Locuz.2651

Like with any pvp game. I lose interest after a while...then i come back again etc.

And top 250 is 1500-1550 + again. Just like it has been the last 10+ seasons.

Yes thats exactly what happened allready. Full 5v5 ranked was so impopular that they got rid of it. 20 min q times even during peak hours.

We tried this before and it didnt work. It was dead on arrival.

We tried this allready and it didnt work. We had a seperated solo and teamq. Teamq was dead. On the teamq ladder we had 2 active good teams playing. The rest where all soloplayers or PvE guilds trying out PvP once in a blue moon. It was so devoid of good teams that i was consistantly top 30-50 on that ladder while playing solo. Spending (a lot of) time constructing a good pvp team is a hurdle that will drop the popularity of GW2 pvp even further. Comparable to RBGs in wow where at semi ok ratings (2200+) you spend half of your time trying to fill up your team. "But why dont you make a good/fun set pvpteam than" you will probably state. Playing with teams gives you somewhat of an obligation to play. The longer you play with that team, the more it will feel like a chore for people. 5vs5 and 10vs10 never really worked in WoW pvp a game that is far more group focussed. What makes you think GW2 has the type of community and the numbers to make this work?

More depth you say? As a long time wow player who played constiantly above 2200-3000 on almost every class in the game id have to disagree.. The only thing it has that GW2 doesnt is chain CCs being executed by everyone above semi ok ratings. The basics chains are so standardized tho that literally all above 2100 execute it the same way...and it all comes down to who does more pressure. There is only exception in entire eu and thats whaaz on his thief. The thing that is WAY and i mean way worse is balance of combat (which isnt the same as classbalance btw). In wow us ranged classes are forced to facetank most melee since they have more gapclosers than we have gapcreating abbilities. The only thing u can do is drag them behind pillars and outside of the los of their healers. Its basicly this But with CC chains and dragging behind pillars mixed in between. As healer in GW2 i time my heals to safe players who dip low. As healer in wow i spam heal 99% of the time. The only timing i need to do is press my healing CDs when they press their offense cooldown. In GW2 mis positioning, overextending, using the wrong abbilties at the wrong time typically means you die. In wow you can play like a potato and get saved by your healer for minutes on end. GW2 is a lot more punishing in that regard. In GW2 the general rule is that almost everyone has ways to create seperation. With a mix of kiting and / or pressure. It feels a lot more balanced from a combat point of view.

The community voted against this...and for good reason. We used to have team queue as the main competetive thing in GW2. It litteraly had like 3-4 serious teams in eu .... the rest was all random general chat and PvE groups. It was as dead as can be. 15-20 mins of waiting time and queueing in to the same teams 6-7 times in a row. During off hours the queue was dead. Noone was there. There is a massive difference in toxicity between unranked and ranked. esp if your gold or higher. - In unranked every single game there are at least 2-3 afkers who are there to leech their dailies. - In unranked there is always toxic chat, without exception...where in ranked more ppl stay possitive or silent since they want to win. And spamming chat doenst lead to a win. Doesnt mean it never happens in rated ... but its less common. - Some ppl incl me want to play ranked solo. The hassle of getting a (good) team together is comparable to wow arena or worse RBG. The season (people) starts out active...and then it dies out. This leads to me spending half of my game time (or more) looking for (good) teammates to fill out a roster. Not even going to start about off hour games etc. Doing this will lead to a massive exodus of the remaining pvp players. Ppl who just want to click and play a rated game within 5 mins of pressing the play button.

You forgot a 3rd option "remove unranked". I think the main issue is unranked. Unranked games are a cesspit of toxic behaviour due to the insane difference in skill. You will find beginners and top 50 players in the same games. Whenever i try a new build and try unrated its always the same kitten: - 2-3 times as much afkers. Half of the team afk after the first death or wipe pretty much happens every other game. - Far more flaming and troling. Ppl dont care as much about winning in unrated. Its more about bored individuals trying to trigger others. - Top 100 players that play their main builds purely to kitten on / teabag new guys. Reading a conversation between a self proclaimed first timer get kitten talked by some "x of the arena"gets old is super common. New players get this horrible idea of what the community is with some of the worst examples this community has the offer. It would be far better to have only rated games (starting at pvp rank/level 1) where new/relatively bad players are seperated from mid to top tier guys.

