Guild Wars 2

Peters strikes back.

Hell this is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.

Disgusting.

Disgusting…

Well, to put it into one sentence -

He encapsulates everything what’s wrong with the Guild Wars 2 Personal Story.

This is what you get for introducing a facepalm mechanics of mesmer.

I honestly wouldn’t mind thieves and their kitten burst if only it required more than monkey level of computer proficiency.

Same goes for mesmers.

I thank myself for my input.

And since I’m on thief forum – hurp durp!

ltkAlpha.4136:

whoever was in charge of these decisions needs to step down and allow someone who actually cares about PvP to give it a try.

I’m more interested in finding out who made the original Guild Wars PvP and where he or she works currently. I’m buying a game from that person without a single doubt.

barti.7685:

if nothing big happens on nov 15 im out too. i bought the 2 most overhyped games this year and 2 times it turns out to be a complete trainwrack..

i’ll learn my lesson tho next time i just wait a month or so before stepping into anyting.

I’m in the same position. The other game even went out without PvP and they now seem to have sorted out the PvE side. It gives some hope for GW2.

However, I wish GW2 did the same back in August. It would save them the embarrassment and save us the nerves.

Disruptive.2509:

someone remind what the reasoning was for having only this Domination/Conquest-esque game mode?

They said they tested various modes down the development process and that Conquest was the one most fitting their combat system and pace of the game.

While there is some valid reasoning behind that – I for instance can’t imagine a 5v5 deathmatch teamfight with all the AI and AoE they pumped into their game. Floating weapons, minions, clones & phantasms, pets & spirits, summoned thieves and rune/sigil summons combined with insane amount of AoE circles and effects have all become a major dealbreaker when it comes to a competitive PvP. They not only destroy a skill-based gameplay creating press-and-forget playstyle, but also put RNG in charge.

Add in disparities in class strength, unbelievable bugs and glitches as well as very low battlefield transparency and you get a pretty much dead game, at least when competitive PvP is concerned.

The AI and AoE is acceptable (not to be mistaken with ‘okay’) in larger areas, but they definitely are not suitable for small Conquest maps and tiny capture nods. It all leads to a clutter that pushes one to simply ask himself whether these things were even played and tested internally.

How could a such a big studio filled with extremely talented and experienced industry veterans and pioneers produce this particular PvP? These mistakes are in my view way too far along to be just simple misjudgements.

The whole system is broken.
Conquest is not competitive. It is repetitive. Most importantly it lacks the most basic incentive to play – Fun, which directly contradicts Anet’s design philosophy.

No Custom Arenas, additional map or fixes will change that. The game won’t amazingly become interesting just because you can rent (!) a server and pick a map.

A major overhaul is not only needed, but required. At least for me and every single one of my friends (literally dozens and dozens of friends from years of competitive GW1 of which no one plays anymore).

Anet, read it and talk about it internally. Don’t ignore us. We may know nothing about game development and your future plans, but we sure know a lot about fun and PvP. At the moment we all agree (visit Wartower, Teamquitter or Guildwars.pl) that it’s not PvP we want.

Primo.4385:

Hi I’m new to GW2 and I’m looking forward to competitive PVP.

hot joins
gets zerged
learns nothing

OK I’ve been playing for awhile and I think I’m ready for tournaments

joins free tourney
has no idea what is going on, has never played 5v5, is basically useless
gets crushed by premades

Looks like I need a dedicated team to play this game competitively

tries to find a team
only like 4 people in mists and 2 are AFK

Welp, that wasn’t fun sorry guys

logs ofkittenuninstalls

This is one of the most hilarious things I read lately. I adore you, mister!

And I agree.

Dude, come on… Less QQ, more pewpew….

On the side note, we’ve been getting it as well. Lost some tourneys cos of it, won some (vs 2 enemies whose team couldn’t load). No big deal since you get nothing of value for winning

What ladder are we talking about? can someone elaborate?

I didn’t want to write in this thread, but I see I must.

