Guild Wars 2

Evan Lesh.3295:

This has not been forgotten.

I hope you win the lotto in 2016. Or something equally good.

Personally I think people who bot should be permanently ip banned but at least something is being done.

Someone faced Kwok Eng in a match lmao

nacario.9417:

I would Justin love to know anets standing on this, are they aware or aware and not able to do anything about it. But then again its been over three years.

Two dev replies are in this thread; Go to the first page, second post for links.

Solid thread.

It continues to amaze me, the refusal to reinstate solo queue when it would literally end 80% of the complaint threads (HoT balance aside) in the sPvP forums.

Summer/Winter 2014 was pretty fun.

This is probably an unpopular opinion but I actually enjoyed the June 2015 meta as well – right after they added in basic specializations – despite the complaints about d/d celes.

Consider bumping my long writeup on the issue: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Queuing-Outside-of-HotM/

Ross Biddle.2367:

Forestgreen.7981:

This bunker meta is so boring. Please bring some counter to passive boon spam meta, since thieves and warriors are a joke to play give them the option to completely dominate boon spamming exclusive builds.

Just as how bruiser builds tend to kill zerker builds and how sustain builds tend to kill bruiser builds.

All I run is counter meta builds, using thief and war XD.

Ez pz kills.

Being a Mes main I still do a little bit of chrono too.

I hope you’re not trying to argue that the game is currently in a great state.

The post-basic specializations patch in June was way more fun for everyone involved; the players and the spectators.

A jumping puzzle is a weak solution and temporary (dare I call it) fix for a much larger problem. After people complete the puzzle it will just be another piece of stale repeatable content that does nothing to alleviate boredom while being locked in the mists during queues.

Mez Koo.9510:

Plenty of places to jump around. I like jumping on the pillars for bank and tp. Or join the stellar /map chat.

Use WvW or LA for crafting.

Btw…crafting is more about using gold.

I can’t tell if you didn’t understand OP’s post, or if you’re new to the game, or if you don’t play PvP. It’s like you think OP just likes to visit Heart of the Mists for no reason and is complaining that there isn’t anything to do. The reason that players even go to Heart of the Mists and the issue that compelled the OP to even make this thread is that players are forced to queue matches in Heart of the Mists and leaving the mists breaks their queues. The fact that “WvW or LA” facilitate crafting offers nothing because you can’t leave the mists while in queue.

A large thread I made recently discussing this issue in depth: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Queuing-Outside-of-HotM

Melanion.4892:

This is a terrible idea. I want to wait in HotM for 20 minutes while I’m in queue. Can only wait for queue times to get longer with a higher rank.

Careful, a lot of people around these parts can’t detect sarcasm =/

Morwath.9817:

Power.2957:

1.) Him queueing with friends is wrong and he should limit how many friends he plays with to benefit random players and/or potentially have idiots fill the empty slots in his team.

It’s called unfair advantage, when you que with friends agianst lower ranked players.

Power.2957:

2.) He should play Unranked which does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to progress leagues to pass time until ArenaNet get their act together?

Oh noes. I’ve went bascialy to Sapphire within two days of active playing as SoloQ, then stopped playing Ranked because of -reasons-… poor me!

Power.2957:

How is any of that fair?

Lol, due, lol.
Majority of playerbase is playing solo… how is that fair they are matched vs premades?!

Soloers being “farmed” by premades has been an issue ever since ArenaNet removed soloQ from the game. The idea that Sunfish should only soloQ as to appease (as you put it) the “majority of the playerbase” is ludicrous at best. The fact that his premade teams are matched with a team of full soloers is an ArenaNet issue. Perhaps instead of making frivolous claims in this thread you should focus your efforts on lobbying ArenaNet to reinstate soloQ.

Morwath.9817:

Sunfish.5970:

We play pvp to play pvp. It’s up to the system to match us with players on our level. If i decide to queue alone, I don’t get queue pops, so what do you suggest I do? Pve? I dont play that. Pvp? Queues arent popping :p. Only way i actually get to play the game is to queue with lower mmr players in my party.

First, if you wouldn’t duo/triple/5man Q before and only solo/duo, you wouldn’t have problem now. You may consider it funny, but Rom or Helseth doesn’t have your issue.

