Guild Wars 2

Even though I’m unsatisfied with HoT, I don’t think I’d ever call the money I spent on the core game a waste. I realize not everyone has a ton of disposable income, but if after 3 years you don’t think the price was a bargain, I’m not sure what to tell you. Over the same time period a subscription game would have cost $360-540. Games take money to develop and support, and I can’t even take my wife out for a nice dinner for $50, let alone get 3 years of entertainment.

HoT probably needed to cost us money in order to keep GW2 funded properly. Now, if you don’t like HoT that’s entirely understandable and you shouldn’t pay for something you don’t like (or ask for a refund). But let’s not act like they gouged us for the last 3 years and the expansion is supposed to make up for that.

I think there are two major flaws to most of the arguments that contend that the system is fine as it is.

First, I don’t think you can call new “Elite specs” content. They are an expansion of game mechanics. If the new specs are content, then so is the new class and that should have been gated too. Additionally, I think they are poorly named. Elite specs are not supposed to be more powerful than the existing trait lines, so why are they priced at more than four times the cost of the others?

The second major flaw is calling anything in a video game “work”, unless using that term in the loosest sense. It is time spent, not work that determines how quickly you can progress. There is no skill in zerging events or grinding xp, and sitting in front of a monitor PLAYING a game is not work. If you want to know what work is, my parents still own the farm I grew up on, come on out and I’ll give you a lesson.

Now, if you enjoy spending that amount of time playing and can dedicate the hours required, great! I’m not out to belittle people who can, and in some ways I’m envious. I played SWG like it was my second job for years and had a blast until the NGE. But I think gating mechanics behind any kind of a time sink is the wrong way to go. Most people just don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to a game. Masteries where advertised as progression, but I don’t recall ever seeing that new class mechanics would be gated behind them. I really don’t like that I have less access to what where implied (in my opinion) to be an expansion to mechanics (not a form of progression horizontal or otherwise) than the person with extensive free time. I have responsibilities, if that means that i have to consume content a a slower pace I have no issues with that, but don’t take my money and gate mechanics behind a time sink.

I would have been fine with not being able to further advance my 2 person guild, but why take away the upgrades I had earned? I haven’t played any WvW since the expansion, but if I can’t claim camps and buff supply I’m gonna be even more disappointed than I already am with HoT.

Just want to add my own displeasure with this system. I have 13 characters, none of which have map completion because I find that aspect of the game tedious. I despise jumping puzzles (which is how the new maps feel to me) and really only bought the expansion for two reasons: Revenant and a couple of the Elite specs. Now I have basically come to the conclusion that unless there is a major change (and I am not optimistic there will be one because of the way the entire expansion is designed) I paid $75 for a Revenant that is potentially kitten because I’ll never have the patience to gind all those HP. If I had any hope of getting a refund I would pursue that avenue immediately.

Maybe a quick, short term fix would be to reset the score, but not the matchups every 24 hours. You can keep track of the totals internally throughout the week, but at least when people press “B” they won’t see a 50k point difference and say “kitten it, can’t do much to turn this match around”. A lot of the issue with this point system is psychological. I don’t really mind being out manned or losing the match, but any time you are getting roflstomped you lose numbers. All that does is make some of the WvW community apathetic which leads to less people in WvW, which leads to getting beat on worse, which leads to less people……. you get the picture. This kind of “let the ratings work themselves out” attitude almost killed HoD’s WvW population when we started our fall from T1. It took so long for the ratings to correct themselves that anyone who cared about points bailed on us. We built a great WvW community from the remnants (although much smaller) but that took a lot of time and effort that I’m not sure people will be willing to exert again if this continues for very long. Reset the score and maybe even the Borderlands every day or 2, leave EB so that the winning server isn’t totally robbed of their earned conquests. Demoralizing a server’s WvW population will only make the rating system fail more completely.

DevonCarver.5370:

One up and one down solves some problems but creates a bunch more. Including that it invalidates ratings entirely. It no longer takes into account quality of victory but simply uses the fact of victory to move a server out of the matchup they were previously in. The system we are using now creates varied matchups, which will allow us to get more accurate ratings. As those become more accurate we can dial down on the amount of variance we are introducing to have matchups that are varied, but less prone to large rating gaps between the servers. But, again, this is entirely based on server rating, which is the thing we have actually been calculating this entire time. Until that number is a more accurate reflection of server quality, we are going to keep mixing the matchups up.

This is pretty much the exact response that has been given since the game launched. So far there has been very little accuracy to the ratings across the board. The system is broken and allowing these types of matchups to “correct the ratings” just leads to further skewing of WvW populations on individual servers and therefore further invalidating the ratings.

@ Thrashbarg: LOL

At least you get my point, if the duelers want to play their way that is A-OK with me. Just remember you are in an open zone and there are no rules as to who gets to attack who. Its the whining on both sides that I find ridiculous. This forum in general is full of blowhard e-toughs and “nerf it” Nellies. Oh well, that’s the internet for ya.

