Guild Wars 2

Great interview! I am especially hopeful about his comments @9:18. I think this new map, while probably designed for objective play and not great for open field fighting, will hopefully introduce new scoring/objective-based mechanics that will improve WvW gameplay over all maps.

Xirin.8593:

So I take a breather from BG BL and log on my alts to farm the rich Oric node…

Is ATac transferring to Blackgate?

That’s a new member that has been trying to transfer for over a week. In light of the match-up, however, I have dropped him from guild until he is able to transfer to SoS. Sorry for the confusion.

BG: 1,235 SoS: 1,025, JQ: 935
BG: +260
SoS: +250
JQ: +185

Minoru.1237:

Atac and others exploited into bluebriar tower on SoS borderlands tonight around 10 pm eastern, stealing it back from JQ when they could have taken it fair and square. I witnessed several Atac members run along the ledges of bluebriar from the back of the tower to the front, jumping over a gap and into the tower. I assume a thief exploited in and resed a dead mesmer, making it possible for some 20 people to run along the ledge and jump in. Perhaps this is why WM left tier 1. Play fair SoS. And mesmers, if you are dead inside a tower or keep, don’t accept reses from exploiters.

No thief. Just one skilled mesmer and about 20+ JQ that didn’t check any hiding spots.

Have you tested this Sebrent? Great post, btw.
Reason I ask is that I play a thief and have tested builds almost identical to that one you posted in the Mists PvP lobby area and have never gotten backstabs anywhere near that amount. Matter of fact, after hours of testing max damage backstab builds, I don’t believe I ever broke 11k… and that was on a light armored golem under 25% health.

I’m not saying BS is anywhere near balanced, but I’m fairly certain there are variables to that screenshot that we don’t have.

Anyway, I am primarily a WvW player and discovered quite some time ago that the underwater harpoon skill “Ink Shot” could be used to teleport a thief above the water. I have used it to great tactical effect during underwater skirmishes, but it has come to my attention that players have begin using it (as well as the elementalist’s “Air Bubble”), to bypass certain unscalable objects.
Are these skills working as intended, or is using them in this manner considered an exploit/abuse of a bugged skill?

Before I get to my suggestion, I would like to say that I KITTEN LOVE WvW.
I cannot thank you guys at ArenaNet enough for making this a reality. The amount of time and effort it must have taken to get this done is just mind-blowing and it most definitely shows. I for one, would like to thank you guys for ruining all other forms of entertainment for me, as now everything is boring in comparison. golf clap
My suggestions
Slowly push WvW away from a gold centered economy to a more Badge of Honor/Supply economy until it functions more akin to sPvP.

1. Lower base gold and karma rewards for all events. Add badges of honor as rewards for event completion. (Especially rewards associated with killing neutral champion mobs!)
2. Befriending npc camps allow you to purchase useful “upgrades” from the camp vendor. Examples: added escorts for dolyaks, additional patrols for all towers/keeps, upgrade camp defenses (increased npc level). Additionally, instead of automatically sending a small group of camp mobs to periodically attack enemy points, allow the controlling server to “stockpile” npc attack waves until triggered, via starting an “Attack” event chain from friendly camp npc, sending all npc allies at once.
3. WvW repairs:
Increase the gold/silver cost to repair damaged equipment from vendors.
Can supplement gold/silver repair charge for x amount of “supply scrap”. Every 2 supply used to build or repair adds 1 “supply scrap” to inventory.
4. Upgrade costs on Keeps/Towers/Camps can be supplemented with badges of honor.
5. The event rewards for defending contested camps/towers/keeps are increased the more upgrades that have been completed. Same goes for event rewards associated with capturing and assaulting upgraded camps/towers/keeps.
6. Reduce the base amount of supply that can be carried out of towers/keeps to 5 per player.
7. Guild claiming a tower/keep/SM is disabled until after at least 1 upgrade has been completed. Whichever guild put in for the upgrade gets a 1 minute period after the upgrade completes in which only their guild can claim it. If it is not claimed in that time, for 3 minutes any guild can cast their “claim” on the location and whichever guild has the most guild fort bonuses in effect gets claim of that location.

Reasoning behind suggestions
1. This one is pretty obvious. By lowering the base gold/karma rewards on WvW events, you cut the effectiveness of supply camp and sentry farming.
2. In the current state of WvW, I feel that befriending neutral mob camps provide very little benefit and are presently an afterthought at best. This is the aspect of WvW which I feel has the most room for improvement. By allowing more control to the players via “upgrades”, they can play a lager defensive role in addition to providing another currency sink. Being able to control when they send attacks would allow smaller groups of players the opportunity to build up an allied npc force and coordinate attacks.
3. One of the biggest gripes I hear about from dedicated WvW players is that most people never carry supply on them to help build up siege. By allowing players to supplement gold repair costs with a currency acquired by using supply you provide a more direct incentive for helping to build/repair.
4. The upper tiered upgrades on Keeps and SM are so expensive that only dedicated WvW guilds will ever purchase them. Providing a secondary method of currency will at least help WvW guilds to supplement gold costs.
5. Roaming WvW and quickly back-capping supply camps and sentries is the preferred method of “farming” in WvW now. While my first suggestion will help to deter this behavior, this suggestion will help to offset the overall reduced rewards in addition to providing incentive towards attacking/defending upgraded locations.
6. This one addresses another HUGE complaint I hear all the time in WvW, which is that WvW focused Guilds never have enough supply stocked in towers or keeps to put in for upgrades due to all the “pugs” pulling supply out of them instead of picking supply up at a supply camp. By reducing the base amount that can be taken out of towers/keeps, your are essentially cutting down half the amount supply taken by those players who normally just “cap and run”. If you wanted to offset the nerf to dedicated defenders, you could apply a “determined” type buff that is applied to players who remain in a tower/keep for more than 2 minutes and allows for 10 supply to taken out at a time.
7. The only thing worse than pugs not ever putting in for upgrades, is when one of them “ninja” claims a keep or tower without a single WvW guild bonus in effect for it. What is worse, is that the current system allows rival WvW servers to “sabotage” their opponents by attempting to claim towers/keeps solely to “lockout” the server from their fort bonuses through the use of cross-server guilds and abusing the server transfers.