Guild Wars 2

ParaldaWind.4523:

COMMANDERS

• Mental Stability

Probably the most interesting topic. Though can be much more fun to watch when it is lacking.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that people are posting on forums talking about how bad forum posters are? In fact they go into great detail how horrible they are and poorly articulated and should never be listened to…while doing it themselves…

Dondarrion.2748:

In a game with such sales figures and a healthy population, why on earth is such a thread even on page 1, let alone top spot, in the official game forums?!?!

Because its a real problem and the truth. If anyone here played during the beta or during release they would see a huge difference in the ‘fullness’ of the world. If people need to go to a specific server to feel ‘full’ then they need to merge servers, and I have to say it is very early for such a big ‘amazing’ game like this to have to merge servers. If any of you are actually suggesting that the population is more then beta/release, then you are just a liar. And if population is declining over time/bad retention rates, then yes it is dieing. And game losing numbers over time is classified as dieing to me.

Perhaps it just needs to shed numbers till it reaches its magic number of population where it can stagnate for a while. I think this is most likely the case, and I do think there will always be people playing it. But its boom days are gone and they will need to merge servers and it will settle, but it will never be like it was initially.

1) Don’t care, gear is not horribly important to me.
2) Don’t care
3) No
4) Yes
5) No, if things were balanced and unbugged (which they aren’t)
6) Yes (but that means DR should be removed as well)
7) No
8) Horribly yes
9) Yes
10) Yes though speculation is an issue I wouldn’t mind server specific trading posts
11) Not at all. I was a big fan in beta and release. Enjoyed it a lot and am very thankful for the hours of fun I got out of it. However this game has been run extremely poorly in my opinion. It has taken a 180 degree turn from how it was sold. It just appears to get worse every month.
12) No, not a chance. In fact I would go even further to say thing game will get worse over the next 6 months. I also see the game population furthering to decline. Its not that nothing can be done to save this game, its that with the people running it nothing will be done.

*Games come and go, so no loss as long as you have enjoyed your time/gotten your dollars worth and I have. I almost wish it was the same game as release and none of the ‘improvements’ have been done. Anyways there are many new games coming out 2013 so I am hoping we can all enjoy those (even a MMO with similar features) and hope that some of the good ideas that came out of GW2 stick in the industry and help push it forward.

Wasn’t this hyped as being a ‘whole expansions worth of content’. Is that what you really see here? What kind of crappy expansion has only this? Would you pay for it, I sure wouldn’t.

From what this all looks like to me is basically stuff that should have been in the game at release already and some of it was advertised as being in the game as well (again not just wvw).

For everyone thrilled about this, keep in mind this is ‘the wvw update’ meaning we probably will not get another one (or big one) for 6-12 months. This is really enough to keep it fun/interesting for that long? Some titles, some ‘abilities’ and something to finally spend those badges on, thats enough to cover up issues like exploits, bugs, tier stagnation, UI needs, no new maps, no new siege, population imbalances, zerg issues, aoe caps, commander issues, downed state, profession imbalances, money sink, any keep/tower/camp customization, no new upgrades to puchase, etc.?

I’m just glad they are updating maps to keep things fresh/interesting and putting such a strong focus on fixing bugs/exploits…..oh wait they are not.

Overall I would say they whole thing is rather disappointing (not just wvw) from the stand point of this being the next six months (thats it really?). But I kind of expected this already so not really disappointed.

I don’t really see any of this keeping the game from dieing like it has been, but oh well other games are coming out soon. And for Colin we all appreciate a couple of pages of investor bs/pr spin/useless hype.

I have felt this from the start.

However overtime I think I am getting a feeling for why they don’t. It appears to me that most of these ‘updates’ are purely centered around exploit or gold/karma making issues (including drop rates). So if they did release patch notes 90% of the patches would appear to be focused on exploit issues. If people realized this it would do a few things, it would teach people more easily how to spot and use exploits or farming techniques, how Anet is much more focused on squashing people making currency then fixing any important bugs that effect the player base as a whole, and lastly show how they have been heavily manipulating drop rates for a while to keep people grinding.

