Guild Wars 2

Discord is a great community and guild application.

You can adjust the voice quality just like you can in TS3 and it uses the same codec, but different servers (that you can change if say your ping is a little laggy).

I use it for my guild and I use it for the other main guild I represent.

I also used Fort Aspenwood’s DISCORD server, very often. It’s great for rallying up online players who may not be in game but on discord, for call-outs to a map and for broadcasting WvW plans for the matchup. Oh did I mention you can PIN important messages?

The whisper list, channel upgrades and advanced user control are all items Discord is going to release. With Nitro available users can subscribe on a monthly basis or yearly basis and this has helped with funding their development efforts and has pushed more updates more quickly.

Kind of off topic but I saw someone post about “getting people into Ts3 and Discord will make it now even harder” … no. When I rally in TS3 or DISCORD I get the same amount of people to join the channel. They are usually the same people as well. If I choose to command in discord I create an invite link and paste it in my squad message so players can copy it and paste it into the Desktop App or online and I can give them perms like I would in TS3.

Discord is 10/10 for me and I’d highly recommend communities and guilds to use it.

QuickRain.4735:

Best Guilds? Other then BoRP and KeK no ones else stands out and the rest should just be labels as best by servers

NA -

BG – RISE
FA – DIE BOMB
YB – BOO ROLL TDS
MAG – KEK VR (TIE I guess they are making a comeback?)
SBI – Hate CCCP DOC KRTA CoSA (AoEs but they are basically done now)
DB – TBT
JQ – SF BoRP
CD – VII
SoS – IV
TC – ?
HoD – DEF MaS

Top Tier
Borp KeK

Mid Tier
TDS BOO OnS VR SF DIE RISE

Low Tier
Everyone Else

Bottom
DEF

Obv not perfect but toppish guilds by server

Ah I like this post. Some guilds I didn’t even think about, or servers for that matter.

I think some others in regards to honorable mentions, can’t fit everyone in top 10 I guess. —

EB – [VP] old friend crixus
CD – [BMO]

Hiraldo.7954:

Haematic.4913:

Pretty interesting list.

I wasn’t surprised to see [KEK] and [BoRP] on this list, they definitely made names for themselves (not that this list in particular matters, but still, good for them).

I am surprised however to see different guilds from different time-zones on this list, I think it would have been more appropriate to rank guilds by timezone because there are so many other guilds worth mentioning not just for NA, but for OCX, SEA, and EU.

My top 10 would be as follows for NA WvW fight guilds specifically:

1 – JQ – [SF] – always challenging whether they have 20 in squad or 50.
2 – SoS -[BnR] – we miss scrimming / open fielding you guys .. come back bbs.
3 – YB – [BOO] – always down to brawl and GvG, healthy roster, competitive fights.
4 – YB – [TDS] – they always comeback swinging, fun, competitive, respectable fights.
5 – JQ – [BoRP] – less frequent fights from them than the guilds above, but good fights / GvG none-the-less.
6 – JQ – [OnS] – they have had highs and lows but have molded into a competitive guild that’s really fun to fight and scrimmage with, glad to see you guys doing well.
7 – DB – [RED] – they probably have the biggest pair of balls in NA honestly, always a good fight, reminds me of the old-melee train days fighting them.
8 – NSP – [TW] – as much as they’re memed it’s a challenge fighting their public tag + their private tag together, good old fashioned WvW fights from them and their revs pack quite a punch if you’re not mindful of them.
9 – SBI – [DOC][CCCP][KRTA] – fun to fight alone, but way more fun to fight when you’re all together.
10 – BG – [RISE] – all around fun guild to fight, I think we all like to get under Jarvan’s skin once in a while but at the end of the day it’s Jarvan and we love him, they came a long way and are a competent opponent.

Honorable Mentions:

Mag – [KEK] – don’t get to run into them that often, but the few times we’re brawled they’re honestly the best guild NA and they let you know it .. always pounding away.

Mag – [VR] – don’t run into them much but they’re a good fight.

DB – [TBT] – they’re recruiting.

Both KEK and VR can and do dumpster every guild you suggested. I’m honestly not sure if you’re trying to trigger people here or what but putting DOCCCPKRTA on a top ten list and leaving those two guilds as “honorable mentions” is pretty funny.

Your response really isn’t warranted in this thread, we’re not talking about “dumpstering guilds” on the list, we’re listing the top 10 WvW guilds based on many different criteria. In my list KEK and VR are not in my top 10 simply because I haven’t crossed paths with the guilds nearly as much as I have others; this can be due to queue locks, match-ups, or different raid days & times.

Perhaps another poster will satisfy you by mentioning [VR] or [KEK] in their top 10, oh wait, the OP did already.

Pretty interesting list.

I wasn’t surprised to see [KEK] and [BoRP] on this list, they definitely made names for themselves (not that this list in particular matters, but still, good for them).

I am surprised however to see different guilds from different time-zones on this list, I think it would have been more appropriate to rank guilds by timezone because there are so many other guilds worth mentioning not just for NA, but for OCX, SEA, and EU.

