Guild Wars 2

Okay that makes sense thanks for the reply.

This may or may not be a tech issue, but if anyone has experience with networks and internet connectivity you could be a help.

I have noticed that when I download anything from the game that Im only getting a fraction of my total download speed. That is, I currently have TWC as a provider and 10MB download with them. I have tested the download speeds using speed testing apps and web sites, and they all come back with the result of 10-12MB .

Why is it that at the very best I can only manage 1.5MB when downloading files from GW2?

I have all the ports opened that they require on my router.

I even tested this with different subscription download speeds from TWC, when I lowered my subscription bandwith to only 3MB, I could only manage half a meg downloads from GW2.

So why such a large disparity in actual download speeds compared to what my bandwith is?

Thanks for any feedback.

PS- Oh and, I have also had Verizon for a provider and the same problem with the exact same bandwith.

Chase.2798:

Long post….0.0

Tried to cover all the angles so its clear what Im attempting to describe.

Meant mainly for the devs, just hoping someone will read it and take away something useful, so if people find it lengthy and start to doze off, well… perhaps it can benefit insomniacs as well /shrug

YES

Waaay too many hoops to jump through just to mix it up with the other realms, I dont see the need at all to have to run a maze of crap just to get to whats really fun, and thats interaction with other players. Its what we come to WvW for in the first place, and that should be the focus of WvW planning.

Ive posted something similar a few years ago, figured I would give this one more shot in an effort to help salvage what is now pretty much a disaster in population balance.

There are several problem causes that negatively effect population imbalances in WvW, the core being that some servers are now overpopulated and in effect been overrun by players transferring, most of whom did so just to be on an elite WvW server.

Other things that effect balance can be time of play, some populations fluctuate based on the day of the week or time of day, while others may remain more stable OR oscillate the opposite direction, creating population extremes and deficits that bounce from realm to realm as the clock tics.

A simple and practical way to solve most, if not all, population problems:

Currently, there is a fixed cap on map population for each realm. Changing this to a VARIABLE cap based on the LOWEST AVERAGE realm population, can help alleviate imbalance in both the short term, and long term by accomplishing two things,

1: Overpopulated elite server que times will increase, acting as a deterrent to players tempted with the “grass is always greener” attitude, and give incentive to move to a lower populated server, as population will no longer give them an advantage, plus, they will now need to wait longer just to play.

2: Realms with lower populations should, as time goes on, start to see an increase in populations that will even out in the longer term, AND the current imbalance will be lessened, prompting more people to play without that hopeless feeling of “why bother, we will just get stampeded anyway”.

An example of a variable population cap:

Three realms, call them A B and C. Lets say A is an “elite” overpop, B is medium and C is a lower pop realm.

Say for this example A has a constant maxed pop count and a que, B has an average pop count of around 40, and C a count of 15 average.

Note- Pop sampling can be taken at random times to establish an overall average in order to avoid possible exploits, as well as compensate for blob map swapping.

OK, now we have an average pop count, here is where the variable cap would come into play. As realm C is the underdog in pop counts, that number would then determine the WvW que cap, plus or minus a given value, say for this example make it 8. As 15 is our lowest pop number, plus 8 would bring us to a cap of 23 for that current map count. Thus, the cap for all realms would be set to 23 while the current count is in effect.

Note- Should be obvious but just for the record, no one would be booted from the map if you happen to be on a higher pop realm, only the que would be effected.

A system such as this will give the lower pop realms reason to play even while facing an elite realm, as they now will have a chance, and the game is more balanced and fun for everyone.

In the long term, it should also help manage overpopulation as a que deterrent to those that only switch realms to gain an advantage.

Addition- One other thing, I mentioned blob map swapping earlier…

Also known as “blob bombing” a map, this is another reason we have population problems currently, as higher pop realms can take advantage of their numbers to jump into another realms map and essentially take over the map before the defending realm has a change to mount any kind of defense.

Setting variable ques with minimum and maximum values in home BL’s can help prevent this sort of “exploit” as well and give lower pop realms a chance to stop an invader before their entire home map is a different color.

Note- As realm populations are typically based more on a “attacker vs defender” scenario in BL’s, variable cap values in home borderlands can be weighted giving defenders a slight advantage based on invader populations, example:

IE- Variable que limit set by the LOWEST average pop value of either the invader or the defender:

invader variable que range = 15 to 50 (highest population invader)
defender variable que range = 15 to 50 + X
X = total invader pop / 10

This formula would give defending realms a slight pop increase in the event they have 2 realms invading with high numbers.

I just don’t get why people feel they should be given everything for free for forever.
It was never promised, nor implied, not stated that everything would be free forever and for all time.

I think your reading too much into this.

No one is saying everything should be free forever.

However, when you say something will be free, with no strings, you should keep your word.

Ill say this again, I dont mind paying for fees, subs, box costs or even services, as long as its up front, and no strings. I feel the same way about my bank, they start adding crap on my statement when they did not explicitly list those charges up front, or they hide them in miles of tiny disclaimers, that I have a problem with. And I dont care if its 25 cents or 50 bucks, I have a problem with it either way.

This is a cut and paste directly from the official GW2 Wiki:

What’s the difference between “Living Story” and “Personal Story”?

The personal story is a customized story for your character that is determined by the choices at character creation and the choices of your actions during the personal story. The living story on the other hand is a progressive story that is consistently updated for free with 2 week period gaps, this takes place after the personal story; but you do not have to complete the personal story line in order to participate in the Living Story.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions

Does it say “for free, unless a player does not log on during a specified period..?”

No.

Never is there any mention of any hidden fees if you happen to miss a period, or couldnt play for a few months.

