Guild Wars 2

Currently, the commander tag doesn’t mean anything except that the person with said tag knows how to make money. I’ve noticed that the commander tag sometimes comes in pretty handy in PvE. Also, there are people who only like to do WvW and those who only like to do PvE or people who play one character in WvW and another in PvE.

So my suggestion is that the commander tag be split into a PvE version and a WvW version, with separate requirements for buying the PvE version and the WvW version. Of course, commanders should only be able to display PvE commander tags in PvE and should only be able to display WvW commander tags in WvW. I also suggest that all commander tags be refunded when this change is implemented so that every single commander is held to the same standard. If you have any comments regarding the PvE commander tag, please see my Add PvE Requirement for PvE Commander Tag thread.

WvW Commander Tag:
If ArenaNet were to require commanders to have some level of WvW rank, then we could actually be sure that the commanders in WvW know a decent amount about WvW, instead of just thinking “that person must have a lot of money.” To buy a WvW commander tag, the person would need to have achieved a fairly decent WvW rank, thus requiring them to have played WvW a fair amount. Right now, a person can just buy a commander tag without ever having set foot in WvW prior to that (all they would need to do is buy a bunch of gems and sell them for gold or sit in Lion’s Arch flipping items on the Trading post).

Split tags have been suggested a lot. And while I agree it’s silly how someone with 0 experience in WvW can be a leader, servers learn very fast not to follow bad players.

But a WvW rank really doesn’t mean anything. I could get to rank 100, rank 200, rank 500 by just spamming Staff #1 on my Guardian mindless in a Zerg and knowing little to nothing about siege placements, defense tactics, stacking and priorities.

In short: give new commanders a chance to prove themselves. If they fail, nobody will follow them (this is mostly bad, because sooner or later they would be useful, when nobody else can or willing to lead)

More to this: the current wxp WvW “rank” has nothing to do with someone’s ability to lead or the knowledge of the WvW game mode. You just have to create a new level 1 character, go to WvW and follow a “zerg”. Every time a sentry is killed or tower taken or similar happens, you just have to be insided that circle, and there is the source of your “rank”. This can be increased even faster when the game is in a “karma train” or “pvdoor mode”, and only shows how many time you spent doing this […]
This doesn’t mean that every player got to current “rank” this way, but unfortunately at least a part of our “rank” is from such shameful sources…

We already proposed enough ideeas related to the commander tag (see a previous CDI), and nothing was implemented yet… we need the ability to hide the tag from non-squad members or non-guild members and so on, including choosing different colors.
Also the option for each of us to ignore certain commander tags (for various reasons, like troll commanders and grievers) and keep it hidden from our sight (temporarily or permanent).

This was a problem in the start of GW2 as well, a PVE player with no expirience would be a commander.

I would like to suggest that both a rank would be required as well as removing the gold cost, and adding a harsh badges of honor cost.

Exeon.4358:

I would like to suggest that both a rank would be required as well as removing the gold cost, and adding a harsh badges of honor cost.

Then we will end up with even less players with commander tag, unless the title becomes account wide (alts included), with wxp account wide too (will be in “future”).

It seems that you are playing on servers and timezones when there are too many commanders present and they all fight over who to lead – which is silly (aka childish) at least. In these cases, with the actual system, go close to the commander you want to follow, right click on the character icon and select “Join Squad”. This will hide all other commanders tags. You can’t and should not force others to choose the same person. It’s up to every server to build up a friendly and cooperative community.
We can’t propose anything to filter out incompetent players; except maybe requiring a commander academy diploma… Wxp means nothing, badges mean nothing — and will filter out good leaders on new alts.

On most servers, at the moment, in a lot of timezones, the problem is rather that nobody wants or can lead, no tags at all… and less, when there are too many “commanders” present. Any change should take into consideration the impact on these periods too.

These discussions, especially when leads to fighting over “power” in map chat, makes many people to hate tagging up, and leaves a bitter taste in everyone involved. Commanders are hated even when they work hard and make the right choices — because there is always somebody smarter, who wants either to focus on attack, or defending a tower, and both is not possible. This is what leaves you sooner or later without any tags. And thus we should encourage everyone to buy a tag and at least try to lead, and see how hard it its… and servers which supports new players and helps them to grow, having a nice time together… instead of fighting over who should be “the boss”.

Last night I was doing a bit of home defend, so I started to follow a commander.

After got beaten like five times I was like: “WTF is going on here?!?!”

It turned out that this is the commander’s first attempt to lead a zerg outside of his guild/friends.

And I thought: “Why not, we all must start somewhere…” So I kept following him and by the end of the night I started to really enjoy it. Sure he did some mistakes, like slightly misplaced ballistae, wrong positioning, attacking camps with 4+ minutes of buff on the supervisor. But nothing worth an uninstall

He did his best and I really appreciate his efforts. I did enjoy it and I’m sure the most of the followers too. Nobody was forced to come with us by the way…

(anyway he had a veteran wvw leader with him without tag just to help him to avoid the biggest mistakes but he let this commander lead us…)

And don’t forget you need the commander tag in PvE too…

I am all for the rank allowing commanders choose a different tag colour. Seperate the pve commanders from the pve ones. Not that I do not follow a new commander, everyone gets a fair chance, or more than one.

Why is it even something you buy with gold in the first place? Any PvE title in the game requires more skill than becoming a commander, which is just… well odd.

Instead of reinventing the wheel why only follow commanders you know and don’t follow commanders you don’t.

And if it’s a new one, check it out, or roam.

Getting tired of these threads…