My top 10 would be as follows for NA WvW fight guilds specifically:

1 – JQ – [SF] – always challenging whether they have 20 in squad or 50.
2 – SoS -[BnR] – we miss scrimming / open fielding you guys .. come back bbs.
3 – YB – [BOO] – always down to brawl and GvG, healthy roster, competitive fights.
4 – YB – [TDS] – they always comeback swinging, fun, competitive, respectable fights.
5 – JQ – [BoRP] – less frequent fights from them than the guilds above, but good fights / GvG none-the-less.
6 – JQ – [OnS] – they have had highs and lows but have molded into a competitive guild that’s really fun to fight and scrimmage with, glad to see you guys doing well.
7 – DB – [RED] – they probably have the biggest pair of balls in NA honestly, always a good fight, reminds me of the old-melee train days fighting them.
8 – NSP – [TW] – as much as they’re memed it’s a challenge fighting their public tag + their private tag together, good old fashioned WvW fights from them and their revs pack quite a punch if you’re not mindful of them.
9 – SBI – [DOC][CCCP][KRTA] – fun to fight alone, but way more fun to fight when you’re all together.
10 – BG – [RISE] – all around fun guild to fight, I think we all like to get under Jarvan’s skin once in a while but at the end of the day it’s Jarvan and we love him, they came a long way and are a competent opponent.

Honorable Mentions:

Mag – [KEK] – don’t get to run into them that often, but the few times we’re brawled they’re honestly the best guild NA and they let you know it .. always pounding away.

Mag – [VR] – don’t run into them much but they’re a good fight.

DB – [TBT] – they’re recruiting.

Resolved —

Multiple players reported that completely wiping GW2 from your computer and uninstalling the game & client —> then reinstalling / repairing the game & client eliminated or greatly reduced the de-sync and lag they experienced against specific servers (Noted in this thread: BG,SBI,Mag,DB,HoD).

I’m assuming this is a fix for any player who experiences de-sync or lag they have against a specific server not listed above.

A player suggested that just deleting the .dat files related to GW2 and repairing the client also produced the same results, which may reduce the amount of time there is required to repair the game / client.

Depending on your internet connection it may take anywhere from a few hours, overnight, or a day to repair / re-download the game & client.

I hope this helps anyone experiencing these issues.

Cheers,

Haematic

Hopefully ANET can trace what files are making players de-sync -or- lag against specific servers and comment in this thread to help those who may not benefit from this resolution.

Here’s another POV with desync — https://youtu.be/l8rAOh48eTI

Vegeta.2563:

Haematic.4913:

Here is another video showcasing the lag that is specific to BG —

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzUAfDjvziE

While the video is of BG I can tell you it’s every server with zerg vs. zerg

I’ll be uploading more to this thread in regards to other fights of the same players against a different server, you’ll see similar numbers, but different de-sync results.

Here is another video showcasing the lag that is specific to BG —

Haematic.4913:

Hi guys,

Before you read this thread as a matchup thread, please note; this is a specific issue while in combat <vs> Blackgate WvW players.

Here is one example of what I’m talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2FT7dOL9cw&feature=youtu.be

I’m the commander in this video and there were 5 others who had the same issue, who logged, restarted, and rejoined the game. After restarting the lag was still present but only while in combative range. I do continue to command with the lag going on but others were anywhere between 3-seconds and 10-seconds behind on average. Peaking to 30-seconds.

As you can also see, the user had unrestricted access to chat and voice coms and the IP address to the map was the only address affected.

(I’m able to provide at least 8-other PoVs’ from separate players all experiencing the same issue, from different ISPs and from different parts of the country I.E. West Coast, Central, East Coast).

In each case players experienced this lag while only fighting Blackgate and not any other server.

Currently I’m on an opposing server, Fort-Aspenwood and this has only come up since we’ve been matched with BG the past two weeks.

I’ve asked other Fort-Aspenwood leaders to also report and post footage of these incidents to compile a more comprehensive bug report but I figured I’d at least get the ball rolling.

A birdy whispered me advising the following to those who have this issue not just from Blackgate, but from any server that you lag specifically against:

“Heyas Haem, saw your video of the lag thing. I had that happening <vs> SBI on DBL. I was suggested to clear my .dat file and to repair my client. Since then, I’ve had no lag issues.”

The suggestion is for a player to clear the .dat file and repair the client. Perhaps that may help, some.

aandiarie.7195:

Update anet’s engine they use?

I’m not sure that’s the reason.

trailofsalt.6571:

I have to admit that when I read your thread topic I chuckled to myself a little. Lag has unfortunately been a problem all over the place in WvW for months now. I think it centers around big group fights and not so much one particular server.

Except we’ve had mirror fights with other servers and haven’t come across the same issue as we do when we’re against Blackgate.

By mirror fights I mean on the same BL, relatively the same numbers, with a different server and said players experience “normal” server lag, latency spikes; none of this de-sync’d stuff you’re seeing in the video I posted in the OP.

I’m having multiple people send me VODs this morning and within the next few days so I’ll update the thread with my examples of which I speak.

zealex.9410:

tbh the guild hall arena should have the wvw balance.

I think having the three options is best in consideration that not every guild is WvW focused.

LetoII.3782:

This has been happening to me for about a month, always during primetime .
It’s worse against BG but not limited to them.

I can confirm this isn’t limited to BG because I’ve experienced this issue about a year ago (I’ll have to go fishing to pull evidence of this experience) but it’s definitely worse and happens much more frequently when matched against Blackgate.

I’ve instructed players to open the ports recommended by ANET and have directed players to WTFast and Latency Fix to see if that resolves their issues but they still exist, apparently.

Hi guys,

Before you read this thread as a matchup thread, please note; this is a specific issue while in combat <vs> Blackgate WvW players.

Here is one example of what I’m talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2FT7dOL9cw&feature=youtu.be

I’m the commander in this video and there were 5 others who had the same issue, who logged, restarted, and rejoined the game. After restarting the lag was still present but only while in combative range. I do continue to command with the lag going on but others were anywhere between 3-seconds and 10-seconds behind on average. Peaking to 30-seconds.

As you can also see, the user had unrestricted access to chat and voice coms and the IP address to the map was the only address affected.

