Guild Wars 2

The space they are trying to compete in, for tPvP, is mostly F2P, this is true.

$40 for PvE/WvW; $5-10 for PvP only

Revival of not only the PvP scene of GW2, but of competitive play as a function of the population pool, is in a precarious place – as most can agree. Without seeing the number for our original spvp population, the exodus, and where we are now, most of our comments about population are purely speculative and based on the “feeling” one has when entering the HotM.

Time and time again, numerous players have touched on, expanded on, extrapolated from, many issues in the game and how they are negatively detrimental to the players of PvP, how these issues effect game play, balance, et cetera. There are a literal ton of suggestions – some viable, creative, possible, outlandish, and ridiculous – but a ton nonethekitten

th the player base and the developers each have a vision for where PvP is at, where it is going, and where it should ultimately be. Between both of our visions rests where PvP would probably thrive at – albeit with much negotiation of the path to get there. Moreover, the line between accessibility and revenue is often blurred but requires consideration for E-Sports potential, population growth, and providing a stable revenue stream.

For any of the aforementioned to be remotely possible, it is time to completely separate Hotm/sPvP/tPvP from the rest of the game. This precedent was already set in GW1 by offering PvP only packs that possessed only PvP content. The separate balancing of PvE and PvP skills had its precedent also set in GW1 and reinforced a number of times within GW2 already. It’s time to jump ahead in time and start offering the content in similar avenues as previously utilized. This was seen most recently by offering a digital version of the game via the main website and within the BLTP. This content separation profitable for a number of reasons: 1)at a reduced cost, new players can access either the PvE/WvW side of the game or the tPvP side of the game – this opens the game to more players from all predilections; 2) the flip side of the content could be purchasable either on the website or in the BLTP – the price of new customer acquisition is reduced on account of tailored content, getting a player to first step foot in a game is the hardest part; 3) content development can be fined tuned to either aspect of the game, without influencing other aspects. This course can serve to increase the foot traffic in all 3 areas of the game.

There currently exists two Solo Ladders – one for a form of solo que, the other for a team que but solo ratings. To stabilize the team environment, for NA in particular, a guild ladder ranking system is necessary. Guild Wars 1 had such great team stability because it played to that point – everything you want to do is with your team or guild, the guild is ranked rather than the individual – as a measure of teamwork, skill, coordination, and progression of individual skill was far easier to measure, gauge, and help other improve upon. The system, as it is currently, favors player swapping far more than group stability.

Not to mention the lengthy list of issues that have accumulated over the past year: the power of AoE vs DD, core game issues, build diversity, animation/particle clutter, FoV/animation perspectives from the different races, perceived jenga-balance, general balance issues, persistent bugs, incorrect/vague tool tips, high barrier to entry for t/sPvP, issues with counter play, downed-state mechanics – and probably a number of other things I haven’t even touched on. Balance is an on-going process and each topic mentioned in the previous sentence surely has many attributes underneath the specific umbrellas.

Perhaps it is time to delve deeper into the collective vision that the developers have for the PvP side of the game? Additionally, it could also be time for the community to focus on the most detrimental variables currently effecting PvP?

If I had to pick the three most influential categories effecting PvP, I would say core game issues, the power of AoE vs. DD, and incorrect/vague tool tips.

This is an awesome game, spectacular game play – but I want to see this succeed the same way GW1 did (eventually).

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V-8-_;1kHVF0r33KkJ0;9;4T9;0T49B3;628B5wl6;2TsW6TsW66gE

Been playing around with a bunch of different stuff, but this is the version I’m at now. The Well of Suffering gets switched out for WoC, Spectral Walk, or Corrupt Boon depending on what I need or want. Spite/Epi because I want people to burn up defensive cooldowns. Also, can revert to condi necro depending on opposing comp.

I just worked 12 hours and read this thread first. I’ll try again after I get some sleep.

I do not mean to be negative here – but that tournament seeding looks suspect to me. Free ride to the final match up for the qualifier for AL, boring matches ensue. And in the second bracket set you have SYNC, USA, and Envy – just a little lopsided is all.

