Guild Wars 2

tluv.5821:

The problem really isn’t the map. Giving players a new map when they wanted new things for WvW, wasn’t really going to help the situation.

In other words, the problem is the map. If they had given us a map that was as good as alpine for focusing fights and in the same spirit of alpine (ffs name keeps hills, bay, garrison) we wouldnt be complaining much about the map itself, we would just be complaining about the autoupgrades and buffed NPCs.

Dawdler.8521:

tluv.5821:

The problem really isn’t the map. Giving players a new map when they wanted new things for WvW, wasn’t really going to help the situation.

In other words, the problem is the map. If they had given us a map that was as good as alpine for focusing fights and in the same spirit of alpine (ffs name keeps hills, bay, garrison) we wouldnt be complaining much about the map itself, we would just be complaining about the autoupgrades and buffed NPCs.

The biggest complaint about the map is the size. So the say the size is reduced. To be honest WvW has been in a declining state for several years now. The new map was just a catalyst that explode the situation. You can focus all you want that it is the new map’s fault. Lets say they “bring back” the old maps. We’re going to run into the same issues we are in now, but just further down the line.

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

Groups of 5, Actively flipping towers camps in an attempt to lure fights.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

Completely changes, EBG is lots of zergs, impossible to roam without heavy stealth (Not very fun abusing stealth).

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

Spend 30 minutes flipping a tower, nobody even comes out to fight… can roam for ages without seeing a single player.

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

Combat is still the same.. I see the potential for fights in the middle around the laser event.. just total lack of players.

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

Took a couple of towers and their keep…. with no resistance then proceeded to EBG… its no fun taking an objective if theres nobody to defend it or fights to be had..

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

Dont play wvw for loot thats a pipe dream

• How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

Seem to get bored and rage quit a lot faster on EBG, only option for fights..

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Time gate them… Only one should be available at once… there is no way even T1 population can cover these three maps..

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

Dont bother running unless you have a tag? You cant solo anything and its slow paced.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

Same as the old borderlands.. just slow paced and not much action… Your best bet is to go straight for a keep if you want a fight.

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

I would maybe play the new borderlands if EBG was deleted or removed…. But currently its too big with virtually no players… Forced to play EBG (The map I hated with a passion prior to HoT is now my “favorite” map….)

The north half of the new BL and the new keeps are to convoluted. This has created a situation where it easier to back-cap the two keeps then respond to a defense. The keeps are so large it is difficult to force an attacking group back outside the wall once they have broken through.

It is simple for a attackers to approach the keeps undetected and even if they are spotted there is no way-point at the keep. Defenders have little opportunity to get into position.

It is a shame. Some of my most memorable fights where defenses of the Alpine keeps.

I do not appreciate the pve event in the map center at all. At least it could be broadcast over Team chat in the opposing BLs when our home BL has the event start.

List of changes that I like

(1) The new sentry detection system is great. It mades sentry more useful and allows players to not lose time going where the ennemy is not (it goes well with point 2). This new sentry was also suposed to kill yaks and get people to go flip the sentries… sadly… yaks are useless so on that part it failed to hit the mark.

(2) The map calls when a structure is taken by X server is also great. It might only be a solo roamer, but it will still improve the information network. This combined with a sentry that scouted a group of players earlier allows you to walk directly to where you think the group will be in the next few seconds.

(3) I like the fact that lord HP scales up with the number of players. It gives people a better response time to gather enough folks to get a good fight instead of getting structures flipped without a good brawl in the lord room.

Here is a list of things that needs a little tweak before being things that I would like.

(1) Auto upgrades seems awesome on paper… But I think simply making it so upgrades are forced to be in a specific order would of solved the troll problem. Make it so yaks count! Yaks are useless now. Also, waypoint on T0 keep makes WvW lose its touch. I remember when we did map calls on every map to get our people to defend our T3 keep with a waypoint. Those were fun fights in the lord room. Now? Keep flips and it doesn’t matter since we will grab it back while gaining access to the only upgrade which truly did matters as a welcome gift. Also, removing Bay and Hills waypoint on the new map just bring less fights (less incentive to actually go defend it since it will never get a waypoint).

(2) The new event in the Desert bordeland map. This event seems great and all. But I still think that a big area with a cap point could of been a better choice than to kill those PVE monsters. Imagine a large cap where there is a timer ticking down for every second your server control the point. I feel like it would be more appropriate for a players vs players environnement. King of the hills kind of tournament would of been amazing I think. Atleast the event as it is is not so fun, it’s just that those Dinos don’t really belong to WvW if you ask me (my opinion, sorry if some people love those Dinos XD). A king of the hill tournament could of been one big platform or up to 3 big platform where each platform control gives you -1 second on the total timer. Once it reachs 0 the canon is yours.

Things that I truly do not like

(1) The non players automated things in the Desert borderland map. I’m talking about those slow turrets, those flame turrets, those winds turrets and those earth walls. They are annoying more than anything. As to replace those things, I would simply take them off and get the blessing of the element when near that area (no more need to actually go and click the shrine to get the move speed boost). I would also take back the combat boost that those elemental buffs gives, environement should not give such a potent stats boost which vary depending on the region you are playing on (same with the imune to burning in fire keep). Also, invisible zergs is simply a bad concept, but I got no idea how to replace that buff without imbalacing the fights (need help finding a solution so I can edit that part later on). Finally, since earth keep have 2 automated things, (turrets and walls). I would simply give them a detector (like a sentry would if it spotted an ennemy) all over the keep so it can detect any hiding ennemies inside that keep and in the close periphery of that keep.

(2) Fortified gate… Those are new and they are slow to take down. Also guild catapults got nerfed to the ground so breaking a fortified wall takes an army or will simply take forever if you are a roaming squad. But gate is now also fortified… So it just means more time raming or catapulting those objectives…which in the end me and my roaming friends just leave them be since it’s too much of a chore.

(3) The pathing of the map seems to be worse than what Alpine borderland offered. Zigzaging and going up and down makes the map that is slightly larger to feel like walking from point A to point B to take much more time than what it used to be on Alpine borderland. Or atleast it feels less straightfoward and more about dodging the ennemy than to engage them. Those keeps are just so vast with so many pathway. Keeping it simple is not always a bad thing.

(4) Reset on saturday morning… Bring back friday night reset. This night was crazy, even more than saturday night reset. Get back from work, install yourself and play with your friends on a friday night was amazing.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Basically, I think a tweaked Alpine would be better. Alpine had its flaws, but people still loved that map after 3 years (sure they asked some fix there and there, but a total revamp of the map doesn’t seem to get us to a better place, fixed some problems only to make new ones arise).

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past.
-I would roam (solo or duo mostly) all around the map and fight people also running around. If I was with my friends (guild) I would fight big groups instead of roamers.

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in EB
-Did not go to EB that much, unless it was with my guild to fight people there for a change of pace.

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
-Now I tried to roam there… takes ages to roam on an ennemy BL since everything is blocked or you need to climb and go down, zigzag around… Fights are rare also due to the large dropout of WvW players. With the guild, the same can be said.

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you?
-Not so much a build change, but the new map is slow paced. Auto upgrades hurt it also. No waypoint fights anymore… Yaks are useless so roamers are not as important…

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
-Before, you could use guild cata if you were solo roaming or a small crew in order to drag some fights of from the defenders sitting on their AC or make them call out for bigger numbers if you were running with a bigger group. Now fights are as rare as a jewel… even defenders seems absent nowadays…

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?/which map you will find me
-I shifted my about 100% WvW playing time to a mix in between stronghold (which is the thing that get as close as what the old roaming was in Alpine) and EB with my friends (guild). So you will find me in EB or in stronghold. As for the total of hours… it did take a hit I would say. I play some other games now also.

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

solo doing dailies . if nothing more pressing to do running havoc , flipping camps , slapping/escorting yaks , upgrading towers . upgrading blood lust , scouting as i go .
from time to time in a small party taking towers .
rarely , joining zergs on larger structures .

—-

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

in my tier EB was usually busier , more people from all 3 sides on more of the map .
i didn’t go there as much as the borderlands . but basically i did all the same things in the same way as the borderlands . EB was / is a last resort to finishing WvW dailies . cap a camp or 2 and get out asap . there is too many people there for it to be comfortable soloing or even a small group .

—-

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

the same . exactly the same .
except 2 things ; i don’t see as many other people. so there no one to report scouting too .

and there doesn’t seem to be bloodlust any more or maybe i just haven’t figured it out yet .

—-

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

usually i get steam rolled in wvw . most fights are over before they start . if i run into another roamer and we have a 1 vs 1 i don’t back down . win or lose i’m in it til the finish .
if some zerg activity happens near by me i’ll jump in for what ever seems to be going on whether its offensive or defective . but i wouldn’t run across the map to join a zerg . in fact i’de sooner run across the map to get away from zerg activity unless it aligned with my personal goals .

the only 2 opposing team people i have seen so far on new maps were on open surface level near camps . 1 vs 1 . so i don’t have any way to compare the battles yet .

as far as build goes i use as close as i can to the exact same build in all modes of the game . it’s quite effective and well rounded build that i have been developing for 3 years . . i only change out my elite from time to time as the racial elites are not used in pvp . and in some situations it makes more sense to have something different on that key

—-

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

takes a bit longer to solo a fully automated upgraded camp . it’s also more fun in that i have to be a bit more careful about what im doing .
one tower i managed to follow a commander on also seemed to take longer to capture even tho it was only defended by NPCs .

—-

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

for me wvw is 25% or less of what i do in game , its fine that way for me . i don’t know that the shards of glory , memories of battle or proof of heroics or what ever they are called are for yet so its hard to know if the rewards are good bad or the same .

i did like getting the wvw exp boost in a scroll i could use at a later time . mainly because they would stack . getting the exp boost from opening the chest means i have unstackable chests in my inventory taking up a lot of space . i only use 1 or 2 of the chests for the boost to get dailies done and that nets me 2 or 3 more chests . eventually i’ll be over flowing with chests .

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

i don’t really do that , or very rarely . with new pve content theres little reason to go into WvW except quick dailies . after 3 years i am WvW rank 115 .
i go there when i have nothing else i’m interested in at the moment or when some particular guild members that enjoy wvw ask me to join them . . witch hasn’t happened since before halloween .
i really only spent any real time in WvW after i finished with the season 2 things until halloween started . i do have a pair of mistforged hero’s weapons from seasons gone by mainly because i kept an eye on achievements to know there was an event going on .
i could do long sessions of WvW if i could go with all my friends and guild mates even if I am on a different world than they are .

—-

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

i generally like what guild wars offers . i’m not scared of changes . the new border lands seem to me like a huge PVP map including the point in the center to fight over . except no one is been there to fight over it (yet?).

in my mind it is exactly what wvw is supposed to be . a huge pvp map with out the strict limitations to build from sPvP

it would be cool to see a rotation of maps eventually when ever a 3ed borderland map is introduced . each world could have a different map and the maps rotate while the 3 worlds fighting stay the same in a best out of 7 rotations type scoring before the world tier ranks are switched.

