Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[vian]

Yup. 3 times. I sent another email right after reading this thread. So 3 times now.

Ever heard case queues?

Try not sending any more tickets or emails.

[Fencers]

Ever heard case queues?

Try not sending any more tickets or emails.

3 emails over 2 weeks ought to be reasonable. If Anet can not handle or get back to me in that span- they are doing a poor job.

This issue was resolved a few days ago anyway.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Even if the new Elite Specs don't cover new ground mechanically, they can still introduce new class fantasies and aesthetics into the game.

[Fencers]

Even if the new Elite Specs don't cover new ground mechanically, they can still introduce new class fantasies and aesthetics into the game.

Those are things cooked up by fans, correct? I'm scratching my head this would be written as such or what the design expression is with this stuff if Anet put it out themselves.

[Roanda]

Since random BG queues in WoW are taking 12 to 20 minutes...i quit...to play Guild Wars 2 PvP

Played and learned the following specs:
Condi Herald (mid low tier)
Willbender (good tier)
Spellbreaker (good tier)

Am having tons of fun.
Reply to me if interested in some of these pvp specs. I can teach

[Val the Moofia Boss]

For me it was the opposite. I went from grinding GW2 SPvP last year (managed to reach gold 3 as Untamed in the regular 5v5 seasons, and I think I might have briefly dipped into platinum during a 2v2 offseason?) to doing RBGs again and premade epic BGs in WoW this year. I managed to grind all of the PvP league tickets and ascended shards of glory I needed to make a full set of legendary armor. Then I calculated the cost of buying the other mats needed to make the full set and it came up to $400. I already have 5 sets of armor so the stat changing properties are useless to me, and I wasn't going to drop $400 on a minor stat increase when I don't do PvE. Obviously stats don't matter in SPvP. Maybe if WvW wasn't so utterly neglected, I might have considered crafting it, but as of now I just wouldn't use it. Then I realized that while I had fun doing SPvP, I wasn't really motivated to do any more. So I quit.

GW2's combat is fun. I like the animations. I prefer the visual look of WoW but GW2's animations are more pleasing. I like that there are only 10 abilities which I can very comfortably macro to 1 through 6, R, T, G, and X, whereas with WoW I need to have even more keybinds AND a third action bar with items on it to click like soulstones, the Alterac Valley teleport toy, battleground potions, goblin gliders, and so on. GW2 is really easy to pick up and play. I suppose the SPvP announcers are also nice.

Unfortunately, the SPvP maps aren't very fun to play, IMO. They are all king of the hill/capture and hold maps. There are always 3 stationary points you're trying to hold and whoever holds the most for the longest wins. It gets old after several hundred hours. WoW's RBGs have a lot of these too, but those maps are bigger. The travel time between points is a lot longer, to the point that you need to mount up. This gives you periods of rest during a match in between fights. It also adds to the decision making as sending people to a point is a commitment. Also, WoW's maps have variety. You have king of the hill/capture and hold maps that have 3 stationary points to hold like Gilneas, or 3 moving carts to hold (that can be redirected!) like Silvershard mines. Or 5 points to hold like Arathi Basin and Deepwind Gorge. Or 4 points to hold and a flag to capture like Eye of the Storm. And then you have completely different game modes such as capture the flag maps.

My other issue is the PvP community. I spent hundreds of hours doing ranked SPvP in GW2 over 9 months last year, and only once did I ever group with another player to do SPvP, and only for a couple days. You don't see anyone in the Mists forming groups for ranked SPvP, nor do people add each other after a match is over. The only groups are for the automated SPvP tournaments, but you don't get ranked rewards for doing. So you're ostensibly playing a social game but there is no socializing happening.

Contrast that with WoW. There is no automatic group finder or queueing for RBGs. You have to scroll through the LFG list and join a group. Within the first week of PUGing, I got invited to three different RBG communities and joined their Discords. I'm not talkative, but just having familiar people to play and despair and triumph with massively improves the experience.

Another thing that alienated me from GW2 PvP is that at a certain point, you realize that GW2's active PvP playerbase is quite small. You start noticing the same names over and over again. And then you start noticing that people are throwing games, and you get clued into the fact that there is wintrading going on. At the top end of the game, PvPers add each other to their friend's list, and try to manipulate queues so they do not get into the same game as each other (by waiting until their friend gets into a match before queuing), and if they get into the same match on opposite sides then one person throws the game by AFKing in base. This is terminal for a 5v5 format. If you're not in the club then you cannot climb past a certain point.

GW2 does not have a lot of cool rewards to get from ranked. In WoW, you have hundreds of transmog items to buy with marks of honor. There are dozens of Vicious Saddle mounts. And then there are a plethora of toys and pets you can obtain and use in RP, such as pennants or squires or flags. You can also get titles for use in SPvP, like being Blood Guard Orukurak. In GW2, there are only three legendary armor skins to craft, and that's it.

My last issue with GW2 PvP and WvW is that it just doesn't have a strong fantasy to me. There is no Horde vs Alliance are a member of, no war to be invested in. You're not fighting over recognizable locations in the world like Halfhill or Gilneas or Netherstorm. In GW2, it's just random people fighting random people in vague locations. WvW provides larger scale warfare, but once again it's three identical looking sides fighting each other over ambiguous locations. Also, WvW is fun for a few hours, but then gets stale. You never definitively "win" during a play session. It's just zergs travelling around in circles flipping the same forts forever, or two zergs out in the field smashing into each other forever. There is also the issue that the WvW has shrunken to a fraction of its formerself and the WvW guilds are concentrated on a handful of servers. You have to pay for a server transfer to get to those servers. If the server is full then you have to transfer to the linked server, which changes every few months so you have to keep transferring in order to continue playing with the same WvW guild. The actual WvW guild gameplay experience isn't very entertaining either. It's just everyone being silent in Discord while the zerg leader is shouting which way he is heading and everyone just stacks on top of him. It isn't like WoW where multiple people are allowed to talk and the group is splitting up to perform multiple objectives such as backcapping in Alterac Valley and summoning bosses.

GW2 also does not have open world PvP, whereas in WoW there is a thrill to playing in war mode. Mobs haven't been a threat in over a decade, but with war mode on you still at least vaguely feel like there is danger and that keeps you on your toes.