Guild Wars 2

This is obviously a case of an individual either:

A) Not reading the directions first, or
B) Not understanding them

Honestly after coming back to their thread to simply state they got 0 again implies they did not read the responses that attempted to educate in place of in-game directions.

I find it highly likely this is a situation much like Luthan stated where they are hitting the notes as soon as they appear on the screen, before they reach the target area.

To the OP (if you bother reading): This isn’t Defender, where you snipe targets when they’re still far away from you. It’s like Frequency or Amplitude, where you wait until the notes have almost reached you (crossing the white circle into the blue center) before you press the correct note in timing with the music.

One of the phenomena described can be explained by the use of a certain cash shop item (although it can be obtained other ways, it is rare). I’m sure ANet would defend this tactic (that perhaps 99.9% of players aren’t familiar with) as being legit.

Aza.2105:

I do not know. Perhaps in a 1v1 setting the big three are roughly even. All three are relatively strong, so I don’t see how its possible to win in a 2 v 1 situation. You say SoS beats jq and sbi but I don’t know if this accurate. From what I observed sos appears to be dominate when sbi is fighting jq and sos at once (this happens way too often in eb). So their forces are split. If JQ and SBI decided to focus SoS, I highly doubt they would appear very strong, the same as if SBI and SoS focused on JQ.

I’m certain of it – with the current level of WvW participation since SoS entered Tier 1, and the split goals of the servers involved, SoS is stronger than SBI or JQ 1v1. If they were anything but, they wouldn’t be leading the match and ending ahead each week, plain and simple. All 3 servers had their time to prove or disprove this, and it is likely going to be a 4-0-0 game shutout this week.

SoS is the dominant server. SBI and JQ aren’t going to team up against them significantly to change this. One of them is going to Tier 2 if any server there proves to be consistently dominant. I just hope JQ switches places with BG, if that’s what SBI wants. I had a blast with the IOJvSBIvJQ match, and the worst WvW ever was when BG took their place. If that’s who SoS and SBI want to allow in place of JQ, I’m glad to be in a match without any of those servers, especially BG, in JQ’s matchup.

For now, sPvP has zero culling issues, in fact the thief perma-stealth is nonexistent now. So aside from my Monthly (barring dropping down to Tier 2), that’s where I’ll get my PvP during the “WvW Beta” patch.

It’s pretty simple:

SBI cannot beat SoS
JQ cannot beat SoS

This happened before in HoD, just before JQ got organized and started giving HoD a run for their money (and a lot of SBI finally stopped playing for 2nd). HoD smelled smoke and fled, they knew the fire was coming.

You get a situation like this, a few weeks in, and servers show their true colors. The situation in EB was plain to see: SBI was gunning for 2nd, JQ had to accept 3rd. That does not mean SBI isn’t still going for 1st place on the BLs, it just means their strategy on one map in one “shift” gave up trying to knock SoS out of 1st. JQ always goes for 1st, which is why #1 always goes for JQ. If the odd server out goes for JQ, that is the tie-breaker and SBI knows it. They decided the placements during the days of HoD supremacy.

But let’s not label an entire server when certain goals shift. It is a group of their members large enough to have an impact, but they may very well be operating independently of the rest of the server (even the majority). EB is only roughly 30-33% of the map/players in WvW at any given time, and mathematically represent the minority of a server at any given time.

raxx.8914:

The price of 18 slots is 2g, the price of 20 slots is 12g, the price of a private 50 slot guild bank is 25g. The 20 slot bags are never worth it.

To you.

raxx.8914:

Who would buy a 20 slot bag? 2 slots for 10g is not worth it, you’re better of buying 50 slot guild banks.

Simple answer: quality of life.

If you are sitting on 100g you don’t really have a use for and you don’t have 1 of these particular bags (there is no direct substitute hence the inherent value) on each character you play frequently, you’re going to run into inconvenience.

Just the sheer number of items this game forces you to haul around for convenience sake, you will at some point want 20 slots for gear swaps + commonly carried consumables, etc. that you don’t want showing up in the trade window nor auto-sorted everytime. I run an 18-slot invisible at the bottom of my bag window myself, and it still gets tight at times.

Astraea.6075:

With respect to material costs, I do know a lot of people don’t necessarily value the mats they have gathered themselves at market value, but even then the minimum break even point would be on the cost of the rune. Assuming they were purchased below cost via the TP rather than from a vendor, this would be 9g 54s/0.85 = 11g 22s 35c

They would have to sell just the Rune itself for 11g 22s 35c to break even, not the finished bag. While I get that some people might use the thinking “I just looted this it cost me nothing”, then making an item they in turn lose money on without any other possible benefit but to sell it… they can simply sell the materials at an actual profit instead since no other objective is being met anyway. They have to be erroneously believing they are making more profit.

I seriously think people go blind buying materials and pay no attention to their money dwindling away. They see huge numbers and think it = bigger profit. Something like:

“10g rune + free mats < 12g 25s!! Bingo I just made at least 2g suckers! Glad I didn’t sell these free materials for only 3s each like those idiots that don’t know about my super secret recipe!”

@ Talyjta:

That makes absolutely no sense in this case.

However, if that were the case in this particular sale, I’d say it is a double-whammy. They have no clue how the Trader or Crafting works, and again should have their tools taken away from them.

People who have not one iota of an inkling of an idea of how the Trader works, and whose soul purpose in life is to lose money for no other reason than to undercut the next guy, like they get a medal for their losses.

Now I’m not just complaining about fair competition without doing anything about it. Once smart buyers outnumber the clueless sellers, and I merely cover my losses, I’m through with trying to supply crafted goods altogether for the community. I’ve already moved on to other successful trades to offset my poor investments and I will just stick to those once I’m in the clear.

