Guild Wars 2

Wow I just saw the new exo suit armor on a Charr.

It looks nearly identical to some of the stuff I wear in Star Trek Online ( STO .) I really don’t like the idea of STO in Tyria.

We are much better off with Charr steampunk and Asuran magitech please.

( Though, my gold geared Xindi Aquatic Narcine dreadnought from STO would wreck whole continents in Tyria in seconds. Balthazar’s got nothing on the Iconians )

@Evan Lesh

I’ve read that.

Several times now I’ve asked this question: The pseudo code, as written, implies that “dishonor” can be added to an account to give it worse matches. It also states that dishonor lasts much longer than the dishonor timeout most players think of. (How long?)

In addition, players using an alt to manipulate matches were recently given “dishonor stacks.” All this implies that ANET can and does punish accounts by giving them dishonor.

Is this the case? if so, who can do this? In game GMs? A person told me, in-game, that they were considering changing my rating. Of course, I have no idea whether they actually could.

More broadly though, I think that ANET has simply miscalculated. Match quality needs more priority over speed and strict limits on player rating differences need to happen.

Kokoro.8437:

Is ithilwen really complaining about how bad players cannot win vs good players?

And how that is somehow “unfair?”

No, I’m complaining that the bracket is deliberately pitting the best team against the worst. This creates a near certain win for the top teams.

More importantly, it discourages the relatively new people. Let’s face it, ANET is not in a good position to alienate new players.

I just logged off after the second straight heavy stomp. I’m headed back to Elona, trying to finish up my Light Bringer title farming.

According to Guild Chat, it’s a fun way to end the match. I know I’m highly motivated to play often when I watch the winning team dance above my corpse.

@Choovanski

While your argument is pretty enough, it misses a basic issue. Rather it tries to obfuscate a different issue.

You are trying to justify more-or-less sacrificing the majority to please the minority.
Since rewards go up each round, you are also advocating giving rewards many times better to a tiny minority.

On top of that you have attitudes like the player who told us “you’ve been farmed” after his team stomped us in the first round. He went on to tell me personally that I was “the cancer of pvp.”

AT’s are rapidly heading toward being a very small niche. I hope that at the very least, ANET removes duo from and ranked and team from unranked. Let the elitists go to ATs.

I’m searching for a direct reference. I’m basing it on what Olrun posted;

“That doesn’t disagree with what I said. In an 8 team bracket, the matches go 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5. In a 16 team bracket, they go 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, and 8v9.” ( Sorry I’m not sure how to link a remote thread. )

and my experience with drag racing brackets.

Placing the top team against the bottom team gives the top team a basically free pass. It also ensures they’ll get higher rewards. ( because rewards increase as you advance in the rounds ) The whole setup caters to the top end.

The notion of making it highly probable that higher ranked teams will get higher rewards… It’s reminiscent of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

That’s one way of thinking. The issue is that this is a game. People come to enjoy. Being trounced and trolled is hardly a formula for enjoyment. ANET’s course here is likely to reduce population still further.

choovanski.5462:

Ithilwen.1529:

Automated Tournaments (ATs) have continued the trend of trash talk. More importantly: they’ve been organized in a way that gives high rated teams an easy pass. The low rated teams are virtually guaranteed to be stomped in the initial rounds.
This pretty much ensures that ATs will never gain significant popularity.

are you seriously complaining that high skill teams beat low skill teams in a tournament environment.

are you for real?

like… do you know what a tournament is?
do you know what the goal is?

No, I’m complaining that high level teams are matched against low in the first rounds. This virtually ensures that low level teams have no chance to advance , even a little. It gives more-or-less free wins ( and therefore locked in rewards ) to high level teams.

The better and fairer option would be to set #1 vs #2 in the first round. #3 vs #4 etc.

Then again, perhaps this is anet’s plan; divert some of the “former” ESL people into ATs and in the process take some of the exploiting pressure off ranked/unranked. Here’s hoping they remove duo from ranked.

Exedore.6320:

Automated Tournaments are nice, but it’s a just a band-aid on a fundamental flaw, which is that you can’t do ranked arena with a full team. It’s really hard to 5 people to show up at a specific time and guarantee them only one game as a team. If you can’t play together regularly, how do you ever improve as a team?

Teams are the major problem. They are often used as a tool to exploit and troll. It would be different if teams competed with teams exclusively.

