[delete thief]

Well,  its been awhile since I played GW1 and familiarized myself with the meta game there.

I recall playing Assassin builds that incentivized more aggressive play over something like stealth seeing as it wasn't possible there and there was onky shadow-stepping.

It might not fit thematically with something like Thief in GW2, but could there be traits that want to push the Thief meta towards that or does Daredevil already accomplish that?

[delete thief]

Well. What counter play options do other professions have to counter stealth besides Revealed?

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

1 hour ago, ramorambo.6701 said:

-watch some good pvper (notoriousnaru, boycerino, sindrener, benzoabuse, zenyus to name a few. they all have vods and are good players)

-find your optimal options (keybinds, type of targeting etc. i believe you can find guides on youtube)

-have fun and go invisible status ingame if people start to flame you in whispers

Watching the best does seem like a good idea, even if one cannot emulate exactly what they do, it does seem like getting into PvP is partially a mental state as well. Seeing as some people might need go 'invisible' as some members can be unbecoming in chat.

1 hour ago, shadowpass.4236 said:

Here's an up to date beginner's guide to PvP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsn8fcW_Ujs

It'll teach you everything you need to know to get started.

Thank you for the resource. This also looks like a good place to start as well seeing as it has timestamps to find exactly what one might be looking for.

[delete thief]

Wait, is OP suggesting that we also remove Rangers, Engineers and Mesmers for having traits, weapon skills and utilities that grant access to stealth?!

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

7 hours ago, SlipLihte.1307 said:

On a personal note, I will just say that there is a lot about PvP that is currently not working so well (mostly related to the number of players, presence of bots, and the way players are matched). Unfortunately, this has the knock-on effect of making a couple of people a little salty. Best to ignore this and try to take the positives where you can.

 

Thank you very much for the links. I do watch some of their content already but I hadn't looked into MukLuk's or Teapots PvP content yet.

I have also read about the botting, player pop. and match making issues as well. I try to take them with a grain of salt as oppose to being salty since I haven't done enough PvP recently to really make any judgements. I will give those a watch though!

7 hours ago, Zexanima.7851 said:

All in all, there are just some matches you'll be completely out classed in. Instead of tilting and giving up it's better to try to make it as close of a match as possible. It's a great opportunity to see how they play and what they did right and what you did wrong. 

That's sound advice. Your examples also make a lot of sense. Things can quickly snowball and become untenable if you and your team cannot or do not respond appropriately.

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

6 minutes ago, Zexanima.7851 said:

On the more game-itself specific stuff, I wish I had spent the time to learn all the professions earlier. This really helps you in fighting them in the long run. You know what to look out for and what their win condition is vs you. Plus, you might find a new profession you really like! It will take time to learn everything but it's worth learning if you want to improve. Enjoy the process of learning it to! Don't rush, take your time and enjoy playing wacky/crap/meme builds.

Awesome advice all around, thanks. I see people talk about other professions either here or on the subreddit talking about how profession 'x' or 'y' is "busted" because someone did this thing and it seems unfair. That might be the experience when on the receiving end sure, but more players should consider "What did they do and how?" rather than "This seems unfair."

That way they can achieve all of what you so adequately put.

I also like your advice for general matches:

11 minutes ago, Zexanima.7851 said:

1) Don't fight outnumbered. If our respawns are staggered or we're trickling in regroup and push out as a team. 

2) We only need two nodes to win so if we can't win team fights on mid focus side nodes and split their resources. 

3) Keep an eye on enemy respawns/map locations and rotate accordingly. Do not sacrifice team fight potential to help in a 1v1.

As @voltaicbore.8012 mentioned, there are just going to be some players that are just better than you and your current skill level. 1v1 is a lost cause right? But a single skilled player doesn't win the match right?

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

7 minutes ago, voltaicbore.8012 said:

Unfortunately while (2) is 99.9999% of the time the right answer, it is extremely difficult for most people to accept it. Even worse, even after your team chooses option (2) and rotates into different objectives, your team might still lack the right composition to pull it off. So if this expert kiter on the other team is trolling your home node, and your team wisely decides not to rotate into him, you all might still have a very bad comp when it comes to pushing far while holding mid.

The last bit I want to add is, don't be that guy who says to his team "hey dudes I was holding 1v3 for X minutes, why are we losing the map still?!?!?" Realize that if you can hold a 1v3, there could easily be someone on the other team who is also good at holding 1v2 or 1v3, immediately negating the advantage your 1v3 ability brings.

Thanks for sharing.

