Guild Wars 2

Hey SkyShroud, let me say this, I applaud your effort to put so much thought and explanation into how to fix WvW!

Anet is generally so secretive and close doored, that people really have no idea what to expect down the road from them. I understand that from a PvE content perspective, no spoilers. But I also think structurally, systemically the WvW side of Arenanet must change.

Its needs more dialogue, it needs more openness with the community. Even the president said that the community dictates the direction, and yet changes keep coming out without community input.

Until they change their policies, until they change their development structure, we are just going to be kept in the dark and the game is just going to keep stagnating.

I think you have come to same the realization as me my friend. I think we were waiting for that announcement from McKenna, and at least for me its just not very enthusiasm building or hype. I am glad they are trying, but I guess at this point its just a bit too little too late especially 2 years post HoT. Oh well, it was a fun run, wish them the best of luck!

“And why wouldn’t they shift it to the players? they keep get kitten about not listening to players and developing what they want for wvw, so now the players dictate what is developed for wvw and you want to throw that back at them?

You don’t need to know their tools and knowledge to for anything, if something needs new technology they will try to build it, like they have for all the stuff they released in the past year. Just don’t come offering insane ideas that no other game even has, or has even been attempted."

I think you misread my statement completely, you shift the responsibility of creating new content to the players without giving them the tools and means to create it. As in, I would agree with you shifting that responsibility as you do in other posts if they had the tools to create new content. Businesses work on a model on providing products to customers for them to purchase, and if you are not providing content/products, then people arent going to buy into your game.

“You guys are choosing to over read his comments as “hey no content for the expansion therefore we’re never making content for wvw ever!”. He simply stated what they have been doing the past year, releasing content for the competitive side of the game when it’s ready(for free mind you), and not holding anything back for the expansion.

“I can’t believe I’m defending Mike here.”

No people are quite clearly saying there is no new content coming from them in any substantial way. People are waiting for new content. Then your argument keeps going back that the lack of new content is due to the community. Its not true, they are company that needs to make money and incentivize people to purchase it. They arent going to keep putting time and money into it. As someone else said the game is a theme park not a sandbox. If the theme park is not producing new content in any substantial way people arent going to keep going back.

“They probably won’t in the future given how difficult it is for the wvw community to accept any change, even when they hate the current situation.”

You keep shifting that responsibility of new content onto the community and player base for lack of content. I dont know what to tell you, its not the business model and its not the truth. Businesses take constant feedback from their customers, incorporate it and keep going and expanding. They keep growing and keep the new things that customers like and rework things that didnt get such positive feedback.

(Let me add one more thing “(for free mind you),” , this is a false argument that gets brought many times. Nothing is free. When a game like Gw2 works off a no monthly payment model, you are buying into the game through other things. MMO developers have talked about this before in the past , free to play games work off things like gems, which people pay for aesthetics etc. So you dont pay a monthly fee for WvW, but you purchase items from the gem store to support the game.

People also pay in time. I remember an interview with an MMO developer once who was asked “Do you not mind if some people never pay anything into your MMO game, even including gems?”. He said “Absolutely, they enhance the experience by being in the game”. What he was saying, is that people invest time into games. They enhance other’s experience by participating in the game so someone who pays alot of money into the gem store/expansion, wont be running looking pretty with no else around to admire it or participate with that person.)

“People can keep coming in here and asking for new content, but the players need to actually work for that and support ideas that may seem good enough for anet to listen to and implement. It starts with the players doing a proper job of creating, supporting and building ideas. Not just no, and delete.”

I have to believe that the onus is on Arenanet to fulfill that promise of new content and material. I see this shifting of responsibility on to the player base from several others as well, and I could agree with that if the player base were given the tools and knowledge to build new material, ideas and mechanics. But I dont see them actively doing so on Arenanet’s part aside from the few polls we have had in the past. But I think as others have stated, they most likely made a business decision that no new content will be produced in any substantial way.

XenesisII.1540:

MuscleBobBuffPants.1406:

I was wondering, for those who read the Reddit AMA, maybe I am interpreting this incorrectly, does it sound like the next expansion will have no new WvW content?

“We shipped the big Competitive Feature Pack last month because we think that competitive updates work better as live content. We’re not holding onto PvP or WvW feature updates for the expansion. We’ll continue to ship them live.
Mo”

If the competitive feature pack was the big release package for that mode, it doesnt seem very substantial or big to me at least. Maybe its this slow realization that WvW , the only reason I stay with this game is just not going to get any major updates anytime soon. And if that “major” update is a feature only update and not content, it seems really lackluster.

Not sure what else you’re expecting.

I don’t think they will “rock the boat” when it comes to any other type of updates to the game mode, because frankly this community is finicky and cry about every change good or bad. Instead of working for better changes we have people running around in here telling them to delete stuff instead.

What should they change anyways? The community can’t decide or agree on anything, there have been dozens of ideas floated out there with no real support. Mike says we now drive the mode in what we want, but we never come to a general consensus on what needs to be change, every single person has their own idea on what wvw should be, so yeah good luck getting any game play changes.

