To start, I love this game and I want it to have my babies.
That being said, I've been rollin' as an elementalist during this BWE and finding them a lot of fun! Last night I began actually paying attention to the people around me, curious to see what classes were being played and I was shocked to see a huge swing in favor of the elementalist!
I saw a few necros, a few warriors and guardians scattered about. VERY rarely would I see an engineer or thief or mesmer...
But boy oh boy you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a ranger and you couldn't pass gas without an elementalist telling you who dealt it. Seems like people are flocking towards Elementalists (And rangers to a smaller degree). Any thoughts as to why this may be?
I understand that my sample size was limited and during a beta and far from scientific, these are just things I noticed.
Well lets start by asking why did YOU choose the elementalist seeing as your playing one.
I think there is a lot pushing players towards these classes... It is not really a problem as long as all the classes are balanced fairly well.
I have been playing ranger but at release I will probably do something else, I haven't decided yet. Like many have said, pet classes are popular. Both ranger and elementalist are staples of GW1, which also make them popular choices. Everyone loves wizards, and players gravitate towards what they perceive as the DPS class, although GW2 doesnt really have a trinity.
In WvW, I have to somewhat agree with sentiments that range makes up a lot of the large scale fights... !!! BUT, !!! You could play for days as a ranger or ele though without getting a proper kill in WvW, because in these larger fights where lines are drawn only players who cross the line will die and in those cases they would have died with or without any individual ele/ranger shooting a few projectiles at them. I have been more impressed by some of the warriors and theives who move in quickly to take down stragglers and get out before dying themselves and also these melee classes being used in smaller skirmishes. I am a big fan of WvW, and I am probably going to go with a melee class at release.
This is the first RPG I have played with this sort of WvW large scale PvP gameplay, and I have to admit I am a little disappointed. I guess I expected it to be more like Planetside 1 with equal faction populations (right now it seems populations are so skewed that 1 sever can often take on 2 others and still dominate), more shifts in control of bases (PS1 base fights would often taken around an hour and up to 20 hours... In GW2 they are lasting significantly longer), a more fluid front line (in PS you can go behind enemy lines with cloaking or temporarily blast through with a few tanks, etc), and more choices for how to approach taking over bases (PS1 had a back door and several options for shutting bases down, hitting bases from the air, cutting their supply of pwer out, etc). That being said I know GW2 cant have the same variety in PvP that PS1 had because it is also an RPG, PvP arena, and a great PvE game... But I think that arenanet will make adjustments in the future and there is a lot of room for improvement.
I especially hope they give more incentives to encourage players to WvW in worlds that are at a disadvantage. I feel that players may be going to PvE and PvP arena when their server starts to lose at WvW, and that is causing populations to quickly become unbalanced in WvW... Or something else is causing major population unbalance, far far far beyond what I have seen in PS1.
@wormywyrm: there's at least 1 balancing system but that one'll only become apparent over time, namely the ranking system where strong winner servers will end up against other servers that won their 2 week battles, where as servers that are weaker, less organised or with lower populations that because of it lose more than they won, will end up against other servers that are in force more of their level.
Of course, this can't be shown in a weekend beta, but it should help in the longer term.
To start, I love this game and I want it to have my babies.
That being said, I've been rollin' as an elementalist during this BWE and finding them a lot of fun! Last night I began actually paying attention to the people around me, curious to see what classes were being played and I was shocked to see a huge swing in favor of the elementalist!
I saw a few necros, a few warriors and guardians scattered about. VERY rarely would I see an engineer or thief or mesmer...
But boy oh boy you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a ranger and you couldn't pass gas without an elementalist telling you who dealt it. Seems like people are flocking towards Elementalists (And rangers to a smaller degree). Any thoughts as to why this may be?
I understand that my sample size was limited and during a beta and far from scientific, these are just things I noticed.
Well lets start by asking why did YOU choose the elementalist seeing as your playing one.
Then you'll have your answer.
I'm guna giive you an honest answer here...I chose elementalist cuz the mesmer mask was fugly and the chick I made looked hot in the dress...
We've covered this already tho..I'm shallow.
To my delight, I found the class not only aesthetically pleasing to my shallow eyes, but also remarkably versatile and fun. ^^
To start, I love this game and I want it to have my babies.
That being said, I've been rollin' as an elementalist during this BWE and finding them a lot of fun! Last night I began actually paying attention to the people around me, curious to see what classes were being played and I was shocked to see a huge swing in favor of the elementalist!
I saw a few necros, a few warriors and guardians scattered about. VERY rarely would I see an engineer or thief or mesmer...
