Guild Wars 2

Hello, Cryokro here, (former) Vabbi player and former member of SWAT, the last wvw focused guild Vabbi had (disbanded about 1 year ago), Currently placed 38 in queue on our bordermap on Desolation-(vabbi)

3,5 Years ago when I started playing, I started on Desolation. I have always been a fan of open world pvp, so I gave WvW a try. But after a few hours I came to the conclusion that the WvW on Deso was such a disappointment! Why? Because some people were playing an upscaled toon and were told to commit suicide as they were taking up a spot for a level 80 player. Well it was not fun and it made me quite the game after playing for 1 month!

I came back 1 year later and the first thing I did was transferring of Deso! I went to Gunnar’s hold but left the game again after a week as I lost touch with my class.

During the Spring Tournament in 2014 a friend of mine asked me to come back to the game and come over to Vabbi. Man, it was SOOOOOOO much fun! Not many people but people were (apart from a few rotten apples) friendly and helpful. Small scale fights, roaming, even some GvG, it had it all! At 1 point we even managed to get back to t6 and queue 2 maps!

Now I’ve been linked to Deso again. Although the community seem to have improved. I just don’t feel “home”. Vabbi gets blame for everything while 99% of the Deso players cant point out who’s a Vabbian!

The situation here is terrible! If you aren’t suck in the queue for hours, you are stuck on an “empty” eb. Yes,empty as the majority just sits in keep/spawn hoping for a commander to come out of the queue and lead the braindead zerg and hand them lootbags!

On Vabbi we rarely had a commander or queues but my small guild (2-4 man) could do stuff by themselves and make a difference. We had fights, not 24/7 but the action at prime was ok and fun.

I don’t know why you linked us to a t1 server while the reset of the EU servers are linked to a silver tier based server! Vabbi and Deso has nothing in common, apart from Vabbi being their guest server before the Megaservers.

There were other ways where you could have improved the wvw experience for the lower tier servers. Like disabling the bordermaps, allowing a free transfer to a server of choice, ….

The damaged has been done to the lower tier servers. People are band wagoning to Vabbi as we speak seeing that we are medium ranked while Deso is full! Anet, I ask you rollback this stupid beta-linking, give me a free transfer or link Vabbi with another server! All I ask for is being able to enjoy wvw (roaming, small scale fights, … without lag or blobfests) with my friends and be useful for my server!

Snap. Was hoping for balance not blobs. Not sure t9 needs 4 bits of land to play on. But q’s def not good. You cannot just nip on and play cos it takes soo long to get to eb. FSP lot seem ok but their playstyle is just so diff to ours. Plus we are few in their many so just feels no point. Your forced to play on the bl and it takes so long to find a group to play with most the time then they have been killed and are back at the spawn point anyhow.
So often FSP seem to have closed raid groups and ask you to not follow the comm – something not come across before.
Think there must be some way to accommodate people who like zergs and people who like smaller scale fights. Never seeing ur server name come up to capture things or when you go into the map is kinda sad. They might as well have called us blue, green and red cos that is what we are now.

EB is “empty” beaquse people in EB refuses to join TS, Vabbi people or new people in general. It’s hard for a commander to command and organise something serious when EB is full of people refusing to join TS. So they command on borders beaquse theres 3 borders and the queues arent as long. So it’s easier to organise with people who do join TS. If you prefer small scale fights and whatnot you can roam on borders.

“Currently placed 38 in queue on our bordermap on Desolation-(vabbi)”
Yes, you are queueing to a map with blob fights going on, its gonna be full, only EB and this border was queued at this time so you couldve joined 1 of the other borders while in queue or stayed at that border beaquse you dont seem to like big blob fights.

AmberUK.5380:

So often FSP seem to have closed raid groups and ask you to not follow the comm – something not come across before.

Yes, that’s called raid guilds. They are quite common. Yellow tags are always considered closed raids.

There are still alot of open raids however – look for blue, red or purple tags outside the yellow tags (if its a red or purple on a yellow, that’s the guilds focus party). There is usually at least one zerg going, especially during primetime. After the merge, I have seen as many as 4 open tags on a border.

