Guild Wars 2

I’ll try to make it short:

GW2 is appealing because it’s as close to an open world, “make your own adventure” MMO as you can get these days. On paper, WvW promises to be the PvP implementation of this idea.

Once you actually join the game mode, you’re confronted with:

• maps that are either empty or
• maps that are empty except for bored veteran roamers who shut down everything or
• maps where large zergs attempt to re-enact renaissance-era prearranged battles

Neither of these scenarios are appealing for a solo player trying to learn the ropes. If I do stick around, the following happens:

• I’m basically limited to capping camps and harassing guards / caravans
• it takes forever for the rewards track points to build up
• the rewards I do get are mediocre at best and
• (worst offender) the rewards do nothing to help me in WvW

I did stick around for some time, currently rank 70-ish. I also finished some rewards tracks (last one was Gift of Battle for my legendary). However, every time I do return, it ultimately ends in a dissapointment.

I agree with this.Also want to add this:Would be nice to add a chopper on areas conquered by the same team as the player, so he can get to there and join the team on their raid.It sucks to be killed and have to walk 100 million lightyears, that by the time you get there, you will be killed by some random roamer, and end up having to walk back and give up.

Shwyx.8190:

I’ll try to make it short:

GW2 is appealing because it’s as close to an open world, “make your own adventure” MMO as you can get these days. On paper, WvW promises to be the PvP implementation of this idea.

Once you actually join the game mode, you’re confronted with:

• maps that are either empty or
• maps that are empty except for bored veteran roamers who shut down everything or
• maps where large zergs attempt to re-enact renaissance-era prearranged battles

Neither of these scenarios are appealing for a solo player trying to learn the ropes. If I do stick around, the following happens:

• I’m basically limited to capping camps and harassing guards / caravans
• it takes forever for the rewards track points to build up
• the rewards I do get are mediocre at best and
• (worst offender) the rewards do nothing to help me in WvW

I did stick around for some time, currently rank 70-ish. I also finished some rewards tracks (last one was Gift of Battle for my legendary). However, every time I do return, it ultimately ends in a dissapointment.

While you can do roaming etc. the main purpose of this game mode is mass combat. The roamers, havoc groups and all that is basically support for that.

In addition, it is a very community driven part of the game, as a solo roamer you do not partake in the community and therefore will never experience what it has to offer. Guilds will also greatly help in finding action thus alleviate your issue of “empty maps”.

However, beware that you may simply be a wrong timezone player on a wrong server / link and will not find a guild, or many people to play with or against. This is judging by the time of your post, if you are active at these hours, most servers are in their respective off times, you may need to find a different one.

I recommend you join a WVW guild, you have 5 guild slots you know for a reason. Being casual does not mean you have to be on the bottom of the food chain when you play.

When I have a full work schedule I am also casual, yet I can be quite effective and excel when I have time to play in WVW.

Casual means you may have less time then other players and/or be on a sporadic schedule. It does not mean you have to be a bad player or be incabable of partaking in team oriented content, even if you hop in for 1-2 hours once or twice a week.

Shwyx.8190:

• I’m basically limited to capping camps and harassing guards / caravans
• it takes forever for the rewards track points to build up
• the rewards I do get are mediocre at best and
• (worst offender) the rewards do nothing to help me in WvW

Yes, that sounds like roaming. Its the same for newbies and veterans.

I’ll never understand why people need such a LARGE carrot dangled infront of them to have, “Fun”…

The name of this game is GUILD WARS not INDIVIDUAL WARS.

If u wanna go roam and get ur reward tracks done, go to PVP

or get good and beat em.

Why are u asking for a same treatment when u didn’t do nothing. No pain no gain yo.

i don’t understand why so many newbies complain about how veterans outplay them.

GOD DANG IT

You are solo roaming and ultimately to have fun doing that you need to view wvw a little more abstract. But that is not enough as like you said, veterans will shut you down pretty hard.

What you will need to do,
-Create a build that can move, kill and survive fast.
-Know the other classes’ skills and builds.
-Know the frequent enemy players.
-Understand the map and how your enemy will understand the map.
-Appreciate that you are doing it for your enjoyment, not for the loot.

These are things that take ALOT of experience to weave together to make an enjoyable play time. There is a reason very few truely solo roam anymore, many will claim they do but many of those don’t. I’ve been playing wvw forever and much of it solo roaming and I can tell you, I don’t know of any true solo roamers. Not even I will solo roam heavy anymore which means that I am not a solo roamer.

