Guild Wars 2

This just in! Excellent news!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/get-ready-for-wvw-spring-tournament-2014/

It’s about time.

This will definitely shake things up.

Flytrap.8075:

It’s about time.

This will definitely shake things up.

Doubt it that much, but hopefully (even though I think my server will still require gems, so not many will transfer)

The higher your server is ranked, the more tickets you get.
Yeah, people will transfer but NOT to the lower ranked servers.

Looks like a lot of kids gonna be putting daddy’s credit card in the red.

Zanshin.5379:

The higher your server is ranked, the more tickets you get.
Yeah, people will transfer but NOT to the lower ranked servers.

Servers are most likely going to be in the same groups they were last time. Gold will be T1 and T2. Silver will be T3-T5 and Bronze will be T6-T8. 1st place in each group will get the same rewards… same for 2nd, 3rd, etc. So transferring from a T1 3rd place server to a T2 1st place server seems to be better reward-wise.

This means T2, T4, T5, T7 and T8 are going to avoided like the plague by bandwagoners because the rewards will suck and most importantly these servers will be locked in with stronger servers for much of the league play.

Its a pleasant surprise but the tournament pricing should become the permanent pricing once season 2 is over.

Nuzt.7894:

Its a pleasant surprise but the tournament pricing should become the permanent pricing once season 2 is over.

IMO the pricing after leagues should be set to stabilize tiers not encourage random migration to lower tiers. IMO the 3rd place server in each tier should have X amount of free transfers each week.

In general it’s an overdue response and hopefully it helps the mode. But in the case of our server it seems a bit unfortunate. IoJ only recently started to move up because other servers started collapsing. Our population has stayed around the same, we haven’t received a positive influx of guilds.

So, the server found a way to not implode after Season 1, despite the transfers ANet likes to encourage. The reward for a server that didn’t engage in bandwagoning and maintains a fairly loyal core population….it just got 33% more expensive to get any help, at we time when we’re being rapidly buoyed into a higher tier due to the instability ANet created. Coolbeans, well played again.

Lol 2400 gems for a server transfer + 2 week ban from the maps. Did anet forget some dailies are impossible to do on the eotm map?

Malediktus.9250:

Lol 2400 gems for a server transfer + 2 week ban from the maps. Did anet forget some dailies are impossible to do on the eotm map?

They didn’t forget. They want you to truly stick with your home server, and punish your choice to leave. If it’s that important for you to move, you have to pay 2400 gems and deal with the other repercussions such as dailies. The entire season meta will be obtainable in EOTM, so if you can’t deal with doing a few pve dailies, well, don’t move!

I didnt plan to move anyway, but I think the price and these restrictions are outrageous.

This is probably going to backfire tbh. It gives all the serious guilds from tier 1 an opportunity to move off BG, JQ, TC, etc. to get away from the massive amount of PvE pugs that will no doubt invade WvW and stack a server in an attempt to get all the best WvW guilds on to one server for free. They no longer have to worry about their server being full and not being able to recruit that one SEA or EU guild they need to fill their 24/7 coverage.

I’m going to be shocked if a server like IoJ, HoD, CD, or NS doesn’t get stacked with tier 1 guilds. They get to take it easy the first week and then get their fights in the later rounds of the tourney. This isn’t going to balance things out more. Everything will stay how it is, or one or two of the rank 12-15 servers is going to get stacked with WvW guilds. Meanwhile SoR is destined for last place desperately needing new WvW guilds to transfer, yet it will cost them 2400 gems to do so. Same story as season 1, just the potential for a new name.

0 transfer cost is a REAL opportunity for lower tier servers to attract guilds/players if they are pro-active and revitalise there WvW.

There is probably a typo for NA Server 12 because it is listed in both 2400 Gems and 0 gems. My guess is that it probably will be 2400 gems and not free.

What ever happens in the next 1-2 weeks will be interesting to see fluxes in WvW populations.

COME TO DEVONAS REST! We are on the rise and a solid coordinated server.

it seems to me that the results of the new transfer pricing will be:

1. if you want to transfer anywhere where WvW still has a lot of population, it is now going to cost more.

2. if you decide that transferring was a mistake and you came from a bottom-half server, you can transfer back again for a reduced cost (or free if your server was low enough).

