Guild Wars 2

Commander Badges should be a reward out of WvW in some way, that reflect experience and time spend in World vs. World, not a reward for being rich. Being rich demonstrates time spent OUTSIDE of World vs World. And ultimately World vs. World is the main reason we have that Commanders Badge anyway, and it’s the only use case currently.

I don’t have a problem with not being able to afford one, but with too many incompetent people, or downright PvE people coming into World vs. World with their prestige badge, and causing real harm by pulling people around just because they have that blue icon up.

It should be a privilege to be earned not to be bought. Granted, even as a World vs. World event it does not mean you are a good and experienced Commander but it certainly counts for a lot more than somebody who spend 300 hours in Cursed Shore, or in front of the trading post, or just has a big wallet.

I have no suggestions for details on how it should or could be revamped, but rather am curious whether other people share my feeling here, that it should be changed into that direction.

On my server we have several great commanders often working together.
Some from different guilds.

We also have the odd commander doing things without thinking or much patience.

Most people get the idea who to follow and who better not.

I know of one impatient commander who i would always follow in the attack itself, he’s great at charging the impossible fight and getting a crowd motivated.
But I would not follow his bigger strategic plan, since often he just gets bored and wants to charge something else…
The only problem there is that he gets a big following of players lost for the real plans.
That’s when he shouldn’t be a commander.

I agree that the current commander system is very flawed. Simply buying the badge is beyond silly.
But I still think most will know who to listen to or not.

Still I understand the problem: people tend to follow that blue icon around everywhere they move.

More and more commanders will appear. We had 6 last night in one map…
We are already reaching the point where you have commanders, and you have people with a commander badge that aren’t ‘commanders’.

The system is bad and is killing it’s own purpose.

Many competent players will not follow commanders who have not proven themselves.

This problem will only get worse as the game gets older and older. We will have 50 commanders on the maps everywhere. There needs to be a limit on this and it is getting silly. Would love to see it voted, earned, or none at all.

Voting for it would be ideal, because it would require players to be aware of their leaders and place standards for receiving it. Unfortunately ArenaNet will not intentionally get rid of this money sink in order to make the game better.

Just time spent in wvw would be no good; eventually everyone would have it. It’s going to end up too many commanders and no obvious means to organise themselves.

They could make it so that only the members of a squad see the badge of their commander and have a commander only chat channel.

Over and over these treads appear and the same thing is said. Please do some search before starting yet again a “Commander tag should not be bought!” post.

Commander tag can be turned off. Too many commanders in one map? Make a server wide alliance and get them into it. Teach them about commanding and tell them to turn it off if they’re not commanding. Befriend them, make them respect you. You shall have no problems then.

I think browolf’s idea is in the right direction. People can /follow or /join a certain Commander’s squad and when that squad reaches a certain size the Commander icon will show for the entire server, until then the Commander icon will only show for the squad members

browolf.3825:

Just time spent in wvw would be no good; eventually everyone would have it. It’s going to end up too many commanders and no obvious means to organise themselves.

They could make it so that only the members of a squad see the badge of their commander and have a commander only chat channel.

Umm it is in already, and the chat for the commanders “squad” is there as well. It shows as yellow. Join a commanders squad and you should only see that commander.

Unless it was ninja patched out.

I’m a Commander for the Northern Shiverpeaks server and I have to say I find this ridiculous.
Commanders are simply a form of co-ordination, you do not have to follow us if you don’t want to.
So we are wealthy? We are successful? What of it, you can make 10G on a good day in WvW.
I spend a disgusting amount of time in WvW and usually take it upon myself to carry enough siege to wipe the entire map as well as enough gold to reinforce it. Thats simply just economics and in fact its essential in winning WvW. If you don’t upgrade you will lose.

But yeh guys, I’m wasn’t always a good Commander. Everyone has to start somewhere. I’d WvW’ed a lot before buying Commander. Enough to say that I deserved it, but I was a PvE farmer and who wants one of those to lead them?

But leading a zerg is something you have to have down to a fine art if you want to do it tactically. Which is what separates a crap Commander and a good one. It takes a hell of a lot of practice to memorize the sequences as well as the places where its best to engage an enemy zerg so that your guys have the terrain advantage. But what a few people don’t actually know is that Commander training is a growing thing since more and more people are becoming one and I urge anyone who is close to Commander to get at least a few hours in with a veteran.

