Guild Wars 2

tigirius.9014:

As Condition damage really hasn’t been improved since the last time I’ve played and as there are tons of passive and active defenses against conditional damage I see no reason to add this feature at all really.

What I’m seeing in these complaints is people build their specs around glass canon mentalities and choices and then expect free balance options for defense. No that’s not what should be happening.

The assumption in that second sentence is not entirely correct. I’ve always been a fan of tankier classes and went for higher vitality and survivability. But I see a problem. When I have 26k health (I’m aware that 26k isn’t the highest health I can get, but you won’t find this in a glass canon either) and equipped with condi cleanses, but I die in seconds, faster than I can mitigate any damage… There is a problem.

But I wouldn’t say nerf all CD because I think this problem is only consistent with certain conditions, mainly (and not surprisingly) burning. And the problem is within the condition damage’s burst capabilities, wherein in 1 tick out of multiple ticks from a single skill is on par with a single burst of a non-condi attack. Normal damage, you’ll have to cast/attack/land again, while one condi attack often gives multiple stacks. Burn guards for instance who can teleport to you with Judge’s Intervention and within a breath, your health is halved. If they place an aoe burning right after, no mitigation is possible unless you are a full tank. They don’t even have to land another hit… they just let the ticking do the job. At least power based damage can be blocked/evaded/doesn’t ignore armor while condi attacks can’t say the same (yes, aoe attacks with their red circles on the ground can be evaded, but many single target condi attacks are easily placed whether you dodge or not).

Condition damage is supposed to be sustained damage, which is why gears that provide CD provide survivability as well, helping the player survive long enough to see the fight through. But with the state of the burst damage of some of the conditions, that is what most people consider OP (as you pair high dmg outputs with high survivability, very little risks). I’ve come across condi Necros and Mesmers and so forth, and still have been able to fight, condi clear, heal, whatever before I go down. There’s at least a fight there. Burning from Warriors and burn Guards? Definitely no. I just melt before I can even find the button for my heal or condi cleanse.

At least, with Ele’s, the Lava Font’s obvious and their meteor is highly telegraphed while leaving them vulnerable to attacks. There’s just… some tweaking on some things here. Not a full on apocalyptic “get rid of all condi damage”, but the devs do need to look at specific conditions here. In the end, things that negate actual combat should be looked into and revised. I mean, otherwise, what’s the point of having a game mode for “players versus players” if certain builds can’t even fight back?

XenesisII.1540:

They lowered the caps, they can certainly raise them if there’s a need. The seasons were temporary events, that had pve players leave because they had no reason to stay unless they actually enjoyed wvw enough (which the vets even make that hard enough to do for new players). Wvw players left because they burnt themselves out.

With this infusion of players coming in, which we still don’t even know how big of an affect it will really have, and the one up one down system being worked on, I would for sure propose to take off the caps and let people go where they want when that system is implemented. Let players stack if they want and keep themselves in T1 permanently, t2 will be wreck being the 3rd wheel, but hey t3/4 should be fun with all the fight guilds and none blobbers moving there.

I just want this to be clear that many of us didn’t leave because of burn out, but as a direct correlation to Anet’s changes right after the release of HoT.

That is all… and I do agree with the last proposal of letting people be where they please.

Spurnshadow.3678:

Zooming out a bit, I feel this argument is systematic of a greater issue: population, community, and identity.

If the lower tier servers are having such an issue with not having any tag on any map that Anet feels compelled to do this, then this isn’t the issue, it’s population, community, and identity. If that is the case, then the solution is not providing an incentive to tag up, but rather consolidate servers.

It’s impossible for a community to spark when T4 has 3 random servers thrown together every two months. Under what server’s flag do they rally to? Have they set up a community TS? If so, then who’s gonna pay for 3 servers worth of people? What happens when the relinking happens and the TS looses funding? How do you recruit more people into your guild when 2/3s of them are on other servers? Etc.

Server identity was thrown out the window by Anet themselves when they decided to link smaller/lower tiers to whomever. Those of us from these servers, me included, have spoken up about how badly these links will affect the community and identity, thus affecting participation more greatly. We said that people will most likely leave, that this will push our larger guilds to transfer, that this will kill the server we’ve felt compelled to continue fighting for. We weren’t dead, in spite of how much other people kept saying we were, but that linking us to different servers every few weeks or months will undoubtedly lead to that. So what happened? All of that happened. When people kept bringing up the issue, Anet wanted us to shut up about it. Which is what irritates me about this update the most- it’s a sparkly band-aid for something they messed up on big time. But I don’t think they’re interested in revitalizing the game mode in the long term, and I think that’s where the real discrepancy lies. What some players, especially long term WvW players, want don’t match with Anet’s business model.

apharma.3741:

I think this is a good change and has got many players more interested in WvW however I would like one thing to be changed.