Also, Das Goon, if you’re going to run a guard, two spirit rangers, and two necros, just withdraw now, because no one wants to watch you lose very slowly as you attempt to chain res.

Nice – all that text and you managed to avoid the questions.

I’ll make it easier for you: Is doing damage against an opponent consider pressure to you? Or, in your mind, is every support centered guardian standing idle on a node doing nothing?

Either way, it sounds what you’re looking for is either a hybrid or DPS guardian. Neither of which was the point of my thread.

How is staff solo bunker? How is purging flames not condition pressure? How is group wide 12 stacks of might not pressure? Giant damaging symbols that are based on power rating…not pressure?

No, the guardian main-hand mace is one of the strongest weapon sets available. The protector’s strike is such a versatile, that it depends on how you end up using it that makes a bigger difference.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V7Z-Bx;0NF-4093RG-90;9;6TT9;446A49A5;0U;01U;1ZF18ZF183Rs

Ton of healing, ton of support, line-backing, condition cleanses, and longevity. Knight’s jewel for an additional 1k+ of HP. Feels like the same old, same old, but, at the very least, the difference in play style is slightly refreshing. -_-

Speaking in the third person is completely necessary.

My hiatus is over in a couple of days and, therein, am throwing this up early in hopes of being able to start with fervor this Monday 7/22. I know I have a number of people that are either lined up, interested, or on the fence – that’s kewl, with regards to forming a team.

Classes I am capable of playing, in order: Guardian, Ranger, Mesmer/Elementalist.

More or less, my goal is to be part of, or create, a stable environment team-wise that, while high-stress, is capable from learning from each other. Ability to critically analyze game play and match performances is a must. Ability to handle constructive criticism is a must.

- R54 or 55
- Halfway up the QP ladder when it was up
- Highest Rank on leader boards was 5 or 7
- Current Rank on leader boards from hiatus is 30something
- Over 1 million glory unspent (like a boss)

IGN: DoYourBestBear

I disagree: aoe cleave, high dmg auto attack, blind/gap closer, aoe retal, and aoe interrupt at will?

That’s stronger than a lot of weapon sets.

It took me a moment, but I got the joke. You said there are three teams in NA.

I wouldn’t necessarily say what you experienced was poor matchmaking, but one of two things: 1) no one else playing at that time or 2) in the bucket distribution your rating was closer to them than it was to any other players at the time (those both sound the same).

Any trait is acceptable, but the aim of the build is DPS. The issue, still present after the patch, is that the options in the other trait lines are still significantly more powerful in their effects and that not taking them in favor of zeal traits is a bigger detriment in combat than otherwise.

I’d be hard-pressed to see a build with ten or more points in zeal, while being DPS, do well in any kind of fight.

Your best bet is to not ask people if something is viable but to instead ask for a build. Everyone has their own opinion on viability and this game is still in its infancy with regards to meta-game development and players deviating from the set path that has plagued this game for a while (i.e. bunker guardians are boring).

That being said, DPS guards are completely baller. With one of the lowest HP pools in the game, we don’t give a kitten, we walk right up to people and smack them around.

Anyone who puts points into Zeal doesn’t play guardian regularly or against decent players – even with the patch. Going full radiance and right-handed strength? Better spike someone to zero with your opening burst or get rolled.

I have seen and/or developed only two, maybe three, DPS guardian builds worth their salt. Keep in mind that what you are about to see is just a general outline of each build – and remember to tweak a build to your play style and comfort level.

Right-handed Strength: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V7kitten;0NFk30G3RG-90;9;5TT44;159A04B;4LNV45;1sV2DsV2D8BM

Bear’s DPS Guardian: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7g-Bd;0NFF40J3RG-90;9;54TT4;416A27A;1L-V45;1F-03F-035Bl

The third build had a similar trait spread to mine, but used staff/(another two-handed weapon) to make use of the two-handed weapon trait. Arken ran a build like this, but I had to force him to run Runes of the Pack, which is awesome because it provides: 1) power, 2) precision, 3) boons, 4) and heals.

