Guild Wars 2

Your location: UK
Time and date of incident: The last 3 days have been unbearable
Game World: Gandara
Description: Huge skill lag in WvW, so much so I am fighting battles 1 minute and 30 behind everyone else. Huge pings exceeding 3500 whenever more than 15 enemies are in front of me in WvW.

No problems anywhere else on the internet or PvE, this problem only occurs in WvW.

At the shatterer with 200+ people ping 62, occasionally having spikes to 450 – http://prntscr.com/6lda8x

FPS and ping in WvW with small group of 20 enemies – ping 2400 spiking to 3850 – http://prntscr.com/6ldbcm

Had ping plotter running the whole time – http://prntscr.com/6ldfhj and I see Level 3 Communications yet again in there as a weak link and there’s an interesting article here – http://blog.level3.com/open-internet/observations-internet-middleman/

The bottom line is, if it isn’t our ISPs and it isn’t Anet then what do we do? The only people suffering are Anet because we won’t buy their product if we can’t play it.

I understand running other programs or downloads is not good and will effect latency but the main thing is I never really used Realplayer and 99% of the time had it turned off through the task manager along with other random updaters. Since the 6th August update it seemed to have developed a mind of it’s own and was opening all sorts of connections in my netstat without my permission while closed. I’m not sure if it was trying to share my internet/space/Cloud me with others but last few months going from 200 ping whilst downloading/watching Twitch when playing GW2 and a bit of skill lag compared to post the 6th Aug Realplayer update causing 600-900 ping, 12 seconds skill lag, 10 second map changes, enemies unable to stomp me becasue I was so far behind the game definitely indicate it was causing issues even when Realplayer was closed down.

Just wanted to drop by here since I was suffering huge lag in GW2 for the past 5 days and it felt like GW2 was lagging out my whole internet giving me 10 second skill delay in prime time and 600-900 ping. I’ve been in touch with support who did an amazing job trying to isolate the problem and I also did a lot of googling in case it was my ISP throttling GW2.

The major factor for me seems to have been the update of Realplayer on 6 August (For Windows 7 & 8 | Version: 17.0.13.2 | Updated: 06/08/2014)

To me it felt like the problem was 100% GW2 in prime time not being able to handle it since my internet ran fine for the rest of the day (including GW2) during the day.

However, after a few netstat results indicating I had something eating away at my latency causing background noise I pinned it down and uninstalled Realplayer and now have an amazing connection to the game steady back down at 150 ping with no lag in prime time when it was 600-900 ping since the Realplayer update essentially attempted to take over my PC.

Just wanted to post this in case others were searching for possible causes for 10 skill lag/delay switching maps/huge ping so they can check any P2P/Cloud software on their PC. I see people complaining and I understand why, however my ping plots still failed with support last night and yet my connection is great now to GW2 so make sure to check your own PC for anything unusual. If this post helps even 1 other with their issues it’s worth it.

He is talking of the invisible immobilise bug like when you are building siege and get stuck in it I think – not the actual condition.

I can only speak from heavy classes played without blink/teleport but it seems to happen when you get “stuck” on warbanners or engy turrets or siege when they are thrown right on top of you at a certain time.

But yes, it’s been a problem for over a year now in my experience and still no-ones sure what causes it.

Although I agree there needs to be a change in the scoring system your method still means those with huge nightcaps will be able to hold all 9 relics for the whole night – even if they can’t kill a thing in prime time. It still seems the most off hours coverage comes out a winner and force the action to be centred round the middle of the 3 keeps where someones gonna build a ton of siege. I think we need less arrow cart wars, not more, people wanna be fighitng other people, not playing Treb Wars 2 in the middle of a keep all night.

Remeber all the Orb hacking? this will happen with Relics also.

Far simpler to make structures count for far, far less PPT and make kills count for a lot more to the overall score.

Roaming guilds could be fighting all night all over the map killing stuff without having to cap and still doing their bit “for the realm” for points.

Puggies could still be led round capturing structures for their lootz which keeps them happy but it has less effect on the score.

If there’s no enemy to kill due to vastly different coverage at night there’s far less points to be earned if the emphasis is taken off structures scoring so highly.

If any enemy blob ports about avoiding battles just karma training PvD they still won’t be earning points if they have nothing to kill so it won’t be the most effective way to play.

This should force people to actually fight to kill, focus on battles and improve their skill level and ensure prime time battles provide the most points for servers.

If you wake up in the morning there won’t be such a massive point difference if the enemy has 100 people and you have 5 on nightcrew because those 5 people might have taken down 10 before they died and therefore gained some points out of it even if they lost the structure.

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

it’s worse than the Scenario during Season 1 in Silver with “Tankolation”.

Nope, it’s completely different, Gandara never asked for this or tried to manipulate our ranking for it.

All we can do is appologise to our bro servers in silver league for it and ask them not to blame the Gandaran WvW community

If Gandara ends up top 5 then all our serious guilds with a passion for fighting other guilds and GvG will all leave anyways.