3. depending on your destination, you can probably save some gems if you wait until season 2 starts before transferring, but the penalty will be that you are limited to EotM for a couple of weeks. this is not a big penalty if EotM was the only fun thing on your old server.

I guess I’m happy that transfers to my server are going to be free for a week, but I don’t think it’s going to change anything in terms of population. so what if transfers are free? nobody wants to come to my server anyway. at this point if Arenanet wants people to transfer down I think they would have to pay us, not the other way around.

-ken

Meglobob.8620:

0 transfer cost is a REAL opportunity for lower tier servers to attract guilds/players if they are pro-active and revitalise there WvW.

One big guild transfer to a T7 server could easily see that server dominate Bronze league. Since the rewards for winning bronze are the same as gold, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a guild make the hop.

EBay has fallen from rank 12 to a predicted rank 20 at the end of this match.

It would be upsetting if they bumped up a server that’s been down here forever just in time to deny them a chance at transfers.

Straegen.2938:

Meglobob.8620:

0 transfer cost is a REAL opportunity for lower tier servers to attract guilds/players if they are pro-active and revitalise there WvW.

One big guild transfer to a T7 server could easily see that server dominate Bronze league. Since the rewards for winning bronze are the same as gold, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a guild make the hop.

They’ll have to contend with the silver leaguer that tanks the hardest.

So basically server stacking/coverage will define what rewards you get….

Wonderful.

Despite completely scrobbing over the 2nd tier of Silver and Gold, this could get interesting if some folks do engage in a little server hopping.

Can’t wait to see which t4 servers are going to tank on purpose to get into t5 for thos free transfers. It really would be a smart move, so they could get some population back for when the leagues are done.

etrigan.4213:

So basically server stacking/coverage will define what rewards you get….

Wonderful.

Honestly, just a few mediocre weeks from you guys, and you can shaft DB into the gold league…

Oh wait, didn’t you do that the last time? Well, you wont have any competition in silver this time around, unless their are mass transfers into t5.

arKRazor.8654:

EBay has fallen from rank 12 to a predicted rank 20 at the end of this match.

It would be upsetting if they bumped up a server that’s been down here forever just in time to deny them a chance at transfers.

This is kind of what I’m saying. IoJ moved into the 12th spot for the first time in over a year, just last month. We were as low as 20th last summer. During Season 1, ANet reshuffled the leagues moving IoJ from the top of Silver to the bottom in a last minute change that contributed to the two largest guilds (one native and one new-ish) exiting, and effectively eliminated transfers and locked us into a rank our population didn’t represent.

Flash forward to Season 2 and we’ve been hamstrung again. T3-4 is looking to be badly balanced, and is now effectively static in terms of population, with the exception of those who leave. In other words, it only gets worse. Obviously, we’re not the only ones negatively affected by that.

Here’s a thought: scale the cost to transfer based on the number of transfers a server has received in a calendar year, or within some fixed period of time. But, not as a function of absolute transfers, instead the relative amount of transfers. More transfers = more expensive and greater incentive for servers to maintain their communities. The downside would be for servers which had large amounts of people leave. However, the upside would be the GW2 population now has more money in-hand for the violins we’ll need to buy to play for the poor, poor destacking servers.

On a side note, there is a reason sports have trade deadlines. If you could perform trades up until playoffs then the rankings/match-ups wouldn’t truly be representative of the strength of the team.

The gem cost should be more progressively spread. We’ll just have to see if there is strategic tanking this week to either get into the free transfer ranks or move down a league.

Regardless, the chance to avoid gold league blobs, queues, and lag for 0 gems is intriguing.

Brilliant Anet, just brilliant. Make yourself money while doing the right thing. The free transfers to low servers are not a bad idea at all to help repopulate them. Meanwhile, Anet did an excellent job of trolling season 1 bandwagoners to pay overpriced transfer costs which ended up with crappy rewards.

Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice…

I don’t see how free transfers are going to help. are there a lot of players out there on higher-ranked servers who aren’t having fun in WvW, who think that WvW would be more fun on a server with largely empty maps, and for whom the gem cost was the big thing preventing them from moving?

