Guild Wars 2

I’ve not fully explored the new map yet, nor do I fully understand the strategies, this will come with time. BUT some of the changes that I’ve already seen are going to affect those of us who play non-prime hours or in the lower tiers (or both!).

So I thought I’d ask for brief feedback – things you like as solo or small group or lower tier players, and things that have made your life harder (I know this may be hard to keep positive but please avoid ranting and we can hope Anet will listen harder…)

My first thought is that the normalised cost for Guild Catas, while logical, will hit us more than groups of 5 or more players. Is there any balance for this or do we now simply need more people to take anything other than a camp?

What else needs adding to the list?

They kittening broke roaming.
G catas are pointless.
can’t get +5 ( or I guess you can but you have to leave wvw to craft?)
The removal of wp’s makes the fights non existent.
The removal of guard stacks hits small groups much harder than big groups.
Can’t upgrade to drain supply in front of enemies.
Auto upgrades means everything is fortified unless you are k training.
Stupid PvE dino “event” discourages fighting because you lose your weapon skills if you pick up a gear.

Hmm, even towers seem to be very hard to break into without numbers. I certainly understand why Keeps are hard to take, but it feels rather tedious in any case.

I mean at the same time I like it being harder to karma train because the lords are kitten, but….

Tried the BL maps again… wow are those horrible for roaming. Two fights after an hour.

Wait, I thought all these changes were supposed to do away with zerging and force groups to break up…

Straegen.2938:

Tried the BL maps again… wow are those horrible for roaming. Two fights after an hour.

So many regular WvW’ers are not in WvW right now. They’re checking out all the other stuff that dropped with HoT. They’re checking out the Halloween events.

Seriously, if anyone really thought WvW populations were going to be high right after the expansion dropped they were kidding themselves.

Well, remember that PvE right now is drawing a disproportionate number of people who normally would be in WvW, building guild halls, getting hero points, just checking out the new PvE maps. As things get going the WvW population should increase, and certainly things will improve going into the weekend as more people log on. Just realize, it will be months before any kind of equilibrium is established and until then, we really have no idea how the maps will play.

Ive just requested a refund from HoT. The BL maps are appalling – they didnt have an open beta with those before release did they?

thisisit.6954:

Ive just requested a refund from HoT. The BL maps are appalling – they didnt have an open beta with those before release did they?

You didn’t even need HoT to play in the new BL map. They had a few invite-only stress tests.

The expansion just released, you have barely explored the new map. Don’t kid yourself.

Also keep in mind, this is a very short MU. WvW will reset tomorrow night for the full week.

BrickFurious.7169:

So many regular WvW’ers are not in WvW right now. They’re checking out all the other stuff that dropped with HoT. They’re checking out the Halloween events.

Its not just the number of players but the massive amount of wandering PvE content floating around, the larger map and strange layout. A player has to constantly dodge the PvE and flipping stuff got significantly harder for roamers.

Also more fights in EotM than usual. The BLs just didn’t have anyone in them roaming or at least not many. I think its size makes “bumping” into enemy players more difficult and the PvE content annoys smaller groups/roamers. Time will tell but right now the BLs are more EotM than WvW.

Straegen.2938:

BrickFurious.7169:

So many regular WvW’ers are not in WvW right now. They’re checking out all the other stuff that dropped with HoT. They’re checking out the Halloween events.

Its not just the number of players but the massive amount of wandering PvE content floating around, the larger map and strange layout. A player has to constantly dodge the PvE and flipping stuff got significantly harder for roamers.

Also more fights in EotM than usual. The BLs just didn’t have anyone in them roaming or at least not many. I think its size makes “bumping” into enemy players more difficult and the PvE content annoys smaller groups/roamers. Time will tell but right now the BLs are more EotM than WvW.

I agree that the size and verticality of the map will likely make random enemy encounters less frequent. I’m just saying that this effect is likely being exacerbated right now by low WvW populations due to players checking out other expansion features. In addition to the fact that it’s only a 2 day match, as another poster noted.

Hope I’m wrong and I know it is extremely early but the roaming doesn’t look so promising. In 2 hours of solo roaming I had one fight. The map just seems to big with most of the time spent in walking.

