Guild Wars 2

Achievements are discouraging. I do not bother even thinking about them

Before I buy an expansion I would want to see what we get over the coming months. After all were we not promised an expansions worth of free content between January and March 2013? I recall ANet saying it would rvial subs paying expansion in size and scope.

I recall ANet promising an expansions worth of content in Q1 2013. We got almost nothing in January as it was ‘setting the scene’. That is cool.

So with just today and March update to come and then recall what Moria gave to LOTRO or Burning Crusade to WoW we can anticipate a huge amount of new content, features and mechanics.

Then I woke up.

yup..a week is way too long

Good interviewer compared to the usual heavily bias walk on eggshells fair we are usually served up however the answers were no less depressing. WvW is so behind the curve compared to pve

yeah this is super annoying. +1

I think we gonna have to wait till end of the next Mayan Calendar

The one with the most active thieves and mesmers in it?

they are very bad investment so no.

Xaenca.5361:

This would make sense if you actually got something for winning or being in a higher tier… Which you don’t…

Ok. What would you like to see for winning?

Yeah the fact is, it is hollow. ANet encourage exploration but bar the vistas there is no real point to it beyond traditional map completion.

Ketharius.9018:

So, punish servers for having great communities with hundreds of players working together with their own guild and with other guilds on their server. and with guilds from different timezones, just because other servers cannot do the same?

No they would receive significant help. More competitive opponents.

Completely with the OP on this one. I think the reason they are so quiet is they have very few devs working on WvW. At least theyhave not had many in last 5 months. Maybe 2?

Gaudrath.6725:

Wrong. SPvP has a completely different environment from WvW. Decreasing damage will only mean people will stack more in order to compensate. The reason WvW damage may seem high is because when 30 people just spam their attacks, whoever gets caught in that, dies. If you participated in smaller fights, you will notice that damage isn’t that high and certainly can be handled by anyone who knows what they’re doing.

What we need in WvW is to increase AoE damage by uncapping the number of targets an AoE can hit.

I am not against zergs as such, they’re natural after all, but people running in zergs need to be taught a very simple lesson – if you run around all nicely clustered up like a bunch of rabid chickens, a 5-man ambush team will kill you all.

Then we might actually see some tactics in zerg gameplay, like forward scouts, pickets and so on. And yeah… fewer blobs.

Completely agree

Agree with all your points

TLDR I propose incentivising players to join WvW when their server has been losing consistently or is significantly outmanned and to grow WvW communities on low population servers over time.

We all know there are some ‘issues’ that need addressing and I would like to discuss one in particular, that of making the weekly match ups more competitive. This is on the simple premise that the more competitive the matches are the more fun everyone has.

I will start with a few general principles:
• Everyone that wants to play WvW should be able (avoid queues)
• No Player should feel ‘forced’ to play WvW (avoid Ascended gear/fractals)
• Match ups should be as competitive as possible (because its fun!)
• Avoid significant changes to server strength in short term (avoid chaos of free transfers)
• Reduce impact of being severely outmanned (because this is not fun)
• Incentives should not include buffs/debuffs to players attributes/traits (no one wants find themselves in a 1v1 or 5v5 where one side has boosts to vitality or power etc.)

My thoughts is that a series of buffs aka as incentives, should be applied to Players joining WvW when certain conditions are met, for example:

1. When a server places last 3 weeks in a row every Player on that server receives a buff whilst in WvW for the subsequent week and continues to receive that buff until they do not come last (e.g. 100% Gold from Player/NPC kills)
2. When one server has less than half the population on their Home Borderland of another server for more than 15 minutes; Home Players joining that map receive a buff whilst in WvW for one hour (e.g. 100% to Karma)
3. Players in lower tiers should receive buffs to encourage growth in WvW community on their servers
a. Tier2 5% Gold/Karma/XP
b. Tier 3 10% Gold/Karma/XP
c. Tier 8 35% Gold/Karma/XP

The stated buffs above are just examples and careful consideration would need to be given to incentivise, but not make Players feel forced to play WvW. Also the necessary controls would need to be implemented to avoid exploitation; such as everyone logging off and subsequently re logging to acquire the outmanned buff on Home Borderland.