The problem is that the aforementioned exploiting and trolling has reduced population to below the point where a team queue is sustainable.

Automated Tournaments (ATs) have continued the trend of trash talk. More importantly: they’ve been organized in a way that gives high rated teams an easy pass. The low rated teams are virtually guaranteed to be stomped in the initial rounds.
This pretty much ensures that ATs will never gain significant popularity.

Like raids, the ATs will be a niche. I suppose they are good in that sense, they divert some elitism.

A game with common sense. If you cater to the top couple of percent you are snubbing the people you expect to profit from.

PvP is suffering low population and consequent low match quality. This is precisely because ANET spent multiple seasons catering to the top players. They were provided “win streaks” and gimme matches at the expense of the low end. Big surprise, a lot of the people simply gave up and left.

Playing conservatively is an indication that your toon is somewhat delicate. You need to consider positioning and a line of escape.

That actually raises the “skill ceiling.”

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

That doesn’t disagree with what I said. In an 8 team bracket, the matches go 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5. In a 16 team bracket, they go 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, 5v12, 6v11, 7v10, and 8v9.

That bracket system is not the only one. ANET would do far better to pick 1v2, 3v4 etc. Round-Robin would be a very good choice, but I don’t see that happening.

By choosing to arrange matches the way it has, ANET virtually guarantees that low ranking teams will be curb stomped in the early rounds.

That, in turn, will most likely drive away many players who try it. No one likes to be unfairly matched. Waiting 20+ minutes to get into a tournament, then losing in a couple of minutes in the first match just adds insult to injury. Then on top of that, you get to watch the opposing team dance above your corpse.

You are faced with top players because of the “competitive” focus. It has driven away so many people that the matchmaker is feeding you to top players just to make matches.
My advice is to play unranked. You’ll still be fed to top players, but it won’t hurt your rating.

With those trait lines, I’d go with the classic PU build. ( that’s what I run. ) Greatsword has almost no defensive value and is primarily a power weapon. the Chaos line is more about conditions.

You could make it work, I suppose.

Comments from the last tournament. We were matched against a team that was vastly better.

There thief concluded the match by saying “you’ve been farmed.” He went on to say, “you are the cancer of pvp” and “go back to pve laddie.”

ANET has chosen to use a ladder that virtually guarantees low level teams will get smashed in the early rounds.

It is very clear that this is a closed game. It caters to the top level players. That, anet, is why it will fail.

What anet ought to do is eliminate teams of any kind in pvp and go with pure random queue for AT’s if they are to be continued at all.

Erzian.5218:

The reason you play unranked instead of ranked is because either you want to queue with more than 2 people or because you are a rating care bear who is afraid of losing his rating
There is a reason that being on the leaderboards requires a minimum amount of games played. The less games you have played, the less accurate your rating will be.
The key to being high up on the leader boards appears to be duo queuing dead hours anyway though, so who cares.

Actually the reason for minimum games is that players were getting “top” positions by playing as few games as possible.

Protecting my rating? well, kinda. Under the current situation I’m almost certain to be fed to high ranking players if I queue. The population is low enough that to give “fun” games to high levels the MM sacrifices low-mid level players.

I lose less rating simply by allowing decay to run. More importantly, I see no reason to play punching bag for the high level players.. particularly considering the way many of them act.

Adrenalin.5719:

these type of people are responsible for true shot nerfs although dh was never ever ever a meta class

just revert the nerfs, as we see nothing can fix stupid, not even gigantic nerfs purely for the silver and bronze trash

Are you making a serious post here?

I don’t play ranked because the match quality is not good enough. The rewards aren’t high enough for me to put up with being fed to high level teams.

I have not played Dota 2. ANETS pvp community is small and shrinking because:

Matchmaking and the general attitude have pushed too many people out.

I don’t queue ranked anymore this season. There’s no point in joining when I know that I will most likely be fed to a high ranking team. The rewards are too low to make it worth being a punching bag.

Bottom line: the “competitive” focus has done a great deal of damage to the credibility of pvp ( particularly in the seasons of deliberately uneven matches.) ANET continues to use a bracket in automated tournaments that virtually guarantees lower ranking teams will be curb stomped in the early rounds by top ranked teams.

The main inducement for playing at this point is rewards because the match quality isn’t up to scratch.

