Rant About Rank

So, I've been playing Guild Wars since just about when it came out. I have a Warrior 20 (Who's secondary switches between R/Me/Mo), ascended, finished the game, and then some. In addition to him I have a Ranger/Me Trapper, 18, in the Desert. Recently I've made an IW Mesmer/Warrior. I beat the game with Cecil (Warrior) and has since just been small-time farming for some cash (Mind you, enough to have top notch gear and what not), helping guildies, and friends. I PVP mostly on Random Arenas because it feels a lot more enjoyable when you know that both teams are going in with strangers, and not highly structured teams. I like the whole 50/50 concept.

Anyway...

Today I decided, "Lets try Heros Ascent!"

In the past I had done it (When it was Tombs) and gotten a measly 21 Fame from that one run. Since then I've pretty much avoided it. Like I said, sometimes it feels like you have no chance against those crazy Koreans. Random is more for me.

Continuing...

I go in without my IWAY build, just another Eviscerate -> Axe Rake -> Axe Twist -> Executioners damage combo. I quickly found a pretty n00b team, but hell we made it through the Ascent, and right into the first battle quickly. For a pick up group we weren't bad. Into the first battle! It was DEAD even between the teams. No one was dying. Period. Finally one of our Monks had to go, eventually we lost.

Back to the Desert.

I changed my secondary to Ranger, got my IWAY build up, and went directly back to Heroes Ascent.

"Whoa I'm lucky!" I thought.

Many parties were spamming for IWAY Warriors.

So I PM one who said you had to have teamspeak. Lucky me, I have teamspeak! So I ask him,

"IP address?"

And he tells me,

"Emote first."

I sigh.

"Well, you see, I'm not ra-"

And I was kicked.

To spare you details, this happened maybe 5 or 6 times before I had to log off in pure disgust at the community in Heroes Ascent.

You've got to be kidding me. The people there refuse to take anyone "unranked" (unless you are in a crappy group). This is one huge goddamn circle.

People new to Heroes can't get in groups -> No Rank -> No Group -> No Rank -> No Group.

How do these numbskulled "Pros" expect to get people WITH fame in their group when all they do is deny people the right to get it?

I had snobby people who think they are "leet" so they can reject people who are "insuperior" to them, because somehow, someway my ranking makes me worse than any other IWAY Warrior, regardless of the fact that I may have played the game 2/3/4x as long as they have.

/endrant

Well, being ranked lets people know that you know the map layouts, the map objectives and should know the general strategies involved to counter the basic cookie cutter team builds.

For example... does everyone remember their first time on the second relic run map and how well they performed as an individual? ^_~

Indeed, however, how exactly are people supposed to gain that knowledge when no one lets them into their groups?

That's such a cop-out. By you saying that, you say anybody who isn't rank3 or higher doesn't know the maps at all, and they're dead weight. That's a pretty retarded stance to take.

This is so true. I had no idea what i was supposed to be doing on relic runs, when to target the ghost etc etc when i first started pvp. Rank really does show that you have a clue as to whats going on.

I am rank 3 atm and i could really care less about it, i got to hero's or any other place in this game to have fun.

With the skills i have and xp and the game time xp i could very well claim to be "leet" or whatever but i don't. If i go into heros with a guild group then i could very well make the people who join us be rank 9 or higher cause i have some in my group, but i don't.

Rank really means nothing, you can play iway or some other build until your fingers bleed and get to rank 3 or 6 without knowing what the hell your doing. I wouldn't worry about rank much anyway cause from what i understand fame is being reset when chapter 2 comes out cause of all the news ways you can get it..

That should make all the people who won't let you into their group because your not rank 3 or whatever feel a bit better.

I'm just offering the rationalization behind ranked teams, not saying whether it's right or wrong. XD

lol @ fame reset in chapter 2--- that'd drive a million billion people insane.. I mean, I understand the desire to drop all of the new r3s, but what about the people that gained a genuine r9 -- after many nights of hard, hard work?

but uh, I look at rank as a basic assumption of how well you know the halls maps, and at r9+ simply assuming you know builds very well.

