Guild Wars 2

http://dulfy.net/2014/03/28/gw2-ready-up-episode-9-livestream-notes/

The system should prefent class stacking period.

Keeping something close to unobtainable for most is a good thing imo. It means that people feel like they are on a journey to something.

They couldve added 20 extra ranks. But then again, whats bigger and more impressive than a dragon? A god maybe? :O

I was actually expecting/hoping for new ranks and finishers. :x

Nutshel.7264:

So how exactly is this change going to compensate for over month of no rewards in spvp?

Your current rank will be will be converted to the new rank you would get with the new calculation. Which means a truckload of of rewardchests if i heard it correctly.

Blizt.3086:

Well that’s not too bad and reasonable.

I however can’t wait to see, how those who insist de-cap’s OPness is from AR, will react after they realized the reason they couldn’t beat de-cap was not because of AR, but because of their own incompetence in learning how to deal with it

A good decap engie is literally impossible to kill 1v1. If you die 1v1 as decap pre patch you made some awfull mistakes. I could keep up vs multiple top 30/tournament level players at the same time. And i played like 10 games of decap in total so its not like im super experienced on it.

Are you telling me that you could do better than those guys?

Everyone at the top of the ladder knows decap is over the top in its current state. The fact that less US players cheese to the top leads to less complaints and less of an issue. In EU where the ladder is a bit more active/competetive people tend to play to win…thats means a constant stream of decap engies pretty much every single game.

I had tears in my eyes; they are finally doing it. After all the crying and complaining we are moving in the right direction.

draven.4796:

Its not a bad idea. If I had to try and find a counterpoint. Do you think a high rated elementalist veteran of the ranks plays his/her Engineer for the first time, is going to be comparable to a virgin Ranger who has started pvp?

There will always be a difference due to experience in positioning map rotations etc. Mechanically im pretty much on par with a beginner if i play my ele though. So i whont drag my team down if i play at the MMR i usually play at (top 100-200 on the ldrboards).

Direct result is that i only play a select number of classes in rated games, eventho i would love to play more.

Good post and great changes.

As some people mentioned allready; are those ranks corrected retroactively?

Noone can avoid getting decapped vs a good decap engi. The only real way to counter it is:

Push for their home at the same time and /or win mid fast enough so you can rotate ppl home and zerg him down.

Lupanic.6502:

I absolute agree with you but on this map is engi/thief/mesmer better but on other maps are warrior/thief/necro/spirit ranger/guardian better. That’s life

The problem of that map isnt classbalance. Its the type of skills that are needed to be succesfull.

One of the main reasons GW2s pvp flopped is that quite a few classes lack depth. Experienced cross-game pvpers know that killing people while using only 1 or 2 (often poorly telegraphed) abbilities doesnt offer enough depth to create a long term pvp experience. So most hardcore wow arena players (for example) stayed away.

Skyhammer illustrates exactly whats wrong with GW2s pvp. Uncounterable 1 shots via pull offs etc.

What we could use in or before the start of that unranked queue is a system or tutorial that teaches people the basics of playing conquest.

- Not capping empty points with more than 1.
- The importance of rotating / counting numbers in a fight.
- When to go for secondary objectives and when to ignore them.
- Etc etc.

While having a lot buildvariety is nice and I do like that you guys are giving us more options build wise.

I think one of the biggest “flaws” of GW2s combat is lack of combat depth in some cases. To name an example; this is one of the main reasons why my entire wow (pvp) guild quit GW2. Being able to kill people with 1 or 2 buttons is going to scare away a big number of pvp players.

So im really hoping for some development to improve this. To improve the flow of combat for some classes and builds.

So my question is: why the choice for horizontal development vs vertical development and is the later something that is in the pipeline for the (near) future?

Mythoryk.7984:

To be fair… it was a poor camera angle to be in such a defensive position. You can’t see anything approaching what-so-ever.

Also, I’m aware that it has nothing to do with the point that the engi’s tactic was broken… but.. why is he solo capping far when his team held mid and home? That’s a pretty bad tactic… regardless of CC exploitation, he was pooched.

It wasnt the start of the game so he needed to watch both glass panels. Especially since its far, right next to the enemy spawn. And its not like watching for inc does anything vs a good engi that knows how and where to abuse los to avoid getting spotted before the pull.

They had map control or probably wiped the opposing team in the middle. There is nothing wrong with decapping or even full capping a far point if the oppertunity is there.

Ugruk.4069:

It isnt a game mode, it is just a map for hot join….

Its not even for hotjoins, its for custom arenas. It basicly replaces what are known as the forest of niflhel duelling servers.

