Guild Wars 2

I am mostly a PvE commander (I only ever tag up in WvW when a commander buddy needs a quick break) and I find the tag incredibly useful.

I personally use it for…

LS events to rally players

IMO, the invasions would be nearly impossible without commanders. Sure there are some bad ones, but generally the players figure pretty quick who is advancing the event and who is a vanity commander or farmer. Pavilion farming was much more efficient with a commander leading the pack. In Lost Shores it indicated leadership present at outposts or support in route to one.

DE chains to keep players on the critical path

There are plenty but the first that come to mind are the escort event for Shatterer or Plinx chain. Commander tags give players a quick, visual way to know the event is active, what stage its on, and a beacon to the action when they WP.

Organizing temples

It’s easier as a commander to rally players for temples. And players that see a temple event with a commander icon (usually correctly) assume that event is being played and jump in. Whereas with no Commander they may just ask in /m and get no response until five minutes later when people are screaming for help at Grenth.

Marking the map to give people a quick reference point

If I happen across a champion or rewarding event in the middle of the zone its just easier for me to use my tag and say “Champ X on me”. Then everyone can find the closest waypoint or route from where they are. Same goes for Keepers to the Hidden Garden, Skritt Burglar chest, Guild bounties (usually that im not even involved in) or whatever else I think might be of interest or needed by players in the zone.

Community events

On Occasion I will go into LA and gather a squad of people that need a map cleared, a vista tour of an zone, or zone jumping puzzles and mini dungeons. These squads are usually bigger than standard party size. Being a commander makes it easy for me to lead the group to and show them through the content.

PvE commanders definitely have their place in the game.

All that said, if you aren’t leading a squad, you should tag out. When people check the map for commanders or are looking for a squad to jump into, having random commander tags on the map gums up the works.

Also, if you are just following another commander, you should tag out. People get confused as to who is actually leading that squad and who they should be listening to. You could run off to harvest some wood and half the squad will follow you, then miss directions on where the other half is going. Some people are of the mind that more commander tags in one spot is a better indicator to players looking for where to go. Well, one or two suffice. A commander party on one event just misdirects players in that area and leaves other events ignored.

I think the Abuse to Commanders of which you speak is due in no small way to the Abuse of the Commander Tag/Roll itself.

In PvE I have never been a proponent Commander Tag.

100gp does not a leader make!

• If you farm CoF1 until you had enough spare gold to buy the tag; that in no way makes you a Leader, it makes you a Farmer.
• If you play the Trading Post until you are rich; that does not make you a leader, it makes you a Successful Speculator.
• If you kill a bat in Queensdale at level 11 and it drops a Precursor which you sell for gobs of gold; that does not make you a leader, it makes you a Lucky ‘Small cat’.

My point is, leadership in no way has anything to do with being rich. A Commander Icon should be earned/proven not bought.

One of the reasons why there is so much negative chatter to the Commanders is because the community has developed very little respect for the role. The problem is that this lack of respect is in MANY cases(not ALL but many cases) Self-inflicted.

Here are some reasons why the Commanders have lost the respect of the community.

• Big Blue Icons running around in Cities. Now I am not talking people who turn it on to arrange an Event or Squad. I am talking about the ones that just turn it on so that everyone can see how much money they have(that’s what the Golden Title is for). Running from the Bank to the Merchant to the Crafting station to the Mystic Forge, really does not denote a leadership role.
• I am talking about the Big Blue Icons running around open world for a Non-Zerg event.
  Just for fun the other day I followed a Commander Icon for about 10 minutes (staying way back, watching) just to see what was so important that they had to have the Icon on. What I saw was 3 people, the Commander and 2 of his Guildies. They ran around Gendarran Fields killing some Aquatic Creatures, Harvested all the nodes in sight and did a couple of Events. Then it came to me; this person has their Tag on to do his Daily. Sure enough that was the daily for that day.
• I couldn’t tell you how many Forum posts/Map chats I have seen of people who admit that they only turn on their Tag to anger those who don’t like it.

Turning on a Commander Tag at any time other then when such Tag is actually needed is what causes the community to dislike those who Blue Icon our maps.

A few things to note:

1. I know this does not apply to ALL Commanders. Some are quite good and I respect that.
2. Not everyone feels this way or even cares about the Tag.
3. None of my above statements apply to WvW where I absolutely think it is needed.
4. I do not condone disrespect to ANY player Commander or no.

Lastly: With the new Scarlet Invasion events of which I did 5 last night; I can only say thank you to the Commanders who utilized their Tags in a highly effective coordinated effort to unite the community in a common goal. A job well done.
This and the Jubilee Instance were the first time I can say I have found the Commander Icon useful in PvE, thank you.

AcidicVision.5498:

/Snip

I just read the post above which was submitted while I was writing mine.
Now this ^ is the proper use of a Commander Tag /bow

On the days I had to deal with WvW for map completion, I listened because I’m out of my element there and hopefully they are within theirs.

