Guild Wars 2

Just a big shout out to all the Commanders out there that organize and lead us through the challenging content GW2 …. I did Dragon Stand Meta yesterday for the first time and my commander was fantastic! Couldn’t have done it without her! Please don’t think you’re not appreciated!

DS is becoming more interesting each day. yesterday i improved my noxius pod run, after meta completion.

Actually completed mine on Saturday and had a lot of fun doing it. Surprisingly it went rather well and there was mostly positive help in map chat. However I tried the Ley line lanes in tangled depths and it failed and wow what a toxic mess of folks there, may have just been the map I was on but I left thinking it would be a long time before I bother with that again.

Agreed! Completed Dragon Stand for the first time today. The commanders on the map really did a great job.

I regularly command Dragon’s Stand.

You cannot believe the amount of kitten me, and other commanders, get when we are failing to complete a tower.
The funny part is, when you ASK people to stop and listen, or to join the squad, you sometimes get such a backlash that you feel like throwing your PC out of the windom.

I command because I like to help people, but I honestly feel like being treated like cr*p at times. Friendliest community? Try to command any HoT map.

I haven’t been given too much crap commanding in PvE yet. Or maybe I don’t notice because I’m used to a more vocal and less polite crowd in WvW. I’d rather not command at all but chaos, disorder and mayhem all annoy me and get in the way of progress… the thanks is appreciated though

See ya in TD o/

As a DS commander, i can honestly say that people that follows the commander is the real heroes. It is a big deal imo.

Derigar.7810:

I command because I like to help people, but I honestly feel like being treated like cr*p at times. Friendliest community? Try to command any HoT map.

Oh that so much that.

Derigar.7810:

The funny part is, when you ASK people to stop and listen, or to join the squad, you sometimes get such a backlash that you feel like throwing your PC out of the windom.

The solution is not to care about such players. They won’t listen to anything you say anyway. Sadly the part about the DS towers can’t be more true. It’s rarely the commander’s fault if the circle zerg is too slow, outputs no DPS at all or the people on the boss can’t keep it in the middle and it starts around where it shouldn’t be. If that happens you’re in for some real verbal abuse sometimes.

Same with Tarir. Sometimes you can’t stop people from killing the east octovine even with half of the map yelling at them. It just happens.

So in return, thank you all the players who actively try to help and follow the commander’s advice. You are making it worthwile!

Thanks from me too. I had never done the tangle depths meta before, so I found my way there and groups were forming. I joined a commanders squad as they requested. I was unsure. So I asked them, “just follow or should I go and read up on it and come back later, I’ve never done it, and don’t want it to fail for others.” They said “no, stay..I’ll be telling the steps and what to do all the way, just listen and you can do this!” So..all the way through, every step they were saying what to do, what to watch for, even a few whispers “blue circle means dead, remember that” things like that. I’ll always be grateful for the commander that led that squad I joined that night. I’m always grateful for help but most times afraid to ask but that night, yah, every step of the way I knew what I was supposed to be doing because of them. Thanks commanders!

Laurie.1698:

Thanks from me too. I had never done the tangle depths meta before, so I found my way there and groups were forming. I joined a commanders squad as they requested. I was unsure. So I asked them, “just follow or should I go and read up on it and come back later, I’ve never done it, and don’t want it to fail for others.” They said “no, stay..I’ll be telling the steps and what to do all the way, just listen and you can do this!” So..all the way through, every step they were saying what to do, what to watch for, even a few whispers “blue circle means dead, remember that” things like that. I’ll always be grateful for the commander that led that squad I joined that night. I’m always grateful for help but most times afraid to ask but that night, yah, every step of the way I knew what I was supposed to be doing because of them. Thanks commanders!

was it a sexy white charr perchance?

If a meta event like Tarir or DS fails, it is usually not the fault of the commanders. Likewise, a smooth and successful run should NOT be credited fully to the commanders like what the OP is doing in this thread. Most likely you just had a map with people who knew what they were doing. If you want to thank, thank the map of people who worked together, not the commanders with a little too much self-importance to spare.

Gaaroth.2567:

Laurie.1698:

Thanks from me too. I had never done the tangle depths meta before, so I found my way there and groups were forming. I joined a commanders squad as they requested. I was unsure. So I asked them, “just follow or should I go and read up on it and come back later, I’ve never done it, and don’t want it to fail for others.” They said “no, stay..I’ll be telling the steps and what to do all the way, just listen and you can do this!” So..all the way through, every step they were saying what to do, what to watch for, even a few whispers “blue circle means dead, remember that” things like that. I’ll always be grateful for the commander that led that squad I joined that night. I’m always grateful for help but most times afraid to ask but that night, yah, every step of the way I knew what I was supposed to be doing because of them. Thanks commanders!

was it a sexy white charr perchance?

Might have been a sexy white Asuran… That’s pretty much how I run my lane in TD. Now I need to focus on learning my TT fights so I can not fail command there. Cuddles to switch things up just as I get good at Commanding TD lol.

I command whatever happens to be nearby quite regularly.

