Guild Wars 2

Long story short…how is the CD community? Would a decent size (250-350) guild be welcomed to join them before the lockout (yes, I know its not really a lock, but you know what I mean)?

The guilds on my current server seems to splitting left and right…most moving to T1/T2 servers, especially SoS, JQ, and SoR…which are always full. I fear we won’t be able to get everyone in before the lockout. So trying to squeeze people in there might be a challenge (potential seriously damaging the guild)…and tbh, something about joining the FoTM server seems off putting. Not to mention the issue with possible queue times.

That leads me to picking a good “up-and-coming” server, with potential to be decent in T2 and potential rise to T1 in the future (I don’t care for an easy win or being on the best server, I love a good fight and decent challenge). A server that isn’t always full and could use the help to push it further into ranks. Is Crystal Desert that server?

CD seems to be doing very well in T3 right now…and I wonder if bringing my guild there would be a good or bad choice.

Thoughts? What about Fort Aspenwood and Dragonbrand?

UPDATE: Please send me some community leader names…I’d like to talk to people from the servers I am looking into (CD/FA/DB) as this is an important decision that I want to get right.

Moved from FC to CD 2 months back, CD has grown and improved tremendously over the past few months.

I also seen increased participation in WvW over the recent weeks.

IOJ had a mass exodus of guilds and about half of those guilds have moved over to FA, and the above post just shows the kind of people we see in forums. Chest thumping and at the same time putting people down.

I do see potential in CD if we can be consistent in our WvW showing.

CD has very strong oceanic presence — if we could buff up our NA it would be awesome

Food for thought:

CD has not (in the past) been as favorable as say Fort Aspenwood, as shown by about 2/3rds of all the WvW guilds on IOJ MOVING to Fort Aspenwood because of their respectful attitude, tenacious commitment to playing even when outmanned, focus on skill rather than numbers, and the warm welcome they give new people. Given their new numbers bolster it’s a great place to be.

http://www.isleofjanthir.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=656

CD is a great server with an awesome alliance comprising of many guilds, big and small. We’re a friendly, competitive, and easy going server with decent coverage on all time zones (but could always use more!). You should come check us out. Check out www.cdesert.com

Just FYI I didn’t move to FA but wish them all the best of luck

CD community is great. Community wide teamspeak server and a cooperating atmosphere. We would definitely welcome you. In terms of que’s, well reset night is kinda tough but any other time there is always a place with no que.

hmmm CD or FA….any other info/feedback on these 2 server would really be appreciated…Also looking at Dragonbrand…I know nothing about them…

Come to DB , It’s awesome. yup.

reQuiem.5986:

Long story short…how is the CD community? Would a decent size (250-350) guild be welcomed to join them before the lockout (yes, I know its not really a lock, but you know what I mean)?

The guilds on my current server seems to splitting left and right…most moving to T1/T2 servers, especially SoS, JQ, and SoR…which are always full. I fear we won’t be able to get everyone in before the lockout. So trying to squeeze people in there might be a challenge (potential seriously damaging the guild)…and tbh, something about joining the FoTM server seems off putting. Not to mention the issue with possible queue times.

That leads me to picking a good “up-and-coming” server, with potential to be decent in T2 and potential rise to T1 in the future (I don’t care for an easy win or being on the best server, I love a good fight and decent challenge). A server that isn’t always full and could use the help to push it further into ranks. Is Crystal Desert that server?

CD seems to be doing very well in T3 right now…and I wonder if bringing my guild there would be a good or bad choice.

Thoughts?

In CD we always welcome strong allies. We often get a lot of criticisms from our enemies, the likes of which you’ve already seen right here.

The truth is we are a proud server. Many of our core guilds had been with us since day one. We had been through the all that tiers roller coaster thing and still manage a significant amount of organic growth. We did receive a few guild transfers not that long ago.

What kind of guilds work best in CD? A guild who can field their own group in the battle field, but maintain communication with other commanders in all maps to take advantage of threats and opportunities.

Talk to our guild leaders, they’re going to be the people you’ll be working alongside of if you join us. If you need a list of names, let me know!

Come to CD and you can get free mesmer ports in the EB JP anytime, all the time. Mmm, think about all that nice toasty free siege… just think about it.

