Guild Wars 2

Hey I just want to say that EOTM style system I’m suggesting is a secondary idea but the battlegroup suggestion is entirely its own thing. And to Dawdler, yes this will still be regional (NA and EU is separate) since, if I remember right, there is a technical limitation to do that on Anet’s side.

But here is an underlying problem I think people need to be aware of: it its hard to be excited for the current WvW system as it is. For militia commanders (I fall into this category), it is becoming really difficult to maintain momentum and focus in this system because it is simply too stale right now. Battlegroups will simply put you where the action is OR go to where the action is cooled off if there are too many groups hunting you down. Commanders must have options to maintain their runs as they see fit in order to rally more people or continue on with their existing players following them. My issue with guild groups is that they are too dependent to their drivers and are highly susceptible to participation shocks if the driver is using antiquated strategy or simply doesn’t show up. If WvW are to succeed in the future post expansion and for new players to take root into the game mode, we must focus on militia commanders as they are one of the many core players that carries this game mode forward.

Hey everyone, Xushin here.

I am currently talking around with other commanders (retired and still active) of my server and others to push for Battlegroups. If the idea is sound and we can get enough people of the community to back the idea, I can write up a formal proposal to outline the elements needed to prep WvW for post-expansion. What I need right now are commanders to chip in to improve and polish the idea for this submission. As such, I will go over the proposed fix and personal improvements I would make to WvW.

Proposed Battlegroup UI for WvW:

https://puu.sh/vpzR8/31aec0c63f.png
(Picture submitted by Synco of the Terror [TG] Guild)

Proposed Idea among the commanders I talked to:

The proposed idea will focus on redoing the WvW UI to keep coding as simple as possible for Anet. It will removing our current matchup UI and instead replace it with a fixed number of wvw instances (battlegrounds + ebg per battlegroup). The number of battlegroups available could be any amount determined by Anet to address population participation. Each person will be allowed to pick the color they wish to be throughout the week (THIS needs huge discussion, this is Synco’s idea lol). Each person will still retain their server without their server population severely impacting the matchup. Each battlegroup will have a gauge that indicates a low/medium/high activity level in the current matchup.

My response to the Idea:

The current system as it stands will lead to some detrimental effects to WvW participation rate in the upcoming expansion. Ignoring the supply/siege imbalance and class/ability imbalance, we are currently witnessing guilds hopping servers with the sole intention to retain and recruit as much players as possible in order to stabilize their ability to conduct a raid. This has some long term consequences because this impacts server performance and it can burn guilds out much faster than before. Because of this, I am increasingly convinced that Battlegroups is the way to go in order to help stabilize the routine for most guilds AND help militia commanders get back into the game. Being able to choose between a fight oriented, PPT style and Ktrain battlegroup will have huge impact to the participation rates of most existing guilds.

My thoughts how to Improve this system:

To go even further, I propose we turn the 24/7 matchmaking system into a 4-block 6 hour matchmaking system for the EU, NA, OCX, Sea timezones. Each block will have 3 skirmishes (1 for every 2 hours). Essentially, we turn the Battlegroups into some quasi EOTM system. Obviously, Siege/supply/upgrades will need to be rebalanced. After the timezone block is over, everything resets for the next match. Doing it this way will do 3 things. First, it raises participation at the start of the timezone that will play out throughout the block just like in EOTM, making the matchup predictable to join/leave at each stage throughout the block. Secondly, this will allow commanders/players to be able to play on their terms (allows roamers to roam, ktrainers to pick a map suitable for them, and fight guilds to pick highly active maps to battle). Finally, this solves the timezone “nightcapping” issue, as this allows off hour guilds to congregate to maps that are more active instead of being divided in the current matchmaking system.

Obviously, this is just a thought right now, but personally I think this is the winning move to reform WvW and get it back on track. I know this sounds like a coding nightmare for Anet, but this is why we must give input to this. I would definitely play WvW fulltime if something like this gets put into place as the third leg for this game.

You will get alot of answers for this topic because you are asking how the entire class mechanics work. But to be short, here are a few things you need to work on:

1) You can be damage focus, support focus, or self sustain focus but never all three. You are currently running a standard dmg focus build atm. If you need more healing, you will need to swap defense tree in for rousing resilience (adrenal health and stunbreak heals). If you drop strength you lose a great deal of dmg for gsword and if you drop discipline you lose perma movement speed and quick adrenaline buildup. Instead of telling you which build to stick to, swap thetraits as you go to get the feel of what you need.

