f13.net

The trouble with skill based games is that ultimately the people who are best find the best combos and the best strategies and win all the time. Guild Wars has reached that point for me. As fun as it is to play, I just don't win anymore... and losing 90% of the time makes those rare wins feel better, but not enough that it's worth beating my head against that wall anymore. I have a feeling everybody who I used to beat got sick of it somewhere before I did, and they're gone.

I don't play Counterstrike, I don't play PlanetSide, and I don't play this.

I'm questioning everything I hold to be true about PvP. I may shortly be converted to the PvP- side.

Where are you playing?

RA?
TA?
HA?
GVG?

Between your post and *quote*

I really do think that Guild Wars is the most elegantly designed MMO out there, but PvE is at best an acquired taste and at worst... well, that's been said.

The PvP is great.  Really.  But there has to be a way to make it mean more.  And that way shouldn't necessitate joining a dedicated PvP guild.

But no other MMO out there has had me spending as much time thinking about new strategies as Guild Wars. /*quote*

I really think we have the nut here. How can we make it mean more and still allow someone to learn. As far as complimentary builds building team strength Guild Wars has got to be seen as a success. The free to play brings a certain crowd but there not who your gonna fight at the end game. there are ( or were... I assume there still are as I haven't played in a dogs age (OK a young dog))  good players to match up with at the end. Shadowbane had even more of a guild focus than this though to secede in the PVP ranks a guild and complementary builds are really neccessy. I love the complex nature of the builds in both games but the reality of the commintmeant to practice makes anyone with a life fall behind

IMO its all together possible that counter strike is the best PVP can be. Its meanfull but it means little outside of the match. Its quick, its fast, its accessible. It is not complex. So practice can be when you can as you can.

I've played competatively in all of them. I can no longer play competatively in any of them. Only GvG defies my 90% loss ratio. The ladder is wise and good. Every guild I've joined is mainly interested in either balance or gimick builds. Nobody seems interested in experimentation... and that's my favorite part of the game. Sadly there is somebody who has already tried all the builds, found them wanting, and designed and posted several better ones. Everything gets honed to rock/paper/scissors perfection. Everybody plays one of the three.
More important to me is: how do we make players feel powerful, important, and part of the team effort even if they aren't the best the game has to offer? If I reach the peak of my ability and my teams get stomped 90% of the time... why am I playing? I can't be so unlucky that I just happen to be getting bad teams or joining bad guilds. It has to be me... the game must have reached a point where skill levels are so equivalent that one lousy player can throw the rhythm off.

In instanced PvP every player counts.

I think if Guild Wars had servers things might actually be better. The best of the best would still dominate, but they'd be spread out. Doing well in a few GvGs wouldn't suddenly pit you against the best teams in the world, just the best on the server... if they happened to be on.

I don't know. I'm still turning it all over in my head.

I can understand that, if you're just a very poor player, you'd get dominated in every arena but the Random Arena.

That's where I'm confused.  Sure, you're going to lose some matches there.  But 90% loss rate?  I just can't imagine it, unless you're an echo/mending warrior.

Were I you, and interested in getting better, I'd start back at RA.  Try some new builds, that's what it's there for, and figure out what works for you and what doesn't.  It's the practice grounds.  Plus it's a lot of fun in short bursts, I definitely go there a few times a week just for some quick, easy PvP.

If you like, I could post some builds that have worked for me in there, and you could give 'em a run yourself.

No that's just it... RA used to be my bread and butter. Now I cannot win a game there to save my life. I've played every class, I've tried all sorts of recommended builds. Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

I started out there. So I can almost sympathize, except you were competitive for a while, whereas I never was.

Are you sure you aren't just having an unlucky streak?

Reminds me of when I tried to play UT online - big mistake! I don't think I killed a single person in a half hour.

I've got probably a 65% win rate in RA.

Maybe I'm a good player, but I don't think I'm THAT good.

Give this one a shot-

Necromancer primary:
16 Blood
13-15 Soul Reaping

Reaper's Mark
Life Siphon
Lifebane Strike/Shadowstrike
Vampiric Gaze
Vampiric Bite
Vampiric Touch
Signet of Lost Souls
Resurrect Signet

Full Radiant Insignia Armor
+5 energy and 20% recharge speed wand
Whatever offhand you want

I win probably 80% of the matches I enter with that.  Your max health is low (mine's 390, I use two superior runes), but with all the life stealing it pretty much doesn't matter.  Open up with Reaper's Mark, follow with Life Siphon as a cover.  How you go from there is up to you- you can switch to other targets and get Life Siphon on as many as you can, or you can stick to the one target, open up with Lifebane Strike (100 damage), follow with Vampiric Gaze, and they're probably already either below 50% health or close to it.  If you have the energy, go ahead and hit them with one of the two touch skills you brought, and once they drop below 50% use Signet of Lost Souls for the heal/energy gain.  Use the two touch skills to finish them off, Gaze if you feel like it.

Also keep in mind that the two Touch Skills and Signet of Lost Souls aren't spells, so you can use them through Backfire, Daze, or any other anti-spell hex/condition.

I gave it a try and didn't win a single game all morning. Played something like twenty.

I'd either get single-spiked by an elementalist or a ranger, killed in about two seconds while trying to kill someone else, or I'd get heavy energy denial, or I'd run into a group that had both a monk and a healing ritualist who could heal faster than I could kill, even with the help of my team. Hex removal is also rampant, so my life siphons didn't stick around. Also generally as soon as I successfully killed someone I was target #1 for the rest of the battle, and I never had a team that was capable of killing anything without me.

So really, I may just have spectacularly bad luck but it is NOT fun to die all the time.

What about Fort Aspenwood and Alliance battle?

I wish there was a way to pair up with just one other person, but not have to go get gangbanged in the TA.