But boy oh boy you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a ranger and you couldn't pass gas without an elementalist telling you who dealt it. Seems like people are flocking towards Elementalists (And rangers to a smaller degree). Any thoughts as to why this may be?
I understand that my sample size was limited and during a beta and far from scientific, these are just things I noticed.
Well lets start by asking why did YOU choose the elementalist seeing as your playing one.
Then you'll have your answer.
I'm guna giive you an honest answer here...I chose elementalist cuz the mesmer mask was fugly and the chick I made looked hot in the dress...
We've covered this already tho..I'm shallow.
To my delight, I found the class not only aesthetically pleasing to my shallow eyes, but also remarkably versatile and fun. ^^
I started out as melee in PVP but quickly realised i was doing it wrong. So i went ranged too and i actually survivded more and was able to get more kills. Can't blame the player. Devs just can't balance out melee and ranged in MMOS and GW2 suffer from similar problem. So be ready to see lots of ELE and Rangers in PVP as time goes by.
Well atleast in GW2 every class has viable ranged options, thats a step up from all other MMO's.
Its easier for noobs to survive at ranged, but i bet in the end all the pros in structured PvP will rule with Mellee classes, they require more skill, but will be even better then ranged classes in the hands of a pro.
WvWvW might be a different story as a whole.... Mexican standoffs where never favourable to mellee's, so everyone should have allways a ranged weapon equiped.... But allready most winning tactics require a lot of mellee classes too.
Elementalist are peoples choice because they have more potential skills, but then people choose to stick to a single attunement in battle, and therefore lose most of the classes potential. Just watch all those elementalists, and youll hardly ever see any switching switching attunement mid combat.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I started out as melee in PVP but quickly realised i was doing it wrong. So i went ranged too and i actually survivded more and was able to get more kills. Can't blame the player. Devs just can't balance out melee and ranged in MMOS and GW2 suffer from similar problem. So be ready to see lots of ELE and Rangers in PVP as time goes by.
Well atleast in GW2 every class has viable ranged options, thats a step up from all other MMO's.
Its easier for noobs to survive at ranged, but i bet in the end all the pros in structured PvP will rule with Mellee classes, they require more skill, but will be even better then ranged classes in the hands of a pro.
WvWvW might be a different story as a whole.... Mexican standoffs where never favourable to mellee's, so everyone should have allways a ranged weapon equiped.... But allready most winning tactics require a lot of mellee classes too.
Elementalist are peoples choice because they have more potential skills, but then people choose to stick to a single attunement in battle, and therefore lose most of the classes potential. Just watch all those elementalists, and youll hardly ever see any switching switching attunement mid combat.
You may be right there, I learned early that to take advantage of my elementalist I need to switch attunements to fit my situation, not just battle by battle, but second by second within even a single battle. I swap out a LOT!
I'm positive that this will change. I noticed that some melee combos with my warrior kill a lot faster then ranged with rifle for example. Not to mention that some melee weapons have great CC skills.
The moment you get organised teams in structured PVP and WvWvW, I think you will see more of a mix of ranged and melee.
DE's and keep sieges just give the wrong impression. In a massive DE , melee is just a gamble. If 20 centaurs attack, it makes more sense to spam AOE at them from a safe distance then charging at them with a 2hnd sword and hope for the best. All the particle spam can make it very difficult to be aware of your surroundings when in melee range.
I also think that performance issues have a part in this. Melee is just difficult when you experience low fps in massive fights.
Originally posted by xxpigxx Well, Jade Quarry was put up against new (read empty) servers twice after facerolling the first round.
Seems something is off in their matchmaking algorithm
I'm on Blazeridge Mountains which was one of the worst in the first beta. First day we slaughtered 2 new servers then got matched again today and now we are second to Tanglewood Copse but it looks like a bit of fight.
You can't expect beta to match up perfectly due to population differences across the servers and so forth. Over time is should even out some more.
This beta I've tried both ranger and elementist. Between the two, elementist offers the most diversity being able to change to the different elements quickly depending on what is called for.
The other classes don't have this diversity to this degree
I see more Warriors around than Ele's on my server atm, although Ele probably comes in second. That'll change eventually though as Warriors are in dire need of a nerf as there are some builds on it that i can put out a ridiculous amount of damage that kills almost anyone while they are CC locked and have a bit too much survivability to go with that. Ele's are also much more awkward to play well than most people in the BWE's realise, they just see the flashy skills and occasional big numbers.
Originally posted by xxpigxx Well, Jade Quarry was put up against new (read empty) servers twice after facerolling the first round.
