Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
The amulets will be rebalanced to compensate for the loss of stats originally gained from trait lines.
This is probably as good of a place as any to mention that we’ll also be using this opportunity to rebalance PvP’s celestial amulet to be slightly less effective. We’re probably looking at a 10%~ decrease in overall stats, but this number can change as we draw closer to releasing the core specialization changes.
Is this relative to the current values or to the post-patch values?
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I don’t get why immobilize (and fear, for that matter) aren’t control effects to begin with.
Fear is both a control effect and condition, it can be removed with either. Anet even nerfed the melandru rune because it halved fear time.
Right; I meant exclusively a control effect.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I don’t get why immobilize (and fear, for that matter) aren’t control effects to begin with.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Yeah, I really have to agree. This game is becoming a textbook example what happens when power creep goes unchecked – just a bunch of cheese on cheese, rock-paper-scissors combat.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
What was unhealthy about it, it promoted skilled small group play (to obtain the buff) and skilled large group play to get the points for the stomps. Only problem was the stats that came with it giving the large groups with the buff an unfair advantage in fights.
The main thing is that it highly discouraged small roaming and going to maps where you’re outmanned, since the risk to reward ratio is so heavily skewed against you that you just become a liability. People still did it anyway, but doing so was basically the GW2 equivalent of feeding.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Stomp points were a bigger problem than the stats. They were extremely imbalanced and created a lot of very unhealthy incentives. I think they didn’t go far enough in removing them, honestly.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Thanks for this. The GvG issue is clearly one of the biggest pain points in WvW right now and I’m glad to see you’re addressing it.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Im no game developer, but how hard could it possibly to make an open field arena for GvG? No gimmicky mechanics needed, just Coliseum.
A lot. You need the mappers to create the map, you need the programmers to program the systems that allow the players to get in, and you need a system to prevent abuse (people who enter the map with no intention of fighting properly). You also have to consider opportunity cost – time spent working on these features is time spent not working on other ones that may be more important. It’s actually a fairly complex issue.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
This is really a shame. Employees need to learn that as long as they represent their company in public, their actions will be taken as the official company line. Players are going to see this as confirmation that ArenaNet hates GvG, and it’s just going to reduce trust and confidence further. That’s the last thing ArenaNet needs right now.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
NA servers get skill lag, too.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
man its just soooo funny heavy wvwers really dont get how much more attention they get then pvper and still kitten
I’d rather get no attention than changes that actively damage the game.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
As for material: what are you referring to when you say ‘vibrant’? Is there some in-game concept that I can cross reference for this?
Open up the dye screen, click the options cog, and sort by material. It will sort the dyes into “Vibrant”, “Natural Leather”, and “Natural Metallic”. You can also sort by hue here.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
If they did listen to us, it’s only because of drastically declining WvW numbers (as stated in Devon’s infamous alpha forum post).
To head it off at the pass, there have not been drastically declining WvW numbers, or even marginally declining numbers. WvW continues to be as strong as it has been over the past several months. We made some decisions internally and were able to accommodate changes that it didn’t seem feasibly originally and that’s why the changes that are going to be announced later this week happened.
Glad to hear that there are changes coming. I fear that they make be make or break for the core group of players, so I hope they’re good.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
My guess is they think changing up the system may refresh it and adding in rewards will bring more players in. Both are probably accurate, but a lot of animosity has developed from players who have been routinely mismatched.
We’ve already seen the effects of mismatched matchups. Players have been clamoring for them tighten the matchmaking range. ArenaNet is responding by making it significantly larger. THIS is where the animosity has come from: ArenaNet’s constant refusal to respond to any criticism and fix any of the problems.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
League of Legends put server performance as its highest priority. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have gotten out of 2010 as a healthy game. People don’t enjoy playing games that don’t work properly. ArenaNet would do well to learn that.
LoL servers have problems all the time, especially the EUW servers.
The current EUW servers problems are nothing compared to the server problems of early 2010. That’s not to say that the current problems aren’t a big deal – they are – but they’re not so bad that it kills the game entirely.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
League of Legends put server performance as its highest priority. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have gotten out of 2010 as a healthy game. People don’t enjoy playing games that don’t work properly. ArenaNet would do well to learn that.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
These are the incentives ArenaNet has created. If they actually thought about the consequences of their changes, this wouldn’t be happening.
