Guild Wars 2 Player versus Player Review
Guild Wars 2 is an PC MMORPG that was first announced to the public in 2007 and was in development until the first beta testing in late 2011, the game was not released until August 2012. Unlike now where the base game is free, Guild Wars 2 use to purely use a Buy to Play model and it wasn’t until August 2015 where it transitioned into a Free 2 Play game for it’s base contents. Read the Guild Wars 2 Review here as this review will be focusing on the PVP or structured PVP side of Guild Wars 2.
Over the years, Guild Wars 2 has added maps every now and then to keep the PVP scene somewhat fresh. However, is it still worth playing Guild Wars 2 for the PVP or should you play another game for PVP such as World of Warcraft, Black Desert or maybe something like New World.
Combat
As previously mentioned in my Guild Wars 2 review, the combat is fast paced tab target combat with action combat elements. While I do mention it is fast paced it is no way at the level of something like Black Desert Online where you are literally attempting to catch a cockroach with your bare hands. The only real slippy class would be the profession thief with their unique acrobatic combat style. Everyone else does have a dodge but it is not spammable and it doesn’t travel very far either. Overall, if you are coming from World of Warcraft, the combat system won’t be too much different for you.
PVP Gear System
Let’s put it out there now, in Guild Wars 2, in Structured PVP, there is a gear system involved, however, it is nearly fully unlocked for everyone to mix and switch to build the perfect build of their own character. There are a few Runes which are locked behind 5g each, which are the new elite spec runes. Other than that, everything else is free game.
You have the following gear pieces to pick from.
- Amulet
- Rune
- Weapon 1 sigil (2 of them)
- Weapon 2 sigil (2 of them)
The weapon is the only piece of gear that will be using what you have slotted in for pure cosmetic purposes only. After all, when you PVP you must look good right?. That means, it does not matter whether you are using a grey level 1 weapon or a purple level 80 legendary weapon since inside sPVP it will have the same stats. Great right? That means, you technically don’t need to have a good weapon if you have different weapon builds for PVE and PVP. Like me for example, on my Reaper for PVE, I use Greatsword and Axe/Focus while for sPVP I use Greatsword and Staff.
Armor
While you will be wearing the armor you have normally equipped, they provide absolutely no stats and is just a visually cosmetic piece of gear when inside the Structured PVP map or in the arena/battlegrounds.
Builds & Talents
Some games tend to refer to this as talents, but in Guild Wars 2, they are simply referred to as builds. The beauty of Guild Wars 2 sPVP is that all builds are 100% unlocked in any sPVP map even if they are not unlocked outside. The only requisite is that you have the expansion of the elite spec. For example, if I do not have End of Dragons expansion, I would still be unable to play Harbringer elite spec on the Necromancer profession. However, if I do have End of Dragon expansion, even though I may only be level 2 and do not have any of the elite specs or builds trained, it will still be 100% unlocked for me to use and play in sPVP.
Seasons
Yes, in Guild Wars 2, there are such thing as Seasons as well. There are two types of Seasons, a mini season and season.
Mini Seasons rotate between 2v2 and 3v3 Arena matches while seasons are usually 5v5 battleground matches.
Your actual character does not matter in sPVP as the only requirement to enter the sPVP map or queue is to finish the tutorial, that means even a level 1 is able to enter, choose any end-game spec/build and play commutativity.
Game Modes
There is four type of game modes, Custom Arena, Unranked, Ranked Arena and tournament. You must be at least level 20 PVP to tart doing Ranked Matches. You gain rank experience every match you do, either unranked or ranked.
| Match Type | Max Rank Points per Win | Max Rank Points per Loss |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Arena | 500 | 200 |
| Unranked Arena Ranked Arena | 1,500 | 500 |
Eventually, you will reach Dragon Rank (Level 80+) and your rank name will stop changing but you will continue to accumulate pvp levels.
PVP rank level does not really matter besides the following three exceptions
- Ranked Matches
- You must be PVP level 20 to be able to queue Ranked Matches
- Mistforged Glorious Ascended Gear
- You must be PVP level 100 to be able to buy this gear
- Each 10 Levels up until level 80, you get a new track reward
- This track reward is the only track reward in game that rewards a Black Lion Chest Key
Custom Arena
Custom Arena is an arena for structured PvP in which players can set their own options, organize your own private tournaments with friends or strangers. Custom Arena was introduced in the June 2013 Update. You can refer to the official Wikipedia Page for more information.
Unranked & Ranked Arena
Unranked Arena & Ranked Arena are basically the same thing, the biggest difference are the following
- Ranked Arena has additional rewards making it more highly sought after
- Additional Rewards are in the forms of PiP Chests.
- Ranked Arena only allows a party of two to queue
- Unranked Arena allows a full party of five to queue
Automated Tournament
Automated tournaments are also in the form of 5v5 matches where a maximum of 10 players will sign up. Automated Tournament as the name suggest are on an automatic schedule. They are no different than standard unranked/ranked matches and uses the same sPVP gear profile. A different set of high-value prizes may be won in these tournaments that can be redeemed for rewards such as Ascended Gear.
State of PVP
We gamers are honestly never satisfied with any game, however, if I keep it completely real, PVP is in a pretty bad state and the reason behind most of the negativity about Guild Wars 2 PVP on reddit or forums could be summed with the following three reasons
- Arena Net slow to balance of classes when they become too strong or too weak
- Players AFKing entire matches to just collect the rewards / Win Traders / Fixed Matches / Match Manipulation
- Toxicity in PVP in quite common but the lack of consequences for toxic players
I really do enjoy the PVP but sometimes, after a few matches in, and getting hit with the any of the reasons above constantly just takes a total toll on me and I end up just going to do something else. I can totally deal with the imbalance of classes as I totally get it is hard to make things perfect, and it does take time. However, the 2nd point where matches are being manipulated or people straight out AFKing it probably the my main reason I stop playing sPVP for the day.
As for the toxicity, I just block people who are toxic, it’s the easiest way to self manage this issue when Arena Net does not do anything about it.
If we put those issues aside, the state of PVP in Guild Wars 2 is good, you don’t need to wait upwards of 40 minutes like World of Warcraft to get into a queue. Queues usually pop either instant or upwards of 3-4 minutes while matches are between 6-11 minutes depending on the map and other winning condition factors.
Fun
I personally have lots of fun in Guild Wars 2 Player versus Player scene. Even though it does have it downsides, I will still recommend it for players to come give it a go. After all, you do not need to go through the level pyramid like nearly every other MMORPG to enjoy GW2 PVP. This makes alt professions (classes) pvp a lot more enjoyable since you don’t ever need to actually grind or gear them up for sPVP. If you are lacking character slots, you can as simply create an alt, finish the 1-2 minute tutorial and get right to it then delete that (instant) and create another class with the same name if that’s what you want. That itself makes Guild Wars 2 PVP a huge plus over the other PVP systems. Lost Ark has something similar but the PVP space there is pretty dead in 2023 besides when there is PVP events going on.