Attached is this weeks NSP current WvW status.
Our Commanders work united.
And our players know that.

Well commander tags are useful in pve as well, like for the orr chain events, so I can see why it would cost gold. But I really think they need to have two different colored tags, blue for pve 100g, red for pvp 200badges. Still run into the trouble of people just doing the jump puzzle for the badges, but well at least they will still have to go through some pvping in order to earn it. Either way eventually people take notice of the good commanders anyways.

Xenesis.6389:

Well commander tags are useful in pve as well, like for the orr chain events, so I can see why it would cost gold. But I really think they need to have two different colored tags, blue for pve 100g, red for pvp 200badges. Still run into the trouble of people just doing the jump puzzle for the badges, but well at least they will still have to go through some pvping in order to earn it. Either way eventually people take notice of the good commanders anyways.

200 badges? I’ve got nearly 800. It would have to be like 1,000 badges. 4 stacks of them in the Mystic forge.

100g is a lot to spend on ONE item, your average player isnt gonig to have that money, and if they do, they’ll be buying decent armor.

I do like the idea of some sort of rank symbol next to your name based on the number of kills/keeps taken/siege built etc, so you know who to follow/respect and who to see as a pawn.

I dislike how some commanders dont really command… I mean command through team or map chat, asking for reports, leading zergs, and portraying strategy to the rest of the sheep.

Commander Rob ^^ up above seems like the ideal commander, generous with his cash. (im poor but i still buy ACs and Rams)

I’ve seen several instances where fresh Commander’s have come to the map, admitted they were new to WvW but now that they have their tag they will be around a lot more. And have, as the only Commander on those maps, absolutely gotten us destroyed.

1000 Badges at least, and Realm Avenger (Ultimate Dominator) should be the prerequisite to being able to claim a WvW Commander Icon. Neither are incredibly difficult to obtain, you just have to show up and fight. But by the time you have them you’ve definitely put in enough hours to know what you are doing.

Rob.7624:

Xenesis.6389:

Well commander tags are useful in pve as well, like for the orr chain events, so I can see why it would cost gold. But I really think they need to have two different colored tags, blue for pve 100g, red for pvp 200badges. Still run into the trouble of people just doing the jump puzzle for the badges, but well at least they will still have to go through some pvping in order to earn it. Either way eventually people take notice of the good commanders anyways.

200 badges? I’ve got nearly 800. It would have to be like 1,000 badges. 4 stacks of them in the Mystic forge.

Whatever price you guys want to set man, I’m just throwing out an example. I know it’s easy to get if you can loot the chest in the jp everyday, or go around making a new character to get it from the map achievement. At a thousand badges you would probably still see more blue badges around, but at least with a red one you know they earned that through pvp, and not flipping items on the trading post.

I am a Commander on Gandara Server, and though the 10 or so decent-ish Commanders work together, sort-of, there are still at least 20 random ‘PvE Commanders’.

The crux of the matter is that 100g is just a sum of money, obtainable from any number of places outside of WvW. Voting would be boycotted by Guilds, whoever has the biggest guild wins…
With the 100g, you are not guaranteed any amount of experience whatsoever, and thus what I would propose, at least for a start, is 1000 WvW Total Objectives Taken, to be eligible for Commander, it will root out anyone without experience, and maybe 100g on top of that, to make sure you are dedicated enough to spend money on it – hence spending out on top of the experience – trade for 1k badges if it’s more apt – but the basic concept is that you won’t be stuck with a random guy with absolutely no idea what’s going on.

The people who already have Commander atm who don’t have the 1k objectives should have it disabled until the requirement is met, at which point no further fees :P you have to work for it, not just turn up, flick the switch and expect everyone to believe in you completely, I mean, sure you have to get started at some point, but get started without the badge… I get annoyed at people who show up without so much as trying beforehand, so umm yeah…

The Objectives capped is much better than Realm Avenger tbh, being able to swing a sword doesn’t make you a good leader – also, that kind of infers you chase Invaders around all over the place trying to kill them, which is a rather bad thing for a leader to do imo.
Thoughts?

Ezekiel

Only thing I can think of is there are flaws in all suggestions.

