Guild Wars 2

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

Everyone feel free to add some points you think are necessary to make wvw a better game mode

General changes:
- the algorithm Anet uses to determine which server is full and what servers get links
- a transfer lock after recent transfers
- loyalty bonus for staying on servers

Changes on the mechanics:
- lower siege cap
- lines of sight

Quality of Life changes:
- templates to load for switching gear and builds

Balancing for wvw:
- stealth rework in wvw or reworked revealed buff
- deathly chill internal cd?
- condition apply from mesmer rework
- defender runes, perplexity runes rework

Any other ideas? Feel free to post them, I’ll add everything to the list and feel free to discuss it – in a friendly manner

Remember the days when people used to go to LA/Queensdale to get help from people in PVE for golem rush/keep defend? When people felt great being in the server community?

Let’s bring it back!

Instead worrying about the gimmicks of names, let us have a gamewide server alliance chat system through all game modes that can easily be turned on/off, with some restrictions to avoid spam.

Some example restrictions could be:
- Only can write message in WvW – this will pretty much also limit the spam from f2p alt accounts
- One post per duration of time
- Maybe tied to wxp rank? Extra control on f2p alt account

Server loyalty and pride don’t really come from the name, it’s from the interactions within the server community.

For those that will say “But this won’t fix the population balance etcetc.” Of course it won’t. There is no magic formula to immediately fix the issue with 1 or 2 big changes – hopefully you realised that after all these years. Everyone will have their own, always conflicting, opinion on what makes WvW WvW. The only thing that no one ever disagrees is the sense of server community.

So why don’t we start with making the greater community care for WvW and on their respective server?

To reiterate a point I have said before

Delete tier bonuses
This mess up the warscore balance far more than the 2/1/1 5/4/3 or whatever victory point test is going next week. It makes it impossible for underdogs to come back and it lets dominating servers sit in their impossible-to-cap-T3-keeps-except-with-50-man all day, raking in undeserved PPT. It promotes zerging and passive gameplay at the same time.

Thank you for starting this thread. Although many ideas will clutter, at least anet will have a sense of what we expect from the game mode. I highly recommend commanders to respond if possible.

Here are my thoughts on the more immediate issues:

- glicko imbalance due to scoring system. Some servers are getting trapped into matches where their underperformance/overperformance results in tier separation. This very issue is stagnating the tiers due to commander and server leaders manipulating placement. population transfers as it stands now is looking for more action and not with the focus of balancing matchups.

- siege and supply system needs an overhaul to reflect a more modern state of the wvw meta. Everyone carrying 25 supply based on 2012 siege rules is not what i figure to be balanced. Siege dmg, performance and health must be rigorously tested and balanced every 6 months.

- tactivators have almost completely crippled commander’s ability for gaining the strategic iniative. Main culprits I would have to say is the emergency waypoint, fortified gates and watchtower. The cost to take an objective with any one of these is way too high and simple balances to range and scope of these abilities is enough to resolve this problem.

- commanders/defenders need more extra help to initiate a breakout on the map. Ironically it is too easy for a blob to make a point to point defense. I suggest having special buffs (charzooka that dmgs wall eh?) purchased at spawn with timed effects or some sort of outman (noncombat speed boost?) bonus to help improve breakout.

- upgrade timing is way too fast under timezone differences. There must be a standard upgrade process (like eotm?) where newly captured objective is rigorous at start so it cannot be opened the moment it goes off ri. Additionally, i like the idea of defenders able to input supply into the tower/keep pool to push the upgrade, or side mini quests to promote the tower/keep just like silverwaste or airship quest in eotm. This has huge ramifications to meta wvw flow if populations are considered in calculations.

- kdr focused groups must have special zones in borderlands to promote lane tug of war conflict. Maybe areas between keeps can grant bonus participation track if certain kills can be achieved.

- rewards are too cluttered (we get two currencies not to mention the tracks). Gear drops from mobs/players are still based on 2012 system. I highly recommend putting in random salvage drops that are relevant for hot and no. Hot players.