The new reward system was a big content release for wvw, and basically the final big piece of updates throughout the last year that they had planned for. If you’re expecting regular game changing updates like what pve gets, then you haven’t been paying attention to wvw development, you’re expecting too much, you’re playing the wrong mode.

The only content to maybe hope for in the expansion is a new map, everything else is shipped when it’s ready, they won’t wait for one big fat update for the expansion is what Mike was saying, which is what they probably tried to do with HoT.

At least for me personally, and it sounds like you and others feel differently, the game mode with no new content in terms of maps, mechanics will stagnate. At least it feels that way to me, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that its exactly what it feels like to me. I give the analogy back to Quake Wars because the exact same thing happened, it was an amazing game, had some really cool ideas, had alot of potential, but nothing was ever expanded upon or added. No new maps, weapons, ideas etc.

I am sorry they have had such trouble implementing new ideas, but again personally, I dont want them to necessarily stop. Maybe they can consider new ways of implementing ideas? More beta testing, more open development for constant feedback and adjustments?

Getting back to the original question, I dont think you read his statement the same as me, which is to say, even a new map, doesnt seem likely for the expansion. Well I think getting to your statement, maybe you are playing the wrong game mode, I think the more likely answer I am coming up with nowadays is that I am playing the wrong game. But again that is personal realization I have come to slowly over time, and others feel differently, but nevertheless.

Zephyra.4709:

Dunno man. As it currently stands I’m more or less neutral WvW even gets glanced at these days.

I imagine any update WvW receives will be shipped alongside whatever new PvE/PvP content is ready and not necessarily tied to xpac launch, however, it would be nice to have a feature pack developed in terms of WvW class separate balance to name just a teardrop of the many wishful thoughts…

Right now I’m bored of the stale meta. HoT classes shaked things up a bit but the pot’s been boiling for too long now. Would love to see new skills/traits added for support roles or even rework of lesser used skills.

I think what worried me the most from his statement was that he considered the feature pack to be big. Maybe its just me, but it didn’t feel all that big. And if that is considered big for WvW, I dont foresee any really big changes coming down the pipeline.

Swamurabi.7890:

I think that the only WvW update in the new xpac will be more unbalanced elite specs and a ton of PvE that has to be done to get the best armor stats to take advantage of them.

Man I really hate that, but I am getting this feeling that you are right. The game director himself said there would be no new WvW content in expansions. I guess come Tuesday, if that expansion announcement confirms it, that might be it for me. Man that is strange to say.

Sviel.7493:

I’m back to semi-hiatus (because no red BL q_q), which makes it easier to wait out changes. However, I’m also hoping for something to ship with the expac. There’s tons of room for growth/improvement in WvW—in ways that have been explored to the point where all that’s needed is action. Things take time, yes, but I’m not going to carry on just with the vapors of hope.

They don’t have to drop something as big as the last expansion, though.

Yeah I am at the same point personally, so weird to part with a game you have been part of for years, but I got to reach a point where I am realistic about it, and I cant help this feeling that this game mode is going the way of Quake Wars. I remember me and my friends kept waiting for new content for that game, we were willing to pay for easily, but it just never came. We just realized one day it wasnt coming and left. kitten shame too!

SkyShroud.2865:

Changes that impact gameplay are what people here do not want. /shrugs

Strange, the game mode just feels more and more boring/stale to me. My hope is that they would keep developing it and working on it. I think it has a lot of potential to expand, but right now just seems very stagnant. And for me, that just doesnt evoke any enthusiasm for it.

Justine.6351:

MuscleBobBuffPants.1406:

Serenity.6135:

He did not say it was the “BIG” update that some people are waiting on, for some reason. He simply said it was a big update. I take that statement to mean that any updates they have for WvW, will not require players to have to wait for something like an expansion. So if they have something to release they will just release it as part of normal updates, most likely alongside future Living story episodes every couple of months.

Its just weird to keep waiting for it, that kind of BIG update for WvW with new content. How many more months for it? Especially since he used the word big to describe it, and as far as WvW was concerned, it wasnt that big. And I dont think I am being too critical of it, but it felt like a reskinned PvP pip system. I am thinking new content as in new siege, new maps, new mechanics etc.

They have tried and tried to add those 3 things since hot and they end up removing them because people kitten, whine and cry about them.

Do you think they have stopped developing those things altogether? If so, it just diminishes any remaining hype I have for the game/game mode. I was hoping that the expansion would spark that hype again.

Serenity.6135:

He did not say it was the “BIG” update that some people are waiting on, for some reason. He simply said it was a big update. I take that statement to mean that any updates they have for WvW, will not require players to have to wait for something like an expansion. So if they have something to release they will just release it as part of normal updates, most likely alongside future Living story episodes every couple of months.

Its just weird to keep waiting for it, that kind of BIG update for WvW with new content. How many more months for it? Especially since he used the word big to describe it, and as far as WvW was concerned, it wasnt that big. And I dont think I am being too critical of it, but it felt like a reskinned PvP pip system. I am thinking new content as in new siege, new maps, new mechanics etc.

