[What are some pointers for a support main for ranked PvP? And for toxic players?]

If you're plat 1 in your first season of pvp in a 10+ years old game (which means mostly veterans) you should feel pretty good about yourself, your gameplay and decisions. You'll probably soon be better than most of players you play with.

And people that leave a nasty /w and block so you can't even answer usually have some kind of personal problems, some kind of social phobias.

[UI: This is NOT ok]

17 minutes ago, frazazel.7501 said:

If you want to move everything closer together, just resize your game window to be smaller, zoom your camera in a bit, and then increase the UI size to compensate. Easy!

The funny thing is, the game doesnt really let you do this properly. Fov setting is fine and camera settings are fine. You should be able to lock camera zoom but game changing your zoom is only problem in pve and I dont really care about pve here because its pace is slower and you need to track much less stuff so the ui is not that important.

The annoying part is the ui scaling. Its only one setting for all ui elements. And it only has like 4 or 5 settings. So you make it big and you clog your screen with useless ui elements that dont matter in combat. Or you make it smaller to open up your peripheral but make it harder to track important stuff like condi orders.

[UI: This is NOT ok]

1 hour ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

True. The fact that they coded it in one way (and have mentioned multiple times that even small adjustments/additions to UI can be highly problematic to them) however likely is.

They really shouldn't say that. It's basically saying we're incompetent. Especially if you see some of the UI mods very small teams or just one person is able to put together for some of the games. Like SkyUI. One of the most popular mods for Skyrim. And yeah most of us don't know how much work is really required but as a customer no one really cares, it's just comparison to other similar products.

And to people in this thread that have super FOV. Please go to a pvp situation, look for specific skill animations on enemy that you might need to counter, which conditions and boons are ticking on you and enemy target boon/condi table so you won't cc into stability for example. Not saying no one can do this but this game for sure makes it very hard. I have a very hard time in this game to keep track of all of these things and I'm quite sure it's not just me getting old.

[New end game goals.]

18 hours ago, WRay.2391 said:

There are multiple analysis showing OW forced PvP views very negatively by majority of players. There is relatively small group that likes it, but it's to small for game to thrive. There were a lot of discussions here as well, ppl even proposing PvP OW flag player can enable, but response was that it will introduce bullying in chat if you will not accept someone's call to duel.

Oh I understand that today's market just isn't welcome to Lineage or even wow type of ow pvp. Although I am in favour of duelling (because I had probably thousand hours of just duelling in front of Orgrimmar) I don't care that much. I also think people are really overexaggerating the potential toxic aspect of duelling and if it would be in the game most would never notice let alone had toxic experience. In many years of mmorpgs I don't recall one event where duelling was ever the reason for toxicity. And the only instance of "duel me bro" I remember is when someone was really toxic and annoying to begin with and duel request was used to keep them in check with "put the money where your mouth is". I mean wow was played by everyone including their grandmothers and never noticed this to be a problem. But like I said, not that important to me since we have systems that fill that gap.

What I do think is that gw2 actually has something special with wvw. One of the best large scale pvp systems I played in mmorpgs. Could compare it to Planetside but that's not really a rpg and it's an actual stand alone, relatively successful game that does only that. Well developed systems, smooth gameplay, actual squad meta that is somewhat diverse in roles. I do think it could be capitalised on with different modes, something that would have more clear winning rules and something for guilds. They don't really need to reinvent the wheel. Korean castle sieges are a proven successful concept (not the only one, there are others) and you basically already have all the systems with wvw. You just need to also utilize the existing pve maps. And it can still be completely separated from pve instances. Yeah we already have wvw but it's becoming very stale and is just missing that "for the win" part. Sandbox is fine and all but if you want competition you need the structure. I know it's a stale comment but it would put guild wars in, well, Guild Wars.

[Mastery Points are a scourge in GW2]

1 hour ago, Lucy.3728 said:

That still has to be worth something, even if only for maps that aren't completely abandoned. Because you have to play them.

So, watch out what you whine about. Next, the maps you play with your bro are empty, but at least you get everything unlocked first try xD

I prefer that the maps are full because they are fun to play instead of a necessity to grind mastery xp. Gw2 with Anet did that very well in the past and hopefully they manage to do it also in the future.

Because if that becomes the main mechanic to fill up open world this game kinda loses it's advantage over vertical games. Fun OW is gw2's thing. Because it for sure can't compete in other pve end game modes with other games that focus more on that and it basically abandoned the competitive side which is slowly but surely dwindling. 

