Address AB problems in upcoming pvp update

Dear Anet,

This last weekend (double AB faction) I AB'd all weekend, and it was the most fun I've had in GW in over a year. Lets look at the reasons why:

1 - Population - Everyone that just wants to get lux/kurz faction 10% faster came to AB instead of JQ. This means there wasn't 20 minute waits to get matches, and there were actually matches after 8 PM.

2 - Maps - The map was constantly in the middle 3 (Etnaran, Saltspray, Grenz). The middle 3 maps are by far the most fun. Nobody likes playing on Ancestral Lands all the time. I think we did see some Kaanai for a little while there too, but at least it's a color that isn't brown.

I had forgotten how much fun AB really could be with it being, by contrast, so terrible for the last year. Clearly it still has the potential to be fantastically fun. Lets break down some ways we could address the above problems and make it fun again without needing a double faction AB weekend:

Population

There are 3 pvp formats which reward kurz/lux faction. Everyone that just wants to get faction 10% faster is going to gravitate toward whatever format gives it the fastest. This means that the other of the 3 formats lose population. Really this is a rewards design flaw and has nothing to do with actual player population. Exhibit A, nobody played JQ when there was plenty of population and worse faction rewards for JQ.

How to address this? Option 1, you could try to even out the faction rewards across the 3 pvp formats to make them all equally appealing. This still leaves the problem of having 3 formats for people that just want 1 thing. People will still gravitate toward JQ because the less hardcore AB players just want to take whatever and enter, forming groups in AB is unnecessary overhead to them.

Option 2, give AB a unique reward that people actually want, instead of making it compete with two other formats with the same reward. Spoiler, this is the better option. As of now, PvEers are the deciding factor in AB population. A reward that appealed to PvEers would help AB's population immensely. Example? I don't pretend to know what PvEers love, but I think a title track would work, or anything else that increased a number somewhere and made them feel good. I personally don't know or care, since I don't really fall into this demographic.

Map Rotation

Ancestral Lands is an awful map that nobody likes playing on. It's 100% brown, and its gameplay is uninspiring. Kaanai shares the gameplay problem, but is at least a slightly better blue color. I get that it's supposed to equalize a larger disparity in average player skill levels, but it is just exhausting to have it be on this map even 50% of the time. It makes people not want to AB with it coming up so often.

Everything was actually fine until the momentum bonus was added approximately a long time ago. The momentum bonus is broken and needs to either be removed or adjusted back by a lot. This or a set map rotation should do the trick.

In Conclusion

AB is really an amazing pvp format, and has soo much potential for strategy and fun. Please address the above problems so that it can once again make good on this potential.

Sincerely,
Pants

Agreed, AB just needs a little push in the right direction. The first step being adding faction rewards on par with JQ and FA.

The easiest way is with the exclusive AB title, tag on an emote and make it increase your Balth faction cap and it will bring in hordes of people. The format has a lot of potential, and I've played some games that are easily more intense GvGs at times. The problem is simply a lack of people playing.

I also agree with the removal of the deep maps, nobody likes to play on them.

In short, Pants for President.

The problems with AB are nothing new. Many of us on guru have discussed this thoroughly and have come to these conclusions...

- Randomize the maps. All the maps have the potential to be fun but the reason shitlands is a p.o.s to most is because the kurzicks just plain suck and its stuck on that map 24/7.

- Increase faction rewards. This one is a no brainer.

- Give people with r12 kurz/lux some incentive to continue to AB. People have complained about this but there is still enough incentive imho. There is still the fact that AB is fun to play and if the faction rewards are upped the balthazar faction is a very nice reward for zkeys.

- This one is a little more radical but simple, make it so vanquishes no longer give faction after you have vanquished the area for the first time. This would make AB the best way to get faction if the faction rewards are increased and bring floods of people into the format. This will increase the population and wait times would be no more than 30 seconds.

Things that should not be done to AB

- Give the title an emote.

- Changing the way the title works with the pve only skills

- Giving any type of monetary reward other than balthazar faction for zkeys

Don't need to use the Luxon/Kurz titles, just implement an exclusive AB one, which doesn't take into account which side you win on. Also remove the need to use guest passes.

I highly HIGHLY doubt that they will be introducing any more new titles to Guild Wars.

AB is fun when there are people playing. One option may be to buff the faction rewards just a tad bit...at least to keep it up to par with JQ/FA. Would finally be a great option for Luxons who want the title (JQ is hell for Luxons).

As suggested, slightly nerfing the faction rewards from vanquishing could also boost the AB population.

ANOTHER option I think would work would be to make the Kurz/Luxon titles a PvP title in the HoM. This would make it so most people will actually WANT to participate in the Faction pvp formats. As it stands, people will more than likely opt for the ZKey title track for their pvp contribution to HoM. Making Kurz/Lux apply to pvp would make it the automatic "ideal" pvp trophy to get. As it stands right now, the ZKey title costs approximately 1.3 million gold if you were to buy every Zkey from players.

I really liked AB. I really do wish they'd make it worth playing though. As it is, I get more faction losing FA than winning AB :/

I have a funny feeling AB is gonna get some love in the PvP update. I don't know why, I just do.

There needs to be no new titles added to the game. Period.

This isnt very feasible. The kurz/lux titles can be put in the HoM at rank 4 and making it so its only r12 for the statue would take ppls 50/50 HoM away.

ditto.

Adding a title track will pretty much be the nail to the coffin for AB.

First of all, I do not think randommizing maps is a good idea. I think that maps should be forcedly changed every 3 hours, even if the difference in victory/loss ratio is very small.
Secondly, I think your no brainer is a bad idea too. Faction rewards in jade quarry are ridicilously high and increasing alliance battle's rewards simply to compete with that would be ridicilous. It would be much more sensible to lower jade quarry's rewards. Also, I would like to point that there is a type of monetary reward, however small, other than zaishen keys.

On the other hand, I like your idea to make it so that vanquishes do not award faction for consecutive clearings.

This is a very good idea and I think the same should be done for other formats like Jade Quarry and Fort Aspenwood. This would make sure that playing any of these formats will give a player some prestige, as most players deem relevant.
It would also be a rather quick and probably long term fix.