Guild Wars 2

The thing is you do not NEED to target in this game, it has LoS mechanics, auto target would introduce ‘mistakes’ in your combat.

It is a ‘noob’ mechanic introduced in certain games and ‘exploited’ by better players who know that enemies have it turned on.

Scenario, I am your hated thief, I attack you, you auto target me, my necro team mate hits you you auto target them.

If you cannot see that this is a really bad ‘option’ well I can’t help you.

Auto targeting is something that I turn off in games that have that option, it creates many more problems than it solves.

As for thieves, your build matters and the 1st thing you should be doing is not trying to fight them toe to toe but to make them use their initiative through dodge mechanic and then kill them.

People complaining about thieves are usually pretty bad with terribad builds with no defence and think if they mash their keys and don’t beat them they are OP.

Using technique and skill will beat most thieves.

Saying that, I feel that both thieves and mesmers should have their numbers tweaked slightly, not by much but still have it done.

Bruno Sardine.2907:

So, in essence, the “endgame” is the evolution of the world, post-Zhaitan, and dictated by it’s inhabitants?

Yes.

It is actually more than that but in essence you are correct.

The bad thing is that you have server changes, a way to counteract that maybe to control resource drops to how well the server interacts with it’s residents.

Bruno Sardine.2907:

I think I get the gist of what you’re getting at, but I don’t think I really understand. So your actions enrich the world/guild/other-things-besides-your-toon? If that’s what you’re getting at, I guess I don’t see the reward in that because enriching theses things lead to what?

Conflict.

I know it may seem drastic but to have a player driven endgame you need constant conflict between groups.

Now to me, the name Guild Wars conjures up conflict between Guilds, to provide an endgame based on that is the difficult part when Guilds are based on different servers, maybe introduce that conflict through WvW.

Sorry to you guys that want to shoot magic dragons, they are easy and always will be, if that sort of stuff interests you, may I suggest a game that would interest you.

If that does interest you, can I have your stuff?

FarFarAway.6579:

I’ve been playing MMOs for a long time. Over the years, there were some memorable moments of epicness that I will never forget.

Its those types of moments that I’m looking for in new games.

In DAoC, there were many epic events. From my first Relic raid, to my first Dragon raid. These were really hard encounters when the game was young, and took a ton of coordination and planning on a large scale. Even the dreaded Trials of Atlantis expansion contained tons of difficult content. Realm vs. Realm was amazing fun because pvp was hard. This has alot to do with tricky combat mechanics, and taking away the holy trinity, like it or not, has dumbed down combat quite a bit – as far as group-based fights go. One on one is a different matter.

In WoW, I’ll never forget when we killed the Lich King for the first time. I’d never seen a video on it, and I had no idea what was going to happen in the cut scene, so when we all fell on the ground and died at the end, I thought it was over. Then the cutscene started, my guild leader was hollaring in vent, and everyone was freaking out excited.

These are the types of moments I’m looking for. You don’t find them with easy content. You find them when you have to work really hard to achieve them, not by grinding, but by conquering difficult content, or in epic PvP that requires the coordination and strategy of many players, and truly means something to your character when you win. (even if its just a cool title)

GW2 really has nothing epic to offer at this current time.

It’s an AI script, get real, AI scripts are so easily beatable.

That is not end game, endgame is ongoing content.

Beat me down in tPvP with your skill, that is endgame, I get better and have more strategy for my team, I beat you down.

Endgame has to be player led.

The majority of people won’t PvP because it will show had bad they actually are.

luchifer.6401:

I wouldnt say as far as Eve pull that off (3000+ pvp battles)… that game becomes a lag fest when that happens, you click to shoot your weapons and 2 minutes later they start firing.

Nah tis’ much better now but it was a challenge to fc when it was like that xD

We used to use lag like it wasn’t there, swap target, instapop next target, it was funny cos’2 minutes down the line our enemy count went down like a brick and we had lost one sniper tempest because the enemy didn’t swap targets and were still shooting the tempest that died 5 minutes before.

There is time dilation now which works pretty well and you can have 2k + fights with almost neglible lag and then the time dilation kicks in.

Avatar.1923:

and yeah, some kind of “player controlled endgame” could be awesome.on
with the top players really having some kind of influence on the game (and thus attracting enemies and friends!) like in the real world i believe the 50%+1 of people being rational instead of chaotic. so entually the right people would be at top.

