Guild Wars 2

I want to start this off by saying that I really wanted to love these new maps,. the Alpine maps were getting stale, and I was thrilled to hear that new maps were coming to WvW. I spend most of my time in the Borderlands, often flipping camps and trying to defend my own BL, as opposed to going on the offence.

So, yes, this change was very dear to me. It was something that I was giddy about, and wanted to know as much as I could about the new maps, while at the same time I wanted to experience them with new found awe.

I want to put that out, before I answer these questions.

ArchonWing.9480:

• 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 often solo camp flip, and keep things our color as best I can. In a normal hour, I would flip a few camps, kill some Dolyaks, obviously every day needs some dead dolyaks, gotta get that protein to keep fighting somehow. Maybe try my hand at a tower.

• Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all.

Often in EB, I will want to team up, the need for a larger group in EB is imperative to one’s survival.

*Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?

Yes, very much so.

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

Often I spend most of my time trying to transverse the terrain. I can say I don’t want the Alpine Border Lands back, but, movement through the Desert Borderlands needs to be fixed to make it more free flowing. Currently it just feels like whoever was doing the maps got on some vertical design kick, and everything needs to go up and down, and whole place becomes this three dimensional maze, and while maybe that is fun for PvE players, it’s not profitable for a WvW Environment. Getting from Point to Point needs to be swift, easy, and direct. Gimmick’s like air jets and teleporters, get old fast.

I like the Altars, I like the idea of different theme keeps, I’ll think at this point, you could divide up each keeps “Theme” and design a whole borderland around them. A full on “Underground” Borderland, or a “Sky walking” borderland, I love that there is this unique feeling to the keeps, but, again, the way to get to them and through them is awkward, stilted.

I get that the designers are there to try and bring something to us WvW players, but you don’t need to be our entertainment in WvW, we bring the fight, you just need to set up the table that allows us to engage each other in a dynamic way.

• 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.

Not a single thing changed in that front. I mean, really, if anything, it’s gotten less dynamic in the build department, the current Meta is not about knocking people off ledges or into lava, that would be a flavor or theme build, and truth be told, I have not met anyone that does that. The Meta right now is Shatter/Stun Lock and Ranged. And while the Mete can and will change as the game evolves, no one is going to build a push/pull build for ledges or lava, simply because you would need to invest in skills that would lose their effectiveness on open fields, or you would need to build entire maps that were devoted to having those kinds of obstacles in all parts of them.

I mean, there are a lot less people on the borderlands, so, there is less incentive to build for that environment overall, and beyond that, instant death obstacles are not enticing for PvP combat, as most people won’t engage in areas that are full of those kinds of hazards, as builds that have a lot of dodges (Thief/Ranger) run the risk of launching themselves off the ledges, and even a very stable character still has a risk of dodge rolling to their death.

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

Anything that requires siege is much harder, the roaming guards make solo siege a real problem. not sure if that was the goal tho. If it was, the kudos, worked on me.

• How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past?

I think the loot from Lords, and other players has been diminished. It feels that way at least.

• Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing?

No. When I need coin and mats, I have to PvE.

• Did it take a hit, or was it improved?

Feels like it took a hit.

• If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards?

Great Question, because I unlocked my Necro/Reaper from Nothing (Tome-ed to 80th, 3% map completion) to Fully Unlocked exclusively in WvW and it really felt like it took a lot longer to do that then it would have if I opted to just jump though some HoT maps. But I like WvW, so just being able to do that a huge plus.

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

Not sure what you mean. I mean, there are very few “WvW” goals, and by “Other” I wager you mean some goal that might be “game wide” like, get crafting to 500, or acquire a legendary.

I am going to have to say. Not really. I mean, I suppose some goals could be obtained like crafting, but, the grind and the time to try and do that purely from WvW, would make it a saga as opposed to the day trip it could be in PvE.

Do something like get a Legendary only playing WvW, no way.

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

Killed them. I get tired of needing to navigate the map. With the Way Points being locked up, requiring running to all locations, coupled with maps that are designed to make travel daunting, just makes getting around a chore, and I get exhausted from that alone very quickly, something going wrong like falling to my death on the southern part of the map, and I’m done for a while, just not motivated to run back, so I often swap to PvE or Log off.

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

Level them out to make travel smooth simple and straightforward all around the map. Add Way Points that the Defenders can use to cut travel time to the southern area of the map. Make Keep/Tower walls clearly defined, and Stop with the Gimmicks, Think of WvW as a Combat Zone, not a Theme Park. Just keep it simple.

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

They Don’t. On my server, most new players are directed to Eternal Battlegrounds if they want to get into WvW. That is where most of the people are.

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

As vet in WVW, You’re there to do something, be it capture, defend, or kill, you’re there to do a task, as such if Travel is daunting that makes doing the task aggravating, and the gimmicks get old fast because gimmicks are just that, gimmicks. They are great for PvE, they do not work for WvW.

