The State of PVP : Another scream into the void

[draven.4796]

Just here to vent and to hope beyond hope that Anet puts some effort into fixing this potentially great game play.

3 big issues for me, and I am someone who likes to play all aspects of Guild Wars, I love competitive team play in most genres of games, I been playing since launch on and off. 

1. Reporting Player Behaviour

Toxicity 
This part of Guild Wars, certainly in my experience is the most abusive and toxic element. The stakes are so low that it really doesnt justify the behaviour of some players when things dont go there way, and reporting Verbal abuse just seems to go into a black hole. Anet needs to take action and investigate these reports. In any other MMO, racial and homophobic slurs would not be tolerated. IF, action is taken then an acknowledgement should be sent to the reporter for closure if nothing else. A simple string check can automate half of these tickets, less obvious is toxic behaviour.

Idle/Afk
This for me includes throwing the match after 1 bad skirmish at mid.  I personally dont care if you are bad that should be sorted out by matchmaking, but I do care if you dont even try because you lost a fight or are a meager 100 points down. If you abandon matchmaking you get penalised. This in my mind needs the same treatment. If you going to have a sulk, you should have a time out. What about people with real life stuff going on, genuine afk. Easy to fix, first offence is minor time out, subsequent ones go up.

No option for Cheater Report

I get it, a lot of players, oh I lost, so they _must_ be cheating. By not even having this you reduce the amount of CS tickets immeasurably. For my own experience, I have only probably met 1 in maybe 200 matches, something that struck me as sus. Some of the time can be explained by bad networking. Im not an expert, I would hope the dev team is enough to be able to investigate possible actual exploits. Otherwise this is incredibly arrogant to believe your game is unhackable.

This area in total for me just shouts "We dont care about player experience in pvp"

2. Matchup (tiers and even maybe ?classes?)

This is tougher to solve. I saw the other thread about solo and duo queue. I dont think its an exploit, I see how its unfair for 2 people and I see why you limit it to 2 people. I also see that playing a match is a priority over waiting for 5 silvers etc to come online. In an ideal world there would be enough PVP players that you can play a team of a similar rank instead of getting rolled by plats if you are a silver. Maybe have less impact on your rank? I dont know. I do know that its a crap shoot to get out of silver. I had a few weeks of wins climbing the ladder, then a week of bad matchups knocking me back down to silver 1. If ranking up is skill, then its the skill of good team make up or knowing what times to queue or having a build/class that can carry your team mates if you are unlucky. I dont know, duo queue seems to be the only real way to get a modicum of consistency in ranking up. At least 2 of you can play as a team in the 5.

3. Reward

Anet recently overhauled WvW and its decent, its a good use of your time as well as fun. PvP needs some love imho. The tournaments are all well and nice if your a plat team, which I would love to get good enough to be. Needs to be something more accessible for the normal pvpers. This isnt really something to be angry about but its frustrating that other game modes seem to be a better economic use of time, even if I do enjoy pvping the most.

Feel better for writing it down 😄


 

 

 

[MuscleBobBuffPants.1406]

Number 2 matchup has really been the biggest barrier I think for me and for the game mode.  Not only in terms of skills but also team composition.  Curious, I wonder if in the same way SPVP has pre-determined stats, I wonder if it would be helpful for people new to the game mode to also be able to choose from a selection of pre-determined builds/classes.  That way they could learn how to play their class well, what their role on the team is etc.  Especially for the lower tiers and those starting out.  Also maybe people could earn points with their class and prove they know how to play it and that would help rank them up and you would have smoother games at higher tiers too.  Finally I think overall ArenaNet needs to have a goal in mind for SPvP, what is their plan for it in terms of matchups, gameplay, balance etc. etc.