I was wondering, for those who read the Reddit AMA, maybe I am interpreting this incorrectly, does it sound like the next expansion will have no new WvW content?

“We shipped the big Competitive Feature Pack last month because we think that competitive updates work better as live content. We’re not holding onto PvP or WvW feature updates for the expansion. We’ll continue to ship them live.
Mo”

If the competitive feature pack was the big release package for that mode, it doesnt seem very substantial or big to me at least. Maybe its this slow realization that WvW , the only reason I stay with this game is just not going to get any major updates anytime soon. And if that “major” update is a feature only update and not content, it seems really lackluster.

Interesting idea, I have alot of tomes of knowledge sitting around! Might put them to good use!

Sly.9518:

MuscleBobBuffPants.1406:

Jugglemonkey.8741:

They just need to balance between PvE and WvW. The deathly chill buff applying to WvW and the thief endurance nerfs NOT applying to WvW are just head scratchingly strange balance choices.

I am curious, have they made any announcements in the past about separating more and more WvW/PvP and PvE skills? It would definitely help with a lot of issues. I understand the thiefs ability/need to dodge through PvE mobs/damage, but infinite dodging/evading in PvP/WvW isnt much fun for anyone.

It would help if you read patchnotes the last 3 or 4 balance patches have made Bebe and Pvp specific balance changes……..

And lulz thieves don’t have unlimited Dodges (they have a lot that’s for sure but over exaggeration doesn’t get anyone anywhere) especially not in Pvp where they have been nerfing Thief Dodges/evades the Last 3 patches without impunity.

Oh no doubt, I am not saying get rid of them completely, just my experience and it seems like others would echo that sentiment, maybe tone it down some more. But not hitting thieves specifically either, other evasion oriented classes that rely on stealth as well.

But yeah you are right, I know they have been doing that for the last few patches, I was just wondering if they are going to keep in that direction, it definitely seems like the best course to take!

Jugglemonkey.8741:

They just need to balance between PvE and WvW. The deathly chill buff applying to WvW and the thief endurance nerfs NOT applying to WvW are just head scratchingly strange balance choices.

I am curious, have they made any announcements in the past about separating more and more WvW/PvP and PvE skills? It would definitely help with a lot of issues. I understand the thiefs ability/need to dodge through PvE mobs/damage, but infinite dodging/evading in PvP/WvW isnt much fun for anyone.

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

The real problem here is the survivability.

In general, I think players have come to expect that a build should be either tanky or damaging but never both.

If I come up against a glass cannon power build I know they’ll output insane damage but they’re also kind of fragile – so I respect the risk:reward payoff.

Most forum complaints about overpowered classes stem from their survivability combined with their damage (thief damage with perma evades, condi trailblazer everything, rev hammer from range).

High damage plus high survivability = forum complaints.

So it’s not the damage that is the problem here, it is the combination of damage AND survivability.

High condi damage should have low armour, evading thieves should either have less evades or less damage, zerk hammer Revs should have their range reduced or their hammer damage values inverted (closest hit does most damage).

It’s all about finding that balance between survivability and damage.

Condi is a problem because armour like Trailblazer and Dire allow you to combine damage AND survivability. That doesn’t mean condis are broken though, it’s the stat combos that are broken. It’s the evades that are broken (thief). It’s the range that is broken (rev hammer).

I agree! It reminds me of Team Fortress 2 and the Spy. The Spy can one hit someone in the back , but they risk alot by having to sneak into a base and basically having no protection once they get hit. Infact they usually get knocked out in one or two hits. Its a fair trade, and its a class with stealth and deception that no one complains about. There has to be a give and take. Even the Sniper which can one shot from a distance, loses visibility when doing so, so he cant see whats around him, basically opens himself up to an easy shot and has a relatively slow reload.

Yeah I understand what you mean OP. The stealth, mobility and constant evasion seems to be a bit much at times. I wouldn’t mind if they had all those things at the cost of damage, but actually they seem to be intertwined. My hope is that more and more the skills used in WvW, PvP and PvE will be separated. I can definitely emphathize with the need for constant evasion and stealth in PvE, because it saves me quite a bit on my thief! But in PvP and WvW, it just seems a bit over-abused and it really isnt fun.

HamBetwing.8397:

Good day everyone,

Last week I came across a very annoying condi druid in wvw. I was using my beastmaster melee RANGER (zerk,knight,cleric) and was not able to get him below 80% or he would go into cele form and heal up. I had to run in every fight sadly…i dislike doing that XD. Well aware of the fact that my damage is not the best on that build that i was using. Others were not able to kill him quickly either.
I have not spoken to him but i can give u a description of what i saw.
He had:
- condi cleanse signet and i think daze glyph cuz i was stunned a couple of times.
-The bleeding utility (sharpened edges?)
-warhorn/sword + axe/torch
-of course bristleback + smokescale -.-
- Almost perma protection, regen, swiftness

his condi pressure was not super high but it was enough to make me go on the defensive even with the fact taht all my utilties cleanse at least 1 condi (shouts + surv. skills)
I can’t seem to figure out his build and he awakened my interest in condi druid again.
What i think is that he is using something like the old settler build. Just no clue about the traits……but somehow i doubt that he was using the skirmish line cuz of pressure not being SUPER high.

