Guild Wars 2

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Terravos.4059:

I have never seen an MMO to date have the performance that ESO has in PvP

Given that the game has only been experienced in limited beta.. that’s not really saying much is it?

WvW ran pretty fantastic too during the BWE when there was only a few thousand ppl connecting to the servers.

I got some lag when the zergs fought in GW2 beta…Its gotten better…don’t get me wrong..

But when i’ve zerged in ESO’s beta, I’m talking 120+ people fighting, I’ve gotten zero lag…Hell just i’ve loaded into area’s…Where I can see everyone, and probably 250+ people in the area.. and i’ve not had a single FPS drop..

Trust me..Having played games like DAOC before, Warhammer and GW2..I can flat out tell you that ESO’s performance blows past games out of the water when it comes to massive scale pvp… That’s not to say GW2’s performance is terrible in zerg fights..I can have reliable zerg fights in this game..But its no where near what i’ve seen in ESO beta.

I plan on recording a lot when final comes out… and will probably stream, I highly suggest watching videos of those fights on release to see how well it performs…

I have been through three beta events with another game and I will be going there when it releases if for no other reason than the PvP map is HUGE with amazing terrain, mile gates, forts that are fun to fight in and a very DAoCish feel to it.

Sure it may fall flat as well, but GW2 is a for sure a failure, that game is just a probably.

GW2 has a great combat system and a great class system. Unfortunately ANET decided that WvW was to be an uncompetitive playground for the carebear casual crowd.

WAR had its obvious issue, but I experienced more strategy, tactics and quality play in a week there than the entire history of GW2.

Tom Gore.4035:

ESO has a sub. After the first month or two most people will come back.

Some of us have plenty of money to pay for a decent game.

Shawker.9587:

Seigfried.5938:

My guess is the removal of mathup forums. I’m pretty sure Anet already regrets doing so.

No doubt is was a very bad move from Anet, the matchup forum was part of wvw content, no matter how dumb many posts there could be.

Without the matchup forum the wvw matches feels empty.

Indeed. Sure we got that unofficial forum, but its not the same. They could have just added a disclamer and player acceptance button that the matchup forums will only be moderated in extreme cases, expect to be flamed in there.

I miss dem forums, WvW is boring

Removing the Matchup forum was one of the few things Anet got right.
It was just a platform for Trolls and contributed nothing but bad feeling to the game.

It certainly had nothing to do with the decline of WvW.

Dee Jay.2460:

Since WvW queues are no longer a deterrent the servers have started cannibalizing each other.

The good servers feed off the medicore ones leaving behind a bare skeleton of what was. There’s no incentive to stick to crappy servers outside of some form of loyalty. The points-per-tick system makes coverage the all-decisive measure of success.

WvW population is also down this week simply because farming Lion’s Arch is so kitten lucrative.

WvW population will also take another dip when Elder Scrolls Online launches in 6 weeks time. But that’s nothing you can stop.

So yeah, it’s going to be a rough WvW for the coming weeks and I don’t see much change ahead.

For some ppl they will like ESO but the sieges in that game seems very easy to lay down and too easy to use for wvw players who like open filed fights and comply avoid sieges of any type i think it will be a very short time. There also the high amount of pve in ESO rvr the ppl who are “hard core” wvw hate PvE in there wvw a lot so i cant see something like that last for that long. ESO looks like it will have an ok PvE but i think its RvR is doom from the start. So ya we will see a drop at that point but i cant see it lasting long for the WvW players who are on every day or even for the GvG groups that you find in WvW moving over to ESO for a long time unless some major changes happen.

Jski.6180:

There also the high amount of pve in ESO rvr the ppl who are “hard core” wvw hate PvE in there wvw a lot so i cant see something like that last for that long.

If you look at the current WvW CDI, it looks like Anet’s moving towards adding more PvE into WvW.

Jski.6180:

For some ppl they will like ESO but the sieges in that game seems very easy to lay down and too easy to use for wvw players who like open filed fights and comply avoid sieges of any type i think it will be a very short time.

This comment makes no sense. ESO’s siege weapons are best used for taking down keep walls/doors and there are no arrowcarts that people can flash build during open field fight. The rate of fire is also much slower than those in GW2.

Jski.6180:

There also the high amount of pve in ESO rvr the ppl who are “hard core” wvw hate PvE in there wvw a lot so i cant see something like that last for that long. ESO looks like it will have an ok PvE but i think its RvR is doom from the start.

The PVE in ESO is in out of the way places and will have little to no effect on the larger struggle to take/control keeps on the map. A map that is, I estimate, 3x larger than all 4 WvW maps combined. There are no white mobs for thieves to chain cloak and dagger off of. And with no down state, any PVE mobs that do happen to get mixed up into a fight won’t rally people when they die.

Jski.6180:

So ya we will see a drop at that point but i cant see it lasting long for the WvW players who are on every day or even for the GvG groups that you find in WvW moving over to ESO for a long time unless some major changes happen.