Attacking objectives: th eplayer could just run with a mindless zerg.
Defending objectives: the player could just go to a highly attacked location and stay there. (And not get experience in the field.)
Voting: guilds would make it popularity contests
Badges: Anything under 4000 wouldn’t be nearly enough. (With Jumping puzzles aside, since in 1 night I can make apx 70 badges like nothing.)

In reality people need to know their server’s commanders and know who they want to follow. Yes it’s not the best system, however each way that has been proposed has some sort of flaw as well as the current system. :x

DKz Lux.4125:

Over and over these treads appear and the same thing is said. Please do some search before starting yet again a “Commander tag should not be bought!” post.

Commander tag can be turned off. Too many commanders in one map? Make a server wide alliance and get them into it. Teach them about commanding and tell them to turn it off if they’re not commanding. Befriend them, make them respect you. You shall have no problems then.

The problem with this is most players who spend 100G on an item so they can get a big blue dot, have major ego issues. They will not likely turn it off or listen to anyone. And this problem will get worse.

Just because you spend 100G on an item does not make you skilled, smart, strategic or anything really. The same could be said for carrying around siege. Having 100 trebs or arrow carts does not make you a leader.

I also agree it is unlikely for Anet to get rid of this money sink.

The only possible solution is to change the way the average no affiliated/experienced guy in WvW thinks. But I really don’t think that will happen either.

PvE commander = 100gold
WvWvW Commander = guild improvment, like " art of war" research, around 20k influence points, and the guild can decide who are the right players to give it.

Probably 50k influence is better.

KauZaH.9057:

PvE commander = 100gold
WvWvW Commander = guild improvment, like " art of war" research, around 20k influence points, and the guild can decide who are the right players to give it.

Ok, and how about commanders which are not in guilds?

I’m a Commander for Darkhaven, Capitan Solo. I got the tag so I could run with my guild, GoF, and help out our main Commander, Phoenix.

I do not have an ego, I ask people to follow me, I ask them if they have siege, if they have supply, if they can do certain things like flip a camp or get on a ram, etc. I do not, ever, order anybody. In Vent, I tell my Guild what to do, but that’s only with guildies. I don’t boss around the general population in WvW.

I try to communicate with my fellow Commanders in WvW. I always ask what’s going on, if anybody needs help at a certain keep, tower, etc.

So far it hasn’t been about commanding, it’s been a learning experience. People follow you, but that doesn’t make you a Commander. The other night we were getting besieged in AB, and one of my guildmates who was outside the bay suggested we flank through the water because he saw there was nobody there. I trusted him, and followed his plan.

I believe in order to be a good Commander, you must use the eyes and ears of your guild/server mates. It’s not just a blue shiny dot that makes you Commander, it’s how you use it, how you treat people, and how they respect and treat you.

Mikitten058:

Many competent players will not follow commanders who have not proven themselves.

The problem is that incompetent people still have 10 supply (some of the time)

zastari.1730:

Mikitten058:

Many competent players will not follow commanders who have not proven themselves.

The problem is that incompetent people still have 10 supply (some of the time)

Yes everyone in WVW will sometimes have 10 supply, or even 15, though that’s a totally different conversation, then players following commanders, or commanders working with the general public in WvW to better a server.

kanikani.2430:

This problem will only get worse as the game gets older and older. We will have 50 commanders on the maps everywhere. There needs to be a limit on this and it is getting silly. Would love to see it voted, earned, or none at all.

Yes there should be a limit, and an in-voting system that will allow only a few commanders for every week, and changes every week, similar to the mmorpg RF Online.

are we still arguing about this? get your server organized and it will not be a problem

on SOS all commanders have the ettiquette to turn off their commanders until approved by the main guilds who operate and are responsible for that zone

it wont matter anyways because no one will follow the new commanders

new commanders only get to rise if they recieve the blessing of the major wvw guilds, where we will direct our members to follow him and assess his abilities.

This is a game for guilds, if i active commander, my guild follow me.
I speak with other commander, i can’t spam in /t or /m chat what we must do.

The problem is that there are a lot of incompetent commanders, it’s not right for me about ALL PLAYERS can buy commander tag.

If u haven’t guild, u can’t lead an organized train ! My opinion

KauZaH.9057:

If u haven’t guild, u can’t lead an organized train ! My opinion

No. I got my commander tag by receiving donations from about 40 community members from an array of different guilds. Our server isn’t a cluster of different guilds, we’re one unified server.

