Guild Wars 2

Is this really now a thing?

I was told that this is happening at times now, that joining in on a meta in the HoT maps can get you called out and attacked in map chat for not being in squad.

I rather look forward to the argument to occur with me and this almost gives incentive to go into them. Almost.

Squads can serve a purpose, sure, but for one, a squad impacts my ability to play the way I want. I want to be in my party, talking to my friends. Been doing the metas since they released, and it isn’t exactly difficult. Have done them since the squad changes and everyone feeling like a squad is now a requirement to do anything. The constant invites were annoying enough, having to decline them. But is this really descending to the point that not being in a squad, especially a player that knows what they are doing and is helping, not hurting, the meta, deserves to be bashed, attacked, trolled, and treated like dirt? Is this really what it’s becoming? Or was this just some fluke with some people that needed to pull that stick out?

I haven’t seen anything like that though when commanding in DS I do tend to toss invites at green names around me because I don’t know if they didn’t join due to disinterest or because they didn’t know how. If they decline more than once I figure they aren’t interested (once could be a misclick).

Did you use /say in the squad’s presence to say “Sorry, I’m in a party, but I know the fight” or anything like that? I am not blaming the victim. Assuming that Map or local chat really did say directly nasty things to you, there is no cause for that. But if it was just a lot of “we don’t know how many are in the lane because there are people here not in squad,” then it’s nice to give Map an explanation so chat can move on.

Sorry, I know that’s a little bit of a Catch-22 since you can’t actually repeat what was said thanks to forum etiquette, which leaves us to speculate on how bad it actually was.

EDIT: Ah, I missed your bit where you said this is based on what you were told by others. I have a gut instinct demanding that I stand up from my chair declaring “Objection! Hearsay!”

But I will add a suggestion nonetheless since you prefer not to squad up: Do not go fight the boss at the towers in DS. The squad will have organized its ten player subgroup to do that. Please stick to the zerg since you won’t know how the squad is handling things. (Since you know what you are doing that is likely superfluous advice; I include it for others who may read this thread and be less completely conversant with the mechanics).

I wish we could join a squad and still keep our party. Sometimes the party members are there doing the same thing, but just as often they are spread out through the area or even the world. And not all the people I play with are in my guild, so guild chat is not the solution.

The first time I got annoyed by this was my first ever DS. A friend was tutoring me on the event, but joining the squad took away the party chat. Since we were only two that day whispers worked, but if there had been more than one of us learning the ropes it would have been bad.

As to the the original question, no-one should be bashed for remaining outside squads. On the other hand, I understand why it is good to be able to see how many people there are working for the same goal and where they all are. And while being invited and having to decline several times can be annoying, not being invited at all can feel bad too. But bashing is not appropriate.

I have yet to see this, but I wondered if it would occur.

The squad system is probably of more use in wvw, as it lets the commander or squad leader know how many people and how much supply the team has, I suppose in meta events it’s useful in that it relays to the commander how successful an event is likely to be based on body count as well. In either case, there are likely to be trolls that are most likely already in the squad and sometimes it could even be the commander. Personally, no matter the play environment, I don’t really like to join squads, and definately don’t approve of feelig like it was being forced on me. I’ll join if I want to, but harassing me in map chat for not joining would accomplish nothing but silence and a report of those doing the harrassing. I say silence, because if you ever find yourself on the delivery side of harrassment, whether due or not, the best thing you can do is not retaliate in any way, else you’ve given several others not involved in the conversation reason to report you for simply defending your playstyle.

I too wish that you could remain in a group and join a squad (for counting purposes at least). I like being in a squad if it helps the commanders determine where more people are needed. But my husband and I just hang in a two person group always. It’s just what we do. It’s annoying to drop the group, then have to regroup after a 15 minute event is finished.

I’ve never seen such a thing. If someone thinks pinning up gives them the right to power trip, then I’m just going to /laugh.

