Guild Wars 2

I really think that everyone should show to their enemies as “Invader” instead of their actual rank. I believe their actual rank should show to their allies only.

This would help out a lot to prevent “driver sniping” which is a really annoying problem. I’m generally not the driver of the bigger group I play with at times, but some days I am. The enemies know our driver, they know his rank and his character model at this point lol. It isn’t usually too hard to pick out who a driver might be anyway, its usually the highest ranked Guardian that leaps is ahead of the pack. I don’t know barely any of the people on the enemy servers and yet I can pick out their driver almost exclusively based on their rank.

I’m a Platinum Raider currently, I am the highest rank person in my guild. I have found myself recently playing a big norn Guardian so that I will get focused instead of our driver (and its working funny enough), but it just goes to prove that people focus the highest ranked Guardian more often than not. I’m built to sustain in larger group play, so its no big deal for me to get focused, and better me than the driver anyway.

Anyway, to the point – the player ranks really should be hidden from enemies. People have been saying this for a long long time. I know the “Quality of Life” did not win the poll, but I’d like to see this on the “to do list” for the next time they do a poll like that or at least something they should consider doing after the scoring changes are done.

To be clear, I personally driver snipe very frequently. If my enemies are going to do it, I have to do it too in order to level the playing field. But if they change the way ranks are displayed, it should help fix the issue – but of course it wouldn’t fully fix it.

Thought?

I like that people can see my rank.

Hmm, gotta agree. Frequently, I call the next target to train down by their rank. I don’t see what’s the point of a rank if only anonymous enemies can see your rank. Should be able to toggle on/off to enemies and/or allies, but if that’s too much clutter to allies they could be like those pvp badge things (what relevance do those have in wvw anyways?)

Though people have been able to pick out the driver even if they are relatively low rank based on the movement, but I suppose that’s just a skill.

Another possibility is that the titles can just be unlocked and you can pick any you’ve unlocked. I think Gold Legend sounds a lot better than Platinum Recruit anyways. It also doesn’t help that platinum makes your name longer.

ArchonWing.9480:

Hmm, gotta agree. Frequently, I call the next target to train down by their rank. I don’t see what’s the point of a rank if only anonymous enemies can see your rank. Should be able to toggle on/off to enemies and/or allies, but if that’s too much clutter to allies they could be like those pvp badge things (what relevance do those have in wvw anyways?)

Though people have been able to pick out the driver even if they are relatively low rank based on the movement, but I suppose that’s just a skill.

Another possibility is that the titles can just be unlocked and you can pick any you’ve unlocked. I think Gold Legend sounds a lot better than Platinum Recruit anyways. It also doesn’t help that platinum makes your name longer.

I think finding the driver based on movement is fair game – but finding them based off rank is a different story. It isn’t hard to pick out the highest ranked guardian and put a target on their head for your whole squad to see lol.

Yea, I don’t disagree with you on that for the matter. The former takes a degree of skill, the later is well, as you suggested, lol.

Sniping based off of rank is just one of the ways to do it. Movement, guild tag, appearance, titles, effects, buffs, upgrades being used, etc etc…

X T D.6458:

Sniping based off of rank is just one of the ways to do it. Movement, guild tag, appearance, titles, effects, buffs, upgrades being used, etc etc…

Agreed – but generally the highest ranked Guardian is the driver. Sure not always, but there is frequent success for driver sniping based on that alone. I generally find the person who is ahead of their group, that person is also usually the highest ranked guardian lol. It is too easy to driver snipe right now, so taking away just that one thing I think would help out.

I also did a fun experiment and grabbed my alt account that is a very low rank (not even Bronze yet I think) and drove with my Asura Guardian on that account. The highest ranked Guardian was a Charr guardian that was only a silver something, he was getting focused the whole night while I rarely was touched even though I was ahead of my group at all times.

I think being able to choose what rank to display would be nice, and disabling titles from displaying to enemies would be good. Pin sniping in all honesty is not the most effective strategy unless you have a dedicated pick team for that kind of stuff, if your facing a competent group with a strong sustaining front line, that commander will be able to handle a lot of damage. Ideally you don’t want people wasting their bombs on a commander.