Only the commander gets the increase in rewards. In my opinion this should be extended to all those in squad as you will end up with tons of tags for the most mundane of things and some simply running a squad just for the rewards. Having the benefits be for being in a squad keeps the incentive to have squads and commanders without making people feel like they need to tag up when there are squads or penalising them for not having their own commander tag.

May I remind people that commander tags are 300g which acts as a significant barrier of entry to a lot of people.

People who are part of larger groups/zergs already earn more than those who don’t, thus why people call it the k-train. I actually mistakenly thought that the rewards spread to everyone in squad as well, and that’s what made me oppose it because it just encourages people to zerg even more (which has become a very tiresome gameplay for many). Now that I actually understand what this commander reward is lol… Keeping the reward for the commander is a way to finally give something back to a player who spends X gold on siege, X hours running around like a ping pong with legs getting called from one corner of a map to another, and getting blasted for not being “the best”, while they keep everyone’s morale up especially when they belong to a losing team. Some of these guys run for really long hours, because of the lack of other tags within their server, and I have no idea how they can keep their energies up. Lots of caffeine, surely. Of course, there’s the fear that anyone will just tag up all at once, but that’s purely assumption for now.

My suggestion is for there to be something set up for others, especially those running as roamers, but I also understand there are hindrances to that. I honestly don’t like this update, as it’s simply to get people interested in WvW while Anet continues to ignore the real reasons why their populations dropped in the first place, but — at least I get to see commanders get rewarded for their efforts.

kenahs.8397:

I’m liking these changes on the surface.

With these changes I think it’s fair to say new people will join WvW and if that’s the case I’m hoping server links become a thing of the past.

Out of all the changes I hope Anet would make is to get rid of the server links.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if that will happen. Certain servers have died off with but a few players remaining, and the only way to make them a viable opponent in WvW is to permanently link them with another server.

If Anet did something like this before merging servers, before killing off server communities, then this would have been a good way to try and boost populations then. However, like you said, maybe the influx of people would cause such a difference that the hopes of severing links would actually be a possibility! crosses fingers

Kir Sakar.3647:

meerfunkuhtron.9725:

neven.3785:

how is 5 people “roaming” having their game play ruined by not getting the commanders bonus? In the end, those 5 roamers tend to be a gank squad attributing to very little matchup wise except for killing stragglers and chest thumping. Their game play will remain just the same anyways, except now they may have more than solo and duo roamers trying to get their camp/sentry daily done to kill.

My problem is not that people who run in zergs get rewarded, but rather, those who don’t receive little. As someone pointed out, lone players/scouts and roamers have a place in this game mode, and important ones at that.

Roamers (solo or small groups) are rewarded under the new sytem just as commanders are. You just have to roam while being outnumbered. Players running with the zerg will rarely receive this bonus.

Right, I just don’t think that outnumbered thing would pop up often enough. Most of the time, when a map is outnumbered and a zerg is spotted, we call for back up. But I’ll say that I’m more hopeful (in spite of my skepticism) of this part of the update than the other ones in bringing some semblance of balance, at least when it comes to getting rewarded. We shall see!

Hesacon.8735:

meerfunkuhtron.9725:

They’re continuously killing off the roaming/tagless population, and for what reason, I really can’t understand why. There’s always different ways people enjoyed WvW, either with a big group, small and more private groups with friends, and then there’s roamers. But apparently, unless you join the zerg train, rewards aren’t for you…

Sorry, neven. The cynicism wasn’t towards your response, just my overall attitude towards WvW atm.

I don’t think that’s true. The caravan-for-upgrade system gives a lot of incentive for small groups to flip camps and kill caravans. It also puts incentive into attacking towers, especially if they’re either about to upgrade from yaks, or about to hit the claimed time required to queue up a watchtower.

Smaller havoc groups are very important right now, as are lone roamers.

Thanks, I’ll look back at the update and see what I might have missed.

Edit: Nvm, I was reminded that what you mentioned was something they rolled out a while back.
My gripe is more on the “moar gifts for zerglings/none for roamers!” thing, with how this reward system is set up.

neven.3785:

how is 5 people “roaming” having their game play ruined by not getting the commanders bonus? In the end, those 5 roamers tend to be a gank squad attributing to very little matchup wise except for killing stragglers and chest thumping. Their game play will remain just the same anyways, except now they may have more than solo and duo roamers trying to get their camp/sentry daily done to kill.