That being said, I always squad up when the tag wants a number count if I am involved in doing the meta. It’s common courtesy because I would like the map to succeed.

It IS annoying that you aren’t able to chat with your friends or sometimes even know where they are after joining a squad. Breaking up a party feels more impersonal. Unless you make your own subsquad but that might not be allowed. In WvW, some particularly nuanced commanders will put people in the same guild together in the same subsquad.

Oh, btw, if you want someone to do something for you, screaming at them generally doesn’t work. Not does guilt tripping. Just a hint.

I also think this in unaccaptable behavior. As long as spoken player and his group help meta event and participates – why the kitten somebody should pick on them for not joining a squad? Last time I carried some new guys through HoT meta events and somebody started picking on us and spamming squad invitations, it ended up pretty bad with me spitting salty acid in map chat once some comm kittentag started kittening about that.
Same comes with people cursing at “randoms” asking for help with HPs during some meta events.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Is this really now a thing?

I was told that this is happening now, that joining in on a meta in the HoT maps gets you called out and attacked in map chat.

You were told this, but haven’t actually experienced it? If it happens occasionally, /report the people who are harassing others. No need to post unless you are seeing it happen every time you’re in a meta map.

PS with millions of accounts active, there is 100% chance that some maps will include jerks and trolls. /block them and move on; there’s no reason someone else’s bad day has to ruin your experience.

I’ve seen this happen a lot but only once did someone respond to being called out for not being in a squad. It didn’t get nasty but the potential was there to be sure.

And as other posters have said, it seems to be mostly for commanders to get accurate counts on how many people are in the lane and to explain the mechanics to anyone who may be new. Also, if you happen to disconnect during the fight, your chances of getting back into the same map are better I’ve heard.

I joined squads to learn the fights, now I just do it out of habit. I’d hope though that if I stopped joining them there wouldn’t be a big issue about it.

I’ve never seen this happen. If anything, I’ve seen squad leaders go out of their way to invite strays and/or message us with “please join” in efforts to get something done properly. If I was actually there (or found myself available) to do the meta, I would join up or start my own squad if needed.

Seen and had it happen already, it’s quite sad that some people do this just because you don’t join their squad, but just ignore them and move on. lol

Once, I got shoo’d away while standing at SCAR lane but without joining the squad. The squad commander literally told me to go away or change map instead of “being a dead weight”, to which I replied that I know the fight, and I’m taxi-ing my guildmates into the map. However, the harassment did not end as I believed that commander rallied his squad members to say nasty things to me in /say and /map chat just to chase me away.

The incident is so rare and on such an amusing level of immature and hive mind that I can never unsee.

That’s weird. :s I’m more of a “passive grouper” so I used to join open world parties for anti-DC only but squads took their place… I always join a squad when there’s a commander around.

if being out of the squad didnt mean that the 10-50 people around me only boonshare amongst themselves and leave me without might or vampiric aura or w/e, i likely would not join squads ever.

my friends and I tend to make tagless squads so we don’t have to deal with random squad invites. If I don’t want to join the squad for the meta, I’m not going to and they can deal.

Vasdamas Anklast.1607:

I also think this in unaccaptable behavior. As long as spoken player and his group help meta event and participates – why the kitten somebody should pick on them for not joining a squad?

I even think it’s unacceptable to think that every person on the map has the same goal as you. Maybe that player is there to finish his or her map completion. Or helping somebody else to finish his or her map completion.
Those persons will help at events (and thus will gain progress) but it won’t be their focus. And as they’ll lose their progress if they changed maps, I won’t blame them for not doing so.

I experienced this first hand when joining for my very first Chak Gerent attempt.

Basically I was in a party with a friend who was highly familiar with the mechanics and was going to guide me through. Unfortunately the commander decided to repeatedly spam us both with squad invites before publicly calling us out in map chat for “Leeching” and “Afking” during the event. A very bad introduction to the awesome TD meta event.