I can teach you how to solo roam as far as the map goes, but if you want to solo roam you are just going to have to put hours apon hours playing a build you create and make alts and play common enemy builds too.

iohc.6208:

The name of this game is GUILD WARS not INDIVIDUAL WARS.

If u wanna go roam and get ur reward tracks done, go to PVP

or get good and beat em.

Why are u asking for a same treatment when u didn’t do nothing. No pain no gain yo.

i don’t understand why so many newbies complain about how veterans outplay them.

GOD DANG IT

Well here’s the thing – “git gud” way that u are talking about is not as easy as it is for these so called “veterans” which are playing most likely since the very start of the game and had a slow proper learning curve which atm is impossible for new players as they get straight into hardmode oneshot by thieves or pmesmers (or sorta style roamers) without even getting a chance to apply some kind of skill based combat.
And on the topic of rewards – im 100% sure over 90% of ppl that go to WvW are actually pve players that want to get their Gift of Battle and get out of there. And since u can get that only and only from WvW they have no choice. Its just another thing that anet is trying to force pve players get into, that they do not want to, but is part of their otherwise full pve experience. Or simply put – im sure no pve player would ever miss WvW if they put Gift of Battle aquireable from some pve source (dungeon, meta events etc etc).

As for our fella that tried to get into WvW – its been like that from start. Its not gonna change. Just play some other mode, don’t waste your time with it.

“maps where large zergs attempt to re-enact renaissance-era prearranged battles”

This is strange to me. I have been in thousands of zerg v zerg bashes and I have witnessed maybe 1 battle that might qualify as a open field attack reset attack reset cycle between 2 guild led 30+ zergs in front of hills with the intent of proving whose guild was better.

Most zerg skirmishes are generally short affairs of target cap/defend or open field back and forth tI’ll someone falls back / flees or is wipes.

Additionally you are way underutilizing your potential. I took a year break and came back to leveling my main from maybe 10-15 to 80 exclusively in wvw, it’s a friendly game mode. Your information is at odds with itself, 1-5people can cap towers…you say you are on 2/3rds of the time to nearly empty BL, but you can only take camps? It isn’t hard if your not being attacked by actual players to take down a gate/wall, I’ve seen many of small havoc groups cap towers on ignored BLs without any trouble. There are also places you can set up trebs from a tower or camp and hit another tower. I have run 2 man group and capped towers with a golem.

Yes it can be a pain in the kitten to build siege solo but it is possible.

I agree with others about joining a guild, if you don’t want to zerg then that’s your source of small group companions. Roam all you want but expect a roamers reward for doing it. Roamers rewards is just the thrill of successfully killing someone 1v1. Take a friend and harass the enemy and learn tactics.

Perhaps you aren’t built correctly? Armor stats / utilities/ runes / traits? This has a lot to do with being successful and your set up drastically changes according to if you are solo roam, small team roam, havoc party, small guild party, large guild party, guild zerg or public blob.

You have given us no information on what you are playing, playing a power necro or a condi necro…guess what, huge huge difference. Bunker ele or glass? If you get what I mean.

Your post is a cry for help and we are willing to help but we need more information.

Grimegg.1297:

iohc.6208:

The name of this game is GUILD WARS not INDIVIDUAL WARS.

If u wanna go roam and get ur reward tracks done, go to PVP

or get good and beat em.

Why are u asking for a same treatment when u didn’t do nothing. No pain no gain yo.

i don’t understand why so many newbies complain about how veterans outplay them.

GOD DANG IT

Well here’s the thing – “git gud” way that u are talking about is not as easy as it is for these so called “veterans” which are playing most likely since the very start of the game and had a slow proper learning curve which atm is impossible for new players as they get straight into hardmode oneshot by thieves or pmesmers (or sorta style roamers) without even getting a chance to apply some kind of skill based combat.
And on the topic of rewards – im 100% sure over 90% of ppl that go to WvW are actually pve players that want to get their Gift of Battle and get out of there. And since u can get that only and only from WvW they have no choice. Its just another thing that anet is trying to force pve players get into, that they do not want to, but is part of their otherwise full pve experience. Or simply put – im sure no pve player would ever miss WvW if they put Gift of Battle aquireable from some pve source (dungeon, meta events etc etc).

As for our fella that tried to get into WvW – its been like that from start. Its not gonna change. Just play some other mode, don’t waste your time with it.

90%?