The rewards for playing WVW are meagre in comparison to PvE so there is wiggle room to facilitate incentives and probably will be even after the March update.

I would like to hear constructive criticism on my proposals from the Community as well as suggestions on ways to modify it to help make match ups more competitive and fun for everyone.

Thx for reading!

I am so hoping the Glicko Gods give us a EB v CD v YB next week in T4.

Straegen.2938:

Gravy.7589:

Not sure what server Lebannen plays on but I don’t see this ever happening in team or map chat on SBI in wvwvw and I am on most nights.

I always take posts like his from servers that have been put through the wringer for weeks with a grain of salt. It can be really frustrating fighting an overwhelming force week after week (having suffered Kaineng, couple weeks of the newly formed FA as well as the mass exodus from CD I can understand the frustration).

Agreed. I believe SBI will do just fine in Tier5 and frustrations are to be expected considering the circumstances. I wish them well

The good news is which ever way you look at it, once EB replace SBI, tier4 will regularly offer close matches going forward. Not all tiers are so lucky.

Catisa.6507:

CHIPS.6018:

… or have 10 ballistas and acs.

1 balista would hit all 40 if they turtle up. Same with a single AC. Siege has a 50 target cap.

I did not know that. ty

Boreal.9826:

Sovereign.1093:

wow… you guys really take things too seriously >3<

Not “you guys”, that is one guy.

Being on YB, I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I do know that things are generally much harder when morale is down. Suffering a mass exodus of players and being in a too high of tier definitely qualifies as challenging.

My impression (maybe completely wrong, I dunno) is that SBI has improved over last week. If they move down one more tier I suspect morale will come back quickly and WvW will be a lot more fun.

Of course, it could be the opposite for us if we move up a tier. lol

Completely agree. SBI have some good players. Just morale must be horrible and of course they do not have numbers frequently enough to be effectual. Tier5/6 and you will be rocking

Swamurabi.7890:

Centrix.4065:

Only a WvW player kills rabbits, chickens, etc and think that is enough PvE for the day

Revise it to say that only a WvW necro knows that the rabbits, chickens, etc are on the map so they can get their LF up.

Also only a WvW permastealth thief looks at rabbits, chickens, etc as a way to remain in stealth (along with walls, doors, siege)

Only a WvW player that is not a thief hates perma stealth thieves

What is the longest anyone has been able to keep a piece of siege active by regularly activating it?

you can can complete dailies in WvW

Only a WvW player knows it takes 20 times longer to acquire enough badges to buy siege as it does to acquire the silver in pve to buy the very same siege

Only a WvW player knows one of the longest running most active threads (this one) will never get an official post from ANet

Only a WvW would have to wait ten years even playing actively everyday in order to complete any achievements

Also great to see Yaks Bends first Armada be deployed

So YB decided to wake up a little early today to ‘test’ out this CD Night Crew and find out whether it was a zerg or an organised fighting unit. As we thought/hoped they really are not very good. I guess PvD week after week is not very good practice.

Mobility is an important skill differentiator and choice is important in GW2. So no on every level

SoggyFrog.4170:

Ah, but there aren’t limitless resources, because supply is still required to bring your fortifications to the max tech level. As in RTS, when facing an enemy who can evenly match you head on, your success will come from doing everything in your power to ensure their economy struggles while keeping your own well-defended.

A few other important lessons that carry over:
You need to pay attention to the positioning of your forces, poorly positioned soldiers can do nothing for you.
Your forces should always be active/serving some purpose. This is usually easier in a game where all the soldiers are living people.
You have nothing to gain by engaging the enemy in a battle that can’t be won, unless it puts them out of position. Even then it’s better to retreat so that the threat given by your outnumbered group remains.
You have nothing to gain from winning a battle if you don’t seize the opportunities it opens up.