My problem is not that people who run in zergs get rewarded, but rather, those who don’t receive little. As someone pointed out, lone players/scouts and roamers have a place in this game mode, and important ones at that. As a scout, I’ve been able to help save keeps that otherwise would have been lost if no one was there checking. People like to build sieges and keep them up, check on spots that have swords, flip camps to make sure their tower or keep reaches the higher tier, etc. etc. …Useful things that do benefit the larger group as a whole without being a part of the zerg. Each group, large or small, plays an integral part. What I’m seeing is that one group, the large one, only gets the positive attention and benefits while the others do not. What’s the downside for rewarding people running around on their own the same way big groups are?

neven.3785:

SkyShroud.2865:

Given that there is a squad commander bonus, what if people want to run tagless, how to take advantage of this bonus then?

why would you expect a bonus? If you want to be exclusive and not show the map where your group is running, then you do not deserve the bonus. Generally if you want to run closed with a tag, most people respect that, and if they dont, learn to shake pugs and they’ll leave you alone.

Yeah, SkyShroud, why would you want to get rewarded for playing the game other than how Anet wants you to play?? /sarcasm
They’re continuously killing off the roaming/tagless population, and for what reason, I really can’t understand why. There’s always different ways people enjoyed WvW, either with a big group, small and more private groups with friends, and then there’s roamers. But apparently, unless you join the zerg train, rewards aren’t for you…

Sorry, neven. The cynicism wasn’t towards your response, just my overall attitude towards WvW atm.

Sviel.7493:

People did vote for rewards, and they’ve delivered rewards, so let’s not be too hard on them. It’s true that there are myriad other issues, but they set out to do one thing and have done that one thing well. That’s great.

Granted, it did take a long time to do this one thing and it isn’t the biggest fish that needs frying, but I’d rather complain about them doing things too slowly than complain about them not doing things at all. Their previous system was to try to tackle things comprehensively and it did not work out at all. Now, they’re taking it one bite at a time and it will be cause for celebration if they keep it up.

Either way, we still need better communication. Unlike PvE updates, the WvW stuff is a matter of urgent surgery. PvE is ok between updates because there’s plenty to do for most folks. WvW is not ok between updates because the issues beat us over the head minute by minute. We need hope, not hype, hope.

“We need hope, not hype, hope.” <—-

Agreed. A few of us are definitely cynical. For me, the disappointment came from hoping that this update would tackle a core issue. I feel like shinnies could come later… Just like how you wouldn’t want to decorate your house when you’ve got a giant leak within your walls and the foundation itself needs some remodeling. I could hope that they’re doing things as you’ve described, that this is just a small part of more subsequent changes to come that will actually address some core issues. Unfortunately, I believe they’re doing this simply for the numbers. They wanted to make WvW look more crowded, so they merged servers. They want to keep attracting more people through hypes (even though they know that they also keep losing people because of the issues they’re ignoring), etc. etc. Your mentality is definitely more positive than mine :P And if I’m wrong, then that would be great. It means I can love to play the game again.

Aeolus.3615:

meerfunkuhtron.9725:

Aeolus.3615:

ThunderPanda.1872:

Aeolus.3615:

ThunderPanda.1872, was quoting that for Swamurabi.7890, since he was saying that this would promote stacked servers to spead acrross all mas for better skirmish rewards.

wich is no sense cause a full stacked server, will no matter win, sicne they are paired much more emptier servers, if the stacked servers spread alot of players theycan cap alot of stuff, if they stack in one mega blob as usual they can still cap everything easilly.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I was wondering about the statement from the interview. Apparently said something about its bad “the more stacked the server is”? I don’t see the correlation there, how would it be bad for stacked server?? I need some enlightenment

we are on the same boat…. i dont think Anet fully understand how bad wvw is… or their game is atm…
The ktrain gaps are really very large, no matter if a server slipt blob or not they are in advantage.

I really want to propose for them to play in WvW like a traditional player. Not just one person who goes in there for a few days and thinks they’ve got the information they need to make giant changes… which they far often did with WvW (if a dev even poked into the game before hand). Have a group of people do a month or so long of a project of running around in WvW? Idk, just something that garners more information than just a simple “Hey guys, vote on this!” and everyone’s just having giant question marks on their heads. This is something they should have done for any big roll out of changes, but, ya know…

well they did the voting stuff, but none of the option was really touching what need to be adressed… its a bit of manipulative questions where none will lead to a good path.