Here’s just an example of the math logic that is lost on too many players in the market these days:

20 Slot Invisible Bag
(10 Bolts of Gossamer) — 70s70c buyout — 63s50c offer (cheaper than 2 scraps atm)
(3 Piles of Crystalline Dust) — 20s34 buyout (-3c in offer)
(1 Superior Rune of Holding) — 10g (12g24s buyout — 9g54s offer, as if)

So unless someone bought one too many Runes and actually met a 9g5xs offer, the total production cost of a 400 Tailor comes out to:

10g 91s 04c — 10g 83s 81c (waiting for offers to be met) or a negligible 7s Xc margin

Now if you’ve read this far, there is currently one of these listed for 12g 25s (and unless you can make it yourself, this is as good as it gets, so if you ever want one now is the time to rob someone blind). Undercutting the previous lowest of 12g 50s. Now let’s see what happens to their expected profits…

11g 2s 50c when it sells, but
-62s 50c when they listed it, for a net profit of:
10g 40s

Now, I’ve double-checked my math up ‘til now, but correct me if I’m wrong that:
10g 40s < 10g 83s < 10g 91s

Because I’m not double-checking what it shouldn’t take a math-wiz to figure out.

Even if this individual acquired said bag by making it when the cost was slightly lower, it could have never been profitable at a 10g 40s net. Even if they replaced all their bags with the 20 slot Karka bags, in my opinion, this is the superior bag (to at least have one of them) as the mechanics of it are unique.

I cannot concoct a scenario wherein this individual knew what they were doing and still listed this item at this price, and they’re not the only one. Even the 12g 50s bag only nets ~ 10g 62s, for a net loss.

12g 84s is the bottom-line break-even price. Any listing above this only nets 85% of the difference. Any listing below this is taking a net loss on the value of materials.

Not to mention the loss of liquid assets waiting for it to sell and the risk of losing your listing fee (which should be minimal at these giveaway prices). I refuse to believe these bags were made for profit recently by crafters who should have their tools taken away from them. I can only imagine that these players have an excess of one bag for each character they will ever play already, and these are duplicates being tossed out to marginalize their losses after getting “free” 20 slot Karka/Frac boxes.

If not, well, I doubt the audience I am trying to educate will come here to be informed, so…

/end rant

Really I have heard this suggested already in game and rallied support but not here?

In case anyone reading this doesn’t already know, everyone has the ability to return to Lion’s Arch (the non-faction melting pot hub) free of charge from anywhere at anytime, as many times as you want. This functionality is similar to Hearthstoning in WoW.

My suggestion is tie each character by race to their starting town and offer this same functionality. Also I appreciate once we join an order and get to a certain point in our Story, we’re able to return to the starting area of Orr free of charge as well.

My other suggestion is tie each character by order affiliation to their faction’s home base and offer this same functionality.

From a purely logical standpoint, it makes sense that if I am “welcome back to LA anytime” having not earned any particular standing with their citizens, that I would be offered the same courtesy from an order which I have attained the rank of “Commander” in.

Like most others I presume, if I want a quick trip to Orr from anywhere on the map I go > LA > Grove > Upper Commons WP > Meddler’s WP for 1s 75c. But were I to opt for the “free ride” from my order’s Asura gate after unlocking it’s functionality (which I saw as a nice perk for getting that far initially) I don’t want to be greeted by my order with:

“Welcome back Commander Asilion, how was the bus ride this time? Would you like to instantly teleport to Orr now that you’ve made it?”

There’s so little incentive already, only made more inconvenient by this oversight. It doesn’t fit…

Black Wolf.7348:

Crafting is an expensive way to level up and at this point most items is worth more in materials than the crafted item itself. Also you level way too fast to be able to level crafting and create your own gear.

Not 100% true. Buying XP boosters from Gold > Gems would be an expensive way to level up. Using the right crafts/crafting guides and some common sense can be very inexpensive for the time invested (expect to spend a little for the convenience of breakneck speed, it’s unparalleled).

That being said, once you’ve gotten your profession levels from crafting you can make up to level 80 exotics (without hitting level 80 yourself). Thus you can continue making appropriate level gear all the way to 80. however it is cheaper to hoard/sell your gathered materials and just buy the finished product rather than “make your own” items all the way up to Rare/Exotics that can be salvaged for Ectos (why they even hold their price at all). Then you save a slim margin crafting these for yourself, unless you want a peculiar stat set which isn’t popular (still better off buying it direct than crafting it in this case).

I don’t see whether it makes a difference whether it’s gained from crafting or not. I MF farm Necro and whilst I have a fair share of Explorer’s Noble/Pirate gear I think what you’re looking for is “Superior Rune of Scavenging”. Pricey but in time (with that 6 rune) pay for itself.

Perhaps the lack of answers / interest in this topic is the best answer itself. No one really knows because these “commodities” are not frequently used.

With that said, I would warn Anet that allowing RNG to get out of hand on items labelled “Black Lion” anything undermines confidence in the “brand label” itself (although once the tooltip was corrected on BLSKs they seem to have avoided this reputation rather nicely). That’s not something to take lightly…

LFk provided some useful insight, but still looking to demystify this one before I make up my mind about them.

Just a quick point, the exchange has not been designed to facilitate converting gems to gold and back again (or gold to gems and back again). The presumption is that people will buy gems with gold in order to spend them in the store, and those who sell gems for gold want to spend that gold in the game. In the above example, if you wanted the bank slot, you would either pay $7.50 in real money or just over 5 gold from in-game funds.

I realize this and would never suggest such a drastic change (or uncontrollable variable) that exchanging when rates favor you only to wait until the fulcrum shifts by a wide enough margin that buying in bulk yields significant profit becomes standard. If one were to enter the market right now (without a hoard of gems they bought at 1/3 the current price) they’d be extremely hard pressed to make a single copper profit from the most extreme shifts in either direction with even bulk trading, and the risk associated with the high probability that they will never profit at all (as Gold now is worth more than it ever will be in the future, and Gems now aren’t worth as much as they eventually will be when people are paying 2g per 100 gems in the future) far outweighs the potential gain.

I want 2 extra bank tabs, and maybe 1 extra character slot. So far I’ve gotten 1 bank tab when 600 gems cost me ~1g 75s. Sure that isn’t as much money to me now as it was then, but it wasn’t the equivalent of 5g+ now… closer to 3g. The trend is outpacing gold savings of the average enthusiast (and with so many gold-sinks aside from gems, such as lining the pockets of the market controlling elite, it is no wonder) by too wide a margin.

