Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen that this subject has been discussed extensively.

I’ve been playing GW2 for only a few months, and I have been learning the WvW part of the game. I know how to PVP in other games, just not as effectively in this one. I’ve read that the tag used to cost 100g and while I understand the inflation justifying the price now being 300g, as a new player, I am dubious about the effectiveness of trying to organize and lead others without a tag. Gold is easy to acquire for many, but not everyone enjoys that kind of ease.

This may be a poor example, but I learned the Tequatl fight so that I could organize it in the absence of another tag, which I have done a few times since. I realize that Tequatl isn’t exactly difficult, but it gave me an excellent opportunity to learn how to organize.

I’ve seen firsthand the benefits of having one. Concerns about abusing it are justified, but alienating new players who genuinely want to learn doesn’t help, nor does simply assuming that every commander is terrible (though there are definitely some who are less effective). I don’t seek the price to be 100g again, but a reduction would help. To balance this, having a certain rank would be appropriate, though setting one too high may also be more counterproductive. I’m only rank 42, which I know is a pittance, but perhaps rank 150 or about would be suitable. It would require players to spend time in WvW, which is what we all want, and keep the prize within reasonable reach, with time and effort.

“Learn how to profit from the TP” or “buy gold/gems/get a job” should not be required, you may keep such silly comments to yourself.

Thank you for reading.

It was adjusted due to it becoming account-bound instead of character-bound as it was at release.

Tying commander tag acquisition to WvW progress would work. IF tags were only used in WvW. That is however not the case, and there are multiple places in PvE where tags are more or less required in order to succeed.

please dont……

In WvW, your ability to function as a commander has no correlation with how well you organize people to kill cron scripts in PvE. People skills, communication, etc etc are useless if you don’t have the requisite experience in WvW and the knowledge that comes with it. Your familiarity with the maps, siege placement, common strategies, and the core abilities of the classes in your team are the base necessities. You don’t accumulate this experience in EotM. Rank doesn’t mean anything thanks to EotM, therefore a rank requirement wouldn’t be of much use.

New players shouldn’t run tags.

Ah, the tag being account bound does make sense. I wasn’t certain if that was a/the reason. I agree that being able to use the tag is also beneficial in PvE, and perhaps having a similar type of accomplishment akin to having rank in WvW would be suitable.

To be fair, commander tags in PvE are already heavily over-used. Some guilds even make it a game to have as many commanders tag up as possible :P

where 1 would suffice imo

And there are always people running around with a commander tag for no reason other then they want to be noticed

msalakka:

Maybe you’ll read back and note that I said I was learning, not that I was expert. Presuming that I said I was ready for the tag right this minute is an assumption on your part, when I said no such thing. Projecting that upon me is inappropriate, and so is claiming that I would use EotM as the ultimate benchmark. It was an idea, and entirely open to change or modification.

New players don’t stay that way. Kindly don’t insult someone else’s capacity to improve their play. Learning from more experienced players is ideally how new players do it, and I see that as a benefit to the community. You might also notice that I said I know how to PVP in other games, and there are common points in any game that has PVP. I would think it to be worth something that I genuinely want to discuss it, as opposed to just whining about it or threatening to stop playing. I could be wrong, however.

Thanks for replying, all the same.

My apologies if my response offended you. It wasn’t intended to be directed at you specifically, but as a generic observation, fueled by the recent influx of completely inexperienced PvE commanders venturing into WvW to do dailies. Ideally, tags used in WvW could only be purchased with rank points or experience accumulated in WvW (not EotM), which would hopefully mean the player would learn something through osmosis if nothing else.

The problem obviously is that the tags are used in different game modes (PvE, WvW, EotM) and PvE commanders shouldn’t have to “endure” WvW for their tags, if they’re really not into it. Right now, gold is the common denominator, although WvW players who don’t enjoy PvE are going to have a hard time accumulating it. The price tag has always been high, because we don’t want players picking it up on day two. Or ten. Or 60.

Perhaps the tag price could be lowered to something like 100g, but you’d have to unlock its use in each game mode. For instance, you could buy it with 100g on day one, should you want to, but you could not actually activate the tag in WvW unless you had accumulated rank 600, and even then you could only tag up in WvW; if you wanted also to tag up in PvE, you’d have to do whatever the PvE equivalent of rank points would be.

