Guild Wars 2

I’m just curious out there on your respective servers in the past and present, who would you consider to be game changing commander(s)? Usually they are ones I see that are capable of changing the tide of a close match up. I’ve heard and seen some and they usually have certain attributes to them:

Maybe give a little info about them. Since alot of the hype are around gvg guilds/drivers. However great they are at gvg, they may not be wvw game changers.

-capable of open field
-can draw a large enough guild/zerg
-can supply manage and strategize offensively and defensively. they can change a hopeless last stand garrison defense and stabilize it. offensively they can take BL’s at will (excluding off hour pvd, so there has to be resistance)
-good mentors for other commanders, they often are the ones training up new ones

Notable ones I’ve heard or seen:

Starting with my own:

CD:
-Ohbe
-Daeronz – correction Daeronz 2012 =p

YB:
-Dragonknight – yes, as much as we despise his methods. I have to say he is a game changer for YB

Kaineng
– Janggun(?) from warmachine [WM]. one of the most efficient PPTer/open field commander back in my virgin wvw days. He could grind out your 60+ queued map with his crew and take it over.

Maguuma:
Xushin – heard about him being a very methodical guy when he wants to command.

Wouldn’t exactly call DK capable of open-field… Janggun yes, back in the day, although I’d be curious to see how something the size of WM would work these days.

Ben K.6238:

Wouldn’t exactly call DK capable of open-field… Janggun yes, back in the day, although I’d be curious to see how something the size of WM would work these days.

The term was “capable” for a reason, not extraodinary. But my primary reason to mention him is that with him playing 16+ hours/day is a game changer. although his methods may be in disagreement. Similar to there are a lot of good gvg guilds/commanders but they are less capable at taking t3 objectives with defenders. I wouldn’t consider leaving the map because too many people are defending it and coming back when the map is “cooled down” as a game changing commander. Trying to keep it as general as possible but focusing in on some individuals.

Ben K.6238:

Wouldn’t exactly call DK capable of open-field… Janggun yes, back in the day, although I’d be curious to see how something the size of WM would work these days.

Jang Gun is back!!! I’m in Black Gate and had a pleasure running with him this past weekend. If he’s online during the Korea prime time, he often brings enough [WM] to make a decent raid team and rouse up a huge zerg. (They have two or three fantastic mesmer and amazing frontline). We rushed the enemy blobs so hard until most of [WM] went to bed. At this point, our zerg was sorta falling apart as Jang Gun isn’t a communicative type (language-barrier) and many new players in BG don’t know and/or agree with his style of fighting. Jang Gun’s group is still the best for its “sticking-tight-to-the-commander-and-fighting-hard” kind of zergs.

I’m not a regular in Black Gate but from my time in Gandara [EU], I would nominate Lord Aragorn [Val], very courteous and educating.

Well since you mentioned YB, I thought I would correct you. The correct IGN is Dragun Knight. Yes, he may not brilliant in open field things but he is one of the major names on YB and is really the “master of siege” who can draw huge crowd, so I guess it fits OP’s agenda (whatever he is trying to accomplish with this thread).

These threads are always weird since we haven’t heard of 99% of the commanders on other servers.

Well, you’ve usually at least heard of commanders that you play against in your tiers.

Keep in mind this is the semi-current list (last 2 months at latest) of celebrity commanders. Game-changing is too vague of a concept to be able to categorize commanders as such. People get what I mean when I say celebrity.

For FA, probably the most well-known outside of FA is Tyryon. Does quite a lot of pugmanding, as well as leading his guild group BOMB. He puts in tons of hours but also does well in open field. I’d say other than him, there’s truly no other celebrity commanders on FA. However, we have quite a few great commanders, since we have quite a few guilds and their drivers tend to pugmand here and there and/or run open rallies.

Mag had Nacho, Duke, and still has Xushin. Nacho for his excellence in pugmanding (guy knew how to lead a disparate crew), Duke for his crazy hours when Mag needed a consistent tag, and I don’t know much about Xushin.

SoS no clue. Sorry guize. Only peeps I knew there was HOPE and far as I know they didn’t pugmand on SoS, only on FA.

Best PUG commander I have run with (and I know this is going to kitten off a lot of people): DTC. Very clear and well spoken in TS, knew how to take hardened/defended objectives, he knew how to use offensive ACs/Ballistas, encouraged server wide participation, trained numerous commanders and was a solid open field commander. He kinda went off the deep end at the end (seems most PUG commanders do) but never seen anyone rally troops the way he did. I don’t think he PUG commands any longer.