Moving the game toward guilds and heavily organized teams is exactly what ANET should not do.

ESL didn’t get traction because there was no possibility that the vast majority of players could participate.

There is, at long last, a tournament solos can play in. Moving it back toward higher tiers and organized teams will cut any progress off at the knees.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

Have two ATs go on at once. One of them is unrestricted with higher rewards. The other is lower rewards, but with a maximum QP for participation. If people do well enough in the lower tier tournaments, they’ll be forced into the higher tier tournament for the rest of the month. The better teams will play in the higher tier tournament for the increased rewards and competition anyway.

Now here’s a good idea. +1

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

No. Brackets work by facing the lowest seeds vs the highest seeds first. That results in more accurate results, but a worse low tier experience.

It allows “high tier” teams easy wins at the expense of “low tier.” Do you honestly wonder why population is suffering?

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

Why the hell are you insulting Aerodynamique… He didn’t even do anything…

I wasn’t insulting.. in fact I called that player “good.” Where is the insult? Thicken your skin a bit.

apharma.3741:

Cynz.9437:

apharma.3741:

Cynz.9437:

The only issue i have with mes atm is that chrono allows AI run at light speed which results in them ignoring dodge even if you dodge into shatter making dodge obsolete in such scenario.

We’ve been over this many times, it’s not an issue born from superspeed on shatter it’s from the increased dodge range on UC. Even then with proper timing you don’t get hit by the shatter, it doesn’t make dodging obsolete it just means you need better timing.

So you actually defend the fact that thief cannot use withdraw or dash to avoid shatter effectively? Then i want dagger attacks go through invuls and blocks just because.

You’re just being petty now Cynz.

I don’t think it’s high on the priority of things to address about skills tbh especially when it’s on only 2 skills and 1 trait.

A better solution would be to address the fact shatters don’t actually work without superspeed because of all the movement speed increases given out to everyone and then change superspeed to swiftness. It may not address the issue of not triggering the detonation but at least you’ll have a second to dodge properly or just outrun them because those skills will put you further away from the shatters and you have the same speed.

I can attest that shattering without superspeed is a losing gamble at best.

Rodzynald.5897:

Alright, I see something here. Let’s talk from DH point of view then. I didn’t play traps since HoT because it didn’t suit my playstyle and a few seasons back I had a reliable build of my own that did the trick, but does not do anymore.
Okay so, provided that I fight on a node against a mes, which is better to destroy illusions, procession of blades or test of faith? I’ve noticed that very often mesmers don’t let me destroy their illusions as they pop it in my face as soon as I target them (with low framerate and 100+ ping it is not so easy to pinpoint the exact moment when they blow up if they are in melee range so evading is more or less a gamble) either full blast or shatter after shatter.

All in all I wonder why I have such a hard time with them now. Previous seasons I didn’t encounter any relevant obstacles that would make me write a thread about it to ask for tips.

I don’t play DH. I can say that Test of Faith will usually stop clones or stop me from shattering.

The key to dodging a Mesmer shatter is to dodge toward the oncoming illusions. If you dodge away you will probably be hit.

JahCool.3812:

Please OP I have seen countless of posts by you complaining about matchmaking and other pvp stuff maybe you should get out of your comfort zone and try other stuff or find a good duel partner so you can get better. So TLDR please OP get out of your comfort zone and take a look at yourself first because most guys know you in this forum already as the mesmer player who is somehow the most unlucky player in pvp matchmaking. Record a video of how you play show it to us so we can help you.

I once recorded a match at the request of the forum. ( and have since improved a great deal using some of the suggestions ) I endured more than a week of trolling online afterwards. My toon was recognizable enough that I got regularly harassed and even asked to commit suicide rather than be on someone’s team.

Sorry, I have no trust left. I don’t recommend anyone who is not a popular streamer show video to this forum.

I have seen such a group. This was obviously some time ago. There are 5 Asura burn guards. Four are following and mirroring the actions of one. I thought it was amusing at the time. As you can see, four are making the same attack as the screenie is snapped.

I’ve yet to see one in an actual match.

~edit~ I’d love to try my Discord team in a match, they don’t need to be micro’d and do a nice damage spike … hmmm nice thought.

Losing to a Mesmer is NOT cause for nerfs. If anything, Mesmer is seriously weak against people who know how to play.

