Guild Wars 2

Obtena.7952:

JTGuevara.9018:

Shivan.9438:

I think this is a good time to post what I’ve said over the years.

Supply and demand does not work when resources are infinite. Supply and demand is a model that works when resources are limited. When resources are low, demand creates an increase in price. When supply is plentiful, prices go down.

But that is not the case when resources are not finite and the economy is player controlled. And here’s why:

As long as mobs are spawning, bosses are spawning, loot is dropping, then the supply is not finite. They’re not limited. Thus prices should never go up. The reason prices are high is because people are trying to bank on mats that are used on a hyped piece of armor or weapon. It’s not that mats are limited, nor are there a low amount, just look at the amount of mats in the TP. At no point. NO POINT can every single mat of a given type be bought out to create a high price for high demand. There are plenty of mats. This is nothing more than player greed, NOT SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Even if every mat of a specific type was bought out and the TP drained, there wouldn’t be a crisis for long as there are players still killing, getting loot and listing mats on the TP.

Another reason why prices are so high is that Anet dun goofed when it comes to the amount of mats you need. I power leveled tailoring on my necro and actually bought the mats needed to make my ascended gear for roughly 150-200 gold per piece of gear. How hard is it to make that kind of gold? It’s stupidly easy, not hard at all. But if you look at the differences between Tailoring, Leatherworking and Armor Smithing, you need a ludicrous amount more of leather or ore than you do cloth. That’s Anet’s mistake, by not balancing what you need.

The next reason why mats are high goes back to this stupid idea of supply and demand in an environment where supplies are always within reach. If players would stop undercutting and list for more, the economy would do quite well and people would actually make money, from selling mats to farming them. Here’s why:

If prices were listed for even a copper more rather than a copper less, those that vested in the TP would make money. Prices would go up, yes. But they would reach a point where players would not pay for those mats and go farm for them, causing prices to drop and reach a point where prices were acceptable and people would go back to buying mats on the TP. Another things that would help the economy is to stop the rush for ascended gear. Ascended gear and legendaries are supposed to be culmination of months, perhaps a year or more’s worth of work. But since Anet tested raids in Ascended gear, it’s supposed to be the only way you can raid, despite raids being completed in exos.

We didn’t need a new leather farm, we just needed drop rates and patterns adjusted in the existing world. That excuse about not enough time and resources is a joke. It takes less time to change a number rather than make a new map, put in the new mobs, make the damage stupidly overpowered and then create a back way in, just in case you can’t make the gauntlet run.

Nothing is infinite.

You’re forgetting a very important thing. People are resources too. There’s always a limited supply of players at any given time, they are not infinite. People have to eat, work, take a break, etc. Players are limited resources. Resources themselves are also limited since they depend on how many players are generating them. So supply and demand still works here.

Still, I agree with you. The reason hard leather prices are so high is simply because the supply is low. There’s no reliable way to get hardened leather in this game. All in all, the new leather farm raises the supply of all the other leathers EXCEPT for the one we needed! (Hardened)

It’s clear you don’t understand the relationship between the lower tiers and the highest tier if you believe that the new leather farm doesn’t increase the supply of T6 leather. I hope there are more people that are unawares of this … time to make some gold.

Oh no, I understand it just fine. I’ve farmed 100 leather hides yesterday. Know how many hardened leather I’ve salvaged? EIGHT.

It’s a slight increase, yes, but let’s not kid ourselves. Hard leather price is still going to be high. There’s just no reliable way to get it in this game.

Shivan.9438:

I think this is a good time to post what I’ve said over the years.

Supply and demand does not work when resources are infinite. Supply and demand is a model that works when resources are limited. When resources are low, demand creates an increase in price. When supply is plentiful, prices go down.

But that is not the case when resources are not finite and the economy is player controlled. And here’s why:

As long as mobs are spawning, bosses are spawning, loot is dropping, then the supply is not finite. They’re not limited. Thus prices should never go up. The reason prices are high is because people are trying to bank on mats that are used on a hyped piece of armor or weapon. It’s not that mats are limited, nor are there a low amount, just look at the amount of mats in the TP. At no point. NO POINT can every single mat of a given type be bought out to create a high price for high demand. There are plenty of mats. This is nothing more than player greed, NOT SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Even if every mat of a specific type was bought out and the TP drained, there wouldn’t be a crisis for long as there are players still killing, getting loot and listing mats on the TP.

