Guild Wars 2

There are two major problems that have plagued WvW from the beginning…and solving any problem requires identification, first.

There are really only two problems, but they compound each other, and here they are…

1. Any effort to balance WvW by balancing servers will fail while transfers are allowed and easy.
Every time ANet announces a new plan to balance servers, the major guilds react by stacking on some new server to exploit the new system and matchups.
I actually think ANet doesn’t acknowledge this, because there is so much profit to be made in mass transfers.

2. The Glicko system is stagnation. It was a dumb idea to use it for server matchups.

Glicko works in, say, professional chess…because low ranked players have opportunities to play higher ranked players on occasion. An upset in such a matchup will cause a shift in Glicko ratings.

In WvW, lower ranked servers never get an opportunity to beat higher ranked servers, let alone actually get an upset victory.

Glicko is designed to for a competetitive sport where higher ranked players are matched up against lower ranked players as well as evenly ranked ones. This does not occur in WvW, so Glicko ends up being a stagnant and irrelevant scoring system.

So long as Glicko remains the matchmaking system, and servers only play against equally scored servers, Glicko will lock in place the matchups…and it will take months to overcome the imbalances created by server transfers with every new effort to rebalance WvW.

We run into the same problems over and over again because we address everything except the root cause of the problems.

At best, Siege Hammers are irrelevant….and I’m being nice.

Chris Barrett.3280:

• Will Glicko ratings be adjusted before or after a match?
  Glicko ratings are temporarily adjusted at exactly the time of matchmaking. The adjustment will never be visible. We’re not actually modifying any world’s rating, just preventing matchmaking from letting worlds drift away from the others.

• Why not just change the links again?
  World links change on a schedule to maintain some stability. Among other reasons, those who maintain voice chat servers don’t have to redo permissions every week. We also wouldn’t want to start shifting world links around on a subjective whim. The frequency of the schedule was previously determined by a public poll.

• Why have Glicko ratings?
  Strictly on the functional side of reasoning: matchmaking. No doubt within the space of all possible ways to calculate matchups in WvW (both pre-existing and unwritten) there exists one or more better solutions. Matchmaking in WvW is a very different scenario from what any matchmaking system I’m aware of aims to solve.

Other matchmaking systems, such as 1-up-1-down, have been discussed in the past. We’ve not previously been convinced that they’d be significant enough improvements to prioritize them over other work. One of the bigger problems with 1-up-1-down is that at natural barriers, two teams would commonly swap week after week, leaving three teams (the one that went up, and the two that remained where it was) getting steamrolled every other week.

Since alternate matchmaking systems require some of the same peoples’ time as the scoring improvements we’re currently working on, Glicko alternatives or adjustments may be options in future polls once the scoring improvement work is done.

1. Some of us would prefer mismatches to stagnant and stale matchups.

2. So long as you have transfers available, Glicko will always have problems. With open transfers available, the 1 up, 1 down system would actually work better, since it can compensate for massive transfers in a short period.

3. 1 up, 1 down, even with mismatches, would create better WvW participation on a weekly basis, guaranteed.

4. Glicko, combined with a lack of any incentive whatsoever to win a weekly matchup, will never work. Not ever. No matchup movement combined with the absence of any incentive to win is NOT ENTERTAINING.

Ultimately, that’s the problem.

Repair hammers aren’t going to repair that.

Mixed Borderlands – Yes, two bad maps are at least more interesting than 1 bad map
World Linking Schedule – Weekly. Try and keep ahead of the transfer warriors screwing up the intention
Deployable Mortars – No, Siege is already too influential
Deployable Cannons – See above
Repair Hammer – See above
Special Mention

WvW Priorities – I would like to see the following brought into WvW

1. Air Strike Grenades from EotM to WvW, maybe make them not affect players, just siege and NPC’s.

2. Stealth is broken. Anyone noticed that yet?

3. More useful things for badges and/or karma, like being able to buy food, or badge donations to buy banners, that sort of thing.

4. Love the dungeon reward tracks for WvW, but I would still like to see some cool WvW specific gear with really nice skins. Maybe different sets taht require a certain WvW rank to purchase, and cost a lot of badges.

5 Would like to see something useful to do with Karma in WvW. I’ve got millions in Karma, and don’t really feel like spending hours at the Mystic Toilet to do something with it.

Lucifers Heaven.2167:

Vihar.5780:

40 heart quests is what we are basically talking about, right? By my reckoning, that adds up to about 15 hours at a VERY casual pace.

They’re not even heart quests, they’re Hero Points. The old Skill Points. Some are “beat this one enemy in a fight”, others are just “reach and interact with this thing”.

Wow.

This makes all the crying even more pathetic.

First of all, I have 8 lvl 80’s.. I know plenty about having alts. Not bothered.

Second, Many of my alts have next to nothing unlocked in maps, because 90% of my time is spent in WvW or EoTM. Haven’t done a dungeon in 2 1/2 years.

So…..you were saying?