I didn’t experience it, but I’ve been hearing various stories now. Admittedly I’m not playing a lot lately, but I was getting very very annoyed at being spammed with invites for squads. I have had to ask at times, and then demand, that being spammed invites stop.

I did all the metas many times, and never once joined a squad. Before the new squad system was implemented, people had little trouble doing the metas, so it isn’t like a squad is needed anyways. The only thing a squad is required for in the game, are raids.

The only squad I ever will join, is my guilds and friends. I will not ‘squad up’.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Is this really now a thing?

I was told that this is happening now, that joining in on a meta in the HoT maps gets you called out and attacked in map chat.

You were told this, but haven’t actually experienced it? If it happens occasionally, /report the people who are harassing others. No need to post unless you are seeing it happen every time you’re in a meta map.

PS with millions of accounts active, there is 100% chance that some maps will include jerks and trolls. /block them and move on; there’s no reason someone else’s bad day has to ruin your experience.

I posted and asked because I’m hearing more and more about this going on and they aren’t going to post. Should we not use the forums to ask questions and bring to light issues? Isn’t like a specific person was called out, nor did I say “Every meta is like this” or “every squad is doing this”. I’ll edit it a bit to clarify, I wrote it fast while in the middle of doing something. Once or twice, meh, wouldn’t bother posting. just bad apples. But having seen some of the behavior starting to occur before, and hearing more of this going on now, I fully expect it to be occurring more than I’m actually hearing.

For my part, I have been spammed squad invites repeatedly, to the point I spent more time rejecting the invite than I did helping pick up downed people that the squad ignored (and I seriously lost count of how many times I rejected invites. I wouldn’t be doing the number justice if I said 30+), and some comments have been made about not joining squads, including “We have people here not joining squad” but it ended there. Apparently some situations are getting worse, though.

Yes there will always be trolls, etc. and they should be reported. But if it really is becoming more widespread, then this is a systemic issue that needs addressed.

Happened to me and my party when we were not in squad for DS it happens maily there I think, also saw it happen to other people other times..
I really don’t know why this is happening and I don’t like it.

To be fair, there is a squad option that allows anyone to invite... So it may not be the tag, it maybe several or one troll in the squad who feels its fun. Either way it’s an annoying thing to believe you must get in on the squad because your on the same map in near proximity.

Shrimpkin.4851:

I’ve seen this happen a lot but only once did someone respond to being called out for not being in a squad. It didn’t get nasty but the potential was there to be sure.

And as other posters have said, it seems to be mostly for commanders to get accurate counts on how many people are in the lane and to explain the mechanics to anyone who may be new. Also, if you happen to disconnect during the fight, your chances of getting back into the same map are better I’ve heard.

I joined squads to learn the fights, now I just do it out of habit. I’d hope though that if I stopped joining them there wouldn’t be a big issue about it.

Your chances of getting back into the same map are the same as being in a party with someone in that map. Once the map is full, it’s full and being in squad won’t help you get in. As for counts, if you have 20 in your squad and 5 aren’t in squad at that lane, then you have 25? As things are, all you need is an estimate. Knowing that there are precisely 28 in your lane isn’t relevant. How do you know 3 people won’t crash in a minute? Or just up and leave? Or jump to another lane? You don’t. And if you know your squad is 40 people and there are 20 around without squads, then you have 2 options that are effective. You can politely ask those not in squad to change lane, and 2nd option is to then ask some of your squad to do so, because not everyone out of the squad will go elsewhere anyways. Perhaps they need an achieve. If I see that many people, unless someone I’m with is there for a specific lane achieve, we’ll be long gone before the commander says anything. But even what I personally saw, people weren’t generally polite when they started.