Im from Gandara. I started WvW because of the monthly achievements, i didnt knew anything about WvW.
Well it was enough for me to get “addicted”. Im the type of person that observes everything arround, what ppl were talking, what the enemy was doing went to watch some videos and guides and with time i thought were so unorganized, we could do this and that, and started using chat after a while.
After alot of time in wvw ppl started listening to me, and we made a wvw guild so we could comunicate better, ppl kept insisting i should have comm because would be easier for ppl to locate me in map so i did. I was one of the first commanders on Gandara, at that time u could go to any BL and rarely u would see a comm.
In my opinion, ppl that buy the comm should think on their server first, what can u give to ur server? Everyone can learn how to WvW but do u have ur priorities settled?
Comm plans also fail, noone is perfect and how the enemy reacts also influences, u cant blame a comm if their zerg gets wiped, but what are u doing? Pew pew pewing wont give us any points and this is all what is about. Being ready to defend a point if zerg dies, and ALLWAYS try to comunicate with other comm on map if theres one.
So please before u activate ur comm or even waste money on it cause in my opinion comm needs some fixes, does ur server need u? If not, dont do it, if what u do any1 else could do without the tag, u dont need it.
I would go for the achievements in WvW to be able to get it and can also say 1000 badges is not much, i mostly dont pew pew pew and i get alot of badges, but hey i spend my days in wvw.
About guilds that isnt right, although i have a guild, who tells me u have any experience in WvW just because ur a leader of a guild? How many bad guild leaders there is? I left my old guild for some reason…
And there is actually a 1 man guild on Gandara wich is a good comm and he can lead the train so that doesnt fit.
Also ppl can talk to comm to try their tactic/plan, idk how others react to this, but i listen to my server and if they are right or their plan might work, why not? Ppl mostly buy comm tag cause ppl wont listen to him without the tag. So communicating is the issue here, talk to the comm maybe ur plans will work out nicely, some of mine worked when i helped players that had good ideas, and noone knows everything.
just my 2 cents

Mikitten058:

Only thing I can think of is there are flaws in all suggestions.

Attacking objectives: th eplayer could just run with a mindless zerg.
Defending objectives: the player could just go to a highly attacked location and stay there. (And not get experience in the field.)
Voting: guilds would make it popularity contests
Badges: Anything under 4000 wouldn’t be nearly enough. (With Jumping puzzles aside, since in 1 night I can make apx 70 badges like nothing.)

In reality people need to know their server’s commanders and know who they want to follow. Yes it’s not the best system, however each way that has been proposed has some sort of flaw as well as the current system. :x

The idea of the Attacking Objectives is safe tbh – just because everyone will get it eventually with a mindless zerg is fine – the thing it guarantees is experience, anyone who has a big ego will not just be able to go buy the thing, they will have to physically put in the time first, hence guaranteeing at least some experience. Also less egotistic trolls will be bothered enough to do it, problem solved :D To a point.

Don’t make the badge harder to get, there are some good leaders out there and we should want to encourage them, not make them slaves to the badge RNG gods. Gold is the perfect currency because in a way it does let us vote for our commanders, if you like someone’s leadership you mail them a donation. I’ve done it many times.

What does need to be implemented is some extra little menu that displays all the commanders on a map and lets you choose which ones you see. So while there may be 50 blue doritos on the map, you don’t have to ask some ego inflated fool to turn off his icon, you can do it yourself. Anyone who is a WvW regular is going to know who is worth following. This also will deter non-useful commanders from even bothering with “leading”, a few too many mistakes and you’ll have earned a spot on everyone’s commander Ignore List. New “commanders” might actually try leading without using their tag a while.. Build up some community trust before they start using their icon.

When following a Commander choose wisely. I doubt after following a Commander who has screwed up enough you’d continue, yea? Think for yourselves, follow the right people, or lead them yourselves. It’s not required of you to follow a Commander. On FA we have Commanders that work together, most Guilded, some not. There’s no reason to follow one if you’re moving with your own group. All this complaining about the ease of aquiring outside of WvW… go get it and do your own thing then. Stop trying to change things and adapt.

at some point everyone will have a commander icon and then the arguement will end. We still won’t have any good commanders, but there will be no need to fight about it.

Ok I’m coming back to this conversation and I’m going to quickly reply on the topic of Commanders should be guild based.