Second, you got separate MMR in Unranked. You can try to play there until Anet fix this and/or there will be more people close to your MMR in Ranked.

So…you’re suggesting that:

1.) Him queueing with friends is wrong and he should limit how many friends he plays with to benefit random players and/or potentially have idiots fill the empty slots in his team.

2.) He should play Unranked which does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to progress leagues to pass time until ArenaNet get their act together?

How is any of that fair?

I really don’t get why so many people have come in here to complain about Sunfish.

I do agree the current state of “soloers being farmed by premades” is bad and that bringing back SoloQ would entirely solve the issue. But that is not the point of this thread.

I can’t really fault people for making teams of 4 diamonds and an amber. All of the people who are diamond right now predominantly play the game to play PvP. As Sunfish has highlighted above, without “abusing” the system, high-division players are forced to endure egregious queue times that even time out. (Even worse yet, all while, imprisoned inside the PvP lobby, literally unable to do anything else). What are these players supposed to do? Sit back for days to weeks and wait in 2-hr queues that don’t even pop until the rest of the game catches up? That’s pretty s—tty for people who do nothing but PvP. They’re literally being punished for being effective. If I was waiting out 2 hour queue times, other than contemplating quitting, you’re DAM- RIGHT I would look for every possible avenue to reduce my queue times, whether the playerbase at large considers it “dishonorable” or not.

The issues plaguing sPvP right now are entirely ArenaNet’s fault and you shouldn’t fault other players for doing what they can to cope with the current situation.

NeHoMaR.9812:

6 months? the bug has +3 years.

Lmao, right? He must be new here.

Sorry you just went through this but this thread is hilarious to me.

I’m curious what you did for 2 hrs while being imprisoned in Hotm…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Queuing-Outside-of-HotM/

RustyMech.9876:

Dark Saviour.9410:

When you craft it, does it not say, “WARNING: This item can only be created once per account.” or something to that effect? Because I’m pretty sure Carcharias said that when I crafted it.

It doesn’t, most likely because the new legendaries pres are account-bound on acquire; they’re ascended. That’s why the “old” legendary precursors collections are a one time thing most likely, because you can sell them on the TP.

Actually, Dark is correct. When I made Nevermore I tried to see if I could make another precursor and it stopped me. It is in fact once per account. I just went back and took a screenshot for you.

I was shocked to discover this myself days ago when I crafted Nevermore. I’m hoping ArenaNet didn’t add the arm effect thinking players would like it more than typical legendary auras, if that is the case, they are absolutely, certainly, wrong.

Tisis.5391:

…this is the only legendary left that cannot be completed…

Actually, Astralaria is still bugged in tier 1

You guys stealth patched “Friend of the Pups” to be sold from the merchant but “Friend of Rabbits” is still bugged. It’s been over 2 hours since patch and I’ve been in a party with people watching 4 different instances of Queensdale and the event still has not spawned.

If this event is so difficult to fix, why not just add “Friend of Rabbits” to a merchant?

Jourdelune.7456:

Reversed logic: If you queue for sPVP where ever you are, you can’t switch character, use fast travel, use story part, load map.

Yes, in pve, if you are queued. You died. You can’t respawn. Wanna respawn? Manually leave your queue.

Put some exceptions to what would be correct… like playing hotjoin?

Hotjoin had been the way we had wait for queue the first 2 years of the game. 1v1 server are nice while you wait with your team…

PLEASE.

Upon further reflection last night, I no longer think breaking the queue for waypointing is necessary unless you waypoint to an entirely different map. When you waypoint somewhere within the same map, if it’s far away you’ll get a loading screen, but the map is already mostly loaded, the game just needs to catch up with where your character suddenly showed up at. This already works fine in Heart of the Mists. If I am standing around the bank and waypoint to the golem area, I’ll get a loading screen but I’m not kicked out of the queue. I don’t think it’d be much different in other maps because Heart of the Mists isn’t exactly the fastest loading map in game…

Evan Lesh.3295:

-snip-

@Evan: I can’t thank you enough for actually replying . This clears up so much FUD.

@Everyone else: Please be thankful, don’t attack Evan or threaten to delete your accounts or rage or whatever, and please take this opportunity to continue engaging in constructive discussion about this topic and how we may possibly resolve it. We’ve waited for what seems an eternity for word on this matter and this is a major step.