Another reason why prices are so high is that Anet dun goofed when it comes to the amount of mats you need. I power leveled tailoring on my necro and actually bought the mats needed to make my ascended gear for roughly 150-200 gold per piece of gear. How hard is it to make that kind of gold? It’s stupidly easy, not hard at all. But if you look at the differences between Tailoring, Leatherworking and Armor Smithing, you need a ludicrous amount more of leather or ore than you do cloth. That’s Anet’s mistake, by not balancing what you need.

The next reason why mats are high goes back to this stupid idea of supply and demand in an environment where supplies are always within reach. If players would stop undercutting and list for more, the economy would do quite well and people would actually make money, from selling mats to farming them. Here’s why:

If prices were listed for even a copper more rather than a copper less, those that vested in the TP would make money. Prices would go up, yes. But they would reach a point where players would not pay for those mats and go farm for them, causing prices to drop and reach a point where prices were acceptable and people would go back to buying mats on the TP. Another things that would help the economy is to stop the rush for ascended gear. Ascended gear and legendaries are supposed to be culmination of months, perhaps a year or more’s worth of work. But since Anet tested raids in Ascended gear, it’s supposed to be the only way you can raid, despite raids being completed in exos.

We didn’t need a new leather farm, we just needed drop rates and patterns adjusted in the existing world. That excuse about not enough time and resources is a joke. It takes less time to change a number rather than make a new map, put in the new mobs, make the damage stupidly overpowered and then create a back way in, just in case you can’t make the gauntlet run.

Nothing is infinite.

You’re forgetting a very important thing. People are resources too. There’s always a limited supply of players at any given time, they are not infinite. People have to eat, work, take a break, etc. Players are limited resources. Resources themselves are also limited since they depend on how many players are generating them. So supply and demand still works here.

Still, I agree with you. The reason hard leather prices are so high is simply because the supply is low. There’s no reliable way to get hardened leather in this game. All in all, the new leather farm raises the supply of all the other leathers EXCEPT for the one we needed! (Hardened)

I think we all need to try to keep things in perspective here. Scoring in WvW is the symptom, not the disease. The disease is GLICKO.

But for topic’s sake, let me share my piece on scoring. I’m loving all the math lessons and the tut-tutting around here. Although, I can tell, the lot of you have been skimping on percents! (That’s ok, we’ve all done it!)

I support the scoring system in the sense that it is a temporary way and easier to help balance matchups. However, let’s not kid ourselves. It’s not enough to solve the core problems in WvW. With respect to 3-2-1 and 2-1-1, I’m going to settle this right now with simple arithmetic. No matter which of the two scoring systems you have, the top server always gets half the points! That means 2nd and 3rd are fighting for scraps either way!

3+2+1 = 6 (50% 25% 16.6%) 2+1+1 = 4(50% 25% 25%)

Let’s add 5-4-3 to the equation.

5+4+3 = 12
(41% 33% 25%)

In 3-2-1, the winner has 3 times or +33% the points as 3rd.
In 2-1-1, the winner has 2 times or +25% the points as 3rd.
In 5-4-3, the winner has 1.66 times or +16.6% the points as 3rd.

Now here we have something interesting. Momentum has shifted to 2nd and 3rd. The bottom two servers now get a bigger piece of the pie. More importantly, the winner’s glicko decreases. Basically, scoring changes—like server links—are just more glicko manipulation. However, with respect to WvW, scoring changes are a scalpel whereas server links are like a sledgehammer!

This should’ve been a group or meta event. I gotta WAIT for the leather train to show up, I can’t just go catch it or I’ll get shish-kacob’d?

If you’re going to have a group farm, SAY SO. Let players know.

Ex: (Group Event) Drive Centaurs Out

kdaddy.5431:

JTGuevara.9018:

kdaddy.5431:

Why cant we just have the old system back?

I dont get this 5 MAN ONLY TEAMS VS 5 MAN ONLY TEAMS.

Ive played many 4-5 man teams while solo queing during season 1-4 and won some of them and lost some of them. I truly dont understand the crying.

Heck my guild team which consisted of 3-4 people (including myself) beat other guild teams.

I was in season 1-2 when 4-5 members of ESL teams teamed up together and the team i was on was solo’s It wasnt that bad and i dont understand all these threads.

Why not just go back to the 1-5 ranked games, have Anet fix match making, Fix the /-, put up a protector where a person cant face a 3 premade more then once.

I mean just so much crying on the forums about nothing right now.

Because the old leagues didn’t work. 1-5 ranked games are again, MIXED QUEUES. Mixed queues do. not. work. Only separate queues of 5v5 and solo queue have been shown to work.

work for what?

