Some company ought to buy the PvP system from ArenaNet and spend the money to make it right.
New maps. A real bracket system. Effective tutorials and 1v1 trainers.
Go through the classes and streamline them a bit so that the game will be easier to watch, and new people can pick it up faster. Keep the essence. Get rid of the gimmicks and irrelevant builds that no one ever uses.
Somehow the top players seem to know the “next likely move” of all the other classes and builds they typically face.
Another thing seems to be: top players do not generally look at their KEYS. They look at the screen at all times in a fight.
You must be closely watching your opponent to see the little animations that the opponent does before using a skill…and you have to be able to instinctively counter that skill or dodge. If you are looking at your keys, you miss it and get hit…or destroyed if it is a big CC combo and smash.
I tried a dual-pistol glass/stealth thief that could hit 12-15k in 10 secs that I would use to help team fights. I would also throw poison/weakness on mid fights. Then I’d be off to cap something open.
But, blowout matches where you crush people who do not know what they are doing?
That’s the PvP version of taking your level 80 PvE and questing in level 10 territory. Seems embarrassing to view it as actually, you know, playing sPvP.
Here’s the thing too. Right now skilled, low MMR players will probably surge ahead because they’re winning matches they’re not expected too. Eventually when MMR adjusts, their scores should stagnate, and only players with consistent high winrates and high MMR will succeed.
The balance between win rate and games played on leaderboard rank just can’t be analyzed until some time has passed. Way too soon to pass judgement.
MMRs have been “adjusting” for a couple of weeks. There was a big surge in playing for the first 7 days or so, and then when matchmaking was greatly relaxed, it seems people stopped playing as much.
But yes, if the MMRs are not really a strong predictor of your ability, then we’d see ladder point totals that do not make sense:
1) the “expected win” calculation would be a weak predictor, and 2) the ladder points would then be awarded incorrectly.
How long is this test season going? Until February? It will be interesting to see what we learn.
I think its questionable that longer queue will improve the quality of matches in any meaningful way because you can’t be matched with what is not there.
Yes, true. But lets just say that 2 or 3 minutes is better than 21 seconds and a blowout.
Counter is probably not the best word, but as anyone who has played this game for any amount of time will tell you after a kill or team wipe what have you, people are predictable to which place they will go, I try to go to the last place they think anyone would be dumb enough to go, it is a solo que thing sadly that is gone now and i will not be able to do that any longer
I just play for fun, I play about 6 basic ranger builds from power ranger to traps and BM regen, I like pvp and I don’t care about winning. When i play i play a lot i frequently change builds and usually i try to counter rotate, to the dismay of many teammates. One note about leader boards, first it is not about winning it is about points, the system as it is now makes more and more difficult to get points if you win a large percentage of your matches.
Lexiceta,
Thank you for your thoughts. What do you mean by counter rotate?
Yes, I made a special note to remind people that win/loss is not what the ladder is all about, since the matches cannot be made even all the time.
Win/loss record means nothing as long as the matcher regularly gives you games you can’t reasonably lose, or can’t reasonably win…and tends to be on the “win” side if you are top skilled and play with a top skilled team.
I mean, what value is a college football team’s win/loss record if they played against 8th graders?
That’s why points are awarded for losing, but not losing as badly as expected.
Sure, more experienced players ALWAYS win in matches against people who do not yet know how to play Conquest, or play their classes well.
Why is there such a large emphasis on effort! Why is it that someone who has 3000 games played with a 40% win rate can be higher on the leaderboards than someone who has 1000 games played and an 80% win rate! It doesn’t make any sense at all! It defeats the whole concept of a leaderboard!
Wahoo! Bye frands!
Because the 100 games and 80% win rate might not be from their personal skill as much as 1) the teams they played against, 2) The combined skills and communication of the team they played on.
Everything in the GW2 scoring for the ladder takes into account that as a solo player especially, you WILL be put into matches on a team that is EXPECTED to lose.
If the matches were always more or less even, with everyone on voice communication (or not on it), then win rates would mean something.
The matchmaking system currently is very “loose” and allows most anyone in the queue to play against each other if that’s all the people who are available when it looks to create a match.
If you could see exactly who was in queue, their MMR, and who they are grouped with, and who is solo and their MMRs…
It would all become crystal clear to you. You would see what the matcher is dealing with and how it “solves the problem” to create the matches.
If matchmaking was turned on, you would see the top teams waiting because no matter who they were lined up against, the quality of the match would be below the threshold and that match would be rejected. This would go on for a very long time as the lower MMR solo people played against each other in acceptable matches.
Personally, I suspect that the game design team has decided to favor teams.
That’s why they prioritized the matching for teams to not have very long queue times.
The combat system and the maps are designed for coordinated teams. They are hoping for ESports, and you have to have teams for that, not solo players.
Justin O’Dell is the person who just happens to be the guy that physically sets the matchmaking parameters. But he does what his entire team decides. And I think his team has decided to set the matchmaking to favor people grouping and teaming when the queues are small.
Only at peak playing time when the queues are full of a variety of MMR skills, will the solo people now find a good match (because the matchmaking will be more strict).
When your computer connection disconnects you from the match, it destroys the chance of your team.
If you drove a car with unreliable brakes, and you had an accident that hurt others, you cannot blame your brakes for hurting them.
You chose to drive it.
Holy Hyperbole Batman!
This is a terrible analogy in fact it doesn’t even make sense because most of the time you have no prior knowledge of an incoming disconnect, and it happends sporadically.
Dishonor for disconnecting is bonkers, awarding a loss and drop in ratings for a disconnect(EVEN if you win) is just Backwards.
We’ve been through this before in GW2 early last year. People disconnected repeatedly, ruined matches, and shrugged that it was not their fault, and EVERYONE on the team can suffer with them ‘cause they didn’t do it on purpose.
My analogy is about the principle involved. It’s not hyperbole.
And your point about prior knowledge only applies for the first disconnect. Arenanet hardly punishes at all for one disconnect.
“but if you check the blog post from anet, where they explained how the new system worked, i think you’d be good to go.”
If you read the blogs you’d see that they have basically turned off the new matchmaking because the queues got too long for top-level players and people grouped together.
They will be trying to turn it back on after the 16th. But in off-peak hours it will still be more or less turned off if the queue times for people on teams gets too long.
Just tell us how many points we need to score I order to get at least 1 ladder point for the match.
Maybe the other team is just too strong to beat. But we can still work hard, for the point.
Yeah i agree with that – if you know your playing a team way more experienced, if u know this at the start, and know that u only need say, 350 to score a point or 250 not to lose any pts, you will be more determined to fight to the last and not afk
I asked her what ranger build she played and she said she plays 7 different ranger builds. I never thought that it could be friends using the same account.
Here are some main points. Other people can chime in.
Let’s assume you are with a team that is playing to win against another team that is playing to win.
Every team should strive to hold their home point (the one closest to their base) for most of the game.
The far point is tough to hold because the enemy spawns there constantly and will just retake it as they spawn. Especially if you are not standing on it.
The mid point is the point that is fought over. Any team holding mid and home is getting all the score points as it ticks.
Always try to fight where your team has more people in the fight. If you see 3 of them fighting one of your team members, do NOT go to help. It will still be 3v2 and you are unlikely to win. Your team member is probably low on health already anyway.
These are the kinds of decisions you have to make constantly in GW2 conquest.