So its for duelling and and those weekly 2v2 tournaments.

Josh Davis.6015:

So, here’s a question (purely for discussion):

If you had to choose one, would you prefer RANKED Solo Arena, or UNRANKED Team Arena? I’d imagine unranked team arena would still allow you to queue up by yourself or with 1-4 friends much like the rated version does now.

Thoughts?

Ranked soloq for sure. Why does it have to be choice tho? Why do i have to pick between meat and potatoes if id like to have both?

Id make unranked queue work like this:

• Joinable with 1-4 players
• Same rewards as soloq
• MMR
• Not working towards position on the ladder
• The only accesable rated games untill 100 games won.

After you won those 100 games you get acces to the current solo or teamqueueus. Your MMR during your first ladder games will be based on how well you do during your games in unranked queue. Putting you in a position between the bottom and the middle of the ladder.

I had a soloqueue game with 23 pull and knock offs. The game was vs a mix of top 500 ppl including a few who where top 20 (ROM the current R1 being one of them).

There is no way that you can avoid my pull or knock offs if you want to cap sidepoints. If you think you can? Keep dreaming. I havent met a single guy who can. There is no way to outposition someone who comes up stealthed and magnetpulls + immobs you on to a glass panel if you have to cap the point.

The only way to avoid it is…..not capping sidepoints. Or getting lucky with random dodges or using your stability during a cap (even when you dont see anyone inc).

Its a bit like telling ppl to outplay a decap engi. Just dodge all the knockbacks lol.

the sober ninja.6539:

You can see the glass flicker, even when people are stealth. Dead give away.

The flicker happens at the same moment you hear the glassbreaking sound. There is no way to avoid it if the engi times it well.

http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram/c/3826867

Id like to add one:

Play late at night. This system makes MMR irrelevant when only few people are online. So if you queue at night and a few top 1000 are playing you will be matched with or against them even if youre a lot lower rated.

And the nice thing is…you dont have to sit in queue for ages either “to expand the search”. I was matched with a low % necro earlier tonight who waited 30 secs while i had instant pop. I was somewhere in the top 100-200 range that moment.

Lets be honest about it. GW2s pvp flopped incredibly hard. It pulls less numbers than my Age of Mythology private server atm. A game that was launched ten years ago.

One of the main reasons why it flopped so hard is lack of depth. Specific classes/builds are far to simplistic for a competetive pvp game. Where combat in good pvp games is about setting up kills, killing someone in this game is often done in 2-3 button presses max. A good example is a condi warrior who can use two poorly telegraphed ranged abbilities that will kill someone if they dont cleanse it fast enough.

Skyhammer makes the situation even worse. Where the oversimplistic classes were bad enough allready they added the possibilitie to one shot someone via map specific mechanics.

Its so absurdly obvious aswell that it really makes me question the thoughtprocess of the designers. They really have nfc what the customer (us pvp players) wants it seems.

The biggest problem is that newer and unexperienced players skyrocket to relatively high spots on the leaderboard. The result is that youll see people of all skill and experience levels with similar MMR…..which is the direct opposite of what an MMR system should be doing.

What we need is a beginner league, quite like in mobas.

New players that queue for rated games will get in to games with other newer players. They get the same rewards and play in games with MMR. Once they won 100 matches they get the option to queue for rated ladder games. After 100 wins the system has somewhat of an idea of the MMRrange that you can handle.

TheDevice.2751:

Hey play a necromancer with near to 0 stability and say this map is great lol.

What will stability do to anyone if i pull them from stealth. Good luck quessing when to use stab or dodge when you dont see me coming.

Within range off a glass panel = 100% dead.

Even if youre the best player in the world with the most amazing reaction time. Stunnbreakers dont break my magnet pull and the second you are pulled the glass breaks and youre dead on the floor.

Simon.3794:

Its funny how either Locuz or Chase are in top 1000, but anyway

all you need to do is win, by win, i mean out performance, by out performance, i mean by winning 1v1s, be useful in team fights, and rotate properly between points, and properly target weakened enemy.

Im not?

http://www.gw2score.com/PvP/player/Locuz2651

Im currently ranked 175th. Im on eu tho so youre probably checking the US ladder if you cant find me.

A bit of luck. But if youre semi ok, top 1000 shouldnt be that much of an issue.

I remember playing vs a guy* that was an obvious beginner. Capping empty points with 2, backpaddling, running to random spots where he shouldnt be, dieing absurdly easy etc. I mean this guy wouldve been subpar for hotjoins even. People where literally running circles around him.

