Guild Wars 2

I’m from a lower tier (6 I think) – BP … I do love the big action that I have now being grouped with the higher tier server.. BUT.. It has simply become a place for me to come and fight if I want to. Taking, keeping, towers, camps, keeps, etc is no longer something that’s really a big deal other than the blobs looking to attract people to fight it seems. Nothing wrong with that of course. But I am BP.. and right now BP doesn’t exist in any represented way other than me saying it out loud. Fort Aspenwood is the world I’m hosted on and I have nothing to say against the people there. They do things their way and that’s all good. After the dust clears and I’ve had a few hours of intense blobbing I would really love to just go off and see what BP has done. I would love to go off with a small group of my homies and brand a bunch of stuff with our BP colour of the week.. But I can’t…. and THAT is where this thing is a fail for me. If it becomes permanent and if it turns out that BP will no longer even exist then it truly would cause my engagement in WvW to drop off even more than it already has. The reset night was awful of course. The next two days/nights were quite fun. But the novelty of the fights has worn down for me at least. I will go in a couple times a week I guess to have a little blob fun, but the days of going in every day and reclaiming things for BP and running havoc on other maps “for The Pass!” don’t exist anymore ( at least not right now ). When those days are possible once again then my WvW presence will go back to daily.
In the meantime I’m happy for those who really like this set up. I hope it makes the majority happy ( if it does ) because at the end of the day ‘majority rules’. For me, I won’t cry and whine about it all.. I will just change my play style and find things to do that I like 2nd to WvW but still like to do with friends.

@Balthazzarr

For the Pass!!!

World Server Identity builds Community
Community builds Relationships
Relationships builds Opportunities to Fight with Meaning

ANet could own a SuperBowl style eSport if they do WvW right.

Business convention style booking in Las Vegas with attendees from World Servers fighting for the honor of being Ranked #1 WvW World.

Possible Solution – Short version 3.7

Possible Full Solution – Google Search – Reboot Base Map Mechanic

Is this thread supposed to server as the official world linking feedback thread? If so, you gotta figure something out with the map naming.

From a UI usability perspective, if I were on a hosted server and my guild planned to go defend home borderland at reset and I didn’t know in advance which server would be host, I’d be completely confused as to which map was home borderland. That delay can cause a player to end up sitting in hours long queues.

The only saving grace for the vast majority of linked servers this past reset was the playerbase had some idea what the links were going to be.

Suggestion: the home borderland map in the UI should be named according to which server the account is on. Example: green bl in the T3 NA match should show Fort Aspenwood Borderland for any FA player and Borlis Pass Borderland for any Borlis Pass player.

sparc.3649:

I just hope this IS only a TEMPORARY “fix” to revitalize WvW – and that they’re actually working on a LONG TERM fix in the background!

It’s a Beta. It’s not permanent. By using this method they can easily “Unlink” and set things back without having the headache of finding a fix if they had actually Merged servers.
They will take a poll and see how the community feels about this after whatever time period they have set this Beta to end.
The problem is that the communities all have different view of how this is going. Top tier servers love the influx of bodies to suppliment their losses over time. Low tier servers (not everybody but a good majority of teh people I have spoken with and many posts here also) dislike the change in gameplay to the “Blob” mentality as well as loss of server identity.
All we can do for now is rationally voice our opinions so the Devs have constructive feedback.

Seems like population is pretty balanced now.

/sarcasm off

one remark too much QQ on SFR about Desert beta boycoters not being able to join EBG due to the linking of servers now they have 3 full zoneblobs playing with their toes in lions arch while waiting for the queue to pop for EBG

The extra population in WvW is great….but what’s really needed is flat out server merges. A great deal of what makes a strong wvw server function is “out of game” stuff like having a strong roster of commanders who support one another, server community/training and properly setup VOIP communications. Swapping server pairings every few months makes for chaos in terms of co-ordination and VOIP communications, something that is made worse by marking the higher rank host worlds as “full”.

Anet….the focus on WvW is great but I think you guys really need to “stop” trying to force players to spread out across too many servers, or trying to force guilds who want to avoid stagnation onto less organized/serious servers so they can grow. What really makes WvW fun vs games like planetside 2, or Cyrodil in Elderscrolls Online is finding a server/tier that fits your playing style best and joining an organized community.

If I wanted to play with random/shifting disorganized blobs then I’d queue up for EOTM. I really think devs need to show more respect for the WvW communities and organization that players have built up on the existing servers, especially the most active ones and stop trying to force players and guilds to “spread out” onto servers that don’t fit their playing style.

Not overlooking the communities on lower tier servers either – I think merging lower tier servers with other lower tier servers based upon things like timezone activity is a way better option then trying to “link” them to T1 servers that have a completely different playing style. The current “linking” setup may look good/balanced on paper but it’s not respecting player/guild playing style preferences at all.

TLDR;

WvW servers and tiers vary considerably in terms of organization and playing style. Guilds and players shouldn’t be put in a situation where they are “dumped” into a radically different tier by server linking, or for larger host numbers end up stagnant because they can’t recruit. It’s even worse when the server pairings change arbitrarily, merges should be done once combining servers that are closer in tier/playing style.

Balthazzarr.1349:

I’m from a lower tier (6 I think) – BP … I do love the big action that I have now being grouped with the higher tier server.. BUT.. It has simply become a place for me to come and fight if I want to. Taking, keeping, towers, camps, keeps, etc is no longer something that’s really a big deal other than the blobs looking to attract people to fight it seems. Nothing wrong with that of course. But I am BP.. and right now BP doesn’t exist in any represented way other than me saying it out loud. Fort Aspenwood is the world I’m hosted on and I have nothing to say against the people there. They do things their way and that’s all good. After the dust clears and I’ve had a few hours of intense blobbing I would really love to just go off and see what BP has done. I would love to go off with a small group of my homies and brand a bunch of stuff with our BP colour of the week.. But I can’t…. and THAT is where this thing is a fail for me. If it becomes permanent and if it turns out that BP will no longer even exist then it truly would cause my engagement in WvW to drop off even more than it already has. The reset night was awful of course. The next two days/nights were quite fun. But the novelty of the fights has worn down for me at least. I will go in a couple times a week I guess to have a little blob fun, but the days of going in every day and reclaiming things for BP and running havoc on other maps “for The Pass!” don’t exist anymore ( at least not right now ). When those days are possible once again then my WvW presence will go back to daily.
In the meantime I’m happy for those who really like this set up. I hope it makes the majority happy ( if it does ) because at the end of the day ‘majority rules’. For me, I won’t cry and whine about it all.. I will just change my play style and find things to do that I like 2nd to WvW but still like to do with friends.