Lets be honest here, Duo que is a huge advantage, bam Anet needs to addresss the +/- as needed.

Now do the same with all the other stuff. Otherwise we will have pure solo que which we all know can get tiresome and lonely.

The other option is solo que and team que which means they will take away from one another and i for one will not go back to 30+ long que times.

Work for what? Work for all! That’s what!

Players will always go where it is the most fun and rewarding. There’s nothing anyone can do about that. Whether the majority of players choose solo or team queue, it’s critically important that players have options. Not just this game, but any game. It’s good for the game in the long-term.

Also don’t forget, pvp back then wasn’t as rewarding as it is today. You also have players from other modes. You can’t really predict how long queues will take.

I would rather have long queue times than a broken game, ANY DAY.

Cynz.9437:

You DO know that soloq was removed BECAUSE of people in teamq crying about queue times? Thank yourself for the state of the games we got.

I don’t care about queue times. I never did. Long queue times aren’t the worst thing in the world contrary to what people think! I’d rather have long queue times than bad game experiences.

kdaddy.5431:

Why cant we just have the old system back?

I dont get this 5 MAN ONLY TEAMS VS 5 MAN ONLY TEAMS.

Ive played many 4-5 man teams while solo queing during season 1-4 and won some of them and lost some of them. I truly dont understand the crying.

Heck my guild team which consisted of 3-4 people (including myself) beat other guild teams.

I was in season 1-2 when 4-5 members of ESL teams teamed up together and the team i was on was solo’s It wasnt that bad and i dont understand all these threads.

Why not just go back to the 1-5 ranked games, have Anet fix match making, Fix the /-, put up a protector where a person cant face a 3 premade more then once.

I mean just so much crying on the forums about nothing right now.

Because the old leagues didn’t work. 1-5 ranked games are again, MIXED QUEUES. Mixed queues do. not. work. Only separate queues of 5v5 and solo queue have been shown to work.

Akkeros.1675:

just make one ranked for soloq and a separate ranked for teamq = yayyy, everyone happy

YES. THANK YOU.

It’s not rocket science, people.

You DO know that this is a team game right? We had separate queues in the past. We had 5v5 for 5-man teams ONLY. We had solo queue for individuals ONLY. No mixed queues. No duos, no trios, etc. Matches were generally competitive and even. This is not up for debate. I’ve experienced it personally. Ever since the queues were merged in 2014 matches became more and more unbalanced.

I’ve always advocated for separate queues: Team Queue(5v5) and Solo Queue(1-man) The reason is that duos and mixed queues simply do. not. work. They just don’t. Only 5v5 and solo queue works.

For those of you advocating tourneys, yes I agree, we need tournaments but it’s NOT enough. Not everybody’s going to go out and form a guild or team right off the bat. You need basic pvp functions for the majority of the population.

For those of you that want to play with a friend, I’m sorry but this is a game for TEAMS OF 5, NOT teams of 2 or teams of 3. The teams of 5 can either be made up of individuals or a party. EITHER WAY IT’S A TEAM OF 5. It’s time to accept that your ideas simply didn’t work. This season is explicit proof of it.s Mixed queues are killing us.

Then, Season 6 has ALREADY failed.

A separate 5v5 and solo queue needed to have been the first order of the day.

I want to say something here:

A game needs to be fun before it can be competitive.

If you think the reverse, you will fail.

If a game is fun to play, people will come. You can witness this in real life. Basketball, chess, soccer. For a game to be competitive, it not only needs to be fun to play, but fun to watch.

Gw2 pvp failed when it tried to be competitive before being fun.

Sekai.2987:

the amount of people that are missing the point and blame the lack of 5-man queue for no competitive scene is ridiculous…

so let me write that out for you guys —->it doesnt kittening matter if there is no 5-man queue because no esports team gives a kitten about ranked<—-

THE PROBLEM is there are no toruneys, for almost half a year anet hasnt said a word about toruneys, and without a torunament there cant be a competitve esports scene

and thats why it doesnt kittening matter if we have duo,solo or 5-man queue, for esports players ranked is just usefull to entertain people on stream, NOT to make money like they want as pro players

I agree that we need tourneys, but it most CERTAINLY kittening matters that we have basic pvp structures and features. Tourneys alone isn’t enough. Not everybody is going to tourney all the time. There needs to be a reliable way to just pick-up and play.

Also, to clear some things up around here, I don’t hate pro-leaguers because of their skill or for leaving the game. Good for them. I hope they earn well elsewhere.