This wil lead to a lot of toxic behaviour. Ppl kicking others simply for not liking them or troll them etc.

MMO is a niche genre. To get good matchmaking you need a lot of players playing your game. There isnt a single MMO on the market with good matchmaking. To name an example: I played wow arena quite extensively. Every season is the same: the first few weeks are ok. The last months are unplayble on any character at semi ok ratings. My lock which ended at 2678: you cant play since 9 out of 10 times noone plays at those ratings. When you play you have to sit in q for 5+ mins just to face a team that gives you 2-3 points (and -30 if you lose). At those ratings 90% of the players sit their rating. They dont play. My paladin and priest at 2200ish and my mage at 2300 are in boosting limbo hell. In wow you have a lot of professional boosting services that make 100's of euros boosting ppl. At those ratings its 99% piloted boosts which means top players play the accounts of new players to bring their rating up to 1800/2100/2400 the ratings the buyers need to get rewards. So on my 2200 characters i often fought better or similar opponents than on my lock. If i can get a full team for that night. If ppl dont want to play or are offline and you have to rely on LFG youll sit in that menu for 1-2 hours with mostly "silver level players signing up for your legendary div games". At least in GW2 you can play. No matter what rating or what time.

Your idea is noble and would work in an ideal world... (next to soloq that is) This isnt an ideal world tho. Rated pvp with groups bigger than 2-3 doesnt really work. Building groups means a lot more effort and time management. U need to find moments in schedules where everyone can play. And sometimes ppl will need to play when they dont really feel like playing. Just because the session was scheduled. It also means u whont be able to play rated whenever you feel like it. Which is a really bad thing for a pvp scene that isnt that big to begin with. It will drop activity during off hours and make rated pvp a thing that will only happen between 19.00 and 23.00. Next to that the incentives in GW2 arent big enough to make up for that effort. Ill pour that in to an example for you. I lead RBGs (rated 10v10) in wow at a very high lvl since 2011. At the start it was popular due to the fact it was the fastest route to the best possible pvp gear. Once that changed and that incentive got removed...it died. Noone really wants to go through the hassle of organizing in a PvE raid like manner. The only ones that play now are (real money) boost teams. In a game like GW2 that has no gear incentives the reason needs to be "being able to play some fun semi competetive pvp whenever we feel like it". Removing solo/duoq and forcing ppl to do 5 man only will remove that. And no....unrated isnt the same as playing soloq pvp at plat +. I got top 30 by soloqing in to team q back when it was in. Thats how few serious teams played that. It was literally only PvE guilds. So it was literally like this; sitting in q for 15-20 minutes just to play vs a team of guys that play PvP once a month (while i was in the top 100).

Its really hard to communicate with newer players in this game. The most important reason for that is that the fast majority of all players (incl new ones) think they know everything allready. I dont have the time or the energy to spend 15-20 minutes to convince them that what they are doing is counterproductive. So for me personally i stopped communicating when soloqing. 99% of the time it leads to discussions which are more often than not a distraction. I ping nodes....and target players. Thats it. If i had to give one advice to newer player it would be to learn to listen. Ask friendly advice once the game is over, dont take critique personal and be open minded.

The thing i love about threads like this is that its one big generalisation. Plz...for the love of god explain and specify. Name specs, situations etc. The only condi related spec that is overtuned is core necro. One can argue thats more of a general necro issue with necros being to tanky for the dmg they can do. Once the tankiness is fixed (imo by reducing shroud gains) (core) necro will be fine. Of all the other (non necro) condi specs only fire weaver is strong. But thats not perse due to his condi output, but more about his sustain. So what other sh*t do we have? Condi thief? Which is really weak vs heavy power based spike dmg like sic em soulbeasts, power heralds, DP daredevil etc. Burn guard? Which is really weak to any type of focus fire. A spec that only works if the opposing team forgets about them and sits mid point in aoe. Condi ranger variants. Good as duelist but doesnt fare well vs other sidenoders like weaver or valk ranger. It does well vs holo. Its typically very slow and not that good in teamfights. Works a bit like burn guard in team fights. Only good when left alone. Condi rev: good when you build a team around it, which is never the case in soloq. 0 Chase and kite potential so you need ppl to support you non stop to make it work. In 99% of situations in soloq, renegade or power herald is better. So those 4 have 1 thing in common ... they dont work as well as meta builds when focussed. The only condi builds that do well when focussed are fireweaver and core necro. Thats why ppl see them as the only viable condi specs for soloq.