Map familiarity does seem extremely important. From the footage I have seen, veterans know the map very well and they seem to almost glide across areas of the map geometry with ease. This seems to allow them the ability to avoid using cooldowns all while avoiding most if any damage at all.

On your last point, I did consider the idea that chat just be turned off but that doesn't seem conducive to a team based mode. Shouting at teammates over "Why...?!" isn't very productive.

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

1 hour ago, Avatar.3568 said:

Last thing to train, don't watch at your teammates mistakes, try to find your own mistakes and how they affect everything else in the match. Or even better look what you can do to help your mates to win. 

Thank you. Your entire post is very insightful but I personally believe this point here is what many players, not only in GW2 but all competetive games should try to embrace. There is little one can do to control others besides critique or flaming which only yeilds as much results that the other person is willing to give in the first place.

Perhaps I will just work on practicing what feels right for me and work on map familiarity, mini-map, rotations and my matchups. I suppose these are all things that come over time. I also want to make sure I don't fall back into old habits. Admittedly, I did play some PvP back in 2014, but the school of thought from what I recall was "Fight on node."

1 hour ago, Avatar.3568 said:

3. Dying on node doesn't Archiv anything (outside the last 5 points) holding a point against way more enemys, has nothing to do with honor its just stupid, leaving the fight will let you have impact somewhere else (far or close), instead of getting 3 more points from holding the node but than dying, giving 5 points the enemy and let you be on 15 seconds respawn timer. 

However this is a very good point, I will keep this in mind and try to have a "Survive and rotate." mindset.

2 hours ago, Widmo.3186 said:

Dont start 🙂
And about getting lots of new players, its really pink glasses point of view. Especially with current advertisement of ANet. Atm most MMO PvP players that are looking out for new games to try out are keeping an eye on Lost Ark, thats the most promising one. If EoD is gonna bring some new players, its gonna be PvE ones.

Well, that's a valid opinion but I want to consider what people want to do in and around PvP for Guild Wars 2. If Lost Ark is a superior PvP game that's fine but that might be something best left to be discussed on their forums as well as subreddits and the like.

2 hours ago, Guirssane.7082 said:

Honestly just read https://guildjen.com/beginners-guide-to-gw2-pvp/

It has everything you should know. And some more advanced guide as well here https://guildjen.com/category/gw2/pvp/pvpguide/

I've read and watched some of their guides. It's quite extensive and I agree that it is probably one of the best places to start.

I suppose I just want to see and hear what others think besides what some of the more dedicated members of our community thought.

[Where to Start for PvP as Someone New to the Game Mode]

I wanted to ask those that are familiar with PvP on what their thoughts are on a few things pertaining to the PvP game mode.

1. In your opinion, what are good professions / builds and roles one should start on to begin their journey into PvP?

2. What in your opinion are some of the most important things one should practice and learn about PvP besides one's profession / build / role?

3. What is something you wish you knew / did when you started out on your PvP journey?

The reason I wanted to ask these questions is simply because I personally want to try getting into it as it is the one game mode I have neglected playing the most. To add to that, we are likely going to get a good amount of new players with the realease of End of Dragons as well as with the Steam release and these could be things that completely new players would want to know as well.

At any rate, thanks for reading, would love to hear your thoughts.

[So let me get this straight [Merged]]

4 hours ago, Tukaram.8256 said:

That is a great idea.  All the time we see post from people who bought expansions and are upset about the addon content.  Just offer a package with it.  

I like the sound of that idea as well. They could for example sell two versions of the HoT and PoF package.

Expansions Only Ver.: $29.99 USD, Contains the expansions Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire.

Expansion and Living World Set: Contains Living World Seasons 2, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, Living World Season 3, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire and Living World Season 4. I can't comment on what an appropriate pricing would be, but I imagine they could find a reasonable price.

Finally an Ultimate Edition that contains everything, all LW seasons, HoT, PoF and Icebrood Saga. Eventually the umbrella of an Ultimate Edition could be expanded to include End of Dragons  and Living World Season 5. Where as just expansion versions are HoT, PoF and EoD only.

 

[So let me get this straight [Merged]]

There is a certain point that yes,  Living World Episodes should just be tacked on and added for free as it is leaving a segment of the playerbase cut off from certain maps and their content. The last thing any game should really want is to segment their playerbase more and more and leave players in a situation where one might have episodes  1 and 3 and missing 2 or 4. This player has season 3 but not 2.