What I hate is the hypocrisy and pretentiousness on their part that they think they can speak for the pvp community and that you can have a competitive scene without basic freakin’ game features, like simply queueing as a TEAM vs TEAM. You know? The CORNERSTONE of what pvp is about?!

Any game. ANY game that exists on this planet earth can be as competitive as it wants to be, but it none of it will matter if it is not fun to play. A game needs to be stable, fun, balanced before it can be competitive. It’s never the other way around.

Bwahahahahahahhhaha!!!!

You’ve found it too huh?

I think it’s the GAME asking you that question. You get a sense of it at the beginning when you speak with Jennah. You’re all like, “WTF. I can’t do this Dragon’s Watch thing, it’s like herding cats!” Jennah’s like, “Psh! You guys got it easy!”

Taimi, YES. I agree with you. She’s annoying! Cute, but annoying!

This boss fight was just absurd.

Even as a WARRIOR I got CCd and ping-ponged to oblivion. The counter magic ability barely gives you time to respond!

My thoughts: Excellent!

The subterfuge, the set-up, the exposing of the traitors, the treachery. Well played. All topped off with the death of Demmi and Caudecus. Poor Demmi. Although honestly, I haven’t played any character on the Order of Whispers path since the release! I’m not that familiar with her.

I’m very pleased and glad that the story is not focused on the dragons for a change.

Great map! Great chapter!

The entire chapter was on point from start to finish. Jennah, Shining Blade, White Mantle, all of it. The ONLY flaw is the boss. Holy mother of CC! Please fix that. Even as a warrior, I got CCd to oblivion. I got ping-ponged by the jade constructs, volatile bloodstones and the boss attacks.

Overall 9/10

I’d put 1v1 alongside conquest. PvP BADLY needs options.

1. Prof/Skill Balance- CRITICAL
2. Population Balance or possible overhaul and server merge
3. Server/lag/bug fixes
4. Cut down siege
5. Shrink desert borderland-vertically and horizontally

I actually like the scoring changes and the skirmish system. It keeps scores more closer and competitive. It’s been said that it’s easier to implement and make changes with it, since all that is done is adjust the numbers.

Server linking, I find, just imbalances populations even more. I doubt many people would miss it.

And you know what? Keep DBL. It looks nice. What I would do is shrink it so it doesn’t take so LONG to navigate! Those that say otherwise don’t take into account the elevation, which just adds more time.

-sigh- Come on people, it’s just a storm. It’s out of their control.

I get at ANet because of the pvp, but I’m going to defend them here. They did the best they could and tried to get the update out but failed.

Is that not good enough for people?

1. STRONGLY agree
2. STRONGLY agree
3. Agree
4. STRONGLY agree
5. Agree
6. Disagree—I say every two weeks
7. STRONGLY agree
8. Disagree— Duo Queue? GONE. Put in 5v5. That alone will have a big impact on matchmaking. Mixed queues of 2s and 3s mess up the system.

Krysard.1364:

JTGuevara.9018:

Shaogin.2679:

So funny, he talks about how he doesn’t want people to use his words in this video to bash anet and they are leaving because they can no longer compete as a team. Then here we have a whole thread of people using this video to bash the game and talking about how he was only interested in money. Lol, too funny.

Couldn’t compete? Ha! BS. Then they should’ve left at the START of the season where it was known that 5v5 wasn’t going to be in.

No no no. They left because the e-sport money dried up, pure and simple.

You are fooling yourself if you think that pro teams ever considered ranked competitive. Only comprtition for them came from voice chat pro teams tryharding, not random pugs lmao

I never said ranked was competitive, I was just pointing out their BS excuse about how they “couldn’t compete”. It proves my point. The money dried up!

Unfortunate, but understandable.

Still, come on people. Cut ANet some slack. At least they tried to get the update out. We can’t control weather.

Let’s look at things more positively. We all have a functioning game, plus there’s more time for bug-fixes.

Shaogin.2679:

So funny, he talks about how he doesn’t want people to use his words in this video to bash anet and they are leaving because they can no longer compete as a team. Then here we have a whole thread of people using this video to bash the game and talking about how he was only interested in money. Lol, too funny.

Couldn’t compete? Ha! BS. Then they should’ve left at the START of the season where it was known that 5v5 wasn’t going to be in.

No no no. They left because the e-sport money dried up, pure and simple.

martin.1653:

JTGuevara.9018:

Come on, man. Did anyone actually think these pro-leaguers were looking out for this community? NOPE, they’re in it for themselves. They just want to get paid. They don’t care about making the basic features and structural changes that pvp needs that benefit the majority of people. So now that the cash dries up, they leave.