As for WvW, I wouldn’t join squads there either. If I can’t tell what the commander is doing and guess what they will do next, then I’m failing. When we did things in wvw, IF we ran near a tag, we’d play off of the tag as gank. No reason to join a squad, and we could disappear from the group at any time, which would be very cumbersome to drop and create parties constantly. Really same for pve as well. Besides, I personally despise the squad interface. Party ui gives me more information for those people that matter to me than squad can.
All that is digressing from the point, which is that some people are being rude and trollish basically out of spite that some people don’t want to join a squad with them, and that this behavior appears to be getting more endemic. If it isn’t, great. But if it is, the light should be shined upon the issue before it degrades further, so it can get corrected earlier.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Shrimpkin.4851:

I’ve seen this happen a lot but only once did someone respond to being called out for not being in a squad. It didn’t get nasty but the potential was there to be sure.

And as other posters have said, it seems to be mostly for commanders to get accurate counts on how many people are in the lane and to explain the mechanics to anyone who may be new. Also, if you happen to disconnect during the fight, your chances of getting back into the same map are better I’ve heard.

I joined squads to learn the fights, now I just do it out of habit. I’d hope though that if I stopped joining them there wouldn’t be a big issue about it.

Your chances of getting back into the same map are the same as being in a party with someone in that map. Once the map is full, it’s full and being in squad won’t help you get in. As for counts, if you have 20 in your squad and 5 aren’t in squad at that lane, then you have 25? As things are, all you need is an estimate. Knowing that there are precisely 28 in your lane isn’t relevant. How do you know 3 people won’t crash in a minute? Or just up and leave? Or jump to another lane? You don’t. And if you know your squad is 40 people and there are 20 around without squads, then you have 2 options that are effective. You can politely ask those not in squad to change lane, and 2nd option is to then ask some of your squad to do so, because not everyone out of the squad will go elsewhere anyways. Perhaps they need an achieve. If I see that many people, unless someone I’m with is there for a specific lane achieve, we’ll be long gone before the commander says anything. But even what I personally saw, people weren’t generally polite when they started.

As for WvW, I wouldn’t join squads there either. If I can’t tell what the commander is doing and guess what they will do next, then I’m failing. When we did things in wvw, IF we ran near a tag, we’d play off of the tag as gank. No reason to join a squad, and we could disappear from the group at any time, which would be very cumbersome to drop and create parties constantly. Really same for pve as well. Besides, I personally despise the squad interface. Party ui gives me more information for those people that matter to me than squad can.
All that is digressing from the point, which is that some people are being rude and trollish basically out of spite that some people don’t want to join a squad with them, and that this behavior appears to be getting more endemic. If it isn’t, great. But if it is, the light should be shined upon the issue before it degrades further, so it can get corrected earlier.

As I said, I heard it can help you get back in the map you were in but I don’t know for sure.

If there are people in the lane not in the squad it doesn’t bother me, I don’t have a commander tag and even if I did it would be the same. I would never tell someone to leave a lane, event, or map for any reason. It’s not my place to tell someone how to play their game or where they can or can’t be. I’m there to have fun and do events, others may be there for other reasons, either way it’s all good.

I will admit, when I’m in a squad, I will invite anyone with us who isn’t in the squad. Why? It’s easier for me to see who is downed in the squad then on the group when a lot is going on. If I see a downed in squad, I can try to find the body to help. I can also see who is dead/dead and remind people they need to run back. Some people still won’t, and wait to be rezzed during long fights.

Those are my two reasons for it. It’s just easier for me to see, but I also don’t call people out for not joining, EXCEPT when it’s a guild raid and someone from the guild isn’t joining. And then I leave that to the leaders to handle.

fishball.7204:

Iris Ng.9845:

Once, I got shoo’d away while standing at SCAR lane but without joining the squad. The squad commander literally told me to go away or change map instead of “being a dead weight”, to which I replied that I know the fight, and I’m taxi-ing my guildmates into the map. However, the harassment did not end as I believed that commander rallied his squad members to say nasty things to me in /say and /map chat just to chase me away.

The incident is so rare and on such an amusing level of immature and hive mind that I can never unsee.