JPSnow.8296:

Just FYI I didn’t move to FA but wish them all the best of luck

Thanks. The morale on our server is high right now (both old FA and IoJ transfers). It’s been a lot of fun this evening watching the former IoJ guilds do their thing. Best of luck to you whether you stay on IoJ or move to a new home.

There has been no criticism of CD in this thread, you are mistaken.

Yes please send me some names…I’d like to talk to people from the servers I am looking into (CD/FA/DB) as this is an important decision that I want to get right.

To answer your question, no, there are better servers for a big guild like that in my experience playing against them, T3 is really close in skill ATM that any more numbers its going to be noticeable.

Really “nice” of people promoting their own server and at the same time putting people down.

I wouldn’t mind if you promote your own server but to put others down really speaks volume.

If you are outmanned in your own server, please do not blame others for winning with numbers. WvW is common sense when you need numbers and coverage.
Don’t go blaming other servers for having more people when you simply don’t have enough but instead focus on getting more players to be involved in WvW in your server(Thats in the past).

With that said, I welcome DB to a refreshing tier 3 and look forward to the new battle against FA/DB in the weeks ahead.

reQuiem.5986:

hmmm CD or FA….any other info/feedback on these 2 server would really be appreciated…Also looking at Dragonbrand…I know nothing about them…

All 3 servers in T3 have the potential to move up, so there will be no bad choice if you choose to transfer to either one of the 3. Really.

Personally I will welcome all to CD :p Maintaining leading position is tough work when you have 2 strong contenders breathing hard on your neck. We need all the folks who can take pressure & determined enough to consolidate our position

We have lotsa guild here. sticking with us from day 1 till now from my knowledge only 2 guild ditch the ship

Yes we are a proud server since day 1 and we are proud of it

forum warrior u say ? at least we didnt sought help from IOJ when the going gets tough enjoy ur bandwagon FA. it might not last

reQuiem.5986:

hmmm CD or FA….any other info/feedback on these 2 server would really be appreciated…Also looking at Dragonbrand…I know nothing about them…

I won’t speak of the other two as they are our current rivals, but I definitely see FA as a server with potential. We recently got many transfers from IoJ because they respected our server as opponents. The FA guilds prior to the transfers earned the server a spot in T3 for 10 weeks in a row despite being outnumbered. Our new transfers are also battle-hardened having fought in the top tiers for so long. FA was mostly NA while our transfers are mostly Oceanic so our coverage has greatly improved. As mentioned earlier, server morale is very high as we are enjoying our new friends.

If you would like more info on FA, I encourage you to make an account on our forum and ask for opinions:
http://www.fort-aspenwood.com/

Jois.4827:

forum warrior u say ? at least we didnt sought help from IOJ when the going gets tough enjoy ur bandwagon FA. it might not last

FA didn’t seek help from IoJ. Our recruitment thread was directed at anyone who may want to be a part of our community. The IoJ guilds chose FA themselves when they decided to pick a new home.

To be honest, we’d welcome you with open arms. The problem would be getting your entire guild over here without some being locked out by the “Server is currently full” notification. We’ve gotten that quite a bit as of late.

As one of the ones from IoJ who chose to transfer to FA I do have to say their recruitment had 0 impact on my guild’s decision to move over. We enjoyed fighting against FA and CD’s forum warriors made us dislike their server greatly. It’s evidenced by the fact that not a single IoJ guild moved to CD as to how much people outside their server like them. Since I’ve been on FA i’ve seen some incredible teamwork and a great friendly community. Certainly an improvement over IoJ but also a lot of IoJ moved over as well. It really reminds me of the community back in DAoC where people really pushed to help each other in pvp.

The amount of people from the rival servers in our tier trying desperately to direct you to join another server should probably tell you all you need to know about CD.

We have a space free for you and your server at any timezone. You would be most welcomed! FA just got a heap of new guilds they don’t need anymore, but there is plenty of room on crystal desert!. In the last month, our overall server strength has doubled, by more contribution, more skillful players, and well thought about tactics. FA, please don’t make us look like a bad server just because we are in your matchup, you got new people, now its our turn, thanks.
CD is a great place to be with organised WvW communication, We are on our way to tier 2 with heavy lead on FA, (and IoJ in the past weeks) but could use more to push ahead so we can flip with one of the tier 2 servers. Please join us!

From a third party not in their tier, go with FA.