If you have a choice of playing RS/ER/Viz/JS every week with no guild action – or playing agaisnt FSP/GH/AG/Pikeys with all the best guilds and action in the game – I know which one most hardcore guilds will choose. The only guilds left on Gandara will be those only capable of pug farming.

The best thing to come out of these leagues this year is Piken finally coming down to mix it with us and all the Euro servers of silver league (apart from Gandara and AG through no fault of their own) are now really balanced.

With pleasure Lion – Gandara currently has 770 people queued for WvW.

http://prntscr.com/34xnu0

Hence why there might be a bit of “them and us” with regards to the new people joined us. We are welcoming but some of us have our limits when it comes to breaking our home and forcing us to go gold league later on with no Ruskie or USA cover.

I see your queue and raise you an hour later;

http://prntscr.com/32vdf8

Please reconsider if you are thinking of coming to Gandara.

Athylea.4810:

Last night between 7pm and 9pm GMT, queues were approx:
70+ on EB
and bewteen 20-40 on all Borderlands

I can confirm this as I was watching the queue situation all day intently. EB queues started at 12 GMT and grew to 70 people queued at 7.30 Pm GMT.

The other BLs all had 20+ queues at 7.30 PM GMT.

That’s nearly 150 people queued for WvW at 7.30 PM GMT – if thats not a full prime time I don’t know what is – I do not even believe gold league servers have those sort of queues.

What possesed Anet to give free transfers to one of the largest population silver servers is beyond me, we’ve got no Russian/USA cover granted so we won’t be gold league, however our prime time is most certainly full – and thats even before the meta achieves have even started.

If the fight will be over before Renewed Focus is worth it and you don’t need extra condy removal then you should consider trying Tome of Wrath. Zealot’s Fervor (4 skill) is like a “mini timewarp” so 5 second of quickness on your party, pop it then drop the book.

That said it’s not really a kickable offence if it wasn’t a “meta builds only” group. I’ve used them in the past at Old Tom to stand behind but they don’t work as well as Asura elite golems.

IrisTheCasual.3742:

Noooo… why Annie? It has a nice White skin :p

No it was an armour chest No colours sadly.

I am definitly praying for more magis weapons though to transmute, the white skin is yummy.

I got the healing powered chest in a 30 today, rest of my group all got 3 raiders chests and a defenders chest on our 50 – so 4 armour chests in one 50.

Healing powered chests are awesome all the “best” stats all in one tiny package. I mean who wouldn’t want Magis, Settlers, Shaman, cleric and apothecary gear! I am so excited I can’t even decide which character to put it on, hmm, I am going to destroy my zerker gear and go full guardian apothecary!*

*joking by the way, it got destroyed – instantly, couldn’t even tell you the name of it.

Real proof that you can have the gear but if your traits are not optimal you are really nerfing your own potential. Makes me think we ought to do mossman/bloomhunger naked when pugging fractals as the ultimate “gear check”.

Just amazing stuff

cough My vote is also for a sexy male naked run, maybe round CoE since it’s very pleasing to the eye.

I shouldn’t imgine you can open old chests as these are different, a friend of a friend dropped a “Malicious” armour chest and only had the choice of condtion damage stats.

Seems they are completely new chests in there.

Had my first run out today in Arah with mentors Enaretos and Iris, it was amazing.

The mentors really know their stuff, explain fights, boss attacks, telegraphs, counters let you practice things like kiting lupi jsut to dodge/block his attack, and answer any general queries about anything. More importantly they have the patience of saints when it comes down to newbies messing things up

Had a great time, great laughs and learnt so much, really looking foward to more runs, thanks guys

Spoj The Second.7680:

Vol.7601:

Just don’t expect this to be a significant increase, like 50% chance at ascended or fractal weapon drops.

These items are still meant to be rare.

Yeah im not expecting it to be much of an improvement to drop rate. But the simple fact that its selectable stats from a range is a huge improvement. Shame they didnt do the same for weapons.

Yep, I also squeeeed when I saw this, definitely a huge step in the right direction.

Sanderinoa.8065:

AnnieGYG.6842:

it can’t be dodged, it must be evaded.

I’d say this is pretty inconsistent

Sorry I will edit I assumed things like blurred frenzy or distortion evades worked on it, (I was stuck on guardian myself) Nice to know they don’t.

Dungeons I probably wouldn’t bother with, however fractals I run for the love in my passionate quest for teamwork and the hope one day of doing a “perfect run” at level 50 with 5 complete strangers.

I was in practising after me and a mate duo-d some low levels last night and found her on the third lot (after freaking dredge reset twice) and from what we discovered it can’t be dodged, it must be blocked.

(Disclaimer: I’m far from an expert though)

Aww, well thats a shame I might have to take my alt the other other side of the pond, but I couldn’t imaigne life without fractals for so long so I’d probbaly never get the motivation to level it up.

