Guild Wars 2

It may take until the new shiny wears off the expansion, or Fallout hits. I’m going to relax about it, but I hadn’t ever seen anyone write about the absence of a queue, so I needed to put it out there.

It’s pretty bogus that we as customers should have to know that though don’t you think? Just put my intentions in a queue, and shoot me an e-mail when it happens.

Look, I want to put this out there. I’ve stayed up hoping to catch Sea of Sorrows available for transfer for over 24 hours. I know get a hobby right? My guild mates are there, and they are why I am here. Now, I get it’s full, and these things take time. However in attempting to watch the server status I am missing out on actually playing the game. Why can’t I spend my gems, put in a request, and just have my request automated in a queue? I mean, I spent cash money with Anet for the gems to make the switch. How about you guys put in place a realistic method so that I don’t have to sit here doing legwork a simple bit of code could be handling. I know I am not alone in this frustration. Can we please get a fix to this?

@nachtnebel.9168
I respect your perspective on this. You are correct in your need to organize, and coordinate. However, we face insurmountable odds even down here in the bottom bracket. Peak hours are something that is natural, and an opposing faction should have an opportunity to capitalize on our vulnerability. Maintaining claimed objectives, in an even population scenario, during off times is also part of the challenge. This is also a metric they currently take into consideration when matching servers. It’s not a professional boxing ladder. I would go so far as to say being the best server isn’t what’s on our minds. While there are a lot of folks who want to chase the best number, I think the majority of people would settle for a fun, fair, and engaging encounter. The numbers we’ve been left with currently during peak hours in WvWvW are seldom enough to wrest a keep from the NPCs that hold it. I don’t think you understand how badly outmanned we are.

As far as the queue times go, population, and peak hours are metrics that can be weighed and measure on Arena’s end to provide the most appropriate challenge. There is no prize for being in the top tier. The design is there to provide the most appropriate challenge. Shortly after launch, and before the word spread about how to game the free transfers, everything was peachy keen. We had pitched battles, sieges, and used all of the available mechanics to fight our foes. The slope of the population mountain is just too steep, and the free transfers have gone on long enough to cripple the opportunity for us to participate. We still go out and raid caravans and veteran guards, but as soon as those crossed swords appear we have only a matter of moments before a 10-1 force comes down on top of us. While “why bother” isn’t a staple of how I conduct business, please recognize that for the rest of humanity it’s a go to position in the face of those odds. It’s plain not fun.

@Everyone
This thread is moving pretty fast, and it’s the middle of the work day. I will address each of your views in time, but I will not skim them and troll you. So, I will get back to work on this this evening. I feel it’s important we gain all the perspective we can, and entertain all of the ideas we maybe didn’t come up with ourselves. Perhaps as a community we will find the solution, Arena will recognize, and we can all return to enjoyable days of taking up arms against each other in game.

@Raydaq.5421
Why does no one understand the point about evening the population fixing the queue times? It’s not even complicated. Your lower tier theory is flawed in that my server is now in the lowest tier and our competition has us 10-1. The metric is broken, as is your logic. I wouldn’t call you a bully, just short sighted and naive at best. It’s funny how all of you people think we should leave our servers. If your queue sucks, leave your server. That’s how the evening of population works. Live and die on your own merits. Your opinion is worse than wrong. It’s plain invalid.

@Corvindi.5734
/facepalm

@Tortun.5946
@Varathiel.9128
It’s nice to hear from some other victims, and not be trolled from the top of the mountain. Demoralizing indeed. I’m not the kind of guy to uproot my guild and follow the trend. We made our choice collectively, and we dig our heels in and own it. We work together in WvWvW with the other players we have participating, and we have some skilled players. I haven’t been a part of many evenly matched encounters we’ve lost, and perhaps that’s because we’re so practiced at standing up to the giants we face week to week. The challenge has hardened us, but the skew has just become more pronounced with each week’s matchups. Things are even all day on Friday, and Friday night a server pulls ahead a bit, and the next thing you know everyone is moving there to complete their discoveries, and farm the easy win as that server swells. Who knows, next week my server could see the influx, and we could dominate all week. It wouldn’t make it any more fun. This is a very cooperative game, and with some simple changes we could even this all out, and allow a sense of ownership of our servers to grow. I enjoy the feeling of pride that comes from conquering a challenge. Right now 0/3 servers are basking in that feeling. I have a lot of faith in Arena.net. I played GW1 from launch, and they have always been a company that works towards fairness in competition. I would really like to hear what they plan to do about this situation.