Sorry for the long post i just want to provide as much info on it as i can.

I am looking for a build like this but i don’t know which gear and which traitlines i should use. Any ideas or build suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Hey Ham, exact same thing happened to me a few days ago. Its a pretty tanky and yet damaging build, was surprised by both aspects of it. Same thing, couldn’t get them below 80%.

Buran.3796:

Conditions aren’t a problem. The true problem is how broken is stealth in this game (which happens in most of MMOs: invisibility is alway a pest, and most of developers aren’t unable to balance it in action games).

Thief is the clas with wider access to stealth, so in good hands the only two outcomes of a 1 vs 1 againts a thief are either 1) defeat or 2) the Thief reset the fight using his mobility or steatlh and then comes again with his stats/cooldowns restored.

Its funny out of all the things in the game that I enjoy the least its stealth. Ive never liked being able to disengage from a fight. It should be used for brief periods of disorientation, 1-2 seconds, and then re-engagement. I feel like many unfun fights would be improved by lowering or removing stealth. As someone else pointed out I was surprised by how much stealth I saw coming from rangers and druids too. I wasn’t expecting that!

I definitely think if it was a new class it would have come from a new mechanic altogether, similar to the revenant’s energy that depletes over time as well as the spells that arise from choosing a god.

Heavy : A new class that forges its own weapons, and all its skills and abilities are based off that one weapon. The specs let you choose which weapons you specialize in.

Medium : The monk which uses purely hand to hand combat. They would need new animations for punching and kicking. Its a purely close combat character, more of a sustain fighter than a burst dps and it can’t stealth. Maybe has much more regenerative healing like a skale.

Light : The shaman from Everquest. A super buffer, someone that can give individual players an uber temporary buff (but it can’t buff itself) or give groups less powerful but far reaching buffs like 10+ people at a time.

And/or a magician that can summon minions from its environment. If its near a muddy terrain it can create a muddy minion or if its in a snowy environment it can create a snowy minion.

Someone asked this question in map chat, and I wonder how everyone else feels about it. Do you think each new expansion will always come with a new class and new elite specs? Or do you think it will just be new elite specs? I figured the revenant was the new class in the last expansion, a heavy one, so maybe if there is a new class it will either be light or medium? Interested to hear what yall think!

Aeolus.3615:

Small bandage or not, actually for how WvW works atm, it was always the best scheme, since ANet never wanted to drop servers or to change the gamemode itself to something diferent and simplier to avoid alot of later problems.

Still until friday will be a mess for me wvw time :\ the population gap.. is really noticeable, hope to have at least some fun with that.

One thing that ANet needs to change is how they servers are set to full, meybe they can divide the day in 3 sectors and show the server status during those “sector” times, if guild, this would help guilds to transfer to more emptier timezones where those servers were stated overall full.

I like the time of day idea, in sectors, thats always been the biggest problem when you log in and either you are dominating or losing badly. Neither is fun. A good, fair challenging fight is the best outcome for everyone!

ThomasC.1056:

Hello folks !

I’m opening this thread to share a fear thought about next elite specs.

As you may now, we should get a new X-Pack soon™ which will come along with new elite specs to unlock. Currently, WvW players can unlock them by spending Proof of heroics on notarized scrolls of Heroics. It currently costs 250 proofs of heroics to fully unlock an elite spec.

Since HoT came some times ago, and the new skirmish rewards are now giving a significant amount of Proofs, I think unlocking the next set of elite specs is not too much of a worry for dedicated players (it costs 2250 PoH to unlock the nine of them).

Yet, I’m somehow afraid that, with that in mind, ANet comes with a way to make the unlocking more of a hassle, either by introducing a new currency, or by changing the conversion rate from 1 PoH = 1 Hero Point to something less profitable. It wouldn’t be the first time they do such things in ordre to “make the new content more desirable”.

So, my wish is ANet must not follow that road, and keep things as they currently are on the topic of unlocking elite specs with proofs of heroics.

Any thoughts on this ? Am I too anxious ?

Well lets say worst case scenario that you do have to do the new PvE content to unlock it like in HoT, even the HoT hero point challenges werent terrible and even two years on people still do HP trains. I know it would take a bit of time to have to do that 9 times over, but I ended up doing it for 5 characters and it took a period of 2ish weeks. Not that bad!