I miss Pink Army night.

shiri.4257:

YB

YB doesn’t really have outstanding commanders in the traditional sense. Where YB gains points is in communication and planning. YB’s population simply isn’t built well for open field fights so commanders are limited in what they can do.

shiri.4257:

Maguuma:
Xushin – heard about him being a very methodical guy when he wants to command.

He stayed and rallied a strong PUG army. Even after the GvG left, Mag has (had?) a very toughened population built for large scale open field fights. If Mag PUGs respect you, the army that followed is (was?) impressive. Ask Duke, Nacho or a handful of other solid commanders from that server… some crazy good PUGs there.

Fluffball.8307:

These threads are always weird since we haven’t heard of 99% of the commanders on other servers.

If you command a lot you get to know who you’re up against. I’m saying “Game Changers” in a sense they can break opposing servers morale to blow a close match out. Often they are celebrity commanders so to say. They are usually capable of playing the PPT game and open field game which sets them apart from one that focuses over another.

But yah, sad CD didn’t get a chance to test itself out against Maguuma’s commanders like Nacho, Xushin, etc. Not sure if we had a chance against Tryron from FA in season 2, but I was usually pinned into home bl during that match. Fun none the less.

Xushin from Mag is honestly the best commander I have ever seen in Guild Wars when it comes to turning a pug into a semi-workable force. Every reset he’s there running drills and giving orders, trying to get the ball rolling.

#Xushin4KingOfMag

Straegen.2938:

shiri.4257:

YB

YB doesn’t really have outstanding commanders in the traditional sense. Where YB gains points is in communication and planning. YB’s population simply isn’t built well for open field fights so commanders are limited in what they can do.

Unfortunately, OP included criteria other than open field fights. While our commanders may not be great in open field fights, they are one of the best in placement of siege (DK, Rheayas and Rena in particular) and other battlefield tactics.
Besides this, you can’t really take away dedication of someone who stays 16+ hours online to rally people constantly. I have been on YB since release to know how our much our commander play a role in “game changing”.

For YB its always funny to see enemy servers fixated on DK. As much as he is an important commander in off hours, he is not really what ppl from other servers think he is for YB. He is more of a coordinator in a sense. And a siege guy. He always detags and lets other commanders do the driving. For YB ppl who make or break a matchup are our guards and scouts.

I’ll just leave this here…

http://northernshiverpeaks.org/index.php?/page/Articles%20and%20News/articles.html/_/articles/meet-a-commander/

munkiman.3068:

I’ll just leave this here…

http://northernshiverpeaks.org/index.php?/page/Articles%20and%20News/articles.html/_/articles/meet-a-commander/

That’s actually a really cool thing NSP did. We haven’t faced NSP in a while. Would be nice if we get a chance in season 3, but if CD is matched up against YB. We will probably be working out offensive mechanics on YB to practice.

So a popularity contest?
WvW is all about population…

Narkodx.1472:

So a popularity contest?
WvW is all about population…

not really…population and coverage is a large part. But the commanders that run during those times and how they play will set it apart. For instance on CD. Ohbe is a game changer because CD was heavily outnumbered during NA prime. often times fighting outmanned on home bl. But he’s able to to stabilize it with the assets he had and brought morale back for NA prime. Hence the game changer, a complete 180 of a dire situation.

shiri.4257:

Narkodx.1472:

So a popularity contest?
WvW is all about population…

not really…population and coverage is a large part. But the commanders that run during those times and how they play will set it apart. For instance on CD. Ohbe is a game changer because CD was heavily outnumbered during NA prime. often times fighting outmanned on home bl. But he’s able to to stabilize it with the assets he had and brought morale back for NA prime. Hence the game changer, a complete 180 of a dire situation.

Dude… CD wins because of coverage not because of leet commander Ohbe

CD = PvD once the oceanic/asians get online

For YB, DK, Rheayas and Lyorkie are the heart of our command and control, with the many responsive scouts (as Lion said) allowing them to hop to contested points or attack the opponent where they’re weakest. YB tends to play a strategic game. It’s all about “Getting there furstest with the mostest”

The trouble with these sorts of popularity contests is that we have each seen different things in the time we are online.

If by game changing you mean " forcing Anet to rebuild the terrain around watergate" then those of us actually present on the wall when a popular candidate exploited around both enemy Garrison watergates, might agree with you.

Unfortunately, placing the names of people you personally like on an all time commander list, pressures those of us who have differing opinions of that player to post.

ie, are commanders removed from this list if they have a past history of cheating/fringing or are we being a little forgiving in that department?

