Guild Wars 2

Commanders are the heart of WvW.

Most of the current commanders are ones that bought the tag when it was 100g.
And as we know, our pool of WvW commanders is being sucked dry.
300g is too expensive for WvW players to afford.
Up and coming players that would like to consider commanding are discouraged by the massive investment they need to make to buy a tag.

If the price is reduced back to 100g, more players will buy tags, which will result in more WvW commanders. When there are commanders on the map, more people play. When more people play, more people are playing.
That’s what we all want.

This is a very simple change to implement, and it can only benefit WvW.

I like the idea.

Though, saying its a simple change to implement doesn’t mean that it is. Unless you’re familiar with the code and requirements that they’re using. (though, it does seem like it would be easy)

I don’t know, just having a tag, does not mean you “can” command. And if the 300g is too much, you might be one of those commanders that is always asking someone else to put down siege, and that’s not cool. Siege is not that cheap if your tagged up all the time. unless you have a lot of backers.

Silverstone.4539:

I don’t know, just having a tag, does not mean you “can” command. And if the 300g is too much, you might be one of those commanders that is always asking someone else to put down siege, and that’s not cool. Siege is not that cheap if your tagged up all the time. unless you have a lot of backers.

But at least someone can try to command. Id rather have some attempt then no one tagging up tbh

100 gold + a gazillion badges.

And everyone has to learn somewhere. And it makes them badges worth something, well a little at least.

300gold isnt that bad but i do agree that there should be a time requirement…whether badges is the best way to do this i do not know, but commanders should be experienced

why not just let people use mentor tags ? the one problem with making tags too accessible is everyone starts throwing them up and devaluing them. At least with mentor tags, it can be like commanders in training. being a good commander is no easy task when taken seriously.

Ricky.4706:

the one problem with making tags too accessible is everyone starts throwing them up and devaluing them.

Lolwut?

Commander tags doesnt have value. Its a critical WvW gameplay element that’s hidden behind a paywall, much like +5 is now (well, except +5 is much, much worse).

Saying “well if you gonna dump down siege all day surely 300g is nothing” is silly. The very idea that commanders have to be rich is absolutely ridiculous. What is this, a game of nobles and peasants, where only the nobles are are allowed certain features?

I see no reason why not to have it 100g + badges. Or in fact, they could have three purchase options available – 300g, 100g + badges or just a kittenton of badges. Done deal everybody happy.

I’ve seen much tag abuse when it was going for 100g, it’s not a good thing, at least in our server it wasn’t – people started losing confidence in tags for a while because some people didn’t know how to command, so some tags just ran solo because none would follow them. This made people leave because they felt the server was being over run by inexperienced players…. Very few put up tags these days, and when a tag pops up now, we all support it because it was a mess at one time and people started taking throwing them up more serious.

To be a commander is to be poor, spending money on siege and food. Putting it back to 100g + badges would let us see more tags on the field.

It’s a pretty thankless job but someone has to do it.

lioka qiao.8734:

To be a commander is to be poor, spending money on siege and food. Putting it back to 100g + badges would let us see more tags on the field.

It’s a pretty thankless job but someone has to do it.

It may be that but I have seen some very stupid and arrogant commanders. Just because you have Mithril standing (by plying in EotM) doesn’t mean you understand anything about commanding. This is the issue with commander tags, they should be earned, not bought. How A.Net could get that to work, I have no idea, but I think this would make the best players be commanders.

Tbh if you can’t afford to shell out 300g for a tag you shouldnt be commanding. If you’re a decent commander you’ll be shelling out alot more than 300g in the long run and 100g is too cheap where you’ll end up like the spam of mentors. Users who think because they have a mentor tag that they can lead people.
Ill like to see another option that just gold tho, 100g + a bunch of proof of heroics sounds good and pretty much guarantees that the commander will be at least decent.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Though, saying its a simple change to implement doesn’t mean that it is. Unless you’re familiar with the code and requirements that they’re using.

Stop talking nonsense.

no way …commandertag should be 1000 G

Dusty Moon.4382:

lioka qiao.8734:

To be a commander is to be poor, spending money on siege and food. Putting it back to 100g + badges would let us see more tags on the field.

It’s a pretty thankless job but someone has to do it.