Evan Lesh.3295:

• It forces new players to recognize they have completely different builds in PvP maps.

I completely understand the logic that new players would be unaware that their builds are different when in PvP than when in other areas of the game. If they queue without ever visiting Heart of the Mists, they’ll never have that time in the lobby to notice their bar and have it mentally click that “hey my skills are different.” That makes total sense. It just sucks as veterans that it increasingly seems that changes to appease new players affect everyone and from our standpoint, not necessarily for the best. I do however completely understand that new players are important and we cannot simply leave them at the wayside.

Recently ranked queue was updated to disallow people below rank 20 (I think that’s what I read in the patch notes?) from entering. I would say this could also be applied to unranked queue for players below rank 5 or 2 etc, so that they would have at least some experience in PvP and therefore know their skills are different, but hot joins were hidden and now new players really only see unranked and ranked unless they browse the list of games.

Evan Lesh.3295:

• You won’t miss the match accept because of load screens and get dishonor.
  …
• We would need tech to remove players temporarily from queue during load screens.

I think the dishonor is great. People who voted no in my poll mostly expressed they were worried lots of people would decline queues and make them last longer. But now if players consistently decline queues they won’t be able to continue contributing to excessive queue times.

Someone else in this thread suggested increasing the match accept time to 1 minute but I don’t know that that will solve the issue entirely. While the technology you describe sounds ideal, I have some suggestions I imagine would be a lot less difficult to implement:

• What about making it so that people can queue from anywhere, but leaving/changing/loading a map (and maybe to an extent using a waypoint) kicks them out of the queue? I personally would be satisfied with that. Players would simply have to choose somewhere to be first, and then queue up.

• What about tech to tell if people are currently loading? After telling that someone in queue is loading you could pause or extend the match accept rather than “take them temporarily out of queue.”

• Maybe the team that worked on the WvW queue and old overflow queues could shed some light on how that works? I imagine the WvW queues don’t matter as much because for each player 9 other players aren’t depending on him to accept, so it doesn’t matter if he misses the queue pop? Maybe nothing can be done with that if this is the case.

Evan Lesh.3295:

• We can make a better user experience (match accept and map voting) without having to worry about interrupting whatever a player might be doing elsewhere.
  …
• Revisit the way the match flow UI works.

The WvW queue pop is great at not completely interrupting whatever players are doing elsewhere. Maybe the PvP queue could be simplified to look like that (until the 2nd screen for map voting). A depleting timer bar with two options, Accept and proceed to map voting, Decline and get dishonor.

Evan Lesh.3295:

• Create better tutorials or gating for new players so they don’t hop into PvP unprepared.

This sounds like it would be a ton of work to implement but I think this would solve a lot of issues presented in this thread and elsewhere.

Ultimately I have no knowledge of how this all works internally, I certainly do not call the shots at ArenaNet and I know they are working on leagues but I do think after work is done on leagues, figuring this out should be a top priority.

Allowing players to queue outside of Heart of the Mists is absolutely critical to creating a healthier PvP environment and I imagine the volume of threads complaining about super long queue times would be severely reduced because people would be entertained while queueing and not notice just how long they’ve been in queue for.

Whoever at ArenaNet figures this out will become an instant figurehead for the sPvP community. A hero.

Ara.4569:

So far, only 14% want to be locked into the mists: I think trolls are under represented; but maybe I should blame the original poster for not giving a real choice. It’s like being trapped. So, in fact, only 14% tried to escape from “lack of real choice” jail.

I’m not understanding your post. Are you saying that had the poll been worded differently more people would have voted no? How would you have personally worded the poll? It was intentionally wordy/expressive because I wanted people to fully understand what they were voting for and not get confused by the question.

Notice the top right where it wants everyone to go visit Spirit Vale. This screenshot was taken today and sent to me by a friend.

For over half an hour he ran around in Heart of the Mists with nothing to do.

Aroswing.9217:

What is your source for 20 minute queue times? Admittedly, I don’t think I have a very high MMR, but I’ve watched streamers like Nos and Phantaram, and they definitely don’t have 20 minute queue times. It’s probably closer to five.