But wouldn't it make more sense to ask the new group-joiner to explain his/her role in the build you are running, thus making sure that he/she knows what they are doing? Anyone can grind in iway night after night and get to rank 3, 6 whatever, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they know about the different maps and strategies.

Never gonna happen. The whole idea behind creating the battle isles was to make the PvP experience completely chapter-independent. Chapter 2 is an add-on/standalone not a do-over.

yeah, the rank system is crewed up. I pvped a bit and mainly got around 100 fame in the pre- iway days. Then i got bored of smite teams and ranger spirit teams so i went back to pve. In the last couple of weeks while trying to get to that lofty goal of rank3 ive only got 12 fame. So i decide to try a bit of iway it sucks unless i want to try 100's of times just to get a small amount of fame. Anyway i decide to join a non iway team and guess what there are none that are unranked. Probably by the time i get to rank 3 i won't be able to get into groups because rank 3 will be like unranked and rank 6 will be like rank 3

I'm rank 5 and I can't even find an IWAY group. >.>

Wasn't the goal of Guild Wars to eliminate grind? Isn't Rank grind? I mean, its not some big, gigantic thing to be rank 6. If you want a good group you -have- to be rank 6, unless you are in a PvP only guild. If you want Rank 6 you need 1000 fame. Without a rank 6+ non-guild group you can't get fame, or atleast not very much of it.

The formula here is Rank 6 = 1000 fame x Rank 0-3 pugs = 1000 or more games. Whats that about? 1000 games to get into a decent group? So you have to be a fanatic just to PvP? I mean, the best group I was ever in could only get about 34 fame in 6 hours.

Why are people talking about how l33t or how lame or how horrible IWAY is in this topic? That's off-topic.
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I realy hope Anet do something about the pointless discrimination. People are not getting reward for having high rank (I believe award was the orginal concept for high rank), instead what really happened is that people are being punished for not having high rank.

I made to rank 3 in the 1st/2nd (dont remember exactly) month of GW release, and had decide to leave tomb for the ridiculous fotm builds ranging from Air spike -> IWAY. Although the real turn down was it that those matches were too time consuming to get a team going, I felt that it was not worth it.

Now I am consider a noob because of the rank I have. Oh well, w/e.

rank isn't a grind...

I agree its darn stupid that ppl care so much about rank, they should make the emote not visible in PvP areas...

I agree that most of the time rank does mean that you are a bit familiar with the maps of HA, but these r3-6+ groups only want to farm fame nothing more... do you really want to join a group like this?

I've farmed with iway 1 day to finally get the last 30 fame for rank and I've done it with IWAY wich was alot of fun. Ppl saying that IWAY doesn't get far and only wins the first 2 games doesn't know what they are saying, I've been in hall of heroes 3 times in 1 day with IWAY and guess what all the ppl I played with were not even rank 1, we had alot of fun.

The only tip I can give ya, keep searching and you will find some fun groups

again: pls A.net make rank emotes not visible in PvP areas. I've seen a r6 who never was in the relic map can you believe that??

That's amazing.... How is that possible? You sure the guy wasn't joking? Ebay? Little brother playing?

no I am not joking, he was in my group and we went in the relic map and you could see he didn't knew what to do, really funny.

He was like, what is that here? and everybody goes like: Hunk? you kidding? and you could hear in TS that he was serious.

That really made my day actually

I thank God for iway ..
in a way ... it forces ppl to think creatively to make an anti-iway build or balance... thus .. this is what anet wants .. GW isnt about how much time u spent the better u are . its about being creative in making ur build,picking your right skills and understand ur defense and offense.
Power to the people !

