Guild Wars 2

The elusive Cyyrix, Mesmer kitten and member of RIOT and Marypoppins Deathsquad [mdk] – he really does exist:

A lot of folks enjoyed our zerg montage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w4BQstxXvY

On a more serious note, any clip from Yishis should be included: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-tSlT2ZKdw – afterall, the best thing about WvW is solo and small group combat.

Bring it.

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Now!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Now!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

15 is a large number for us, but we manage to find good action in smaller groups. Yeah, the zergs sometimes get out of control, but that shouldn’t be anything new to a T1 guild.

morrolan.9608:

Boulderbolg.3460:

GW2 shines as far as combat gameplay goes, and EOTM is currently shining a spotlight on what GW2 does best. Fighting.

Is all servers of a particular colour running around in 1 big blob really fighting?

No, and that’s not what I do.

It really baffles me how people can still care about who wins the WvW point tick from week to week. This game is over a year old; isn’t that enough time to figure out that the WvW meta is pointless other than proving which server has more players across as many time zones as possible?

GW2 shines as far as combat gameplay goes, and EOTM is currently shining a spotlight on what GW2 does best. Fighting.

2 guards, 2 mezzes, 1 engy.. game over.

Enjoy!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Pinkus.2860:

flickky.2634:

Swaggate.

Video of the year goes to RIOT – 100%

That wolf got PWND yo!

Lol thanks… here is our original version.

If you are interested, we are streaming the EoM Beta live!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Small group roaming in WvW, while often frustrating, but it also provides experiencing the awesome GW2 combat system at it’s fullest potential. And unlike sPvP, you never know what your fights will bring.

Sifu.6527:

So…about this awesome roaming guild I keep hearing about from BG – Riot. I haven’t seen them much. At most, I saw one guy running with the pugs. Do they still roam? If yes, around what time and with how many? This is Mag second time facing BG, probably the last for this season so maybe they will come out and play.

Stop giving me blue balls!

You can always check out our stream to see if we are on and where. Link in my sig.

Winkin.1490:

Does SoR have any guilds like Riot / oPP?

They used to have CAPS and CD, but they haven’t been around for a while. TW and SF started running a decent 5 mans when Bloodlust first came out, but lately SoR seems to be going through some sort of crisis. I don’t know what is going on with the server as a whole, but most of the small man groups that SoR did have were also major parts of the SoR community, so if that community is falling apart then those small man groups might be disappearing too.

:(

Butter.3024:

But yeah there are a small time zone about 2-3 hours where SoR is extremely weak and unfortunately that is ZD prime time, we lose EVERYTHING

We lost garri about an hour ago and ZD is running rampage PvD with no resistance

Unless PPT is all they care about, I can see them getting burned out soon. The game is no fun without people to fight. The EU servers are probably where ZD truly belongs.

Thanks for your reply. Ok, I’ll bite. How do you predict your quality level of fights will go? Also, how many players are in your small groups, and what server are you on?

Second To God solo roaming in Gold League NAO!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

As a GM for a small roaming guild on Blackgate, I am interested in hearing from Mag/SoS/TC players about what you think about facing BG/SoR/JQ or any combination of those three servers.

1. Are you concerned that your server’s WvW activity will decrease during these matchups? If so, which timezones are you most concerned about?

2. Are you worried about queues on your server, and/or lag in WvW?

3. Do you like the league changes?

4. Do you like the old Bloodlust buff (stats and stomp points) and mechanic, and do you like the new Bloodlust buff (stats and stomp points)?

5. Are you in a roaming guild, a point per tick guild, an open field guild, or a combination?

Keep in mind that I care less about winners and losers of the league or individual matchups. I simply want to know how you predict the quality of your gaming experience will be for the next few weeks.

Thanks,
BB

Esqi.8496:

Jado Cast.1805:

Ferris Bewler.9706:

TKG we miss you guys!

I miss tagging along with TKG. This Guild has mad Skillz. I was hoping to get some match ups with some of your roamers but never see you guys.

Are you guys still active flake?

Yeah we still active, dunno what’s going on with our day roamers. Last night we had a good little skirmish with RIOT, but after that it normally gets into serious mode =/

Small scale is normally before serious mode, Friday night and weekends during the day.

Good fights! I feel sad though because small scale is our serious mode. ;-p

A 2 hour+ queue in every borderland, and we can’t find a single person in the Bloodlust area. The area is as dead as the quaggans were.

tldr:

1. Stats bonus was too powerful, and the nerf was agreeable by all sane players.
2. The old stomp bonus created more dynamic and interesting play for zerg and non-zerg players in competitive matchups.
3. In non-competitive match-ups, the old stomp bonus didn’t effect the out come of winners and losers of the given matchup.
4. The current stomp point nerf relagates zergs back to dps’ing downed players instead of stomping.
5. The stomp point nerf discourages small group roaming on all but one borderland.