2) warrior is a class where stats really matter to push for damage. I highly recommend focusing on completing all ascended trinkets (berserker stats for starters) as it will provide the most stats immediately. I recommend getting access to the living story 3 maps and harvesting their currencies to purchase the trinkets.

3) Use online resources! Metabattle and qtfy.eu are great resources to check up on builds. In addition, join guilds in the game as they help alot with class knowledge and gear progression. Remember, a good guild is one that spends as much time for you as you spend for them.

If you need further help, hit me up ingame^^

-Xushin

This is just my observation as a mag player, but i think you should give tc another shot. TC has been roiled by the server relinks, matchups and the guilds shuffling around that they have not had the time for the server to naturally stabalize. I am quite sure the remaining leaders of the server are attempting to reorganize their population for better wvw competetiveness once they catch a breather.

For me, no matter what the situation the server is in, I always opt to command because I dont like idling in wvw. My performance whether solo, 5 man, or up to zerging is always the same because it is always about dealing with situations. I never cared about the score, however i do care about my game when i play. This has traditionally been a tc mantra that they need to rediscover again. Only then will attitudes change. Yes blobbing is a problem, so are the trolls. Keep in mind that it is the momentum and focus that drives successful communities and creates that journey we all crave. I am confident tc will reach that point soon in the near future. They have many players up for the challenge ^^

-Xushin

Actually adjusting either TC or JQ lower will cause either one of them to suck up more glicko from any of the T1 servers due to the glicko disparity and performance. Whenever you match up against a server that is 100+ glicko points higher than you, you will automatically gain a higher rating just by holding 2 of your four keeps.

For TC/JQ to exit t1, the glicko of Mag and BG needs to be lowered in order for JQ/TC or whatever to be able to exit t1 and move to t2 consistently. At the moment Anet has introduced more glicko into the system (through yb, db, etc) and all that glicko migrated upward and created the trap that TC’s in.

Thank you for starting this thread. Although many ideas will clutter, at least anet will have a sense of what we expect from the game mode. I highly recommend commanders to respond if possible.

Here are my thoughts on the more immediate issues:

- glicko imbalance due to scoring system. Some servers are getting trapped into matches where their underperformance/overperformance results in tier separation. This very issue is stagnating the tiers due to commander and server leaders manipulating placement. population transfers as it stands now is looking for more action and not with the focus of balancing matchups.

- siege and supply system needs an overhaul to reflect a more modern state of the wvw meta. Everyone carrying 25 supply based on 2012 siege rules is not what i figure to be balanced. Siege dmg, performance and health must be rigorously tested and balanced every 6 months.

- tactivators have almost completely crippled commander’s ability for gaining the strategic iniative. Main culprits I would have to say is the emergency waypoint, fortified gates and watchtower. The cost to take an objective with any one of these is way too high and simple balances to range and scope of these abilities is enough to resolve this problem.

- commanders/defenders need more extra help to initiate a breakout on the map. Ironically it is too easy for a blob to make a point to point defense. I suggest having special buffs (charzooka that dmgs wall eh?) purchased at spawn with timed effects or some sort of outman (noncombat speed boost?) bonus to help improve breakout.

- upgrade timing is way too fast under timezone differences. There must be a standard upgrade process (like eotm?) where newly captured objective is rigorous at start so it cannot be opened the moment it goes off ri. Additionally, i like the idea of defenders able to input supply into the tower/keep pool to push the upgrade, or side mini quests to promote the tower/keep just like silverwaste or airship quest in eotm. This has huge ramifications to meta wvw flow if populations are considered in calculations.

- kdr focused groups must have special zones in borderlands to promote lane tug of war conflict. Maybe areas between keeps can grant bonus participation track if certain kills can be achieved.

- rewards are too cluttered (we get two currencies not to mention the tracks). Gear drops from mobs/players are still based on 2012 system. I highly recommend putting in random salvage drops that are relevant for hot and no. Hot players.

These are just some immediate concerns of mine when dealing with wvw. I really hope that anet invites commanders and server leaders to playtest the changes because it is the players who are out there that gotta market and sell this game mode.

Bump this bug is affecting a great number of adventurers trying to finish this heart ><

I talked with the anet dev, they will be observing NA prime tonight

This issue happened on the TC/Mag/FA matchup the other week as well. Outnumbered buff while EBG is queued. We are also experiencing some irregularities in the current t2 matchup as well (mainly for our opponents).

This issue is nothing new. 2 years ago this exact same issue came up where there was an issue with the queue system. Anet needs to look into this immediately.