You failed to mention that you were there boosting numbers when SCAR scaling was broken (+ pre Gerent nerf) and the commander already had enough people in their lane.

I agree for the most part that there is no legitimate reason now to shoo away people or force them to join squad but back then I recall your little tantrums and ‘justifications’ at the cost of everyone else in SCAR lane so you’re hardly one to talk.

Thanks for coming out. I understand that it takes courage to admit one’s misdeed in the past, especially when it’s embarrassing at the level of your incident. However, this part may come up as your attempt to cover it up as an excuse:

You failed to mention that you were there boosting numbers when SCAR scaling was broken (+ pre Gerent nerf)

I recall your little tantrums and ‘justifications’ at the cost of everyone else in SCAR lane so you’re hardly one to talk.

May I explain my side of story? I’m in a guild that did multiple successful guild-run Chak Gerent events every week before the nerf (Ethereal Guardians, btw). We always had 30 people on SCAR lane and each person pulled their weight perfectly regardless of the harsh scaling that casual event goers speak of. Back then your squad had 20 people at most and I was pretty confident to stay in SCAR lane to make sure the DPS is on point. I recalled there was multiple bad RNG spots but SCAR lane still made it in time without any helpers. So, what is the point for calling out a single person before the kill? Or would you and your squad have mobbed me if SCAR lane had failed that time?

Speaking of my “little tantrum”, I told you and your supporters to “go away”, “leave me alone”, “I know the fight” and “I’m gonna stay”. What did your supporters say to push me away? “leacherous”, “I hope you get aids, cancer”, “kittening leech”, “we all report you”, “enjoy your ban”. Well, shame on everyone of you. I stayed, I killed the boss, I got the last laugh.

I was a pug there, I never lead SCAR so I don’t know what you’re on about. I just remember how mad salty you were being called out that you were breaking the scaling even though the commander already had 20 in squad.

I don’t care what guild you’re in or who you think you are but that’s what happened from my perspective, as a person who was simply there for the meta following the commander.

In the end some nice people moved to other lanes from the squad because of your selfish actions. If anything it just made your guild EG look bad for thinking they knew better in a pug map.

If almost everyone in the 20 man squad wanted you to go away maybe the problem was you rather than the entire squad and with an attitude like “I’m Iris from EG I’m gud I know better than you” who can blame them?

Personally, I wouldn’t join any squad that would have me as a member.

You’ll always have people who think they know it all and need to run the show, and call others out if they don’t play by their rules.

I remember back during the marionette update (quite some time before the introduction of megaservers), some tequatl guilds used my back-then home server as their “private” overflow. I went to the fights a couple of times, but as a “server native” not in those guilds, you’d get called out in map-chat, being called names that were every bit as nasty as some of what’s reported here.

Personally, I sometimes join squads for meta events, and sometimes I don’t. It depends on what I’m doing and who I may be partied up with at that point. If anyone thinks they need to rant because I don’t play the game by their rules (hasn’t really happened with the HoT meta events for me yet, but I’ve had similar experiences in other game areas before), then I just block, report, and go on my way. Fortunately I’ve not come upon this in the new maps yet, so from my experience it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.

I have never seen that and I play HoT Maps quite often. So I would say that is very rare.

Easy solution!
You wanna do a organized meta event? Yes? → Join Squad!
You don’t want a successfull organized meta? → gtfo of the map or join at least any other megaserver instance!

Everything else shows just arrogant and childish behavior. Best solution would be if anet would let guilds create ‘owned’ map instances where you could kick anyone not supporting the map goal.!

You don’t need to be in squads to successfully do any content in GW2 except for raids. It’s as if people never played GW2 prior to squads as we know them now. But then that’s the direction GW2 seems to be going. Before, we didn’t need them and now people assume the maps will fail without them. Kind of sad, really.

Ellieanna.5027:

I will admit, when I’m in a squad, I will invite anyone with us who isn’t in the squad.

