Guild Wars 2

Lol well you guys honestly are getting the good and bad of SoS. I know many commanders were burning out fighting TC and T1 servers every week but 1. Our fair weather players don’t show during harder matchups and focus on PvE. Typically I would say they make up half the NA primetime.

As you can see, this leads to 2 things. 1 is that they tend to come out in numbers throughout the week. So our NA prime time is typically 2x what it is against higher tiers than ours. The benefit you have is that many are WvW noobs, do their own thing, and run terrible for WvW zerker builds and gear. So take that as you will.

Many of the elite commanders I noticed have been taking a break as well or not showing up as much (probably for that reason). With PvE content releasing our numbers should drop dramatically and you could potentially make this matchup interesting.

Finally, our oceanic is awesome. Its an exaggeration to say they queue all the maps though, I know occasionally I can’t sleep and stay up that late. Those Aussies and others are hardcore WvW and rip almost everyone a new one. So definitely don’t feel bad about that time. They consistently ripped TC, and the T1 servers a new one for the majority of our points.

So in conclusion NA primetime is your best bet, just beware if some of our larger guilds decide to play or AGG goes on a roam.

Nice fights on all 3 BL last night. Must say that was an impressive defense of our Hills on SoS BL. Imagine my surprise when I made a death run in their to see what wakittenting us on the bridge. I didn’t think you could fit 6-7 superior ballistas and 2-3 superior AC’s in that tiny lord’s room, learn something new every day. Guess we’ll have to perfect the through the walls AC methods used on T1 and T2 servers to clear that kind of seige dump. The one time we needed a portal bomb and not a mesmer to be found anywhere.

Honestly they need to lets us know the plans for celestial. I mean I don’t want waste 40 days and 70 gold to have a patch that makes it obsolete and for nothing. A conversion in the mystic forge for it like the triforge amulet better be part of this process.

Atrophied.8725:

NotInTheFace.6075:

Quick question for those who participated, did you feel that some of us were extra squishy or that we were not doing enough damage or conditions? Versus some of the more experienced guilds you faced, were we pretty predictable or surprising? Also how do you handle your heal timing? Thanks in advance.

Not trying to be mean, but you guys were really squishy. Do you have your necros dropping spectral wall on your way in? I felt like I was getting bigger numbers than normal, and people were dropping very quickly.
Heal timing? Er. we have a rotation of water fields, and when nightlight calls for water, we drop one on top of him. :P

Not at all we appreciate the feedback, honestly being our first attempt we threw together 20 members we had online with vent. =) Not sure of how everyone was spec’ed, so we were squishy in your opinion? That does help, honestly I think we were struggling with balancing speed, damage, condition removal and survivability. Do you bother worrying about speed buffs? We tried lessening that focus at the end since we were so close anyway and I think that helped alot against CERN but it definitely didnt change the ultimate outcome. So we’ll need more toughness and vitality across the board when we try again, more guardians/warriors. FaTe focuses on WvW (join us to all SoS if that sounds like fun to you and you use vent, insert shameless recruiting plug), but we don’t have mandatory builds and keep it more casual, but focus on sound tactics. For GvG that may hold us back though. Food for thought.

Any other constructive criticism is always welcomed. Thanks in advance.

I just wanted to thank EP and CERN again for the GVG last night. Our first attempt at it, and it was fun. Definitely a great learning experience. Hopefully we do get a break from the TC loving for a week and we get a chance to practice up and do it again for the next match-up. Knowing Anet though I have a feeling we’ll be playing you 4 out of the next 5 weeks so we’ll probably have many more opportunities. =)

Quick question for those who participated, did you feel that some of us were extra squishy or that we were not doing enough damage or conditions? Versus some of the more experienced guilds you faced, were we pretty predictable or surprising? Also how do you handle your heal timing? Thanks in advance.

Lol you might want to watch one of the videos of the fight. We had about even numbers but you did edge us by 5 to 10. We pushed for a while draining supply from SM while we trebbed SM and cleared siege. Then we pushed in with golems and broke down inner. Finally, we pushed on lords room where you had a great hold as we worked on clearing lords room siege. While we stacked for a second push Maguuma in their infite wisdom saved you by hitting us in the back with a similar sized force, after we kept you busy all that time so they could reclaim a toehold presence on the map. Thanks Maguuma! More properly you should be thanking them. =)

In response to my other forum back and forth (Jeydra I believe was your name) I told you I was making one last attempt to get you to see why following a commander is beneficial. If you truly believe SoR was successful due to roaming thieve gangs and not organized larger numbers I must simply smile.