Right, I don’t think the polls worked for the favor of the game mode at all. Plus, the changes they rolled out were one big thing after another. They were asking people to make a decision on several different subjects that they experienced for short periods of time. Especially since a lot of us didn’t even know how the decision’s going to affect the game in the first place. It just didn’t work.

Manimarco Devil.1790:

meerfunkuhtron.9725:

Manimarco Devil.1790:

Ktraining at its core is a human nature problem not a game problem. People just want rewards not to enjoy an experience. Not sure how ANET is supposed to fix that mentality. With new rewards outnumbered sides still get pips and there should be less outnumbered people with release of rewards. So with even numbers its up to the players to actually want to fight vs ktrain.

I disagree. Putting discussions on the sociological aspects of humanity aside… My experience with this, as well as a lot of players I’ve come to run with in WvW, is that people firstly enjoyed WvW for the experience (talking about pre-merged WvW here). Sure, people wanted some better rewards and other things that helped them feel proud about accomplishments involved within that experience. And for them to fix some really old bugs. To sum it up, we were enjoying ourselves purely out of the experience and were just asking for more of Anet’s attention to the game mode. Unfortunately, Anet took this as “Let’s decimate all that made this game mode fun and just give them shiny stuff!”

Shiny things are great, but we all know it only lasts for a small amount of time. What are they going to do, just poop out a new shiny thing all the time just to keep the influx of players? While ignoring the fact that so many of their older players have quit, for many reasons that they willfully have brushed off?

What this update tells me is that they simply want to continue in the route of giving people new stuff to play with long enough just so they can bring out another shiny thing as soon those people get bored. Like we’re tiny skritts with ADD. Of course, if you’re a new player, that may not be the case, as there’s a ton of things in the game that you’re still learning/experiencing, etc. I don’t think they’re interested in keeping players, more than they just want new players flooding in. And I get it, they’re a business, as many would like to point out. But from what I’ve seen, a good business knows how to balance keeping their old timers content while still attracting new comers. But from what I’ve also seen, Anet struggles with balance. So… Good luck and have fun with the continuation of ktrains. I will continue to miss the old wvw, for despite its lack of rewards and abundance of bugs, I still found myself logging in everyday and playing for hours for the mere fun of it.

So you think removing all rewards will somehow revive the game mode? I’m confused and certainly disagree with that conclusion.

Oh no, not at all. Rewards are a part of a game. Like I said, back then even when the game mode was more fun, we were asking for rewards (which, to be fair, was non existent). But simply handing out rewards won’t fix the game mode and it surely isn’t true that players don’t care about enjoying the experience, which is what I was truly disagreeing with you on. Just because I think this reward system wouldn’t really fix anything doesn’t mean I want ALL rewards taken away. Let’s not think like Anet here :P

Aeolus.3615:

ThunderPanda.1872:

Aeolus.3615:

ThunderPanda.1872, was quoting that for Swamurabi.7890, since he was saying that this would promote stacked servers to spead acrross all mas for better skirmish rewards.

wich is no sense cause a full stacked server, will no matter win, sicne they are paired much more emptier servers, if the stacked servers spread alot of players theycan cap alot of stuff, if they stack in one mega blob as usual they can still cap everything easilly.

Sorry I wasn’t clear. I was wondering about the statement from the interview. Apparently said something about its bad “the more stacked the server is”? I don’t see the correlation there, how would it be bad for stacked server?? I need some enlightenment

we are on the same boat…. i dont think Anet fully understand how bad wvw is… or their game is atm…
The ktrain gaps are really very large, no matter if a server slipt blob or not they are in advantage.

I really want to propose for them to play in WvW like a traditional player. Not just one person who goes in there for a few days and thinks they’ve got the information they need to make giant changes… which they far often did with WvW (if a dev even poked into the game before hand). Have a group of people do a month or so long of a project of running around in WvW? Idk, just something that garners more information than just a simple “Hey guys, vote on this!” and everyone’s just having giant question marks on their heads. This is something they should have done for any big roll out of changes, but, ya know…

Manimarco Devil.1790:

Ktraining at its core is a human nature problem not a game problem. People just want rewards not to enjoy an experience. Not sure how ANET is supposed to fix that mentality. With new rewards outnumbered sides still get pips and there should be less outnumbered people with release of rewards. So with even numbers its up to the players to actually want to fight vs ktrain.