@Corvindi.5734
So you researched out before launch which server would give you the easiest free ride.?Cool story bro. Now elaborate on how I’m wrong.

This will ease your queue. Read everything before you troll.

@Hansiman.4962
It feels to me that the need for a zerg to bounce from zone to zone is more an effect of the current system rather than a desired practice. I understand the logistics of taking objectives without confrontation, and I support the tactic. If we were to mirror reality a bit more those bounces would be caused by scouts and recon. The deployment of forces in life is a very difficult task, and to switch warfronts should be as well. There are dangers and costs in doing so. Given the imaginary geographic seperation of the borderlands the bouncing and taking objectives unchallenged side steps the siege system.

Our guild for example has a preference of militarizing our own border. While an enemy exists at home we prefer to be there to see to it. I’m sure other guilds would develop similar preferences if queues were something to take into consideration. You would develop rivalries within those specific zones, and get that feel of Patton chasing Rommel around the desert in world war 2. You would have smaller warbands working to cut supply lines to effect a siege elsewhere. I think the concept would lead to more strategy, and the best organized faction would stand a greater chance against the larger force. Fairness comes from the ability of the underdog to outsmart the larger enemy with guerrilla warfare. A war of attrition becomes as much an option as a large scale invasion. It would cause adaptation, and unforeseen circumstance. All lending to the excitement of the experience.

A larger force would be possible. As I said originally they don’t have to be even to a man, but if you keep that gap reasonable, within 10-15 for example, there will still be the ability to muster the larger force, but not insurmountable odds. None of us are enjoying the current oppression. Those of us looking to do the work of building community on the servers we are loyal to are really up against the wall as we watch our productive brethren vacate the scene for greener pastures. It’s unfortunate, but given human nature, most people will drag up for greener pastures. Alienation is one of the largest causes of death when it comes to these new games.

I agree the current situation can be blamed squarely on the free server transfers, but in the big picture it’s also a wise move as this game is essentially brand new, and groups of people are picking it up individually only to coordinate servers with friends as they discover who plays. In the big picture this notion fits, and in my opinion trumps the current outcry of rage from us PvP players. They have a whole game to not only support, but market. These people having the ability to join their friends is what enhances the experience of the game, opens the wallets, and pays for the development of new content. The window on these transfers will close at some point. What I’m afraid of is just by force of population the small servers will never be able to cross paths with the larger, and be limited to the small variety of servers within range. I don’t like my merits to be weighed on circumstances beyond the control of intellect and strategy.

This queuing system I propose would even serve to enhance the terrible queue times for the largest servers. As less people are in line to get in your wait decreases. My idea for exp and magic find buffs for people in queue create a rewarding scenario for the inconvenience.

Once a more fair balance has been established, and population shifts settle down we’ll see our standout pvp guilds grow, and be the zerg for the smaller units running support on supply lines, counter siege, and objective defense. I’m in this to participate in the frey. I’m looking to feel like I earned something aside from 2 zergs grinding pvp influence and exp by running clockwise and recapping unhindered. Overthrowing a force on a keep should be difficult, but not undoable. It should be rewarding, and worth while to employ tactics, and engage the enemy.

@Deathcarlyle.6075
You are short sighted. Day 1, yes, that would be the case. Day 7, that would be half the case. The progression would be to level out the queue times until their were none because the population and interest had been shaken out to equality. Short queue times. They could even provide average queue times for specific shifts. Maybe you want to move a whole guild over to take advantage of fantastic queue times a server has during 3rd shift hours. Maybe they could allow a full guild move, and the schedules would even themselves out. The point is that it creates an incentive towards equality. If you are so fanatically loyal to your home world rest assured others will get sick of the queue times and move to the better timed servers. As those server populations come up, your queue times go down. So just lay back, open up you rmind, and it will only hurt for a moment.