I resent what in most other MMOs is referred to as ‘ninja invites’ and refuse them out of hand, if I wanted to join your squad I’d do so using the tools the game provides me with: the only time I do accept a ninja invite is if the invite came in from a squad I was intending to join but hadn’t got to them yet (keep in mind the map-based method of joining a squad was broken until recently and I still sometimes forget it works now).

I usually do join squads in HOT metas (I see no point in joining squads in events like Tequatl) but there are odd times when I don’t.

This thread might illustrate one of the problems with the HoT metas – they bring out the worst in people.
Some folks want exclusive maps, exclusive lanes and an exclusive say in what/when/where other players should be.
Yeah, good luck with that.

Any player who thinks they should have the right to decide who can be on the map is in the wrong game imho.

ArchonWing.9480:

I’ve never seen such a thing. If someone thinks pinning up gives them the right to power trip, then I’m just going to /laugh.

It happens. I’ve seen it and so has my wife.

I haven’t seen it happen, though honestly you’re only hurting yourself by not joining the squad. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people do it though and if they are kitteny about it you can block them. It’s not as if anyone can get you kicked from the map or something.

fishball.7204:

I was a pug there, I never lead SCAR so I don’t know what you’re on about. I just remember how mad salty you were being called out that you were breaking the scaling even though the commander already had 20 in squad.

I don’t care what guild you’re in or who you think you are but that’s what happened from my perspective, as a person who was simply there for the meta following the commander.

In the end some nice people moved to other lanes from the squad because of your selfish actions. If anything it just made your guild EG look bad for thinking they knew better in a pug map.

If almost everyone in the 20 man squad wanted you to go away maybe the problem was you rather than the entire squad and with an attitude like “I’m Iris from EG I’m gud I know better than you” who can blame them?

If you don’t command it, let the commander handle it. It’s not the first time I’ve seen what’s being described. Right or wrong, a commander will go off on someone and their mob of ignorant squad members will follow suit.

For what it’s worth, “everyone” in a large number has advocated for idiotic things like “no AoE at red” in SW. Just because a large numbers of people want something, it doesn’t mean it’s right. The folks who figure out how to beat these events (or anything for that matter) are not the large numbers but rather small groups of dedicated players.

Ironically the person you’re bashing right now is one of the people involved in this process over several years. Bottom line is that if you’re upset with someone, deal with it through an actual discussion instead of torches and pitchforks. I have a suspicion there wasn’t a reasonable discussion held.

I haven’t see much “harassment” myself. But I can definitely see where it comes from. The thing with squads is they are very handy for organizing numbers or distributing players, but they only work of players cooperate with squads.

I myself bought a commander tag, and the ability to rally players to my call has nearly paid for itself. The most use I get out of my tag is from Tangled Depths. I regularly command a lane there. Now, even though it was nerfed, King of the Jungle is still a marginally more difficult event than usual, and requires a degree of organization not found on most places.

I usually command Nuhoch or Scar lane, as those are the most important. And, every single time, I have to go through the same cycle over and over again.

Phase 1: while recruiting players for the lane, nobody shows up until 5 minutes before the event starts. This leads my numbers low, but generally once I have enough players I broadcast in map chat" Nuhoch lane is full! Please fill other lanes!".

Phase 2: Upon actually going into the lane, I will get several players (up to 10 or so) who will follow me into the lane who
A) Haven’t joined my squad
B) Haven’t messaged me saying they were going to become part of my “group” regardless of squad status.
C) Refuse to communicate
D) Or Cooperate
E) And refuse to go to the other lanes.

Keep in mind that Nuhoch lane is usually organized first. So, while I’m sitting at 10 extra, SCAR and Ogre are all sitting at 4 or 5 players, begging map and local chat for people to come help them.

Phase 3: Eventually half of those players will wise up, join my squad, and just go willy nilly anywhere doing anything, regardless of any instructions. Now, Nuhoch lane is divided into 3 subgroups specifically to deal with the complicated nature of the lane mechanic. It doesn’t work that well when a sudden influx of players piles on squad 1 and just runs around doing whatever anyway.