—-

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.
In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

big and confusing at first but potentially awesome once to get to know them .
i don’t know them too well yet . i’m just to the point i don’t get lost any more .
i haven’t figured out how all the new stuff works .

—-

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

you are most likely to find me in PVE maps doing all the new awesome PvE stuff and ranking masteries .

in wvw ? home border land . unless its 100% in that case other worlds borderlands .
EB was always a last resort to finishing dailies for me and remains so .
EotM is something i tryed when it was new but its not some thing i can go into solo or even a party and im not one that enjoys following the zergs around . i pop in there from time to time but the playstyle that historically takes place there doesn’t suit me .

If A-net made a reward system like it was in Knightonline that would be good for me.
Kill is worth 50points death -50point then you can have some buff so you get 60points/kill, if you’re in a group the 50points are divided between group so something like 2players = 30points/player, 4plares 20point/player per kill and so one, and then ofc only last hit get the points, the one that finish off the enemy. Then have a list that show now (from you enter map until you leave) then have list day, week, month, year, all time.

Then give points for defending a building or capping a building.

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?
I’ve been playing this game since the First Beta over 3 years ago, in that time I’ve done everything you can possibly imagine in all group sizes from solo roaming to blobing in T1 with 50+ groups. Of all that difference and experience I enjoy solo roaming to 10-15 man groups the most. In my opinion After you get larger than those numbers you loose the skill and have to relie on numbers to do the job, it becomes less personal and more how many “x” did we stack. With my perfered size group we would roam looking for fights, flip camps, take towers and keeps.

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?
In EBG our guild group would attempt to do the same thing we did above.. however because of the Blobing enemy servers our 10-15 would just get steamrolled by their 50 man blobs with little to no resistance. We find ourselves retreating more into keeps/towers trying to survive and after about an hour of wiping and finding no fights we all just stop playing and log off.
Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
There is no time spent on the New borderlands, there is literally no one else on them to fight and if there is we can’t find them because the map is so large. We have tried several times to find fights on the New borderland maps, but have literally never found anyone on them to fight aside from single roamers and even that is far too inbetween to matter.
Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.
To be honest there is a massive amount of potential for the new maps, however no one will ever be able to experience them because the maps are built so poorly.
There is nothing for defenders to do now, because everything is automated players don’t need to be there to ensure upgrades get done, the keeps/towers are too large for a single scout to watch over succesfully. We love that we dont have to spend money to upgrade our keeps now.. but we still want to be there to start the upgrades, we’ve been removed from having to even be at the keeps for them to do stuff.
The Keeps/towers are built so large navigating them takes forever and because most of them are so Vertical it takes to long to go from the bottom to the top and so many have died already falling to their deaths trying to go from top to bottom. I believe Basic gliding would remove a lot of problems with the new borderland maps. With basic gliding we could easily go from top of cliff sides down into the canyons to fight other groups (if they were there) but its simple to balance so gliding isn’t OP just make it so the gliding person can’t attack till they are actually landed on the ground.
I believe the new maps are designed to negate the effectiveness of Blobs by restricting them to narrow walk ways and passages. But without the mobility to get ahead of them its all pointless.
In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
In the past it was possible for a solo player to run supply to a cata spot on a tower or keep and solo open a wall without having to worry about retribution from npc’s or other players. Realistically atm there is Zero problem on the new borderlands because there is Literally no one there to defend the maps. But in a normal situation the camps are much farther away from the towers and keeps for a single person to spend the time to build a single catapult to try and take a tower. Let alone solo the new tower/keep lords with that break bar.
How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?
I believe the loot/wxp has stayed the same since before the patch. Little has changed from what I’ve seen in those regards. I believe the new scroll system to unlock maguuma Hero points was a great addition in helping to unlock Elite spec’s.
I would love to see Ascended and Legendary specific WvW gear placed into the game at some point. WvW is so much different than PvE (and in most cases WvW players HATE PvE in their WvW maps). It would be nice to see some Love to the players who do much else but WvW, Perhaps a similar loot system like Spvp could be implimented into WvW where tracks could be completed from capturing towers/keeps and killing foes to unlock the tracks?
How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
Simply put I used to play WvW for upwards of 4 hours mostly in WvW on the old maps because I disliked EBG’s size and blobing. Nowadays I’m lucky to keep myself interested for an Hour without quitting to go play something else because the blobing on EBG is still terrible and the New Borderlands are broken and unoccupied.
In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
I believe the new maps need to be Reduced in size, there is simply too much vast unoccupied empty space to navigate for anyone and finding people is near impossible.
Mobility needs to be addressed, the maps are just too large and without Gliding to get from top to bottom you have to run what feels like hours around and down cliffs to get to the bottom.
Keeps are simply too large to be defended properly, there is too much dead space inside them, and for a single scout its too large a distance to watch for attackers on all sides.
The upgrading system needs to be made so players have to initiate the upgrades, we’ve been removed from the system all together and its just boring now.
Remove PVE from our WVW MAPS. We don’t play WvW to play PvE, we play it to kill other people, if people wanna PvE and WvW go to Edge of the Mists. The large event in the middle of the map is just PvE and we want it gone, replace that space with another Stone Mist castle, or just remove the space all together, we will be happy either way.
In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.
The new maps must feel immensely huge and overwhelming. But that said I can’t imagine any new players would spend anytime there because No one is on the maps to play with them. Its just a barren wasteland of unused empty space atm.
In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
It was alot of getting used to navigating the new maps, but mostly it just felt awkward because you can tell gliding was suppose to be there. Its construction reminds me alot of the maguuma jungle..however they didn’t keep the same mindset of HOW we get around in that jungle in the new maps. It just felt awkward and unfinished.
Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
The only map I will currently play is EBG..but that said only for about an hour now before I get too fed up with the blobbing and go play a different game all together.

→ Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

I usually command for my guild in WvW. We usually run anywhere from 10-20 strong depending on what day of the week it is. From what I have seen the new desert borderlands are a ghost town unless a commander tags up on the map. The thing that made WvW great is almost non existent anymore on the new BLs—the fights! We spend alot of time running sups in an attempt to take an objective(thanks to the restructuring of the plus 5 buff) and taking an objective is dependent upon what tier it is at currently. In tier 1(regular walls and gates) it is fairly easy to build 2 pieces of regular siege and get in quickly. At tier 2(reinforced walls and gates)we usually need to build 2-3 pieces of superior siege to get in but even then it seems slower. At tier 3(fortified gates and walls) it feels like your hitting the structure with a wet noodle. Most of the time we have to build 4-5 pieces of superior siege just to make a dent.

The overall size of the map is to big

Having the eotm supply unusable at citadel is not very helpful

And then there is the badge of honor issue. You now require us to use badges of honor to upgrade the guild hall. 30 badges for 1 badge of tribute. 50 badges to unlock 10 hero points( for those of us that don’t want to grind PvE). Multiple badges for weapons and armor. That being said why did you nerf that badge drop rate in both wvw and eotm? Neither is really worth playing anymore! If you finish your daily wvw objectives that seems to be the only time you get a sufficient amount of badges which you then basically lose by upgrading the guild hall or turning in for hero points. Well since I criticized I am willing to offer a suggestion to remedy this. Here is what my guild came up with as far as how players should be rewarded for capturing objectives in wvw/eotm
WvW camps/Eotm generators-1 badge of honor
WvW towers/Eotm Towers/Eotm minor objectives(such as the airport)-5 badges of honor
WvW and Eotm Keeps-10 badges of honor
Stonemist Castle-20 badges of honor

→ Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

Absolutely! It is much easier to maneuver around EB, due to the size of the map, easier to take objectives,because the supply camps are not so far away, and there is always players on the map because of these reasons. Hence why the new bls are like a ghost town.

→ Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

See answer to question 1 for details

→ Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

The fights in the new BLs are almost non existent due to the size of the map. The only time fights are experienced is if you accidentally run into your opponents while both of you are heading towards or trying to take the same objective or while defending an objective. Defending a keep is almost impossible due to the size of them now

→ In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

We spend alot of time running sups in an attempt to take an objective(thanks to the restructuring of the plus 5 buff) and taking an objective is dependent upon what tier it is at currently. In tier 1(regular walls and gates) it is fairly easy to build 2 pieces of regular siege and get in quickly. At tier 2(reinforced walls and gates)we usually need to build 2-3 pieces of superior siege to get in but even then it seems slower. At tier 3(fortified gates and walls) it feels like your hitting the structure with a wet noodle. Most of the time we have to build 4-5 pieces of superior siege just to make a dent. This one again means an abundance of supply runs. Doesn’t help that guild catas were nerfed to 50 sups instead of 25 sups.

→ How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

The wvw badge of honor system took a huge hit! Both in wvw and eotm! You now require us to use badges of honor to upgrade the guild hall. 30 badges for 1 badge of tribute. 50 badges to unlock 10 hero points( for those of us that don’t want to grind PvE). Multiple badges for weapons and armor. That being said why did you nerf that badge drop rate in both wvw and eotm? Neither is really worth playing anymore! If you finish your daily wvw objectives that seems to be the only time you get a sufficient amount of badges which you then basically lose by upgrading the guild hall or turning in for hero points. Well since I criticized I am willing to offer a suggestion to remedy this. Here is what my guild came up with as far as how players should be rewarded for capturing objectives in wvw/eotm
WvW camps/Eotm generators-1 badge of honor
WvW towers/Eotm Towers/Eotm minor objectives(such as the airport)-5 badges of honor
WvW and Eotm Keeps-10 badges of honor
Stonemist Castle-20 badges of honor

WE FEEL THAT PLAYERS SHOULD BE ADEQUATELY REWARDED FOR THEIR DEDICATION AND TIME SPENT IN WVW! It seems like you can get better rewards and progress faster in the PvE content of the game. That being said it’s a wonder anyone does wvw anymore. Sorry to say it Anet but you dropped the ball on rewarding wvw players.

→ How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

Since the map change most of the guild now spends less time in wvw. They find the new map to be boring and tedious due to the size of it. most come in to due their dailies and leave. This is frustrating considering WvW was my favorite aspect of the game and the fact that most of us used to be hardcore wvwers. Not so much anymore!

→In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Decrease the overall size of the map so that it is easier for smaller guilds(havoc teams) to run supply, maneuver around the map easier, and take objectives. Not every guild has 100 members and 30+ man zergs. Fix the citadel eotm supply so that is usable by the home BL. Create upgraded siege(such as the new guild siege since it takes so many mats to make them) that can do more significant damage to tier 3 structures. If any enemy controls all 3 shrines then the defenses for that keep should be disabled. Fix the dailies. Ruin capturer is now longer achievable. Change it to shrine capture instead of shrines being used as a land claimer. Veteran creature slayer is no longer achievable need to find a way to fix that by putting some new veteran creatures on the map. Most importantly reward wvw players for the time the spend playing wvw(see reward suggestion posted above)

→ In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

I remember the first time I stepped into wvw as new wvw player. I was confused but after asking a few simple questions I was able to catch on easily. Things like how supply worked how the commander tag worked. Those things have not changed. What has changed is the size and pathing of the new bl map. This makes it hard on a new wvw player to learn the map or even learn their way around the map. the old bls were much easier to educate a new wvw player on. now it’s easier to train a new wvw player in EB.

