Guild Wars 2

Just curious as to what it’s like being in any of the 3 current lowest ranked servers as of 14/06/15 (T8: Devona’s Rest, Sorrow’s Furnace, Eredon Terrace)

• How many players on average do you encounter daily?
• Is there any oceanic players active?
• What is the playerbase like on each server?
• What are the fights like, if any at all?
• Is roaming viable with the current population status?
• Do any of the servers feel ‘dead’ at any specific time(s)?

Feel free to answer any of the questions above or add your own relevant agenda and/or discuss this topic amongst yourselves.

EDIT: Interesting responses and I thank you kindly for the input guys! I imagine there’s a bit more focused cooperation amongst the guilds/friends on these lower tiered servers as opposed to higher tiered servers where most things start and end in blob vs blob-fests.

Well I’m on a European server in the second to lowest server. However, I really enjoy it as once you find people that regularly WvW you can form up groups in WvW really easily. I encounter quite a few encounters daily (I think anyway) but I can’t comment really because I haven’t been on a top ranking server. There are still loads of fights. Roaming is easier with less people (less zergs), servers never really feel “dead”, you just need to go on the right map.

i would say huge gaps in coverage time, but they can put once in a while for a small period 20-30 players in one bl but leaving others empty , NA t4 – t5 some servers look like that to sometimes.

Also one nice thing about my server is the fact that I’ve never seen a full map but there are still people to WvW with.

I played on the lowest tier server for almost 1 and a half years, and I can tell you what it was like for me.

Every single day that I would go to WvW.

Retake our BL, completely, from scratch. Reinforce / upgrade our BL stuff, completely, from scratch, while fending off other server’s offensives.

Help in EB.

When commanding: Desperately trying to get more people on voice comms so we can coordinate somewhat.

Aussie playerbase, initially there were like 5-10 of em, but then they quit few months in, I don’t blame them.

SEA playerbase – completely non-existant

EU playerbase – completely non-existant.

Our coverage time was roughly 4 hours / day + weekends daytime and we can hang onto our stuff ONLY AND EXCLUSIVELY during those times.

Many times it is hard to get fights when roaming, many more times it is hard to get good fights when running in a larger group.

To me, it seems that the low tiers are now so defunct they are only good for people that for whatever reasons hate the “Massively Multiplayer” aspect of MMOs, many of whom, come here and complain about the game being an MMO (see various roamer vs zerg complaints on these forums). LOL, I mean W T F do they even play this then ?

Ultimately, I have gotten so depressed about this that I left the low tier to go to high tier server, however, despite having fun I was still so screwed and right down disappointed so greatly with the whole PPT mechanics that it caused me to leave the game completely. And no, EOTM just didnt do it for me.

What I am looking for is fairly competetive RvR style pvp, but in this game I just simply can not accomplish it without adding to the problem (transfering to T1). This realization, was by far the biggest factor in my decision to quit GW2 as a whole.

Playing on the low tiers longterm, not short term while you still have the novelty going, is just that depressing. It is the word that describes it the best “depressing”.

Zephyra.4709:

Just curious as to what it’s like being in any of the 3 current lowest ranked servers as of 14/06/15 (T8: Devona’s Rest, Sorrow’s Furnace, Eredon Terrace)

• How many players on average do you encounter daily?
• Is there any oceanic players active?
• What is the playerbase like on each server?
• What are the fights like, if any at all?
• Is roaming viable with the current population status?
• Do any of the servers feel ‘dead’ at any specific time(s)?

Feel free to answer any of the questions above or add your own relevant agenda and/or discuss this topic amongst yourselves.

I am on Kaineng, have been on nearly a dozen servers EU and NA, most of which were T1. We have been T6 for 2 weeks as of now, previously T7.

1. Lots. It is easier to solo roam without being ganked by guild groups or steamrolled by zergs but it does still happen. You may not see people every 15 feet like you would in higher tiers but it is far from as inactive as people would have you believe.

2. Yes. Some servers have different prime times even in lower tiers. Kaineng for example is a very active night time server.

3. I’m not sure what you mean by this question.

4. It varies. From small scale to full on blob v blob. Although massive blob fights are obviously less common in lower tiers, they do still happen. See photo(s) here of a fight that happened just last night.

5. Very much so. I am primarily a solo roamer and I still find lots of fights, as I’ve stated in question 1. Although there are times when it gets very inactive, it’s not something that happens so often you start to wonder where everyone is. More like once a week, if even that, that maps will be totally dead.

6. No. There are times in a week, like I said in question 5. that servers will be particularly inactive but it’s not a routine occurrence. In the lower tiers, it’s just more noticable when people are not online than in higher tiers. That doesn’t mean multiple times a day, or even week in most cases however.

If you can handle the fluctuations in activity, I think lower tiers are better than higher. When there are large scale fights, it’s much more exciting because it’s not something that is happening 24/7 like in higher tiers. “Zergs” mostly consist of 15 – 20 people in my tier but that doesn’t mean they are only ever that size. If you’re a roamer like I am, lower tiers can be quite forgiving. You won’t be chased down by guild groups or blobs (as often) and it doesn’t require you to be constantly on the edge of your seat with eyes on the back of your head.

Tongku.5326:

To me, it seems that the low tiers are now so defunct they are only good for people that for whatever reasons hate the “Massively Multiplayer” aspect of MMOs, many of whom, come here and complain about the game being an MMO (see various roamer vs zerg complaints on these forums). LOL, I mean W T F do they even play this then ?

I think you understand those “MMO complaints” wrong.

If someone writes “no people around then 50 men zerg chases me accross half the map”, they don’t mean they want maps empty.

My server isn’t at the bottom currently, but we did spend a few weeks/months there. During that time, there was always someone on the server, and this is coming from someone who primarily plays oceanic hours. We had a small but dedicated group of players who have been around though the highs and lows.

I mainly ran supply or escorted dolyaks or flipped unguarded camps, and while I was alone most of the time, I did have enough enemy and ally encounters to keep things interesting for me, personally I would not call this “dead”.

I’m not built to PvP, so avoiding enemies is generally my goal, and having fewer people around helps with that. When I do come across enemies and am unable to run away, I don’t fight back, and I just go for a bathroom break and return to send my char back to the waypoint

It works for me, I enjoy the 5-12 size group during ET Primetime, where the success or failure of a fight really does come down to my play. You can havoc a bl with this size group, without getting immedirolled by a zerg.

If you are on the very bottom, such as ET, you need to forget about ppt, and enjoy the individual fights… we have our own lil games we play, like siege a Tower, knowing that they will need to really work at taking the walls down, taking out your ACs, then overpowering you… I don’t know if it is fun or frustrating for our opponents having to put this much work into a Tower, but we have a blast. It doesn’t make much ppt sense to play this way, but if you are playing for ppt, you are on the wrong server.

There are the non-prime times though where it is very quiet… I do enjoy solo roaming as well, and will solo Towers and take down Keep walls by myself, hoping for some help to show up to assist in the taking. Sometimes I find help, but I have walked away from Keeps with both walls down… this can be frustrating. I have come very close to soloing a keep, but not yet… a goal you can really only work on in T8.

This is the style I learned to play… I recently took a couple weeks to check out a couple higher servers, and found myself bored of the zerging. Player relationships seemed more guild based rather than server based on these higher servers, but I may not have given them enough time to witness much of it. I searched for a dedicated Havoc groups, and found none. I eventually went back to ET where the fights are challenging, and the outcome really does depend on my play.

lower tiers are the most fun and balanced WvW.

Zeros are only 20 players large.

Small man groups are in surplus. lots of small man roaming.