The only specs that fit in to the "passive play faceroll" meta you describe is scourge, MM and to some extend core necro. The rest is all managable and there is a huge gap between bad and good "anything else". All classes have at least 2 good options to push rating with. None of them are super hard to reach at least plat 1-2 with. So stop playing the blame game and start looking at your own gameplay or mindset as the reason you cant climb any further.

Yes thats what we call anecdotal evidence. 90% of the pvpers on my list still play regularly. Both statements are based on a small percentage of the playerbase and therefor useless. I played wow since release. U know how many of the 100's of steady teammates i had still play? 0. Does that mean wow pvp is dead? That makes sense. The system found a group of players that are relatively evenly matched. And when youre done....you all q at the same time again. Not weird u get matched with/ against the same ppl again is it? Havent played with a bot in months if not longer. Bots mostly reside at 900-1100 rating. If you really play at that rating it doesnt matter that much. They are pretty much on par with the players at that lvl. In your first post you where talking about 2-4%...and now its 20%? Let me try this random numbers game: 67%......82%.......54%...etc. <- All factual numbers. My point is; dont pull random numbers without facts backing them up.

Ive been pvping since day 1 and id say its more like 71.9%. I could be 2-3% off. The thing with numbers and %s is that they are totally useless unless they are factual / backed up by (correct) calculations. You throwing out random %s based on hunches and feelings is as nonsensical as my first sentence. In relatively old MMOs and or if there hasnt been new content for a while the pvp section of a forum tends to be less active. U can see the same thing in wow for example. A few months in to patches the forum tends to slow down a lot. The main difference is that wow is close to unplayable in pvp from halfway through a patch and onward. Unless youre a just for cap player or top 50 eu / NA. GW2 isnt perfect but at least its playable. fro anyone on the ladder.

- NA ladders arent very competetive. So if they play during off hours, its very likely they play versus players that cant compete with them. - A duo with 2 players playing classes that can burst can pick apart teams quite easily. Especially if those players are a level or two below them. So no they arent cheating. They just use the bad matchmaking system + lack of competition to their advantage.

The question is will they be able to compete with other side noders. Weavers for example. I heard multiple decent weavers say harbringer has no chance vs them on point. Vs Valk core ranger its going to be relatively hard to do any dmg since they have 3 stunnbreaks + a lot of condi clears. So in a best case scenario its a stalemate. Prot holo might be the best matchup. Still not an easy kill tho vs good ones. This is the thing with harbringer. Its a bit of a mix of roamer / sidenoder / brawler. But it isnt top tier as any of those. Especially since its super easy to focus them down as ranged (power) dps like sic em soulbeast , DE or DH.

Thats not true. The harbringer go to build has 36k hp. Carrion amulet + orr runes + aclhemic vigor trait from habringer traitline + vital persistance from soulreaping. Exactly. When harbringers get focussed by heavy (ranged) power burst damage they flop. Bursting a necro typically means he hops in to shroud / shield to prefent dying and starts to counterpressure right after. Defense and offense build in to one. Thats the thing that makes necros so strong. You have to keep in mind what role the harbringer will play. - Its not as good of sidenoder as weaver, prot holo or even core ranger for example. - Its not going to compete with DD as roamer. - Its not as good in team fights as reaper, core necro. The closest thing id compare it to is renegade which is also a class that relies on CC chain to kill + is a good in +1s. The main feat that renegade has over harbringer is that its better vs focus fire. It has the shields on heal + acces to short CD stab. So renegade will be better in team fights.