→ In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

As a 3 year veteran of wvw I find the new map more challenging in that it is now harder to take towers and keeps whereas they used to be solo able if you used the right class. In that aspect I like the change. I like the different tower and keep lords as each one presents a different challenge rather then the old way where they were all the same and the tactics never changed. I dislike the size of the new map, the constant need for supply runs, and the lack of fights.

→ Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

While I haven’t completely given up on the new bl maps I would likely in EB because there are always more players there, it’s easier to maneuver on, easier to train new players on, and the objectives don’t require an excessive amount of supply runs

Typical hour:
Defensive play, mainly in the home BL. I play at non prime time and so played to solo roaming or in a small group, mainly because there are far fewer people on at this time. A typical hour would have been running around the home BL upgrading anything we hold – aiming to get waypoints in Hills and Bay for mobility when the prime timers wake up, checking on the progress of upgrades and retaking anything we’ve lost that I can cope with. I would often be solo, or temporarily join with another player. Guild catas were great for this because 2 of us could build one cata quickly to retake a tower.
I don’t have the skill or reflexes to take a fully upgraded camp solo, or to take a keep without help, so I would use map chat to request support. I had built my personal guild up to the level required to +5 things, allowing me to repair defences or build siege faster. If the home BL needed a commander for a major clean up I’d tag up. With experienced players around we’d often just sort things ourselves. I would also go raiding in opposing BL maps, and if I could find a few like minded people I was happy to run/command in a small group (usually party sized) and flip anything we could cope with.

EB:
Played occasionally in EB, but would often prefer to run support in home BL or havoc in an opponent’s BL. Would always respond however to a call for help from EB if I could.

New BL:
I have spent perhaps an hour in there since launch. That’s not enough time to learn my way around properly, and since the map feels much harder to traverse I don’t feel motivated to stay and learn it. There’s no need for me to start any upgrades and I can’t solo the upgraded stuff in opposing BLs. The only thing I can do seems to be to re-flip camps if I can catch them before they upgrade.

Times:
A group of us from my main guild (450+ PvX group) took a keep because we were in a BL for a Guild mission camp capture and hold and decided to do the daily which was keep capture. There was one defender who had little choice but to stand and watch as we got lost exploring his keep. It took us ages to get through the gates with a steady stream of people running supply for what seemed like ever more paper rams. The fight against the Lord was short and brutal. What I really noticed was the contrast between what a large group could achieve with little WvW experience against what I could now do when solo or in a small group. It was, to be honest, disheartening because I’m not a blobbing sort of player, but it looks like the way things are going.

Loot:
Laughable. WvW has never given enough loot. I’ve spent hundreds of gold over the years upgrading stuff and that pretty much all had to come from PvE play. WvW wasn’t self sustaining, and still isn’t. No wonder we have statements like “people who are into WvW are heavily into PvE too”. For me it used to be a mix, with WvW becoming the end game I preferred and could only afford because of my time in PvE – a bit like retiring and now being able to afford to do what I really wanted to. The new changes finally allow WvW armor to be salvaged – but at a poor rate. The only really good thing about the new changes seems to be that I no longer have to pay to get upgrades started.

How has the new map impacted my WvW time?
I have spent much less time in WvW since the changes. There’s almost a sense of despair really. There’s nothing I can do against fully upgraded locations, yak slapping has lost its benefits, I’m not needed for upgrades and when I do venture in to scout, there’s no one around. The biggest difference I see is on my friends list. As a roamer I built up a list of people who I knew I could rely on, including Commanders and other roamers – the sort of people who you can whisper and say “Hills is nearly fully upgraded and we need help defending it” and they would turn up either solo or with a group behind them. Most of these people now are showing on my friends list as not in WvW. Many are, I guess, trying to regain the guild bonuses they used to have before the update and so are facing the PvE grind. Some seem to have swapped WvW fights for PvP. These were the reliable players I could count on, and now, like me, they seem to have stepped away at least for a while…

I find the new maps, and that goes for PvE as well as WvW, to be frustrating. I really dislike being unable to get from A to B when I can see where I need to be on the minimap and can’t get there because there’s a big chasm or cliff in the way and I have to find a way around. I wouldn’t be the first person to think the new maps were designed with gliding in mind. My real life situation means I don’t get long hours to play, and I feel I’m spending so much time trying to get to places now instead of actually playing. I don’t mind investing time in the game when I can, but I do want to get player satisfaction from the time I get in GW2 and this is sadly lacking at the moment.

Where would you find me in GW2?
Sometimes in HoT. Occasionally in Tyria. Occasionally in PvP. Occasionally in WvW. However the time I spend in any of these is slowly reducing, and I feel that’s a shame after 3 years of loyal play. Looking at the long term view of making more challenging content that requires more players and more group coordination, I can see this fits less and less with my game experience when I can play. I have really enjoyed WvW in the past and had looked forward to playing WvW after HoT. I’d read that guild bonuses would become permanent (yes! – no need to queue +5 supply and no more buying influence for my personal guild to fund it!) and that upgrades would become free (I could keep some of my hard earned gold!). What I got was not what I hoped for.

Things that really affected my WvW experience:
Change in supply cost for guild catas.
Complexity of the new maps (in particular the verticality and the loss of waypoints in the lower keeps).
Automatic upgrades – everything is usually at full strength when I log in.

Sorry but 100 words are even too much, I was used to be commander for open raid during off time (either afternoon or after prime) but now wvw is DEAD!!!! We can give you tons of feedback, but the thing is only one, the design of the new map is not fun at all, I just see with my guild, kinda nobody like it, before everything was easier, roaming, upgrading (i even miss to upgrade a keep, now there is no fun anymore even on upgrading stuff), duelling, guild raids…old alpine bls had his problem, but still is 1000 times better than desert bls.

Simply put…

The new maps are too big, there are too many doors (NO REAL WVW PLAYER WANTS TO FIGHT DOORS !!!), it’s hard to get around the map of this size and with huge cliffs without at least having gliding, I mean come on ! Why make a map of this size and height, introduce gliding to the game and then not allow it on these maps ? What ?

Anet, start playing your own game and see for yourselves. That’s the biggest problem right there too, you don’t play your own game.

Running around in a blob on an NA server on an uplevel thief or engineer doing stupid PVD doesn’t count.

EU primetime is during YOUR workday, get in the game and play it, see for yourselves the mess you’ve created.

Disclaimer: I am from one of the smallest servers (Vabbi) and have been playing there for about 2.5 years.

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?*

The group size was 1-3, mostly scouting, defending and camp-flipping. Also tagging up for defense.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps? *

I went to EB for zerging, but was there only rarely.

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands. *

Running around alone with a tag, hoping someone might join. Using the crafting stations. Sometimes I can motivate a few guildies to have a team which gets sufficient momentum to take structures.

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role. *

It varied pretty well, holding keeps against double our numbers to killing roamers and dueling. In the new BL, we were outnumbered for half an hour and did not meet the enemy. The feature we used most is the ability to jump down from air keep for a surprise attack and the hell hound transformation in the fire keep.

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past. *

Usually noone is defending in the new BL, retaking a keep takes about the same time, but at least 7-10 people, wheras before 3-4 people could manage when there was no opposition.
With active defense, it takes significantly longer to take a structure. The EB zerg takes 45+ mins to retake the whole borderlands without opposition.

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW? *

Specializations can be unlocked with WvW rewards, that’s fine. The drops are similar to before, with some greens from the level-up replaced by the resource nodes. My funds stay stable at around 60G, what I earn is about what I spend on siege.

• How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW? *

Before I was playing WvW in the BL nearly exclusively. When I still play WvW, I go to EB but right now I spend more time farming potatoes to level scribe. With my server being close to go down to tier 9 because of losing several guilds, my motivation to play WvW is barely there anymore.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved. *

On an abstract level: let small groups (2-3 ppl) have more impact again. Redesign keeps such that you can find an enemy zerg in time. E.g. let a fully upgraded keep show
groups of a certain size (say 20+ people) or make keeps better viewable. Something independent: make a reserve exit from the hometeam spawn, right now the two exits can be
covered by a small group of enemies.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player. *

Either people are overwhelmed by the mechanics and the layout and leave pretty soon or they take shrines and sentries. Since the BL is empty, noone answers to questions or gives an introduction.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps. *

It’s still an effort to get to know efficient paths but it’s doable. You might tag up, but without guildies it’s highly unlikely to attract sufficient people to take a keep. Fully upgraded camps can be soloed by pulling, towers are doable with catapults. Keeps need the EB zerg.

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2? *

In the guild hall or Metrica Province, when it makes sense in EB. In the new BL mainly for crafting and about twice a week when we manage to have sufficient people.

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

Groups varied throughout the day from 5 man defending to 20-30 but it was always the usual suspects plus a few people waiting for EB queue to pop, had alot of fun running aroudn defending camps, renewing/refreshing siege, monitoring upgrades and escorting dollies. Always seomthing to do and always someoen to talk to.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

Mostly large group fighting with a little bit of roaming as EB was more of a blobby map that that blob fight focused, EB doesn’t feel liek it’s changed to much.

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

Empty, souless and nothing to do. The usual defneders/roamers litterly have nothing to do as we can never reach the lower part of the map in time, towers are too easy to defend and it’s 20% of the old alpine borders in regards to fun. The border regulars are all but gone and no community is left as a result. Auto upgrades and camps have made essentially made them ap play itself so we’re just here to look at the shiny new map.

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

Very varied, could be dueling, small group fighting to clutch blob defense of the keep with epic battles in garriso nthat could last 5 hours or more, as far as shinanigans go it doesn’t seem to have changed with regards to using terrain, people have thesense to avoid the new map mechanics if owned by another server, Group/blob combat is hard to find unless you force a fight ober an objective and they never come out to fight so we just get bored and leave.

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

New structers upgrade EXTREMELY fast compared to the old borders where it would take the best part of a whole morning or afternoon to upgrade them to T3 which we all enjoyed nursing to adulthood to see it succesfully defended at prime time.

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

Honestly didn’t feel any different in terms of loot drops.

• How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

I can’t play Desert borders for more than 30 minutes before i’m bored, guild raids on desert borders are over fast or we go to EB ifthere’s space.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Bring back the old upgrade system, camps and remove the tower WP and move them to Fire/Air keep. Remove the shine effects.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

They won’t as they would be bored very quickly with very little to do or people to talk to.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

They simply don’t work, reinforced the blob meta by driving people to EB or driving them from WvW entirely.

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

Eternal Borderlands – I don’t like playing dead maps.

We could each write an 1st class thesis on how to improve WvW.

Point is Anet have never listened to us before, why will they now?

