Guild Wars 2

Happy Friday Eve (or Friday depending on time zone) Guild Warriors!

I wanted to share some thoughts I had about some small(ish) changes to WvW that could help to improve the game mode.

Disclaimers:
-This is long.
-If you are reading this, you have most likely played more WvW than I have.
-You are also probably better than I am. No, seriously, you probably are.
-I do not have a level 80 character (just hit 60 on my highest).
-I have no knowledge of coding/developing. Some things I suggest may be impossible.
-However, I have a brain (unconfirmed). I think (hope?) that is all I need to make suggestions.

Perspective: I am on Anvil Rock in the Anvil Defenders (ANV) Guild. We have spent the last cycle getting facial reconstruction surgery at the Yak’s Bend Clinic. We have had some runs of success (we aren’t spawn camped 24/7 like some other servers seem to be experiencing), but are getting dominated overall.

One more note: These are just some ideas. I believe in collaboration and brainstorming. I am sure that the GW2 community can come up with better ideas, point out my lunacy or make any of these better, so please, do improve on them. Some of these ideas I have heard elsewhere (I am not trying to steal ideas) and some are my own. I am not a super forum reader, so someone may have said this, but I do not know about it. On to the ideas…

-Point Scaling – I am just echoing what others have said. I agree that points should be scaled. I do not have any ground-breaking algorithm. That will have to come from someone smarter than me. Could there be a scoring buff/debuff? If you will be scoring over xx% of the total possible points at the next count, your score will be reduced by xx% (scales). Alternatively, if you will be scoring less than xx% of the total possible points at the next count, your score will be increased by xx% (scales).

The downside is that if you are making a comeback, you would be penalized, but also, you shouldn’t be behind by as many points because the top team has had scaled back points up until then. Maybe there buff does not apply if you are behind by xx% of total points in the matchup?

-Treaties – To help with server balancing while matches are going on, I think treaties between two servers could be beneficial. Now hear me out before you jump to conclusions. I remember reading in one of the pre-release articles about WvW (too lazy to look for link), it mentioned that if one server was winning, the other two could gang up on them. This is logical in any three way confrontation.

However, WvW does not have any functionality (that I know of) to do this. I have no way to communicate with other servers or even know who a single person on their team is to whisper them and talk to them. So…

If after xx amount of time in the matchup (2 days?), one team has more than xx% of the total points scored, an option appears for the two other servers to make a treaty. Now, this should require something (gold cost? Supply cost?) so it isn’t a “get out of jail free card.” What about defending an NPC “messenger” to a neutral site by both sides and then defend them (like taking a supply camp). This still gives the dominant team the ability to stop it.

I think this opens tactical options. Does the dominant team send the zerg to stop the treaty (if the spot it happening)? Can you just use this as a diversion to take back a keep?

Once a treaty is formed, ideally (I know nothing about coding), anyone on either treaty side would be untargetable for attacks. This may not be possible. However, this would be (in my opinion) an awesome idea to give the teams losing a chance to rally against the dominant force. I think the treaty would have to be per map, and if the scores even out some more, then it would have to stop and not last forever.

-Upgrades are awesome. However, they can be pricey. I have noticed many people (on my server that has a hard time holding keeps/towers) do not want to waste money/karma on upgrades when they may not be done before we lost the keep/tower. Upgrades are essential for holding structures. A losing team (again to balance) has very little chance of getting back into the fight without upgrades on what they own.

My suggestion (others have said this) is to make the upgrade a “pool” that your team can contribute to, so it isn’t up to one person to front the whole bill. Building siege equipment is a group effort, why aren’t upgrades? Also, if it is something like an arrow cart, where you contribute 33% of cost, you should be refunded if no one else contributes enough to purchase the upgrade. If I put in 33% and my friend puts in 33% and no one else does. Then we lose our tower before it is purchased, I should be refunded my 33% and so should my friend.

Additionally, (yes, I like that word) I think a small incentive to purchase an upgrade would help. Maybe a little bit of xp for chipping into the pool. Not a lot, but some. I learn (if you consider xp “experience” aka learning) from chopping a tree, but not from making a decision to fortify a structure in war? I am delegating workers here!