In PvE I’ll consider the advice some give such as “hold the line against the mob” or “Protect Jones”, “hit (insert boss name)”, etc.

However those that constantly spam the chats with “orders” not to complete an event because they want to farm while others want to complete the event, I just can’t stand.

So to the nice ones, I’m glad to see you enjoy your tags.
To the spammers, please head back to LA and sit there. :P

@ Yalora
-so how do we quantify who gets the Commander icon?
-what’s the problem with people with tags in Lion’s Arch? Does this bug you for some reason, as if they are flaunting their wealth? Well, gee, I’m flaunting my three legendaries around as well. I guess I would have to equip a lvl 1 greatsword so that no one else gets offended?

Problem with some of the commanders, they are a ….holes…. that do not take criticism well. Just because he/she shelled out 100g, does not mean they are good at what they do. However, most of commander do think they are the best.

Reminds me of what someone said about two commanders in WvW:

“There are two pins on this map, one who is a commander and one who paid 100g for a title.”

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

You know, for the most part, I try to be nice to everyone. To me, a ‘commander’ is just someone that had a lot of gold to blow. Now that could have come from farming, that could have come from using mommy and daddy’s credit card. They could be doing it to just show off, they could be doing it, as you said, to help out the community. I really don’t know and I don’t honestly care, but to me they are no different than other people. If they aren’t respectful to others, then they are not deserving of my respect, since respect is an earned thing. At least, that’s how it used to be when such things as common courtesy, sportsmanship, decency, manners, and ethics existed in the world.

But what is rudeness? I’m not a fan of relativism (i.e. relative truth), but in regards to ‘rudeness’ it does seem rather relative e.g what is rude to you may not be rude to me and vise versa.

You know? I could be very kindly telling you -or- screaming obscenities towards you to get off the stairs during grenth. To me, when I see someone using Jonez as their personal meat shield – endangering a fail for everyone else there is… beyond rude. But if I say to them (at first), oh please do get off of the stairs at your very earliest convenience (and it ends there), such a person could just as well be standing around 20m later in LA complaining vaguely about ‘fail commanders’ .

Of course then, if I get too harsh on them I probably get reported, or he even trolling in-game to get people kitten ed off to be ‘rude’ to him so he could report someone like ‘oh look a commander here, I’ll do something really stupid to get him kitten ed off and see where that goes!’.

I see fights going off like that too, people get agitated over fails, start cutting at one another. At least if there is a cool headed commander there, he can step in and just say ‘this is just how it is and lets try again and be more careful’ etc. and people will usually listen rather than just arguing amongst one another causing everyone to just give up.

But then to another, they may go away due to the ‘rude fail commander’ not agreeing with them. Ya know? But it’s not relative to me, just situational, while right or wrong may be too much to debate while the clock ticks down.

As for having lots of gold to blow, I had like 2s left when I bought the tag. Others might have put the gold towards their legendary, but I just wanted to see events succeed more often, be it in WvW or PvE, and back then when I used to WvW more often (less so due to connection problems), there were very few commanders in W3 because it waaas a sacrifice to get the tag back then.

I don’t mind so many tags being around now, I don’t complain if I may think there are too many or try to tell others to turn theirs off (as some newer commanders whine about). But I do think it would be better if Anet made it more of a sacrifice to get a tag now, as the servers/players get richer compared to early on. A. higher gold cost (or)B. Through WvW rank progression or something (both options).

Daywolf.2630:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

You know, for the most part, I try to be nice to everyone. To me, a ‘commander’ is just someone that had a lot of gold to blow. Now that could have come from farming, that could have come from using mommy and daddy’s credit card. They could be doing it to just show off, they could be doing it, as you said, to help out the community. I really don’t know and I don’t honestly care, but to me they are no different than other people. If they aren’t respectful to others, then they are not deserving of my respect, since respect is an earned thing. At least, that’s how it used to be when such things as common courtesy, sportsmanship, decency, manners, and ethics existed in the world.

But what is rudeness? I’m not a fan of relativism (i.e. relative truth), but in regards to ‘rudeness’ it does seem rather relative e.g what is rude to you may not be rude to me and vise versa.

You know? I could be very kindly telling you -or- screaming obscenities towards you to get off the stairs during grenth. To me, when I see someone using Jonez as their personal meat shield – endangering a fail for everyone else there is… beyond rude. But if I say to them (at first), oh please do get off of the stairs at your very earliest convenience (and it ends there), such a person could just as well be standing around 20m later in LA complaining vaguely about ‘fail commanders’ .

Of course then, if I get too harsh on them I probably get reported, or he even trolling in-game to get people kitten ed off to be ‘rude’ to him so he could report someone like ‘oh look a commander here, I’ll do something really stupid to get him kitten ed off and see where that goes!’.

I see fights going off like that too, people get agitated over fails, start cutting at one another. At least if there is a cool headed commander there, he can step in and just say ‘this is just how it is and lets try again and be more careful’ etc. and people will usually listen rather than just arguing amongst one another causing everyone to just give up.