Having said that though when I look at the wording the Hero Points unlock in WvW, they unlock based on areas, so 1 to 1 ratio in the original content, 10 to 10 (still 1 to 1) in HoT. From my understanding too, it was HoT that was supposed to set the “standard” for all future expansions when it came to new “classes” elite specs. Which was why the expansion was so much about features and not a lot of pure content. Based on how the expansion was received, I think people are generally happy with the features in the game (guild halls, elite specs, masteries, LFG in PvE, PvP and WvW etc.) that they arent going to waste more time messing around with features and finally get down to delivering a big influx of new content. Which, in my humble opinion, is really what the game needs right now. We need new content to get hyped for, we need new armor, maps (WvW maps), mounts (leaked) etc.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Imo at the moment its a PPKers paradise. I personally either solo roam or run with a few guildies and its usually a good time, despite the recent blob influx.

Yeah I hear yah! I wouldnt mind the blobs per say, if they actually rammed into each other. It would make for some epic, fun , chaotic battles.

Threather.9354:

Its just pip hype currently so there are lot of maps full of PvE players that only want the rewards.

WvW before patch was like this: There was sometimes k-train commander with 20 people or so flipping towers, rest of the people were afk in keep waiting for fights to start.
But as soon as fight commander logged on, the zerging started, 50 people show up to follow commander and the commander goes to spots that give you fights, like upgraded towers, north towers, spawn towers, t3 keeps etc. Because no1 was interested in capping more tower after tower after 5 years.

If you really like fights so much, all you need to do is: dodge the ktrain commanders/guilds during this week, there are plenty of fights on maps because there is plenty of people now, fight commanders are normally on teamspeak (so you know which map to queue to), on guardian, have no signets and multiple charr guardians following them.

Anyways, weekend will be more active for fights, friday reset at 6 pm servertime and saturday-sunday should be full of fights as long as you follow teamspeak commanders.

Of course there are some PPT servers on NA and EU that dodge 90% of fights but all you can do is observe do the other 2 servers fight each other constantly and find out if your teamspeak commander is just talking about ppt and how to dodge them. If you find that you are on one, you might want to transfer or expect better fights next week when you are against weaker fightservers.

Thanks for the advice! Ill be on the look out for more of those kind of commanders! I guess day and time are important as well! Hopefully, Anet might incentive more it in the future as well, for me WvW is about the battle. The towers, camps and keeps are battlegrounds to fight for territory, but not the focus itself, at least for me!

I dont know if this has ever been spoken about by any ANET devs directly, but from my personal experience in WvW, I sometimes find myself moving from camp to camp, tower to tower, flipping camps and towers barely ever seeing any direct fights or resistance within the towers. And even when we take everything, we almost never go directly for the keep and just repeat flipping camps and towers. The other server seems to do the same thing too by just re-flipping camps and towers. Essentially farming camps, towers without ever directly engaging people.

Its fine for loot, gold and track rewards, but I feel that it makes the experience more PvE and less PvPish. Has Arenanet ever mentioned including more rewards and incentives for players to directly engage each other in WvW? Or maybe even rewarded players for fighting for a tower instead of letting it be flipped over and over again?

Or on the flip side, if you have flipped all the towers and camps. Has Arenanet considered any risk/reward bonuses for people who try to attack a heavily defended keep?

I ask because those are some of the funnest fights for me. Even when we lose the fight, I find that much more engaging and fun, then running around constantly flipping camps and towers. If I am attacking a heavily defended keep, its fun and thrilling and vice versa when you are fighting for a tower, camp or keep against all odds. I know player population is an issue with these fights but maybe some kind of movable siege, golems at the WP spawn or whatnot could help make it a fun and fair fight. Anything to make the fights funner, more thrilling and engaging!

I am optimistic about these changes, cautiously optimistic, but optimistic! We will definitely see how they pan out over the next few months, they feel like a very quality of life change to WvW and I have this feeling we will see more new WvW content in terms of maps etc. when we get closer to the expansion announcement.

boolah.1325:

I heard somewhere that the new expansion was going to be EBG on borderlands and each home will own smc. A new super big map for all 4 worlds to fight on with gliders and mounts.

So WvWvWvW… I could be wrong though.

Hmm thats an interesting idea! I wonder if the 4 worlds is because of the population problems. That has always been my favorite battle on EBG is owning the castle and defending it. I wonder how the home world will re-take it after a loss? Maybe a dragon or npc? The bigger map with gliders and mounts would be interesting too. Might even come with some aerial combat?

I think for me I am currently in just a wait and see mode. Coming more from the PvP and WvW side, it will probably be something to wait out and see in terms of new content and new mechanics. But if worse case scenario the expansion doesn’t add any significant content or mechanics to WvW and PvP, I will most likely find myself moving on. Its unfortunate because there is a lot of potential in those two areas!

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVx1KU-sh0U>

Interesting video about the summation of the current WvW status. He does raise an interesting point, is WvW not worth enough money to invest time and resources into it? Maybe they could input more gem content to raise funds for it? I am not sure. I think the next expansion will be the 100% tell-tale sign, if it doesn’t come with any significant WvW content.

Pifil.5193:

It’s an issue that needs to be addressed for a game that prides itself on offering aesthetics as a reward.

I really don’t like the “hot air balloon” look.

Good points!

