Guild Wars 2

I think it would be good if sentries were in some way connected to the gliding territory system.

Perhaps if you flip a sentry it creates a gliding “dead zone” for your opponents.

Alternately, if you flip a sentry in an enemy territory maybe it could create an “updraft” for you that could override the anti-glide daze for a short time. For a brief window, perhaps, you could glide in enemy territory.

I didn’t buy HoT because I didn’t trust Anet.

After the Manifesto was ditched for Ascended gear two months into the game, and early incomprehensible changes to WvW (like the arrow cart buff and gating guild catapults behind PvE content), I just did not believe Anet would do the right thing by their game.

This was completely borne out by HoT: incomprehensible maps added to WvW made by people who don’t understand the game mode, and the removal and regating of upgrades like WvW supply from small guilds. This sort of “screw you” change was exactly what I expected them to do, and they did it.

In the two years after HoT, it seemed to me that Anet was suitably chastened and would, if not stop, then at least think twice about “screw you” changes. A lot of the changes to WvW reward tracks, for example, seem to be evidence that there is actual consideration of what players want. The 180 too on the desert map is further evidence.

There’s still a risk the old Anet will come back. But at $50 for both PoF and HoT, that is a manageable one for what is still a very fun game (at least in PvE), all things considered.

Ah yes, same old Anet.

Came back after 4 years because of PoF hype to play my Guardian.

It’s good to see nothing has changed.

Former WvW player here, who hasn’t played the game in ages, but is coming back for PoF.

Here’s my question, speculation, imagining, vision, whatever you want to call it.

With mounts in the game, does that make big DAoC-size WvW maps a possibility down the line?

Yes, yes there is.

It was called the New Game Enhancement.

Offair.2563:

Thrumdi.9216:

Talk about entitlement. A thread like this is everything that is wrong with gaming.

People don’t even make their own PCs anymore, and play on laptops.

If you people have your way, we’ll soon be playing WvW on tablets, and swiping to cap.

Need a new sarcasm/satire meter perhaps?

I think the batteries on yours might be dead. Get some new ones!

Talk about entitlement. A thread like this is everything that is wrong with gaming.

People don’t even make their own PCs anymore, and play on laptops.

If you people have your way, we’ll soon be playing WvW on tablets, and swiping to cap.

Archlord 2 is also in open beta.

Just saying…

Xillllix.3485:

Once I went to spectate a GvG match between 2 very popular guilds… Obsidian Sanctum was full and people had to queue to get in.

I think that illustrates the failed potential right there, when a massive amount of player is trying to participate or watch a game mode that is MISSING from the game. It is my opinion that Anet dropped the ball on GvG and made a huge mistake underestimating it’s importance and the expectations of Guild Wars players.

The GvG thing is interesting because Anet went out of their way to reduce individual competition in WvW. They made a point of emphasizing no enemy names were visible, and there would be no leaderboards. They did, however, make guild names visible.

What happened? Competition in WvW flourished at the guild level (instead of the individual). Because these were the only enemies you could identify.

It was inevitable then that Anet was unable to deal with it, because the entire design approach of WvW was predicated on reducing competition and making it “casual” PvP. They were just intellectually unable to integrate GvGs.

This blind spot is the explanation for the Ruins of Power design in the Borderlands. With no framework for actual player vs player competition in WvW, they imported the competitive PvP model wholesale from sPvP. The result there speaks for itself.

Wasted Potential? You betcha. It’s almost inconceivable now the feverish anticipation there was for WvW at launch and before. I doubt we’ll ever see anything like that again in the MMORPG space.

Riox.6129:

i have a quick question, does the bow actually heal? It says it rains down healing arrows, but i have yet to catch a glimpse of healing and the tooltip doesnt mention how much it heals for or if its healing scales with healing power :O

Yep, it does heal, in AoE around it with a rain animation. According to the wiki, it does not scale with healing power.

The WvW Devs should also buy into Camelot Unchained at the cheapest tier ($35), and read their forums. It is very instructive.

The designers of Camelot Unchained are going out of their way to implement community-based competition.

For example, the next stretch goal on their funding is something called “The Bounty”. What this is is an automatically generated quest, by the King of the realm, that puts a bounty on the head of one of the best players on the other team. Then the other realms have to hunt him down and try to kill him.

Can you imagine the amount of excitement that will raise on all sides?

Would something like this ever come to GW2? Doubtful, since the design philosophy does have the tinge of communism (can’t be too much competition, and no one is allowed to stand out). But if they honestly want to reengage their WvW population, that is where they should look.