It may be that but I have seen some very stupid and arrogant commanders. Just because you have Mithril standing (by plying in EotM) doesn’t mean you understand anything about commanding. This is the issue with commander tags, they should be earned, not bought. How A.Net could get that to work, I have no idea, but I think this would make the best players be commanders.

If your commander is stupid and arrogant you’ll figure it out quickly and not follow him.

For someone else who thinks they can do it and wants an opportunity 300G is fairly steep.

A reduction to 100 gold would be fine if the badges needed were increased proportionately.

The other issue is that quite a few commanders won’t tag up because of people criticizing and dissing them. I understand why people do this, some commanders are not very effective. That is because they aren’t trained properly. For this same reason plenty of people buy the commander tag but won’t tag up because they lack experience or are frightened of bad feedback.

Would be nice if there was somewhere giving instructions on how to command in WvW.

Couple of things, really.
1) Commander tags are actually a very useful thing in PvE. Due to their widespread use in PvE, they just won’t raise the badge price to anything that can’t be acquired fairly easily. If anyone was then thinking about saying “well, they should split that up and make PvE and WvW commanders separate”, don’t. I seriously do not think that that would be a worthwhile use of their time (because we all know that that won’t be simple) when they are trying to work on some major WvW improvements right now.

2) Yes, they started out at 100g. And at the time, that was a hell of a lot of gold. Times changed as did the value of gold. I remember it taking me months to get to the Golden title (200g) after launch. As it stands, how long would it take someone seriously farming to make 100g? Depending on drops, a couple of days maybe? They’re supposed to be rarer than “oh, that’s not that much gold, I’ll just get one for funsies”. Indeed, as one person picked up on earlier, if a couple of hundred gold seems like a lot to you, you probably won’t get far as a commander. I don’t regularly command, but I even still carry around about 100g’s worth of siege on me in WvW.

zinkz.7045:

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Though, saying its a simple change to implement doesn’t mean that it is. Unless you’re familiar with the code and requirements that they’re using.

Stop talking nonsense.

I’ll remember to not hire you for one of my developers.

Ghedoriah.4290:

Couple of things, really.
1) Commander tags are actually a very useful thing in PvE. Due to their widespread use in PvE, they just won’t raise the badge price to anything that can’t be acquired fairly easily. If anyone was then thinking about saying “well, they should split that up and make PvE and WvW commanders separate”, don’t. I seriously do not think that that would be a worthwhile use of their time (because we all know that that won’t be simple) when they are trying to work on some major WvW improvements right now.

2) Yes, they started out at 100g. And at the time, that was a hell of a lot of gold. Times changed as did the value of gold. I remember it taking me months to get to the Golden title (200g) after launch. As it stands, how long would it take someone seriously farming to make 100g? Depending on drops, a couple of days maybe? They’re supposed to be rarer than “oh, that’s not that much gold, I’ll just get one for funsies”. Indeed, as one person picked up on earlier, if a couple of hundred gold seems like a lot to you, you probably won’t get far as a commander. I don’t regularly command, but I even still carry around about 100g’s worth of siege on me in WvW.

WvW tags should be separate from the PvE tags which are basically ‘Look at me! I spend bucko’s to get this TACO over my head’. PvE doesn’t really need them if coordination is really there. It is an excuse, really.

The idea of separating PVE from WvW tags is interesting.

And a simple way of adding some requirement of experience would be to link it to a WXP line. I don’t think it is perfect, but it is a food for thought. (Now just imaging a WXP line unlocking different colored tags...)

Serious.7083:

A reduction to 100 gold would be fine if the badges needed were increased proportionately.

The other issue is that quite a few commanders won’t tag up because of people criticizing and dissing them. I understand why people do this, some commanders are not very effective. That is because they aren’t trained properly. For this same reason plenty of people buy the commander tag but won’t tag up because they lack experience or are frightened of bad feedback.

Would be nice if there was somewhere giving instructions on how to command in WvW.

Servers have done this in the past. The results are mixed. Multiple websites have guides and there were guilds that have experienced commanders who were willing to instruct. TLC comes to mind from personal experience.

Yet a commander tag shortage has been a persistent problem. The burnout rate is high. The rate at becoming effective is very slow.

