Equinox.1463

My last paragraph is hypothetical, yes, but not that far from being realistic, under my impressions after seeing the game do averagely well on Twitch, YouTube and Reddit (lol). edit: clarity

Sorry for the delay in response! I kind of forgot about the thread, although I'm glad others agree with me. Yup - I figured it out quite late in my gameplay too, when somebody with experience told me exactly what was going on with the training AIs. They can simply apply the physics of PvP maps to HotM ("simply" lol) Me, a designer who pitches daily: Actually, to this day, I've seen some of the biggest money sinks enjoy PvP a lot - outside its obvious flaws, it's quite an enjoyable game mode! ultimately, these sharks could sink in even more of their money because of such events in the game mode, maybe, and we could see an uprise in activity due to an increase in visibility. Furthermore, while immediate money might not be currently on PvP's menu, I'm also certain a revamp of this map could be mediatized and talked about a lot by those whales that spent tens to hundreds of thousand on a game - they don't flaunt but you (hypothetical, my bad) don't need to be massive about your money for it to be something that others notice. I'm certain these sharks would find ways to increase the game mode's population too if the revamp is successful. Not only would visibility on Twitch be massively increased at least for a period, mediatization all across social medias about this big map revamp could make the game mode look viable - and interesting - to many others who are just waiting for the right signs of life from a decade old MMORPG that would gladly hop in. In this day of modernity where the average whale or shark of a younger generation has not only time, but also enjoys MMORPG video games, such consequences are inevitable. At least their revenue stream from the Black Lion Gem Store would see increase in revenue for a short time after the revamp, even longer if done right. I feel like ArenaNet is doing things right nowadays...

Yes! And a bigger/different FFA could also muster a better community.

Or, and hear me out, this very simple solution: if you don't leave your base for a minute, you're automatically disconnected and your team is given no punishment.

The current PvP hub map is obsolete. At best, its islands give traders a simple place to Black Lion their way into profits, or said islands will sometimes sprout a useful conversation about game mechanics. At worst though, on the daily, you'll see active trolling, voluntary harassment, and all kinds of online obscenities usually punishable with an IP ban, all allowed in this hot mess of a map that has nothing anymore sticking its components together. Let's change this. Let's create a map, together, that would fundamentally make sense vis-à-vis Conquest since ArenaNet hasn't done so in many years and may need some inspiration to make some more out of an obsolete, broken map brimming with potential for big reveals. This post will ignore Stronghold because I've not had enough experience in that substratum of Gw2 PvP. Firstly, the PvP map is the first introduction to this game mode. A game mode that can literally compete with the best MMO titles in the world, and yet most, if not everything in the PvP introduction map fundamentally differs from what Conquest PvP is. One of the many culprits here is the Mastery System being fully usable in a map that fundamentally shouldn't use it. Being able to use mounts sure is practical, but the running mastery messes with people's expectations of how you actually run in a game. Removing all Masteries - even gliding - would ultimately make more sense in the PvP hub's map to decrease misunderstandings between Conquest, WvW, and PvE. Since it's introducing itself as one of the most agreed-upon toxicity-brewing areas of the entire game, the Free for All arena should also be destroyed and rebuilt as ArenaNet has done in the past. The sheer volume of non-sense said, done, acted upon, and overall created in this stew of egos should be enough of an argument by itself, but for the sake of it, I'll go ahead and add that something better could have been done eons ago using Private Arenas. The island being recycled into a Custom Arena one would thematically make more sense and would allow players to enjoy real-time PvP without the interference of Top Rankers being bored, random people harassing, and without nearly as much toxicity generated around a TEAM-based game mode. On this new island, NPCs could be introduced with guides created by the players, for the players, making the learning curve in PvP that much smoother. Websites like Guildjen and MetaBattle are amazing hubs for advanced mechanics and rotation decision-making knowledge and build suggestions, but the basics of this game mode - like how many points you generate per death, or per point captured - should have NPCs teaching those because essentials should be taught linearly in a game. No singular person has taken the time to read the window pop-up at the start of a game, since it is intrusive at best. Most players (understanding from a UX perspective) will close the window immediately without concern for its content because "automatic isn't organic," and if they require information they'd rather have to click something to access it than have it spit at them in the middle of a screen. This change would help focus the PvP player base into creating builds made for Conquest, and not for trolling in an area where your base stats are dependent on the time you have spent playing Gw2. The current Bots island is too small for peak hours and has players fighting alongside each other against untrained robots that are incorrectly programmed. Dodging is called "block" and happens while immobilized or crowd controlled, even if the model itself is not moving. The AI is literally the worse in the game, with no advanced pathing whatsoever being present in their trajectories. Those robotic AIs don't use skills in proper order - even though they could be reprogrammed easily - and will end themselves for no apparent reason. They also teach players to always press 1 or 2 in downstate, while spacing skills out when fighting, with no awareness of self-healing, etc, all while using the wrong trait combinations. The list goes on. The island could get to twice its size, with more, smarter AIs, more Chieftain Utaheins and Svanirs, and more golems while also being the hub for Top Rankers - even enabling ArenaNet to expand on their "private hub" for said Top Rankers with more functionalities and more accessibility features and possibly letting that "private hub" have its personal free-for-all arena for actual top rankers - and it wouldn't need to have a single new texture or item created for it. Concluding this, I realize that no small effort is required to revamp a map, and I do not believe I've seen it done before, but for the greater good of the game, I believe a new PvP hub map is needed, one that reflects what is Conquest in Gw2 truly. (This post was written with a sensationalistic approach)