As someone that plays a lot of SC2 I can tell you I never send my workers to jumping puzzles nor do they sit idle at their base or spend inordinate amounts of time beating themselves against a well fortified position whilst doing little to no damage.

That all said this is a great and very insightful post

I think people just want something that rewards skill and superior organisation, consequently making everyone strive to be better rather than who has the most Players available outside of prime time.

There is alot of people playing with me that are constantly trying to improve and test their wits of siege placement, sneaky tactics or open battlefield pvp however 99% of the time it just comes down to numbers. When we engage in something where numbers do not apply or the largest force are beaten, its always memorable albeit fleeting.

Importantly people want to feel their contribution has made a difference. Something that almost never occurs in a dominant Zerg

CD ticking at 640, SBI 30, YB 25. YB have a lead just shy of 43k

CD night crews PvDoor skills are good. We get CD’s NA primetime is not quite up there with Yaks Bend but its certainly far less of a disparity than what we will keep seeing during off peak hours and is thankfully more combative, interesting and fun as a result.

You want us to earn even less rewards in Wvw?

I think best to ignore Too Frisky as his logic is fuzzy and subjectively based on a handful of encounters when many many thousands occurred throughout this week and last and there is also an undercurrent that he is a skillful player. Again bar one fantastic Ranger I have not seen any evidence of skill beyond anything YB has to offer in the field and tactically I think we surpass SBI, perhaps because your numbers are too low to get anything happening.

All I hear about at the moment from my Oceanic guildies is lag issues. A lot of them have stopped playing WvW at peak times. This of course is a slippery slope.

Deniara Devious.3948:

The WvWvW titles should have some progression. E.g.
- 1000 kills the 1st title, which you can display (realm avenger, basically a sign "I am not a total newbie)
- 10000 kills for the 2nd title (realm dominator, “a WWW veteran”)
- 100000 kills for the 3rd title (ultimate dominator, “enemies, run away”)

I am sure the 100000 kills title would still be rare. Currently the system is a bad joke compared to the pvp titles: 200 kills in tournaments gives you a champion slayer title and you get a gladiator title with mere 8500 pvp points.

This needs a total overhaul. I am sure ANet are as embarrassed as we are frustrated by how out of touch the requirements are

SBI. I know we have taken your map but we were all just saying how tough you fight and how much we have enjoyed the battle. Keep chin ups and good luck for rest of week. Yaks Bend Forces salute you!

Sovereign.1093:

Ireniicus.2167:

Sovereign.1093:

Ireniicus.2167:

Sovereign.1093:

Good fight in Bay earlier. And that tower besides bay. Room for improvement, there is, in our CD server.

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We almost got it, but you guys pushed us away. ^^ That was awesome.

Was an awesome fight. I was YB’s Commander on CD and we enjoyed it immensely. How many Trebs did you guys put up over the 2/3 hour siege of DB?

A lot. Haha. I can’t speak for the rest of my server mates, but I i feel like we let you guys down by not taking that bay back. >3<

Great job keeping it locked tight.

Yeah I counted double digit Trebs over that period. And yes you definetly had the numbers to take it. I had to pull people/supply off other maps to hold it after which we seemed to break your morale as your zerg disappeared and now we have your whole map

True, if it were up to me. We should have kept the other areas green rather than focus on bay solely. >3< But everyone has their own idea of playing this game. What I can do mere, then, was to support everyone.

When our kids return from chinese new year, I do hope we’ll be able to give you guys a better fight. >3<

I do not doubt it. See you on the battlefield

Sovereign.1093:

Ireniicus.2167:

Sovereign.1093:

Good fight in Bay earlier. And that tower besides bay. Room for improvement, there is, in our CD server.