[Mastery Points are a scourge in GW2]

The game needs some kind of progression after you reach the cap. It replaces the usual vertical gear and lvl progression. But maybe the system is becoming just too big at this point. Because in vertical progression games you usually only need to progress through the latest expansion as usually the starter gear is basically free and replaces everything before that and lvling is often made easier or squished (which is basically the same) for the past levels. So it could look like this horizontal progression game has more semi-vertical progression than true vertical progression games for someone just starting.

Maybe a mastery squish is in order at some point. There are many filler useless masteries that could just become baseline. Or maybe more mastery points could become available through very natural sources like story, map completion or even added to some of the achievs. One thing that was always very boring to me is getting the mastery xp, I would first squish that part. While getting points is at least somewhat interesting because its just a specific task you do once and there's usually plenty (depends a bit on the expansion/LS). But getting mastery xp is just boring grind. If I would have to guess it's more grindy to get all the mastery xp in one expansion in this game than lvling up through whole expansion in an average vertical game.

edit: On top of that. In most vertical progression games it doesn't matter how you get xp. You can quest, you can do dungeons, you can play pvp... But here you're locked to specific expansion's activities for specific masteries. And if you don't like that content. Well there is no alternative. Maybe they could at least expand that you can get universal mastery xp in fractals, wvw and pvp. Might not help many players but at least some that enjoy different modes and are more likely to dislike pve grinds.

[UI: This is NOT ok]

I dont want wow addons. It was one of the reason I quit wow. Not really the base custom UI mods, those were ok to a point. But very soon they basically became a necessary cheat. At some point they became mandatory and the game started to be balanced around them. And it came to a point where you weren't playing a game anymore but just follow instructions from a mod. Mostly talking about raiding. I managed to raid pretty much all content up to the end of wotlk without DBM (deadly boss mods) and it was already the norm at the time but later on it was basically mandatory. 

Similarly in arena. Most if not all mods were banned in tournaments but no one could monitor you in arena and without some of the mods you were clearly subpar.

All that we need is the ability to move and resize different elements of the UI. Basically target frame and boon, condi and effect tables for player and target. With that we should be fine to do pretty much anything and not have any advantage over other players. And yeah I also like to pile up everything in my FOV. Usually centred on the bottom part of the screen. So I can get all the info in one glance. Now it's all over the place and not very well structured.

Also wow was not the first to do this. Many older games, including mmorpgs had the ability to move and/or resize each element.

[Is it just me or are Convergences really boring?]

2 hours ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

It's boring the same way as fighting any boss where the average dps is below the floor. 

A 15min convergence is totally fine. But doing your rotation on the boss without the healthbar moving..... Because like 2 people do more dps then the other 48 combined... Uhhhh... 

Add the complains of said players that pretend them doing 3k dps isn't the problem. 

 

Do a private. I dont think I could do it even once on public.

[Poll: Does Structured PVP Need Additional Game Modes?]

A 10v10 maybe 15v15 mode. Just copy wow battlegrounds. Plenty variety there. Popular mode (well it was when I still played, more than arena for sure).

I think it would attract more players than 5v5 because there is less personal responsibility and some players are afraid of it. It would be a nice entry mode that might feed 5v5 later (or kill it completely :)).

[New end game goals.]

46 minutes ago, WaifuJanna.9108 said:

according to statistics e.g. whenever a new mmorpg comes out, the first question people ask is there open world pvp. and if there is one, many people don't even touch the game.

The majority of people hate pvp, cause it promotes toxicity, hate and banter.

Which statistics? Source?

People never had more or less honor. Ganking and drama have always been present. But I do agree that today the userbase is much broader than it was 10 y ago and there are more niches for everything.

But I'm not advocating for a free for all ow pvp. I'm advocating for a mode that utilises existing systems and maps for a new mode that also involves wvw type of pvp but can be completely avoided by someone that doesn't like it.

I actually wonder how Ashes of Creation will be. Because that game has really old school pvp systems as it seems now and I think they won't hold to broad audience nowadays.

47 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

No.  No, it isn't P2W.  Nothing you can buy can help you "win" GW2

Only best gear in the game and character progression. But let's not go there, I know in todays mobile game market people are very lenient to p2w practices.

[New end game goals.]

1 minute ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Most players just do not like pvp.

According to who? Many mmorpgs, much bigger than gw2 have ow pvp in some kind of form. Also upcoming hyped releases like Ashes Of Creation will have ow pvp systems that very much resemble Lineage systems.

There is no ground for such statement. If anything it's the other way around.

[Is it just me or are Convergences really boring?]

11111111111111111 rush rush rush 111111111 loot shower

I managed to do it like 3 times before I got bored of it. And we complained how Dragonstorm is boring.

