What Can ArenaNet Actually do To Make PvP Better? (A Thread for Thoughts)

[Sidetrack.2563]

Hello gamers, this topic posts goal Is to give ArenaNet a dedicated post regarding what we think could actually Improve the PvP side of Gw2.


The goal Is for people to post what they think the largest issues with PvP as a whole are, and what could be done to change It- which means If possible please refrain from "Ranger Is op and ruins all of PvP!" posts unless you have actual reasoning behind why that specific thing Is what's making PvP bad for everyone.

I think that most of the issues PvP struggles with Is actually not balance based, (even though that does Impact It).  I do think however the game modes available, class swapping, and being able to run multiple of the same elite spec- does Impact the game negatively. Why can players, after they get in a match swap specs to have 5 necros, Dh, whatever they are on one team? when ArenaNet has things placed in the game to not allow it BEFORE you queue? I think removing the ability to have that many of the same class would Improve the game dramatically, as well as being able to swap mid match, I dislike the Idea of being able to hard counter people after you see the comp like It Is currently.

I also think that the lack of diverse game modes could be seen as a Issue, why do they not turn Strongholds into 10v10 maps and remove the current objectives of the mode? why can we only duo que In a 5v5 competitive game mode?

These are my thoughts personally- what about you?

 

[oujiboardspamname.1932]

I think whatever may come of this discussion one thing they should do first is the idea of pairing any substantial balance patch with new conquest map(s). The rotation is.. old? 

[Mount Mazama.2917]

Punish bad actors. There is an auto time out for failing to hit accept in 30 seconds but you can afk the whole game and queue all day. It's really simple they need to clean up the community because it is full of bad actors that are incentivized to continue their behavior as they are benefiting from it and everyone else at a detriment. It's a city without any law enforcement but the citizens aren't allowed to enforce any rules themselves or they go to jail. This is the biggest problem and the thing that keeps new players away more than anything else.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

Q: What is the biggest problem?

A: Cheating

 

Q: What is the solution?

A: Give me authoritarian powers to ban accounts with no restrictions. Problem will be fixed by end of day.

[Dickinson.7368]

- Remove duo-Q.
- Balance classes based on skill floor/ceiling instead of trying to trying to make all classes equal, no-one in his right mind will play weaver when they could play piano on the keyboard and have the same result with necro.
- Disable ranked for F2P accounts without any expansions, will that stop smurfing? no but will definitely reduce it.

Obviously the biggest issue would be the cheaters/win-traders but a-net didn't give a kitten in 10 years doubt that they will now.

[MalekithDG.6124]

Delete the game mode. Only a fraction of player base enjoys PVP and majority of playerbase (including those that dont play PVP) hates team gameplay. Victory is achieved by someone elses lose so there is that, there is your inherent soil to farm toxicity/salt and furthermore you are doing this competition 5 on 5. Its a recipe for disaster. The reason why dedicated pvp games like LoL manage to survive DESPITE teamplay element is because captivating and addicting gameplay which, lets be real, GW2 does not have. It could have if ANET actually wanted to but its been 10 years, balance is nowhere to be found and some questionable designs taken root already... More on that later.

Lets just talk about teamplay. Why would anyone play with a team instead of opting for 1v1's. Simple, none wants to admit, but it isnt because it is fun, it is because they can blame someone else other than themselves. Sure there are players that ACTUALLY want squad content, like they want to scratch the itch of squad action like everyone doing their job, objectives are being done, enemy plays good, your team plays good, there is a good banter going on and everyone feels like they belong to this community and whole competition is rad and bla bla. This never happens in PVP, im sorry. It is just an ideal scenario, a wet dream. Unless you queue with your friends this is unachievable which is still toxic by the way... You get to have great fun with your friends but enemy team suffers. See the problem in design? Just by queue'ing with your friends alone you are planting the seeds of toxicity and unfun for your opponents while probably getting an undeserved win for yourself since you rigged the game. This issue is further boosted by concepts like smurfs, boosters and what not. Why is WvW is more popular than sPvP when arguably sPvP is more balanced considering everyone fights on equal items? Simple. They are given more freedom over the content they want to participate. Lets talk about that