You are thinking about rank in the wrong way, honestly. Rank is not an indication of skill at all, it is only an indication of how much glory someone has gained over time. Moreover, the skill of the player at any rank is not an indication of time spent playing the game, but the quality of the time spent playing the game and paying attention/improvement. The lower the quality of your play time, the more it’s going to show in a tournament setting.

I like that idea – a number of NA players have transferred to EU and I don’t want to see the NA community wither and die this easily. I like the idea of this tournament because it’s all about the NA pug scene…which seems to be the only scene with the exception of 1-3 teams. Still in the set-up phase but hopefully we get some NA momentum.

Once we see some tentative groups signing up, it will get interesting. Also, Grouch just posted the news for the Curse Tournament and it seems prize pools are going to remain low until it becomes a more active community.

So, I’ve been mentioning for a while that NA needs a tournament, much like the EU is going to have. More often than not, the response is “Why bother, NA has no teams?” To me, this defeatist position is why the EU has more momentum than us at the moment.

The NA tournament is called “King of the PUGs.” The aim is to ignite participation, team formation, expand our community, and start having tournaments. Each match of the tournament is going to be a best of 3. It will function as so: the community will decide on the universal starting map – every best of three will start on this map. The losing team of the first round will choose the second map from any map except for Raid of the Capricorn. The losing team of the second round (if it wasn’t the same team losing) shall decide on the third map. Again, Spirit, FoN, BoK, LoF, and TotSS are choices. The brackets will develop as PUGs or teams sign up.

The number of pugs that sign up will determine the extent of the tournament. The custom arena is TBA. The tentative start date for matches is June 10th, 2013. Match start times will be in EST. The tournament is open to any NA “team” (since you guys break up all the time) or PUG.

The tournament sign up page: http://binarybeast.com/xGW21305030

Community discussion will take place at: http://gw2central.enjin.com/home

In order to post and vote you will need to register. After getting a PUG or group set up, be sure to sign up on the tournament page. Prizes are TBA and depend largely on participation. The level of participation gauges future tournament prizes. More information as it develops.

Ladder decay is a necessity that was not only present in GW1, but it’s absence is becoming an issue on the GW2 ladder. If ladder decay is already present, it isn’t strong enough, if it is not present, it is sorely needed.

At present, several players have alternate/secondary/tertiary accounts that occupy spots in the top 50 positions of the ladder. While considering this point as a standalone, it may not seem insignificant. However, being top 50 or less on the leader-board and losing against a player(s) with low or no significant MMR drastically tanks your team’s rating. While only a couple of wins basically gets you to top 100/50, what we are seeing is just the beginning. The need to smurf in order to test ideas and compositions is another angle to this particular issue as well – but we’ve been told custom arenas are coming at some point. As a matter of revenue, I can see the reluctance in eliminating the ability to have more than single account on the leaderboard – and that isn’t what I would suggest.

Ladder/rating decay needs to be implemented to prevent a bottle-necked MMR at the top of the leaderboard.

I’m fine with this costing money, quite honestly. You can now effectively scrim, practice, et cetera, without interruption or trying to “que” up together.

I would like an option, however, to be able to rent the server for a month at a time.

like 10 or 15 or something, i don’t recall. But you could always do the whole gold transfer thing into gems. Either way, it’s a free game and for a better gaming experience, at the moment, I consider it worth it.

It’s worth the gem investment to transfer, even if only for networking with other tournament players.

So true – the e-drama is awesome, but there a few guilds that attempt to recruit people who wish to learn mechanics, rotations, team work, et cetera.

On account of the segregated and dwindling s/tPvP community of NA, a few months back (or perhaps even before that a little bit) Anvil Rock server became the new hub s/tPvP.

So, if you are looking to network in-game with players, expand your team, find a team, start a team, or read map chat that is 80% comedy and 20% game-related, then Anvil Rock is for you.

HotM can look quite barren sometimes and, therefore, lonely and less social than was it probably intended to be.