Iris I sent you a quick PM a couple of days ago with some questions about the Mentors guild as well, not sure if you got it or not, it was only after I realised I got the wrong Iris, so I can send it to the other one if needed.

IrisTheCasual.3742:

So, it’s just in. I’m kicked from my usual fotm group. Long story short, I was giving a lecture to the self-imposed group leader of how a staff ele is ‘not contributing’ in a semi-pug group without 100% reflection uptime. Bad move. I got called ‘elitist’ and was told to group up with my other fellows instead of affecting the way-he-wants-to-play. And as a bonus, he has kindly reminded me that he has been carrying the whole group for his entire career and won’t take any advices from an ele who dies a lot (me).

I’m deeply saddened and disappointed. I’m orphan now. Anyone wants to adopt me to your fotm 50?

Aww well if we ever get a slot with my usual 50 crowd we’d adore an ele, we are a bit heavy. Plus I’ve been known to run 2-3 49/50s a day just to help people out sicne I’m retired.

First question though as all eles get asked it when they join our groups – you got a focus? If no then kick.

Watching a great ele work with a focus in fractals complimenting my reflects is like a magical thing – only ever seen it once though

noobgood.8762:

Can I apply as an Arah mentor?

I’m available mostly in the evenings (GMT+1), on both EU and NA. Teamspeak/Skype required, no mic needed (just be able to listen). You will also need to use an appropriate build and be ready to change your weapons/utilites. And of course bring some patience Running any path.

I can also offer Lupi melee lessons. You should have at least 1 hour time (+a few mins to get to him) if you want to do that. Berserker or condi gear (warrs, engis, necros) required.

Noobgood does this only mean you teach warriors, engys and necros?

I’m looking to be picked up by a teacher for anything and everything but I’m running guardian, really not ready for much on my warrior yet, all the gear and no idea on him. Never really been much in Arah and would love to learn, especially melee on Lupi. I’m definitly not skilled enough for duo-ing though.

I’m in a WvW guild so I wouldn’t be able to bring a group either so I was hoping to jump in on others teachings when they needed someone to fill a slot.

Level 29 pug fractal just nearly broke me – just one of many highlights after a warrior camped LB 100% of the time.

http://prntscr.com/31nlfc

Mai Trin is easily the fractal lets me leech all my dailys – “Guardian only, Mai Trin” is a regular group I see and who am I to not go for it :P I’ve never experienced much of a problem with it at higher levels in pugs but up to 20 it seems to pose massive problems for groups.

She can be a bit rough for low AR players and I’ve just come out of a level 10 pug after 6 attempts becasue of people all stacking on top of each other in the cannons phase meaning 3 deaths per cannon phase. Sadly I was out on warrior so missed all my blocks from guardian to res. For the average mesmer not of “Sandyesque” skill it’s an espcially rough ride.

But like others have said – spread out during the cannons phase – if someone else is already there go to another place.

Just focus on kiting/blocks/defence until you clear her stacks – warriors going hundred blades on her with 10 stacks is a waste of space.

Try to stay together during her fight so guards and mes can throw group condy removal fields more easily and the electric actually fires at her.

Not much more to say, but a good guardian definitely makes this a lot easier, especially giving the team blocks during the cannons phase in case you get caught out.

Thank’s for the kind words guys, I’ve just watched some of your stream Purple and erm wow, I think I’d feel out of my league in a group with people like you, it’s amazing stuff and I’ve found your warrior advice thread which is great since I am a learner driver on warrior so far, once my guardian has been taken to school my warrior will be next. I am really looking forward to getting down and dirty with [Noob] although I think I PM’d the wrong Iris with some questions.

I’m just a decent pug who’s bothered to read every single skill and trait my character has even if I’ve never used it – to me it’s just really basic common sense to want to protect your team from taking any damage at all instead of spamming heals, especially since healing power scales better on a thief than it does on a guardian.

Anet is right to be honest, unless the player base ups their game a little, forces themselves to read every trait, forces themself to read every combo they can contribute to, knows all their blast finishers, or even runs around for an hour with 3 random skills they’ve never used before for 20 mins in PvE jsut to see how they work there’s little point in making things too challenging.

For your problems/questions/moans/suggestions you really need to be posting in the fractals CDI thread.

It’s totally RNG but I guess it people post their drop rates we could get a very basic idea.

From around 9 months of doing old and new dailys 10/20/30/40/50 pretty much every day I’ve dropped;

2 rifles
2 daggars
1 staff
1 focus
2 1HS
2 LB
2 Tridents
1 Spear
1 hammer

It’s take someone with better maths than me to work out how many fractals that is but needless to say the drop rate seems to be a lot lower since the Fractals patch. I think I’m averaging 1.5 month but have only had 2 this year. (I can’t complain sicne I’ve had 25 ascedned wpns and armour boxes drop so I probably drop 1 every 10 days)

You simply can’t play fractals for loot, you need to do them becasue you enjoy the challenge, or enjoy the company of group you are runing with – if you play fractals for loot – you’re gonna have a bad time.