Would I buy Gems at 40-50 silver per 100 for exclusive use in the Gem Store? Probably, infrequently. Would I buy Gems $10.00 at a time if $10 netted me more than 4g – 5g? I’d consider it. $2 per gold (it used to be $6!), you’re crazy. I haven’t found a day job that pays me $2 for the number of clicks it takes to earn a gold “the old fashioned way” in game. It’s the only option. And in spite of your concerns, that equals lost revenue… not on paper, but in reality.

Looking at http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem and taking the earliest available data point and comparing agains the most recent data point, I get the following:

Buying gems: initial rate – 28s09c; current rate – 88s70c; change = 315.77%
Selling gems: initial rate – 20s33c; current rate – 64s08c; change = 315.20%

So both rates are changing at very similar rates and the difference could possibly be explained by the fact that exchange has to round to the nearest copper.

That explains far too much.

Last week I had been looking into the $ cost of acquiring Abyss dye at 5g if the entirety was funded by Gem purchases. At that time inflation was closer to 3.5x its initial rate and you could get about 63s per 100 ($10 buys 63×8 = 5g 4s). The intial rate of 20s 33c would have required not 800 but 2,479 Gems, or in excess of $30. $30.99 if you could buy exactly 2,479. For some dye. On a single character. The inflation of Gem prices has reduced it to $10.

Meanwhile 5g exchanged for Gems can’t even buy you an extra bank tab. So you’d need to pay more than $10 assuming you had no standing balance.

The initial and current exchange rate for Gems > Gold cannot possibly keep up with inflation as Gold loses value in game, as it started abysmally low. This will only get worse, as people hoard $100 or $1,000 worth of Gold, the mere thought of paying $10 for 5g when you have 500g is ludicrous. Meanwhile you will have to hoard that much gold if you want to still be buying Gems at the rate they will continue to climb to, since the incentive to keep that side of inflation in balance is almost nil.

TLDR: The Gems > Gold exchange needs a variable modifier which scales, both on Gold > Gems conversion and the increase in total player-owned (hoarded) gold in game. That way it will always be viable to purchase Gems and convert into Gold as it will guarantee an appreciable rate no matter how much Gold floods the market.

Again, not speaking as some economic guru, merely as the end-consumer that needs to see real incentive to invest in said economy. I see none in either direction. The base rates combined with the steady lopsided market trend paint a giant “grind for gold and stay away from Gems” sign all over it.

I’m no economics major but I’ve been acknowledged for grasping the fundamentals in academics.

Curious as to what the exchange rate for Gems > Gold was at launch? Was it more abysmal than 58 silver (current rate?) If so I can’t imagine, say (2.7x is current inflation of Gold > Gems since I last bought them) paying $10 for 800 Gems = 1g 72s back when Gems were 29s per 100. That is, if people are using Gold to buy Gems more than using Gems to buy Gold causing the cost to rise, then by the dev’s claim the opposing exchange would improve by a similar (if not symmetrical) rate.

If Gems cost 2.7x more now, you should be getting 2.7x more Gold per 100 Gems exchanged, and if you’re not, then there is indeed inflation which will cause both exchange rates to become unreasonable and economically unsound in the future.

I’m concerned it isn’t a coincidence. Such as, would these tools actually work better with a 0% Gatherer realm bonus maybe? Regular tools add that bonus, but these have a “set” bonus that can be surpassed? I’m thinking after 40 “rolls” I wouldn’t regret essentially wasting the resource nodes using inferior tools, if they were in fact superior.

I doubled my usual stockpile of these during the MK events and decided it’s time to stop being stingy and get some use out of them. Thing is, I used up 2 whole sets (sickle on omnomberries, pick on mithril) without anything but 3 ore/1 fruit (and with “normal” quality tools I never have that bad of a “bonus” rate). So it’s essentially a “free poor quality” tool in my experience. Anyone have better results? Is there a trick to it?

Litmus.3807:

The other option is if you click the up/down arrow next to the value field and hold it you can move your mouse up or down to change the value. I agree though and personally dislike this change. It really isn’t that big of an issue but for me this is a backwards step in the quality of life department and is less user friendly in my eyes.

Why does someone with 4 crafts mastered and who (thought they) read every update need to find out about this functionality change this way, by “word of mouth”? I had to try this to see if it actually worked and it does, so I will be using this method instead of the one I just described above until such time as another option is offered. Hundreds if not thousands of crafters are probably still in the dark about it, though, which just adds to the frustration.

I thought this was a great addition, for example, on the Warrior’s axe chain ability, the channeling bar grows wider from halfway to finish, so even in huge zergs where you are completely unable to see the animation or keep track of how many times the bar has gone by, you knew you were on the 3rd skill in the chain.

Presumably it was to let you know that would be a bad time to interrupt the chain with another ability or evade roll if you could avoid it, because you aren’t doing just 1 hit you are doing 3, so you’d likely lower your DPS by doing so.

What I’m wondering is why not that level of visibility for ALL chains? Most have some kind of special effect on the last hit that you don’t want to interrupt, but often when crowded around that boss you can hardly just keep track of whether you’re hitting them or not let alone know which step of the chain you’re on outside of the flipping icons (and while I appreciate the art changes the channeling bar is far more visible in the field of action / doesn’t constantly flip obscuring the identifying image for half the cast time).

If you like this suggestion add your support, if not, well, I will just have to get better at tracking the tile flips, glancing back to see if I’m still hitting what I should be, glancing back at the tile flips.

Or maybe it does streamline things in a non user-friendly way and I just don’t see it. I rarely if ever had trouble making exactly the number of items I wanted with just a couple clicks (no typing, no hitting enter) and now it is seemingly impossible. I really didn’t screw up the quantity before so I don’t see the need for this “safety measure” of disabling click-for-quantity. The only time I did slip up was hitting “craft all” after clicking a few quantities but that issue is still the same as before.

The most aggravating part of this isn’t just the extra steps:

Old way:
1) click item
2) click “right arrow” for 2
3) click craft

New way:
1) click item
2) click “quantity field”
3) move hand to numpad, find “2 key”, press it
4) press enter
5) click craft

It’s that most of my quantities are 2 or 3 at a time (make 2-3 insignias, make 2-3 of each crafting material, discover recipes, repeat), so 90% of my crafting routine just became more tedious without any quality of life improvement to speak of.

