be able to put in super-expensive stuff.

I would love to share some 10-ish items, including all map keys (which makes 6), copper-o-matic and possibly some utility stuff, like krytan torch, boosters, etc.

But the greed is real. It’s more important, for Anet’s marketing team, to suck out money from a small and rich minority than to satisfy a much larger playerbase who, together, would probably give as much money, if not more, than a smaller set of players.

This is a feature that is much needed to most players, but is priced only for the rich. In other words, to most of us, it’s a no-feature after the initial hype fades.

At first, I thought this was one of the greatest QoL additions ever.

Then, as I misunderstood, I thought you would have to pay 700 gems for 5 slots, for a total of 25 after math for 2800 gems. A bit too costly, but still worth it.

But it turns out that 700 gems = 1 slot.

1 slot.

Hahahahaha.

Why, Anet?

In the future, I would like to see more lore/ story driven content that is not only season 3. Specialization quests, please! With lore, story and spec-themed gear!

Very interesting QoL changes, but a bit light on content (except for shatterer revamp). I hope April’s seasonal update brings more content.

One question:

Now that gliding is available everywhere, will we be able to unlock it with experience obtained in Pact Tyria?

Josh Davis.6015:

I’ve thought through the implications of removing cele from PvP and what would happen to elementalist quite a bit, actually. It’s pretty risky. I think elementalist would need a new 4 stat combo to be viable at roughly the same level (maybe something like 1050pow/1050condi/560vit/560healing).

Elementalists would probably need more than one 4 stat combo gear, for the sake of diversity. Some of them would move to crusader (the old valkyrie stat build) for direct damage builds, and I’m sure boon builds could find a place with a fitting boon duration amulet too.

Regardless, all those options would be weaker than celestial, but they could be doable IF elementalist’s traits are fine tuned to work with them. For example, with some stronger access to fury/ precision and improved arcane skills/ traits, crusader eles could be a thing. Extra toughness, damage reduction and condition damage in earth, plus a slightly improved rock barrier, could make your suggested amulet work really well to offset the lack of celestial.

Josh Davis.6015:

Aside from skill adjustments, another way we can adjust balance in PvP is by looking at the runes/sigils/amulets that are available for use through the customization panel.

I would be interested in hearing thoughts (with the high-level goals from the blog in-mind) on adding/removing various sigils/amulets/runes. In general, our goal for PvP is to be faster-paced with a higher-level of lethality than what we’re seeing in S1.

I know we’ve had this conversation a few times before, but it’s always important to have this discussion with the correct context in mind.

I think one of the problems with the lack of lethality is because the game has too many active defenses that come at no meaningful cost or that are too easily available.

I think a cool direction to take the game to is to make active defenses rieskier, easier to counterplay or give them higher cooldowns, while buffing high-rish/ high-reward skill combos in the meantime (which aren’t always appropriately strong, like Dragon’s Tooth, and even when they are, there are too many one-key wonders to nullify them). This should make the game more exciting for both players and stream viewers, especially if said skill rotations are visually readable.

I’ll give an example. During HoT’s beta test, anet added evasion to revenant’s mist skills. This made the profession really strong at something that it wasn’t probably intended to be at and, as a consequence, damage had to be nerfed (sword #3 and staff #5). Did sword #3 really needed an evasion when they had off-hand sets dedicated to blocking? Did staff #5 really needed evasion when it already had a good, low-cooldown block and when the skill in question already had a very interesting niche (heavy cc+damage to enemies in line)?

All those “free” active defenses come at no strategical cost (you’re not exactly sacrificing your damage output in order to evade while using sword #3) and blur the main purpose of those skills.

For this specific case, I recommend two solutions: make us be able to cancel sword #3 (the main reason for why it received an evade) and switch pure evasion with a softer defensive mechanic (like, say, half damage reduction + plus cc immunity). You can then even have a trait that improves that soft defense mechanic, for those builds that need more defense. And then, just add back all the damage that was taken from some of those skills.

This is just one example, but I believe it applies to many other professions. Active defenses should be more precious and more strategical, not simply be handed freely to already-powerful skills.

Besides, if you are the kind of player that loves to stick to a single main character, you don’t deserve your pvp legendary, because

They could re-use their Guild Halls technology for the home instance Upgrades and unlockables that add more interactivity, options and life to it.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I understand, Diogo, and thanks for the extra info. BTW, I just purchased the instance nodes — couldn’t resist after seeing someone’s fully-spiffed-out personal instance. And I knew I was going to be going there daily after getting the Wintersday Gift Tree, which I had to have — it’s just lovely!

I know it’ll take me a long while to get the money back from my investment, but it does make going out there extra fun now.

You should try sharing your instance with somebody, Gaile. I do it with my girlfriend, and that makes going to the instance even funnier and more satisfying. It gives that feeling that your effort and money is contributing to help other people, which is a great feeling to be had. It’s also fun to use the tonics you get from wintersday tree (do you still get them? I don’t know much about the updated drops) and then both end up playing costume brawl there for the fun of it.