Hell, I am ecstatic that we finally get SOMETHING as progression doing WvW. I’d rather run 10 days of WvW to get what I need than an hour in a dungeon to get the same thing. That’s my personal preference.

I do have map completion on two of my characters. It took me about 3-5 days of playing to do that on each of them…depending on how much play time I had.

40 heart quests is what we are basically talking about, right? By my reckoning, that adds up to about 15 hours at a VERY casual pace.

If you think that is a “grind”, that’s pathetic.

I’ve been in games for some time now, many years. I know that no matter WHAT Anet did with the expansion, there would be a lot of complaining, particularly from PVE’rs.

You can have a Monty Hall expansion that you can rush through and get all of the new stuff in a very short time, maybe days.
This option lets you complain about lack of content and no end game.

You can have an expansion that gives a LOT of content that will require weeks, or even months to get all of the new stuff.
This option lets you complain about “grind”.

There are still a lot of old school gamers around that laugh at this generation of gamers when they use the word “grind”, because some of us actually played legitimate Korean grinders and know the origin of the term….and today’s players use the term to describe anything that requires playtime.

Stop complaining! You paid $50 or more for new content. Do you REALLY want to be able to complete it in a week? Seriously? How many of you complaining about the “grind” for Hero Points right now, would be asking for a refund if you blew through the $50 content in 3 days, complaining that you got ripped off?

For me, I want my $50 worth. I expect at least 3 months of solid new content and experiences for my money. What you complainers call “grind”, I call value.

For those complaining about grind, there are PLENTY of “Pay to Win” games out there where you can just spend money and get all the best stuff instantly. Go find one, and you can spend lots of money and not have any “grind” at all.

TL:DR Shut up about grind. If you want to spend $50 for a few days of new content, your expectations are ridiculous. Go play a Pay to Win, pay money for instant gratification and BIS gear.
The rest of us want $50+ worth of quality game time.
Just because you are excited to play your new profession, do you really want GW2 to be “Instant BIS, just add cash”?

HOORAY!

I can think of 2 servers already that are going to be very unhappy without the LOS exploit.

I would, however, be in favor of putting a minimum range on catapults and trebs as well, and give players better LOS abilities when they are on the walls.

I would suggest that in the future you simply have a formulae for closing x number of events to spawn some sort of major event or boss, which when defeated will drop reward chests.

Each stage of the event drops rewards, so players cannot AFK through it.

1. Don’t pop tag just because you have it or right when you get it.
2. Follow commanders of PUGS, learn common commands and methods…things PUGs will be familiar with.
3. IGNORE TROLLS! You WILL be trolled. That’s life. Shrug it off.
4. YOU need to throw siege, have lots of it. Noone likes a commander that depends on others to throw siege, and it is slow, cluttered, and inefficient with supply.
5. Take time to keep your zerg somewhat coherent. You can’t just run around without stopping from time to time to rally your zerg. Let them catch up.
6. Zergs need success from time to time. When you get wiped, regroup, and lead the zerg to a few successes, flip camps, capture easy points, wipe small roamers. It’s a momentum thing. Don’t let your zerg get wiped 2 to 3 times consecutively. That will be the end of your run, everyone will bail on you. String together a couple little victories to rebuild your zergs enthusiasm.
7. Resupply as often as possible. Always keep your zerg as topped off with supply as possible. Don’t forget, it;s easy to do when you get rolling flipping towers and such.
8. Don’t waypoint too much. If you can run from point A to point B, do it unless getting to be is really urgent. Waypointing erodes a zerg.
9. A zerg works on enthusiasm and morale. That’s most important. Don’t do anything to erode morale and enthusiasm. Do everything to keep them entertained. PUGs only care about entertainment and loot/Karma/XP. They don’t care about you, your tag, or your server’s score. Give them what they want and you’ll do fine.
10. You will have good days and bad days. Some will be really good, and some really bad. Don’t sweat it, don’t rage. PUGs tend to favor commanders that don’t get angry, grumpy, depressed, or quit. When things are going bad, just set smaller goals, make some jokes…whatever. Never let them see you mentally or emotionally beaten, no matter how bad you are beaten on the field of battle.

Just my personal list of top 10. Hope it helps.

EvilSardine.9635:

It’s Wednesday and still no word from Anet?

They haven’t seen this yet.

The schedule is one dev reads one thread in this forum once a week.

Let’s hope they pick this one.

Lich is kind of silly now. It’s good for killing elite mobs, thats about it. It’s probably the most laughable elite skill in the game for PVP. Even the stability is laughable now.

Bueller…..

Bueller……

Bueller…..

World vs World always was, and always will be, at the bottom of the priority list for ANet. They made that very clear at launch. World vs World’s primary purpose for ANet is for advertising to draw new players, which it does well since it looks great on video.

90% of MMO players are PVE centric. OF the PVPers, WvW and PVP arenas split a small fraction of the player base.

The devotion of man hours and labor into developing the game is roughly equal to the proportions of player interest.