First off, stop jumping on the OP for his English. I also do like when posts are as grammatically correct as they can, but we can’t expect everyone here to be on the same level of English advancement.

Secondly, don’t you dare attacking him for what he plays or doesn’t play. It doesn’t matter. What matters is what he says.

Now to the topic.

While I believe the game not to be balanced correctly – lousy playstyles, game of extremes, worst build diversity in an on-line game I’ve seen since May (yep, you know what I’m shooting at) and bugs, I also believe it is balanced quite well, for what it is of course.

To empathise with ryston – all my friends left the game, we all played GW1 before and no one likes it. I was vocal about it since the second week after the launch and I’ve seen a great exodus of PvP players who didn’t like the mode.

I’m happy that there are people who enjoy it and at the same time I’m furious that this game isn’t what I want it to be.

So to rephrase – do I agree with this thread’s title? I don’t. And I accept it.

E-sport? Guild Wars 2? There are barely 200 people watching GW2 streams, there is no way this pvp becomes an e-sport, since no one wants to watch Conquest.

The only thing that can push it into becoming an e-sport is money, but I can’t see Anet throwing money for tournaments with so many PvE issues to be addressed.

Just get over with all this nonsense e-sport thing. It is not going to happen.

All this theorycrafting sounds really interesting, but we already knew that!

There is a problem with something else.

1) The Necromancer isn’t as ‘cool’ as mesmer, thief and ele just because his weapon and utility skills are plain boring. We understand it goes with the philosophy, but what Mr. Karl wrote is just unrealistic. You cant catch a guy with it, since EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE in this game has very powerful mitigation and escape tools. Everyone except the necro. This directly contradicts the design philosophy.

From blinks, teleports and jumps, through vigor and dodges, to invulnerabilities and stealth these things are hard counters to necros POOR chasing abilities. Chill? Cripple? Dark Path? Just use an elixir or Mist Form or Blink or RtL or Bladetrail or Swoop or Shadowstep. GG. You just did escape necro’s unevitable attrition!

2) Necros are mostly about spamming aoe’s and occasional fear to rupt some important actions. There is no dynamic to necro. For me, it’s a deal breaker.

It’s not about necro being weak, you just designed a boring profession. Boring to play and boring to watch. So boring.

The proof, a weak one, but still, is the BWE video collection where there wasn’t a SINGLE Anet dev playing a necro. All the streamers, including Mr. Karl preferred to play ele and mesmer, since they are just better designed, more awesome and dynamic.
We cannot blame them though, who would like to jump around spamming marks and scepter.

Ohh and while we’re here – give the ranger and warrior some real elite skills since those they have are just a contradiction of awesomeness so I can actually play the dynamic game that was marketed.

I feel I wasted my time on necro.

Infiniafication.2394:

If I ever meet a HB warrior or a backstab Thief when I’m playing my Mesmer, I just laugh at delight.

They come, they fail, they run.
Point is mine to capture freely!

Playing a mesmer in its current state is nothing to be proud of.

Guys, stop complaining. All races are equal. I take it for granted, because Anet said that.

Ohh wait…

I agree with shaolin and sometimes leave the tournament personally when I see there is no point in wasting my valuable time being killed over and over by an organised team!
It’s not fun.

Great! Delete the mesmer portal from tPvP and we are set for a years of PvP ride!

Well, it is nice for what it is.

There is in my view a major design flaw with the conquest mode and the mechanics though. Not to mention the awful class balance (which is mostly a derivative of ever-present bugs in pretty much everything) and even worse meta (thanks to guys embracing the bunker and exploits).

I’m still enjoying it, but cannot play it for too long. Gets too boring.

Chap, any update on when you guys with Jon are planning to push another batch of bug fixes and profession improvements?

Cheers.

Squishy as what?!

If you have problems with personal story, try getting some additional levels. Of course it doesn’t solve the ‘you should learn to play better’, but is an easy override.