Anet has always had the general philosophy that WvW has been designed and geared towards large amounts of players fighting against other large amounts of players. Has this philosophy deviated at all to include small roaming groups, and if so will one of the gameplay objectives of the new map include incentives such as the Bloodlust to promote small roaming group play?

Thank you!

Anet has repeatedly expressed that WvW is geared towards zerging. That isn’t to say that small groups and solo roamers don’t have a place. However, just about every WvW mechanic encourages zerging: equal WXP/Karma no matter how many attackers, AOE limits, fast traveling, etc.

Anet did implement the Bloodlust, which encouraged small roaming groups. However, as we all know this has been nerfed quite a bit so the incentive to roam has once again taken a back seat it seems. The stat buff was a little bit out of line, but the stomp points created a huge incentive for servers to control all of the Bloodlusts. Now, after the first Bloodlust is controlled, there is little incentive to control the other two. Two steps forward, one step back.

styx.7294:

Boulderbolg.3460:

Have the Bloodlust areas not created a more enjoyable skirmishing environment in the lower tiers???

Basically the buff hasn’t really changed much, I think. Unless you’re totally shut out of a match (being on Blackgate, I have no idea if you ever encounter that). Where you can’t take keeps back, you’re starting breakouts for Cragtop/Sunnyhill, and the enemy has more people roamers in the ruins than you have people total. Then it’s super annoying to have someone have +150 to every one of their stat points.

We came from Yaks Bend, so yeah we know what it is like to be totally shut out. It does suck. I totally agree with you that 150 stat bonus was way too much, especially for the folks in the lower tiers who are out manned in every BL. I (and just about everyone else in this thread) just want to see the stomp bonus returned to the way it was before so as to keep the Bloodlust area from becoming a complete dead zone.

Folks in this thread have hit the nail on the head. As Amadaeus said, people who zerg aren’t that good at skirmishing in small groups. They’ve “trained” to stay on their commander and dump certain abilities as a group. The zerg technique is good at what it is trying to accomplish: killing other zergs. In that sense, zerg vs zerg play requires skill, but it is a completely different type of skill. Just like roaming, it requires adjusting to the enemy, adjusting to new patches, being creative in battle, etc. Not many guilds do it well.

To find the best zerg players, you go to T1. They’re constantly trying to better their zerg playstyle. If you want to find the best roamers though, they probably won’t be inT1 (although we do have some good roaming groups, and would enjoy playing with more).

With all things regarding WvW, there are always exceptions. Here is an example of a fight that shows the exact opposite of the statements I just made above: (T1 roamers beating a small T2 zerg): http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv/c/3094055

1. zerging vs solo-play or small-group-play
2. long-term-motivation / rewards
3. lag

(No idea who you are, Gorni, but I follow you).

I made around 20g grinding the karma train last Friday. IMO it’s a lot more bearable than doing PvE or zerging (I can’t stand zerg fighting). Unfortunately I don’t get most Fridays off of work.

Bottom line is you can’t roam and make money at the same time, and that probably won’t change. You have to resort to an old school MMO mentality and find a way to grind it out.

As the GM of a somewhat well-known roaming group (yes, in T1), I can tell you that the Bloodlust changed everything for my guild. It completely revitalized our GW2 experience.

For about 2-3 months prior to the BL, we had to BEG the other two servers to run more small groups. Most of theirs quit the game at that time, and we were seriously considering moving to T2. We resorted to trying to fight zerg stragglers. Then bloodlust happened. SoR and JQ began to care about small groups again. My guild doesn’t care about the PPT; all we know is that the Bloodlust mechanic created a lot more small roaming groups in T1. Not only that, but our server’s community actually cares about us being on the map now. Our 3-8 roamers make a difference for once! It’s been an amazing month.

I am just afraid that what Rackhir Tanelorn.9123 says above about denying the 1 point from one or both servers won’t be enough incentive for SoR and JQ to continue bringing out their small roaming groups to cap Bloodlust. 3 points per stomp vs 1 point… that’s a huge difference for the SoR and JQ communities to consider. Will it still be worth their while bringing out small groups on more than one map? My guild isn’t the only roaming group on Blackgate. We need a significant population of enemy small groups on every map.

I don’t know how the Bloodlust stomp points affected the lower tiers. My impression was that the lower tiers didn’t care that much about PPT anyway, and just wanted good fights. Have the Bloodlust areas not created a more enjoyable skirmishing environment in the lower tiers??? And the argument above about losing by 100k vs 130k… is that worth removing a mechanic that is considered by many zerg and non-zerg players to be the best mechanic in WvW?