I disagree. Putting discussions on the sociological aspects of humanity aside… My experience with this, as well as a lot of players I’ve come to run with in WvW, is that people firstly enjoyed WvW for the experience (talking about pre-merged WvW here). Sure, people wanted some better rewards and other things that helped them feel proud about accomplishments involved within that experience. And for them to fix some really old bugs. To sum it up, we were enjoying ourselves purely out of the experience and were just asking for more of Anet’s attention to the game mode. Unfortunately, Anet took this as “Let’s decimate all that made this game mode fun and just give them shiny stuff!”

Shiny things are great, but we all know it only lasts for a small amount of time. What are they going to do, just poop out a new shiny thing all the time just to keep the influx of players? While ignoring the fact that so many of their older players have quit, for many reasons that they willfully have brushed off?

What this update tells me is that they simply want to continue in the route of giving people new stuff to play with long enough just so they can bring out another shiny thing as soon those people get bored. Like we’re tiny skritts with ADD. Of course, if you’re a new player, that may not be the case, as there’s a ton of things in the game that you’re still learning/experiencing, etc. I don’t think they’re interested in keeping players, more than they just want new players flooding in. And I get it, they’re a business, as many would like to point out. But from what I’ve seen, a good business knows how to balance keeping their old timers content while still attracting new comers. But from what I’ve also seen, Anet struggles with balance. So… Good luck and have fun with the continuation of ktrains. I will continue to miss the old wvw, for despite its lack of rewards and abundance of bugs, I still found myself logging in everyday and playing for hours for the mere fun of it.

Archeia.8905:

Server loyalty died in 2014.

Personally, as someone whose only ever been on 2 servers, both of which I’ve been apart of for approximately 2 years each, I’m in favour of scrapping the current servers completely.

Create 6 new servers resulting in 2 tiers, make players select a new server and start from scratch. If WvW wants to survive it needs to change drastically, especially with the likes of Crowfall and particularly CU on the horizon, Anet has limited time to act. The sooner the better.

If I saw this when we still had our home server, I would have disagreed. But now, I’m totally rooting for this idea. Just scrap everything, let us choose where we want to go, LOCK those servers, and then go from there. I’d say it’d be better than what we’ve got going on now.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Choppy.4183:

Honestly, I’ve thought since the beginning that the linking was a soft path to mergers or server deletion for these reasons.

The idea of mergers has been raised and resisted for years, in large part because of server identity and associated infrastructure (ts, websites, etc). The links were a way to see what mergers would look like (gameplay wise) while still being reversible. Meanwhile, server identity would be eroded as time went on, with people getting used to not seeing their servers names being mentioned or written anywhere, which would make server deletion/merger less controversial.

So, in effect, the links provide a way for Anet to (1) see/show how reducing the number of servers by half would look, and (2) to get the players used to not thinking about half the servers, thereby undermining resistance to deleting them, and it would be reversible if it looked like it wasn’t working.

To give you an idea of how effective the approach is, I’ve been on Ehmry Bay for years (only server I’ve been on), and there was a thriving community there with a lot of server loyalty and an active website, even when it tumbled to the absolute bottom of the rankings. The week before the linking, our score was supposed to put us above HoD in the rankings, but Anet didn’t account for that when they linked the bottom half of servers with the top half, so HoD became a host server and we became a linked server.

Like your experience, almost all of our core guilds (including those who’d helped us climb back up from the bottom to about midway) eventually transferred off, a lot of veteran players stopped playing (tired of the game, and no longer compelled to stick with it due to loyalty, relationships, etc), and I suspect most people wouldn’t kick up a fuss if Anet announced server mergers/deletion tomorrow. But I also suspect most people wouldn’t have left, nor would they accept server deletion, if we’d been and remained a host server.

So, yeah, I’m fairly certain what you’re experiencing is the prelude to your servers eventual deletion. If it’s intentional (as I suspect), then I don’t expect Anet will make the changes you want to restore your server identity.

(Note: HoD was a great server to be linked with, and there was no animosity from them not being linked to us as a host. They’re also a linked server now, so for all I know Ehmry would have been too even if we’d started out as a host server).

Expanding on what has been said here;

Competitive hate/loyalty is a big part of what makes large scale player versus player fun. Examples being Heroes and Villains in DC Universe Online or the Alliance and the Horde in World of Warcraft.

I didn’t play WoW but I did play DCUO and I loved hating on those pesky Heroes. It made me feel like I really belonged to something and it was fun getting in to that prideful mentality.

While I understand that from a business standpoint this wouldn’t benefit Anet, I do feel it would generate a lot more loyal players and more aggressive competition. Now that servers have been linked and people have been shuffling around so much, server names don’t mean anything anymore. We’re all just fighting other blobs for mediocre rewards against broken builds with broken siege.