X T D.6458:

I think being able to choose what rank to display would be nice, and disabling titles from displaying to enemies would be good. Pin sniping in all honesty is not the most effective strategy unless you have a dedicated pick team for that kind of stuff, if your facing a competent group with a strong sustaining front line, that commander will be able to handle a lot of damage. Ideally you don’t want people wasting their bombs on a commander.

You might be surprised how many groups fall to pieces as soon as their driver goes down. The guild I run with that runs tag (BEEP) has multiple drivers, if one goes down, the next takes over immediately so that we don’t just fall to pieces because of the driver dying. Not very many groups seem to have a backup driver, much less 2 or 3 like we have lol. I find that when we have our backline focus out the driver, once that driver goes down state and their group hard commits to rezzing, we just bomb their body and poison as well, then just win the fight because the enemies either scatter or all go down trying to rez the driver.

Disagree with this idea.

We also run backup commanders that take over should the main commander go down.

Avigrus.2871:

Disagree with this idea.

Are you the driver of any group? If so, what is your rank? I don’t think you’d be disagreeing if you were a driver getting super focused all the time.

Also curious to hear an explanation of why you disagree other than just disagreeing. I’m pretty open minded, but some kind of reasoning is the only way I can see your side lol.

My rank is 300-something.

Yes. After three-plus years.

I take great delight in the enemy targeting me, assuming I’m new.

Then I bow and skip off.

I’d also like to see rank and titles removed for enemies. It simplifies pin-sniping to tab targeting until you recognize the rank/title. Most groups you would still be able to identify from their movement, but staying tight would start to be a better defense against pin snipers.

Complaining about"driver sniping" as if it is unfair or dishonorable is by far the stupidest thing Ive heard anyone complain about in terms of WvW fights.

The enemy commander is an enemy, and if the enemy group is not competent enough to continue fighting once that commanders dies; they deserve their defeat.

The point of a group fight is to win. The “call target” function is designed for your team to strategically pick a target to focus down.

Not all commanders are the highest ranks. It’s generally the playstyle n the way the character looks that gets them spotted. It’s also a kill-fun to hide ranks. Having that sweet mithril rank and only having yourself to look at it doesn’t sound satisfying. There’s also something satisfying in stomping on a legend. How about giving an option to hide ranks instead. I think not everyone wants to hide their mithril status

I’m neutral on this subject although I think that’s the trade-off for being a high rank in the first place and primarily a driver at that, too – you should get focused.

At the same time I think it’s humorous though, being Plat Legend atm I have A LOT of people focus me as I’m generally always frontline heavy tank guardian near the driver, haha.

I understand the frustration it can cause. It is extremely easy to point out who’s driving due to their movement and the generic max size Charrsack leaping ahead of their zerg plenty of times… ranks aren’t usually what I look at to determine who’s driving. It’s more so their movements, positioning on my screen and their guild tag. That alone is easy enough.

My main bone to pick is that enemy ranks are quite screen-cluttering in general when being pitted up against the enemy blob. Perhaps a streamlined version is needed similar to the PvP badges?

A badge/icon with Roman numerals (1-15) could represent a certain rank title within that entire column?

EXAMPLE: Gold badge with III on it correlates to “Gold Raider”. I’m merely going by the wiki page regarding WvW ranks seeing as there’s 15 rank titles per column…

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_Experience

Let’s use OP’s “Invader” idea but swap it out to a shorter term (enemy) for the sake of keeping things short.

Formula would be → Name of server → “Enemy” → Guild Tag if applicable → Badge/icon to indicate rank title with asterisk being my ghetto example of a badge…

EXAMPLE: Blackgate Enemy [DGK]*
Instead of current system: Blackgate Platinum Legend [DGK]

Turk.5460:

Complaining about"driver sniping" as if it is unfair or dishonorable is by far the stupidest thing Ive heard anyone complain about in terms of WvW fights.

The enemy commander is an enemy, and if the enemy group is not competent enough to continue fighting once that commanders dies; they deserve their defeat.

The point of a group fight is to win. The “call target” function is designed for your team to strategically pick a target to focus down.

Nobody is asking for the commander to be made immune to damage, just for it to not be made mind-numbingly easy to tab target and pin snipe. Do you want the commander buff visible to enemies again? They fixed that, they should fix this.

If the pinsniper is not competent enough to continue to identify commanders without this crutch; they deserve their defeat.