Hi Balthazzarr,

I’m an FA player I just wanted to let you know that although at the moment there is a lot of blobbing and queing that is not what FA normally is. We have a lot of players who have come to check out the patch which is artificially inflating our numbers.

Outside of reset there are a lot of opportunities for guilds to run smaller and effectively contribute to the match. My Guild CC normally run 3-10 we do BL’s and EBG and we are getting fights and taking objectives. Yes we do get Blob wiped but that’s part of the fun to see how much damage we can do before the big guns get called in.

Please don’t feel you’ve lost your ability to play outside of blob warfare because you haven’t. The hype of the update just needs some time to cool down.

Anyways feedback on linking.
My Server: Fort Aspenwood.
Satus: Host
Tier: 3
Time Zone: NA / OCX / SEA

Issues:
- Major lag and regular game crashing.

- Server Identity issue for guest server. I’m fine with alternating server names.

- Play style conflict. T1 + T8 not really compatible.

Solutions:
- possibly 5 Tiers? or a 3 server merge at the bottom? Maybe T one , T2 T6, T3 +T5, T4 + T7 +T8. I don’t know population statistics but links don’t have to be 11.

Maybe not even T1 servers don’t get merged but the 3 servers with the highest active WvW population stand on their own.

Over all:

I like that you are working on WvW, I think the linking system has potential but there are some things you need to address. Linking can’t be the ONLY solution, I’m hoping there are more updates to come.

Happy being linked with BP.

Gunner Morton.8340:

Seems like population is pretty balanced now.

/sarcasm off

Yea but if you look at other EU matches this week, we are not even doing that badly against FSP.

Tier 1 is pretty close, and in Tier 6 both Viz and Drakkar can win it. But our match is next. The matches with Deso, Piken and Abaddon are all much more skewed.

But sure, let’s hope we get actually winnable opponets next match. Based on current standings, we should face Viz and Dz.

Simpler Solution Instead of World Link Mechanic:

Email All Players on a Specific Home Server an Account Bound & Hard Coded World Transfer Ticket that will Transfer them to a New Server specified by ANet.

Set All Tickets to expire after 1 week if not used.

WvW Population Rebalancing can be done by sending these Free Account Bound & Hard Coded World Transfer Tickets whenever ANet feels players need to Migrate.

Ticket can’t be Sold to Merchant or Trader, but can be trashed if not redeemed.

To make it more interesting…ANet could perhaps make these World Transfers Temporary & Only Lasting 1 Month…Then Revert the player back to their Original Home World.

Better yet…set-up a WvW NPC that has an ON/OFF Hat Indicator on every Home Server…that will Migrate Players for Free to a New World Server that ANet chooses for them.

Players that don’t want to move can continue to stay on a Home Server that’s probably “Dead”…which is how they like it.

If the goal is to make Match-Ups more Lively & Mixed Up for the players that are willing to move…let’s help those players move with ANet managing the overall migration process until Population levels are re-balanced to ANet’s expectations.

But, please consider letting players that choose not to move…to continue to play on their so called “Dead” Home Servers.

Yours truly,
Diku

p.s.
I’d still prefer a Reboot Base Map Mechanic, but this is feedback as it relates to this World Link Mechanic being Beta-Tested.

Possible Full Solution – Google Search – Reboot Base Map Mechanic

FogLeg.9354:

Gunner Morton.8340:

Seems like population is pretty balanced now.

/sarcasm off

Yea but if you look at other EU matches this week, we are not even doing that badly against FSP.

Tier 1 is pretty close, and in Tier 6 both Viz and Drakkar can win it. But our match is next. The matches with Deso, Piken and Abaddon are all much more skewed.

But sure, let’s hope we get actually winnable opponets next match. Based on current standings, we should face Viz and Dz.

I think Dz are a decent match for us, but they need a lot more coverage if we get FoW as well.
I can’t remember Viz – I only remember the horrible time we faced them after we went up because we had Xaoc’s night crew -who capped and upgraded everything and in the day we got obliterated. Like FSP are doing right this minute, actually!

I dont think the world linking is very stable. WE were always outnumbered…it wont be so bad if the worlds you were fighting switched around more frequently.

In my opinion, I would suggest going with the EU way of doing things for the time being and not link T1 servers and some/all of the T2 ones as well. T1 especially as we really don’t need any added population, I would guess there could be a strategy where T8 is linked with some of T2 or T3 instead.

Currently population imbalances (across 24/7 timezones) are still the top problem, it’s absolutely pointless playing for a win: the differences are unsurmontable, despite this server linking.

You did well with these latest changes, but they are by far not enough: keep doing it until last place server really can compete for 1st place. Otherwise the players will give up, already seen a lot exasperated. The key is to make it competive again – one side matches are not fun – and currently all 3 tiers NA are completely one-sided, as in not winnable by 2 out of 3 servers in each tier. If not, all this effort is futile – not being able to play to win – makes it pointless.

Maybe as others before me proposed, it’s time for the old servers to go (initial home players are rare anyway, rest is just bandwagon, and we all can start to be loyal to our new team), and start over. Allow a way for friends from the old communities and friends in general, including guilds and so on – to gather on the same new server/alliance, but balance has to be the first priority, above anything else.

Transfers should be locked to linked servers, especially to much higher ranked ‘hosts’ simple as, to avoid adding to queues. Depending on how long these links last and whether they actually increase activity, it’s not really fair on the Server itself, right now if links last 3 months, then a large population could just transfer there for cheap and reap the benefits.

Linking T1/2 servers with T8/9 is not a good idea. There are vastly different play styles and it’s unfair to drop servers like Vabbi and Eredon Terrace into what is essentially a hostile environment. And right now there are too many german servers. Abaddon’s Mouth and Dzagonur should have been linked.

I would just link low tier servers with each other. Bottom 6 tiers in NA and bottom 6 tiers in EU to reduce the overall number of tiers in EU/NA by three.

Ariel.6291:

1. We get moved and have to assimilate with a new server every 3 months. So we never get a chance to really belong to a community. We will have to maintain our own teamspeak and website, so that we don’t end up with nothing at some point. This will isolate us further from the servers we are “visiting.”

This is my major concern for our small server. Smaller servers could get moved every three months just as we’re getting to know the new community, and that will certainly have an impact on smaller servers, guilds and communities.