The funny thing is we don’t have a clue of what will be the incentives except a unique finisher. Is it really worth tanking and getting 7 weeks of karmatrain/boredom ?
I mean the incentive to tank so you get in a lower league and thus easier matchups.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
These are the incentives ArenaNet has created. If they actually thought about the consequences of their changes, this wouldn’t be happening.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
It was posted on the alpha forums.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I honestly think the 24/7 week long matchup system needs a significant overhaul to really that scenario, but that’s something I never see changing.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I have some disorganized thoughts about the most recent changes. Here they are in no particular order.
The stat boost is the most criticised part of the changes, but I believe the point bonus on stomp is also unhealthy. The stat buff just has too much player downside. While WvW is a casual format at heart, there are still tons of players who play(ed) it seriously. I don’t see the gain in alienating your core audience with a new mechanic that doesn’t draw new players in. Devon Carver has publicly stated that the goal for Bloodlust is to create a gameplay mechanic that unifies and impacts all maps. This is a reasonable goal, but it absolutely should not come at the cost of the enjoyment of the players who are most invested.
Do some people who like the buff? Sure. Are there more people joining WvW than leaving? I can only speak for what I see on my home server, but the answer right now seems like an overwhelming “no.” Add the evidence that the buff is actually causing lag, and you have a pretty clear case that Bloodlust has done more harm than good
As for stomp points, I think these are harmful to the game even without stat boosts. From a balance standpoint, the bonus is game-warping on larger servers. From a gameplay standpoint, the bonus creates many unhealthy incentives. First, the balance issue. Let’s compare Bloodlust to Stonemist Castle. Stonemist Castle is worth 35 points every 15 minutes. That’s 2.33 points per minute. You don’t think a T1 server that has queued every map can manage 2.3 stomps a minute, or 0.58 stomps a minute per map? Of course they can. They can often manage well over that. Over 80 stomps per 15 minutes is not unreasonable for T1. Should Bloodlust really be worth twice that of Stonemist? That seems absurd to me. On the other hand, for smaller servers with coverage gaps, the buff can do almost nothing. Between the stat points discouraging play at off-peak hours and there simply not being many players out, the amount of stomps drops off dramatically, rendering the buff more or less inert. This is actually a symptom of an even bigger problem with WvW (the 24/7 week long matchup), but that’s another topic for another day.
The stomp penalty also encourages people to play less. First, small group roaming is discouraged. A group of 2-4 is zerg food unless you’re playing a highly mobile class. You’re also discouraged from running on a map where you’re outnumbered since there’s an inherently higher risk of dying, thus feeding points. You also have unhealthy cases like players logging out when they’re about to be stomped. If a game mechanic encourages you to log out in order to avoid consequences, that is a serious problem because it’s not even a game mechanic. Finally, you have the fights themselves. It’s Stomping during big fights is often suboptimal. That players are faced with an awkward decision: play optimally to win the fight but get fewer points, or play suboptimally to get more points but risk losing the overall fight. Why would you force this decision on us? Having tension in some decisions is good, but not when you’re forcing us to choose between the intrinsic reward of winning a fight and the extrinsic reward of gaining points.
I don’t really see any way to retain the mechanic while fixing the problems. You can’t fix the balance issue unless you want to start rewarding half or even quarter points, which then just makes it even more pointless on lower tier servers. You can’t fix the gameplay inventive problems because even at low values, players are still punished for going for “hero” captures or risky moves. It means that the optimal play is actually very passive, methodical, zerg play, and that’s way less fun.
Finally, though this is of little consequence, I have a serious problem with the name. It’s poor design to use the same word when naming two different game mechanics. The power stacking sigil has always been called “Bloodlust,” and using that word to describe an entirely different game mechanic leads to confusion and a loss of clarity. Seriously, couldn’t it have been called “Spoils of War” or something?
Hopefully this gets some people thinking.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Anet seems downright clueless when it comes to pvp as a whole. What the hell are you doing to WvW?