I would prefer there to be server loyalty over the more activity that merges bring but not everyone is going to feel the same way I do. I know plenty of people that could care less about server loyalty and it’s unfortunate because it’s a really enjoyable way to immerse yourself and to get that competitive drive going in full force.

Only reason I’ve server hopped so much is because I’m always looking for a place I’m willing to fight and die for. Darkhaven was that home for me for the longest time but many of the people I cared about left or stopped playing. Since my home was made up of the people I cared about, I didn’t want to stay if those people weren’t there.

I’m not sure what the proper solution is so I can’t say much other than that I’m upset. If I’m not giving constructive feedback I’m just whining. I just want that pride and loyalty back. “Grr I hate this server this week, grr” isn’t the same as “grr I hate that server and love this server and we’re better than them!”

o/ Just another person who’s feeling everything the OP and this ^ person’s POV. Anet definitely looked at this from a standpoint that didn’t anticipate people actually caring for their servers. The relationships built within it is what made WvW so much fun, and that camaraderie gave the drive to make your home server proud. Didn’t they know that winning alone wasn’t what kept us playing? Even when wvw gave crap rewards, or when my server was at the bottom, we were active. Now it’s definitely dead. Whenever I jump into WvW, the team with the highest number of players have most of all BL’s and EB. We’ve already lost so many people, and now the population imbalance is just so much more staggering. Fights are pretty much nonexistent as the blob server always runs from an even fight, and if they’re not running, they’re simply blobbing with 30-50 man zergs against what… 5 of us?

Anyway, I wish I had something constructive to give as well. But as we’ve all learned (all as in us who came from “forgotten servers”), Anet doesn’t listen to our feedback because they’ve turned this all into a numbers game. You have the most people? You win. The polls simply swing to the big servers’ favors, and since that’s what Anet is basing all their changes from, then we unfortunately will continue to lose. Hellloooo PVE!

Balthazzarr.1349:

Frankly, this level of WvW play is very very little strategy… GET IN TS! Jeez come on guys get into TS now and follow your commander!… LEFT, RIGHT, BACK, BOMB, WATER.. blahblahblah… such is the life of a blob/zergling… Do most people on these servers really care about their keeps/towers? Not from what I can see… for the most part it’s about the fights. Random havoc groups here and there but too many people to do the cool sneaky stuff that some of our groups used to do on the medium/lower level servers. Things you could get away with because there wasn’t just blobs of people everywhere. There isn’t much more satisfying than stealing a keep from underneath somebody as they fight someone else for example, ( and they don’t k now it until it’s too late ). Those days are gone in the new order of things. People keep yapping about pvd and crap like that.. Those people really do NOT know how things work in the world of lower populations where you can actually have a good fight or skirmish for an object without blobbing, and where you can actually have some fun wreaking havoc here and there without being blobbed to death. The high pop server folks don’t understand what this is really like ( for the most part I think ), and the devs definitely seem to think that this is a part of the game that’s not useful. Both are wrong. I have nothing at all against the blob/zerg groups that love doing that. I’m not one of them.

omg.

I remember BP and yes, your sneaky kitten. I would be defending a keep, thinking I’m doing one heck of a job fending you guys off, then next thing you know, the thing flips lol It was infuriating at the time, but hey, that’s the game. You have to keep a look out for stuff like that, and looking back at those times, it was a lot of fun.

I’m actually happy we got paired with DH. They’re not blobby normally, but now they also feel like they have to be due to the mass amounts of enemies we have to fight. And guess what? It’s not dynamic, and it’s not fun. One of our enemy servers would run off and leave whenever we put up a fight. Like they wouldn’t even try when they clearly outnumbered us. Their first instinct is to just run away and come back to take the keep/tower/whatever again when they had more people to roll whatever numbers we have.

Fun = 0
This has become nothing but a numbers game -_-

ABOUT “DEAD” SERVERS

One of the most popular responses to those of us who oppose the World Linking is, “I’d rather fight in zergs than sit around fighting doors in empty maps”…

Do people honestly think that if it was that boring for us, that we’ll be complaining about the change? If there really was nothing at all to do in WvW, I wouldn’t be playing there. I can tolerate some peace and quiet, but not outright nothingness and boredom. And yet people stayed in their low-tiered servers, and deliberately CHOSE a low-pop server because it honestly wasn’t that boring, at least for us.