In that way, a hired labour could actually have a serious flaw: your friends wouldn’t probably be able to use it and you would probably still have to manually take them there. But there’s a simple solution for even that: put the npc inside the instance, so that anyone could use it.

…And this talk is making me wish for a instance housing system and a way to officially share your home with your partner. Guild halls are too big and expensive for 1 or 2 people.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Well, we do get those daily log-in rewards.

For free, while hired labours would have to be unlocked at a price. Knowing Anet and their past practices, players would probably spend more money on the hired labour than they would on getting that money back (this is already the case for infinite gathering tools and even for instance nodes), so my counter-argument to your initial point still stands: It would be mostly a convenience feature, a nice QoL thing to have, not an economy-breaking one.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How about an option to have NPCs opening chests at jumping puzzles then. I have 4 on this account parked at a JP for a daily chest opening. Having 4 NPCs do it instead and I pay them a small amount upon logon instead of spending the time doing it myself means more time doing other things.

I know you’re being sarcastic, but jumping puzzle chests come at a cost (you have to get there, and you can’t leave them without repeating the whole thing).

Instance nodes have no real challenge and come at no meaningful cost (outside of the huge amount of money you spent for them, which only helps my point). A hired labour here would exist for the sake of convenience.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I don’t know, Zoltar. Doesn’t that sound like one of those auto-play games? Like you don’t even need to log in to gain wealth?

What if you are required to log-in to get that daily wealth?

See it this way, Gaile: the less time you spend doing daily “chores”, the more time you spend playing actual content (fractals, hot maps, sw, wvw, pvp, etc).

Besides, GW2 is a game about horizontal progression, and that means many things: guild halls, titles, skins, etc. and… account upgrades and convenience. Some people love that. So… why not? Will the economy break if you get instant instance wealth on log-in instead of spending 5 minutes on it? Especially if you take into account the costs for the nodes plus whatever a hired labour would cost to obtain.

ugrakarma.9416:

mine:
– reorganize categories in lfg tool, at least separate raids. if it is ask too much.

And add a Search feature!

There are so many good concepts in HoT that are hindered by weird decisions, poor balancing, lack of polish, excessive money-sinking philosophy, incomplete UI, etc.

Instead of pointing out the flaws with the expansion in this thread, let’s instead suggest simple QoL changes that would greatly enhance the existing content.

Here’s some of mine:

UI and menus

• Improve the UI for map bonus rewards to add more information there.
• Make all recipes that are unlocked by consumption to be account-bound.

Heart of Maguuma

• Add additional mastery points to several maguuma achievements so that players are not pressured to do the mini-game adventures if they don’t like them.
• Make adventures always available whenever it is possible.

Rewards

• Improve the rewards for medium-term goals. For example, completing your bladed armor collection should give you something much better than… 3 transmutation charges.
• Improve the rate of tokens that you get from dungeons, so that players can be better rewarded for their effort and work for their collections without the need for the game to inject liquid gold into the economy.
• For Guild Hall upgrades, replace luck and pvp potions for something else, so that players that want to invest in a GH are not forced to have a less rewarding experience from other existing reward systems.
• Make all or most precursor tiers at ascended level, so that there is at the very least a minimal sense of reward for obtaining them after so much resource sinking.
• Remove the pvp legendary’s backpiece requirement of having to play more than one profession. Not only is that an unfair discrimination against players who dislike being multi-classers/ value the concept of “main characters”, but it also decreases the quality of the matchmaking.
• Have the game automatically verify the size of a guild, the number of active players representing it and participating in guild missions, and then adjust PvE/ WvW/ PvP opportunities in a fair way. Small guilds who have sold their soul (and their bank) to unlock those slots should never, ever, get medium and hard opportunities from them. It’s a massive slap to the face for those who have worked hard to unlock then, and a failure at making the game a “more rewarding experience”.

Guild Halls

• Accept that not all players in many guilds are willing to contribute to upgrades, and adjust the money sinking in an appropriate way. A small 6-10-man guild usually means, in practice, that 1 or 2 players are heavily contributing and 2-4 others help every once in a time. Because GH upgrades are adjusted under the assumption that there’s a minimum of 5 people contributing in small guilds, the resources required are extremely high, usually 2x or 3x more than what would have been healthy for small guilds to contribute.
• Add upgrades that appeal to small guilds and other upgrades that appeal to large guilds, but make sure that guilds can’t have both at the same time. This way, there’s no pressure to queue unnecessary upgrades for the sake of guild experience, and each guild of varying size can have a fair system where they can queue upgrades appropriate to their size and ignore upgrades that are not required for them without sacricifing any experience.

PvP

• Add a Solo+Duo Queue, so players can play alone or with their closest friends without having to face organized 3+ premades/ guilds.

Add yours.

For some reason, I thought adventures were going to be like quests, aka, an improved version of Hearts. Perhaps with even some storytelling there. But it turns out that they are nothing more than jumping puzzles/ mini-games. In the future, I would like to see some adventures use the game’s battle system. And by “some”, I mean, most of them.