That is a horrible and nasty idea.
There are Commanders on NSP who have no clue how to properly Command. But because they have a zerg of guildies to mindlessly follow them around they seem to think they are amazing. And even try and talk down other more regular Commanders such as myself.
Good Commanders do no require a guild with everyone inside a vent to conquer a map. Good Commanders can pull every last random from every last corner of the map into their zerg and co-ordinate them as if you’ve just written down step by step instructions.
Thats is what it means to be a decent Commander, to unite the server under one figurehead and lead them on.

Not to have some pure breed guild trash stomping around and pushing other players out of WvW.

I disagree for the most part. I mean there are plenty of guild leaders who think too highly of their own abilities because they spam guild invites and prod for donations, they can go to hell.

But the bar for reaching commander is set reasonably high. High enough that many people who claim commander status will likely have a well-rounded degree of competence, dedication, as well as some proven ability to learn (and be relatively fast in this MMOs early stages).

I personally felt I already had a great grasp on WvW before I gathered most of my money. And I played much more since, but that’s just me.

100g is a lot for the more passive-minded players to blow. Same goes for trolls.

Here is a suggestion that I think makes more sense.

Commander status should cost Guild Influence, A LOT of guild influence and certain criteria based on WvW participation. Not badges, badges and kills are a bad representation of commanding in WvW. Most commanders I’ve seen tend to command more than kill. When you killing your not calling out orders or discussing(unless of course your on voip). However, even the wvw puggers need to be given instructions and most don’t void.

This has a benefit that it doesn’t cost gold. WvW criteria should be earned influence earned in WvW. So it’s about guild’s taking keeps that earns it. Also guilds that hop servers need to start on getting the influence again.

I’m staying out of any discussion as to what makes effective Commanders. My post only concerns the method to acquire.

I would still say that any of these voting + influence ideas will just be boycotted by big guilds – you don’t have to be a ‘good’ commander to have a gaming guild that used to be large in wow or swtor or some other such non-gw2-y game, or just having the most people period, as of spam messaging etc.

You have to have Total Objectvies Capped somewhere in there, this means that the potential Commander has put in his/her time and effort for his-her Commander Icon – you are guaranteed experience if nothing else, and it gives people something to work towards – most all random egotistic dudes will take a hike well before they has to put in work towards acting high and mighty – that said, if you put in enough work and keep putting it in, i suppose ‘tis justified, until it gets to the point of putting down others for no good reason, but I’m ranting now, so yeah…

I play a warrior and have about 500 hours in game on that character. 400+ of those hours have been spent in WvW. I lead a very large guild on Blackgate and I was fortunate enough that they decided to sponsor my commander tag for me. I have been one of the more vocal leaders on the server since launch and got the commander tag a couple weeks in. I will not say that I was an excellent leader prior to getting the tag, but I was certainly competent. Now, after hundreds of hours and a very large guild to help with coordination and operations, I and several other players from my guild of 300 are competent commanders (we have 9). Some of these players sponsored it themselves and that was perfectly fine. It is good to have more commanders. A lot of times I could be really tired or stressed out. Commanding only servers to stress you out more when you have tough decisions to make. Having others that can play that role while you can sit back and play while you serve an advisory role makes sure that you don’t burn out on WvW, at least until they give some incentive for it.

For those talking about the issue of having bad commanders, trust will be gained or lost based on their success and reasoning. If they lose upgraded keeps, get you wiped repeatedly, or don’t communicate, players won’t follow them. It is the responsibility of those following them to decide if they are competent, and if they are not, they should not follow them. Conversely, a commander is only as good as those he commands; meaning that if the players following the commander do not listen or are just plain poor at PvP, than the lack of success may not be the commander’s fault. If there are commanders who are struggling, the more experienced commanders need to make the effort to mentor, advise, and take them under their wing. These players, for the most part, are out their trying to help your server. You are fighting for the same common goal. Perhaps running with the commander with your guild could help them improve. Asking them to join you in your VOIP to coordinate or learn could also be a big help. By shunning, ignoring, or flaming these players you only hurt your own server. Instead of being elitist, act like a leader and reach out to someone who has good intentions, but needs help getting there.