All these suggested attempts to “listen” are just a carrot on a stick.

This ^ is not constructive – and that’s the problem right there.

Whether I like the new maps or not, someone (or more likely a team of people) has spent a long time making them, and that effort alone deserves some respect. The maps must have taken quite a time to make, and pre-HoT there were many posts complaining that Anet were ignoring WvW and demanding something new to make it more exciting. Desert BL is new and is an attempt to provide something a bit different, so you can’t really say Anet never listened before!

As I understand it, the point of this thread is to try to get a feel for what we think has changed and how it has affected us – it is an attempt to understand what happened and why Anet’s vision of the new map is different to that of many of the WvW players who have posted here.

This thread is a quiet place of reason not a toxic rant. In my experience quiet reason gets listened to more than ranting – so feel free to answer the OP questions, and add your voice in a positive way.

I have to admit the hardest point in my summary was the suggestion on changes. My problem is that my expectation for a borderlands map go into a different direction: simple layout, simple mechanics and smaller than the current one. My main feeling is that the desert borderlands is a lot about the environment, but little about the players. For instance, the fire keep is beautiful, with tons of places to discover (and hide in :-) ) but I completely lose orientation in a fight in there. At the same time I have the feeling that three zergs could be in there at the same time without ever meeting. Because there is so much visual interference, it is even harder to spot an enemy team attacking. Similar things hold for the other two keeps, with a bit of variation of the theme. I don’t have a clue how to change this without scrapping the new borderlands. That’s why I’m so depressed.

The waypoint in what used to be Garrison is on a platform that seems to serve no useful purpose. There are no stairs leading from this platform to the area below. The fact that this is a game is immediately obvious. This isn’t a place where Humans, Charr, Sylvari etc go about their buisness. It’s a made-up environment that is impossible to get lost in, except in the most literal of ways. Add to the ’ain’t we clever’ map design, the auto upgrades and the lack of waypoints in what were Hills and Bay, and you kill all the immersion; and therefore the urgency to upgrade, siege up and defend; and therefore the personal pride in a borderland that’s all YOUR colour; and therefore server pride; and therefore the need for servers; and therefore…we get EotM 2. And no, this is not constructive criticism. You took something ailing but essentialy great round the back of the barn, and put a bullet in it’s head. WTF were you thinking ANet?

Just figured I’d put in my two cents as someone who plays T8 WvW almost exclusively, and has effectively stopped playing GW2 altogether since HoT launch after about a week’s worth of logins.

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

Typically off-peak I’d run either solo or a small group of 5 or less flipping camps and towers if I was feeling ambitious. Typical Havok stuff. On peak I may run in a larger group to (re)take a keep.
Keep the home borderland the correct color then branch out.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

Generally I did not play EBG unless there was a guild run heading over there.
Typically larger groups when in EBG.

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

More solo roaming in home BL (since there are generally fewer people on map) flipping camps despite the value of doing so being severely diminished. The only positive is that T3 camps appear easier to take now since it’s easier to pull only a few guards at a time. Taking towers is mostly off the table since so many are T3 and they require significantly more time/players to (re)take. I’ll hop over to an enemy BL to pick a fight if I’m getting bored.

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

Off-peak it was typically 1vX, with larger groups during peak hours. Pre-HoT I ran into a lot of LB Rangers, Condi/DP teefs, DD Eles, PU Mesmers rarely solo. When caught solo they often ran if the initial burst wasn’t a (near)kill.

A few good duels since HoT, and been jumped a few times by groups of <5 while soloing camps. Seeing more variation in roamers mainly with the Elites, but haven’t come across anything that (ab)uses the “verticality” yet.

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

Camps of equal tiers appear to take roughly the same amount of time, with post_HoT possibly being a little faster since you can sometimes get away with not having to kill all of the enemies to clear the circle and what’s left being spread far enough apart that they won’t aggro while you’re flipping.

Towers are a different story since you have the +5 supply (guild claim) and Guild Cata changes which slow down the process. But those things aside I don’t believe taking towers of equal tier are that much different time-wise.

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

If you’re playing WvW for the loot/rewards you’re in the wrong place.
I can sustain myself by cutting corners like I always have. Using cheaper consumables and sub-optimal sigils runes when necessary.
I have not purchased HoT since it is unnecessary to play my preferred game mode (WvW), and my main profession received an Elite that a. doesn’t have a proper Elite mechanic and b. received more AI utilities (it was pretty unanimous that no Engineer wanted another AI set of utilities).
Which other in-game goals?

• How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

My last few logins have been to get my daily and get out. So to answer the question, as of HoT, I no longer have multi-hour WvW (or GW2 for that matter) sessions.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Fix Master of Ruins and Vet Creature Slayer Dailies.
Remove Auto-Upgrades. Upgrades must require player interaction AND supply as it was pre-HoT. Upgrades can be made free, and kept in HoT tiers to avoid having to balance rewards around upgrade costs and “trolls”. I would be open to a badge cost for upgrades similar to how siege/traps costs badges.
For guilds who had +5 unlocked pre-HoT don’t make them reacquire it.
Waypoints for T3 keeps only. Bring back waypoints for T3 keeps. Remove waypoints from Towers.
Remove central PvE Event.
Remove maze and gimmick factor from keeps.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

Don’t bother trying to complete the Vet Creature or Ruin daily. Of all the work Anet did on WvW they some how neglected to change two of the dailies to match the current content. We’re now 3+ weeks into HoT and no fix. You should feel neglected.
Get involved with your server’s WvW community including voice comms (even if you only listen).
Aside from that you should be able to figure it out on your own, but feel free to ask questions.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

If you don’t know by now I’m not sure anything I say can help you.

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

Home BL if I decide to login at all.

First off, tip of the hat to A-net for putting so much work into the Desert Borderlands Map. Now take off the hat and slap them with it because they ruined our Home Borderlands! Map makes no sense what so ever. We did not need earth, wind and fire to fight for. Where are our wps? Takes way to long to get around. It’s like a Technology War. We don’t need that. We need a map with strategy involved to fight on. Fun factor in the Home map now is 0 for me, totally annoying and frustrating. You can not go to your home map now and kill some time and try to accomplish anything. For me, I log from the game totally annoyed and watch TV. I am not a casual player, WvW at least (3) hours or more a night but not now. I would’ve loved if they STRETCHED the Alpine map to the new size, put in the enhancements like auto upgrade, Sentry Posts that show enemies etc…and put all the hard work into other things like maybe Increased tougher (but not invulnerable) Guards that would be added as time went on, Siege Towers where we could breach the walls and try to get in over the walls, Moats with drawbridges with no way to enter the water without drowning (never could understand how heavily armored Warriors could swim around like they were in the Olympics! :-) Ladders that could be carried up to the wall and give you a chance to breach. Real SIEGE type stuff (built with blueprints and supply), no technology from the Asurans. The way real Castles were fought for. Like I said, a lot of work was put into that map but it squashed the fun factor in the process. I know I’m not alone in this thinking.

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

I typically play during weekend mornings (NA) solo roaming and upgrading the home borderlands. Despite a low number of players during these hours there was a lot to do. It was a struggle to respond to white swords and move around the map triggering upgrades on time, but it was a lot of fun.

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

I never spent time on EB playing defense or solo roaming. Typically, I would play EB during prime time hours and join the zerg.

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

I’ve only spent a couple hours in the new borderlands. I get bored because you can’t find fights and it feels pointless to play defense since all of the structures auto upgrade.

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

There are less fights and all of the PvE gimmicks just interfere.

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

It’s about the same as the old borderlands. The only difference is that objectives are more likely to be fully upgraded and it is more difficult to run supply. I miss our guild’s +5 supply buff.

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

The rewards should be better since you are not spending gold on upgrades.

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

I haven’t played multiple hours since release. I don’t see myself returning to WvW anytime soon. I’m going to spend my time working on Guild Hall upgrades until some of the WvW changes are reverted.

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Fully revert the waypoint changes and remove auto upgrades. Providing three waypoints for the home team will allow defenders to respond to white swords and generate more fights for roamers. If players have to manually trigger upgrades, there will be a reason to stay on the map and play defense. It would also help if yaks had a larger impact on upgrade time.

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

None, I quit playing WvW.

•Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

I would usually play during off-peak hours recapping and upgrading borderlands or causing havoc in enemy bl. I would play solo (taking camps and towers) or join up with other players to form small groups. Sometimes I’d tag up to take keeps or defend against larger groups. After enemy nightcap everything would be paper so 1-3 players could take back a lot of the borderland or EB corner in 1 hour. A lot of the satisfaction came from knowing that my efforts helped to get my server in a good position during peak (with upgraded keeps). During peak I’d join my wvw raiding guild (10-20 players) and we would look for other guilds to fights or join fights for keeps.

•Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

I would go EB when BL was fully upgraded or when EB needed my help. In EB usually a commander would be leading the pugs around. I’d join them or go solo taking camps and towers and finding other roamers to fight.

•Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

Navigating the new map is a pain in the kitten . Cant quickly get to where my help is needed. After enemy nightcap everything has turned T3 automatically making it impossible to do much in an hour with the 1 or 2 players that are on the map so I just won’t bother and leave.

•Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

In the past lots of small scale fighting between enemy roamers/groups trying to take structures and several dedicated defenders/upgraders was taking place in lower tier off-peak hours. Now the maps are empty because the defenders/upgraders are no longer there. The enemy roamers dont have anyone to fight and the structures are all T3 making them a pain to solo. We now need large groups to get anything done but when solo players cant do anything and leave, not enough players will be there to form a group at all, making all maps dead outside peak hours.

•In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

On my own BL the enemy would usually leave everything paper so it would be easy to take back with a small group. Now it takes frustratingly long because everything is T3 and when I try to solo a tower on EB usually some enemy pugs will have enough time to show up and destroy the siege. And theyll sit on the wall waiting for me to make a move so I’ll just leave. Seems like all the people who would jump down to have a fight have left the game now.

•How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

Loot has been very bad in wvw always but I did some TP flipping so I was always well funded. I played for the fun, not the loot. Getting an ascended chest now and then was very nice though.

I didn’t get HoT because it was all PvE which I dont care for and I kinda saw the storm coming for WvW when lots of beta testers complained about the new maps.

•How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

I wont have any more long sessions. Gameplay has been ruined for me.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Add waypoints in keeps, lots of bridges and stairs so we can get from one structure to another quickly again, remove all pve events, remove gimmicks and most of all remove auto upgrade. Or even better, bring back the old maps.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

They come into an empty map where everything is T3; have fun soloing those T3 towers and keeps!

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

Frustrating to navigate, dumb pve events and no enemies to fight.

•Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

For now EB but I’ll probably be gone from GW2 soon.

Been thinking some more and came up with some steps to make this work.
Step 1 remove so Building upgrades without supply, suggestion 6unupgarded or 3 upgraded Dolys first upgraded tower and then 2x next lvl and 2x 3lvl, and it should then take about 5min after doly drop off supply until upgraded is done. For Keep 10/5 Dolys first then 2x 2 and 3 lvl.