So i checked his rank and he was like top 20 with 15 games played or something like that. When i talked to him he asked me why he was playing vs such experienced players. So i told him that its due to anets horrible MMR system.

What followed is that he lost like 15 in a row (mostly since he dragged his team down) and stopped playing pvp shortly after.

http://www.gw2score.com/PvP/player/Olfwen8609

People seem to forget that its relatively easy to get the transmutation stones. If you played the game since release and did some map clears you probably have 100s of them. I barely PvE and i have 182 of them, just by doing dailies etc. So even I will get 60 stacks right off the bat.

The guys who intentionally leave dont really care about a few extra days tbh. Most arent focussed on pvp so they couldnt care less about punishment like that.

The guys who DC do tho. Guys that actually want to play. Since the community is small enough allready a pvp bann for 7 days would hurt the community as much as it hurts them.

I think a better solution would be to make the leaver lose rank etc, while the teammates dont.

The duelling sub community in wow was obnoxious to say the least. The harassment, real life threats and just plain stupidity ive witnessed in the duelling areas are some of the reasons i started disliking wow.

It got to a point that i decided that i would only duel top rated players or friends and only outside the duelling area. Since duelling a random guy would lead to trashtalking in most cases.

Justin ODell.9517:

This would be an interesting topic. Perfect balance is impossible, for any game… so what exactly is required for balance to be considered good?

This game is unbalanced is a popular phrase that people tend to use on pretty much every MMO (pvp) forum. A phrase that is incredibly vague imo. Everyone has their own idea about balance and in most cases its purely based on how their class fares in 1v1 situations.

From my experience as a player that played wow arenas at glad level on multiple classes during all season but the last one;

An even spread off classes doesnt necessarily mean that the game is good and/or enjoyable to play. In fact most pvpers in that game consider some of the seasons with the worst class balance as the best ones (think tbc with its resto druids amongst others). On the other hand you have one of the first MOP seasons, which had a relatively even spread of classes…but people hated that season.

Same applies to GW2 atm. One could argue that classbalance is in a good spot atm, with all but ele being part of the meta. I hear tons of complaints about “balance” tho. So what do they mean when they say that GW2 isnt balanced?

Id say combatbalance is far more important than classbalance. And thats where most complaints are coming from.

I think it is far more important that there is a proper depth of play. That all classes are easy to get in to but hard master. That strong classes within a meta need to have a relatively high skillceiling. The problem with GW2 in its current meta is that the direct opposite is true, which causes complaints.

Its not fun to play matches or be part of skirmishes where guys who play a strong class end up winning after pressing 2-3 poorly telegraphed attacks, while someone else needs to play his class like a true pianist to make something happen.

Had my first solid playsession in WS aswell this weekend.

+ I personally dont mind the traditional questing system that much. Its different enough when compared to wow for example to keep my interest untill max level.

+ The dungeons seem to be one of the biggest upsides in this game. Challenging and well thought out mechanics wise.

+ Its a really complete MMO for one that isnt released yet. Probs the most release ready beta ive been in over the last 10 years.

- While i liked the telegraph system in soloplay, it seemed like a big clusterkitten in pvp. Hard to read telegraphs if the entire floor is filled with red and green shapes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yKwVX089Rs#t=150 In fights like the ones you can see in this video, the only thing you end up doing is running where the least amount of red is. I prefer a system where you react to specific abbilities instead.

It might get better at end game tho, well see. I pre ordered it and if the pvp ends up being a spammy nightmare i can always unsub after the first month.

We get a blogpost tomorrow titled “removing restrictions”, which is about a feature in the inc patch. Its speculation ofc …but if they make your backpiece accountbound for example your issue would be solved.

- I hope that the wardrobe + the title of that blogpost means we get an accountwide wardrobe where you can click to get an unlimited number of copies for any character you like. Kinda like the ach skins now.

- If we push it a bit further you could get the option of account wind unlimited gathering tools, salvageomatic and most importantly dyes <- this one is very likely.

- And ofc the abbilitie to use PvE skins in PvP and vice versa (but this was confirmed allready).

- What could happen aswell is that they make all items accountbound instead of soulbound in some cases.

Both ESO and wildstar had beta weekends this weekend aswell. Probs a bit less crowded than usual due to that. I played Wildstar this weekend for example….which doesnt mean i will quit GW2. It does mean that i wasnt on.

GW2 is one of the few games where you can get the best items while being one of the worst players in the game at the same time. Just by grinding content.

The players that are able to win this tournament are some of the most hardcore players in the game. Guys that played this game like a fulltime job since release. While getting next to no rewards for all that effort.