Another great resource for learning about roaming:

http://www.gw2opp.com/category/videos/

Find some youtube videos or live streamers that play the class that you play and solo roam. You can pick up a lot of good tips on solo roaming on our live stream.

And he’s back, this time small group play!

Rush.8253:

Congrats to Devon Carver….killed a whole server all by himself.

R.I.P. Kaineng

The level of personal hate spewed on this forum towards specific Anet staff members is rather sickening. It is fine to be passionate about the current and proposed implementations of the game, but this is a childish way to discuss it.

Lol, good stuff Wilson!

RussNazz.4728:

BAITness.1083:

I am glad you posted this. Having played in tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3, I can say the biggest difference is definitely our commanders. Our commanders are the best of the best. I have seen people in LA mistakenly assume it is just stacking, calling for might, and charging in. It is just sad how wrong they are, as they are missing out on the strategy and counter-strategy that really makes wvw enjoyable. I have gotten to follow a number of absolutely excellent commanders, and they are very impressive. They manage the map, control where their enemies go, beat larger groups consistently and evolve the strategy of the game with their different ideas. The current strategy relies on a heavy warrior presence, we will see where it goes from here.

The lower tiers like to claim they have better roamers, but I have played against them and they are simply incorrect. In the lower tiers being a “skilled roamer” counts as being a person in a 1v1 build trying to hunt down someone in a team build en route to their group. In T1 we have roamers that can smash entire small groups by themselves, and survive encounters with the mega blobs we have here. When I played on JQ there was a thief who would flip all the camps on the map right before the tick… I don’t recall anybody ever stopping him. I ran into him a few times when groups of players were trying to chase him down, but he either won the fight or chased them off every time. There used to be a few groups completely dedicated to fighting drastically larger numbers, and they were successful – not because the larger number groups were playing very poorly, but rather because the small groups played very well.

You were also dead on about the lag. An FA player expressed it well in a reply, you can literally feel the lag as a zerg is coming. JQ and BG run in full map zergs drastically less often then SoR NA, but all three servers do it. When we are running our nightly raid, our commander will frequently call out “lag… sor zerg is here.” He is correct 100% of the time. I have been in a few SM fights where all 3 servers brought the majority of the players on the map to battle it out in the center… it is awful. Some abilities stop working completely, getting proper fields and blasts is incredibly difficult, and players teleport all over. I feel like the lag has improved a lot lately, but it still has all these problems, just less often and to a lesser extent.

Edit: This isn’t to say that while on lower servers I didn’t meet excellent players. I met a lot of great players. Almost all of them ended up transferring to tier 1 for more good fights, though. It also is not accurate that all tier 1 players are better. I do think that there are more skilled players in tier 1, but there are also more players in tier 1 in general.

This is exactly why I made a thread about asking which top tier server is better for me. People think that I am “bandwaggoning” because I want to join a number 1 tier server, but this is not the case, I just enjoy up scaled battles that require large amounts of players, plus I like to be able to play PvE without having to wait 30 minutes for someone to show up.

If that is your requirement, then yes any of the T1 servers should be fine.

Boon (stability) strip, CC. Game over, warrior.

Parisalchuk.9230:

Same goes just because you dont see many tiny party teams running around that it must mean they are in a single blob.

The ignorance of some people in T1 servers is astounding, just like those in lower tiers spouting crap about queue times and skill lag. Funny, you dont play on that tier, Im interested how you know this to be fact.

I’ve played on BG in a small roaming guild for the last 10 months. When we are on a Borderland capping every supply camp and don’t see a soul for 15 minutes outside of the zerg, I would say my observations are accurate. SoR zerg players have no idea how active their own server’s roaming guilds are, or how active their opponent’s roaming guilds are for that matter. Same goes to Blackgate and JQ. So unless you are a roamer, you probably shouldn’t comment on roaming in T1. I’ve even had SoR roamers tell me that the SoR community frowned upon roaming guilds prior to BL.

As I’ve said above, SoR is getting more and more roamers. TW is making an effort to roam 5 mans or less, and I’ve seen some 10-15 groups out there too. I’ve almost NEVER seen this from SoR prior to the Bloodlust. So, good for SoR for changing with the meta. We’ve enjoyed the change very much, but the stigma of SoR being the ultimate blobbing server is not completely undeserved.

Vol.5241:

Boulderbolg.3460:

krippler.9826:

kuora.5402:

Boulderbolg.3460:

Contrary to popular belief, there are some differences between the three big servers. My opinion could be wrong here since I don’t zerg, but here is how I have seen T1 play out over the last 10 months.