I do believe something needed to be done about population problems many servers have been facing, but I hope Anet takes into consideration the effect it will have moving servers around every three months, since smaller servers will bear the brunt of this on their communities.

sionnach.5391:

Hi all,

Guild leader from Kaineng here; we’ve been on our server since launch, never transferred – we’re core WvW and have fierce pride in our server and our players. So, as you can imagine, server identity and a sense of community are important to us and part of what we love about GW2 and this game mode.

First, I’m pleased that Anet is paying attention to WvW and attempting to address the population issues. I also realize that this is Day One of the beta. However, I hope you take this early feedback to heart.

Being pushed to a T1-2 server might very well destroy our tight-knit and hitherto happy community, so this is a plea from the heart:

Server identity: The sense of server identity for the low tiers is being erased – we don’t show up when we cap, we are a hover-over on the WvW panel, basically we’ve been reduced to non-entities. This may not seem like a big thing but it’s noticeable and has a morale effect.

Playstyle: Guilds like ours stuck around on Kaineng for a specific reason; we don’t transfer up to higher tiers because we love our server and we like the playstyle – creating a system where 90% of the time WvW is zergs/blobs is going to drive many of us away.

Weekends: The queues are bad, although hopefully that will ease up. However, if there’s always a queue on the weekend nights, and if it’s always zergs and blobs those nights, the weekend warrior guilds like us are in trouble – this is when we get together to WvW and without that, well I have no idea what we’ll do.

Outcome: There are many Kaineng players (including me) that will have to stop playing WvW if this change stays. We’ve spent 3+ years playing this mode, learning it, loving it, fighting hard and building our guilds and our server up under tough circumstances. We’ve learned to stick with things through thick and thin, so when I post here please know it’s not idle whinging – I’m worried.

I thank you for listening, and we’ll stick around and see how this shakes out. If I have any advice to give, it would be to pair the lower tier servers or just put it back the way it was (again, not everyone WANTS to play on high pop maps – and I hope our voices matter too).

We have faith that Anet will listen to the players and help us enjoy our favorite mode with the friends we’ve made here.

Thanks for listening,

Nanesh of Kaineng

I’d like an update on this now that the week is almost done. I have not seen many owls the last few days, nor have I seen you holding objectives. Other than TACO holding camps and occasional tower, I can’t recall seeing a Kaineng guild holding anything for the last 3 days.

For the record, some of us are happy with the merges; I speak for a lot of IoJers merged with JQ. Which means we don’t want to be moved every three months.

For fellow small servers like ET; make the best of your time there. There’s bound to be guilds, commanders, etc. that will take you under their wing and show you new tactics. It’s a whole different ballgame when you have to deal with massive groups. It can be fun though. Really, I mean that.

Merry.7290:

For the record, some of us are happy with the merges; I speak for a lot of IoJers merged with JQ. Which means we don’t want to be moved every three months.

A sentiment that is shared by many JQ too, IoJ players are most welcome. But for those who are motivated by loyalty to their home realm, moving is a painful process. We understand that balancing requires it, but should happen only once or be extremely rare.

An option would be to allow every WvW player account to define a permanent home server they want to stay loyal to, losing the right/option to ever transfer – they can be transferred in extreme cases by Anet, eventuallly, when their home will be merged again.
Those who won’t define a home server, will be considered “mercenaries” or undecided (doesn’t matter the name), and they can transfer or can be transferred by Anet, and used as balancing players, when needed (with their consent when possible, or given rewards if they accept to transfer to certain world in need of players, same ideea used to balance a sPvP match when becomes one-sided)

This would be sensitive to do, to avoid the pain, felt by those who care. Being faithful to your realm it’s the cornerstone of a RvR game – that is what makes it matter, not the fights, not the winning, not even the “fun” of fooling around in a game. But we all play for different reasons and we all should respect that, there is no reason not to.

Change is needed, even more drastic population rebalancing – because currently there is NO balance at all, most servers are still outmanned in different timezones – and that’s a HUGE red sign that Anet must solve quickly, or all this pain (for some at least) was in vain.

just bad e.e in DH and being out number constantly by the other two severs and finally week after. 1 stayed and 1 sever went up and now we put up against another sever that outnumbers us by far constantly and another long week which is so bull and dum where was that you drop fast or move up fast in tiers? and i cant transfer servers because im going to college and barely make extra money to spend on a game that the severs cost 1800 gems which is 200 gems more than 20 bucks and i barely make gold in game to turn into gems. why to ruin one of my fav. games

add to my other reply to clear it up i like being in blobs or somewhat of blobs just dont get why DH status says full and feels like we should have more in wvw then having a constant of 20 or less players on what map at max sometimes 30 but goes down quick after getting wiped out once. but then again i started playing again last week Monday been about 4months off. But i feel like DH had more players back then unless they transferred to a different sever.

Royal Punisher.2891:

just bad e.e in DH and being out number constantly by the other two severs and finally week after. 1 stayed and 1 sever went up and now we put up against another sever that outnumbers us by far constantly and another long week which is so bull and dum where was that you drop fast or move up fast in tiers? and i cant transfer servers because im going to college and barely make extra money to spend on a game that the severs cost 1800 gems which is 200 gems more than 20 bucks and i barely make gold in game to turn into gems. why to ruin one of my fav. games

This. When the match-ups are imbalanced, when your server is outmanned in a timezone, the WvW is not fun, and it’s just normal for leaving such game, and look for fun elsewhere.

This is a bleeding wound, this is why WvW loses players, a major cause. Losing a match can be fun if you at least can fight back, have a slight chance to compete. Anet should log in to outmanned timezones and see for themselves, please do it. You need to understand which problem is the most urgent.

Merry.7290:

For the record, some of us are happy with the merges; I speak for a lot of IoJers merged with JQ. Which means we don’t want to be moved every three months.

For fellow small servers like ET; make the best of your time there. There’s bound to be guilds, commanders, etc. that will take you under their wing and show you new tactics. It’s a whole different ballgame when you have to deal with massive groups. It can be fun though. Really, I mean that.

Of course it can be fun for some. But just as before this linking there were a lot of players that wanted to be in t1/2/3 there were also a lot of players that did not want to be in those tiers, and now effectively everyone is.

A lot of this comes down to choice. We did not choose to be merged with our opposite server. I, and I know others too, would have been adamantly opposed to it if it had come up for a vote. I’ve been in virtually every tier despite only ever having this, my primary (probably 99.9% of playtime) account, on 2 servers and an alt on what was a t1 server. If I had wanted to be in t1/2/3/4 I would have moved back to there or played alt account (which it was not my cup of tea so I did not play wvw there).

Now, there is no where to go to get away from it, and when things fully settle, even if t4 were to calm down to what t5/6 had been, there will be, if lucky, 2 months before it all gets turned on it’s head again.

