Guild Wars 2 World vs. World players were starting to get a glimpse of what the restructuring would look like before End of Dragons was released. Now that the expansion is released and the developers can turn their attention back to WvW, they’re looking to return to betas that test the new system.
In a blog post, the devs said they still hold WvW to be one of the cornerstone game modes in GW2 and are still in Phase One of the restructuring, which is meant to address the complicated back-end infrastructure and the matchmaking system.
There have been a few Phase One betas already and it doesn’t look like the team will be moving on to Phase Two anytime soon, considering that they are still fighting a large and difficult bug that throws players out of the queues and sends them to the back of the line, which has caused frustration among much of the player base.
The devs also addressed the long-standing complaint that WvW isn’t even close in rewards to other game modes. Recently, a small step toward improving this came in the form of a speed increase for reward tracks. But the developers mentioned that there is more they want to do and they’ll be looking to increase the WvW rewards, which should lead to more participation in the game mode.
Once the team can improve matchmaking and the rewards that are earned through WvW, ArenaNet is hopeful that it will see a “significant shift” in the gameplay. Once those issues are handled, WvW systems such as upgrades, scoring, and siege will be looked at in terms of balance.
Balance is also a big issue in WvW, especially when it’s been a long time in between balance patches. These will now have a higher priority across all game modes, which should make for a more enjoyable and varied WvW experience in the future.
There is no date for when the next WvW beta will take place, but it was included in a graphic released by ArenaNet, which mentions it in the spring roadmap. Thus, it’s likely that players will have an announcement for the next beta within the next few months.