I used to WvW almost every day, but once I got the opportunity to play ESO I haven’t even logged into GW2. My entire guild has stopped playing GW2 and is waiting for ESO.

For me i am waiting for TESO cause they can handle 100vs 100 and you can also roam on a nice mostly npc free map. And the PvP is less AOE based.

Anet might want to seriously consider getting its collective act together when it comes to WvW or they will definitely see a large number of hardcore WvW’ers (paying customers, as well) head to ESO. Fix the freakin’ lag already and clean up the coding – how the hell is there no lag in EoTM with zerg v.v zerg, and yet, we have it in the BLs…wtf? Yeah, heed this message, Anet, cause revenue, to whatever degree it may be – it all adds up) is at stack, yeah?

EotM might run on new, better servers than the old WvW maps.

Rigel.3092:

Anet might want to seriously consider getting its collective act together when it comes to WvW or they will definitely see a large number of hardcore WvW’ers (paying customers, as well) head to ESO.

it’s way too late now. the kinds of fixes GW2 WvW needs would take months to implement, even if they pulled everyone off of everything else to work on it.

TESO is only a month away. a lot of people are going to try it out and there’s little that anet can do at this point to stop it. the best plan might be to go ahead and let people give TESO a try, then after a few months when the novelty has worn off, try to get them to come back to GW2 with some kind of event or promotion.

-ken

Gonna test ESO this weekend. Sunday I’m off for a 30 days vacations. If AvA is as good as people are telling, I’m not going back to Coverage Wars after I return.

WvW needs to be fixed, and I’m hoping that ESO is the wake-up call for the devs to realize that.

If I recall correctly, ESO’s matches last for a week as well, don’t they? Or was it 2-3 days…

Poxheart.2845:

Jski.6180:

For some ppl they will like ESO but the sieges in that game seems very easy to lay down and too easy to use for wvw players who like open filed fights and comply avoid sieges of any type i think it will be a very short time.

This comment makes no sense. ESO’s siege weapons are best used for taking down keep walls/doors and there are no arrowcarts that people can flash build during open field fight. The rate of fire is also much slower than those in GW2.

Jski.6180:

There also the high amount of pve in ESO rvr the ppl who are “hard core” wvw hate PvE in there wvw a lot so i cant see something like that last for that long. ESO looks like it will have an ok PvE but i think its RvR is doom from the start.

The PVE in ESO is in out of the way places and will have little to no effect on the larger struggle to take/control keeps on the map. A map that is, I estimate, 3x larger than all 4 WvW maps combined. There are no white mobs for thieves to chain cloak and dagger off of. And with no down state, any PVE mobs that do happen to get mixed up into a fight won’t rally people when they die.

Jski.6180:

So ya we will see a drop at that point but i cant see it lasting long for the WvW players who are on every day or even for the GvG groups that you find in WvW moving over to ESO for a long time unless some major changes happen.

I used to WvW almost every day, but once I got the opportunity to play ESO I haven’t even logged into GW2. My entire guild has stopped playing GW2 and is waiting for ESO.

Point by point.

Sieges like ballista in ESO is more on the lines i am talking about to put it down before a fight will destroy a realty good open fight. Also that the sieges in ESO is a point and click type there no skill in use.

The PvE in ESO will be required to do in rvr if you do not do it you do not have a sieges and because sieges is free to put down if you do not have any one you your that much more worthless to your team. But not only this you get buffed from the pve so by doing it your stronger. This is also true with holding keeps there a very bad snowball effect that will happen where one side will win most of the time.

Bigger is not better and more then likely your going to feel like your playing a solo rvr most of the time in the one big map of ESO rvr at least in GW2 wvw you can move acrose the map fast if you die to try to save something.

I think ESO rvr is new and much like EotM ppl had no idea what they where doing when the first got in but in time there are some major flaws that will show up in ESO rvr things that i do not think can be fixed the sieges not requiring any thing to put down the need to pve to get sieges the size of the map are going to prove to making it not worth it.

Jski.6180:

Sieges like ballista in ESO is more on the lines i am talking about to put it down before a fight will destroy a realty good open fight. Also that the sieges in ESO is a point and click type there no skill in use.

1. They’re slow, so hardly useful in an open field fight.
2. Can’t be any worse than the skilless sieges in GW2 which are even worse due to ACs.

Jski.6180:

The PvE in ESO will be required to do in rvr if you do not do it you do not have a sieges and because sieges is free to put down if you do not have any one you your that much more worthless to your team. But not only this you get buffed from the pve so by doing it your stronger. This is also true with holding keeps there a very bad snowball effect that will happen where one side will win most of the time.

No the implementation just demands a more strategic, considered approach to sieging.

Jski.6180:

Bigger is not better and more then likely your going to feel like your playing a solo rvr most of the time in the one big map of ESO rvr at least in GW2 wvw you can move acrose the map fast if you die to try to save something.

The implementation is such that if campaigns are too low in numbers then they can be merged ensuring that the number of campaigns depends on the total RvR population.