Has anyone besides me actually snuck into a ranked team?... i've done that about 5 times before....

anyways Rank is preventing rank increase by itself, because if your not high enough rank then your a noob to every noob in HA who thinks rank is 1337... i bet half of the people in those ranked teams are ebayers

Oh i've done it before as well.....hell the ranked guys suck compared to the unranked people! lol

I'm just glad to be R2 without using a W/R for IWAY...

i think it would be better if /rank displays a team message saying how much fame you have, and if you have r3 or r6 or whatever, you get the emote too. that way, people with fame but no rank can still be recognized.

anyways, all of you who are saying that all the ranked people make getting ranked impossible are contradicting yourselves. if its imposible to get ranked, how did the r3+ people get ranked in the first place? you may say that they grinded for it. but then hey, why cant u group with the people that are grinding for it nowadays?

anyways, i've never noticed the lack of unranked IWAY teams. i see them a lot. and yes, its tru that MOST ranked iway teams do better. i've been to the hall a few times with unranked, but i've only actually held the hall with ranked groups.


PS: dont think i'm one of those people who think unranked people are noobs, cuz i still play in unranked teams a lot

My opinion is that iway in it's easy to play manner makes rank > 3 pointless.
I only played 2 or 3 times in iway groups as trapper or necro. Only thing that was settled were who brings this or that spirit, period.

So it's easy to get and easy to play.
Of course iway is easy to beat, those who do not agree better play some other game or at least stay away from pvp (no offense).
Another fact is that holding hoh with iway is a challenge. It can be done, i agree, but with alot of luck.

IWAY is a good build to get fast fame, win some games, etc... And that's it. Also if you are intrested you can learn something about other professions and builds.

I'm only rank 5 so I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to emotes. I`m in a guild where fame dosen't really matter when it comes to pvp matches. When i got into the guild and of course into the pvp team, most of the active players were rank 6+ or close to 9. I think of them as real good players, who have earned my respect in every manner.

In the whole rank system the only thing that matters is rank3+ or some proof that you know the pvp maps, played on the maps several times and that you know what your persnal build/proffession is supposed to do and what ur skills do and when you should use them and how. Period.

Usually people who play PvP alot will give you a chance or more to proove yourself. Every1 in this game started from 0 fame. No1 was granted fame just cuz they were special. Any non retarded player knows and understands that.

What makes it really hard to get into a balanced team is that most of the times the skills you bring and use affect the outcome of the match. So if you don't know what you are supposed to do or you don't get familiar with your "job" you will either be asked if you can play some other profession/build or you`ll be kicked (asked to leave). No1 likes to spend their daily 2-4 hours of pvp losing cause you don't have at least a decent performance.


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Offtopic:

All those iway teams around the pvp area along with ranger spike, necro spike and so on makes it hard to have a perfect balanced build. You can't counter everything 1 v 1 with one build. IWAY probably is the hardest to counter with a balanced build that is aimed to counter many diffrent builds. The anti IWAY part of a build also needs more spots in skillbars than skills needed to counter other builds.

The fact is that many guild groups running balanced builds (with the aim to win and hold hoh) will in many cases fail against a good iway grup (1 v 1).

What every1 should keep in mind is that the real good guilds or groups make their build so that they can perform well on every pvp map and finally have the best chance to win in the hall and hold the altar in consecutive matches.

ya same here i was with my friends guild and we also did hero's ascent and got that much fame. i finally made it to rank 2 and now im trying to get to rank 3.

Those who don't have rank probably don't know what those who have are talking about.

i dont get one thing ...

someone say :

1) rank mean nothing ...

2) with your unraked pug you dont win ...

those 2 sentence dont stay well togheter

you are correct chapter 2 is a stand-alone but are you forgetting the fact that you can play your current toons in chapter 2. if fame is reset its going to be reset because of new people who buy chapter 2 that have never played the original gw and have no idea what anything is about.

how would you feel if your new to gw and gw ch2 and all of a sudden you must be rank whatever to get into a party to do a stupid quest.

I worked hard for my rank don't get me wrong but i don't care if it gets reset.Hell i want it to get reset just to shut some of you up.

if fame reset 95% for current ranked tomb player will leave ...

and if rank is not solid reward i think many not ranked player will leave also

ummm..good

i said it before and I'll say it again.

bypass the rank requirements with a friends list, before to long if you stick to a balanced build with familiar people you will be winning 6, 8, 14 games in a row. and never spend all that time making a build to have 3 or more rage quit after a lose.