I do know that some of these are based on simple screw ups like the toymaker trixx back piece and such. Companies also do not want to admit how often they screw up.

But it all basically comes down to Anet does not (will not, or does not want to) communicate with its customers, aside from some hype or PR spin which there is no shortage of.

I’m all for making new objective, making upgrades of keeps more useful, adjusting cannons and oil so they are not so easily destroyed, maybe even making guards a bit more useful. But yeah I do think this takes it a bit to far, it is a slippery slope that leads npcs to just doing everything.

The inverse of this means that small groups or ninja teams would no longer be able to accomplish anything which I also think is a bad idea. It would also mean that empty servers would get even more empty because they cannot accomplish anything.

However, I do agree with the OP that night capping is an issue and paying real gold to upgrade things should not be so easily taken. Why should I (or anyone) pay several gold to upgrade something just to know it will get taken when I log off because no one is there to defend or no one is competent enough to defend it. But I think instead of having npc’s do it for us we need to balance populations and population times so that there are players to do these things.

Yes that is the ‘progress’ that has been made on culling. How are you liking it?

Spartyr.6795:

I disagree. The culling is probably the biggest problem in WvW currently, and also probably the trickiest to solve, and occurring at the lowest level from a systems perspective.

I kind of applaud ANet for tackling this, because like you said, it means they must pass on the “quick wins”, in favor of building a stronger foundation. In the long term, this is the correct move, but in the short term it can be perceived like they don’t care about WvW or aren’t doing anything, since we don’t see the results of their hard work.

I disagree with you completely. Firstly culling is not the only Major problem with WvW and many of the other ones such as exploits or huge bugs could be much more easily fixed. So passing on those is just dumb (such as jumping into a keep or teleporting through the door or npc’s turning hostile in a keep and killing its own door, not being able to go through nw SMC wall when its down and fortified, etc, etc, etc.) These kinds of things make this game look like a joke really. And you suggest instead of working on these game breaking issues we should send all our manpower on something that might not ever be fixed. If you want a strong ‘foundation’ no bugs would be a good start.

In fact I have to say the only thing we have gotten from there culling ‘work’ is just worse and worse performance. Now I can not only not see thieves (the original problem), but now I cant see friendlies, enemies of all classes, siege at a distance on occasion. And when i do see them if there is enough my skills wont go off for 20-30 seconds. I’ll be honest I much rather not see thieves then the current performance. A big battle at SMC turns the game into almost a turn based game because of the lag, which extends across the whole map.

While they have been ‘fixing’ culling the game has been dieing.

Now as to the perception of Anet not caring about wvw. That would be because of interviews like this where they basically laugh at the core issues of the players. It would also be due to a huge lack of communication. Not much updates or bug fixes since launch. They can drop the servers immediately for some toymaker trix bag to fix it, but they cant fix jumping into keeps for what 6 months? Does that scream caring?

Check youtube there is quite a few videos of this being done. They often talk about their tactics/builds as well. I believe all professions can do this btw.

The funniest part of this thread is the only thing that you all have mentioned that they say they war working on is the one that is not easy.

There is only one thing that effectively counters a major golem rush and that is warning.

Superior arrowcarts and such are great if you have the people there to man them but if you do not see the golems till they are on your gate it is to late. By the time you have enough people inside to man all the siege they will be through, especially if they make good use of time warp. 10 golems can get through a gate in like 30 seconds. So if a group starts clearing oil/cannons/guards but you see no siege be on guard, same if you see major supply losses from a keep/camps.

Now as to the most effective ways to destroy mass golems: oil, mortars, ballistas, cannon, arrowcarts. Superior ballistas and carts do double damage. A few mortars can target the gates of a keep and do the most damage to siege as far as I know (27k a shot).

