Guild Wars 2

The problem isn’t pip range. That’s a symptom. Because of the matchmaking PvP population is low. Therefore, the matchmaker is scraping to put together matches and going to extreme ranges.

The root cause is the fact that the MATCHMAKING INTENTIONALLY MAKES UNFAIR MATCHES AND PRE ORDAINS THE WINNERS.

As more people realize that they have no hope of winning the wings, population will decrease still further and the problem will intensify. This will cause a further drop in population, a vicious cycle.

The theory that some players don’t “deserve” to win the wings is a huge problem.

Why would I put up with this matchmaking if I wasn’t trying to win the wings? Here we have a system that is inherently designed to make unfair matches. Why would anyone put up with that, unless they were the favored few who get the win streaks?

ANET offered a Legendary backpack that it said everyone can win. The matchmaking and “cutthroat competition” trope will prevent many people from winning it.

This is a real credibility issue and it has the potential to alienate a lot of prospective PvP players.

I’m seeing 23 loss streaks in a single day’s play. If I were new to pvp.. I’d walk away and never look back.

ANET allowed thieves to absolutely eat mesmers for years.. and now it’s happening again.

Staff thieves don’t even have to try to take me 100-0 in two moves and it’s stupid.

OK I’m getting hammered with two hits by staff thief .. with a constant stun in the bargain. Fix this ANET. You let DP thief absolutely eat Memser for years… please don’t do that again with staff.

Today is the same old thing. Up against one team that is clearly superior after another. This is in “prime time.” I wonder how far the loss streak will extend today before I get physically sick and have to leave.

If enough people recognize that they are wasting there time and not going to win the prize… Then there won’t be enough left to make a viable tournament.

That and lower population means worse matchmaking. Is that really what you want?

The thing is: Many players are attracted to the tournament by the promise of winning a legendary backpack, ( the “wings” .)

The matchmaking is deliberately set to prevent most from doing so. The tacit message is, “you’re not worthy.”

So if I, and many other players, don’t have an honest shot at the wings… why should I show up and support the tournament?

No it won’t. S2 proved that. The “good” players simply make f2p alt accounts and farm the lower divisions rather than play at a competitive level.

S2 never levelled out. It’s time for anet to admit that favoring winners and disfavoring losers is logically flawed and NEVER going to work.

In Chess, one of the most competitive games you’ll find anywhere at the elite levels, you get bonus rating points if you’re matched against a stronger rated player. You are rewarded for playing against a stronger opponent, win or lose.

International Chess uses a rating system similar to ANET’s but with exactly the opposite reasoning for rating points.

The whole world has stood still to watch Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky play. ANET thinks 2500 viewers is a strong showing.

Competition needs a level playing field or it’s not competition, it’s favoritism.

I don’t claim to be a great Mesmer. It’s the class I like and want to play.

No, Mesmer isn’t “really good” this season. The main useful Mesmer build is condi-chrono. Yet I’m facing multiple warriors in practically every match.

With the extreme cleansing of the warrior “bug” and 20 ish seconds of immunity to conditions… it’s like the bad old days a couple of years ago when a warrior’s healing signet would simply absorb more dps than a Mesmer could produce.

OK, I’ve ended my night because I’m too fatigued and depressed to continue.

On the heals of 23 straight losses last night, I just came off an 11 match loss streak.
Are you going to tell me that this matchmaking is in any way “fun”, “fair” or “competitive?” REALLY?

You know when Mesmer started doing better than average it was emergency nerfed. Now Warrior is just crushing it. I’ll wager it will be allowed to do so throughout the season.

If guard/dh is so bad off, why am I seeing teams consistently stack with 2-4 DH and win? In my opinion Pro League is pretty much irrelevant to day-to-day PvP.

I have 29 losses and 2 wins in the past 2 days. Matchmaking is really awful. It’s to the point where I’m overjoyed that I just had another streak that was only 6 losses.

The bad part is the division climb. The matchmaking is ruining my chances to get the wings. That in turn means I’ve wasted at least two seasons pursuing something I was apparently never meant to be able to achieve in the first place.

I feel I’ve been a punching bag for the few.

I’d love to take a “break.” Sadly, the bar for winning the wings has been set so high that I really can’t. With the matchmaking the way it is I have two choices; Throw away two season’s worth of work and quit or Grind every day as much as possible in the blind hope that I can get a lucky streak long enough to get across a division. If I can do that AND do the same thing next season… I could potentially win my wings.

I didn’t claim being in my 4rth year in GW2 entitled me to win. I implied that if I’m not a top level player, I’m also not completely incompetent.

As to being “where I belong;” Sadly, I can’t be “where I belong.” My goal in putting up with this craziness is to win the wings. Therefore, I need to cross divisions.