Uh huh.
So according to you no one should have rank because no one will ever get a group ?

Please. Everyone has had to go through this, everyone started at rank zero. And chances are you are not going to be better than that r3/6/9 player unless you have GvGed a good deal before. So sorry, the groups there are there to win, they will try to increase their chances of winning by taking the best people they can find.

Is rank a flawed metric? Sure, but when you are making a group, and you have to pick up a random player, I'm pretty sure you will want to make sure that player is as at least as good as the rest of the group.

So what can you do? Play with a PvP guild and/or play with the people on the friends list. PuGing is the worst way to learn and a horrible way to gain fame, and are often very unsuccessful.

i'll answer that for you.

there are those that can earn fame even if they cannot get into ranked groups.

and these are the people that the numbskulled "Pros" get.

shamefull arena.net dont think it in the same way

I have a rank 9 account. And I think its worthless now due to all the fame farming. I would gladly lose it to stop all this elitist bullshit that is going on.

Anyone who's been to Heroes Ascent this past week can attest that even the IWAY teams are demanding rank now. IWAY teams for krissakes, which everybody numbskull knows were specifically made to gain easy rank. And now even they are acting like elitist jerks.

Whooda thunk?! The fame farmers are even worse than the people who actually earned their rank!

If you ask me, half the people right now in Heroes Ascent didn't earn whatever rank they're bragging about. As far as I'm concerned rank has officially become worthless.

Find a good guild, ignore rank.

WE REALLY DONT NEED ANOTHER THREAD GOING AGAINST AND FLAMING RANK USE THE SEARCH BUTTON,this thread is bound to be closed.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...highlight=rank

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...highlight=rank

Have you tried TALKING to the people there? Just whisper them, tell them you know what you are doing, and tell them your skill bar. 99% of the time they will accept you.

They will i was playing with rank 3/6+ teams when i was rank 1 as i had played loads of GvG and TA and they gave me a chance.

I wouldn't care to much if the fame got reset as there is many resons for it to get reset. Not trying to flame anyone or anything, but a few days ago i got a team together. Got a r6 W/E PuG to join as everyone else in my friends list was busy. We where doing ok got to a relic map. Though are well this will be easy, the warroir went and got the relic after i told him to, then he just ran in circles ask "what do i do now, where does it go" like WTF! I asked him how he got his r6 and he had just played IWAY. At r3 i exspect players to know how to play every single map, an r6 should know all these maps off by heart and how to play each one depending on what we are up against.

I never play with PuG's anymore, only guild players and friends as most players farmed there rank now, which is just stupid.


You may think i hate all IWAY players but it isn't true they give me a free trip to halls as they are so easy to beat.

I love how I played GvG for a long time.

GvG gave me no rank

Now that I don't belong to a pvp guild anymore, and have no rank, I can't find a decent group.

Ah, the woes of an unranked player. Only 18 Fame at the moment. Went to Heroes Ascent a few times, all of them needing R3/6 Players. Tried going into some anyway, saying I'm willing to learn and not act like a noob. As expected, none of them give a shit. Not R3/6? OMG U NUB! Kick kick kick.

My Asian connection sucks anyway. 2 second lag freezes every once in a while, and it's even worst with TS on. PvPing is a pain. Most I do is go into CA with my Energy Destruction/Wrack Mesmer once in a while and muck around.
Luckily I'm content with PvE ^^

Whenever I'd roll a ranked balanced group or something [so not even that amazing] I'd take in any unranked people who whispered me intelligently.

If you whisper saying 'HEY I HAVE 178 FAMEPLEASE TAKE' no, you're not going to get in. If you say you know the build I'm requesting, can type it out, tell me how to run it, etc... why wouldn't I want you in my party?

Just be smart, show what you -do- know and that you are willing to learn and you'll be fine.

I have yet to see rank applied to anything PvE and it's likewise pretty obvious that a large influx of unranked players will be followed by a large influx of unranked groups. By your logic Anet should reset everyone's faction, unlocks, bank account and uber-items to give everyone an "equal" start with the new players of chapter 2. It's not going to happen.