Ironically the screenshot of a 20 minute queue time is from Nos. Anyway, you are correct that it has to do with MMR. I have never had a queue anywhere close to the average and have gotten quite the number of 14 minute queues. I’m sure the average is skewed to the lower ends of MMR simply because there are more players.

Aroswing.9217:

…your strawpole (which is bias’d towards forum users, I might add, and not an opinion of everyone who plays the game), there were still SOME people who disagree. Even if it’s as small a number as 10%, you can’t say that it’s unanimous.

Unanimous or not it’s been almost 24 hours and 1300 votes and the poll hasn’t budged from 86% yes. That is an overwhelming majority. And while the poll was advertised on the forums it was also advertised in game several times (in fact I had lengthy discussions about this thread on map and guild chat yesterday), mailed to many top tier streamers, advertised on reddit and other places.

Aroswing.9217:

I can find things to do in HotM. Talk in map chat. Fight the NPCs. Practice killing Blue lord, or svanir and chieftan. Also, one positive aspect to HotM is that it is possibly one of the most social areas of the game, because people go there to wait for pvp matches. When they wait, they find things to do, such as putting down bobble head factories or playing on in game musical instruments. I’ve had a lot of fun just chilling with fellow players in the mists (Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t go there -just- for that social aspect and not because I have to. But I do think I should point out that there are things to do there, and it is fun to play).

You’re going to call me biased again but I cannot read this comment and take it seriously without calling you a white knight. The idea that you think that running around HotM and auto attacking AI and talking to players is acceptable entertainment when PvPers spend as much time in the lobby (if not more) as they do in matches blows my mind. Looking at your forum post history it appears you’re new to the game. The thing is this is what we’ve had for entertainment, for years now.

Aroswing.9217:

Power.2957:

6.) ArenaNet stated as recent as August 2015 in their blog post for raids that one of their goals with raids was to make sure players didn’t feel like they were (and this is a direct quote) “waiting to have fun.” [source] Isn’t being locked in Heart of the Mists EXACTLY what they describe as something that players shouldn’t have to endure? Why do I have to wait out 20 minute queues to play 7 minute games?

Not relevant. You said it yourself, that’s a goal for raids. No mention of pvp in that blog.

This absolutely is relevant. I see no reason why ArenaNet should find it unacceptable for PvE players to “wait around to have fun” but find it acceptable for sPvP players to do just that. They’re a business, we’re all their customers.

Aroswing.9217:

Oh wow, a source for the 20 minute queue times. I’ll be kitten ed! …Though I still think that’s the exception, not the rule. Even that screenshot puts the average at <3 minutes.

The average is very rarely correct, at least in my circles. I also find it odd that you said a thousand times in your post “where is the proof of a 20 minute queue time,” eventually found that proof, and left all the requests for proof. What was the point?

Aroswing.9217:

I can believe that some systems will take over a minute to load the maps.

Which is why I also suggested that if this is a real issue they should not start the timer until everyone is fully loaded.

Aroswing.9217:

Lastly, I just wanna say, have you read those posts? Cus. None of them mention a queue time of 20 minutes.

I have read most of them actually. Your entire comment seems to be fixated on queue times and I don’t know why. You’re missing the goal of my thread entirely or I’ve done a poor job explaining it. The goal of this thread is to do something about the state of the game where we are imprisoned in HotM, regardless of queue times even while they could be better. Even if I got 5 minute queue times like you do, which I don’t, I still wouldn’t want to be locked in Heart of the Mists. Those threads weren’t focused so much on queue times. They were focused on queueing somewhere, anywhere else, other than the lobby and that is precisely why they were included, because that is entirely what this thread is about.

Edit:
Also no where in my post did I specifically ask for “open world content” as you put it. I want to leave Heart of the Mists, period. They can add the functionality to play hot joins while in queue, they could add queueing to guild halls, they could add queueing to other outposts in the game, they could add queueing to anywhere in the game. It matters not to me as long as I don’t have to visit Heart of the Mists ever again.

Crinn.7864:

I’m fairly certain the reason you can’t queue outside of HoTM is going to have something to do with how they manage cross-server.

They would probably love to allow people to queue outside of HoTM but if the tech doesn’t allow it……

I would agree with you had this post been asking for them to add something new to the game. Queueing outside of Heart of the Mists is how this game was launched. I am asking that we go back to that.

