Thanks for all the feedback on the “what would you ban for 1:1” question. Several good points were brought up. I suppose if there were an official 1 on 1 tournament in this game without any bans we would see only a handful classes and builds (or variants of) being played. That’s kind of a sad state of balance isn’kitten That’s where we are with the base game right before an expansion is about to hit unleashing new elite specs for all classes. Seems like balance is would be req of it being considered a serious E-Sport, but ESL has a pro GW2 league so…
Why if I want to practice in Unranked matches must I be put in queue where Skyhammer, Courtyard and Spirit Watch will be voting options. Courtyard like Stronghold is it’s own thing and should be a checkbox option when queuing. Sky hammer is a god awful map because the balance is so luck plays as much part as skill. It should never be a ranked map and should probably be removed from the game. Spirit Watch is a contender for a ranked map but also feels broken.
If you were to host a private 1 on 1 Tournament what would your “banned list” include. The reality is the game is still not balanced for 1 on 1, but could banning a few traits and utility skills do anything to help?
All the cancer and cheesiness and the mesmer gets killed.
I didnt know tournies allowed PU
In this case it was a private one on one tournament. No ban on specialization or utility skills other than everything being locked for duration. Map obviously Courtyard so 25 points per kill with 75 points defined as a win. Wanted to see how well the current balance would hold without bans. It was interesting. Should also mention that the Mesmer won.
One thing that bothered me was why the warrior kept moving after the mesmer bombed him x.×. Another thing is why the mesmer didn’t bring moa after the first fight. That fight made no sense to me x.×.
Regarding Moa, Torunament rules were set so skills/build were locked for the duration of the match.
Last weekend our guild held a private solo tournament. I thought I’d share one of the final matches. Enjoy.
The latest blog about how Leagues will integrate into current competitive culture cleared up a lot. Really like where this is headed but would like to request two things that I think would make this a lot of fun for everyone.
1.) Starting with division four (even starting with division two if you have the resources) please give us season end tournaments for each division. It can be a small bracket of just the top four guild teams for each division and make these matches available to spectate so each guild can cheer on their team. If this is not already planned please consider.This would exponentially add to the value of the league division system you are implementing and make PvP casual friendly without robbing anything from the more devoted PvP crowd.
2.) In addition to the master guild team leaderboard. Have leaderboards for each divison. You’re adding leaderboards for each adventure in PvE which is taking god knows how much effort, so why would you not give your PvP guild leagues this.
These should be relatively simple things to add that would take what you’ve already planned for leagues and fill in the small cracks to make it a truly great competitive experience regardless of where a player is.
I think what the OP means is they’d like to see the mail system be more convenient for communicating with their guild. It’s already a very useful system; it’s just restrictive enough to make it useless as a tool for guilds with more than 20 people.
However, there are some compelling reasons why those restrictions are in place: to prevent spamming, to cripple gold sellers, to hurt illicit coin launderers, etc. So any new system would have to take that into account. And unfortunately, there aren’t any easy-to-implement solutions. Anything that involves removing per-minute limits benefits gold sellers and launderers; anything that increases the character limit adds some stress to data management (admittedly, not that much, but it’s still something else to worry about on ANet’s end).
Accordingly, I think your best bet is to ask ANet to adjust the guild panel to meet these typical guild communication needs, rather than trying to over-turn the existing limits on mail. For example, add some sort of “I’m planning on attending” system to the guild panel.
Yes, spamming just anyone should be filtered. HOWEVER. If you are an officer in a guild (for context of gw2 a member of guild that can kick and invite members ) then you should have no restrictions on mass mailing fellow guild members. They delay is ridiculous, infuriating and just god awful design. You have no CC option. You have no subscriber option. Honestly it’s a very, very, very restrictive system that is near useless. It’s only use is to send very short Tweet like messages and attach non account bound items for friends. It’s potential uses are 10x that. It needs to be revamped. What would be idea is social media type of situation where each player has a a wall and users can subscribe to feeds. But this must be done in-game or it would still be useless.
If ANet wanted to build something outside game, a first-party solution for GW2 like GuildWork.com would be great. They could make it freemium so it matches the guild’s model and becomes another revenue stream. Just give us something.
A few things,
I dont understand what GW1 PvP and other games PvP have to do with GW2 PvP simply because GW2 is different from every other game. Also i pointed out that this is a very vocal cry baby community and when your solo queing i dont want the person who quit because he lost a 1 vs 1 and claims the other players build is a troll build to simply say im going afk so let everyone just resign. When you say its a team quitting, that is a lie.
Also you said in most real sports you can throw in the towel. What team sport can you do that in? This is 5 vs 5 conquest not 1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2 anything. You cant quit in soccer,football,basketball or vollyeball. Saying were esports doesnt give people the right to just quit because you decide how you want it to go.
Again, you’re looking at this from the perspective of an individual wanting to /resign. I’m talking about cases where the ENTIRE TEAM collectively chooses to resign and give the other team the win. Why should they be denied the right to do that. I’ve heard no good argument yet. The opposing team gets the win. The loosing team looses. This just makes it so in cases where a loosing team collectively decides they are are outmatched no ones time gets wasted. There is no logical argument against a team resign feature. It would fix a time sink in this game.
Real sports do not pit premades against solo queues. Major league sports are ranked competition. I’m not suggesting this feature for ranked matches or Hot Join (in hot join teams can just leave and I’ve seen this happen) it would just apply to Unranked which is where all the problems are in sPvP.