You play sPvP in a match format. Whether you win or lose you feel the effects in a concentrated fashion. WvW on the otherhand, while still operates on matching (server), you dont care enough about winning or losing but just by playing you contribute to the outcome. If you lose a WvW game you absolutely do not care because the rewards you get does not change. You get the rewards by participating not in winning or losing.  You also do not care because the point of WvW is not to win, it is to have a good time. How do you have good time? By decimating the opposition (or you can just mess around, whatever floats your boat) and bantering with everyday faces you play the game with... Whether you win or lose the way you experience content does not get affected. If you roam the alpine borderlands it doesnt matter if you roam it at Tier 1 or Tier 5. If you ZvZ it doesnt matter if you win or lose, only the name of the opponent changes but experience stays the same. This is not the case for PvP. Whatever happens, happens in that particular match and you are HEAVILY HEAVILY encouraged to win it, if you do not win that game there is no "afterward" other than queue'ing up another game. Its a rollercoaster. You cant turn off your brain and just roll with the folks you see/enjoy your class like you do in WvW, you have to heavily commit into every single PvP match. Its like being in marriage. Everybody hates marriage. Unlike WvW you CANNOT choose your opponents either, there is no "warclaw" to run away from your counters, there is no way for you to "escape" from the encounters you find unfun. Bunker tempest in WvW is unfun? You just dont engage. Soulbeast/Czerker is unfun in PVP? Oh no! You have to play that game for 30 mins and if you AFK you make the gamemode unfun for your teammates. With all this class talk lets talk balance.

Actually lets not talk about balance. I feel tired. Balance is an unachievable concept and if it could be achieved it would be hella boring so I do not expect balance nor do I get it anyway. Online PVP games overcomes that issue by employing a group of highly (in)competent people to *REGULARLY* balance the game so the game, more or less, stays fresh. Its turn taking. One meta you see Zeri dominating the ADC and 1-2 patch down the line it is Xayah. One or two patch down the line ADC completely becomes a useless role jungle shines, one or two patch later jungle gets nerfed because mid gets buffed and now it can invade etc. etc. This DOES NOT HAPPEN in GW2. Balance patch, if we are lucky, comes every few months and it changes... nothing. Occasionally, very rarely, we see some classes go up or down in tiers and viability but gameplay stays the same. Its rotting.

Lets talk about maps, their mechanics, roles and matchmaking briefly. I absolutely HATE every single map. I dont want to do mechanics and I do not know if I should even be doing them because there is a huge confusion going on because there are no roles and there is no balance. Am I playing for objectives or helping my team? Whats the best course of action lol. WHATS MY ROLE. The objectives might be even undoable for one team. All of the roles are set by community. There is nothing in official site or wiki that says thief is roamer. Just by user manual alone one can say it ISNT a roamer because there is no such role stated. Sure, it might be best played in roaming scenarios but you dont have any form of control over how many roamers, duelists, supports, frontliners you are going to get in matchmaking. Enemy team gets a druid and you dont get any support? Good luck that game lol. At least in WvW you queue for EBG and you get EBG. There are no roles but you have a clear objective: Capture enemy stuff, get points, win if you have most by the end of week. You can change your build etc. in that week 9000 times and on the whim. You can experiment, you can PLAN AHEAD. You can even plan ahead with your team(server) because your team does not change, at all. All the faces you see are constant unless they drop the game, new comers are quickly assimilated into the community there. You dont allocate certain people to certain tasks, everyone is free to do their thing but most importantly they are encouraged to do it together and whatever one end up doing still contributes to the outcome, however small. Do I use trebuchet in battle of khylo or do I not? Game put it there for a reason but then again 30 min is such a low amount of time to come up with a plan with 4 random people while I am pressured by the outcome of the game? (While, probably, fighting against a smurf or duo btw).

WvW suffers from the same issue as well. Both PvP and WvW stays alive just by their community alone. ANET doesnt care about either of these modes. They dont update it, they dont adress anything, they dont state anything, they dont introduce new systems or anything. We are given 9 classes and 27 sub classes with bunch of weapons, maps with unique mechanics and a map voting system (democracy amirite? but what if the map that got chosen is one of my most hated ones? Or worse what if the map that got chosen is a minority map?). Thats it. Matchmaking throws you into a map, possibly the one you didnt vote for, with 4 random people and god forbid if enemy has a duo/trio/smurf/booster etc. lol.

 

How can anyone hope to enjoy this experience man? LOL. It is horribly designed from the start. If I were to be given leadership over dev team, I would delete PVP and re-design WvW in such a way that PVP players can still find their preferred content there but with the benefit of constant teams, clear objectives, non-pressured gameplay and unnoticable toxicity and also allocate 2 people into balancing the game on a monthly basis until GW2 dies.