But then to another, they may go away due to the ‘rude fail commander’ not agreeing with them. Ya know? But it’s not relative to me, just situational, while right or wrong may be too much to debate while the clock ticks down.

As for having lots of gold to blow, I had like 2s left when I bought the tag. Others might have put the gold towards their legendary, but I just wanted to see events succeed more often, be it in WvW or PvE, and back then when I used to WvW more often (less so due to connection problems), there were very few commanders in W3 because it waaas a sacrifice to get the tag back then.

I don’t mind so many tags being around now, I don’t complain if I may think there are too many or try to tell others to turn theirs off (as some newer commanders whine about). But I do think it would be better if Anet made it more of a sacrifice to get a tag now, as the servers/players get richer compared to early on. A. higher gold cost (or)B. Through WvW rank progression or something (both options).

Oh I’m pretty sure if a command told you that you’re a worthless kitten (4 letter word, starts with a ‘c’) and you need to gfto, you’d take that as rude. And that’s paraphrasing the paragraph long insult.

Yes, I understand that ‘rude’ is relative to each person, some people are more easily offended than others. However, certain things are socially acceptable and other things aren’t, and such things are still pretty obvious. For the most part, I’m pretty laid back, but I have seen some very nasty things from commanders in map chat, things that are easily definable as ‘verbally abusive,’ at which point I report them. If they’re ‘joking around’ with that person, you don’t do it in map chat. As with the case with workplace sexual harassment, just because the person its aimed at doesn’t take it as offensive, doesn’t mean others around won’t.

I have no issue with people having tags. I have no issue with people having gold to do with as they please. As I pointed out in the previous post, it doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t make you a good person, a bad person, or anything in between. You are simply you, I judge you based on how you represent yourself. If you don’t have respect for others, I won’t have any for you. Just how I was raised.

Atlas.9704:

However those that constantly spam the chats with “orders” not to complete an event because they want to farm while others want to complete the event, I just can’t stand.

hah yeah 100%. imo they deserve to go on the ignore list. Well maybe not in all cases, but like with the recent embers farm, I seriously wanted to start flaming over chat at the “commanders” there. fail-fail-commanders.

Ok, so I WP into CS as I’ve done over 100 times to get the temples going seeing they were contested on the map from LA. Right away I see Arah chain starting, woohoo! Oh but look, 200+ people and 10 commanders there starting the chain. Ok, a lot of commanders but I’ll turn my tag on anyway since that was my intention before I zoned in, zerg or no zerg. But we get to embers, they stop. Commanders start screaming at the peeps that keep attacking the champ. Then commanders start telling people to get close to the champ to scale it up so they cant progress the chain. I observe how they handle the situation, clock expires, event fails, I turn off my commander tag and walk away not bothering to loot the champ. Not only were they blocking the Arah assault but our anchorage WP for grenth as well.

Seriously, if this were a small indie mmo, and I had the power to do so, I would have just closed down the chain, issued bans, and went to work on preventing it. Exploit-Commanders pffff…

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Oh I’m pretty sure if a command told you that you’re a worthless kitten (4 letter word, starts with a ‘c’) and you need to gfto, you’d take that as rude. And that’s paraphrasing the paragraph long insult.

Well yeah, that’s why I worded it towards you and not at you. There is a difference between saying like “you kitten kitten, stop doing that, you’re such a kitten!” and “what the kitten do you think you are doing?!”. Using colorful language is not bannable, there is a filter. But calling someone names, directly, is. gtfo isn’t bannable either, you are not calling them an f. But telling someone to gtfo is pointless, unlike in like a dungeon where you can just vote kick them.

Basing rudeness on cultural ideas is relative as well, as some cultures have very different views of what is rude and what is not. Even within a country, ideas of rudeness can vary from US east-coasters vs US west-coasters. And the difference between the western hemisphere and far-east hemisphere are very different regarding rude behavior.

Paulytnz.7619:

IceBlink.4317:

Sorry, but you are repeatedly insisting that people who buy the commander tag do it to help out the community when the truth is, it’s more of a status symbol nowadays.

I’ve heard the hilarious stories of people trying to help out the commanders and then suddenly the commander tries to turn the server against that one person for whatever reason, haha.

Having a commander tag does not mean you should automatically be nice to them, and they should be treated the same as everyone else.

Some buy it for status, others buy it for other reasons. Surely you are not stupid enough to believe that EVERYONE is all the same are you? If so wow, just wow and no not that other game…..

Treated the same as everyone else – having a commander tag is not an automatic “be nice to them because they spent 100 gold gained via whatever means”. You treat people the way you treat everyone else.

Note I did not mention how “everyone” should be treated. Personally, I treat them the way I would want to be treated in a MMO game, which is the “golden rule” – one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself. Also the “silver rule” – one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.

I’m not a fan of the belief “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.”