Keep this in mind, AN has also “promised” that there would never be any sub fees, I think we can all agree on that…

Take a look at their license agreement:

4(b)Periodic Payments Related to Accounts, Service and Content – ArenaNet may, in its reasonable discretion, _require You to pay to establish or maintain any Account, to use any Service or to use any Content. You acknowledge that if You are required to do so, but do not, then ArenaNet may terminate Your Account under Section 3(b). _You additionally acknowledge that ArenaNet may require such payments on any basis it deems appropriate in its reasonable discretion, including but not limited to any per-use or periodic basis (such as a number of hours, days or months). And You acknowledge that ArenaNet may, in its reasonable discretion, establish the timing and form in which such payment must be made, including but not limited to credit cards or online payment services. EXCEPT FOR THE LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES OTHERWISE SET FORTH HEREIN, YOU ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT ARENANET HAS NO OBLIGATION TO REFUND ANY PAYMENTS, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, RELATED TO AN ACCOUNT WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PAYMENTS WERE MADE OR AUTHORIZED BY YOU, FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INTERRUPTION OR UNAVAILABILITY OF SERVICE (SEE ALSO SECTION 10). YOU ACKNOWLEDGE, AND FURTHER AGREE, THAT ArenaNet MAY, IN ITS REASONABLE DISCRETION, TERMINATE UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF SECTION 3(b) ANY ACCOUNT RELATED TO ANY ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN A REFUND OF ANY PAYMENTS, WHETHER SUCH ATTEMPTS ARE MADE BY CONTACTING AN ISSUER OF CREDIT CARDS OR OTHERWISE, AND THAT ARENANET MAY TAKE ANY OTHER ACTION IT DEEMS APPROPRIATE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO RECOURSE BY WAY OF ANY COLLECTION AGENCY AND/OR CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY WHEN A REFUND HAS BEEN OBTAINED WITHOUT SIGNED WRITTEN CONSENT FROM A LEGALLY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF ARENANET.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-user-agreement/

What this says is, that AN or NCS has the right to start charging ANY fees at ANY time, and you will have to pay it at the risk of losing your account, or at the very least, even if they offer refunds for those that want one, you lose the time and effort you spent, your characters, all you have put into the game.

That is IF they even offer a refund, the LA you agree to when you play the game says they do not have to.

Now, not to be an alarmist here, but what they are “promising”, and what they are explicitly writing in their legal agreements, as a possibility, that everyone MUST “agree” to in order to use the game, are two totally different animals.

“Hidden” fees can be the start of something very unpleasant, all I am saying is, they have laid out the groundwork to do whatever they want to do, just be aware.

I see that any missed season 2 content is up for sale. Interesting.

It was my understanding that AN was developing this game with the promise that all content, past present and future, would be free for a lifetime, and the only aspect of the game that was to be store bought was aesthetics and convenience items. It was the main selling point for me to buy the game and to support AN this far.

It is concerning for me, no so much as the price of the current Living World content now, but if this is the current policy how will this effect the expansion and future expansions? Is AN expanding their horizons when it comes to what they charge for and what they do not?

Myself, my family and many of the people I game with are questioning what appears to be a rather liberal stance on marketing, is this a first step towards future price tags on content, upgrades, etc?

TheDaiBish.9735:

Radakill.3469:

TheDaiBish.9735:

There’s not much we can really do short of reporting bugs, and maybe collating links to suggestions in a single thread every now and then.

Well thats…. great! Thanks….. uh.. right, Im glad thats official now.

No need for the snark. Where did I say it was official?

Of course, unless you got some other suggestions as to what we can do to help, off-site, without access to any documentation.

Radakill.3469:

TheDaiBish.9735:

For obvious reasons, they aren’t going to be allowing volunteers access to the games code, so that cuts your suggestion of helping to fix bugs.

I never suggested this.

Another poster MIGHT have been implying that they implement a development tool that allows for in game player design, similar to what games such as STO does for example.

No one has suggested players have access to or rights to altering code to fix bugs.

Well, you mentioned, and I quote: “It could reduce workload that in turn, could speed up the process of needed in game content/fixes etc…”

How can anyone do that without accessing the game’s code?

Heres how. In most places of business, employees are tasked to do several things. Not just one thing, several things. And when it gets REALLY busy, employers often times cannot keep up with the demand for a larger staff… SO, what happens is, the extra workload gets distributed around.

By having more people around to do the extra work, this has the effect of decreasing workload for EVERYONE.

Now, I dont know how ArenaNets place of business operates, but its a fair guess that developers and programmers have more to do then just sit around and punch in code.

There are outside sources of information, both in source and outsource. Emails, suggestions, feedback, all this stuff is coming across their desk, for example. Do they have paid employees to analyze, sort, edit and compile all of this? I dunno, maybe, maybe they do it themselves.

There are always little things that even important people do that could cut down on workload if someone was to do it for them, and help them save time for doing the important things.

Ceridwen.6703:

There’s something of a precedent for this, in that it’s been done for a while in Age of Conan (the Followers of Asura, funnily enough), and in the Secret World (I don’t know about other games, mind, but it wouldn’t surprise me).

(http://aoc.wikia.com/wiki/Followers_of_Asura)

I don’t think it need be as in-depth as the FoA, but as I said, there is a precedent. Maybe one day it can be done here, should Anet judge it appropriate.

It was done in the original EQ for awhile, I dunno if they implemented it in EQ2 or not. Volunteers could actually be server helpers and respond to players /help requests, among other things.

TheDaiBish.9735:

There’s not much we can really do short of reporting bugs, and maybe collating links to suggestions in a single thread every now and then.

Well thats…. great! Thanks….. uh.. right, Im glad thats official now.

For obvious reasons, they aren’t going to be allowing volunteers access to the games code, so that cuts your suggestion of helping to fix bugs.

I never suggested this.

Another poster MIGHT have been implying that they implement a development tool that allows for in game player design, similar to what games such as STO does for example.

No one has suggested players have access to or rights to altering code to fix bugs.

Darox.8069:

But realistically speaking, the budget is not the only constraint they have

Im sure it isnt, someone would have to sit down and run the numbers along with coming up with an outline that would justify the whole thing.

Generally speaking though, with any business that has employees, the payroll is a huge part of their budget, and tasking one person out to run a program that could save them some cash while helping clear the “todo” stack of paperwork on their desk, or help manage a server population, whatever..who knows.. it might be a viable thing to consider.

Azhure.1857:

So this is basically -
“ArenaNet you’re incompetent at your job and having said that I offer my services.” Is that close to what this thread is about? Granted you did sugar coat it… but that’s still the heart of your opening post.

I’m unhappy with ArenaNet of late, I feel they can do so much better, but I would never suggest such a thing as this. If they wished for the aid of their customers, they would do so. They have the means and could create far more. If you or others want to go beyond what we, as customers, can already do for ArenaNet/NCsoft – then perhaps try applying for employment?

WOW

REALLY???

LOL

Im simply implying they might have alot to do with a limited budget…. GOOD GOD..