Wouldn’t explain the same people night after night across both my guild and the other major guilds on my server. It takes 8 hrs to fill a reward track, these guys…the 90% of wvw population, are logging 3+hrs a night for atleast 5 days a week…that’s a minimum of 15hrs or almost 2 tracks filled. So this info is bogus

Thanks for the various replies so far.

Odokuro.5049:

I’ll never understand why people need such a LARGE carrot dangled infront of them to have, “Fun”…

I’m not asking for handouts, which you would have noticed had you actually read my post instead of jumping to conclusions. I am asking for a coherent game mode, however.

Playing fractals rewards me stuff that helps with fractals. Playing PvP nets me insane rewards, especially considering I need no equipment at all for PvP. Playing WvW – where better gear actually means better chances (single digit %, sure, but still) and stat swapping would be amazing – nets me nothing that would help with WvW.

Jacion.6302:

Your post is a cry for help and we are willing to help but we need more information.

It wasn’t exactly supposed to be a cry for help, more a plea to whom it may concern. WvW isn’t exactly doing well (judging from the forums, Reddit and other sources) and I’m pretty sure the newcomer’s experience with it is one reason among many.

As for what I’m playing: primarily Ranger and Thief, and considering to gear my Engineer. I’m aware of Metabattle and the current builds. I’m also aware of the fact that copying a meta build doesn’t result in immediate success.

I’m not specifically looking to get better, as I’m well aware that this takes time and is at odds with a casual’s playstyle. What I’m wondering is why WvW isn’t as well done as the other game modes. Open world exploration, fractals, PvP, even dungeons: I can play these anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and achieve stuff, reap rewards and have fun. Especially after the recent fractal and PvP reworks. WvW, not so much.

iohc.6208:

The name of this game is GUILD WARS not INDIVIDUAL WARS.

If u wanna go roam and get ur reward tracks done, go to PVP

or get good and beat em.

Why are u asking for a same treatment when u didn’t do nothing. No pain no gain yo.

i don’t understand why so many newbies complain about how veterans outplay them.

GOD DANG IT

Well, GUILD WARS has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE GUILDS IN THE GAME but a time when there were guilds fighting each other in the lore of the game.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lore

Shwyx.8190:

Thanks for the various replies so far.

Odokuro.5049:

I’ll never understand why people need such a LARGE carrot dangled infront of them to have, “Fun”…

I’m not asking for handouts, which you would have noticed had you actually read my post instead of jumping to conclusions. I am asking for a coherent game mode, however.

Playing fractals rewards me stuff that helps with fractals. Playing PvP nets me insane rewards, especially considering I need no equipment at all for PvP. Playing WvW – where better gear actually means better chances (single digit %, sure, but still) and stat swapping would be amazing – nets me nothing that would help with WvW.

Jacion.6302:

Your post is a cry for help and we are willing to help but we need more information.

It wasn’t exactly supposed to be a cry for help, more a plea to whom it may concern. WvW isn’t exactly doing well (judging from the forums, Reddit and other sources) and I’m pretty sure the newcomer’s experience with it is one reason among many.

As for what I’m playing: primarily Ranger and Thief, and considering to gear my Engineer. I’m aware of Metabattle and the current builds. I’m also aware of the fact that copying a meta build doesn’t result in immediate success.

---

I’m not specifically looking to get better, as I’m well aware that this takes time and is at odds with a casual’s playstyle. What I’m wondering is why WvW isn’t as well done as the other game modes. Open world exploration, fractals, PvP, even dungeons: I can play these anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and achieve stuff, reap rewards and have fun. Especially after the recent fractal and PvP reworks. WvW, not so much.

You are slightly wrong in the rewards department since you can do generally 2-4 runs of a rewards track to be able to buy…ascended backpiece in season 3 maps or auric basin runes or as I had just did, the geodes needed for dry top armite weapons.

Additionally you are rewarded siege which is directly beneficial to wvw. My guardian who is waiting on me to finish building my legendary is before I gear him out in full ascended is my siege drop toon and he has maybe 50 peices of siege on him, 100% from my main doing wvw rewards tracks.

You are playing 2 medium armor classes and thinking about a third. Thieves gank roam but are kicked out of groups left and right, druids can have their place in groups but generally get picked on also…engineer can God mode and command but has one of the most complicated rotations in the game….

You are having problems enjoying wvw but you have also pigeonholed yourself into 1 aspect of wvw. Try a guard/rev front liner or Nike beserker front liner. Ele front line or backline or necro power and see those big numbers you are occasionally enjoying on your thief but now on 5+ targets.

