What is Guild Wars 2 PvP Like?

[Friendly Lich]

I haven't had any problems with lag in GW2 wvw. That being said I think somethings need improvement, i feel most classes are balanced with the exception of the warrior who can two shot you and has amazing ability to take damage, my friends who play warrior confirm its power. Also hot join pvp needs to be 5v5 man again some classes cant really survive well with 8 people attacking them. But overall I think its great.

Also armor needs repair way too much.

 

[Arina Love]

i don't like it. i feel like WvW pvp don't really have reward or sense of progression. You auto scaled in lvl and in sPVP you even get pvp gear.
i like it when it's raw like in lineage 2.
*still convinced that pre GoD lineage 2 is greatest mmo ever made*
i do like PVE explorable dungeons, though. They are nice and hardcore.

 

[sanquin]

First things first:
Everyone is max level in pvp. You automatically get upped to lv 80, and in sPvP you automatically get a full set of lv 80 pvp gear. Weapons, armor, amulets and runes can be 'bought' freely from the first npc's, so everyone is equal in terms of level and gear. You spend your pvp points (glory) only on better looking gear, but they'll have the same stats.

Now, sPvP:
Structured pvp is pretty damn awesome. It's not a zerg fest unless of course you go 1v3 or something. Classes are pretty well balanced, though some are maybe a bit stronger than others. Survivability is good too, so you won't see much 'I hardly had time to react before I died' moments. It usually takes 10 sec or more, at it's fastest to kill someone. More often than not a fight 1on1 can last over a minute. Each class also has a lot of different 'specs' to go with.

Take just the thief for instance. (my main) I could go pure condition damage, doing most of my damage with bleeds. Or I could go for direct damage. Or I could go for support, using traps and tricks to aid my team with cripples, blinds, short stealths, etc. Or I could even go vitality (hp) and toughness (defense) to make a kind-of-tank. (real tanks don't exist in the game.) Each of those roles can also be played as either ranged (dual pistols, pistol dagger or shortbow) or melee (dual dagger, dagger pistol or sword dagger) So yea, 12 different 'main' play styles just for the thief already, with even further customization possible. (For instance toughness + power for good direct dmg, good defence, but hardly any crits.)

WvW:
World versus world is a bit different. You do get upped to level 80, but your gear stays the same as your PvE level. As in, you can be a lv 80 running around in lv 2 gear in WvW. Not super effective, but you can do it. As for the fights, it's mostly just one big zerg. Either you overpower the team defending with numbers, they overpower you with numbers, or you happen to come across a place that's not defended. Real strategic fights aren't a thing yet. But that will surely also come with siege weapons and once WvW becomes the real 2-week-long thing instead of a daily thing, and people figure out some tactics.

 

[sanquin]

i don't like it. i feel like WvW pvp don't really have reward or sense of progression. You auto scaled in lvl and in sPVP you even get pvp gear.
i like it when it's raw like in lineage 2.
*still convinced that pre GoD lineage 2 is greatest mmo ever made*
i do like PVE explorable dungeons, though. They are nice and hardcore.

The point of WvW is to get small advantages for your server. As in, server-wide buffs for being in control of a keep or something. I'm not entirely sure on the details. And for the fun of course. It's not for the rewards. That being said, you do know you can level while in WvW right? You get exp for capturing and defending bases, which go to your normal PvE level. They're basically treated as dynamic events. Progression isn't there in WvW just yet. But just wait until it's fully out of the testing phase.

As for sPvP, the rewards you get are purely aesthetic. As in, the gear you can buy with your glory just has different looks, not better stats. Which is a -good- thing as it keeps things a lot more balanced. It's not for everyone, true. Some people want to start out weaker than the rest, then slowly make their way up in the gear thread mill and become even with or stronger than the others. I for one am glad they didn't do that with pvp in GW2.

 

[sanquin]

I haven't had any problems with lag in GW2 wvw. That being said I think somethings need improvement, i feel most classes are balanced with the exception of the warrior who can two shot you and has amazing ability to take damage, my friends who play warrior confirm its power. Also hot join pvp needs to be 5v5 man again some classes cant really survive well with 8 people attacking them. But overall I think its great.

Also armor needs repair way too much.

Warrior does indeed seem pretty strong yes. Though that's mostly the greatsword burst damage build. Personally, I don't have too much trouble with my condition damage thief against warriors, unless they get the drop on me.

As for some classes not being able to survive 1v8. Well duh, NO class can survive that. Even my fully tank specced (30/30 toughness/vitality with shhield) warrior died in about 10~15 seconds 1v5. The point of sPvP is that it's team based, not solo-run-around-and-hit-stuff based.

 

[Vegosiux]

Let me put it thusly.

I despise PvP with a burning, all-consuming passion. And I spend at least a part of my daily GW2 session the World vs. World, because I love just how much of a clusterfuck that is. It's actually fun. I can't believe I'm saying this.

i don't like it. i feel like WvW pvp don't really have reward or sense of progression. You auto scaled in lvl and in sPVP you even get pvp gear.
i like it when it's raw like in lineage 2.
*still convinced that pre GoD lineage 2 is greatest mmo ever made*
i do like PVE explorable dungeons, though. They are nice and hardcore.

The WvW motivation is the bonuses for your server, for crafting, gathering, damage resistance, and so on. There indeed isn't any "progression" on the PvP scale there, but that's a good thing. Makes people actually go and make decisions on the fly because you never know what the enemy will do, because there's no clear way to be "reward/time" efficient in it, and it's part of the game as opposed to a game within the game.

Explorables, though...aren't "nice". They're brutal and don't give a fuck. Honestly, some of them are party breaking brutal on story mode. But that's fun. And, added bonus? You're always going to be scaled to the dungeon's level.

 

[sanquin]

Explorables, though...aren't "nice". They're brutal and don't give a fuck. Honestly, some of them are party breaking brutal on story mode. But that's fun. And, added bonus? You're always going to be scaled to the dungeon's level.

WoW could learn a thing or two from GW2 in that. In GW2 if you don't pay attention at the wrong moment you're dead. One-hit-dead. You can't just run in and wail your weapon at the big baddie, as then you'll die very quickly. In WoW, you lose maybe 30~50% of your hp, and after that no problem any more.

That being said, they need to balance dungeons for melee better. Seriously, I play a melee thief as my main and have a melee warrior that did AC once or twice. On both I almost used ranged weapons more than my melee weapons simply because it was a LOT safer to stay at a range. Being ranged actually let me do damage for a while, instead of being dead or close to it after only 5~10 seconds. I'm not saying make it easier for melee. I'm saying balance it so that melee at least have a chance to survive for a bit as well. (for instance, by telegraphing the big hits a bit better, and making the attack a bit slower so a melee can have time to react and roll out of the way.)

Lastly, yea, explorables are effing brutal. x.x But that's good. The challenge is good. Gives you a lot more of a sense of accomplishment afterwards. And makes it more fun overall, even if you do die a lot.

 

[ResonanceSD]

World V World is awesome, there's a certain point in the game where you just say "fuck it, I'm going to drop a meteor shower on those 20 people over there"

and then you do it.

And then you build a cannon, and ruin someone's day.

Screw GW2 after what Ncsoft did to COH and team Paragon I'll never buy another NC Soft game again.

You're right, pulling an old game after launching the first MMO sequel in the world? What were they thinking.

 

[l0ckd0wn]

I was very curious of this too and looking for an alternative outlet to SWTOR, thank you Escapist community for the explanation/review.

...launching the first MMO sequel in the world...

Really, the first MMO sequel [http://www.everquest2.com/]?