The shield is actually a nice compliment for the scepter. You are at range so shield #4 can be an nice buff for your allies in front of you, and #5 is good for the knock back and projectile reflect if mobs get too close.

That’s for PvE, and primarily on the landscape. Elsewhere, like the scepter, the shield is pretty situational.

By far the best would be some kind of anti-siege trap.

It could be fairly simple, essentially Retaliation vs. siege equipment.

This is just an idea to make PPT matter to the individual player.

Each week the number of points a single player contributes to the match’s score should be recorded for them to look at.

Just one overall number would be misleading (as it can mask karma-training), so it would be best if it would be broken down into categories: points for killing yaks, spiking players with bloodlust, capturing camps, towers, keeps etc. Then, at the end of the week, a player could see how well they had done.

Making this a public leaderboard would be great too, with the proviso again of course, that it is broken down by category, so as not to over reward zerging.

And, adding guilds to the mix, and recording guild point contributions in this way, would be a great way to renew interest in WvW. Competition between guilds in a PPT leaderboard would be an incredible motivator.

Now they just have to do the same thing for Ascended gear.

Guys, you already accepted the Ascended bait and switch. Why did you think they’d stop there?

sminkiottone.6972:

Everything in WvW in account bound exept for Ranks.

You can give liquid wxp to other char and you can buy them with laures, there is no logic in keeping Ranks char bound.

One interesting thing : you know the bonus chests ? Even character that never set foot in WvW get them !

I’m puzzled

The problem is Anet views WXP as a form of individual character progression.

To my knowledge, no one who actually plays WvW views it this way. It is almost universally understood as perks for siege.

The system should be changed to reflect this reality.

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

SLOTH.5231:

There should be cooldowns. If you are feared, immobilized, stunned, knock backed, float etc.. You should have some kind of immunity from it again for at least 5 seconds to prevent this.

I wouldn’t say immunity, but most MMO’s have diminishing returns on CC. Not this one.

Yep, even LOTRO PvMP has CC diminishing returns. And LOTRO is the definition of a PvE game where the devs flat out tell you PvP is something extra they do in their spare time.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Chopps.5047:

Trinity sucks dude. You’ll find no sympathy here.

This here is my opinion too.

While I’m playing FF14: A Realm Reborn on the side and getting the Trinity there, it’s only reminding me why the hell I hate it. Tank screws up? The party wipes. The healer screws up? Party wipes. If DPS doesn’t kill things fast enough? The party wipes. If any ONE person screws up or doesn’t have the equipment or has min/max’d like they’re supposed to, it’s all over for the party. This is one problem I have with the system.

Second problem is the queue times for dungeons…30+ minutes to get into any single dungeon or instance with a party. While it’s instant for tanks and takes a few for healers, it’s still bad because it takes a while for the DPS, which 70%+ players play. That’s a huge inconvenience. Whereas here I can get a PUG dungeon party in less than 5 minutes and just go straight through the dungeon.

Yep, exactly the point.

Trinity is for hardcore grouping. Non-trinity is for the casual, soloing gamer (where everyone is DPS).

Both models are fine. But GW2 is getting the reputation of how to do non-Trinity wrong. When EQN was announced as non-Trinity the devs had to reassure people it would not be like GW2.

Still, I think for any sort of depth in gameplay something like the Trinity is needed. I’m skeptical it can be done though in a game where everyone is DPS.

Actually, there was interview with Johansen where he said their “core player” was the guy who only had an hour to play each day.

Time-gated dailies for end-game gear were created with him in mind, so he could log in and still feel he was progressing.

Also, my personal feeling is too that the design of GW2 is veering close to Facebook type games. Checklists, achievements, daily time-gated content.

GW2 really is becoming a type of Farmville.

Making people craft is just unacceptable in a modern MMO.

At least make Ascended backpieces (and weapons…and armor) sellable on the TP.

DevonCarver.5370:

The rewards included in season 1 achievements should help to address this. Very specifically the ascended crafting materials. It is also the case, that we want people playing all the parts of the game, so there are always going to be optimal ways to get specific rewards and those may not always include WvW. We are building the whole of GW2 and we try and balance things across all the game types.

We will continue to make strides, however, to make WvW feel more rewarding, especially in this type of area.

With all due respect Devon, this wasn’t the original promise for WvW.

The original promise for WvW was that you didn’t have to play any other part of the game if you didn’t want to. You could completely level up and gear up within WvW.

Ascended gear was a fundamental post-launch 180 on the game design. We know that. But that doesn’t meant you have to break the promise of not having to do PvE.