It’s not just GW2, it’s most MMO’s. It is just more annoying in GW2 because WvW is the only thing the game has to offer that you can’t find in other games.

That won’t last forever, though.

Entenkommando.5208:

Number 1 is a very bad idea. In the end you will either constantly move up and down in your tiers and roflstop/get roflstomped in the other tier or be stuck for ever as second in your tier.

I do agree that there would be some of this in the beginning, however, I believe that the extremely lop sided server strengths are a by product of the Glicko system. Glicko encourages server stacking, and we have had 3 years of server stacking to 3 servers.

There will always be imbalances, don’t get me wrong. I don’t think my idea is a cure all, but as long as we stick with Glicko, then the game is designed for server stacking and stagnation.

What it boils down to is;

1. Do you prefer facing the same two servers every week for 6 to 12 months straight, maybe longer?

2. Do you prefer new matchups every week, with all the unpredictable consequences and mismatches?

The other benefit of my ideas, which I think may be getting overlooked here, is that with the scoring system I suggest, even an overmatched server can still field small teams of yak hunters and camp flippers and make a difference in the score, much moreso than they can now. They can stop the other server gaining score by killing yaks, even if they can’t flip towers and keeps.

As for the very legitimate concern about yaks being sniped by mesmers and/or thieves, that is easily solved by making them Veterans. That would make it so that guarding it would be easier, and killing it would require defeating the guards first, generally.

I haven’t posted in a very long time here, I just play the game. I am strictly a WvW/EotM player, and have been since beta.

I have some thoughts and suggestions, as has many, many others. about how to improve WvW, and NONE of mine include any stupid golem zergs……but at least this clownish idea motivated me to make my post, because ANet clearly needs a little help on how to improve WvW….so here are mine…

1. Suckers walk. Whomever places in third place, drops a tier, whomever wins, moves up a tier.
This makes every week meaningful, and we can actually play different servers more than once a year.

2. WvW Legendary gear and skins. Let us use our badges and ranks to earn Legendary gear and unique skins that can ONLY be earned through accumulated badges.

3. Guilds need to be able to buy a commander tag that only guild members can see. This is “Guild Wars”, give guilds better tools to use to function as guilds.

4. A change in the points earned system, get rid of the “on the tick” mechanic. Here is how…
A) Lower the base points given for towers, keeps, and supply camps.
Increase the points earned for objectives every time they advance a tier.
C) Points are awarded whenever a yak successfully delivers to an objective…when a Yak gets into Hills, the controlling factions gets points for Hills. Owning both camps adjacent to Hills gives the controlling team a chance to earn points twice as quickly. Also, make yaks faster with each upgrade, and make their guards meaningful.
This will spread out objectives in such a way that yaks will be actively guarded, and actively hunted, helping to alleviate the uber-blob problem in WvW. Also, single parties will be much more useful and meaningful than they are now.
Also, this will vary the value of keeps and towers, creating additional strategic considerations about attacking and defending keeps and towers.

5. Rotate in PVE maps, everything from Orr maps to Divinity’s Reach, into WvW. Incorporate something into existing maps as objectives, and add them into the WvW maps. Replace the Waypoints with special objectives like in EoTM, throw those maps into the WvW community, and call it a day.
Can you imagine the street fights in Divinity’s Reach, or Black Citadel?

6. Give guilds WvW XP, just the way they get XP for PVE crap. Let guilds earn buffs or something by spending that WvW XP, just like they get buffs for PVE stuff.

7. Let players spend badges buying food that gives buffs for WvW only..something like this…
WvW Oil = Deal +10% damage to players in WvW, lasts 30 minutes.
WvW wax = -1% damage from players in WvW, can be applied to each piece of armor.

These are my ideas. I am sure many will disagree. I know many prefer BlobVP and zerging around. I think my suggestions would allow for both blobbing as well as rewarding factions that use multiple groups to tackle multiple objectives.

I believe my notion of the new points system would demand a significant range of groups and tasks, and make WvW more exciting and dynamic. I believe the Suckers Walk mechanic might make WvW feel like it actually means something, and every day, every hour, actually counts for something.

We are a medium sized international guild on Stormbluff Isle server.

We are recruiting to boost our membership for WvW, which is our primary focus.

Our membership is generally older members, 30+, and we are experienced PVPers from a variety of games. We have a high number of couples and RL friends and family that play together. (The family that kills together, stays together).

We have EU players but would especially like to boost our membership for EU players, and those that play during EU primetime…though we are accepting all in order to begin fielding larger guild groups.

If you’re looking for a mature PVP guild, this is the real deal.

Please check out our site and if you think we may be a good fit for you, give us a shout and apply!

ragepvp.guildlaunch.com

Stormbluff Isle is one of the top tier servers in WvW, but have plenty of room to grow.

If you’re not into bandwagon riding, but interested in being a part of actually building something….SBI is the place.

If you need a guild on SBI that is always ready to jump into WvW at any time, this is the guild.

We don’t care of you are “leet” or anything, we just want a good attitude and a desire to PVP with us.

Hope to hear from you!