Contiguous.1345:

Removing the Matchup forum was one of the few things Anet got right.
It was just a platform for Trolls and contributed nothing but bad feeling to the game.

It certainly had nothing to do with the decline of WvW.

WvW is a PvP based activity. PvP is enriched by competition and rivalries. Removal of matchup threads, the only real way to communicate with other servers, reduces overall game community, rivalries and and a feeling of competition.

It without question has had a significant impact on the decline of WvW, at least for the sector of the player base that views WvW as a competitive experience.

RyuDragnier.9476:

If I recall correctly, ESO’s matches last for a week as well, don’t they? Or was it 2-3 days…

“During Beta we have been using a 48 hour Campaign ruleset but standard Campaigns will last 3 months. We have the ability to make scoring changes and duration changes depending on player needs and we’ll analyze how scoring goes to determine if we need alternate rulesets with different duration, scoring, but also if we need to add player level restricted Campaigns or not. There really is a great deal of flexibility with the Campaign system, and we will be paying close attention to what players ask for to determine which Campaign rules we add,” he explained.

i’m not certain what happens when a Campaign ends in ESO though.

edit
Responding to one fan inquiring after the aforementioned Alliance Wars, Zenimax confirmed that campaign will “last for three months at a time.” The studio also confirmed that while campaign stats will reset at the end of each play period, players will be able to stay in whatever campaign they choose for as long as they like. “Keeps, Scroll ownership, emperor status, and where you are in the world don’t get reset. It gives a great sense of persistence when only the scoring mechanics ‘reset.’”

Isn’t ESO the game, were you can get snared and stunned without a chance to break it? Sounds pretty kittened up for me, I’m not telling you to stay with GW2, I’ll switch to another game as soon as possible, but I don’t think ESO is a good option for that.

Baels.3469:

It’s because WvW is as dynamic and changing as the brick wall behind my monitor.

“Said someone from tier 1.”

It’s worse here bro.

drazzar.3042:

Isn’t ESO the game, were you can get snared and stunned without a chance to break it? .

No

NotKalkz.1286:

Anyone noticing a big drop in WvW population in his server ?

Borlis Pass had no guilds transferring off for the past months, and 2 months ago the server used to queue all maps at reset for 2 hours, now we cant queue more than 1 map
Maguuma used to queue all maps @ reset as i remember, no NA guilds transferred off for awhile, now we can only queue 2 maps

WvW ded ?

You lost LOST

Terravos.4059:

RyuDragnier.9476:

If I recall correctly, ESO’s matches last for a week as well, don’t they? Or was it 2-3 days…

“During Beta we have been using a 48 hour Campaign ruleset but standard Campaigns will last 3 months. We have the ability to make scoring changes and duration changes depending on player needs and we’ll analyze how scoring goes to determine if we need alternate rulesets with different duration, scoring, but also if we need to add player level restricted Campaigns or not. There really is a great deal of flexibility with the Campaign system, and we will be paying close attention to what players ask for to determine which Campaign rules we add,” he explained.

i’m not certain what happens when a Campaign ends in ESO though.

On the playtest server you receive an email with a reward.

I am going to have to see more twitch play at release (not beta) before I choose to opt in or not.

Based on what I am seeing right now with 500k players in their beta, their RvR map is WAY TOO BIG. I think one guy on the stream stated it takes about 40 minutes to go from one side to the other. And based on what I saw last night, seems true.

You move at a snails pace which means less action. Why? You die = have fun running back. You attack a keep = enemy has no chance to respond, so have fun pvdooring.

The only way I can see ESO being successful is if there is such a HUGE SUSTAINABLE RvR playerbase that it won’t become some karma train around the map fighting little to nobody.

The reason I play less and less WvW is that fighting has become increasingly boring. Only zerging gets encouraged, everything else is just not worth it. If you do run around solo/in a small party you have to fight troll builds everywhere (perma stealth builds, perplexity Engineers, the elixir spam Engineer, condition bunker Warriors, etc.). Add to that an appalling power creep that has become mandatory and every time I venture into WvW I notice after a few minutes that this is not what I want to be doing. It’s a shame really.

Elmo Benchwarmer.3025:

The reason I play less and less WvW is that fighting has become increasingly boring. Only zerging gets encouraged, everything else is just not worth it. If you do run around solo/in a small party you have to fight troll builds everywhere (perma stealth builds, perplexity Engineers, the elixir spam Engineer, condition bunker Warriors, etc.). Add to that an appalling power creep that has become mandatory and every time I venture into WvW I notice after a few minutes that this is not what I want to be doing. It’s a shame really.

Ever tried GvGing?

Jski.6180:

Point by point.

Sieges like ballista in ESO is more on the lines i am talking about to put it down before a fight will destroy a realty good open fight. Also that the sieges in ESO is a point and click type there no skill in use.