Is the change a result of player feedback or was it just arbitrary? Can I at least have the option of deciding which is “right for me?” I want the old way back, at least the option to use it if most just don’t care, or actually prefer the extra steps.

The problem here isn’t the astronomically low chances of obtaining a “recipe” item from the AtM chest (MK chest is misleading as it is the 2nd chance chest for recycled BLC unwanted items). Nor is it that the items are possible to obtain from it in the first place.

It is simply Greed and Impatience.

Those two factors along with the “stock market” central way of doing business of any sort in game (no peer-to-peer secured trading allowed) have all but destroyed the economy of the trans-server market. It’s the same reason that “regular” 400 skill exotics are, with few exceptions, all sold routinely for less than the value of their components, and why crafting is an “everyone has 9 mastered crafts and supplies their own items” rather than a “400 skill is an actual achievement (not by in-game award standards) and few people are willing to invest to attain it” system.

Accept that Arena Net gives literally no incentive to buy goods at a slight profit to the seller vs. crafting them yourself and find something else to pursue instead.

As for “everyone” having access to these expensive recipe items it is not due to their availability, let me demonstrate with the following formula:

51 * 10 * 4 * 60 = 122,400

This represents a very lowball figure of how many times the AtM chest is looted per hour across all servers – where 51 = number of NA/EU servers, 10 = (5×2) 1 full party in LA + 1 full party in LA overflow, 4 = number of runs per hour each party completes (15 mins vs. estimated at 5-10 by speedruns), 60 = number of minutes per hour / new group of 10 players per minute.

The dungeon opened at 12:00 pm PDT Sunday, it is now not quite 12:00 PDT Tuesday, so 48 hours. There were 42 confirmed Arachnophobia exotics at the time of the OP’s post (cheapest ~26g), and that number is down to 29 currently (cheapest ~45g), so we can assume the number of new postings is < 5 in order for the price to be driven up 19g, but let’s round it up to 6: 42+6= 48.

That’s 1 Arachnophobia being sold per hour. Let’s assume for every one being sold there is 1 looted and not being sold (a high estimate given that only those with level 80 THF/RNG can use it, and even amongst those I’d wager most looted bows are being sold). That means across 51 servers the most the chest could have yielded is 2 Arachnophobia exotics per hour, or 96 to date.

With a minimum of 122,400 attempts to loot it with only 2 being a success, the odds of getting one are 1 in 61,200, or 0.000016%.

The Crossing has very similar drop rate, while the Mad Moon (based on # sales since the beginning) seems to average about double (or desire to retain it is roughly half if the chance is the same, but let’s assume the worst).

So the chance to obtain any of these (not the one you want) is 1 in 15,300, or 0.000065%. Hardly a common drop, and those that get it are basically winning the lottery.

TLDR:

Problem is, they take a winning ticket down to the lottery office (BLT) and get the option: “Would you like 10 million dollars paid annually for 50 years at a rate of $200,000 per year, or would you like 1 lump sum of 3 million dollars right here on the spot?”

Greed + Impatience = “I’ll take my 3 mil now because it’s 15x as much as the 200k I would get now otherwise”.

And there, my unfortunate crafting friends, lies the problem.

If you are a Norn/Charr you have every right to get the soulbound item as anyone else. Be considerate though, and “master” the puzzle with a smaller character first and you won’t be around long enough to bother anyone. For those Norn/Charr that have said they intentionally “grief” by obstructing view / using psychological warfare / bright dyes on large equipment, you are no better than the ones making the attacks and giving others a bad name.

Took me 4 tries for my Norn to breeze through after timing the jumps on my minimum size Sylvari, and I didn’t get a single complaint:

Child’s play, wait for a new build and then do a time run once it counts down from 1:30 =)

No pressure:

Meshuggah.3704:

JQ & SBI are clearly teaming up against BG. That’s sad, considering we are still holding the lead. Once Monday rolls around we will really see which way the boat tips. Good effort from both SBI and JQ so far….but double teaming? LAWL.

Or maybe SBI is just tired of being your lapdog since the days 75% of your server was known as HoD, and JQ has always hated you since ~15% of our best pvpers jumped ship to join HoD during our very first match-up because they wanted a certain win and nothing more (no idea if they also bandwagonned to BG but your server can’t shake its rep ’til it shakes the ex-TA flag).

Or maybe double-teaming is as valid a tactic if not moreso than what SBI/JQ witnessed from BG in the first 24 hours of the match. If you can’t play nice, you will get ganged up on and pushed back down where they will tolerate that nonsense and play “fairly” to your advantage.

Welcome to Tier 1.

(I apologize in advance to the moderator that will have to lock/remove this, but honestly until the exploits are fixed the natives will be restless. They will be adopted/used until they are removed and new ones are found, like in every game prior. People should expect this by now.)

One of 2 things must end now because one will end or they both will:

1) Keep this thread free of hacking/exploit/accusations/flaming
2) This thread will be LOCKED just like the first one already was, and the MOD already promised would happen to this one if it continues.

Jeheil.2516:

IoJ has alot to learn. Yesterday in Garrison we had simultaneous incursions from both our SBI and JQ neighbors on NE and NW gates. When they met in the middle they starred sternly at each other, a few handbags were thrown and then JQ left and SBI set about us.

When IoJ and JQ both broke into the bay and found ourselves setting up siege on either side of the bridge, IoJ attacked JQ, got the snot kicked out of us and in doing so probably helped SBI at our expense.

We need to play the long game a bit better.

Well, think of it in these terms… if two sides assault the same objective held by a third party simultaneously, it is a race to see who claims it first. One side aggresses the other too much, and it turns into a bar brawl. These tend to get kicked out.

After all, you don’t break into a Cop’s backyard at the same time as another thief just to duke it out there with the floodlights on, right?

Still, I don’t think it is asking much. While you still have the option after 24 hours to transfer again, you will effectively be resetting your 7 day timer, to discourage abuse of the system for WvW purposes, and encourage server stability for both WvW and PvE guild/community/population reasons.