[New end game goals.]

13 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Is this a veiled jab at the direction of the game slowly curving more towards korean games? If so, don't. Devs might actually threat this seriously, and that would be seriously bad.

Actually not. I played a lot of Korean mmorpgs in the time of Lineage and Lineage 2 and am actively trying now to stay away from them because they are super grindy and often p2w (well gw2 is also p2w but not nearly to an extent a korean vertical mmorpg usually is) and rarely have the polished systems of wow or even gw2.

But there are 2 things that Korean mmorpgs do really really well. Castle sieges or some kind of variant of that and open world pvp+pve mix. Either just their karma systems or pvp+pve ow raids/dungeons. The problem with those game modes is that in most cases you need to be in a decent guild to experience that. And to be in such a guild you need to invest a lot of time and sometimes money because you won't get accepted if you aren't geared properly.

So a horizontal mmorpg like gw2 that can support battles with lot's of players would be ideal for that. Because gear is not a factor here. 

The pvp instances could be completely separated from pve instances and it would probably even work best because of pve/wvw rules split (obviously wvw rules would be better). They could even be accessed through wvw so a pve player that doesn't like pvp could completely ignore it like he can do now with spvp or wvw.

 

[Expanded Achivements? Why???]

11 hours ago, Surelia.2651 said:

I am beginning to understand why my dad would laugh at my sister whenever she would decry that she was bored.... like what the flip people??  Threads whinging about how there is nothing to do, please add more things to do.  Then threads whinging about WHY did you ADD more things to do??   I give up.  🤦‍♀️😂

Achievs are not content. This is just a new label on existing content. If you were bored with wvw as it is now, a new counter will not change that.

[New end game goals.]

Guild battles in open world zones and winning guilds can claim the zone and set up merchants and guild decorations in specified areas.

Also new super tough open world bosses but when they spawn the zone becomes pvp zone. And those will be needed for awesome massive guild decorations that guilds can setup in their claimed zones.

Basically Korean mmorpg like systems and utilizing some of the current guild hall systems. Just don't know how this would work with the instances. Claimed zones and guilds stuff could just appear in all instances.

[[Suggestions] Weaponskill customization (i.e: weapon specialization trees; what if condi greatsword was a thing?)]

Well Virtuoso daggers are such weapons that can really be power or condi depending on traits.

Nothing really against the idea it opens up even more options although this game already has a ton of options and many are just not balanced. Personally I think we have enough options and I actually like when specific specializations and weapons focus on one thing and you can finely tune the build within those parameters. I don't really like some of the new specializations where if you're condi you pick one row, power another row and utility the third row. It kinda loses the point of a build. And same with weapons. When we have these jack of all trades weapons they can suddenly become a balancing nightmare. So we get into situations where one suddenly weapon is best for all builds.

 

[UI: This is NOT ok]

If we could play true open mmorpgs with just as many players and fully customizable UI 20 years ago, I think my comp and net will handle it today. 

I mean we have overlays that actively read combat log and I guess some also API, display a ton of info, right now, fully customizable. Performance is not an issue. They would probably just need to do a lot of redevelopment because they went and hardcoded it too much. And they think it's not a worthy investment. Which I don't understand fully because if you look at (mmo)rpgs that allow modding, the most popular mods are usually UI mods (and no I don't want mods, I want an UI that would be considered standard for the last 20 years).   

[WvW is in the WORST State ever]

6 hours ago, Tanro.4175 said:

Comped WVW is laughable right now. 

Some entire Professions are just not brought at all. 

Like 4 Viable DPS Elite Specs. 

Druid Is basically the only heal support. Scrapper to some extent. but that is basically only brought because getting enough druids to fill a 50 man squad is tough. 

Reaper only gets in because of strips. 

All the while, I've seen squads with as many as 20 chronos. Boonball is king, and so,so,so many professions/elite specs just DONT Matter in boonball. If they can't kill the boonball meta, then at least make sure every elite spec can be viable in boonball. 

 

Now? Comped wvw is now miles better to what was 2 years ago. Wvw meta was always very tight.

We had fb+scrapper+scourge+herald. This was core that was unchanged. Than you added a few bubble SpBs and maybe a chrono or 2. The only variation to that I ever saw was maybe a weaver here or there and some guilds running DHs for heavy melee comps. 

While I havent run with a guild for some time now from what I see there is more variability. Fb is still unmovable mountain. But for secondary support there is at least some competition. Maybe youre right with druid, dont know, but I see also vindis and scourges. Maybe also tempest and scrapper.