I just came from a match. My keybinds, 10,11,12 on my mouse ( I use a razer naga epic and play primarily with my right hand. My Razer tartarus on the left has never exhibited this problem. ) stopped working mid match.

This has happened before. It normally affects 10,11, 12. It reduced me to skill clicking in the middle of a fight that decided the match.

I find it rather bizzare that keybinds can simply be “forgotten” in the middle of a match. This needs to be fixed.

apharma.3741:

Ithilwen.1529:

I agree. If there are two relatively high ranked players and several medium-to-low; The proper response would be to divide the two high rankers, one on each team.

This would annoy those players. They often feel entitled to have a team that , in there judgement, is of suitable skill level. It would be much fairer though .

This however arbitrarily condemns one of them to lose a ton of rating while both have a frustrating game where their team runs around like headless chickens. Now if one of them wasn’t going to lose 20-40 rating g for this loss in this fair match up they might play a few games and leave when too frustrated. However if they lose 30 rating for playing just so Mr Pleberino has a more balanced team (where both teams behave equally clueless to the high rated players) they will usually log off after 1-2 games.

That isn’t the situation anyone wants, we want people to play and stay playing.

Cap losses and gains on rating and some small tweaks to the loss/gain rating system will make it more barrable for many. As I pointed out, many complaints aren’t at the match itself if you read them, it’s at how much they lose because of the match. Great example is kdaddy’s post above, it’s about rating gain and loss as much as it’s about clueless people rotating.

Also it’s more fair or fairer, you never say more fairer.

I wrote “much fairer.” Please read more carefully.

So now I should be afraid lest the high level players be insulted by having a tough match?

Well, in a recent tournament my team faced a group that was clearly far superior. One was wearing a “God of PvP” title.

One of our team immediately quit seeing the title( and was reported for all the good it will do. ) We were spawn camped, trolled and generally stomped into the ground. I got top offense for my team simply by a decap or two.

That wasn’t the least bit fun. In fact, I felt abused. I was more-or-less fed to a team against which I stood no chance.

It would benefit PvP for those players to step back and stop farming or have a league of there own. The constant farming is driving away anyone silly enough to venture into PvP.

Even a self aware masochist like myself has to think twice before logging in.

I agree. If there are two relatively high ranked players and several medium-to-low; The proper response would be to divide the two high rankers, one on each team.

This would annoy those players. They often feel entitled to have a team that , in there judgement, is of suitable skill level. It would be much fairer though .

Prior to the change in conditions, Mesmer was trash tier.

I’m a Mesmer devotee and normally play a PU condi build. It’s pure vanilla even though I have HoT on both my accounts from day 1.

The biggest mistake people make in fighting me is to run away. You break and run, you’re mine. Mesmer is really very delicate in relation to other builds.

The recent trend in power shatter nukers works because the enemy let’s it work. That build has almost no defense. Again, you run away, you’re dead meat.

Seeing a pattern here? Mesmer isn’t OP, other players fail to understand. As often as not, my opponent will panic when they see the shatter coming in and blow cd’s.

Keep your head and pay attention and I’m at a serious disadvantage. But, for the sake of The Six.. please no more nerfs… I played at trash tier for years and I’m sick of it.

zealex.9410:

JTGuevara.9018:

I’m fearful that the next elite specs will be powercreeped to oblivion…again. History is literally repeating itself. I only PvP because this balance patch is a step in the right direction and for automated tournaments. If ANet releases overpowered elite specs with the next expansion AGAIN, then I’m done with PvP for good. There’s no point in playing any further. It’s not fun being forced to play the new bells-and-whistles just to keep up. Forget it.

A smart company would not d that because that would mean death for the game. Not saying that anet is smart im saying they arent that stupid.

I’m guessing that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Saiyan.1704:

The plethora of non-meta builds isn’t the issue. The issue has always been matchmaking. Matchmaking has no idea that an account rating of 1600 is using a non-meta build that’s rated 1450 or less.

Per class or even per build rating would require class locking.

That was voted down because ANET refused to remove class stacking along with locking in classes.

As long as ANET permits class stacking and swapping in the pre-game, this will remain an issue. Swappable classes cannot be rated in matchmaking.

The “best” would be able to do it on there own merits. In this instance we have “the best” being fed easy wins by being placed on teams that are stacked to be better than there opponents.