After all, it was in Arena Net’s original design anyways, that “trying out” another server, which is what a mere 24 hour cooldown on free transferring effectively is already, locks you out of WvW permanently on that server while remaining a guest. If you decided you liked it enough to (at that time guesting is enabled) pay to transfer there, then you could WvW because you’d be representing your “home server”. There is no “home server” in the current system. Everyone is a vagrant, those who do settle do so by choice, not restriction.

One possible workaround if Arena Net and popular opinion considers a 7 day lockout upon newly transferring too harsh (say you want to WvW with your friends right away and do not intend to merely server hop 24 hours later). Give you the option of retaining the ability to transfer again after the current 24 hours expire but take the 7 day WvW lockout, OR agree to a 7 day transfer cooldown in exchange for the ability to WvW instantly (stating your intent to commit to the transfer for at least 7 days and not “spy” “supply drain”, basically imbalance WvW against Arena Net’s intentions).

Thoughts?

The real simple fix-all solution is to treat the current free transfer on 24 hour cooldown system as if it were the “Guesting” system it has been hotfixed to replace until its implementation. This means:

-No WvW participation period for new transfers for 7 days. You have to prove your citizenship before you can represent that server, seems legit.
-No Realm Bonuses period for new transfers for 7 days. You have to be able to contribute to reap the rewards, seems legit.
-A host of issues will be cleared up with this one simple Arena Net designed limitation that has yet to be enforced, including:

• Spying
• Supply draining
• Bandwagonning / Fair-weather freeloading / Queue-clogging / Realm Bonus Leaching
• Volatile population shifting / Server imbalancing
• Match integrity disruption
• Community degradation

A simple limitation, already intended by Arena Net to have in place along with Guesting, but the oversight of not having implemented it along with their substitute free transfer system but by all indications intended to be put in place when “Guesting” does arrive anyways.

Fix it. Please. Thank you.

+1 for your support.

Anthrage.2519:

-Free transfers from any server to any other server, ‘downstream’ only, outside of your current match-up or tier only, and only once per round. Resets at round end – call it ‘Timed WvW Guesting.’
-Paid transfers possible at any time, upstream/downstream, any tier and permanent – call it Changing Home Servers

‘Downstream’ means moving only to tiers or match-ups below you, and only to the team in 3rd place in said tier.

Now, some people will say, why would anyone want to transfer to a losing server? Well from what I’ve uncovered, it’s not as unlikely as it sounds:

-Ability to WvW SOMEWHERE, bypassing a prohibitively long queue
-Higher Karma/Experience gains due to Undermanned Buff (rename it to Underdog)
-Ability to fight AGAINST your own guildmates (provided the match-ups across rounds swap as would be required)
-Generate Influence on multiple servers, for future possible use in a permanent move
-Allow WvW map completion for people incapable of getting access to certain assets

While your desire to see the glass as half-full and improve the existing system is commendable, there are some fundamental flaws I need to point out in the logistics here:

-In close matchups where the leading server is winning on merit alone, a flood of transfers that are forced into the “current” 3rd place server could ruin their hard work and discourage them from continuing that weeks matchup, leading to a new dictator based not on merit, but on mechanics.
-The outmanned buff (underdog) buff will go away as soon as a significant number of tranfsers forced all onto the same 3rd place server specifically to gain said buff for the incentives you just listed, contradicting its entire purpose.
-“Free” downstream and “Paid” upstream leads to a “Pay to Win” system which will alienate a majority demographic which chose this game because it has no required fee, and they expect it to be fair for those who do not spend additional money to enjoy it fully. The incentive to purchase gems with real money is one where the player feels no pressure to do so, but rewarded for their generosity if they do.
-Allowing instant WvW participation after an instant transfer still leaves a major bulk of issues in place: Spies, Supply draining, Bandwagonning, Fair-weather freeloaders, Realm Bonus leeches, Queue-cloggers, etc.
-You can’t PvE across servers. Not until “Guesting” is actually implemented.

The real simple fix-all solution is to treat the current free transfer on 24 hour cooldown system as if it were the “Guesting” system it has been hotfixed to replace until its implementation. This means:

-No WvW participation period for new transfers for 7 days. You have to prove your citizenship before you can represent that server, seems legit.
-No Realm Bonuses period for new transfers for 7 days. You have to be able to contribute to reap the rewards, seems legit.
-A host of issues will be cleared up with this one simple Arena Net designed limitation that has yet to be enforced, including:

• Spying
• Supply draining
• Bandwagonning / Fair-weather freeloading / Queue-clogging / Realm Bonus Leaching
• Volatile population shifting / Server imbalancing
• Match integrity disruption
• Community degradation

A simple limitation, already intended by Arena Net to have in place along with Guesting, but the oversight of not having implemented it along with their substitute free transfer system but by all indications intended to be put in place when “Guesting” does arrive anyways.

Fix it. Please. Thank you.

+1 for your support.

But how is the score now for those of us who can’t get in?

Chewy.9263:

T1 match does not matter this week! SBI, JQ, and IOJ will all remain in T1 because Blackgate (ranked 6th) is destroying HoD and ET, but will only move up to the 4th ranked position.

This is how the point system works for those who think 1st/2nd/3rd is all that matters still:

1st does not always advance 1 spot into the next Tier up, 3rd does not always drop 1 spot to the next Tier down. Sorry for any misconceptions.

Anyone who slacks off in any Tier is losing more than 1 spot this week. Every point you don’t continue to fight for is not 1, but 2 points difference between you and the server that does fight for it: the potential point you didn’t gain (-1) and the point they did (+1).

Blackgate could easily land in 3rd with the massive potential points HoD/ET is giving up to them this week if any Tier 1 server gets left behind the other two. In fact if any current Tier 1 server ever shows weakness Blackgate will replace them and it will likely be permanent (new, lightweight HoD reclaiming it’s throne).

It’s always sink or swim, points count even if you are likely to end up 3rd in your matchup. Whoever stops swimming first, will sink the furthest. There be sharks in these waters hungry to move up.

Update please, I’m on my lunch break!