SAtaarcoeny.8476:

Guardian 7/10: Guards are great at neuting and holding points for a long time. If your 4v4 away from them goes on forever and ur guard is left 1v1, then he may die. Guards are real dependent on team fights and that’s where they thrive; they have great cc, great reses, great stomps, great heals and condi clears, but very little dmg, unless u count the staff adding dmg then that is good also. Also, not great mobility. Relatively easy to stomp, if he goes down

If bunker spec’d guard is considered in this information than a majority of it is true. A bunker guard, however, still has one of the highest base damage numbers in the game – not even counting what happens when modifiers are added (either incidentally in the course of building a bunker or spec’ing for offensive/balanced). The guardian has multiple avenues for swiftness and movement skills – access to mobility is based on the skill and build of the player, not the class as a whole.

If you run timers and damage calculations with zero modifiers and similar armor/amulet set ups, you will see that the damage a guardian is capable of – even in bunker spec – is quite high regardless.

Moreover, using the staff as a means to increase your damage output is certainly a viable option (either with offensive guardian using the AA for aoe crits/et cetera or a bunker guardian using the empower for team encounters/et cetera). However, with respect to the guardian and the voluminous options available for might stacking, the staff is not on par with other options for might stacks.

The balance in this game cannot be accurately gauged for a number of reasons and to simply list out some particulars of each class is not enough to identify these issues. Yes, the game is a conquest PvP game-type. There are inherent issues to game health and the meta-game development surrounding this particular game type when compared to any other options. However, there are still some core mechanical issues in the game (initiative, thief damage multipliers, the inherent issues with low HP base classes, et cetera), inaccurate or poorly illustrated tool tips, and a trait matrix that is catawampus (and with traits in places that do not match their cost versus reward on either end of the spectrum) and in possession of traits that will never get used.

So, you have some core issues that need resolving, you need to be able to look at a tool tip and know if it is working properly or accurately, and the traits and trait matrix needs to be revisited. Before one can make the assessments you have, some things need to be addressed first.

Daays.4317:

Being versatile is never a bad thing in any game.

Exactly, and now you have to more aptly consider your role within a team build and the effect it is going to have on the outcome of the match. Players are going to need to plan their team builds to a more extensive degree rather than just saying “Okay you go trap ranger.” Players are going to need to consider all of the options and interactions to get the most of their team, provided the teamwork is there to support such interactions.

Playing the game with different menus open is not fun. I do not like playing with my backpack open, the hero menu and alternating my traits. Extreme build-warsing is a barrier to entry to competitive PvP that should not exist – no one wants to watch you change your build every other minute in a match (with both teams doing it). Being able to change nearly your entire build on the fly only promotes extreme build wars and creates an environment that is inherently less team oriented – not enough attention is paid to covering the weaknesses of your teammates.

If you want to be able to swap anything mid-match, then there should be hero templates so I can just change my entire build in less than a second – rather than arduously going through each trait that I want to change. At least then I wouldn’t have to watch menu wars during streams.

Danto.6748:

There aren’t enough viable builds for each profession to encourage what you just said. And again as I said, the only utilities being swaped regularly are the Ressing ones.

You have plenty of choices. Just because you don’t see it in tournaments doesn’t mean a particular build has no role.

You saying there aren’t enough viable builds makes me laugh. Locking utilities would force people to maintain their choice for team support or otherwise.

Judging by your comments though, I guess you can rest easy and wait for some of the better players to try out new strategies you view as “nonviable.”

For there to be true competitive play, everything needs to be locked – weapon sets, traits, and utilities.

You say locking things hurts competitive play? Since when is running around with my inventory and hero menu open fun? It certainly isn’t competitive when I can build wars anyone who approaches me or that I approach.

Locking things in tournaments is going to ENCOURAGE build diversity by way of people having to finally consider their build, their team build, and how the builds are going to intermingle in a match.

Utilities need to be locked as well – they are utility, utilitarian. They are meant to either cover your weaknesses or expand on the abilities you want to take the most advantage of. Being able to do both, at all times, throughout the entire team build is not competitive at all – it’s extreme build wars.