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
Resigning should only be available on 3 or 4v5s or someone deliberately just tantrums and wanted to afk
I disagree. Lets say you have a few underperforming or the other team just has a strategy that’s obviously going to win. If it is to be limited it should be only for when there are 150+ point difference (a lead that is nearly impossible to come back from). If team has determined they have no counter for strategy against them why should they be forced to hold out the entire duration? That makes no sense. Again, the /resign feature I’m recommending would work as it does in GW1. The entire team has to agree to resign not just a single player saying “I’m out”. It seems several replying to this thread don’t understand that.
these are the worst posts
1- they bring up they dont want to be in a game where they will lose ……….
2- the want people to sub and there is a million problems with the sub idea yet they still post it.
3- Other players have posted that they dont want to get the pressure from pug team mates to quit when they might be trying a new build/having fun/are new/ etc etc etc but this doesnt seem to fly in to the resign players heads.4-lastly your a quitter, how can anybody take a quitters comment seriously. When anything goes wrong people write gg. We lost a mid fight its over gg, they stole beast gg, they got trang gg. NO the match isnt over, how about this…….. finish the match.
Absolutely untrue. The /resign mechanic in GW1 worked so that the whole team has to agree to /resign. When that happens they ARE NOT abandoning the match they are giving the other team the automatic win. That way no one’s time is wasted. In most real world sports scenarios a team can elect to forfeit. It makes much more sense to allow this in e-sports.
In games where your team collectively decides the other team is overall better coordinated or just has the upper hand (especially those times when you’ve figured out your pug was matched with a premade and the score is 85 to 235. Why is the the only option to endure the next 3-5 minutes? That is life we don’t get back and time we could spend doing something more valuable. The alternative is people will just continue to rage disconnect when in pugs, breaking the whole system. I suppose bringing dishonorable back will help but it won’t change the fact that you’re wasting everyones time when it’s clear one team doesn’t stand a chance. GW1 has a /resign option.
They are the best pvp build.
Anyone who says otherwise is just kidding themselves lol.
I mean. Every burn guard i’ve even met knows how cheesy they are. XD
Sounds like someone met a burn Guardian that left a few scars. They are not OP. In fact I die more on burn Guard than I do on DPS Med. I just get more kills on Burn. Truthfully at this stage if you spend some time with the meta PvP buids on each class you’ll find the game is the most balanced it’s ever been. Enjoy it for a couple of weeks before HoT throws all that into chaos.
ok
so i played
wow for 8 years
everquest 1 for 7
lotro for 2
and swtor for about 4and have tried and hated
Rifti do however enjoy playing Gw2 BUT!!!
from playing other mmos i truly feel there are some things that need to be brought in and changed with this game for GW2 to maintain the new people playing the game, i.e. people from other mmos (warcraft for example lost 5 mill subs)
first thing, is :
WAY to many time sinks
i can understand the legendary being time consuming and thats fine
but ascended gear shouldn’t be as time consuming (for example)
i also dont like the fact that your best way of getting them is via tradeskills
imo each boss in the hardest version of the dungeons should drop something , and each world boss, make them weekly lockouts if you have to
That’s because they stopped carrying about the core dungeons (Catacombs-Arah). It has been said here the main dungeon developer left a while back and no one has assumed the same role he had. Focus shifted to Fractals which is active, but it can be very hard to get a low level Fractal group. If you’re interested in Ascended gear, Fractals will play a big part of that in HoT. So while the core dungeons may be time sinks I do not believe Fractals are.
[QUOTE]
2nd thing
MOUNTS if GW2 really wants to make money add mounts, ya theres points all over the place , but i personally like riding through and enjoying the scenery instead of skipping it all by porting
this could be a huge cash cow on the market PLUS make the chests worth something and buying the keys worthwhile
3rd thing
[/quote]
For the love of the gods, No! No mounts in GW2. It seems to be something all former WoW players complain about. Look, it just doesn’t go along with the games lore. It could be written in at some point but you’re more likely to see a playable flying race before mounts (the flying race is already in the game and even has their own home city, it’s just locked out)
3rd party addons
this is pretty big, damage meters and ui customization would be alot more veteran MMO player friendly and keep people playing
There are a few things out there. Not sure if forum rules permit me to mention them here so I won’t.
4th thing
more of a traditional dungeon trait for classes, ie tank, healer, dps
i know this game pushes the whole mechanic thing to its limits..but alot of new players coming from other games feel this gets old very fast
to much invis skip through trash in dungeons for example
why even have it in there if people can skip it, why not just have the 4 bosses lined up one after another?
Well this would be why the traditional dungeons sort of died. The thing about the holy trinity for dungeon runs is that it’s actually a lot of fun to play. Everyone completing a piece of a strategic puzzle. GW2 encourages everyone to be a jack of all trades. Well, they did. The new Druid class can be specked to heal like nothing else we’ve seen before. Last BWE I did three explorable dungeons on Druid trying to play the role of dedicated healer. What happened?!? Well, Heath bars stayed high but at the end everyone said that would prefer DPS of full health bars. Ultimately the core game content just is not designed for dedicated healers to be of any use at all.
Honorable mentions:
NERF Mesmer for the love of god lol
balance pvp
Actually PvP is in a really good place right now. The Elite Specs could destroy it, but after three years of tweaks, you can take almost any class into the PvP lobby, go find a strong meta build for that class, train on it for an hour and then go into a pug unranked match and be effective. It is pretty well balanced right now. After HoT releases, we’ll see.
make boss exclusive items that have a decent drop rate (esp in upcoming raids, (pets aren’t acceptable btw))
Update store with new items monthly
post everything there is on the store 24/7 (its money you’re losing)
[/quote]
There is a strategy around the cash store rotations I’m sure. As far as putting all items in the game there, no. That’s ridiculous. They have an on staff economist who created and balances the economy around a series of currenies. Cold, Gems, Karma and Lurals. The economy is balanced to make so players who invest a lot of time go after items you can’t buy in the cash store. It also gives incentive to log in daily. It’s very clever when you really break it down.