The only trouble GW2 has with that is that they have separate shards, I don’t know what server population is maxed out at but Guild A on server A who may be top dog on that server does not and cannot be influenced by top dog guild B on server B.

The thing with Eve and the beauty of the game is that everyone playing the game is on the same server, it is the only game that has managed to pull this off, so that means you have 3000+ person PvP battles in the same area over resources.

I don’t think that this type of endgame could be possible on GW2, don’t like the way top dog guild is taking the game, just change servers, I hope you see what I mean, Eve was designed from the ground up to fuel conflict in it’s playerbase, hence everyone on the same server.

Avatar.1923:

^
the idea would be to introduce “part” of that concept into GW2.

maybe i could work there and quit my fashion design job.
im getting bored of it after like 7years. need new challenge!

Ya, Eve endgame is awesome and I think something similar could be introduced into WvW, with Guilds taking control of areas and protecting it against incursions from other servers, getting increased drops due to control etc.

Eve Online is a MMO also, the end game is actually provided by the players themselves, politics, the tools to enact the endgame are provided by the game but without the player interaction, there would be no endgame at all.

xBeefy.4073:

Why do 98% of all tournament players who set up their skills BEFORE they enter a game have to suffer for the 2% that forgot? One could even argue that you shouldn’t even be able to respec or switch skills after entering a game.

Why on earth would you specc before you see what comp you are up against?

Elysian Rose.5283:

You’re missing the point. This game was marketed as an MMORPG, it was all about continuing the story yada yada yada. I didn’t spend hours researching it. All i knew is that i loved GW1, and this was called Guild Wars 2. Can I be faulted for expecting it to be at least similar?

I’ve never played any other MMOs, ever. Guild Wars was the first, and obviously the last. again, if I wanted gear to be irrelevant, I’d play dota or LoL. otherwise, they need to re-market this is an RTS and refund everybody who bought it for the MMO element, IMO.

You do know what MMO means I take it?

You also should know what an RTS is

Eve Online is also marketed as a MMO, yet that has no PvE to speak off, the MMO comes in PvP.

There are group activities all through GW2, both PvP AND PvE.

If you don’t like the game, fair enough but to say it isn’t a MMO is ignorant to say the least.

If you think MMO means mindless gear grinding so you can own new players, well you know where to go.

Rizzy.8293:

it felt like PVE was a boring drag and PVP is the only thing worth doing.

PvP is the ONLY thing worth doing in any game.

To me it is, PvE is just scripted Ai that anyone can beat, I knew that this game was basically a balanced PvP game with a PvE social element.

This was after a short search on the game.

Having said that I find the PvE to be quite enjoyable, similar to WoW type questing but different enough to be it’s own system, not better, just different, I have been playing since prelaunch and I still have to get a character above lvl 25.

Skolops.2604:

The thing is, I don’t find the PvP in this game to be, well, good right now, for a variety of reasons. The biggest are probably that with all the pets running around its more of a chaotic PvE than an organized PvP, that the capture system currently encourages zerging, that the burst damage/CC is out of control, and that it is pretty far from balanced at this point (though that will hopefully improve over time). I previously played SWtOR, which a lot of people complained had horrible PvP fro imbalance and too much CC, but I think its worlds better than what we have right now.

This is pretty disappointing, given that I bought this game exclusively for the PvP.

Yes, the PvP needs work but I have every faith in the Dev’s to do it, saying that, the PvP in GW2 has HUGE potential to be great, the signs are already there.

Elysian Rose.5283:

Draknar.8604:

I started to hate the gameplay, but wanted the rewards.

So basically, you couldn’t be bothered actually spending the time to get the gear, or to enhance your skills/strategies so that you could get the gear more quickly, and so you gave up.

Poignant, really, and it’s what so many of us have been arguing here. This game is for casuals who can’t be bothered, and would rather just buy the stuff with gems.

Your post is almost too good to be true.

I think you have it wrong, this game is designed around PvP from the ground up, the PvE is not really why most of us play it but it is there to give you a general idea of how to play your character in end game, which is WvWvW and tPvP.

It is the same as Eve Online, why would you play Eve for the PvE, it is horrible, the end game is in 0.0 space fighting for resources and control which makes the PvP unmatched in any game.