These are just some immediate concerns of mine when dealing with wvw. I really hope that anet invites commanders and server leaders to playtest the changes because it is the players who are out there that gotta market and sell this game mode.

at first i thought this was gonna be like:

gebrechen.5643:

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

General changes:
- added Anet’s GMs playing WvW

Changes on the mechanics:
- added massive 30 vs 30 and 50 vs 50 PvP type system on WvW for warscore each round
- WvW now is an Event

Quality of Life changes:
- added in-game VOIP

Balancing for wvw:
- added dynamic queue system
- removed Tier ™ system

but after reading the real one….
its like the every other thread i’ve read……

ThunderPanda.1872:

Remember the days when people used to go to LA/Queensdale to get help from people in PVE for golden rush/keep defend? When people felt great being in the server community?

Let’s bring it back!

Instead worrying about the gimmicks of names, let us have a gamewide server alliance chat system through all game modes that can easily be turned on/off, with some restrictions to avoid spam.

Some example restrictions could be:
- Only can write message in WvW – this will pretty much also limit the spam from f2p alt accounts
- One post per duration of time
- Maybe tied to wxp rank? Extra control on f2p alt account

Server loyalty and pride don’t really come from the name, it’s from the interactions within the server community.

For those that will say “But this won’t fix the population balance etcetc.” Of course it won’t. There is no magic formula to immediately fix the issue with 1 or 2 big changes – hopefully you realised that after all these years. Everyone will have their own, always conflicting, opinion on what makes WvW WvW. The only thing that no one ever disagrees is the sense of server community.

So why don’t we start with making the greater community care for WvW and on their respective server?

I really really like that idea!

To add to the list: players treating each other with respect – allies and enemies alike. This is one we have control over.

Arguably, it’s taking ideas from these forums that has put WvW into the chaotic state it’s in. If you read back over the dev posts here just about everything post-HoT has been done “at the request of players”. And then there was all that polling…

On the other hand, before that we had ANet making WvW changes without consultation, or with consultation that was largely ignored, which is how we ended up with both EotM and DBL, neither of which has been a runaway success in terms of helping the core WvW mode to prosper.

It’s threads like this that gave us the current 5:4:3 scoring system and the Tiered points for structures. Over and over again ideas are suggested on these forums that, when adopted, are vilified on the same forums. It’s similar to the way posters here routinely denigrate the current metas and playstyles visible in game although almost without exception those are the outcome of direct player choice rather than anything imposed by ANet.

It’s clear that there is and has never been any consensus. On balance I would prefer the least bad choice, which I would contend would be for ANEt to make the WvW they want to make and stick to it. If that does eventually result in a “ded gaem” then they can close it down and use the resources elsewhere. All this endless tinkering and fiddling around the edges is just prolonging the agony.

Tiny Doom.4380:

Arguably, it’s taking ideas from these forums that has put WvW into the chaotic state it’s in. If you read back over the dev posts here just about everything post-HoT has been done “at the request of players”. And then there was all that polling…

On the other hand, before that we had ANet making WvW changes without consultation, or with consultation that was largely ignored, which is how we ended up with both EotM and DBL, neither of which has been a runaway success in terms of helping the core WvW mode to prosper.

It’s threads like this that gave us the current 5:4:3 scoring system and the Tiered points for structures. Over and over again ideas are suggested on these forums that, when adopted, are vilified on the same forums. It’s similar to the way posters here routinely denigrate the current metas and playstyles visible in game although almost without exception those are the outcome of direct player choice rather than anything imposed by ANet.

It’s clear that there is and has never been any consensus. On balance I would prefer the least bad choice, which I would contend would be for ANEt to make the WvW they want to make and stick to it. If that does eventually result in a “ded gaem” then they can close it down and use the resources elsewhere. All this endless tinkering and fiddling around the edges is just prolonging the agony.