All T3 servers are close. Just depends what you are looking for in community, PvE and WvW structure. We host a server wide 350-slot TS, protected server forum @ http://www.fort-aspenwood.com/ and Maylum is awesome enough to give us this constantly updated resource node map – http://fortaspenwood.blogspot.com.au/

I would like to point out there is a profound difference between each tier. If you look at our previous scores against TC v CD v FA, you can see that TC did not have too much trouble with us. Although I recognise that transfers can shake it up a little I believe T2 would be an uphill battle for all of the T3 servers and T1 even more so (although maybe I’m just kinda scared of SoR, SoS, JQ, BG and TC :P )
With that said, there’s nothing wrong with being optimistic.

Why don’t you guys come to Tarnished Coast? We could use your numbers more than CD and FA (Look at SoR’s transfers).

I come here as a representative of Tarnished Coast wanting to state a proposal to any guilds that are still undecided about moving to choose Tarnished Coast as your future home. In the following paragraphs I hope to put forth convincing arguments to help you decide in favor of a move to Tarnished Coast.

1. Community

The first point I want to reiterate is that of our community. Everyone knows that TC is the unofficial RP server which in essence brings a lot of maturity and limits keyboard warriors and trolls. The community has been consistently praised for our ‘never say die’ attitude and our great representation of ourselves on any public forums.

The myth about RP servers not being capable in PVP is just that a myth. In WoW many of the best arena players and teams came from RP servers. There is no instances in WvW where people are just RP-ing and not fighting for the coast. On the other hand the RP-ers who PVP bring a really unique dimension to the server, there is constant entertainment where they can take a small incident and through their RP are able to make it one morale-boosting hilarious scenario. The other advantage of being the unofficial RP server is that the militia are fine with doing the ‘boring’ jobs, the militia on our server are more than happy to sentry camps and towers, tick siege and keep the communication channels going with the guild commanders and leaders as they have something to do while escorting yaks or being a sentry; which is to RP.

2. Organization

- We have a 10000 slot mumble; You heard it right its 10000 slots, not kidding. Recently acquired thanks to the great guys at DIS in an attempt to make us more organized and improve in Tier 2. Not only that but it is a public VOIP for everyone and no single guild is in charge of it. Each guild has their own PRIVATE SPACE in the mumble; private channels and sub-channels. They have implemented ‘linking’ to other channels very effectively as well. This means multiple channels of communication and coordination with various guilds as well as our militia who frequently utilize VOIP.

For e.g. We are now starting to utilize the mumble to effectively coordinate between the zergmanders and the spec groups. I am a commander of TSL and I am in charge of leading the militia as well as working with another small guild or two who are part of my main zerg. At the same time I have setup a bind that is linking me to my havoc squad/hammer squad/yak sniping squad that are sitting in my private guild channel. They are my eyes and ears and are consistently working with me while I continue to coordinate the militia and other guildies in the main borderland or EB channel.

- Great Community Website; We have a great community website www.tcgw2.com; that we are consistently trying to increase in activity. It has a private War Council for in-depth strategic and tactical discussion along with a place for our militia to come and try to get more involved.

- Tomes of Material & Guides; We as a community truly believe that we are only as strong as our weakest player. This is why we go out of our way to produce materials and guides ranging from Basic Introductions to Advanced Strategies. We try to educate the masses as best as we can. In-fact some of us take it so seriously that we actually have a comprehensive WvW ‘Tome’ encompassing a total of 88 pages written by yours truly; this was created by working with all the respectable & experienced commanders on our server. A preview of this guide is posted below.

I personally believe that when a commander starts thinking that he knows everything; that is when he/she gets left behind. This thirst for knowledge by finding new creative strategies (wait for culling to disappear and everyone will need to find new strategies) or spec groups or in-combat tactics is what consistently increases the meta-evolution of this game. People don’t realize that this game is still fairly new and we are only scratching the surface of the meta-game.

http://tinyurl.com/apkmwkz

3. Channels of Communication

All the commanders in the main WvW guilds get along. We have open channels of communication and truly believe in multi-guild coordination. There is no hierarchy of ego’s between us. We respect those that are more experienced and give credit where its due but it’s far from a dictatorship or a democracy. I would say it’s more along the lines of a ‘controlled democracy’. Any guild that decides to move here will have a voice at the table and be welcomed with open arms into the War Council (Commanders). They will have an equal say on the overall planning and strategic discussion. We believe in inclusivity from the get-go.