Really, there are still tons of opportunities to spread out across the maps and small scale. In fact, that’s what win the maps. Not T1 class 50+ zerging. That many people in one place will roflstomp any opponent, true, but they will also be completely incapable to keep up with many smaller forces backcapping. I do smallscale roaming and random dueling every single day and yes, I’m on FSP and been there a long time.

TallBarr.2184:

EB is “empty” beaquse people in EB refuses to join TS, Vabbi people or new people in general. It’s hard for a commander to command and organise something serious when EB is full of people refusing to join TS. So they command on borders beaquse theres 3 borders and the queues arent as long. So it’s easier to organise with people who do join TS. If you prefer small scale fights and whatnot you can roam on borders.

I think you missed the point: NOONE in t8-9 told me how to play. ANET forced me back on a server i left before. Here, i get raid invite spammed while being in a group, mapchat spanmed to join TS. Which i cant join as i dont have permission, nor am i able to talk in the open channels. IF you want people to get in TS make it possible first.

But yea, blame the vabbi players! I (and several other vabbians) never asked to join some blob server that still plays to win!

TallBarr.2184:

“Currently placed 38 in queue on our bordermap on Desolation-(vabbi)”
Yes, you are queueing to a map with blob fights going on, its gonna be full, only EB and this border was queued at this time so you couldve joined 1 of the other borders while in queue or stayed at that border beaquse you dont seem to like big blob fights.

I was trying to make a statement here. I didnt queue for dbl, as i was on an empty eb. Doing some 1v1 and stuff i would normally do. SFR was 1 big blob, “avoiding” killing the 1v1s, yet pulling me into their zerg and kill me anyways. Deso didnt win a single fight during the period i was out today on eb.

At 1 point we were ticking for 135, but hey we had a queue on all borders and even 11 man queue on OS.

Edit: unlike uw, we are linked to a t1 that just seem to enjoy blobs. More and more people transferring to vabbi feeling disappointed how badly the link is with deso.

Dawdler.8521:

Yes, that’s called raid guilds. They are quite common. Yellow tags are always considered closed raids.

On UW closed raids usually didn’t tag up so it’s fairly new for most UW players to see tags they’re not allowed to follow. That said you’re right, there has been plenty of open tags and I doubt it’ll take long to learn which tag is which ^^

Also cheers to FSP. I think you’ve been handling the link alright and I’ve not at all run into many rude players or anything like that.

cryokro.6270:

I miss tier 9

</3

GL for Vabbi!

cryokro.6270:

More and more people transferring to vabbi feeling disappointed how badly the link is with deso.

I am just curious, what are you suggesting? Are you saying whole server linking is completely bad idea and should be canceled because you personally do not like it? Or that Vabbi should be linked to another server instead of Deso? Or that Deso is just bad server? Or perhaps whole attempt to bring players back to WvW is pointless because you really enjoy running around in empty map without enemies?

FogLeg.9354:

cryokro.6270:

More and more people transferring to vabbi feeling disappointed how badly the link is with deso.

I am just curious, what are you suggesting? Are you saying whole server linking is completely bad idea and should be canceled because you personally do not like it? Or that Vabbi should be linked to another server instead of Deso? Or that Deso is just bad server? Or perhaps whole attempt to bring players back to WvW is pointless because you really enjoy running around in empty map without enemies?

There is nothing bad with server linking, its just the fact that vabbi is the only server linked to a t1 server, while the rest of the links are made betwen servers placed between position 10 and 18. (Not taking RoS into account here). I feel other linked servers contribute something to their host server.

Yes, i would personnally like to be linked to another server, to a server where i dont get forced to play class x/y/z, just because your mindless blob cant win from the other servers mindless blob. “Too many scrappers, thiefs, rangers… No point fighting them” is something I’ve seen regular on mapchat. “We lost because not everybody is on ts” is other lame excuse. Commander isn’t even on TS, yet people follow him.

I do like the fact that Anet tries to bring people into WvW. The reward track made it possible to finish the last dungeon collections without having to run the same paths on a daily base. But seeing that we are linked to Deso, i cant say it brought Vabbi players bqck into WvW. As I just cant tell who was on vabbi before or who transferred to us because its only 500 gems to get into t1.