Yamiino.1827:

- Items?, I get atleast 2 gold per day worth of items (without mentioning rares and exotic drops per day, which I mostly break for ecto.)

Just something to keep in mind, with that same playtime its not hard to make 10-20 gold per day in PvE, so no not even close to equal.

Also wanted to add, that when I talk to newer players, their main apprehension is that they are intimidated of doing it wrong and getting made fun of or yelled at, which does happen btw.

I would add conditions are very useful if you got them.

Some professions/builds are inherently worse at dealing with thieves though and that is an issue of balance.

Honestly it comes down to two things, a very bad ranking system and gross population imbalances. And yes most of us hate it.

@KensaiZen – They said they are more looking to expand servers (god knows how) and currently in this interview show no signs of merging anything or any thoughts of it. I agree it might be good for the bottom tiers. This and so many other things is why this interview shows how out of touch the devs are and hence all the complaining on this thread.

I would have to agree with Nuzt every fix they do to culling just makes it so much worse.

Now can I not only not see thieves, but I can no longer see players 100 feet away till they load 20 sec later, this includes friendlies and sometimes even siege.

Add that to the 5-30 second skill lag whenever more then 20 people are in a place (including friendlies) and its just a joke.

*Note none of these were problems in beta. And my computer + internet are fantastic.

What is most ironic about this is, take your level 80 to a level 15 zone, you will get mostly level 70-80 drops. So you actually get better drops farming one hit moa’s in starter areas then farming lower level players in wvw.

@KensaiZen – That is exactly what we don’t want more population imbalance. That is part of the major reason wvw is so stale today.

Simple answer charge for transfers up, free to transfer down, and cant transfer in your current tier. And let guilds keep their bonuses if they decide to transfer to a smaller server.

In regards to progression and rewards. I honestly do not see anything that they could add that would make wvw more fun aside from drawing in more players just looking for loot/titles which are not the best players to be had in wvw.

Giving me 5 more gold in drops (or titles) will not make boring maps, same matches forever or disfunctional gameplay (exploits) any more fun, to me at least.

I understand the PvP people wanting more PvP content and less PvE. However they are thinking about WvW wrong. WvW is a strategy game, not a dueling game, it is about objectives, choke points, siege, tactics, etc. So we are not really asking for more PvE we are asking for more objectives and more complicated game play/maps.

These kinds of ideas I have listed long ago, you could extend to all PvE content in WvW. When you beat the Overgrown grub you enslave him in your keep, which causes some kind of bonus like spawning grubs in the opposing teams keeps. Or enslave the Aboreal spirit and he adds a slow on opposing teams yaks. Skritt and Centar camps in the BL could be similar to the Dredge/Ogres/Hylek in EB. You could even do this for random npc mobs like raptors. Once your team kills 100 raptors triggers a raptor attack on a camp, “after the mass genocide of raptors they flee south and run into x objective”.

This can give the PvE player (and lower level players) an excuse to come into WvW and actually contribute instead of sitting on a wall watching it get trebbed. Also it give more complicated game play things to worry about or tools to be used.

How about you keep your titles and give me something I actually care about.

salluks.6017:

i fear this Feb update is so hyped and make or break fo a lot of people that even a small misstep from Anet will result in an outrage or just dead WvW.

Anet, please listen to the WvW before making changes going by every major update we have had so far, almost every update has missed something major and creates a storm.

I agree, hype is a double edged sword. On one had you get people to wait when they might otherwise not, or invest in something with the hope of the future. On the other had if it doesn’t live up to the expectations it is devastating. And the more hyped things get the higher the expectations, up to a point where nothing can realistically live up to them.

The best way to console people now and deflate the hype so Feb doesn’t cause all the rage is just to start leaking info. More real info = less hype = less disappointment.

That is why an interview like this gets such disappointment and rage because there was not really any real info up to this point. I hope it is a lesson learned. Share with the community and the community will share with you.