Step 2 make the ground flatter maybe leave 3-4 chock points not as it is now chock points all over.

Step 3 move WP to Keep also for Enemy but still do so you can only have 1 WP/map.

Step 4 make a advantage be on top wall not disadvantage, easiest way stop so players AOE cant hit so high.

I will try to give my feedback, as an spanish speaker only :p (From a T2 and T3 player… FA and now CD)

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

- I used to scout for hours in the Alpine Border, and fight with roaming people all the time. I used to upgrade the keeps and defending them against the enemies. (All this before my Guild Raid)

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

- I was not an EB player, for me was a lot better to defend home border. The funny thing is that with my guild we used to avoid EB.

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

- We can do something in the new border?, i didn´t know that. The only option for me is to AFK in the new border.

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

- We used to have fun in the old borders, fighting the enemy team there was fun almost all the time. Now the new maps are a boredom fest, they are too BIG and complex.

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

-Takes a lot more time, and the guilds avoid the map if they can.

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

- The people don´t play wvw for the rewards, they play for the fights and to have fun. I think that you need to add some exclusive skins and let the people do only wvw if they want adding things that we only can obtain in pve. (Not more pve events in wvw)

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

- I used to play like 5-6 hours per day, now i barely connect to my Guild Raid.

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

-They need to be removed, or do some serious work in them. They are too Huge and Complex… beautiful but thats all.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

- They don´t work. They are like a white elephant, useless.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

- They don´t work. They are like a white elephant, useless.

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

EB only to Raid with my Guild. Funny thing is that i used to hate EB. :p

Hello (:

wooow its my first post on this forum
So i play Guild Wars 2 since realese, it makes a lot of fun and its a really good game…BUT what happend to WvW ):

Please ArenaNet listen to your community and look at all the discussions about WvW… it feels like this game is dying! ):

I think there are also WvW players that already gave up on your support…and well, in Teamspeak on WvW severs you will hear always the same about WvW in Hot and the new desert BL. (" too huge…..too complex….too PVE…its empty……………..")
Also there are less and less people in WvW Teamspeak Server…so you need to change things asap in my opinion!

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

Group Size Alpine BL: 20-60
Group Size Desert BL: its empty…nothing to do there (complex and big)
Tasks/Activities Alpine BL: capture keeps, towers, camps | defending keeps, towers, camps | upgrading keeps, towers, camps | escorting dollies | there were a lot of tasks and you could find players anytime…
Tasks/Activities Desert BL: Again…its empty…why def? map is too big for running to def…why capture? taking keep takes like 15-20 minutes… why upgrading? …
__________________________________________________________________

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

No, cause we had the same tasks and activities like on alpine borderlands.
__________________________________________________________________

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

We tried to play and have “fun”…but its booooooring…there is nothing to do, just standing in front of a gate and wait for karma….woooow ):
__________________________________________________________________

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

no “real” combats..because why def,…..?
__________________________________________________________________

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

Lords/Champions (tower/keeps) and Gates…it takes sooo long…idk it was good like back in the days…so why changing this?
__________________________________________________________________

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

Still get enough lootbags in EB from fighting…
__________________________________________________________________

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

atm playing not that much wvw…and if i do its mostly on eb like maybe for 1-3 hours…back in the days much mooooore xD (~6h) and reset on friday was also much better!!!
__________________________________________________________________

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Dont make them so “complex”…just easy and simple, like old borderlands… with some new textures.
And mechanics also…what is this problem with the waypoints?!
Dont make it so complicated…there was a good wvw system in gw2, so just rollback some mechanics, objectives,…and make desert BL not that complex.
Make it smaller like alpine BL.
__________________________________________________________________

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

To a new wvw player….well its empty, complex and huge so they dont work at all!
__________________________________________________________________

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

Same as to new wvw player..
__________________________________________________________________

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

EB

I hope this post will help :/

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past.
- Roaming, defending keeps, towers and camps

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds
-EB fights on my server are generally just a huge map blob

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
-New border has been empty or close to it every time I’ve logged in since HoT

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you?
- new borders are generally empty

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
-Have yet to find a defended tower in new borders, so can’t compare

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past?
-WvW has always cost players far more to play than they make, I have never once spoken to a WvW player who plays for the loot.

Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?
-no, WvW seems to have been isolated from the “main game” for a long time

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
-I used to play about 8 hours a day, since new maps probably closer to 30-60mins

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
-they could be replaced

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
-many/most of the veteran players seem to have stopped playing.

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
-EB, as desert borders are empty.

Step 5 in my idea change the buff shrine now to “Bloodlust”, you have 3 shrine next to every keep, then do so if you hold any off your shrine that is next to your servers keep (where you have WP) you get + in points for Stomps. That will also make something more for small rooming groups to do, stop the enemy from getting extra points on stomps and make sure your server get extra points.

General improvements:
> Remove auto-upgrades and go back to the old upgrade system
> Reduce the toughness of upgraded walls and doors

Improving the new borderland (without a complete redesign):
> Remove the mechanics from Lords
> Reduce the number of guards and increase their re-spawn time
> Either remove or change the dinosaur event:
(Suggestion) Conquest just like PvP, first to 500 points. The laser also repairs damage on friendly structures (counterplay)

Improving the new borderland (with a complete redesign):
> Reduce the size & the complexity
- Open field, gentle terrain, easy to navigate. (same for keeps etc)
> Make sure towers are in treb range of keeps and vise versa (tactical play)
> Remove all gimmicks
> (Suggestion) Remove all npc’s: Guards, mobs, do we even need Lords why not just a capture circle like in PvP

delete south half of each map, totally unnecessary strategically and totally not enjoyable to navigate to.
OR
Flatten all terrain around a single large keep (home “keep” to replace home bl), make it defensible but upgrades have to be earned.
Remove all gimmicks, jumping puzzle-type crap, lasers, etc.
Make a keep worth KEEPING and it will draw all the fights there.
2-3 fronts will encourage massive fights from 2-3 servers at all times of the day. When secure, go to EB, when not, priority is to re-establish your keep.

lastly, put something in wvw that can only be attained there (crafting wise?), this will draw in pve’rs and they will realize their skill in the open world is weak compared to those that constantly fight other “people”. It will draw them in (if they seek a challenge) and will increase wvw pops. Plus, the wvw vets will have fun defending the crafting material if it is on the home/enemy bl.

-Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

I tended to scout/keep an eye on keeps/defend, i would sometimes lead teams to take back lost land. Plain scouting would normally be 1-3 people, taking land could be anywhere up to 50.

-Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

I dont spend alot of time in eb, it tends to just be people rushing at each other.

-Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

There isnt really anyone in the new bl, it takes a long time to navigate aswell, the combat tends to be slow as a result as you have no scouts and just 1-5 people taking land. The Oasis event also causes alot of lag and makes defence less viable (as a zerg just ruches the event and then walks through teh open gates)

-In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

It takes about 5 timess longer to take an objective and thats when the new ones arnt being defended.

-How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards?

The wxp rewards for scouting and defending have always been terrible but they are even worse now as tehre is no one to fight. It actually costs alot of money to defend and now that its so rare to get attacked its costing even more as you arnt getting any loot.

-Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

I play wvw for the game mode itself, like i said wvw has always costed resources its not profitable. It would be nice to have some sort of wvw reward track. And it would be nice if scouting/defending was rewarded.

-How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

At the moment it is very slow and to be honest i am starting to get bored, no fights are going on.

-In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

Remove the oasis event
remove auto-upgrade(keep it free but make it use sups again)
fix the waypoints, at the moment you cant use them
create some sort of system to make getting around the map faster(ie gliders)
add in the autoloot system
Reward scouting and defending

-In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

They tend to get lost which people find very off putting.

-In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

It has taken some time to get used to, there are things that need to change but if they get changed it would be fun again.

-Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

Desert borderlands in the hope that i get some wvw.

Is Anet really reading this Archon?

I’m going to respond to your queries in terms of how each thing makes me feel, and why. Mostly people remember how something makes them feel, and right now, the feels are not good for the new WvW.

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?

- Feeling happy, running around with a party of 5, off-peak. Mix of fights and PPT.

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

- Only went to EB to support off-peak when asked. EB was never my cup of tea. Too much lag generally, and blob fights aren’t fun for me.

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.

- Hard to to rally a party of keen people, so feels like hard work, and is frustrating. I also get lost quite a bit, which erodes my confidence to tag up. If I tag up, and get lost, I feel embarrassed, so I tag down or don’t tag at all. Only been in new maps 2 weeks in between the horrendous PVE grind required for Guild Hall upgrades, even the simple basics. Heavy Supply bags?? WHAT??

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.

- Fight mechanics are definitely more interesting… if you can find a fight. Oasis event has burned people very quickly. Grindy with a small group, or solo. And if you can’t do it, you basically hand your BL to the enemy night blob, thus nightblobbing is worse than ever. Feels annoying and frustrating.

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.

- Really difficult with a small group, esp with supply restriction (no +5) and size/complexity of maps (long runs to supply camps a lot of the time) and nerfed guild cata sup requirements. Feels.. disheartening.

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards?

- Loot seems slightly improved, but not the right kind of loot for wvw upgrades.. see.. heavy supply bag requirements for basic unlocks. Massive frustration there.

Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?

- Not really, it’s actually hard to pursue wvw goals at the moment.. really feeling like wvw offers me nothing other than nostalgic times with old mates who bother to log in to it at the moment.

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?

- The map changes have made the WvW experience feel a lot more PVE oriented. If I wanted to play PVE, I would make that my focus. But I don’t, outside the PS and basic map exploration, PVE is boring for me.

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.

- Auto upgrades to T2 and T3 should take longer to reflect the amount of effort required to breach them. Would also be better if they had to be manually triggered.. the auto is lazy and unfair. Add a way to the game for WVW players to get the materials for the basic upgrades (Heavy Supply Bags.. for example), or significantly reduce the requirements. Make the Fire and Air Keep WP’s accessible by whoever owns the keep. This would significantly help with the “getting around a huge map” aspect, as it is highly problematic at the moment. Impossible to run and defend easily. No wonder people flocking to EB.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.

- New WvW players seem to consistently report feeling overwhelmed.. risk of “too hard basket” unless taken underwing by vets to explain the basics. The new complexity of path-finding and mechanics is daunting to new players. It is also not rewarding enough compared to the HoT content, Raids and Fractals.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.

- It feels like a loooong run each time I go in, even with speed buffs.. the paths and distance between viable objectives is too far. Withe the BL empty, the fun of fights is practically gone.. maybe you find some fight in the oasis during event, but then you getting knocked down by the dinosaurs.. god.. it makes me grind my teeth in frustration.

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?

Right now? Verdant Brink, farming crap for my guild, so I can get back to WvW. Looks like WvW is pretty dead for me and many others for quite a while. Massive shame, as the new maps have the potential to be quite good, even superior to the old ones, with some simple changes to time efficiency (scribing, defending, running around, clearer mapping, guild hall upgrading, oasis event, .. the list goes on and on).

