Showing Posts For perseco.8321:
ANet,
Favor is a guild mechanic that needs to be addressed in a future QoL improvement update.
Currently, the only way to earn favor is to do the predefined guild missions that can only be done once a week, and for smaller guilds (less than 20 people) that mostly do WvW, this becomes problematic. Getting the required members online at the same time to do the missions is a hassle, especially when you take into consideration that you usually play during a time when WvW is very active with large groups running around. What this boils down to is that these guild missions don’t scale with guild size, so they are much easier to complete for older and larger guilds than they are for small guilds. The larger guilds then have the overwhelming competitive advantage when it comes to recruitment and resources.
My suggestion is to add a more flexible or dynamic favor system that rewards small amounts of favor for playing in a party/squad with your guild mates. For example, let’s say you are in a party of 3 or more running around WvW capturing objectives. When you capture a camp, tower, or keep with your guild mates, your guild should be automatically rewarded guild favor (roughly equal to half of the war score capture points would be fairly balanced I think… 1 favor per T0 camp captured, etc.) for capturing those objectives.
This would also work for PvE as well, rewarding favor for killing dungeon/fractal/raid bosses, as well as participating in dynamic events. 5 points per dungeon/fractal boss and 15-25 per raid boss would be adequate I think.
Guild missions would then be reserved for the more challenging aspects of the game and would give higher favor rewards than simple participation rewards.
Having a system like this would help smaller guilds to grow more quickly and help drive recruitment so they can take on larger and more challenging aspects of the game if they wish.
As a leader of a new guild going through these growing pains, I would hope that you take some time to consider these QoL improvements, or find other alternate ways to help guilds earn favor. You can keep the weekly favor cap in place… it’s just the ability to acquire that favor that’s causing problems.
EBG is WvW – it has all three side present on a nearly equal map (looking at you, Red keep…). You can’t get more WvWvW than that!
Let me stop you right there for a minute and remind you it was designed to be that way. If you list the EBG keeps in order from most to least vulnerable, it goes Green-Blue-Red, correct? It was designed that way to coincide with the position each server was in during the previous week. If your server was in third place the previous week, that would usually make you Red after reset. Red would have the least vulnerable keep in order to give them a better chance in the new week. I’m sure that was also part of the devs thinking when they chose to have Red BL be the Desert BL with the somewhat recent mixed-map changes.
Here’s some ideas to reduce lag:
1. Nerf or remove boonshare’s sustainability. Make it require an elite skill on 60-90s cooldown or something in order to work. Fewer boons mean fewer factors required to calculate damage. Fewer factors required to calculate damage = less lag.
2. Make boon and condi durations use the same stat instead of 2 separate stats. Fewer factors required to calculate damage = less lag.
3. Players should share a health bar with all siege like they do with golems. Fewer factors required to calculate damage = less lag.
4. Remove the quickness boon and replace it with traits that increase attack speed based on the weapons equipped and/or traits. Fewer skills being cast over a certain period of time = less lag.
(edited by perseco.8321)
They really are killing it. Their servers can’t handle the large fights in WvW as it is, but now that boonshare is rampant and now conditions can be applied to siege, not to mention venomshare becoming baseline… casting skills in large WvW fights is nearly impossible… takes a good 5-8 seconds to get any skills off, and by that time your target has moved away from where you cast.
They’ve dealt with balance solely from a PvE perspective and completely ignored how badly it ruins fights in WvW, causing their servers to slow to a crawl. It is quite literally killing it, and it has become unplayable in many instances. I can only imagine how bad the weekly WvW reset is going to be now. RIP WvW population…
Won’t matter until they nerf 100% resistance uptime boon blobs.
Resistance blocks Basilisk venom?
Resistance isn’t a block… it’s an immunity.
Hopefully some of this is alleviated if they nerf the condi and boonshare cancer, though they more than likely need to upgrade their server hardware as well. That said, code optimization is not as simple as many might perceive it to be. Ensuring calculations are made in the correct order remains among top priorities for such a goal, and when you are dealing with something that is static (like the order of damage calculations), it can be difficult to find ways to optimize it beyond what you’ve already done.
What it really boils down to, though, is that they are receiving numerous inputs from numerous clients at different speeds/latencies. The server hardware must have the necessary I/O, processing power, and bandwidth to handle all of this going on at the same time. It’s not an easy feat, given the amount of data they are handling while all of this is going on.
