I totally agree with the OP. These changes would make WvW tenable, at the moment these mechanics only create greater differences between the leading server and the other 2.
I would also add:
- Siege engines should only disappear when destroyed by an enemy player (not auto-despawn after a period of unuse).
If you want everything right now (slots, siege weapons, and gear) you can pay now. If you are willing to obtain things a bit slower then you don’t have to pay anything.
Yes, this is a ridiculous situation that makes server rankings meaningless. If the population transfers weekittenhen the server ranking is invalid. This is why weekly battles are so unbalanced. If you lock server transfers then over several weeks the rankings will start to become more valid, battles will be more fair and more enjoyable.
This is not a good WvW elementalist build sorry. It may serve as a good PVP build but in WvW (on a decent server), the combat is around squad and large-groups. The small-combat fights are not as helpful to overall WvW as a good staff build which gives you AoE control of walls during sieges, mass heals and group buffs.
Belonging to one of the largest guilds on YB and seen the communications during WvW, I can honestly tell you we did not ‘sandbag’ the scores earlier on! In fact, our level of WvW coordination is appalling at times. Everyone just wants to zerg and very few people defend. Common chat goes something like, “Where’s the zerg?”, “Zerg Garrison!”, “We need defence at ###”, "Don’t bother defending, ZERG must zerg!
We dominated this week’s match mainly due to sheer server population size and our near-24hr coverage due to large oceanic and north american presence.
I fear we will be pummelled in our next matches unless strategy overcomes the zerg-mentality.