1. Deactivate Team, Say, Emoji, and Map chats. A competent player in a match will find ways to communicate meaningfully in other means (specific pings on the map, numerical showing how many enemies are on the map). 2. Don't go in the FFA. It is a toxic mess of people who truly need help. For 200g you can get a private server - or you can hop in any particular one and duel in there. You will learn so much more from fighting in actual Conquest maps. 3. Deactivate #1's chats - I can't stress this enough. The toxicity in games may feel unreal if you read chats, so trust me when I say, after 5 years of PvP, it's much more efficient to communicate on the minimap directly. People might get confused but we humans adapt surprisingly fast to confusing scribbles on a map ^^ You can replace the chatter dialogue with combat numerical by selecting the "combat" item in the chat creation menu. (It's shift or ctrl and left or right click, tbh I do it by habit now so I really don't remember my key binds for it XD) 4. Not really another point, but I'd love to see the FFA removed. Its whole existence makes no sense in the current state of the gamemode since heck, even when you're having a duel and no one is harassing you, there's always that one monthly winner going around activating waves, fire paths, and Chieftain Utahein and Svanir (they're usually nice enough to stop when you ask them, but knowing where they are in the first place isn't even common knowledge). Add to that that players who've maxed out the Commander's masteries have an insane advantage over other players because they PASSIVELY WILL RUN FASTER... Finally, the FFA is probably where the most toxicity is brewed because of your aforementioned reasons - and I'm not one to say I haven't fallen into that trap because I've been toxic my fair share of times in there. I,d love it if they could replace the FFA with a Private Arena selection island that explains the trope of both Conquest and Private Arenas; it would make so much more sense. (I want scrims okay) And I want to thank you for your honesty about the veterans of this game mode. I agree that I've rarely come across one who's kind when they feel wronged - myself included.

I can feel that haha Another one I tend to say often is "we don't need 3 caps, they have a thief, focus on 2 caps" and it is bizarre. I thought it was general knowledge! Especially if the thief can two-skill you to downstate.

Am I the only one who remembers stun on MoD? Because even then, Mesmers weren't that strong. The mantra can only be cast once each who-know how many seconds, or they have to cast a super long animation that takes forever to finish, to gain access to it again. To me, the issue here is the lack of clarity that you just got dazed - although the skill sound is everything I need personally I'm also an ex mesmer main - but you can still dodge and run away (kite). It is unreactive on your side and superreactive on the mesmer's side, meaning that unless they specifically get the daze on your heal constantly (which then, you're facing a good mesmer, and you're probably good yourself) it will be used elsewhere and then your problem becomes non-existent. Sure, in 1v1s, Mirages are strong, but in no way is it because of MoD! The pressure they gain from you panic-pressing your buttons while dazed and thus not moving (and getting tormented to death) is probably much more of a factor to your problem with the skill.