And to be clear, that is the developers stated intention, that you “want people playing all the parts of the game.” You want WvW’ers to do PvE.

What happened to “Play Your Way”?

The OP is making a valid point (though I don’t agree). In a way it is like the debate over Ascended gear.

Anet has alway viewed WvW as PvP for casuals, since way before launch. Not prioritizing buffs was a way of lessening the power of organizing groups in favour of PUGs.

However, as always, dedicated players found ways around this. (Mostly in this case by being rude to the PUGs until they left you alone).

I suppose Anet decided the Guild vs PUG conflict this created was worse than Guild-favouring design, and made the change.

They better come up with new methods soon (at least for me).

Reading the new patch notes, I felt some excitement to come back and try out some new builds in WvW. But then I remembered the huge crafting gear grind I still had to do.

At that point, you have to make a rational choice. And I decided my time would best be spent elsewhere: finishing content I still had to do in other games, while preparing for ESO.

Yep, I remember that. When Ascended gear wasn’t even a rumour.

Will I ever be able to trust anyone ever again?

CC stacking in PvP is a rookie design mistake. Almost every other MMO PvP ever made has Diminishing Returns on CC. (Or it breaks on damage).

Too much CC is one of the things that killed Warhammer Online.

But as the expression goes, those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

Stacking CC is a rookie PvP design mistake. Almost every other MMO PvP ever made has Diminishing Returns on CC.

That said, I’m not surprised it showed up in GW2, which is plagued with mistakes like this.

Anet has already shown they can add post-skill buffs/debuffs with Revealed on thieves after Stealth. They should apply something like this to everyone after CC wears off.

Possible first step in the lifting of the AoE cap?

We can only dream…

Iason Evan.3806:

It’s all about perspective. Go play LOTRO up to level cap and then level an alt to level cap. Then come back to GW2. You will think this is the most alt friendly MMO next to that game. That includes the craft leveling nerfs that have happened since last month. This game is super alt friendly. The difference between this game and most other MMOs? You DON’T need to have BiS gear at all. Exotics are great for this game, you can start playing PvP from day 1 and be totally fine since it isn’t a gear based pvp system. People telling you it isn’t alt friendly haven’t gone back to old games and are taking this game for granted. Perspective is king.

You certainly don’t need BiS for LOTRO. In fact, landscape quests in LOTRO are far-easier than anything in GW2. I suspect Turbine nerfed the mobs for the F2P crowd. (Just went back to LOTRO this month, and actually shocked how easy parts of the game are).

Also, LOTRO has been out for 6 years (since 2007). Of course, it is going to take longer to reach level cap. You think GW2 is going to that alt-friendly 6 years out? Not a snowball’s chance in you-know-where.

ilr.9675:

Ah thanks for those other examples … Which were ironically the 2 games most of my COH friends went to when they felt COH itself had lost all hope for them…

But you also bring up RvR… I’m really curious now what caused DAoC’s biggest declines there? I know back around release and the lead up to Beta we had quite a few DAoC’ers commenting frequently about WvW, but I don’t recall them ever going into what lessons the devs should have taken that RvR’s decline. …if any… (didn’t one or two of those Devs from there collaborate on WvW here?)

I didn’t play, but talking to people who did the biggest factor still cited for DAoC decline was the Trials of Atlantis expansion. (To the point where Mark Jacobs, DAoC creator, specifically made a joke of it during his Camelot Unchained kickstarter).

Trials of Atlantis was the expansion that introduced a PvE raid gear grind for BiS RvR gear.

Sound familiar? That is Ascended Weapons (and later Armor) in a nutshell.

Of course, a game called World of Warcraft was introduced in 2004 with far higher degree of polish. No doubt many left for the new shiney.

The best, and perhaps only, long-term solution is to separate WvW gear and loot.

All items necessary in WvW: armour, weapons, siege, food buffs etc. are purchasable with WvW currency (could be badges, but probably something else).

Not going to happen though, as Anet is still wedded to the idea that WvW is PvP for casuals.

Super Wilson.7408:

Sanduskel.1850:

it’s the perma stun that needs….adjusting.

Do you mean that hammer warriors have perma stun?… I have never seen anything easier to avoid that Earth shaker. And if you mean “Skill” crack I have a duel with one of those that is pretty good and I make tons of mistakes and still beat him. In this nearly 3 minute clip … he only lands ONE skill crack on me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQWtbLrUiwQ

CC in GW2 needs diminishing returns. This is a fact.

Even SWTOR PvP shipped with diminishing returns.