I would like to see the Mistforged Hero weapons have their designs updated and re-released into WvW as legendary weapons. Acquiring these would require certain achievements to be completed, require a minimum WvW rank of 1000, and require a certain amount of mystic clovers and obsidian shards, which you can now get from WvW reward tracks. These would be account bound on acquire.
In fact i just fought a QQ berserker earlier. It was a random encounter in vid below. In fact he came at me.
QQ guild is like a strong guild to me and i enjoy trying my builds out against them. I dont actively hunt anyone unless i thought he was really good and i wanted to try fighting more against him.
That thief hunting u prob shows that QQ is good for fights!
I think he was talking about actual QQ, like rage whispers and such. Not the guild. But that’s just what I got from the OP.
The guild QQ is just as relevant because they do aim for QQ. lol
When I fought QQ in T1, they were doing one of the primary duties that roamers are supposed to do in WvW: harass and kill (or delay) enemies running back to other fights after dying. And they were really good at it… I would like to see them fight against some of Mag/DR’s smaller groups like tRex, PMS, vT, etc… those would be some great fights to watch.
So, word in the channels is that all the big Maguuma guilds like KILL, CCCP, Trex and some others are getting of maps when Anet shows up. Now what is it that those guilds don’t want Anet to see? Some possible exploits? Hacking maybe ? Could be just a coincidence, but it’s kinda of funny to see. But maybe Anet is curious as to how a group of 15 Maguuma can so easily wipe 30+ enemies without taking a single hit. Seriously, hacks and exploits don’t exits, right ?
I can only imagine this is a troll post… if not, I feel sorry for you for not realizing just how terrible SBI/HoD is at fighting in WvW.
As stated in previous posts on this thread, most of Maguuma’s WvW players are veterans that come from other servers. KILL, DOC, and tRex have all been in Tier 1 and have a lot of fighting experience. VR, PA, CCCP, and others have been largely fight-focused for as long as anyone can remember, and their skill often reflects as much. Many are in organized guilds where the builds they use favor teamwork (such as boonshare/sustain metas) over individual roles in the group. SBI/HoD seems to have little in the way of organization in this regard, and that’s why smaller Maguuma groups often easily roll over SBI/HoD’s blobs.
It also took a lot of arm twisting for months just to get people to start using TeamSpeak more on Maguuma, and even now there are many that still don’t. But getting your groups organized and running suitable builds/comps for WvW is the first step. After that, it’s mostly just practice and active WvW experience.
TBT gets one-pushed all the time because they’ve been recruiting players that are new to WvW. I’m not sure why Hate gets wrecked all the time… they have the numbers to put up some serious competition, but I would venture a guess that their problem is largely the party comps and the number of people running condi builds, which aren’t as effective in most blob fights. MR is pretty much the only guild on SBI/HoD that runs sustainable builds/comps, and they are often quite effective at holding their own in fights. You should start learning from them if you want SBI/HoD to have a future… otherwise, you will see yourselves in Tier 4 shortly.
(edited by perseco.8321)
Better get them back when Maguuma moves up… we queue every map at reset now.
Should it be added to the list of known wvw bugs?
Ducks aren’t bugs, geez.
They also can’t melt steel beams.
But yes, I too think the message should be sent to everyone, not just those in WvW at a certain unknown time.
Terrible idea. WvWers don’t want the PvE kittens voting on WvW features when they have little to no idea what the actual impact will be.
… why make it a consumable item when you can just add another blip for the repair mastery in WvW ranks? That would unlock an F1 skill on the siege that spends supply to repair it. It would also balance it so that the siege wouldn’t be usable while it is being repaired, and would prevent like 10 people spamming repair to keep 1 siege weapon up.
I’d like to clarify my idea for how I would envision a siege repair function:
1. It would require max level in Repair Mastery line. This blip in the line will also unlock the repair hammers at the vendors, which will only be required for repairing golems.
2. The person repairing stationary siege (anything that’s not a golem) must be manning the siege in order to repair it. This prevents multiple people from trying to repair the same siege at the same time. It also doubles as an effective way for people to refresh the siege so that it doesn’t despawn.
3. In order to repair the stationary siege, repair mastery unlocks a F1 “Repair” skill that you can use while you are manning the siege.
4. Siege cannot be repaired unless the person repairing it has been out of combat for at least 30 seconds. This applies to golems as well.
