Why has Player Skill dropped Significantly?

Ah, don't tell me your monks have never whipped out a hammer to beat on the Guild Lord? My guildies personal fave is the Colossal Pick

It's just a sign of the times. Back when I first got into PvP the ladder started at ~1030 rating, and now a guild can get on the ladder by having a W0 L1 record. Crazy days.

You obviously forgot the most important thing about this game. Do you understand what RP stands for in RPG? It stands for ROLE PLAYING and ROLE PLAYING can be ANYTHING the INDIVIDUAL player wants to do with THAT CHARACTER. So a warrior with daggers or a mesmer with word of healing is just as valid of a build of a character as ANY of the others. ROLE PLAYING is about IMAGINATION and CREATIVITY as well. Everything isn't centered around what YOU want players to play or build it is centered around EACH INDIVIDUALS CHOICE. Once you learn to accept that you shouldn't find any problems within the game.

Even at the competitive levels of PVP such as RA, AB, FA and QA where things are RANDOM POTLUCK groupings that is exactly what they are intended for, not to be setup as YOU would impose or using your WIKI builds or COOKIE CUTTER builds. I personally am one of those that will take ANY build I so choose into those arenas and have a ball playing with them.

If I were competing now for $100,000 like the GVG tournaments THEN and ONLY THEN would I really care about creating the BEST build I could. Thankfully the majority of Guild Wars is not setup with that sort of competition or monetary value, thus, anyone and everyone is ENTITLED to create ANY type of build they want and others that play with them will just have to accept it orrrrrr they can QUIT PLAYING THEMSELVES.

Something else others must remember is "I" play the game for MY ENTERTAINMENT not to entertain others. There are no rules in the EULA that says we must create a build others want me to play or build. lol That would be silly because no one would honor it anyways.

And then there is this line from those elitist types:
Ever notice these types always blame everyone ELSE for THEIR ISSUES with the game? lol I've seen this since Everquest and in every other mmorpg. Nevvvvverrrr their bad play only OTHERS. lol

Wasn't it always low? Just by looking at ToA players still use builds from 100yrs BC. And most players rely on fragile builds such as Perma SF or Cryway. There are so many skills and yet they keep using the same usual crap.

That is why most people do not PUG anymore unless they have to.... Just to stay away from all this "individualism" and "role playing" and not to waste their time for someones "entertainment".

It didn't, it's just that some overpowered builds got more players in 'high-end' who perhaps should not be there.
I'm still amazed that many of the so-called high end PvE guilds recruit players that are simply unable to complete an area without using gimmic builds.
The moment such a build gets nerfed and there is complaint all over.
Anyway, Lutz is right, it's about expectation, not about player skill

Except the OP was on about PvP, where Ursan is NOT repeat NOT a factor. Please stop trying to blame Ursan for all of GW's percieved woes. It's been nerfed, get over it and move on. No need to rake over the coals with more QQ'ing especially when it's unhelpful and unneeded.

I think the overall "player skill" is about the same as it was almost three years ago, when I started playing. I agree with the person that said you notice it more because you got better, yourself. imo, odds are:

-The are using crap builds because they are getting bored/are doing it for kicks.
-They are new players.
-They are the SAME bad players, that refuse to take advice and improve themselves.

As for that "ROLEPLAYING" stuff...if they want to do that, let them do it by themselves, or with friends. Not in PvP areas (I assume you read the first post, and know this is about PvP areas?) where it makes a difference to the rest of your team, who likely wants to win, lol.

The answer to me is obvious.

They Nerfed all the easy pve skills that all the pve's QQ'ed about so now the pve folks cant pug and became bored with it. So a lot less people are doing pve and districts are empty for pugs so what do they do?

HEY! Lets give that pvp thing a try! GG to all you QQers who berated the devs to change all the "overpowered" pve skills. Now the pugs are looking for a place to play and guess what? Its your precious PvP areas they are migrating to.

You forced them out of their fun zone so now they are looking for somewhere else to go suck, and yup, its RA! Dont need to LFG there do ya?

Maybe now you will cry for them to bring ursan back so they can go back to DOA and UW and leave PvP alone. Or if you want an influx of better players, have them nerf SF so they will stop doing Speed Clears of UW in 18 minutes. Then at least those good players will migrage to PvP.

You whined about all these pve skills and now they are nerfed and now those players you hated have moved into your back yard. Nice Work!

As others have said, the players haven't gotten stupider, it's just that there are so many skills so people create retarded builds. You have to dig through to find the diamond in the the rough for some builds, as some skills are strange, like [RTL] and you have to find some build that will use it, but most builds fail using a certain skill. Also, many people have gotten better at GW and there doesn't seem to be as many noobs who wander about not knowing what they are doing. It seems like the game base has matured (finally) and expectations and skills are high, so the bad players look worse than normal. PvP has gotten insane lately, because of the rewards for doing it, like faction and so people are trying out new things at an incredible rate, so there are lots of errors as well as players try to find that "super" build that will get you 10k faction in 15 minutes.

I blame the charr, they wern't hard too kill.
>.>

LOL at Red Sonya's rant.

This game has ZERO role-playing. Every character has a fairly set history and goals because the game has a pretty rigid plot. You can't roleplay as an anti-hero or anything else really because the game is set out with your players actions and choices all being quite linear. This game is NOT an RPG in the slightest.

GuildWars is full with idiots who think they can play. Like guilds with phoenix spamming players who can't get below rank 300 on the ladder. And afterwards they cry that lowbob guilds with bambi's have a better ranking and don't deserve it because they pwnd them really hard in Hallz!

And considering that Anet still sells accounts for GW... who knows how many real new players we encounter in RA.

It hasn't really dropped, just more and more people are thinking
"I bet this SS build has never been used before! after all, it was on PvX!"

First you guys complain that everyone runs cookie-cutter builds, and then you complain when someone tries something different. Lol!

Honestly, player skill hasn't droped at all. Its ALWAYS been terrible. I don't even think our expectations are that much higher now, they have just changed (ie, from one meta to another). People are still just as dumb. People are still just as elitest.

The only thing that has really changed in the last 2 years is the development of PvXwiki, which means now even morons will sometimes have deccent bars. It used to be, when a player had a good skill bar, he was also a compitant player (no attacking through Insideous Parasite, etc). Not so much anymore.

Because everyone points new players in the direction of PvXwiki, and many of the highly skilled players quit.

The overall player skill in this game has always been low. The problem in PvE is that it is so easy to a point where most players learn nothing. All that has to be done for most PvE areas is put inbalanced stuff on bar, roll through enemies, rince and repeat. There is no thought involved in most areas and no skill to be gained.

In PvP the inbalance really comes through, as most players either come from PvE and put bad skills on their bars and get rolled or put inbalanced skills on their bar and fight against other inbalance to see which inbalance is better. This is apparent in RA.

Personally I think the top tier skill players aren't as great either, mostly due to the fact that many of the best players to ever play this game have left it for obvious reasons. Sure there are good players now, but can we really say they are as good as the players who played when the game actually had more skill behind it?

because trolling people in RA and AB is fun.

People playing the game will tell you it hasn't
Those who left will tell you it has


Brace for impact!

I agree.

Also have to remember, GW doesn't have the player base it use to.