Best prediction ever just went down.

@Marcus Greythorne – visit the forums to see all the threads to see what is important. Some of those are not important to me at all. And culling is important to you, not the biggest priority for everyone and who knows if even fixable at this point. So far not so good on culling.

@Draygo – The maps are not balanced as it is, so no I do not think it takes much thought at all. Have you seen the BL maps, you really think they are balanced? Do you even play? The SE tower is very useful/well balanced right?

WvW is already dieing the populations are down mostly across the board. I have spoken to people on many servers who see this trend, and I know many hardcore players that have left. This kind of interview and attitude is what kills MMO’s that is just what it is. If you really think this is good enough see what happens to GW2 in the future. This interview confirms they wvw is very low priority.

At this point I would say WvW was not ready for release and 6 months in it still isn’t. You can still jump over walls into every tower/keep in the game in less then 5 min, seriously you are going to talk to me about balance and fine tuning.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

So really a positive interview all in all. They are working on a lot of things in WvW and everyone who actually watched the clip should be able to get this.

Your joking right? It seems very out of touch and arrogant. They were laughing when discussing population issue.

So basically WvW will be well flushed out and fixed in 2-3 years time, no problem I am sure all the players will be waiting for this.

The reason people are mad is because they promised a ‘big’ update in Feb and everyone said oh wait till Feb they will fix all these problems. Then we basically come to find out they aren’t even thinking about starting to work on the issues that are important to the community.

Things that are important: Exploits, Hacks, Staleness of repeat matches, boring maps, lack of variety of siege, lack of variety of upgrades, rewards, broken mechanics, populations, transfers, zerging, night capping, pve issues, downed mechanics, rankings, commander issues, UI, and I am sure there are more.

Things they are working on: rewards, culling

Does anyone see how these lists don’t match?

I would just like to add a point about new maps. You didn’t seem to take that long to make the ‘Lost Shores’ map. How often is that used? Didn’t seem to have issues making all the holiday instances either, or the fractals dungeons.

If WvW is a small populations (which it is) do you think there are more people in BL maps at any given time then the ‘Lost Shores’? Why do you as devs have time/resources to create some dumb zone that no one uses, but none for a place that people actually inhabit 24/7?

On the other side I do want to thank Colin for posting this, I am glad to know the true intentions/what is coming for WvW. More information is better, even if it is bad news, because I can make informed choices now (like looking at other games). And I do appreciate the staff for doing the interview so at least I can know what your doing/thinking.

Urrid.4593:

I couldn’t skip the “song” so I closed it. My brain is thanking me…

You can fast forward in the audio version of the interview.

Cliff notes:
-So no new maps in the near future
-1 week cycles for matches will continue
-Culling is being worked on
-We have talked about population issues but don’t design for it
-Paid transfers at some point in the future, but transfers are not that big of an issue
-Progression/rewards in Feb patch
-Live scoring no time soon (via website)
-Nothing major till feb patch.
-No UI changes (raid tools etc.)
-No changes to commander system

Did I miss anything?

Dropping blueprints is also needed if you want to move your siege to another char. Heaven forbid you are able to play more then one char in wvw and dont want to pay each time to stock up on siege.

PS – Please make siege at least account bound really. Badges are account bound.

Thurbleton.5841:

Did they introduce the siege limit during the Lost Shores updates? (When your unable to place due to too much siege nearby). Also if this IS in fact an issue perhaps its not being solved because we aren’t noticing it and reporting it. More feedback for/against is appreciated!

No the siege limit was always there. We are noticing it more because the siege despawn timers are messed up. This has also lead to a lot more sabotage. We never noticed it as much before because junk siege used to disappear in a timely fashion.

So I can build a cata in the corner of the map and it stays there for days, means one less siege you can place for that length of time. And it means sometimes the 25 arrowcarts in our keep will last for the whole match, but my treb cant last for 15 minutes.