@OG big server people before the swapping began.
After launch it took a while for the server hopping to begin. Things were working very well until word circulated on the cheese method of map clear that has sloped our populations to where they are now. I think we can all agree you’re server’s domination would not be 7 days of 95% if not for this potentially fatal flaw. It’s an exploit holding our communities hostage. Had the door not been opened things would have worked well, but they didn’t, and we as a community need to own that, and look for a solution. Locking the population as is by instituting paid transfers will seal the casket on a lot of the individuals who aren’t interested in paid services. We need those players as well. While those of us paying for micro transactions would be inclined to feel more worthy than these unpaying folks we need them. Without them our mmo wouldn’t be massive. So, let’s just think about how long we would like to be able to keep this game alive. If that isn’t something that concerns you I don’t think your thoughts and feelings are something that concern me. Borderlands 2 is super dope. Squirrel.

@Corvindi.5734
Wouldn’t it be possible, even likely that your dice roll on which server to create a character on landed you on a high population server? Be it a more catchy name, or pure random chance there are obviously more of you on the larger servers. I expect to defend myself against the majority. Power never yields itself without a struggle, and clearly you’ve chosen the option of bad queue times over rolling up your sleeves, and earning something. It’s to be expected. The majority of people once thought the earth was flat and you would fall off the edge. Then they thought it was the center of the universe. I think you can get a sense of the progression. There were always people like me out in front of you burned at the stake for heresy, and yet here we all are alive, well, and orbiting a young star with probes now in space leaving the confines of our solar system. Allow me to caress your cheek in consolation, and whisper it will all be okay. If your server is so skilled and home to the faithful, unified elite you have nothing to worry about. If you’ve invested, and built a server PvP strategy that is the sole cause of your specific domination it will remain. If anything those insolent fanboys you likely hate so much will be the ones who shake lose, thusly improving your queue times, and allowing your murder machine to just barrel down the tracks on all of us unexepecting cry babies.

@Hansiman.4962
Mixing the servers in an arbitrary fashion would would result in a week long gang kitten for 2/3 servers. Their rating system, and tier placement are solid logic. This way as time goes on, the game evolves, and players come and go from servers they will have a dynamic metric for providing each server the best possible chance of even representation, and skill level. I agree variety is the spice of life, but I still don’t put mustard on my ice cream.

Example: On World of Warcraft, which I played from launch through Cataclysm, we Horde were outnumbered 5-1 by Alliance for 7 years. This didn’t matter a great deal until they gave us Wintergrasp. Our record in the Center Keep was all the evidence needed to support my claims on why adjusting challenge towards equality is a smart move.

Horde: Keep Defended: 209
Alliance: Keep Defended: 1251

In Cataclysm we had the queuing system I propose. I don’t take credit for the concept, but as an observer, and participant I can tell you every time the match started it became anyone’s game, and the zones changed hands at a much more middle of the road proportion than we had seen in Wintergrasp. I wish I could provide you those numbers to validate my claim, but Blizzard neglected to provide a record book for Tol Barad as they did in Wintergrasp.

Before you reply to tell me to “go back to wow” let’s remember I’m merely displaying an observation of a dev studio who learned from their mistakes to the delight of the community. While some people will be sore that their stacked deck may be counted, for every one of them I believe there are 4 people who just want to put their shoulder behind something fair, and have a shot. To them, I tip my hat, and defend my position.

That doesn’t balance anything. It locks it. Why is everyone so short sighted? Do we really want borderlands with 20 people per server? That’s what the bottom tier will have at present if they lock transfers. Try to look past yourself to the community as a whole, and see creating incentive to migrate, and even out is what’s best for all of us. The faster queues will be like shaking a pile of sand. It will draw from the high pop areas, and even it all out.

What’s best for the game is what’s best for the individual. More happy players, are more people investing in development. Let’s not let kitten, and mock posterity overshadow the need to create a more even footing for everyone. Otherwise everyone will abandon the smaller servers for the busy WvWvW, and we’ll all have terrible queues anyway. Evening out the population only serves to give us more variety in opponent realms, and a much more enjoyable state for everyone. I think deep down we all want an even playing field where we stand out on our merits, and not lame fence hopping.

Did you actually read the post?
Point 1 establishes a skill game. Not a server transfer zerg fest. You are obviously one of those people. If you had been dominated a few weeks in a row your tune would be much different. This is needed to reduce transfers, and build community on each individual server. Not so you and 40 buddies can roll the the 5 man groups that can’t even take a small keep. If you were a skill player who respected a challenge, you would understand.