JamboHammer.4397:

lool philidpidies i havent been killed in wvw in a long time bud maybe u have cuz ur bad and all so u saying im whinning is just invalid and actually if ur on na ill 1v1 u right now to u prob cant even handle a 1v1 cuz u zerg to much spamming that auto attack huh

Um…..OK? Wasn’t really calling you personally a whiner, just laughing at the obvious inflated sense of importance you give to a video game. Threatening people’s fake lives on the internet: The true measure of someones worth! Keep on owning those Noobs, bud, I’m sure you will feel much better about whatever it is that has you down.

JamboHammer.4397:

then get prepared to get sat down by the rest of the duelers and dont cry about it on the forums and idc if they ruin it cuz ill just crush u into the ground like i do with every noob that trys to interupt my fights and this noob is the only one crying for getting stomped for rupting a duel

Well, I’m sure that your “Internet Tough Guy” approach will make everyone pause before they get involved in a random fight. To clarify though, if you whine for any reason after getting killed in a PvP zone, and no legit hacking was involved, maybe PvP is not for you.

Really, we’re still QQing about Zergs? Don’t run with your server’s Zerg, run away from other server’s Zergs. Problem solved.

Red=Dead, I don’t care if you duel , GvG, or wander around naked getting POI’s, I’m gonna try and kill you. Seriously do whatever floats your boat, but don’t cry on the forums if someone comes in and “ruins your duel or fight club”. Its a PvP zone, the only rules I follow are :kill my enemies, try not to rub it in if I kill you.

OMG your Barrage has a hard counter, oh the humanity! Get off the walls and hit the back of the Zerg, you know, where there are probably a lot less Guardians. My thief gets hit 3 times just with the SB auto attack, which in the time it takes for barrage to finish is almost the same amount of hits, but I have to be in 900 range, not 1500. I am not even close to an elite WvW player and even I can deal with retaliation most of the time. For the first time in any forum this is going to be written buy me: L2P

titanlectro.5029:

Just give up SF. You cannot possibly win.

I know you got mad skills with the thread making, but NSP got the best forum trolls around. When they don’t have anyone else to troll, they troll each other, just to keep their skills sharp.

You are doomed.

QFT

NSP’s official mascot

I’ve got to say I find all the QQ pretty silly. Ride the Glicko train on the slow decent from #1 to #21, then tell me what its like to get pounded on. No one cried HoD any rivers through being woefully out manned (and I don’t think many even asked for much sympathy) and we’re not going to apologize for our new found forces, be they local or transfers (at least I’m not going to). Losing is no fun, trust me i remember quite clearly, but it is what it is.

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

It’ll be interesting to see how those new transfers pan out for HoD. At first glance, it seems they pulled in more than enough people to shatter the balance and might possibly have gained enough population for a T6 push. But it’s difficult to tell how many of those players are dedicated WvW transfers or just the mad dash of PvE players trying out the new patch. And with this week being a holiday/spring break for many of us, we won’t really get a good idea of anyone’s real post-patch strength for another week or so.

Either way, HoD needs to learn a few more tricks besides golem rushes if they want to leave this tier.

From what little bit I’ve seen of our new found numbers, its both but leans toward new players. EB was queued well past midnight server time last night and I’m seeing some guild tags that I don’t recognize. I hope GoM and NSP got some people too, this is a fun tier and we need some time with the new arrivals before we think about trying to move up.

I approve this message! A few more people would really help out in the off hours. Come to HoD, where 10v30 just means it takes a little longer to win the fight!

Yeah, I can’t say I always agree with our strategy. As field commanders, I think most of our leadership is pretty sound tactically, but we’re far from unified strategically. Part of the problem lies in the fact that even if we fully upgrade our most defensible towers and keeps we just can’t seem to get enough people on to hold them overnight. This, I think, leads to commanders gobbling up as many points as possible to keep up morale and gain points when we can.

So, is GoM saying they need our help to win? You want the 3rd place server to engage the big, bad 1st place server so that you can take advantage of the situation? WvWvW is 2v1 ALL THE TIME, for everyone. And last I looked GoM was on track to lose rating too. Not a lot, but you guys clearly are not playing for first. ( I jest, but seriously its not like you guys are headed out of T7 anytime soon so I’m not sure what you have to gloat about)

titanlectro.5029:

HoD is clearly not playing for second, or at least it sure doesn’t look that way. It appears that HoD’s massive assault has resulted in an even bigger point gap between HoD and GoM, solidifying HoD’s position in third place. This is probably due to GoM focusing HoD, which we usually try not to do.