No one wants to join a tag till it is proven successful. You can’t learn to fight effectively until you have numbers. It is difficult to get over the hump for a new commander, so to speak.

Backseat drivers who think they know everything but never tag up are just a bonus irritation.

meltdown.5870:

no way …commandertag should be 1000 G

Hell, let’s just get crazy. COMMANDER PROGRESSION. You have to pve too, none of that wvw stuff. You have to earn 1 billion HPs, buy a special bag of Doritos allowing you to tag up only 25 times (cost 200 gems per back), also teamspeak is now a gem purchase as anet has partnered with teamspeak (2000 gems) if you want access. In addition, only one tag per character now, don’t think you can work around the system. You want to command on warrior tonight instead of guard? HA think again, more gems and HP requirements. Nice try wvw community, THIS IS GUILD WARS 2 BABY!

Anyone commanding on a Warrior instead of a Guardian with the current state of balance is one of 3 things; 1. A troll, 2. The very embodiment of courage, or 3. A dreamer.

But yes gimme that 100g commander tag because I’m a poor.

Hey now, I like my old school warrior

Thanks anet for ruining the ending of Citizen Kane for me
Hints:

bold italic google Rosebud...was his sled.

Ghedoriah.4290:

If anyone was then thinking about saying “well, they should split that up and make PvE and WvW commanders separate”, don’t. I seriously do not think that that would be a worthwhile use of their time (because we all know that that won’t be simple) when they are trying to work on some major WvW improvements right now.

Too kitten late, they effectively did that already with Mentor tags. These are regularly used in PvE in place of a commander tag and guess what? They are effectively free. OK, they don’t have all the nifty bits but they could have. Really the only big one is color options.

You just have to take a break for a few weeks during a holiday event and pve grind a bit. Otherwise ya, you will never make that much on a wvsw salary.

Instead of changing price for commander tag, just allow someone to trade in badges and a few silver to have a temporary commander tag for that map during that instance. Sort of like renting one. 100g can be easily made.

Another option is free commander tag for WvW only purposes but will require the map’s population to vote yes when someone wants to pin-up. It’ll prevent trolls and the likes…

Serious.7083:

For this same reason plenty of people buy the commander tag but won’t tag up because they lack experience or are frightened of bad feedback.

Would be nice if there was somewhere giving instructions on how to command in WvW.

I’ve come across a lot of commanders and actually think that really good commanders are naturals. You can learn the basics of fights but that doesn’t make you see where and when to hit and that might be the most important things when it comes to fights.
I see these kinds of things, but I main a thief, am the probably worst guard NA/EU and hate TS with a passion – all you can do is to care about your class mechanics and follow me. We did this today and it worked because I have great guys on my server – otherwise it wouldn’t. The commander is a huge part of the fight but not all of it. Maybe that’s why we can defeat even blobs without anyone commanding.

a good commander is actually a team of people that make decisions of where the zerg should be – they don’t bark commands, they lead groups according to intel- with scouts keeping track of enemy groups, not only on center maps but on borders too – at least on our server it was, since our maps are emptier than the upper tiers …..our tiers play a game of catch me if you can with the border lands …and teleporting zergs keeping the score relatively balanced and not directly confronting another server that outnumbers us. this is also where the play as you want mode, works in our favor, because those random 2-5 man groups become decoys to the bigger group focused on quick cap scoring.

- for a server made up of a lot of roamers, we are kind of illuminati in strategy :p

the new supersized borders kind of killed that aspect though.

oh, plz don’t make em 100 gold. think of pve here too. 100 gold is nothing. if a noob like me got a commie tag for 300, you can too. i don’t always up my tag (especially on wvw), but when i do, i ask if anyone with more ap wants to take over. what with these HoT mentor tags, you can see how many clueless ppl aspire to be leaders. either that or just proud trolls.

a good commander is actually a team of people that make decisions of where the zerg should be – they don’t bark commands, they lead groups according to intel- with scouts keeping track of enemy groups, not only on center maps but on borders too

Ricky.4706 has the right idea (and one wicked rig)! a wvw commander is so much more than a tag and a bag of swears.