I feel for your spouse if you happen to be married… the poor guy (or gal) saying “good moring” and you “what do you mean GOOD MORNING!?!?! are you suggesting something!?? Are you INSINUATING that Im supposed to be GOOD today?? huh?? HUH???”

Darox.8069:

Let players design the PvE content !!

I’ve suggested this before: use a “workshop” framework where new dungeon creations can be tested for a reward and once highly rated enough anet gives them a proper loot table. It’s all win for everybody: we get content that we want and they still control the loots

My thinking was more of helping with their current workload in areas such as reading emails, editing posts, filtering information etc…

Not so say that what your suggesting isnt viable, it could be similar to what some of those F2P devs are doing with player built instances.

Im sure there are really smart people out there too that probably COULD help in design, even if its just for a letter of recommendation at some point. How broad of a program they would be willing to open up is up to them, if any.

All I can say is, if it were me, I would jump on a chance at free help if people are willing. Start it out small and see where it goes from there. It could reduce workload that in turn, could speed up the process of needed in game content/fixes etc…

You guys in the dev corner seem to have alot on your plate, I look around at all of whats going on in the forums as well as in game, the workload must be enormous.

I have seen in the past other MMO’s have had similar situations and their solutions for staffing have turned to their player base for help.

Im sure there are those out there right now that would love to volunteer some (or alot) of time to help make the game a better place. Why not reach out and get some FREE help?

There has to be SOME things that people could do right from their own homes that would be a huge benefit. Start a volunteer program and reduce some of that workload.

What say you!?

Handin.4032:

Radakill.3469:

Someone must be pretty dedicated to spend that much time and materials just to impact your supply stack. That much dedication is unlikely to be long term.

I somehow doubt that Anet is going to bother policing this sort of thing, their view will most likely be “use it or lose it”.

You’d think so..but TC for instance has had a set of a few trolls for over a year. They openly admit in chat to just siege trolling, and a couple openly admitted to being “paid” to do it. These people come back, often during “important” matches and spend literally 5-6+ hours a day hopping between maps draining all the supply of keeps, destroying golems, etc..for weeks on end.

But, you’re right. Anet doesn’t care. They really in the end don’t. The fact the same trolls have been reported for over a YEAR with screenshots, video, even of them admitting their just trolling, and they keep coming back. Anet will constantly 1) remove posts that have any specific SS’s or names, and tell people to ‘report’, even though they know, and everyone else knows, that it does ABSOLUTELY nothing, 2) constantly tell people they’re ‘looking into it’, but after 2 years the same issues are there with no official dev response about it. Anet seems to care about WvW for 1 main reason: money for transfers. In fact, all of the trolling could be stopped by having a few game mods that can hop between the all the matches if a siege troll is report. They can watch the person, and then act in real time. Many other MMOs have this, GW2 does not.

Its interesting you bring that up, and would be a great suggestion for AreanNet to increase their manpower, as it seems they are overloaded as it is now.

Ive played other MMO’s in the past that instead of “hiring” paid employees to do some of the more mundane tasks around servers/forums/etc, they recruit volunteers to do the same jobs. Many people would step up and give a day or 2 a week (some even more) and help out.

LOL, the chances of this even being read by a decision maker.. I dunno. I think Ive posted on this before but the more I post the more I think its all academic.

At least we all have the delusion of believing we are making a difference =)

Jackums.3496:

Radakill.3469:

Jackums.3496:

If you don’t think condition specs are an issue in WvW (roaming), then you need to look at P/D Perplex Thieves, PU Condi Mesmers, Condi Perplex Engineers, and S/S Condi Warriors. It’s no coincidence that the most powerful roaming builds are almost exclusively condition-oriented, with the exception of SA Thieves (still inferior to P/D Perplex) and PU Power Mesmers (still inferior to PU Condi).

Condition builds offer far greater survivability than power builds do, via dire gear, and a lot more control via the utility of conditions (cripple, poison, weakness, etc).

The core problems, IMO, are condition duration foods and dire gear.

If you really believe this then your not playing your character to its full potential and/or your not running with the right groups.

There isnt a single class in the game that dosent have at least 2-4 condition removal skills + traits and abilities. I play condition builds and can say from experience that players that know what they are doing very easily dodge condition effects, only to direct damage you down in less then 5 seconds.

Put a condition build up vs a warrior or thief, or any good direct damage class build, Ill put my money on the DD build any day of the week.

So power builds can evade every condition application successfully, but condition builds conveniently just stand there and get downed within 5 seconds? If you really believe that, then you need to play against better players or discover the crutch that is dire gear.

No power build is going to 1v1 a P/D Perplex Thief or PU Condi Mesmer of equal skill, and the only one that comes close is an SA Thief, because they can drop into stealth for condi cleanse and reset the fight at will. Though so can P/D Thieves and PU Mesmers. The difference? The latter two have bunker-like stats due to their stat distribution.

The last sentence of your response makes me think you’ve never even roamed.

Your right, rank 383 but Ive never roamed, I just hang around the WP’s and listen to chat, its a great way to level up.

With that said, I admit I did not specify the types of condition builds I was referring too, I thought I had clarified that with the follow up post. Guess you missed it.

I agree with you when it comes to DD condition inhibitor builds. DOT builds have a more limited use, especially in roaming and open area situations. They are somewhat effective in siege offense or defense, but in a good ol fashioned brawl, give me DD any day. Burst will almost always prevail there due to much better overall DPS with inhibitors.

As to the thief builds your talking in absolutes here and most of this is rhetorical. ANY thief build with the right traits can drop into stealth and cleanse or heal. I do it all the time with my d/d build, without having to WS to s/p. About the only thing I need s/p for is the SS, otherwise in most situations its a waste of init. The thief inhibitors are not of much use as their base time is so low, any extended time percent wont make much of a difference.

Someone must be pretty dedicated to spend that much time and materials just to impact your supply stack. That much dedication is unlikely to be long term.

I somehow doubt that Anet is going to bother policing this sort of thing, their view will most likely be “use it or lose it”.

Noah.4756:

I don’t really mind the weird ascended boxes I get from Fractals and Mega Bosses. I do find them rather useless but I understand the negative consequences for wanting to salvage or opening it up for the market.