[Chromazene.4807]

[deleted]

Edited January 14 by Enduronex.4865

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

5 hours ago, MuscleBobBuffPants.1406 said:

Number 2 matchup has really been the biggest barrier I think for me and for the game mode.  Not only in terms of skills but also team composition.  Curious, I wonder if in the same way SPVP has pre-determined stats, I wonder if it would be helpful for people new to the game mode to also be able to choose from a selection of pre-determined builds/classes.  That way they could learn how to play their class well, what their role on the team is etc.  Especially for the lower tiers and those starting out.  Also maybe people could earn points with their class and prove they know how to play it and that would help rank them up and you would have smoother games at higher tiers too.  Finally I think overall ArenaNet needs to have a goal in mind for SPvP, what is their plan for it in terms of matchups, gameplay, balance etc. etc.

The biggest help bad/new players need is with their builds. They don't know what's OP and they home-cook their kitten builds. If builds were transparent, meaning everyone could see everyone's builds, that would greatly improve the PvP scene. 

 

[Stalima.5490]

13 hours ago, draven.4796 said:

No option for Cheater Report

I get it, a lot of players, oh I lost, so they _must_ be cheating. By not even having this you reduce the amount of CS tickets immeasurably. For my own experience, I have only probably met 1 in maybe 200 matches, something that struck me as sus. Some of the time can be explained by bad networking. Im not an expert, I would hope the dev team is enough to be able to investigate possible actual exploits. Otherwise this is incredibly arrogant to believe your game is unhackable.

This area in total for me just shouts "We dont care about player experience in pvp"

You have only seen 1 because the good cheaters only apply tiny mods to give them an edge so you can barely notice alot of the time, other more obvious ones are when someone has no boons yet is running faster than super speed, and overwhelmingly obvious is when the cheater is literally under the floor.

 

Without a report cheat option I believe report scam is your only fall back here as that is exactly what they are trying to do, scam you out of winning.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Stalima.5490

[draven.4796]

I would have thought it was in Anet's interest to have better fields to direct their tickets. I have been using Match Manipulation. The inbox must be a complete mess and only adds weight to the player perception that Nobody is looking. If the playerbase knows that nobody is looking, they know nobody cares and if nobody cares, why should they care about putting their time on this product?

[draven.4796]

14 hours ago, MuscleBobBuffPants.1406 said:

Number 2 matchup has really been the biggest barrier I think for me and for the game mode.  Not only in terms of skills but also team composition.  Curious, I wonder if in the same way SPVP has pre-determined stats, I wonder if it would be helpful for people new to the game mode to also be able to choose from a selection of pre-determined builds/classes.  That way they could learn how to play their class well, what their role on the team is etc.  Especially for the lower tiers and those starting out.  Also maybe people could earn points with their class and prove they know how to play it and that would help rank them up and you would have smoother games at higher tiers too.  Finally I think overall ArenaNet needs to have a goal in mind for SPvP, what is their plan for it in terms of matchups, gameplay, balance etc. etc.

I dont really want to attack "how" people play a game. You bought the game you play it how you want, I or you or anybody else doesnt own how other people play. I know that is hypocritical when it comes to my issue with people afking. I am not upset with bad or new players, just those that dont take part. Ideally those who are still learning play against other people who are still learning. There is in place a 20 ranks, iirc for people to learn how to play before they go ranked. The rest ?should? be sorted out by tier. Theres no easy solution and from what I see on other threads. A full group queue unless it meets another full group queue will smash any randoms, but theres not enough interest in pvp to get any content? Tournies exist but, Tournament play can be a harrowing mix of bots and plats. (I place myself a strong silver 3/gold 1) but that might be complete rubbish as I am teamed up with 3-4 random people who sometimes just look at the team composition and go afk. Not exactly a test of my skill at the class or if it is Im not consistently good enough to carry against 5 people. Not to mention how quickly the meta changes. (e.g. I get good enough to beat Catalysts 1 on 1 and then they get a buff that changes the meta) I am certainly not 24/7 player who can keep up with nerfs and buffs mid season. 

Reading this again I dont think you are saying "be good or dont play",  which I hear a lot in more colourful ways in team chat a lot. I am behind this : "Finally I think overall ArenaNet needs to have a goal in mind for SPvP, what is their plan for it in terms of matchups, gameplay, balance etc. etc."