The fact it doesn’t exist GW2 is mindboggling.

Swamurabi.7890:

chuuuuucky.8532:

Shonie.5297:

I see both sides.
Yes it sucks the top 3 servers are so stacked that 4/5/6 will get pummeled.
But competitions and sports are like that.

Look at the NBA. Over the course of a 80 game season, does anyone think teams like Miami, Oklahoma City, San Antonio will ever finish behind teams like Toronto, Phoenix, or Milwaukee? No, but they play the season anyways.
Sure on any given night one of the weaker teams in basketball will prevail, much like in WvW the weaker side may hold a PPT advantage for an hour or two… but in the end, inevitably, the stronger side will prevail.
Getting beaten down isn’t the awesomest thing ever, but it’s certainly better than being the one doing the beating in WvW. At least when you’re losing there’s always a fight to be had. It really stinks getting home from work and ticking for 600+ all week like last week when we faced Yak’s Bend and NSP. It’s not like winning is a glorious feat. Anyone can transfer to tier 1 if they want. Go out for the fights and the chance to learn and see new things. Whichever 2 of FA/SoS/Mag/SBI make gold league, it’s a good chance to farm bags for 7 weeks!

Pls no sport comparisons. What you describe is the result of skill and talent. What we have is the result of big wvw servers with 24/7 coverage vs. small server with let’s assume 6h coverage.
We have the same problem in T1 EU.
I would like to face high tier servers if the skill lag wasn’t so bad. It takes the fun out of beeing the underdog when all the skill is worth nothing because 80 man roflstomp you in a giant lag fest.

WvW Gold league skill is in the recruiting, not in the playing.

W.A.I.

In the big discussion on off-peak capping post launch week, the Anet WvW dev (maybe Mike O’Brien?) told us flat out to recruit off-peak guilds if we wanted to compete.

WvW is hardcore, except when it’s not.

This quote is amusing:

We agree completely with the issues relating to score and population. We have some ideas for how to address this, but nothing is ready to be discussed yet as we haven’t moved beyond the idea phase. In my opinion its the single largest issue that still faces WvW and one that we intend to make major strides to address as soon as we can.

Now, 1 year after launch, WvW devs finally agree that coverage is the biggest problem facing the game?

At launch and for weeks afterwards there were hundreds of posts complaining about off-peak capping winning matches. Anet’s response at the time was: “deal with it”.

I’m glad they’ve changed to their tune, but man if it’s the biggest problem facing WvW now, why wasn’t it the biggest problem then? (Like their entire player base was screaming at them that it was).

Aneu.1748:

An easier fix to all of this, allow us to use Launch skills on the dead lord… Allows both sides to do what is needed.

If you want to think outside the box, something like a “cremate corpse” might be good (preventing NPC and player rezzes from defeated state).

You could also extend it to make it an automatic downstate spike against players. Then give it to all classes. (Like all players used to get a rez skill in GW1).

In one swoop, you would eliminate the imbalances of stability and stealth spikes. You would also negate the advantages certain class downed states have.

It could also be a WvW only skill. (Perhaps buyable with WXP?). That way PvE’ers wouldn’t cry, and sPvP could do their thing.

The reason there so so much grief about alts and GW2 is that the game: started as one of the most alt-friendly on the planet.

The game, as it launched, made it very easy to level up alts and gear them out in BiS gear. They could them be used to play any endgame content at the highest level of skill (dungeons, WvW etc.). For players who love alts, this was a Godsend.

Then Ascendeds hit, and, because of the time-gating, GW2 became immediately an alt-unfriendly game (in terms of endgame). It was a complete 180.

It is especially a problem in WvW where you have simultaneously the impact of Ascendeds and the WXP ranks which are character bound.

Just be glad it doesn’t look like this:

Draknar.5748:

RedStar.4218:

I’m really sorry, but honestly how can someone look at any of these armor (male and female) and think : “yep those are the skins I want to have. I want to bother with obtaining them for the looks”

Seriously. I’m usually the first to jump in and defend some of the decisions Anet makes that are less popular, but ugly is ugly and these armor sets have no business being Ascended and/or requiring any effort to obtain.

I am deeply disappointed. I just don’t understand why they would approve these for Ascended. Not even just Ascended, the FIRST Ascended set ever released. It should be wtf awesome, not complete garbage that 99% of people will trasmute older skins over. I just wish I was a fly on the wall at that design meeting. I need to see the face of the person(s) responsible for this travesty.

Well, I suppose the best explanation is best skins are now gem store purchases.

