Guild Wars 2

Playing solo, doesn’t it feel like you are basically pulling a slot machine handle?

Do you feel like when your team loses, you could not have prevented it?

Do you feel like when your team wins, it was not primarily due to your personal skill?

Does it feel like you have the most impact on the team’s performance?

Or not?

zaced: “in a system where one single bad player can mess up the whole match you’re just not supposed to play with rng strangers.”

+100

Exactly right.

The PvP lobby looks less crowded tonight.

How are the Q times for ruby/sapphire?

style.6173:

If you are losing 10-15 in a row, you aren’t average. Look yourself in the mirror and then get better.

Correction: if the TEAMS you are placed on all lose, for 15 times in a row, watch how they are losing. Are teammates standing in a corner? Look at the health bars of your team at the upper left corner: are the usually low or dead? Do they rotate properly? Do they run into 1v3s right out of base after dying? Do they wait to group again? Do they defend what they cap, at least for a while?

I suspect there aren’t all that many people in that queue at any given time of day outside of prime time.

What rank? Amber? Ruby?

If I start Ranked today with no pips, will I be required to team mostly with non-PvP people doing dailies or other PvE tracks that demand that they play several ranked matches?

I am thinking that all the PvP-interested people started at the beginning of Season 2 a week ago.

So who are my teammates likely to be? And who are my Amber opponents likely to be?

Cynz.9437:

Laserbolt.6731:

I suspect there is no staff so do that. There would be hundreds of reports, and how do you determine it was a real afk? And if it is a 500 to 30 score, would they punish?

Well according to their reddit post they get 10 tickets per day…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

And they seem to ignore the tickets.

I suspect there is no staff so do that. There would be hundreds of reports, and how do you determine it was a real afk? And if it is a 500 to 30 score, would they punish?

This is what I tend to see…

Fluffball.8307:

Those rare times you comeback are IMO the best possible experience you can have in GW2. I wouldn’t want to give that up. And speaking of absurd comebacks, oRNG probably wouldn’t want to give up their WTS 1st place finish.

And you would trade 100 hours of waiting for a pointless game to end just for the once every few months comeback chance? OK, but I wouldn’t.

EaterofPeeps,

Go to hotjoin and do a lot of skirmishes. At the moment there seems to be a lot of “Ranked Refugees” in hotjoin actually playing objectives. Try different classes and builds there. Be your own judge of how you do; don’t let the matchmaking decide for you who you are.

Best wishes for you. Just relax and believe in yourself.

The question is, what would keep new players playing and enjoying the learning process: allowing blowouts, or ending them?

What real value is there to a blowout, non-competitive game?

AegisFLCL.7623

It’s better to end 499 games of suffering. (About 100 hours of time at 12 minutes saved!).

People will AFK anyway by standing and moving every few seconds. There is no possible way to punish people for doing this.

I think the code is one test in the game loop:

IF MatchTimeMinutes more then 3 AND
SCORE_DIFF more then 200
THEN
END_MATCH

Need one helper function for SCORE_DIFF calculation.

This is great commentary. See how complex the game actually is?

Coming from other “stand still and pew-pew” MMOS, people do not understand the complexities of GW2 combat strategy and gameplay.

Malediktus.9250:

sephiroth.4217:

Don’t play ranked if you aren’t good enough to compete… I don’t play professional sports because I’m not good enough.

Just do Unranked.

There is no point to play unranked. It is playing ranked or no pvp at all for me.

You must believe that when the current system gives you a rank, that rank is accurate in describing your ability and skill.

Biggest argument against that right now is the guy who posted that he plays two accounts. In one account the system says he is an above-average player; on the other account the system says he is a well below-average player.

Why not put a simple bit of programming that ends the match if the winning team has at least 250 points AND the losing team has less than 50 points within the first few minutes.

We can debate the numbers you would use, but that is the idea:

SPOT a blowout and end it.

Don’t worry about preventing a possible comeback in 1 out of 500 matches.

Benefits:

Shorter Queues
More games played
More variety and hope
Ease the pain for mismatched teams.
Keep new PvPers playing
Quicker reward for the winning team

Thank you, Zentoji.