This, to me, has only made things worse. Anet’s leak on WvW server links and changes only allowed for a far greater worsening of the already existing problems. Everybody knew ahead of time and took advantage of it to get a free transfer to T1 or T2 hopelessly stacking certain servers and further ruining the game state. Let the hate commence on me

this is supposedly beta? anet please put in an anon survey with people’s server determined from their login and ask us.

If you like this idea…please Vote +1…

Vicious cycle…

Prior to Link – Stale Match-Up & Bored Players

World Merge to boost Top Tier Worlds
World Servers Full & Engaged in a Fixed 3 way fight.
World Server with best K-Train is destined to Win

Rank1 World Emerges based on K-Train
Rank2 World Emerges based on K-Train

Rank1 & Rank2 fight to keep Rank3 at bottom

Rank3 World Emerges sees no opportunity to win & quits playing till reset
Rank3 World players migrate to Rank1 World

Repeat this weekly, monthly, and every year

Back Again – Stale Match-Up & Bored Players

Long-Term Solution – Change the Base Map Mechanic

Throw out the Fixed 3 way fight that is the Current Core Base Map Mechanic of WvW

Player Driven…yet…ANet Controlled

Core Base Map Mechanic design for WvW is flawed…imho

The most Major & Extreme Issues related to this design flaw are:

1) Server Stacking = Population In-Balance & Un-Fair Fights

2) Fixed 3 Way Fights = Stale Match-Ups across All Tiers

3) Can’t play with Friends & Family on Other World Servers

4) Off-Peak Capping aka…Night Capping

For a Long Term Solution…ANet should really Change the Core Base Map Mechanic design

There are literally tons of complex ideas & solutions that might be “better”, but the below is simple & elegant…imho

Yours truly,
Diku

p.s. – What’s in it for ANet?

The potential for you to own a SuperBowl like franchise infrastructure is huge

In game…

You’d own ALL training facilities, sports equipment manufacturing, playing fields, concession & memoribilia stands, even all the teams, and everything related to this eSport

When all is said & done…I can see myself attending an annual Las Vegas SuperBowl convention week long event to compete for the honor of being the #1 Ranked WvW World

Possible Solution – Short version 3.8

Added a list of ANet Controls for better clarity
Added off-peak capping to Time/Language Label

Change Core Base Map Mechanic

ANet Core Base Map Controls

Time Zone/Language Label & Off-Peak Capping

Automatic & Manual Upgrades

WvW Guiding Vision that Drives Everything

1) World based War…that’s why it’s called WvW

2) System that allows World Communities to grow or survive

3) War between Worlds should typically have no borders, but should have limitations to reduce or prevent un-fair matches

Please give credit to author if this idea is ever used

A lot of effort went into this proposal…any rewards would be appreciated

Thank you

Possible Full Solution – Google Search – Reboot Base Map Mechanic

I’m done! WvW will no longer exist in my life. This is possibly the dumbest thing done to date in this game. People in less populated tiers where there for a reason. We all get merged into high population, not only do we have to contend with queue but now we have to deal with all the broken builds, the hacks, those that manipulate any little advantage they can find with a broken system to troll people. I have been trying to give this a chance since the start of this beta, I have been in T1 before being from SoR… The game was newer then, we didnt have the the balance issues to the extent they are now from the introduction from HoT. You mix this all together and in this tier the only thing you can do is 1) Join the Blob…. 2) drop to the same level and run the same dumb few builds you find on metabattle that are all bases on HoT classes, or 3) run a havoc group and have the blob hunt you down every few minutes. There is no skill in these tiers, its all about your blob out lasting your opponents blob or running a hack of a build and targeting randoms for giggles. I’m no longer posting here, I’m done with WvW.

Mistress Collisto.1546:

I’m done! WvW will no longer exist in my life. This is possibly the dumbest thing done to date in this game. People in less populated tiers where there for a reason. We all get merged into high population, not only do we have to contend with queue but now we have to deal with all the broken builds, the hacks, those that manipulate any little advantage they can find with a broken system to troll people. I have been trying to give this a chance since the start of this beta, I have been in T1 before being from SoR… The game was newer then, we didnt have the the balance issues to the extent they are now from the introduction from HoT. You mix this all together and in this tier the only thing you can do is 1) Join the Blob…. 2) drop to the same level and run the same dumb few builds you find on metabattle that are all bases on HoT classes, or 3) run a havoc group and have the blob hunt you down every few minutes. There is no skill in these tiers, its all about your blob out lasting your opponents blob or running a hack of a build and targeting randoms for giggles. I’m no longer posting here, I’m done with WvW.

So wait, you’re saying that low tiers just ran with kittenty/mediocre builds and let opponents kill them… for fun? To keep things equally low level?

That sounds kind of silly.

@Dawdler

I think you’re missing what Mistress Collisto is trying to say.

Each tier had its own culture & sub-cultures unique that made WvW fun for them.

ANet merging things forces 1 culture & 1 way to play WvW to dominate.

WvW sometimes isn’t about wanting to be Ranked #1.

It’s not possible for everybody to be Ranked #1 either.

We sometimes just want a place to play…where sharing struggles with friends & “family” that you recognize & feel comfortable with…give meaning to play time.

A place where you have identity & fit in…a place you can call “Home”…even though we’re not Ranked #1 & we’re not running Elite Builds.

It may sound silly to you, but it’s not for others…imho.

Yours truly,
Diku

p.s.
It can bring tears to a player’s heart…to realize their “Home” is gone & replaced by something else.

To be a Refugee in WvW wandering around without a place to fit in.

Right.. my feedback for the beta:
Good try, it definitly boosted the population the first week.
But pls pls take a look at the match up. Gunnars Hold is now linked with a FOW, this server has 1 raiding guild ( that i still haven’t seen yet ) and we are up against BB and 2 active french servers.

So it’s not balanced AT all… you definitly get more fights though, sometimes even the french don’t run away

Maybe if you can make your server matching algorithm a little more clever it will work, if not i was happier before with less people.

Diku.2546:

@Dawdler

I think you’re missing what Mistress Collisto is trying to say.

Each tier had its own culture & sub-cultures unique that made WvW fun for them.

ANet merging things forces 1 culture & 1 way to play WvW to dominate.

WvW sometimes isn’t about wanting to be Ranked #1.

It’s not possible for everybody to be Ranked #1 either.

We sometimes just want a place to play…where sharing struggles with friends & “family” that you recognize & feel comfortable with…give meaning to play time.