What bothers me more is the fact that Light Armor is STILL significantly more expensive than the other armor types. It has been many months since the release of ascended armor and the difference in costs is just ridiculously out of balance:

- Zojja’s Doublet (Light): 97 Gold to craft
- Zojja’s Breastplate (Heavy): 70 Gold to craft

For one piece that’s a difference of 27 Gold. Just for this disparity alone I would support OP’s suggestion. Also I would really like to see John Smith’s view on this matter and why there hasn’t been any word given to balance it.

I posted something about this on another thread, the root cause of the ascended crafting prices going through the roof is mainly due to the lvl 40-60 mats required to make one item. Cloth is by far the rarest material of the 4 types, and it dosent help when most active players now are end game, while the few that are still farming lower level mats are either working up alts, new to the game, or worse.. chinese gold farmers.

The amount of mid level mats required in ascended recipes is ridiculous, in some cases requiring close to 1000 scraps of just one type of material to make a single item.

This is the first MMO I have ever seen that has ballooned mid to low level material costs to the point of doubling their value over end game mats. Terrible economic management that dosent benefit players at all, and only promotes ongoing 3rd party gold sales.

Ive been getting rendering delays in big building such as keeps lately, thats new for me as I have not experienced this in the early game, dunno if that has anything to do with lag, or perhaps design/code changes.

Really? I guess people are complaining about condi PU Mesmers and perplexity Thieves for nothing. Anyway, If you’re condi and you’re getting bursted down in less than 5 seconds then something is wrong, especially if you have a group. And I do believe the DOT conditions are indeed powerful, its just that chill, immob, cripple, weakness compound the problem. Having your movement restricted(with zero diminishing returns) while taking passive damage is a big deal, the blind upkeep some builds have doesn’t help either. So not only can condi builds be durable stat wise, but they can actively keep players from even hitting them, through the sheer diversity of conditions available.

And for all the people saying “Just run anti-condi runes/food/utils/traits”, if you can’t see that you’re not exactly helping the “condi spam in small man fights isn’t a problem” case, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Uh… I burst people down in around 5 seconds playing my war/thief all the time, its not that hard when I can crank out 100 blades (x2)+ burst skill in 6 seconds, its apx 30K damage. Thief 8-9K back stab (x2, or even 3 if I get the right theft) GL getting a condition with duration stacking to do that. Duration stacking DOT’s will max out around 800/tick even with the best condition damage builds.

As I wrote in a follow up post, condition DOT’s are not a problem if you know how to deal with them, they are actually very UP compared to DD. Its the inhibitors that are the real OP conditions, and they are OP due to very few restrictions.

ArchonWing.9480:

I think it’d be a good idea if you could salvage ascended stuff for their materials. For example, salvaging a cleric’s sword could result in 1-2 deldrimor, 1-2 spiritwood, 5-10 dark matter, and a chance of the inscription and ectoplasm.

It’s sorta hard because ascended items are already rare and the chances of getting a desirable stat combo is even more rare. And we have a situation in pve, which ascended items play the bigger role where only 1 stat combo is desirable.

Zerker meta isn’t bad in and of itself
Rare ascended weapons aren’t bad in and of itself
Rare ascended weapons that have many variable stats aren’t bad in and of itself.

Together they make ascended drops a non-factor, though.

Thus far, I’ve only received the following ascended items:

Cleric weapon from Teq chest.
Celestial Armor, Apothecary Ring, Rabid Armor from wvw chests.

And this is after many, many chests of these sort being opened. The celestial and rabid piece found use in wvw, though I’d imagine pvers would consider these aside from the celestial to be a slap in the face. In any case, it should be a joyous event, instead of "hmm, I’m going to put it in my bank until I know what to do with it (usually never). In any case, it feels very weird that finding an expensive exotic item is cause for more celebration.

Yours is a good idea, the salvage would be acceptable, or possibly a cost for a direct exchange to alter the stats to something you could use. Cost could be gold, laurels, etc… just exchange at a vendor for instance.

I have a shaman weapon in my bank right now and have no character build that can use it as well, very much a waste.

Ok, I know Im not the only one thats had an ascended item drop and at first think “oh cool” only to see the stats and think “oh… crap”.

These are rare enough that there really should be some way to exchange them, before they are used, for an item with usable stats.

Dragon Ore is easy to farm, just do the daily Boss rotations and a few hrs WvW, you will have more then enough. Most end game crafting materials are either easy to farm or cheap to buy (exceptions might be the rare drop claws, fangs etc).

What really kills the end game crafting, is requiring lvl 40-60 materials in LARGE quantities in ascended recipes. Most players are end game now, so the supply/demand for items such as wool and iron are not as commonly farmed and go through the roof, especially when you need hundreds of them just to craft one item.

This not only drives the price way up for those that need the materials to craft end game items, it also opens many doors for our gold selling friends that spam us repeatedly advertising their illegal websites.

Those are the materials I would like to see either have a huge increase in drop/spawn rate, or at least cut back the requirements and/or change them to a more realistic end game material.

Balance.

I (and many others) have posted so many threads suggesting ways to even up teams in WvW our fingers are bleeding. Its the one thing that WvW is mainly lacking in overall, and the one thing it really needs the most.

Ive been on both sides of the fence when it comes to either outnumbering other teams (boring), and being out manned (frustrating), and neither one is much fun.

The moments I really remember about in WvW were those close battles that had me sitting on the edge of my chair while all sides went at it, and after it was all over, win or lose, you sit back and say “wow… THAT was a good fight!” Fun times.

When teams are so unevenly matched that your either running over them or their running over you, I would rather spend my time grinding in some boring PVE zone then be in WvW.

From my experience, its not the DOT conditions that are OP in any way, in fact, I believe DOT conditions dont stand a chance vs direct damage.

The real OP conditions are the total (and even partial) incapacitation conditions. The ability to literally spam root/stun types of conditions on a player so that the guy has absolutely NO CHANCE of defending him/herself is just wrong.

Passed MMO’s that have implemented total incapacitations (which I am not a big fan of and dont believe should even be in game) at LEAST give the player a few seconds of immunity from them before another can be spammed on the player until dead.

No game should have a stun/stun/stun/dead possible sequence without giving the target a viable chance for survival, its a sleazy way to play.

Jackums.3496:

If you don’t think condition specs are an issue in WvW (roaming), then you need to look at P/D Perplex Thieves, PU Condi Mesmers, Condi Perplex Engineers, and S/S Condi Warriors. It’s no coincidence that the most powerful roaming builds are almost exclusively condition-oriented, with the exception of SA Thieves (still inferior to P/D Perplex) and PU Power Mesmers (still inferior to PU Condi).