IndigoSundown.5419:

There are commanders and there are commanders. Some are worthy of respect, some not. Ideally, a commander would think about a bigger picture and use the tag to promote success.

As an example: picture an overflow server lucky enough to feature an invasion. Two commander tags are on the map. One of the commanders is calling things out in map chat, making suggestions. The other just follows the first one around. Ultimately the invasion event fails because not enough Aetherblades get defeated.

Which commander is worthy of respect, and which isn’t?

Give respect where it’s due, withhold respect if it’s undeserved, but there’s no excuse for being abusive, which I think was the OP’s complaint. :/

The unfortunate thing is that a lot of commanders think their glorious blue nacho somehow gives them the right to command. Well, it doesn’t. If you want people to follow you and respect you you’re going to have to earn that. Lead well and it’s only a matter of time. That hundred gold might give you the tool but it does not give you the talent.

Obed.7629:

IndigoSundown.5419:

There are commanders and there are commanders. Some are worthy of respect, some not. Ideally, a commander would think about a bigger picture and use the tag to promote success.

As an example: picture an overflow server lucky enough to feature an invasion. Two commander tags are on the map. One of the commanders is calling things out in map chat, making suggestions. The other just follows the first one around. Ultimately the invasion event fails because not enough Aetherblades get defeated.

Which commander is worthy of respect, and which isn’t?

Give respect where it’s due, withhold respect if it’s undeserved, but there’s no excuse for being abusive, which I think was the OP’s complaint. :/

I read the OP’s post as “don’t abuse, say good things.” I’m down with the former, and use the latter when deserved.

IceBlink.4317:

Paulytnz.7619:

IceBlink.4317:

Sorry, but you are repeatedly insisting that people who buy the commander tag do it to help out the community when the truth is, it’s more of a status symbol nowadays.

I’ve heard the hilarious stories of people trying to help out the commanders and then suddenly the commander tries to turn the server against that one person for whatever reason, haha.

Having a commander tag does not mean you should automatically be nice to them, and they should be treated the same as everyone else.

Some buy it for status, others buy it for other reasons. Surely you are not stupid enough to believe that EVERYONE is all the same are you? If so wow, just wow and no not that other game…..

Treated the same as everyone else – having a commander tag is not an automatic “be nice to them because they spent 100 gold gained via whatever means”. You treat people the way you treat everyone else.

Note I did not mention how “everyone” should be treated. Personally, I treat them the way I would want to be treated in a MMO game, which is the “golden rule” – one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself. Also the “silver rule” – one should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated.

I’m not a fan of the belief “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.”

I agree with everything you said in this reply, however I also go by the mindset of “give people the benefit of the doubt and do not judge all on the actions of others”

That’s all I was saying. You know another way to look at is this way, respect is earned not granted/given, but also so too is disrespect if you think about it.

This street goes both ways.
We were doing the scarlet events and every single commander (there were 6 of them) were on the same event. We repeatedly asked in map chat “commanders please spread out.” This went on for 45 minutes. We failed the event.
I pm’d one commander who was particularly vocal in the map chat after the fail and said “you know, we asked you guys several times to spread out”
He replied “*&% DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? BLOCKED SCRUB &$^#”
….

I want to help people too! But I don’t have the gold, PvP doesn’t give me anything since paid tournaments were removed, I’m sure I can help people more since I’m moving into PvE! Please donate so I may help people!

Quick Mouse.7635:

This street goes both ways.
We were doing the scarlet events and every single commander (there were 6 of them) were on the same event. We repeatedly asked in map chat “commanders please spread out.” This went on for 45 minutes. We failed the event.
I pm’d one commander who was particularly vocal in the map chat after the fail and said “you know, we asked you guys several times to spread out”
He replied “*&% DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? BLOCKED SCRUB &$^#”
….

Lol true facts! Some commanders feel so entitled when they are Tera-bad I try to be nice and not just bash every nub commander I see. But I think there should be a better way to get it other than 100g.

How about r20 sPvP, acquired a gift of mastery (not actually having to spend it) and a gift from every dungeon. Then 30g this won’t stop bad commanders but at least it’s more than “I got a lucky precursor sold it made bank!” Or "I Zerg Farm all day loot @ my phat lootz*

Daishi.6027:

I want to help people too! But I don’t have the gold, PvP doesn’t give me anything since paid tournaments were removed, I’m sure I can help people more since I’m moving into PvE! Please donate so I may help people!

try earn it? I walked through 2ft of snow every morning for 5 miles to… No wait, when I wasn’t doing wvw then (I did a lot) I was going to temples and also crafting exotics to sell. No real mass farming zergs like today, and Orr was MUCH harder than it is today. By the time I got the tag, I already knew very well how those events worked and didn’t work. After all, temples are one of the few real pve challenges left in the game. More hard temples, please.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

head over to an invasion spot that needs more people. Often I’d see two players vastly out numbered

Indeed. I immediately flag off when the event ends so that there is no commander tag on the map while I am deciding where to go next. Often I arrive and see no players and proceed with the freedom charge (and subsequently repair costs).