Ofcourse this is my personal opinion, but im 100% sure that more people from vabbi feeling the same way

cryokro.6270:

Hello, Cryokro here, (former) Vabbi player and former member of SWAT, the last wvw focused guild Vabbi had (disbanded about 1 year ago), Currently placed 38 in queue on our bordermap on Desolation-(vabbi)

3,5 Years ago when I started playing, I started on Desolation. I have always been a fan of open world pvp, so I gave WvW a try. But after a few hours I came to the conclusion that the WvW on Deso was such a disappointment! Why? Because some people were playing an upscaled toon and were told to commit suicide as they were taking up a spot for a level 80 player. Well it was not fun and it made me quite the game after playing for 1 month!

I came back 1 year later and the first thing I did was transferring of Deso! I went to Gunnar’s hold but left the game again after a week as I lost touch with my class.

During the Spring Tournament in 2014 a friend of mine asked me to come back to the game and come over to Vabbi. Man, it was SOOOOOOO much fun! Not many people but people were (apart from a few rotten apples) friendly and helpful. Small scale fights, roaming, even some GvG, it had it all! At 1 point we even managed to get back to t6 and queue 2 maps!

Now I’ve been linked to Deso again. Although the community seem to have improved. I just don’t feel “home”. Vabbi gets blame for everything while 99% of the Deso players cant point out who’s a Vabbian!

The situation here is terrible! If you aren’t suck in the queue for hours, you are stuck on an “empty” eb. Yes,empty as the majority just sits in keep/spawn hoping for a commander to come out of the queue and lead the braindead zerg and hand them lootbags!

On Vabbi we rarely had a commander or queues but my small guild (2-4 man) could do stuff by themselves and make a difference. We had fights, not 24/7 but the action at prime was ok and fun.

I don’t know why you linked us to a t1 server while the reset of the EU servers are linked to a silver tier based server! Vabbi and Deso has nothing in common, apart from Vabbi being their guest server before the Megaservers.

There were other ways where you could have improved the wvw experience for the lower tier servers. Like disabling the bordermaps, allowing a free transfer to a server of choice, ….

The damaged has been done to the lower tier servers. People are band wagoning to Vabbi as we speak seeing that we are medium ranked while Deso is full! Anet, I ask you rollback this stupid beta-linking, give me a free transfer or link Vabbi with another server! All I ask for is being able to enjoy wvw (roaming, small scale fights, … without lag or blobfests) with my friends and be useful for my server!

tbh most of the ppl on deso like the vabbian guys and after all most of your guys are quite happy about it.

I’ve really enjoyed the linking so far but it does get old having to blob up with specific classes all the time. I’m a bit addicted to chaos. It’s not optimal to have a random group running around like headless chickens but it can be tons of fun.

EVERYONEGETTOTAGANDTSWITHGUARDSELESNECROS can be ok too sometimes but havoc can get a ton of work done while the blobs are busy beating their heads against the wall.

the uw +fsp link hasn’t been going great. the wvw uw guilds have not just got the move, but the q’s and blob style to contend with. Also it was a rocky start I’ve not seen an UW com in EB since cutover w/e and not sure I will see one again…
I don’t blame fsp, we aren’t guests, you invite guests …

post cutover I’m seeing less an less uw in EB some in the borders but activity is very low. Despite the small size of uw we are proud of our server (KDR) higher than fsp… etc. I don’t think this has been handled well. they should have rolled up the small servers we have more in common and know+respect each other.

It’s a mixed feeling for me. I miss server name, feeling being home, surrounded by players and guilds I know. Same for enemies. I usually stop to duel or chat with someone with friendly guild tag or player I often meet while roaming.

In other hand DBL started to become fun as they became filled with players. Queues does not bother me. Lag does. It’s nearly impossible to fight in EB when 2 blobs meet. In low population we havent had those often. Also I’m not a fan of huge blob fights. It’s boring.