-I agree with the reasoning behind taking away xp for escorting yaks. It was abused and needed a fix. However, now many people ignore it completely. Yaks are integral in your war effort, then need to be defended. I suggest you get xp for escorting yaks – only if they make it to the destination AND you had to fight enemies (players, guards or quaggan types – not pulling wolves to your yak range). If someone wants to follow a yak for hours and never fight, they get no xp. If they do have to fight, then they deserve something for making sure that we are getting the supply we need.

-You know how when you flip a supply camp, but cannot take it because the buff is there and you have to wait for it to wear off? Mildly annoying, right? Oh, you are getting dominated and it will be your only supply camp and you will lose it again in a matter of minutes because you are outnumber 3-1? Super sucks, right?

What if the Invulnerability buff scaled based on % of the map you own. If you own the whole map, you cannot retake it for 4 minutes (or whatever it is). If you own nothing, it only lasts 30 seconds or something. This will help the losing teams get back into it. It is not going to change, the world, but every little bit helps.

Additionally, what about the same thing for structure walls/gates? Last night, we took our keep back because the zerg happened to leave it alone. However, they saw us taking it back, sent the mob and as soon as we took it, we had to defend it. They actually already had siege up to start taking the gate down as soon as we capped the keep. It would be nice (to help balance) to have a buff on the gates that they take no damage for xx amount of time based on how much of the map you own after you cap the structure. It is hard enough to take a structure when you are outnumbered, let alone defend it.

-Query for you…Assuming you wanted balance, and you were losing by a lot, it would help to have a little boost to help you even the odds. Which would you prefer in this scenario, more xp/karma (for when you kill the things you can’t kill because you are being dominated), or more health/stat boost to even the odds a little (because you, above all else, want competition and a fair fight). Let’s flip the scenario. You are awesome (I can only assume what this is like :P ), and are dominant, you want a reward for doing something awesome! Would you rather have more xp/karma (permanent personal reward, or more health/stats (temporary reward) even though you are already SUPERHUMAN (or supercharr, superasura, etc)?

From a balance perspective, I think both sides should be rewarded. If you are dominant, good for you! Have extra xp (that won’t snowball). If you are fighting uphill, keep your chin up, Little Trooper! Have some Popeye Spinach! If you have an orb, well maybe that should just give a boost to the keep it is in. Maybe an extra upgrade option, so it is not a potential snowball mechanic directly?

-There is no DIRECT incentive to defend a structure if it is not under attack (this is similar to my yak argument). From an individual perspective (we are all selfish, admit it). There is more incentive to not defend, then flip the structure later and get the sweet rewards from that. Owning a structure only gets your team points and massages that glorious ego. However, when almost all battles at this point are so lop-sided, two teams gave up on their ego long ago.

I think there should be more incentive (xp/karma/gold/something) to defending a keep even when it is not under attack. This would reduce unmanned structures that litter the maps. I have had many times I have just been running supplies with a party from a supply camp to build up siege equipment on our structure even though it is not under attack. This is good. Then if you stay, you can hop in it and use it instead of it being destroyed because no one was in the camp when the initial wave of attackers came.

Maybe extra (small) rewards if you start a siege item, or help build it besides the xp you get from the build action. This would be bonus xp for contributing to keep defense. Maybe it would help if there was a counter on the map for the structure that shows the amount of completed and uncompleted siege equipment.

As it is now, sometimes it is better to take something then just move on to the next, you get better rewards that way personally. The match is already over, so who cares about points?

-Last one! It annoys me that when I used a ranged weapon as a defender or attacker I get constant obstruction misses because of the little lip on the structure walls. I personally feel as though it would make for more exciting combat in this instances if that was not the case. Why do I have to jump on the lip of the structure in order to shoot someone that I have line of sight on? Same with shooting up.

This just gives more options to hit people, hence more combat, than hitting 50% of the time and then everyone escapes back and heals. If you are an elementalist for example, you have an advantage of not needing line of sight for most of your damage. I think this would help make castle sieges more epic on each side. Might just be me though.

Thanks for reading; you are a trooper! I hope you like some of the ideas and take it easy on your enemies in WvW. One might be me, and I don’t want to die!

Cott Battlewind [ANV]
Anvil Rock