It’s so strange that a company that built its brand on high quality PVP now seems to be one of most incapable of balancing PVP. Maybe my source was right that all their best PVP people left the company and the people left behind don’t know how to do it…
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
+50 to +150 stat points doesn’t sound game breaking. However when I have the +150, whether in small scale 1v1-3 or roaming with my guild, I’ve been killing other players much more quickly and easily than usual.
Is it possible that the “+150” buff is giving us more than that? It seems to be right on the player stats page, but it does not seem to be right in practice.
Maybe the buff is not working properly, and giving the buffed players too much? It really feels like it.
Another poster explained this well:
Stats scale geometrically with each other in this game. It may not look like much at a glance, but in terms of force projection (Damage Per Second * Effective Health) [holding all three buffs] translates into roughly a 35% boost to character power.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
So if they removed the stat buffs and kept the capture points so that they still allowed you to capture 3 of them to get points per kill, would that be alright for all you guys who have problems with it?
I think the 3 points per kill introduces some really toxic incentives into the game. For example, if you are outmanned on a map, it no longer makes sense to have a skeleton crew there to cause some havoc and force the enemy to keep their team there – because getting killed while trying for objectives now feeds the enemy team points. A 5 man havoc squad getting caught and wiped at a tower might feed the enemy team as many points as you would have gotten stealing the tower in the first place.
The points on stomp punish risky play hard; they act as a strong incentive to not try when you are outmanned and any aggressive play has a good chance of you getting caught and killed. Tactical wiping is now extremely punishing, and engaging a bigger army than the one you have is sabotaging your team.
Basically, if you don’t own bloodlust, you should really be playing super passively – and that is not at all healthy for the game.
I also feel like the stomp bonus encourages players to log out when they’re downed. I know that you still give loot and experience if you do this, but I don’t think you surrender any points.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
The ruins have great art design!
Not really. I found the discordance kind of unsettling. You have a forested, hilly area right next to a place that has no grass whatsoever. These areas are next to very angular, sculpted ruins. It’s all just a mixed up mess that really messes with the general cohesion of the borderlands.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Think of WvW more as trying to beat the odds.
I hear this argument all the time, but trying to beat the odds is little more than a novelty. If the game isn’t fun after that novelty wears off, then you’re going to have a ghost town. WvW is rapidly heading this way.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
It’s just another matchup where the servers all have different peak times so it becomes a matter of which server can PvD the hardest when the other servers are asleep.
(Except Oceanics always win because there’s always at least SOME people around at NA peak.)
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Anyone else have some thoughts on this? Would like to hear from ANet directly on this, though I’m not getting my hopes up.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I have the fortune of being able to chat about game design with a lead designer at a very influential game developer. One of the most interesting things he’s told me is that while a lot of gameplay problems have fairly simple solutions, the true challenge is delivering these changes in a way that doesn’t frustrate a large portion of the playerbase. Though I didn’t understand at the time, I’ve come to realize that managing expectations is extremely important to the long-term happiness of the playerbase, and that failing to do so can create more problems than whatever you were trying to fix in the first place ever did. What solidified this belief is what I’ve witnessed in the defiant response to Bloodlust in the Borderlands. Whether you agree or disagree with the implementation of Bloodlust, it’s hard to argue thakittenrepresents a major change in WvW. It’s also hard to argue that this change hasn’t fractured the community and engendered resentment between various groups of players. I feel like, regardless of the new gameplay, WvW is worse for it because of the damage it has done to the community. These problems could have been avoided by better managing the expectations of the players.
Something that content developers (be it game designers, writers, artists, etc.) struggle with is the concept that their creations are not entirely theirs. The communities around these works guide their direction just as much as the people who created them. Often, only minor adjustments are required to accommodate the communities, but sometimes there are more extreme cases. Take Super Smash Bros. for example; it was designed as a casual party game, but it developed a large tournament scene. Another example is My Little Pony; it was designed as a television show for young girls, but it developed a large adult male fanbase. I feel like WvW also belongs in this group. It was designed as a more casual PVP environment that simulates war (and all of its unfairness), but it became the place where competitive players went to have large-scale, evenly matched, open field battles with few objectives involved. In cases like these, the developers need to make a decision: is it worth changing our vision to accommodate this new demographic? Are we equipped to deal with the backlash that comes with heading in a different direction than the one they expect? If a developer does not ask these questions, they may be faced with an angry, fractured community – just as ArenaNet is experiencing with WvW.