@ X T Yes, what you are saying is exactly what is being suggested. The longer you stay on the rings, the more it hurts. This mechanic prevents bigger groups from turning a difficult situation into an impossible situation for smaller to even matched groups to make any sort of attempt.

The original Alpine maps were balanced for year 1 gameplay. The many changes Anet did over the years has completely disrupted this balance and because of this, the tug-of-war flow of the map has completely dissolved and must be fixed immediately in order to maintain a healthy wvw militia population. Each tower and keep should be like a puzzle that can be solved and progress made through battles. Placing 5 unbalanced arrowcarts (or any siege for that matter) at every single point like in the old days amounts to complete shutdown of the map.

Arrow Carts in the current siege meta is in a weird place when it comes to objective defense and terrain defense. It is working as intended against siege assaults (ram/cata rush) for immediate answer for rushes, however it is too overpowered for choke point fights especially in zerg fight scenarios (alpine east keep lord room for example). I highly suggest to anet and to everyone that this needs to be looked over once again in order to maintain balance overall.

I recommend that arrow cart damage be redefined as a “ramp up” attack rather than direct damage. In this situation, player(s) in arrow cart fire take minimal damage at first and the longer they stay in the field the damage increases over time from applied stacking debuff. This is similar to how the vunerability debuff from rams works on gates. Once the player achieves maximum debuff, they take full damage which makes it too dangerous for them to stay in the firing range. However if they back off and let the buff go off after the period of time, they can get back into the action. Damage to siege remains the same as the old meta. This does several things: 1) tones down the catapult meta and brings back ram meta, 2) players can rotate on rams/catas as this requires teamwork to get damage through to the objective, 3) gives groups a chance to break through a choke point.

The issue for us is that this is occurring more frequently in WvW and in lion’s arch. The only way for us to effectively initiate movement is to hit the Auto-run key.

A number of my guild members including myself are having movement control problems while initiating movement with the right/left mouse button. Usually movement does not initiate immediately upon press unless it is accompanied by movement with a camera or performing a skill button action. We are wondering if anyone else is having this same problem.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but if a guild places a tactivator like banners in an objective, you and your server needs to take that into account and adjust your strategy for engagements. They are meant to resolve blob fights and fights in general faster due to them having increased target cap. The banners introduced are one of the very few anti-stacking mechanics that Anet has thrown to us and will serve a higher purpose later in the year when more guilds have access to it. The more they are used (especially in tiers with overstacked populations), the more we’ll see a shift away from the current meta of stacking on one commander tag. Otherwise, it will be simply just be a tug of war between servers who have the most banners. Again, this is an element that requires servers to adapt to. Also, support your ppt guilds as they are the ones who focus on eliminating those nasty tactivated objectives!

I was the commander for the Mag side of DB BL tonight (EU Prime/early NA) and just wanted to say to everyone that participated today that this was one of the best action packed days I had in a while. The 9 hour battle on this map between mag and db really put my militia and I to the test when it came to map control and coordination to contain the DB guild groups and zerg. DB did exceptionally well retaking and holding their northern diamond while maintaining constant and continuous pressure against our advancement. And I truly think both sides have racked up an incredible amount of kills as there was a group/zerg/roaming fight almost every 2 minutes. Neither side wanted to lose and that was what made tonight truly special in our tier.

I learned a great deal about the map and as a commander who has been here since start, I feel WvW is just a new beginning all of a sudden. The DB attacks to west keep were very clever, attacking from every angle to attrition our supply so they could advance to the inner. Wave after wave we had to deal many unique situations which always resulted in open field fighting, many of them being close calls. What caught me off guard was their siege setup in the top levels of the dunes which had full range on our middle gate. However, no matter the numbers on both sides, what truly made things interesting was the use of the tactivators. The supply drop was what gave us the edge to hold WK while the enemy chill fields halted our advancement into the diamond. The usage of the shrines (in particular between middle and west keep) was equally important as every battle fought at that position served as a gateway to advance deeper into enemy territory.

Anyways, just wanted to say to DB that you guys fought really well today and would love to see more of this happen. To Maguuma, thank you for coming out to this today and making this feel like 1st year WvW all over again.

Bump, Anet please fix this, we’re building up a crowd in this instance^^

This week will mark the 20th week for Mag vs SBI

Just a friendly suggestion to Anet:

Nightcapping:

If nightcapping remains to be a fundamental issue for servers in respect to tier balancing, would it make sense to universally slow down all upgrades to the winning server when they vastly outnumber the other 2 servers? Technical balancing issues aside, any server trying to make a comeback will have to spend more effort/resources/manpower simply to retake anything upgraded on the map even when the dominant server matches and counters on every time zone. Timezone stacked servers can achieve the same results with little to no resistance. If anything, this issue must be addressed if proper balance and flow is to be maintained to ensure a healthy wvw community.