You can use the new MotD to inform all Guildies at once, in a bit over 2 weeks. That should be helpful.
Good luck.
Yeah, it’s really not the same thing at all. For example we’re hosting a sPvP tournament and have 10 guild members out of total who need to RSVP for an event we’re holding. They each need to be mailed a generic mailer and each need to respond to that. As implemented it’s VERY difficult both ways. Sending the general mailer has to be done one at a time, on receiving confirmation back there is no user account name stamped anywhere. Is it really reasonable that the sender would know all of a players alts?
I’ve named one of many scenarios where a subgroup of guildies may need to communicate. In game mail is useless for this purpose when that in fact should be it’s sole purpose.
Another another aspect I would like to mention; When you send mail to a player you send to an account, e.g. AccountName.2353 however when you receive mail only the character name that the play was on when mail was sent is displayed. Please explain the rational of this design? Why has this not been retooled? Is everyone really too swamped to address the little details?
Why are there so many restrictions on the in game mail system? Often I try to use in game mail to send out a general mailer to all guildies regarding upcoming events and not only do these have to be sent one at a time, but the game will often throw up a dialog about “excessive mailing” which delays the process. The max character limit is also annoying. There is also no way to upgrade this aspect of the game. In terms of in game mail being useful to guild officers and leaders the current design is asinine and unacceptable. If I am misunderstanding the intended purpose of in game mail please correct me, but it seems being able to share a weekly mailer for a select group of guild mates should be very straightforward and supported by this system. It’s been this way since launch, can we ever expect improvements? Thanks.
So many people overreacting. You’re not going to know how to deal with these specs overnight. It’ll take practice to learn what works best against them. They only seem OP until you understand how to beat them.
You can make as many conclusions as you want by saying “how do you counter this” or “this is way too OP” etc. etc. but it’s only because you’re not familiar with them yet. Give it time and strategies will develop. I’m sure everyone’s beloved and enshrined metabattle will have lots of advice for the sheep once things have leveled out.
You’re going with the assumption that ArenaNet has had the time to properly balance the new Elite Specifications in sPvP. The reality is it’s taken them almost three years and while balance of the core classes started to stabilize about nine months after release it’s taken this long to get things where they are today. The reality is ArenaNet has finite resources to finish the expansion and most of those resources are focused on PvE because that’s where the player base in GW2 is. For those of us paying attention, taking the time to observe matches and watching what skills are being popped on both sides, what kind of condition stacks are being put up, etc… It’s CLEAR there are game breaking problems for sPvP with these elite specs as is. What ANet should do about it is entirely up to them.
They are not required and they are not more or less powerful than the non-Elite specializations. They are just a new option. When activated, each Elite Spec has a new play mechanic. You switch to the Elite Spec when you select the Elite Specialization, keep in mind you can have three Specializations active at once. So your other two Specializations are still for your original class. If your character is a Ranger and you unlock the Elite Specialization Druid but you do not go to traits and select the Elite Specialization, your Ranger will still behave like a Ranger and NOT have access the Druid’s unique utility skills, weapon (Staff) and play mechanic (Celestial Avatar toggle). But once you change out one of your Specializations to the Elite Spec your character’s class changes to the Elite Spec and you can then equipt the elite classes unique weapon, skills, etc.. and the elite’s play mechanic becomes available. But if you want to go back to your favorite Ranger build you just slot one of your old Ranger Specializations in place of the Druid Elite. You can always go back and forth without cost.
It’s been said to unlock the elite specialization you’ll need 170 hero points, then another huge stack of hero points to unlock the unique skins associated with the elite spec. You can prepare by doing Hero Challenges or saving Hero Points on new characters you level up with Tomes of Knowledge
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
Dear Mike O’Brien, Colin Johanson, et al.
It’s well known that an overwhelming majority of those who play GW2 engage in the PvE side of the game. I’ve read that in this game the dedicated sPvP crowd constitutes less than 5% of the total game population. As the release of HoT approaches, no doubt everyone at ArenaNet is working crazy hours to get to the Oct 23 release date. My question is: How much of that proverbial death march to the release can ArenaNet afford to spend on properly balancing the Elite Specs and Revenant for sPvP?
I’m not questioning the capability of ArenaNet to eventually give sPvP the attention it needs, but I do wonder in the grand scheme of HoT release and all the existing fires that need to be dealt with in PvE if the resources are on hand to really take care of sPvP. There are some serious balance problems with the Elite Specs in sPvP you can several of those mentioned in this forum, but there are many other problems that I’ve encountered that are not mentioned here. ANet have you had sPvP developers and designers observing Hot Joint and Ranked/Unraked matches? ANet do you even have enough time in the next few weeks to address these balance problems with all the other things PvE getting propriety?
It’s understandable PvE gets priory, that’s where the majority of your customers are, but please also consider how unfair and how very bad for the sPvP side of the game it will be allowing Elite Specs you have strong evidence are grossly over powered into Ranked sPvP matches.
GW2 sPvP has grown because after years of hard work in balancing classes it’s become more of a game a skill. Your design in allowing even level 1 characters to have access to all skills and equipment is great, but its’ taken since 2012 for the balancing to take effect, great meta builds to rise and be maintained by the community. Today in Oct 2015 pre-HoT launch a new player to this game can roll a new character, find a strong meta pvp build, train on that build and then join a PUG and most of the time even in a PUG their skill will be the biggest factor for the win. That’s a combination of skill balance and availability of strong proven builds.