(I’m able to provide at least 8-other PoVs’ from separate players all experiencing the same issue, from different ISPs and from different parts of the country I.E. West Coast, Central, East Coast).

In each case players experienced this lag while only fighting Blackgate and not any other server.

Currently I’m on an opposing server, Fort-Aspenwood and this has only come up since we’ve been matched with BG the past two weeks.

I’ve asked other Fort-Aspenwood leaders to also report and post footage of these incidents to compile a more comprehensive bug report but I figured I’d at least get the ball rolling.

Guild hall specific is even better.

Hi,

I wanted to suggest the following QoL update for the guild hall arenas.

This comes from a discussion I’ve had with the WvW community in particular, but this QoL applies to the three separate game modes.

Each game mode has it’s respective combat and skill rules.

My QoL requisition in it’s simplest form would be to have an NPC that can set the rules for the Arena, which means that if the players choose PvE rules, PvE rules will apply, if they select PvP rules, PvP rules will apply and if they select WvW rules, WvW rules will apply.

For instance -

• PvP players can rally 1-5 team members in down state contingent on finishing an enemy team downed player.

• PvP exclusive skill behavior

• In PvP, Stealth breaks target.

• WvW players can rally 1 team member in down state contingent on finishing an enemy team downed player.

• WvW exclusive skill behavior

• WvW specific Retaliation

• In WvW, Stealth breaks target and squad markers.

• PvE specific Retaliation

• In PvE, stealth breaks target.

• In PvE, certain performance enhancing boosters buff player damage, reduce damage taken, etc.

Thanks for reading,

~ Haematic

Will map sizes be increased for the upcoming population increases to WvW?

How will everyone be able to experience the new content?

I’m expecting to see 50+ queues across all 4 maps.

Angel.6085:

Plus its really hard to care what you’re saying when you’re the leader of a known blob guild. Yes, your guild isn’t dying that’s cool and all – but you are part of the problem.

To clarify, it isn’t that we can’t recruit – there is just no viable people to really play against when the opposition is all blobs. Perhaps if others kept their rosters down, then the 20 man guilds would be fine. We all claim to love those small fights, but few restrict recruitment for it.

Inb4

Anyway …

So the way I see it is, a guild that’s actively recruiting is going to pin up and get people into their squads and their voice communication servers. At times, guilds will be large, and at times that same guild will be small because of the peaks & valleys in WvW participation whether it be matchup related, IRL related, or balance related.

That’s not really the scope of Cid’s post, he’s more or less trying to encourage guilds to be strong and get out there <vs> making x,y,z excuses for their guild failures. Which I’ll agree it is attitude related, but there are still countless issues our friends at ANET are attempting to address and correct that the community has been vocal about.

For instance — I had guild members quit / leave rallies because of a certain match-up we were in because it was an issue for us operating in the borderlands. It was one extreme or another; from nothing to engage, to map queues (with 15-18 people). So we took it outside the BL into the Guild Arena and EOTM to seek alternative solutions to the current issues in our match-up. This was something out of our control, but we found a solution for the short-term and it worked out. We contacted guilds from our current matchup or other matchups and met them elsewhere, everyone was super chill about it.

Now, since the new re-link our members magically appeared back out of the woods and we picked up 3-new-recruits and went from running 15-18 → 20-23; but I know that we’re going to balance out and dip back below 20-members per rally because that’s just the way it goes.

Hi,

Due to some stale WvW match-ups my guild has been meeting with other guilds in our guild hall and the other guilds guild hall, to help generate fights. These guilds are on the same server, or servers outside of our match-ups. Otherwise we’ll move to the Obsidian Sanctum or meet somewhere on the borderlands.

Whenever it’s just my guild we notice there’s no interruption.

Whenever another guild or a mass amount of players join the Guild Hall, you will see maybe 4-5 new instances of the guild hall prompting you to take the “New Map Available”.

It’s pretty frustrating at times because it could take anywhere between 10-15 minutes to get everyone in the same instance.

Is there any possibility this could be improved?

Thanks [BnR] and [JFK] for the engaging fights & practice rounds, they were a lot of fun.

Something like this is something I’ve outlined in the beginning of the year but I haven’t found the right time to really share it the way I want to, so oh well here’s the link — https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jqPcPov3oSmJVwt5RWE3z8gbzKp8xtQipexJ8oBn_xY/edit?usp=sharing

Here’s the text:

Legends Never [DIE] WvW Proposals – 01/15/17

Rewards Proposal:

Introduce same sPvP reward-track / PIP progression reward system
PIP Reward Track Reference Here
Rewards Reference 1 (Shards Of Glory & Tournament Tickets)
Rewards Reference 2 (Ascended Shards of Glory)
Reward system (PIPs) is driven by “Participation Points” the more you participate (flipping camps, sentries, towers, keeps, ppk, stomping) the more you’re rewarded.
There is a max Participation level per participation period.
Rewards Reference 1 (WvW Seasons) see also Rewards Reference 1 (Shards Of Glory & Tournament Tickets)
There’s currently no “Ascended” Rewards Track as per sPvP see also Rewards Reference 2 (Ascended Shards of Glory)
An ascended reward track would need to be added to follow the same suit as sPvP; repeatable content after all initial rewards are redeemed.
WvW exclusive skins are preferred
WvW Reward Track system is unchanged.
Rewards Reference 1 (WvW reward Track)
Skirmishes will also reward PIPs, but this reward is the same for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place to discourage stacking a single server.

Mega server did kill server identity.

I remember that way back when, if you were on a different server, you could visit your friends in another server simply by guesting to their server and chillin’ with old pals in LA.