Blackgate:

(GoF) Finality (NA Prime time)
(DAWN) Vortex Blade (Oceanic)
(xsoe) Sepiroth (SEA)

Jade Quarry:
(SF) Jed (NA Prime time)
(SG) Mance (NA Prime time)

I miss the days when MERC was on BG and Wahaa still played and they would collide each night. And when FOO and ND came out in numbers every night.

Narkodx.1472:

So a popularity contest?
WvW is all about population…

Most commanders get popular for a reason. On every server I have been on, new or poor commanders frequently cannot field a large force. Good commander shows up and suddenly the map is q’d. People can call it a popularity contest or a karma train commander but players won’t follow commanders that get them repeatedly wiped, target locked or are a spaz on open channels.

I am going to go with the ’pug’mander angle here and say tier 1 prolly has less random unifying map chat wielding leaders since we’ve done so well organizing our WvW communities in VIOP. And as much as I love JQ for that, I am rarely following a pin and never in voice chat outside my guild for my own reasons so I gotta give mad props to those few commanders who can still marshal a zerg out of nothing or pound the pavement in the off peak hours to rally numbers using map chat.

For that I love chasin’ after Mance & Stonewall late PST, Gavi wherever our regular commanders are not and Firebrew or our resident frenchie Lectell on the early shifts since those guys all use the map chat liberally but I have to say in spite of the flack he sometmes gets, Cloud Fly always makes for an easy target to follow and gets a zerg rolling when there was only chaos before. He is also pretty awesome at making a defensive stand on short notice and rallying the troops so I’d call him a game changer. Haven’t seen a lot of the other more familiar names on lately or I’d keep going.

Of course back in the day Wahaa was always our off peak hours lion who put together so many great rushes but I still see some from that era like Good Taiwan Man & Sfeee out there from time to time. I think it is not surprising some of the best pugmanders do not speak English as a first language since it helps them be more efficient with the map chat and probably lets them ignore the peanut gallery as well.

EotM can be a stupid ktrain grind if you let it but I’ve also seen it used to great effect by some very skilled pugmanders to create some memorable battle tactics with only uplevels and map chat to work with. I would say that any commander who wants to improve his map chat effectiveness should spend some time in EotM to hone those skills or maybe that is just ploy to lure a few more fight orientated commanders into the mists once in awhile.

I would second Cloud Fly. He’s awesome fun to follow. And makes it easy for people who only follow map chat to follow.

I also used to have a great time following Wok for a living. he tipped the balance a number times even with a scrub like me following.

DR has some amazing commanders particularity in borderlands but due to the nature of the game and the potential motives of the OP ill keep names to myself. Just remember if you ever run into a 15 man DR team with less than 40 people you should stay away they usually dont chase if they have an objective they want.

As a BG guy 3 commanders stand out to me.

Already mentioned but Finality is great, pretty much what I’d consider the blueprint for a solid commander. Great at keeping track of things, knows his stuff, and great at rallying people.

Captain Sig, does great as well, but what’s great about him is he takes the time to say why he does what he does, this is great for the new WvW player to give some level of understanding. I’ve learned a lot simply following him.

Dods, “aggressive” pretty much sums him up. He can be a bit harsh in ts, but he hits things hard and well. Another commander may be taking it slow trying to get things set up just right, then in comes Dods on a float team to wipe out the enemy. It’s fun following him even if it is a bit stressful. And no commander has the bags flow as fast.

Figured I’d give props to those 3 as for me they are the most fun to follow.

Funny, no reply on EU Commanders so far.

TC is extremely dependent on their commanders. The dozen or so notable commanders are all game changers. If one of them is on, we play, if none of them is on, we stand around.

The best commander in TC is in my opinion a guy who lives in Northern England. He understands both open field and back/line defense, has a very good grasp of topography of all the maps. Most of the commanders, even the good ones, only know open field fighting and seem to make things up on the fly.

I have really admired whoever is running Blackgate’s supply strategy, btw. Way beyond anything anyone can talk TC into doing. I think a few of us are independently starting to wake up to how to control and ration supply based on what people say in map chat, but it is far from any organized method.

For pug commander then the kitten Gabriel, he kitten off Guilds and so but he is a were good pug commander that always get players on him. kitten I miss gay Monday.