Let me explain it this way- there’s different types of players.
Some like full maps and enjoy playing in big fights most of the time. These are most likely the people who will say that a server is “dead” because they stood in their map for a bit and so no one.
(Side note: I thought my server was dead in the beginning too. I used to log on late at night, from 11 PM to 2 AM mostly. When I started logging on earlier, I realized that the server I’m in compromised of mostly people from the east coast… It wasn’t dead, they were just well asleep by the time I normally got on.)

Then there’s people like me, who don’t mind waiting a few hours for her mates to finally get on, who likes the occasional 30-man zerg but normally likes to casually roam.

To people who like full maps and seeing lots of activity all the time, my world would be considered dead. While from my point of view, it is fine and thriving.

I don’t know why some of you are so opposed to the idea that some people actually like to play a different way. I’m not even against zerging or heavy fights all the time, I’m just aware that it isn’t my play style. I wouldn’t be against this World Linking if it still offered options for both types of players. I’d like to see a change that caters to both the majority and minority, and not just cater to one side of the population.

Teon.5168:

meerfunkuhtron.9725:

-The World Linking Poll- I am just begging for the devs to not rely on this poll for their decisions. It isn’t an accurate representation of what “most” of us want, despite what other people think.

The poll is currently at around 77% to 17% in favor. What is it about the resounding YES that the poll is shouting that makes you think it isn’t an "accurate representation of what “most” of us want, despite what other people think."

77% sure seems like a pretty definite “most”.

How someone can look at a poll that has an overwhelming majority in favor, and then find the nerve to actually say that the poll does not reflect what most people want is just mind boggling to me.

I’m curious to know where you’re pulling your logic from on that?

Or is it just stubborn personal belief that refuses to admit that the vast majority want what you don’t?

Easy. People who are not in game or playing WvW because they don’t like the current linking system cannot vote.

You got the in-game mail about the poll after ranking up in WvW.

Plus, I honestly don’t care if it’s what the vast majority wants. Is it honestly what this has to come down to? Ignore the minority voices, give the majority what they want- history alone will tell you that isn’t conducive to positive change. In any case, just because the majority wants something that I don’t doesn’t mean I won’t speak up about it. I can try, right? If things turn out the way I don’t prefer it to, my world isn’t going to end. But my WvW community has become important to me through time, so yeah, I’ll put in my two cents as long as the topic is open for discussion (which it still is).

Forestgreen.7981:

I enjoy the merge because I rather fight people not doors and empty maps. It really does seem that the majority of the players disappointed are the ones showing up on forums complaining while the greater and much less vocal majority is enjoying it.

There’s alot more roamers around since not everyone likes to run with tag. Now if only TC+YB would man up and not build 7+ Superior ACs with map blob and expect us to fight under them it would be dandy.

“The greater and much less vocal majority”- Well of course you’re less vocal. You’re not going to speak up about something you’re already content with. There’s a reason this is beta. It is being tested to see what people think of it, and there’s a good number of us who don’t.

You’re obviously from a higher tiered, high population server. I’m sure you like playing that way. Our server, as you can see from the 5 pages of posts, was very active. We weren’t just fighting doors in empty maps. Sure, there were quieter days, but we didn’t mind them. But there were also lively, much louder days where we fought, won, lost, and we enjoyed them just as much as we did the quieter ones. The problem with this permanent linking is that it takes the option of playing in our preferred way away. The options were available pre-linking, where people like you played in high populated servers, while we happily played in ours. That has been taken away, we don’t like it, and I’m sure it’s ok for us to voice this opinion.

It’s not like these opinions will completely take control of this beta’s outcome anyway.

Here’s Wolf and I’s feelings on the matter. (Would have posted here have I known this thread existed. But alas! I also do not go on the forums much, but felt like I needed to because we got concerned as much as you did, OP)- https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Dear-Anet-WvW-Linking-Poll-and-Problems

I’d like to add a few things.

-Server linking to be a special event? -Since people do seem to enjoy being able to play with another server to a point, then why not have servers link like once a month, every 2 weeks, or whatever time frame would work best? It could be based on scoring or some other variable. This could make game play more dynamic, we get to say hi to other servers, but still get to have our own true server and play in our chosen play style for most of the time. Obviously, I don’t know the logistics of this or if something like this could be possible, but the one thing I (and others who have posted here) do not like is the fact that these links are permanent. It’s like being forced to visit friends and relatives on a constant basis without managing to actually come home. That’s what this linking feels like to me.