This is absolutely not true. Anybody dropping ballista in an open field fight is a) going to die and b) not going to have any effect on the battle. Siege weapons do require you to aim, but they are slow to fire. Much slower than siege in GW2. And while on the subject, there’s nothing more “point & click” than arrow carts and omega siege golems.

Jski.6180:

The PvE in ESO will be required to do in rvr if you do not do it you do not have a sieges and because sieges is free to put down if you do not have any one you your that much more worthless to your team. But not only this you get buffed from the pve so by doing it your stronger. This is also true with holding keeps there a very bad snowball effect that will happen where one side will win most of the time.

This comment leads me to believe that by “PvE” you’re talking about taking keeps. First, how is that any different than in GW2 where you get badges from taking keeps Second, it’s not true that you have to do PvE to get alliance points to spend on siege. There are player kill quests that give you alliance points. Third, even if you don’t have siege you can still help contribute to a keep assault. Like use healing skills or roam around to cut off the defenders’ reinforcements. Fourth, There is much more back & forth in ESO than there is in GW2. Primarily because of the way the map is arranged, but for other reasons as well.

Jski.6180:

Bigger is not better and more then likely your going to feel like your playing a solo rvr most of the time in the one big map of ESO rvr at least in GW2 wvw you can move acrose the map fast if you die to try to save something.

Perhaps it will feel like solo RvR if you join a campaign with low population on all three sides, but how is that any different than WvW? Your last point is one of the reasons why WvW has failed.

Jski.6180:

I think ESO rvr is new and much like EotM ppl had no idea what they where doing when the first got in but in time there are some major flaws that will show up in ESO rvr things that i do not think can be fixed the sieges not requiring any thing to put down the need to pve to get sieges the size of the map are going to prove to making it not worth it.

There’s no doubt that some flaws will appear as more people experience ESO’s PvP, but the points you make are not them. Your entire posts reads like somebody who’s not actually participated in ESO’s PvP.

DivineBeing.2086:

Based on what I am seeing right now with 500k players in their beta, their RvR map is WAY TOO BIG. I think one guy on the stream stated it takes about 40 minutes to go from one side to the other. And based on what I saw last night, seems true.

You move at a snails pace which means less action. Why? You die = have fun running back. You attack a keep = enemy has no chance to respond, so have fun pvdooring.

The only way I can see ESO being successful is if there is such a HUGE SUSTAINABLE RvR playerbase that it won’t become some karma train around the map fighting little to nobody.

I suppose it would take 40 minutes to cross the zone if you were sneaking the entire time. There are ways to travel from keep to keep. Even to a keep that’s being attacked. BUT the enemy can cut those lines of travel, so, you know, strategy & need to defend & stuff. All things that WvW lacks (unless you count having a thief tap the door at Garrison to contest a waypoint).

In ESO you get more rewards from fighting players than from taking keeps, so there’s less likelihood of karma trains.

Any game’s PvP is going to have issues based on overall and relative population. That’s unavoidable. It seems like ESO has considered this and factored it into their campaign system AND (more importantly) are willing to set up alternate campaign rules if it’s too much of a problem.

Poxheart.2845:

In ESO you get more rewards from fighting players than from taking keeps, so there’s less likelihood of karma trains.

Fighting players (in zergs) in GW2 gives more wxp, loot and exp. People still karma train. Why? Because people will look for the easy and safe route to rewards. Unless there’s 0 reward for taking a keep, there will always be some kind of “karma train”

RyuDragnier.9476:

Poxheart.2845:

I haven’t logged into GW2 since I started playing ESO. Aside from having three opposing sides there really is no comparison between the two games. ESO’s PvP is everything that GW2’s isn’t.

Too bad the actual combat in that game isn’t that good. It’s not worth a subscription.

ESO’s in combat Movement, Panning and skill use is HORRIBLE: It’s amost impossible to attack while panning around you to see where you’re being hit from.

However, the pvp system is soo much better than GW2’s PvD system.

Reverence.6915:

Poxheart.2845:

In ESO you get more rewards from fighting players than from taking keeps, so there’s less likelihood of karma trains.

Fighting players (in zergs) in GW2 gives more wxp, loot and exp. People still karma train. Why? Because people will look for the easy and safe route to rewards. Unless there’s 0 reward for taking a keep, there will always be some kind of “karma train”

There is some reward for taking a keep, but no loot drops. You’re not going to get a precursor from killing a mob in an ESO keep.

Keeps in ESO are valuable because they make it easier to move around the map, so people tend to defend them. However, there is a benefit to taking 6 specific keeps, so there’s incentive to attack them as well.

In GW2 there is very little incentive to defend, which is what promotes the karma train.

Sanduskel.1850:

TESO is coming. WIll be nice to not have to deal with such bad balance issues.

What magical crack rock are you smoking? I’m in beta and that game is horrifically bad. I’m not championing this game by any means, as it’s in a bad place. But TESO is just bad. horrible animations, horrible controls, terrible story and very boring “classes”. So what ever magic crack you’re smoking would be nice so please share.