What you should realize is we hit the hardest due to our Oceanic SoS crew. The Aussies (bless their hearts) bring a T1 presence and do most the heavy lifting flipping back the PPT we struggle to maintain the rest of every day against larger or even numbers. Had we their showing in both numbers and organization all day long we would be more than a T2.5-T3 server. Hats off to our Oceanic crew like always.

As for a handout to get your tag, no. Earn it like all the commanders you slam have done, and enjoy stocking up all that expensive siege gear. =) Then prove yourself on the field. Good luck.

NinjaSonic.1392:

Well tonight was fun. First time commanding on EB and it lasted about 5 hours. Somehow managed to hold SoS off Stonemist for about an hour and a half. Their zerg was twice our size but couldn’t break through somehow.

Reply to Jeydra
(Throughout this post while I mention FaTe, I do mean FaTe and the few militia and other WvW guild members who helped to accomplish these things by following our commanders)

Last effort I will make to bring more reason and organization to SoS as a whole, by dispelling your myths that many freelancers like yourself hold, and hopefully help you see the reasoning that will lead to more winning.

WvW rewards larger numbers together. Its a fact. You can carry more supplies as a group, hit harder and use more buffs as a group, do more and absorb more damaged, one group can man siege gear while others defend their usage, and finally you can rally and pick up the downed. You can take yak’s, guard posts, and after 5-10 minutes a supply camp solo. A zerg of 40-80 can do that in a split second and capture towers, keeps, and the castle, that is why its a fact.

Example last night on Mag BL FaTe takes a tower and three supply camps with roughly 20 people. TC has about 10 who are in the area and are wiped throughout. TC responds with about 20 as we are taking the 3rd supply camp and are wiped again. We take the second tower TC responds with 30 and we wipe them again. Split up TC retook the first tower, leaving us 3 supply camps and a tower. Finally, they bring 40 we wipe them and retake the first tower. Before we move on a keep they respond 80 deep and proceed to wipe us. What changed? They responded with larger and larger organized numbers. When they were split up and had some off doing their own thing retaking the tower, defending another tower we wiped them and proceeded to take assets. When they worked together we got wiped and with no chance at reinforcements we left them to the retake their stuff while FaTe went to EB to take SM, after a short detour to wreck a Mag guild camping the opening to the EB jumping puzzle.

The long winded point is that numbers make the difference. TC SOR DB ect are all top tier servers more for their sheer numbers than commanders. A good commander will make a difference for sure, but an organized presence of larger guilds, and even more importantly an organized militia that follows the commander on a map will lead to the score you see where they are able to take everything on multiple maps. Fact.

You answer my points on your scenario with questions. That is a problem. If you and the other had been with the commander you would have been able to say what the commander was doing, and helped it get accomplished with time to return to the tower to hit their group 21 vs 25 which is much easier than 15 vs 25 doable but hard. As for hiding in the tower when you have equal numbers and you have a home way point would be subpar decision making.

In your alternative since no supply camps were held, we will give the benefit of the doubt and say they had 70 supply which is 2 ACs. Lovely. Depending on placement( making sure AoE can’t hit them) means you can hit whatever is just in front of the door. They simply go to the outcropping and cat the wall/door down while you sit there until they come take it anyway or are forced to make a run at their seige while they are ready for it and see you coming and aoe you to death.

You will see that SM holding comes with number advantage when FaTe took it against t4 servers like CD we held it all week and could make pushes for more at times and flip entire maps. When populations increase SM becomes a constant target hittable from many points. Even TC has had trouble pushing while they held SM until they reached empty timezones for SoS. FaTe has lead three different takes of it this week successfully, and when FaTe took SM last night with under 40 man zerg, and we called in all the soloers we were able to siege it up and hold it for over an hour with 70 there against a full TC zerg. When we wiped them and guessed they gave up, and went to help Ogre’s TC respond with 10+ alphas to melt both gates in under 2 minutes and cap it (by the way, well played TC). The difference this time, numbers, resources and tactics. All possible through large numbers and organization, not people off killing a useless yak or guard point.

