Guild Wars 2

It’s last call for the vultures to poach you for their server, so everyone and their grandma is slopping together a transfer thread because they want YOU to help them zerg their way to the top! Before you drink the kool-aid and make that last server hop, I’m here to dispel a big myth for you — the myth that a server’s ranking has kitten-all to do with skill.

When you make your decision to transfer to a server, you are ultimately deciding what sort of COVERAGE you would like to play in. Points are ultimately determined by coverage with a small deviation based on the skill of the commanders and players in the group. To pull a number out of my kitten I would say that ratings are 90% population coverage, 10% player skill. You don’t suddenly get a bunch of better players when you move to T1 or T2, you simply get MORE players.

Because the tiers actually boil down to changes in coverage, I’m going to lay out the pros and cons of each group of tiers so that you can make a more intelligent decision on where you want your home to be:

Tier reference: http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3:
+ Epic as hell battles
+ Effective mobilization and utilization of extremely large forces
- Culling is extremely bad due to larger fights
- Individual / Small-scale PvP is irrelevant because fights are usually 5v5 or larger
- Maps (especially Eternal) occasionally get queues meaning that sometimes you have to wait to play with friends

Tier 4 / Tier 5 / Tier 6:
+ Wide variety of fights from 1v1s to Zerg v Zerg
+ Queues are now mostly non-existent
+ Most volatility in ratings means more fresh matchups
- Lots of players in the mix have absolutely no idea what they are doing
- Smaller populations are vulnerable to coverage gaps, i.e. nightcapping, daycapping, brunchcapping, etc…

Tier 7 / Tier 8
+ Individual players can make a lot of difference
+ Good roaming PvP. Great for those who like to run in solo or small groups and do nothing but Kill Things
- Actual WvW is lacking. If you care about the score this isn’t for you.

Everyone seems to play WvW for a slightly different reason, so when you’re looking for your home server, consider what you want to get out of WvW. Do you like feeling like you’re part of a larger entity and love refreshing siege, scouting at towers, and jumping in the mix as a troop for an insane battle? Pick a top tier server. Do you like large battles but occasionally want to just roam and kill things without a zerg popping up around every corner? Pick a middle tier server. Do you play WvW because it’s what you wish sPvP actually was? Pick a bottom tier server. Find the home that’s right for you, but whatever you do, don’t believe the hogwash that’s posted in the recruitment threads.

You might want to add in tier 1-2 that the fights can be so bad somethings that the game actually crashes from the influx of people coming in through portal bombs.

Generally doesn’t happen to newer and better computers, but it happens on my laptop every now and then.

As someone whose server experienced nearly the whole range of EU brackets (bottom up to T3), i’d say that fights are generally a lot more tactical in lower tiers where less zergs are running rampant.

There is a cap on the number of people that can portal

Use multiple portals and let mesmers 2-x use the first portal, opening their own afterwards. The nerf didn’t really change anything.

soma.3812:

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

You might want to add in tier 1-2 that the fights can be so bad somethings that the game actually crashes from the influx of people coming in through portal bombs.

Generally doesn’t happen to newer and better computers, but it happens on my laptop every now and then.

There is a cap on the number of people that can portal

Implying 20 people isn’t a lot?

If you want to transfer intelligently don’t use this guide, there’s too many things just not counting for every server in the mentioned tiers, it’s just a generalization which really isn’t true for all servers. Just 1 example (coz I can’t be bothered to write more as I’m at work): I’m in t7 and we have queue’s for EB at primetime and weekends, regularly also queue for at least 1 BL.

In the last month in EU tiers 1 and 2 we’ve not only had PC’s but the actual server running the borderland crash. Draw your own conclusions, your mileage may vary.

Holy generalizations, T7 has plenty of massive battles, it’s not some barren wasteland with only small groups of players puttering around. We have had queues almost every night for EB, often we have them for one or two BL as well.

Aratoa.7398:

Holy generalizations, T7 has plenty of massive battles, it’s not some barren wasteland with only small groups of players puttering around. We have had queues almost every night for EB, often we have them for one or two BL as well.

Very much this. Same is true in (EU) T8 – big fights pretty much constantly, and plenty of “actual WvW”. In fact the description of T4/5/6 pretty much fits our matchup — except most of us know what we are doing!

And apparently t9 is a myth in EU xD
I’d say there’s an epic battle going on there right now xD

Agreed, this isn’t a good description of EU T7-8 at all! We have epic battles, occasional queues, lots of people who know exactly what they’re doing and great commanders. Even in my time in T9 EU we had decent WvW in primetime, it was just round-the-clock coverage that was missing.

In short the principle of this thread is excellent but the actual facts are somewhat misleading.