Please listen to your players Anet, we’ve been loyal, we understand it hard to get it right, but please listen to what people are saying, or this part of the game will die.. and you’ll lose many many people. (They are already leaving in droves from what I see). Right now, time in WVW on the BL is not time spent having fun. It’s downright frustrating.

I posted in this thread 26 days ago. Since then I think I’ve played less GW2 in 26 days than I used to play in a single day; I played WvW exclusively (maybe the odd bit of PvP) but have stopped playing GW2 entirely. The borderlands are tedious to play in – and when you play games for fun…

I honestly can’t think of better feedback than that.

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?
We ran 5-15, havoc team, mostly camp flipping, tower flipping and occasionally a keep.

•Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?
On EB I would mostly follow a large group and whatever commander tag was up. Zergs are more common there then havoc teams. So we played it less.

•Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
Actually I noticed in the new borderlands we usually headed right out to either do the middle event so we could weakent he keeps or straight to one of the side keeps. We only stopped at camps if we needed supply.

•Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.
There are lot more choke points and yes dangerous areas to both teams in the new borderlands. Which is both good and bad, however I do not think I have changed my build specifically because of that.

•In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
Lightly defended tower prior-10-15 min. After-15-20 Not defended, time stays about the same.

•How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW? Currently since large groups (zergs)and fight guilds(They can use arenas ect) happen less, the loot tables are out of balance as you are not killing or fighting against as large of numbers in one setting. So essentially due to the decrease in actually player vs. player confrontations, you do not make any money in wvw it continues to be a drain on the average player. PVE yields far far better results as you encounter monsters and map rewards at a higher rate. I was able however to unlock my specialization through WvW only which made me happy.

•How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
Being able to get to fights quickly helps keep my interest in WvW going, the size of maps combo’d with low populations is a serious issue.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
The borderlands themselves have a lot of Potential. They need better map rewards to bring in new wvwers and keep them. They need a higher population on them so that people see others on the maps and don’t log off due to perceived inactivity. Scoring needs adjustment so that people in off hours are not struggling and stressed while playing, while still feeling like you make a difference.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player. Originally and contrary to what many say about the center event, it is not new WvW player friendly mainly because the PVE you do there is highly dangerous. I have done MORE PvPing in the center map event then whilst taking keeps. (I personally like it for just this reason) However, the shrine system is the most beneficial to new WvWers cause small side objectives encourage small groups and even singular players ability to contribute to server success. This is very important. The rewards though are not strong enough to entice new players into this area.

•In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
You have two types of WvW veterans. Your extremely hard core, who are resistant to change. Then you have your more relaxed WvW veterans who want change and are pretty willing to try out anything. The new maps were already an issue in general for hard core players prior to them setting foot on it as they are resistant to change of any sort. Largely it deletes the knowledge they had prior which feeds into their ego. The more relaxed veterans are glad for change and initially love it but find more reward in VB or don’t go due to low map populations now.

•Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
I have split my time up between, WvW, PvP and HoT. Originally I would of said in the Halloween content but that’s over

• Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?
  - I as a Guild leader and WvW Commander, run around the map looking for fights (enemy guilds). We don’t usually engage in any random events or boss fights. We simply look for fights. This can take a while sine the map is very big. Usually after a wasted 30 mins of maybe 5 min of actual fighting we leave for Eternal Battlegrounds.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?
  - Yes. Simply put. In EB you can find fights much fast. The main problem is that EB is focused on larger fights where the borders were more Guild vs Guild oriented. Sadly many guild refuse to play in the new borders and are pushed into EB. In a EB map we focus on fights.

• Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
  - EB has much more players and large scale fights.
  The new border is very large and very hard to find another group. More or less the new borders are empty at the moment. Many servers have gave up on them. Not to mention lower tier servers don’t even have the player base to fill them enough.

• Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.
  - The old border allowed for a much more equal sided fight. I have not seen knocking
  off cliffs to be a guild strategy. At least not personally. The new PvE styled events do support more damage style builds for smaller groups. Also much more CC is run on builds since most specializations have much more CC in them. But that has less to do with the map itself and more the new class and specializations.

• In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
  - Depending on the objective it usually takes much longer in the new border to take something. Example: Fire keep, is very hard to take with a small group. The champ is hard to kill and the structure itself is hard to get into. Small scale guilds can no longer have part in taking keeps. In the past I have had fun in the old border with any size group 5 to 20. It was possible to take a keep with smaller numbers. And much harder to defend it. Witch was great in my opinion.

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?
  - The loot was never a concern to be honest. Hardcore WvW players don’t need fancy items. But both then and now it is impossible to play WvW without playing a large amount of PvE for important gear. (like ASC armor)

**How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
- Definately, I cannot manage to play the new map longer then 1 hour.
The old border I could easily spend half a day.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
  - Remove PvE elements. (example: annoying champs, weird buff events, middle gather event??) Make the map much smaller. Maybe simply remove the middle area.
  Add way points again.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.
  - In my opinion new players will not play the new border. Not without Commanders. And those are hard to find in the new border.

• In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
  - More or less we avoid the border. Sad but true. Unless you are on one of the highest tiers servers the border is very dead.

• Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
  - I will be in Eternal Battle grounds. Or a PvE map. I hardly play on the new border maps. After giving them a honest try, I just don’t like them.

This is all my opinion. The opinion of a Veteran WvW Commander and Guild leader. I can also speak for my guild members. Thank you.

I don’t understand how you could design a map with so much verticality at the same time as you are introducing Gliding and then not allow gliding in that map. Every cliff reminds me of the new Maguuma zones but then you jump and fall to your death. I can’t even begin to understand how these things could have been developed at the same time.

There is nothing wrong with the new maps and there are some blatant fallacies being spouted here.
It takes less time to run from citadel to the fire or air keep than it did to run to Bay or Hills on the Alpine map…..Fact.

The new towers are an improvement over the old if only for the fact they have a ‘back door’ negating the need to have to run through the blob to get inside.

The extra HP of walls and gates gives defenders time to regroup and move to a keep /tower and get to fight the opposition before they have time to cap and WP away.

The new terrain allows roamers to avoid getting run over by blobs by providing plenty of cover and alternate routes.

Falling off cliffs has been a problem since Beta, no commander was considered competent until he had run his blob off a cliff

Dolyaks DO have a purpose. Killing them slow down the auto upgrades considerably.

As a defender, the auto upgrades are a good thing, leaving supply for siege and repairs.

As a roamer the map allows 1 or 2 people to avoid the blob and cap towers and keeps by finding suitable out-of -the way spots to drop some siege. Yes it is possible to cata Garrison outer and inner from one spot and yes, it is possible to cap a tower or keep with two people, most can be solo’ed.

The map opens up new opportunities to change tactics and strategies and think of different ways of doing things rather stick with the same old, same old people complained about for 3 years.

Yes, there are a lot of inherent problems with WvW, many have been there for far too long and need fixing.

WvW is reliant on people not the maps. The amount of work Anet have put into the new maps is nothing short of amazing and had these maps been in the game from the beginning there would not be anywhere near the number of complaints. Human nature being what it is resists dramatic change, usually without just cause.

Instead of only looking for negatives, take some time and look for potential positives, you may surprise yourself.

tichai.4351:

It takes less time to run from citadel to the fire or air keep than it did to run to Bay or Hills on the Alpine map…..Fact.

Do you have any facts to back up that fact? Just curious.

It takes what 30min or so if your unlucky to move from North spawn to the west/east keep if you manage to find the entrance, if enemy have Tower ne then you have walls that block, ofc a lot off mountain and then ravines. And it took about 4min to Bay/Hills.

The advantage on new map is the enemy cant find you its so many ravines and Cliffs, on the old it was a flat space you ran on outside Bay/Hills.

Dawdler.8521:

tichai.4351:

It takes less time to run from citadel to the fire or air keep than it did to run to Bay or Hills on the Alpine map…..Fact.

Do you have any facts to back up that fact? Just curious.

Actually I find this true for bay with the door access shortcuts. Going to hills, however, takes longer, and only because of terrain.

tichai.4351:

There is nothing wrong with the new maps and there are some blatant fallacies being spouted here.
It takes less time to run from citadel to the fire or air keep than it did to run to Bay or Hills on the Alpine map…..Fact.

The new towers are an improvement over the old if only for the fact they have a ‘back door’ negating the need to have to run through the blob to get inside.

The extra HP of walls and gates gives defenders time to regroup and move to a keep /tower and get to fight the opposition before they have time to cap and WP away.

The new terrain allows roamers to avoid getting run over by blobs by providing plenty of cover and alternate routes.

Falling off cliffs has been a problem since Beta, no commander was considered competent until he had run his blob off a cliff

Dolyaks DO have a purpose. Killing them slow down the auto upgrades considerably.

As a defender, the auto upgrades are a good thing, leaving supply for siege and repairs.

As a roamer the map allows 1 or 2 people to avoid the blob and cap towers and keeps by finding suitable out-of -the way spots to drop some siege. Yes it is possible to cata Garrison outer and inner from one spot and yes, it is possible to cap a tower or keep with two people, most can be solo’ed.

The map opens up new opportunities to change tactics and strategies and think of different ways of doing things rather stick with the same old, same old people complained about for 3 years.

Yes, there are a lot of inherent problems with WvW, many have been there for far too long and need fixing.

WvW is reliant on people not the maps. The amount of work Anet have put into the new maps is nothing short of amazing and had these maps been in the game from the beginning there would not be anywhere near the number of complaints. Human nature being what it is resists dramatic change, usually without just cause.

Instead of only looking for negatives, take some time and look for potential positives, you may surprise yourself.

You make some good points, but most of them don’t give us any reason for the alpine map to have been removed entirely… I’ve got some comments for you to consider.

1) Less time to walk from citadel to keeps: perhaps, although I never found anything wrong with the bay/hills distance myself. It’s felt much longer to me when trying to get to an allied assault on one, though, because it seems that most entrances can’t be reached from others without large detours (specifically, avoiding the giant drop from the main gate on hills to the lower gate).

2) Towers… I agree. Though it would have worked just as easily to add them to the old towers. =P

3) Extra HP? Do you mean fortified?

4) Most smart roamers don’t really need gimmicks to avoid blobs… I’d count myself as only a casual roamer, but I was generally able to skip my way around blobs. But this is again something that could have been added to Alpine (fog or mist or something that rolls across certain parts of the map either constantly or occasionally). As to alternative routes… the new map feels like a lot of bottlenecks rather than a lot of options.

5) Falling off cliffs, yup. I don’t mind it as a mechanic – it happened on alpine sometimes as well.

6) Dolyaks do have a purpose, but not if you’re facing a legitimate, turtled defense. There really ought to be more utility for dolyaks though (like that if they die they drop their crates, which can then be abandoned, carried to an allied holding, or looted.