4. Veteran Oceanic’s

Our server is a NA-heavy server. This does not mean that we are completely full in NA time, in fact other than TCBL and EB there are no queues in other maps during NA primetime. When the guilds have decided to make a coordinated push on an enemy borderland a queue might pop up but the longest that has been is 15 to 30 minutes. Even so this still results in only having 2/4 maps at queue.

Our oceanics are a rag-tag bunch of hardened veterans. I play during oceanic and euro as well. We have fought with inferior numbers against tremendous oceanic powerhouses; we fought against Crystal Desert multiple times, we fought against Sea of Sorrow and Blackgate when they were on the rise and Blackgate again when they were back at Tier 2 and heavily increasing their oceanic presence and we have held our own. I would go so far on a limb and say that our oceanic although lacking in number consist of far more experienced and less-mistake prone players than our NA crew. Although a lot of our NA do consistently pull all nighters to keep us competitive #nolife.

5. Long Term Vision

This is what separates us from the other bandwagon servers. We have stability because the backbone of our WvW is the militia/pugs. We have many veterans scattered among various small guilds. This backbone will always exist. TC will always be the unofficial RP server therefore population of militia/pugs will never be an issue. We are not solely dependent on our large WvW guilds so even if they decide to transfer over there won’t be a plummet in tiers and performance. The stability will always be there. We want to encourage more WvW focused guilds to join us in order to make a push to top Tier 2 and eventually be competitive in Tier 1. None of the things that happened to HoD and ET will EVER happen to TC. I know everyone believes that their server has server pride and that is also the case with TC; there is a loyalty to the server that is almost cult-like.

In conclusion, I really hope that your guild considers Tarnished Coast as a possible destination to call their home. Do look past the myth of it being an RP server. I encourage any of you to contact me either on these forums or email (aequitasesport@gmail.com) for further inquiries. I encourage guild commanders to come into mumble with us and watch us operate.

Sincerely,
Theongreyjoy

Yep, this is the type of ferocity you will expect if you are considering CD. Your 250-300 awesome presence is enough to raise concerns among our contenders, that’s how good CD can be. Come join us & move upwards together

Oh no, TC is still with us. The never ending nightmare ~_~.

If there is another server to join other than CD, I will say TC can be a good choice too. Problem is they are often full too

Population caps have been increased, so TC has been very high most of the time.

I’ve bounced around servers a bit. I’d say if you could pick any server, go TC. CD or FA would also be good choices.

This is clear “Thinking about Crystal Desert” and they are asking our details. They don’t want, “Come join FA we are awesome and better!!!” that just means they are desperadoes, besides, they just got 9 guilds yesterday, they don’t need anymore. Crystal Desert is very welcoming and always has room, there are serveral other big guilds with us to communicate with and plan tactics. It is our turn to finally move up, after putting up with TC, IoJ, and FA all these long weeks, it can finally stop!
PS. other servers, don’t post here, its not about your servers, if you need people, make a seperate topic.

TC is likely the most populated server, or at least up there with SoS.

I don’t think there’s a “bad” server to transfer to for WvW purposes in the top 3 tiers, other than MAYBE Stormbluff Isle but I have no idea how badly they were hit. What I will advise against is to move to any of the winning servers in their tier – such as SoS and SoR. Not because they aren’t great servers, but because it’s just bad for competition. IoJ moving to FA made tier 3 amazingly balanced – imagine if they went to CD instead.

loneknight.8425:

Yep, this is the type of ferocity you will expect if you are considering CD. Your 250-300 awesome presence is enough to raise concerns among our contenders, that’s how good CD can be. Come join us & move upwards together

Raise concerns? hardly. You guys can’t zerg us above cap so we have nothing to worry about if you get 300 more people in your queue.

FA wasn’t even brought into the discussion by an FA player to begin with. The topic creator has mentioned he is interested in more information about CD, FA, and DB now. This hostility is amusing.

My best advice would be to hop over and check it out for a week. These threads quickly devolve into silly and pointless drivel. CD has already seen its fair-weather exodus in the past and has recovered to be much stronger than before. Many of the wvw guilds and commanders have been here since launch and wont be jumping ship the first sign of trouble. We adapt and conquer, and have a lot of fun doing it. You’d be more than welcomed to join us, but that is a decision for your guild alone. Looking forward to seeing you all behind, or at the end of my axe.