Ironically all there ‘new’ builds recently have helped despawn some of this junk siege by resetting the servers.

I say make upgrades actually use crafting. Less cost, makes crafting worth something, adds a new dimension to WvW, can take some of the over abundance of supplies of the trading post, and can let many people contribute. Each component of ‘strong stone’ adds a percentage to wall upgrade.

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

Built siege is on a despawn timer of 30 minutes if not used within that time period; it may be a little less for golems and a little more for trebuchets.

Siege build sites are on a much shorter timer; I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s significantly less than 30 minutes.

There’s another potential issue. There’s a limit to how many siege weapons can be constructed on a map or within a single fortification. I don’t know the precise number. If you have an unfinished arrow cart build site and someone builds an arrow cart to completion somewhere else on the map such that the limit has now been reached, this could explain the sudden disappearance of your siege build sites.

The safe approach is to only place those blueprints for which you have supply available to build. Don’t throw down ten blueprints if you only have supply enough to complete three of them. Build three, then wait until you have the supply (from whatever source) to build more before placing additional blueprints.

The problem is the timers are not as consistent as you state, it is very buggy at the moment and has been so since the lost shores. I have seen trebs disappear in 10 min and I have seen catas last for days. I wish Anet would spell out the specific rules they use for siege timers, the stuff is not cheap we deserve it.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Key to Zerg removing, is removing downed state. Yes I like escaping with vapor form. But in the end, my enemy servers (who love 60+ zergs), have escaped way more then me. Why? they could always get a ress from someone else. And ressing downed = 1-2k hp heal per second. This brings monking al the way back. If you are downed and have support, you cannot die. They just ress you back up. Imo ress downed, may exist in wvw, (to give escape chance to some extend when you deserve it), but make the heal much worse. Make the heal only to 200-500 heal per second.

This will make people who are downed, actuallyh close to the reality, wich means they are almost certainly defeated, for making a mistake (if you go downed, you made mistake or sacraficed yourself for the better good). Now to much people escape from this faith by zerging.

I could get behind this as well. I can literally shoot a down player a couple times with a ballista and they are not dead, which is just silly. I have seen players downed getting hit by siege, actually get healed up and run off.

Junkpile.7439:

When three superior carts spam same place enemy usually flee.

Yes but if superior carts are the only thing that works (which they do), perhaps that should be the standard? I think it is asking to much to have everyone always have/place/use superior carts.

Swirling winds should have been nerfed a long time ago. It is over powered and the only ability that blocks so much area without even using a slot. You want to keep it, make it a slot and add a 90 sec cool down like portals. This goes further from trebs it also can block all siege basically when attacking a gate, or a line of ballistas. 3 Ele’s should not be better defense then a fortified wall.

With the money/effort/inflexibility of siege, nothing should stop it, ever aside from other siege.

saiyr.3071:

They already did add ladders…they’re just called “walls”. Zing!

Thank you for the laugh I needed that.

Thurbleton.5841:

We don’t fear siege anymore and for big zergs isn’t siege isn’t needed if the group is big enough.

So much this. An arrow cart on a well geared char is like rain it really isn’t anything anymore. I wouldn’t mind seeing the damage doubled and AOE cap removed.

Here is what I would do with siege make the alternative shots actually worth something. Meaning the arrowcart #2 does double damage to siege or the gravel shot for catapults do double damage to players and a confuse or the cows for treb do more then some annoying poison add a immobilize and 300 damage a tic at least. And maybe make it so ballistas are not obstructed by any tiny little bump in the terrain.

The way to break zergs is to give smaller groups more power against them. Today if you are in a zerg sizable enough you will always take the objective unless you meet a similar sized zerg.

The problem with DR is that it is basically hypocritical.

You don’t want people to grind for things (sounds great so far) so you want to discourage it as much as possible. But….you make having large amounts of money (gold/karma/tokens/badges) required for most anything desirable.

So you don’t want people to grind, but you force people to do so to get what they want.