With HoT if all Elite Specs were better balanced then I’d say release them to sPvP for Hot Join, Unranked and Ranked but they just aren’t. Some need a lot of work, some need now work at all, but YOU KNOW THIS. You guys have the data. So how do you protect the integrity of sPvP now? If you aren’t able to give proper time to balancing known issues with these Elite Specs in sPvP then the responsible thing to do is to keep them out of Ranked matches temporary until you developers and designers have some time to address the problems. If you choose not to do this then you are creating a scenario where in Ranked sPvP matches over powered exploits grant the win and not skill.
Given how active sPvP has become in GW2 it probably won’t take long for the major over power issues to come to light. My suggestion is just to keep the Elite Specs and Revenant out of Ranked until you have a little time to give more balancing to these. Otherwise you may see a mass exit from one of the best sides of the game.
So the question is: Given all the work that must be done for the PvE side of HoT before release, do you have the resources to address the sPvP balance issues? And if not will you take some action to protect the integrity of Ranked sPvP until you do have some time to devote resources to the needed blance?
Thanks
You’re not really familiar with what Betas are for I guess.
Here’s the deal, it is a beta. But it’s the FINAL beta meaning what we’re getting is pretty close to release. No they aren’t balanced. If these elite specs are allowed into Ranked matches then goodbye GW2 sPvP. Not forever, but for a few months until they sort out what is OP and what needs buffed, etc… Allowing these Elite specs into Ranked sPvP on launch day is WORST THING ArenaNet could do to the game. They would be taking three years of work balancing and throwing that away. Destroying the fun. PUG groups suck, but they suck a lot less today than they did at launch or even in 2014. It’s taken years to get us to this point….
sPvP this beta weekend has been complete garbage. There’s nothing wrong with a reset on Meta, the game could use that. But if you reset meta builds and introduce several new classes that are not well balanced (some under some OP in PvP) then you remove a players ability to win on skill. No one interested in e-sports (casual or pro) will have any interest in wasting their time when another player can get such a large advantage over them due to horrible balance.
Look at how effective the mild nerf to D/D ele has been. D/D ele was moaned about for months, but it really wasn’t THAT OP, some of the new professions and certain combos are insanely imbalanced. It won’t be tolerated by seasoned players, they will rage quit and go elsewhere. Some may eventually come back, many will find new games. This could all be avoided if they keep this new Elite specs and Rev out of Ranked games for several months following launch… Perhaps the entire PvP season
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
Elite specs won’t destroy PvP as long as classes don’t significantly out perform others.
Elite specs WILL destroy PvP when players are split between HoT vs. non-HoT
Right now Reaper, Scrapper and Chronomancer are just more powerful elite specs for their classes. If you are a main engineer, necromancer and mesmer, you are going to be behind unless you buy the expansion.
Base necromancer builds stop Reapers just fine. Did it for 3 hours yesterday. Reapers are still good, they’re just different not better.
Base engineer can kite and bait the Scrapper’s key skills then burst them down quickly. Same thing, different and fun to play and I love it, but it’s not strictly better once you sit down and suss it out.
Can’t comment on the mesmer situation, not qualified.
A player who is more skilled with Necromancer can, given both players are about equal skill the Reaper is more powerful…. Chronomancer is a big problem…. The bottom line is these new classes are not balanced. Historically when has an MMO seen this much change (essentially we are getting new classes for all existing base classes plus an entirely new class). This classes are not balanced. They are balanced well enough for PvE play, but not for PvP. No doubt there will be balancing for these elite specializations and the revenant and the most drastic balancing usually takes place in the first few months after release. Why should the Meta sPvP in GW2 suffer from that? Why destroy Ranked play with unbalanced classes? If you don’t take the game serious then obviously you’re looking at this from a very different perspective.
No the players will not be locked out just the players Elite Speced characters. It’s very clear several (if not all) of the Elite specs are over powered in PvP.
It’s very clear several non Elite spec builds are over powered in PvP. Can we lock those out too?
Just pointing out the flaw in your thinking here.
Look at the current state of sPvP in GW2. It’s in a pretty good place. D/D Ele’s were really the last OP build and the mild nerf has balanced it. Just about every class has a solid sPvP meta which has made Pug matches fun a good part of the time.
With the Elite Specs they are introducing classes that have builds substantially over powered. How much time have you spent observing hot join and studying the elite spec builds and their damage out, sustainability, etc… I’ve spent several hours doing this. I’m not going to get into the details because I’m not going to aid them but I’m right about the unbalance and I’m right about the damage it will do to the game. Not every Elite spec is over powered but there are a few that are. It makes sense that after launch there should be a cool down period where ArenaNet can observe where the balance needs to be placed on these new Elite Specs before they are allowed in Ranked matches. If they do not take that step, then they will make Ranked play a mockery.
If they are going to take that step in Ranked then the logical thing to do would be to make it optional for those queuing for Unranked to opt out of competing against them until they are authorized for Rank play. This would keep balance and hold the integrity of sPvP in GW2. It’s taken a very long time to get us to where we are now where a player can roll almost any class and find a great meta build, spend some time training on that build and then be an effective team member in a Pug. More advanced players in pre-mades can roll custom builds. Mark my words the Elite Specs as they are in BWE#3 will DESTROY sPvP in this game. No one wants to play a game with cheaters. No one wants to play a game where cheats can exploit something unbalanced and win. No one will take it seriously and it will become a bunch of children running around laughing and getting their jollies as they utilize whatever new exploits are discovered on the elite specs to destroy the game. I say let them do that, they are going to anyway and they need to be able to in order to discover these balance problems, BUT restrict them to only being able to do that in Hot Join, private server matches and Unranked where players have opted to allow them in their matches. What I’m suggesting would solve the problem.
