I’ve been mulling over this topic for some time now. I definitely loved GW1’s PvP and greatly anticipated GW2 so I could, presumably, see a new and improved version with an influx of new players.
GW2’s combat system grabbed my attention right away because character movement is very fluid. You can dodge roll and evade nearly anything. There’s a true z-axis and jumping up onto or behind something is now a possibility. In addition to jumping there’s a number of leap and gap closer style moves built into skills that provide a frenetic a movement friendly feel to playing. It’s glued together with the interface responsiveness one came to appreciate in GW1 and I love maneuvering my character in GW2. The improved mobility is the absolute best new feature of GW2’s gameplay. It allows for the zelda-like platforming feel and ultimately things like jumping puzzles.
However I’ve come to realize it also, unexpectedly, takes away from GW2’s competitive PvP. It does this by making it too easy to avoid an incoming attack, an attack a particular class/build might rely on to be affective. In GW1, the closer you were, the harder it was to avoid a projectile(melee was guaranteed). This meant that players had to think twice before commitment to moving in close. In GW2, commitment is a non issue with gap closing moves like Swoop or Ride the Lightning. Your approach can’t be stopped(if anyone even notices) and you’ll likely escape unscathed as well. I think it’s important to note that armor levels mean something when you have to respect moving into enemy territory. In GW2 not only can pretty much any class safely move anywhere within enemy lines but they all have melee weapons as well. Armor seems to be nothing more than a per class balancing mechanism and, while that might be intended, it contributes to making organized team play feel chaotic rather than controlled and tactical.
Speaking of chaos, it’s very difficult to target an opponent when you have clones, minions, pets and a clusterfutz of players all over your screen. You can tab target, though it might take you a century to get the right one, or you could strain and try to twitch your way to the appropriate target by clicking on-screen. GW1 did have moments where there were too many targets on-screen but it was quite a bit easier to ultimately click the target you wanted if you had to. This is mainly because there was no true z-axis and characters moved methodically, almost like a chess board. They were automatically set apart instead of constantly moving through each other. Sometimes less is more.
Something they added to GW2’s gameplay is line of sight. Line of sight means your target has to be on-screen(or at least within a certain angle of your frontal periphery) before you can use your skills on them. This feature adds a new dynamic that forces you to turn your camera to be affective in PvP.. mainly because the other guy is constantly turning his camera too, to break line of sight. It turns combat into what I call “the figure skating dance” common to most FPS games. In essence your character is moving in circles with your opponent across from you. No one really achieves getting behind the other player, you’re just constantly dancing. It looks totally silly in observer mode and has for decades(since doom probably). Not only is this an annoyance but it did something else to gameplay, unintentionally—I would hope. The problem is this, you can’t rest your mouse hand to activate skills on the far end of the skill bar. That’s huge people, I don’t know if many of you realize how much that changed gameplay from GW1 to GW2.
Now, this is already a wall of text so I’ll end it here… but there are other problems, like skill ambiguity(skill meters and disruption was awesome in gw1), lack of skill depth, lack of team cohesion, the list goes on. I get the hunch that arenanet didn’t appreciate the system they had in GW1… guys, this game is much farther from being an esport than your previous installment.