Edited September 29, 2023 by MalekithDG.6124

[Provocative.3561]

I want to cover relics, 10v10 maps, 5 man premades for ranked and class swapping.
Honestly with the introduction of relics-at first it seemed like a nerf to many builds-in reality, it slowly turned into optimization and allowed niche customizable builds for players and classes to find new ways to shine. I would like to see more relics introduced in the coming patches for more build diversity.
On another note, I think bringing a 10v10 map for unranked would be exciting to play. We had it once before and the hotjoin lobby was constantly full. Allowed players to just play and fight for points/kills rather than nodes or objectives.
As far as queuing as 5 premades vs 5 randoms that seems abit unfair. Leave that for tournaments and in house scrims. Queuing as 5 won’t leave room for players, new or veteran alike, to shine or grow or learn. If you want to play coordinated 5 mans, play tournaments, where you will find the top players and practice coordinated matches there or in houses.

Lastly class swapping, is a great way to change your build before a match or class to combat the fight ahead in any match. If an enemy so happens to go something like 5 necros. And you’re team didn’t change builds or classes to combat that fight that is on you honestly. There are so many ways in pvp to counter said comps especially with coordination or a bit of map awareness breaking up the team by taking and pressuring side nodes for example and rotating and finding valuable fights that will lead the team to victory. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Provocative.3561

[MatyrGustav.6210]

I really dislike the game modes. I wish we had new game modes like....

 

Seige

- Both teams take turns trying to take over the enemy strong hold. Plays like a quick 5v5 version of the World Vs World mode.

Team Deathmatch

- Just a map in which you score points by killing eachother.

 

Bring back 1000 Healing , 1000 Toughness Amulets and Bunker builds.

Reduce STUN Duration by 50%. its a death sentence. 

[Khalisto.5780]

i dont know if the class swap is that bad, it feels bad when you get countered, it feels good when your team has 2 roamers  and 3 duelists vs a perfect balanced team and you're able to swap for a better comp.

[Khalisto.5780]

since they wont ban afk player they could at least add back the feature that kicks them after afking, just dont tell them you going to do it

ideally ppl should get banned after afk near respawn area without deal/take any dmg, but anet prolly can't implement that

remove duo q or discourage it, like half the points you when you win and double the points when you lose, since our main excuse is playing with friends ppl shouldnt care about the rating

make titles farmable, like 5000 ranked wins for god of arena, if possible give the titles retroactively so 90% of the pvp community insta get it and there's no more reason to exploit to get it

make gizmos farmable, like 500 coins each

aT match win = 1 coin

aT win = 10 coins

mat win = 10 coins

mat quarter finals = 20 coins

mat semifinals = 50 coins

mat second place = 100 coins

and of course mat win = 500 coins

 

this will bring players to ranked and aTs

 

the current legendry track system should go to unranked as it is now (so you can farm it with your friends)

ranked wins rewards you double everything (money, track progression, etc) but only when you win, when you lose you get nothing

 

this should bring some life back to pvp

 

they could also add more exclusive pvp skins to be bought with ascended shards of glory

[deathdealer.2197]

34 minutes ago, Khalisto.5780 said:

since they wont ban afk player they could at least add back the feature that kicks them after afking, just dont tell them you going to do it

ideally ppl should get banned after afk near respawn area without deal/take any dmg, but anet prolly can't implement that

remove duo q or discourage it, like half the points you when you win and double the points when you lose, since our main excuse is playing with friends ppl shouldnt care about the rating

make titles farmable, like 5000 ranked wins for god of arena, if possible give the titles retroactively so 90% of the pvp community insta get it and there's no more reason to exploit to get it

make gizmos farmable, like 500 coins each

aT match win = 1 coin

aT win = 10 coins

mat win = 10 coins

mat quarter finals = 20 coins

mat semifinals = 50 coins

mat second place = 100 coins

and of course mat win = 500 coins

 

this will bring players to ranked and aTs

 

the current legendry track system should go to unranked as it is now (so you can farm it with your friends)

ranked wins rewards you double everything (money, track progression, etc) but only when you win, when you lose you get nothing

 

this should bring some life back to pvp

 

they could also add more exclusive pvp skins to be bought with ascended shards of glory

No progress at all when you lose is a death sentence for pvp

[Rap Tiger.1257]

19 hours ago, MalekithDG.6124 said:

Delete the game mode. Only a fraction of player base enjoys PVP and majority of playerbase (including those that dont play PVP) hates team gameplay. Victory is achieved by someone elses lose so there is that, there is your inherent soil to farm toxicity/salt and furthermore you are doing this competition 5 on 5. Its a recipe for disaster. The reason why dedicated pvp games like LoL manage to survive DESPITE teamplay element is because captivating and addicting gameplay which, lets be real, GW2 does not have. It could have if ANET actually wanted to but its been 10 years, balance is nowhere to be found and some questionable designs taken root already... More on that later.