Do you really want things to go back to how bad they were at the core games launch? What I am suggesting would absolutely save that from happening because it would protect the integrity of the current meta while ANet watches what Unranked games where Elite Specs are played and spends some time balancing. Essentially this extends a beta to sPvP Elite Specs post launch.
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
No these are terrible ideas. Lock people out? That’s ridiculous. Just because you don’t know how to counter people doesn’t mean others don’t. That’s part of the skill of the game.
No the players will not be locked out just the players Elite Speced characters. It’s very clear several (if not all) of the Elite specs are over powered in PvP. The over powered aspect of an Elite spec is really no different than a bug in the game. So allowing players to bring these professions into ranked matches is essentially allowing players to exploit a bug (cheat) and win matches. The only people in favor of not doing what I’m suggesting are those who don’t really care about the competitive side of the game, they just want to utilize the exploit of the OP elite for a little fun and then leave.
For competitive ranked play, it’s critical to have balance or it’s a complete waste of time. If the only balance is Reapers and Chronomasters dominating everything because they are OP then you’ll see only those professions in ranked PvP. I’ve played though the OP balancing so far You could say “well this happen with D/D Eles for the longest”, THIS IS NOT THE SAME THING. I skilled player could take down a D/D Ele it was OP but mildy, what we’re seeing now is a level of OP in some of these Elite specs that will make so in win when the exploit is used you will HAVE TO BE on the same class to have any chance at all. Even when you are it’s going to still be all about who can pop interrupt/condition stack first.
For unranked player it makes sense to allow Elite specs but to give players the option not to be forced into teams with them while they are temporarly banned from Rank play as the first skill balance is applied. I would suggest a 2-3 month window after launch before starting the new PvP season to allow for this first balance to occur.
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
ArenaNet please read. This is not just a rant, I have ideas to help:
It has taken sPvP in GW2 a long time to stabilize By “stabilize” I mean being able to depend on the matchmaking to do a half way decent job at putting us in teams with players of similar skill running proven builds. Similar skill + proven build for all players put’s both teams on a even playing field. This is required for small team, tactical PvP. When the balance is greatly upset the games become pointless and people walk away. Many forever. That’s not their poor attitude, that’s the reality that they are wasting their time because matches are no longer about skill.
So what’s the problem?
If what we’re seeing in PvP in BWE#3 is any indicator of what we’ll get at launch, the problem is the Elite Specs. There are two dangers with elite specs that could destroy sPvP in GW2.
1.) You have people testing out new builds. So the players we are getting grouped with in pug matches may be testing out new builds. Of course this is a problem because the player testing the new build is not proficient with what they are testing and they have chosen to make their test happen at a unranked pug teams expensive. This dynamic completely negatives the benefit of the new matchmaking routine. The last news from ANet regarding how many times a player has played on a specific class being used in matchmaking process was that it’s not used anymore at all. Even if it is on, it’s critical that the “times played on class” protion of matchmaking considers the Elite Specs separate from the base class they came from.
2) Some classes are OP to the point that there is no fun to be had. While I’m not sure what new classes are doing this, in every game I played today I had Chronomancers stacking interrupts as necro/reaper stacked conditions. This was not a zerg group, just two on two scenario in Conquest. I tag target, teleport in and IMMEDIATElY find myself immobilized, interrupted so I can pop no skills as the stack of conditions hills me within 5 seconds (as I’m still being interrupted of course).
Ok, so the condition stacking + interrupt mechanic works. The problem with this is it doesn’t appear very difficult to make this happen in a pug team however the counter for it would require coordinated effort beyond pug. Think about the consequences of that. You’re going to turned unranked into being all about who can pop interrupts and stack conditions first and that’s going to be what every game is about. You’ll have 2-3 classes in PvP and that’s it. That will happen because those of us willing to pick up a pug want to win enough we’ll swap off to whatever is going to make the game fair. Well players shouldn’t have to sacrifice all but two or three classes in order to stand a chance of winning a PvP game in a PUG.
Some suggestions:
1. Not only revamp pre-made / pug matchmaking, but also make it incorporate how many times a player has played on a class. Treat elite specs as new classes for matchmaking purposes.
2. Lock Elite specs out of all Ranked matches for several weeks after HoT’s release. This games some time for balancing which statistically will happen, it keeps ranked games clean and competitive
3. Provide checkbox option for players when queuing for Unranked PvP to have “don’t match with elite specializations” checkbox. that prevents us from having to deal with these scenarios. Within a few months after the Elite Specs have had some time to settle and meta builds for them have risen up you can remove the “don’t match with elite specs” option.
1.) Never queue pre-mades with solos
2.) If players are queuing solo use current (new) algorithm already deployed
3.) If players are in a pre-made or partial pre-made party, then.
a.) assign them a score/rank based on how many matches this group has one together and lost together.
3. find a pre-made in queue or partial pre-made, if it’s partial pre-made bring in a player from the solo queue whos’ win/loss record helps to balance things with the opposing team.
There is all kinds of information on gear, and characters, and elite specializations here, but, I have not seen anything on what this HOT release is going to ask of our computers.
Like many of you, I have a frequently updated hand built gaming computer. And, I am already foreseeing some issues that I may have. The release may, in fact, upend a lot of player’s computers unexpectedly.
For starters, GW2 is currently 21.7GB. Yes, it is.