Then again new players today are able to purchase Path of Fire and Heart of Thorns as a set where as I bought them as two sepparate games. Am I upset about that? No. I enjoyed my time in each expansion and still do to this day do. The last thing I would want is to gatekeep newer players from playing the same content as me simply because I bought it earlier than another and said "I guess this is the price I'll pay..."

Last point is that you can convert gold to Gems to purchase any episodes you are missing. Granted as a newer player, making gold might be a little harder than a vetran or someone will multiple accounts. Once you get the ball rolling however it becomes much easier to get the gold you need and spend it on what you like and want the most. That point is specific to Living World Episodes too as you can just buy them with Gems and never have to get your card out even once to get them.

[Flamethrower best kept secret?]

It's a strong kit that had less play in large scale WvW due to Retaliation being a death sentence, but now that it is Resolution there is viability to using it. Some other tweaks to it such as Flame Blast being a ground target blast finish allows for some decent damge an best of all, the blast capability to blast a water field or fire field depend on your greatest need. Also Smoke Vent can be used to secure a stomp as it doesn't cancel the stomp animation. 

The toolkit itseld likely get's crap for being the easy kit and it is true that it can be used in a mindless sort of way, that being just spamming Flame Jet over and over but for the above reasons it has a lot of good situational use that is a mix of support, defense and offense.

[Question about Holo and open world junk...HP's, Big bad dudes, stupid hydras, that kind of thing.]

Engineer is not listed at all? That seems a bit odd.

I know Scrapper, even when running pure Berserker gear now has a decent amount if sustain thanks to some trait reworks and the constaint barrier for simply attacking, which would support an aggressive playstyle. Couple that with the amount of mobs some events have in open PvE and you can easily max out barrier while in-combat.

Holo should have no trouble either thanks to the traits and armor swaps @Stx.4857 mentioned. If you want a little more protection, using shield in off-hand also helps.

[Outnumbered buff = I leave the map]

2 hours ago, UmbraNoctis.1907 said:

But what if those bodies aren't there for the participating and fighting and avoid those things as much as possible? More isn't always better in a game mode that offers as much freedom (and therefore potential exploitation) as WvW.

Good point.

We would want to incentivize particular play and make that more rewarding. I'm not going to pretend that I know the answer to that though. I know Grouch has mentioned he would like to make playing say a healer more rewarding.

Could it be possible to make certain activities more rewarding than others? Perhaps running Yaks get's players 'x' amount of pips or reward track at a rate of 'x' and combat and pushing objectives gets players 'y' pips and 'y' reward track rate?

[Outnumbered buff = I leave the map]

We also need to keep in mind the fact that WvW is currently being iterated on and that the changes to Outnumbered is leftovers of an old system made for the purpose of, what?

To draw players to a specific map to engage in fights and make them more even. Outnumbered as a concept will be likely be either done away with, or made into something else due to the granularity of the Alliance System once it is out of beta.

I see a lot of various opinions on rewards and motivations for playing as well. Perhaps even a little gatekeeping? Josh Davis has said he wants rewards to be reworked as well and that WvW is not rewarding enough. He and the rest of the WvW team want to rectify that.

It doesn't really matter why someone is playing WvW, only that we want more people in it, participating and playing. Whether you're a new player, someone in it for a particular item or a seasoned veteran we should be focused on getting more bodies in there and fighting. It's a cornerstone game mode so let's all act like it!

[Can't launch game after the November 9, 2021 update]

Has Arenanet even acknowledged this issue and spoken on it at any length at this point?

[Kintsugi Raptor Lacking Similar Details the Jackal Has]

1 hour ago, HotDelirium.7984 said:

Basically the mount is lacking the fidelity the original jackal one has. They SHOULD keep the same level of quality in all mounts especially ones that cost a lot of gems.

I agree. All mounts that belong to a particular 'set' should carry the same level of fidelity for sure. I'm not quite sure how to categorize the mounts, but lets call them 'License Sets' and 'Uniques'

I agree that the single purchase unique mounts deserve their own tweaks to idles and their animations as they typically cost 2,000 gems alone.

The license sets do not need their own unique animations, but the sound variation and more subtle animations to their bodies are a great touch. (Things like glowing or energy emitting from them.) These mounts are typically not as expensive and can be rolled randomly for 400 gems or bought directly for 1,200.

It's just an issue as you said when these mounts are not of the same fidelity even though they are part of the same set. Not only that they are rolled out over time so purchasing an entire set is not exactly cheap or easy.

I'd appreciate a little more attention to such details from Arenanet when considering the mount skins.

[Kintsugi Raptor Lacking Similar Details the Jackal Has]

Just wanted to bring attention to other players as well as the devs in case this is intended or not.