IMHO, towns don’t really benefit a player who’s playing in the mega-servers. The maps that affect the players the most are the open-world PvE maps I.E. Dragon Stand, Cursed Shore, Queensdale, etc.

Towns should be tied to the Parent + Link servers for the current match-ups to help bring back server identity, within the towns & major outposts only. The “LFG” system is in place for a reason, that can remain for the mega-server. From a coding stand-point, it’s probably really complex at this point given the revamp to mega-servers because essentially ANet would have to reverse that coding and create an all new one and one that updates with re-links.

Thanks everyone for the contact information and fighting so far. Cheers! o/

What is guild wars without the guild and the war part?

I’m content with WvW now, but as a seasoned WvW veteran (since 3-months post launch); it was on the ups from 2013 – 2014, then it started to become stale and started trending down, and it took a large spike after HoT meta.

Anet did a good job balancing stability, but the learning curve for being more than a warm body in WvW significantly decreased and it encourages more casual gameplay. This casual gameplay is good for the game. However, there are many WvW balancing issues that need to be addressed and it’s not just classes specific.

Skill balancing, Scoring, unbalanced rewards compared to PvP/PvE, and population balancing issues.

I enjoy large scale WvW combat, GvG, roaming, and outnumbered fights. But, those players styles are starting to move towards k-train mentality and daily farming, because there’s nothing encouraging players to continue engaging in those players styles.

Rising Dusk.2408:

The problem with what a lot of people want ANet to do is that it depends so heavily on how you play WvW. Quite frankly, for the way I play WvW it feels great (though obviously not without faults) and I’m looking forward to the further skirmish reward updates to hopefully not make WvW a negative profit time expenditure. That said, we don’t get a lot of even playful banter from the devs here, and it makes people feel ignored and leave.

There’s a way as a company to do this well and communicate with the players without overpromising. The silence on topics like Ghost Thief and Epidemic is pretty shocking, as there was very nearly unanimous support for the skills being addressed. I realize both of those did eventually get fixed, but with no communication from ANet prior. Even some developer posts in the WvW forums saying “We’re looking at this internally now for possible adjustment” would go a long way toward benefiting the community and keeping people happy in that regard.

Yes, EPI was / is probably one of the best examples of lack-of communication from the WvW developers and balance team; the “ninja” patch was honestly a low blow to most because 1.) it wasn’t expected to happen in that patch 2.) there was no indication what-so-ever that it was even considered for balance. It came as a surprise, but it wasn’t a pleasant one to be honest, it’s still a very over-powered skill but this is not the issue here in this thread.

Sarika.3756:

If we as a community want more interaction, we need to do our part. That means treating devs who post here with respect, not jumping all over them. I know that we’re starved for communication – I am too. I know how easy it is to unload on someone with a red tag because they showed up and we’re just wanting to be heard.

We’re capable of communication that isn’t rude or insulting – those styles are choices people make. And we’ve seen that style of communication not work… and ruin it for the whole forum.

We get to own our behavior as a community. Let’s do so, and change it.

Because a beloved game mode is at stake. It’s worth it.

It goes both ways, but yeah.

Ones interpretation of “rude” or “insulting” in regards to WvW communication varies from one player to another. One could say it’s insulting they respond 1/1,000 posts.

It would be pretty easy to tally the threads, posts, and developer responses from the WvW sub-section (front page) and create a %; then do the same in a different sub-forum (say PvP?) and have a factual conversation with them about it instead of assuming.

Others could say it’s rude how they treat their customers in regards to their general complaints, but I digress.

More communications from the WvW development team will likely result in less “mass-replies” when a developer responds to a thread and these replies will likely follow a more constructive curve instead of a negative one.

Again, it goes both ways.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Vermillion.4061:

Most of the players in WvW are just upset that nothing has really happened in months and we feel like we’ve been ignored.

We just want to see what is actually going on behind the scenes with WvW, maybe given some DevBlog update style stuff since you’ve been mostly silent on what is changing and being worked on.

Different companies communicate in different ways and sometimes the process evolves over the years. Mike O’Brien explained how we choose to communicate in this forum post a few years ago. What he said was, “We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: we don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.”

I understand that some players would prefer a different manner of communication. I wanted to share the comments above to show that silence does not point to inaction or neglect or indifference.

Perhaps ArenaNet should reconsider their approach to communicating with their customers. It’s been two-years, things have changed, times are different, and WvW specifically is just not where it was two-years ago.

My expectation in terms of communication is ArenaNet’s participation in discussions regarding the good, the bad, and the worst parts of WvW. Just because you guys talk with us and at least acknowledge the issue doesn’t mean we can immediately expect a patch the next day, or a re-haul in the next quarter; like any other company you have risk management I’m sure, maybe.

WvW is a revenue stream for you. The community leaders of WvW and the guilds of WvW drive that revenue for you through transfers, in-game purchases, and with gift-cards I’m sure. If your poor communication continues down this path eventually that revenue stream is going to diminish, you’ll have less resources for this game mode, and then it will just end up like PvP did.

Chaba.5410:

Sorry Gaile, it isn’t about in-game rivalries. It’s about frustration with Anet who has a more direct hand in match-making now through manual glicko adjustments and server linking choices without taking the time to understand the community trends going on with those teams.

http://imgur.com/nqzK9io

• Edit: Thanks for replacing my OP, I’ll keep this one as evidence to the existing issue addressed in my image.

• Edit #2: I deleted my OP.

I’ve had a few guilds contact me because they’ve seen this thread.

Don’t be afraid of the stigma that’s been associated with “GvG” and “Scrims”; we’re mostly just looking for fights. Currently we’re running into an issue with members logging early or not logging in at all because of stale game-play in the borderlands.