This morning we took the enemies hills and a bloody crafty mesmer Portaled half of us across the bridge behind the enemy zerg, 2 trebs and ACs. It was a beautiful beautiful moment. Try a chronomancer….hell, mesmer translates over pretty easy from roam to group to zerg which is better than your theif who can only roam.

Now I have a maxed theif d/p daredevil with short bow and years ago we used to be able to shadowstep / daggerstorm bag farm zergs but with 14k hp and today’s rev reflect…you are just butter.

Make your 3rd character a heavy/light…

Or commander build that engineer. Get a taste of the other side of wvw, play havoc group and guild squads and jump on your thief to harass….don’t build all your characters for 20% of the game mode.

BTW, it takes a long time to get to 195 tick for rewards track if you’re capping camps but 15mins to max out in a zerg.

BTW btw, your tick stays with you if you log into another character.

BTW btw btw, maintaining your tick can be down easily with little caps like camps / towers / kills.

You want rewards…log onto a zerg toon, run with tag for 15-20mins, log off and onto your theif and roam for roamers kills…taking small locations to keep your tick up.

Done deal

You’re right, it is kind of a make your own adventure game mode. You have to figure out what’s fun for you in wvw and then find the appropriate times and players to experience it.

The roaming scene is pretty bad these days with more players just relying on thieves and mesmers to roam with. Unfortunately anet turned players down that path with the changes they made to classes with the expansion, while continuing to promote builds like the ghost thief.

Borderlands you will find is empty for the most part during non prime time hours, you have to find out what the hours are for your server or potential ones to move to. Most NA servers of course have decent NA numbers with every type of play style available from roamer to zerger. Not every server has pst, ocx, sea, eu players, but the higher tiers you go to the better chances you may find more action in those zones, though not guaranteed.

Solo roamers are limited to camps and taking out sentries/dolyaks, their main focus has always been harassing supply lines and players. If you want to take the bigger structures you will have to join in with other players available, maybe a public tag is up, or join an appropriate guild to your play style.

The reward tracks are the same from spvp, of course solo roaming would be the slowest way to earn contribution, and the fastest would be running with a group. Only takes one zerg fight to top off the meter and then you just have to keep active to keep it up. Imagine how it was for 4 years before they bothered to implement the tracks for wvw.

Wvw has always suffered with rewards, they don’t want players to come in and just ktrain to better rewards earned than even in pve areas, but it feels like they don’t even want to bother trying to implement appropriate rewards for it either. Anet has never paid much attention to wvw as they do to pve and even spvp. The only answer we can come up with is it’s not a profitable game mode as pve is, and they always need to focus on generating income from their main mode.

For the most part I think a lot of veteran players stuck to wvw because it’s the main game mode to them, and it’s fun in many different ways. But it’s suffered from lack of development, or hurtful side development like the expansion and what that introduced or changed with the game. There’s only so far that fun will get you.

Lastly, I and think most people started as solo roaming players and it can be pretty tough learning the wvw ropes as such. Once you interact with groups you can learn new things about wvw and that experience goes back to other parts of wvw game play.

I came to the game mainly to play in the epic large scale fights and wasn’t interested in other stuff, eventually I got into every part of the game from roaming to scouting, to defense sieging, to havoc, to guild zerg gvg, to map q blob vs blob, and really the most fun I’ve had in the game is running with my havoc guild causing mischief.

So my suggestion for you is maybe try and find a group to run with and see where that goes, maybe there’s some fun for you in those other areas.

Xenesis “Lastly, I and think most people started as solo roaming players and it can be pretty tough learning the wvw ropes as such. Once you interact with groups you can learn new things about wvw and that experience goes back to other parts of wvw game play.”

This is a great example of the benefits to you to atleast run a little group play. I can tell you, Shwyx, that without some experience with where players tend to go and what towers are considered easy caps/flips then you are crippling your roam.

How deep and far are roamers willing to go to get fights and where can you generally find them will go a long way to your own roaming.

Now I don’t generally roam but have and love the Alpine BL camp loop, or hiding in trees in South camp. By camp loop I mean, run on eastern edge past SE camp and veteran harpy…up behind hills and solo NE camp, proceed through centaurs and either solo N camp or skip…depending on how the map forces are moving about and go to NW camp through the ditch and solo that….way point and reset.