Anyway I’m very glad because Anet did great job for wvw. Tracks, DBL improvements, return of Alpine maps. It just excites me to see where it will bring wvw.

P.S. no gliding in WvW please.

Wish best for our opponents from Vabbi, FoW,

I meet plenty of UW players on enemy borders. Our zerg in FSP = small roaming group.

Miko.4158:

the uw +fsp link hasn’t been going great. the wvw uw guilds have not just got the move, but the q’s and blob style to contend with. Also it was a rocky start I’ve not seen an UW com in EB since cutover w/e and not sure I will see one again…
I don’t blame fsp, we aren’t guests, you invite guests …

post cutover I’m seeing less an less uw in EB some in the borders but activity is very low. Despite the small size of uw we are proud of our server (KDR) higher than fsp… etc. I don’t think this has been handled well. they should have rolled up the small servers we have more in common and know+respect each other.

and I see a couple of zerk and dare in EB (always a pleasure), but not alot . The various non rep UW gulids show the same, activity is down even if you include the borders.
Tal and Claw particularly

cryokro.6270:

There is nothing bad with server linking, its just the fact that vabbi is the only server linked to a t1 server, while the rest of the links are made betwen servers placed between position 10 and 18. (Not taking RoS into account here). I feel other linked servers contribute something to their host server.

Ah, I actually agree with you. Some of the links have worked out better, some perhaps not so. I think it could be somewhat worse in NA but since I know nothing about NA servers, it is tough to decide based on purely people complaining in the forum.

I have enjoyed our small FoW link with GH, and I honestly believe we are contributing to current match enough (even more when Jd starts to raid again next week, go us!). I have been running in big pug blobs (seriously, get into TS so you wont die) and we have tried smaller group fights in BL maps. There is queue for EB at prime time so I won’t go there but there is also 3 BL maps and they all have enemies now so I don’t care about EB once its full. Tho we did have queue to home BL yesterday after reset.

Maybe Anet can relink some of the more unhappy servers? After all, this is beta and things are suppose to change. Also, I suspect lots of players have been returning to WvW so current populations could be higher than expected.

FogLeg.9354:

Maybe Anet can relink some of the more unhappy servers? After all, this is beta and things are suppose to change.

What’s an “unhappy server”? For every person that go “booo my server identity is gone!” I bet there are 10 which are more than happy to mindlessly zerg and enjoy the higher population.

From the very announcement of the pairing we knew that it was a merger in practice. Relinking servers… I dont think its going to go well for the smaller of the pair. Many people will probably have found guilds and friends on the bigger server and will be forced to transfer. Even if that’s a marginal amount, we will just see the same thing repeat itself the next time. You get paired with a big server, dislike its blobbing because its the exact same thing in all tiers, even more people leave… Your server will eventually go down the route of death by pairing.

If you want to change the way you fight and enjoy doing it, you have to do it yourself.

I think Anet had problems in Eu. They had to get the league down to a multiple of 3. They could only link language servers with others of the same. They also decided only to link 2 servers at this time, although they have said they could link more.

Matching Deso with anyone was decidedly odd. Guilds server stacking causes server fortunes to ebb and flow and Deso’s fortunes were low when alliances came in but Deso is unquestionably a T1 server and shouldn’t have been allied. Probably they should have created one or two 3-way alliances of more similar servers instead.

Just to say, I’m not crying because it in anyway unfairly affects our current matchup! Just Deso was never in need of help and matching such different communities as a long-term T1 server and one of the “most solidly” T9 servers was probably destined to be troubled.

I tend to agree and must say that it surprised me whenVabbi got linked with Deso out of all servers. Though, knowing good old Vabbi’s insane luck, I suspect it might be a case of all mid and higher mid tier servers being already linked to another. Basically the only thing left were SP, DE and FR servers (and I don’t think Vabbians would have appreciated to be paired off with Dzagonur). So it seems that it was either that or get paired with a T1 server. Or doing double stacks (like ROS+Vabbi+GH), which wouldn’t have helped queue-wise either.