Katrina.8702:

Hope I’m wrong and I know it is extremely early but the roaming doesn’t look so promising. In 2 hours of solo roaming I had one fight. The map just seems to big with most of the time spent in walking.

As others have said, you have to keep in mind that we got HoT PvE content and the halloween event going at the same time. Overall WvW population is probably down to 20% of normal… If even that. At the very least, this will last the entire weekend. I expect population to be low for a week.

That said, the new map does scare me a little. Its about 2x the size of old borders, not because of the physical map being bigger but rather the “full square” being used, but at the same time having presumably the same population limit. That cut the players/area considerably, which is very bad since GW2 has always been that game where you can just jump into WvW for an hour and have intense battles.

I am certain that players will learn optimal routes, where the battlefields are etc but it will take time. Time WvW wont have if the border scare away players.

Now if only we could have 300 players per side on these new borders we could cut 2 of them just stick to one fully populated…

Dawdler.8521:

I am certain that players will learn optimal routes, where the battlefields are etc but it will take time. Time WvW wont have if the border scare away players.

This. This right here. When I first ported to our BL and realized I was running around trying to find how to get out of spawn, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. The twists and turns of the maps are way too much for me. I know, others will jump in defending it. That’s fine. Good for you. People who don’t like it have a right to their opinion, and a right to NOT buy HoT. I’m one of those.

I take the point about there being less people on in your BL than normal because of new content elsewhere – but actually this is what it’s like non-prime and low tier anyway… so the feedback is useful even if it seems to confirm that the new maps are harder to play with a small population or as a roamer.

I can’t see Anet changing the maps (unless they bring the Alpine maps back sooner than anticipated)so what can they tweak to help us? Reduce the PvE style mobs perhaps? Or a long term speed boost like you can get in cities?

I’ve been worried for a while that Anet are more focused on the big fights between higher servers or mid tier prime time – there are more players on at these times – but I would actually miss the small fights and individual heroics that mean each player can make a big difference in the lower tiers. Anet – come play lower tier and non prime and see what the new map is like for players like us…

The new map sure feels more 3D and much larger when running around. I think the variation in height makes it harder to scout for opponents unless they are in a large group (not that I’ve found any large groups yet – just an impression).

I was glad they retained a similar pattern of camps, towers and keeps though, at least I can make some sense of it!

I was well aware that PvE content would draw people away and that it would take time for things to settle. What I was not aware of was how gigantic the new borderland would be…

In theory, it sounds good for roaming. It would be more difficult to get rolled by a zerg because as long as you’re paying attention to the map (which any seasoned roamer will be good at doing) it will be much easier to avoid. But that’s only a part of the problem. The next is how difficult the new objectives are to take and again the sheer size of the map not only makes it easier to avoid zergs, which is good, it makes it harder to find groups/solos, which is bad. I stepped in to one of those maps for about 5 minutes and left. The Alpine Borderlands didn’t appeal to me much in the first place but this new map is even worse… I’m just glad the new WvW mechanics are pretty solid and interesting. I’m having fun in EBG as always, I just hope I warm up to the new map as well…

Whether I or don’t however, I feel like solo roaming is absolutely RIP. I’ve been saying it and feeling it more and more over the past couple of months and now I’m pretty much calling it. If I’m proven wrong then I’ll be extremely happy… If not well… I guess I’ll finally have to find a small scale guild to pair up with which I don’t look forward to. I just prefer to do stuff my own way, my own pace… I’m sure there are plenty of others out there that understand me.

At first, it was tough to get around. After about 10 minutes, I was getting places at the same speed as Alpine or faster. Granted, you have to own structures (and therefore elevators) to do it, but it works. We also can’t discount the free WP on garri for cutting the map basically in half. There are also WPs on the south towers.

I was worried by what everyone was saying pre-release, but now I’m just concerned that they were seriously slowed and confused for several days of beta testing. Like, how?

Yuffi.2430:

I can’t see Anet changing the maps (unless they bring the Alpine maps back sooner than anticipated)so what can they tweak to help us? Reduce the PvE style mobs perhaps? Or a long term speed boost like you can get in cities?

The shrines, of which there are 9, give a 5m, 40% speed boost. It’s great~

Sviel.7493:

There are also WPs on the south towers.

Those WP are only for the ennemy team… You can’t use it on your home BL.