If its something with the game engine that can’t be changed, I can understand, but it does seem like a clunky fix. There might be some more elegant solutions out there, but maybe making these more like outfits since they seem to be easier to produce and are generally some of the most elegant looking armor in the game.

I feel bad for the artists who made the armor because the general response seems to be lackluster and I must admit, I feel the same way. As you pointed out, the medium and light armor looks very boxy/clunky. The heavy armor looks the best in my opinion, but overall just not my personal preference.

I really feel that Arenanet should get more feedback from players along the way when taking on these long projects. At the end of the day, the players are their customers, and if you can take that feedback in account when creating new maps, items etc., it will help in the long run.

Personally, I think this next expansion will be my make or break for the game. If they make a sincere effort to revitalize WvW that would be great, but if they dont, it might be time to make a change. I am cautiously optimistic!

Raven.1524:

Is there any chance WvW could get siege skins, castle-keep-tower-camp decorations?
Either from the gem store or by crafting, It would be nice to take something and make it holiday themed or something.

Also this might be something a lot of people might hate, but wouldn’t it be fun if in some holidays a world boss or something appeared randomly in WvW wrecking walls and stuff?

Agree on both points. Actually I always thought it would be cool if a dragon or something came in to attack a castle if a server was just completely dominating their opponents. Sometimes it can be boring if you dont have a good fight, and a dragon attack would help temporarily balance until more people arrived/logged on and then it could fly away.

Its actually funny because this is one of the most consistent threads/topics I look for when I browse this forum. But yeah any and all information regarding new hairstyles, even if they are just working on new ones would be nice!

Cool ideas! I would definitely like if they allowed public beta servers to test out these new ideas! They get new feedback and testing, and we get some insight into possible new game modes and maps! If it is a matter of money and development, I would gladly pay for some new modes and map packs!

videoboy.4162:

I like that they’re making more of the hairstyles interchangeable between the Norns and Humans. I’d love for my humans to have access to that awesome Norn braid.

One thing I would really appreciate, is if they would go back to some of the old hairstyles and improve them. An example would be that really long Norn ponytail, that likes to stab through female Norns.

The interchangeability of hair would help alot of things, I agree about humans having more access to the long (really long) hair that norns have available to them.

Rink.6108:

I doubt they will invest a lot of resources into wvw after the feedback on the maps after HoT and they don’t have to. If they make a new class or new elite-stuff for the other classes this will affect wvw as well. I think they will make the same thing as last time and give players with the expansion a significant advantage over people that don’t have it (a thing I don’t like, but I understand that the expansion has to sell for this game to survive).

I think it is possible to get a new borderland to replace one of the alpine ones. With the DBL the home BLs are already different, so it really doesn’t matter if they try to replace one of the alpine ones as well from a balancing perspective.
It could actually be fun, for example if flying and flight combat would be one of the mechanics on the new map. Just imagine two zergs flying through air-minefields, clashing and raining killed players from the sky, heavily under fire by new siege from the ground that can hit flying targets. But it would require a lot of work and thick skin to even attempt to implement stuff like that.

That does sound cool! It would be cool if there were beta servers where you could test out new maps and mechanics. Yeah I definitely feel bad that the new HoT WvW map didnt work out, but I hope it doesnt discourage them from making new WvW maps like they are making new PvP maps. Even modifying existing ones would be nice!

Svarty.8019:

Here you go!

From That_Shaman.

Thank you!

Any news I might have missed regarding new content on the way for World Versus World? New maps, new mechanics, new siege, even just new graphics? I have read articles about expansions, but the only new things I have seen coming from the non-pve side of things have been new maps and mechanics for PvP, which is good too!

Much appreciated!

Orpheal.8263:

I’d love to see for female Human/Norn some more majestic looking hairstyles

Stuff like this:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ab/b4/e9/abb4e9385d30729bba96d8326e8d1b2f.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/49/86/30/498630a39f470d229616ea6200b34261.jpg

But I’d also especially love it, if the game could get thev feature of MULTI COLORED HAIR, like this

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/70/9e/c8/709ec859b8c4a88ae856ace33e91d4f0.jpg

What I personally would find also good, would be some kind of “cooperation hairstyles” from other NCSoft Games finding their way into GW2, while GW2 hairstyles get shared with these other games.

There are also surely some nice hairstyles from Aion, or Blade & Soul for example, that could fit for GW2 too.

This for example

Would love this one for my female thief

http://68.media.tumblr.com/40bfce4162e461dcbabb7edc9a4d32b5/tumblr_o6b36b30sy1si1yvto4_1280.png

You know the interesting trend that I see in your hairstyles, and I like all of them, is not only the more fantasy look but also the length. Long hair on human females is almost impossible to come by it seems. The female norn’s have a decent selection, but if I were to give one piece of feedback to those who work on hairstyles at Arenanet, more LONG hair for female humans please, much appreciated!

lil devils x.6071:

StormageddonBK.9842:

lil devils x.6071:

That just turns WvW into PvE, making the game mode worse. The whole point of playing a PvP game mode is to play with and against other players not NPC’s. Adding MORE PvE to WvW would only make it that much worse, not better. I would rather fight with less numbers than add more NPC garbage to the game mode. On some PvP games players are the “castle lord”, if you cannot defend it, you do not deserve to keep it.