 

The Kintsugi 'set' of mounts now has the Jackal and the Raptor which was added in todays patch. They are both very nice mounts and I like both of them very much. I intend to get the remaining ones when they are released but I wanted to note that the Raptor is lacking some details.

 

The golden or 'kin' parts of the raptor do not glow like the jackal does. Also the Jackal has a very specific dust/mist trail as it runs. Most jackals do so this may be entirely intentional, but the raptor does not have a trail whatsoever. Both the mount and dismount animations match up so there are no issues there.

 

Just know for anyone that might be interested in getting these mounts and to be mindful in the future if/when Arenanet should add to the set.

[Lags in game and market]

As far as I know the TP has been having issues for the last 8 to 9 hours. People in-game have been asking about it as well.

 

I would avoid using the TP for now until the issue is resolved.

[Well GW2 has ruined me ☹]

2 minutes ago, Dante.1763 said:

I got to i think level 30 before i stopped. All i could stand of it.

That's pretty good. I mean if you're not having fun then why even bother. I'd tell anybody playing our game the same. If you're not enjoying it then stop.

 

How long would you say it took you to get to 30? Also do you happen to know how close to the end of the main campaign that is?

[Well GW2 has ruined me ☹]

22 minutes ago, Dante.1763 said:

Unfortunately FFXIV couldn't grab me at all, and im not going to push through the horrible lower levels to get to the "good stuff". Game needs to be good from the get go. FFXIV imo is not that.

That's how I felt as well. Granted I only played about an hour and a half before I started feeling like I was just fetch questing and running back and forth between point A and B. I also didn't like the combat.

 

However I am considering giving it another shot. Tyria will always be my home though. I am always going to hold other titles up to GW2 for better or for worse.

[Well GW2 has ruined me ☹]

13 hours ago, Perisemiotics.4579 said:

please play at least the core game to the end, and possibly the first expansion too (which is, now, also free) - combat picks up nicely and voiceovers are added past the first part of the game. Play the full game before comparing, guys.

Can you give an estimate of how long it takes to get through the ARR campaign?

[New path to legendary armor?]

41 minutes ago, Lord Trejgon.2809 said:

Frankly to expand on this point, the only reason I don't raid is time constraint - even if we disregard gear, learning encounters etc, assembling a raid squad, and actually getting those wings cleared is multi-hour venture, and I don't play GW2 because I have time for multi-hour ventures on single sitting, I play GW2 because I don't and in most of it, GW2 is very friendly towards people on time constraints like me.

That's more or less the reason I don't get into raiding besides the very few times I did do them. I just can't commit my time to one single sitting on top of getting a group of 10 people and clear mutliple wings. That's also why I primarily play Fractals and Strikes. They are raid like experiences that you can jump into relatively quickly and clear in a relatively short time depending on group experience.

 

6 minutes ago, Sarrs.4831 said:

I'm kinda confused because people are talking about easy mode/beginner mode raids. That's Strike Missions. It was the developers' explicit intent for Strike Missions to be an easy raid. It even has a (mostly) unique armor set attached to it.

 

It seems backwards and silly to try to push 'easy mode raids' just so that people can get Envoy armor.

You completely right. Considering that point there really is not much of a reasont to beginner/easy raids. It does offer unique armor but it unfortunately is not legendary quality.

[New path to legendary armor?]

12 minutes ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

But I'm not okay to simplify rewards just because you want something, but do not want to put effort in it :/.

No disagreement there. I only brought the video up because I wanted people to at least know that there are team comps out there that make raids more manageable. That is a good point though that most of the people in the video have perhaps the most important factor, experience and skill.

 

They know how to play their class because they took the time to get to that point.

 

My input on this topic thus far has just been to find different ways for players to put time and effort into making legendary armor.

 

Outstanding post by @Cyninja.2954. Everyone should take a moment to read that! That said, yes there is no way the WvW or PvE legendary armor acquisition methods are going to match one another as was said. They were never meant to be.

 

So, is there another way? What about what we are doing with the EoD amulet and precursor weapon now with the Living World replays? Does this feel like a reasonable time commitment to get a legendary amulet and a precursor weapon of your choosing? Is this something Arenanet should do more?

[New path to legendary armor?]

2 minutes ago, Ayrilana.1396 said:

If there was an easy mode that awarded the same number of LI, there wouldn’t be nearly as many people complaining

Do you think having a Beginner Mode or Easy Mode would be helpful for the raiding scene? Would that motivate people to engage with raids more, in turn making legendary armor an option for more players?