Hunting for unicorn herds is not very fun.

Yes, this system needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

The GLICKO system questionably worked 3-years ago.

Servers and server-links are abusing the glicko-system to manipulate match-ups and it’s very easy to accomplish. This coupled with ANET’s manual adjustments makes it even easier because ANET has already been played, twice.

One could argue that the GLICKO system better protects match manipulation, but there are avenues ANET could take to help guard against that such as:

• Move Up a Tier = Win 3-consecutive matches as the #1 server in the current tier
  
  Note: Consecutive matches “Won” grant the server advancement points 1,2,3 … when the #1 server in the current tier accumulates 3 advancement points this server progresses and the #3 server in the above tier falls down a tier.

• Move Down a Tier = Lose 3-consecutive matches as the #3 server in the current tier

Note: Consecutive matches “Lost” grant the server decay points 1,2,3 … when the #3
server in the current tier accumulates 3 decay points, this server decays to the next
tier and the #1 server in that tier moves up.

• These are just suggestions as per ANET’s forum guidelines, obviously they’re not bullet proof and could be refined.

General up-down placement:

• Win = progress placement (if #3 wins it becomes #2, so on and so forth).
• Loss = decay placement (if #1 loses it becomes #2, so on and so forth).

Oh yeah and make the Obsidian Sanctum a mega-server for all WvW servers so guilds aren’t limited to just their match-ups to fight other guilds.

Looking for 10v10,15v15,20v20 fights in the Obsidian Sanctum or Guild Hall.

EOTM is an option.

Server: Fort-Aspenwood
Guild: Legends Never [DIE]

HMU

Thanks

It’s okay.

As FA server lead we’ll be in EOTM all week.

Have fun with your dailies!

zinkz.7045:

AdamHughes.4306:

More experimentation in the meta…

Playing in a guild, other than a very casual one, is way more restrictive than not playing in one, which is why many players don’t join WvW guilds.

Yes, that’s the current way the game-mode is. It doesn’t encourage guild-centric play.

This is why Chaba posted this ya jive kitten.

Chaba, Thank You For Posting This.

I Believe That If Anet Encourages More Guild Centric Play That Wvw Will Be In A Much Better Position Than It Is Now.

In Recent Discussion, In The Official Wvw Discord, Someone Brought Up That Wvw Is Essentially A Gentlemen’s Game (Sorry Ladies) In That Guilds Follow A Gentlemen’s Agreement To Not Barge Into A 20v20, 15v15, 10v10, 5v5 Fight With More Players. Guilds Want To Keep Fights “fair” And “even”.

Unfortunately The Game-mode Is Currently Designed To Cater To The “casual” Player. Which Means This Player Can Join A Wvw Map, Roam Around And Flip Camps, Group Up With Friendlies To Siege An Objective, Or To Follow A Commander Tag To Engage In More Large-scale Combat (There Are Plenty Of Other Avenues This Player Can Take But Lets Just Simplify It This Way). The Game-mode Doesn’t Reward These Players For Guild-centric Play, Because They Can Achieve The Same Result By “pugging”, Much Like Open World Pve. That Said, Typically A Guild Will Yield Better Results Through Organized Play, But There’s No Incentive Past That, And That Only Goes So Far Before The Player Is Burned From Repetitive And Unrewarded Game-play.

My Personal Suggestion To Helping Encourage More Guild Centric Play Is By Introducing Battlegrounds For Guilds To Queue Into, Much Like Our Pvp Queue System. You’re Still In “wvw” But You’re Queued Up Against Guilds In A Controlled Instance. You Could Do A Lot With This, Actually Such As:

• Favor For The Realm – Winner Of The Instance Grants A Server Wide Bonus For Their Allies (Like Bloodlust).
• Favor For The Map – Winner Of The Instance Grants A Map Wide Bonus For Their Allies (Like Orbs).
• Wvw Guild Currency – Currency For Wvw Exclusive Skins, Trinkets, Ascended Weapons & Armor (Like Guild Commendations).

Anyway ….

As A Guild Leader That Once Had A 5-man Team, A 10-man Team, A 15-man Team, A 20-man Team, And A 25-man Team I Can Say With Confidence That Without Anet’s Help In Regards To Encouraging More Guild Centric Play, You Will Continue To See Your Wvw Guilds Diminish Due To Lack Of Content, Stimulating Game Play, And Competition.

Eventually Wvw Will Become Like Eotm Or Any Other Open World Pve Where You’ll Find Commanders And Puggers Zerging Down Objectives And Avoiding Combat For That Sweet Wvw Exp, Bonus Chest, Karma, And Champ Bag.

The % value difference between the 2:1:1 and the 5:4:3 are in favor for a 5:4:3 match, because it will allow the server with less coverage to not be as punished for it during off hours.

I believe that there are flaws in every system and there are countless ways to continually improve it.

Perhaps the answer isn’t so much in the 5:4:3 system, but in the way that servers glicko is affected by it. There were talks about a up:down system which would favor winning a match-up to progress to the next tier, or to re-position a server that loses week after week to a lower tier.

Honestly, the whole WvW game mode is a mess and needs a significant overhaul and a dedicated team that responds to their customers in this forum. Additionally, there needs to be integrated devs that are playing during high activity, monitoring map and team chat, as well as joining these servers community websites & voice servers. It doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment. You can collect data for 2-4 weeks and understand all of the flaws that exist in the current system, then evaluate proposals such as these for rework or dismissal. Sitting behind your computer reading data vs going out there and actually being a part of the issue are not the same thing.