Dude, they don’t owe you or anyone else anything. Not a dime. It was their skill that got them on top and ONLY their good will that they even got involved in trying to keep the competitive scene strong and teaching us plebs how to play the game instead of sucking hard.
They gave suggestions and constructive feedback, just like majority of community did. Anet didn’t listen much. What else is there for them?
If they have chance to earn money playing games somewhere else they have all the freedom to do so. Absolutely nothing binds them to the GW2 game. If anything community and Anet owe them – because these players shared a lot of their knowledge with anyone willing to learn.

Never said they owed us anything. I said they needed to stop pretending that they care. They don’t. They want the money. This exodus proves it.

For that matter, I don’t owe them anything either. I owe them no thanks. Pro-league and its participants were a drain on this community. Period.

fishball.7204:

I think most of you miss the point. A non 5 man q in ranked makes it competitive for the majority of the community and makes PvP more fun for most soloers too since they don’t get farmed by 5 mans. Helseth supported this and he was right, S5 was pretty good with some issues which will hopefully be fixed in S6.

Pro league is a totally different issue, these guys play top tier and compete as a TEAM. They don’t wanna queue ranked as a team lol, they’re too good for that. They want to compete with other teams on a pro league/cash tourney level which ANet hasn’t organized for almost a year. If they can’t play as a team there’s nothing for them to do in GW2 since they’ve already reached the top as a team, it makes sense to move on to another game for now if not permanently.

I actually don’t really like Helseth, I think he is too arrogant but you can’t deny he makes sense in the video where he talks about competitive ranked and not having 5 mans there and this video too. He’s also much better as a person, and player than everyone on the NA pro league scene.

Nope. Helseth, like all pro-leaguers, are just trying to get paid or trying to hustle you.

Solo queuers got farmed by 5-mans because the queues were not SEPARATE. Now they just get farmed by duos.

Any TEAM game that wants to be competitive without a TEAM queue is an illusion. Solo queuers truly are better off advocating for a separate solo queue or 1v1 mode.

Come on, man. Did anyone actually think these pro-leaguers were looking out for this community? NOPE, they’re in it for themselves. They just want to get paid. They don’t care about making the basic features and structural changes that pvp needs that benefit the majority of people. So now that the cash dries up, they leave. Well…good for them. I hope they find fortunes elsewhere.

PvP’s focus on e-sports has directly benefited pro-league at the pvp community’s expense. This is why I didn’t support this so-called “scene”. It’s artificial.

- No 5v5 queues
- No separate solo queue or 1v1
- No new pvp modes (stronghold is weak)
- No TUTORIAL

There is not a chance in Hades that you will have a competitive TEAM game without a TEAM queue.

Glad I quit. Season 6 is already dead.

NOTHING has changed OP, except you guessed it, queue sizes. With mixed queues, THIS is what you’re going to get.

Shaogin.2679:

Dariya.9380:

Was platinum at 1750, dropped to Gold 3 later, and in 1 day dropped to Gold 1, here’s what’s going on around 1500 right now:

- 3 Necros on team trying to do dailies in ranked, even though other team is obviously anti-necro. We lost.
- 1 Necro going for lord straight away. Why? We lost.
- 1 Thief barging into the team fight and instantly dying every time, never decapping. We lost.
- 1 person going AFK straight away at 120-100 score because he “wasn’t rezzed and team is noob”. We lost.
- 1 person rage quitting, even though we had a nice comeback which turned out to be 500-482, lost rating still even with DC.
- People who didn’t know engies can moa.
- People who admitted to playing PvP only a handful of times just for PvE rewards.
- Much more behavior that should NOT be reflective of gold 3 or higher. kitten this matchmaking. Wake up, Evan.

Rant over.

Why is everyone complaining about the teammates they get? You all voted and this is what you guys wanted. Apparently the majority of players wanted Anet to pick their teammates for them because it was too hard to do on their own. You guys wanted a system where a player could be complete garbage that nobody wants on their team, and Anet would force others to take that player on their team.

Stop complaining about this to Anet and blaming them, this is the pvp community’s fault. Your votes (or lack of votes) made this possible. Expecting a competitive pvp scene in a 5v5 team game mode on an mmo where everyone is limited to solo/duo queue is laughable. If you don’t like it, get together in a single thread and advocate for 5v5 only Team Queue. If you don’t want Team Queue, then stop complaining simply because you got what you asked for and enjoy your casual pvp scene.