Lets just talk about teamplay. Why would anyone play with a team instead of opting for 1v1's. Simple, none wants to admit, but it isnt because it is fun, it is because they can blame someone else other than themselves. Sure there are players that ACTUALLY want squad content, like they want to scratch the itch of squad action like everyone doing their job, objectives are being done, enemy plays good, your team plays good, there is a good banter going on and everyone feels like they belong to this community and whole competition is rad and bla bla. This never happens in PVP, im sorry. It is just an ideal scenario, a wet dream. Unless you queue with your friends this is unachievable which is still toxic by the way... You get to have great fun with your friends but enemy team suffers. See the problem in design? Just by queue'ing with your friends alone you are planting the seeds of toxicity and unfun for your opponents while probably getting an undeserved win for yourself since you rigged the game. This issue is further boosted by concepts like smurfs, boosters and what not. Why is WvW is more popular than sPvP when arguably sPvP is more balanced considering everyone fights on equal items? Simple. They are given more freedom over the content they want to participate. Lets talk about that

You play sPvP in a match format. Whether you win or lose you feel the effects in a concentrated fashion. WvW on the otherhand, while still operates on matching (server), you dont care enough about winning or losing but just by playing you contribute to the outcome. If you lose a WvW game you absolutely do not care because the rewards you get does not change. You get the rewards by participating not in winning or losing.  You also do not care because the point of WvW is not to win, it is to have a good time. How do you have good time? By decimating the opposition (or you can just mess around, whatever floats your boat) and bantering with everyday faces you play the game with... Whether you win or lose the way you experience content does not get affected. If you roam the alpine borderlands it doesnt matter if you roam it at Tier 1 or Tier 5. If you ZvZ it doesnt matter if you win or lose, only the name of the opponent changes but experience stays the same. This is not the case for PvP. Whatever happens, happens in that particular match and you are HEAVILY HEAVILY encouraged to win it, if you do not win that game there is no "afterward" other than queue'ing up another game. Its a rollercoaster. You cant turn off your brain and just roll with the folks you see/enjoy your class like you do in WvW, you have to heavily commit into every single PvP match. Its like being in marriage. Everybody hates marriage. Unlike WvW you CANNOT choose your opponents either, there is no "warclaw" to run away from your counters, there is no way for you to "escape" from the encounters you find unfun. Bunker tempest in WvW is unfun? You just dont engage. Soulbeast/Czerker is unfun in PVP? Oh no! You have to play that game for 30 mins and if you AFK you make the gamemode unfun for your teammates. With all this class talk lets talk balance.

Actually lets not talk about balance. I feel tired. Balance is an unachievable concept and if it could be achieved it would be hella boring so I do not expect balance nor do I get it anyway. Online PVP games overcomes that issue by employing a group of highly (in)competent people to *REGULARLY* balance the game so the game, more or less, stays fresh. Its turn taking. One meta you see Zeri dominating the ADC and 1-2 patch down the line it is Xayah. One or two patch down the line ADC completely becomes a useless role jungle shines, one or two patch later jungle gets nerfed because mid gets buffed and now it can invade etc. etc. This DOES NOT HAPPEN in GW2. Balance patch, if we are lucky, comes every few months and it changes... nothing. Occasionally, very rarely, we see some classes go up or down in tiers and viability but gameplay stays the same. Its rotting.