All 3 north camps are likely to have solo enemies passing through for nodes or to recap their loss camp, they aren’t likely camps to pull full zerg unless there is a /map shout that there is substantial people flipping their stuff, so you should be relatively safe from large groups. NW is the key here, it is a quick go to for the enemy to get their veteran daily off wurm and get camp capture if you flip it, there are also a couple semi-hideout/ vantage points for you and 3 possible exits….one of which (north) offers 3 additional routes….and most people won’t chase you into the jumping puzzle. If I was playing roam theif in ebg and I wasn’t Sitting at fast flip towers like durious and watching the camp, I’d probably be waiting around the mob camps (frogs, orges, dredge) …example is that 1 -3 people on low population hours on green team will eventually move through dredge tunnels to cata ANZ, be ready to gank them…or hell, sit at South exit of tunnel and pull the people running between rogues/ wildcreek. And that’s just talking about green side of the map.

There is always someone in wvw, low population times just mean no tags and watch map for sentry / guard taps to find where the roamers are fooling around….be omnipresent.

I appreciate the replies, especially the strategy advice. However, I did not want to adress individual skill.

My issue is that WvW simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the game. GW2 as a whole is a casual-friendly game; most content is “no strings attached” and can be completed in small or large increments. There is no wind-up time, no penalty for taking breaks, playing short sessions or playing solo. None of this is true for WvW (or raids, but that’s another topic).

Perhaps that’s just the way it is. Maybe WvW is meant to be a homage to 90s and 00s MMO gameplay, where group content was all there was. Personally, I think it’s simply lacking polish.

Shwyx.8190:

I appreciate the replies, especially the strategy advice. However, I did not want to adress individual skill.

My issue is that WvW simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the game. GW2 as a whole is a casual-friendly game; most content is “no strings attached” and can be completed in small or large increments. There is no wind-up time, no penalty for taking breaks, playing short sessions or playing solo. None of this is true for WvW (or raids, but that’s another topic).

Perhaps that’s just the way it is. Maybe WvW is meant to be a homage to 90s and 00s MMO gameplay, where group content was all there was. Personally, I think it’s simply lacking polish.

Guy…
It’s a large hotjoin pvp map not queensdale. The content is supposed to be players fighting players. If you want to solo instead of group content there you will need to get good so you can solo other enemy players.

Shwyx.8190:

Thanks for the various replies so far.

Odokuro.5049:

I’ll never understand why people need such a LARGE carrot dangled infront of them to have, “Fun”…

I’m not asking for handouts, which you would have noticed had you actually read my post instead of jumping to conclusions. I am asking for a coherent game mode, however.

Playing fractals rewards me stuff that helps with fractals. Playing PvP nets me insane rewards, especially considering I need no equipment at all for PvP. Playing WvW – where better gear actually means better chances (single digit %, sure, but still) and stat swapping would be amazing – nets me nothing that would help with WvW.

Jacion.6302:

Your post is a cry for help and we are willing to help but we need more information.

It wasn’t exactly supposed to be a cry for help, more a plea to whom it may concern. WvW isn’t exactly doing well (judging from the forums, Reddit and other sources) and I’m pretty sure the newcomer’s experience with it is one reason among many.

As for what I’m playing: primarily Ranger and Thief, and considering to gear my Engineer. I’m aware of Metabattle and the current builds. I’m also aware of the fact that copying a meta build doesn’t result in immediate success.

---

I’m not specifically looking to get better, as I’m well aware that this takes time and is at odds with a casual’s playstyle. What I’m wondering is why WvW isn’t as well done as the other game modes. Open world exploration, fractals, PvP, even dungeons: I can play these anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and achieve stuff, reap rewards and have fun. Especially after the recent fractal and PvP reworks. WvW, not so much.

For your situation, I would actually consider Edge of the Mists instead. While the rewards are slower to come, it gives a better overall learning curve and the structures/camps/events are basically designed to be done with only a handful of people or can be scaled to a zerg.

The map is smaller/funneled and more frequently gets you into the action with some of the map mechanics.

@ OP

Unfortunately, WvWvW is probably the worst it’s ever been right now. Solo/small man players have always been the relative few and now even more so with the neglect of the mode over the years and a lot of the questionable changes to the combat system. Many have just given up fighting the tide trying to find fun and moved on. If you’re not on the scene for the love of PvP and have friends to run with at this point then you’re setting yourself up because the mode has never been balanced so Anet has had to keep the rewards stunted. And this won’t change because balancing it would mean expending real resources to gut and rebuild WvWvW, which won’t happen for a 4 year old mode with a dwindling population that’s also quite set in their ways.

Solo in WvW takes a special kind of toughness to play.
It took me trying several classes and builds to be able to do anything.