This… fails events. Much more so before the “bugfix”, in which a few misplaced players have literally killed the event countless times, but even after the bugfix there have been cases where swaths of unaccounted and uncooperative players have ruined the event.

Personally I’ve never been venomous. I’ve been extremely blunt and direct, but I don’t toss insults lightly. However, my skin is much thicker than others, and so I can definitely see where players might be coming from.

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Is this really now a thing?

I was told that this is happening at times now, that joining in on a meta in the HoT maps can get you called out and attacked in map chat for not being in squad.

I rather look forward to the argument to occur with me and this almost gives incentive to go into them. Almost.

Squads can serve a purpose, sure, but for one, a squad impacts my ability to play the way I want. I want to be in my party, talking to my friends. Been doing the metas since they released, and it isn’t exactly difficult. Have done them since the squad changes and everyone feeling like a squad is now a requirement to do anything. The constant invites were annoying enough, having to decline them. But is this really descending to the point that not being in a squad, especially a player that knows what they are doing and is helping, not hurting, the meta, deserves to be bashed, attacked, trolled, and treated like dirt? Is this really what it’s becoming? Or was this just some fluke with some people that needed to pull that stick out?

you don’t seem bothered by being called out; in fact, you seem rather pleased about it. maybe change the thread title to something about invite spam? that’s a valid issue.

Lazy commanders want people to join their squads so they can count them easily for the lane. However, some people just don’t like to be in squads.

When I use commander tag, I just invite everyone once, and if they don’t accept it I won’t invite them anymore. I can just count them and add it to the total of my squad numbers. It’s just commanders who can’t be bothered to do that which are the problem.

Bomber.3872:

Easy solution!
You wanna do a organized meta event? Yes? -> Join Squad!
You don’t want a successfull organized meta? -> gtfo of the map or join at least any other megaserver instance!

Everything else shows just arrogant and childish behavior. Best solution would be if anet would let guilds create ‘owned’ map instances where you could kick anyone not supporting the map goal.!

Come play HoT! Now with compulsory goose-stepping and complimentary brown shirts.

I’ve done map completion right through the masses of the meta players. I’ve even used them to my advantage, activating the chak HP in the ogre lane of TD while there was a mob there for the gerent. Would do it again, it was wonderfully efficient.

It’s okay when players don’t want to join a squad, but then they should not wonder if they get invite spams. If they have already their own group, why not? As long as they communicate I see no problem. With a wvw background I try to join a raid in a meta event and if I’m allowed I invite everyone around me for once at the beginning of the event. If he or she decline then it’s his own decision, I don’t care further. Some newbies don’t know yet how they can join, for them it’s helpful. Not to mention the buffs you get.

In an organized DS I’m almost every time in the bossgroup, and there is where I’m a little bit annoyed from these single players. If they are not in the raid and bossgroup and get downstated by the boss I don’t even try to revive them. And based on what characters I played, I’ve done uncounted revives so far. That’s my simple decision. No need to insult or rant at players.

Manasa Devi.7958:

I’ve done map completion right through the masses of the meta players. I’ve even used them to my advantage, activating the chak HP in the ogre lane of TD while there was a mob there for the gerent. Would do it again, it was wonderfully efficient.

Thats one of the reasons why people should join squads For example what do you gain if you join a TD Squad?
- the squad always organizes the HP close to the lane (chak)
- only in squad people know and are willing to wait with the chak kill until the third event for YOUR achievement.
- fact is without squad the event would fail to 99%
- only squads organize map events or HP runs

Basically, everyone going on a HoT map and not joining/supporting the commanders/squads is a totally wasted and useless playerslot.
Anet wants us to organize content by ourself, but they need to start to give us tools so everyone willing can organize and succeed! (There are a lot of good ways: guild instances, player maps, kick feature, map votes, userbans, high AP requirement to join these maps, …)

For me, joining a squad would be totally pointless for something like that. I don’t care about events succeeding or HP runs. If I’d join a squad, I’d run off right after I got what I wanted that was happening near them and I’d be a blue dot nowhere near any of the other blue dots.