I am not sure forcing hide is the right idea. For several months I have run alone due to my wvw guild moving servers. When I run with our “zergs” the enemy often mistakenly focus me instead of the actual driver. I place myself to draw the fire.

Usually they learn within a few engagements that they should snipe the guy actually leading pushes….

Josh XT.6053:

I really think that everyone should show to their enemies as “Invader” instead of their actual rank. I believe their actual rank should show to their allies only.

This would help out a lot to prevent “driver sniping” which is a really annoying problem. I’m generally not the driver of the bigger group I play with at times, but some days I am. The enemies know our driver, they know his rank and his character model at this point lol. It isn’t usually too hard to pick out who a driver might be anyway, its usually the highest ranked Guardian that leaps is ahead of the pack. I don’t know barely any of the people on the enemy servers and yet I can pick out their driver almost exclusively based on their rank.

I’m a Platinum Raider currently, I am the highest rank person in my guild. I have found myself recently playing a big norn Guardian so that I will get focused instead of our driver (and its working funny enough), but it just goes to prove that people focus the highest ranked Guardian more often than not. I’m built to sustain in larger group play, so its no big deal for me to get focused, and better me than the driver anyway.

Anyway, to the point – the player ranks really should be hidden from enemies. People have been saying this for a long long time. I know the “Quality of Life” did not win the poll, but I’d like to see this on the “to do list” for the next time they do a poll like that or at least something they should consider doing after the scoring changes are done.

To be clear, I personally driver snipe very frequently. If my enemies are going to do it, I have to do it too in order to level the playing field. But if they change the way ranks are displayed, it should help fix the issue – but of course it wouldn’t fully fix it.

Thought?

Nope.

I have a fairly high rank, not the best as I am a WVW player from early launch, not EOTM farmer or default k-trainer, but a regular, all around WVW player. I am very experienced in runnign a variety of builds, on variety of classes.

And I want my opponents to be able to tell that from my title, to at least some degree. Yes I know its innacurate because of off peak hours k-trainers that don’t fight, eotm farmers, etc. but at least its something, instead of nothing.

In addition, along with graphical appearance, it can be a good way to tell people apart sometimes, for example, when you go up against someone thats still on your friends list cause you used to run together and kick their kitten

All that stuff would be gone along with the titles, I like the little tidbits the title can tell you about who you are facing. It adds flavor to the game.

No, my enemies need to see my diamond rank

Well rank does have the advantage that you are not jumped by every second guy but that works both ways, some may say poor SPD let the recruit in peace\downed state, others may try too boost their ego by hunting down low rank players.
There are pros and cons, how ever in the age of eotm rank is as indicative of skill lvl as legendary weapons and blue dragonball hair cuts.

Hiding ranks wont prevent “driver sniping”. We had called this pin sniping, and a few times I did this. It was funny, but the rank was the last thing you’ve looked for when doing this. Against the zerg you only see a bunch of red names. It’s helpful when you have to decide, but not really necessary. You can still identify the commander, the only thing which helps is to have a back-up commander.

The memories of pin-sniping a commander, who always had have raged on the other players, bring me still an evil smile on my face. The rank system was late introduce in the game, it says nothing about the skill the player have.

Menaki.6329:

Hiding ranks wont prevent “driver sniping”. We had called this pin sniping, and a few times I did this. It was funny, but the rank was the last thing you’ve looked for when doing this. Against the zerg you only see a bunch of red names. It’s helpful when you have to decide, but not really necessary. You can still identify the commander, the only thing which helps is to have a back-up commander.

The memories of pin-sniping a commander, who always had have raged on the other players, bring me still an evil smile on my face. The rank system was late introduce in the game, it says nothing about the skill the player have.

Thank you.

YES! Please let us hide our ranks. This could be a toggle switch in options. Seriously, having to change your build because you hit mithril is ridiculous. I get sniped enough when I’m on my ele or mesmer as it is.

No.. When some kittenbag 10v1’s me then emote spams, I like to be able to identify that “Silver General” or w/e so I can seek them out and dish my revenge.

As a roamer the ranks give me a good idea on whether or not I should get involved in a fight. If someone isn’t even bronze I will go after them every time, but if they’re gold and higher I might avoid them if my goal is to flip a camp or sentry and not seek out fights.