I main greatsword mesmer and solo roam a lot.
But I can’t take full camps, and the zergs lag me out some fierce.
But I make the best of it capping sentries, ruins, and killing yaks.
It doesn’t take much effort to keep 60 – 90 reward track points per tick doing that.

You have to learn to love what you can do.

AngelDiscarnate.5489:

Solo in WvW takes a special kind of toughness to play.
It took me trying several classes and builds to be able to do anything.

I main greatsword mesmer and solo roam a lot.
But I can’t take full camps, and the zergs lag me out some fierce.
But I make the best of it capping sentries, ruins, and killing yaks.
It doesn’t take much effort to keep 60 – 90 reward track points per tick doing that.

You have to learn to love what you can do.

Run around objects in the camp like huts, tables, wells and pillars. It wont save you from shield bash / spectral grasp though. Got to dodge those openers and save the precious stun breaks for the ones you cant see later.

Jacion.6302:

90%?

Wouldn’t explain the same people night after night across both my guild and the other major guilds on my server. It takes 8 hrs to fill a reward track, these guys…the 90% of wvw population, are logging 3+hrs a night for atleast 5 days a week…that’s a minimum of 15hrs or almost 2 tracks filled. So this info is bogus

I was clearly speculating, have some simple sense. No one aside Anet can give us clear statistics. But really – since the track system appeared in WvW (more particulary the changes to gift of battle) the population grow, and NOT because they LIKE WvW, but simple because almost every regular player at some point of time wants to craft himself a legendary. This is actually my only complaint. Anet must add ways to get that gift without going to that game mode (like some crafting in mystic forge for pve or track in structured pvp). If that happens lets see how the population will stand. I’ll tell u how – the same as before the track system changed – veeery low, limited to only these “major guilds” that wonna have big aoe spam fests alongside here and there newbies curious about what WvW is at all.

I’ll be honest – I experienced pretty much the same as OP and after a while I never stepped in WvW again. Tho the same way pvp players hate pve noobs in their game modes, the same way pve players hate pvp players in their game modes. And being forced to do something pvp for the sake of pve or the opposite is gonna keep bringing unhappy players until fixed, or never fixed and be remembered as a massive negative.
If you wonna play basketball you don’t go to a football field do you?

Regardless the population the issues are still there.

No disrespect, im stating an opinion…cuz nowdays everyone are triggered in a single letter.

I try to sometimes.
I need to re-do my gear.
Still in full ‘zerker gear from going through PvE.
>__o
That’s why I can’t really take camps, I die too quickly with only 19K health.
I set my reaper up a little better and can take camps, and sometimes towers, if I can get a few minutes alone with my catapault to get through the walls. xD

Grimegg.1297:

Jacion.6302:

90%?

Wouldn’t explain the same people night after night across both my guild and the other major guilds on my server. It takes 8 hrs to fill a reward track, these guys…the 90% of wvw population, are logging 3+hrs a night for atleast 5 days a week…that’s a minimum of 15hrs or almost 2 tracks filled. So this info is bogus

I was clearly speculating, have some simple sense. No one aside Anet can give us clear statistics. But really – since the track system appeared in WvW (more particulary the changes to gift of battle) the population grow, and NOT because they LIKE WvW, but simple because almost every regular player at some point of time wants to craft himself a legendary. This is actually my only complaint. Anet must add ways to get that gift without going to that game mode (like some crafting in mystic forge for pve or track in structured pvp). If that happens lets see how the population will stand. I’ll tell u how – the same as before the track system changed – veeery low, limited to only these “major guilds” that wonna have big aoe spam fests alongside here and there newbies curious about what WvW is at all.

I’ll be honest – I experienced pretty much the same as OP and after a while I never stepped in WvW again. Tho the same way pvp players hate pve noobs in their game modes, the same way pve players hate pvp players in their game modes. And being forced to do something pvp for the sake of pve or the opposite is gonna keep bringing unhappy players until fixed, or never fixed and be remembered as a massive negative.
If you wonna play basketball you don’t go to a football field do you?

Regardless the population the issues are still there.

No disrespect, im stating an opinion…cuz nowdays everyone are triggered in a single letter.

