July 16 Competitive Update Preview

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

If you missed today's livestream preview of the competitive updates coming to Guild Wars 2 on July 16, you can read the notes below and check out the VOD here! 

 

PvP Updates

Automated Tournament Updates

• The number of daily ATs has been reduced from 8 to 4
• The time that daily ATs occur is now region dependent
• EU: 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 UTC
• NA: 21:00, 0:00, 3:00, 9:00 UTC (2:00 PM, 5:00 PM, 8:00 PM, 2:00 AM PDT)
• One AT for NA is offset to accommodate OCX playerbase

A new weekly AT has been added

• Will occur every Sunday, exact time is region dependent
• EU: 17:00 UTC
• NA: 20:00 UTC (1:00 PM PDT)
• No Qualifying Point requirement to entry
• Increased rewards compared to a normal daily tournament
• Gold reward ranges from 150g for 1st to 25g for 9-16th place
• Rewards include Ascended Shards of Glory and PvP League Tickets

A new monthly variety tournament has been added

• Will occur the second Saturday of the month at 19:00 UTC (12:00 PM PDT) on both regions
• Alternates between 2v2 and 3v3 modes
• 2v2: Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov
• 3v3: Feb, Apr, June, Aug, Oct, Dec
• Rewards include a special title and permanent Champion's Rest passes for 1st

Tournament of Legends is returning

• Scheduled to run every 6 months
• Announcement of the first ToL coming soonTM
• Will occur the third Saturday of the month at 19:00 UTC (12:00 PM PDT) on both regions
• Rewards have been updated (2nd place prize is better than a precursor now)

New Colored Title for Tournament Play

• Champion Brawler is now colored
  • This applies retroactively
• A new system has been created to reward players with a colored title for high placement in mATs
• 1-4th place are given Proofs of Glory
  • 1st: 30
  • 2nd: 15
  • 3rd-4th: 10
• At 120 Proofs of Glory, you will unlock the new title through the Road of Victory achievement
  • The achievement is repeatable so you can keep track even after you get 120

 

Djinn's Dominion Changes

• Objective is now a channel instead of a capture point
• Channeling the objective will now grant the player a special action skill, not their team
• The skills rewarded have been updated
  • Giant Meteor
    • No longer a ground target, requires a target
    • This skill now knocks down, is unblockable, removes boons, and applies vulnerability
  • Waters of Life
    • Replaces Disenchantment Field
    • Targeted AoE that revives allies and finishes enemies in its radius
  • Starfall
    • Replaces Waxing Doom
    • Damages and launches enemies in a raidus around the player
    • If used while in a capture point the enemy controls, it will neutralize the capture point
• Leaving the lamp arena with apply teleport sickness with a scaling duration like Skyhammer

WvW Updates

WvW Scoring Updates

•Victory Points are now going to be weighted based on player population per skirmish, per region:

EU:

NA:

• The warscore awarded from capturing objectives have been increased, and will additionally increase based on the tier of the objective when it is captured

• The warscore awarded from defeating an enemy player in WvW is increasing from 2 to 3

Objective Contesting and EWP

• Old system:
  • Objectives contest when an associated guard gets into combat, or when a gate/wall is damaged
• New system:
  • Objectives contest when the lord/supervisor is put into combat, or when a gate/wall is damaged below 98%
• EWP:
  • Now spawns 3 Emergency Waypoints for the duration of the tactic – only being updated for Keeps/Castles
  • All 3 Waypoints will be relatively near the Lord’s room of the Keep/Castle
  • Allow for defending groups to respond to objectives with EWP safer

Siege Updates:

• Alacrity can no longer be applied to players on siege, and will be removed from players when activating siege
• Boons other than swiftness can no longer be applied to Siege Golems
• Flame Ram health has been lowered by 50%. Operated flame rams will have Iron Hide applied to them
   

• Some siege supply costs have been adjusted:
  • Guild Siege Golem supply cost increased from 50 to 75
  • Arrow Cart supply cost reduced from 40 to 25
  • Superior Arrow Cart supply cost reduced from 50 to 35
  • Trebuchet supply cost reduced from 100 to 50
  • Superior Trebuchet supply cost reduced from 120 to 60

New Weapon Set

Corrupted Hero’s Weapons

• Obtained through Mist-Hardened Lockboxes (Exotic version)
• Obtained through Mystic Forge (Ascended Version)
  • Rare Hero Weapon from the Hero Weapon Reward Track
  • New Mystic Forge Ingredient purchased for WvW Currencies
  • Grandmaster Mark Shards
  • Emblems of the Avenger

[Dak.2749]

Looks like a typo in the slides and post here, this should say 19:00 UTC (12:00 PM PDT) instead

1 hour ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

19:00 UTC (12:00 PM UTC)

 

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

With the superior siege supply requirements being reduced, are the corresponding guild siege requirements also being adjusted? Since the guild siege has the same power levels as superior, the only benefit is the reduced supply cost.  If the Superior AC and treb cost less than the guild versions, then there will be no need to ever craft the guild versions. 