That’s neither honorable nor competition. A competition, by it’s very nature and definition, requires a level playing field.

kdaddy.5431:

Ithilwen.1529:

kdaddy.5431:

Faux Play.6104:

kdaddy.5431:

Faux Play.6104:

To me it doesn’t seem that odd. Both teams have a fairly tight grouping of players, and the teams are only ~200 points apart.

You have to be crazy to think this is fair, Edison might be the 2nd best thief in NA and you think 2 guys with a 1510 rating have a fair shot.

Come on bruh

It doesn’t need to be fair. The 1510 rated player probably lost around 7-8 pts that match. that match should be an anomaly for them.

I agree the MM does not need to be fair. Its a low player base and people in silver have posted matches against top 50 players.

It is that very attitude that is driving away players and making matches worse. The MM absolutely needs to be as fair as possible. No one like likes to be treated as cannon fodder.

The only people liking this system are the ones benefitting from easy matches. Still it means that there is no “prestige” whatever in a title unfairly won.

Who are the ESL level players suppose to play?

There are about 50 or so at that level in EU and NA and some simply work better with others in teams. So when we had 5 vs 5 and and OE was teamed up with his 3 man group and the the Full ESL teams are playing who ya think was gonna win?

Same goes now, in OP statement there were 4 ESL players on 1 side and some decent players on the other. Everyone needs to get there shot at the champ.

To me it wouldnt be such a huge problem if ESL players didnt lose 40-50 when playing each other and get +4 when they win.

The system itself rewards players for duo queing, dodge queing and punishes you if you want to challenge yourself. Where is the incentive for the best 100 or so players to come in the game every day and play each other?

A proper matchmaker would distribute the ESL players and high levels on both sides.

Instead, the MM appears puts them on one side so that they don’t complain. Well guess what? that’s not the least bit fair.

The health of the game is secondary to the priveleges and comfort of a few players. That’s plain wrong.

apharma.3741:

Ithilwen.1529:

Your replies are not relevant to what I said or to the OP. Therefore they merit no further answer.

I don’t honestly think ANET is seeking to make fair matches. I think they believe that “competitive” matches in which one side is heavily favored are better in some way.

If this is the case, expect population to go further down.

Part of it is, more so if we realise the matchmaker is doing what its intended to do, create games for people to play that are balanced within a certain parameter.

You go on loss streaks till you get to where you should be then you get wins and losses in different amounts. This fluctuation can be down to many of the reasons mentioned by the OP. I also added that there are some people who may intentionally throw a game because they see your account name and remember it from the last 5 seasons of PvP posts.

As for the OP, the fact remains that the matchmaker is trying to do as good a job as it can. The issue is the meta changes at a snails pace, there’s no diversity or variety for a lot of classes and many are still stung by the rewards nerf from previous seasons. This leads to a much reduced population playing which only makes the matchmakers job even harder.

The only way I think it can be improved (without shafting the top 100 players like Ithilwen wants to do) is to cap how much you can win or lose from bottom to top. Most complaints about matchmaking come with complaints about the loss of pips.

This post illustrates a basic myth that is perpetuated by apologists for “competitive” matches. That is to say, matches that are made easy for high ranking players.

There is no finding a level. There is no balancing out. That theory was tried for two seasons straight. Those seasons were characterized by extreme blowouts. It’s directly responsible for the current population issues.

No, it isn’t my duty to be fed to high ranking players to make them feel good. The vague hope of better matches some time in an undefined future isn’t enough motivation, sorry.

zealex.9410:

Ithilwen.1529:

Long ago, 5 player teams were a separate queue. Perhaps because of the high volume of complaints about match waits, that queue was combined with the solo queue.

I’d love to see solo duo be replaced with a forced 5 man que system.

That would be the end of PvP in GW2. Sorry, there are not enough elitists to support such a system.

MyPuppy.8970:

Or make them walk naked from Lion’s Arch to Divinity’s Reach.

Shame! Shame! Shame! * ding *

You forgot tying them behind the Dolyakcart and lashing them as they walk… I knew there were good things about being a late Medieval/ Renaissance MMO.

kdaddy.5431:

Faux Play.6104:

kdaddy.5431:

Faux Play.6104:

To me it doesn’t seem that odd. Both teams have a fairly tight grouping of players, and the teams are only ~200 points apart.