The vast majority of players are not going to have 100g just sitting around. It just isn’t going to happen. For the most part, those who buy the commander tome are trying to be leaders for their server. I am glad that people are stepping up. Some people are elitists, but they need to realize the fact that someone needs to command the armies when you are not there or when you need to work or sleep. Frankly, having more commanders doesn’t hurt a server. The sentiment that these commanders that aren’t you or your guildmate are incompetent is what hurts the server. It is more ironic than anything that people can rage about these commanders that maybe aren’t as experienced, but then do not talk to or coordinate with them, effectively shunning them. The irony here, is that the commander icon is meant to be a tool for heightened communication and teamwork and this is the polar opposite. Many people are trying to make it a popularity contest where that is never the solution. My guild could just only elect myself and my officers and where would that leave the rest of the server or commanders from smaller guilds? It’s just a silly concept.

Sorry for double post. Had to split my post to fit it in the allotted space.

Commander isn’t some achievement and I strongly believe that that is what many people are considering it as. With the lack of true benchmarks for time put into WvW, individuals feel as though only the most dedicated players should get the commander icon as recognition for their time and effort. ANet has fundamentally failed regarding titles, ranks, etc. for WvW and made it so that we have to feel as though commander is the closest step for those who put a lot of time into WvW. This is a problem that isn’t really based off of 100g being fair or not, it is a problem of perceiving what the commander tag means.

I have about 5,500 kills in WvW in about 400 hours. I know players who have 2-3 times that amount of kills in the same time frame. Kills most often are based off of your profession and how much of a glass cannon/damage dealer you are rather than any sort of leadership ability. Hey, I can 2 shot with a thief too if I wanted. For this reason, getting a title or paying badges just aren’t a reasonable for anyone that plays a support class. Supports are one of the most crucial roles to any organized group or even a PuG group and these sort of policies would directly discourage that sort of thing. Badges are already a joke if you are a Support class and don’t get a lot of kills. Influence is also flawed. If you are in a small organized guild or no guild at all, it gives you no opportunity to gain these benefits other than things that are detrimental to your guild. My guild gets maybe 8-10 thousand influence per day and we are one of the larger ones on the server. It just isn’t reasonable. All of these solutions are flawed to favor a certain community. You could be a great tactician and sit on siege while coordinating assaults so you don’t capture a lot of territories and even if it was based off of territories captured, it would just result in people flipping supply camps every day in order to get to that number, once again not proving any sort of leadership, dedication, strategy, or experience.

For lack of a better analogy, money talks. It is the one thing that is consistent among every single player. 100g provides a good barrier to dissuade players from casually purchasing the commander tome, but it also makes it accessible for players in any situation. I’ve made about 20g saved in my bank (after siege, repairs, etc.) in WvW over the last couple weeks. Sure, it isn’t as easy as farming Cursed Shore or dungeons, but it is still reasonable. Most people won’t spend 100g to get the tome if they won’t use it. Anyone that has 100g to spare is likely putting it toward Mystic Force weapons, Tier 3 Cultural Armor, or Legendaries. There may be a solution to this issue, but currently it is not clear. Until it is, gold is the best way to make this tool available.

I think whatever they decide to do – pay for it, or make it a WVW reward, it should be an account wide thing. Or maybe limit it to any toon you get to lvl 80 on that account. I have 8 x lvl 80’s now – one of each class and I very rarely play the one that I have commander on any more. A real waste of gold…

The problem here appears to be players that don’t understand what the Comm is and why it’s in the game.

Players that think it’s a leader for the entire server? Mistaken.

Players that think it’s a guy that is smart? Mistaken.

Players that think it’s a guy who knows his way around WvW? Mistaken.

Players that think it’s a guy that knows how to lead? Mistaken.

It’s for a specific guild, with expendable income, and it’s to overcome Anet’s woefully inadequate guild features. Missing features that make it exceedingly difficult to organize your guild runs if you have more than 5 players, thanks to NOT being able to see fellow guildies (or I should refer to this as a “raid” group) on the map.

As constructed, it’s best to ignore the Comm icon, and pay attention to chat. That will give you a far better idea about who is worth following/helping, and who isn’t.

I am not averse to such a WvW points earned, ranking systems (in general, an actual REWARD for participating in WvW effectively) to create something similar to the Comm icon. Perhaps even fleshing it out to have other effects, or abilities exclusive to the ranking etc. But ATM, it sure don’t seem like Anet is putting any effort into making that happen or any other improvements for WvW-exclusive players.