I disagree. From the huge variety of suggestions suggested in this forum vs the things that are actually implemented, anet clearly thoroughly evaluated the suggestions and formed their own opinions. Everyone has their own opinion on how WvW should be played – just like how you hate the new scoring system, while just as many people supports it.

WvW is not an easy mode to develop. Clearly no one has found any genius idea that can fix all the WvW problems (including the devs or we would already have it now). There is nothing wrong with us brainstorming our ideas for anet to consider. After all, it is us the players who are playing the game, and despite all our disagreements, we all want to see the game mode succeed.

I also want to further reinforce the idea on why we need the gamewide alliance chat system. (This may be a lengthy post.)

State of the game mode from my personal view
For the record, I am a huge supporter of skirmish, server linking, bringing more reward incentive and scoring tweaks to the game mode. I believe they are positive changes to the game mode and I personally believe anet have done a great job so far.

However, no matter how you tweak the score, this will not solve the fundamental issue that has been plaguing WvW for a long time – population & coverage imbalance. But how do you solve population imbalance?

Anet can’t force people to move servers. They can’t force people to play WvW all the time. It would be horrible if they diminish the contribution for people that happens to live in a different timezone. They can’t provide reward incentives which will ultimately lead to even more bandwagon. They blocked server transfers which generated a lot of controversies. Server linking can’t always be perfect.

Anet can continue to tweak the scoring system as much as they want. But it will never FEEL perfect as long as there are imbalances in population. But the day when the scoring system artificially creates a close game between a dominating server against a weak server, is the day I give up on WvW. Wait, but why should we even care about the score? What do we even get from it?

Why fostering a community is important and should be #1 priority
This isn’t about putting more resources into WvW. The game mode is stuck in this vicious cycle of population vs incentive vs bandwagon. They could have all the resources they need, but what could they do to escape this cycle?

Of course, not all players care about the scoring and PPT, they just want to have fun – which can be either roaming, defending, capping, fighting or anything. But despite how we think which play style WvW should revolve around, what really holds all of us together is the community.

Have you ever noticed that whenever a keep (especially eb keep) is under attack, most of us despite our different play styles, comes together to defend the keep. The roamers gank stray zerglings running to their zerg. The fighters/cappers runs with the commander to defend it. People build sieges in attempt to support the main group (btw people shouldn’t have problems with sieges when it’s for defending structures – but should /gg themselves when used in open field).

We have been gradually losing our sense of server community over the years. It started with the bandwagoning for the WvW season rewards, then the megaserver, now the server linking.

Why is server community important? You don’t have to think hard, just look at eotm. Eotm is what WvW will look like when our sense of server community is gone. No score system, siege/skill balance, transfer restrictions will fix it.

So why game-wide server alliance chat? – “Finally got to this part”
We don’t feel we are part of the server when outside of WvW. A lot of players when not running with their guild/friends, get bored and leave WvW when they see nothing is going on. There’s no way for a regular players on the same server to stay informed of events happening in WvW. Servermanders sometimes also struggle to find enough people to get something worthwhile going or defend objectives – which leads to more demoralisation and more people leaving WvW/server, thus even less activity – when in fact, many of them are in PVE/PVP waiting for something to happen in WvW.

Other suggestions to foster server community
In game squad VOIP. Yes I know TS exist, but not everyone like using a third party software for many reasons not everyone may be able to comprehend. But this will stop people from feeling excluded, or commanders/guild hating the server because people do not want to use TS.

TL;DR

• The game mode is stuck in this vicious cycle of population vs incentive vs bandwagon.
• Fostering a community should be #1 priority
• Eotm is what WvW will look like when our sense of server community is gone
• Many players are in PVE/PVP waiting for something to happen in WvW but are detached from the server community when not in WvW maps.

P.S. I hope anet is reading these kind of post – at least say simple stuff like “Hi” or “We are listening!”, this will make many people happy. People may or may not agree with me which is totally fine. I just want to put my thought out here and hopefully see the game succeed no matter what happens.