So you fought a scourge which has mediocre single target condi damage. And you outsustained him on a build that is good vs condis? Meanwhile he stayed on top of you getting weakness from shroud pulses? First things first. A good scourge wouldnt die vs a good harbringer. Period. He shouldnt kill you either. Thats why u shouldnt try to 1v1 a good scourge. Its pointless esp if youre on his point. The weakness of harbringer is getting focussed down by heavy power based specs. Its even worse for the harbringer if those specs are ranged since the best defensive tool harbringer has (next to mobility) is weakness application. His target needs to be relatively close for that. Keep in mind its not purely about 1v1s either. What happens if you get focussed down in team fights? Or focussed down by roaming duos? Pretty common situations inranked. The other necros swap to shroud/shield and try to land counter pressure. What will u do after they burst you down to 20% hp? You try to run? You have no ways to stop sic em rangers, deadeyes or trapper DHs shooting you from 1200-1500 outside of los.

Harbringers strength is very situational. Its a spec without good defense against heavy ranged burst specs like LB rangers, deadeyes or trapper DH. Most of their defense comes from weakness application while being up close. So any ranged player that can manage to spam CC + kite for a bit will either kill or force them to run. On the other hand i see their damage getting neutralized hard by projectile denial heavy teams. They arent as tanky and dont do as much dmg as for example reaper). They are just a lot better at kiting. Id compare them to a certain extend to renegade. Both specs rely on CC chains to land kills while being middle of the pack in terms of damage done. Builds like that work really well vs unexperienced players since any CC chain vs them is 100% a kill. Id say harbringer is middle of the pack overall atm. They cant compete with thief as roamer. They cant sidenode aswell as weaver, prot holo or core ranger. And they arent as good of a teamfighter as the other necro specs.

I personally play reaper when i see my team lacks raw dmg output. Reaper is really good at brute forcing fights. Its ideal to have other teammates that have some sustain tho. If you see your team has mostly roamers / glass canons its very likely youll end up on an island as lone "slow" brawler type. In that case id prefer to play something that is a bit better at stalling fights. Something like core necro for example. So if i see im with a scourge + core supp guard id go reaper. But if im with for example rev mesmer thief soulbeast id play core necro. (If i had to pick a necro spec in that situation).

PW thief? You mean PD or? Pp condi thief that does well as side noder? I played some PP DD with bound and saw 1 other guy play something similar but its not that great imo. Care to post a link of the build?

"the grass is always greener" Before we start the entire downed state discussion.... You know how dead wow arena/RBGs is (even when compared to GW2)? I played wow arena untill last season. It was literally unplayable. Not figuratively but quite literally unplayable. Ppl stare at the ladders and they are like "wow thats a lot of players compared to GW2. They forget that wow doesnt have decay and 99% of the player base plays purely for the weekly cap. Once a week ....and when they are geared they stop playing. I ended last season at 2640 in 3's. The last 6-8 months of the season we had max 40-50 players playing within 300 rating range of mine during peakdays. Right now the last 3 hours 72 1800+ players played in entire Europe. ...thats right after new season release and during a peak day. If we didnt have a full team we would be sitting in LFG menu for 2+ hours looking for a suitable teammate. Just to see only ppl with 1000+ less rating experience pop up. Or worse obvious boosted players. Wow pvp is filled to the brim with boosting services (for euros) up to a point that about 50% or more of the 2k+ playerbase is boosted. That means that if you would have a full team you could play. You would play against 2200 MMR teams tho, who happen to have 2 or 3 former worldchampions or similar in their team. So that means you play against the best in the world....yet get 5 points for wins...and 25 for losses. This isnt rare either....at least 50% of the games where versus boost groups.

It totally depends on who the curator is. If its a guy like Boyce or Drazeh who play pretty much everything they touch at top level. Multiclassers that have deep knowledge off every prof in the game... then sure id trust him/them. More importantly... What build are you talking about? Which of the 5 they marked as "meta" is incorrect in your eyes? Or what other build would you add to that list?