I believe the Badges should be limited, in order to get one the person has to be a member in a Guild and the Guild must decide who to award its commander badges to.

Further refinements could be made by having a minimum guild size of say 20 players, e.g.
20 players =1 commander
50 players = 2 commanders

In addition there would need to be a cap per map of say maximum 2 commanders.

I just think killing a commander should offer WAY better loot… like at least a rare even an exotic.

Commander limit per map should not apply as it is their choice to spend 100G on it. just make them drop better loot when killed.

YumeBaka.3428:

I just think killing a commander should offer WAY better loot… like at least a rare even an exotic.

Commander limit per map should not apply as it is their choice to spend 100G on it. just make them drop better loot when killed.

When I get bored, me and a buddy do just this. Basically ninja gank commanders from inside their zerg ball, lot’s of fun!!!

Look, if someone want’s to spend 100g on a commander icon, that is entirely up to them. It does not mean that people should listen to that person and obey their every word. Some commanders choose to bark instructions at people and throw hissy fits if people don’t immediately jump to what they want, those are the commanders that you should not follow.

Leading anybody is something that is earned, you earn the respect of other players over time. By making good decisions, being civil in chat, being organised, organising others and this happens over time. If you spend a lot of time in WvW you will know who these players are already and most of them don’t have commander tags. I follow certain guilds (and players) in WvW that don’t have commander tags, purely because I’ve seen them around, seen what they can do, they are organised, use siege correctly, use tactics etc… So if they ask for help, people go and support them.

Just because someone has the little blue icon, does not mean that you immediately should blindly follow that person.

Some of the comments in this thread about guilds dictating who is a commander to be followed and who isn’t, is exactly why individuals will not be given a voting system to have X commander given a shiny blue icon over their head. There are guilds large enough to have more than 75% of the active WvW population on their own servers. Who are you to dictate who can or can’t have a commander title/icon? Furthermore if you are doing that to other commanders that have spent that gold to get the icon on their own accord (not donated to them), then why are you better for having multiple people hand you gold when you obviously couldn’t do it on your own (there’s a lesson in there to be had).

The system isn’t flawed, the problem is that (and especially after this last weekend), someone gets a pre-legendary weapon and wham they’ve got their 100g. From what I’ve heard on my server, butt loads of people got their “dusk” over the weekend and now we’ve literally seen an explosion of blue icons that weren’t present last week. I am a transplant to my current server, but I started out as a non-icon’d commander on my “birth” server in one of the top 3 wvw guilds on that server. I’ve virtually tier’d out my WvW “achievements” at this point but yet according to this thread because I’m not affiliated with one of the “first guilds” or that because I “farmed” my gold, I shouldn’t be allowed or able to have that icon. I’ve had the occasional person that I’ve never seen ever in WVW tell me to turn my icon off, and I’ve said no. You don’t demand me to do anything. Asking goes much further. Especially if I’m in the middle of a small operation with like minded individuals going after a major objective without the hostiles knowing we’re there. I spent tons of gold on siege for my “shift” in EB and so does my guild as a whole. Does that mean we should have all commanders too? I think not, but that’s how this thread reads in its present state.

People that understand how WvW works and what it takes to “win” follow commanders that also know these basics. People also follow idiot commanders too and while annoying, they still have a purpose. Communication is the key to success and education of the WvW system helps a ton too. I’d be all for a new “fair” system, but what’s being talked about in this thread is “I have a huge EGO and nobody but ME should have the commander icon”.

Rob.7624:

I’m a Commander for the Northern Shiverpeaks server and I have to say I find this ridiculous.
Commanders are simply a form of co-ordination, you do not have to follow us if you don’t want to.
So we are wealthy? We are successful? What of it, you can make 10G on a good day in WvW.
I spend a disgusting amount of time in WvW and usually take it upon myself to carry enough siege to wipe the entire map as well as enough gold to reinforce it. Thats simply just economics and in fact its essential in winning WvW. If you don’t upgrade you will lose.

But yeh guys, I’m wasn’t always a good Commander. Everyone has to start somewhere. I’d WvW’ed a lot before buying Commander. Enough to say that I deserved it, but I was a PvE farmer and who wants one of those to lead them?