I enjoy being able to pick my own team in hotjoin, rather than being assigned to a losing team in Ranked/Unranked.

I went into hotjoin today to try some new build ideas.

I found that I primarily enjoy skirmishing in this game. I can do that in hotjoin without worrying that much about winning a “match”. It’s somewhat like dueling in a custom arena.

Also, if the teams are lopsided and I find I am being chased and destroyed by the zerg constantly, I can just drop back to spectator.

I enjoy controlling my situation that way, rather than being fed to the slaughter by the current “matchmaker”, and having to take it.

Sarrs.4831:

On the one hand, yes, matchmaking will occasionally give you a bad team and in reality you have almost no chance of winning.

But on the other hand, the only constant in your games is you. If you are repeatedly losing and repeatedly not performing well, you can’t really blame your team.

That’s what most new players think. That they control their destiny. And on a solid team in a fair matchup, that is usually true.

But look, when all your team mates are dying in seconds, or are off standing in corners, it’s not you.

Trust me.

This is a weird game.

It’s totally a team strategy game, but solo people think of it like it’s a solo shooter.

You are placed on a team. Many times that team is only there doing a daily and has no clue and la-las around.

Think of the team members assigned to you as your weapons and armor.

Many times the matcher gives you essentially no armor and a Level 1 weapon.

Then you get steamrolled and you say “I lost”. How were you supposed to win?

“nothing you can do except for maybe organize a 5 man.”

That exactly what ArenaNet is trying to force you to do.

Here’s an idea for the PvP development person: when the matcher puts together good players against those with low mmr, DON’T actually have them “play” a match and pretend.

Instead, just flash a pip award message to the strong team, award it, and dismiss the match.

Save 20 minutes for everybody involved.

Link.1049:

They could always make your rank based on your personal play and not whether or not your team won the match. That way no one would be carried, and no one would be sunk by a crap team.

And just how would the computer know your personal play? It cannot watch you do good strategy. And personal score means little. If you tag enough enemies who then die, you get a lot of points; if you bunker a point and hold it all game, you don’t get lots of points.

Jak Shadow.2864:

So I don’t have a problem with the system in theory but I am not sure it is working as intended.

I have two accounts – on one my win rate has been at least 60% more like 70%. In the other my win rate has been about 20% if not worse. Same player but huge variation in results which I don’t really understand the reason for.

The reason is this: the number of sPvP games played on the account was added to the matchmaking. I would guess that your account with more games puts you with more experienced people.

And therefore, what does Emerald mean to you? Or Diamond, when you get there?

Since apparently solos are cannon fodder for the teams being worked up the ranks in the ladder, doesn’t it make more sense to play unranked?

I mean, come on, ranked and hundreds of hours of pain for a onscreen backpack??

ArenaNet has no plans to bring back soloQ. They want it to be a team game. But since this is a free game (no subscription) they already have your money and if you quit playing it does not hurt them financially.

Is this the end? Can it survive, or will the population dwindle in 10 to 14 days to where very, very few are playing?

SoloQ is not available because there are not even enough players for regular Ranked Q at the moment. Take away the solo players and they will wait hours for a Ranked match.

Apolo.5942:

In all honesty given the fact that Anet keeps screwing up the meta, now we are back at blow you up meta pre season 1, i just dont care, i hop in, kill a few get killed a few and screw around the map. Thats it.

There you have it.

That sort of thing SHOULD be in hotjoin. But people do it in matches, ruining it for other solo players who are trying.

Today you really need a team.

My theory is that there are no longer all that many experienced solo PvPers who “just know” what to do in a Conquest match without being told.

Examples:
—- Basic map rotations
—- Predicting where the next key skirmish will take place and how to get there
—- Recognizing what the opposing team is doing, and countering it —- as a team
—- How to play their class in a skirmish, adapting to the opposing classes in the skirmish
—- Knowing their BEST role in any current situation that develops
—- Knowing when to go far, and when not to go far, and exactly why

etc….

To win as a solo player, your other solo team members have to know these things. It’s like knowing the dance steps to a complex dance that varies, but has to be done as a group.

I suspect that a lot of the knowledgeable solo players have joined teams, or stopped playing because without other knowledgeable solo players on their team, solo players cannot win.