LoL NooBs.5076:

oh, plz don’t make em 100 gold. think of pve here too. 100 gold is nothing. if a noob like me got a commie tag for 300, you can too. i don’t always up my tag (especially on wvw), but when i do, i ask if anyone with more ap wants to take over. what with these HoT mentor tags, you can see how many clueless ppl aspire to be leaders. either that or just proud trolls.

a good commander is actually a team of people that make decisions of where the zerg should be – they don’t bark commands, they lead groups according to intel- with scouts keeping track of enemy groups, not only on center maps but on borders too

Ricky.4706 has the right idea (and one wicked rig)! a wvw commander is so much more than a tag and a bag of swears.

Yes, but a commander tag is also a scout and that guy trying to rally the few pugs on map to hold onto your stuff since there is no one with a tag any where in sight.

I wouldn’t mind if it was just one color option for the 100g.

the tag does help, especially for small very fast moving groups….so easy to get caught up in battle and lose everyone. so it is essential to upgrading your strategy, but detrimental if people use it recklessly. I’ve seen both extremes.

when gw first started , and everyone was kitten broke, guilds use to chip in to get the guild leader and officers tags, this of course was when it was 100 gold, but at that time 100 gold to us was as high as 300 gold today – being that gold is much easier to get these days and repairs are now free.

A WvW specific commander tag might be a good idea, that can only be earned in wvw (not eotm, maybe through a possible reward track with a rank req) and only usable in actual wvw.

Dunno why you ever had to pay for a tag in the first place. Always seemed like an arbitrary pay wall to play the game that advertised “Play how you want”.

even 100g would be to much for me.

They should make depend it on the WvW rank and that you can buy it with the Skillsystem, like the Helper Tag.

Yes I promote this idea, we need commanders. Specially on my server that are losing people everyday to other games or other servers.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

zinkz.7045:

Blockhead Magee.3092:

Though, saying its a simple change to implement doesn’t mean that it is. Unless you’re familiar with the code and requirements that they’re using.

Stop talking nonsense.

I’ll remember to not hire you for one of my developers.

Not a problem, I wouldn’t take the pay cut, the downgrade to developer or have any desire to work at a company where they let people lacking basic logic and knowledge, make significant decisions.

No thanks.

I remember when commander tags were 100g; people were a bit more mature back in the day, you never really used to see troll tags at all unless it were in major cities where 1-2 people would afk with them on. Fast forward to the announcement that tags were jumping up to 300g – literally everyone and their mum’s brown dog bought and flaunted their tags EVERYWHERE. Yes. e v e r y w h e r e. Fast forward 1 year later and it’s these same imbeciles, incompetent unskilled players who have zero clue what they’re doing and quite often – players with troll tags who abuse them and ruin maps.

If they were to change them back to 100g it would only encourage more people to just “buy” their way through things and this is why I believe commander tags should have been acquired through EARNING them via WvW related content in forms of reaching a certain WvW rank or a split purchase implying many Badges of Honor + completing a “reward track” and other things. Not grind but actually playing the game mode and EARNING it, eventually.

Zephyra.4709:

Fast forward to the announcement that tags were jumping up to 300g – literally everyone and their mum’s brown dog bought and flaunted their tags EVERYWHERE. Yes. e v e r y w h e r e. Fast forward 1 year later and it’s these same imbeciles, incompetent unskilled players who have zero clue what they’re doing and quite often – players with troll tags who abuse them and ruin maps.

this and the average players gdp rose.

No, in my honest opinion, the price of the commander tag should fluctuate with the community of the sorts.
When gw2 started for a good 2 years, the economy was this much out of hand. People would go to spvp area to port to lions arch just to save silvers, hear this SILVERS! And silvers were a hassle to gather then. (CoF farms giving around 30 silver per run, no liquid gold and around the time before the mega servers popped up)

I would say 300g is easier, it should be around 500g. No really, if someone deserves a tag, people would donate and did donated. Its a community thing in wvw, where gold is even scarce. Taking this in view, the way points should cost now 25 silver a pop now. Its sad that way points prices are fixed.

Back to point, no 300G is fine, it should cost even more…but less. No.

Haralin.1473:

They should make depend it on the WvW rank and that you can buy it with the Skillsystem, like the Helper Tag.

Great Foundation Idea. Have it so that the Price Drops the higher your WvW Rank.