And only the very best of that hardcore group will get it.

I have 3 pve guildies that have legendaries. All of them have 1000-2500 hours played. Trust me…..The guys that will win that tournament will all have 4000+ hours played in this game.

The effort isnt even comparable.

Orpheal.8263:

A financial advantage ingame over others stays a financial advantage over others, regardless of how many people get rewarded. Its the principle, thats not ok here.

You mean like the financial disadvantage of being a PvPer for the last 1.5 years? Here is a nice example of the reward chest rank 71. Where going from 70-71 means earning 450.000 rank points. Thats a couple of weeks of doing rated games … and this is what you get as reward for it:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Rank-71-Awards/first#post3794557

Orpheal.8263:

Seriously, reduce this arrogance. Every player, regardless if now PvE player or PvP players deserves the same treatment.
.

Youre pretending as if pvp players got the same kind of attention as pve players. As if they are and where rewarded equaly. As if Anet dedicated as much dev time/resources on PvE as they did on PvP. We both know the direct opposite is true.

A lot of pvp players where lured in with the promise that anet would focus on a lot of quality, esports worthy content. Its one of the main reasons what got me hyped and what made me decide to buy this game. It never happened.

Some players pvped for 4000-5000 hours and the only reward they got is a phoenix finisher. While PvEers with the same dedication would end up with 1000s of gold which is exchangable for gems aswell (lets not forget that) and multiple legendaries.

So I guess your euros/dollars are worth more than mine. Right? Youre type of content is worth more than mine right?

So lets not start talking about arrogance. Well i guess egotism would be a term that is better suited in this situation.

DeWolfe.2174:

I wish WvW would get even a fraction of this kind of reward.

You get alot more gold, more lootbags, and a new series of really cool looking skins. Dont think you have anything to complain about.

Viper.1593:

thats not the point i was making bu ty for ur opnion

I think its really unfair that i have to be the best in the world (and train 4000+ hours to get to that point) to obtain a cool reward …

While you PvEers can chill and grind for something you will 100% certainly get.

Viper.1593:

not hating on spvp players or anything like by all means best of luck to all and already have 3 legendaries just saying a meta event like the karka queen with a precursor drop would be nice but u all have a point.

They should strip you off your legendaries and only give legendaries to the best 5 PvE players in the world. You want to be treated equally right?

On top of that i would lower drops and gold from PvE content to be in line with PvP. Gaining 1 rank in pvp got me a special new reward chest. If i win 50% it takes about a 100 games to get 1 rank and that phat loot.

The lootbox contained:

- 3 silver
- 4 greens and a yellow
- 10 bloodstonedust
- 5 scrolls of knowledge
- 1 tome of knowledge

That on top of the amazing silverrewards we get from winning/losing games; about 75 silver an hour.

I would lower dungeondrops and rewards to be in line with this. Since most dungeon paths can be done in about 30 minutes thats max 35 silver dungeon path (incl bonus chests ofc).

We want PvE and PVP to be equal right?

Viper.1593:

Hello I just don’t understand how the PvP players have a very sure chance of obtaining a legendary weapon gift or precursor and you guys don’t implement the same for PvE players. Just stating that in my opinion its unfair and bias.

Well im all in favour of treating pveers and pvpers equaly.

Id say remove all PvE legendaries from ppl and make it so only the 5 best PvEers in the world get a legendary.

Good idea mister OP!

Orpheal.8263:

For me personally these rewards are unacceptable.
Way too rewarding for doing just over the course of a few days some few minute battles and gettign rewarded with something, that takes other players that are mostly no pvp’ers like an eternity to get….

The guys that have a chance to win this are players that practiced their classs and the gamemode for 1000s of hours. These are arguably some of the most hardcore players in the game. Ask a rank 70 pvper how many matches he played and his answer well be around 15000 … at 10-15 minutes each. These guys played this game for 4000-5000 hours since release and they have nothing to show for besides a pretty phoenix finisher.

And its 5 of the best of those guys so its not even a certainty unlike in PvE. Where every random person can grind for it and will get it eventually. Hell ive seen PvEers with an entire collection of legendaries. And you complain about 5 individuals that win a single legendary via a global pvp tournament after practicing since release pretty much.

Im literally disgusted that people complain about that.

In all honesty, i dont understand where all this drama is coming from. And as you can see in my posting history i usually am the sceptical drama queen that complains about everything (esp skyhammer).

You dont have to unlock all 40 new traits right away. So what that you have to unlock 2 or 3 traits that you might need for your main class? And untill that moment you can keep using the traits that you use now….which are probably on par with the new stuff anyway.