Some may say “But Bear, that just means that you are going to limit the number of viable builds/team builds/strategies/pigeon holes!!!!oneone11!” No, it’s going to expand the competitiveness of the game, because it’s a TEAM game. At present and previously, there was no onus to be a synergistic team aside from a rough outline of the positions you wanted people to fill, now things can finally start getting more specific, more complex, more team oriented, and by extension more competitive. At the moment, being able to build wars mean you don’t have to be as team focused and is, by extension, less competitive.

For there to be true competitive play, everything needs to be locked – weapon sets, traits, and utilities.

You say locking things hurts competitive play? Since when is running around with my inventory and hero menu open fun? It certainly isn’t competitive when I can build wars anyone who approaches me or that I approach.

Locking things in tournaments is going to ENCOURAGE build diversity by way of people having to finally consider their build, their team build, and how the builds are going to intermingle in a match.

Utilities need to be locked as well – they are utility, utilitarian. They are meant to either cover your weaknesses or expand on the abilities you want to take the most advantage of. Being able to do both, at all times, throughout the entire team build is not competitive at all – it’s extreme build wars.

Some may say “But Bear, that just means that you are going to limit the number of viable builds/team builds/strategies/pigeon holes!!!!oneone11!” No, it’s going to expand the competitive of the game, because it’s a TEAM game. At present and previously, there was no onus to be a synergistic team aside from a rough outline of the positions you wanted people to fill, now things can finally start getting more specific, more complex, more team oriented, and by extension more competitive. At the moment, being able to build wars mean you don’t have to be as team focused and is, by extension, less competitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you. But saying you’re sick of seeing threads about questions re: tPvP is counter-intuitive, regardless of the person asking the question.

At least you edited the OP.

I also agree there needs to be a glory/rank point assigned to “guarding” a node by being on it in the absence of action. As it is now, roamers/DPS are ranking up at an accelerated rate.

The inability to have information be both accurate and within reach is a barrier to entry into competitive tPvP.

Threads that have a tone similar to this, is why we can’t have nice things and creates an unnecessary barrier to entry.

If you want to offer help and/or assistance, by all means encourage the new players. If you want to reiterate how “sick” you are under the guise of offering assistance, then by all means continue to cannibalize the dwindling community we have.

As an edit: If you don’t want to come off as rude, then edit the OP.

Then to balance that with those that don’t pve at all?

Point noted and added to the very large wall that creates the barrier to entry. But within this particular game, how would connect the pve and structured pvp? Some of the gear you simply cannot utilize for balance reasons.

How did pve and wvw get into this discussion ? lol

NevirSayDie.6235:

But I would argue that there is no meaningful entry-level pvp, which in turn means that there are no PvPers progressing to higher levels of competition.

I agree with this as it adds another barrier to entry. With so many issues preventing people from advancing, improving, learning, et cetera – it is no surprise to me where we are at now.

Funny thing though, I didn’t even mention build wars’ing mid-match against your opponents. That alone irritates me enough for another essay. How much longer must I keep my backpack open? Manually swap entire weapon sets? Have more than one character of the same profession since I don’t have templates that are easily accessible? If the intention was to allow people to alter their builds mid-match, at least let me swap entire templates to make it go faster.

With so many issues commingling into the pvp community…I digress.

It’s also important to consider the sum total of the all the time sinks required to even get into the competitive scene, let alone maintain it.

Without providing ancillary support to the player base we have now and lowering the overall barrier to entry into the competitive tPvP scene, this suggestion, while I agree to an extent, is only a drop in the bucket.

The competitive base of this game has already become the vocal minority, again. So soon. Aside from the aforementioned features and information required to be easily accessible in-game, the cost of paid entry needs to come down considerably – and the gem reward as well by an equal margin if so decided to be both undertaken and fair. Unless A.net decides to both lower the entry fee and provide the same rewards. The cost of entry should be no higher than 3 tickets and if I had my way it would be 1 ticket.

Think about it for a moment and consider the time sink required for 1 ticket. Doing a daily? 15 minutes, if that. Winning a free tournament? First try, 40 minutes or so. Ranking up and salvaging from the chest? ROFLMAO, yea whatever on that one. Crafting, also considering the aforementioned? Depends on what you have saved up. Decreasing the cost of entry to 1 ticket means every team can take at least one swing at paids every day. Sure, they might have to hot join their one ticket for a daily, but at least it will revive some of the competition.

tl;dr – We need these things to be addressed and hope that the late arrival will revive the player base.

p.s. A.Net., when you release custom servers/arenas please give me the ability to charge gems for tournaments so that I can offer larger rewards.