I would say considering last week’s mass-transfer to call us JQueue not JQQ, but, (and I can’t speak for every map) Blue Borderlands has been instant Queue all night and we are clearly outmanned on both fronts. Those left are putting up as good of a fight as can be expected but we’ve been 1:3 everywhere we go, large force or small scouting parties. IOJ pushing our spawn from the west, SBI pushing our spawn from the east, avoiding one another at least in the entire south part of the map. Which makes sense I guess, IOJ would get wiped just as hard if they went up against 3 Orbed SBI now, might as well help them route us from behind any chance they get. If we don’t double our numbers by tomorrow night SBI will keep their Orbs and run away with this, and they won’t have anyone to fight all week ’til next reset.

ecwoodrow.7034:

Not sure I understand what you’re asking. Do you want Anet to do something about players folding the minute one team gets a slight advantage? What are they gonna do, send them a pair of balls in the mail?

Precisely what needs to happen.

Picture this: you’re an olympic athlete, you’ve trained for years sacrificing any semblance of normal life to excel at one thing, and that is running the 1,000 meter race faster than anyone else. You’re at the starting line, the gun fires, you get off to a good start. Your competition wants this just as bad and trained just as hard as you. You are neck and neck. If this were a scrim you’d be dozens of meters in the lead by now, but these are the big dogs, and you’re not in your little pond. Someone pulls ahead of you by several paces. You push yourself harder than you ever have before, even during your record times. You push yourself because if you don’t, you will lose.

First the cramps set in, because your body – trained as it may be, hasn’t been asked to go beyond its limits in training. You ignore those, they can’t stop you. Then your lungs burn for air you can’t suck down fast enough, so you hold your breathe – this won’t take long. Then your muscles scream. Your bones bruise. Still your competition effortlessly pulls ahead even further. You madly will your body to fly, which it cannot do, and the strain causes your left testicle to burst.

You fight through the pain for the win, but one after another competitor glides on by like this a jog through the park for them. You’re beaten, you’re broken, you’re done… and there’s still 800 meters to go.

If you don’t get a new pair of balls, you won’t win despite having done your best. Your best wasn’t good enough. Time to call out the stretcher.

@ Tarnin: I’m sorry if you took my post as anything more than a poor substitute for what the OP is asking for. It is merely a list of what anyone can do now while we wait (and the wait may be eternal, so start now)

I can sympathize about the anonymity of WvWvW getting some of the more competitive guilds / small squads / solo pvp elitists seeking rivalries down. While it would be nice if GW2 supported what you were looking for, I’d say they’ve decided to completely wall it off into sPvP, where precisely all of that exists and more.

For WvW there are a few tools / methods at your disposal to create a “bleed over” effect:

— Keep doing what you do, and when your small squad all have “Ultimate Dominator” titles clearly visible with their HP bars, people will remember your guild name.
— Use that in conjunction with Forum sigs so that people can tie individual players to your guild infamy.
— If your guild is able to, claiming towers/keeps flies your emblem from its banner, which can be matched with emblems you can purchase for armor/weapons.
— If you want to have more of that “instant infamy” as soon as you steamroll someone, consider ditching your 10 man Abyss dyed CoF armor and go for distinct and crazy visual customizations. “WoW that purple-yellow-teal Power Ranger looking guy is unstoppable”
— In your forum sigs, put your guild name, player name “That purple-yellow-teal Power Ranger” so people go “ahhh, so that’s who it is”.
— If you want to know who just killed you when no one else has before, target them (likely already do if you were going down fighting them), right-click > report gives you their Forum ID, which is the primary identifying info on the forums, where you say you reserve your trash talking for anyways. Should be easy to find them and start a conversation if they visit here at all (you can PM them and wait for a response if they merely lurk, too).

I know this isn’t the facilitated method you are hoping for, but like I said, I think sPvP is really the place Anet intended for things to get… “personal”. If WvWvW lives up to its “larger-than-life” scale, it will be the combined effort of a servers dominant guilds and the competence of the militia they organize that will claim the lion’s share of credit for achievements; and the kill ratio of a single foot soldier, while they have every right to be proud of, is only a small part of that.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to read and add constructive criticism as well as their own suggestions to my original post. Even those who replied after reading only the Title at least care enough about this issue to add their two cents.

I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that Anet will have to police server population and mass transfers per 24 hour period a little more than they’d hoped was necessary. While in an ideal environment, free choice with little-to-no consequence would lead to the betterment of all…

…this is the internet. It is not even close to ideal.

People need further restrictions and, perhaps more importantly, further incentives to make decisions that will improve the game, rather than make it unfair and unfun for everyone but themselves in the short-term, and even for themselves in the long-run.

Take all our opinions and suggestions with a grain of salt if they fall too far outside of the Vision which Arena Net has for their beloved game, but please don’t ignore the reasons for them.

Something must be done, that has not been done so far.

Thank you, and may Guild Wars 2 be better for it.

/end thread.

What people need to consider is that free transfers are a system apart from WvW that fulfill other purposes, but also left largely unrestricted in other ways impacts WvW in ways Anet never intended. I read another similar thread where someone stated how Anet had restrictions in place for transfers/guesting in their original design but for reasons they haven’t divulged abandoned them entirely when guesting wasn’t delivered upon release. Some of these restrictions are:

- No WvW participation while guesting
- No WvW participation for the remainder of current matchup if transferred
- No realm bonuses while guesting

I would also suggest something like a “first one’s free” system (something kicked around in BWE’s and then abandoned), but modified slightly for the long-term.

At the beginning of each week’s matchups, starting with the WvW score reset (when everyone is booted out of WvW and then let back in), all accounts are allowed “1 free transfer” with the only restriction that they cannot transfer to either of the two servers in their current matchup. After 24 hours, they are eligible for paid transfers as many times as they want for the remainder of the matchup. Once that week’s matchup is over, they are credited with a new free transfer. These free transfers can only reach a maximum limit of one, so no saving them up to get around the restrictions. Those who are transferring apart from WvW reasons are not affected: it benefits them to spend 6 days or less (depending on when they transferred) getting a “feel” for their chosen server before getting a free pass out (something reduced further when guesting does get implemented), but does not entirely stop them from paying for an “emergency transfer” if they simply cannot or do not wish to wait.