On topic.
I just came back out of boredom myself and noticed WvW seems very very empty. I was sad and came to the forums to see why, and I guess after reading this article I’m not surprised.

I still hope they add a HUGE map like DAOC had one day, but if there’s no one to play on it what’s the point. :-/

Kalkz, idk if you know it but Lost left, AF disbanded, Rekz goes casual on bad weeks, so yea… there’s 3 guilds that will never run/wont always run on reset.

drazzar.3042:

Isn’t ESO the game, were you can get snared and stunned without a chance to break it? Sounds pretty kittened up for me, I’m not telling you to stay with GW2, I’ll switch to another game as soon as possible, but I don’t think ESO is a good option for that.

You can break Stuns/Knockdowns/Mezzes via Pressing Both Mouse Buttons, It’ll use half your Stamina but it’ll break you out of the CC and make you immune to it for 5 Seconds

Roots you can Dodge out of it (also uses Stamina)

Snares though require a Purge ability (there is a few you can pickup)

Reverence.6915:

Poxheart.2845:

In ESO you get more rewards from fighting players than from taking keeps, so there’s less likelihood of karma trains.

Fighting players (in zergs) in GW2 gives more wxp, loot and exp. People still karma train. Why? Because people will look for the easy and safe route to rewards. Unless there’s 0 reward for taking a keep, there will always be some kind of “karma train”

You get more Alliance points for killing someone solo in ESO then taking an undefended keep in ESO..In fact it works like DAOC and Warhammer Onlines old system.

Basically if you zerg a person down, It splits what they were worth between all of you, Instead of just giving you all the full amount despite using less effort to kill someone…This rewards people not Zerging around.

As for Keeps, if you take a keep, and on one defends, its not worth much, It starts becoming worth something when people start fighting and dying around the keep, Cause it builds up a store of Alliance Points..So lets say you take a keep, and no one defended it, Its worth 10 points, Now lets say 50 people defended the keep, and after much dying and fighting after 2 hours, you take the keep, Well during that fighting it was storing up Alliance Points, and you guys now get 50k AP for taking the keep.

Amins.3710:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Poxheart.2845:

I haven’t logged into GW2 since I started playing ESO. Aside from having three opposing sides there really is no comparison between the two games. ESO’s PvP is everything that GW2’s isn’t.

Too bad the actual combat in that game isn’t that good. It’s not worth a subscription.

ESO’s in combat Movement, Panning and skill use is HORRIBLE: It’s amost impossible to attack while panning around you to see where you’re being hit from.

However, the pvp system is soo much better than GW2’s PvD system.

That’s because you’re using what basically amounts to Elder Scrolls Movement system as an MMO.

Let me guess, You’re still using Mouse 1 and 2 for Swinging your Weapon and Blocking right?

I use an N52TE pad.. and a Naga, There is no way I could play like that, So what i did was changed my Mouse 1 and 2 to Forward and Backwards like I have it in GW2.

and I simply made My normal 1 and 2 Keys that I use for my 1 and 2 abilities in GW2 my Weapon Attack, and my Blocking Key, This allowed me to basically play the game in Mouse look like I normally do in MMO’s

Terravos.4059:

Amins.3710:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Poxheart.2845:

I haven’t logged into GW2 since I started playing ESO. Aside from having three opposing sides there really is no comparison between the two games. ESO’s PvP is everything that GW2’s isn’t.

Too bad the actual combat in that game isn’t that good. It’s not worth a subscription.

ESO’s in combat Movement, Panning and skill use is HORRIBLE: It’s amost impossible to attack while panning around you to see where you’re being hit from.

However, the pvp system is soo much better than GW2’s PvD system.

That’s because you’re using what basically amounts to Elder Scrolls Movement system as an MMO.

Let me guess, You’re still using Mouse 1 and 2 for Swinging your Weapon and Blocking right?

I use an N52TE pad.. and a Naga, There is no way I could play like that, So what i did was changed my Mouse 1 and 2 to Forward and Backwards like I have it in GW2.

and I simply made My normal 1 and 2 Keys that I use for my 1 and 2 abilities in GW2 my Weapon Attack, and my Blocking Key, This allowed me to basically play the game in Mouse look like I normally do in MMO’s

I cant tell if in the picture it is right side up or upside down? Is the thumb button supposed to be for left thumb or right thumb?

http://www.amazon.ca/Belkin-n52te-Tournament-Edition-SpeedPad/dp/B000WMEHYG

Forzani.2584:

Terravos.4059:

Amins.3710:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Poxheart.2845:

I haven’t logged into GW2 since I started playing ESO. Aside from having three opposing sides there really is no comparison between the two games. ESO’s PvP is everything that GW2’s isn’t.

Too bad the actual combat in that game isn’t that good. It’s not worth a subscription.

ESO’s in combat Movement, Panning and skill use is HORRIBLE: It’s amost impossible to attack while panning around you to see where you’re being hit from.

However, the pvp system is soo much better than GW2’s PvD system.