Hes right that it is basically about timezone coverage. Population fluctuates greatly during the day so saying you have a queue on Wednesday in EB doesn’t really mean anything. You need to look beyond the hourly fluctuations in WvW population as charismatic commanders come and go, as you find your team winning and losing etc.

If you have no competent commanders in a borderland and you are getting systematically wiped off the map, most people will not want to play or take responsibility for a situation that is going very badly.

Its like saying the ground underneath your feet is flat, therefore the earth cannot possibly be spherical.

Even T1 servers NA (except probably SoS I don’t know) only have que’s on about 2 borderlands, and that is on reset day.

On JQ and BG you will only occasionally get a que in EB throughout the week of maybe 5mins.

The reason I like T1 is it IS around the clock pvp. If I stay up late I can enjoy teamspeak and pvp with our oceanics/sea. If I have an afternoon off or morning I enjoy teamspeak and pvp with our Euro’s. I find it very fun especially with JQ’s global teamspeak.

Comming from a European server (in mid-low tier), I can easily prove that the above mentioned does not at all count for our servers. I’ve seen very poorly organised communityes, and very well organised communities.

- The WvW community is among the best organised and involves 1000+ players multiple guilds and smaller groups
– Each week, there are multiple WvW events with attendants ranging 25-50 on each event, and the signups are increasing for each event
– Larger guilds WvW focused guilds are also in mid-lower tiers, and is not at all “just a zerg of randoms” running around
– All our commanders work very closely together, and focus on gathering people in an efficient and friendly way
– Its only within a smaller timespan of ca. 3-4 hours, where our PvP is low in numbers, and we are currently working to get this covered as well

I believe there is alot of difference as well, if you are a EU or NA server in the mid-bottom tiers.

Best regards,
– Insky

Edit: made less of a recruitment post for my server, since it was not the intension.

Subtle recruitment attempts above in a thread telling you to ignore recruitment attempts.

Indeed. You can see it coming when people suddenly start talking in this weird foreign language called “PR”.

Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3:
+ Epic as hell battles
True

+ Effective mobilization and utilization of extremely large forces
True, however you also left out small forces. (Yes they do exist.)

• Culling is extremely bad due to larger fights*
  Arena Net is currently working to end the culling issue. Also it happend back in low tiers as well. Culling, effects all, not just select tiers of WvW.

• Individual / Small-scale PvP is irrelevant because fights are usually 5v5 or larger*
  There are a lot of 1v1 fights, duels, and teams of 1-3, even 5 on occasion running havoc. Though there are also larger groups, 10-15, 20-25, ect… at the same time around the maps.

• Maps (especially Eternal) occasionally get queues meaning that sometimes you have to wait to play with friends*
  99% of the Queue’s will be on Reset night, or for a server which owns Stone Mist Castle. Then again all servers push the hardest during WvW reset nights. (The queue might reach 1 hour if super lucky, or unlucky however you wish to view it.)

Here’s a few mroe “pro’s”
Most the Tier 1-3 servers have a tight night community which works together.
Most the time you won’t end up fully capped in tiers 1-3 over night. (Unless against an opposing prime time server.)
A lot of T1-3 Servers use a common VOIP program for WvW. (Though I’d think any server serious for WvW would do so.)

Yes you are right coverage does play a “part” in a server’s rank, however it is not the only factor. Some of it does depend on skill, knowledge, and such. You may not believe it, but most who lead on T1-2 servers know many many siege placement strategy’s, or tactics they can do, which will boggle their enemy Please don’t make it sound as if T1-3 just zerg around mindlessly. If they did, they would have low scores, and be nothing more then a way to farm Badges of Honor.

Another thing to consider if you are a guild looking for a server to move, is the coverage of the servers you are considering. I’ll use an example, if you’re an Oceanic guild and want to go to a server with an oceanic based wvw population, expect to hit Queues, however if you join a NA based server you’re less likely to get queues, and more likely to make a huge impact. Vice versa for NA guilds wishing to move to servers.

The best advice I can give to any guild or players looking to move servers, is to scout it out.
If into WvW look for some of the WvW community leaders, speak to them, get a feel if the server is right for you or not. Believe it or not, you have time. You can scout now, and move before the 28th. (Heck a week away nothing says you have to move RIGHT now, this instant, or even at all.)

Also be aware you will lose guild upgrades once you move, and will have to regain the influence to rebuild.

You don’t lose guild influence. It just stays on the server you got the influence from.

You can tell if someone from your guild server hopped before because you will xfer and mysteriously find your guild has a non zero amount of guild influence.

I don’t understand the servers posting the recruiting threads. Why are you recruiting? Is there value in tiers/ranking? You want to move up in tiers so that you will get to recruit some more? The process doesn’t end until you’re the top of t1, and even SoS is now posting a recruitment thread…

If you’re losing ranking, why don’t you just go with it? You’ll get more even matches without forcing yourself on a recruiting treadmill that doesn’t have a point.