I believe the concept was that it would slow people down and take them months to get their things and keep them playing for longer. The problem with that, is there is just not enough content to do to keep people playing for that long without a grind. Making alts or doing hearts can be a grind in itself.

You could also argue that they put DR into place so that more people would buy gems and turn them into gold to get what they want. Which could also be the case.

I am sure no player wants to grind an area or event to get what they want, it is never fun. But they have to basically to get what they want, so that is why they do it. If you don’t want people to grind just lower the prices on everything by 90%, it would be much more effective then a DR. In fact DR just encourages more grinding by making people do more to get what they want.

The best way to entice more players to WvW is to have it be more rewarding and more fun. Just like any game, and in all reality that is Anets job not ours.

We were all PvE at one point in time. But I have to say unless they come on their own, we don’t really want to drag them there.

What I see happening (yes right now) is that skilled WvWer’s get kind of irritated/resentful that they basically have to baby sit these players and watch them make all kinds of silly decisions (often with a bad attitude). But on the otherside PvE players get resentful that they are not taught well enough or appreciated or even more so talked down to. Most do not want to be told what to do, so they continue to do the wrong things.

So like I said, it only works if they come on their own with interest in learning or playing.

It would be nice if we had a system that was not so heavily influenced by large numbers of generally unskilled players so we wouldn’t have to worry about filling our maps with randoms.

I actually like this line of thinking. Its different and creative, I think it would go a long way to making guardians feel unique. More of a boon master then a pseudo warrior. Good idea OP, lets hope a dev reads this.

Josh P.1296:

kanikani.2430:

@Niacin – Basically they are bullies. You will hear millions of justifications but at the end of the day they want unequal setting so they can be a jerk to others with little or no reprisal or consequences. Every PvP game has these kinds of griefers, we just have to live with them. And this is why PvP communities get such a bad rep.

And you my friend just sound like another precious carebear scrub.

I have 5000 kills at this point and 500 hours into wvw. But thank you for proving my point.

@Niacin – Basically they are bullies. You will hear millions of justifications but at the end of the day they want unequal setting so they can be a jerk to others with little or no reprisal or consequences. Every PvP game has these kinds of griefers, we just have to live with them. And this is why PvP communities get such a bad rep.

The reason people don’t (or shouldn’t) 1v1 or 5v5 or whatever in WvW is because it is pointless….literally it gives you no points. WvW is about armies and objectives not small skirmishes in open field. I do not understand why so many people do not get this. Open field fights are largely a waste of time and manpower.

@Elite Slasher – Your a commander, act like one. WTF is with that book of a post you wrote.

@Lanimal (for why TC is better) – Overall you are right. FA has become basically a wasteland of tactics and zerging. We act more like a pack of dogs then a army in general. That being said I have seen TC do some very stupid very horrible things (on a large scale), so your not that amazing yet. Winning so many weeks in a row certianly helps TC in moral/numbers and attracting talent.

From what I am seeing out of FA I have to say the server seems to be dieing. More and more people are no longer showing up, our tactics basically drop a level every week. 50% of the people seem to be interested in open world 5v5 or similar pvp matches and no objectives whatsoever, the other 50% are just looking to zerg something, anything. We almost never pick up our downed players. We have gotten even worse about defending/upgrading. Or when we do defend, we tend to defend the worst defensible keeps/towers. We take objectives for no strategic purpose whatsoever, and never stick around to hold them. We don’t seem to know what a treb is. We have basically no communication whatsoever and our major guilds are so insular they almost cant work with other people. We even have started auto attacking gates on large scale again. We need to go back to basics and start over again because we are not going in the right direction FA.

Actually I dont want instanced or cross server battlegrounds. What I would like is to see larger servers an insentives to transfer down and smaller servers consolidated. I would love if the servers kept their own feel and personality that will not be achieve in cross server battlegrounds. And I want to see more variety in matches it is really boring as the OP put it. And I do not want the size to shrink to 50 at all, it was a arbitrary number in my post before.