You spent your money on the game, play it how you want, but certainly don’t whine about losing and subpar commanding while you do that and claim to be for the server’s success, while freelancing actually does the reverse. Like a poster said Tag up, walk the mile, until then gain experiencing helping commanders through your actions to be more successful. That is a win/win.

Reply to Jeydra

While we certainly have some inexperienced or subpar commanders, many are quite good. In the DB situation you describe I see many problems both on the commanders end and on every SoS player who was there end. First, I agree the only tower we hold should be a top priority. That said if the commander was busy sacking Veloka a higher priority target for both its ability to siege the keep and its proximity to pang. In that case a paper un-upgraded tower may be worth swapping for another one if their entire zerg is busy there (playing devils advocate). The other problem I see is that if its the only thing we held on the map there may have been no supplies in his 15 man group to lay down siege.

More to the point of why I decided to respond, many commanders are getting treated harshly and slammed when part of the problem is people doing their own thing. Go to SoS BL sometime, see a commander tagged up go to him and no outmanned buff. He will have 10-20 people doing the right thing and following him. Then you run into a TC zerg of 60+ and an obvious wipe follows. Where is the militia? Not following thinking they know best and commanders are bad and get them wiped. You can see the obvious problem and how circular it is. Will commanders make some bad decisions time to time? Sure, but if you are off doing your own thing (and I’m not talking about someone spying or keeping an eye out/solo-upgrading siege in a tower) then you would be part of the problem. Coverage plays a huge part. Try commanding outmanned 6 hours with few bothering to follow you. Losses are demoralizing and you can only do so much. You use rams if you can speed take something otherwise you cat/treb from a safe spot or distance and hope the zerg 4x your size doesn’t notice/show up in time.

In your scenario 6 people including yourself were not on the commander who had all of 15 smart people following them. How many more were on the map doing their own thing? So as much as its easy to blame, a commander, put yourself in their shoes and ask am I helping or hurting the overall effort. Fortunately I’ve only run into a handful of SoS commanders who don’t have the server winning as their primary interest. I see many commanders berated in teamspeak/teamchat/mapchat by individuals worried about the supply they dumped one gold into to upgrade while a keep or castle is ignored. Look at the cost of upgrading a t3 tower, keep, or SM. Then add in the costs for siege to take one. It gets really expensive really fast. On top of costs commanders have to worry about the zerg morale. Too many wipes against larger forces people give up, or don’t stack or push when its needed (half the time they won’t even if you’ve led them to ten straight victories against larger forces). I know we all get side tracked by an easy camp flip (I’m guilty like anyone else), but staying with the commander has to be priority one. Finally, a commander is balancing supply with PPT (Points Per Tic) and trying to decide if a camp with 2 minute RI can be taken in time or should they flip a tower and come back so you for sure get both for the tic. Will you lose 10 out of your zerg who stay and waste the 2 minutes? Most likely. All these things are headaches for commanders and people don’t care, then proceed to rip the same commanders who come back and res them when the organized enemy zerg shows up.

As for SM, its a blessing and a curse. Sure its worth alot of points but it can be a nightmare to hold, or get supplies to. It can be trebbed from numerous spots from every angle just the same as it can treb out. Its a full time job to hold against a 2 vs 1 and nearly impossible out-manned. So what you may call a bad decision might have been a wise choice, but honestly I wasn’t there at that time to judge. So keep this in mind before flaming a commander as bad and ask yourself am I doing everything I can to make the commander and therefore SoS successful? Just some thoughts.

First, great fights last night on EB, FaTe appreciated the great fights and sometimes being outmanned and sometimes not. Sometimes we won open field sometimes we didn’t. Yes the server population differences will impact us week to week, but bring the fight smartly where and when you can. For those who doubt population makes all the differnence Mag started out strong at reset at one of their best coverage times, as the night went on they dwindled and the maps and scores reflected that. We maintained a strong presence is EB, and ok presence in SOS BL.

When we made pushes into TC areas 80 man zergs show up. Two things I noticed. Our SOS BL would spike temporarily in PPT and in map control. As they claimed a tower or two and defended the SM they would withdraw leaving more equal numbers and we could push again rather than play defense. What that means is that if you are commanding and an 80 man zerg shows up and wipes you, you are still helping the cause and don’t lose heart because you distracted those 80 from doing something more productive.