Seems something is off in their matchmaking algorithm
I'm on Blazeridge Mountains which was one of the worst in the first beta. First day we slaughtered 2 new servers then got matched again today and now we are second to Tanglewood Copse but it looks like a bit of fight.
You can't expect beta to match up perfectly due to population differences across the servers and so forth. Over time is should even out some more.
Gate of Madness initially 1v2ed the two servers it got, and then we got matched against Yak's Bend and Darkhaven. -_-
1). Have you guys seen the earth eles? Those guys are seriously tank worthy.
2). Maybe it's just me, but my thief strolls around and makes mince meat out of some of these groups. Only thing that gives me any issue is thief v. ranger. Otherwise I tend to trounce.
3). The classes you see now are mostly people playing with ideas. The real % likely will show at launch when people start their mains.
4). I've seen more wars/guards personally. That being said, if you do not do some form of ranged/melee, expect to be trounced in this game. It is imperative to be doing SOMETHING as you cross the killing field.
Range DPS always dominate in group PvP. And since there are no healers and the mesmer`s CC abilities are somewhat weak in PvP (no doubt because all the whine for CC in any PvP game). This is the way it will stay. Sorry folks, can`t whine about CC and healing being boring and then expect that DPS wont dominate.
To start, I love this game and I want it to have my babies.
That being said, I've been rollin' as an elementalist during this BWE and finding them a lot of fun! Last night I began actually paying attention to the people around me, curious to see what classes were being played and I was shocked to see a huge swing in favor of the elementalist!
I saw a few necros, a few warriors and guardians scattered about. VERY rarely would I see an engineer or thief or mesmer...
But boy oh boy you couldn't throw a stone without hitting a ranger and you couldn't pass gas without an elementalist telling you who dealt it. Seems like people are flocking towards Elementalists (And rangers to a smaller degree). Any thoughts as to why this may be?
I understand that my sample size was limited and during a beta and far from scientific, these are just things I noticed.
It's a multiplayer video game. This means you just have a handful of classes and races. Even across the pretend world factions, you still have the same exact stuff. Naturally every 10-20 year old will flock to whatever "pwns" in the game they are enjoying. The game I play now has 44 classes and 24 races with three realms. So while you do see a lot of certain class types (casters and rogues), it matters little because it's an mmorpg with a lot of variation and creativity.
GW2 needed something to feed the feeding frenzy of push a button join a pvp game type players. It's fun I'm sure and will do okay in the industry. Just don't be surprised everyone took a ranged class - that's how it works when there isn't much to choose from.
If you want an mmorpg, however...have to wait until next year. Sadly.
Range DPS always dominate in group PvP. And since there are no healers and the mesmer`s CC abilities are somewhat weak in PvP (no doubt because all the whine for CC in any PvP game). This is the way it will stay. Sorry folks, can`t whine about CC and healing being boring and then expect that DPS wont dominate.
There is actually a fair bit of cc. Especially since there is no CC immunity. A good group will cc and burst you down quickly.
I started out as melee in PVP but quickly realised i was doing it wrong. So i went ranged too and i actually survivded more and was able to get more kills. Can't blame the player. Devs just can't balance out melee and ranged in MMOS and GW2 suffer from similar problem. So be ready to see lots of ELE and Rangers in PVP as time goes by.
Well atleast in GW2 every class has viable ranged options, thats a step up from all other MMO's.
Its easier for noobs to survive at ranged, but i bet in the end all the pros in structured PvP will rule with Mellee classes, they require more skill, but will be even better then ranged classes in the hands of a pro.
WvWvW might be a different story as a whole.... Mexican standoffs where never favourable to mellee's, so everyone should have allways a ranged weapon equiped.... But allready most winning tactics require a lot of mellee classes too.
Elementalist are peoples choice because they have more potential skills, but then people choose to stick to a single attunement in battle, and therefore lose most of the classes potential. Just watch all those elementalists, and youll hardly ever see any switching switching attunement mid combat.
Please feel free to go ranged Warrior against classes like Ele, Necro, Ranger..be my guest. Come back and then tell me how it went for you in PVP, especially during seige.
Range DPS always dominate in group PvP. And since there are no healers and the mesmer`s CC abilities are somewhat weak in PvP (no doubt because all the whine for CC in any PvP game). This is the way it will stay. Sorry folks, can`t whine about CC and healing being boring and then expect that DPS wont dominate.
There is actually a fair bit of cc. Especially since there is no CC immunity. A good group will cc and burst you down quickly.
And THERE's the problem. Lack of good groups.