Lets talk about maps, their mechanics, roles and matchmaking briefly. I absolutely HATE every single map. I dont want to do mechanics and I do not know if I should even be doing them because there is a huge confusion going on because there are no roles and there is no balance. Am I playing for objectives or helping my team? Whats the best course of action lol. WHATS MY ROLE. The objectives might be even undoable for one team. All of the roles are set by community. There is nothing in official site or wiki that says thief is roamer. Just by user manual alone one can say it ISNT a roamer because there is no such role stated. Sure, it might be best played in roaming scenarios but you dont have any form of control over how many roamers, duelists, supports, frontliners you are going to get in matchmaking. Enemy team gets a druid and you dont get any support? Good luck that game lol. At least in WvW you queue for EBG and you get EBG. There are no roles but you have a clear objective: Capture enemy stuff, get points, win if you have most by the end of week. You can change your build etc. in that week 9000 times and on the whim. You can experiment, you can PLAN AHEAD. You can even plan ahead with your team(server) because your team does not change, at all. All the faces you see are constant unless they drop the game, new comers are quickly assimilated into the community there. You dont allocate certain people to certain tasks, everyone is free to do their thing but most importantly they are encouraged to do it together and whatever one end up doing still contributes to the outcome, however small. Do I use trebuchet in battle of khylo or do I not? Game put it there for a reason but then again 30 min is such a low amount of time to come up with a plan with 4 random people while I am pressured by the outcome of the game? (While, probably, fighting against a smurf or duo btw).

WvW suffers from the same issue as well. Both PvP and WvW stays alive just by their community alone. ANET doesnt care about either of these modes. They dont update it, they dont adress anything, they dont state anything, they dont introduce new systems or anything. We are given 9 classes and 27 sub classes with bunch of weapons, maps with unique mechanics and a map voting system (democracy amirite? but what if the map that got chosen is one of my most hated ones? Or worse what if the map that got chosen is a minority map?). Thats it. Matchmaking throws you into a map, possibly the one you didnt vote for, with 4 random people and god forbid if enemy has a duo/trio/smurf/booster etc. lol.

 

How can anyone hope to enjoy this experience man? LOL. It is horribly designed from the start. If I were to be given leadership over dev team, I would delete PVP and re-design WvW in such a way that PVP players can still find their preferred content there but with the benefit of constant teams, clear objectives, non-pressured gameplay and unnoticable toxicity and also allocate 2 people into balancing the game on a monthly basis until GW2 dies.

If you don't like PvP, then just stay in PVE and respect those who like WvW and PvP, I would like you to keep the 5vs5, 3v3, 2vs2, and create a 1vs1 in Ranked. Other models in PvP would be good, but there was one that died quickly that was using one that invaded another's base with the rats there and a leader.

[Ovark.2514]

On 2/13/2023 at 11:56 PM, Ovark.2514 said:

There are 2 reasons I believe that sPvP has remained on a steady population decline since launch:

 

1) THIS IS THE MAIN REASON The devs have never focused their attention on designing skills and traits that are healthy for competitive play. I.E: skills and traits that are fun to both USE and to play AGAINST. They also don't design skills and traits to be effective in all game modes. Equalized PvP is only as fun as the extent of VIABLE buildcraft.

 

2) The SYSTEMS that sPvP uses have never been fleshed out in a way that makes you feel like you are rewarded for playing well and for playing the spec you enjoy. Even though the matchmaker works well, it becomes the target of a lot of vitriol because players are allowed to abuse it in so many ways. Custom Arenas, Unranked, Ranked, and Tournaments are not designed well from several aspects. Also sPvP is not integrated into the rest of GW2 (PvE mainly) so that players feel comfortable playing multiple modes at the same time. For instance, there is no icon telling you what your queue time is when you're in a match or even THAT you're in a match without opening up the PvP panel. Also if you're doing an event in PvE and then your queue pops you will get no rewards from that event (success or failure) if you accept the queue and are pulled into PvP. Also you when the pop-up happens if messes you up big time and can't be moved. The list goes on. . .

 

Here is a brief list of reasons that DON'T have any bearing on the health of pvp:

1) New game modes

2) New maps

3) More frequent balance updates (numbers changes)

While these things might pull in players briefly, no long-term population increase will occur.

 

This is a repost as I don't feel like re-typing it all.

[Kuma.1503]

1. Release ANY PvP content. (Balance patches don't count)

2. Re-add removed content like runes and sigils. 

3. Permaban wintraders

4. Crack down on cheating/hacking/afks

5. Remove Duo-queue

[Bazsi.2734]

Anything. Just do literally anything beside minor balance patches 3 times a year. 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Bazsi.2734

[Downstate.4697]

The best thing anet can do without investing in any resources is remove duo queue and prevent games from snowballing. They can prevent snowballing by reducing the time it takes for a downed person to return to playing. Between bleeding out and the death timer, it’s a good 30-45s of 4v5. 