You have to be crazy to think this is fair, Edison might be the 2nd best thief in NA and you think 2 guys with a 1510 rating have a fair shot.

Come on bruh

It doesn’t need to be fair. The 1510 rated player probably lost around 7-8 pts that match. that match should be an anomaly for them.

I agree the MM does not need to be fair. Its a low player base and people in silver have posted matches against top 50 players.

It is that very attitude that is driving away players and making matches worse. The MM absolutely needs to be as fair as possible. No one like likes to be treated as cannon fodder.

The only people liking this system are the ones benefitting from easy matches. Still it means that there is no “prestige” whatever in a title unfairly won.

GW1 has saved builds. I use the templates frequently. It does require manually changing armor and weapons.

At this point, there’s no real reason not to jump in ranked. You’re already well ahead of many who come for the first time.

Top stats aren’t as big a deal as you think.

I will warn you though; with the current population you can expect to be more or less fed to high ranking teams. So if, when, you get hammered.. don’t take it too hard.

I don’t think that an effort is being made to be balanced. I think that the system is still promoting lopsided “competitive” matches.

At the moment I’m staying in unranked. Better that and a slow decay than to queue ranked and be fed to teams that I have no reasonable chance of beating.

Maybe the population will decline far enough to sound an alarm at ANET.

JTGuevara.9018:

Elite specs were actually nerfed with the last patch, but yes I agree. It’s not enough. Elite specs are not overpowered in terms of numbers, but by DESIGN. They’re a direct upgrade to core specs. I think you can nerf elite specs to the ground and they would still be superior to core specs.

Before elite specs, you had tradeoffs. Now you don’t. Elite specs give the player everything they want in one build: heals, boons, condis. Nothing but spam. They take the player’s skill away.

Unfortunately, I find that this game tends to cater to pseudo-competitive kiddies who just want to farm wins. This is where the “git gud” culture comes from.

Well Said. +1

Engi is pretty harsh to fight 1v1 and has long been an ANET darling.

Something that works for me is to hit them when the clear shield expires. Also, if you see the sneak gyro come out, they are likely low on resources. This is often a good time to get aggressive and press them.

ANET was pretty hot on the idea of removing the “holy trinity.” Indeed, when they discarded heroes and henchmen, they had to build all-in-one classes.

I agree though, the HoT specializations are far too capable all-around.

One example of the homogenization that particularly sticks in my craw is giving Alacrity to Revs…. apparently Ventari was a Chronomancer.. though I’ve met him and he didn’t look like one to me.

Sadly, the next epac, (if any,) will likely make classes even harsher than HoT. After all, the money’s the thing.

I am an alum of City of Heroes and current GW1 player. It was a sad day when the lights went out at CoH and I’d hoped those mistakes wouldn’t be repeated.

The “dead” GW1 has a strong community. I’ve even found a few willing to really help a new player. That game has a far greater number of combinations of skills and classes.

Yet, I don’t see any real outliers in terms of a “super” class in Old Tyria. Yes, I run a Discord team, but even that is no guarantee of success.

I think that the people running PvP here in GW2 believe that “competitive” heavily unbalanced matches, are good policy. We had two seasons of this and I don’t think it ever really changed.

Your replies are not relevant to what I said or to the OP. Therefore they merit no further answer.

I don’t honestly think ANET is seeking to make fair matches. I think they believe that “competitive” matches in which one side is heavily favored are better in some way.

If this is the case, expect population to go further down.

Having played in an automated tournament, it feels even worse. My team’s score was only double digits at the end. The other team was positively gleeful in curb stomping us.

Long ago, 5 player teams were a separate queue. Perhaps because of the high volume of complaints about match waits, that queue was combined with the solo queue.

Those “premades” then exploited and stomped solos for several seasons. We are now at the point where full teams are strongly disliked. In addition, the farming of solo players has driven enough away that there isn’t population for full teams.

I’d also personally argue that full teams would be blatantly elitist and drive away the last few holdouts, like me.

Fixing PvP has several requirements. One of the biggest ones is more people playing. To achieve that; rewards would have to be increased and wins distributed better.

Distributing wins better would mean a pure solo queue with anti syncing policy. Legendary armor would be a possible option for attractive rewards.

There is no such thing as a Mesmer one-shot kill. There is a burst which uses up several skill slots and happens rapidly.

The same can be said of DH, War and pretty much every other class.