-ken

this time last year up to until about the time season 1 started, i posted in every transfer thread i saw that anet needs to make it completely ridiculous to transfer in to a “winning” server.

now it finally will be ridiculous.

took em kitten long enough, but guys, anet actually listened.

this model for transfer prices comes as a result of ideas the community pushed for.

thanks anet. lets see if its workable. its probably gonna need a couple more iterations before we see real quantifiable improvements in server populations, but this is a great start.

Come to Kaineng for free!

*We have a small but reliable core of players that enjoy wvwvw.

*With a minimal number we consistently defend our BL and on “big” nights we push out on to other maps.

*With YOUR help we can make this tournament much more fun and competitive!

Hope to see you there!

zen.6091:

Regardless, the chance to avoid gold league blobs, queues, and lag for 0 gems is intriguing.

Color me intrigued indeed If TW had stayed on SoR with the loyalists I would even have considered paying to transfer there to what will now undoubtedly be a very tight community. Wish I knew more about some of the lower tiers competition and community personalities but I guess that is what we suddenly have all these world type threads for.

Snowreap.5174:

I don’t see how free transfers are going to help. are there a lot of players out there on higher-ranked servers who aren’t having fun in WvW, who think that WvW would be more fun on a server with largely empty maps, and for whom the gem cost was the big thing preventing them from moving?

-ken

Casual smaller guilds, yeah it would not surprise me and it’s not that there isn’t plenty of fun to be had in the top tiers, but it is exhausting and the communities suffer greatly every time there is huge influx of players only there to win or take revenge on some other world at the top. You know there are still some people who play this game to enjoy the company of others in a semi relaxed yet competitive fun environment and if I can find where all those dudes are hanging out I would be home.

Night.2759:

Come to Kaineng for free!

Special K will always be known as the kittens that abused free transfers to make a slew of lower ranked servers miserable for months “back in the day”. If Kaineng attracted a large contingent of higher tier players and dominated bronze league that would have to be some type of cosmic joke.

Straegen.2938:

Night.2759:

Come to Kaineng for free!

Special K will always be known as the kittens that abused free transfers to make a slew of lower ranked servers miserable for months “back in the day”. If Kaineng attracted a large contingent of higher tier players and dominated bronze league that would have to be some type of cosmic joke.

I’m not advocating for Kaineng, especially b/c they aren’t my server (that would be AR, which is also free!), but don’t punish the few loyalists who are still there. The “kittens” who abused the system and gave Kaineng that rep are probably no longer even on the server, so don’t spit in the faces of the people left whom have committed none of those sins.

PariahX.6970:

zen.6091:

Regardless, the chance to avoid gold league blobs, queues, and lag for 0 gems is intriguing.

Color me intrigued indeed If TW had stayed on SoR with the loyalists I would even have considered paying to transfer there to what will now undoubtedly be a very tight community. Wish I knew more about some of the lower tiers competition and community personalities but I guess that is what we suddenly have all these world type threads for.

Well, if you’d like to get to know some of the lower tier servers better, please feel free to drop by one of our weekly matchup threads to see when gvgs, fight nights, and other cross-server events are scheduled.

Oh… that’s right. Matchup threads are the devil.

Straegen.2938:

Night.2759:

Come to Kaineng for free!

Special K will always be known as the kittens that abused free transfers to make a slew of lower ranked servers miserable for months “back in the day”. If Kaineng attracted a large contingent of higher tier players and dominated bronze league that would have to be some type of cosmic joke.

Wouldn’t know anything about that “back in the day” stuff – only played GW2 for 2 months at release and just came back about 3 months ago. But from what I’ve seen from Kaineng is a small group of hard working dedicated players that could use a hand.

BlackBeard.2873:

Straegen.2938:

Night.2759:

Come to Kaineng for free!

Special K will always be known as the kittens that abused free transfers to make a slew of lower ranked servers miserable for months “back in the day”. If Kaineng attracted a large contingent of higher tier players and dominated bronze league that would have to be some type of cosmic joke.

I’m not advocating for Kaineng, especially b/c they aren’t my server (that would be AR, which is also free!), but don’t punish the few loyalists who are still there. The “kittens” who abused the system and gave Kaineng that rep are probably no longer even on the server, so don’t spit in the faces of the people left whom have committed none of those sins.