Those who are transferring for WvW reasons will have a large part of the typical reasons/incentives to do so removed, although “fair weather” transfers will at least be reduced to 1 a week, mitigating some of the rapid population shifts somewhat. Those who simply must transfer out of their current server or lose all enjoyment / reason to play can still get their “get out of jail free” card for this purpose as well.

The end result is most if not all legitimate transfers won’t be affected, while “illegitimate” transfers will be far more restricted (though not entirely prevented), and most importantly, for the good of both Anet and the diehard WvW community, taxed.

Think about it, if Anet actually listened to the constant bickering over free transfers and A) stealthily patched in paid transfers next build, or B) announced that free transfers would end in, say, a week’s time, then WvW would be ruined for sure. The servers aren’t even close to evenly populated, so if it was a stealth patch they would almost never be, and current WvW standings would be this way largely forever (given the disparity, low pop servers could never move up far to compete with high pop servers, taking a lot of the fight out of the dog).

If it was announced, low tier servers would empty and pack into as many top tier servers as possible because once the boatman starts charging for ferry rides, your fate is more or less sealed. This would create deathly long queues and unplayable invisible lag armies in the top tiers and absolutely no action in the lower tiers (with the result that eventually servers would be merged into medium-high pop servers if the influx of new players didn’t fill them up quickly enough).

Simply put, Anet won’t end free transfers at this point any time soon, because they can’t. They are looking at the bigger picture, as some of you need to start doing. Look beyond your week-long matches and down the road a few months to a year. Whether we “pioneers” keep at WvW or sit out the storm to see what happens in the coming months to change it, the game as a whole will inevitably see a constant influx of new players every day until likely a year from now half the population will be “new” to us. The balance won’t come this week or next week, but it will come – change is inevitable.

As for “Full” servers becoming “High” at night and accepting new transfers: this is simply a matter of efficiency. What is best, to have your servers maxed during primetime while all but a few taper off to nearly no activity during off-peak? Or to essentially eliminate off-peak by having people find a server that isn’t full during their free time to play? Sure there is such a thing as “off-peak” now, but eventually any competitive WvW server will have some decent 24 hour coverage. These “late night” transfers are vital in achieving this, as they have already greatly contributed to filling these timeslots in servers that are beginning to see real 24 hour coverage (when that server is actively participating in WvW, that is).

If there was a culprit to the current imbalance, it would be mass transfers allowed between servers that are currently matched. Too many matches saw an early victor during the first 24-48 hours and due to the frivolous nature of server hopping, anyone on the two losing servers that wanted to win that week simply jumped ship. Their incentive to keep fighting would have been much greater if the only servers they couldn’t transfer to were the two they were currently matched against. Sure some might have voluntarily switched to a “winning server” in another matchup altogether, but I am fairly certain given the actual numbers most of these occurred within their own matchups once an early lead was clear. Fewer people would voluntarily drop down a Tier to win that matchup one lousy time, when they could still be higher up than any of those servers at the end of the week by fighting for 2nd place in their current one.

Another measure that probably should have been taken (and if it is at all possible should be considered by Anet still) was to artificially lower the total population cap of all servers across the board from day 1, to perhaps -2,000 simultaneous players of that server’s actual capacity. This would force most servers to be crowded. Then, say, once most servers had an equal population (something considered “medium” by current standards), raise the limit by 500 across all servers until that mostly filled up, then 500 more, then 500 more. Essentially controlling the maximum amount of fluctuation and effectively eliminating mass exodus / bandwagoning / crowding of servers due to these high capacity servers allowing unlimited traffic between them without restrictions (being free or paid is not the only, nor the most important factor here).

TLDR: “Free Transfers” were never the real culprit, and must stay in place for awhile to come if the servers are ever to see any true balance.

Honestly I’d have to second Shadow’s post.

Don’t make the players stronger to inadequately compensate for their server being at off-peak hours. Don’t throttle queues and limit / punish players for where they live or when they have time to play. Anet won’t do this, it is stated in the OP.

Make the incentives greater. Aside from short-to-none queues. The server can easily tell if the #1 server in a matchup has 50 more players in a Borderlands than either of their opponents. Say every point tally a census is taken. For every player less than the largest of the 3 sides has that has engaged the enemy in combat (aka spies and leeches won’t be counted), you gain bonuses to XP, Magic Find, Badge drop rate, Event rewards, etc. This incentive-driven system would reward participation during off-peak times with the result of there being either, A) no off-peak times as everyone wants the most bang for their buck, or rewards the night crews trying to hold objectives and otherwise spending resources being slaughtered and outnumbered 1:3 or 1:4 or worse, so they aren’t penalized for trying.

@ Stiv: it essentially can’t be interrupted “sooner” as it is “quicker” than the interrupts.

@ Leiloni, Klawlyt: allow me to direct you to this:
http://www.gw2db.com/items/27885-superior-sigil-of-rage

Now you say well everyone can give up their other useful sigils to equip this, but I’d like to argue that some crit builds are better than others, and this synergizes with such builds while leaving the others at a disadvantage.

Effectively limiting “quick finishers” to only a handful of specialized builds that does little to nothing to hinder such a build, while alienating all others, will see a dramatic increase in such builds for the sole purpose of “guaranteeing a kill”. More and more people will be finished this way as its popularity inevitably increases (it effectively bypasses an intended game mechanic), and the ones who cannot “do unto others” will be converted primarily because they themselves are unable to finish off kills the same way they get finished off.

Since certain builds cannot reasonably accommodate the “quick finish”, they will decrease in popularity and may not even be seen at all in PvP eventually as they will become outdated and extinct.

After all, the power to down your enemy first is pointless and all the strategy and skill is worthless if you can’t finish them but they can finish you.