Will you guys show an overview of the new map, or are you doing a skirmish on it? :o

Soloqs are all about luck. Thats pretty much it.

The biggest problem is the way that MMR works. New players can win a few lucky ones in a row and get their MMR and ranks up higher than they should be. Direct result of that are really weird and uneven matchups. So the direct opposite of what an MMR system should be doing.

A good example is a (friendly) guy i met in soloq the other day called Jace Norsd. He currently has a 21-32 record overall, while being a former top 22 (currently 900). And he was about as good as any random new player you meet if you ever do hotjoin games.

Allie Murdock.8152:

Darrin is a map-making genius,

Thats the guy that created Skyhammer right? Well i guess everyone deserves a second chance :P

Anyway looking forward to the stream!

Lifestealer.4910:

How do i get new gear for pvp?.. do i unlock them as i keep playing in them?…

How do i unlock the traits in PVE?.. they are automatically unlocked in pvp but in pve i cant seem to get them even after level 10.

How do i counter players who uses mirror image especially when i am a warrior?.. it just seems like a nightmare considering they just spam the mirror and go invis or something which makes fight really long and tedious and if i am facing the midget race, they seem always teleport their corpse after u try to finish them which is annoying as hell.

Pvp gear aquisition is in the process of being changed. You used to be able to obtain chests after tournament wins and via glory vendors. But they removed glory gains as a a first step of a transition to the new system.

Its still not 100% certain (for the general public) how things will work. Well learn more about the new system during the so called ready ups on the officail GW2 twitch every friday: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2. The exact times are posted on the pvp forums.

The new system will be included in the new feature patch.

Regarding the traits: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait.

Dont forget that you need to buy training manuals from classtrainers that unlock traittiers.

Regarding fighting mesmers as warriors. Its a bit tricky and depends a bit on what weaponsets you use. What i typically try to do is kite their clones across my firefield (from longbow) so they die. Then try to get a pindown (longbow 5) on the real mesmer to lock him down followed up with some burst.

Dwaynas Avatar.1562:

Locuz.2651:

I never had these server side DCs that you speak off. I must be really lucky.

I played 3k+ hours of gw2 and got hundreds of dc’s that where totally not because of my internetconnection – proofed by many internetrelated things runing side by side with gw2 and don’t get dcs (example: skype, ts3, steam multiplayer games, other mmos i run in the meanwhile – everyone of those had not even a single dc or lagg during the gw2 dcs).

I must be extremly lucky since i pvped for 1000s of hours aswell and never had issues like that. Besides a random pre patch DC that seemed to be server wide.

Azriel.9237:

in general players queue up for solo and team queue for almost 5mins, plays, and then a player DCs ( which is not surprising when my line is fine but somehow the SERVER decides to boot you, pretty sure regular pvpers knows what i mean).

Im quite “regular”. Rank 50+, been in the top 100 and pvp pretty much every day.

I never had these server side DCs that you speak off. I must be really lucky.

What i do have is a lot of 4v5s where ppl have issues like yours (its never their own connection or PC that is the issue). Weird isnt it? In fact half of my games where 4v5s today…so much fun. And ofc everyone was the victim of anets server side problems….right?

If you DC every 3 secs you shouldnt pvp. Just stick to zerging in wvw or pve. Noon will notice there.

Jaken.6801:

Full armor set: 500 – 800 gems = 10€
One armor piece: 400 – 500 gems each = 5€

Those are pretty competetive prices tbh. A wow cashshop headpiece costs 12 euro each for example.

I do think the prices for some items arent always what i expect them to be. I cant imagine people paying those prices for simple boosters for example. But i guess they do or those prices whont be there for a long period.

The way MMR is calculated in this game is really bad. New players have the possibilitie to skyrocket to top 100 spots within 10 games. Most of the times due to luck. Getting in the right teams or winning 5v4s for example.

As a result of that youll see guys who are subpar in the top 200 or even 100 with records like 10-7 or something like that. While i dont mind them being on those spots on the ladder….i do mind them in games that could be a high quality game between top 200-300 players.

Lack of experience is really hard to overcome. Youre literally throwing guys that started to pvp this week in the same games as tournament level players with 10k + games played.

I really really hope that the new system fixes this:

I would create a beginner league similar to for example smite. Let ppl win x number of games (lets say 50 or 100) before they can join laddergames. So if they queue they get in to a soloq version that has MMR but doesnt put them on the ladder. That way MMR can settle a bit and new players get used to the way conquest works.