A place where you have identity & fit in…a place you can call “Home”…even though we’re not Ranked #1 & we’re not running Elite Builds.

It may sound silly to you, but it’s not for others…imho.

Yours truly,
Diku

p.s.
It can bring tears to a player’s heart…to realize their “Home” is gone & replaced by something else.

To be a Refugee in WvW wandering around without a place to fit in.

I agree very well put!

This is going to be my third post by now. I didn’t want to add it to an older post because it’s a new way of looking at things. It’s also not to call out anyone or talk down on people in any way. It’s simply a difference I noticed.

One of the biggest differences i have seen between zerging in Far shiver peaks and Underworld. Is the core of the zergs we play with and against.

In higher tier servers the core group is a large guild with commanders that are used to run with pugs loosely following them. They call for empowers and “just train through them”
A smaller percentage of the group is on Team Speak and there is a lower amount of control the commander can enforce.

In lower tier servers. and maybe underworld was an exception. the guilds make up a larger part of the core zergs. CLAW ran a pug zerg several times a week and it still mostly felt like a guild run. We added the pugs to the squad, most of them joined Team Speak and they became part of the group really fast.

This is one of the reasons many lower tier people miss being in EB. Commanders who were used to running in EB all night long for their almost GvG like fights are now in queue or in the borders training.

For the players in those zergs it also felt like a bigger deal to do your part.
In the big servers you have maybe six elementalists. So if one dies five others can still hit the water-field.
If you are the only one that can water-field or are one of the three people that can give stability. YOU need to perform cause if YOU go down, everyone goes down.

And while i don’t have anything against the big blobbing fights. Cause kitten they are big, flashy and oh my god the loot-bags. i kinda miss the smaller more tactical almost GvG like fights.

I like the server linking, sure there are lots of improvements to be made but it is far better then it was.

Some things come to mind with regards to server linking:

1. Some servers do not need to be linked at all, as their own populations far surpass low tier server populations several times over.

2. The very low pop servers have populations so low, that they can literally be linked 3 servers instead of 2, again because their respective populations are so incredibly low. Sure there will be issues to solve such as TS etc. but those will work themselves out in time.

3. I would like to see better timezone based links. Another words don’t pair up 2 servers that are prime time exclusive in the same timezone and will still predictably lose vs any other servers who aren’t regardless of effort, fights, etc. purely due to lack of coverage as is currently the case with some links. Coverage disparity extremely demoralizes entire playerbase and has caused many people to quit WVW or game altogether in the past and will continue to do so again as soon as the “reward track novelty” wears off. This could have been addressed to some degree using the server links, but it wasn’t.

@Tongku

If you’re thinking Time Zone Linked servers between NA & EU…

ANet responded that this wouldn’t happen…based on what I remember seeing.

Trying to Link the Data Centers between NA & EU would have a technical cow.

Short-term…Linking NA Time Zones…to balance is a good idea.

Linking EU Time Zones…might be trickier due to different Language.

Long-term…ANet needs to Change the Base Map Mechanic…imho.

Well, I can’t believe nobody has suggested this before, but there is a really simple way to fix time zone imbalances: eliminate capping PPT and base “points” strictly on the Kills/Deaths ratios.

LOL — let the banana peel flinging begin. Just kidding – sort of. I think they should make off-time zone capping ppt extremely minute (the adjective version of the word, pronounced MY-NEWT) and also they should make Keep/Garrison capping strictly off limits for off-time zone capping. What I mean is this: If a server is NA, then anything outside of normal NA times, should be considered off-time zone. I know we all play different hours but really, most of us have jobs that are 8-5 and sleep from midnight to 6 or 7 AM, so those times should be considered off-time zone. Peak NA hours are from, say, 5 PM to Midnight. Then you add a couple of hours either way for the three major NA time zones – PT, CT, ET and be done with it. This is a fast fix that would help balance some things right away. I know I am going to get mega-flamed by the EU/OCX/SEA players but oh well – it’s an NA server, guys, and you picked it, so suck it up.

Tongku.5326:

I like the server linking, sure there are lots of improvements to be made but it is far better then it was.

Some things come to mind with regards to server linking:

1. Some servers do not need to be linked at all, as their own populations far surpass low tier server populations several times over.

2. The very low pop servers have populations so low, that they can literally be linked 3 servers instead of 2, again because their respective populations are so incredibly low. Sure there will be issues to solve such as TS etc. but those will work themselves out in time.

^^^ YES!!!

Before this gets much further along, I thought I’d pass along the feedback I’ve accumulated thus far on the wvw linking beta. Keep in mind this is a copy-paste-print of a three page document of stuff that comes to mind while playing the game. While mostly on topic of WvW things, it does feature some other stuff randomly thrown in because I can’t be bothered nowadays to try and sort this stuff into three different posts on these forums, reddit, and twitface. So here ya go, feedback in wall-of-text format:

GW2 Stuff to mention to devs:

WvW Beta: Confusing who is who. Might be better to refer to teams not by world, but by color. For example: Red has taken Stonemist Castle. It would also be nice if the color showed up in the wvw chat tab – Ehmry Bay (Showing up in red text) has taken Stonemist Castle. Perhaps also include an option for player nameplates to show up with their appropriate color – As this might cause some confusion make it an option that is off by default and perhaps have a tooltip notification that it is also a good idea to have your own nameplate always shown (which would show your current team color).

WvW Beta: I really hate to recommend this, but perhaps the crafting stations should be removed from borderlands if que times remain bad. I, my guildies, and likely many others use these stations rather than enduring the load time of a city. If the Que’s remain long, this could be an option that frees up 5 or so slots – however I would rather this is NOT done.
-Alternate Idea: Have a WvW lobby with these crafting stations, merchants, etc. An area for people who want to WvW but are stuck in a que, but also want to use the stations?

Guild Hall: How about an upgrade to the guild portal that leads to each of the racial cities?

Other: Personal waypoints seem to STICK. They appear to party members when none were set.

Arah Dungeon Seer Path: Corrupted Lyssa Applies 50 stacks of confusion. Deadly with the condi change. Confusion used to only damage you when you attacked or used a skill. I doubt the balance for this boss was origionally accounted for a DoT portion of Confusion.

WvW Beta: WvW Panel: Displays host server, not necessarily home server. Confusing which color I am this week. Should also display home server, perhaps in parenthesies?

Revenant: Shiro stunbreaker – sometimes gets you stuck on the ground unable to move unless you use another movement skill.