For example:
Bronze (and below) – 300 Gold
Silver – 250 Gold
Gold – 200 Gold
Platinum – 150 gold.
Mithril – 100 Gold
Diamond – 50 Gold

Yes, tags were 100g at one time, when you had to buy them per character. 300g is an account investment that provides a tag you can use on any character anywhere in game. The tradeoff price was more than fair.

If you PVE and can’t afford a actual tag, you now have mentor option. If you wvw and work with more than 1 toon, it’s no longer a problem switching and tagging up again. If you have complaints about the current price, you should’ve been here to see how expensive it could get before the account change. Anet fixed it and 300g is fair!

Personally, I’ve always felt that the commander tags should be locked behind an actual test. I’ve seen a lot of good commanders over the years who wouldn’t have any problems passing a test of strategic knowledge, and lot of really bad commanders that shouldn’t have ever been leading anything that would never have been in the position to be allowed to if they had to show they were actually capable of it. I still stand by that. Being a commander is a LOT more than watching some videos on youtube, screaming out “bomb bomb bomb” on TS and then blaming pugs when you wipe. There’s too many commanders who do that already, and all they manage to accomplish is driving people off.

A gold cost isn’t a good barrier, because anyone can bypass it. I’ve had situations where I was leading a group and we were pushing into an area, and I told everyone to take the stairs and get onto the wall. However, when it came time to push in, someone popped a tag and drew half of the group into a chokepoint to get farmed. Before they separated OS, there used to be a dude who would pop a tag in there and try to call people in so he could be a jumping puzzle commander. Just because someone can grind out enough to buy a tag, that doesn’t mean they should actually be able to actually have one.

If there’s a test, that actually tests their strategic ability, sure, you’d have fewer commanders, but the ones you would have would actually be good at it. They’d end up causing more players to come in, rather than causing existing players to leave. And the more players there are, the bigger the pool to find quality commanders would be. Which would be a lot healthier for WvW overall.

so if u remember commander tag was 100g
do you remember why they made it 300g?

back then, people were complaining about commander tag being too accessible while those with multi characters are forced to purchase multi tag. those were the reasons why it become the tag today.

heck, i still remember being refunded only 100g while i bought 4 tags. many others bought the tag with 100g before patch and gotten themselves a 300g worth upgrade after the patch. feel so cheated.

Phantom.8130:

Being a commander is a LOT more than watching some videos on youtube, screaming out “bomb bomb bomb” on TS and then blaming pugs when you wipe. There’s too many commanders who do that already, and all they manage to accomplish is driving people off.

No its not. Its alot less. In fact, its just a freaking dorito over someones head.

I honestly dont understand why people keep trying to place commander on high podiums and as such they need to go through 8 years of military academy, have an IQ of 200 and a fabulous hair or they are not worthy of leading.

No. What you want from a glorious commander has nothing to with the ingame cost of the tag. That great commanders have taken to a certain style of leading is a whole other matter that has to do with players, not the tag system.

Dawdler.8521:

I honestly dont understand why people keep trying to place commander on high podiums and as such they need to go through 8 years of military academy, have an IQ of 200 and a fabulous hair or they are not worthy of leading.

No. What you want from a glorious commander has nothing to with the ingame cost of the tag. That great commanders have taken to a certain style of leading is a whole other matter that has to do with players, not the tag system.

What people want is to not waste their time and a bad commander is wasting time – the time of the people following him, the time of the other commander who would lead if there weren’t already one.
A commander directs when to push and retreat and that is crucial and not everyone can do it.
I’ve been in situations in which commanders let build catas next to a wall which still had their cannons up – and that over and over (nowadays people are smart enough to not need commands to take that cannons down).
You have to know the terrain, all siege you can and should use, the spots for it, sneaky points (and of course how to fight) – otherwise people will just leave and that doesn’t do your server any favours.
But (to OP) – if you really want more commanders start a collection – I’ve given gold to quite a few people who wanted to buy a tag.

ETA: If I know the commander leading our zerg isn’t any good and that we will lose every fight I turn off GW and go knitting.
ETA²: I have been a PvE player once and we had commanders and even then we rather wanted the tags to be earned – I think most of us. I do like my tag and I see the use of it although I’m not leading anyone. A compromise would be either a tag that can be earned and one that can be bought, both being different, or that the cost of it really hurts which it does right now. If people believe in you they will give you gold.