Well…not me. I didn’t vote in that poll. I only suggested separate queues of 5v5 and solo queue. I wanted none of this duo BS. I knew it was more of the same as the other seasons where you have mixed queues.

I will dare say that this is the worst season ever, even worse than season 1 and 2, where I mained warrior as a masochistic act of insanity.

In general, you’re right. Expecting competitive pvp without a TEAM queue is just downright comical. 5v5 NEEDS to be brought to ranked.

A pet peeve of mine is the lighting.

Sometimes, I can’t tell if it’s night or day unless I point the camera toward the sky. The lighting in the environment is a bit too bright at nightfall. Night needs to be pitch black. I shouldn’t be able to see so much light in the sky and terrain. However, ANet addressed this a bit in Bitterfrost Frontier. During the storm by Jormag, you can really feel the cold and darkness.

Great post, OP. I like the suggestions.

A critical element of good games is simplicity of rules and mechanics. Basketball is a good example. You take a ball, dribble and get it in the basket and prevent the other team from doing just that. That’s it! However, there is skill in dribbling, shooting and defense. FPS games….same thing. Point the cursor at the target and click the mouse to shoot. That’s it! However, again, there is skill in aiming and accuracy.

Gw2 has an inherently great combat system that allows for simplicity of rules and mechanics. A great example that the OP suggested to bring it out are doing away with cooldowns and bring on-demand skills. This would allow for more skill-based gameplay.

With pvp, I feel like I’m fighting the BUILDS instead of the PLAYERS. This is exponentially so with HoT and elite specs, which I critically believe that carry players using them.

World linking just doesn’t work. WvW always had an inherent and structural problem with population imbalance since the beginning. Some say, we should do away with servers entirely and implement a guild alliance system of sorts.

Also, a critical problem that drove players away is simply profession balance and OP elite specs. It drove me away from wvw for a while. Thanks to HoT, large groups are just infinitely more powerful than before. Small groups don’t even have a chance. Fights aren’t as fun as before. Nobody wants to be condi’d and kited to death.

The leaderboard changes are appreciated and a good thing but….this is something that should’ve been implemented the first time.

Also, is this it? This is all there is for season 6? I’m just shaking my head…THIS is why pvp is going NOWHERE.

What about consistent profession balance/reworks? What about the rampant elite specs and their spam? What about new game modes? What about separate queues, 5v5, 1v1, etc? What about in-game tournaments? What about a TUTORIAL? For new players? You know! The players that are the FUTURE and we’re trying to keep? There is a massive discrepancy in what pvp wants to be(e-sports) and what pvp needs(basic features).

Pvp needs nothing short of massive resources or an overhaul to get better. Period. I already quit pvp. I will only come back to pvp if one of those two things happen. However, I know that this is not realistic since ANet most likely doesn’t have enough resources to do this since gw2 is an MMO that’s typically the next in line trying to implement pvp.

Haleydawn.3764:

PvP Ascended Shards are the cheapest way to get ascended gear. You are capped per season on how many you can get though, it’s enough for 5 armour pieces per League season however.

Buying from Fractals costs more than crafting if you already have the craft you need at 500. (Roughly 350g for 6 pieces of armor on average more expensive, plus you need a lot of fractal journals)

Buying with Raid Magnetite Shards + Gold is also cheaper than crafting, if you raid.

Back items and accessories/ammys/rings can be cheaply obtained from Fractals/Guild Commendations/WvW/The newest map zones.

I, personally, did achievements that awarded an ascended armor box (Leystone and Bioluminescent collections) then crafted the rest of the set.
Proceeded to do fractal dailies and accumulate armor box drops from there, crafting the odd piece to finish sets if needed. I now have 6 ascended armor sets. (5 full ascended characters, plus a set of 6 armour boxes, and 2 boot/glove boxes I don’t know what to do with yet)

Gah that’s right, the journals. I also have to spend on stabilizing matrix as well.
I’m already at 500 and crafted a previous set. I’ll stick to craft then.

Gah man! I’m hyped for this next chapter, but at the same time…DR could be lost. The DR I knew for years….gone.

Now that we can buy ascended gear from fractal merchants, I was curious if anyone knows what’s the most cost-effective way of getting it: buying or crafting

I’m looking to get ascended for all my chars. I’m not into the legendary thing.

Interesting idea, but you HAVE to watch it with the heavies.

Warrs/Guards/Revs get more armor than the other classes. If you overtune that, you make them pretty much invincible.