PlatinumMember.5274:

Who are you trying to convince Arena net or the forum warriors?

There is no secret that the reason arena net has provided is stupid. Claiming you have proof is well pointless given the fact that Arena net’s argument essential boils then to " we can do whatever we want."

My goal is not to convince anyone of anything. There is nothing to convince, there are indisputable facts.

My goal is for ArenaNet to make a public and sufficient statement. Them finally coming out and saying “we never plan to do this,” is better than complete and utter silence. This issue has been presented thousands of times and not once have I seen a developer respond to any of those threads.

This spot has been reserved for further data/updates if needed.

Update – November 19, 2015:
We have successfully gotten a developer’s response. Thanks again Evan Lesh.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Queuing-Outside-of-HotM/page/2#post5777473

Update – November 19, 2015:
Another developer response.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Queuing-Outside-of-HotM/page/2#post5778093

Update – December 27, 2015:
With the release of PvP leagues and the addition of league divisions to the MMR algorithm, queue times have become a much larger issue for top tier players, regularly reaching 2 hours. We have new data: apparently when a queue hits 2 hours it times out and takes the player out of the queue. Keep in mind that during these multiple-hour-long queue times, players are locked in Heart of the Mists. Players are resorting to partying up diamonds and legends with ambers and emeralds to have low team MMR, or even in some cases intentionally throwing matches to lower personal MMR. This is incredibly unhealthy for the game. Screenshots attached.

This has been the #1 most requested thing in PvP for a very long time now and there’s no way ArenaNet is not aware players are kittened about this, yet they continue to remain silent and unwavering. I wouldn’t get my hopes up OP.

I’ve flirted with the idea multiple times of organizing a week long PvP blackout and convincing people not to play and make queue times even more abysmal until ArenaNet meet our demands. Whatever.

No.

I had enough potions hoarded to do all of the new PvP tracks once and can confirm it didn’t drop any Tomes of Experience or anything like that. And I didn’t think it would, masteries aren’t really geared towards PvP players.

You forgot to add MAJOR ISSUE near allow queuing outside of Heart of the Mists.

Tux kitten inguin.3049:

Yeah, they take their time. Same for me, I am waiting quite some time now.

I know they take weeks, sometimes months, but this latest iteration seems to be dragging out for an especially long time

Has anyone gotten their mini llamas recently? Anet owes me 3 and I feel I’ve been waiting an eternity…

This is cool and all but when are we gonna be allowed to queue outside of Heart of the Mists?

I imagine the whole reason it exists is so that we get a chance to experience all the maps. If the wheel always defaulted on what map had the highest votes, 90% of matches would be Foefire. Wouldn’t you get bored?

No one runs condi mesmer in high level PvP. They have no mobility, they kill too slowly and they can’t hold a cap on a point.

The mirror can be incredibly useful. I think the problem is that Mass Invisibility which used to be uncategorized was made into a manipulation. IMO categorize it differently, or make it uncategorized again and make the reduced recharge baseline.

How to Download and Use the Beta Client:

These instructions will not interfere with your regular installation of Guild Wars 2.

Windows:

• 1. Download the client here: https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2-ptt
• 2. Run the client. (It will install in a similar manner to Guild Wars 2 but not do anything to your regular installation.)
• 3. You only need to download 5-6GB before the game is playable. As soon as the game says playable, you can login and go to Options [F11] and change “Content Streaming” to “On Demand.”

If you experience the crash issue that some players are experiencing when it becomes playable and you try to play the game, proceed to the next section of this write up.

OS X:

These instructions assume that you have a regular and — working — installation of Guild Wars 2 already on your machine.

• 1. Download the client here: https://account.arena.net/content/download/gw2-ptt
• 2. Go to the Applications folder.
• 3. Right click “Guild Wars 2.app”. (If you have show file extensions off on your machine it will not say “.app”)
• 4. Select “Show Package Contents”
• 5. Click through the following folders: “Contents” -> “Resources” -> “transgaming” -> “c_drive” -> “GW2”
• 6. In the “GW2” folder, drag in the .exe file that you just downloaded, which should be in your “Downloads” folder.
• 7. Rename the file “Gw2.exe” to something like “__Gw2.exe”. (We just want to backup the actual client).
• 8. Rename the downloaded .exe file to “Gw2.exe”
• 9. Launch Guild Wars 2 as you normally would and the download should begin.
• 10. You only need to download about 5-6GB before the game is playable. As soon as the game says playable, you can login and go to Options [F11] and change “content streaming” to “On Demand.”

