Guild Wars 2

All of the new changes I do enjoy(the Outnumbered pips a bit less) but I normally played WvW casually as a roamer. I had not put to much worry into WvW rank since each of my characters could be set up as a different specialty.

Now the pip system is tied to both participation as well as rank. With it being tied to participation it encourages the use of one character(so swapping to be able to better use an item is less than ideal). And rank directly affecting the quantity of pips.
While the most common response will likely be “Just live in WvW then you will get your Ranks insert insult here”, “Use every WXP boost item and run the zerg till your fingers are nubs” or “When the stars align and prayers to RNGesus are loud enough, you can buy a Box of WvW Supplies”.

Can the Tome of Knowledge be changed/traded for something that generates Ranks? This would offer a way to remove some of the grind from WvW, much like Tomes removed the PvE grind for WvW/PvP players. I know there are 9k+ Ranks.

For me over the course of casual play, I am still just in Bronze rank 340 something. During roaming I normally get a level or so after a afternoon of roaming. The likelihood of me making it into the next material rank(for a pip change) is somewhere near a precurser drop. It would be nice if there was an alternate way to skip a few of the 9k ranks.

A lot of people view roaming as just running around dueling people or ganking newbies, and that doesn’t get you any ranks.

I am a pretty casual roamer and am several times higher rank than you. I take camps and will ninja towers and keeps while zergs are busy. I defend against ninjas and get defense credit. I scout or cut off reinforcements for commanders and get credit for their keep captures.

That’s what I view of as roaming, an I get ranks from it.

OP wants ranks for free, when quite frankly you do not deserve them. On my road to Diamond legend I capped over 20k camps, killed over 30k dolyaks while SOLO roaming, so I know that it is entirely possible to get to max rank by actually roaming, the OP however seems to want to roam and only gank, which is fine, I’ve done more than my fair share of that too, but don’t expect to get much ranks out of it. Bottom line is if you want rank then earn it, it’s meant to be difficult and it should remain that way.

There is already many ways to boost your rank if you are smart about it, use guild buffs, play on outnumbered maps, use boosters (of which there are many)

I’m not understanding your stance on not being able to swap characters, you absolutely can swap with no loss of participation.

A moderately efficient roamer shouldn’t have too much problem getting 1-2 ranks per hour.

One trick you might do is not just camp/sentry/yaks but also KILL a few npcs at keep and tower gates so when a zerg rolls through you get credit if they flip it without actually having to stand around for 5-30min.

My roaming is normally spent flipping camps, killing yacks, taking ruins and sentries. I’m not skilled enough to take towers.
I’m on a high population server. Touching a tower or keep normally nets me a death by zerg withen a minute or three. Camps are fine but chaining them can get tricky with the RI cool downs and so many competing for the flips.

As to not deserving, why do you deserve the hero points for specializations? Did you collect them in PvE or use the Proofs of Heroics as many WvW players do? I personally don’t care, I would just like an alternative to the be a mindless zerg follower and grind.

Justine.6351:

I’m not understanding your stance on not being able to swap characters, you absolutely can swap with no loss of participation.

I was unaware, last time I had tried it(before the pips) all participation was lost.
(Edit: Character change and the quote part)

xerokitsune.5094:

Touching a tower or keep normally nets me a death by zerg withen a minute or three.

Re-read Justine’s response. Event credit in WvW lasts like… indefinitely?

Also just put up the siege and try. If a zerg comes, leave. If nothing else you wasted 50 people’s time taking out a single regular catapult.