I’d be more interested to hear if people think 40/50 on the dot have been nerfed, back when it was all 49’s as we didn’t have the AR yet the drops seemed to come thick and fast but it’s like the worst drop rate ever since January for 40 or 50.

I’ve purposely given myself a week doing 19/29/39/49 just to test out the drop rate and yesterday dropped a fractal daggar in a 28 after nothing since New year. RNG gods are epic trolls.

I had a WTF moment in AC a couple of days ago and got ahem trolled badly.

P1 – Troll crashes through wall jumps right on my head and kills me as I am slow and typing
P2 – At the exact same spot, troll jumps on my head and kills me
P3 – Not this time troll (while my party is all trolling me about watching out for the troll) – so I sneakily run right and go round the long way – bam – troll jumps on my head and kills me

It was my fault for chatting, but it was definitly one of those laugh/cry/rage all at the same moments.

Guys I’m interested in joining as a student (EU) (character: Anniegyg) is there any details you need? I have already run quite a lot of the normal dungoens but knowing where to sit in a corner and “count to 3 then dodge” isn’t really enough for me, I’d love to learn a bit more so I figure here is the place to be.

Would I need to be speaking general mentors or meta mentors about learning things like pulling teqniques, LoS techniques, aggro ranges, talking through particular boss attacks and how they can be counter, telegraphs?

I’d most certainly be up for properly learning all dungeons any paths, in particular Arah is somewhere I’ve only ventured 5 or 6 times, but my CM definitly needs some work.

I’m also pretty experienced in fractals but my motto is you learn something new every day so I’d volunteer to be part of a group of any level (Guardian up to 50, warrior can go only to 49) if you need an extra body and I can take advantage of learning some stuff.

A friend of mine had this in my party, Level 50, Molten duo – he Dc’d and came back in literally as the Firestorm died.

As the other 4 of us are stood by the chest asking him if he got the daily chest – he is actually still in the fight like 2 whole minutes behind us viewing it all happening. He said we were falling off the edges but actually we’d killed the bosses and were stood waiting.

We accused him of trolling of course, how can you be 2 minutes behind the other 4 members of your party, it seems impossible – however both me and him took screenshots at the exact same moment and uploaded them and indeed he was still viewing the fight as it happened 2 minutes behind us. I can’t really post them as they have swearing in.

Lucky in his case as he got his chest – but it’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in my time in this game.

noobgood.8762:

Your condition removal skills are Purging Flames, Save Yourselves, traited virtue (2x with Renewed Focus), focus 4, light field + GS 2.
Not enough at all.

This a million times over, thank-you noobgood, I was kinda having a sinking feeling reading this thread – guardian has a ton of them and a ton more, Bow of Truth, Purifying Ribbon on Elite Tome of Courage (although Spirit weapon Bow sucks so don’t use it)

If we fight Mai Trin I bring along wall of reflect or GS 2 and everyone throws stuff through it or Mesmer throws Temporal Curtain and I Guardian GS 4 or 5 through it through it – there just too many combinations of condition removal to list to be honest, 90% of them with a guardian at one end of the other.

I get the impression some people have never played guardian before – Ok big tip – Light fields plus projectiles finishers or whirl finishers = Condition removal

Rag I can imagine thats the only way to get a prefect set up, but like you said, the time invested is huge. I for sure do that if we are going into a level 50 fractal with 1 or 2 pugs, we chat through traits and skills, for one we can retrait to be complementary, ie switch to empowering might if no-one else them run it.

Vethrfolnir I symphaise with your view, before I was a WvW’r and to me as a “WvW elistist” back then, people who did PvE in zerker were just a bunch of noobs who didn’t need HP as they were only capable of playing agaisnt NPCs with predictable scripted boring attacks and didn’t play the real teamwork game agaisnt human enemies in hardcore WvW. But times have changed, WvW is more staff spamming in a huge blob super causal now, PvEs getting more teamwork with things like the Marionette.

BUT – just becasue other pugs are bad, why should it force you to carry them and force you to run a sub par build – screw them, you have just as much right to have a lovely full zerk meta run as anyone. It’s perfectly fine if thats what you enjoy but it’s like anything, once you get a taste for that teamwork and melting bosses in optimal meta groups then it’s hard to go back to headless chicken runs.

As a main guardian 99% of the time, the best advise I can give to your friend is to drop AH and to focus on blocks and blind to keep your team alive. Blinding an enemy or blocking an attack will save your WHOLE team more than him getting self heals. I only learned how to actually play guardian properly after I dropped AH. Keep AH in WvW when it’s guardians blasting waterfields which keeps the team alive with one of the shortest blast finsiher CDs in the game, but it’s really selfish in PvE when by retraiting you can be keeping your whole team from taking any damage by perma blinding enemies and good use of blocks, therefore they won’t need the heals.

To be honest I know the score with people not reading groups, and even if they read it they come in with sub par builds – I put this thread up to try and get some advice on how to counter that – I refuse to just give up on it (yet :p).