I agree with this 100%.

On the point about the castle lord, imagine the salt flowing from the anti-night-capping crowd, “But I just spend all day defending this fort and when I log off ‘at night’ I left it undefended and someone walks up and caps it without effort!” So funny.

They really could help resolve the peek hours Queues and non peak hours map coverage issues by changing how the maps work. Let’s say WvW only starts out with EBG. If players on all 3 servers in the match get 15 players in queue it triggers another EBG map. When both those maps get 15 players in queue from all 3 servers in the match, it triggers another map to go into game play. All maps being part of the score but only exist for a set amount of time. If the population dwindles they don’t get additional maps to play on, and it keeps cutting back maps until down to one if necessary. If the population stays the same or increases, the current maps stay in play or more or added to handle the population.

This would make it so less players are in queue during peak hours, less map to cover during non peak hours, AND you are not punishing players who all paid for the game just the same simply they work/ play different hours than most. This would ALSO discourage server stacking as well since ALL 3 servers in the match have to reach queue to be able to get new maps to play on. The stacked server would be the only one with players not being able to play in queue every time they come on and would encourage players to shift to servers where they would be able to do so. This way if only one server has off hours support in the match, they would only be able to ktrain one map worth of points during that time rather than run up the score by rolling all maps since they are undefended. If that one server is the only one with a queue, they would have to start shifting players to the other servers to be able to play during that time zone. Though I ALSO think players should be able to get free transfers once every so often like say you get one free wvw server transfer every 3 months or so just to ensure servers can stay balanced, encourage healthy competition since players come and go all the time throwing formerly balanced servers into imbalance.

In addition, they should completely disconnect PVE servers from WvW servers. Say everyone gets to keep their current server, but that is now considered their " PVE server" and they create a few new servers and to play WvW players would have to choose a new WvW server to play WvW.

So combined with the changes I would like to see to PPK it would be like this:

• Disconnect WvW and PvE servers. Create fewer WvW only servers(some voice com only and some non voice com only to improve player communication and game play for both styles of play since they are so drastically different).
• ALL players that wish to play WvW have to choose a new WvW server in addition to their current PvE server.
• Start out with 1 map in play and add maps in play as population increases, remove maps in play as population decreases. ( every time all 3 servers in match hit 15 in queue or so new map goes into play when timer is up if not enough population to support map is on it will expire. All maps count towards score.
• Players get Free WvW server transfer every 3 months to help keep balanced and non stale matchups.
• PPK are increased and then doubled for defending objectives. ( Places value on player contribution to defending)
• Rare loot drops increased for defending players for killing players in an objective. (gives higher chance for ascended items, precursors, legendary crafting materials Encourages players defending objectives OVER open field without siege.) Moves the fight to the objectives.
• Loot and PPK ALSO increases for attacking team encouraging both attacking and defending, though I think defending should be slightly higher.
• No PPK or loot for siege damage on players. ( encourages fighting players without siege / discourages siege humping encouraging more fair fights)
• Changes will solve population issues/ Ktrain issues/ Zerg siege humping/ stale matchups/ non defending objectives/ Loot/ Which servers win every week and how they are matched up all at once without removing players choice of where they play, who they play and without rewarding AFKers and ALSO discouraging keep tapping since that would give the enemy team Loot and PPK advantages close to keep as well.

Hey lil devils those are some good ideas! Just a point of clarification, regarding the server transfers, do you think they might be able to transfer to servers not only in terms of population but also timezones as well? Maybe people could get some ideas about active WvW timezones for each server and that way they would be able to transfer to the best server to match their timezone.

My biggest concern is during those timezones where one server has more people on and the other servers just simply dont have enough people on because of differences in work/school schedules as well as differences in timezones. I think finding a way to balance those population timezone differences where one server has 50 people and another server has 5.

Thanks everyone for the replies! As Silberfederling mentioned, its definitely the discussion of ideas and discussing them in a constructive manner that will help us improve the game! Thanks for your feedback!

1. Population Imbalance : I really do think this is something that plagues alot of games which rely on huge populations in order to have fun and engaging battles. You just cant guarantee an even number of people will always be on at every time of the day. There are many suggestions for how to fix it, I recently posted a topic about how NPCS could be temporarily used to fill in those time deadzones by helping out underpopulated servers etc., but others have mentioned megaserver style systems, and merging lower population servers etc. But no doubt that is going to be crucial for the survival of WvW figuring out a way to make sure there are enough people and/or battles going on in WvW at any time of the day.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Using-NPCs-for-population-time-deadzones

2. Make WvW gear and loot just as customizable and fun as regular gear and loot. Make different skins for golems and siege. There is no doubt in my mind that people would love to pay gems for cool looking siege skins etc. It would be a win/win for the community and arenanet.