Server loyalty doesn’t come from where you started, or what the names are. It is about the people and community you play with.

gebrechen.5643:

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

Everyone feel free to add some points you think are necessary to make wvw a better game mode

General changes:
- the algorithm Anet uses to determine which server is full and what servers get links
- a transfer lock after recent transfers
- loyalty bonus for staying on servers

Changes on the mechanics:
- lower siege cap
- lines of sight

Quality of Life changes:
- templates to load for switching gear and builds

Balancing for wvw:
- stealth rework in wvw or reworked revealed buff
- deathly chill internal cd?
- condition apply from mesmer rework
- defender runes, perplexity runes rework

Any other ideas? Feel free to post them, I’ll add everything to the list and feel free to discuss it – in a friendly manner

Complete Build Templates like ones found in other games would be very nice.

Lower map caps or reverse the last map cap increase. This would help address multiple issues.

In terms of balance:

Reduce all base stats across the board while increasing the coeficients from gear. This includes boon and condi durations as well as HP, armor, power, crit rates and crit damage bonusses. This will re-instate trade offs and variety in builds.

Reduce passive effects across the board, increase ICDs on passive procs, increase CDs on all trait triggered abilities. Make sure that every single class has at minimum 1 active stun breaker with stability on it available to it.

Reduce the PPT effect from T3 passive ticks, unless there is an actual opponent force on the map that is capable of taking that objective.

Introduce a “local” outnumbered buff that would actually do something useful.

Base PPK of off player group numbers, rolling over small groups while in a large group should not yield any points. Perhaps tie it to the local outnumbered buff ?

In terms of overall scoring, the runaway score effects need to be addressed, in both directions, but not so much as to prevent movement and keep servers stuck in same matches for extremely long times.

i think it would might help if instead of having all the servers queing every time and having to link servers to create a population balance if we could have a faction like system like in wow and eso bu the factions here are made by the servers and they all join and form 3 big factions that do wvw it would certainly make the game mode feel way more alive and also start creating the faction alliance pride that the mode needs also it would work nicely with the tournaments.

gebrechen.5643:

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

Everyone feel free to add some points you think are necessary to make wvw a better game mode

General changes:
- the algorithm Anet uses to determine which server is full and what servers get links
- a transfer lock after recent transfers
- loyalty bonus for staying on servers

Changes on the mechanics:
- lower siege cap
- lines of sight

Quality of Life changes:
- templates to load for switching gear and builds

Balancing for wvw:
- stealth rework in wvw or reworked revealed buff
- deathly chill internal cd?
- condition apply from mesmer rework
- defender runes, perplexity runes rework

Any other ideas? Feel free to post them, I’ll add everything to the list and feel free to discuss it – in a friendly manner

IMO:

• transfer windows -you can only transfer server in the second half of a link-period -this prevents the gaming of the link system, where bandwagoners move to the low-ranking partners to play in top tier after links are announced, ruining the good intentions of the matchup system
• rework/removal of Immobilise - this condition should be removed or replaced. It is the total opposite of fun
• reduction in all damage numbers across the board;
  • People are dying far, far, far, far, too quickly (when not immune). Combat is a case of frantic button mashing, and simply isn’t as prolonged or as fun as it should be.
  • People aren’t dying fast enough! Some classes (hello Berserker) have too many immunities. These should be normalised.
• deletion of The Thief. You know it’s necessary, don’t even try to defend this perversion!
• Towering towers. A spiral staircase upgrade for towers that has a platform on top. This can then have siege built upon it (nice for ACing from high up or trebbing hills -or the keeps on Desert Borderland map (I know I keep suggesting this, but it still seems like a cool idea to me. Make towers great again!
• Golem Garage. Customise golems with various weapons, flamethrower, chainsaw etc -give it custom paint job, a name – recover scraps of destroyed golem to rebuild it using crafting. Can be quite an expensive exercise because customising is FUN.

