Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen some unpleasant comments lately within the HoD commander-led zergs and I’d like to see some discussion about it.

My expectation of Commanders (of PUG zerg’s) is to give a group direction and focus. I hope for consistent verbal commentary. I hope they keep our important areas defended and fortified. I hope we have fun and don’t die TOO much. I don’t expect or care if every Commander is a seasoned veteran but I think we have to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance, and not freak out if they make mistakes.

I (as a less experienced player) am happy to follow them and do whatever they want. If I’m cannon fodder or supply runner, that’s fine. I don’t care if they do a lot of PvP fighting. I just want them to lead and take the position seriously (serious as a game can be..)
“Why are you running away when the rest of us are fighting?” (recent chat comment to commander). Why should this person care about that or get very upset in the process? My hope for the person with the blue hat is they are keeping an overview of what’s happening while we get immersed in the grunt work.

Things I’d like to see commanders do more of.

Use TeamSpeak effectively. Too often I only hear idle comments and banter, not clear cut, “hey, you, do THIS and you do THAT”. I don’t want to hear folks talking casually. Sorry MU, but that was kind of the case last night with your TS.

Defend the big keeps. I’m frustrated to lose Stone Mist over and over again while groups run around taking supply camps.

Don’t just run around, keep the communication up. I think you can sacrifice a little speed for typing.

If people have questions/comments via /map, please respond to them. Ie- ‘do you want this or that wall repaired or do we spare this keeps supply?’…etc. Don’t leave me hanging or criticize if I go ahead and do it. Even if I’m not part of the zerg, I’m expect a Commander to answer any general map strategy question. Or not??

I’m not really addressing the guild commanders with organized groups, ie Charter Vanguard, et all are obviously practiced and self-contained. I’m talking about the public non-guild specific groups with volunteer commanders.

These are the basics that any commander must do. Communication. Without it you might as well tag off.

Obviously, this isn’t specific to HoD, but if you’d like our server to take note of it more, try posting this as a thread on the HoD website. I know a lot of people just don’t read around official forums because of all the QQing from the people who just like to complain lol.

alenaoreo.5206:

Obviously, this isn’t specific to HoD, but if you’d like our server to take note of it more, try posting this as a thread on the HoD website. I know a lot of people just don’t read around official forums because of all the QQing from the people who just like to complain lol.

And there sure is alot of QQing on these forums.

well, sometimes I think its good if obvious stuff is spelled out clearly. Public WvW groups don’t necessarily have the same understandings as Guild led groups.
I don’t consider these points whining (Andrew) and don’t think online groups are an excuse for being jerks..

SM isnt as important as a lot of newer people think it is.

clint.5681:

SM isnt as important as a lot of newer people think it is.

^^^^

Shaktidev.5679:

well, sometimes I think its good if obvious stuff is spelled out clearly. Public WvW groups don’t necessarily have the same understandings as Guild led groups.
I don’t consider these points whining (Andrew) and don’t think online groups are an excuse for being jerks..

Btw, I was by no means saying this was a whiny post. I think you actually wrote it really well, stating the problem and providing reasonable solutions (While some other posts on the forums simply complain and blame people, not being constructive at all.)

Ultimately, your post is just some solid advice for all PUG commanders and PUG groups out there, regardless of server/league/tier.

I dont understand why people get such a hadron for taking and holding SM all the time. Id rather sacrifice it to hold a t1 tower getting its gates Reinforced to be honest. He’ll, id sack it for a slightly upgraded camp!
Less experienced PUG commanders lose T3 because they get their PUG zerglings who dont know any better bogged down in an SM lord room 3-way. Meanwhile, some 15 man guild group sees opportunity and builds 4 Superior rams on your T3 Anza/QL/Wildcreek and all the scouts left because they think the big flashy SM assault/defence is really important.

I say worry about SM if the gates are being reinforced and its on its way to a waypoint. Otherwise, flip it for the PPT and forget it.

Dont be sad when you lose SM. It doesnt mean you are losing. And if another server has it, look at it as an opportunity. When the two opposing servers are lighting SM up like an xmas tree with orange swords on your map. Then a big smile should be across your face and you should be heading deep behind enemy lines. Rams and golems at the ready.

SM castle will give you 35 points per tick. One keep and one tower will equal 35 points per tick. Now that keep and tower will consume far less resources in both supply and manpower to upgrade and defend then will SM castle.

Okay, I get your point (Theft, Noob and Clint) about not worrying about SM. I like it’s centrality in the map and the fun of defending it. When we own SM, I feel like we own the map. But, my point was about how we work with commanders, NOT the relative strategic significance of SM.

SM is an albatross, staple it to your opponents forehead if they want it so bad. make it hard to take and pound it relentlessly to make sure they are exhausting supply if they try to keep it.

As a resident of HoD, I can tell you 3 things:

1. Communication works both ways, if you want more information, ask more questions, most ppl on our server will kindly tell you anything you want to know. I am one of them.

2. If you don’t like a commander’s style, there are others to choose from, dozens and dozens, in fact, and some have issues with suppression they are so chatty in map, and need others to interpret for them. Some small groups will go havoc-style and not even follow a tag but avoid the zerg and cap camps, sentries, and points.

3. Our TS is NOT just for commands/intel, but for community-building. If you are in TS, get used to a little bit of personality coming through, there are many fine people with big personalities on our server, commanding, running in groups, running in guild teams, small and large, and it does take some getting used to. But it is worthwhile. If you don’t like that, find a channel with less cross chatter, and be prepared to observe and report.

My take on SM:

If you own it, I will make it a liability for you to keep it.

If I own it, I will attempt to keep it in relation to its upgrade status and what is going on in the rest of our 1/3. (IE: I will do my best for you to not make it a liability for me)

Regarding PUG commanders, the days of typing everything in Map chat are coming to an end. VoIP is really the way to go, but since not everyone will join then typing certain commands is a necessity. The better PUG commanders are the ones that feel comfortable typing everything they do out.

I do agree with the OP about answering questions, I mean if people are nice enough to ask what they should be doing then they should be getting a response.

In closing, trust me, nothing that you experience as a PUG following a tag is remotely as frustrating as what the guy/gal running that tag is likely going through. (Anyone that has ever tagged up will tell you that it is not always “fun”)

Well as a member of the server playing against hod this week this isn’t a surprise to me. Hod greatly greatly outnumbers us yet last night were in a stalemate with us at sm. Sm was fully upgraded and basically been held since reset due to hods large numbers and are lack thereof. So I bet it was a pride thing that they had to hold it. We normally don’t even bother with sm cus we know we can’t hold it for that long against pretty much any server cus our numbers blow. But we were getting tired cus seriously all hod has done this matchup is sit in sm with tons and tons of siege cannons mortars and treb the heck out of everything with trebs in spots we basically can’t get to. Then eventually they come out with a 100 man zerg and take a camp or two and get pushed back to sm.
If it makes you feel better I was getting a lil frustrated our commanders just kept sitting around at wildcreek and klovan and basically refused to go take your camps to shut off sm’s supply and got told to do it myself by commanders .So I and like 2-3 brave lads kept doing it.

kitten . awesome responses. One last thing on internet civility. I’m old school in that department. I believe people shouldn’t have two standards of behavior-face to face and anonymous. Whether you’re in a car, on a phone, online chat or multiplayer game, you’ve got to be the same ethical decent person you are face to face. Yeah, right, what world do I live in? An idealistic one. Our interactions are ALL person to person, face to face whether you see me or NOT!

kitten? the algorhythmn replaces a cuss word with kitten??! weird