Hesacon.8735:

As a roamer the ranks give me a good idea on whether or not I should get involved in a fight. If someone isn’t even bronze I will go after them every time, but if they’re gold and higher I might avoid them if my goal is to flip a camp or sentry and not seek out fights.

In my experience “lower” ranks like silver/bronze tend to die slower then say a platinum.

Hence why i call em Splat inums.

Game designers appear to believe that PVP players want to show off a bit. In most games I’ve played you get better armor for higher level achieves (which often comes with better stats.) I guess I look at it that way. That Anet has that feature to show longevity and prestige in the game mode or something. Which isn’t entirely accurate as everyone knows. I know people who run defense and scout that have hardly any ranks at all after years of play.

Driver sniping is effective in a lot of cases. Certainly works when there is a lot of militia around. But really any form of distraction can work in that scenario too. Having an option to turn it off might not be a bad idea.

Offair.2563:

Hesacon.8735:

As a roamer the ranks give me a good idea on whether or not I should get involved in a fight. If someone isn’t even bronze I will go after them every time, but if they’re gold and higher I might avoid them if my goal is to flip a camp or sentry and not seek out fights.

In my experience “lower” ranks like silver/bronze tend to die slower then say a platinum.

Hence why i call em Splat inums.

After a certain point (probably mid-bronze), there isn’t much of a skill difference between the different ranks, but I’ve found the higher ranks know when to run away so you don’t get a satisfying conclusion.

Turk.5460:

Complaining about"driver sniping" as if it is unfair or dishonorable is by far the stupidest thing Ive heard anyone complain about in terms of WvW fights.

The enemy commander is an enemy, and if the enemy group is not competent enough to continue fighting once that commanders dies; they deserve their defeat.

The point of a group fight is to win. The “call target” function is designed for your team to strategically pick a target to focus down.

I’m not saying driver sniping shouldn’t be possible – I am saying that by hiding the ranks, it will make it harder and people will need to be more skillful about it than just targeting the highest ranked guardian they see.

Menaki.6329:

Hiding ranks wont prevent “driver sniping”. We had called this pin sniping, and a few times I did this. It was funny, but the rank was the last thing you’ve looked for when doing this. Against the zerg you only see a bunch of red names. It’s helpful when you have to decide, but not really necessary. You can still identify the commander, the only thing which helps is to have a back-up commander.

The memories of pin-sniping a commander, who always had have raged on the other players, bring me still an evil smile on my face. The rank system was late introduce in the game, it says nothing about the skill the player have.

Back before they hid the ability to see the “commander tag” on the enemy players when you targeted them, that was how you pin sniped. They had to remove that because of pin sniping lol.

And yes, as I said previously, Rank is not the only thing that goes in to driver sniping, however you have a pretty good chance of targeting the highest ranked Guardian and it being the driver.

Simple logic says that the driver is there for all of the WvW raids for their guild and has probably pugmanded a bit or ran with zergs a lot during off-raid hours, which would make them a higher rank than most of their others that are more casual.

I’m a Platinum Raider currently, it is actually helpful to my group (when I am playing with the bigger guild I play with, not roaming) that I play a big tanky Guardian, so when I get focused, the driver is free to do what needs done. I feel the focus when I play that character in that group, I know people are going for me specifically because I’m getting Moa’d and stuff too lol.

With all the free / alt accounts out there, you’re just as likely to get sniped by a Platinum masquerading as a pennystore major, so it doesn’t really matter either way.

ArchonWing.9480:

Should be able to toggle on/off to enemies and/or allies, but if that’s too much clutter to allies they could be like those pvp badge things (what relevance do those have in wvw anyways?)

Another possibility is that the titles can just be unlocked and you can pick any you’ve unlocked. I think Gold Legend sounds a lot better than Platinum Recruit anyways. It also doesn’t help that platinum makes your name longer.

Either of those idea’s would be fine with me.

TallBarr.2184:

No, my enemies need to see my diamond rank

I would rather show rank to my allies and have an option to show/hide it from enemys, sometimes the focus gets to much and you know it’s cos of rank.

@XTR

Yes, mostly it’s either warrior or guardian, but I’ve had also the pleasure to run with other commanders who have played with an unusual commander professions. So I never trust what I see in wvw.

Menaki.6329:

@XTR

Yes, mostly it’s either warrior or guardian, but I’ve had also the pleasure to run with other commanders who have played with an unusual commander professions. So I never trust what I see in wvw.