7) Taking away initiated upgrades and their supply costs also means defenders don’t need to be strategic with upgrades or even care about keeps/towers falling. Just sit back and chill forever. I’d love it if I was farming legendary weapons like that, but unfortunately it only applies to WvW gameplay. =/ Seriously, though, Ehmry Bay has some great defenders who were the most awesome and loyal upgraders you could ever have asked for. They knew which things to upgrade first, which upgrades to bother with if the server was about to be empty or full, which keeps/towers to focus on, etc, etc. It was inspiring company.

8) But with auto upgrades, those two roamers will have to rely on three things – one, having enough time to wait for the door(s) to drop, two, that the enemy won’t jump on them, and three, that there will be a backup army once they’ve broken in. It’s pretty difficult (I hesitate to say impossible) to take on a fully auto-upgraded tower with two people.

9) Yup, possibly… but it didn’t need to erase the same old same old, either. Plenty of people love (for instance) the main missions in CoD, but there are still thousands who play through the game and still love going through (The Pit?) again and again and again. I remember that most people complained about EBG and flocked to the borderlands unless they wanted karma trains – now it’s flipped the other way around (except no karma trains in borderlands).

10) Sort of agree. Not quite sure what the long list of problems was myself. With the pretty strong playerbase in WvW back when I played it a lot, and as I wasn’t on the forums back then, I didn’t realize there were actually any strong concerns apart from the Hylek thing. I just noticed hundreds and hundreds of people playing daily in every map.

11) True, people don’t like change, but if you remember, there was a giant PvE event in the middle of the original maps – some Hylek thing. People hated that. It was replaced by a PvP ruin chain. And now, for some unknown reason, we’ve been reverted to another PvE event: a dino-dropping-cannon in the middle of the map. Not sure why the devs forgot about the Hylek thing. Yes, people might not have complained as much if this map had been there in the beginning, but I can say quite honestly that others (myself included) would not have been interested in borderland gameplay if we had seen this one first. The alpine map had a true sense of ascended battle-of-the-mists gameplay (rolling hills of Greece, battles of the gods, etc) that was marred only by the Skritt’s presence in the top left of the map. Centaurs, at least, can slot into Greek Olympian landscapes.

12) Yep, and I’ve seen too much negative feedback. There are positives (and I’m sick of people saying DELETE THE MAP when it’s still fun to wander), and some of the gameplay mechanic changes have been curious, but I still can’t understand why the map was made as a replacement of the alpine map.

Phew. Too much text? My bad. Seriously, though, I’m curious about what you think.

Since the expansion A LOT of things are very broke and messed up in WvW.
Ask any wvw player and they will tell you.
1) new maps way too big and the paths aren’t as distinctive from 1 place to another
2) +5 for supply either is not available or too far away for guild upgrades.
3) no waypoints on the east and west 2 keeps on the home borderland except for the enemies
4) Guild catapults used to be 25 supply and now they take like 50 supply to build and they aren’t supposed to take that much supply and are the same as a superior catapult incorrectly.
5) some tower walls are bugged like they flicker or can’t be damaged when they say they can .
6) A middle keep on new borderlands has a enemy tengu appear in it causing bugs and false swords
7)Shield generators can be severely misused, in the sense that if u put up 2 of them u can 100% prevent someone from even making a ram
8)auto upgrades sort of ridiculous really, doesn’t give u a reason to protect something or work towards it
9)laser event was cool at 1st , but sort of ridiculous
10) all the automatic siege on keeps is overkill , 5 people can hold off 25 with keep siege that is on the new borderlands
11) barriers are super dumb
12)dragon hunters too overpowered, all classes attacking a boss and the dragon hunter pops all his traps and they do a crap ton of damage and other classes way way weaker.
13) New Maps are so broken it’s depressing many wvw players and making them hate wvw maps and they all stay on EBG since the new maps have hurt our wvw way of life.
14) a tower in ebg has false swords when some ascalon ghosts get in a fight iwht the tower guards
15 ) ANET PLEASE LET US HAVE BACK OUR OLD MAPS& JUST REDECORATE THEM IF YOU WANT ,BUT WHAT YOU DID WITH MAKING NEW MAPS TRULY TRULY HAVE RUINED WVW FOR EVERYONE. LET US VOTE OR SOMETHING GIVE US THE OLD MAPS BACK OR AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE THE MAPS SMALLER AND FIX SOME STUFF I LISTED PLEASE PLEASE I"M BEGGING YOU! Over 100 people I know don’t want to go on the new borderlands and they despise the wvw changes. All the changes we too much at once and hurt many of the wvw intricacies to it.

aandiarie.7195:

Since the expansion A LOT of things are very broke and messed up in WvW.
Ask any wvw player and they will tell you.
1) new maps way too big and the paths aren’t as distinctive from 1 place to another
2) +5 for supply either is not available or too far away for guild upgrades.
3) no waypoints on the east and west 2 keeps on the home borderland except for the enemies
4) Guild catapults used to be 25 supply and now they take like 50 supply to build and they aren’t supposed to take that much supply and are the same as a superior catapult incorrectly.
5) some tower walls are bugged like they flicker or can’t be damaged when they say they can .
6) A middle keep on new borderlands has a enemy tengu appear in it causing bugs and false swords
7)Shield generators can be severely misused, in the sense that if u put up 2 of them u can 100% prevent someone from even making a ram
8)auto upgrades sort of ridiculous really, doesn’t give u a reason to protect something or work towards it
9)laser event was cool at 1st , but sort of ridiculous
10) all the automatic siege on keeps is overkill , 5 people can hold off 25 with keep siege that is on the new borderlands
11) barriers are super dumb
12)dragon hunters too overpowered, all classes attacking a boss and the dragon hunter pops all his traps and they do a crap ton of damage and other classes way way weaker.
13) New Maps are so broken it’s depressing many wvw players and making them hate wvw maps and they all stay on EBG since the new maps have hurt our wvw way of life.
14) a tower in ebg has false swords when some ascalon ghosts get in a fight iwht the tower guards
15 ) ANET PLEASE LET US HAVE BACK OUR OLD MAPS& JUST REDECORATE THEM IF YOU WANT ,BUT WHAT YOU DID WITH MAKING NEW MAPS TRULY TRULY HAVE RUINED WVW FOR EVERYONE. LET US VOTE OR SOMETHING GIVE US THE OLD MAPS BACK OR AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE THE MAPS SMALLER AND FIX SOME STUFF I LISTED PLEASE PLEASE I"M BEGGING YOU! Over 100 people I know don’t want to go on the new borderlands and they despise the wvw changes. All the changes we too much at once and hurt many of the wvw intricacies to it.

Woah. While I agree with several points, I’ll have to say that the caps is an eyesore and really hard to read. Begging in caps doesn’t really help…

Dragonhunter traps are OP? I’ve been using them since I leveled my dragonhunter, and I’m finding them reasonably average except for utility. Rangers have traps as well, and if I recall correctly they are more powerful for actual damage than dragonhunter ones. Just that rangers don’t equip them as often.

Please go back to old maps in WvW. The new maps are too spread out… running for long periods of time is not fun, and not encountering anyone to fight. 3D stairs are a pain and several accidental drop offs to death… and then it takes forever to get back to the spot I died (no WPs). If you die in a party and they don’t resurrect you, you start from the main WP on the map. Several areas have only one way in… where is the strategy with one way in? The favorite part of this game for me is WvW, and now it is very disappointing. Too bad you didn’t understand what made it so great in the first place. Request return to the fun “older” wvw maps please.

@ Swift,

I cannot disagree with your comments and you have made some valid points.

@1) I ran from spawn to each on a Norn with no speed buffs. Fire keep was 2:30 and Air keep 3:40 (I had to take a detour because of barrivades at Necropolis) However, the only reason for mentioning the time was in response to some spurious claims it was longer/further than on the old maps.

@2) No argument with that one

@3) Yes, fortified, although that has now been reduced, wrongly in my opinion as I feel that again, panders to the blob looking for easy mode.

@4) I am not a regular roamer and don’t generall, have constant speed buffs and having managed to elude ‘the blob’ a couple of times thanks to the terrain it has to be +1 from me

@5) Yep, falling off cliffs since beta

@6) We may see more from camps/dolyaks once guilds have the ability to enable the new camp buffs?

@7) Primarily I am a defender and have spent far too many hours upgrading towers/keeps and dropping 100’s of siege and for me it is a tactical game. I know, more often than not, I am going to have a blob, zerg or even a small group knocking on the door or wall and for the challenge is to be able to counter every trick they can come up with. In 3 years I think I have only come across 1 guild, from FSP who were really good at attacking a tower and it became a real test of skill and ingenuity and for me that was the ‘reward’ Sure, loot and ranks were hard to come by but then I have never viewed them as something important.

@8) Having taken towers and keeps with only 2 people is indeed possible and yes it takes time and requires several runs for supply. Of course there is always the chance of being spotted and killed which adds a nice bit of uncertainty. Standing outside with 20 – 50 people and no defence in place is like watching paint dry

@9) Possibly agree. I think they may have brought in too many changes in one go and in doing so have completely changed the dynamics of the game.

@10) There have been glitches on the map since day 1. LoS issues being one and it has never really been fixed. AoE is out of control making melee redundant for anything other than small group encounters. There are more although none are truly game-breaking.

@11) Personally, I don’t think there is any need for a PvE event in the middle of WvW. To many it is an unecessary annoyance. There are some servers who positively enjoy this type of event but they tend to be the National servers whose whole style of gameplay is alien to others

@12) With regard to the Alpine maps I think Anet should make some comment as to their future. If people know the timeline for the proposed rotation they may be a little more forgiving of the new maps.

TLDR:

The new maps are not perfect but they are all we have for the time being but then, WvW should be about fighting the opposition and if you are doing that you won’t have time to look at the scenery

Play style: Tier 2 server, mostly run in a mid size guild. 1-2 hours 3-4 days a week in the evening.

1. I’d prefer to have all the major changes rolled back.

2. (NA player) My biggest complaint is the Saturday reset. Before, Friday night was work week over -> WvW start. Friday had the most action, and all of Saturday had consistent action that continued the rest of the weekend.

Now that Friday and most of Saturday are the end of the reset, they’re the worst nights for WvW. PPT is pretty much set and people are waiting for reset. It’s also pretty inconvenient for our Euro players because reset occurs midnight or later on Sunday for them, leaving very little time to enjoy the reset.

3. It would be nice to have a reward track for WvW of some sort. I know there are a lot of players that exclusively WvW and do not like PvE, so it would be nice to have more unlockable content in WvW so we don’t have to grind PvE (decreasing overall enjoyment). PvE, sPvP and WvW should really all be treated as separate games with the ability to get similar rewards.

4. The reward structure in WvW needs a revamp. The best rewards are from taking objectives (which are often undefended), and really should be from player kills or at least something more PvP oriented. PPT doesn’t really offer any sort of reward outside of the seasons. Why bother?

5. Please don’t make major changes to WvW without addressing the WvW community directly again. These surprise changes in the xpac have devastated the community in a very short amount of time. PvE can be a surprise because you’re adding new content, not replacing existing content.