I’ll go ahead and leave JQ out of it since I’m biased, but I have a second account on SFR and the really big standout one is “Ins For Da Waagh” or some spelling near that. Every time I’ve followed him he would cram 3 hours worth of commanding into about 15 minutes. He’d tell people to rally on him and a few minutes later you’d be inside the lord room of the enemy keep on EB.

So theres your EU one :P

I thought i might join in this because the OP is a long time friend! And without any particular order, or server, here are all of those that “broke” the game because of their excellent skill as a driver.

(All NA Drivers)

Shiri (Anthrax)
Mooon
Cuddlepie
Smokee
Gismor
Indy
Janggun
Kimgoon
Vortex Blade (even though hes a kiwi!)
Malevolent Omen

And that guy off JQ who i dont remember and that guild no one will ever forget?! kitten ……forgot his name and guild……

MANCE!

As for EU…….

No one cares……. ;/

Straegen.2938:

Best PUG commander I have run with (and I know this is going to kitten off a lot of people): DTC. Very clear and well spoken in TS, knew how to take hardened/defended objectives, he knew how to use offensive ACs/Ballistas, encouraged server wide participation, trained numerous commanders and was a solid open field commander. He kinda went off the deep end at the end (seems most PUG commanders do) but never seen anyone rally troops the way he did. I don’t think he PUG commands any longer.

I miss Pink Army night.

shiri.4257:

YB

YB doesn’t really have outstanding commanders in the traditional sense. Where YB gains points is in communication and planning. YB’s population simply isn’t built well for open field fights so commanders are limited in what they can do.

shiri.4257:

Maguuma:
Xushin – heard about him being a very methodical guy when he wants to command.

He stayed and rallied a strong PUG army. Even after the GvG left, Mag has (had?) a very toughened population built for large scale open field fights. If Mag PUGs respect you, the army that followed is (was?) impressive. Ask Duke, Nacho or a handful of other solid commanders from that server… some crazy good PUGs there.

Respect, thanks.
to be honest I just got bored of it, and was immature and decided to start trolling everyone then eventually just left with oT. It took a lot of my time and effort to do all the hours I commanded on BP let alone the other stuff I did around the server when I wasn’t tagged, wore me down, I’ve humbled down now just killing zergs with oT now, I havnt commanded since I moved to FA.

Baroness.9506:

As for EU…….

No one cares……. ;/

Well SoS use to have a few regular pugmanders around, but since T2 turned more into the gvg state you rarely see those commanders tag up as they tend to just lead their own. Most gvg guild commanders tend to never tag up 99% of the time.

The SoS game changer for sure would be Luvpie though.

Can’t remember the server, but “Grampa” was epic. His 20 golem rushes were just insane, Man the people would show up and follow him waiting for his golem zerg.

Anista Darkhaven, I think that was his name. If you wanted to power level, follow him around. WOW!!!

Natronix

nuff said.

EU is underestimated here …
nvmd. some of my personal thougts:

OF → OpenField
ST → Supplymanagement and (Siege)Tactics

• Drakkar Lake 2012:
• Tammiera [DSS] – ST
• Big Ban[DSun] – ST/OF
• Brinstar [DSV] – ST

• SFR 2012/13:
• Wikipedia (ECL) – OF

• Abaddons Mouth:
• Sendox & Fairytail Flo – Epic Karmatrains 20k+ Points a night were possible

• Riverside 2013:
• Godspeed [RG] – OF, long PUG-Trainings. Riverside had a very strong PUG-Zerg for months trough Godspeed.

• Kodash 2013/14:
• Amelie [AoFT] – ST!
• Zappy [WdR] – OF
• Elis [EoW] – OF
• Grizzly – OF

These guys are just a summary trough my playtime since release on certain servers.
I hope some EU Guys could add current commanders.
- I’m very interested in Deso and SFR Commanders for knowing against whom i fight with my pugs some evenings

Greets and sry for my east-german English :P

Jang Gun is one of the best commanders that can change things. Another one that I think no longer plays is Coolet. When Kaineng imploded, this guy would single handed keep Kaineng alive with his leadership. Other commanders would stand down and let him lead Kaineng from 20 PPT to 280+PPT. Simply amazing as a driver. I’ve ran with Jang Gun and he was great, but Coolet was on the same level.

Its simple we know EU would win against US so we dont need a list.

For FA, Tyryon has been mentioned and I’d also add Delune. I’m the paradigmatic non-TS using PUG, and he’s a game changer for me because he knows what he’s doing and engages the TS-less PUGs and his map chat commentary is just frickin entertaining. I’ll stay on a map when I see him on just because me makes me laugh.