No upgrade on graphic card spec, but it the full HoT game is going to add an extra 13-GB or so (GW2 core game = 22-GB, GW2 core game and HoT together = 35-GB)
masteries points seem to have been removed/disabled in BWE#3. i ran into a few in BWE#2. some which required gliding
i cant remember what those mastery points done. the mastery UI was very confusing for me in BWE#2. kept saying i had all these points but didnt know how to use them
That’s a good point. I just think enough points should be earned on the first story mission to unlock gliding tier 1 at the point you enter the map.
ArenaNet: I Just want to say I really don’t like Masteries. They provide core play mechanics to the maps we encounter right away making the first thing a player does when they come into HoT is to grind for masterys. In principle this goes against the philosophy behind GW2. Perhaps at the map entry point where players come in in the release version they will not feel like grind, but where we are coming into the first map in BWE#3 the need for gliding tier #1 gliding is a requirement right away to enjoy the map because the map was designed for gliding.
You’re free to disagree, the bottom line is as a long time player of this I’m not having fun. As a game developer I would want to know this. Having studied game design I am very forgiving when it comes to design, play mechanic balancing. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Masteries garbage, it works but it brings Gw2 a lot closer to traditional MMOs. It adds grind, removes fun and again just goes against what the original team behind GW2 had opened it would be and that’s very sad.
Based on what’s been seen and played so far I believe wholeheartedly GW2 HoT will be at least as bugged at launch as the core game was in 2012 if not more. I guess that means NCSoft is cracking the whip and forcing your team to ship the game before it’s really ready. I do hope this assessment is incorrect.
(edited by SamTheGuardian.2938)
Ever other elite spec’s traits are good for both solo/teamplay while Druid is stuck with stuff like “Live Vicariously” and “Natural Mender” which basically means these are useless in any kind of play where you’re not around other people .
These should be changed to include Pets when you say Allies .
The Celestial Form spells (I know 5 has dmg) should have some form of dmg effect or hit effect no matter how small .
You’re basically making an Elite Spec have to either choose to play in a group or sacrifice 30 – 40% of it’s kit while every other spec has a choose to have fun and do whatever in both environments .
Rangers have been shafted since the start, making their only new spec in a new xpec only half usable in any kind of solo play is just BS .
When you create a new Ranger in BWE#3 you get a Druid with Greatsword & Longbow. Although not spec for dedicated healer, it is great at solo play and can enter Celestial form and begin dropping big heals. I see the example Druid build ANet has given us as a great example of how much fun the class can be.
As a dedicated Healer with Staff/Staff I will say it gets the job done but it’s best with served with a party that is speced for a dedicated healer The problem is Druid as dedicated healer, while effective is not much fun. The other problem is up to this point most parties do not spec with a dedicated healer. Although it has been possible to do so with a Guardian or Ele, most have not. No one wants a dedicated healer taking up a party slot in a dungeon run. I found a few teams willing to let me run exploreable dungeons with them and they loved the full health bars but missed the DPS. At the end of the runs most said they would rather have a DPS spec fill the slot.
TL;DR I think the default Druid build ANet gives you on BWE#3 Ranger is a good example of how to find the fun in this class. It’s a support build dealing a balance of damage and support.
Here’s what I’ve found works best to try and serve as dedicated healer is. I’ve run a few dungeons explorablewith high DPS. Even the glass canons stayed pretty healthy.
What are you guys using?
Druid dedicated healer for dungeons spec____
Staff | Longbow
Superior rune of the Monk (set), Energy and Leeching sigils on each (Cleric Amulet in PvP, Sigil of Renewal sub for Leeching in PvP)
Heal: Glyph of Rejuv
Utility: Signet of Stone, Glyph of Empowerment, Glyph of Alignment
Elite: Glyph of Utility
Traits:
Marksmanship: Predators Instict, Steady Focus Lead the wind
Skirmishing: Primal Reflexes, Striders Defense, Quick Draw
Druid: Cultivated Synergy, Celestial Shadow, Cosmic Wisp
ArenaNet, while I think the first map is a bit too easy, please do not increase the difficulty much. BWE#1 difficulty level may have been good for such an active time, but it was too difficult to be practical in release. Think about those players who work odd hours who will find themselves without much help at 3 AM. It’s almost where it needs to be in BWE#3 just a little more difficult. Also, please consider the value of keeping the first map less difficult, if all the maps in HoT are the same difficulty level then there is no real progression, the first map a player encounters should be about where things are now in BWE#3 because players will need to learn the dynamics of masteries: gliding, mushrooms, etc… Again, I think it’s about where it needs to be and you’re hearing a lot of complaining from players who aren’t considering these things; players who spent 6-12 hours (some more) in BWE#1 who don’t remember what it was like coming in for the first time and who aren’t considering the sustainability. They are only thinking of their experience and not considering what’s best for the game long term..
I disagree. To be fair to ArenaNet, they are probably accounting for these zones being empty which happens sometimes. Players with odd schedules who can only play at 3 AM shouldn’t be punished. During BWE1 they were a bit too difficult, they do need to be bumped up a bit, but not too much. Difficulty should be comparable to Cursed Shore. The following maps should be more difficult than the first, if the first map we encounter in HoT is as difficult as all that follow it destroys the progression experience. Not good. Also the first map is a place to learn gliding, mushrooms, etc… It is to an extent a training area.
Hey all.
Now that the Beta Weekend Event is live and you’re able to check out the Druid please post constructive feedback here.
So I ran a Druid spec for max healing power. Took it into two explorable dungeons with pug groups and it was effective but rather boring to play. Also tried this in PvP and it worked only when running in zerg. Most effective in Courtyard and when running with a zerg on Conquest maps, but still boring compared to healing with an Ele, Herold or Guardian. It seems clear this class wasn’t hashed out as well as the others and ANet just needed a dedicated healer spec option for Raid content.