Group Missions:

We do this from time to time on Maguuma, but when we see an objective that needs to be captured, we would put a bounty on it for guilds and general militia to recapture for our territory (payout is usually 100-300 gold per guild participating on the recapture). Usually the enemy team will know this and will focus on defending, which spices up the night for us and makes an interesting series of events, whether we succeed or fail on the capture. For the new wvw maps, there is huge opportunity to add new npcs that can place bounties on objectives that can give universally good rewards (like vinewrath rewards) for objectives depending on how long they have survived. If the rewards are good enough, it gives guilds (no matter their style or numbers) an increased incentive to raid in this game mode.

Aside from the bounty missions, there could be defensive ones as well. Repair, supply, and lane checkpoint missions can ensure a healthy lane coverage that doesn’t need massive numbers to hold. A mission to activate siegerazor at the tower to push to the next major objective in the lane or a mission to activate a temporary automated defenses could just be enough for individuals and low man comps to play out the lane without the need to zerg.

I’m just throwing this out there because if the maps remain as big as it is with current world populations as they are throughout the tiers, we need to focus on making the wvw maps as dynamic as the rest of the game in order to maintain interest.B

The original intention on the design of the old borderland maps is to have it the way like EBG has it where each side owns its own lane. But because of how the flow of the maps works out, each server can take full control of their own borderland maps because it was more convenient to keep pushing on the same map as the lane you’re defending and squeeze your opponents out of their lane.

In my opinion, the defending team having its only 1 waypoint is good enough. It creates variability and most importantly creates a winner/loser situation on any given time slot of the day. The only way where this can be unfair is if a server grossly out-covers the other two, but then again they shouldn’t be in the tier for long if this was the case.

This is an individual that has been hopping server to server with his activity increasing lately in the past month (his recent stay was in t2-t3 NA). Anytime someone approaches him (he uses a radar program to detect proximity by up to 6,000 units), he would immediately jump to his next target and abandon his current one. If we manage to right click his name and block him, or better yet whisper him, he would delete his character or hop to his next account. We suspect he takes high risk just to farm high level champs (tower lords) and for the sport of it trying not to get caught.

Anyways, we came up with a simple solution and coordinated with the other servers to stick 1 person in every tower. Sure enough after a hour has passed he was off and we haven’t seen him since.

From what I’m hearing, their sea guilds are moving with their NA to HOD. I suspect DB as a server will be going into free-fall for the next few weeks.

Anet, I would like to inquire if the expansion will diversify the sound and music effects for the WvW update when the expansion comes out^^

Playing wvw for a very long time, most sounds do seem kind of repetitive, however I believe stronger sound effects can help keep up tempo for various kinds of wvw activities. For example, defense and offense situations should have their own kind of battle music instead of one universal music for playing on every instance. Arrowcarts should have harsh piercing sounds if you are getting hit. Cows should be mooing more epically when fired and when its an incoming shot.

Anyways, this is just a thought to enhance the play experience^^

Correction to my last statement: GW2 is not* losing players in WvW, they’re just doing other things before the expansion =P

Tarnished Coast is currently in T1 and they follow an entirely different rule-set up there compared to where it was before you left. Many people now consider T1 less PPT (defense/objective focused) and more Blob Wars (fight focus/raid focus). As such, the lack of people you see is probably the result of a commanders/guild groups focusing on certain areas of the map at a time (hence why 40+ man blobs are there and nowhere else on the map).

I personally believe GW2 is losing players in wvw. Rather, they are focused on other things (catching up PVE content or Real Life stuff). But one thing is clear is that another tournament season or the new WvW map will bring all players back to the map and hopefully bring WvW to where we all enjoyed it a year ago.

Hello everyone^^

Fro the Warrior of Maguuma has worked very hard designing a site that many of our server commanders are using now to help get a better grasp of enemy movements and territory control. I thought it be best to share this since it has alot of features (especially the voice announcement on capture) that is greatly helping me keep up with the map reading while I command. You can also customize your own server map by selecting your server and updating upgrade intel to help fellow pugmanders keep up to date on the exact upgrades running on the keep/tower. Anyways, I thought it would be best to help people keep up with the scouting^^

Site: dev.wvwintel.com

Take it from experience, you will never want to recruit players from PvE if you are creating a WvW focused guild. Your targets for recruitment will always be in WvW because of the fact you want people who are dedicated for the longterm fights.