Perhaps your perception is server based because on my server we have roamers, small skirmish groups, havoc groups and not tagged 10-25 person guild groups all hours and blob tags from Asian players in am and 2-5 NA tags during pm prime time and I can safely say 80% of players I see are from about 8 guilds that have consistent presence in wvw even when not in guild raids or zerg. I can 100% promise you that if I log on at any hour that my guild has atleast 10 members in wvw and we usually max out around 70 members of our 498 members in wvw at prime hours (we are pvx). With that said…putting in 4-5 hrs average per day in wvw 7 days a week, that I very very rarely witness a nonguilded player (1 in 100/150 players) and as I said 80% are 8 or so guilds which leaves 20% pugs who could be in wvw for gift of battle…but again…remember…and I stress….it takes 8 hrs to get the gift of Battle, which makes these 20% odd guild WvW players highly unlikely to be gift of Battle track chasers if they spend more than 3-4 session in wvw.

Perhaps you’re in some kind of weird time zone for your server or your server just has a horrible wvw population but this doesn’t compute with how my server runs.

We have that dedicated Asian guild that runs tag in eastern time zone mornings and I can tell you that even when we are red bottom of matchup team, that often the Asian guild stomps one of the other team when they are on becuase of lack of player presence for the other team in those hours. Hell, atleast the last 3 Thursday mornings I’ve been able to sneak in an hour of wvw before work, they have 3 tiered smc, taken an enemy keep in ebg and atleast 1 keep (usually hills) in enemies bl and that’s when we are outmatched by outnumbered in pm prime time. Additionally we are outnumbered on 1-2 bl every night and we get a queue on ebg nightly and often in home bl, we also almost always have a tag in dbbl when we aren’t red so people who talk about no one playing dbbl I always felt that was odd too. Again, perhaps your server doesn’t wvw? Low low tier?

Jacion.6302:

Grimegg.1297:

Jacion.6302:

90%?

Wouldn’t explain the same people night after night across both my guild and the other major guilds on my server. It takes 8 hrs to fill a reward track, these guys…the 90% of wvw population, are logging 3+hrs a night for atleast 5 days a week…that’s a minimum of 15hrs or almost 2 tracks filled. So this info is bogus

I was clearly speculating, have some simple sense. No one aside Anet can give us clear statistics. But really – since the track system appeared in WvW (more particulary the changes to gift of battle) the population grow, and NOT because they LIKE WvW, but simple because almost every regular player at some point of time wants to craft himself a legendary. This is actually my only complaint. Anet must add ways to get that gift without going to that game mode (like some crafting in mystic forge for pve or track in structured pvp). If that happens lets see how the population will stand. I’ll tell u how – the same as before the track system changed – veeery low, limited to only these “major guilds” that wonna have big aoe spam fests alongside here and there newbies curious about what WvW is at all.

I’ll be honest – I experienced pretty much the same as OP and after a while I never stepped in WvW again. Tho the same way pvp players hate pve noobs in their game modes, the same way pve players hate pvp players in their game modes. And being forced to do something pvp for the sake of pve or the opposite is gonna keep bringing unhappy players until fixed, or never fixed and be remembered as a massive negative.
If you wonna play basketball you don’t go to a football field do you?

Regardless the population the issues are still there.

No disrespect, im stating an opinion…cuz nowdays everyone are triggered in a single letter.

Perhaps your perception is server based because on my server we have roamers, small skirmish groups, havoc groups and not tagged 10-25 person guild groups all hours and blob tags from Asian players in am and 2-5 NA tags during pm prime time and I can safely say 80% of players I see are from about 8 guilds that have consistent presence in wvw even when not in guild raids or zerg. I can 100% promise you that if I log on at any hour that my guild has atleast 10 members in wvw and we usually max out around 70 members of our 498 members in wvw at prime hours (we are pvx). With that said…putting in 4-5 hrs average per day in wvw 7 days a week, that I very very rarely witness a nonguilded player (1 in 100/150 players) and as I said 80% are 8 or so guilds which leaves 20% pugs who could be in wvw for gift of battle…but again…remember…and I stress….it takes 8 hrs to get the gift of Battle, which makes these 20% odd guild WvW players highly unlikely to be gift of Battle track chasers if they spend more than 3-4 session in wvw.

Perhaps you’re in some kind of weird time zone for your server or your server just has a horrible wvw population but this doesn’t compute with how my server runs.

We have that dedicated Asian guild that runs tag in eastern time zone mornings and I can tell you that even when we are red bottom of matchup team, that often the Asian guild stomps one of the other team when they are on becuase of lack of player presence for the other team in those hours. Hell, atleast the last 3 Thursday mornings I’ve been able to sneak in an hour of wvw before work, they have 3 tiered smc, taken an enemy keep in ebg and atleast 1 keep (usually hills) in enemies bl and that’s when we are outmatched by outnumbered in pm prime time. Additionally we are outnumbered on 1-2 bl every night and we get a queue on ebg nightly and often in home bl, we also almost always have a tag in dbbl when we aren’t red so people who talk about no one playing dbbl I always felt that was odd too. Again, perhaps your server doesn’t wvw? Low low tier?