However I really did enjoy playing the Druid spec we start with (Longbow and greatsword with Druid traits). There is a lot of fun in that spec and it felt balanced.
If Druid is really you plan for dedicated healer I don’t think that will go over well. It seems very counter the play habits. Everyone at this point has had to defend themselves and now they are turned off to the idea of depending on a support class.
It’s imparitive that the matchmaking algorithm distinguish a Ranger from a Druid, a Guardian from a Dragon Hunter, etc… Why? Here’s what’s happening… You have a team of 5 with ranks: 70,72,80,80,80 and another team 65,80,80,73. One of the players red team is running a Druid for the first time, if match making treats them as a Ranger they will be taking a new build and new play mechanic with no existing meta up against well practiced proven builds a. Team will get a lucky win or slaughtered If it’s the later an assessment may be made hat the Elite Spec isn’t as good and then it will be left to private gvg matches for meta to be formed by a handful of people.
All day there has been crying in the Heart of the Mist about Elite Specs not being able to hold up…. Was at it for several hours and kept hearing the same thing. At some point people even dropping from team because beta characters were on. I couldn’t stop thinking “we’re not even in pvp season, leaderboards are closed and these are unranked matches”. The pvp community should be embracing new builds excited to experiment, but instead request to players to team up for build experiments are all ignored. After matches where we win people screaming about how unbalanced the elite specs are, where we lost people screaming because the elite specs suck. I’ve come to the sad conclusion it’s the pvp community in this game that needs a lot of work. In PvE dungeons I found several groups very open to letting me run with them some even asking about coordinating and wanting to understand the play mechanics of my Druid. The PvE community in GW2 is very, very good. The PvP community I’m sad to say is still very elitist. No one is there to have fun, they are in it just for the win and they don’t care if it’s unranked, ranked or even hot join. They PvP community in this game seems to dispise any form of causal approach to PvP to the point they can’t even lighten up enough to enjoy testing new builds with others. They would rather do it all solo. It’s shameful.
Does the OP refer to the copy of Silverwastes, or the first story instance within Verdant Brink?
Cuz the copy of the Silverwastes is a tutorial instance – in so much as it functions the same as the tutorials do (shared instance), but probably only exists to keep the beta separate from the main game (so what we see there would likely be in standard Silverwastes in the future).
If the OP refers to the opening instance to Verdant Brink, then after Rytlock shows up there should be a button to leave (as well as a spot you can stand at to make a pop up show up that will also allow you to leave).
To clarify. There is a tutorial area which last 10-15 minutes which severs no purpose whatsoever except to waste our time. In fact it’s insulting. Think about it, every player doing that content is level 80. it does not need to exist now and it certainly does not need to exist in the release game. Complete time waster.
The next part is HoT Story chapter 1 (where Rhitlock appears near the end) that content is 20-30 minutes. If you could skip all the voice acted dialog it could be made bearable. I have much less of a problem requiring the story chapter to enter HoT, it servers a purpose. The tutorial servers no purpose whatsoever. It is complete waste of time except for complete newcomers. Newcomers would do better to play one of the core game tutorials as they have the guided on screen queues.
Again, I’d like someone from ArenaNet to explain their thought process behind forcing level 80 players though a tutorial. If the tutorial incorporated mysteries (gliding) I would understand. It does not. It’s completely useless. Wasted development effort and as said an insult to players; a complete time steal. Zero value gameplay.
after the 3 minute long survival timer you need to kill the boss and talk to rytlock. i’ve never had it bug on me after over 20 times doing it. and if you leave during it you can go to the silverwastes to reenter.
It was the tutorial bugging and not finishing the event chain, not the story chapter 1 mission. Combined the tutorial + story mission 1 take about 30-60 minutes. It’s absolutely ridiculous that they are requiring this in a beta…. In the HoT release version these should not be required to unlock the map. The tutorial is a complete waste of time. Again, I dare anyone to explain what a level 80 character benefits from going though this? I’m just asking for a logical argument against mine. Because I see zero. It’s a complete waste of players time…. The story mission (where the character starts talking) needs tweaks as well. We should be able to skip all the dialog. You went though this 20 times? Kitten kitten kitten….. Guess you love doing the same thing over and over and over.
Get one developer to justify the tutorial! If you don’t have a good argument for why you’re stealing this 10-15 minutes of play time then you do realize the design is kitten, right? I guess if that’s what you want to put out there….
You know the little icon that appear in the lower right allowing a player who’s completed a instance to leave the instance? If this tutorial is intended for HoT release (again, what is the point? A level 80 already knows how to play and a lower level is going to start outside HoT). You should have the “exit instance” option available from the start. You should never force players who already know how to play the game to waste their time in a tutorial it shows no respect to your customers. Do you value our time at all? Are you listening ArenaNet? Please give me a reasonable counter argument I can be objective. You don’t have one.
When entering HoT with beta character the player is taken to a “tutorial instance”. This appears to be a solo instance. The instance I was in seemed bugged as it never ended (how long the kitten thing anyway?). It seems this instance is required to gain access to HoT maps? I made the mistake of mapping out of the instance only to find I had no way to re-enter it and had to destroy the character and rebuild it.
Assuming the tutorial instance I was in wasn’t bugged it’s problematic because the goals are not clear. I cleared the event chain and nothing happened. The bigger question is why is there a tutorial level?!?!? If we had access to gliding, etc.. it would make some sense, but we don’t have any of the new play mechanics unlocked yet. I would like to know what purpose ArenaNet thinks the tutorial serves other than to waste our time? Unforgivably bad design. If I can hear a strong argument for what purpose it serves I’ll retract that comment, but I can’t see any. It also appears we have to repeat this with each new character we create. This is rage inducing.