Otherwise... I'm actually looking forward to seeing the effects of these changes. 

And especially looking forward to seeing the future "incentives to win." Thank you for that mention!

Edited July 13 by Forgotten Legend.9281

[TexZero.7910]

3 minutes ago, Forgotten Legend.9281 said:

With the superior siege supply requirements being reduced, are the corresponding guild siege requirements also being adjusted? Since the guild siege has the same power levels as superior, the only benefit is the reduced supply cost.  If the Superior AC and treb cost less than the guild versions, then there will be no need to ever craft the guild versions. 

Otherwise... I'm actually looking forward to seeing the effects ofvthese changes. And especially looking forward to seeing the future "incentives to win." Thank you for that mention!

according to this it's all being adjusted just missed in notes.
image

Edited July 10 by TexZero.7910

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

14 minutes ago, TexZero.7910 said:

according to this it's all being adjusted just missed in notes.
image

That info should have been added to the official thread on the official forums with the official notes. Officially. 

Thanks for the link.

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

PS; now I am curious... if a wall is at 97% will the tower/keep stay tapped until repaired? if not how much damage will be needed to re-tap? 1?

Is this incentive for defenders to fully repair?

If only 1 damage is needed to contest an objective with a wall or gate under 98%, it doesn't change anything for SMC.... the waypoint will still almost always be contested and useless during even mid population times, because there are so many walls that current defense leaves the walls wide open.

[Chrome.9841]

3 hours ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

Objectives contest when the lord/supervisor is put into combat, or when a gate/wall is damaged below 98%

So do we have to keep repairing walls/gates? Remove that second part or lower the % pls. I don't even need a siege to damage a gate below 98%

[Dreggon.6598]

How much will the new monthly PvP tournament cost? (from sellers)

[Forgotten Legend.9281]

PS:

since you increased points obtained for capturing an objective (trying to make more offense), shouldn't you also reward (albeit fewer) points for successfully defending objectives? Anet keeps saying these changes are to encourage fights... but when there's a single map blob running around capping things... it's so much easier for the "defenders" to simply back-cap the objectives (IE re-capture the objective 5 minutes later) and let it start gaining points on tick. with the change, it's worth it to capture high tier targets, but defending still seems like a waste of time for total war-score in order to win the match. I guess we'll see if the rewards for winning actually increase fights... or if people will simply avoid the map blob, to prevent the zerg from obtaining bags.

with respect to the dev team, y'all need to spend WAY MORE time playing outside of prime time, and NOT running with huge meta- boonball fight guilds.

[SerialExperiments.8075]

Without a doubt, the biggest change here is to contesting objectives in WvW. I made a video a while back explaining how contesting currently works (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yuFeRLsYc) and I'm happy to see a change to the system.

I believe this change will cause more fights on the map. Have you ever been fighting a group that then disappears after a loss to go PPT an objective on the other side of the map? And you didn't notice until there were OJs on the lord? NO MORE! With the new contesting rules, you can actually believe white swords on objective icons on the map. No longer will white swords be all over the map and basically meaningless! You can believe crossed white sword on an objective icon now!

Ok, so you can't REALLY believe every set of white swords on the map. They're making it harder to create white swords (contest), but there are still methods that need to be considered. Here's how to contest objectives in the new system:

1. Mount Chain Pull on a gate with at least 5 supply if the gate is a T3 Keep (to contest the waypoint). This feels like the easiest way to contest an objective that hasn't been attacked yet. You'll have to kill the guards first, but still rather reliable.

2. Always enter keeps through the gates. The reason for this is because players can damage gates but can't damage walls. So if a team only repairs the gate to 51% to tap it shut, you can contest the objective by hitting the gate with any skill. Furthermore, if they begin to repair the gate, you'll still have a way to contest the keep (even if you're not hitting inner gate), by going back to the outer gate and hitting it with any skill.

