As a roamer I come across a number of lower ranked players. A trend that I’ve seen recently is a lot of new players, many of them who are newer to the game in general, coming into WvW to fight. Both allies and enemies alike mind you. Allies it is harder to tell in part because unless you are in a group the rank won’t show up.
Many of the more experienced players have started sparing the lives of these players if they fight them in single combat. For me personally I don’t necessarily engage low rank players unless they engage me. When I down them I let them get back up and continue on their way. Sometimes, I’m defending/attacking an objective—like a camp—so I make clear through my posture that I intend to stop them if they insist on challenging me. Most of the time they don’t push the matter, and if they do I have about a two free shots attitude. I’ll down you a couple of times and if you insist on fighting further I’ll just finish you off.
So I wanted to ask the community, such as it is reflected on this forum, how they deal with low rank opponents in small scale situations.
Northern Shiverpeaks (NSP)
Thief (Daredevil)
Commandant of Pistol-Dagger and Apex Predator
For me personally I don’t necessarily engage low rank players unless they engage me.
Better don’t spare me – I’ve got 2 accounts.
ETA: Rank ~3200 on the first, ~46? on the second. I am an annoying D/D thief – bait, but I don’t midn if anyone jumps onto me and I know that a huge number of those low ranks are new accounts.
If you know that, yes, but you usually don’t have time to really examine.
Anyway: I was in a rush doing my dailies the other day and there was a PvE druid (that was clear) trying to get the sentry I wanted to have – I downed him but didn’t stomp. Sometimes I am nice. It’s rare but it does happen.
I also tend to have a “attack me and I will defend myself” policy in such situations and try to avoid them, if I can. In my experience they usually attack me though and this could be, because they think, I am avoiding them out of fear. In groups, we usually call new players out and sometimes we avoid them if we can.
I feel bad for those players, because I really don’t want to ruin their fun in wvw but most of the time they really don’t stand a chance in small scale battles against veterans that played the game for many years. Especially when you see them on vanilla classes or pve builds.
That has always been the case actually – you either get through that or you don’t. If you don’t; wvw isn’t for you. I was lucky and met a very nice commander when I finally gave wvw a genuine shot – but I think I would’ve sticked anyway.
ETA: He didn’t stop anyone from jumping onto me but he explained wvw.
But what really made me stick was the community – it’s 300-1000 players who somehow manage to get along. Things go wrong all the time but it doesn’t matter that much. And I guess that’s what still holds me, although most of the strategical elements I loved are gone.
I’ve felt bad a couple of times for hitting a roamer that was obviously confused, didn’t know their buttons etc etc. I’ve let a few go with warning shots too. Just depends on the situation. Usually taking a good chunk of hp is enough for them to disengage.
If an ally dies in like a 5v1 and isn’t new…I may just start dropping rams on them.
Other then that it depends on how I perceive their activities. If they have been actively taking sentries/camps well beyond what is needed for daily I will kill them because those sentries are my eyes and the camps the backbone for solo roaming.. The only way they will ever become experienced is if they fail hard enough they want to get better or they will just become another zergling that will 10v1 you and hop on your corpse. Well they might go that direction either way so I make sure they remember me through empathy or hate ;-)
Ah I should note that if you are good (i.e. an alt account or come from sPvP) I will finish those low ranks as normal.
I’m the opposite. If someone puts up a good fight I’m more likely to let them live. I kittening hate players that just stand still or flat out run without even trying to defend themselves.
Of course if I’m trying to build stacks or get my daily I’ll stomp anyone.
Also known as Puck when my account isn’t suspended
LGN
Rank means nothing. I’ve met players that weren’t even rank 50 that were incredibly skilled and players that were higher than 5k that were terrible. I’m over 7k and I’m pretty mediocre (although I sort of have an excuse in that I have a couple disabilities).
I spare the lives of people I beat in a straight up 1v1 if it was a fun 1v1 and I don’t attack players that appear to be passive; in tonic form, using a toy, etc. Otherwise, I don’t care how new they are, they’re fair game. They won’t get better if they’re never attacked.
Rank means nothing. I’ve met players that weren’t even rank 50 that were incredibly skilled and players that were higher than 5k that were terrible.