If a player enters the HoT starting area/instanceand maps over to anywhere in the open world (e.g. Divinity Reach) then tries to map back they will loose the ability to play the instanced content and apparently loose the ability to enter HoT altogether. This is completely unacceptable. How kitten difficult would it have been for you to put up a dialog stopping the player from leaving instance? I ended up using transmutation stones and 30+ minutes creating a character only to have it locked out of HoT. Unbelievably sloppy design ArenaNet. Yes, I realize the non-beta implementation will probably allow the instance to be toggled. Story panel is removed from HoT beta so this is not possible. I would like my transmutation stones back for other beta characters. Incredibly sloppy, incredibly disappointing design. How difficult would this have been to foresee? How little effort to inform a player they are leaving an instance on map travel? What a disgrace.
Depends on how you like to play. Roll both and try out a few popular builds in sPvP.
Make it 2v2 or 3v3 and have it all respawn at the same time otherwise this map is just a random zergefst not even enjoyable.
Even better, make it 100 points or something, I know you can do it with custom arena, but you have to pay for it and any attempt for that kind of arena is empty duh, pretty useless.
Yes
add a 30s delay, problem solved.
In this case, why not just record the matches and analyse them with your friend afterwards…
This is really what most of us are asking for. Doing video capture strains the hardware and only gives you one perspective per player. ArenaNet should allow the matches to be observed after the match ends enabling the observe to select any player on either team and watch the match from their perspective. We had this in Guild Wars 1 for GvG matches and everyone who took the game seriously observed matches with their team and analyzed for improvements (in many aspects GW1 was more ready to go full e-sport than GW2 continues to be because of the absence of features like this).
As it stands now, Teams that can afford to invest in the equipment to have each player stream can do private sessions from each players perspective. This is a lot of work and has created a scenario where players with better hardware using outside tools have a huge advantage over players not doing this.
please do not release stronghold the way it currently is when the expansion releases.
The game mode has flaws and is in my personal opinion not as good as it could be, so to prevent frustration and people giving up on the game mode right away i ask arenanet to not rush things with the new game mode.
take your time to polish everything, host a couple more stronghold betas after the expansion shipped and work closely together with the players and their feedback. the worst thing would be that the company invests a lot of time into this and in the end it ends up as courtyard v2.
currently certain things are just not very optimized. archers are weak, guards die too fast, defending is usually not the way to go and transform capping of mist essence can be a pain for whoever has to compete with it. many games also end on timer and turn into a “massacre as many npcs for points” fest.
some players will maybe be angry or not understand why i make this thread but i rather have them take their time and release something that can become a competitive game mode that is worth building upon and the players enjoy.
Three thoughts.
1.) I don’t like Stronghold either.
2.) The new Elite Specializations will most certainly shake up PvP. Expect meta to be reset
3.) Even if they do release Stronghold (which they will) it will still be grouped with the unranked/banned from ESL tournament play and ranked maps like Skyhammer and Courtyard currently are. The most important thing is for ArenaNet to leave that little checkbox allowing us to decide if we want Stronghold in the map rotation. They should also add checkboxes for Deathmatch and “All Conquest Maps” then “All Ranked Conquest Maps”.
.
The observe option available for custom arenas and hot join is not enough. Without a post match observe option it is near impossible to review how a structured team performed and where each play could improve… Without this feature some structured teams are requiring all players private steam, this gives them an unfair advantage as they become the only teams able to do a proper review and this requires teams that won’t to take it to that level to have to invest in and depend on third party tools in order to have the same opportunity. It’s wrong and it could be solved if you would build a post match observe mode into the game.
First: I can’t immediately find team comps, but we all know the drill. Out of the past 2 years worth of WTS, we’re looking at an average of 0% of the players running ranger, and, let’s guess 20% each running warrior, guard, engi, thief or ele. That’s quite clearly off a bit, but it is close enough.
Next: Let’s assume you’re now a professional PvPer putting together a team to take down the Abjured or any other very high level team. Don’t focus on a specific profession counter, this is a general team. This is not about PUG stomping, because “my team uses a ranger and we do just fine.”
Finally: Let’s ignore the WHaO change. Not only is it getting nerfed, it also would not have put a ranger in any of the next WTS teams. (“Rangers now have access to self buffs, let’s get one on our team.”) The LB and signet buffs did not accomplish the goal. One ranger tried back in march, but the team declared the ranger experiment a failure and disbanded.
What is your personal fix? Does the community throw a temper tantrum if your plans succeeds in getting a ranger on to a top team?
Really do feel you pain, but like so many post to this section of the forms people seem in denial about the giant meta reset coming with HoT.
Just wanted to say it works! Even on the older 2012 Mac Book Pro models with Intel i5. Performance even seems boosted a bit from Yosemite
I’m hearing arguments for not showing badges during a match, but what about just standing around in the lobby?
I see no issue with them being displayed in the lobby; I mean that’s one of the whole points of a badge no? It’s some thing to be displayed. When it comes to a match, you could take a CSGO approach about it; ranks are only shown at the end of a match.
In any competitive sport both teams know the odds going into the game. You know where you rank and where the other team ranks. Doesn’t matter if it’s American Football or Chess, that’s the norm. A team should not have to wait until the end of the match to know why the lost the match or to realize what a great feet they just pulled off. Why the kitten can’t we at least try to model PvP in GW2 after real world sports and proven paradigms. It makes no sense.