Greetings, Tyrians!
We're back with an update on Push, the fast-paced 5v5 PvP game mode first revealed alongside Guild Wars 2®: Janthir Wilds™. In Push, teams battle for control of a moving objective, working to escort it into the enemy base while fending off their opponents' efforts to do the same. It's a tug-of-war where map control, timing, and team coordination are the keys to victory. Push draws inspiration from "payload" or "escort" modes found in many other competitive games. If you missed the original announcement or want a refresher on how the mode came to be, check out our first Push blog from last year.
Back in September, we hosted the first live beta for Push, featuring a rough prototype of the mode's mechanics on a placeholder map. While the visuals and UI were in the early stages of development, the goal was to gauge community interest—and the response exceeded our expectations. Your enthusiasm and feedback gave us the confidence to move forward and invest in building Push into a fully realized game mode.
We've made some updates and will be running another live beta event beginning on Tuesday, May 20 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) and running until May 27 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7). We're also running a PvP Rush bonus event at the same time, so you can collect some extra rewards while you help us test the Push mode!
Pushing Out Some Changes
We have some significant updates prepared for the next beta event that we'd like to share with you. First, we have a first iteration of the new map for the Push mode. We received a lot of positive feedback on the layout of the placeholder map from the initial beta, so we've done our best to maintain the general footprint of the old map in the new one—just with a fresh coat of paint and a new theme.
Just like in the first beta, the new map still has a good amount of "gray box" art, but we're comfortable with the broad layout and want to start getting feedback on more specifics. The Super Adventure Box's Angry Cloud will be taking a well-earned leave from the game mode, and in its place is a slick jade tech hovercart. This hovercraft objective will display a colored highlight indicating which team has control, for easy readability.
We've also made an update to the center secondary objective. During the first beta, this was a channeled objective that would prevent the enemy team from contesting the capture point for a period of time. The feedback around this objective was generally negative, as there wasn't any counterplay to the negative effect once it was applied. We do like the idea of the center objective creating pressure on the capture point for the enemy team, but we want to do it in a more interactive way.
For the upcoming beta, we'll be utilizing mechanics from the Skyhammer conquest map. When players successfully channel the center objective, three skyhammer cannon shots will fire on the capture point. These skyhammer shots can be dodged with proper timing, but failing to do so will result in massive damage and a knockdown effect. Internally, we've been playing with the new center objective mechanic, and it certainly feels like a step in the right direction, so we're excited to see what the community thinks about it.
The last main update for the next beta is a first-version implementation of what will eventually become the official scoreboard UI for the game mode. During the first beta, the map didn't do a great job of representing who was ahead, especially in close games. The new UI gives players an easy view of the current relative position of the capture point along its path in addition to displaying each team's best push as a percentage of the path traveled.
Looking for Feedback
During the beta event, the Push mode will replace the ranked queue with the same mini-season rewards. You'll also be able to access the Push mode in custom arena maps and, as we mentioned above, we have a PvP Rush event happening at the same time for extra incentive to get into the action!
Whether it's your first look at Push or you're a battle-scarred veteran, we want to hear from you. Head over to our Push feedback forum thread and let us know what you think. We're specifically interested in feedback regarding the changes we've made, but we'd love broader feedback on the Push game mode in general as well. Our goal throughout this beta process is to keep the community involved to make sure that we're making the best possible version of Push that we can.
We'll see you in the Mists!