Tiny Doom.4380:

Arguably, it’s taking ideas from these forums that has put WvW into the chaotic state it’s in.

like “please open the blackgate” thing?

Well, I’ll bite

-Server loyalty would be great or some incentive to go back to your server of birth. But the rewards can’t be moronic like a 5000 tomes of knowledge or cache full of junk.

-Siege caps would greatly help. There’s just too much.

-Lower player cap per map. This could greatly help go back to server versus server, no linkings. Or maybe make it tier based.
Tier 1 allows 60 players per map
Tier 2 allows 50 players per map
And so on

-Condition damage is off the charts. We really don’t need to go into this.

-Power creep. Some classes are able to one shot individuals with little skill but the click of the mouse.

-Vanilla classes needs some help. Feels like anet has abandoned any improvements to them.

-Diversity is terrible in this game. HoT has forced many guilds, players, roamers, etc to use a meta or HoT build. Go back to the 5 trait line to diversify this game again.

-The great teamspeak issue. It can’t be that difficult to incorporate a wvw server ONLY talking system into wvw. You are on xyz server you get to enter teamspeak, not on that server no access.

-Outnumbered buff. Maybe increase damage versus vets, siege damage increase, siege building supply reduction, or reward track experienced is doubled.

-Roaming. It’s awful. Look at me I have every single benefit in the game and can run away from anything in 0.2 seconds. You shouldn’t be able to hit like a mac truck, take massive damage, heal for insane amounts, be invulnerable for 3 hours, have stealth and get out of combat with one skill. Balance please.

-Skills need to be exclusive to a classes again. The old RPG concept, stupid thieves get stealth. It’s what they are known for. I’m seeing lots of classes getting access to stealth that don’t even make sense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDOACN1yfjY

-Community is nonexistent. What makes RPGs and wvw is general great was the family of servers. Megaservers will make the pvers happy I’m sure but LA should belong to the WvWers. The closer a community the more a player will want to log in and hang with their friends. This means more active communities and guilds can once again grow.

-Speaking of guilds, give these elitists what they want. You want to pursue your esports dream well here it is on a golden platter. A cross server gvg arena with its own map.

-EOTM is inefficient and a terrible addition to this game. It not only amplified the karma train but stole potential recruits from the real wvw. Those resources should have been dedicated to wvw and keeping wvw on track. Instead, it became an easy leveling system and karma hungry pvers. Keeping it online means you’re losing profit, transfers.

-Those guys who still play warrior or guard and tag up 12v80, they need some help. The stab nerf and condi explosion destroyed these guys and gals motivation to tag up. They were the ones that motivated a few players who said “F it, we’ll keep fighting” while others logged off. I think this leads back to the power/condi overhaul along with giving stability it’s rightful place back in wvw.

-Speaking of commanders, my best days were spent on little kaineng when we were T8. I miss those days and the PLAYER EXPERIENCE for me was incredible. I drove little secret nectar guild at times and I was awful….just an awful driver. But you know what…..people on that server said it was the most fun they had and I remember one guy late night in teamspeak. He was older and disabled and I remember him saying “this game is one of the few things I have to enjoy due to my disability and thanks for leading and driving”. This is why community is incredibly important and leads back to the numbers game. I was awful at driving but because I spec’d myself to take insane damage and could handle conditions, I could last incredibly long in a fight and drive. Today, if I tagged up I’d be blown to pieces in second because of the condi meta. What I’m getting at is commanders should be rewarded for what gear they are running. You were sentinel for example you should be a pure tank but we have classes looking at you and saying “EPIDEMIC EAT IT!”. It just doesn’t seem to matter what you are running gear wise, condi wins or power still hits for insane damage.

-Rewards are ok. But why isn’t there something useful like a full reward superior siege track? Or laurels only so we can buy those stupid ascended trinkets faster?

-World ability points. I’m a launch guy, I have an excess of these guys and we can’t find a use for them? I wvw level and get a cloth gear……oh boy. Needs improvement.