WvW Beta: Reward Tick system is great! I am a WvW-aholic. I find it VERY hard to stop playing. It’s always one last tower, one last camp, one last sentry…that guy just stomped me I’m gonna track him down and get revenge…oh crap now it’s 3am. With the new tick reward system, I find it much easier to step back from WvW after a healthier amount of time in the gamemode. This could be very important for Que’s where people have the mindset of “I’ve made some progress on my wvw track, I’m satisfied now, let’s go do something else,” thus freeing up slots in servers.

WvW Beta: Action camera switches to disabled after an objective has been captured and I have the option to claim it for my guild. This gets REALLY annoying and has killed me several times because of unexpected input while in combat. Please have an option to only claim by clicking on the map objective and not have a pop-up. In addition, please make it so that the ESC key cancels the claim pop-up.

WvW Beta: Please. For the sake of Kittens! HAVE A KEYBINDING FOR CLEAR TARGET! This should have been included at launch! It was in Guild Wars 1! Not having it in GW2 is a step backwards!

Engineer (Scrapper): Defense Field (Bulwark Gyro Toolbelt skill) is not at 240 radius. Tested with Rifle Jump shot, comparing the jump shot AOE to the radius of the Reflect Bubble.

WvW Beta: Add the ability to Block people who preform an e-mote.

WvW Beta (Desert BL): There is a lot of places where the terrain is awful. This ranges from being stuck on stairs in the fire keep and air walkways to what I call Olive Oil Terrain where you slip and slide on what seems like normal walkable terrain. I should be able to walk up stairs, not run into them as if they were an obstacle. Anything that is of waist or lower height (Especially knee-height) should not obstruct normal movement.

WvW Beta (Desert BL, Revenant Sword #3): Sword #3 attacks the medpack station near sentries, reducing the expected hits on the sentry.

Mesmer / Chronomancer: There appears to be NO WAY to dodgeroll clones that are coming in for a shatter. If you roll, they simply chase you then explode after your dodgeroll. This is an unfair advantage. Suggest changing the clones to cast a shatter upon reaching shatter range, such as a 1 or ½ second cast time shatter per clone that upon activation applies the shatter effect in the AOE.

WvW Beta (Participation reward track): It seems easy to get participation, and easy to keep a high participation. This may encourage people to stay in the borderland and go AFK until kicked in the hopes that they will stay in the borderland long enough to get a second reward tick. For example: I am done for the night and I wait for a tick to finish. I then go AFK, leaving my character in the BL and take a shower, make dinner, whatever. Or, I do some crafting at the crafting stations. I am occupying a WvW server slot while not participating and benefiting. I suggest that upon each tick, participation is reduced by half or zero and restored upon doing something WvW related: Earning WvW xp from any source (except consumables, if any are left or from wvw rank up chests), killing a player, taking an objective, killing a yak, etc. This would end this potential for abuse.
For an example of this: I went to type this while not playing in WvW at the end of a tick. It is now 6 minutes left in the tick and I am just NOW starting to get Participation degradation. I stuck around in the spawn area of my Borderlands and waited. I was able to get +350 reward track progress (And another reward box) while doing nothing but organizing my inventory and filling out this note for 15 minutes. It is worth noting that the participation degradation is enough so that it degrades to zero at 6 minutes until the end of the second tick (meaning that if someone goes afk, they will only get benefits from lingering participation once), or 24 minutes after I stopped participating in wvw activities and hung out around spawn. Had I not been doing this at 11:21pm, I may have interfering with people who wanted to get in because of a Que.

Crafting: Getting lower-tier materials is sometimes impossible (referring to Mid-tier Leather and Silk). As a result, the price of these materials is considerably more than the higher tier.
Possible Solution: Add a Mystic Toilet recipe that takes X amount of Tier 5 materials + 1 Tier 4 Material + X Philosopher stones + Something and returns an amount of Tier 4 Materials. There is already a recipe that takes 250 of the valuable lower tier materials and turns them into a small amount of a higher tier, why not have the reverse?
Possible Solution: Make lower level zones have a higher likelihood of dropping (for Level 80 characters) zone-level-appropriate gear instead of level 80 gear.
Possible Solution: Have a chance for lower level gear of white – green rarity (Not yellow or orange) to drop anywhere in wvw or level 80 pve zones for level 80 characters.

General PvE: Please stop teasing us with ghost candy-corn nodes.

Engineer / Scrapper (Flamethrower 1): It is unfair that retaliation can tick 10 – 30 times for an autoattack. Even against one target that has retaliation, I lose almost half my health for a half-stream of autoattack. Please make Retaliation have a 1 second cooldown per target, like an elementalist fire aura.

Chronomancer / Mesmer: Completely broken. No way to dodge-roll shatters. Access to stealth. Access to invunerability even when stunned. Scepter 2 deals over 10k condition damage on a 4 second cooldown. Scepter 3 deals 7k with 1k on skill use. 33% Skill recharge on all skills (usually), even on skills that already had reduction with reduction (Illusionist’s Celerity (20% illusion skills) + Malicious Sorcery (20% scepter). -4 seconds recharge with this trait combo and two shatters: Persistance of memory + Chronophantasma and this combo allows for near-perma shield 4. Condi-Chrono’s are kitten on the wvw roaming scene now. Tone this down or accept that condi-chrono is the meta for roaming. I can stack 10+ confusion and torment on an opponent in a heartbeat AND DO IT AGAIN AFTER ABOUT 10 SECONDS! How is someone supposed to counter that?

Kylden Ar.3724:

I’d like an update on this now that the week is almost done. I have not seen many Owls the last few days, nor have I seen you holding objectives. Other than TACO holding camps and occasional tower, I can’t recall seeing a Kaineng guild holding anything for the last 3 days.

Late reply to this question; Kaineng WvW guilds including Owls are still playing, but of course the visibility of our server’s guilds when linked with T1-2 is cut way down, for many reasons. A lot of our base is NA primetime and weekend warriors and to be honest, some of us took a break last weekend to recharge – this situation has been fun on some levels, very draining on others.

For the record, many KN players have really enjoyed playing in TC zergs and blobs, it’s been an nice change of pace.

However, as has been said by many players from T6-8, retaining our sense of community and server identity has been compromised by the beta linking. Of course things are now up-ended again by the Alpine return. But we continue to hang in there and keep our community connected as best we can.

See you in the borderlands!

Nanesh
[Owls] Owl Legion
Kaineng

Greetings!

My thoughts on WvW linking 12 days in.

First a bit about my situation. Server-Kaineng, Guild-Owl Legion [Owls] founded 2012, we are a small to medium guild with a core focus in WvW, guild size 144, concurrent online players around 15-30 depending on day and time. We mostly play NA 6PM-Midnight Eastern time as a group. We are currently linked with Tarnished Coast.