A zerg stacking for 25 might buffs, swiftness, and stealth is never bad and should be done frequently, which makes conditions and hits both hit harder, evening out number disparity. Any commander who says its a bad idea is either crazy or new. When you are in a zerg finish the downed and if you are downed aimed for enemy downed for rallies they can make all the difference in the world.

SoS brings the fights no matter the odds and I’m proud of that. Is there a magic formula to win without wipes? Nope, its going to happen, using good strategies can and will reduce some bad wipes. We need more people sticking to one commander on each map. While there are times for a two pronged approach, when an 80 man zerg is capping something T3, its not the time. More than 2 commanders on a map is just stupid unless they are running together in the same place.

As for some bored folks who left, I wish them well and hope they find what they are looking for. If you are reading this you probably are well versed in WvW. If you are not though, join a guild with a competent commander or 2 and strengthen that guild and the server as a whole. Organization can make up for less numbers, and success will pull in more players which will lead to more success. The next best thing you can do is show up.

Just some thoughts. See you on the field and I hope for more great fights and bags for all.

Understandable Altie its tough to have a lack of cohesion. What the T1 and T2 servers have that SoS and CD do not is numerous larger WvW dedicated guilds. Don’t get me wrong, we have some great guilds but I can count on one hand the guilds on SoS who regularly can field 40 plus members in one realm at one time. While some of the guilds we faced may have been lacking in elite skills their sheer numbers made long term success against the zergs of TC impossible. We need hefty recruiting of the militia to bolster our stronger guilds ranks as well as have some new ones pop up. One NA strong guild who could regularly field those numbers during daytime/European hours would make all the difference in the world. We have a great SEA presence but we are lacking at other key times. I think CD suffers from the same calamity. The numbers guilds like CERN can field are a prime example of how it can work.

Thank you Jackal for the lesson in the proper way to sack a T3 garrison on a servers home borderland. TC great half an hour worth of fights to get it back. Those bags were delicious. For those complaining about the TC spawn camp, yes it stinks when it happens, but you have options. You can either give up or you can follow the FaTe example and take the fight to their home, don’t fight where they want you to, form small groups sneak past, or hop to another BL to draw them away. After we sacked their garrison TC pulled most their forces home to TCBL to oust us and we solidified all of SOS BL and EB made a come back. Think outside of the box. Being out-manned seems like it will be a way of life in T1 and T2 and defense will play a greater and greater role. With more bodies online all the time like they have would we be more competitive yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to lay down and take it. Form small groups to sack all camps continuously, sack towers where you can with ninja style. Would it have been much better if CD ever worked with us to balance things a little sure, but if they won’t we’ll have to be ready for situations like that and simply burn the weaker team down going forward instead of focusing on the top server.

Anyway thank you TC and CD for some good fights at times this week and some horrible ones at other times. I hope everyone gets better matchups following the server reset tonight. See you all on the battlefield. =)

CD, why just why? TC takes your keep in BL, we push inner SM for 1 hour (great fight by the way TC was an honor commanding that attempt), and you get the chance to retake your keep. We are repaid by a push on our towers and camps by CD. Why? Even though we wiped you at Anz, why would you do that? Anyway great fights TC, wish we could field a zerg to do yours justice.

Just wanted to say great fight last night in the very early morning for the SoS BL garrison to TC. Those superior arrow carts x5 were nasty. That 1 hour take was sure a great fight. Amazing coverage at that late at night. Keep up the great fights. Curious though, RE guild what is with the running in circles in EB with a larger group getting wiped by groups half your size. I must admit it is harder to collect bags while laughing, but has that strategy ever worked for you? Also is there a point to it that we are missing out on? Not trying to be mean but I was truly amused. =)

Thanks for the kind words from the number 4 and 6 ranked servers. Been running commander against your servers on EB quite alot and I must say your servers are impressive. Appreciate the respect shown. We are trying to bring the fight the best we can its odd for SoS to be getting the buff for being outnumbered constantly. You are definitely causing us to think much differently on how to do things and making us work much faster to ninja what we can. We hope to make a run at finishing 2nd at least and will strive for first, but realistically I think we all know that would be a major stretch. See you all across the battlefield.