Guild Wars 2

Outnumbered buff is a bad mechanic, because there is too many things tied to the buff. its not performing parts of its functions, its not providing enough information to the player. and even worse. its dictating too much of what the player does, which limits freedom of wvw

first off. latest changes say you need to be on the map for 5 mins to get the buff. this means if you die, you gives points to the opposition, even if your on an outnumbered map. which is working against one of it original functions

Secondly. if you dont have the outnumbered buff on the outnumbered map. how are you mean to make proper judgment on sticking to the map if you dont have all the information. you should know this kind of information

and third. it strongly dictates what the player does. its better to go roam on an outnumbered map to farm pips rather than join squad/party on a different map. you should have the same or more rewards joining a party or tag on a map that needs you.
it also dictates you to not switch characters. its better to stay on the one character for extra pips rather than switching characters on the fly to lose those extra pips

my suggestion is the following.

revert the changes to participate on the map for 5 mins
significantly reduce the number of pips given or preferably give no extra pips at all

or, link outnumbered buff to the account, not the character

Perhaps it would be better to show the buff immediately, but not give pips unless the current conditions are met. That would mean splitting it into a functional buff and a symbolic ‘buff.’

The former would work like the old Outnumbered and the latter would work like the current iteration. That way, we get all the info and effects while still restricting the pip gain to people who were actually there to earn it.

Regarding your suggestion to link the outnumbered buff to the account so you can switch characters, I’ve thought it would be nice to link all WvW progress at the account level so that participation doesn’t start over when you switch from a zerg class to a roaming class as it gets later at night and population drops.

I have had 0 issue with it. Sorry your having problems.