Cons of current server linking

Server identity: For the bottom 12 servers this has eroded to being almost nonexistent. This is unacceptable in my opinion and feels more like a forced transfer rather than a “link”. Things that need to be addressed, Borderland name, WvW panel name, player name to denote what server they are on for both enemies and friendlies of the linked server, capture point needs to broadcast what server captured it and could be done by majority of players in the capture ring. Give us our identity back, please!

Playstyle: The current linking for us (T2 with TC) makes it more difficult for smaller groups/guilds to stick together and be meaningful. During NA primetime the Zergs and Blobs rule the land. Small groups are still effective to drive points and cause havoc but it’s hard to find other small groups to fight, smaller groups usually get run over by the blob. While on the lower tier matches we often would fight the same size groups and I for one miss this terribly.

Guild recruiting: I’m not sure how a guild should go about recruiting, seems like it may be problematic. If a guild recruits a player from a linked server and gets linked with another server down the road that player would either have to transfer or be stuck without the guild they joined. Not really sure what can be done to solve this issue.

Communication: Too many tags, during NA primetime I have seen upwards of 4-6 tags on some maps. I would like to see some more improvements to the commander tag system. The addition of multiple colors, larger squads, symbols and so on was a step in the right direction and I thank you but there is room for improvement. I would love to see guild and squad only tags (maybe even a server only tag if linking is going to be permanent), a way to have the benefits of the tag but without drawing attention to your group and cluttering the map with pins. We have been experimenting with running tag-less squads and it’s gotten us by but is a bit cumbersome to use. Communication can become difficult as map and team chat are often chucked full of useless blather, maybe a new server only channel could help with this. Voice coms and websites, most servers and many guilds already maintain a voice server and website, in our case we maintain 2, one for the server and one for the guild, I don’t really want to make that 3 and probably won’t. The voice/site issue is more a personal gripe and not a direct problem with the game but we put time, money, and effort into these things and linking has put stress on this a bit.

Queues: While queues are not my biggest issue they are still an issue. I know many say that queues are good and mean a healthy game mode and I do agree with this to some degree. The issues for me are it becomes difficult to maintain a group not to mention forget about swapping maps or characters, players DC or take a food break to never return. It also makes it much more difficult for the more casual player, I don’t get to play much on the weekdays but did log in 3 days last week and 3 of the 4 maps had queues each day. My guild mates happened to be in a server that was queued so I didn’t bother as I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to run and didn’t want to chew up space in the queue. This game mode may not be meant for the more casual player but after 3+ years of being able to run with my friends wherever I want whenever I want is a hard adjustment.

Pros of current server linking

• Meet new players
• Always action to be had, I have yet to load in and not see a tag or a queue on at least one map.
• Learn new tactics, tricks, and playstyles.
• Much larger battles (at least in T2) if you’re into that kind of thing

Final thoughts

While I agree that population balance does need to be worked on I don’t feel this is the way or at least not the current linking of Kaineng with TC. The beta has so far been a good thing in my opinion, wvw needed a shake up and we’ve gotten one! I agree with what a few others have been saying about the current linking, T1/T2 servers don’t seem to need the players. Maybe linking the lower tier servers together for a lower population but still increased population would be a better way to go. I can’t speak for everyone on Kaineng or my guild but I do know there is a vast majority that want out of T1/T2 and off TC (no offence to TC, you all have been great). The current setup is having a big impact on low pop servers, as a guild leader and WvW driver I’m not seeing it as an overall positive impact for our community. I for one don’t care for the blob v blob, if I wanted that I would go to EoTM and EoTM is what WvW is starting to feel like to me in its current state. Anet, I’m sure you have a few ideas up your sleeve to work on this and I for one don’t envy you, pop balance is a tough nut to crack.

Thanks for reading and the attention you’ve been giving WvW as of late, keep at it and best of luck to all of us!

-Krim

P.S. Would love to hear some details from Anet on how long the current beta linking is going to last?

If you don’t want to get involved with a very heavy very convoluted fix for the population issue – here’s the easiest possible fix I could think of from a technical standpoint for you guys to implement:

• make ONE “server” for PvE – for players who do not wish to WvW – they can join this one (PvE will still be megaserver, don’t get me wrong here)

• reset ALL accounts (during this “update” make ALL accounts “server-less”)

• MAKE people chose their server, people who don’t even WvW can select the sole “PvE” server (heck, call it “PVE ONLY”) while people that WANT to WvW can pick their WvW server.

However therein lies the big part – you guys NEED to (while doing this) implement HARD CAPS, that is, this would be the part you FORCE us to DISPERSE. Make hard caps that CANNOT be exceeded regardless of how many are online / offline.

Now, to combat servers filling up then going “dead” because players go “inactive” or otherwise quit the game – you’ll have to design and implement something that will automatically “kick” people to the “PVE ONLY” server after a certain period of inactivity. I’d think either something like 7 days, or 30 days should suffice. That way, after either 7/30 days anyone not active will no longer take up a “user slot” for that server, and someone who WANTS to be active can take their place!

Then we have to solve recruiting, so, well, since “stacking” wont be an issue any longer, just make server transfers free again. Now we can recruit people in PvE and they can transfer over to come play with us, no matter where (what server) they’re from, because it’ll be free for them to transfer. That is as long as our server isn’t HARD LOCKED due to having too many people to have signed up for it.

THERE – I came up with yet ANOTHER solution to your problem. NOT a band aid, but, an ACTUAL SOLUTION that would FIX one of the most important PROBLEMS with this game mode…

This one would actually be rather SIMPLE to implement too (read: no effort)…

So, DEAR ANET, I implore you to FIX WvW, and CEASE and DESIST giving it bandaids.

Thank you!

These horribly unbalanced matches are already making players leave again. It is just not fun at all when you are constantly outnumbered in every map and can not even capture one keep at prime time. After big WvW patch all 3 matchups so far have been truely bad, stop it already.

please give back our server and our borderlands already so we can play again!

FogLeg.9354:

These horribly unbalanced matches are already making players leave again. It is just not fun at all when you are constantly outnumbered in every map and can not even capture one keep at prime time. After big WvW patch all 3 matchups so far have been truely bad, stop it already.

The Kaineng folks are totally demoralized tonight. Kittening Blackgate?

We can’t even get out of the spawn, even with TC help. No good.

Kylden Ar.3724:

The Kaineng folks are totally demoralized tonight. Kittening Blackgate?

We can’t even get out of the spawn, even with TC help. No good.

Your match looks ok so far based on the score only. Sure BG is on the lead, yet not too much ahead.