Mikitten058:

Yes you are right coverage does play a “part” in a server’s rank, however it is not the only factor. Some of it does depend on skill, knowledge, and such. You may not believe it, but most who lead on T1-2 servers know many many siege placement strategy’s, or tactics they can do, which will boggle their enemy Please don’t make it sound as if T1-3 just zerg around mindlessly. If they did, they would have low scores, and be nothing more then a way to farm Badges of Honor.

Most servers know the siege placements at this point. Siege is a game of checkers. This isn’t some special T1-3 high-tier godsend. I’ve played on a T1 server, I know how they work. It’s much the same as T4-T6 except with more numbers thrown at each objective because the only difference between T1 and T6 is coverage. This is a good thing because, like I said, not everyone wants to have 20v20 battles for supply camps, 5 hour culling wars for a keep, and a non-stop game of golem rush psy-ops on their battlefield. If you do want that though, sure, go to T1.

Yes, the text written about Gunnar’s Hold [EU] in the above will also have the effect of recruitment. The reason for that is because it is appealing in itself with an actually organised server. But, it was not the main intension of my post – I wanted to proove that all sorts of good organisation also happens in the mid-lower tiers.

I found the whole thread just slightly annoying being this judgemental. How can anyone be secure enough and well-informed enough to speak on behalf of all servers. Clearly, noone has visited all servers : )
Yes, some servers are very badly organised, and yes, some servers are very well organised. That as well will account for the higher tier servers.

I am being honest with saying, that I believe this thread mainly accounts for NA, and not for EU. A majority of the above points, is certainly not applicable to EU servers.

In the end, server transfer comes down to the community of the server you are settling with. If you enjoy the community, and it feels like your next family, you will also enjoy the fights. So, scouting is important and getting to talk with your new server mates is important.

Magus.6543:

I am being honest with saying, that I believe this thread only accounts for NA, and not for EU. A majority of the above points, is certainly not applicable to EU servers.

This is true. I have only hopped around NA servers, I probably should have made that more clear. Maybe EU plays much differently but I doubt it.

I also don’t get why you would want to mass recruit for your server on the forums if you are extremely organized. All you get with recruits is a bunch of lowest-common-denominator players and guilds that will have difficulty accommodating to the systems that you’ve already put in place. I personally don’t want anyone else transferring to my server and I’d prefer it if most of the recent xfers to it packed up their kitten and left.

zastari.1730:

This is true. I have only hopped around NA servers, I probably should have made that more clear. Maybe EU plays much differently but I doubt it.

I also don’t get why you would want to mass recruit for your server on the forums if you are extremely organized.

It wasn’t intended to discuss Gunnar’s Hold’s recruitment strategy here, appologies. We are not attempting to mass-recruit via the forums, and have never been (I will look for editing above posts, if it seems so). I will held my answers with this, and stay on topic.

Edit: I’ve now updated my previous post.

If you want WvW transfer to Kain, server keeps getting more WvW guilds.

Re:

zastari.1730:

Tier 7 / Tier 8

…specifically:

zastari.1730:

- Actual WvW is lacking.

Even disregarding this as a rather pompous broad sweeping statement, clearly you’ve not been on Gunnar’s Hold this year and merrily post from an uninformed point of view as if you are presenting facts instead of opinions.

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Re:

zastari.1730:

Tier 7 / Tier 8

…specifically:

zastari.1730:

- Actual WvW is lacking.

Even disregarding this as a rather pompous broad sweeping statement, clearly you’ve not been on Gunnar’s Hold this year and merrily post from an uninformed point of view as if you are presenting facts instead of opinions.

Read:

zastari.1730:

This is true. I have only hopped around NA servers, I probably should have made that more clear. Maybe EU plays much differently but I doubt it.

Your server sure must be some low-tier mecca. Why do I see so many posts about it yet you’re still T7?

zastari.1730:

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Re:

zastari.1730:

Tier 7 / Tier 8

…specifically:

zastari.1730:

- Actual WvW is lacking.

Even disregarding this as a rather pompous broad sweeping statement, clearly you’ve not been on Gunnar’s Hold this year and merrily post from an uninformed point of view as if you are presenting facts instead of opinions.

Read:

zastari.1730:

This is true. I have only hopped around NA servers, I probably should have made that more clear. Maybe EU plays much differently but I doubt it.

Your server sure must be some low-tier mecca. Why do I see so many posts about it yet you’re still T7?

Lower in numbers than many and relatively no nightshift does not equate to “no actual WvW”. The other servers in these tiers fight like bears at prime time too. So you’re posting uninformed opinions as if they are fact.