I want the game to stay exactly like it is, just with more people on each server so it is a game of skill vs a game of numbers. And I would like some variety in who I play against. As well as variety of maps/rewards and so on. I am not alone in this.

What is your solution to not having tiers stick this way forever? What will make people not get “Tired of Fighting the Same Servers”?

Neither of DivineBeing solutions or Oreo solutions are decent because it basically takes the same thing but adds a one or two servers more as opponents (from higher or lower tiers). That is not enough for variety long term (say years). So instead of playing 2 or 3 opponents forever, I get 4 or 5. Wow big variety, that is a game changer.

DivineBeing.2086:

WvW populations does absolute nothing to fix this problem!

Yes it does because you can remove ranking systems as they are now, simple as that.

If rankings are not working then get rid of them or change them, simple as that. So how do we do that?

I dont play WoW but I have been playing games for 25 years. There is no WvW server, we are all PvE servers with a very small percentage of WvW’s. And the numbers involved are not 40v40 its 165v165v165 (or close to) 24 hours a day for one week. This is a three way that is an important part. There is no guild or server so good that they would dominate all servers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You would need an entire server to have 500 people on basically 24 hours a day 7 days a week that are all extremely skilled and extremely well coordinated and communicate extremely well, this does not happen anywhere in WvW as it currently stands, and would be even less so if they broke up the population.

I would much rather play a tough opponent sometimes and get squashed (we can learn from these losings) then to play the same opponents for the next several years. As it stands now all servers will pretty much stay in their tiers forever and I do not see people keep playing the game this way. That is the point of this thread complaining about having to play the same servers every week, and it is a real WvW problem. It becomes predictable, stale, and boring. If the point of the ranking system is to prevent boredom, why is everyone complaining and getting bored? To me that states that it is not working.

That is why they have added breakout events to try and balance unequal populations of servers. When one is getting dominated NPC’s will make up for some of that population gap.

And just a note on PUG’s for all you WvW elitist. I have seen a PUG 2v7 or 7v15 and win. Just because you are not affiliated with some BS guild (that would be a great guild name ) doesn’t mean you do not know how to play or what you are doing. Conversely, some of the biggest guilds show some of the worst decision choices regularly.

You overestimate your servers ability and you underestimate the lower tiers.

As for playing on other servers per my idea before (or warlords). I dont know about you but I would much rather play around on another server while waiting then sitting around LA for a few hours in a Q.

@Oreo

Yes but when we are talking about large numbers like GW2 you will get groups of noobs and groups of hardcores on all servers. So yes if you grabbed 50 people in lions arch some will be great some will not be so.

50 v 50 would be much better then the current system of 5 v 50 or do you think that it is working well now? At this point teamwork, strategy, skill, have very little to do with how WvW is played, I would love to see that be so. And the player cap is only needed for the first couple tiers otherwise most servers never see it (yes there is a world outside tier 1).

The thing you dont and a few other seem to get is if you fix population, you no longer need tiers. You can jumble up matches all the time. The only way to change tier stagnation is to have more servers be on equal grounds, I think that is done by population fixing. Did you read my whole post about removing tiers and random matches?

And if one server gets creamed by some fantastic guild on one server it randomly changes next week, not the end of the world. But I have played WvW since beta, and I have seen great things from ALL servers. Great ideas, great skill, to think that T1 has a monopoly on that is just silly. If some of the T8 servers had the kind of populations of T1 they would be up there just the same. And if the T1 servers lost numbers they would fall quickly.

I like the idea of a mercenary system as well. Great idea Warlord. Daily rewards and such would be incentive but not overpowered. It would also let people try out other servers. It would be nice to have a guild based thing for this as well or guild based achievements/rewards.

As far as major redesign, if you kept it to Q’s and kept it to dealing with servers that are not currently fighting each other I don’t see tons of room for exploits.