As for myself, I left Vabbi for Aurora at the beginning of the year after 2 years on that server, as WvW was becoming unbearably empty and spawncampy. And now we got linked with BT. I get the feeling that they do contribute to our server, with guild raids and stuff (despite being old foes of mine hehe), so I would say Aurora and BT are a lot better matched than say, Deso and Vabbi.

Dangus.6572:

It’s a mixed feeling for me. I miss server name, feeling being home, surrounded by players and guilds I know. Same for enemies. I usually stop to duel or chat with someone with friendly guild tag or player I often meet while roaming.

In other hand DBL started to become fun as they became filled with players. Queues does not bother me. Lag does. It’s nearly impossible to fight in EB when 2 blobs meet. In low population we havent had those often. Also I’m not a fan of huge blob fights. It’s boring.

True, I miss the small server feeling too since moving to AG, and even more since BT joined us. Though sometimes I get a burst of nostalgia when I see ZERK tags in our BL hehe “Well, some things never change”.

They said they can link 3-servers if needed, I would think they wouldn’t mind if it was between bronze servers, cause vabbi didn’t have that many players, but it would be still active enough to experience wvw without queues and patient commanders. The real vabbians don’t really have experience of higher tiers, where it’s more organized, especially life with voice comms.

For couple of months before the Spring Quarterly update Desolation was outnumbered in 3-4 maps almost 24h7, besides the few night hours when our night team was on. Our off-peak volume kept Desolation higher ranked than it should have been. In fact the statistics show that Desolation had lower capture volume and prime time activity than many silver league servers. Having way too little players lead to burn out and frustration. Several players left Desolation to greener pastures, mainly to Piken.

Now several things happened:
1. The new changes to WvWvW are good and this brought back some players (keep up this work, Arenanet! We really expect the Alpine back soon)
2. We got joined with Vabbi

Finally we had chances to fight with more even numbers feels good to me. I feel that there aren’t actually that many Vabbi players, so the core is Deso players. And we are still often outnumbered outside EBG. And those who like roaming can still do that. But if you want to capture camps vs zero enemies and pvd without any resistance, then I think any top tier server in EU is not a good for you.

Helys Vikonas.9125:

…. Or doing double stacks (like ROS+Vabbi+GH), which wouldn’t have helped queue-wise either.

tbh, that sounds like a better solution to me. GH+Vabbi+RoS is unlikely to be as stacked as Deso+Vabbi, with all the easy , cheap transfers to Vabbi that people (apparently) have been taking.

I’m on RoF and tbh the server merger wasn’t that favourable to us either. Not that I have anything against WSR who we have worked well with, sharing TS etc. But we are now the lowest ranked wvw grouping yet the cost of transferring to us is still more than transferring to RoS or Vabbi. That needs to be fixed.
What annoys me most is anet have taken away my choice and the choice of many who liked being on a bronze server. We’ve had over three years to choose where we felt happy. Just because a few silver servers felt like they were being treated unfairly anet decided to take away that right, and in doing so have completely changed the nature of wvw for me and my guild.

Deniara Devious.3948:

I feel that there aren’t actually that many Vabbi players, so the core is Deso players.

OFC the core is Deso players, but the current score seems to show the impact that Vabbi, and, to be fair, the WvW changes, have had. Vabbi players are more self-sufficient. We have to be able to do everything in the game…most importantly, thinking. Deso, like many servers, is full of sheep who go EB, follow comm, and press 1. Deso home border defence is pitiful. No wonder, with 20 afk at spawn waiting for Q to pop. We don’t even get the outnumbered buff. I could not beleive how tragic it can get sometimes. Hardly anyone can scout properly. And hardly anyone responds to callouts. I can only imagine you nightcapped like crazy to get the success you acheived in the past. Pitiful, out of peak hours when I mostly play, but par for the course. I expect any Pikeys, Gandarans etc, reading this, will recognise the pattern. 80 ppl queued for EB, home border geting pumped.

Got to shout out to Deso comm I’ve seen last few days though. Can’t remember toon name but he plays as a girly. Goes home bl and will run to defend stuff. Not bad in a scrap too, and I can’t remember hearing him moan. More like him please.