As a 4-year PvP veteran who quit, it’s simply not fun to play anymore. PvP hasn’t had any serious support with the exception of e-sports, which I honestly feel it’s not worth it. PvP is also plagued by terrible balance since HoT, lack of team queue and PvP modes.

I still play WvW though. WvW is slightly more fun to play but again, WvW hasn’t had any serious support since the beginning. Only recently, after 3 years, it’s getting some slight attention. However, fixes in general are pretty much hit-or-miss. WvW, as PvP, is also plagued with terrible balance plus inherent population problems.

In general, lack of profession balance and elite specialization powercreep and spam from HoT are the main problems in both.

Divinity’s Reach gets attacked?! Gah, I didn’t think ANet had the guts to put up a starting city on the line like that. Story-wise, I suppose it had to happen at some point. Will there be any substantial changes? Severe damage? Destruction? Relocation? What of new players who join the game? How will they be incorporated into this?

Well, I’m hyped. The story is getting better. Can’t wait to see how THIS goes down.

I can’t speak for everyone, but in general, I think no. I know it’s not popular with me. I’ve already quit a month ago.

PvP just does not get the proper support it needs, not even the basics, such as consistent balance. It’s still with the e-sport crusade.

I would just stay away, OP.

Spoichiche.1290:

You expected a quality kittenpost bashing and saying how bad izpurt is for this game?
Well too bad, cuz’ i’m asking a genuine question here. I see a few players saying that anet needs to stop this whole esport thing but i don’t see any benefit in killing the high end competitive scene in a game.

It’s not like esport is taking ressources that can be used in designing/developping spvp systems anyway.
While it has a small public, this public is usualy players that are invested in the game and are more likely to produce content around spvp (builds/guide/videos/streams/ect) and this content is very beneficial for the entire community as it produce more interest in the game.
It creates an insentive for very competitive players to play and show the rest of community all kinds of tricks/new tactics/strategies/high level play that adds a lot of depth to the game.
The actual tournaments creates advertissement for the game. (even though pro league s1 was probably the worst advertissement we could have for spvp)

No, really, i can’t find any reason to kill the esport scene right now.

THIS is why I quit PvP. Delusions of grandeur. WvWers don’t have the delusions that the PvP community has. They know their mode is screwed. It’s not coming back.

I will tell you EXACTLY what’s wrong with pushing esports. First reason, you can’t force a competitive scene. It’s never going to happen. A game, first and foremost, needs to be fundamentally balanced and fun to play for the vast majority of players, not just for pros. A competitive scene comes from the bottom, it’s never the other way around. The current “scene” is nothing more than a circle-jerk of pro-leaguers looking out for themselves.

Second reason, Conquest. Conquest is boring to watch. More importantly, it’s impossible to fully keep track of the players and the game. This is bad for spectating. In chess, everybody can see the checkerboard. In basketball, everybody can see the court. In conquest, you can’t see what everybody’s doing. You only see the icons on the map. Nobody’s going to want to see a bunch of freakin icons! You have to click on the team members’ names to see the action.

Third reason, fundamentals. If pvp ever wants to be competitive, they need a TEAM QUEUE. They need new modes like 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, deathmatch, random arena, whatever. They need profession balance or overhaul. Balance every three months is NOT going to cut it.

All I’m saying is not rocket science. I speak as a player, as only I know how. This is basic stuff that any multiplayer or online game needs in order for it to be fun to play.

Good day.

There goes another one!

Way to go, OP, and don’t look back!

Zodi.8932:

Reaper Alim.4176:

No the problems with this season is it rewards only exploiters and throws the virtuous players under the bus.

Another problem is that this system offers no good quality in PvP matches like you would find in other dedicated ranked PvP games on the market.

Another problem is that idlers/AFKers are not being punished for creating beyond game breaking conditions match after match for players who are actually trying to enjoy PvP in GW2. The privileged club players that was bless to have under 30 games or even less siting on top of the leader boards played telling others who are dealing with such game breaking conditions to Git Gud and Learn to Carry, when they know they themselves would not be able to do so themselves. So you continue to get a smaller and smaller PvP population as a result.

Broken and not so fun METAs and class balances goes unchecked for 3 month or more at a time.

Class Stacking being allowed in a Ranked environment in GW2. Where it’s not even allowed in a Ranked environment in any other game’s Ranked Matches/Leagues.

Also another problem is that GW2 has lost a lot and continues to bleed what’s left of it’s core of PvP players, because of what said above. And instead of fix the above issues in a timely manor the devs rather just sweep things under the rug and continue working ok PvE….No surprises there for one most super casual non competitive PvE centric MMO on the market.