3. MAPS – Content, You have to forgive me I dont know the development time needed to develop new WvW maps, but make maps and try them out in rotations etc. You dont have to make some perfectly balanced map before you put it out there, you could rotate them out every week and give people a chance to test them out. It would be a win/win, you would have a chance to put out content quicker and faster by having people testing new map designs and mechanics and if they dont work, then you just tweak them or get rid of them. But on the flip side, people get to try out new and interesting maps instead of having to wait 2-3 years before a new one.

4. Make some cool WvW events, battles etc. You could have Arenanet GMs controlling characters and events that engage people in WvW and make it fun and enjoyable. Yall are no doubt extremely creative, so you I know you could come up with some cool new events to try out every once in a while. The best example I could think of would be stuff like 8 bit WvW where you do a Super Adventure Box themed map with 8 bit style castle and siege, people would lose their mind if you did that.

5. Lastly but most importantly, threads like this and people like Gaile, are CRUCIAL to the success of a game. When developers listen to the constructive feedback of their player base, the game will no doubt improve. One model yall might want to consider is letting in player designed maps and gear into WvW, something like in Team Fortress 2. You guys have a dedicated and passionate fanbase that could easily come up with some cool gear and ideas. Listen to them and maybe even let them participate in the design process. Look at how Unreal Tournament is doing that now and its no doubt helped them immensely!

For game modes like WvW that require somewhat larger populations to make consistent and fun gameplay, one of the biggest difficulties seems to be making sure a relatively even number of people are logged in at the same time to create interesting and competitive battles. Ive been on both ends where the population is too little on my server and we just get stomped, and when the population is too big on my server and we destroy people, but neither is really fun.

Would creating temporary powerful NPCs that make up for those population differences be a possibility of evening up a population discrepancy? Those NPCS power could increase or decrease depending upon the population of the server and maybe even disappear altogether if enough people log in for an underpopulated server during that time deadzone. And/or maybe NPCs that are sided with neither server could periodically attack the castle/keep of a server that is dominating in terms of population and zone control. This might distract some of their resources toward fighting something like a dragon and thus give a lower population server a chance to make a strong effort to take back the castle and/or at least some of their territory.

I feel like it would be a temporary artificial boost that wouldnt be there or even appear during regular play times when all servers are relatively evenly matched in terms of population and so that when the population was equal, the winner would be determined purely by skill. But just for those time zones when no one is on, and/or one server has a massive advantage in terms of population, it might temporarily set a more even playing field which I feel would make it fun for everyone.

Just my 2 cents!

Very cool thanks for linking that! I specifically liked the {We’ll be back to tell you more about how we plan to apply these concepts to World vs. World as a whole, so be on the lookout between now and the launch of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.}

I knew that they said they were making more sweeping, fundamental changes to WvW not just the new Borderlands and Im definitely interested to hear those sort of things, like as you pointed out the new Doylak dynamic.

Does anyone have a link to the video or even a list of the new fundamental changes coming to WvW? Specifically not the new borderland itself, but to the core WvW experience, I know they were planning on talking about those fundamental changes but I havent been able to find any of the new information on it yet. Thank you!

@Ultimaistanza.4793

Cool thank you for relaying that information!

@Johje Holan.4607

Yeah Im hoping we at least get some new footage of WvW at Pax even if they dont specifically go into the details!

@mistsim.2748

That pretty much sums up my feelings as well!

I might have missed it, but have there been any announcements of a preview (like Arenanet has done for PvP Stronghold) for the upcoming WvW changes (fundamental defensive changes etc.) and new WvW HoT map? Like in a future stream?

Thanks!

@Johje Holan.4607

That sounds really interesting, extra special bonus objectives for taking and defending keeps in certain Borderlands. I could see one of those icons popping up in the middle of my homelands Borderlands and this huge zerg takes this random tower or random camp in the middle of it and actually fights for control of it as our server fights to recapture it. That would make for some fun battles!

I also love the spawning of the dragons in BLs lol. And I agree it doesnt need to happen always but when a big timezone gap occurs and servers start to completely dominate, that could help plug in the gap somewhat and give the other servers a fighting chance.

Marmatt.8590:

Thank you everyone for your feedback! I’ve been taking notes based on everyone’s perspectives on this particular subject, and will be releasing a revised version of the report.
I know this has been mentioned a few times in this thread, but how would you feel about a “trail run” of said changes? Such as removing the white swords in WvW. Which change would you like see implemented first? Why?

I think trail runs would be great! I like that they also give a small bonus in return since we are also benefiting Arenanet by giving feedback on the changes. I think even a permanent WvW test map would be great, something that wouldnt affect the scores but still be a place for people to go and test new changes and tweaks.

I think the first change that would be nice, would be a kind of reward track like the PvP reward tracks. I think it would help somewhat with the population issue if people felt more rewarded doing WvW and felt like they had a goal. It might get more people engaged and in WvW, but at the same time also reward people for actively participating in their servers WvW. Maybe some of the reward track bonuses could be like an Omega Siege Golem blueprint in the champion boxes or something like that, and/or maybe like some of the WvW weapons could be earned through those reward tracks.