The hard part is getting people to listen. For some reason, the idea of “communication” is lost on some players. They’ll refuse to listen, turn off chat, then run around frustrated because they don’t know what to do. They get mad at the “fail commander”, then leave and go join another group to repeat the exact same failure. Its like: Why leave, when you’re just going to be equally as terrible in the next group?

The hardest part is the bystander effect. If I need to split the squad up or send people to different ends, nobody does it. You’ll get 40 people all standing around, waiting for someone else to volunteer. There’s an important lesson in life here: Everyone is waiting for someone else to do the important thing, so you do it. No one else will, so its gotta be you.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

The hardest part is the bystander effect. If I need to split the squad up or send people to different ends, nobody does it. You’ll get 40 people all standing around, waiting for someone else to volunteer. There’s an important lesson in life here: Everyone is waiting for someone else to do the important thing, so you do it. No one else will, so its gotta be you.

That is the one that frustrate me the more & I think that is why Verdant brink at night is horrible.

Asking people to spread equals frustration to the maximum.

Purgatori.3645:

Just a big shout out to all the Commanders out there that organize and lead us through the challenging content GW2 …. I did Dragon Stand Meta yesterday for the first time and my commander was fantastic! Couldn’t have done it without her! Please don’t think you’re not appreciated!

Yes, thanks commanders.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

The hardest part is the bystander effect. If I need to split the squad up or send people to different ends, nobody does it. You’ll get 40 people all standing around, waiting for someone else to volunteer. There’s an important lesson in life here: Everyone is waiting for someone else to do the important thing, so you do it. No one else will, so its gotta be you.

Set up two groups early on in DS / ask 10 people to move themselves to group 2. Someone suggested that in my squad and it works surprisingly well. You can then send/ask #2 to escort, do event X, engage stuff… it indeed works much better than asking n volunteers. Sometimes either none or the whole squad “volunteers”. Can’t really blame them though. It’s always difficult to judge yourself in that situation, but that’s what the commanders are for.

It’s also faster since it needs less communication during the events themselves. Removes a lot of stress from you if most people already know what they are supposed to do.

I’m talking about far more than just doing DS. Dragon Stand is pretty easy: tag up, and they will come. Players will split up pretty evenly between preserver/boss group on their own, and the only hard part is balancing the 3 lanes.

I’m talking about organizing a tier 4 VB night, or a Chak Gerent kill. Here, when you’ve got to split up groups to different commanders or into different areas, roles, it is like pulling teeth. In VB it is especially hard, as most people don’t join your squad, don’t communicate, and just follow you around no matter where you tell them to go. Even if they join your squad, and you parse them into different groups, they still don’t follow directions.

the funniest time in DS, was when there was a commander speaking in Spanish. probably 70% of the map did not understand what he was saying. Some guys translated, others thought it was Japanese. I lost my breath with laughter. It was probably the strangest and funniest thing I’ve seen in GW2. most guys took it with humor, and only one complained “why someone who does not speak the language of most players tries to lead?”.

I’m also a regular commander on DS, and really the players are getting more and more responsive to commands, which is always nice!
Only problem I’m always having is people running to the Stavemaster/Axemaster/Blademaster before killing the Thornheart during escort phases :P
I also love to spice up the squad chat with conversations and jokes and whatnot, to make the whole event feel not as numb as it might be

Djahlat.9610:

Only problem I’m always having is people running to the Stavemaster/Axemaster/Blademaster before killing the Thornheart during escort phases :P

What happens, btw, if it is not killed? I’ve seen it almost completely ignored sometimes, with like 5 people hitting it, the other 30 attacking the Blademasters or lying scattered on the ground. It marches to the base and more or less stays at the entry and spews stuff. Morale depletes very slowly so the time to kill it seems to be an eternity. Does the assault fail instantly if it reaches the base?

Also fun every time: boss at blighting towers stays not on the middle island but wanders around on the outside. Complete chaos, but somehow the group always manages to kill it eventually. Commanders mostly give up in that situation, but it’s so much fun.

As others have said , the commander is there as a visible point on the map for people to follow and to help those who are willing to listen and learn. I lead a boss group on DS last night with only 7 people and 2-3 of them had never done the meta before. They asked questions, I answered them and we downed the north boss perfectly. We joined the zerg and helped them. Shorty after that the mid tower was in trouble. I took my group to the mid tower, cleaned up the pods and killed that boss to complete the meta. The commander can only do so much, its up to the people in the group to carry out what needs to be done. My group did an amazing job and once we finished up I made sure to let them know.

Only 1 time we failed when it was xmas night while all people were drunk. It was the longest and the most frustraiting 2 hours of my life… xD

Djahlat.9610:

Only problem I’m always having is people running to the Stavemaster/Axemaster/Blademaster before killing the Thornheart during escort phases :P

On the contrary, some commanders tag those legendary bosses and rush on to them while elite stalkers tries to zerg the pact which you have to cover them. ^^
Oh my God and they say “I love killing them first”.
I go like arrggh