I feel like this was a long time coming. This development team has implemented many controversial changes, and in doing so they have failed to adequately manage player expectations and have failed to clearly communicate their overall vision to the community. They have not changed course based on the evolving play styles of their players, and in doing so are going in a direction that is not in their best interests. Community is critical, and as I stated before, these divisive changes damage the community. A common argument is that players who were not playing according to the intended WvW rules are disruptive and harmful to the overall campaign. It is not hard to see that they will need to become even more disruptive to the campaign in order to continue playing in their own way. Why implement changes that incentivize players to do this? It speaks to a lack of understanding of the community and all its facets, and things are only going to get worse if the developers do not become more transparent and more in-touch with ALL of their players.
I really hope this debacle is a wake-up call to the WvW team. Where you sit on this side of the Bloodlust debate should not be your primary concern right now. I would be more concerned with the lack of community management and understanding that the WvW team is demonstrating. Unless they realize that game design is so much more than creating gameplay systems behind closed doors, we’re just going to have more controversies and fights in the future. We’re already seeing established members of the community leaving not because they’ve stopped enjoying the game, but because they’ve lost faith in ArenaNet. It is way harder to regain faith and trust than it is to fix a gameplay problem. I just hope the WvW team comes to understand this before it’s too late.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
(edited by violentlycar.5267)
- GvGer asking in map chat others to leave the map…because some of their guildies dont get in…
- GvGers obstructing a map with their numbers without contributing in the slightest, not careing for towers, camps etc….while score goes down and down and…
- GvGers want to make our beloved WvWvW into WvWThat are my top 3 problems with those players….
Imho AN should slice a borderland into 4 own maps and put them into the Custom arenas (maybe extra rent fee in gem shop to support?) to let guilds play their 100vs100 in a really competetive way …?
I have never, ever seen this happen.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
At least make the buff stats identical to “an ingame consumable” such a food or oil..so we can make it fair manually. The side without buff eats that food and do GvG.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon%27s_Revelry_Starcake is pretty kitten close.
It’s also expensive as hell.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I vote to ban GvG oriented guilds to a specific server where there is no pve and no wvw only a single map with no npc that allow them to play 20vs20 and leave the whole world in peace : and guess what : they would be happy lol
It may surprise you to learn that most organized guilds play considerably more WvW than GvG, and that pretty much every server’s standing in the rankings is a result of THEIR work.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
While Devon’s answer is silly, How come GvG players don’t take into account the whole Healing/Health Bonus you get from having a greater amount of points then the other side?
We do, and it is also undesirable, but it’s not quite game-breaking like bloodlust would be.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
No. That is not a possibility at this time. The point of the buff is to affect the WvW game mode as a whole disabling it on your character would lessen the value of the buff to a server and completely invalidate the whole point.
Devon, it’s become quite resoundingly clear that the WvW ANET team do NOT understand the jewel in their crown, that is WvW open combat. By hook or crook you guys actually made an amazing fast paced, free flowing combat system – that you ARENT even aware of.
Open field combat is frankly amazing (when your servers aren’t lacking like kitten). You do nothing but shun this type of gameplay, revolving every single aspect/update about siege wars. You are either blind to what you have or just plain ignorant, obsessed with your vision of the game, when in reality what you gave the players is far superior to what you intend do deliver. Yet you keep making mind boggling changes that hinder any sort of balance, making everything revolve around zerging and siege. Hell you call coverage SKILL << congratulations.
You really should watch some videos of guilds in action, I am not even suggesting GvG videos (you can’t even bring yourself to say it) I’m talking guilds taking on the masses. Rewarding skill and teamwork taking on superior numbers. Now though, you want to give the servers with the most coverage 150 to each stat.
Please Devon Clarify what “vision” what “insight” there is to rewarding skill less easy moders stacking on the top servers, running in their giant blobs with even more stat bonuses?
Or in English, how about a statement on what is your vision of WvW. Please say sitting on an AC is still one of the most exciting things you’ve ever done, please.