Chris.7653:

New PvP Game mode in November’s patch…

I call it a troll. There have been NO such info from ANY even half-trustworthy source.

I couldn’t find anything about it so I’m reporting a bug with utility skill Sick ’Em.

Using Sick ’Em while defending a point in tPvP removes your ability to hold it (similarly to how stealth works) allowing your opponent to neutralise the point.

Now, it needs more testing but I’m pretty much sure it was it. Quite hilarious to stand in the middle of a capture point seeing it being neutralised.

UPDATE: I checked it again. It is true (unless I’m missing something). This works if both contestants are on the point and you use Sick ’Em on your enemy. The point can be neutralised without you leaving the point.

Where is the QA?

Dear community,

If you think bot ranger and bear army in PvE is ridiculous, you should prepare for something even more ‘sophisticated’, because the bot army is coming to free tournaments.

I’ve just played against a player called Ffffghhj. He was a guardian, rank 19-ish, always standing still and taking the damage on keep or graveyard. He was by no chance acting like a person, standing still, using random skills, not responding even when directly asked by members of both teams.

Now I know it isn’t any proof, but here’s the screenshot I took. His marvelous gameplay was rather hard to catch on screenshot. We obviously won the match. My pet was able to eat our little guardian alive while he was standing behind his wall.

Have fun!

Sanis.1096:

tbh i don’t even see that many guardians going with maces…

Also, mate, I don’t want to be rude, but a guardian complaining about his profession and elites is a bit funny.

Have you ever played a ranger or necro or even a warrior? They have some serious problems, not the guardian.

JonPeters.5630:

We know this bug exists. The problem is our most recent change should have fixed it. We will work hard to make sure this bug is gone by the next patch. Sorry it hasn’t been easier to get rid of.

Jon

Maybe you should have fixed it before rolling out paid tournaments?

Let’s go a little further and say that maybe you should have fixed all the bugs especially on Anet’s most hated profession – a necromancer – before rolling out pvp – i.e. before the release?

I’m not attacking, just sending out some rhetorical questions.

Leman

Karl McLain.5604:

Great question!

Try equipping Spectral Walk in an underwater utility slot. If you have it equipped above water, but not below it, you’re ‘unslotting’ spectral walk when you move underwater and don’t have it equipped.
Alternatively (if you don’t have it equipped underwater), make sure that you don’t have the spectral walk skill in its ‘Active’ state (spectral walk ‘on’) prior to entering water.

Mister Karl, I have a question.
Do you think Death Shroud is powerful?

Rending Claws damage reduced by 90%. Added half a second of vulnerability to compensate.

Fixed a bug where siphoning health traits would affect skills other than Blood Fiend.

Conquest mode is the main reason for the imbalances in PvP gameplay. The assumptions that led to its creation were alright, but it just won’t work in the long-run. Replacing it with something like GvG from original Guild Wars with more entertaining objectives tailored with new mechanics and capabilities in mind could lead to the PvP we all want so much.

It’s the summary of a long post I wrote few weeks ago. I also found the Conquest the main problem of the sPvP. It promotes counter-gaming, stale playstyles and promotes some builds over others. It just creates problems. I hope Anet already acknowledged this one would say obvious fact and is on its way to fix it.

@Zero:
I read your topic, I agree with most of what is written there. A very nice read by the way.
We need more players realising the fundamental flaws of this game’s PvP and talking about them.

@GustavoM:
Pretty much it.

Marxo.3829:

If you were interested in improving PvP you should consider writing out well thought out opinions on various facets of the game and critiques of mechanics you are/are not in favor of.

I did it in the thread I linked. I was patient, I was refraining myself from posting until now as I waited for some meaningful update from the devs. It is non-existent.
This is just a topic that helps me and possibly others shake off the bad feelings, provide even more feedback and move on to something actually fun

The additional problem is – my guild and I were waiting for some news about the future of this PvP and all we got was a goof-post and ‘Less QQ, more pewpew’ which says enough.