3. Charr Cars. These are the camp tactic that no one really uses. On a map where you only own your own camp, a Charr Car can be slotted and driven across the map to do damage to a wall enough to bring it to 97%. This can contest their waypoint while you hit another objective and they'll have a slower response time.

4. Golems. Omega golems can be hidden near enemy objectives to do damage to a wall. A portal can be dropped next to a wall that is already below 98%, fire one shot from an omega golem on it, and re-use the portal to bring the Omega Golem back to it's hiding place. Alternative methods can be done using Stealth (since it's not a boon).

And so, because contesting is more difficult, here are some consequences of that:

1. Enemies will be able to use their nearby waypoints more often. If you're fighting on the south side of an Alpine BL's T3 Bay, near the Sentry, and you're driven back to the sally/portal, the Way Point for Bay will still be active unless the opponent intentionally damages the gate or walls. This means large scale fights in these areas can happen over and over and over again with quick respawns as long as the objective's gate/walls aren't damaged. Great news for fights! More fights per night.

2. Normal T3 Waypoints will become active during fights. Fights inside T3 Keeps and T3 SMCs will see the Waypoint become active while enemy zergs are inside their objectives. Since the regular guards no longer cause contesting, then a group that is between outer and inner can not meet the requirements for contesting (hitting a wall or gate that is lower than 98%), and the waypoint will go active. This can cause a group that owns the keep to "Zombie" them down. A solution to this should be to bring the inner gate to 97% though PvDoor. I expect this to be the norm. This method will also require someone to track the three minutes needed to re-smack the door. This punishes attackers who don't understand the new system, and creates no changes for defenders if the attackers know the above.

3. You can believe white swords now. I mentioned this at the start of the post, but I just want to note it in this list. This used to take 30 seconds to appear, and was triggered very easily. So not only was the information late to be shown to the entire map, but it was likely a warning sign that can be ignored. The new changes mean the white swords appear immediately and that they're harder to trigger. This should allow for defenders to respond and for scouts to relay information with more certainty. 

We'll see how this all plays out once the patch drops. But regardless of the outcome, I'm always in favor of providing map-wide information quicker (immediate white swords) and having map-wide information be more accurate (harder to contest). Think of how useful Orange Swords are as a comparison. When they appear, you KNOW there are at least 25 people engaging and exactly where they are. That is immediate & accurate information that is available to the entire map.

P.S. Since we're working on contesting, can we fix the fact that Speldan's Camp can't ever be contested? It's immune to being contested.

P.P.S I hope that objectives being re-contested means that when the event timer of 3 minutes resets on an objective, the white swords also immediately reappear instead of go missing for 30 seconds like they currently do.

 

 

Edited July 11 by SerialExperiments.8075

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

pointless changes are pointless. Why do I need a higher war score when my team, which is largely inactive, is heavily outnumbered for 20 hours a day and during the remaining 4 hours, the 5 or 6 players who are online get overwhelmed by a single hacker?

[Conner.4702]

Please move this to the appropriate spvp subforum, thank you.

[fatihso.7258]

Don't need a siege to damage a gate below 98%. Lower it or revamp your idea.

[The O.2315]

Starfall sounds like it could be super unfun, as worded there is no counterplay if used by a mesmer with distortion or a stealthed thief. I'm all for a way to dislodge bunkers with map mechanics, but not in a way where you may not even be able to tell it's going to happen.

[Skie.8904]

All those colored titles are cute and all, but shouldn't you look at old titles deserving of the same treatment? Why would Obsidian armor grant you one, but Envoy not? XD

[Ashantara.8731]

What's with all the ugly flashy titles recently? At least add an option to deactivate other players' titles. Purple, now pink, gold, blue -- what's next? 🙄

P.S. Seeing all those cheated Legendary Conqueror of Cerus title players makes me want to cry. 😉 

[damienra.3914]

Hi Oceanic timezone Player here, Why the stupid with WvW? There are far better solution so literally no excuses are acceptable.
 

[Eventine.8024]

@Roy All these changes are welcome, despite I may not completely agree with all of them. But can you please look into WvW tiering? You have your reasons for adding one more tier, but currently, matchups are quite scuffed. Wasn't it better to remove one tier instead of adding one? OFC the best case scenario is having no queue (or almost no q) with an almost-full population in all borders, but currently several "server/shards" do not even have enough population to fill only 1 border in prime time.

Anyway, thanks for the really needed interest in WvW and PvP. Because let's face it: GW2 vertical progression is basically being good at the game, and the best place to test it or show it off is in competitive modes (PvP, WvW, and LM).

Best to all dev,

E.