WoW PvP on the other hand is tacked onto a PvE game and so reflects the type of game it is, a time sink of grinding based on a subscription business model, to keep you paying the monthly subscription you have to grind mindlessly to actually get gear that is competitive, all of a sudden you have a new expansion that they charge a premium for, your character is now non viable and the grind starts again.

Personally I know which type of game I prefer.

Before you ask, yes I have played WoW, started about 7 months ago and realised how expensive and pointless it is to play a game that has the most laughable PvP in the history of gaming, it is a shame really as WoW PvP could be brilliant but to do that would really break Blizzards business model.

It is a valid tactic, save your burst for the correct moment if you have an enemy trying to deny you.

Dgenerate.1948:

I am sure there are many like myself who would love to use our gear to it’s actual advantages (especially in PvP), rather than get killed by a bunch of lower level players or mobs.

This statement is the problem to me, it reeks of WoW mentality and is why that games PvP is a joke, why should you have better gear than others when you are a worse player?

It is much more satisfying to beat them with normalized gear than OP gear then you know it was your skill and not the gear.

GrimShade.8091:

But a better tactic really is ping pong agro. Thief takes agro until the thing gets in close or hurts the thief, then he stealth’s. Monster now targets the elly, then a guardian comes in to drag him away from the elly, and while the monster is attacking the guardian, the thief unloads on him. This really is an inelegant but also inteligant way to have agro. IMO it makes the hate system insanely stupid…’hey I can hit skill 2 and everything attacks me, YAY.’ Really?

Yeah I never understood why certain games NPC AI would target the lowest damage dealing character just because they were in it’s face instead of the one that was dealing huge amounts of hurt, in any sane environment, it would go for that huge damage to negate it and get the total damage reduced, then the next etc.

Excellent article, thank you good Sir.

Eve Online has a system that ‘evens’ out the time zone differences due to that game being on a single shard.

You have alliance A 95% EU TZ and Alliance B balanced selection of all TZ’s.

Now to take Alliance A’s assests Alliance B attacks a station in US TZ putting it into reinforced mode, reinforced timer is set by Alliance A to favour their own TZ so they have the majority of their players online to defend and rebuke Alliance B’s attack.

A good idea. +1

felivear.1536:

Oh, that’s right, you didn’t because although that game has major balance issues, it’s still skill that prevails at the highest level of PvP.

No it’s not, it’s wintrading, hacking and identity theft that prevails.

I have only played WoW for 7 months, most of that PvPing, I leveled through BG’s and got about 1600 on my hunter until I gave up with the insane gear grind, the imbalanced teams we were playing against with full t2 gear and conquest armour were just too much to compete against in honor gear.

As I said the imbalances put me off the game.

Raging Bull.5048:

WoW PvP, as something that is an afterthought, is BETTER than the GW2 PvP that’s been thoroughly thought through and is the core of the game.

Ouch.

That is your opinion my friend, if you feel that strongly about it, play WoW, do not try to change this game.

My opinion however differs, WoW PvP is a joke, having hugely unbalanced classes that change each couple of months to force players to keep leveling and grinding new classes to stay fotm works very well with a subscription business model.

Having a rating system that encourages exploitation and wintrading alongside Boosting for rating and RMT operations and no rating decay makes a very stagnant competitive scene.

Personally I prefer balanced classes and skill based PvP, I say this very tongue in cheek but if you prefer WoW PvP, ’go back to WoW.

Raging Bull.5048:

Of course. 14 million subscribers were totally deluded, WoW fails so hard. What an awful game that is, and how Blizzard made a huge mistake with that one.

It’s typical how people love to bash on those who are the most popular/successful. It’s like when I hear people yelling “Michael Jordan!? That ape is nothing special, there are so many players better than him”. I actually HEARD people saying stuff like that. Well, the NBA halls of fame beg to differ. So does the rest of the world.

Please, note that WoW has RESULTS backing it up. RESULTS over a LONG TERM PERIOD. GW2 just came out and is lacking BADLY, no matter how much you refuse to believe that.

So no, it’s not players who need to adapt. It’s GW2 that needs to adapt if it wants to survive for all it’s expansions, game store and for a possible sequel. Not to mention the company reputation.

