Greetings!
My thoughts on WvW linking 12 days in.
First a bit about my situation. Server-Kaineng, Guild-Owl Legion [Owls] founded 2012, we are a small to medium guild with a core focus in WvW, guild size 144, concurrent online players around 15-30 depending on day and time. We mostly play NA 6PM-Midnight Eastern time as a group. We are currently linked with Tarnished Coast.
Cons of current server linking
Server identity: For the bottom 12 servers this has eroded to being almost nonexistent. This is unacceptable in my opinion and feels more like a forced transfer rather than a “link”. Things that need to be addressed, Borderland name, WvW panel name, player name to denote what server they are on for both enemies and friendlies of the linked server, capture point needs to broadcast what server captured it and could be done by majority of players in the capture ring. Give us our identity back, please!
Playstyle: The current linking for us (T2 with TC) makes it more difficult for smaller groups/guilds to stick together and be meaningful. During NA primetime the Zergs and Blobs rule the land. Small groups are still effective to drive points and cause havoc but it’s hard to find other small groups to fight, smaller groups usually get run over by the blob. While on the lower tier matches we often would fight the same size groups and I for one miss this terribly.
Guild recruiting: I’m not sure how a guild should go about recruiting, seems like it may be problematic. If a guild recruits a player from a linked server and gets linked with another server down the road that player would either have to transfer or be stuck without the guild they joined. Not really sure what can be done to solve this issue.
Communication: Too many tags, during NA primetime I have seen upwards of 4-6 tags on some maps. I would like to see some more improvements to the commander tag system. The addition of multiple colors, larger squads, symbols and so on was a step in the right direction and I thank you but there is room for improvement. I would love to see guild and squad only tags (maybe even a server only tag if linking is going to be permanent), a way to have the benefits of the tag but without drawing attention to your group and cluttering the map with pins. We have been experimenting with running tag-less squads and it’s gotten us by but is a bit cumbersome to use. Communication can become difficult as map and team chat are often chucked full of useless blather, maybe a new server only channel could help with this. Voice coms and websites, most servers and many guilds already maintain a voice server and website, in our case we maintain 2, one for the server and one for the guild, I don’t really want to make that 3 and probably won’t. The voice/site issue is more a personal gripe and not a direct problem with the game but we put time, money, and effort into these things and linking has put stress on this a bit.
Queues: While queues are not my biggest issue they are still an issue. I know many say that queues are good and mean a healthy game mode and I do agree with this to some degree. The issues for me are it becomes difficult to maintain a group not to mention forget about swapping maps or characters, players DC or take a food break to never return. It also makes it much more difficult for the more casual player, I don’t get to play much on the weekdays but did log in 3 days last week and 3 of the 4 maps had queues each day. My guild mates happened to be in a server that was queued so I didn’t bother as I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to run and didn’t want to chew up space in the queue. This game mode may not be meant for the more casual player but after 3+ years of being able to run with my friends wherever I want whenever I want is a hard adjustment.
Pros of current server linking
- Meet new players
- Always action to be had, I have yet to load in and not see a tag or a queue on at least one map.
- Learn new tactics, tricks, and playstyles.
- Much larger battles (at least in T2) if you’re into that kind of thing
Final thoughts
While I agree that population balance does need to be worked on I don’t feel this is the way or at least not the current linking of Kaineng with TC. The beta has so far been a good thing in my opinion, wvw needed a shake up and we’ve gotten one! I agree with what a few others have been saying about the current linking, T1/T2 servers don’t seem to need the players. Maybe linking the lower tier servers together for a lower population but still increased population would be a better way to go. I can’t speak for everyone on Kaineng or my guild but I do know there is a vast majority that want out of T1/T2 and off TC (no offence to TC, you all have been great). The current setup is having a big impact on low pop servers, as a guild leader and WvW driver I’m not seeing it as an overall positive impact for our community. I for one don’t care for the blob v blob, if I wanted that I would go to EoTM and EoTM is what WvW is starting to feel like to me in its current state. Anet, I’m sure you have a few ideas up your sleeve to work on this and I for one don’t envy you, pop balance is a tough nut to crack.
Thanks for reading and the attention you’ve been giving WvW as of late, keep at it and best of luck to all of us!
-Krim
P.S. Would love to hear some details from Anet on how long the current beta linking is going to last?
I have also seen CD and ET advertise their TS so you must just be missing the broadcasts…