Longfellow.2940:

My best advice would be to hop over and check it out for a week. These threads quickly devolve into silly and pointless drivel. CD has already seen its fair-weather exodus in the past and has recovered to be much stronger than before. Many of the wvw guilds and commanders have been here since launch and wont be jumping ship the first sign of trouble. We adapt and conquer, and have a lot of fun doing it. You’d be more than welcomed to join us, but that is a decision for your guild alone. Looking forward to seeing you all behind, or at the end of my axe.

Yeah, good idea, investigate it and tell your guild if its what you want.

Waking.6052:

Food for thought:

CD has not (in the past) been as favorable as say Fort Aspenwood, as shown by about 2/3rds of all the WvW guilds on IOJ MOVING to Fort Aspenwood because of their respectful attitude, tenacious commitment to playing even when outmanned, focus on skill rather than numbers, and the warm welcome they give new people. Given their new numbers bolster it’s a great place to be.

http://www.isleofjanthir.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=656

Former IOJers just want easy mode win, n
instead of going for a challenge in least populated Dragonbrand server
They all stacked in FA….
numbers > skill

No wonder all the skilled IOJers like have move to T1 and T2

Whats worst , they goto the forums and every thread to derail other server recruitment threads

to OP, I’d say come on over for a week and see things for yourself, you’ll get a much better grasp on CD playing alongside us than forum replies.

I would personally say Fort Aspenwood, simply because of how consistent we are. We have been in Tier 3 for 10 weeks now, against all odds. It shows how even with guilds leaving because of the same matches over and over, we stay consistent.

We have now gained a few more oceanic guilds. But dont over exxagerate, most of the guilds that joined are small guilds, we did not get any huge WvW guilds.

Fort Aspenwood will only go up from here, and whoever wants to join for the long, fun ride to T2, is certainly welcome with open arms here.

I haven’t seen a SINGLE FA/IOJ person say “Crystal Desert is a nice server, go join them.” they are all jealous and being immature sore losers, so don’t post here at all. The OP did not mention FA or IoJ, only the top two tiers, so I really don’t know what its got to do with joining FA….

Desterion.6407:

Raise concerns? hardly. You guys can’t zerg us above cap so we have nothing to worry about if you get 300 more people in your queue.

Here is another point of consideration – it may not matters to some, but it MATTERS if [sF] can join us at CD

Thanks for all the posts and feedback guys. I’ve had a chance of collecting a few good contacts – and even had a chat with CD leaders. If anyone else can send me a pm of more community leaders/commanders from Fort Aspenwood and Dragonbrand – I’d really appreciate it.

These chats with the server leaders / commanders is really important in getting a feeling for the servers and ultimately to our decision.

We will be deciding this very soon – this weekend (probably tomorrow) after we’ve had a chance to talk to a few people from each server.

Thanks again for all your posts and feedback. Best of luck to everyone…all you T3 servers look great in all honesty!

Lol.

This thread says everything that needs to be said.

Welcome to T3…AKA the grudge tier.

CD needs the help, they have only been winning T3 for weeks.

Nothing but bad blood and constant trolling between FA and CD forum warriors.

We(GoF) joined CD about a month ago coming from DH. The biggest reason behind that was the community. The free server teamspeak, where all the guilds are. Where are commanders can relay info back and forth. And lastly the response each guild has to helping the other guilds. You can consider CD as one big guild. We ran T3 over the past 2 weeks, and had superior numbers so picked up a few enemies that hated the odds. However FA had 9 guilds move over from IOJ so everything is even now. So the argument of numbers is gone and T3 is back to normal. During the previous weeks CD tried to defend itself from being called a zerg server with no skill. The best advice I can give is don’t judge any server from the people that post on the forums. These are only a select few and most are looking for trouble that are in here. CD would welcome any guild with open arms and invite everyone into the WvW community as they did with us. Send representatives to each server and talk to them online or through voip. You will get a much better representation of the server that way. Good luck in your hunting.

CD and FA are both great servers. Those of us on TC spent a few weeks fighting them in t3 and we were able to do cool things like wvw fight club and the ill fated Yak Walk fistshake at FA, let that be a lesson to you Despite all our differences we had a fun time. Best of luck to our former opponents.

I transfered to CD before Wintersday and I’m happy with the people here, doubt I will be leaving.

Deano.7913:

I transfered to CD before Wintersday and I’m happy with the people here, doubt I will be leaving.

Same here exactly!