Point 2 is not down to my server’s community. The queue time would be based on the minority server of the 3 at war. So join the minority, get into WvWvW quick. This will aid in establishing balanced populations as membership increases.

Point 3 People do that anyway. It would be a blanket increase in PvP and PvE. So, really, who would go out into a borderland to farm when they could do it nice and safe elsewhere? Pretty long walk to get killed for a log don’t you think?

From your baseless, and poorly punctuated troll response I can see perhaps I needed to explain in greater depth for hooples such as yourself. Thank you kindly.

1) Establish a queue system to regulate one server from having more people than another server active in any given zone at any given time within 10 players.

2) Inform your player base of estimated queue times.

3) Increase magic find and exp gain for low pop servers to further incentivize people to make a move.

It’s just that simple. If you want to move to the winning server all the time, you wait in a queue for an hour or more. However long it takes. The problem will fix itself I assure you. Balance in play is more important than ease of access. Let us queue as groups, and let us queue for all 4 maps. Award exp in SPvP for people who are in queue for all 4 maps. When/if they refuse to join, they lose the right to gain exp until they do join.

I’ve worked really hard to sell many a friend on buying this game by filling their heads with tails of epic battles, and touting Arena’s reputation. Don’t make a fool of me. If you institute these policies you will see an ocean of happy gamers with open wallets. If this flawed system stands, you’ll see a lot of Pandas. Your call.

We have room yet for one more small guild.

Anvil Rock is our server

“The ‘math’ behind attunement switching giving more dps is actually quite straightforward when it comes to the staff.”

Where is the strait forward math in your post? Not only did you not use any math, you didn’t even type a number in the whole post. We’re all aware of how our abilities function. Assuming since it’s a forum we can all read. If telling people you stance dance makes you feel good inside by all means please carry on.

Back here in reality what you are expressing is an opinion in no way backed by any facts that can be weighed or measured. In short, cool story bro.

People can work all the math they want with what’s provided, but there simply isn’t enough. Arena’s transparency just isn’t there for all the potential factors, the order the math is applied(which matters a great deal when sequencing percentage increases), and just no way to record output accurately.

In a way this is great. I’m super stoked not every Class is going to roll around in the only acceptable uberleet build. We won’t have leet gamers lording over casuals and pressuring them to use the “right” build. From the encounters I’ve been privy to a very mediocre understanding of the synergy between your abilities, and attributes will be enough to get you over the hump. This creates a comfortable, and fun environment for everyone to be a part of.

When it comes to end game content, and pvp Arena has always been about group synergy. So you need a guy to keep heavy bleed up, a guy to keep burning up, and so on. Folks need to specialize in what they do in accordance with what their team mates are bringing. You want to find a way for your team to bring and maintain as many boons and conditions as possible. With those bases covered you can begin to worry about power and precision. The most effective teams blend, and work with synergy to take their enemies apart.

That being said, there will never be a single way to do anything. To preach it would be a display of ignorance. If it ever becomes true you can bet Arena will work to balance and repair that unintentional effect.

I’m going to flat disagree. You don’t have a damage meter to weigh any kind of results, and you aren’t even clear on what criteria you are grading this classes efficacy on. Your first 4 paragraphs restate the same arbitrary opinion presented as fact.

There are plenty of diverse ways to play this class outside the scope of your attunement swapping theory. For instance in SPvP. Decide what you want to do. Do you want to heal, dps, survive or support? For the sake of argument you choose dps. Dps how? Precision/Power or Conditions? Condition damage builds neglect precision/power. If you use all 4 trees you spread your attributes too thin, and accomplish nothing but repair bills. You go with Condition damage. Condition damage in this class is derived from Earth/Bleed and Fire/Burn. Those are your focus for the chosen task. Feel fortunate you have Air for your travel, and Water for your minor healing and condition removal.

The days of “This is how it’s done” are over. This isn’t about your stand and bang raid rotation and dps meters. Grow beyond that. This is about Synergy and bringing what your group is lacking. It’s about your class being able to slip into any role you elect to play, and do it successfully.