Blackgate and JQ have smaller guilds which sometimes run separately, and sometimes run together to create a massive blob. SoR tends to run one blob more often. This might vary depending on timezone, so what I’ve seen mostly applies to NA. Running in a smaller group might sound appealing until you get run over by a 40 man zerg a few times, so each has it’s merits.

SoR is arguably the most competitive server, with Blackgate in close second. JQ is competitive too, but they don’t seem to be all about winning in T1.

BG by far has the better smaller roaming guilds, although SoR is starting to pick it up a little. JQ is still a bit behind on the small organized roaming front. If you are a roamer looking for fights, join JQ.

With leagues coming up, all three of these servers are getting transfers, so things will probably change a lot soon.

If you believe SoR blobs any more than the other 2 servers you’re delusional. BG and JQ blobs just as much if not more.

The stigma is absolutely true. You have not seen blob until you have seen SoR blob. They never send anybody, they send everybody.

Yep, when SoR gets serious about blobbing our roaming gameplay can end quickly. Not because we get zerged but because EVERY single player on the map is in that blob. During that time period when CAPS and lulz seemed to stop playing, there were nights when we literally couldn’t find a single SoR player that wasn’t with the zerg.

This was before the Bloodlusts though. CAPS and lulz seem to be coming back, and SoR is adapting well to the new meta of roaming groups making a difference. =)

don’t act like any other server doesn’t do it either

Not to the extent that SoR has. If you roamed you would have realized that you can always find small groups to fight against with BG. SoR, not so much (until recently).

krippler.9826:

kuora.5402:

Boulderbolg.3460:

Contrary to popular belief, there are some differences between the three big servers. My opinion could be wrong here since I don’t zerg, but here is how I have seen T1 play out over the last 10 months.

Blackgate and JQ have smaller guilds which sometimes run separately, and sometimes run together to create a massive blob. SoR tends to run one blob more often. This might vary depending on timezone, so what I’ve seen mostly applies to NA. Running in a smaller group might sound appealing until you get run over by a 40 man zerg a few times, so each has it’s merits.

SoR is arguably the most competitive server, with Blackgate in close second. JQ is competitive too, but they don’t seem to be all about winning in T1.

BG by far has the better smaller roaming guilds, although SoR is starting to pick it up a little. JQ is still a bit behind on the small organized roaming front. If you are a roamer looking for fights, join JQ.

With leagues coming up, all three of these servers are getting transfers, so things will probably change a lot soon.

If you believe SoR blobs any more than the other 2 servers you’re delusional. BG and JQ blobs just as much if not more.

The stigma is absolutely true. You have not seen blob until you have seen SoR blob. They never send anybody, they send everybody.

Yep, when SoR gets serious about blobbing our roaming gameplay can end quickly. Not because we get zerged but because EVERY single player on the map is in that blob. During that time period when CAPS and lulz seemed to stop playing, there were nights when we literally couldn’t find a single SoR player that wasn’t with the zerg.

This was before the Bloodlusts though. CAPS and lulz seem to be coming back, and SoR is adapting well to the new meta of roaming groups making a difference. =)

BG has quite few roamers. We would like to see more roamers join SoR and JQ. SoR has been producing more, but not enough!

Contrary to popular belief, there are some differences between the three big servers. My opinion could be wrong here since I don’t zerg, but here is how I have seen T1 play out over the last 10 months.

Blackgate and JQ have smaller guilds which sometimes run separately, and sometimes run together to create a massive blob. SoR tends to run one blob more often. This might vary depending on timezone, so what I’ve seen mostly applies to NA. Running in a smaller group might sound appealing until you get run over by a 40 man zerg a few times, so each has it’s merits.

SoR is arguably the most competitive server, with Blackgate in close second. JQ is competitive too, but they don’t seem to be all about winning in T1.

BG by far has the better smaller roaming guilds, although SoR is starting to pick it up a little. JQ is still a bit behind on the small organized roaming front. If you are a roamer looking for fights, join JQ.

With leagues coming up, all three of these servers are getting transfers, so things will probably change a lot soon.

The Bloodlust area will keep us playing this game for a long time to come. Best improvement to WvW ever.

That’s right, butt nekid.

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Aodh has returned to GW2 and is playing his Ranger live!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

Sorry, he switched to ranger :P

Aodh has returned to GW2 and is playing his necro live!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

By the way, RIOT has consolidated all of our streamers onto one channel. Vesu Verra is streaming live now!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

RIOT has consolidated all of our streamers onto one channel. Vesu Verra is streaming live now!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv

RIOT has consolidated all of our streamers onto one channel. Second To God is streaming live now!

http://www.twitch.tv/teamriottv