[Khalisto.5780]

2 hours ago, deathdealer.2197 said:

No progress at all when you lose is a death sentence for pvp

You could play unranked for rewards on losses

[Curennos.9307]

GW2 has some core issues with how the combat system works when two players are fighting that really need to be fixed, IMO, before pvp will be enticing enough for new players to try and solid enough for them to stick around. GW2 is one of the few games with pvp where I enjoy the PVP more the less I know about what's going on - it has some very beginner unfriendly mechanics wedged into nearly every facet, and then once you know how stuff works....well, you go from 'hah hah, I died cause I didn't know what that animation did' or something and right into 'okay, I know how it works now and how it works is godawful'. So getting better at the game means it's **more** difficult to enjoy it, which is, well. Bad.

Just off the top of my head for low hanging fruit: edit: okay this isn't low hanging fruit anymore

- High impact skills should have visible tells. Skills that are instant should have a proportionate impact. Players should be able to see and understand what's going on almost intuitively - of course there are limits to this and at some point someone will have to learn what stuff does, but 'ah, I got chunked for half my hp/cc'd, what was that' only to find out the skill animation is the enemy player doing a little wiggle-step, or twitching their pinkie finger, or they were shot by an arrow that looks just like every other weak arrow, is not great. The UI and cleanse also play into this - I have five stacks of bleed on me. How much damage will it do in total? Not a clue! If I cleanse, what condis will be removed first? Who knows, gotta check the wiki to see how that works. Also, condis - you can stack a bazillion burn on a target, and it can get removed by a single cleanse. To some extent this back and forth can be useful - when to apply condis and stack them, when to cleanse, trying to bait out cleanse, etc...But that also feels really surface-level interplay that only exists because 1) The UI is bad and 2) Condition output and cleanse output appear to have no consistency in their availability or presence in builds.

- The idea of snowballing needs to go. The way conquest is currently designed rewards trying to make fights as unfair as possible - which in a game where you want to have fun fighting other players is very bad. Downstate adjustments play into this, as do things like node sizes that can disproportionately reward mass-AoE builds. +1 can be a role, but maybe not as effective. The only thing that happens if two thieves on different teams fighting each other 'counter' each other by +1-ing a different fight is that they *all* have an unpleasant time, and sure it may 'even out' but that's not a great metric to go by in keeping people around and enjoying fights.

- PvE has a gameplay loop. PvP's gameplay loop is supposed to be, you can build to counter this, or that, or the other thing, and someone can build to counter your thing...And round and round it goes. But insofar as I've seen, this rarely if ever happens - instead, after every balance patch, the meta emerges and once players figure it out it immediately begins to stagnate until the next change. This never seems to change because, IMO, anet seems to focus on numbers most of the time instead of adjusting mechanics and how a player build is, well, built. Sure, numbers contribute and sometimes something just does too much damage, but at some point there needs to be consideration for, if someone wants to do lots of damage, how do they end up doing that, where do the resources in the build come from to do it, and what has to be sacrificed to do it.

- Tying into the above, most classes have a particular traitline that is borderline required. Best example is thief and trickery - if a thief doesn't run trickery, it sucks. Not just in effectiveness, but it feels really bad to play. Or just overall, something without which the majority of builds won't work or would feel bad to play. This needs to change before there can be any sort of build flexibility needed to support a healthy meta.

- Insofar as I've ever been able to gather, spvp rewards are just plainly inferior to pve rewards.

 

More game modes, maps, etc would be lovely, as would fixing obvious abuses of the system -queuing as one thing so you get one of that on the other team, then swapping. Mass swapping after seeing the enemy comp, etc. 

Also, I think the single biggest and most impactful change anet could make is to remove the frickn keening noise waypoints make while in PVP areas. Absolutely despise that, it is 100% the reason why esports failed and everyone left the game >_> <_<

Edited September 29, 2023 by Curennos.9307

[Bast.7253]

1 hour ago, Downstate.4697 said:

The best thing anet can do without investing in any resources is remove duo queue and prevent games from snowballing. They can prevent snowballing by reducing the time it takes for a downed person to return to playing. Between bleeding out and the death timer, it’s a good 30-45s of 4v5. 

Bleeding out and downed state is toxic in itself. Sure it's "strategic", but it's strategic in a really cheesy way. 