Although I do rarely command in PvE.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

focus on keeping the other players alive. I revive people, I heal them, I cleanse their conditions

As well as call out achievements starting AND ENDING around my icon (in this case, champions). Agreed though, I spend most of my time attuned to water and ressing because PvE players sometimes have squishier builds (nothing wrong with that).

I really wonder if commanders are required for this event though, apart from making the obvious mistakes (doing e.g. molten alliance events when the portion of the invasion is complete) people would probably spread themselves out on the map quite nicely without our guidance. Something like the gauntlet needs a commander because of the “down-time” that you sometimes get between the champs (so you need a karma train commander), or when there are many events (the commander can choose between them and draw the zerg there).

This new event is not helping with peoples ire against commanders… I’ve seen two invasions fail because of commanders that grouped everyone on the map into one enormous zerg, because they were too concerned about kitten-measuring to shut their tags off so that people would divide in to better group sizes.

In most cases I have seen in these invasions the commanders are working well together. I play on Ehmry Bay tho and we have some pretty good commanders here.

It’s not too often I see more than 1 commander turn up to these events unless they were close beforehand at another nearby event or help is called for.

Basically if commanders do NOT go to events where another tag is at and if people turn up to any event that has a lot of players regardless and use their initiative to move on for the greater good, there really is no problem.

Also a MAJOR part of being a commander is keeping those lines of communication OPEN at all times. Call out when you need help, ask how many people are at/needed at certain events, call out bugged events etc!

The commander tags are a 2 way street and both commanders and non commanders need to use the tags correctly. Now it’s obvious how commanders should use them, non commanders it’s like I said you need to use your initiative in a lot of the cases especially so in WvW. And again that communication is important, non commanders too, if you see an enemy zerg heading in the direction of your zerg let them know!

Everyone needs to take responsibility here. Commanders need to stop tagging up just for the heck of it and stand around in LA all day to show off (yes I see this on my server, a certain 1 or 2 commanders in the same exact spot every time I go to LA every day!) and non commanders need to stop dis respecting ALL commanders in general be it because they are jealous they don’t have a tag yet or because they have indeed seen bad commanders doing silly things.

It’s all common sense really (shrugs)…

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Insignya.8625:

People need commanders to help them out in PvE? You just clump up and spam 1-5 like a pianist. Reckon there should be Login commanders to complement the PvE ones.

THIS. I rarely set foot outside of WvW but when I do and show up at an event and there are 5 tags up……GRRRR. PvE is faceroll there is no reason to tag up unless you are running a guild bounty.

Please post video link of yourself soloing Scarlet. I’m quite interested in seeing this face-rolling you’re talking about.

Armchair commanders, for the most part, are the worst. There are very few good commanders who can’t afford the money, but the majority are people who are simply too lazy to get the tag and think that “leadership” is comprised of yelling in map and insulting anyone that misunderstands or makes a mistake.

Tag up, or shut up. Let the commanders prove themselves to be good leaders.

I think everyone deserves a chance to give commanding a try. They have tho prove themselves first? What a load of rubbish. Look, it’s your choice if you want to follow them or not. But everyone should be able to have a go at it.

And what we encountered in Fireheart Rise last night was especially annoying. The event starts, everyone teleports to Fireheart Rise, and immediately there are none-commanders screaming in chat: “Commanders spread out more, you noobs!”

And I was like, chill out! We only just spawned into the map. I’m not psychic. I don’t know which waypoint every commander will teleport to. At least give us 10 seconds to find an objective. People have a terrible attitude towards commanders, just because they themselves can’t afford the 100g. Well too bad, I worked hard to get that gold and buy the tag. And I’m bloody well going to use it too (to assist other players).

Personally, I don’t mind them wearing the tag all the time, anywhere.

What bothers me is that they wear the tag, and they don’t kitten “command”.

I have seen tons of that in our server’s WvWvW. It’s annoying. I’ll follow the blue tag only to see that the commander literally has no clue what to do. Just runs around, spams skill 1 when he sees an enemy. No squad chat, no map chat, hell, no normal chat.

I tell every commander, not just PvE commanders to turn their tags off in LA. It’s common courtesy. As long as they didn’t buy it as a vanity item and it actually gets used, I can’t complain.

I’m primarily a PvE commander. I have several points I’d like to make:

• Unless I’m actually using my tag to help coordinate or lead something, I turn it off. Others should really do the same. There is no need to leave the tag on 24/7. It’s super easy to turn it off.

• Many commanders have merely shelled out 100g for the status. Many others have not. Just like with legendary weapons, don’t automatically assume people have bought the tag simply for the status.

• Commander tags aren’t absolutely needed in PvE. But based on my experiences in WvW, they aren’t absolutely needed there either. They’re a useful tool in the right hands and an annoyance in the wrong hands. I try to keep my usage of it in the useful category.