As an edit – 5001 characters is too small, I had an essay for this post and had to butcher it to fit the pieces in lolz……

5) The mechanics of the game should be evident and not require me to spend time testing the minutiae of the game. And, if I’m missing some in-game explanation of internal game mechanics, by all means, let me know as I’m sure I’m not the only one. Again, time spent testing and locating ancillary resources is another barrier to entry.

6) Oh, dear. Match making and a ladder system – how I’ve missed you. We used to be such good friends in GW1 – climbing you like a tree and pushing others off the branches and limbs I wanted to possess. What’s that you say, match making? Oh, you find humor in matching the random pugling group with experienced and coordinated teams (regardless of caliber)? Only problem is that it’s destroying the community, cannibalism style. Believe it or not, this is a terribly huge barrier of entry into competitive tPvP. People experiencing tournament play for the first time are inexperienced and unprepared – it doesn’t help that there is a lack of readily available resources that are quickly accessed or that they get stomped in less than 5 minutes by a team that has a clue. It also doesn’t help that hotjoin, regardless of size, is a terrible precursor to competitive play. Moreover, there is no way for a team to gauge their progress.

7) In the absence of other features, the onus is then on the community to try to make it work. The pvp base is an inherently volatile one, considering the competitive nature of the scene. I’m honestly half and half with regards to the pvp community at the moment. Sure, you have elitist pricks who won’t give constructive feedback or are just generally duchey, but then there are well practiced players who are willing to provided true criticisms (re: individual player skill and team performance). GG cannibalism as another barrier to entry (who would really want to be part of a community like that anyway?).

8) Paid tournaments – how I love your arrival and marvel at how you created an uproar. The rewards are nice – gems/chests/blah. The barrier to entry? O. M. G. Don’t get me wrong here, I have plenty of tt’s and I don’t mind blowing them to participate – but we’ll get to why people don’t share the same sentiment. Five tickets seems fair – everyone on your team may or may not, regardless, but they are obtainable. First, they have to pay real money – right LOL. Or, they could win in free tournies – goodluck against those premades, you inexperienced and unprepared teams. Third, they could just salvage and craft one – inherent time sink (good luck on both winning to get chests, getting the appropriate salvage materials, sinking in enough time to level up consistently for additional chests, and spending glory, attempting to farm for said glory). Check it – they could also complete daily and monthly pvp achievements to obtain some tt’s, either in hot join (terrible preparation for competitive fields) or in frees (against teams of variable skill providing no means of qualification). You could also win five free tournaments, first place (ugh, nice afternoon you got there). By this point, you’re probably saying: “But Bear, that’s a ton of options for getting tournament tickets!!!11!!!oneone.” Yea, you’re right, there are. The issue is that the cost of entering a paid tournament is too high, the preparation too poor, the resources too scattered, and the perceived rewards of success too nominal. You couple this with a stagnant, dwindling competitive player base and people wonder why randoms don’t sign up to feed gems to teams that have given their time to this game.

Bear with me here as we go on an adventure of information as to why our PvP player base is getting annihilated.

1) The game was advertised as a nearly E-sport ready experience. The BWE’s provided a medium for data collection and, even then, people were requesting observer/spectator mode, custom arenas/server, less ambiguous skill and trait descriptions, matchmaking, ladder system, and more transparency regarding game mechanics.

2) Come release, a large volume of the player base was expecting a number of these things to be resolved. Sure, it takes some time for any game to become, or grow into, an E-sport; but the neglect here hit players to the extent to which they decided to go elsewhere. Aside from the perceived neglect, one could also say that the impatience of the pvp player base coupled with this particular point started a lot of the negativity aimed toward the state of tPvP.