Condition builds offer far greater survivability than power builds do, via dire gear, and a lot more control via the utility of conditions (cripple, poison, weakness, etc).

The core problems, IMO, are condition duration foods and dire gear.

If you really believe this then your not playing your character to its full potential and/or your not running with the right groups.

There isnt a single class in the game that dosent have at least 2-4 condition removal skills + traits and abilities. I play condition builds and can say from experience that players that know what they are doing very easily dodge condition effects, only to direct damage you down in less then 5 seconds.

Put a condition build up vs a warrior or thief, or any good direct damage class build, Ill put my money on the DD build any day of the week.

Reverence.6915:

Condi needs a serious nerf in WvW. It’s ridiculous that some classes can apply more conditions than you can cleanse, basically killing you in less than 5 seconds. There’s so few ways to counter play that and all of them involve a battle of attrition, which isn’t fun.

It’s not so much the individual conditions themselves, but the combination of several conditions together. Confusion by itself is fine. Torment by itself is fine etc. But Bleed, Confusion, Poison, Vulnerability, Weakness etc etc. all applied at the same time is stupid. Especially with the randomness of cleansing and the ease of re-applying the conditions (seriously needs to be an icd on conditions like confusion and torment, say… 30 seconds, in line with most cleanse skills)

Yeah yeah, this has been talked to death and several threads have been made about it, but even so, we need to keep complaining about this until it gets fixed.

If anything needs to be fixed, its direct damage vs conditions on individual basis.

What you described would be the same as several direct damage players hitting you for a 14K burst at the same time. You wont stand a chance. At least with conditions there are ways to negate or even totally erase the effects before its too late. Try cancelling or flipping a 9k back stab, or a 14K warrior burst.

If you hate conditions, there are several classes that thrive on flipping/cancelling/negating/reversing them. Necros, Guardians, and Mesmers are the best condition cleaners, and they have several skills that will help remove allies conditions, very useful.

Condition casters such as condition spec Elems are actually the ones that usually wind up on the dirty end of the stick when it comes to overall dps, as “duration stacking” is a joke vs direct burst damage.

storiessave.3807:

Taygus.4571:

Simple suggestion.

Ask for weapn templates for ALL classes that can be binded to key presses. (those keys chosen by players when creating the template. )

There, now everyone has ooc weapons swap for every weapon they want.
Everybody’s happy.

^ This.

It’s common for people to swap out weapons out of combat for certain buffs (most often swiftness) or leap skills for movement; giving us weapon set templates or whatever would just be a QoL improvement, rather than us having to search our bags every time we want to switch weapons.

I often swap in warhorn on my necro for the swiftness when I’m out of combat in WvW – does that make OOC weapon swapping OP for necros? No. It’s not OP for other classes to swap weapons out of combat; it isn’t OP for eles to do it either. We already can do this – the suggestions made in this thread would just make it less of a hassle.

Swapping ranged for melee/close combat situations could also be a viable reason for this.

Malganis.7468:

Burning doesnt stack in intensity like other conditions. It only stacks in duration.

And yes it only applies burning once per second, rounding down. 2.99 seconds is the same as 2 seconds.

Thats already been covered in my original post and throughout the thread, however, it does bring up an interesting point that our friends at ArenaNet seem to think that just by increasing the duration of a condition your automatically increasing the damage as well. In most situations, this is TOTALLY incorrect. In fact, if you work the numbers, just increasing duration to justify damage actually, again, in most situations, DECREASES the overall tool tip damage.

There comes a point when just repeatedly extending durations is totally mute, chances are you will not see the end of even the shorter duration conditions let alone the ones that last 20+ seconds, and then only in rare situations. So just adding on time is ridiculous.

Thats getting abit off topic, the real point to the thread is there are disparities between what is shown on the skill tool tips and what is (or more accurately, what isnt) shown on the damage icon.

When u hover yer mouse cursor over the Burning icon on the foe, it shows a tiny window with some info including the remaining burning duration.

Yes, this is true but have you noticed that this information is bugged as well?

At the start of the burn (using Drakes Breath) the duration shows about 10 seconds, this counts down until the icon is no longer “ticking” and reaches zero, or to put another way, the time line around the icon has disappeared. The condition icon remains however, and continues for about another 8 seconds.

Even if it was working properly, I dont know about you, but I dont want to have to fight with my cursor hovering over an icon just to see what should be visible at a glance.

This is exactly what Im on about, even besides having duration stacking (terrible idea), the current system does not show the correct information about what is going on with your applied conditions.

Here we go:

Not all conditions are exactly the same, and I’m sure you’ll find that if you hover over Burning, the description is "Deals damage every second; stacks duration.

A stack of burning only shows one “stack” because there simply isn’t enough room on the icon to describe how long each stack is.

If you watch the burning icon carefully, you will notice that there is a way to “time” stacks of conditions, its the little white line that “encircles” the icon, similar to a clock. As a stack runs out, the little stack number that is SUPPOSED to be in the lower right corner of the icon decrements.

Every other condition you mentioned above has this way of “timing” so you know aprox how long the condition is going to last… EXCEPT burning. The “time line” I guess you can call it IS there, but you have no idea at all how many stacks, if any, are actually getting to the target, as described by the tool tip. AND if you use multiple burning skills, as I mentioned above, there is no indication at all as to if they were applied or not, as the damage per tick remains the same, and there is NO stack counter, as is clearly depicted on the “Drakes Breath” burning icon.

Burning is high damage.

Uh.. no.

The ONLY thing high damage about burning is the tool tip number for the entire duration of the condition. In this game, the chances of the duration for any condition to run its course is very small. The longer you make the durations, the chances decrease incrementally. (whats really needed in this game is a DPS counter, this would show what really does the damage and what does not) The longer you run the duration, the smaller the damage per tick will be. So when the condition is cancelled, dispelled, transferred or simply dies along with the target, the actual damage it did is greatly reduced. AND since EVERY single character class in the game has at least 2-4 methods of dispelling or cancelling conditions, this makes condition damage pale in comparison to burst or direct damage methods. There are even several classes of characters such as Necro, Guardian and Mesmer that specialize in cancelling or flipping conditions not only on themselves, but allies and aoe as well.