1. Make custom games actually useful and enjoyable for both the owner and the players. This will make it a lot easier for Server Moderators to do anything at all in the custom arena maps. Currently, you can't easily swap a player in between teams or in/out of spectator mode. I'd like to see commands like /swap @usernamesomething red or /join @usernamesomething blue than requesting for the individual to open their game window browser (usually unbinded) and have them do it themselves. Continuing on improving custom arenas, I do NOT understand why they are the last window in the PvP Panel browser. From a UX perspective that entails it's the least important of their features... 2. Remove Free For All Arena and make it an instance-generation portal where you can either go in 1v1 or go fight your pre-made party. That's significantly big in scope, although it's a lot easier in my mind - use the same map, and make the portal door the portal, but instead of being able to jump in the FFA, you'd join an instance with either your party or other solo players. This would remove so much of the cannibalism our PvP community goes through. Newer players (I'd assume they usually are in groups) would be able to play against their party members without interference, effectively letting them learn in peace, while those who want to spend time hitting and mashing their keyboard with their forehead could go ahead and do that in another instance. The population may be low but I don't believe that would break an already quite bad system. 3. Honestly, rework the ranking system. Currently, when you're half-decent, you have to play your mind out to quite literally have a close match. This wouldn't bother me - after all, it is ranked - but risk-reward is currently quite literally not worth it since you will have bad players on either team because the matchmaker tries to make small queues. Reworking a system that never worked would mean shattering it from its core though, and I really don't think ANet cares enough about PvP to gift us a new system that isn't sus in its pairing. edit: changed wording

I agree with you ^^ In general Scourge does deserve some love.

Scourge had an unfortunate event of nerfs, but I'm not complaining not seeing them in PvP when they've dominated the meta for the many years before their nerfs shot their potential down to hell and even under. And the buffs to core necro are indirect buffs to Scourge? Ish?

I've hardly seen a balance update thread be received well, but the lack of appreciation everyone shows this specific one is concerning. I'm a PvP Bladesworn hardstuck gold that loves to duel mid and high platinum players because it's fun to do so, so do take my word with a grain of salt. 1; Catalyst received way more than a slap on the wrist. People don't understand that Catalyst was using weakness and blindness to their advantage to force resources over their opponents extremely fast or be "one-shot". Now, that's basically gone. More than 40% of their blindness and weakness uptime have been cut (don't take my math literally here). 2; For what it's worth, the buffs they gave to EVERY other class is a surprising change in balance direction after the few years where everything got nerfed down to unplayable levels but a select max-min builds, and it is refreshing. I'm intrigued at what fine-tuning will be brought forth by the balance team moving forward as this balance patch is pivotal in (at least PvP.s) meta. Keep the snowball moving forward ^^ 3; And Roy, for the record, please organize the cameras differently next time! (I'm simply joking) EDIT: Can we make gunsaber mode stowable? It's the only elite mechanic that can't be stowed I believe. At least Holosmith (closest thing to it) can stow their weapon casts, whereas you can't using Gunsaber.

Nothing productive to add personally. I just wanted to underline the phrase, "so people can get beat up by cassowaries," since its very iconic of what happens when you fight back as a Moa!

I'd have to agree. The Catalyst's ability to "dance on aoe is quite unprecendented. The aoe's also proc any type of single damage mitigation in a near constant basis - making it impossible to use aegis proactively and having to instead use it for that split second lightning animation. I think that superspeed is the problem though. It needs a speed nerf as right any Superspeed acquiring spec can do quite well because, to take what you said, they can dance very well. I'd argue that swiftness and superspeed are the problem that causes a lot of headaches right now. Diminishing their speed bonuses could be harsh but needed to bring down the overall mobility spurge around the Mists right now. (lol, the "mists" mean the PvP section of the game)

Well, to be fair, you didn't read my post much either - as I was questionning the pertinence of your comment from a World versus World sttandpoint. But we do agree that Catalyst and Ele is overperforming to some degree - so let's leave it to that and keep the veiled insults for our own mind ^^