Yours sincerely, one avid WvW open field combat loving Guild Leader.
I think this really succinctly sums up the feelings of a lot of the community. We’re so defensive because we feel like we’re losing the fun of open field combat for a system that is less so. We’re fighting back because we actually enjoy this game and don’t want to see it go down this path. I hope ANet realizes this before it’s too late.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Pretty much this. You’re all missing the point. WvW isn’t about ‘fair open field fights’. It isn’t about GvG. It’s not about individualism. It’s about the entire server cooperating to win against two other servers. If you get the option to take away that buff for the sole purpose of fair fights and small, even combat, then you aren’t helping your server. If that isn’t what you want, then go PvP.
Yes, I understand that PvP doesn’t allow the larger 15v15 or 20v20. Yes, I understand that it’s something that should at least be done. But it doesn’t belong in WvW, and band-aiding that onto WvW isn’t something that should happen.
The outstanding problem is that a significant amount of players have started playing WvW in their own way that’s a lot more fun than the way ANet wants it to be played. With every change they make that compromises the way these guild players play, resentment grows and the community fractures further. Something needs to be done, and the way Devon and the team are currently going about it is not the way to go.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
No. That is not a possibility at this time. The point of the buff is to affect the WvW game mode as a whole disabling it on your character would lessen the value of the buff to a server and completely invalidate the whole point.
It makes me sad that a game with such an astoundingly good core design is being kitten ed away so hard.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Your changes have focused on making siege a stronger and more central part of WvW while the community at large wants siege to be a supplement at best.
Speak for yourself. You don’t represent the entire WvW playerbase.
Indeed. Siege IS a central part of WvW and all these arrogant people who say “no one wants stronger siege” should get off their high horse and just shut up already. If you dislike siege, it doesn’t mean everyone else dislikes it too. You are just one loudmouth with an opinion, that’s all.
I admit I’m as disappointed with WvW as anyone, but Devon and his team is working hard it seems and I truly believe WvW will improve a lot in the near future. If it doesn’t, then I guess I’ll start crying too.
Admittedly my perception comes entirely from my home server, where I would say the vast majority of the regulars find the game less fun when heavy siege is involved. If half of our community loves the siege focus and the other half hates it, then I fear that there isn’t really going to be a good solution to the problem that doesn’t alienate a significant portion of the playerbase.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
We are focused on making WvW as fun as it can possibly be and we will continue to make changes to WvW with that in mind.
Your changes have focused on making siege a stronger and more central part of WvW while the community at large wants siege to be a supplement at best. I can’t help but feel like we’re not on the same page here, and it’s making the players resentful.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
GWH engi from Yak’s Bend, please stop fast cast skill hacking & with ele skills… (No I wasn’t in air attune when fighting then, I was in water attune switching from fire attune from the theif burst when I got bursted by the engi, last two SSs prove it.) >.> I doubt any engi can spam this many skills within 1 second to insta-down me -_- And yeah, I have the combat logs to prove it.
(First pic is the accusee, rest are chat logs from the “fight”)
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Static_Discharge
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Surprise_Shot_%28engineer_skill%29
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Personal_Battering_Ram
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Air
Educate yourself.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
We got Stonemist.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
The simple logic behind the nerf is completely kittened IMO. A grandmaster trait is considered too powerful on the Necromancer, but the exact same trait in the adept line on the Engineer is considered balanced? They do realize the Necromancers are going 30 points into this line for that trait, right? Gimme a break. I play both btw, and this is one of the most completely kittened nerfs I have ever seen. ANet devs have absolutely no idea what they are doing with this game atm.
Balance is not in a vacuum. You can’t compare two traits directly because their power is contextual based on other tools those classes have.
(Plus Incendiary Powder is probably overpowered, too).
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Pretty much every transform ability in the game is worthless because the mechanic locks out utilities. The only decent ones are Elixir S and Mist Form (and they got way worse lately), Plague (perma-blind and extreme tankiness), and Transform Moa (because it forces a horribly unpowered mechanic onto your opponent).
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Unfortunately, the game doesn’t match your vendetta-laced view of how professions perform.