What all this means is, the greater the duration of a condition, the greater chance that it will never see the end of its cycle, and its overall dps will be quite limited. The LESS duration, the more damage per tick, which means a greater chance of doing more damage before it can be nullified.

Burning never has, and in the current state of affairs, never will stack in intensity. It is simply too strong of a condition to do so, given the frequency that classes like Elementalist, Guardian, and Engineer can apply them. Drake’s Breath alone would be able to maintain 2500 damage per second extremely easily if the condition stacked in intensity.

….. Your kidding right? Have you ever played a zerk warrior? Or a thief?

I literally crank out 12K damage on my warrior in 2-3 seconds, and he only has exotic gear, no ascended yet. My thief does a 7-9K BS, thats just 1 second of damage. And my guys are not even in the same league as some players out there who do a hellofalot more. And lets not even get into how defenseable a warrior compared to a mage is.

2500 per second is nothing, and that can be dispelled. Try dispelling a 9K back stab.

Right now, burst and direct damage class characters just laugh at my elem, 800/tick for 18+ seconds?? LOL.. thats funny… let me kill you with 2 burst skills, then Ill just dispel that joke of a condition, and still have 12 seconds to spare.

Getting back on topic, the BUG about this is simply the tool tip information on the actual burning skills is not correctly depicted, if duration is the intended method of “total damage”. The burning icon SHOULD be showing some sort of duration information so that it reflects the actual tool tip information and the caster can have an idea of skill preparation and casting order to maximize their effect.

Da Sonic.6521:

As far as I know (this may be slightly incorrect) it works like this:

Drake’s Breath hits 4 times, if the duration of your Burns is approximately 5 seconds each, then you will stack up 20 seconds of burning over the 2 second cast time, leaving you with 18 seconds of burning.

Burning and every other duration stacking condition or boon has a limit on how many times it can be applied. For burning, this limit is 5. If your Drake’s Breath applies 4 stacks of Burning and you attempt to add more burning with another skill, it will apply one stack of burning (For Burning Speed, like 1 second) and then not have any effect to the burning stack past that until one of the 5 second burns expires.

I went and tested ingame on my Ele, and it does indeed seem to be functioning like I mentioned above. Drake’s Breath hit 4 times, and each time 3 seconds of burning was applied (0 condition duration). With 30% condition duration, each tick lasted 4 seconds, adding up to 16 seconds of burning.

This isnt what the tool tip describes at all, where are you getting your information?

Even if this was correct, I should be seeing 4 stacks of burning, it only shows 1 on the target.

In fact, all it ever shows is 1. And in no way should those stacks inhibit other skills from stacking. This isnt how bleeds work, bleeds stack repeatedly, and the icon as well as the damage reflects this. Bleeds dont just extend the duration, they do more damage per tick. The skill “Churning Earth” has a tool tip of 6 stacks of bleeds. When I cast this, it shows 6 stacks of bleeds, and the duration is exactly the time the tool tip reads. If I use other skills on top of this, the stack size increases, and so does the damage per tick, NOT the duration. I have tested this repeatedly with my elem.

So if what you say is true, what sense does it make to have a 4-5 stack limit on a 18 second duration condition with a 5 second CD skill? You cant use any of your other skills with this now as if you say is correct, a player would have to wait the entire 18 seconds before applying another burn damage condition, even from another skill.

If all the above IS correct, they at least need to fix the tool tip to reflect this, as loopy as it sounds. And RIP my elem, Ill never play it again.

Cant seem to find a specific suggestion area so Im posting this here:

OK, so elems cant swap weps in combat, thats how the devs want it, so be it. We can live with that.

However, going into inventory when you want to change a weapon does get rather tedious, soooo…. hows this for a compromise:

I suggest elems have a swap slot for an additional weapon, that only works ooc. Seems like a pretty simple thing to add in, and would still be in line with the devs idea of present combat.

This would make a horde of elems happy.

For an elem this is even worse.

Even if you have a swap weapon that has the EXACT same sigil as your currently equipped weapon(s) do, as soon as you swap them out you lose your stacks.

This, my dear dev staff, is BS.

I know this has come up in the past, however, I wanted to keep the candle lit in case there is any chance someone with decision making prowess actually reads the post.

The code that allows the original player that throws down a piece of siege (blueprint) to “bump” another player that is using that siege off, so that the original player now controls the siege is already in place in the game.

So….

I imagine that extending that a bit wouldnt be such a tough thing to do. Heres the idea:

It very common that someone will jump on a piece of siege even though they have little to no skill (ability points) spent for that particular siege type, while another player that has spent their hard earned ability points on that type of siege stands by and can only watch while their talents go to waste.

So, the question is, why not have a priority bumping system that goes beyond just the original thrower?

Priority could be as follows:

1: Player who has thrown the blueprint.
2: Highest ability ranked players in that siege category, down to lowest.
3: Everyone else.

Add a CD on the bump so it cant be exploited.

Several issues with burning condition damage that I have noticed while playing an elem d/d configuration.

1:) The tool tip claims for the skill “Drakes Breath” that the duration should be 4.75 seconds for a total damage amount of 13,956, and should apply 4 stacks of burning. The ACTUAL duration time is exactly 18 seconds (timed by stopwatch), with 18 ticks. The stack size is NOT 4, but only 1, and seems to be limited to only 1 stack at a time regardless of what skill is being used (see below).

2:) When using one burning condition skill in conjunction with another burning condition skill, ie: “Drakes Breath” + “Ring of Fire”, I noticed that the 2 conditions DO NOT STACK for any additional damage. This is also true when attempting to add another stack of “Drakes Breath” condition damage to the 1st stack. (As the prolonged actual damage duration allows).

3:) The bleed condition damage skills all seem to work as the tooltip outlines, and correctly stacks bleed damage as applied, either with a single skill, or with multiple skills.

It looks as if the duration of “Drakes Breath”, and possibly the entire fire damage line for d/d was extended to compensate for a 1 stack limit of fire condition damage, however, this does not work for several reasons:

a: As previously mentioned, elems are unable to stack cross skill fire damage now, rendering the entire line of burning condition damage virtually useless, and

b: By increasing the duration of these skills and limiting the stack size, the CD’s on these skills are in effect, increased to the burn duration as well, as attempting to add another stack while the original damage is still in its cycle is pointless, AND

c: Extreme condition durations are next to useless in the first place as the chance that the target will either dispel the effect, or expire long before the duration has a chance to complete its cycle. This basically takes the total condition damage and whittles it down to a fraction of what its base damage is reported to be, on average.

d: If the durations were in fact extended to compensate for a 1 stack total limit, then the tool tips for ALL the fire damage skills are now incorrect.

babazhook.6805:

The reason I avoid EOTM like the plaque is because you are not fighting FOR anything but yourself.