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

My Home Borderland. Someone has to be here, as everyone else is in EB. LOL.

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?

Commanding prime-time + nightcap, running zergs, blobs, clearing out maps, defending and building up and scouting

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?

Running after a big blob that ran over evrything, very brainless activity, not enjoyable

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

Supporting the WvW players of my server on the home-borders. Leading my guild, doing more than just zerg work and commanding, taking tactical initiatives on the home-borders with groups of 3-5 players, useful things like scouting, escorting and building up objectives not only for my own guild but for all on the home-borders.

If we only had enough commander to cover the daytime moments of the game, we used to.

They are all stuck in EBG for the most thinking about how great the game used to be, before they left GW 2 for 2 years or more cause they were fed up with the Alpine borderlands. Or they are dissing about the Desert borderlands somewhere in this forum on one or more of their many accounts.

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.

This question is dubious in the past on Alpine we knocked ppl also of cliffs or walls, wetter its in the lava doesn’t change a thing its just another condition.

The fighting basically is the same if you are in a zerg or a blob, its good that stability was removed cause it overpowered builds, now atleast the fight is fair when you are in a Zerg or blob fight.

The improvement basically lies in the small action initiative the opportunities to ambush and run havoc teams have immensely increased in my opinion.

The one thing alot of players forget is the difference between ppl running in a zerg and ppl doing small tactical initiative, the builds you use for both are different, players coming back to this game after a leave of absence probably remember that at the end of the presence of the Alpine borderlands condition build teams started roaming the borderlands to cap camps. They have evolved into the tactical or havoc squads.

Two days ago i saw 3 guys from one of these big fighting-guilds trying to take a camp (ele, warrior and a mesmer) it took them over 4 minutes to take all the npc’s down in the camp, whereas me with my dragonhunter takes the same camp in 20 seconds.

Players need to start thinking about the builds they run in smaller groups and not run meta zerrg builds, nowadays all run metabuilds it seems to have brainwashed them about the obvious that you make and run builds that you like and adapt them to your game-style.

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

Its about the same time, i do like some of the HOT adds though chilling fog and the stealth keeps provide are awesome.

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?

The reward system needs to be totally altered, players needs to get more this situation is rotten atm.

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 have all the elite specialisations unlocked on all of my characters and they are very usefull in WvW i can assure you of that.

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

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

If ppl would stop nagging about bringing back the Alpine borderlands maybe change their rhetoric to actually get meaningful map-rotations and focus on making the game better for all that would make me happy.

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.

The Borderlands are Awesome but you need to invest time into getting to know it, you will have to run different builds depending on what you are doing. Work together and find out what is out there and have fun!

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

The Desert Borderlands more specifc

The home-borderlands where all should be defending the pride of their home-server. WvW starts and ends with one thing defending your home-borderland and i’m proud to do that.

Hello ,

First of all I think they should bring back Alpine borderlands.

I also think it’s a waste to totaly remove Desert borderlands , instead they should only make one version of this map , give bottom keeps a buff so they are on pair with the top one , reduce the maximum numbers of players limit and make it easyer to travel on this map , with portals , zephyrite crystals, glinding in certain areas make walls more vulnerable to siege weapons. This Could become a map designed for smal roaming guilds where they implement a fast moving design but limited to a smal amount of players (kind of Spvp but in wvw ).

I think Alpine borderlands should be brought back to how they where pre HOT.

I think eternal battle ground Tactivators should be nerfed (not on CD) but on their efficiency , I also think every passive buff (+25% cumulative move speed , and + raw stats in large zone near the keep) should go and instead give players boonus supply and the ability to teleport to way points of the major keeps they control.

(Nb : As a roamer it’s fustrating to kitte and juke the enemy players but getting out runned by the same players because they have a cumulative +25 % move speed buff … it doesn’t promote skillfull gameplay.)

So finally alpine on the way back, yey. Going to put my reasons for enjoining them more from a roamers perspective. Put some childish arrows with colors on map to showcase.

First my preferred spawn is the south parts of the alpine maps. Reson: close to enemy spawn and you often ran in to enemy players where paths cross (red). If sup or towers where taged, u could quickly get to them and fight players (green). If south was empty of players u hed north for those camps and ran in to the players spawning from there (blue arrows). North camp, fun place to go if you wanted fights. Home server had fast access to it.

The middle area (pink) i hardly used and think can bee improved alot. Id prefer a flat open surface there and a lore to make players go there more often. The dessert middle point looks cooler and should be a good spot to get fights.

So that brings me to my constructive feedback on desert. Move sup closer to mid and waypoints as well (black,blue). Make it so you easily can go to the sup camps via the mid area and to the keeps/towers as well. Think this will make the mid part a hotspot to get fights. And remove the cripples stealth and other environment stuff. No auto upgrades, done.

Eb is using the mid part best at the moment with sm, and fast access to it. Don´t want a sm in the mid of alpine or dessert tho, but a bigger lore to cross with the enemy there.