This simple post and the meme reference (a joke as later explained) says that Chap likes the game he made (why wouldn’t he) and has no intention to think of ANY changes. People usually joke when they are happy and relaxed and Chap as it seems is hell of a relaxed guy.

That points me into a conclusion everyone who shares our view should acknowledge -

There aren’t going to be any major changes to this PvP. Most we can expect is balance changes (or attempts if I may) and infrastructure (ladders, matchmaking, etc.) and that’s it. Nothing else is to be delivered.
I will miss Guild Wars 1. Guild Wars 2 PvP is never to be remembered.

That’s what it is. I can’t see why someone who played GW1 would ever like it.

I just lost all faith, I wanted to like this PvP, I tried from the Headstart. At first it was a blast, but right now I just hate it. Meta is boring, Conquest is a fail, there are no basic features.

GW2 tPvP is less fun than LoL and GW1. It’s less fun than most of the games I played. This marks a death of some standards we were used to.

I don’t write it because I hate Anet. I do share this feedback because I hate what Anet did with our favourite game. They took everything we loved about Guild Wars 1 PvP and put it into a trashcan.

I hope Jon and Chap and whoever designed it read these forums so they can evaluate.
Also, the studio head should look back and think of rehiring the masterminds that created GW1 PvP, so they can fix this mess.

But maybe it’s just me…

As always I’m redirecting anyone to these two topics, they deserve more recognition.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Lost-potential

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Guild-Wars-2-Competitive-Game-Analysis/

Hey,

Couldn’t find any information so I’m starting a topic with a following questions.

Does anyone know whether foci like Adam/Gaze (skulls) or Arcanus Obscurus/Godswalk (books) have any interesting particle effects on them. If not, are there currently known skins that have something special about them and don’t cost hundreds of gold pieces.

While we’re already here, I’d also like to ask if anyone knows some nice looking exotic dagger skins also with particle effects.

I really think some weapon design for daggers or warhorns for instance are just so bleak in comparison to these awesome greatswords.

Thanks in advance.

Another quality piece from Diage.

Just letting you know that I’m following this topic and will try to contribute some more when I have time.

My biggest gripe about the game is just not having fun which is a derivative of many flaws I believe the game to have and most of which are being carefully analysed in this very thread.

This must especially painful to the Devs who use ‘fun’ as a mantra. They made a great PvE and WvW game that in my view has a PvP which isn’t nowhere near the fun that both PvE and WvW can bring.

@Cogbyrn:

In cases of GW1 players I know (myself included) it’s just we don’t find it fun.

We were being served with a delicious PvP dish for past few years and were looking forward to new restaurant’s opening. The stuff they serve us now is different, it’s okay, but different and from my experience it tastes much worse than our favourite.

We know they are the same great chefs and that they can cook our fav, but for some reason they decided to throw away the recipe and serve something new. A new customer may be delighted, but for the old ones it just isn’t it for the many different reasons highlighted in this as well as many other topics.

I hope it helps you understand.

Additionally, I think the complaints have nothing to do with the alleged elitism.
I don’t complain because I can’t find my place in GW2 or because my place was taken.
I do it because I don’t like Conquest and I don’t find it fun. I want to like it, but I can’t and since I have problems liking it, I’m not going to play it.

Now, I don’t like Conquest because GvG was so much better and I wanted it to be included here. If Anet wants people like me (and to my best knowledge there are quite a few people who share my standpoint) to play their game, they should think of adding GvG-inspired mode.

But I guess it doesn’t matter since they already have our money…

Let’s all have some fun, and talk about the one and only, the best of the best – Trahearne.

Probably the most powerful cabbage to ever set roots in the soil of the Mother Tyria.

Trahearne is a Sylvari superhero, who sets the new storytelling standard well surpassing Kormir in his very young yet already legendary exploits.

A self-made man from nowhere. When he first appeared in Tyria he was but a poor scholar on a Hunt. He was starting small with money borrowed from clueless over-achievers. He soon learned that natural enterpreneurship was among his countless talents. Now he manages a multinational organisation he grew himself.