That being said, if you are trying to grow a wvw focused guild without poaching players from other active guilds, you will need to set up a few things:

1) Pick a timezone for your playtime. Consistency in playtime will always signal players to log in for when you’re running the show, no matter what map you pick. This is especially important when building a guild since the trend for most players is to have multiple guilds for various activities/social stuff.

2) Player/Server Comms! Like it or not, every server with an active WvW population will have a default comm system hosted by a dedicated guild to the server. By default you should be on there most of the time and always advertise your fellow server players to join that as well during every raid. Request the owner to make your own guild channel with your own personal admin rights to that channel OR pick a borderland channel. The more people participating in comms, the more recruitment possibilities and thus better quality for obvious reasons.

3) Command with a long term strategy. Are you focusing for the good of the server or for fun? This will determine whether you’ll run into ppt/havoc style group, gvg style group or simply a karma train group (no point to build a guild if you’re going karma train). You need to pick a style so players (new and old alike) can get use to the style and thus bolster your ranks whenever you need it.

4) Never look at the scoreboard. Focus on your time slot, let others focus on theirs. War score is the result of total server participation in the match (1 specific guild will offer little change if they try to carry the server on their shoulders). Your goal as a guild leader is to make the game fun for your players and their return is making your events possible. There is no other way around that.

5) Lastly, focus on fights! Using siege is good if you’re outnumbered severely or small man defending, but if you really want to make a difference as a guild, you need to learn to throw out the punches and how to take the hits. There are a ton of resources on gear/guides/strategies of how to accomplish this, but in the long run its all trial and error. Your guild success and ability to recruit will solely depend on how you learn from your mistakes and not adhering to bad habits.

In any case, mega servers did indeed made it harder to recruit from the pve side, but I can certainly tell you that pve players are just a bandaid for insufficient guild numbers. If you truly want to recruit quality players, put down the challenge and strive to overcome it. That is how you can raise interest in wvw and thus bored pve players can take notice when they step into wvw every now and then.

For them to take the megaserver approach will almost completely require the devs to redesign WvW from the ground up. The current borderland maps are drastically outdated and stale to pick up any renewed focus on what is to be thought as proper wvw meta play.

IMO, if they wish to continue on with the traditional 3-way matchups, they must design a core and dynamic map similar to how they brought up EoTM with a specific focus to anti-blobbing. Lane pushes like that of DOTA/LOL games and a huge penalty for losing/high reward for capturing objectives should be a high priority on this list. A map-wide reward system should also be included so that ALL players, no matter who is on offense or defense, maintains the same basic rewards as a team IF they remain active. The map engine also shows that NPCs can maintain simple commands under certain circumstances (paying a merc. npc group to attack a tower as a diversion or a main tactic is one example). There are so many ideas that can be thrown down on paper but cannot be executed for variety of reasons. However, the devs should know that we need a short-term dynamic map that can meet demands of their players. We have thousands of players ready and willing to put in energy/time/money into this to make it a real thing.

GvG however is a whole different story. Pre-made builds/coordination using standard meta tactics needs to be addressed. Anet views this as taking players out of wvw since their intentions are not capturing objectives but just to fight overall. If they want to incorporate GvG into WvW, they must give some meaning of capturing objectives that are highly valuable to both teams, whatever that may be. Otherwise, Anet needs to change the meta overall to accommodate the situation.

I’m just karma training o.o;;

I’m the commander for the Mag Karma train and I want to personally apologize about the incident at the NW tower on Kain BL. To my recollection, the gate has always been bugged and players attacking the gate at melee range will pass through with abilities that alters their position (leap, whirl, blink, etc). This only applies to that particular tower and only when it has reinforced door, so I think there is something wrong with the coding in that area. As such, I told everyone inside the tower to get out and not to attack anything inside until the door is down. Also, you guys put down alot of arrowcarts which has forced us to respond with a Warmachine like tactic that we picked up when you guys climbed up the ranks.

Anyways, its been fun Kaineng and I hope we get some good fights next week^^

Usual farming spots I hit with guild have reduced loot drop rate also in WvW.

Our guild can confirm this as well. Nearly every guard/keep lord has a significantly reduced drop rate. Veteran Supervisors are still dropping a badge or two.

I’ve noticed that gate guards and such are not dropping loot as they use to pre-patch. With decent magic find gear I would get white/blues almost every kill, but right now I’m getting 1 blue every 20 kills.