• Judge a commander based on their actions, personality, and how they behave, not on your preconceived notions of what “all” commanders are like. Many of us are quite nice. Many others are serious kittens. If I see a commander being a jerk while helping me do something, I usually try to defuse the situation.

• A blue icon isn’t a license to be a jerk to fellow players.

• If someone suggests a better course of action than what I’ve determined is a good idea, then I’ll gladly take the suggestion and even change my actions accordingly if I agree with it. But not all suggestions are necessarily good suggestions. What I consider a good suggestion is based on my own experiences, knowledge of the game, and how the suggestion is conveyed. I treat suggestions the same way regardless of whether I have my tag on or off.

• If someone has a problem with me or what I’m doing, I prefer being whispered about it and not called out in map chat. I consider the former to be polite and the latter to be an attempt to cause trouble. I’m more likely to listen to the polite whisper than the public calling out simply out of principle.

• I use my tag to help my guild with guild missions, organize event chains, quickly mark a location on a map for the entire zone, help with invasions, and perform other similar tasks. Not everyone appreciates the help but the ones that do seem to outweigh the ones that don’t. You can’t please everyone.

• It’d be a lot easier to organize things if more people joined my squad. It’s amazing how many times I’ve been locked out of map chat for “excessive messaging” and end up in a position where I can’t explain where to go or what to do next. When checking who’s in my squad, I often discover that I’m the only person following myself (not an ego thing — all commanders automatically follow themselves). Then I get blamed for causing the event chain to fail or for not commanding, when there’s absolutely nothing I can do due to the game locking me out of chat. Join my squad and I’ll be able to do a better job.

Zedd.8239:

I’m primarily a PvE commander. I have several points I’d like to make:

• Unless I’m actually using my tag to help coordinate or lead something, I turn it off. Others should really do the same. There is no need to leave the tag on 24/7. It’s super easy to turn it off.

• Many commanders have merely shelled out 100g for the status. Many others have not. Just like with legendary weapons, don’t automatically assume people have bought the tag simply for the status.

• Commander tags aren’t absolutely needed in PvE. But based on my experiences in WvW, they aren’t absolutely needed there either. They’re a useful tool in the right hands and an annoyance in the wrong hands. I try to keep my usage of it in the useful category.

• Judge a commander based on their actions, personality, and how they behave, not on your preconceived notions of what “all” commanders are like. Many of us are quite nice. Many others are serious kittens. If I see a commander being a jerk while helping me do something, I usually try to defuse the situation.

• A blue icon isn’t a license to be a jerk to fellow players.

• If someone suggests a better course of action than what I’ve determined is a good idea, then I’ll gladly take the suggestion and even change my actions accordingly if I agree with it. But not all suggestions are necessarily good suggestions. What I consider a good suggestion is based on my own experiences, knowledge of the game, and how the suggestion is conveyed. I treat suggestions the same way regardless of whether I have my tag on or off.

• If someone has a problem with me or what I’m doing, I prefer being whispered about it and not called out in map chat. I consider the former to be polite and the latter to be an attempt to cause trouble. I’m more likely to listen to the polite whisper than the public calling out simply out of principle.

• I use my tag to help my guild with guild missions, organize event chains, quickly mark a location on a map for the entire zone, help with invasions, and perform other similar tasks. Not everyone appreciates the help but the ones that do seem to outweigh the ones that don’t. You can’t please everyone.

• It’d be a lot easier to organize things if more people joined my squad. It’s amazing how many times I’ve been locked out of map chat for “excessive messaging” and end up in a position where I can’t explain where to go or what to do next. When checking who’s in my squad, I often discover that I’m the only person following myself (not an ego thing — all commanders automatically follow themselves). Then I get blamed for causing the event chain to fail or for not commanding, when there’s absolutely nothing I can do due to the game locking me out of chat. Join my squad and I’ll be able to do a better job.

The same can be mimicked for WvW commanders. +1. Anyone who wants a tag or is thinking about a tag should read this.

I never really paid any attention to the commanders in PVE zones. I just never thought they would be of any use. Until the last two updates and then I was able to see how they can directly impact the way the event is going to be played out.

I have always wanted the tag but I thought it would be pointless to have in pve. I may change my mind on that.

To keep in line with the topic I was doing and invasion last night 5 commanders traveled with each other from place to place. Everyone knows the outcome of that….

I’d be nice if they didn’t stand in LA all day – I’m only nice to the ones who really are helpful though & useful

Tamaki Revolution.3548:

UrMom.4205:

ilr.9675:

“fighting against TC, and you’re Crystal Desert”

Don’t remind us

Now I’m sad.

Sorry about that, I forgot how fresh the wound still was.

.
Back to the issue, I’m personally Torn on even getting the Tag. I actually need it for guiding people to where these critical “must disrupt at all costs” Mobs are in real D.E.‘s (not this Living Salesy farm junk), but there’s literally no point to that when you’ve got 3 to 5 other commanders who just leave their Tags on when they don’t even have the first Clue to how an Event even works.