The fan-boys get to be arrogant only after GW2 survives for AT LEAST 7 years and builds up a huge player base. Not before.

WoW is a PvE game with PvP ‘tacked’ on to placate the PvE players, the whole concept of PvP in WoW is designed around the ‘grind’ and having better gear than your opponents.

GW2’s PvP has been designed from the ground up to be challenging, competitive and first and foremost to be BALANCED, it is like comparing chalk and cheese.

They are two different games, if you like having a gear advantage in PvP, play WoW, if you prefer balanced PvP based on skill alone, play GW2, it is really that simple.

Cybrax.1397:

yeah so half my team can go afk once we start to lose and be locked in the game for 10 minutes, great idea!

Why is your team made up of people that do that, why would you play with mates in a tournament team that do that?

In both examples, the winning team had better personal scores.

So it is pretty obvious what decides the win.

Vlaid.5790:

You guys realize this thread isn’t about WoW vs GW2 right? It’s about what GW2 PVP lacks.

GW2 PvP lacks nothing, it is balanced, fun and diverse.

Why do we laugh at WoW PvPerrs QQing?

Maybe due to the fact it is a steaming crock of exploitation and cheating and is designed so that bad players feel good about their prowess with huge advantages with gear.

Maybe we should ask to ban the QQerrs instead so they DO ‘Go back to WoW’

Most of replies to the OP have been constructive, it seems it is the WoW players being insidious.

You do realise that your WHOLE team can effect your skills by how they have built their characters and their skills can affect yours, giving a HUGE amount of diversity.

This isn’t a button mashing frenzy like WoW is, you have to synchronize with the rest of your team.

sPvP and WvW isn’t the place for that type of play though, find some mates and play tPvP and use voice comms to coordinate and practise.

The blue team have far better personal scores than red in that example, why wouldn’t they win?

UndergroundKing.4160:

No game-changing skills

I remember in WoW when I was a warrior, popping my CDs and throwing everything I could at an enemy, refusing to die because I’ve been pvping for so long. (erhmahgerd, another WoW noobs. Shush, just read.) In GW2, I use my “cooldowns”, gain an effect for, oh I don’t know, 20 seconds tops, and carry on. But there’s a problem… Only ONE warrior elite is for me.

TLDR
-Skills take forever to animate and cast, much down time.
-Little amount of skills, too much down time.
-No elites, no self-fulfilling satisfaction.
-We has variety! Lolz, jk.

WoW PvP, Veteran refusing to die, lol.

Outgear your enemies maybe….

Skills in GW2 have an animation, in WoW they have a casting bar, they still have a delay.
If you know what you are doing you have at least 20-30 skills to rotate through, although only a sadist would try for that.

Gear Imbalance, go back to WoW and crush new players in crafted blues in your t2 cata geared warrior, GW2 has balanced, skill based PvP, not gear progression that encourages ‘noob bashing’.

I also have PvP’d for a LONG time, starting in the heady days of Ultima Online and through a long cycle of games, some bad, some half decent.

My favourite PvP is Eve Online but that is a different type of PvP, not for the faint hearted.

GW2 is now my favourite competitive type PvP alongside LoL, why, because like LoL, it is balanced ( well GW2 is getting there, almost balanced and will be soon after a few more tweaks)

In other words ‘go back to WoW’

Carlin.1059:

Make arena with rating (Where you can buy gear for RATING).
Remove the whole tournament system, as it kitten sucks.

Here we have the problem guys, a WoW PvPer that wants to kerbstomp newer players by exploiting the rating system.

When will you fools realise that grinding for PvP gear just makes PvP exploitable and a joke, just like WoW PvP is.

Just a quick question guys, in tournament PvP when you make a team, is that team based on your account name or your character name?

For example you decide that you want to play a cc team v an opponent who is renowned for a certain setup but want to play triple mesmer in next game, can you do that or is the team tied to the character not the account?

lol just ignore stupid me, I just teleported out, drank to much stupid juice tonight.

ATM I am stuck in Terrain, I have reported it via the in game bug report system including a screenshot also asking for assistance to be moved,, I am just wondering if this is the correct way to get moved if stuck in Terrain?

BTW this is the third time it has happened, usually I can get an NPC to kill me so I can spawn at teleport but this time they won’t attack me although I can attack them.