Yeah, I remember back in the day on Maguuma with Duke driving on a zerker staff ele lol. I am not saying this is the case at all times, but your typical groups driver IS the highest ranked Guardian lol. I’ve been able to call out the [PS] driver and [Sekz] driver every time we’ve seen them running, two “skill groups” that prove the point that the highest ranked guardian is usually the driver lol.

Josh XT.6053:

I really think that everyone should show to their enemies as “Invader” instead of their actual rank. I believe their actual rank should show to their allies only.

This would help out a lot to prevent “driver sniping” which is a really annoying problem. I’m generally not the driver of the bigger group I play with at times, but some days I am. The enemies know our driver, they know his rank and his character model at this point lol. It isn’t usually too hard to pick out who a driver might be anyway, its usually the highest ranked Guardian that leaps is ahead of the pack. I don’t know barely any of the people on the enemy servers and yet I can pick out their driver almost exclusively based on their rank.

I’m a Platinum Raider currently, I am the highest rank person in my guild. I have found myself recently playing a big norn Guardian so that I will get focused instead of our driver (and its working funny enough), but it just goes to prove that people focus the highest ranked Guardian more often than not. I’m built to sustain in larger group play, so its no big deal for me to get focused, and better me than the driver anyway.

Anyway, to the point – the player ranks really should be hidden from enemies. People have been saying this for a long long time. I know the “Quality of Life” did not win the poll, but I’d like to see this on the “to do list” for the next time they do a poll like that or at least something they should consider doing after the scoring changes are done.

To be clear, I personally driver snipe very frequently. If my enemies are going to do it, I have to do it too in order to level the playing field. But if they change the way ranks are displayed, it should help fix the issue – but of course it wouldn’t fully fix it.

Thought?

WvW name plate options were datamined by “that shaman” on reddit, so I’m assuming we will have options to do stuff like this.

XTR.9604:

Avigrus.2871:

Disagree with this idea.

Are you the driver of any group? If so, what is your rank? I don’t think you’d be disagreeing if you were a driver getting super focused all the time.

Also curious to hear an explanation of why you disagree other than just disagreeing. I’m pretty open minded, but some kind of reasoning is the only way I can see your side lol.

Rank 3200 roughly. Yes i have tagged (not regularly). Yes i get focussed (even when not tagged).

Worked hard to get the rank and that’s why i don’t want it removed. PvPers get the shiny little rank icon. Might be a bit of an ego thing, but that’s ok.

Avigrus.2871:

XTR.9604:

Avigrus.2871:

Disagree with this idea.

Are you the driver of any group? If so, what is your rank? I don’t think you’d be disagreeing if you were a driver getting super focused all the time.

Also curious to hear an explanation of why you disagree other than just disagreeing. I’m pretty open minded, but some kind of reasoning is the only way I can see your side lol.

Rank 3200 roughly. Yes i have tagged (not regularly). Yes i get focussed (even when not tagged).

Worked hard to get the rank and that’s why i don’t want it removed. PvPers get the shiny little rank icon. Might be a bit of an ego thing, but that’s ok.

To each their own. My rank pretty much just got away from me lol. I got most of my ranks from roaming and just flipping camps, towers and keeps with a small group of 2-5 people. High ranks just make it look like all you did was EOTM or zerg around your whole time in WvW lol. Most people I run in to around my Platinum rank or higher while roaming are EASY to beat and seem to have zero skill. I don’t care about showing my rank when roaming, but in larger group play, being able to hide it would be a nicer thing. I would be fine with it being hidden by default and everyone just being an “Invader” to the enemy.

Don’t need ranks to see who is the driver. Just observe movements of the melee train for 10seconds and you will see it. You can hide ranks etc but that won’t stop me from spotting them.

The rank system is dumb, imo. It just shows how no-life you are, and gives a false sense of skill level since it is the same title on a brand new alt. The whole thing needs an overhaul to be based on matches, unidle time, and so forth. More competitive. Keep the wxp levels going, but don’t tie titles into it.

Offair.2563:

Don’t need ranks to see who is the driver. Just observe movements of the melee train for 10seconds and you will see it. You can hide ranks etc but that won’t stop me from spotting them.