-That Mckenna dev girl, she seems really nice and smart. We need a John Cena badly for wvw to help repair the anet-player relationship because believe it or not we want to see anet thrive.

That’s my rant, I’m going to drink a glass of wine now and watched old saved by the bell episodes.

Eleazar.9478:

ThunderPanda.1872:

Remember the days when people used to go to LA/Queensdale to get help from people in PVE for golden rush/keep defend? When people felt great being in the server community?

Let’s bring it back!

Instead worrying about the gimmicks of names, let us have a gamewide server alliance chat system through all game modes that can easily be turned on/off, with some restrictions to avoid spam.

Some example restrictions could be:
- Only can write message in WvW – this will pretty much also limit the spam from f2p alt accounts
- One post per duration of time
- Maybe tied to wxp rank? Extra control on f2p alt account

Server loyalty and pride don’t really come from the name, it’s from the interactions within the server community.

For those that will say “But this won’t fix the population balance etcetc.” Of course it won’t. There is no magic formula to immediately fix the issue with 1 or 2 big changes – hopefully you realised that after all these years. Everyone will have their own, always conflicting, opinion on what makes WvW WvW. The only thing that no one ever disagrees is the sense of server community.

So why don’t we start with making the greater community care for WvW and on their respective server?

I really really like that idea!

Plus #1

Another great thread I hope someone reads in Development.

ThunderPanda.1872:

snipples

server chat is a great idea. I’m thinking they could maybe separate it by region: so ascalon, kryta, maguuma etc. then wvw could have its own 4 map wide chat channel. that would be awesome.

• Separate WvW-balancing from PvE
  It already has been done for a few skills, so this is not a technical but a manpower problem. WvW is a player vs. player game mode and as such desperately needs balancing completely different from one which caters to raids or other PvE-content.

• Give people more rewards as an incentive to play WvW
  WvW-specific armor/weapon-styles, a legendary backpack etc. – at the moment PvE and SPvP-players are pretty much the only ones getting the shiny stuff.

• Re-evaluate the server-linking
  At least in the EU, server-linking a lot of time fails in creating balanced matchups. People want the easy win (that’s probably human nature) and as such bandwagon to the fotm server or if possible to the smaller partner-server. National servers can’t be linked freely. I admit this problem is very difficult to solve and replacing the server-system with something else, thus destroying the established server communities, has the great danger of driving more people from the game.

I was always wondering why WvW often seemed like Anet’s red headed stepchild. Not many MMOs in the past and present did open world PvP right and it seemed like a unique selling point (especially after culling was fixed). Sure Anet has the metrics and can compare PvE to PvP to WvW players but I believe at times WvW probably had more participants than PvP. At the end of the day PvP (in all it’s form)-players are often loyal to a product without needing a new dungeon or other costly to create content over a long period of time.

Some little things…

• move npc’s (merchants / quartermaster etc) away from supply (so can’t accidentally start dialog instead of supply pick up)

• move synthesizers away from any repairable walls (so they are not in the way when trying to rep walls in a hurry)

• allow items from ’traps and tricks" merchant to be purchased without needing badges of honour

• reduce the number of flax fibres required for ‘minor supply drop’ – perhaps by removing the linen supply sack required for copper reinforcing plate

• be able to trade empyreal fragments / dragonite ore / bloodstone dust for badges of honour

• include an ‘info’ icon on tactivators so new players know what they are

• if a guild places schematic upgrades on a tower / keep which is not their claim (emergency wp’s etc), say the guilds name on those improvements.

1. Implement the battlegroup proposal that has been floated on these forums previously.
2. Reduce siege caps, reduce siege power against players.