I very rarely let people "bleed out" because, 1.) Someone is going to come along and res them and it will come back to bite me. 2.) It's just cheesing a cap based mode. 

I would personally love to see a no down state bonus event for pvp to let people see how they feel about it. If you need to compensate with longer respawn times, fine. People don't want to spend 3 minutes sitting on the ground and downstates are drastically different and imbalanced. Always have been. This would negate the res utility builds but it's not fun facing an organized comp that uses those heavily anyway. Especially if you're in an imbalanced match-up and you're lucky enough to get downs for your team but - oh look - reset the fight because some necro/guard/ele comes along and now your team is out of cooldowns and you're back to being outnumbered. 

[Ragebru.1397]

I still think GW2 sPvP would do significantly better if they switched up the pip earnings. Flagged as AFK (no damage done to enemies in 1min, or capping/decapping) - zero pips. 3 pips for every "top" stat. 5 for win. 1 for loss. 3 for close. matches. Add a more detailed "top" stat pool. 

Top:

• condi
• physical
• healing
• cleansing
• kills
• defense
• offense
• least deaths
• most map objective completion (ie. skyhammer cap, cannon, etc)

Implement a way that each player has to achieve certain milestones (ie. at least 10% of the teams total kill participation) to prevent bots from just running to home cap to get points. 

 

This is the least damning way to fix the horrendous AFK plague that affects the game mode. 

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Ragebru.1397

[Multicolorhipster.9751]

Remove duoq or add a purely soloq arena and then it will be worth playing again with just that change alone

Remove class-swap - lock players into the character they queue as.

Ban or perma-dishonor wintraders and serial afks

Add ranked rewards to unranked and remove the participation award in ranked

Add back and rebalance all the content that was deleted because of forum whiners.

And swallow this 💊

[Ehecatl.9172]

As a repeated returning player who keeps getting into PVP before inevitably leaving again I feel I have decent insight into why new players might bounce off the game mode.

The biggest issue, outside toxic players making the experience worse, is the sheer lack of transparency into what is going on. Whenever I return from a long break and try to get into PVP I'm immediately met with insta-death one-second-kill combos that have little to no tell. When you're a new player and you're trying to learn the game getting taken down from 100% to 0 before you can even register what the enemy class is isn't fun and doesn't feel like a learning experience. There are also just a lot of skills that don't have obvious tells and stuff as vitally important as boons don't have an obvious visual display on the character model either even though being able to baseline defend yourself with a knockdown or stun can be entirely negated by a few seconds of Stability you'd only know an enemy has on them if you took the time to look under their health bar and knew what each symbol was already. If Stability say, gave you a coat of stone or metal for the duration, new players would have something to look at and know when to use their control effects and when not to. As-is they might not even realize the people they're hitting have stability and will just be left puzzled as to why nothing they do can stop that guy from rushing them and one-shotting them. Heck, I've been in exactly that situation before until I realized "Oh yah, Stability. That's probably why."

The best advice anyone can give to a new player for how to better understand what their opponent is doing to kill them tends to be "Make an alt and play that class a bit," and that is a problem. Learning all the classes should certainly be how you truly master the game's PVP so you can play at the highest levels, but it shouldn't be mandatory to just know what is even going on at the introductory level of the game.

[ccccc.4963]

ban underperformers based on whoever i report ingame

[Sereath.1428]

Remove conquest.

Ok actually just removing duoq and class swapping (because it also allows matchmaking manipulation) would do wonders.
Pretty much everything that @Multicolorhipster.9751 mentioned. 🏆

Restore removed content such as amulets, runes and sigils. Unnerf Marauder, Paladin, etc.

Unrealistic but great changes would be:

• More maps
• Prestige skins

Actually unrealistic but best change would be:

• Deleting conquest More game modes

No amount of "balance" can make up for the lack of these.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Sereath.1428

[Multicolorhipster.9751]

12 minutes ago, Sereath.1428 said:

Unrealistic but great changes would be:

• More maps
• Prestige skins

Actually unrealistic but best change would be:

• Deleting conquest More game modes

No amount of "balance" can make up for the lack of these.

Real 😮

A balance patch might drive people away with all its takeaways, but new content is new content and that's what's going to bring people back in at the end of the day. Might be a few diehards willing to play the same mode on the same maps wearing the same drip all the time, but that really does stagnate quick, and that's a rare breed of player to cater to. When we get new, we all benefit.

Appreciate it, and that's a great point to add. 👍