That’s because you’re using what basically amounts to Elder Scrolls Movement system as an MMO.

Let me guess, You’re still using Mouse 1 and 2 for Swinging your Weapon and Blocking right?

I use an N52TE pad.. and a Naga, There is no way I could play like that, So what i did was changed my Mouse 1 and 2 to Forward and Backwards like I have it in GW2.

and I simply made My normal 1 and 2 Keys that I use for my 1 and 2 abilities in GW2 my Weapon Attack, and my Blocking Key, This allowed me to basically play the game in Mouse look like I normally do in MMO’s

I cant tell if in the picture it is right side up or upside down? Is the thumb button supposed to be for left thumb or right thumb?

http://www.amazon.ca/Belkin-n52te-Tournament-Edition-SpeedPad/dp/B000WMEHYG

left thumb

The picture is facing you, The pad faces the computer.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-tartarus

This is an upgraded version of it

You can also get an Orbweaver (I have one) but its slightly larger and i don’t care for the thumb pad.

Malediktus.9250:

EotM might run on new, better servers than the old WvW maps.

LOL. You apparently don’t understand that ANet does not use their own servers. They lease server capacity in bulk from Akamai (in NA … not sure who they get it from in EU) and ANet can’t even tell which physical servers their game is running on.

Terravos.4059:

But when i’ve zerged in ESO’s beta, I’m talking 120+ people fighting, I’ve gotten zero lag and i’ve not had a single FPS drop.

This was without question due to the servers and network not being under more than a trivial load in previous test weekends. During the current (2/28/14) beta weekend, AvA was unplayable anywhere in Cyrodiil because of the insane, hellacious server-side lag on everything.

Unlike the previous beta weekends, this weekend was an actual stress test where they tried to load the NA megaserver up to live levels for performance monitoring. The PvE game worked ok, with just a bit of lag here and there. The AvA back end fell flat on its kitten .

Even doing the noob quests at the Cyrodiil spawns, where nobody and nothing was anywhere near, the NPC dialogs were lagging by 10-15 seconds. In battles it was so bad that basic attacks wouldn’t even fire, and there were points where everything just froze and it was nothing but a bunch of statues with birds chirping for 30 seconds or more. Insane rubberbanding, skills firing 30-60 seconds after you activated, etc.

And there were, at the most, no more people on screen than I have ever seen in WvW in GW2. One “big” battle I might have been able to see 50-60 people total at a time; there were certainly less than 100 anywhere within draw distance in any direction.

They might get it working ok by launch; or at least no worse than any other game that has done RvR. But there is nothing revolutionary here when it comes to lag, and compared with these early reports from when there was no real load on the back end, you’re going to be sorely disappointed if you think it will be like that on live.

Also, the PvE side of the game is by far the worst I have ever seen in any MMO.

The NPC dialog reads like Mad Libs of the worst Tolkien fanfic writing you could imagine. And everywhere you go, every NPC in the kitten world has some mindless “arrow in the knee” catch phrase that they blurt out over and over and over.

And I’ll just go ahead and spoil every single quest in the game right now for you: Get the east X. Get the West X. Take them to the North Y. Kill A. That is it. Literally everything you do in the game from start to finish will follow that same exact pattern.

As far as I can tell, everyone ignores the quests and goes to grind the “dungeons” scattered around the map, because it’s a far less annoying and faster means of leveling up, and it’s also the only way to get gear at low levels, because everything is insanely overpriced.

That might sound like fun . . . until you realize that every dungeon is a stupidly small, empty, boring circle track with like three rooms, and a door at the “end” that just ports you back to the start. So you spend hours on end running in circles through the same three rooms and three hallways, killing the same spawns over and over and over, till you outlevel them, then move on to the next one.

Even by this “efficient” method, leveling is slow as molasses at the early levels, and I only barely managed to even get to level 10 in order to try the AvA.

And so far as it goes, I will say that Cyrodiil looks really nice. The maps are big, and objectives are spread out over what feels like a lot more epic scale.

The siege also feels like siege, and is far more interesting to use. For one thing, you can zoom the camera out far enough to actually see what the hell you’re shooting at; and the targeting interface for all the types is a very simple “arc” with an “X” at the end showing you the exact path and landing point.

The structures are huge with lots of vantage points, and, as far as I can tell, you can defend them in a way that real structures would be defended (i.e., no magical wall-climbing / gate ignoring AOE and no stupid geometry tricks needed to place “unkillable” siege). So you can stand on top of a thirty foot wall and have — surprise — an actual tactical advantage over someone on the ground.

The textures and landscapes also are beautiful, and the siege engines and everything are very huge and cool looking.

Overall, it looks like the AvA has a lot of potential. But I think it may be sadly wasted in a game that is just going to be an amazingly huge fail on the PvE side. About 90% of the lifetime revenue from this game is going to come from Skyrim owners who preorder it sight unseen. After that wave of dumb money is gone, it’s going to crash and burn in fantastic style.