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We almost got it, but you guys pushed us away. ^^ That was awesome.

Was an awesome fight. I was YB’s Commander on CD and we enjoyed it immensely. How many Trebs did you guys put up over the 2/3 hour siege of DB?

A lot. Haha. I can’t speak for the rest of my server mates, but I i feel like we let you guys down by not taking that bay back. >3<

Great job keeping it locked tight.

Yeah I counted double digit Trebs over that period. And yes you definetly had the numbers to take it. I had to pull people/supply off other maps to hold it after which we seemed to break your morale as your zerg disappeared and now we have your whole map

Sovereign.1093:

Good fight in Bay earlier. And that tower besides bay. Room for improvement, there is, in our CD server.

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We almost got it, but you guys pushed us away. ^^ That was awesome.

Was an awesome fight. I was YB’s Commander on CD and we enjoyed it immensely. How many Trebs did you guys put up over the 2/3 hour siege of DB?

Thanks for all your comments. Looks like Crossroad catastrophe has been averted. Good job ANet. Now the developers need to redouble their efforts in supporting WvW else the bleed will continue drop by drop

February update was touted as the big one for WvW however that has been postponed until March. It is now clear the Q1 2013 updates do not nearly add up to an expansion worth of content. That said its still pretty good.

This is a very silly idea. I am impacted by nightcapping however those in Oz could just as easily say when NA zergs come on that “you are nightcapping their stuff”. NA servers are for a Global audience not just Americans

All this speculation s fine but ANet could fix it all with a statement post their latest patch and moreover provide empirical evidence of queue waiting times and volumes.

I want to start by stating I have had many an exciting hour in WvW. It provides GW2 Players the only real opportunity for large scale organised play and is in many ways an alternative to raiding in other MMO’s.

Of course in raiding the AI soon becomes very predictable so the dynamic, competitive nature of Realm v Realm will always have a strong following.
WvW at launch was fun allowing casuals an opportunity to dip in and out whilst providing a permanent residence for hardcore players.

Unfortunately the goodwill towards ANet has declined with each passing month. Many will say “no subscription, stop being entitled”. However even ANet would discourage such a reaction. They have consistently stated they want their game to be better than any subscription based product and consequently should be held to that standard.

So why has ANet disappointed the WvW community so much? The answer is straightforward. There has been almost no new content added to this aspect of GW2 since it shipped encouraging the thought that WvW is very low priority for the developers. Whilst more and more problems have cropped up. The most serious are queue waiting times on many servers during peak hours are similar to what we saw at launch, despite their being far fewer players overall and culling (Enemy/Ally characters not rendering in a timely fashion) making wide scale battles frustrating at best.

The one month postponement of the much vaunted ‘February patch’ is not a big deal in itself however when coming on top of everything else it certainly adds fuel to the fire.

I believe ANet and the community are about to reach the first critical crossroads since the very successful launch.
Tomorrow we will see the aftermath of the score reset. If ANet have reworked things and provide meaningful, balanced matches next week people will grumble a bit as they always do, but overall things will go well. However if there are a lot of very one sided matches where one/two servers are permanently spawn camped, I expect a huge backlash. The first since the game launched and it will be interesting to see how ANet react to mass, hostile criticism.

Am I right or is this not really that big a deal?

Can we have updated information, preferably periodically so your community can make informed decisions

I think ANet will have noted there is a general consensus that a score reset if everything else stays much the same is a dreadful decision as very strong servers will be placed in tiers where they will crush the opposition making it a non event within a few hours of off peak. So they are ‘concocting’ a different system’ to avoid that.

If they are not ensuring meaningful matches and just let things be I will be bitterly disappointed in their efforts to provide fun to their customers.

Please take a long hard look at your priorities ANet. Do you just want to support casuals only (which is fine) or are you going to support hardcore players that actually buy Gems? The latter by and large play WvW. But not for much longer unless you can start delivering.