Hitman.5829:

I’m sick and tired of not being able to join a team because “they” want people to be in team speak, a 3rd party software used to communicate with each other. The people that don’t want to install the 3rd party software are being left out of the team and the boon sharing being denied. I have seen and experienced it first hand, if you are not in a team, you received a lot of damage because basically you are not getting any boons and heals.

To solve this problem and to make WvW more efficient, I propose the following:

• Put everyone on the same team upon entry to a wvw map and make it a choice to get out an create your own team. That way everyone gets boons and heals. This makes sense because we all are members of the same team. In pvp you don’t see 1 person running by itself and the other 4 in their own team.

OR

• Allow the TAG to create a separate party where only the people who are not in team speak are allocated so that they can benefit from the boons and heals from non team speak users.

Now, you might say: why not just create your own party with non-team speak users?
Well, you can do this, BUT it is highly inefficient because people constantly change maps and log off. Also, a lot of people don’t know how to join a group!

This has been my suggestion for WvW. I hope that you will implement something like this in the future to make WvW more efficient and user friendly.

So for your first proposal, that completely takes away the identity of guilds and groups that command on the map. Given the current health of WvW in general, the last thing you want to do is take away what identity servers, guilds, and pugmanders have in WvW.

Sometimes groups want the thrill of accomplishing feats without the interruptions of militia interfering with their goals as a roaming party, havok squad, public squad, or guild raid. Almost every server is making an effort to organize their militia better, so they have a better chance of winning fights, match-ups, and skirmishes.

An option that I’ve experience in a separate MMORG (EQ2) was a voice communication system that was integrated into the game itself, and it was available in raid instances I.E. WvW; this is a feature I could see working for you, and like minded individuals with this issue about joining a 3rd party VOIP application.

Your " -or- " proposal already exists and I see guilds and streamers utilize squad party 1 as the “militia / overflow” and lock the sub squads so they can’t move. Save up some gold and purchase a commander tag.

Speaking from experience, groups and commanders that require players to join 3rd party VOIP to join their squad yield better results in PPT, ZvZ, and response times.

If players are stuck in the mind set of treating WvW like PvE (open world/dungeons) where you don’t need that next level communication (because you’re not fighting NPCs with repeatable behavior) then you need to understand WvW is living and breathing entity and it’s driven by the decisions of players, not NPCs. This is why groups require that next level of communication I.E. TS3 or Discord, because otherwise you’ll find yourself at a disadvantage.

There are a few servers who can do well without the assistance of VOIP applications, but that’s because the players have a great understanding of WvW, have been trained, or have experienced that higher level gameplay from being in VOIP, guilds, or focus groups.

Digikid.7230:

What about just increasing the CD of epidemic? Keep the payoff for landing a strong one, and penalises it’s current use of spamming it on CD in every fight- epidemic should be a high risk high reward skill, not a skill that can be spammed every 15s.

This is why I’ve listed this as the 2nd most unbalanced part of the skill.

1st being the condition cap that’s broken (there was a patch to limit 25 condition stacks per EPI, but you’re able to stack over 25+ condition stacks per EPI).

Epidemic needs to be reworked, plain and simple.

Bandaids aren’t going to balance this issue.

The skill can be balanced and still be a powerful tool for condi-spikes and carrying out numbered fights.

1st .. the “25” condition cap is broken and not working as intended, we’ve tested this, and the .gif I’ve attached in the OP is proof of this as well. This could easily follow the same condition table as Corrupt Boon https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupt_Boon … and what I mean by this is – it will apply a multiplier from this table as you see it I.E. 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x what’s currently on the table, per Epidemic cast on target, if those conditions exist.

2nd .. the cooldown is way to short, cleanses to counter an EPI spike don’t share nearly the same cooldown I.E. Virtue Of Resolve (when traited, can clear up to 5-conditions on Guard, and 3-conditions on allies); this has a 30-second cooldown whereas Epidemic has a 15-20 second cooldown reduction depending if you trait for it or not. This is just one example. Other examples can be reviewed here .. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition#Skills_that_remove_conditions

3rd .. there’s no clear indication that the Necromancer is channeling such an aggressive skill. A poster in this thread mentioned implementing a floater signaling Epidemic is being cast.

4th .. it’s unblockable, IMHO if you want this to remain unblockable make the core skill blockable, then make it unblockable if it’s traited for; so it doesn’t get abused by power necro specs as well.

Edit: For illuminati reasons, you should know that I mentioned my guild utilizes this skill and coordinates EPI-Spikes on targets. Even against organized groups we’re matched up against, we’re still insta-gibbing 2-3 players minimum on top of the original target. We still intend to use Epidemic after the rework, but the skill as it currently stands is overpowered because of the way it exponentially scales.

Swamurabi.7890:

If we started a BROKEN BUILDS/SKILLS/TRAITS IN WVW thread, would it be passed on to the balance team?

Haematic: Since you’re part of the WvW player initiative, has the group communicated issues like this to Anet?

According to ANET, they review all concerns in this forum brought up by the community, so in one way shape or form I’m sure Broken Builds/Skills/Traits are being passed to the balance team, though not every item will be addressed.

I’ve brought this to the attention of the WvW initiative, yes.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Haematic.4913:

See my response above in response to berserker warrior, from the other poster.

Also, you’re hitting what looks to be a new player / quite possibly an up level who isn’t geared in EOTM, and you’re posting a screenshot of hitting an EOTM champion. LUL.

Out of respect of your counter arguments, I’ll say thanks for trying, but you’re just making Epidemic look even stronger.

I promise you they were not uplevels, though I have no proof of it, I’m not one to lie over such a silly thing.

The hit on the champion is just showing the kind of numbers I can max out on. Epidemic maxes out when used on champions/siege, so it’s perfectly relevant.