HoD pulled off a REALLY impressive assault. We repeatedly destroyed all their siege, but that didn’t even slow them down as they just melting down REENFORCED gates with auto attacks in minutes. However, in the long run, it does not appear that this has benefited HoD at all.

This exactly. Truth is that right now we just can’t sustain the numbers for all that long. We can take large portions of maps, but defending them for long just isn’t possible most days. Here is a screen of 2 hours after reset, looks like we are really playing for second doesn’t it?

Shiver.5903:

HoD, you succeeded at getting our attention.
So for a few moments, we redirected our focus to you.
That’s what we call a BACKLASH. Action, reaction.

Yours truly,

-Shiver

NOTE:
I guess old habits die hard, and you went back to allowing the server with a strong lead to rack more free points. Maybe it was not your goal, but that is what you achieved all night long. Playing for 2nd place.

That’s sad, come on, play for 1st and lets have a healthy matchup.

Seriously? Bring equal numbers and we stomp you 7/10 times. Just look at the score ticks when we actually have people on to fight. Get over yourself.

Jace.6973:

Thanks for those HoD that listened, my guild and I had a blast. Thanks for 150 badges!
(P.S We had to kitten somehow let’s see if you can find it)

That was indeed a good time! Our night crew is small, but determined. Well fought!

Debois Guilbert.6413:

This match has been a lot of fun for me so far. Don’t know why we have all these posters concluding that the match is somehow not fun for GoM and HoD. When we log on, we can be sure that there are plenty of points to capture and many fights to be fought. The overall point total, meh. If I cared about that, I suppose I would have transferred while it was free. But I am not all that interested in playing Coverage Wars.

I guess my post was pretty negative, but I didn’t really mean it to be THAT negative. I’m still having fun, I just like to kill people so there’s lots to do.

I, for one, don’t care a whole lot about points and tiers. Having said that, if NSP thinks its going to be a bunch of fun here in tier 7, I think they’ve miscalculated. Every defense I’ve been involved in since late Friday night has been at least 4 to 1 odds, and pretty soon people will get frustrated and it will be even worse. People will give up (not all of course) and there will be lots of PvDoor and roamers getting roflstomped by bored zergs. NSP has a much bigger night presence than DH. I think it was somewhat telling that in the first few hours after reset when populations were as close to equal as they will ever be in this match up, HoD was hanging just fine with GoM and NSP, winning even.

Have fun out there but based on past experience, don’t be surprised if good fights get harder and harder to find.

Seriously? People haven’t figured out how to get rid of a thief? AOE the house! I’m constantly amazed at how few people do this. 1v1 you’ll probably just chase him away, bet get two or three people to to do it, and in 9 sec you’ll see a downed thief with very little health left. If you see a thief disappear near you, count about 2 sec then dodge. Keep moving, if you just stand there waiting to be stabbed you are going to die to more than just thieves. I make no claims about being a good PvPer, but as a thief with only about 15k health i probably only lose 1 out of every 4 fights with a BS thief. I’ll admit my mobility helps me counter theirs, but beyond that i don’t think I have any huge advantage over other classes. I just have all those skills and have learned from other people killing me when I tried to use that build. If I can manage to survive that often, most of you can learn to also.

HoD no longer has anyone that can take charge of an assault. I know I’m not there a lot (too much RL stuff atm), but what I see on our server is a bunch of people that would rather argue about strategy than actually group up and try one of those strategies. It will take a pretty big effort to rectify HoD’s problems, but getting upset and leaving (and I understand your frustration) is just making things worse.

I sat at a keep last weekend with 2 other people for 15 min and held off the one server’s zerg with only siege. All the while I’m calling out the gate status and asking for more bodies. All I see in chat is people talking about how pointless even fighting is, and arguing about who’s idea for an offensive is better. With the gate at about 10% we finally get some bodies into the keep, but of course it was way too late.

We need more people willing to fight and have a good time doing it. Lets try to go this route rather than quitting on HoD. I can honestly say I have never been in a fight with close to equal numbers where we didn’t mop up the competition. We have some great players, we just need a unifying voice.

Been on HoD since early access and I have to say I’m impressed with the vast majority of people who stayed behind when the transfers happened. TC and CD have been a fun fight so far, even though we’re still heavily outnumbered most of the time.

I think your ideas for WvWvW are terrible, but not in and of themselves. Perhaps a part of the PvE map where you had to choose a faction would be a better idea for the kind of fights you are looking for. You could have the ability to toggle a PvP flag in those areas and would face both strong NPC’s and opposite faction players that choose to flag for PvP. You are basically asking to remove the fundamental mechanics of WvWvW.

I read this as: “I have a limited number of interests and too much free time.” How exactly is that A-net’s problem? Go read a book, you’ll never finish all of them in your lifetime.

My one beef with the downed state is it makes the zerg almost impossible to thin out while you are out in the open. Unless you have some great aoe damage, they pop back up just as fast as you kill them.