For dps I see again vindis, zerkers, reapers. I dont think herald would be bad, only vindi is better. Dont know hows scourge.

Again Im a bit out of the loop so take with a grain of salt but Im sure its better than it was. Because it cant be worse.

[UI: This is NOT ok]

No, not a third row.

A fully customizable boon/buff/effect/condi tables for both player and target that I can resize and move anywhere on the screen.

(I voted yes though)

[UI: This is NOT ok]

Let's throw the only indication icon of a trait proc that gives you a 5 sec burst window with an ICD together with 20 useless world buffs. And let's make it all super small. 

[[Suggestions]QoL (Quality of Life) Ideas [Merged]]

Boon/condi tables for both the player and target are barely readable on higher resolutions even if you choose the largest UI setting.

Improving these would actually benefit the general player base skill in playing the game. It's really hard to expect from players to maintain or react to certain statuses if they are barely readable. Too small, too hidden in all the mess of different statuses (and they just keep adding more) and hardly any distinction between different effects. Barely any customisation possible. The only customization is linked to the overall size of the UI which is basically no customization.

And I just wrote my recommendations on LFG in different topic so I won't repeat. I would just point out that LFG is the ONLY in-game tool through which players can actually communicate with each other across the whole mega server. All maps are instanced, there is no global chat and even hub maps are instanced. So there is no other way to get your msg outside your instance to players that are not already on your friend list or in your guild. As such it should be a top notch tool. Sadly it's worse than the tools we had in games from the 90's. 

[Proposed LFG System]

I don't mind the amount of categories, they are mostly useful.

What I would like is to be able to tick several categories and they are all listed on the right. With a separator. For example I would tick strikes and raids and could see all of them. And they re-open after I open and close the LFG.  There could even be a setting of your default view when you open LFG. For example: re-open last selection / current map / pre-set, favourite selection / blank.

Also we have groups and subgroups. Like LS4 is a group and Jahaii Bluffs is a subgroup. If I tick LS4, I would see all the subgroup postings from all maps in LS4. But I can still tick just a specific map.

And a keybind that opens/closes LFG directly. Not Contacts or whatever is the current frame that you have to navigate further. I hate clicking, soooo slow, must keybind. Having all these it would be really easy to just check for your favourite activities quickly with a press of a button, while playing.

And last proposal that is of a different nature. If I'm commander (or even just the one posting LFG) and I post LFG group, when I leave squad it should either automatically remove group from LFG or better ask me if I want to remove the LFG post. Because if you just leave, there is a chance it becomes a dead squad posting on the LFG. If someone goes offline while in squad or just doesn't leave, that posting just stays there while everyone else already left and activity is already over.

[Essence of Despair. Please give us some options as to what to do with them.]

23 hours ago, frazazel.7501 said:

But EoD had ancient summoning stones, jade runestones, and ancient ambergris which were tradeable, making farming EoD content viable, and reducing the pain for making those legendaries. SotO needs something like that, and it needs to be something that's attainable via the SotO content that they want people to be able to farm, to keep up player count. Maybe it's the meta reward items instead of kryptis essences. But it needs to be something.

Well I was comparing currencies needed for other lege armours where each mode has a specific that you cant trade.

Weapons seem to have different philosophy as you can actually also trade whole weapons so its also encouraged to craft multiples.

While trinkets are a bit more varied but generally still gated, achievs being the gate in ow.

I do agree with your premise of the post though. Although I hope we never again see essences beyond Soto so I can safely dump or delete them after the next season ends and we see all their uses. Just because they drop in such high amounts that they clog everything. They could easily reduce the drop rate and crafting requirement by 3 or 4 fold. So you would get exactly 1 from base rift. Would make it much more manageble.

[Essence of Despair. Please give us some options as to what to do with them.]

Usually such currencies have some kind of a continuous sink. These are just completely useless if you are not going for lege armour. I would delete them but am afraid they will have a use someday. So they actually deter me to do content that drops them.

5 hours ago, frazazel.7501 said:

I think it would have been great if the amalgamated or purified essences were tradeable. It would mean that rich players would be able to pay less established players to do the grind for them, and it would open up farming opportunities for SotO maps and rift events.

These currencies are never tradeable. They serve as a time gate. Just look at them as OW LI or skirmish tickets or ascended shards of glory. It's something you just have to grind through.

[Useless drops]

The thing is, gold is not an exiting drop. Its boring. Its just more of the same.  Hundreds diferent item types and they all lead to the same outcome, gold and mats.

And even gold just becomes useless  at some point. Its just cosmetics, no impact on gameplay.