-The World Linking Poll- I am just begging for the devs to not rely on this poll for their decisions. It isn’t an accurate representation of what “most” of us want, despite what other people think. The big servers already win in numbers of their population alone (and of course most of them will vote yes- their servers rely on giant blobs. They want the extra bodies). Add into that the amount of people who aren’t playing anymore, mostly from the lower tiered servers, and that just bumps the “yes” numbers up.
(If any of you want to read more of what people thought of the poll system, read the feedback of the May 21st poll’s announcement thread. A lot of people bring up really good points there too.)

-“Linking has revitalized WvW”- I’ve seen this stated in the forums a lot, and I think there’s some misunderstanding here. Anet rolled out quite a few changes with WvW all around the same time, and some were very good, like the reward tracks as an example. How sure are we that people came back because of the world linking and not for these other updates? If Anet waited a little while before linking servers, I think we would have gotten a more accurate read on what’s actually bringing these people back.

Anyway, I’ll just leave this here. Stay strong and happy, FC. Much love <3

Stoney II.7385:

Hey everyone,

first of all thx for rebirthing WvW with a lot of changes!
I just wanted to share some concerns towards the world-linking as I dont see the value nor the sense of this world linking beta due to a couple of reasons:
- TS communication
- Raiding Guilds
- Server Communitys
etc.

I wondered if ist not better for everyone to just Close down Servers, before you scream ahhh my Server, mind the following Situation:
- paired up with new Server on reset
1. Need to check ts
2. Need to check who tags
3. …
Next week:
- paired up with another Server on reset
1. Need to check ts
2. Need to check who tags
3. …
etc. etc…
wouldnt it therefore be much more easier to just have to go through the pain once? Instead of getting shot in the breast and letting you bleed out slowly, id rather take one straight and go on with it :-)

As also posted above there will be lots of Drama to be caused by this System.
- Who tags up
- What strategy
- What builds
- What so ever :-)

However I guess most can agree that we are thankful that there is now something Happening and is tested, it might turn out i’m wrong, but currently I simply cant see the benefit in it.

Nevertheless good reset for everyone!

I’m with this one ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

BEFORE YOU RESPOND WITH A “CALM DOWN ABOUT THE QUEUES” TYPE OF SENTENCE***

As the OP stated, there are different worries that we’re already seeing with the merging of servers- the long queues being but ONE of them.

I’m just going to add my two cents hoping that this would help the devs, because I love WvW so much. The big problem with me is the blobbing. I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who enjoy huge zerg fights, which is completely fine. I’d say it’s fun sometimes for me as well! But there’s another group of wvw’ers, the roamers or people who like to play in small groups. That is pretty much impossible to do in match ups where zerging is the only thing you can do due to the overpopulation.

Another negative thing I noticed was that there was essentially no point in defending (unless you have a zerg nearby -_-). Everything is papered, with 30-40+ enemies attacking said paper tower/keep. There’s no excitement in the defense side of it. I can defend something with a 2:1 ration. 3:1 or 4:1… you get it… if it’s higher than that, we’re pretty much screwed. We try, sure, but in the end, zerg wins.

I’m not into this merging of servers. I happen to like the server we were linked with, but it has taken away something that I loved about playing wvw- the tight sense of community. We’re protecting our BL! Our server! We’re cheering each other up, we know each other’s names and have learned to play with each other well. Of course, there’s new comers and some things we have to learn again to accompany normal changes. But this time, it’s like my server got lost. I rarely see familiar faces anymore.

I’ll put it this way. It’s like going to a party once in a while vs. hanging out with your friends. When you hang out with your group of familiar friends, there’s more space for relaxation and just having fun. Sometimes, you decide you want to go to a club or a big party, but that can be exhausting to do all the time. That’s what this server merge is… like forcing to join a big party that you can’t leave unless you wanna say goodbye to that activity and just go do pve or something (which I don’t really want to do).

I’d say, from what I have seen, this is not going to work.

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

4. Better control of our pets through more hotkeys given to control their skills for more of a skill factor when playing Ranger. Relying on the pet AI for all situations is terrible, especially for PvP and WvW.

This is my favorite out of the suggestions so far. I’m thinking the stow (F5) could change into the pet’s defense skill while in combat, since it’s unusable during combat anyway. We can then have some options for what kind of defense we want for the pet- a bubble that retaliates for a few seconds perhaps, or something of the like (not enough coffee in my system, so can’t think of more, sorry). I can just imagine this working really well for our pet’s survivability. When you see your pet’s health going down, pop the skill and it helps keep them alive rather than just doing pet swaps or worse, having to use your own heal then it’s later in the middle of cooldown when you need it -_- It’s not OP, and it adds to the ranger being able to interact more with their pets as well.