Eater of Peeps,

I am thinking that what has happened is that the people who play solo these days just don’t have the foundational strategic knowledge of Conquest in GW2: map rotations, reading the map and “knowing” what you should be doing now, prediction of what happens next after certain events in a match.

I think they used to, and so the people you would be teamed up with as a solo could just “do it” without being told. And without TS communication.

Today (I suspect) most of those knowledgeable former solo players have joined teams with voice comms. Why? Because ArenaNet made no secret that that was they way they were moving with structured PvP, and they refused to recreate SoloQ.

SO (and I am in this situation as well), you end up as a solo player with three or four other people who just don’t know what to do, and they quickly GIVE UP if their team is not rolling.

You can’t win with a team that is standing around waiting for the match to end, hoping for better luck with the next pull of the slot machine.

Certain players are very talented with powerful builds and they can, in some cases, carry a team with a few weak players. But they can’t do it when their team is hiding in corners.

Because there are only 19 people waiting to play in queue.

I am guessing the original developers of the combat system moved on to better things and the people who came after were just not of the same talent.

This games MMR is NOT about individual 1v1 skill. It is about team support skill.

You would see your MMR bounce all around, and complain, “Hey, my skill does not change that much!” And you would prove that you do not understand how MMRs work.

I think this gives a glimpse into just how complex the matchmaking is, also, a small population makes it difficult.

ArenaNet is a business, not a charity. That means it exists to make a profit.

Is GW2 making a money? Keep doing what makes money.

Is PvP making money when you spend money on it? Or is the money lost?

Yes, MMR only works if people are actually trying to win.

If they are not, then MMR is useless.

You think you want an MMR reset at the start of a season.

You would hate it.

You would have terribad people on your teams for weeks. Hundreds of matches.

MMRs can best be assigned when the matcher is pretty sure how good your opposing team is. If you win 25 times against known good teams, then the system can safely raise your MMR.

But if you win and lose against unknown MMR teams, how can it know what to do with that??

And that would be the situation for weeks.

Here, you try it: A game is won 500 to 350. That’s all you know. Were all of the winning team members better than all of the losing team members? If not, which were better? How much should you raise the MMR of the winning team members?

ANet is going to do their best to quick-sort higher skilled players into the “proper” division (i.e. BRACKET).

Strict brackets are CRITICAL in this game because of the potential sophistication of the combat system. Better players can be MUCH more effective on complex classes and rotations than newer/less skilled players.

The Dunning Kruger effect is very strong in GW2 (Google it). Those who are not even AWARE of what is possible think the combat system is simple.

It’s not. Map awareness, combos, rotation intuition, quick reflexes, baiting, feinting, and many other factors come into play at higher skill levels.

Sirbeaumerdier.3740:

I can’t do touch type since my hand has less sensation as a result of a stroke I had. I don’t use key binds and I click on each and every skill on my skill bar to activate them. Yet I’d say I do pretty well and made it almost exclusively solo to diamond by playing intensively for 2 weeks and not at all otherwise (I wanted my Nevermore, Raid, Fractals, leveling pve etc.).

I suspect you do not do 1v1s, but play more support, from a distance, or with lots of passive defense and passive offense.

If you came from console gaming you take it for granted that you do not look at your controller, or the keys.

You may use keybinds, but can you “touch type”?

If you can look at your opponents all the time, you can “read” their animations to know exactly when and how to counter them. This is a game of countering and timing.

You cannot do that if you are not looking at them, but instead are looking at your keys to make sure you press the right one.

When I see the top players on Twitch, they are looking at the screen, never at their fingers.

I, for one, have been working on this.

Remember, your “skill” is how well you help a team win. This game has no way of measuring your personal skill. Everything is based on how a team does.

Ithilwen.1529:

The agenda is to kick Mesmer out of the meta. That’s what the actions say.

And just what reason would they have to remove mesmer from the “meta”?

None.

GW2 lets you PvP right away, with no advantage from someone grinding much better gear.

I’ll never play another PvP game that requires me to spend 150 hours leveling a single class before I can seriously compete in PvP. And worse, have to do it all over again to try another class!