Mrs Qurly.9372:

Some little things…

• move npc’s (merchants / quartermaster etc) away from supply (so can’t accidentally start dialog instead of supply pick up)

• move synthesizers away from any repairable walls (so they are not in the way when trying to rep walls in a hurry)

• allow items from ’traps and tricks" merchant to be purchased without needing badges of honour

• reduce the number of flax fibres required for ‘minor supply drop’ – perhaps by removing the linen supply sack required for copper reinforcing plate

• be able to trade empyreal fragments / dragonite ore / bloodstone dust for badges of honour

• include an ‘info’ icon on tactivators so new players know what they are

• if a guild places schematic upgrades on a tower / keep which is not their claim (emergency wp’s etc), say the guilds name on those improvements.

Big fan of the empy/dragonite/bloodstone for badges idea. Just too much junking up inventory. Also like moving npcs away from supply pick up.

To add I’d like to see that massive billboard “x server took camp” removed from the screen. Make it optional or put in text box. It’s right smack dead in the screen where at times it even covers up invader’s food/buffs. Not helpful when roaming and distracting during fights.

gebrechen.5643:

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

Everyone feel free to add some points you think are necessary to make wvw a better game mode

1 General changes:
- the algorithm Anet uses to determine which server is full and what servers get links
- a transfer lock after recent transfers
- loyalty bonus for staying on servers

2 Changes on the mechanics:
- lower siege cap
- lines of sight

3 Quality of Life changes:
- templates to load for switching gear and builds

4 Balancing for wvw:
- stealth rework in wvw or reworked revealed buff
- deathly chill internal cd?
- condition apply from mesmer rework
- defender runes, perplexity runes rework

Any other ideas? Feel free to post them, I’ll add everything to the list and feel free to discuss it – in a friendly manner

Well, 1 I am middle of the road on.

2 – I agree on and also want to add to get rid of Shield Gens. The line of sight is key – no more peak over – just what you can see from using the siege.

3 – no to templates (unless locked when on map and unlocked in Spawn only), since it would be too easy to switch in and out of combat and that would make the balance much harder to deal with.

4. Stealth – while stealth can only run – cannot use any other skills and cannot stomp. Stealth is for escape only. Also, lower the speed at which a stealthed foe moves – make it like RP-walking.

Mesmer – just need a Perplexity Rune NERF is all. Right now the biggest condi producers are necros.

- Nerf durability rune

When 90% of all players in both small and large scale comps use one rune there must be something wrong …

UmbraNoctis.1907:

- Nerf durability rune

When 90% of all players in both small and large scale comps use one rune there must be something wrong …

No – there is something wrong with the balance of the game. Well, actually, A.Net made the game totally unbalanced with the last patch. It was really a PvE patch that messed up WvW.

We need someway to deal with condi’s. Maybe having Health also add resistance to Condi’s, like toughness to power damage. We need something as dying instantly to condi’s is a game killing problem.

Durability rune doesn’t do that much against condis, other runes are better in this regard …

And of course it is by far not the only thing that needs nerfs, but one of the worst offenders. Imo boons are a bigger issue than condis.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Durability rune doesn’t do that much against condis, other runes are better in this regard …

And of course it is by far not the only thing that needs nerfs, but one of the worst offenders. Imo boons are a bigger issue than condis.

No – Condi’s need a nerf first as durability runes help with boon duration and Resistance is a boon. It is the only thing that can really deal with condi’s on a mass scale like the way it happens in WvW. Deal with the condi’s , like what I talked about in another post and Durability runes will go away.

Durability rune won’t go away, because it is op. Condis can be dealt with if you got enough cleanses, but of course it is easier to just facetank everything with the help of boons … and then cry about corrupts and epi because facetanking doesn’t always work that well.

Loot!

GW2 completely missed in regards to loot drops. If they cut 80% of the trash loot and added in seasonal cosmetic drops into WvW, they would increase player participation greatly. If ascended loot drops were upped significantly and had random attributes (same number of points), people would farm the hell out of the game mode making it more enjoyable for everyone.

Most people play MMOs to improve and advance their character yet WvW is effectively a dead end.

This went better than expected.

