State Of My Game: Hero Battles

It's been a couple days now, I've tested with it... and I kinda like it... but not really. I find that Hero Battles are in need of significant change. The idea alone of splitting a 4 man team is very obnoxious, and the continuous capping needs take away from the feel of being in a "1vs1 arena". The whole system seems like clutter and complications upon complications, and before it's too late, I think they should change (slightly) how Hero Battles work to adhere to a more [needed] straightforward approach. I understand the need to make it as little like Team Arenas/RA as possible, but it's so hard to actually have "fun" with the current setup.
Like everything else that sucks in the game, I doubt this will ever change. But the "gimmicky, cluttered" feel of Hero Battles keeps me away and playing other, more "stable" arenas.

Time will tell if Anet feels it needs to be changed, I suppose. It'd be a man giving birth before they'd listen to an individual.

Currently I'm having very little fun with the game. In spite of, or perhaps because of the recent update. Soul Reaping is beyond stupid now, nothing is fun in pvp, and I'm feeling as though it may be time to try another game. Perhaps even LOTR:O. (Don't hate me. :P)

Thanks for sharing.

Is there a bug in Hero Battles because I can't get in to them I have unlocked all the heroes on one of my PVE chars, travel to the PVP isle and they don't come up and I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm meant to do to make them appear.

I did a few Hero Battles yesterday. No fun at all. They really should just rename it into "PvP for Runners" because there is barely any combat at all, everyone just runs around the shrines and flees if you engage them.

I liked the original where combat was actually a bigger part of the arena. Also the stupid AI doesn't help as it seems to chase people for eternity now when I just want them to sit at a shrine (even on Guard).

In short, too much micro-management and running, not enough combat. No fun.

Absolutely, the idea of capping point is good but not for this type of combat. In fact, I don’t even know why it’s called “Heroes Battle” because there is no battle at all. Peoples only running around and flee when engaging. Because the capping points are a so important part for your victory, no one care about combat and focus only on defence to cap altars and hold it until the end of the timer. It’s horrible and not fun at all.

For sure, the 1vs1 idea is not really possible because some class like monks would have no chance at all to kill anyone. But, while using heroes, the battles would be a LOT more interesting if it was team elimination like what we do in team arena. At least, it would open the door to player’s skills and tactical choices more that who run the faster.

I found hero battles to be rather crappy for quite some time. Now its rated crappiness.

The thing that makes me feel ill is that anet are giving away $100,000 to someone for playing hero battles, its just a title grinding arena that nobody takes seriously.

well, at least /roll stopped, and i had quite fun with my little build (which is intentionally very bad, but still gets wins, sigh)

One of the main reason for playing GW is the interaction with real players and team mates/guildies instead of some AI Hero.

For this reason I will never make one single step in HvH. Even PvE (with real players) is more fun.

Hero battles are a complete waste of time. Whats the point in them when you can't even dp your opponent. It has nothing to do with how well you play, its down to how lucky you were when running around capping with your monks healing/protting.

Until they add dp to this place i'm just not gonna waste my time with it.

Thinking about that myself...might recognize the name if you like LotR. I was in the beta for the game and liked it so I'll probably end up taking a break of guild wars for a few months.

its dumb, it might be better if they add different objectives on different arenas, dont really understand why/how anet didnt think of that..


PS they dont think at all..?

It's a different game mode, and it requires different tactics. Complaining about runners in HvH without bringing snares and runners yourself while fully aware that CAPPING SHRINES IS HALF THE GAME is equivalent to playing GvG and complaining that the opposing team brings a flag runner when you don't have one, or playing in HA without running skill(s) and interrupts for the ghostly. It's NOT, as you all seem to think, a 1v1 random arena, and it was never designed to be one. Statements like:
just show that you are entering the HvH arena expecting it to be something it is not. The very title track dedicated to HvH is "Commander", as opposed to "Gladiator". One implies leading your team of heros by telling them where to go and what to do, the other implies smashing face as best as possible.

Hero battles are fine, they take strategy, a different kind of strategy than other arenas. Those who have seized upon that idea are doing quite well and having a lot of fun (myself included). The idea of a personal ladder is just icing on the cake. Those who refuse to split, who complain about runners, and in general think HvH should just be a 1v1 random arena...well, put it this way. You sound like a wammo whining at me that my cripshot ranger is "cheap" in 1v1. It's not cheap; I came prepared to face what I knew I'd be fighting, he just wanted to smash face. The same thing applies here.


Offtopic: OP, if you think gaining 12 energy every 5 seconds is "beyond stupid", you need your head checked. Soul reaping still works perfectly fine in PvE; in 95% of battles I don't even notice the change, and I still have better energy management than any other primary class (bar possibly the ranger).

Make it like TA with minor additional objectives and I'll play it. Running around is not fun.

Altar caps are ftl.

I think it's sorta fun, but it involves too much running

HvH right now isn't about PvP. It's about: How to abuse AI as hard as possible. Take the skills the AI likes to use( right now, spirits&interrupts ) and cram it up. GG "pro skillz"

Disclaimer: I've been playing HvH often enough to get rank 300+ so I'm not just some guy complaining about it because I suck or only played it once or twice. Not that I'm saying that others in this thread are...

I pretty much agree with what everyone has said here. The running sucks. It wouldnt be so bad if it wasnt the same objective in every match. What they need are different objectives. I have been in so many matches where I literally only fought and killed twice and still won because I just focused on running.

Heck, I've even won because I chased an assassin the WHOLE ENTIRE MATCH, while I capped other shrines with my heroes and he was too stupid to move his 3 heroes from center shrine at all. The whole time that I was chasing him (I chased him so he couldnt cap anything) I asked myself, "Is this fun?" The answer is no. So why do I keep playing it? Maybe I'm a sadist.

they could at least add a little variety, a random pick between kill count, shrine run ,normal pvp, etc..

I want to play GW not command & conquer =(

Having a different strategy is good but when its boring...well.... they need to do something. I like the idea of a variety of maps. At least 3 different types of maps/victory conditions would be nice. A normal kill count like in RA (rez every 30 secs), a relice run, shrine map (like now), annihilation map, priest map. Just suggestions, dont have to be all those.