Thank you Blackbeard, that was quite nice and well said.

I’m actually curious which will be more abundant…

-higher tier players moving down for free…
Or
-lower tier players moving up to 13-15 for free

While low tier server transfers are free, if you want to get into T1 JQ, better transfer now while the price is low. Best way to guarantee yourself tickets.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

While low tier server transfers are free, if you want to get into T1 JQ, better transfer now while the price is low. Best way to guarantee yourself tickets.

JQ has been full for about 2 weeks, BG for a lot longer than that.
I haven’t checked the past few days, but JQ showed full almost every time I logged in, except once at about 4am about 2 weeks ago.

Shonie.5297:

I’m actually curious which will be more abundant…

-higher tier players moving down for free…
Or
-lower tier players moving up to 13-15 for free

This ^^

Quick everyone transfer to TC before price go up from 1800 to 2400 gems.
They have highest chance to win Season 2 and server not even full, what a good deal!

Straegen.2938:

Night.2759:

Come to Kaineng for free!

Special K will always be known as the kittens that abused free transfers to make a slew of lower ranked servers miserable for months “back in the day”. If Kaineng attracted a large contingent of higher tier players and dominated bronze league that would have to be some type of cosmic joke.

“Doing a Kaineng” already means to rise high in the leagues, but then fail and fall all the way back down again. It would be ironic, and amusing, if it happened all over again.

http://imgur.com/IY2zqju

*edit, used the right chart :p

Made this chart real quick for a visual reference based the end of this week’s match.

It will be interesting to see what the servers on the silver / bronze bubble do, if they try to go for bronze or the free transfer slots in silver, which may be a boon long after the league. Will FA or DB get the last slot in gold league, with the other pretty much guaranteed to win silver? All sorts of intrigue and shenanigans possible this week.

EmoDevo.3209:

Quick everyone transfer to TC before price go up from 1800 to 2400 gems.
They have highest chance to win Season 2 and server not even full, what a good deal!

Actually I think people from TC should be railing against this idea. The soul of their RP server is getting greatly diluted and while more fair-weather transfers do not guarantee a win, they most definitely will bring a more fractured community.

PariahX.6970:

EmoDevo.3209:

Quick everyone transfer to TC before price go up from 1800 to 2400 gems.
They have highest chance to win Season 2 and server not even full, what a good deal!

Actually I think people from TC should be railing against this idea. The soul of their RP server is getting greatly diluted and while more fair-weather transfers do not guarantee a win, they most definitely will bring a more fractured community.

That’s more or less the mentality here. We’ll welcome people who will come to the server and actually fight, but please do not come to TC if you are just here for easy rewards. I guarantee you that you will not receive a warm welcome if that is your intention. Queues will be long enough as it is when Season 2 rolls around, we don’t need the extra people. There are plenty of servers that need more able bodies than we or any of the T1 servers do.

Obviously, I can’t force anyone to not transfer, but this is the current state of affairs.

Tired of the current state of your WvW?

Want to move to a new server but can’t afford it, and you also enjoy WvW?

Well get ready…

-

All transfers to the rank 13, 14 and 15 servers (exact servers to be announced) will be FREE before WvW Season 2.

So everyone get your mouses ready and topple Silver League! The prizes at the top of the Silver League will be the same for those in Gold and Bronze.

And all three of those servers (whichever they end up being) will likely be where all the good fights in Silver League will be coming from.

If you are on a server you are wanting to transfer away from. Good money (free) says this is where you will want to be.

Good luck SBI/BP and DB or possibly FA. The horde is coming for you, and their transfers will be strong.

yeah, go play on those servers so they dont try to tank into bronze

insanemaniac.2456:

yeah, go play on those servers so they dont try to tank into bronze

It won’t matter if the current 3 do.

Because the free 13, 14, 15 rank servers will not be decided until the Server Transfers go live.

(So the bottom 3 can still tank into Bronze, and be replaced by 3 more servers from Bronze, to get stacked for Silver League.)

Or… they could wait for the transfers. Not bother doing WvW and keep tanking. Then dominate Bronze entirely.

o god the mind games