You could argue that there is a lower level of activity but not that broadsweeping nonsense.

zastari.1730:

Your server sure must be some low-tier mecca. Why do I see so many posts about it yet you’re still T7?

As a relative newcomer to GH I may be well-positioned to answer this.

From what I can gather Gunnars has struggled with numbers over recent months as they fell to their current tier. Various guilds got fed up and left, and those that remained decided to up their game in terms of organisation, ability, and recruiting from within.

I arrived a few weeks ago and was staggered to find that they were light years ahead in terms of tactics and co-operation, and bringing people in from PvE to get involved and show them the ropes. The atmosphere is crazily helpful and good-natured.

I was also pretty surprised that they were so low – only a few places above the server I had arrived from! But it seems that I came at a good moment as all the work they’d put into organising was really just kicking off.

(that said, saying “Actual WvW is lacking” wasn’t true even in T9… even FoW/Vabbi/RoS were having awesome battles a few weeks ago before all the T1 wannabe noobstompers showed up)

TL DR; very good organisation has only just started to bear fruit – currently we’re beating a server that’s historically had higher pop (Ring of Fire) for the second consecutive week after losing to them only three weeks ago.

Cool, let’s adjust the mid-tier in EU from 4-6 to 4-7 since EU has 9 tiers and you all can go make another recruitment thread.

zastari.1730:

Your server sure must be some low-tier mecca. Why do I see so many posts about it yet you’re still T7?

Hi Zastari,
I wasn’t gonna derail the thread, with detailed answers. But you asked specifically, and not others jumped to get you specific answers. I hope this broadens up the horisont : )
– Insky

zastari.1730:

Cool, let’s adjust the mid-tier in EU from 4-6 to 4-7 since EU has 9 tiers and you all can go make another recruitment thread.

Remember who asked the question ; )

I think this thread has had enough of GH. Let’s try and keep us out of it.

Coverage is the primary factor. However, coverage still only amounts to 70-80% of performance. Within the same tier, coverage is vaguely on par for the most part.

Hence, while coverage is #1 for TOTAL RANK, it does not make as much impact within a single tier. Skill, coordination, and community is still a significant factor.

You couldn’t pay me to move to a T1 server right now. When the February WvW patch hits, you’re going to have tens of thousands of people coming back to give WvW another shot. Those servers will be the ones with 4 hour queues again.

Mikitten058:

Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3:
+ Epic as hell battles
True

+ Effective mobilization and utilization of extremely large forces
True, however you also left out small forces. (Yes they do exist.)

• Culling is extremely bad due to larger fights*
  Arena Net is currently working to end the culling issue. Also it happend back in low tiers as well. Culling, effects all, not just select tiers of WvW.

• Individual / Small-scale PvP is irrelevant because fights are usually 5v5 or larger*
  There are a lot of 1v1 fights, duels, and teams of 1-3, even 5 on occasion running havoc. Though there are also larger groups, 10-15, 20-25, ect… at the same time around the maps.

• Maps (especially Eternal) occasionally get queues meaning that sometimes you have to wait to play with friends*
  99% of the Queue’s will be on Reset night, or for a server which owns Stone Mist Castle. Then again all servers push the hardest during WvW reset nights. (The queue might reach 1 hour if super lucky, or unlucky however you wish to view it.)

Here’s a few mroe “pro’s”
Most the Tier 1-3 servers have a tight night community which works together.
Most the time you won’t end up fully capped in tiers 1-3 over night. (Unless against an opposing prime time server.)
A lot of T1-3 Servers use a common VOIP program for WvW. (Though I’d think any server serious for WvW would do so.)

Yes you are right coverage does play a “part” in a server’s rank, however it is not the only factor. Some of it does depend on skill, knowledge, and such. You may not believe it, but most who lead on T1-2 servers know many many siege placement strategy’s, or tactics they can do, which will boggle their enemy Please don’t make it sound as if T1-3 just zerg around mindlessly. If they did, they would have low scores, and be nothing more then a way to farm Badges of Honor.

Another thing to consider if you are a guild looking for a server to move, is the coverage of the servers you are considering. I’ll use an example, if you’re an Oceanic guild and want to go to a server with an oceanic based wvw population, expect to hit Queues, however if you join a NA based server you’re less likely to get queues, and more likely to make a huge impact. Vice versa for NA guilds wishing to move to servers.

The best advice I can give to any guild or players looking to move servers, is to scout it out.
If into WvW look for some of the WvW community leaders, speak to them, get a feel if the server is right for you or not. Believe it or not, you have time. You can scout now, and move before the 28th. (Heck a week away nothing says you have to move RIGHT now, this instant, or even at all.)

Also be aware you will lose guild upgrades once you move, and will have to regain the influence to rebuild.

I agree with this^^^^

Even though I think you are my sworn enemy:)