There absolutely no server loyalty.

Some dismiss such a notion as being unimportant but they are wrong. It only unimportant to themselves.

I have never transferred servers. There a whole pile of people I know in WvW who have been on my server from the start and would never transfer servers. To suggest everyone the same and just jumps server to server to find which one will win is simply nonsense.

EOTM is nothing but a Karma train. It has become that because the only reason to play it is to get STUFF. The difference between playing for a server and playing for ones self may not appeal to you but it appeals to a wide swathe of the player base. Contrary to what some suggest I do find satisfaction in helping other members of my TEAM to win and contributing in that regard.

If you ask any athelete that was involved in professional sports what they missed most about their careers it was not getting the goals or scoring touchdowns or being cheered, it was the sense they were a part of a team and helping one another to victory.

Your suggestion is akin to having a hockey game where if one team was ahead 4 to nothing after the first period 6 of its best players would be moved to the other team after the first period in return for 6 of the poorer players so as to “make the game fair”.

Are there issues with WvW? Of course there are but randomizing which team one is on is not a solution and is a worse cure then the problem.

I do not want to be assigned to a random team week to week. There would simply be no reason to play WvW over Pve if I was. While there are those who would not be bothered by this at all and that is THEIR prerogative, there are many I am sure, who would agree with me.

You have what you ask for in EOTM. The group that does not care about server loyalty can go play there.

I actually agree with what your saying, however, your ignoring the side effects of “free will” in any game. People, given the choice, will look for the easy way to solve any problem. Its human nature. Winning for many players, is a problem, and to solve it, they will migrate to any side that had an edge if given the chance. This is the case here, and has been in every situation that allows people to choose teams, servers, guilds etc. You see it in real life every day, and to expect it wont happen in a game as well is just pure ignorance. Its a historical fact that will repeat itself over and over.

You may not agree with random, but it does solve many problems and allows for some aspect of fairness. And, most important, you may think it will drive people away, however, in many games pvp matches ARE random, and those will be around and are still frequently played and are popular. Random, along with LIMITED grouping and pre mades, have stood the test of time, its a system that is known to actually work.

In fact, most, if not all, large MMO games that offer pvp have some sort of random + pre made generation system, this one included. GW1 had it.

For the record I would prefer a server vs server system for WvW myself… if it was fair and balanced but unfortunately, as we have seen here and in the past, it just dosent work, you cant expect all people to play fair if they are given a choice.

DoomMagick.5963:

1. issue: Guilds as proof of the ‘mega server’ anet would never part guild members from each other, thus making it a game of stacking a guilds(500people).. Sure this would support the name of the game but…. I’m pretty sure such a thing would result in even worse WvW play.

And WvW’ing with a new crowd every week + unable to do it with your friends if done your way would just as quickly ruin it. :/

Mega Server is purly PVE instance at this time and would not be effected. The “Guild Wars” aspect of the game would live on.

A similar way of random generation is already in place in the game, this would be a larger extension of that. PVP is random (if your not in a pre made), and there is no reason why pre mades cant be implemented in a random match system for WvW, just on a smaller scale… ie limit the size of the pre made groups to inhibit large scale stacking.

Friends are still playing, they might be on the other side of the fence, is it really so hard to go head up with your friends now and then instead of having them on the same team?

As far as ruining it… the current system has already done that, it cant get any worse. With a random match system it gives hope to players that even if they lose one week, they have the next match to look forward to. Right now people feel hopeless and dread every matchup knowing every week will be the same outcome. This leads to quitting and eventually could end WvW altogether.

Totally agree, I posted something similar on a different thread.

This is 100% developmental oversight. In essence, it gave players a license, and a free one at that, to exploit and cheat the system. The outcome was obvious to the extreme, and how it could have been established that way in the first place without KNOWING the outcome is boggling.

On top of that, myself and many others wrote thread after thread about this very issue while the problem was still growing, and nothing was done until this year.

Even then, the issue was only band aided, the current restrictions really dont solve a thing.

All we can hope for is that by some miracle the decision makers at Anet will see a light bulb and radically change the way matches are put together.

Honestly though, Im not holding my breath.

On the bright side, Mark Jacobs is working on a new sequel to DAOC, if thats done well, and Mark usually does a great job, then I expect quite a few players (including myself) will be headed that way.

Most people will agree that the current WvW situation is so far out of balance that the current method of server vs server is either dead or dying. Anets attempt to band aid the problem by imposing time limits and gem fees wont fix the issue and at best, only prolongs the inevitable death of WvW as we know (knew) it.

Are there those that will dispute this? Of Course.

Transferring to a top ranked server was really nothing less then cheating. And those that have done so will fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. No big surprise there. So you will have posters rave on and on about how the current system is fantastic.

It is not.

Anet, in all its wisdom, SHOULD have seen this coming long before it started to become such a problem, and acted much sooner, and, with many more restrictions, to prevent such a catastrophic disaster from happening in the first place. Plus, they were warned, to no avail. Mores the pity.

Now, many servers have been bled dry while the other top ranked have swelled. For those playing on the high ranked servers, they enjoy virtually uncontested rankings and rewards week after week, while the lower ranked servers are lucky to have much participation at all, feel nothing but frustrated as week after week more and more people quit or even get desperate enough to pay the price of either character wiping, or buying into a higher ranked server as well.

This is the reality. I see it get worse every day.

The other reality is, server vs server is pretty much FUBAR at this point.

So, how to fix this nightmare?

Simply, you make the competition fair. Level the playing field. And yes, its going to really tick off some people. However, I have seen this time and time again, if you leave a problem like this to fester, one day you wake up and suddenly you dont have a player base. Even the top dogs wont stay around for long if no one is left to conquer.

For the fix, at this point the only real way to make the game fair again is to remove server vs server altogether. Remove the option of essentially forming your own team. Its the only way. Otherwise, players will abuse any chance to move to a team with the scales tilted in their favor. It will happen every time, Ive been playing games since before the PC was invented, and trust me, its just human nature. You cant give people a choice, they will abuse it.