If you experience the crash issue that some players are experiencing when it becomes playable and you try to play the game, proceed to the next section of this write up.

Note: You will have to change back “__Gw2.exe” to “Gw2.exe” when you’re done with the beta, and ready to use the regular client/play the live game again.

How to Solve the Crash Issue:

Only follow these instructions after you’ve gotten the beta client to its “playable” point.

Windows:

• 1. Right click on the Guild Wars 2 shortcut you’re using to launch the beta. (If you don’t have a shortcut, create one for the beta client by right clicking on the beta client and selecting “Create shortcut.”)
• 2. Select “Properties.”
• 3. In the “Target” field add a space to the end and then add “-perf -windowed” . (Do not include the quotes.)
• 4. Run the client again with the shortcut.

If this doesn’t work, try instead to add “-repair” to the target field, then rerun the client. After the .dat file has been repaired, if the client is still not working, try adding “-perf -windowed” again.

OS X:

• 1. Go to the Applications folder.
• 2. Right click “Guild Wars 2.app”. (If you have show file extensions off on your machine it will not say “.app”)
• 3. Select “Show Package Contents”
• 4. Click through the following folders: “Contents” -> “Resources”
• 5. In the “Resources” folder, open “CiderSettings.plist” with a text editor such as TextEdit or Sublime Text.
• 6. In the file, find the line:

  <string>--cmdline ""</string>

• 7. Add “-perf -windowed” in between the quotes in the line. The new line should read:

  <string>--cmdline "-perf -windowed"</string>

• 8. Save the file.
• 9. Launch Guild Wars 2 as you normally would.

If this doesn’t work, try instead to add “-repair” to the line, then rerun the client. After the .dat file has been repaired, if the client is still not working, try adding “-perf -windowed” again.

Note: Remember to change the line back to what it originally was when you’re done with the beta, and ready to use the regular client/play the live game again.

Gurl please. We get 20 minute queues in NA.

The reflect is annoying but if you practice dodging when you cast a manipulation (or just waiting it out in cases of like Mimic→Decoy) the reflect won’t reveal you.

But yeah I agree the reflect is mostly useless… I have rekt some power rangers by blinking on top of them during rapid fire though :P

“People queueing outside of Hotm gave other people the appearance that PvP was dead” is one of the leading theories why ArenaNet have stuck to this change … but does that even matter? No one who actually plays PvP and has to deal with this cares and the irony is all this change does it make PvP less desirable to play and makes it >more< dead.

If ArenaNet doesn’t address this issue with HoT I will personally organize a 1 day – 1 week blackout of no PvP. Maybe when queue times become truly abysmal (40mins+) because no one is playing, it will become more apparent why people shouldn’t have to wait in Hotm to queue -_-

And during that 20 minute queue you were locked in Heart of the Mists -_-

Why the kitten do I play this joke of a game?

If the big issue is that they don’t want you changing maps while in queue, why not make it so that you can queue from wherever, but can’t change maps while in a queue? E.g. go to a map, choose to queue, you have to stay in that map until the queue pops or you’re removed from the queue…

duster.7013:

This is the best use of resources. Solo que requires advertising and other things to rake in more players otherwise it’s breaks q time.

What’re you even trying to say? Lol I have no clue.

Does anyone know?

It’s not quite as good as you may think it is on first review. In stealth the animations for shatters and the Prestige are visible, so you’re not purely invisible. And this build requires casting those skills repeatedly on recharge. I did have >some< success with it though hiding in weird (or noisy) locations in WvW.

Being locked in Heart of the Mists is arguably much worse than the end of solo Q =/

This fancy smancy blog post is interesting, sure, but where is the sentence:

“We’ve reinstated the ability to queue for matches outside of Heart of the Mists”

???

Are you implying the streams were ever good?

Lmfao that’s why you should play more days of the week Misa!