I also like the concept of mastery points, it’s there so you explore as much as you can. But it gets bad when it is disruptive to your playing experience. When a player must force themselves to stop doing map events and practice adventure mini-games against their will, so that they get enough points to not have their experience earned go to waste, then something is wrong.

fixit.7189:

Welcome to the new and improved free to play business model; toxic behavior goes hand in hand with f2p like cookies and cream.

F2P players can’t use map chat nor do they have access to raids and HoT maps. And dungeon elitism has been a thing for years.

“Every facet of the game was touched, polished, tweaked, or overhauled.”

PvP has gotten a broken and unfair league system that goes against Anet’s esport dreams, while the meta won’t be fixed until the season ends.

Fractals have gotten a convoluted and uneffective reward system, so they’re as unrewarding as ever.

WvW is officially incomplete by Anet’s own words.

The storyline is clearly rushed.

Existing reward systems like pvp reward tracks and luck consumption are now locked or hindered if you want to invest on guild halls with pvp potions/ luck, effectively making the game a less rewarding experience, which goes against Anet’s goals.

Guild Halls are solely designed to function as a massive money sink. Any potentially fun content, like guild upgrading and guild decoration, are gated behind massive money and time sinks, and it takes forever to get the smallest of benefits. Have fun cleaning your entire bank for months before even being able to enjoy decoration.

Medium-term rewards are almost non-existent. After some easier achievements, all that is left for you to do is to invest on legendaries, with nothing inbetween. 3 transmutation charges for completing your bladed armor chest in VB. Have fun.

Precursor hunting is, after 1-2 days of completing collections, nothing but yet another generic and convoluted money sink, not very different from the classic buy-from-tp precursors, which effectively added very little to the game.

And convoluted crafting everwhere. Trees and trees of material requirements specifically designed to suck gold and materials out of the economy, with little regard to the player’s enjoyment.

Crinn.7864:

Celtus.8456:

Balance and fun makes an e-sport, not how many times you throw around the buzzword ‘e-sport’ and promote the hell out of it in and out of game. Right now we don’t have balance or fun.

Because League of Legends is such a shining example of a balanced game right?

In comparison to GW2, yes, yes it is.

Both games are only comparable when you look at LoL’s oldest/ most outdated champions, with their passive effects or skill animations that are hard to grasp intuitively/ visually, their spammy nature, restricted counterplay, etc.

But those outdated champions have been getting reworked over time, and the ones that still remain are either purposefully underpowered (so that they don’t ruin the game) until a rework, or, when viable, are given high priority for said rework.

This has been one of the biggest problems with the game’s combat system since the very beginning.

Too much of everything, happening at every single second, with no sense of climax and no real window to read everything that is happening.

kahzee.6042:

Welcome to the worst pvp in history

Better yet:

This entire pug vs premade debacle has also happened 2-3 years ago, before they added the now-removed solo queue option.

You can’t have faith in the future of a game when that game takes steps backward to past problems.

Adjusting rewards won’t make matches less unfun.

It doesn’t matters if you are “rewarded fairly” for being farmed by premades. If the game is unable to create engaging and fun matches, then players will get frustrated and leave. Simple.

“Here’s a better reward for having wasted your time” is not what people want out of a pvp game.

Timston.1976:

This is why anet goes on reddit more than here

Reddit has been as harsh on them as the official forums have.

Miaze.8631:

People are already legendary, if you’re good enough you will get there.

What about the people that are good enough but do not have the time?

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

However, that excludes some people where simply making, say…emerald 2, is an accomplishment for them. Going your route basically says unless you’re at least ‘x’ level, you don’t matter. Good for the goose, good for the gander. If the higher ones can be displayed, then so too should the lower ones have the option.

That makes sense, but considering that there’s barely any difficulty at getting out of amber, the emerald badge isn’t worth much. Now, let’s up that requirement by one and only one division, and have the minimum badge displayed to be sapphire (aka, getting out of emerald). That can actually be worth anything to your average casual player. When you take into account that the pvp playerbase is a minority, locking the badge display behind div2 (your suggestion) or div3 (my suggestion) will make it likely rare in pve.

Whatever happens, amber tag definitely needs to go. Most of the pve players that have it probably only have it because they queued once in patchday just to test the shiny new feature and may probably never enter HotM again anytime soon. That one is the real offender.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

I think just an option to shut it off in pve / wvw would be sufficient. Make it ‘required’ to show in pvp, but otherwise, leave it to player preference.

But that would remove their purpose in pve/ wvw: to show the whole community that you’re a “good” pvp player.

Instead, I’d say that all icons from lower divisions should only be visible in the Heart of the Mists, while icons with real prestige should be visible anywhere.

Amber’s tag gets unlocked as soon as you go in queue/ join the first match, so it’s meaningless and serves no purpose other than screen clutter.

At the very minimum, the tag should be only displayed from the 2nd division on, but to be honest, I would probably lock it behind 3rd or 4th division instead. It simply has no prestige otherwise.