It might keep all those people who are just waiting for Camelot Unchained to get released busy for a while. But I kinda doubt that’s enough to keep the game afloat all on its own.

That reads like a reasonable, critical review, thank you.

It’s about what I would have expected. I haven’t played the beta but I’ve seen the videos. The NPC voice-overs sound seriously cringeworthy – I just hope they can be turned off! Some of the graphics animations looked Hanna-Barbera, especially the main character, which appeared to be suspended in the centre of view, having little relation to the ‘ground’. The playable races look uniformly boring – I’m going to seriously miss my little Asura Warrior.

Anyway, no-one is expecting it to be perfect and whatever people say, large numbers of players has to mean server lag. That’s a network limit – you can’t exceed the speed of light.
I did notice a distinct lack of the visual noise that plagues GW2 – all the particle effects that completely swamp the FOV. And the lack of stacking made it look far more realistic and probably more playable.

As for the PvE being a fail – as far as I’m concerned, that’s a given anyway. PvE is for grinding, that’s all. NPCs are just automatons that repeat the same actions and dialogue over and over. Once you’ve played through the PvE content the first time, any repetition is just pointless. For me, PvP competition is the only reason to play MMOs and it’s the only one I need.

WvW in GW2 has become stale and static. It’s been forced into a dungeon-style model by the developers instead of being allowed to develop from player feedback. The recipe for winning has been reduced to the simplest possible terms. In fact, if servers co-operate, its possible to play the game without any fighting at all and thereby achieve maximum rewards.

Anet have proved their determination to make this game their own, regardless of what players want from it. Bethesda may not be different, but there is a chance they might not be so obdurate and I’m prepared to go with them based on that chance.

P.S. No arrowcarts – are you kidding me? That in itself is enough to sell the game to me.

Contiguous.1345:

As for the PvE being a fail – as far as I’m concerned, that’s a given anyway. PvE is for grinding, that’s all. NPCs are just automatons that repeat the same actions and dialogue over and over. Once you’ve played through the PvE content the first time, any repetition is just pointless. For me, PvP competition is the only reason to play MMOs and it’s the only one I need.

As to no arrow carts — yes, it’s true. Basically players fight players and siege fights siege. Some of the siege says it does damage to “foes,” like the catapults that shoot gravel. But I never saw any evidence of mass numbers of players being damaged more than trivially (if at all) by any siege. All the siege I saw was shooting at walls or other siege, not spamming AOE death on players.

There is burning oil, but your rams have a little roof that looks like it might protect the operator (not sure how well it works).

If players can get to the siege, then they can burn it, but that means you have to go outside and fight your way to it, or get inside and overrun it in order to destroy. So it’s a contest to see if attackers can get the wall down and overrun the place before defenders can kill or burn the field siege (i.e., it works how you would imagine a huge fight over a big kitten stone fort working in some semblance of the real world).

And you’re right, PvE always is boring the second time around. The problem with TESO is it’s boring the first time around as well. I have never had a problem, on that first run-through, just picking up a brand new character and running around the theme park at least one time.

With this game though, it was seriously almost unbearable even to get to level 10, and all I wanted to do was just see the RvR. There is literally no way I could see myself ever leveling outside of RvR in this game. Ever. It was so bad that I have a hard time thinking about doing it again to get back to RvR with a live character.

It’s not just that it’s boring and tedious and slow as hell. It’s so bad that it crosses some weird sort of line and feels insulting that the company actually thinks you are so mindless that you would pay them money to play it. I not only do not care one little bit about any character in the story; I actively despise them and wish every single one would just die in a fire already. It’s really that bad.

If the game goes B2P (once it’s on fire sale for $30) or F2P, and if you can get through ten levels without wanting to just poke your eyes out with a fork, then the RvR is definitely worth a look. It’s hard to tell how it will work out once it’s all there, and like I said, I fear it may be wasted since the game will struggle to ever have a decent overall population. But some good things are in there.

They really ought to just make it so that you can just grab a set of green gear and go straight into RvR from level 1, and pretend the whole rest of the game doesn’t even exist.

Heezdedjim.8902:

They really ought to just make it so that you can just grab a set of green gear and go straight into RvR from level 1, and pretend the whole rest of the game doesn’t even exist.

Ahhhh! – that would be my dream-MMO of course

It’s a big-business perception problem. I remember when Star Trek first came out in the 60s (Yes – I am THAT old). The moguls couldn’t believe that there was a market for pure SciFi on TV so we had the spectacle of Captain Twerp every episode snogging some green alien female to give the story ‘love interest’.
That’s the PvE content of MMOs. The bit you have to have otherwise who would buy it?

Just my $0.50:

Death should be punished, that’s why you don’t see reenactments of Lerooooooy Jeeeenkins in ESO. You don’t want to die. And about map being to big. It’s not. You can teleport on your keeps that are not under attack. And as I see it they’re just the right amount of distance apart from each other that if you die you can still quickly run back and try to help save your keep.