Reduce standards and accept sub optimal builds as long as they are semi zerker, just put Scholar or meta only in LFG, make really long LFGs with paths at the end, talk through triats, check weapon sets on entry (& bring pigbow) are all really nice advice so thank-you.

Please lets not argue in here, I don’t want this to be deleted

SorrowsEmbrace.8120:

Let me say this as someone who shares an unreasonable love of pugging – you still might think about joining a speed running or elite guild. You can still pug, but I find it keeps me more sane if I have a group of like minded people to share horror stories with. Also, I find discovering new strategies is more meaningful if I have a team to share it with.

I also think you’ll find that you can learn a lot in a speed running guild. The kind of people invested in pve are often people who, like you, are interested in experimenting and finding new strategies. While it can be cool to run accross the occasional pug who has a new strat, you might discover more by experimenting with guildies. Guildies will probably be more patient if you want to try “non-meta” strategies, and you may have more freedom to not only discover new tatics but develop some of your own.

Well you got me thinking for sure with this advice, I guess I have preconceived ideas about 100% speed run “5000 gold a month! Zerk only NO NOOBZ” guilds, I imagine them to be full of people old enough to be my children raging that it took 1 minute extra for them to get their gold/lootz – simply motivated by gold – or with a massive amount of leechers joining who know where to stack and spam endure pain & hundred blades but arn’t particularly skilled in class knowledge. A friend joined one and found it be very cliquey, same people same runs every day – so as a new member you’re only going to be invited rarely on a run.

The guys I’ve met from more elite guilds, only 2-3 from rT and 2 from I think Lupi that have ended up in my pugs have been really great though, not seen any elitism, we’ve had good runs and great laughs – but at my age I really don’t have the reflexs, or illusions that I will ever be good enough to join.

The Mentors guild really appeals to me I have to say, not really sure why I havn’t joined it yet, guess I just want to get a reasonable base knowledge to build on before I do.

I do take the great point to post for “Pigbows only” to ensure the bestest meta run ever, unfortunatly my ranger is only level 54 (as I find it the most boring class ever – no offence meant) so I can’t try this out just yet – it does have a pig and a bow though, pig called “scuttle” and Boar called “back”. Blonde sexy male norns/humans only is another favorite of mine to post but often it gets filled with Asuras and Twigs

Great feedback guys, thank-you, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I ventured into these “dreaded” Dungeons fourms.

Sadly we can’t check traits becasue with all the will in the world and full zerker on – exactly like the guardian who I mentioned who was running Battle Presence and Strength in numbers – it’s all the % damage modifiers which really bring things home which he had 0 of.

I’d glady accept a guardian running 1 or 2 knights accesories, or a thief running 1 or 2Valkyrie, especially if they came in and asked – LFG is an extension of an English checker so the tip to type out very long LFGs might encourage this. Speedruns isn’t really the end game for me, the teamwork is – and with good teamwork invaribaly the runs are fast and clean but that’s a by product.

Wpns is a subject close to my heart because although my warrior (wearing big “L” Plates) is 90% full ascended zerk with Scholar, I have Axe/WH & Mace/Axe & GS (not really a fan of it cept for mobility) or longbow (which I only use for stacking might) but they are all full PTV or Sentinels from random Fractal boxes so I don’t personally feel right to join a full zerker group with him – or if I did I would ask first if it was OK.

Lazy I agree with you pugging is sadistically cruel, and I also have a wierd attraction to it :P If I want a no expectations random run I go to someone elses group, however if I’m in the mood for some nice teamwork I put my own group up.

Purple, my friend had a simliar experience today trying to pug his 50 in the early day because he needed to go out drinking, 2 warrior, 1 guardian, 2 mes, 1 thief all 14+K APs – Bloomhunger he charged in popped wall of reflect, stood there bashing away – he looks around and the entire team is max ranging with GS/LB/SB – zero feedbacks or smokesreen or focus traited to reflect. They wiped 3 times and he decided better of it and left then to it.

Ouch Dub, that’s harsh I definitly would have quit trying to, I normally put Basic English but rarely get it, and if they do they are either the “Who the hell are you to ask to see my gear?” or yes, the old chestnut “Dead DPS is no DPS, bb zerk noobs”.

Regarding acceptable gear, would you guys say most runes containing 2/3 zerker stats are acceptable? Obviously Scholar, Orbs, Eagle, Ranger, Golemancer, even Ogre are perfectly OK in my eyes (cept in collosus Frac where you wouldn’t want random golems and rock dogs running free), but I struggle to decide when I see runes of Rage on a warrior (doesn’t he have enough Fury already?), or Runes of the Wurm, Citadel, Hoelbrak, Fire, Pirate, Strength – are any of these acceptable zerker gear check material or all of them?

Wethospu.6437:

I appreciate your story but this seems more like a rant than a real question to me.

Lots of people can’t read so it doesn’t matter what you put in your lfg.

