ArenaNet has published a blog post recapping the second beta of its reworked World vs. World scoring system in Guild Wars 2, and has set the third beta for August 11. The post covers how testing and development have progressed and what comes next now that the second large beta has closed.
The studio framed the second test as a correction to the first. In the opening beta, teams gained no points passively apart from supply deliveries, and players told ArenaNet that defending objectives was not being rewarded properly. The studio said it agreed with that assessment, and the War Score changes it made between the two betas followed from it.
While the first beta started with zero passively gained points aside from supply deliveries, we agreed with players that defending objectives was not adequately rewarding.
In response, the studio moved to what it calls a mix of score accrual from holding objectives that still encouraged interaction from enemy teams. ArenaNet says the result landed on a much healthier spread of points across objective capture, player combat, progress ticks, and holding objectives.
What changes in beta 3
The team is still adjusting the system for the next round of testing. Point values for dolyak deliveries and guard kills are being tuned again, and player count and objective type and tier scaling multipliers are being removed for simplicity, at least for now.
- The return of placement-based match rewards
- Placement-based skirmish rewards
- More balance changes
- Boosted points for defensive player kills
- An in-game breakdown of War Score sources
ArenaNet also pointed past the current testing programme. Alongside a new borderlands map, the studio says the beta series is producing technology it will be able to use regardless of whether the adjusted scoring is adopted permanently, which leaves the final shape of War Score open even as the third beta begins.
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