But… he wouldn’t call himself Trahearne if he didn’t strive to continue pushing the limits of impossible further and further. He tirelessly visits the most dangerous parts of the world on his own to show that his physical shell has virtually no boundaries.
As every self-respecting individual should know, Trahearne doesn’t stop with having the Physique of Apollo and Heracles combined for he also possesses the knowledge worth of both Elminster and Gandalf.

He alone is the one to have saved the world from peril with his superhuman virtues.

He is a true hero, a caped crusader, The Superman of Tyria.

People love him. He is a god walking amongst mere mortals.

Calavera.1086:

Nope, it was clearly inspired by Los Angeles because both acronyms are LA.

Hope you have a screenshot to prove that.

Merlion got me sold btw.

Well, to start with, I am a GW1 veteran and I had tens and tens of friends from PvP transition to GW2 and no one likes it. No one.
We all stopped playing after getting mid twenties ranks.

What some of you don’t understand is we as GW1 players waited for this game YEARS and they hyped it, we followed. We believed and hoped to get the same amount of fun the original game gave us.

Then we got this major downgrade of a PvP.

Guess you are unable to understand since you aren’t so tied to this franchise.

I’m wondering if anyone in Bellevue has any clue how much of an unfinished sPvP they made and how pretty much they lost the game already.

People just need to face the facts and move to whatever suits them. In few years, maybe the time comes to return and play an actually finished game.

Hunterdan.4921:

I know we’re all excited, but we’re not nearly as excited as they are to show us what they’ve worked hard to complete.

The thing is – the excitement is long gone.

More than half of my Friend List is dead, the remaining part is just complaining about lackluster sPvP. There are few streamers left and no one will remember GW2 in 2 months if this stagnation continues.

It isn’t 2005, Anet, thing have changed and happen fast, very fast.

Have fun, it won’t last long.

Cogbyrn.7283:

EDIT: also I find this

TL:DR – Less QQ, more pew pew.

offensive and utterly out of place

Hahahaha, oh comments like this amuse me. The community does nothing but complain and cry foul, ANet tries to add a touch of humor, and suddenly people take offense.

I find the whole “why aren’t they groveling at my feet after throwing tantrums?” attitude incredible.

Also, I had a chuckle at it.

I never cried about anything and worked on some humorous and constructive feedback on the forum. I have absolutely no problem with adding humour to the communication with players.

That being said I have every right to feel offended after Anet’s representative makes fun of fans’ passion and care (which are main reasons for topics asking for additional features). It is unprofessional.

After seeing the personal story in GW2 I started appreciating the story of the D-title, which was one of the most naive and poorly executed stories I’ve seen during my life.

The voice-over was even worse than the story, so to answer OP’s question – no, you’re not too old for gaming. It’s not you.

Adding stuff to a boring sPvP has little chance of making it less boring.

I played GW1 for many years, participated in every BWE and stress test. So many years of devotion and so much effort put by the fanbase to get this sPvP.

This isn’t the way I like to be treated.

It was definitely worth waiting more than 3 weeks to learn that Anet is implementing 2 ‘crucial’ features that have absolutely, I emphasise, absolutely no impact on the fun-factor of sPvP.

Maybe it’s just me, but I just lost all faith. I never thought it would happen, but D-game PvP will probably be more fun.

EDIT: also I find this

TL:DR – Less QQ, more pew pew.

offensive and utterly out of place

JonathanSharp.7094

K bye.

Made me laugh.
Please don’t delete my post.

K thx.

Ascii.9726:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

Testing i just did to ‘back it up’

Top health bar is the damage to NPC done with a completely bare necromancer (no traits, 0 condition damage, 916 stats, no weapon) to replicate Blood is Power damage before the change. Total damage 2,550 over 30 seconds.

Bottom health bar is damage done to the same NPC with +356 condition damage (closest i can get to 350) replicated. (30 in Curses with no traits activated to replicate +300 condition damage, and 2 +28 condition damage runes in armour) Total damage 3,618 over 30 seconds.