Sorry, I wanted to put some context behind what I wrote as an example, nothing worse than forums posts which say, “Wut is zerger plox? – list runes 4 me” I’m a woman, I waffle sometimes :P I didn’t want the answer “Join dungeon guild or GTFO” or “Make your own group” I came here to see what ideas, feedback, experiences other people had in the game, was I being to harsh on kicking those people? do others who have to pug it have the same experiences? I did expect some trolling as a long time lurker in the Dungeons forums though.

Great ideas and feedback guys, I really appreciate them – putting the path hidden away is great. I’m learning to be a bit harsher especially in fractals so it’s nice to confirm others stick by their LFGs as well.

I know people don’t read LFGs in the main, but some do, and some are willing to learn. I’ve had 2 really nice WvW set up warriors come in to party for Fracs and when we explained why they were not zerker and suggested improvements like getting a second set of armour for PvE they popped out to grab a set of CoE armour and some ruby orbs and retraited – they were both awesome runs and the guys actually saw the difference in their gear and damage – so score 2 for the “elitist zerker noobs”

Edit for Rain, sorry, missed your post before, yes, I kinda meant high level fractals as in level 80 fractals, and facetanking to me meant stood there in front of anything spamming 1 in full PTV, no dodging or blocks and eating every single hit, appologies if I got the terminology wrong there.

Had to share as it made me laugh, last I heard they were still in there :P

http://prntscr.com/30qf3o

It astounds me that even though it flashes in big red letters across your screen “IGNORE THE MIASMA -FOCUS ON THE CITIZENS” that people don’t get the point of the event.

Anet should really have added a personal “save 500/1000 citizens achievement” to encorage people to save some as they walk past.

People zerging around after a few champ bags when the real rewards are at 1500 citizens is quite sad.

Thank’s for the fights tonight INC, really enjoyed them, I don’t post much on these forums (as it’s full of 15 year olds and kitten hunters) but tonight was pretty awesome, really got the blood running.

Thank’s for disengaging and attempting to lose the adds at north bay and not dancing/laughing after the fights. That’s behavior I havn’t seen since fighting Piken back in tier 3 a long time ago (cept for HoB and a few other ex piken guilds) Different class of guild, so thanks for tonight, hope to meet you again once our new guys have settled in a bit more.

And to SOUL, had some great fights with you in the last match up except we know had more than you, look forward to meeting you guys again in battle.

9 months and half of this is still not fixed, just had this bug and the cage was unbreakable for everyone, melee, ranged, pets, inside, outside and of course AOE had no effect.

All 5 of us trapped in it with no way out, we all logged to character select and logged back in but the same thing happened 5 times where 1 by one we would all end up in the same cage with no way out.

Edited to add: Further information is that the group had already completed a set of 3 fractals including this one, teleported back to the lab on completion, then went straight into another set of 3 fractals without leaving. Not sure if this is useful info or not.

Edit for Paradigm, sorry fella, no point in starting new threads when the bugs been reported before

Jobah has it spot on – If you see 2 × 50 man zergs on a map you know the event is going to fail within the first 3 minutes. Zerging doesn’t work for this event.

You have to use brains and split up – get 5-10 people per event, get the whole map calling for help if they are alone or telling people not to come if there’s already 15 people there. It’s about great teamwork – just on a map wide scale.

If you see there is already 20 people at an event – don’t go there, ask who needs help somewhere else.

That way the events stay scaled down to Veterans and you pass the event. Zerging is a choice probably sadly based on champion farming since they choose to stay in an area to farm even when the event is over instead of moving ot the next event.

Now at least the PvE side sees our frustrations and problems with WvW, we want everyone to be split down, co-ordinating over the whole map – teamwork – not stuck in a 100 man blob.

Techincally people are right, GvG has nothing to do with Anets version of WvW;

WvW for optimal points;

Sitting on a treb for 15 hours.
Making the biggest blob you can to move with so there’s less chance you get killed.
Set alarm clocks to 4 AM and wait for the other server to go offline to PvD.
Roaming round a map in any size group and finding no enemy because theres only 1 blob of 120 people which ports to another BL when you try to kill it.
Get beaten up – find more people and make a bigger blob and go back and beat them up.
Killing quaggans.
killing champion tower lords.
Making loads of superior arrowcarts and then sitting there for hours waiting for the enemy while refreshing your siege.

GvG:

Using a variety of different skills, traits, team set ups, professions, tactics and teamwork to outsmart and kill an enemy.

I did a few GvGs and wasn’t a fan, it seemed a bit scripted on limited terrain and I prefer the surprise of open field battles – but if Anet were to bring the terrain and surprise to a GvG type arena it would sound really nice.

WvWs not going to change unless they take the emphasis off siege and keeps and make kills factor into the equation – that way PvD would score limited points at night as there is no people to kill, and if you are fighting outmanned 15 vs 50 you can still score points by having more enemies to kill even if you lose the tower/keep eventually.