I would also like to thank the Anet (or the RNG god) who finally decided to put GH+FoW back into last tier with servers we can actually fight. Reset night we had queue again! Multiple comms! Fun fights, some we won, some we lost.

World linking did little to fix the population imbalances.

However the glicko ratings deviation reset worked well in getting servers with similar populations next to each other.

If we have learned anything from this experiment it is that glicko should be locked at a high volatility, that is, it should be run as Elo with a high K value to ensure that the rankings can be as fluid as the population shifts.

High volatility should be assumed.

Oldnick.8072:

Greetings!

My thoughts on WvW linking 12 days in.

First a bit about my situation. Server-Kaineng, Guild-Owl Legion [Owls] founded 2012, we are a small to medium guild with a core focus in WvW, guild size 144, concurrent online players around 15-30 depending on day and time. We mostly play NA 6PM-Midnight Eastern time as a group. We are currently linked with Tarnished Coast.

Cons of current server linking

Server identity: For the bottom 12 servers this has eroded to being almost nonexistent. This is unacceptable in my opinion and feels more like a forced transfer rather than a “link”. Things that need to be addressed, Borderland name, WvW panel name, player name to denote what server they are on for both enemies and friendlies of the linked server, capture point needs to broadcast what server captured it and could be done by majority of players in the capture ring. Give us our identity back, please!

Playstyle: The current linking for us (T2 with TC) makes it more difficult for smaller groups/guilds to stick together and be meaningful. During NA primetime the Zergs and Blobs rule the land. Small groups are still effective to drive points and cause havoc but it’s hard to find other small groups to fight, smaller groups usually get run over by the blob. While on the lower tier matches we often would fight the same size groups and I for one miss this terribly.

Guild recruiting: I’m not sure how a guild should go about recruiting, seems like it may be problematic. If a guild recruits a player from a linked server and gets linked with another server down the road that player would either have to transfer or be stuck without the guild they joined. Not really sure what can be done to solve this issue.

Communication: Too many tags, during NA primetime I have seen upwards of 4-6 tags on some maps. I would like to see some more improvements to the commander tag system. The addition of multiple colors, larger squads, symbols and so on was a step in the right direction and I thank you but there is room for improvement. I would love to see guild and squad only tags (maybe even a server only tag if linking is going to be permanent), a way to have the benefits of the tag but without drawing attention to your group and cluttering the map with pins. We have been experimenting with running tag-less squads and it’s gotten us by but is a bit cumbersome to use. Communication can become difficult as map and team chat are often chucked full of useless blather, maybe a new server only channel could help with this. Voice coms and websites, most servers and many guilds already maintain a voice server and website, in our case we maintain 2, one for the server and one for the guild, I don’t really want to make that 3 and probably won’t. The voice/site issue is more a personal gripe and not a direct problem with the game but we put time, money, and effort into these things and linking has put stress on this a bit.

Queues: While queues are not my biggest issue they are still an issue. I know many say that queues are good and mean a healthy game mode and I do agree with this to some degree. The issues for me are it becomes difficult to maintain a group not to mention forget about swapping maps or characters, players DC or take a food break to never return. It also makes it much more difficult for the more casual player, I don’t get to play much on the weekdays but did log in 3 days last week and 3 of the 4 maps had queues each day. My guild mates happened to be in a server that was queued so I didn’t bother as I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to run and didn’t want to chew up space in the queue. This game mode may not be meant for the more casual player but after 3+ years of being able to run with my friends wherever I want whenever I want is a hard adjustment.

Pros of current server linking

• Meet new players
• Always action to be had, I have yet to load in and not see a tag or a queue on at least one map.
• Learn new tactics, tricks, and playstyles.
• Much larger battles (at least in T2) if you’re into that kind of thing

Final thoughts

While I agree that population balance does need to be worked on I don’t feel this is the way or at least not the current linking of Kaineng with TC. The beta has so far been a good thing in my opinion, wvw needed a shake up and we’ve gotten one! I agree with what a few others have been saying about the current linking, T1/T2 servers don’t seem to need the players. Maybe linking the lower tier servers together for a lower population but still increased population would be a better way to go. I can’t speak for everyone on Kaineng or my guild but I do know there is a vast majority that want out of T1/T2 and off TC (no offence to TC, you all have been great). The current setup is having a big impact on low pop servers, as a guild leader and WvW driver I’m not seeing it as an overall positive impact for our community. I for one don’t care for the blob v blob, if I wanted that I would go to EoTM and EoTM is what WvW is starting to feel like to me in its current state. Anet, I’m sure you have a few ideas up your sleeve to work on this and I for one don’t envy you, pop balance is a tough nut to crack.

Thanks for reading and the attention you’ve been giving WvW as of late, keep at it and best of luck to all of us!

-Krim

P.S. Would love to hear some details from Anet on how long the current beta linking is going to last?

The more I think about this the more I agree with Krim’s post on this. Spot on, full support.

As we get further into the beta, I thought I would like to report on the current state as viewed from a lower tier server.

1. We are seeing more of our folks who are refusing to play in WvW.
2. We are seeing some increased strain on those who do want to play. We cannot group up and play together due to the queues. We are lucky if we can get half of our group into the same map during prime time (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. eastern time) We are badly outnumbered to begin with as our guilds are smaller, and many people are not playing wvw due to the changes, so only having half our numbers makes us extremely vulnerable.
3. It is harder to recruit and harder to solicit funds for our website and teamspeak server.
4. Our guild is seeing folks drop into inactivity again after we had worked very hard to re-engage our members. Eredon Terrace had worked hard to rebuild itself and was doing so successfully. Its difficult to tell where we stand as a community at this point, but I would bet we have far less folks in WvW. Even some of our members who would only play WvW are simply not showing up now.

In short, all of the objections the lower tier servers expressed from the very beginning are very real concerns. They are not abating or resolving. Instead of balancing anything, I think this is simply killing the lower tier servers and the overall GW2 community is going to find this is going to accelerate the decreases in actual players which is what is causing this issue to begin with. This is not a solution.

Thank you for listening.

+1 above.

Blobs and Map queues are not a solution for population balance.

A tiered hard population cap structure would work best to both balance the competition and allow people to play in the environment of their choosing (low pop vs high pop.) And different population ranges could be ranked in a meaningful way by existing in a completely different competitive group.

This could be a part of an alliance implementation … but that will never happen.

Anet may want to do this poll to either
rethink how the linking should work
re-link using the same formula (but now adjusted for the pop change before and after the patch)
or drop it all together.

sooner rather than too late…