I’ll be happy to entertain your 1 dimensional theory crafting when you have some math to back up your claims. Just because you are only good at one way doesn’t mean you get to pigeon hole the rest of us.

We’ve got about a dozen people in our humble guild on Anvil Rock. We’re all professionals, and family folk. Grown and mature. We have a good time, and kind of all just get behind whatever we happen to want to do as a guild. We don’t really have a focus, but I’d call us above average in everything. We’ve been looking for a few more friends to replace the folks we left behind in Warcraft. Those home wrecking pandas left us in a missing wing formation. We play mostly prime time like 5pm-12am Central, but on the weekends we’re all over. Usually pulling all nighters in WvW. We demand nothing but the desire to make some friends, and fit into a team. We don’t tolerate ignorant racism or bigotry in any fashion. We’re not power gamers. We range in age from mid 20s to 40s. This is our hobby, our zen if you will, and we’d love it if you came and gave it a look.

Home World: Anvil Rock
Guild Name: Agents of Oblivion
Guild Website: http://www.facebook.com/groups/305305442873873/
In-Game Contact: Toubabo Koomi
Focus: WvWvW, Tournaments, Cooperative Play

Quick Notes:

We here at Agents of Oblivion have been together as a crew for going on 5 years. We’re not looking to be absorbed into a larger guild, and we aren’t looking to swell our ranks by spamming in trade.

Something has to give. We all want to be able to run those dungeons, compete in tournaments, and crush the whole known universe in WvWvW. Unfortunately our assets are limited and our stubborn disposition has left us no choice but to seek out other like minded groups for a close partnership.

The way this works is each player account may be bound to 4 guilds, while representing only 1. This is perfect. A chance encounter the other day bumped us into another guild with the same troubles. What we have done is create a special rank in our guild for all of their members, and invited them. Now when they are on we can see all of them in our guild list, and quite easily tap them to fill roles in the groups we form, and they can do the same right back. Synergy. We effectively doubled the size of our guild without clogging our vent, chat, bank, or roster.

Agents of Oblivion have room for 2 more small guilds of grown folks to come over and sit at the table with us.

Also, ranks have been established for any individuals that would like to be a part of this system, but don’t want to be in a guild, or cannot sell their whole guild on joining our alliance. Special ranks for PvE, and PvP players will show your nomad status with us, and your intentions.

There is no requirement that you represent our guild to be a parts of this. We make our own influence, and are happy enough with the rate at which it rolls in. We just need access to talent, and I know we are not alone.

We here at Agents of Oblivion have been together as a crew for going on 5 years. We’re not looking to be absorbed into a larger guild, and we aren’t looking to swell our ranks by spamming in trade.
Something has to give. We all want to be able to run those dungeons, compete in tournaments, and crush the whole known universe in WvWvW. Unfortunately our assets are limited and our stubborn disposition has left us no choice but to seek out other like minded groups for a close partnership.
The way this works is each player account may be bound to 4 guilds, while representing only 1. This is perfect. A chance encounter the other day bumped us into another guild with the same troubles. What we have done is create a special rank in our guild for all of their members, and invited them. Now when they are on we can see all of them in our guild list, and quite easily tap them to fill roles in the groups we form, and they can do the same right back. Synergy. We effectively doubled the size of our guild without clogging our vent, chat, bank, or roster.
Agents of Oblivion have room for 2 more small guilds of grown folks to come over and sit at the table with us.
Also, ranks have been established for any individuals that would like to be a part of this system, but don’t want to be in a guild, or cannot sell their whole guild on joining our alliance. Special ranks for PvE, and PvP players will show your nomad status with us, and your intentions.
There is no requirement that you represent our guild to be a parts of this. We make our own influence, and are happy enough with the rate at which it rolls in. We just need access to talent, and I know we are not alone.