Amen.

And this is also me, a veteran PvP player, out too. I seriously had my sights on the top 150 at the start of the season. But watching myself flick from Plat T1 down to Silver T3 and back up 3 times in a row with seemingly no control of my own over it is just too much.

I will be back for next season, I hope Anet improve something by then.

I won’t. I’m through. I gave FIVE chances, for FIVE seasons. No longer.

…..didn’t know this was even a thing….

I assume commanders are prepared for things like that. If a huge group is in that big of a disarray after the commander gets picked off, then they deserve to be picked off as well. I would think a second commander tags up immediately after the first one gets sniped.

Shaogin.2679:

Wolfric.9380:

Agree to Shaogin except regarding solo Q.
Solo/Duo is by far the greatest population. I expect only 1% of all players will build/join a full team. Epecially playing it regulary. It might end in custom made random teams against trained premades (ups we already had it). It makes absolutely no sense. I support a full team Q but its independent. The just jump in or play with a friend heavily outweights full team Q.

Of course the solo/duo queue has a higher population, it gives the same rewards with a fraction of the effort. We have never had a pure 5v5 only Team Queue, it has always been mixed. Even when Solo Queue and Team Queue were separate, Team Queue was a mix of various team sizes. Anet has never provided players with any incentive for even giving Team Queue a try.

If players want to duke it out to see who the best solo player is that’s fine, but 5v5 is not the place to do that. You say jump in or play with a friend heavily outweighs full team queue, yet all I see every single season so far is people complaining about this very system.

5v5 was made for teams. If you want to play solo/duo/trio, then you should be fighting for 1v1/2v2/3v3 game modes instead of encouraging the further destruction of 5v5 Team PvP.

Now that I think of it, I’d have to say you’re right. Solo players, in the long run, are better off advocating for 1v1.

However, I still propose a separate solo queue and team queue as a compromise. This compromise is ONLY because solo players, duos, etc don’t have their own modes to play in, and it’s not like ANet is planning any new ones anytime soon. Also, PvP is balanced entirely on 5v5, not 1v1. You’d have to separate balance even further if you want to make new modes like 1v1,2v2,etc. That takes a lot more work and resources.

I expect the complete destruction of PvP and WvW. I’m not optimistic that ANet will fully support them. I expect new overpowered elite specs to plague those modes and powercreep them to oblivion and make the current elite specs obsolete. I also expect more PvP league failures and the same old obsessive e-sports crusade.

However…..

PvE will be fine as always. It’s not perfect of course, but it’s in better shape. For sure we will see more maps, fractals, raids, living world and guild upgrades. Still, HoT is not bad. The PvE is good, the rest….is not.

To be honest, I don’t think ANet should even release another expansion. There’s still a lot to fix in THIS one.

As bad as WvW is, it’s still better than PvP. At least the fights are much more fun, I actually get to fight in an open field and not be reduced to fighting in a freakin circle.

I know PvP looks good on the outside, but don’t be fooled by the leagues and e-sports hoopla. Take those away plus the reward tracks and PvP is DEAD. This conquest thing has been beaten to death and past it. With the atrocious balance and matchmaking, it’s not getting better. I’ve already quit.

Still, I’m not holding my breath on WvW being fixed either. WvW, as well as PvP needs a substantial amount of focus and resources. We’re talking PvE levels of focus here. I don’t see that happening.

Frankly, I’d rather be here.

Lordrosicky.5813:

The problem isn’t the duo or solo, the problem is that the game pre-arranges a winning team, and some people will tend to be on the prearranged losing team more often than not!

That is precisely what duo does. It pre-arranges a winning team based on who you partnered with. Your duo partner can either be really good or really bad. This makes teams and therefore matches unbalanced.

The matchmaking is meant for full 5-man teams.

THIS is why I quit PvP.

Nonsense like that is why I don’t bother to play anymore and went back to WvW. Say what you want about WvW, but at least the fights are fun provided the days that server populations are even.

Frankly, the state of PvP is downright pathetic.

Thank you! Finally someone said it.

The system is only meant to match full 5-man teams or solo individuals. That’s it.

Duos distort the matchmaking system. As long as people are allowed to queue with a pair or any partial team, there will always be unbalanced games. When you’re allowed to do that, you artificially raise or lower the mmr of your team depending on how skilled your duo partner is. In a sense, you guarantee an unbalanced game for the rest of your team. You override the matchmaking system from doing its job.