….nevermind all the other stuff in this thread that leaves the average person with a terrible opinion of Commanders in general. For instance, I was coaching this one guy on dungeons last week. He didn’t even know how to Guest to servers or how to get custom gear. I had to walk him through all of this stuff. Not more than 3 days later I see him with a COMMANDER TAG. I know he’s a fast learner and all, but no one learns that Fast… I didn’t bother asking him where he got the money (probably Gem-Exchanged it).

I don’t understand why people who want to show off their “game wealth” aren’t happy enough with a Legendary or the “Golden” Title. We don’t need to see you on our Minimap wherever we go unless you’re actually organizing things and other people can vouch for you.

Viking Jorun.5413:

The same can be mimicked for WvW commanders. +1. Anyone who wants a tag or is thinking about a tag should read this.

Thanks. And I completely agree that the same kinds of things can be said about WvW commanders.

Excursion.9752:

I never really paid any attention to the commanders in PVE zones. I just never thought they would be of any use. Until the last two updates and then I was able to see how they can directly impact the way the event is going to be played out.

I have always wanted the tag but I thought it would be pointless to have in pve. I may change my mind on that.

To keep in line with the topic I was doing and invasion last night 5 commanders traveled with each other from place to place. Everyone knows the outcome of that….

I get annoyed during invasions when I end up with another commander just blindly following me around to the various events. It just makes things confusing for people and anyone that was following him/her also tend to show up, which results in a zerg.

As tempting as it is to scale the invasion events up and up and up, it’s a bad idea and makes it harder to succeed. You only really need about 10 people at each event. It works best when the commanders spread out and try to limit how many people are following them.

This is something I tried to explain to some very upset players in map chat yesterday when the map event failed. They kept insisting that the commander tags caused the event to fail. While they had a point about some of the commanders not being very smart about what they were doing, commanders usually make the invasions easier. But they have to work together. Plus, we can only do so much. If people don’t listen and just start blindly zerging despite us saying otherwise because they see the blue icon, then that isn’t our fault. It’s the people on the map who are unable to see how they’re causing problems. Ultimately, it’s everyone in the zone that has to work together to succeed.

Chasind.3128:

I’d be nice if they didn’t stand in LA all day – I’m only nice to the ones who really are helpful though & useful

But why be nasty to them at all? I mean, I agree that it’s annoying when people just stand around in Lion’s Arch all day with their commander tags on doing absolutely nothing except acting like new architecture in the city. And I say this as someone that has a commander tag on my guardian.

I usually politely ask them to turn off their tags and if they refuse (or respond in a nasty manner), I just let it slide. Rather than become part of the problem by being nasty to people minding their own business, why not take the high road and politely ask them to turn off their tag?

Zedd.8239:

Viking Jorun.5413:

The same can be mimicked for WvW commanders. +1. Anyone who wants a tag or is thinking about a tag should read this.

Thanks. And I completely agree that the same kinds of things can be said about WvW commanders.

Excursion.9752:

I never really paid any attention to the commanders in PVE zones. I just never thought they would be of any use. Until the last two updates and then I was able to see how they can directly impact the way the event is going to be played out.

I have always wanted the tag but I thought it would be pointless to have in pve. I may change my mind on that.

To keep in line with the topic I was doing and invasion last night 5 commanders traveled with each other from place to place. Everyone knows the outcome of that….

I get annoyed during invasions when I end up with another commander just blindly following me around to the various events. It just makes things confusing for people and anyone that was following him/her also tend to show up, which results in a zerg.

As tempting as it is to scale the invasion events up and up and up, it’s a bad idea and makes it harder to succeed. You only really need about 10 people at each event. It works best when the commanders spread out and try to limit how many people are following them.

This is something I tried to explain to some very upset players in map chat yesterday when the map event failed. They kept insisting that the commander tags caused the event to fail. While they had a point about some of the commanders not being very smart about what they were doing, commanders usually make the invasions easier. But they have to work together. Plus, we can only do so much. If people don’t listen and just start blindly zerging despite us saying otherwise because they see the blue icon, then that isn’t our fault. It’s the people on the map who are unable to see how they’re causing problems. Ultimately, it’s everyone in the zone that has to work together to succeed.

Chasind.3128:

I’d be nice if they didn’t stand in LA all day – I’m only nice to the ones who really are helpful though & useful

But why be nasty to them at all? I mean, I agree that it’s annoying when people just stand around in Lion’s Arch all day with their commander tags on doing absolutely nothing except acting like new architecture in the city. And I say this as someone that has a commander tag on my guardian.

I usually politely ask them to turn off their tags and if they refuse (or respond in a nasty manner), I just let it slide. Rather than become part of the problem by being nasty to people minding their own business, why not take the high road and politely ask them to turn off their tag?