That is fine, and has been mentioned multiple times in this thread. It takes more skill to find the driver (doesn’t take much most of the time) if ranks are unseen. I am simply saying that if the ranks were hidden, it would be harder for most people to do.

Surely it won’t effect me since typically the guardian that leaps first is the driver – but I often leap first when my driver says “leaping in 3, 2, 1” – I leap on 3 so that I get focused first so he wont lol. There are plenty of ways to juke people, but ultimately the highest ranked Guardian gets a target on his head within seconds of the fight.

XTR.9604:

Avigrus.2871:

XTR.9604:

Avigrus.2871:

Disagree with this idea.

Are you the driver of any group? If so, what is your rank? I don’t think you’d be disagreeing if you were a driver getting super focused all the time.

Also curious to hear an explanation of why you disagree other than just disagreeing. I’m pretty open minded, but some kind of reasoning is the only way I can see your side lol.

Rank 3200 roughly. Yes i have tagged (not regularly). Yes i get focussed (even when not tagged).

Worked hard to get the rank and that’s why i don’t want it removed. PvPers get the shiny little rank icon. Might be a bit of an ego thing, but that’s ok.

To each their own. My rank pretty much just got away from me lol. I got most of my ranks from roaming and just flipping camps, towers and keeps with a small group of 2-5 people. High ranks just make it look like all you did was EOTM or zerg around your whole time in WvW lol. Most people I run in to around my Platinum rank or higher while roaming are EASY to beat and seem to have zero skill. I don’t care about showing my rank when roaming, but in larger group play, being able to hide it would be a nicer thing. I would be fine with it being hidden by default and everyone just being an “Invader” to the enemy.

All good points. I’ve been playing since launch and got my first thousand or more running Havok and roaming with a couple of real life friends. It wasn’t till they left the game that i joined an established guild and have got the rest with them. I certainly didn’t EoTM farm the points though.

This is really the only game mode i play (I did PvP for a while), but I come from DAOC where WvW (RvR) is what keeps me interested in the game. As other posters have mentioned, we have some commanders that are lower in rank, are still awesome players and still get targeted like crazy.

Maybe an option would be to have an optional on/off rank selection. Alternatively, if they made the rank visible to allies only (similar to PvP rank) that could work, but then that may also bring it’s own set of problems with people being judged for their rank etc – we see the toxicity that is rife within PvP.

Not sure what the optimal solution is really.

I can see both sides. When I am running a build I know well, I don’t care. However when I am branching out testing a build, it often sucks to be a WvW mid-level target (Platinum Major). Players tend to focus mid level and higher ranks in fights simply for the trophy aspect of it which in turn often makes learning a new build extra difficult.

I wouldn’t mind being able to switch it on or off like account titles.

They got rid of seeing people’s level in WvW, think the same with WvW rank

Hesacon.8735:

As a roamer the ranks give me a good idea on whether or not I should get involved in a fight. If someone isn’t even bronze I will go after them every time, but if they’re gold and higher I might avoid them if my goal is to flip a camp or sentry and not seek out fights.

You’re the kind of player I love the most <3

Rank is irrelevant to the discussion of driver sniping. Any seasoned pin sniper can pick a driver out of the group regardless of rank, class, guild or otherwise within 10 seconds.

Tiffany.8576:

Rank is irrelevant to the discussion of driver sniping. Any seasoned pin sniper can pick a driver out of the group regardless of rank, class, guild or otherwise within 10 seconds.

Yes – we’ve established this like 12 times so far in the thread. BUT – you can easily snipe out by the highest ranked Guardian, which is what a lot of groups do anyway lol.

+1 the idea but not because of driver sniping…

I like the idea for roaming, quite often I see invaders/bronze ranks running just because my rank is in the thousands.

I’m not a good player, but I do like fights.

Aside from commander sniping, the current system also hurts new/inexp players who have low ranks because it makes them look like easier targets. I really hate seeing a rank 2 or 5 player getting run over or ganked…

Being able to hide player ranks in WVW would be awesome, along with having abbreviated server names. IMO rank + full server name is way too much unnecessary visual clutter especially during zerg battles, makes it hard to see far more important things like player animations and red circles on the ground.

Wouldn’t mind seeing rank info removed altogether, I don’t see much benefit in showing for allies or enemies + a big downside in terms of visual clutter.