Perhaps you should record your finding against a comped group, or a typical public group in your matchup, not EOTM, and not on a Champion where your NPC buffs are included in your damage, and quite possibly any WvW orbs you have equipped.

It’s not relevant because you’re not dealing 31k damage on 5-targets who are within range of your Eviscerate, on the Champion Lord.

I think you need your morning coffee.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Ash.8127:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

snip

exactly this.
i regularly try condinec in zergs and regurlarly end up going power when things go rough.
WHEN we roflstomp them and run quite some condis we can kill them even faster with powerbuilds cuz they suck, simple as that.

so what if the enemy stacks condi? get some revs and push them hard, they dont have a directdmgbomb to prevent it. light field + whirl is ur friend.
they can corruptbomb a few of you to remove boons and get very low condistacks. if you fail to keep cleansing the group at an adequate rate they even get 10+ stacks via other attacks.
now luck kicks in when trying to hit epidemic: target cleansed just before epi hits? random dodge? blinded? (epi wont hit, a lava font will still be placed;)) target goes down just before epi its? target dies just before epi hits? obstructed maybe? (nonluck: u cant just place it on the ground and keep running, need to be in range)
sooo u managed to epi those stacks. what now?
right! the majority of them still has resistance, u can only strip a few ppl, they get heavy dmg now and u can train them.

u can spice up ur comp once u reach blobsize to epi the condis applied by directdmgbuilds, this can have a bigger impact than a 15th powernec.
i played condinec as kind of a delayed/second bomb since many cleanses are bound to heals that get spammed when the primary bomb hits plus i can epi some downs.

there are ways to increase the chance of epi hitting. but dont powercomps also have their own tactis?

hitting epi during purge spike means a huge burst, if their revs are competent they give resistance and have probably already activated dwarf elite while engaging. so u get 1 – ticks in at most.
the burst this way is higher on single targets than the regular wells/staff ele hits.
over time/bomb condi deals a lot less dmg.
a lucky epidemic can help create downs.

@op: u think epi is unfair? then tell me how is this fair? my gunflame can be unblockable too. i need to build glassier than condinec but on the other hand my dmg comes way faster, more reliable, …
(pls note: i did not have high might stacks, target did not have vuln on them, i didnt even have all dmgmodifiers and best food …)

edit: why stack 4-5 condinecs when 2 riflewarrs get the job done too? (less condipressure which btw is applied by powernecs too [condipressure is not just about dmg] in exchange for quite sure spamable kills)

Hey while we’re sharing pictures, let me share a couple.

Now, I understand that Eviscerate is not an AOE skill nor does it increase in strength depending on the number of targets. I understand that it is a different profession and the numbers shown are under different circumstances entirely.

My point only serves to show that while Epidemic can be deadly if used properly, or if the players on the receiving end are lemmings (95% of the time, it’s the latter), power builds/skills are and have been stronger.

Even with Over 3k armor and 20k health, I’m able to hit those kinds of numbers and can even make it unblockable.

I know that my thoughts on the matter are a drop in the pond but I’m very confident that this is a player related issue and not a skill related issue. Epidemic does need to be adjusted but it does not to be nerfed in many of the ways people suggest. People need to practice and to prepare and to stop blaming everything but themselves… If I had the proper editing tools (and I may invest in them in the future) I would happily record vanilla full glass frontline Ranger play to show how often I get hit by Epidemic bombs (hint: it’s never) and how often I die to Spear Of Justice pulls or random 10k+ crits from out of seemingly no where.

Stop standing near downed players, stop using cleanses when you have one stack of Bleed on you, stop being where you’re not supposed to be (as in, if you’re backline, don’t be in the frontline – yes I realize I was just talking about frontlining as a backliner. That’s because I can, not because I should) and if something is giving you trouble, bring the skills to deal with it instead of asking Anet to remove everything that hurts you.

See my response above in response to berserker warrior, from the other poster.

Also, you’re hitting what looks to be a new player / quite possibly an up level who isn’t geared in EOTM, and you’re posting a screenshot of hitting an EOTM champion. LUL.

Out of respect of your counter arguments, I’ll say thanks for trying, but you’re just making Epidemic look even stronger.

Ash.8127:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

snip

exactly this.
i regularly try condinec in zergs and regurlarly end up going power when things go rough.
WHEN we roflstomp them and run quite some condis we can kill them even faster with powerbuilds cuz they suck, simple as that.

so what if the enemy stacks condi? get some revs and push them hard, they dont have a directdmgbomb to prevent it. light field + whirl is ur friend.
they can corruptbomb a few of you to remove boons and get very low condistacks. if you fail to keep cleansing the group at an adequate rate they even get 10+ stacks via other attacks.
now luck kicks in when trying to hit epidemic: target cleansed just before epi hits? random dodge? blinded? (epi wont hit, a lava font will still be placed;)) target goes down just before epi its? target dies just before epi hits? obstructed maybe? (nonluck: u cant just place it on the ground and keep running, need to be in range)
sooo u managed to epi those stacks. what now?
right! the majority of them still has resistance, u can only strip a few ppl. “team condi” gets heavy dmg now and can be trained.

u can spice up ur comp once u reach blobsize to epi the condis applied by directdmgbuilds, this can have a bigger impact than a 15th powernec.
i played condinec as kind of a delayed/second bomb since many cleanses are bound to heals that get spammed when the primary bomb hits plus i can epi some downs.

there are ways to increase the chance of epi hitting. but dont powercomps also have their own tactis?

hitting epi during purge spike means a huge burst, if their revs are competent they give resistance and have probably already activated dwarf elite while engaging. so u get 1 – ticks in at most.
the burst this way is higher on single targets than the regular wells/staff ele hits.
over time/bomb condi deals a lot less dmg.
a lucky epidemic can help create downs.