I make it a point to build for mobility so that I’m always the commander in front of the PvE zerg during invasions. It’s now to a point where those commanders are left in the dust while my zerg’s been completing events for 20 minutes before they catch up.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I make it a point to build for mobility so that I’m always the commander in front of the PvE zerg during invasions. It’s now to a point where those commanders are left in the dust while my zerg’s been completing events for 20 minutes before they catch up.

There are definitely points during the invasions where it isn’t always easy to break combat and move to the next location. Usually when that happens I just start running in the general direction. On the other hand, there are also people that seem to think that you can immediately get out of combat and use a waypoint as soon as an event ends. I’ve even been yelled at (by commanders and non-commanders alike) for not moving on within 2 seconds after an event has ended! I mean, come on! I’d love to waypoint out of there but it isn’t always possible.

But yeah that’s a good idea. I always have something that gives me swiftness when I’m leading groups so that I can stand out by running ahead. It also depends on how the other commanders are doing. If they’re doing a good job leading, I generally just take on more of a supportive role and bring those following me where we’re needed. If there are just too many commanders, I turn off my tag since I’m likely working against the rest of the map by leaving it on.

For those of you that complain or hear a lot of complaining about commanders, I wonder how your server ranks in wvw. Have you or your commanders taken wvw seriously? I think this is why I don’t see too much of this on my server, we are usually ranked in the top six with wvw. Many commanders are used to coordinating efforts to get things done, and non-commanders usually just don’t stand there idle complaining about commanders rather than being involved.

I started doing the new pve events last night, I saw coordination and not too much complaining. Although I did get caught in one sad overflow and there were a few players spending too much time in chat debating the usefulness of commanders, while commanders started basically saying kitten the kitten up and start killing (paraphrased with extra kitten sauce). But overall, each event went on without such jabbering and while I saw many commanders from wvw out there coordinating for event wins.

IMO things went very well, and part of that is maybe due to our general server population has spent a good deal of time playing wvw seriously and with successful results. Maybe you guys should consider not complaining so much and just play the game?

Daywolf.2630:

Maybe you guys should consider not complaining so much and just play the game?

You should really consider how much your post rings of being Over-privileged just b/c you transferred to a Bandwagon server. A lot of people couldn’t afford an 1800 gem Transfer.

If they could afford that they would have just bought their own Tag by now and set a better example on those servers where it’s literally harder to even make money because of lack of community. (Disparity tends to “Trap” people like a Ghetto). The fact you’re so insensitive to that really invalidates your entire last sentence which didn’t need to be in your post to begin with.

I’m actually considering getting a tag just to lead PVE farm trains. I’m just unsatisfied with the lack of farming commanders around. Too few commanders out there trying to maximize efficiency and profit for themselves and the zerg following them. Completing the event is no where as profitable as farming champs. And, so many people blame farming champs on human but I suggest them to look at Anet on how they implemented the reward system. Completing the event should give like 15-20 boxes instead of the 6 to incentive people to finish the event instead of farming.

^ okay you actually have a good logical point there. AND the probability to match.

Beating Scarlet only gives you a few champ boxes and there’s typically only 1 Champion among the Aetherblades … who’s also a lot less threatening than all the Veteran Strikers around him…. (b/c he’s an engineer and most Engies kinda suck?)

ilr.9675:

Daywolf.2630:

Maybe you guys should consider not complaining so much and just play the game?

You should really consider how much your post rings of being Over-privileged just b/c you transferred to a Bandwagon server. A lot of people couldn’t afford an 1800 gem Transfer.

Wat? I’m on the same server I’ve been on since launch day. I got my commander tag within 3 months because there was a huge need for commanders in wvw. We were pulling high tier in wvw before transfers were even in. /me waves had – says that Obi Won line from star wars at the bar

Ok here my feedback to commanders

First of all for some ppl are 100g much work and for others its 1 week farming or even less so anet should make the way to obtain the title commander like something special, maybe collect XX achievement points or have at least 100% world or something like that i dunno and its not my job to think for them :P

And since the champion update you see on 3 maps commanders (queensdale, frostgorge sound and of corse orr) i farmed on all of this 3 maps with commanders.

So on queensdale and frostgorge sound ppl are “stealing” the main zerg often champions (not often but happens maybe 20% of the time) Some ppl annoys it but i dont care much.

Few days later i started farming on cursed shore and THIS was way beyond friendly or good leading commanders! Half of the zerg followed commander the other half “stole” the champion that would come next everyone flamed and much more.

It was annoying after a few rounds so i thought maybe on other servers its better (im playing on medium population server, so I switched to high population server) and holy kitten there was 5 commanders everyone did something else some ppl turned the lamp on in the same zerg (2 commanders 1 zerg) others totally mislead the zerg just to stoped the main zerg from farming and if you told them to turn off the lamp or dont fool the players that are new to this farmingroute you got a really “nice” answer.

So overall I like commanders in wvw theres nothing to complain its very usefull and i have never seen a trolling commander or without experience in wvw.

pve commanders…. i would say its 50/50 half of pve commanders are good the other half is trash.

(sry for my grammer im not english BUT i tried my best :P)