Thats a 42% increase in damage before you even add bleed duration increases. Not only that but you also have +350 Power and Condition damage for at least 10 seconds to affect anything else you burst with (seen as most effective condition builds will burst with all there DoTs and Epidemic them.)

Now tell me that’s better then 20% life force.

This is just incorrect, since 42% is the biggest damage increase possible. With every additional point of Condition Damage this increase is decreasing – the Condition Damage gained from BIP is being divided by overall bigger pool of Condition Damage – diminishing BIP effectivness in condition-based builds.

I hope I’m speaking my mind in an understandable way.

I don’t like it because it doesn’t provide the same fun GW1 did. It feels repetitive, not challenging and very anti-team oriented.

We had a huge group from GW1 transition into GW2, we all already left.

Sad days.

GankSinatra.2653:

NoooOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOoooooo way.

I already get kitten off from trebs, cannons and sharks. No more other disruptive crap pls.

Here’s the solution – let’s get rid of trebs, cannons and sharks.
“No one enjoys them, no one finds them fun.”

I’d take tar pits and frozen lake with their environmental effects over trebs and svanirs anytime.

What a pathetic troll attempt this whole topic is.

The OP is a well-known necro forum hijacker. After watching his r13 (lol) gameplay I also found out he’s extremely unskilled.

Very static, not aiming at enemies correctly, missing some skillshots, not even using his Death Shroud to CC-lock targets.

Please, leave Necro forums alone. You are dragging the discussion down with you…

Now, there’s an obvious solution – GvG-style mode in Guild Wars 2.

I like to think of this idea as of taking some insanely entertaining parts of WvW like protecting Keeps and slightly bigger groups and putting it into structured environment with max stats, best gear and without zerg’n’lagfest.
I can imagine it as 4 players playing 2v2 in the middle of the map, continuously taking the side objective from each other. The objective buffs the team allowing splitting players to push the main objective by taking down the gate or killing an NPC.
Each team can have someone to protect the base and roam across the map to help in the middle or in enemy base. I know I and my friends would jump into it immediately.

But what’s most beautiful thing about this approach – Anet already has the mode done in GW1. The design part is done, what’s left is the implementation.

What’s ahead?

Don’t get me wrong – Conquest isn’t a complete fail. It definitely achieves many important goals they set. The thing is – they could do much better than that. Many people like it and will play it for a long time. Me and most of my friends from original GW feel disappointed having played GvG and HA, both being more fun beyond comparison. And no ladder/ observer mode/ additional maps can improve the experience by the required amount. It just wears off too quickly and is too repetitive.

What I’d like to emphasise is – We all as the PvP community can help making PvP experience the best possible. Let’s provide our feedback and ideas. If we show how much we care, we will have them in game sooner or later. We can make this a PvP-evolution and suggestions thread to provide basics for further discussion and PvP development.

The only obstacle I can think of is Anet standing by Conquest as its flagship and main supported mode. The ideal solution from my point of view would be to create a new mode to replace Conquest as a main, e-sportish mode with Conquest becoming a more casual Random Arena-type battleground.

TL;DR
Conquest mode is the main reason for the imbalances in PvP gameplay. The assumptions that led to its creation were alright, but it just won’t work in the long-run. Replacing it with something like GvG from original Guild Wars with more entertaining objectives tailored with new mechanics and capabilities in mind could lead to the PvP we all want so much.

What did they do to make things right?

During the development of Guild Wars 2 and its PvP in particular, games like LoL surfaced to create a whole new PvP experience. It had simple objectives, it was accessible, casual friendly, free-to-play, entertaining and addictive. At the same time, it allowed many play styles and setups. With one mode it was easy to focus on balance and expansion.