But leading a zerg is something you have to have down to a fine art if you want to do it tactically. Which is what separates a crap Commander and a good one. It takes a hell of a lot of practice to memorize the sequences as well as the places where its best to engage an enemy zerg so that your guys have the terrain advantage. But what a few people don’t actually know is that Commander training is a growing thing since more and more people are becoming one and I urge anyone who is close to Commander to get at least a few hours in with a veteran.

Attached is this weeks NSP current WvW status.
Our Commanders work united.
And our players know that.

HA!! I am from the Sorrows Furnace server. You guys have a 24×7 zerg of about 50 players going around each of those zones. That is a minimum of 200 players. Being a commander has nothing to do with it, you guys are just zerging. We cap a point, and you over power with 20+ players as soon as we leave the area. Fortifying… pfft. That 50 player zerg you are with hits as soon as we take a keep.

All a commander is is a blue dot people follow because…. It is a BLUE icon, not a green dot. Personally, commanders should be earned not bought.

Here is my issue with bad commanders, Ok I and you know who we want to follow and who we dont. If we are on this subforum we already probably play to much WvW. So who cares if there are 50 blue dots.

The new people have no idea though and they are learning the hard way. So they see that and follow especially when someone in team chat is saying follow so and so or whatever. If the commander is not good this can lead to learning a lot of bad habits. I think this is partly why we have a zerg issue in general. Its just easier for a lot of people especially when they are inexperienced and confused to just turn off and play follow the leader.

norc.5073:

Commander Badges should be a reward out of WvW in some way, that reflect experience and time spend in World vs. World, not a reward for being rich. Being rich demonstrates time spent OUTSIDE of World vs World. And ultimately World vs. World is the main reason we have that Commanders Badge anyway, and it’s the only use case currently.

.. wha? you mean all that time I spent right cliking and join squad in cursed shore so he can see my supply was ll for not? (nooooooooooo, I’ve been had)

Kidding of course, but I agree with some of the notes (I think the guy from pro wrote it up above). Kinda silly seeing 3-4 new blue doritos each week. no idea if they are hoppers or just farmed it.

I absolutely love the idea of having a server voting option say weekly or if that’s too cumbersome – monthly. And those are your commanders for the next period of time. Yes, this has it’s own issues which I haven’t thought about how to handle (same guys getting in repetitively just based on # of votes or buying yourself in. And limiting that tends to lead to the good commanders having to sit out a week or so.

I can see it now – by Christmas … we will all have 20+ commanders per map all day everyday… and no way to right click the guy you want to join squad on, because other tags are covering them up.

Maybe the all new icon ‘the golden pretzel’ for voted in commanders – yes son, one day you can be president too (err, I mean commander, voted in by your peers). Voting is only permitted if you spend ‘x’ time in wvw (something based on like 25% of average player time to qualify, some way to account for those who wvw but work / family / irl but still wvw as much as they can when they log in).

Just some thoughts.

Ultravalefor.5038:

What does need to be implemented is some extra little menu that displays all the commanders on a map and lets you choose which ones you see.

Select a commander and make his icon red. This does not stop you seeing where other [blue icon] commanders that are on the map, it highlights the commander(s) you wish to follow/see better, and still allows people to spend the 100g.

Suun.2856:

Ultravalefor.5038:

What does need to be implemented is some extra little menu that displays all the commanders on a map and lets you choose which ones you see.

Select a commander and make his icon red. This does not stop you seeing where other [blue icon] commanders that are on the map, it highlights the commander(s) you wish to follow/see better, and still allows people to spend the 100g.

But who is going to want to see a map covered in Doritos? Under the current system, we will see cool ranch and spicy all over the place eventually, MIXED TOGETHER – that can’t be right (or could be fantastic).

What they need to do is change the icons, and give a viable way of people seeing the squad… as well as other commanders (so you can see as people log in / out of maps).

Smaller icons in colour pls. what are the inputs you should see …

Small player icons
- colour 1 (green) = players in your direct vacinty but not in your party or squad
- colour 2 (blue) = players in your party
- colour 3 (purple) = players in your squad

• optional (colour 4 guild members in wvw brown dot?) — well we already have the names changed, not sure this is necessary, you can /guild chat /voice comm ‘where are you guys at?’

Smaller slicker commander icons
- colour 4 (red) = your commander
- colour 5 (blue, needs to change) = other commanders on map

~X