[Luthan.5236]

Seems okay-ish to me. I do not care much about tournaments - and have enough PvP tickets and ascended shards from normal play each season already. The monthly thing seems to be a bit much ... to tie titles to it while it is 3vs3 and 2vs2. Should have also made this for the normal tournements. (But then again ... I might just get the champion brawler some time in the future and not doing tournaments at all. Not even in the weekly PvP rush.)

Djinn's dominion change: So ... best to ignore the buff completely now. If it only affects one player. Boring map stays boring. Not a big deal/change.

The WvW victory points different per time ... sounds interesting first. (And encourages to play more at peak times.) But this will ruin the queues I bet. Making them longer at the peak times and people caring less to play at the other times where there weren't much playing at all already. (Should have done the opposite maybe? :D)

Changes to contest state and ewp and the reduced supply cost for sieges: Seems like they want to make the play style more aggressive. More capping and recapping. (On the other hand more player dedication to defending with updated war score per tick.) Could be good. Could be bad. We'll see. Playing at the next WvW rush - too busy with the other weekly events and other hobbies atm. 😄

I ... just wonder if the contested state will persist as long as some wall/gate is lower than 98. Makes sense to not contest when just a guard is killed. But a wall/gate being below 98 (maybe change it to allow for more leeway on walls and the gate having the higher threshold - maybe a difference between outer/inner walls for the keeps/castle) should time out. (Then trigger again upon the next damage to the wall/gate or if a guard is killed whiel wall/gate is below the threshold.)

Imagine having a ton of damage to the walls gates and you fighting off some big zerg that decides to move to another target and then the supplies being low ... taking you forever to fix it so everything is at least above 98. (Could be annoying especially for stonemist.)

Edit: Daily tournaments: Would make sense to still have more but not a fixed interval - less in the morning (separate per time zones) and more at the evening. Feels like after 21:00 there could be one more for people that barely might miss that one - while not having time early during the day. For people that care about tournaments lol. Why not a 22:00 and 23:00 there?

Edited July 11 by Luthan.5236

[Gehenna.3625]

12 hours ago, Chrome.9841 said:

So do we have to keep repairing walls/gates? Remove that second part or lower the % pls. I don't even need a siege to damage a gate below 98%

I think that once it gets below the threshold the timer will start and will last 2-3 minutes. If no more damage is done then the timer will just run out. That seems to be a more logical/plausible interpretation of what they're saying. 

[Tavin.7450]

Basically, the WvW scoring updates are a good idea. I find the difference between primetime and night shift a bit extreme.
A skirmish is worth 7x more? o.o

How about this? (EU)

Cest	2:00	4:00	6:00	8:00	10:00	12:00	14:00	16:00	18:00	20:00	22:00	24:00
1st	10	10	10	15	15	15	15	22	22	30	22	22
2nd	8	8	8	12	12	12	12	18	18	22	18	18
3rd	6	6	6	9	9	9	9	12	12	14	12	12

Edit: After talking to more WvW players,  I feel that the curve needs to be flattened further. ->see my commentary on page 2

 

By the way, important managemant tools are still missing to manage the alliance guilds

I also support the previous speaker Eventine.8024 - we dont need a T6 in EU:

16 hours ago, Eventine.8024 said:

But can you please look into WvW tiering? You have your reasons for adding one more tier, but currently, matchups are quite scuffed. Wasn't it better to remove one tier instead of adding one?

Edited July 12 by Tavin.7450

[Pagan Highlander.5948]

How about making rewards in WvW at least comparable to PvP rewards. Currently the rewards are almost nil for those who have been playing for quite some time. As the rewards stand now, we are playing for the enjoyment of WvW and little else Unless someone is making Legendary armor

[Kitty Welsh.4325]

Hey! First of all - yes, Cal, that type of streams are also great, please do keep them coming.
About the triple EWP thing - could you, guys, maybe make them of different colors for example? Or have a large floating number over each of them?
Besides the organized squads there will be plenty of random players jumping in to help and rallying the enemies while trying to make their way to the main group.

P.S. Maybe instead of 3 EWPs you guys could leave one but let the travelling defenders have 3 seconds invulnerability buff? That way trying to hold an EWP would be a really bad idea.

[DeWolfe.2174]

Hey Dev's, that's called geographical discrimination! You're basically telling your customers around the world that "we don't value you" if you're not local.

Worst changes I've seen and it shows a complete lack of common decency and sense.

[ShatteredStars.6548]

This map needs music, it doesn't have it.