I’d like nothing more than to be in a division with relatively even matches. That won’t accomplish my goal though. I can’t win my wings by being “where I belong.” ANET has decreed that I need to get above “where I belong” by hook or by crook.

So this idea of separating players into appropriate skill levels directly opposes the reasons many of us are playing ranked in the first place, ie to win the wings.

I disagree vehemently I am just finishing a session in which I lost 23 straight matches. That’s in a single gaming session. I’m not an awesome player, but I made Ruby last season. This is not something that can be blown off with the famous “l2p.”

This is not “competitive” or “fun.” Competition presupposes at least a somewhat level playing field.

At this rate I will not be able to win the wings. This is really a trust issue. I came into this two seasons ago with the understanding that if I stuck it out.. I could win the wings. Now, after weeks and months of taking beatings, I find out the prize is out of reach? Really?

I have consistently seen groups that boasted 3-4 of some mix of war and dh. War is really OP at the moment. It’s approaching being as bad as it was in the Hambow era when we saw 5 man hambow teams roll over everything in the landscape. This was allowed to continue for weeks.

There is no reason whatsoever that a 4rth year player should be seeing 23 straight losses in a day. The matchmaking IS NOT WORKING.

Strong, as an avowed masochist, I see your point and the sarcasm.. it’s a bit obscure for general readership though.

I’ve often wondered if that is not in fact the intent of spvp.

As I showed in another thread, the game is not keeping accurate win/loss records. That may well account for some of the matchmaking issues also.

I’ve been sticking with Mesmer, trying to get a few of the easier achievements. I’m an even more serious liability on most other classes. Although.. as hardcore godmode as warrior is right now…

Here’s my eighth straight loss. The game counts it as 7.

If the game isn’t counting win/loss accurately it might account for some of the more extreme streaks. Devs, how about looking into that?

The game definitely miscounted as shown in the previous two screens.

This page reflects 6 straight losses. It was in fact my 7th. So the in-game stats are reflecting things better than they actually are.

I include two screens note that the win/loss reflects another loss on the screen on the right. The streak however is still 6. The game isn’t reporting loss streaks beyond 6?

I’m seeing match after match with 2-4 Wars and DH on the other side and none on mine. It’s very clear that my side is set to lose. This is not “competitive.”

Blowout after blowout after blowout. No this won’t “level out” it never did last season.

I really resent being put on a team that is clearly set to lose, then being punished for having lost. I was in a relationship like that once…

Actually, from what I’ve seen, the berserking lasts nearly long enough to recharge the resistance. Thus, warrior becomes almost immune to conditions. They either ignore them or cleanse them at an OP rate.

Some Dev or Devs decided that Warrior is under represented. So they are now virtually immune to conditions and tough to the point of unkillable for builds that are not 100% dedicated to DPS.

Any number of times I’ve heard devs say they want to “shake up the meta” or similar “we feel…” in print. The last usually followed by a huge nerf to Mesmer.

Dear devs. I love this game and it would be a much better one if you would stop trying so hard to closely control it. I’d love to see you focus on making the classes equivalent and let the rest sort itself out.

Fay, much as I respect you as a Mesmer…

You stated that “if you lose all the time you deserve nothing.” Well, people play for rewards, including the intangible rewards that come from winning a match.

If there are no rewards, people won’t show up. Many people will simply cut there losses and move on if a game is made unpleasant.

The whole point of a matchmaking system is to ensure that the little league doesn’t face MLB teams. At this time… pvp matchmaking doesn’t seem to be doing that.

Based on last season, it’s never going to “level out” either. There were the same badly unbalanced matches up to the very last day.

Yes, the Legendary Backpack did attract players back to PVP. Sadly, those players where then exposed to a “competitive” system WHICH WAS SET UP EXPLICITLY TO MAKE THEM LOSE. This is not a move calculated to cause most people to want to PvP.

On top of that, the bar for the backpack has been set so high that it’s barely achievable. So, the game pulled lot’s of players to PVP. Many of those players won’t ever come back.

Correction.. I “was” bouncing around 50% W/L now I’m on a 5 loss streak, ( practically all blowouts, ) and well under 50%. Another lovely evening in pvp.

To answer your question, Ross; I’m bouncing around 50% wins sometimes more and sometimes less with a maximum loss streak of 4. Sapphire division.

Still, crossing 4 divisions in a season? I struggled full time work hours last season to make Ruby and now I’m supposed to make Diamond? It’s excessive.

I’m glad somebody is. My class has been nerfed to the ground , AGAIN, and I’m getting long losing streaks again. It’s looking very much like the wings are a lost cause.

-edit- because of the need to cross four divisions in a season

That kinda really kittens me off.. given the amount of work I put in.

I misunderstood, it seems. Thanks for the correction.