The other cool thing is (if I understand it correctly) that if someone takes over a keep in the middle thus making some other keep not connected to any of your other keeps you can’t just teleport to it. Making this kind of tactic rewardable but it has higher risks also.

matjazmuhic.1649:

Death should be punished, that’s why you don’t see reenactments of Lerooooooy Jeeeenkins in ESO. You don’t want to die. And about map being to big. It’s not. You can teleport on your keeps that are not under attack. And as I see it they’re just the right amount of distance apart from each other that if you die you can still quickly run back and try to help save your keep.

The other cool thing is (if I understand it correctly) that if someone takes over a keep in the middle thus making some other keep not connected to any of your other keeps you can’t just teleport to it. Making this kind of tactic rewardable but it has higher risks also.

The map uses a lattice structure, so objectives have to be taken “in order,” rolling up the links and working back toward the other side’s home corner. So you can’t just randomly sneak in and cap one thing off on the other side of the map. This eliminates the rampant karma training and establishes a “front” between the three sides where all the action will focus at any given time.

You can teleport to any keep that is not under attack; BUT, as soon as an objective is attacked, the waypoint is shut down both in AND out. You cannot just randomly bring up the map and teleport away from anywhere in the zone. This is a pretty big difference from waypoints in WvW.

Instead, you have to go inside a keep to the waypoint console, and then you can teleport from there to anywhere else that is not contested. But once an attack starts, you can’t just meep out to somewhere else. So you either have to stand and die, or run away the old fashioned way.

And when you die, you’re forced to respawn at an uncontested point, since rezzing takes forever and requires the rezzer to burn a token which costs currency and effort to collect; so there is no “rallying” downed, and people will not be rezzing random zerglings (they might not even rezz guildies or teammates depending on whether they have tokens). You also have a limited time to spectate from death, since you’ll be force respawned after 10 minutes.

The distances are short enough that people can teleport into a keep that is behind the lines and run up, and taking down a wall takes long enough that you do have time to make the run, if people react when the attack starts. Also, you know what objective will be next in line after one that is contested falls, so it’s not like attacks are much of a surprise (maybe it’s a 50/50 chance which one they’ll go after next, but the options are always limited to a handful of places they could push next).

Contiguous.1345:

Heezdedjim.8902:

They really ought to just make it so that you can just grab a set of green gear and go straight into RvR from level 1, and pretend the whole rest of the game doesn’t even exist.

Ahhhh! – that would be my dream-MMO of course

I am baffled as to why they don’t do this. The AvA zone is by far the largest in the game and at the center of the map, and they did a lot of things right with the RvR — as well as or better than the scarce competition anyway. So it’s arguably “an RvR game,” because, let’s face it, that seems to be the only part they put any actual effort into, and it’s a geographically dominant element of the game world.

You would think they would want to push people into the best part of the game as early and as easily as possible, and definitely not to slow down and annoy the hell out of those who come to the game solely for the RvR. Instead they seem to stick it off in the corner like it’s an “afterthought,” when in fact it seems to be the only part of the game they gave any real thought to.

Heezdedjim you forgot about Ress tents.
You can build ress tent anywhere and it is not afficted by contesting the keep. But tents are really easy to burn down. Do proper placement is needed.
On the other side if you are skilled thief, you can just stop enemies from respawning by burning their tents. So defenders has advantage. While their tent will be inside walls so invulnerable to damage until wall is breached. Attackers tent will be more vulnerable since thief can sneak along enemies and burn tent from back.

Hule.8794:

Heezdedjim you forgot about Ress tents. You can build ress tent anywhere and it is not afficted by contesting the keep. But tents are really easy to burn down. Do proper placement is needed.

They do exist. They’re sort of like a mini forward base or like one of the vehicles that include a spawn point in games like PS2.

It’s a consumeable you have to buy and have with you, and it only allows 20 players to respawn at one before it goes away. They can be useful for bringing troops back to an ongoing battle a little quicker, if deployed near the front line and not burned down right away. I never saw one actually used in beta, but with some established and more coordinated groups in game, they could be of some value.

I’m not sure if one can be put inside the keep wall or if they can only go outside keeps. If they can go inside the walls, then (assuming enough people bring them), they could help to get defending forces safely inside quicker.

There were some datamined elements from recent patches that suggest a new skill line is coming to WvW that would let you “send enemy players back to their spawn” on death. I kind of wonder why, rather than doing that, they don’t just remove the downed and rally system entirely from WvW.

The “back to spawn” thing is just going to become a must-have skill anyway, and putting it in that way only means there is a gap between the haves and have nots while people get it skilled up; which is just going to be super annoying until everyone eventually has it.

If they think this is a desirable thing to have at all, they just ought to make it the default (only) behavior and be done with it.

people seem to forget that ESO IS STILL IN BETA.
THEIR BETA DOESNT EVEN CONTAIN 10% OF DAILY GW2 PLAYERS.

But ofc, this could in no way be the reason why it is lag free. Obviously a low population across a large server park with a low workload can never affect lag or game performance, right, right?