If they can make PvE champions detect the number of players and scale up or down, they should be able to do that in WvW so 100 people taking 1 keep get 1/100th of the rewards to try and encourage splitting up.

1 blob per BL simply means no fights anywhere else for anyone who splits up into teams – that’s why WvW is becoming a borefest and there’s such a need for GvG, Asuraball, and anything else now that people do to take away from the boredom.

I agree with Tetro, FSP havn’t met Riverside yet (think AM on steroids with bigger blobs and 50 superior arrowcarts in every keep) BB are awesome fun to play but 4 of their major WvW guilds could run 50 strong – that’s not a blob, that’s a guild op in higher tiers.

Yeah Gandara was hugely blobby last match up becasue of the points, we had the opposite of you, every PvEr on Gandara came to WvW The WvW players could not get in for hour long queues. We are sorry for this, but I know you suffer the same as all heavy PvE servers do, winning brings all the PvErs in – and with no third server it made things worse last week.

Trust me, you will know when Gandara chooses to blob properly and when it is just accidental becasue of so many PvE puggies. Last time we blobbed on purpose for serious play and points and winning at all costs we had 50+ pieces of siege in every keep + 100 man blob containing all the best guilds – in every BL – 24 hours a day – we won tier 3. Blobbing is a valid strategy if you want to win at all costs, Gandara learnt the hard way that winning is not worth ruining the fun, you get nothing for it cept tired people bored of skill lag. Sure sometimes running with a blob is fun for an hour once or twice a week after guild ops, but not for 24/7 all day every day, it gets boring.

But since playing MS and their great guilds (and of course Kodash are amazing, the beasts of WvW but it’s been a while since we met them) it gives me hope that some German servers prefer the fighting style. AM are starting to come out and play with smaller MUCH harder hitting groups more and more each night. They have some great guilds in there so I have hope they will be fun soon.

Remember FSP 1 month ago? 1 blob to rule them all, your blob was bigger than RS, we seriously spat out our coffee when we saw the size of it. But look at you now, an amazing fun challenging server to play with great guild groups and supportive puggie blobs to keep everyone happy.

FSP will suffer with a 6 man nightshift, (Gandara has about 20 people) but I can tell you Piken has like a 5 man night shift in tier 3 and look at them.

Keep the faith FSP, the random match ups will bring you something nice soon I am sure /salute

TUP now owes me 0.0001 copper for use of my copyrighted Gandaran material without crediting me :P

Dranul is hereby ordered to wait outside my spawn for me next match up Gandara and AG meet and shamelessly allow me to kill him on my level 5 ele so I can collect this debt.

On a serious note, once you try open field combat and taste the adrenalin from fighting outmanned and wiping the enemy when you have less people due to epic teamwork – you will never want to sit in a tower building/refreshing siege again.

All servers blob, but the big difference is FSP/Gandara/AG blobs are 95% puggie blobs and in all the screenshots you can see there is never more than maybe 3 people from the same guild. Every home BL and EB has puggie blobs. It is NOT a German thing because MS were awesome fun to fight with a mix of guilds and puggie blobs.

Gandara did the Viz #2 “YOLObus” 100 man blob on every map 24/7, won tier 3, people did 30 hours of sitting in keeps refreshing siege and laying 300-500 pieces a day, 30 hour long sessions commanding, the hardcore every day WvWrs learned very fast that as a server we just want fun fights, we don’t care if we win or lose match-ups, you get NOTHING for it cept PvD’d to death in higher tiers. It’s not fair on those stuck in keeps refreshing siege – everyone deserves fun. We don’t think we are better/more skilled, we don’t care about getting to number 1 EU server – we just want a fun time with lots of fights. 70-90 man blob allows only 1-2 fights per map

Typical night in WvW for anyone vs AM/RS =

- Get 5-30 people online
- Run to first supply camp
- Meet 70 man blob, get wiped
- Respawn
- Run for tower/keep
- Find enemy group of 40-50
- Try to engage
- Enemy runs and hides in tower/keep
- Hang around for 10 mins running circles hoping they will come out to fight vs 15 people
- Get bored when they don’t
- Go for ninja op up north
- Steamroll over 1 person
- Check northern towers
- PvD tower
- Cap nearest supply
- PvD keep as 90 man blob is on other side of the map
- Meet 90 man blob with 2 × 25+ man guild groups hiding inside it
- Try to run around kiting to draw one of them out for a fight – fail
- Call for support
- 3 guilds blob together to wipe enemy blob with clever use of 1 spam while crying about lag and slide shows
- WP and split from other groups to avoid lag/slideshow/crashes
- Spend 2 hours running around looking for a fight which doesn’t involve 150+ people.
- Fail
- Get bored of “Hiking simulator 2013”, go to bed

Compared to a typical night agaisnt FSP/AG/Piken/MS (and BB <3 but they have some bigger community guilds) style servers =