@op: u think epi is unfair? then tell me how is this fair? my gunflame can be unblockable too. i need to build glassier than condinec but on the other hand my dmg comes way faster, more reliable, …
(pls note: i did not have high might stacks, target did not have vuln on them, i didnt even have all dmgmodifiers and best food …)

edit: why stack 4-5 condinecs when 2 riflewarrs get the job done too? (less condipressure which btw is applied by powernecs too [condipressure is not just about dmg] in exchange for quite sure spamable kills)

edit2: clarified some things.

If you’ve read any of my responses, you would have seen my comment about other “1-shot” skills in this game.

Berserker warrior is a very powerful specialization, but it’s a specialization, not a single skill. There are multiple facets of this build that are required to produce the results you posted. I’d be more than happy to explain, though I feel it’s not worth my time in this post, as the OP is in regards to Epidemic, not gunflame. If you’re using this for the sake of a counter-argument, it’s not on the same level. You require a specialization, a unblockable utility skill, and adrenaline to accomplish what you’ve posted. A power necromancer can equip EPI and deal more damage to a single & 5-target than Gunflame, and they just need to equip that one skill.

Famine.7915:

OriOri.8724:

Epidemic should get the SoI treatment lol it should transfer only 1 stack of every condition on the target.

But seriously it does need a cap. Either a cap per condi on how many stacks it can trasnfer that is substantially lower than whatever it is right now, or a total cap on how many stacks of condis it can transfer period. Both methods would have their pros and cons, but one of them needs to be implemented.

It is capped at the old condi limit.

See attached, obviously the “25” cap isn’t working. If 31 bleed stacks are being applied on one epidemic.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I am seriously astonished that a dev replied to that. This community is full of nothing but complainers that spam salt threads until they get what they want.

As I’d said in another Epidemic related post, anyone who is having trouble with this skill is either a frontliner without properly co-ordinated group cleanses and/or they’re not using their cleanses properly, or just terrible players not taking the proper measures to deal with it all together.

I’m not special, I’ve been hit by big Epidemic bombs as well. But as far as I can recall, it has only been twice that I’ve insta-downed. I am rarely if ever in a squad, almost never on teamspeak, play vanilla roaming builds on all my characters and I often push to the frontline with builds not designed for it, but I don’t die and don’t get Epi nuked. How is it that I’m not having the same problem so many others apparently have? With as much time as I have invested in WvW, I find it incredibly difficult to believe people aren’t over exaggerating. As far as I’m concerned, this is just one of those things people hate and want gone even though it’s not as much of an issue as they claim it to be.

Yes it’s devastating if it’s coming from a co-ordinated group and yes it can insta-down you if you’re not careful. It’s a powerful skill but the amount of times it kills me/forces me to retreat and recover while zerging is a whole lot less than the times I lose 50 – 80% of my health in one hit from a CoR even on builds with 3k+ armor. And that’s not a complaint about CoR, just a statement that it causes me a lot more problems than Epi’s do.

As I’d said in other Epidemic complaint related threads – I believe it would be fair to adjust this skill but the way people kitten and whine about it and the way ANet always folds to that kind of behavior, I just know it’s going to be gutted and the bunker meta will return in full force.

I very rarely say this but if you’re getting Epi-nuked constantly and you’re not a commander… Get. kittening. Smarter.

This game caters to the casual player, I get that. ANET needs to have some sort of skill that players can use to one-shot other players to feel relevant enough to keep them interested in playing because they feel they’re contributing.

There are plenty of these skills in the game.

Epidemic is not one of those. This skill should have a few things considered — Cool-down rework, MAX application of condition stacks applied (I.E. 3,5,10 stacks max per cast), and rework to (-)condition duration from skills such as Purging Flames, food, or runes (as already outlined by the DEV response). This skill should be a skill that requires a higher skill level cap.

Junkpile.7439:

I don’t really see problem. You could interrupt epidemic, you could use brains and not stand close potential epi targets, you can ress downed player, you could use resistance like normal players. If i would start to whine every skill that have downed me that fast half of game dmg skills would get nerf.

If you were on the opposite side of this Necro, would you have seen this to be able to tell the following http://imgur.com/c6O86Lj (video source: https://youtu.be/Ag94iCovrww?t=15s) —

How do you propose interrupting epidemic if the animation is on the receiving end?

How do you know what targets the enemy Necros are choosing to cast epidemic on?

Have you tried resurrecting a downed player that necromancers are bouncing epidemics’ off of? I can post .gifs of this too.

Obviously you’re either a massive troll or you’re one of those players who talk the talk but have never walked the walk.

Kekkei Genkai Kage.5930:

Player issue on ele, out of position to get ally buffss and cleanses :^)

Said player had 2,300 ping from the server.

You need to math it, the 5-4-3 spread is better.

Sorry.

how many gems were you bribed with to make this post?

Hi,

1.) FA can’t have (2) “60-man zergs” on a BL, the Alpine BLs in my experience cap out around 70 players. Desert BLs in my experience seem to cap out closer to 80 players.

2.) In my experience, the outmanned buff is a 2:1 ratio. If you have only 30 on tag, and a queued map, that means you probably had 30 afkers / roamers / scouts on your BL. If FA and SOS both had queued maps they could potentially have 70×2=140 players vs 60-70 players.

3.) Queues can be bugged, but often times just because a “Queue” mark is on a map, doesn’t mean the map is queued. Sometimes it’s just catching up with the rapid amount of players joining / leaving the map. “Fake Queues”.