Jski.6180:

Sirendor.1394:

alcopaul.2156:

the point of ascended armor is to kitten me off.

The point of it is to unbalance World vs. World even more, because you don’t even need exotic for doing PvE content, let alone ascended.

Basically it would be the most easy if nobody got ascended, because then nobody would be forced to get it, because it wouldn’t influence WvW if nobody used it.

First wvw was never balanced at all and it was not made to be as such it is a RvR where a world fights another for better or worst.
Second you can get ascended items from running wvw only it may make more time but you can still do it that way.

Actually you can’t.

You have to craft your weapon.

What kind of PvP game makes you personally craft your weapon?

It’s amateur hour.

Shanna.4762:

I wouldn’t have a problem with ascended armor if i didn’t have to freaking CRAFT to get it. I do NOT WANT TO CRAFT, I hate crafting in any MMO ever especially this one. They’re gating stuff to force you to do something you don’t want to do to remain competitive. If there’s no alternative way of attaining ascended gear once ascended armor is in, I’m done with this game for good. I’ve been here since day one, and this is it for me. I will not be forced to do stuff I absolutely loathe.

Same feelings here.

Going to keep playing WvW until the point where the Ascended vs Exotic gear gap is too big (or until ESO is released).

At that point, I’m out.

Where is WvW heading?

“You won’t find the…endless grinding.”

I lol’d.

And you know, Anet’s Ascended Introduction plan was fiendishly clever.

They waited until two months after launch, when all the reviews had been written, and the journalist/tourists were gone before they did their 180.

They can have their cake and eat it too, on-going good press based on that window, and slave-grinding for the marks.

gennyt.3428:

As much as I despised the Krait infestation, I prefer the lake over the new nodes, the whole borderland just feels jammed up and clustered now. Bleh. I prefer the open feeling the map had.

I disagree with you there.

Underwater combat is a blight on the game, and thankfully mostly removed from WvW. Water was basically there to escape into.

Now, though people don’t actually fight in the ruins that much, there is a lot more territory on the edges for pick-up fights.

Another land-based objective would have been better though.

Ruins did break up the BLs by blocking the lake. It does make it a little bit harder to zerg around.

But that’s about it.

Why?

Poor, rushed design.

Ascended gear is among the worst itemization I have ever seen in a MMO.

There is no way the designer could get another job based on it.

GvG’s really took hold when Anet nerfed direct competition in WvW.

The first change was the AC buff. Before, guilds could test each other during sieges. But with ACs just wiping everything out, most skill was lost.

Then there were the months of randomized matchups. In that environment, even more competition evapourated from WvW. So people made their own.

Random matchups also killed the PPT game. There was no point working for PPT if it had no effect on who you would fight the next week. Before you fought for PPT to move up a rank, or maintain your current ranking. The ultimate goal was to move up a tier based on PPT.

So, Anet has no one to “blame” but themselves for the rise of the GvG scene. Which makes the reaction of that rogue Anet employee even more baffling.

Xcom.1926:

I rarely PvP in this game, but this kind of thing is just horrible to see. A employee of an MMO company is telling a player not to play a certain way (which isn’t again ToS). I hope this doesn’t get out because it would be horrible PR.

I can’t believe he said “I am watching you guys violate my game”.

So it is his game? That whole convo is so unprofessional.

Yeah, I was thinking of the PR ramifications of this as well.

WvW already has a word-of-mouth reputation as being hostile to competition (and to dedicated guilds as an extension). To have this happen just seems to be incontrovertible evidence that this is so.

Most of the very public PvP guilds have already left though (the ones who did podcasts, organized the original pre-launch alliances etc.), so this won’t travel as far as it would have.

Burnfall.9573:

No disrespect!

Op, will you or the GvG’s be helping Arena.net cover the huge costs with increase server and large data costs?

Reason i ask, is because as you already know.

Gw2 have too many problems which still haven’t been fixed since game launch and why would Arena.net abbandone all the fixes for GvG?

In other word,

Why would Arena.net spend money or any money in on GvG than spending that money in helping repairing Gw2 problems?

Is GvG such a priority than maintaining gw2?

I’m sure guilds will have to pay to host GvG’s. The precedent is already there in sPvP.

The only thing I can think of is that they are developing a way to make it possible to switch stats on Ascended gear. If they did this, it would prevent Ascended gear meta-lock in (where you are limited to one build).

The only other explanation is incompetence.

Dedicated WvW Commanders interviewed by GW2 Hub, and they say nothing positive (except for one sentence about the ruins).

Read it and weep Anet.

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/features/interviews/commanders-state-world-vs-world