Desolation EU.
And you missed my point, I generally don’t care how many players play WvW I want an out-of-wvw option for my gift of battle and I will never care at all to step there. I dislike the idea of trying to bring pve players in pvp zones. And if u are playing on NA server – only normal, americans are mostly playing pvp games, i rarely see any non-european to play a pve game.

Grimegg.1297:

Jacion.6302:

Grimegg.1297:

Jacion.6302:

90%?

Wouldn’t explain the same people night after night across both my guild and the other major guilds on my server. It takes 8 hrs to fill a reward track, these guys…the 90% of wvw population, are logging 3+hrs a night for atleast 5 days a week…that’s a minimum of 15hrs or almost 2 tracks filled. So this info is bogus

I was clearly speculating, have some simple sense. No one aside Anet can give us clear statistics. But really – since the track system appeared in WvW (more particulary the changes to gift of battle) the population grow, and NOT because they LIKE WvW, but simple because almost every regular player at some point of time wants to craft himself a legendary. This is actually my only complaint. Anet must add ways to get that gift without going to that game mode (like some crafting in mystic forge for pve or track in structured pvp). If that happens lets see how the population will stand. I’ll tell u how – the same as before the track system changed – veeery low, limited to only these “major guilds” that wonna have big aoe spam fests alongside here and there newbies curious about what WvW is at all.

I’ll be honest – I experienced pretty much the same as OP and after a while I never stepped in WvW again. Tho the same way pvp players hate pve noobs in their game modes, the same way pve players hate pvp players in their game modes. And being forced to do something pvp for the sake of pve or the opposite is gonna keep bringing unhappy players until fixed, or never fixed and be remembered as a massive negative.
If you wonna play basketball you don’t go to a football field do you?

Regardless the population the issues are still there.

No disrespect, im stating an opinion…cuz nowdays everyone are triggered in a single letter.

Perhaps your perception is server based because on my server we have roamers, small skirmish groups, havoc groups and not tagged 10-25 person guild groups all hours and blob tags from Asian players in am and 2-5 NA tags during pm prime time and I can safely say 80% of players I see are from about 8 guilds that have consistent presence in wvw even when not in guild raids or zerg. I can 100% promise you that if I log on at any hour that my guild has atleast 10 members in wvw and we usually max out around 70 members of our 498 members in wvw at prime hours (we are pvx). With that said…putting in 4-5 hrs average per day in wvw 7 days a week, that I very very rarely witness a nonguilded player (1 in 100/150 players) and as I said 80% are 8 or so guilds which leaves 20% pugs who could be in wvw for gift of battle…but again…remember…and I stress….it takes 8 hrs to get the gift of Battle, which makes these 20% odd guild WvW players highly unlikely to be gift of Battle track chasers if they spend more than 3-4 session in wvw.

Perhaps you’re in some kind of weird time zone for your server or your server just has a horrible wvw population but this doesn’t compute with how my server runs.

We have that dedicated Asian guild that runs tag in eastern time zone mornings and I can tell you that even when we are red bottom of matchup team, that often the Asian guild stomps one of the other team when they are on becuase of lack of player presence for the other team in those hours. Hell, atleast the last 3 Thursday mornings I’ve been able to sneak in an hour of wvw before work, they have 3 tiered smc, taken an enemy keep in ebg and atleast 1 keep (usually hills) in enemies bl and that’s when we are outmatched by outnumbered in pm prime time. Additionally we are outnumbered on 1-2 bl every night and we get a queue on ebg nightly and often in home bl, we also almost always have a tag in dbbl when we aren’t red so people who talk about no one playing dbbl I always felt that was odd too. Again, perhaps your server doesn’t wvw? Low low tier?

Desolation EU.
And you missed my point, I generally don’t care how many players play WvW I want an out-of-wvw option for my gift of battle and I will never care at all to step there. I dislike the idea of trying to bring pve players in pvp zones. And if u are playing on NA server – only normal, americans are mostly playing pvp games, i rarely see any non-european to play a pve game.

The flip side is the exorbitantly huge amount of time it took me, a wvw player, to get gift of exploration.

8 hrs is nothing