(As for going stealth for the finisher animation this is arguably unstoppable, however allies have more time to respond and perform a multiple revive / AoE storm where the stealther must be to channel it, and the downed player will have more time to get their skill 2 up whether they get to target their enemy with it or not; I believe some cause PBAoE knockback even stealthed units interrupting their finisher – vastly preferrable to the downed player than an uninterruptable quick finish)

(cont…)

Once all -Conditions are blown and Poison limits their ability to heal, (7) will do massive amounts of DoT and grant Might for 13s. It shouldn’t take that long to put them in a downed state at this point, so they should still have several seconds of Weakened/Fumble remaining on them once downed (if not, then (4) would have come off cooldown and will Blind/Weaken them again, as it’s CD < (8)+(4)‘s Weakness duration). Pop your own heal at this point which should remove any conditions that might impair your ability to finish them, and press (F). Approx 3s into your animation the Warrior is going to stop throwing his rocks (they won’t be hitting for 1.9k) and toss his KD hammer, so interrupt your own finisher and evade it. He will begin throwing rocks again so roll back and (F) again. He will Juggernaut at which point all but (8) and possibly (0) will be off cooldown. Start with (2) followed by (5) and (7) and (4) if it is up, (3) if it isn’t, then go do something more useful with your time as they have no hope of dealing anymore damage to you or escaping alive.

TLDR: Learn and adapt, you will have less to complain about.

I am embarrassed this has become about Necromancers being as that is my main (and for those of you wondering, not close to OP – unless you’re speaking strictly PvE) but I have to concur. The 1v1 situation described above would have irked me more if I was the Warrior, not if I was the Necro.

Necro is not a class that can throw 5 signets on at random and spec full Berserkers gear with a GS/Rifle and face any challenge equally. That’s what a glass cannon Warrior does and it does it well, but is by no means unkillable 1v1. If you want to succeed as a Necro get good and fast at reading upcoming match-ups and switching out your 6-10 skills on the fly. Also, play sPvP more and utilize ALL your skills (don’t just glance at the text and not fully understand them) so you really get a feel for what you can do and when you can do it.

In this instance, using only my default “all-around” skills (say the Warrior snuck around a corner out of my field of view and opened with kill-shot for the 14.5k damage and then the fight begins) I’d be left with roughly 13k HP and no conditions on me. One hotbar has (1) DoT/Poison, (2) Cripple/DoT, (3) DD/Lifeforce gain, (4) Blind/Condition xfer, (5) Weakness/DoT. The other has awesome stuff too but is not necessary. I have (6) Heal/Cure conditions, (7) Might/DoT/self-DoT, (8) Weakness/Poison/self-Weakness, (9) Swiftness/Stun-break/Lifeforce gain/Teleport, (0) Immunity to DD and a hotbar of DoT/Poison/Blind/Cripple for 20s.

First let’s look at the OP’s problem: taking huge damage!! We need to counter this effectively in order to proceed reducing the Warrior’s HP to zero and beyond without interruption. What’s stopping him is his own HP reaching zero.

Next let’s understand what these skills locked in combat can accomplish, starting with the ones that solve the problem of… dying. Blind and Weakness. Blind is a condition with a short duration (6.5s with +duration) that causes the next attempted attack, or skill-based attack, to entirely miss its target. Weakness causes -50% End regen and 50% Fumble. No Endurance means no mobility which in the Warriors case means the Necro can keep him at a safe distance and keep them from escaping (after skill-based gap closers have been exhausted). Fumble is an often overlooked condition which causes all normal attacks to be glancing blows, and turns critical hits into normal damage attacks. Both (5) and (8) are 11s durations. (8) also applies 6.5s Weakness to yourself, which can be transferred to your target with (4) along with its Blind, effectively adding to the duration (and restoring your state). (0) can also negate all incoming damage from the Warrior excluding ground-targetted abilities (such as a Longbow’s, which this Warrior doesn’t have) and condition damage (which this Warrior isn’t specced for but has a minor DoT on his Rifle skill) for 20s while causing Blind/Poison/Cripple/DoT with a 1s interval between changing which condition you wish to stack next (you may also dash/evade in this form).

I would traditionally open with (5) to immediately protect myself from a follow-up burst combo while lowering the enemy’s HP enough to possibly bait their condition removal. After 1-2s if they are still debuffed I would follow with (2) and (1) combos to effectively control their movement and begin kiting them with (9). If the Warrior chose to remain Weakened/Crippled/Poisoned/DoT’d reserving their -Condition skill they will simply either die once Lifeforce is high enough to Deathshroud or be forced to use it to break out of the infinite kite. Once removed, (8) followed by (4) applies 17.5s of Weakness along with Blindness and Poison. Now damage dealt to them will stick better and they will never crit for the rest of the fight. If they had a second -Condition skill you can fall back on (0) to effectively stack them back on while maintaining your HP.

OT: They need a thief champ in a certain game which can steal a certain champ’s “Spin to Win” ability and use it against them. Kudos Anet.

Loot bags teleport to you in PvP so make sure you break the habit of running up to dead bodies to see if you got any loot.

IMHO “spying” is part of war in general and I would not like to see Anet put any measures in place to stop it, even if it is technically outside of game “exploit”. What I would like to see is if and when spies get caught, they get blacklisted on the server they spied on, denounced/punished by the servers they could benefit, and if tracked back to a guild roster that guild shamed publicly. That’s all the “balance” it needs, since anyone can do it, if they want to risk their reputation doing so.

The real question is it is a bug, or intended? AFAIK cooldowns once you are put into a downed state are unaffected by boons (you don’t keep your existing boons on being downed or gain boons from allies). At least, in 400+ hours of playtime I’ve always had to wait the exact same number of seconds before using my interrupt (hotbar 2) skill on anyone trying to finish me. If all a player needs to do to “cheese” a downed player out of being able to fight for their life (something Anet expressed a specific intention for) is ensure they have means to add quickness to themselves when an enemy is downed, any build that can accommodate it will soon carry it standard until something is done to prevent it.

I know it is a bit excessive to remove a newly activated quickness boon if any nearby enemies enter a downed state (although irritating I’m not sure how this could be exploited to remove boons), because it might have the opposite effect of players avoiding quickness boons that keep getting stripped away. But perhaps have the “Finisher!” animation itself be standardized and unaffected by boons, as it is instant death when it completes, and is a bit OP to pull off in < 2 seconds before they can reasonably be stopped / ally can be revived.

Just having quickness you can chip through a downed enemy’s health pretty quickly (faster than usual), so it is still useful, but in most cases they at least have a fighting chance.

Ha, I wanted to shoot myself having to listen to that song for over a month at my dayjob, but as with most annoying lyrics I come up with alternate lyrics so I never get the original’s stuck in my head from excessive exposure. This gets my seal of approval.