I believe this had great impact on PvP design in Guild Wars 2. Designers wanted to create combat and PvP that wouldn’t force teams to particular profession setups. They wanted it more casual, so that new players could join and play. What they needed was less complexity – achieved through less skills and one mode to make it even simpler to tinker with. Titles are rather easy to obtain and anyone can get them PUGing tournaments. Teams are small making grouping easy. Pretty much any barrier we talked about was eliminated. Yay!

But was it really for the better? Do we have the ultimate Guild Wars 2 PvP experience we all wanted and waited for? There is no single answer to this question and it varies from person to person. I can only try answering it from the perspective of a veteran Guild Wars player. The key to answering it is ‘Conquest’.

I personally believe that the current sPvP mode is responsible for all the negative PvP feedback. Conquest creates difficulties – it forces some profession choices on players (Guardian on Clocktower), makes some professions and builds superstrong in comparison to others (Necro fighting Mesmer) and favours counter-picking. It all can be solved with proper skill changes, but is it really a solution?
I think the problem with Conquest is much deeper and it caused dozens of my friends (including me) stop playing tPvP. We all agreed that this game needs more complex and more interesting PvP mode.

I’m moving here with my stuff to try to merge discussions,

A month has passed and I decided to step in with something more than just a humorous posts here and there.

What I am aiming at is starting a wide discussion about sPvP’s future. What we as a community need to do is take the collective effort and provide our insight to familiarize ArenaNet with different points of view. Together we can improve GW2 PvP and make it as good as it can be. Ideally this thread could gain some notice from developers and the community as a whole and become a place they could look in search of ideas.

Before I start the whole discussion I would like to say that it will be largely connected to the original Guild Wars game, which I believe was much better in many ways. If you want to comment with standard ‘it’s a completely new, different game’, I’d appreciate if you refrained from replying. Thanks.

What’s also important, I will be mainly talking in reference to GvG/HA, since these two were essentially standing for PvP in Guild Wars. If not stated differently, that’s our standard reference point.

Where it all started?

The whole design philosophy behind the combat system and PvP (as well as PvE, but I won’t be talking about it that much) that led us to where we are today was pretty simple. ArenaNet saw obvious drawbacks the original Guild Wars game had and wanted to create something better. Unfortunately, there were limitations (both through engine and design) that made it impossible to implement the ‘vision’ in Guild Wars 1. This is when and why Guild Wars 2 development process started.

What were the key factors that led them do that?

We could probably think of more, but let’s stop right here. Suffice to say there were serious barriers for new players blocking them from playing and enjoying competitive PvP. They closed the community making it hermetic eventually leading PvP into stagnation and death.

At the same time, PvP was extremely fun, challenge-oriented and exceptionally rewarding. Holding Tombs was giving your realm Favor of the Gods back in the days. Winning in GvG tournaments would give you in-game wealth and recognition for your guild. GW1 GvG is probably the most challenging team PvP to date. It gave few years of extreme fun to people who could play it and compete with each other.
With that said – it didn’t work for the majority. Anet saw that and wanted to make things right.

Impressive insight!

There is pretty much nothing to be added. As I wrote in Another thread there are things Conquest achieves. It just is colorless and bleak.

The fundamentals were noble, but I think they lost it in the process. It is completely fixable both technically and conceptually. But it would require developers to look back and admit Conquest isn’t perfect. Then they would need to sit down and build a new PvP mode from scratch.

I would also add that in my view the idea of making GW2 an e-sport is long forgone. The Conquest is just unsustainable as an e-sport.

• Maps are too small and simple to provide long-term entertainment for viewers – I don’t know about others – but I can’t imagine myself watching a stream of a few randomly rotating maps in a multiple team tournament. Conquest with its maps doesn’t have League of Legends scale, complexity and possible scenarios.
• The matches are too short. With every match pretty much ending in 15 minutes it just isn’t enough to tell a story and show rivalry. Messy things happen very fast in multiple places with no single point to hold on to. In League of Legends the focus points are usually being carried by junglers in early game, then by whole teams during mid-late game. Conquest just doesn’t work like that in so many ways.

I think Anet needs to realise that to be able to move on.