Changes on mechanics

- make it harder to contest a keep. It’s a stupid mechanic that a single player can contest a waypoint by doing marginal damage. Let it be at least a ram, a cat or a treb that contest

About the loot problem. I would improve the loot over reward tracks that a) depend on ranks (like prestige in fps ie) and a realm/server loyalty bonus.
So, it’s rewarding for players that show up and in the best case stick to their server.

A lot of the ideas presented here are spot on. Thank you for starting this topic!

1. Absolutely bring back a server specific form of LA. In other words, a place where we can gather in the PVE maps that enables us to recruit, hang out as a community or whatever else is going on. Huge. The entire feel of that section of the game was very different.
2. Rewards: Increased bonuses the longer you are playing on a server. Basically a different version of the log in reward. Could be increased magic find or a big chest drop at the end of a week.
3. Blackout period after you’ve transferred servers. (I really like Svarty’s idea about not being to transfer at all to a linked server until a certain amount of time has passed.)
4. Tie the weekly score into the EotM matchup and PVP maps: Basically, if you fight for a server, all of your activities contribute to the overall score. Servers are blended on EotM which also means the contribution won’t be as high. Same with PVP. I just wonder how the players would respond if you could have a wider array of options for your playtime and still feed into the state of the server. (Still pondering this one.)
5. Cross platform chat features: Some of this has been implemented with the cross guild chat.
6. Guild alliances – This could lead to a system re-design on scoring and matchups where the players get to figure out who faces each other during a given week. Or the scores from guilds across servers still feed points into all of the associated matchups. What about single players? Well, as a single player without a guild, your score still feeds into the server that is your home. Those who choose to join an alliance have their score split between all of the servers under the associated guilds. It dilutes the overall picture without giving a huge advantage. Potentially. Realize, players will always find the best route to win.

Incentive is a big component and looks different for different people. What I want out of my game mode is never going to match up to even 20 of my friends. How the heck do you balance that out? The Meta to me is players finding the path of least resistance to winning. Is Anet at fault for not changing the game when the opponents of a meta don’t adapt to a new strategy? I think at the core of this argument is the fact that balance between classes and abilities needs to be addressed more frequently.

Random thoughts, brainstorming and after lunch ponderous moments.

gebrechen.5643:

There is a lot of ideas on the forums for changes wvw needs (and some that it doesn’t need) and I think we should get a bit more constructive if we want to be heard.

Many, me included, don’t believe Anet will ever hear the wvw players, but we can at least try and see for ourselves. So, let’s do this.

Everyone feel free to add some points you think are necessary to make wvw a better game mode

General changes:
- the algorithm Anet uses to determine which server is full and what servers get links
- a transfer lock after recent transfers
- loyalty bonus for staying on servers

Changes on the mechanics:
- lower siege cap
- lines of sight

Quality of Life changes:
- templates to load for switching gear and builds

Balancing for wvw:
- stealth rework in wvw or reworked revealed buff
- deathly chill internal cd?
- condition apply from mesmer rework
- defender runes, perplexity runes rework

Any other ideas? Feel free to post them, I’ll add everything to the list and feel free to discuss it – in a friendly manner

That quality of life change (gear/build templates) would be the single best change to WvW of everything listed in my opinion. I have heard many people across multiple tiers/servers/guilds talk about the same thing.

I am not discounting the other things listed, but if they can only work on a few things at a time, I think this would be a big one.

legendary armor for wvw xD

Tweaks:
For the longest time, killing yaks has felt meaningless. There should be far less yak spawns but have them carry more supply to compensate. Make it so when a friendly yak hits an enemy outpost it adds supply to nearby unbuilt siege.

Rewards:
The generic semi-afk rewards tracks are nice, but I think gameplay could be expanded to have somekind of bounty/mission system. Think dailies or WvW guild missions that involve more effort and require some upfront investment. (I.E a 5-man mission might be that you have to cap X-tower within 30-min, costing 10g but rewarding 20g if successful)

Desert BL:
Lets face it this map was designed from the beginning with gliding in mind. Enable gliding and let F2P players rent gliders with honor badges