So then, whats left?

Random.

You take those players who wish to participate in WvW, you throw them into a random pool for the week (or day, whatever time period) and everyone is assigned to a team for that period. This can be weighted by various criteria, such as ranking for example. Open up a time frame for the those that wish to apply, no shows can be filled in by late comers.

This is just an example, as matches can be arranged in a variety of ways, but random is the key.

Will something like this tick some people off, hell yeah it will. I can see the flame posts already and I havent even started the thread. But in the long run, it makes the game fair for everyone, and no one, even the cheats and transfer junkies will want to play for long when the challenge is gone.

Cmon Anet, dont let WvW end up like DAOC, do something about it now.

Re Fractured

The graphical and design department did an outstanding job as usual. New content looks and feels amazing during play, this is no surprise as Anets team of artists produce some of the best results Ive seen in any game, including the leading subscription designers.

Its too bad that the logistics department was not as gifted with the same levels of talent as their artists. New end boss content that mirrors holy trinity type of play with massive amounts of aoe and range damage that will only further encourage players to seek heavy ac classes to group with and therefor increase the chances for success and reduced finishing time. Anet seems to be on the warpath to completely push the light and “squishy” character types out of PVE altogether, and create a dystopian “warrior nation” environment.

The new fractal LFG messages already are beginning to flood with “warrior only” groups and will continue to do so as long as the heavy ac classes are not allowed to do what they are supposed to do, soak up damage. Im still amazed why Anet even bothered to create 3 different armor classes in a game that is totally unprejudiced on dispensing hurt.

I did find it rather dispiriting that they decided to limit the pristine reward to 1 per account per day instead of 1 per character per day.

I also thought it was a mistake to remove the shortened game play from the odd numbers, as the time it takes to complete 4 fractals is already excessive for many players. Leaving an option to shorten the duration while still playing the content was at least to some, a reason to keep playing.

All in all I believe that the new content isn’t the lifeboat for fractals that anet wanted it to be, and will probably backfire with the addition of much tougher end bosses that are now mandatory to finish even if you have already completed your daily.

But for now, new content is new content, so everyone jump on your warriors and go have fun!

The world siege abilities could use an addition to its current bonuses.

Currently, anyone can jump on a piece of siege after its built being the first one to click on it. Only the thrower has the right to “take over” the siege weapon and bump the person off. This almost always creates arguments about who has the highest siege ability and should be operating the device.

Changing the ranking system and allowing the highest rank players in that ability to “bump” lower or no rank players off the siege gear would go along way to not only fully maximize the potential of siege, but to settle debates on who has the highest rank.

Obviously, if a player is max rank already, he/she would only be able to be bumped by the original thrower.

have not been able to disable the aoe rings effect in options for quite some time. No matter if the option is checked or not, I get rings.

HALP!

Attempting to use incentives, gimmicks and/or debuffs will NOT solve population problems and will only have minimal results at best. This has already been thought out, tried, implemented, executed and retried over and over with minimal results in game after game. History will only repeat itself if its attempted again, guaranteed.

The ONLY way to solve ballooning is to expand what is already being done with the current que system and make it variable based on population. If the problem isn’t addressed directly, it will fail.

Incentives are already in place with the outnumbered buff and it has absolutely no effect. Just expanding on that wont matter a hill of beans to people that are already comfy in their overpopulated servers. They wont leave something that’s working that well with an established leadership base over a few incentives or even debuffs.

Population must be directly controlled by an automated system that equalizes realm numbers period.

It would be like saying “we are going to remove the current que system for all wvw maps in favor of a more player friendly incentive system, population caps in all maps are now a thing of the past…” and expecting that this will stop people from exploding zergs to capture keeps. …right…

Posted a solution for this here I believe will work:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Collaborative-Development-World-Population/page/16

I don’t think players would be happy if they started getting randomly booted to balance or if a re-log occured, this would only happen so many times before players decide to leave and find a new home higher up the chain that would allow them to play.

Agree and this was my point in previous post, there is no need to log off players already in WvW, this is unnecessary and would be vary unpopular. Simply regulating the flow of new players should be sufficient, and would also be enough of a incentive for new players on lower populated realms to join, further narrowing the balance gap in a positive way.

Server populations/coverage do not have to be made equal amongst all servers. As long as each server has 4 other servers with roughly similar population/coverage, we have enough interesting matchups.

We can then go back to the randomized matchups — but with far less volitility in the RNG.

If this were true this thread wouldn’t even be necessary.

There are many other variables that count toward overpopulation on WvW matches, even when it appears that servers are “balanced”. Some servers have better 24hr coverage, and thus an advantage, while others are populated only during certain time frames. Some are more PVE oriented, just for a few examples.

Constant minute by minute monitoring and balancing is the only way to truly level the playing field for games such as WvW.

I would like to think that once a certain % difference in population is noted a re-log is enacted to balance population. If not steamrolling will continue as players can remain playing even with the disparity.

Though this may lead to some exploiting of the mechanic to prevent keep captures.

I see your point but I still disagree.

2 reason why I belive this is unnecessary:

1: Its doubtful that populations will vary to a great extent if ques are open on less populated or less WvW oriented servers, and closed on the overpopulated ones. So huge variances in numbers shouldn’t be an issue.

2: Players rage quit due to the belief that there is no hope in sight and they staying and fighting will just result in another failure due to never ending population variances. By not allowing new players to join already overpopulated teams, those teams numbers will eventually balance, with that in mind, there is hope for even lower populated realms to have a chance and thus, much less giving up and leaving.

As to the exploit, this wont be a problem if handled correctly by Anet. Player numbers sampling can be done at various times that are either variable, or just not disclosed to the general population, or both. There are many ways to make this a viable way to population control without it being an exploit.

Just curious what would happen when both teams are even, we’ll say 100 each side, then Team A has people start logging off while Team B retains its population ? Does Team B get to keep their 100 or do people get randomly booted out.

Then the overpopulated team would have a variable wait que imposed until a balanced is again within a certain percent parameter, for instance, a 25% variable (hypothetical). So if team A and team B had 100 each, team A lost 30, then team B would have a que imposed until either team A’s pop increased, or team B’s pop decreased to the desired population variable.

This would be true for all 3 realms of course, just using 2 teams as an example.

The cap que could and should still be in play for all 3 realms, that shouldn’t cause any problems.