It is absolutely true that learning from the experienced is how you improve, and your capacity to do so and be a great commander I do not doubt. My only concern, which is not specific to you, is with how easy it is currently for the inexperienced to attain the tag – even with its high price – and how disruptive it is when they use it.

msalakka.4653:

Perhaps the tag price could be lowered to something like 100g, but you’d have to unlock its use in each game mode. For instance, you could buy it with 100g on day one, should you want to, but you could not actually activate the tag in WvW unless you had accumulated rank 600, and even then you could only tag up in WvW; if you wanted also to tag up in PvE, you’d have to do whatever the PvE equivalent of rank points would be.

Sucks to be on the lower tier servers that usually don’t have that many “hardcore” WvW players then. Since they will basically be unable to have tagged commanders most of the time.

Rank-point/time-spent/whatever does not have anything at all to do with being good at commanding.

Someone that have just started playing could easily be better at commanding than someone that have played for years.

I for one would probably be rather bad at commanding, despite having played more or less daily since release.

Maybe 600 is shooting for the stars, you’re right.

I don’t agree on the other thing, though. Yes, there’s much more to being a good commander than knowing the map. Leadership skills, etc etc.

“Come on everyone, let’s get the Red Keep” just doesn’t exactly instill me with confidence.

msalakka.4653:

My apologies if my response offended you. It wasn’t intended to be directed at you specifically, but as a generic observation, fueled by the recent influx of completely inexperienced PvE commanders venturing into WvW to do dailies. Ideally, tags used in WvW could only be purchased with rank points or experience accumulated in WvW (not EotM), which would hopefully mean the player would learn something through osmosis if nothing else.

The problem obviously is that the tags are used in different game modes (PvE, WvW, EotM) and PvE commanders shouldn’t have to “endure” WvW for their tags, if they’re really not into it. Right now, gold is the common denominator, although WvW players who don’t enjoy PvE are going to have a hard time accumulating it. The price tag has always been high, because we don’t want players picking it up on day two. Or ten. Or 60.

Perhaps the tag price could be lowered to something like 100g, but you’d have to unlock its use in each game mode. For instance, you could buy it with 100g on day one, should you want to, but you could not actually activate the tag in WvW unless you had accumulated rank 600, and even then you could only tag up in WvW; if you wanted also to tag up in PvE, you’d have to do whatever the PvE equivalent of rank points would be.

It is absolutely true that learning from the experienced is how you improve, and your capacity to do so and be a great commander I do not doubt. My only concern, which is not specific to you, is with how easy it is currently for the inexperienced to attain the tag – even with its high price – and how disruptive it is when they use it.

Your (generic) observations are entirely fair, and I’ve seen the annoying parts firsthand. I ventured into future ideas about it with the awareness that the feature as it stands currently is not really ideal with being behind a gold wall, and that there is much debate/argument. My comments about the WvW rank and PVE accomplishments were broad deliberately, since those kinds of details can be hard to determine where the “this is appropriately balanced” mark is reached.

To me, 600 is astronomical, but in the full scope of the rank system, I’m sure the perspective is different. As for PVE accomplishments, what would be considered a fair equivalent? The Dungeon Master title? Complete all available maps in Fractals?

If I were to acquire the rank and accomplishments for their respective aspects, I’d prefer to pay the 100g only once and then unlock each part, though that would be, at best, an idea. Having the tag be divided by game mode would be appropriate for clearing up some of the confusion and resolving some concerns about abuse.

For myself, even if I were to just go buy the thing today, I wouldn’t be so pretentious as to use it in WvW anytime soon. That’s usually a rapid path to a sunburn if you’re not known/experienced. Disruptive people are disruptive, like that one drunk jerk at the best bar in town. All I can do (that’s wise, anyway) is to not be that guy.

At the start 100g was a lot of money. And people typically bought them with guild money, with the guild nominating them to command.

These guilds would also talk to other guilds on the server, and coordinate when a commander would be online.

The points raised here have been good ones, and reading them have given me a better understanding from a veteran perspective. I appreciate it a lot.

Sube Dai:

The idea of a guild managing that sort of thing also makes sense, but I am wary of having something like that be out of my hands personally when it’s my decision and efforts that would facilitate it. There’s also the risk of abuse – a guild selecting, training and ultimately buying the tag, only to have that person skip out suddenly. I’ve seen guilds that will pay a portion of similar things in other games, but that kind of arrangement doesn’t seem as common here.