We here at Agents of Oblivion have been together as a crew for going on 5 years. We’re not looking to be absorbed into a larger guild, and we aren’t looking to swell our ranks by spamming in trade.
Something has to give. We all want to be able to run those dungeons, compete in tournaments, and crush the whole known universe in WvWvW. Unfortunately our assets are limited and our stubborn disposition has left us no choice but to seek out other like minded groups for a close partnership.
The way this works is each player account may be bound to 4 guilds, while representing only 1. This is perfect. A chance encounter the other day bumped us into another guild with the same troubles. What we have done is create a special rank in our guild for all of their members, and invited them. Now when they are on we can see all of them in our guild list, and quite easily tap them to fill roles in the groups we form, and they can do the same right back. Synergy. We effectively doubled the size of our guild without clogging our vent, chat, bank, or roster.
Agents of Oblivion have room for 2 more small guilds of grown folks to come over and sit at the table with us.
Also, ranks have been established for any individuals that would like to be a part of this system, but don’t want to be in a guild, or cannot sell their whole guild on joining our alliance. Special ranks for PvE, and PvP players will show your nomad status with us, and your intentions.
There is no requirement that you represent our guild to be a parts of this. We make our own influence, and are happy enough with the rate at which it rolls in. We just need access to talent, and I know we are not alone.

We here at Agents of Oblivion have been together as a crew for going on 5 years. We’re not looking to be absorbed into a larger guild, and we aren’t looking to swell our ranks by spamming in trade.
Something has to give. We all want to be able to run those dungeons, compete in tournaments, and crush the whole known universe in WvWvW. Unfortunately our assets are limited and our stubborn disposition has left us no choice but to seek out other like minded groups for a close partnership.
The way this works is each player account may be bound to 4 guilds, while representing only 1. This is perfect. A chance encounter the other day bumped us into another guild with the same troubles. What we have done is create a special rank in our guild for all of their members, and invited them. Now when they are on we can see all of them in our guild list, and quite easily tap them to fill roles in the groups we form, and they can do the same right back. Synergy. We effectively doubled the size of our guild without clogging our vent, chat, bank, or roster.
Agents of Oblivion have room for 2 more small guilds of grown folks to come over and sit at the table with us.
Also, ranks have been established for any individuals that would like to be a part of this system, but don’t want to be in a guild, or cannot sell their whole guild on joining our alliance. Special ranks for PvE, and PvP players will show your nomad status with us, and your intentions.
There is no requirement that you represent our guild to be a parts of this. We make our own influence, and are happy enough with the rate at which it rolls in. We just need access to talent, and I know we are not alone.

That sounds great. I will be out of town over the weekend. Look for me to be around Sunday night around 7pm Central.

We here at Agents of Oblivion have been together as a crew for going on 5 years. We’re not looking to be absorbed into a larger guild, and we aren’t looking to swell our ranks by spamming in trade.

Something has to give. We all want to be able to run those dungeons, compete in tournaments, and crush the whole known universe in WvWvW. Unfortunately our assets are limited and our stubborn disposition has left us no choice but to seek out other like minded groups for a close partnership.

The way this works is each player account may be bound to 4 guilds, while representing only 1. This is perfect. A chance encounter the other day bumped us into another guild with the same troubles. What we have done is create a special rank in our guild for all of their members, and invited them. Now when they are on we can see all of them in our guild list, and quite easily tap them to fill roles in the groups we form, and they can do the same right back. Synergy. We effectively doubled the size of our guild without clogging our vent, chat, bank, or roster.

Agents of Oblivion have room for 2 more small guilds of grown folks to come over and sit at the table with us.

Also, ranks have been established for any individuals that would like to be a part of this system, but don’t want to be in a guild, or cannot sell their whole guild on joining our alliance. Special ranks for PvE, and PvP players will show your nomad status with us, and your intentions.

There is no requirement that you represent our guild to be a parts of this. We make our own influence, and are happy enough with the rate at which it rolls in. We just need access to talent, and I know we are not alone.

Our guild has been together through several games since WoW’s BC days. We’ve got some hardcore PvP players, and we’ve got some serious raiders. The main thing we have here is a bunch of adults with careers, families, and/or other responsibilities that have pushed our hobby down our priority list. We’re not overly busy at present, and we feel making some new friends would be just the thing to fill these gaps.

Rules

1. There will be no ignorant racism, or bigotry permitted.
2. We drink, and curse. A lot. We don’t judge.
3. We support tough love. We talk a lot of smack, but no one gets bent.
4. When you are in, you are family. You have a voice, a say, and a place in any group formed. This means an Agent before any other.
5. We are not concerned with your skill level, character level, gear level, or time played. We’re interested in your desire to learn, and fill gaps in the machine.