-edit- Although, since I have virtually no chance of making diamond, I still would be best off from a practical point of view to throw matches and start next season in Amber.

I vaguely recall that per profession MMR was talked about at one time. I wish that were the case, because my MMR is bad enough on classes I play regularly.

Playing an unfamiliar class is going to get me and my team slaughtered. So I feel your pain.

I enjoy pvp and I want the wings. What I do not enjoy is being matched against significantly stronger players.

The other thing is: I wish ANET would kittening stop trying to control the meta by overpowering various classes. ANET, you will never control the game to that degree and it would be a much better game if you’d stop trying.

No. I had a dev answer this question last season.

According to him, all rewards are useless after the end of this year’s seasons. I think that’s why some of the division crossing requirements were removed. Otherwise, many people would have been out of the running for wings by the end of S2 ( including me.)

The same dev did say that there would be an alternate way to get the wings.

The issue I’m having with Warriors generally right now is that they seem to have near permanent condition immunity or a very rapid cleanse. Some seem to be able to just about ignore condition damage.

I don’t play warrior, so don’t know the mechanics. Something is happening though that’s is making some warriors effectively immune to conditions.

Expect to see a lot more warriors. They have virtual immunity to conditions now for long periods of time and dish out huge condi damage. We may see a return to the days of 5 warrior teams ( HamBow then ) rolling over everything in sight.

Apparently the latest attempt to “shake up the meta” is to super power warriors.

That’s way too logical.

In the first few hours of the season, I have a 66.66% loss rate. I thinks it’s pretty obvious why people aren’t turning out to play.

Well that’s a 66.66% loss rate in the first couple of hours of the season. Is there really any question of why PvP population is low? I won the last 5 games of unranked I played.

Uhm condi inmunity is already being spammed so hard that players appear to be having more than 50% uptime on immunity. Yet another kitten to Mesmer. If anything, the immunity is too high as it is.

Here’s the end of my last match. 3 teamed and two randoms vs. my full pug. The trouble is that one of the team, an “amber,” is wearing a Primordial Legend tag. This was a group of experienced players well coordinated and rated as amber.

I’m seeing blowout after blowout, again. This is going to be a long and painful season.

With yet another nerf for Mesmer in today’s patch. Looks like the latest attempt to “shake up the meta” includes bringing Mesmer way down. Meanwhile I’m seeing warriors with what seems like 50% uptime or more on condition immunity.

New Rule: New accounts ( less than 3 months ) and/or f2p may PvP but may not participate in season matches.

It was painfully obvious last season that f2p accounts replaced Season 1’s practice of “smurfing.”

Start, ( and end ,) everyone who was Diamond or better 1 week early. This would avoid some of the awful matchups at the start of the season.

Scale back the system that tries to make a player lose. Competition is well and good. However, last season alienated a large percentage of the population in favor of a few.

I’m bumping this thread because it deserves it.

I suspect that the drop rate has been increased in HoTM.

The last season brought a lot of rancor. One possible means of attracting people back would be word of mouth that it’s high loot.

If a precursor or two came down, you just might see a flood of people in HoTM. Sadly, most would get farmed ( likely being called names and told to “L2P” in the process ) and leave. A few would stick around though.

Devs are you listening? I volunteer to receive the loot

Ross, I’m trying your general idea with sc/p and sc/sh. People spam so fast that I get a bunch of interrupts where they interrupt themselves.

-edit- for example they try to do long cast skills while the iDuelist is firing. Maybe there’s an upside to the “button speed” meta.

Shield and Pistol seem to make good interrupters. I’m not running MoD as that has never felt good to me.

This idea of “shaking up the meta” is one of the biggest problems in the game, imo. The mechanism for doing that is to super buff and/or nerf.

That makes the game unbalanced by design. Oddly, matchmaking was also unbalanced by design last season.

I think that the method is fundamentally flawed and that ANET should stop trying to force changes or particular play styles.

I have to agree. This would lift a lot of angst.

It doesn’t feel good to be shot down repeatedly.

Well you know what? I’m sticking with Mesmer and imma find a way around the latest crippling nerf.

I foresee another long period of Mesmer being underpowered. In a couple years it will become such an embarrassment that Mesmer will be buffed through the roof to compensate and the cycle will repeat.

Many players would rather scream for nerfs than learn to play against a Mesmer.

No doubt there will be yet another Mesmer nerf. I’ve been away playing other games since last season.. here’s hoping ANET has better matchmaking incoming.

The point of the clones is too confuse. Very few experienced players are confused by them though.

No, I find no sportsmanship or pleasure in death match. Nor do I find any real show of skill.

Beside that, there are dueling arenas for that sort of thing.

Removing Courtyard is among the best decisions ANET has made with respect to PvP.