What vendetta? When new players that have no idea what they are doing fight, thieves are dominant – to a point of actually being a problem from a player retention standpoint. This is very clear in the data.
That dominance disappears once you get to a skill level that uses dodge rolls. However, you would be shocked at the percentage of the player base that isn’t at that level. You just don’t see a whole lot of them because they get blown up in their first couple games and never play again.
If you want further evidence of this, look up the history of “Evelynn” in League of Legends. The “stealth burst” archetype in flawed in pretty much any multiplayer game and will almost always have serious problems. GW2 is no different.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I’m going to say it, I told you all so.
People asked for randomized matches, alternating matches and we got them. Look where we are. People are not happy getting blown out, people are not happy steamrolling. It isn’t fun doing either. At least under the old system, more matches were balanced than what we have now.
And when they do balance out, we’ll still be back where we all were before randomized matches.
I told you all so.
Randomized matches can be fine. The issue is that the current matchmaker has a far, far too large range right now. I feel like there should only be randomization if servers are within around 100 of the next tier. Looking at the NA rankings right now, I feel like the following matches should be locked in:
1. Blackgate/Sanctum of Rall/Jade Quarry (4th place is 120 points away)
2. Tarnished Coast/Dragonbrand/Fort Aspenwood (7th place is 126 points away)
Then when you get to the T3 matchup, Sea of Sorrows would be guaranteed while Maguuma, Crystal Desert, Ehmry Bay, and Crystal Yak’s Bend are subject to matchmaking (as Yak’s Bend is within 100 points of Crystal Desert, the 9th place team, but Kaineng is not), and so on down the list until you have your matches made.
You would carry on this way until you get to T6, where there is a 213 point gap between the 15th and 16th place servers. In T6, Gate of Madness would be guaranteed for that matchup while the matchmaking could pick up anyone all the way down to Sorrow’s Furnace (who are within 100 points of the 18th place team).
This system seems far more reasonable as a randomizing mechanism. There would still be some kinks to work out (mainly how it would handle a big ratings gap in the middle of matchup where a fair match would be very hard to make), but it surely can’t be inferior to the current system.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
Everyone is unhappy about this and yet ANet is silent. They make me appreciate Riot Games and its openness so much more.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
When you introduced randomized matchmaking to try to break up stagnant matchups and add variety to WvW, it sounded like a reasonable enough goal. Some matches in particular were very stale and driving people away. However, I’m very concerned that the current matchmaking system is doing even more harm. I’m looking at the point range in this week’s NA matchups and it’s kind of absurd:
Tier 1: 56 points. The top three servers are fighting each other once again. This is fine.
Tier 2: 277 points. This is the fifth time in the last seven weeks that Sea of Sorrows has had to suffer Tarnished Coast and it’s becoming a running joke.
Tier 3: 367 points. Yak’s Bend lost WvW guilds because of their horrible matches, and how do you reward them? Make them fight the fifth rated server. How does this help anyone?
I could continue going down the list and it would be the same stuff over and over again. I could look over at EU and see a similar pattern in many of their matchups. This really has to stop. Furthermore, this radio silence from ArenaNet has to stop. Keeping quiet is only going to frustrate more and more people and drive more and more people away from the game. How many more posts like this one will it take for ArenaNet to actually address this problem? I get that there are some pretty big fish to fry with WvW, but I can’t imagine that tightening up the matchmaking search parameters is a particularly long-term task. Please do something. It’s not fun for the stompers and it’s not fun for the stomped.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
I still like my idea of two concurrent games with their own ratings: one that runs from, say, 12 PM local time to12 AM local time, then another that runs from 12 AM local time to 12 PM local time. There are a lot of ups and downs of the system, but it would do a lot to mitigate the coverage problem.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
It probably wouldn’t get worse so much as it would be more common. Skill lag is fairly rare outside of tier 1, but if it indeed would cause more load to remove or increase the AoE cap, we’d probably see it pretty consistently in lower tiers as well.
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”
That three-way fight in Mag Bay is some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing WvW. That’s the sort of thing I wish could happen all the time instead of all the one-sided PvD we often get. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Maguuma – plays Asuras with various permutations of the name “Viocar”