As a melee mesmer, I could murdelate eles on an open field. No problems. I have plenty of CC (ah, if only confusion worked right though...)
Seige battles...well either side of the wall, melee can't really hit anyone on the other side. So natural an ele or other ranged build has an advantage. But melee should be doing supply runs, hitting the door, taking out enemy supply caravans, building seige...switch to a range set if you have nothing better to do, but you should always have something better to do.
I WILL say there's too darn many eles in WvW...all I see is Meteor Shower spam.
I think what Fadedbomb said applies as well. Pet classes are always a big favorite, and "Wizards" do have that mega DPS stereotype so yeah. I think I'll roll a melee toon and check out PVP and see how it is from that perspective.
As I presume that by far the most beta players are former GW1 player I think the idea of what a class represents is not the issue. I think the range issue is.
Comments
Well lets start by asking why did YOU choose the elementalist seeing as your playing one.
Then you'll have your answer.
Agreed. WE NEED BOATS!
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
I think there is a lot pushing players towards these classes... It is not really a problem as long as all the classes are balanced fairly well.
I have been playing ranger but at release I will probably do something else, I haven't decided yet. Like many have said, pet classes are popular. Both ranger and elementalist are staples of GW1, which also make them popular choices. Everyone loves wizards, and players gravitate towards what they perceive as the DPS class, although GW2 doesnt really have a trinity.
In WvW, I have to somewhat agree with sentiments that range makes up a lot of the large scale fights... !!! BUT, !!! You could play for days as a ranger or ele though without getting a proper kill in WvW, because in these larger fights where lines are drawn only players who cross the line will die and in those cases they would have died with or without any individual ele/ranger shooting a few projectiles at them. I have been more impressed by some of the warriors and theives who move in quickly to take down stragglers and get out before dying themselves and also these melee classes being used in smaller skirmishes. I am a big fan of WvW, and I am probably going to go with a melee class at release.
This is the first RPG I have played with this sort of WvW large scale PvP gameplay, and I have to admit I am a little disappointed. I guess I expected it to be more like Planetside 1 with equal faction populations (right now it seems populations are so skewed that 1 sever can often take on 2 others and still dominate), more shifts in control of bases (PS1 base fights would often taken around an hour and up to 20 hours... In GW2 they are lasting significantly longer), a more fluid front line (in PS you can go behind enemy lines with cloaking or temporarily blast through with a few tanks, etc), and more choices for how to approach taking over bases (PS1 had a back door and several options for shutting bases down, hitting bases from the air, cutting their supply of pwer out, etc). That being said I know GW2 cant have the same variety in PvP that PS1 had because it is also an RPG, PvP arena, and a great PvE game... But I think that arenanet will make adjustments in the future and there is a lot of room for improvement.
I especially hope they give more incentives to encourage players to WvW in worlds that are at a disadvantage. I feel that players may be going to PvE and PvP arena when their server starts to lose at WvW, and that is causing populations to quickly become unbalanced in WvW... Or something else is causing major population unbalance, far far far beyond what I have seen in PS1.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
@wormywyrm: there's at least 1 balancing system but that one'll only become apparent over time, namely the ranking system where strong winner servers will end up against other servers that won their 2 week battles, where as servers that are weaker, less organised or with lower populations that because of it lose more than they won, will end up against other servers that are in force more of their level.
Of course, this can't be shown in a weekend beta, but it should help in the longer term.
Seems something is off in their matchmaking algorithm
I'm guna giive you an honest answer here...I chose elementalist cuz the mesmer mask was fugly and the chick I made looked hot in the dress...
We've covered this already tho..I'm shallow.
To my delight, I found the class not only aesthetically pleasing to my shallow eyes, but also remarkably versatile and fun. ^^
Just so you know, you can hide headgear
Right click on the Mesmer mask, select hide, and now profit from MULTIPLE hot chicks pupping up around you!
Sunuvabitch! Fugly masks be gone! I Invoke the hotness that is these character models!
Well atleast in GW2 every class has viable ranged options, thats a step up from all other MMO's.
Its easier for noobs to survive at ranged, but i bet in the end all the pros in structured PvP will rule with Mellee classes, they require more skill, but will be even better then ranged classes in the hands of a pro.
WvWvW might be a different story as a whole.... Mexican standoffs where never favourable to mellee's, so everyone should have allways a ranged weapon equiped.... But allready most winning tactics require a lot of mellee classes too.
Elementalist are peoples choice because they have more potential skills, but then people choose to stick to a single attunement in battle, and therefore lose most of the classes potential. Just watch all those elementalists, and youll hardly ever see any switching switching attunement mid combat.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
You may be right there, I learned early that to take advantage of my elementalist I need to switch attunements to fit my situation, not just battle by battle, but second by second within even a single battle. I swap out a LOT!