After evaluating the situation after 1 week with the Alpine bordermap, I can say that the situation with the Deso-Vabbi linking is worse than before.

As some guys above me pointed out that: EB was for zerging and if i wanted to play smallscaled/roam i would have to go to the (desert) bordermaps. Well, now with the Alpine bordermaps back, small scalled fights and roaming is gone.

Currently we had 20+ queues on each border. If you check eb, you’ll find nothing but people afk or crying for a commander. Nothing but sheep on this server, blindly following a tag.

I always believed that Anets policy was: Play what you want, when you want.
Well, i want to play when i get home from work, not spend my evening in a queue to get into an empty EB (majority afk) or alpine border. I want to play my engi, without getting insulted because I play a class that cant “zerg”. Well, I can zerg as engi, as I happen to know how to position myself.

I have included a screenshot of reset on Friday. This is shortly before we dropped to a tick of 55. We had a queue on 2 maps(80+ on eb) but we can’t defend (or capture) towers/keeps . Our keep in EB had more holes than Swiss cheese. Glad Gandara wiped Piken and backed off, because we wouldnt have been able to defend it ourselves. Note the tag at the other side of the map. He clearly had no clue what was going on.

Currently we are “winning” this matchup and the previous 3 MU since the linking due to the deso nightcrew carrying us hard. Thanks Anet for looking at that, but I think the beta linking should be prio before adding something new.

I only see 1 solutions for the linking problem Vabbi has (apart from a rollback, but people wouldnt like that either)

Make a 3 way linking between:
AG-BT-Vabbi
GH-FoW-Vabbi
Or even kitten WSR-RoF.

Vabbi has become a bandwagon server into t1. If you cant relink us before the 3 months of beta-testing are over, can you atleast set vabbi to full? As more and more players/guilds transfer to vabbi just to “win”.

We from GH+FoW are currently in a match against RoF+WSR (and one german server) and we are running over them. When we were facing BB, JS and AR earlier we had much trouble to get players in and our prime time was horrible, now we have queue in EB every night and our home BL is basically untouchable.

What I am trying to say is that number of active players looks to be changing A LOT based on current matchup. One week there is hardly anyone around, next week we being called “blobby”.

cryokro.6270:

I want to play my engi, without getting insulted because I play a class that cant “zerg”. Well, I can zerg as engi, as I happen to know how to position myself.

I have included a screenshot of reset on Friday. This is shortly before we dropped to a tick of 55. We had a queue on 2 maps(80+ on eb) but we can’t defend (or capture) towers/keeps . Our keep in EB had more holes than Swiss cheese. Glad Gandara wiped Piken and backed off, because we wouldnt have been able to defend it ourselves. Note the tag at the other side of the map. He clearly had no clue what was going on.

Currently we are “winning” this matchup and the previous 3 MU since the linking due to the deso nightcrew carrying us hard. Thanks Anet for looking at that, but I think the beta linking should be prio before adding something new.

It is true that Deso night crew and strong off prime time presence is giving Desolation the point lead it has. Before the pairing and without our night crew we would have probably been a silver league server. The problem has existed far before the serer pairing!

I am obviously from Desolation and I have been there for years. Majority of the players in the map chat like the current pairing. There is constant action from early morning till late at night. So much big fights and so much loot. Of course players want to transfer to a server combination, which allows that!

Desolation has always been weak at reset. Nothing new. Some of our commanders only care for fights. They even insist not to build any siege, even if enemy has 60+ blob vs 30 of us. And of course if enemy is organized and has roughly equal skill, we wipe and lose objectives. Some Deso commanders know defense and then we can hold keep which is full holes for hours.

I play an engineer (not a scrapper, but core engi) as my main and I have never heard of being not wanted in zerg. In fact our zerg often has trouble making the first few kills, but when I appear on the place the kills happen. Engi is not ideal profession for front line and it doesn’t have the support shout guardian can give, but it is far from being useless in zergs. You select the weakest link of the enemy and blast it to pieces. I use 4 kits + rifle, so I got plenty of utility + ranged DPS + CC alone. Play aggressive, but know when to retreat.

PS. Feel free to discuss online.