2) The absence of an obs/spectator mode means the onus is on the individual to stream game play and then on the inexperienced player to find the resources available to step up their game. Some may argue that google is just a click away. The problem I have is that this adds a barrier of entry into the pvp scene. The streaming issue, now, is that only a small handful of people are streaming consistently – at least they’re good players. Every paid tournament match should be in an obs. mode feature so that the barrier to learning/entry is lowered by reducing the number of information mediums required to keep the player both informed and competitive. Before you even get into the minutiae of the things you can display with an obs. mode, we actually need an obs mode.

3) The absence of custom arenas and servers means that third parties cannot initiate their own tournaments or structured rule sets. Even invitationals. If I had, at the very least, a custom server I would personally host tournaments far more structured (with better rewards) myself. You also lose the ability to scrimmage against other teams, especially teams better than you. Instead, you’re left with trying to que with each other so that you can get feedback or at least experience competition.

4) A number of skills and traits have ambiguous or misleading descriptions that aren’t bound by logic or math. “Pets periodically remove conditions from you.” Spectacular, now I have to go test and see how often this triggers and whether or not other game mechanics will change this action (ICD’s included). Thanks, Arena.Net, now I have to actually test your game to obtain the information I need to make a build that could, at the very last, be considered competitive. I, personally, don’t have to, but the absence of clear and concise descriptions adds another barrier of entry into competitive pvp because, without fail, someone is always running something that is inherently detrimental to their performance in-game. Not only this particular point, but this now requires ancillary resources to see how certain skills and traits function in-game.

I logged in just to reply to this thread.

The inherent problem with the original wave spawn mechanic was that it rewarded the same volume of work with differing volumes of reward. It should never be, in a competitive environment, that I am able to kill you and you get a 1 second or instant resurrection timer while you kill me and I obtain a 19 to 20 second timer. It is abundantly clear, to me, that all things considered equal, the wave spawn mechanic supported what is happening right now with individual timers. It just so happens that it is more obvious now than before.

Previously, you waited for the appropriate time to stomp – provided you could wait. Just the act of being able to wait to stomp someone means you and your team already have the upper hand and the “snowball effect” has already begun; because you are able to stagger the stomps and, by extension, the resurrection chains you have already gained the upper hand. The same issues arise – people streaming in either intentionally or unintentionally, having to regroup and demonstrate some sort of team cohesion, or ignore what was happening and continue to complain about having to “timer” stomp people.

The only thing to change now is how obvious this is. I consider this to be fair, for the time being. We both put in comparable amounts of work and receive congruent rewards. I would have went the complete middle ground with 10 seconds (between instant resurrection and a full timer of 20 seconds).

When looking at whether or not the timer, as it is, is balanced with regards to the game as a whole, it’s important to consider the tPvP environment as it is now. I choose the 10 second standard timer not because of my love of even numbers, but on account of current area of effect spam inherent to competitive environment. If you are able to stomp, manually res. allies (i.e. not using a resurrect utility), or mitigate either of the two – you already have the upper hand. I consider stomping a luxury – do I have the survivability required to put my life on the line to stomp this person with 1000’s of damage/second in AoE spam raining down on me? Sometimes, provided the team you’re on can assist in such a venture. Do I have a comparable volume of survivability to go for a resurrect under the same conditions? Not a chance, usually – unless the team you’re on can assist in such a venture. Poison fields coupled with tremendous AoE spam make this a dangerous calculation, regardless. Pulling people off the field to aid in resurrection, thereby decreasing the amount of damage and CC flying at your opponents, is also an often costly decision (against teams who can punish such an action, that is).

Enter the resurrect utility available to some classes. With staggeringly long cool-downs, an apparent indecision if GW1 style res’ing should be present, and the current meta-game the 10 second standard/individual resurrect timer seems more fair than other options. You retain the ability to stagger stomp when available with the effect being not as strong in previous iterations of the spawn mechanic. You receive comparable rewards for comparable work. The stage for a comeback is also decreased in terms of time required to collect your team and attempt a counter.

I’m intrigued by the idea of a minimum timer with the ability to extend the timer with certain qualifications – but just because another game does, doesn’t mean it’s meant for a competitive environment (regardless of the game, and I disagreed with it then as well).

tl;dr – the spawn mechanic needs to reward players equally for the effort exerted to both down someone and either DPS them out or stomp them. How this mechanic will develop over time? Oh dear.