I'm positive that this will change. I noticed that some melee combos with my warrior kill a lot faster then ranged with rifle for example. Not to mention that some melee weapons have great CC skills.
The moment you get organised teams in structured PVP and WvWvW, I think you will see more of a mix of ranged and melee.
DE's and keep sieges just give the wrong impression. In a massive DE , melee is just a gamble. If 20 centaurs attack, it makes more sense to spam AOE at them from a safe distance then charging at them with a 2hnd sword and hope for the best. All the particle spam can make it very difficult to be aware of your surroundings when in melee range.
I also think that performance issues have a part in this. Melee is just difficult when you experience low fps in massive fights.
I'm on Blazeridge Mountains which was one of the worst in the first beta. First day we slaughtered 2 new servers then got matched again today and now we are second to Tanglewood Copse but it looks like a bit of fight.
You can't expect beta to match up perfectly due to population differences across the servers and so forth. Over time is should even out some more.
The Enlightened take things Lightly
This beta I've tried both ranger and elementist. Between the two, elementist offers the most diversity being able to change to the different elements quickly depending on what is called for.
The other classes don't have this diversity to this degree
I see more Warriors around than Ele's on my server atm, although Ele probably comes in second. That'll change eventually though as Warriors are in dire need of a nerf as there are some builds on it that i can put out a ridiculous amount of damage that kills almost anyone while they are CC locked and have a bit too much survivability to go with that. Ele's are also much more awkward to play well than most people in the BWE's realise, they just see the flashy skills and occasional big numbers.
after 2 days of sPvP ive seen:
30% guardian, 30% thief, 20% warrior, 10% elementalist, 5% mesmer, 1% ranger, 1% engineer, 3% necromancer
but thats yust my experience...depends on who you ask i guess
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED
Gate of Madness initially 1v2ed the two servers it got, and then we got matched against Yak's Bend and Darkhaven. -_-
1). Have you guys seen the earth eles? Those guys are seriously tank worthy.
2). Maybe it's just me, but my thief strolls around and makes mince meat out of some of these groups. Only thing that gives me any issue is thief v. ranger. Otherwise I tend to trounce.
3). The classes you see now are mostly people playing with ideas. The real % likely will show at launch when people start their mains.
4). I've seen more wars/guards personally. That being said, if you do not do some form of ranged/melee, expect to be trounced in this game. It is imperative to be doing SOMETHING as you cross the killing field.
Range DPS always dominate in group PvP. And since there are no healers and the mesmer`s CC abilities are somewhat weak in PvP (no doubt because all the whine for CC in any PvP game). This is the way it will stay. Sorry folks, can`t whine about CC and healing being boring and then expect that DPS wont dominate.
My gaming blog
It's a multiplayer video game. This means you just have a handful of classes and races. Even across the pretend world factions, you still have the same exact stuff. Naturally every 10-20 year old will flock to whatever "pwns" in the game they are enjoying. The game I play now has 44 classes and 24 races with three realms. So while you do see a lot of certain class types (casters and rogues), it matters little because it's an mmorpg with a lot of variation and creativity.
GW2 needed something to feed the feeding frenzy of push a button join a pvp game type players. It's fun I'm sure and will do okay in the industry. Just don't be surprised everyone took a ranged class - that's how it works when there isn't much to choose from.
If you want an mmorpg, however...have to wait until next year. Sadly.
On Sorrows Furnace in pvp I see Elementalist, Warriors, Rangers the majority. I hardly see any other classes.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
There is actually a fair bit of cc. Especially since there is no CC immunity. A good group will cc and burst you down quickly.
Please feel free to go ranged Warrior against classes like Ele, Necro, Ranger..be my guest. Come back and then tell me how it went for you in PVP, especially during seige.
And THERE's the problem. Lack of good groups.
As a melee mesmer, I could murdelate eles on an open field. No problems. I have plenty of CC (ah, if only confusion worked right though...)
Seige battles...well either side of the wall, melee can't really hit anyone on the other side. So natural an ele or other ranged build has an advantage. But melee should be doing supply runs, hitting the door, taking out enemy supply caravans, building seige...switch to a range set if you have nothing better to do, but you should always have something better to do.
I WILL say there's too darn many eles in WvW...all I see is Meteor Shower spam.
As I presume that by far the most beta players are former GW1 player I think the idea of what a class represents is not the issue. I think the range issue is.
Cast your vote: The importance of character customisation