6. Look at merging servers to even out WvW population. We want permanence, not an EoTM like solution. Instead of 24 servers, cut it down to 15 and have 5 solid tiers. WvW is the last game mode where server actually matters anyways, so combining them wouldn’t affect others. To reiterate, please do not mix them every week like EoTM.

Thanks for taking our feedback.

Edit: added 4 & 5
Edit2: Added 6

Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?
A typical hour involves running with my close knit guild with a size of 15 looking for fights. We would do some PPT but generally only drop siege to lure out the blobs/defenders to come play. We would move around to multiple maps or if there was a callout to defend something would run to our home map to fend off the attackers. Generally a well rounded night running around 3-4 hours doing all sorts of tasks.

Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?
If we decide that we are staying on EB it means be prepared for fights. All it is involves running to the OJ’s and using our battle skills to fight our opponents in open field. As long as we held our corner for the most part we were content to sit with massive 3 way fights in SMC fighting for hours.

Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
The new borderlands are beautifully designed but as I said in a previous closed beta test of the maps, they feel too big. I think that they are designed for 100-250 people in mind (per server) and not 75. It does have a sharp learning curve in map navigation which can turn people away but I feel that it has to many “PvE” mechanics. The central lazer event, the lack of wide open spaces, the excessive ways to turtle in and bunker down prevent fighting. In my previous report I said that it will take a minimum of 18 people to take a single keep all carrying 20 supply to attack effectively. People don’t want to fight on these maps because they “feel” empty. Without fail, every time I play on the desert maps, all I do is karma train with my guild, get bored after 20 mins and leave to EB to look for non-blobs to fight.

Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.
The other maps felt very open and fair. While the new maps promote a higher degree of skill/tactics, I honestly can’t say that I’ve been tested as a commander and have had to adapt. We have had only 2 good fights in the new desert maps since launch. Yes there is a lot of verticality and choke points and areas for you to come around and flank your opponents but I haven’t had enemy numbers to fight against.

In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
The time it takes to capture a structure (keeps specifically) is astronomical. For keeps, the amount of health feels like I can ignore the attackers for a solid 10 minutes and then go run to defend. Camps/shrines/towers all feel about right from the health in the walls/gates and strength of the lord. Keeps take a long time and a large amount of supply to capture. The days of a small guild group (read 10) dropping 5 guild catas to ninja a keep is over. Before you had maybe 5 minutes to react and defend your keep, now you have a good 10 before you need to even begin getting worried.

How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?
The loot compared to the past is the same (which is actually negative), the gold loss per hour now is smaller, this is only the case if I make sure to stop in each objective and gather the nodes. Half the time I forget or am in a rush to go defend/fight on a different part of the map so I don’t want to spend 1 minute waiting for everyone to regroup and finish gathering. I have never been able to sustain myself on WvW alone. I always had to do dungeon speedruns or PvP to have the money to be able to afford my siege and food. I understand that I don’t need all the shinies but to afford sigils of energy, runes of strength, food that costs 40-50s/per hour is not sustainable in WvW alone. I have unlocked 2 classes entirely through the proofs of heroics but I am also rank 1600+ so the points are of no consequence to me. As a WvW fight guild commander if there aren’t enemy’s then I don’t get xp and I don’t get loot. I feel like I am forced to play other game modes just to play what I want. This is not the case in both PvE and PvP. Both provide amble gold/rewards/skins and get attention through balance patches/new content. I would like to be able to purchase large amounts of account bound armor/weapons/runes/food by my WvW rank points or badges of honor.

How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
They have been reduced. My guild is no longer raiding daily for 3-5 hours. Now we spend around 2-3 and aren’t having as much fun. WvW guilds/players have either left the game mode entirely, are grinding PvE to pay for the WvW guild buffs/items that we already had or waiting till you decide to rebalance everything.

In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
Get rid of 2/3 of the desert maps. There should be only 2 maps. The desert borderland: red – earth keep, blue – fire, and green – air; and EB. Each map should have an increased population cap of at least 150 fights PER SERVER.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.
If someone has never set foot in WvW, all they will see is an empty map maybe with a commander tag where they cannot glide even though it looks like it was designed with that in mind.

In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
They will be frustrated, and confused as they compare it to the old maps. Once you spend 10 hours in it though you can understand all the secrets and things you need to know to navigate/play effectively.

Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
If I am playing WvW, it is 99% on EB because that is where I find fights and enemy servers. This game mode is bleeding more and more players each day because we don’t have any communication or transparency. I have had faith in ANET for 10 years as a long time veteran, I have seen them somehow pump out an expansion each year with LOADS of content and amazing features so it is sad to see Wvw getting the scraps of attention in over 3 years of GW2.

We want to be able to fight (you have developed an amazing combat system, let us use it!). We want to be able to buy normal gear (armor/runes/weapons/food) without leaving WvW. We want actual tournaments/competitve GvG focus for once.

Part 2 of my suggestions: These are fixes that really need to be implemented or at least discussed.

1: Removal of Auto-Upgrades/Supply Yaks
Remove the auto upgrade process. As has been said a thousand times here, there is no pride in holding any objectives. Those hours of walking yaks in, deciding whether its worth the risk of building a treb versus getting a full repair on gates is over. Make it so you can starve upgrades by denying yaks. My wallet is thankful that we no longer have to pay gold for upgrades but still make supply be required to get something done. As it stands now I can take a guild group of 20 and bunk up the lords room of a keep with 20 AC’s and there is no way anyone could walk through it and in 3 hours we have a free t2 keep.

2: The issue of “nightcapping”/Score
Remember that one test that you guys ran like 2 years ago, PPK – points per kill. Servers like myself that are often outmanned in giant blob fights but are skilled are allowed to even the scales. I remember that when they changed the rules, the scores were much closer as actual player kills/fight guilds could really contribute to the overall score. This NEEDS to be added back into the score. The 2nd issue of nightcapping is different. As a late PST/early OCX commander/GL I understand that it is always night somewhere and this issue is 100% about server coverage and making that fair. There really is no solution to this but by removing auto upgrades and adding in PPK it would not be as much of a problem. If you didn’t have to log into finding out that your whole BL is filled with enemy T3 keeps because they mega blobbed you at 4am when your sever has a low pop it would be less demoralizing. Right now if someone caps your keeps everyone is just like “oh well, it will auto-upgrade again in like 3 hours”. My solution below about reducing the total maps would also make it easier for your outmanned server to bunk up in your 1 keep and fend off the late night attackers rather than worry about trying to defend 4 keeps. With the new borderlands a force of about 10-20 with siege can keep forces back for quite awhile.

3: Guild Hall WvW Upgrades
Please lower the cost of War Room upgrades for our guild halls. We worked hard to earn our buffs, you took the most useful one +5 (that we ran with every night) and gated it past 2 months of PvE and about $3,000 gold. I would like to be able to immediately purchase all of the auras from guild level 1 if you had them before!

4: Map Size/Current WvW Population
My biggest criticism that I voiced during the closed WvW beta tests, the map needs a higher population. This isn’t another complaint “The map is too big” I’ve done the math, i’ve timed how long it takes to run around once you understand the layout. That part isn’t bad. What is bad is that not even T1 can fill all 4 maps. I want WvW cut down to 2 maps. EB and 1 Desert BL. Adjust the desert map to be like EB where each server is expected to hold their own corner, by only giving us 2 options you would increase the amount of players and more people wouldn’t complain that it feels dead. With current declining populations you could rarely get a fight, I think that this would fix all of these problems. You would have to increase the total population per server though to be ~150 (per server) = 450 total. The map would feel so alive if you could have over 5 guilds all running independently either defending, scouting, upgrading (escorting yaks!) , doing the stupid lazer PvE event, or attacking.

5: WvW Rewards/Gear Proposal
WvW needs to feel rewarding! I think that a good way to balance these so called rewards is that they should all be ACCT bound! If you are really worried about the economy think about this solution. We have PvP gear, and then we have PvE/WvW gear. I want to separate WvW to be like PvP. Let us purchase account bound: armor/weapons/food/runes/sigils and siege with ONLY WvW badges/gold and restrict it to WvW game maps only. So for example if I have a berserker’s set with strength runes, normally that could cost around 100g right now. If you added a WvW armor slot/mode to the hero panel I could buy an exotic set, “unlock” the runes/sigils and have a set of gear with whatever stats I want but could not be used in PvE. This way WvW players could still get the gear and food that they want without having to play other game modes. You have said that there are “no true WvW players”, I am part of the people that would auto-spawn straight into my home BL/Guild Hall if I could. If I could sustain commanding for my guild with siege/food without going into another game mode I would. This way of unlocking/using gear in WvW would remove a lot of hostility and keep us happy. On average I can easily spend 5-10gold worth of siege in a single raid, then add in the cost of 40s per hour to run my food/wrench buffs. That cost is required each day I want to command in WvW. This does not count the set of exotic/ascended gear + expensive runes + expensive energy sigils that I had to grind for to craft just to play my game mode.

I’m just going to add something about the auto upgrade feature since I feel that has killed the game play style for some solo roamers. Basically the upgrades shouldn’t be on a timer but should have to do with how many yaks make it into the objective.

In the past we used to be able to stop upgrades from happening just by taking camps and killing yaks. There were times where all I did was snipe yaks and constantly flip camps because I didn’t want something like SM to get upgraded while waiting for more players to come into the map. That is not the case anymore as the only thing yaks do now is take some time off of the timer and give supplies to the supply pool.

I understand why they did this whole auto upgrade thing but I don’t see why they should still upgrade if they own no camps at all or are not getting yaks into the objectives..

I know you asked people to describe their experience… but I play all different style depending on my mood, so it is not one experience vs another.. I know what I would like regardless of solo/ zerg/ havoc experience so I will just leave my wishlist here in hopes they understand.

My WvW wish list:
1) Small flat type maps like EB without gimmicks with less NPC’s focusing on allowing more players to fight at once reducing player lag and devoting resources to allow for more large scale combat instead.

2) Everything needed to play WvW obtainable in WvW, siege, armor, weapons, runes, masteries, upgrades, EVERYTHING. Have WvW a completely self sustaining game mode. Where you can level and obtain everything you could possibly use from food, utilities, upgrades in WvW without needing to go anywhere else.

3) Make WvW less pay to win by making superior siege and other consumables used in wvw easily obtainable and easily available in WvW.

4) Allow for anyone in a commander’s guild, officer or leadership rank in the active commanders guild be able to assist with party formation while the commander is running so we do not have to stop the train every time a few people get on to get it sorted out. This way other people than the commander can help set up the proper parties for the commander and not rely on the Pugs to self sort.

5)Make Claiming and upgrading camps, towers, keeps easier without the need for PVE as it was before. Instead, allow for the guild with the most buffs active to reclaim over a claimed objective solving the issue of guilds with no buffs running blocking objectives from being claimed. Instead just allow the objective to be reclaimed by the guild with more buffs running to solve the problem.