Guild Wars 2

Someone enlighten me why this is still 100 gold and not 10.000 badges of honor for example. (or anything earned through WvW)

Why is it gold instead of Badges of honor? Because ANet designed the Commander tag to be used in both WvW and PvE (for helping with the larger event chains). That alone means that the currency required for it needs to be shared in both WvW and PvE. In other words, it can’t be anything you can only acquire by playing WvW. Like Badges of Honor. It doesn’t matter that PvE is so easy a commander is neither needed nor wanted, as long as the title is shared between PvE and WvW the currency to acquire it must also be shared.

Why does it cost 100 gold? Because they don’t want everyone and their mother to be a commander. So they make the price high, but make it so the currency is shared so many people can “elect” a commander by giving them currency. In other words, it can’t be any currency that you can’t trade with other players like Karma or Badges of Honor.

So what types of currency is there that exists in both WvW and PvE and can be shared? The answers are Gold and Influence. And since you can trade Gold for Influence making it cost Influence just adds another unneeded step to the process. Gold then is the only currency that makes sense, given the design of the object. In addition, Badges of Honor are the worst form of currency for it since it fails both design criteria.

If you don’t like it the first thing you need to do is convince ANet to split the Commander title into separate PvE and WvW versions. That or convince ANet they need an entirely new form of currency to determine who gets to be a commander.

Because any material currency you acquire in the game, whether its gold, badges of honour in WvW or glory in sPvP, can be obtained quicker by farming it.

It doesn’t matter whether a commander icon can be bought with gold or badges because the only “currency” you need is influence amongst fellow players. If you have enough influence, other people will listen to you and will send you gold. They will buy an icon for you. They can’t send badges because they are account bound.

You can tell a good commander from a bad one pretty easily, and it rarely has anything to do with having an icon, having bucket loads of gold or truckloads of badges. I see plenty of people in WvW that do not have icons but are exceptional commanders because they are exemplary players. Some of them don’t even know it because they are humble enough not to let ego or appearances get in the way of whats important, which is the integrity of the team.

Why would making it ridiculously time consuming to get be a better thing? I sometimes forget this is an MMO and people relate gigantic grinds to skill or ability.

Unknown.2796:

Someone enlighten me why this is still 100 gold and not 10.000 badges of honor for example. (or anything earned through WvW)

Because that’s the way Anet want it’s to be, otherwise it would be different. Also being a commander is not an exclusive thing for WvW, it is overly useful outside of it too.

Besetment.9187:

Because any material currency you acquire in the game, whether its gold, badges of honour in WvW or glory in sPvP, can be obtained quicker by farming it.

It doesn’t matter whether a commander icon can be bought with gold or badges because the only “currency” you need is influence amongst fellow players. If you have enough influence, other people will listen to you and will send you gold. They will buy an icon for you. They can’t send badges because they are account bound.

You can tell a good commander from a bad one pretty easily, and it rarely has anything to do with having an icon, having bucket loads of gold or truckloads of badges. I see plenty of people in WvW that do not have icons but are exceptional commanders because they are exemplary players. Some of them don’t even know it because they are humble enough not to let ego or appearances get in the way of whats important, which is the integrity of the team.

Quoted for truth. This is absolutely correct.

I rather it be 5,000 badges but I see you point.
PvE commanders don’t deserve to put on their titles while in WvW :x

Wait, so because I farmed my 100g in PvE instead of WvW I shouldn’t be allowed to display my tag? I also have a full set of invaders gear, 14k WvW kills and almost have my legendary. Being a well-rounded player counts for nothing?

Unknown.2796:

Someone enlighten me why this is still 100 gold and not 10.000 badges of honor for example. (or anything earned through WvW)

I see little need to do that because it would = affect in negative light badges of honour need to be reviewed in my opinion because they drop to little in a day of intense fighting would say on average you would get 100 badges. so that is like 10 arrow carts for a person that plays wvw alot that is noting forcing you to spend gold. which likes be honest the loot is not great + repair bills. so the only option is then go to jp puzzle right. which everyone would farm to get com tag and there would be even less siege and the fact that siege is not account bond you still have to drop it give it to a mate is just a joke. and why is wvw is so often in the monthly why not just let it have its own like hotm

Contrary to popular belief in the WvW community the commander book/icon wasn’t developed only for WvW. Commanders has a PvE counterpart also.

Notrub.6925:

Contrary to popular belief in the WvW community the commander book/icon wasn’t developed only for WvW. Commanders has a PvE counterpart also.

Agreed, we have many in the WvW Community on Gunnars that mainly use their tag for organising PvE, which they do a very good job of. It wouldn’t be fair on them. They are pro PvE, casual WvW.

Perhaps make the badge thing an alternative currency option, or even mix ‘n’ match.

It would be a slightly useful additional requirement to have some tier level (perhaps T2) in all those WvW achievements, before you can show your icon in WvW.

MarMaster.6241:

It would be a slightly useful additional requirement to have some tier level (perhaps T2) in all those WvW achievements, before you can show your icon in WvW.

Worst idea ever.

Gold sinks exist in all aspects of the game. This is one of them. Until there are some improved mechanics and functions useful for some of you commanders, it’s just a gold sink.

A function to just show your tag to guild mates would also be useful thing to see because not everyone wants to command the whole map

Its not used solely for WvW, I see commander tags in Orr all the time.

The WvW commander tag IMO should be based on ep earned while leading a group (very similar to how Planetside 1 did it)
This would mean only if you were able to lead successfull groups (hence one with ppl who actually joined and followed, would you then gain its benefits)
The two elements of the commander tag should be split from PvE and WvW, as both serve very different purposes and require different skill sets in the player.

my 2c.

Just cause anyone can buy one, doesn’t mean they’ll be followed. Most servers have large WvW guilds, and even people not part of said guilds, normally follow said commanders. If someone wants to waste 100g on a commander book for the sake of doing so, then let them.

Masamoon.3864:

Just cause anyone can buy one, doesn’t mean they’ll be followed. Most servers have large WvW guilds, and even people not part of said guilds, normally follow said commanders. If someone wants to waste 100g on a commander book for the sake of doing so, then let them.

This, I have a tag but never use it. I purchased it for when a commander DC’s, or needs someone to take a grp to run supplies or something along those lines. I have no real intention (currently) of ever turning it on in WvW unless its a last resort. I don’t think I would be a good commander but its good to have for emergencies.

Besetment.9187:

You can tell a good commander from a bad one pretty easily, and it rarely has anything to do with having an icon, having bucket loads of gold or truckloads of badges. I see plenty of people in WvW that do not have icons but are exceptional commanders because they are exemplary players. Some of them don’t even know it because they are humble enough not to let ego or appearances get in the way of whats important, which is the integrity of the team.

^ This, is well said. There are thousands of good WvW players who decide not to waste their gold on a little blue hat.

Abstract.9258:

A function to just show your tag to guild mates would also be useful thing to see because not everyone wants to command the whole map

Agree 100%. Been suggesting this so many times since BW1 that I’ve pretty much given up on it. No way in-game to group up or coordinate with over 5 players except with the commander pin. When you DO use the commander pin to coordinate 2-3 groups of players you get blasted for not leading the whole zone “properly”.

Commander&Squad system needs a /private or /guild only option where only those people actually in the squad see the Pin.