Incidentally, I’ve been getting the load screen bug (where you’re stuck on the load screen after dying) since the patch.

I’ve been looking for that armor set, which one is it? haha

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUQQNAsdRlUgSDHHyKEf4EhlCAewKFx7eXPgoCbIA;TsAg0CnoixEjIGbMuYkxssYYxEEA

As an edit: some difficulty with linking to the builder. The build is 20/20/30/0/0. Zeal: 2, 7. Radiance: 6, 10. Valor: 1, 2, 12. GS/sword+focus. Shelter, Smite Condition, Judge’s Intervention, SYG, and Renewed Focus. Berserker’s Amulet/Jewel, Superior Fire Sigil on both primary weapons, Hydromancy on the focus. Full air rune set.

This is the glass cannon spec I’ve been running for a little over a week now, and a few have asked for the build.

There are a number of trait variations you can swap in and out depending on what you’re up against. There are three gap closers as well, so no problem in getting those hits to land.

I’m currently using air runes for the crazy spike. If the nature of the air rune changes I’ll probably swap to full ogre set or 5 scholar/1 Divinity. The trait spread for the first version I was running is 25/25/20/0/0 – moreso glass cannon than the version I’m currently running. The glassiest version is 30/30/10/0/0; but without the higher HP pool (similar to the warrior,) and the damage dropoff from criticals, I considered this route non-viable. Especially, with regards to the aforementioned, that there are no good traits to take in Zeal. The other version I ran for a bit was 20/30/20/0/0 and picked up Right-Hand Strength.

It really comes down to how you play the build whether you go for full damage output or mix in some mitigation with survivability. Pretty fun to play regardless.

Also true. I would love to have both options. I know in GW1, a lot of our scrimmages were us testing ideas out against other guilds that wanted to test ideas out.

The reason I would like the original suggestion considered, is because I prefer testing against teams that are seriously playing to win and against a wider range of strategies/openers in order to see how particular things fair, generally, over time.

If it all possible, the initial map on the tournament rotation should be changed every other day. So, FoN first for two days, then LoF first for two days, then BoK first for two days.

Currently, when testing new team builds and splits for BoK, we have to play to win for the first half hour (a given since nearly every team ends up wanting to wait the full downtime) then we get to test, emphasis on test, new ideas. Some work, some don’t – I don’t mind. But having a time when I know LoF or BoK will be first in the rotation, I can actually set up times for the team to test our ideas out without burning up so much time.

After spending over 95% of my play time in s/tPvP, some things have become clear. It needs to be decided whether being able to swap entire weapon sets that can be equipped from the backpack in matches, changing particular traits mid-game/match, and changing skills 6-0 mid-match should be allowed to happen.

If the answer is “no,” then builds should be “locked” for the duration of the match. No traits, weapon sets, and skills can be changed until the match is over.

If the answer is “yes,” then the current system needs to be vastly improved. Currently, I have my backpack open and at an edge on my screen so that I can choose from all of my professions’ weapon sets for any given encounter or circumstance. The solution is two-fold.

The first: allow every class to have access to up to 4 to 8 weapon swap combinations, much like GW1 gave access to 4 different weapon swaps for the match. This solution saves me not only time in having to switch weapons in and out, but also removes clutter from my screen since I can then close my backpack.

The second: implement templates for character builds, much in the same fashion that templates existed in GW1 and allow templates to be swapped mid-match. This solution saves me time on account of currently having to open the hero menu, change my traits to counter my opponent, and change my utilities for the same reason – I would then only have to click on the template I need and/or want then go about my business.

That’s all I got so far.

Underwater combat is a non-viable s/tPvP route, IMO – for the things mentioned and some that I’m not about to go into here. The only way to save a map like Raid on the Capricorn is to make the underwater node on the ship deck instead. I actually like the layout and art of the map, but I also refuse to play the objective on it. If the center node were on the deck of the ship, rather than underwater, I would actually participate.