I never try to go to organized maps. If I end up on one, it’s because it started getting organized after I’ve been there for a while. I’ve participated a few times and that was enough to realize it’s not for me.

Smash some eggs, hit a boss. Smash some more eggs, hit the boss some more. Or stomp a mushroom, throw a cylinder, kill some chak instead of smashing eggs. I can’t for the life of me imagine why some people consider this superior to what came before. The only challenge is to wrangle some other players into doing it at the same time as you are. No thanks.

DS is really sensitive to scaling, so not being in a squad makes it difficult to get the initial headcounts to make sure the lanes are even.

Once you hit the towers, most commands issued by commanders are done in squad, because you are coordinating between two groups in two different locations. Not being in squad makes you suspectible to not hearing orders and messing it up for everyone.

You have to understand if you use a zerg clockwise rotation stragety in the towers, with optimal groups, you are still mostly going to hit each preserver spot just as they respawn. There is little margin for error.

Having 5 people not in squad who aren’t listening and go with the boss group means 5 less DPS for preservers and the boss getting scaled up. The group will just inevitably fall behind as more and more trash mobs build up and eventually drop a preserver. That is a huge set back and recovering from it is difficult, particularly when you are dealing with people who aren’t in squad and just flat out not ignoring.

Lot of people are just looking to fly under the radar and get carrie in events while they just autoattack and talk about cats with their BFFs. You can’t do that anymore in HoT and you are potentially sabotaging the experience of everyone.

Don’t want to CC a break bar? You just added 10 minutes to the matriarch fight in VB or caused the vinetooth in AB to fail.

Don’t want to join a squad? You just scaled up the DS event and caused a preserver to be dropped, because you weren’t able to hear the commander’s orders.

Don’t want to listen at all to commanders, even in map chat? You just popped an ocotovine before everyone was ready and potentially caused everything to reset.

To be honest, as a commander, if I had some way to just kick you off the map, I would just do that rather than call you out. If I am trying to lead something for the benefit of everyone, I am not going to jeopardize it for the sake of people who don’t want to contribute. I dislike having to use public shame as a tool, but what other alternative do you have when people just don’t want to do what needs to be done even after repeated polite messages?

So you guys do realize that the meta events were always completed before the squad feature was ever introduced right?

Points like Madrabbits are simply void, and wrong. It isn’t your fault. Even if your new to the maps people are still communicating that stuff in map chat.

In terms of getting an overall head count- Again- You guys do realize you can just stack on the commander and it will tell them how many people he has. That’s been in game now since launch.

Ever since the feature was introduced- ANY of the new maps- A commander will auto invite you- and if you decline- They will constantly keep inviting you. I just leave it up now. There is no sense in declining anymore knowing they will just keep doing it.

If it gets to be too much of an issue with the spam squad invites, Create a squad without a commander. You’ll just need someone to hold the squad open while you do that.

Anet has a great solution: block, report (if necessary) and move on.

Dahmerkitten.1385:

A commander will auto invite you- and if you decline- They will constantly keep inviting you. I just leave it up now. There is no sense in declining anymore knowing they will just keep doing it.

i have commanded a couple times now and from my experience this may not neccessarily be spam, i just invited everybody i saw was not in squad for my area, since it didnt involve typing the name or even looking at the name i wouldnt know if i was reinviting someone who had already declined

I take pride in not ever joining a squad. And yes it happend a few times that people get rude. Not a problem, first i report them and then i block them.

MadRabbit.3179:

To be honest, as a commander, if I had some way to just kick you off the map, I would just do that rather than call you out.

I, for one, am very glad that kind of power doesn’t come with a 300g vanity tag.

Major events like this are team events. Join the team.