- Get 5-30 people online
- Run to first supply camp
- Meet 30 man guild group
- Have awesome fight lasting 20 minutes rally 3 times, eventually win since it’s your spawn
- Run for tower/keep
- Find enemy pug group of 40-50, wipe them after a great fight
- Ninja gate down and find 3 groups of 15, 20 and 40 inside all spread out
- 3rd server comes in with 3 groups and theres now 8 different groups of all sizes battling.
- Engage in epic different battles for 1 hour all over different parts of the keep
- Die after many amazing fights
- Go for ninja op up north
- Find 8 man guild group – wave at them and run past while telling your small guild group of 7 who you just passed that there is a fight for them
- Check northern towers
- Meet 10 man brave guild group who throw themselves at you for a fight even though they are less numbers, wipe them and /salute their bravery
- Read map chat to see 3-4 of your other groups all having fun with fights all over the map both wiping and being wiped
- Meet 25 man group and engage in epic fight for 20 minutes, win
- Cap nearest supply
- Meet another 20 man group engage in epic combat for 20 minutes, wipe
- Respawn
- Run straight back to find that same group again because that was one epic fight and you want to try different tactics to challenge yourself.
- Find another one of our guilds fighting them and sit and watch the epic fight.
- Meet same 10 man brave enemy guild group who came to watch the fight also, wave, take tonics, have dance party while watching the fight.
- Get more beer, find more fights

90% of Gandara chooses option 2 to fight agaisnt and try to be, wipes and points don’t matter. AM have many skilled groups with lots getting better and better by the day, some are/will eventually turn to the “darkside”/“wrong way to play” in option 2.

Jimmy JimBob.2801:

T7 used to be like that. On Gunnars a lot of us define our community by our server pride and willingness to fight in 10/20 man groups while having a good core defending our BL.
Though if you’re looking for 20 v 20 v 20 at night not at all.

I think the main point here is to consider if you’re looking to transfer down to a lower tier is “What impact would we have on the matchup” Because there’s absolutely no point coming down if your transfer is going to massively skew the matchup one way or another. Then all you get is easy mode wins and eventually you end up back where you started.

I know, I was there, still miss you guys a lot But sadly I was a PvE kitten back then only dropping by WvW for the night shift and drunken fun with Jess and Fizz, there was 0 population of PvE on Gunnars so I moved with my old guild to Gandara.

It’s a shame the guilds didn’t split up a bit among the tier, but I’m sure they all did their research and had their reasons why. XxX are an awesome bunch of guys despite Nem can be “difficult” at times.

And yeah, I am on about just 20 vs 20 vs 20 over all 4 maps at night lol It’s a rare night we can get more than 10 on a night crew.

Like Caid said, those servers will move up in time back to blobs and 1 spam and 80 man guild groups, it’s just difficult in the meantime to try and hold the resident community together on the “battered” server while they do.

Absolute Genius

It’s not just lower tiers that are feeling the strain, tier 4 used to be stable with 6 servers competeing and hoping in and out every 2 weeks for a fresh match-up. Now with bandwaggoning, Tier 4 looks like a mess with 60 man guilds transfering and the bandwagoners following, it’s like an ex Piken/SFR/Deso reunion in here.

Theres no space for 15-20 man guilds (that sleep at night) anymore as tier 4 becomes 60/70/80 man guild groups. Hence why XxX left the tier, and I am sure more will follow as the blob meta travels down the tiers. If you do meet a rare 15-20 man group and dare to win one encounter the entire zone falls on your head in a huge handholding blob. Blob your guilds up to counter it or lose. Losing breaks your puggie community, blobbing kills your guilds fun.

Gandara blobbed up all it’s guilds once and won tier 3, it’s a proven method that works, but simply no-one wants to play that way except WXP kittens who probably never contribute to the community anyways and play for points not for fun or challenge – 1 spam is only fun for about a day.

Is that server utopia around in any tiers where a puggies blob stays on EBG, the friendlies/voice comms/Infantry guys defend the home BL with pride beavering away in 5 man teams and the BLs are covered by lots of smaller man guilds engaging in 10 v 10 or 20 v 20 or even 30 v 30 all prime time, that sleeps at night and the 20 vs 20 vs 20 insomniacs and day crews have some fun? If anyone finds it please let me know – Gandara wants to be there.

3 AM, 2 nights ago and there was queues to 2 out of 4 BL down in Euro tier 4 where there’s no night coverage?

Something is definitly wrong somewhere, us (Gandara) and AR all got dumped into the same overflow after an update so we know there were 17 of us and 12 of them over all 4 BL maps after chatting while we waited to get back in. We also saw 8 or 9 Arbourstone when we went back in and took their Garrison.

I hope Anet discover what’s causing this bug and fix this soon becasue it’s killing off server communities, and if it’s the same everywhere in the top 5 tiers, they will have no choice but leave to another game. PS have been hit particularly hard by it and us on Gandara are starting to feel the strain.

Same problem here, was in WvW, I can’t log back in after the 20 minute redirect to lions Arch after the update – same error message, I hope this doesn’t have a negative impact on WvW scores this week as we are in a very close battle.