Feedback:User/Vortex ™/Suggestions For Keeping TA

The Team Arenas have been a stable PvP format since the release of Guild Wars. They have been and still are the only arena where players can fight real annihilation matches without additional tactical objectives. In a TA mirror match not the team with the better tactic, but instead the better players win. This is what makes the format so unique and has granted it some popularity in the past. I believe that deleting TA would be not just bad for its players, but also bad for the game as you delete an important part of its history alongside with a portion of the variety that the PvP play once consisted of.

Linsey mentioned three main reasons why the Live Team has decided the upcoming removal of TA:

I'll try to disprove them or give some more insight in the following:

The first argument is the unpopularity of the format. While that is generally correct and the TA has a small playerbase today it is the direct consequence of the neglection it has experienced by ArenaNet in the last four years. While the other PvP modes received numerous upgrades such as the ladder, observer mode and tournaments and optical rewards like cape trims or emotes to give these formats some longevity, the Team Arenas have received nothing to keep the players interested in the format which has caused many players to leave. In addition to old players leaving the TA is also very unattractive for new players, as it is much more appealing to climb up a ladder and become famous in GvG or HB or getting an emote and rare hall drops in HA than playing a format where the only longevity is a grind title and you can only get recognized inside a small community as opposed to the whole PvP community over the observer. Another reason for the unpopularity is that the gladiator title could be easily farmed by syncing in RA until the last update so many players who were interested in getting the title simply did that instead of playing TA because it was much easier. So, how can you get more players to TA? You did the first step already by removing the ability to sync RA from the game. Many players who previously synced RA are now forced to play TA to push their title which has caused a fresh rush of players to TA over the last days. The second step would be to give the format more longevity and attract more players to it. This could be done by introducing a simple ladder like in challenge missions which lists the highest win streaks for each day, month and quartal. I don't think that this would require more effort than deleting the format. Another option would be to show TA matches on observer, though I don't know if that would be possible to realize with your resources.

Let's come to the second argument: Linsey said that the TA metagame is stale and consists of degenerate builds. This is simply not true. Currently there are many gimmicks that have a viable chance to win and also a balanced build that can potentially beat them all with some speccing included. The only build that is clearly overpowered in TA is Shove Spike, as it abuses the victory condition and map structure with a strong spike, lots of shadow steps and three Monk elites to keep the team alive. Aside from Shove I don't see any other major balance issues in TA. Everything else is clearly beatable and contributes to a versatile metagame.

The third argument is that ArenaNet does not have the resources to specifically balance TA. Again, while you may not have much resources the TA does - unlike HB - not need much extra balancing to be a fun and playable format. Skills that are strong in 4vs4 are usually also strong in GvG splits and in return skills that are strong in splits are usually also strong in TA. This connection takes care of most of the balance issues in TA as imbalanced TA skills will also get abused in GvG and vice versa.

To sum it up, here are my suggestions:


 * Nerf Shove Spike by changing Stonesoul Strike to a different functionality


 * Include a scoreboard like in challenge missions to make the format more appealing to players and give it more longevity


 * Eventually include a real ladder and observer mode in the future, it would clearly help the format, though it is not necessary at this point


 * Keep TA!