Ya I have this in t3/4 once in a while. It’s wierd coming across a no-rank and end up fighting for your life and then turning around and bug crunching platinums 1vX.
Rank means nothing. I’ve met players that weren’t even rank 50 that were incredibly skilled and players that were higher than 5k that were terrible.
Ya I have this in t3/4 once in a while. It’s wierd coming across a no-rank and end up fighting for your life and then turning around and bug crunching platinums 1vX.
There was a Druid I was fighting that was only Raider rank (which is like 20 or something) a couple weeks ago that was insanely good. He was full glass and countered everything I tried to do. Fought him 2 or 3 times and every time he mopped the floor with me.
Just another one of many occasions where rank, sometimes even title, has proven to mean nothing. I’ve destroyed people who had PvP titles (Exalted Legend, Primorial Legend, etc) and again, I’m pretty mediocre. So to the OP; you can’t really judge until you’re fighting them. Which if you don’t like hurting newer players, unfortunately means you might have to severely injure them first before you can decide if their lives should be spared.
I have spared a few “good fights.” This engineer I fought was so good I let him get back up. We got set against by multiple players of the third team, and destroyed them together. That was pretty fun
You never know, for sure, although the true low rank players need to know imo (1) they are in need of training to get better, and (2) that I won’t unfairly dominate them/I’m willing to let them practice against me if they want.
Northern Shiverpeaks (NSP)
Thief (Daredevil)
Commandant of Pistol-Dagger and Apex Predator
Generally if someone isn’t interested in fighting open-field I’ll leave them to it. If they’re on a ruin or something inconsequential I’ll leave them to it, or maybe poke them to see if they want to fight. Regardless of rank.
If I’m on home BL and they’re in a camp, then they’re fair game. If they attack first, they’re fair game. Regardless of rank. Sometimes, for whatever reason, I might let them get up; but I don’t feel guilty about stomping someone in such circumstances, low rank or otherwise.
Yeah. Whatever. As a PvE person I’ve never had a WvW player just go by my low level self when I’m standing in the corner waiting for the vet warg to show up for the vet daily. I don’t mind getting attacked on my way there or while standing on a monument circle but it’s really annoying when they go out of their way to attack when I’m obviously no where near anything but that vet spot and doing nothing but standing against the wall over there. I’ve never encountered a “chivalrous” WvW player. Not during all the times I mapped WvW back when it was required for map completion (and I tried to signal I was a PvE person by using tonics or sitting when I saw an opposing player) or when doing any of the WvW dailies.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Rank means nothing. I’ve met players that weren’t even rank 50 that were incredibly skilled and players that were higher than 5k that were terrible.
Ya I have this in t3/4 once in a while. It’s wierd coming across a no-rank and end up fighting for your life and then turning around and bug crunching platinums 1vX.
It’s often someone’s alt, or a really bored PvP’er.
And yea, rank means very little; outside of PvE open world, WvW is one of the easiest places to get carried by other players. A player that has done something as simple as mastering the interface would already have a significant advantage over others, and that can just be from general game experience— and you don’t need to spend time farming wxp to learn how to do that. I mean you have “veterans” clicking on skills and unable to ground target. And for some reason many players still have not understood that, why yes, standing there when someone’s trying to kill you is a bad thing.
I know players that have been generally pvp focused when they play games and they may have paltry stats like rank 200 with 1000 AP, but rest assured they’re much better than your average player because they learn so much faster due to experience. So naturally I always laugh when someone’s rattling off their AP or some other useless metric. Who cares how many hours you’ve played when half of it is behind a cannon and the other half is pressing 1?
That being said, I think it’s fairly obvious judging by someone’s movements to see what they’re up to. Obviously if they’re coming with you with full confidence and able to dodge your attacks, they’re an unusual target. Regardless, I mostly understand OP’s sentiment. If you’re out to get satisfying fights or trying to test a build. then naturally some targets aren’t going to be a good use of your time. I generally don’t finish off players in a 1v1 unless they’re attacking an objective mainly because of the sheer rarity of players that will actually go for such a fight (I don’t count those “try to burst and run” people). or they’re part of a gank group
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