5. Repairing stationary siege spends supply at a rate of ~5% siege HP per supply.
6. Repairing stationary siege takes 10 seconds. You cannot use the siege while it is being repaired, and repairs will be interrupted if the siege is damaged or the player manning it enters combat.
7. In order for golems to be repaired, special hammers must first be purchased from one of the WvW vendors. These hammers will cost 25 badges of honor each. It will work pretty much the same as Anet described, where consuming the hammer replaces your skill bar and allows you to repair the siege. If you do not have a hammer, you cannot repair the golem.
8. Golems will be repaired at a rate of 2% health per supply with the repair hammers, and can be repaired by multiple people at the same time.
9. Repairs to golems will be interrupted and you will lose the repair hammer if you die or enter combat while repairing, or if the golem is damaged. You will also lose the repair hammer once you have depleted your supply and switch back to your normal skill bar.
(edited by perseco.8321)
The question asked: Today we are here to ask if you believe Repair Hammers should be introduced as a live beta item?
This is not a “yes, add it” to the game permanently. This is “yes, let’s try this out for a bit first before we vote on whether we want it or not”.
We’re being given the option to try this out first:
Yes, Repair Hammers should be introduced on a trial basis.
After players have had a chance to test repair hammers we will hold a follow-up poll to determine if repair hammers should become a permanent feature of the game.Speculation on whether this is good or not is just that: speculation. This poll right here is actually giving us the opportunity to try it out before we vote on it definitively.
And yet most people can see the glaring problems with it at face value. Should there be an option to repair siege? Yes. Should it be anything like what was suggested in the poll? No.
… why make it a consumable item when you can just add another blip for the repair mastery in WvW ranks? That would unlock an F1 skill on the siege that spends supply to repair it. It would also balance it so that the siege wouldn’t be usable while it is being repaired, and would prevent like 10 people spamming repair to keep 1 siege weapon up.
The only guilds from either server that stands a chance right now with even numbers are Os and MR, and that’s because they sometimes run boonshare. SBI and SoS make up excuses like “oh you guys blob, waaah waaah”… they don’t want to adapt their comps to the current WvW meta, so they just get rolled withtheir bad squad/party comps against lesser numbers. At reset, KILL had about 20-23 people in squad vs. SBI’s map blob of HoD and pugs, and you guys were getting repeatedly farmed in the “kitten cave” with your greater numbers. Numbers aren’t your problem… it’s your players and your comp.
August 26 is when the next linking occurs.
Good luck getting people to FA. FA still the#1 fight sever? Lols
More like #2… Mag is #1 now.
The only real “zerg busting” (as intended by the OP) I’ve seen recently was a ~15-man KEK group (when they were on Mag) that pushed out of south bay and wiped a group of 30+ (I think it was SBI or DB). I was one of the lucky pugs nearby to watch it unfold and chase down the stragglers.
That said, having run with KILL for a while (on both JQ and Mag), I will give it to you straight.
Right now, KILL only has 1 good fight commander and 2-3 mediocre ones (keeping in mind this is only my opinion based largely on the outcome of our fights and tactics). The rest are usually spares that pin up if for some reason the primary commander is not able (downed, IRL obligations, etc). I’m not going to sit here and blow smoke up anyone’s kitten about how good KILL is or is not… but I will give my opinion based on my observation and experience.
We have good days and bad days depending on the commander and the party comp available at those times. We’ve fought TDS on a number of occasions, and I would consider us to be about on even footing with them in terms of fighting power (though their movements are a bit more organized). When we raided on JQ pre-HoT, we had several instances (that I was there for) where we were outnumbered nearly 2:1 and still managed to wipe the BG or TC blob.
That said, it’s not to say we don’t have room for improvement. We do have some players in KILL that are reluctant to find ways to improve their skills. For example, some of our players are at a competitive disadvantage in reaction time due to their choice of input (clicking skills, using a gamepad/controller). We also have the newer recruits that are just now becoming familiar with what is necessary to be competitive in WvW with their chosen class, and may not have their gear or builds ironed out yet. But we are constantly working with them and making suggestions for improvement by providing feedback and answering questions. We don’t expect everyone that joins KILL to already know what they are doing, as that severely limits your recruitment pool. But we do actively find ways to help our players get better.
Most of the raiding guilds on Maguuma run anywhere from 15-30 players at reset (some groups comprise of multiple smaller guilds running together), and that number usually diminishes throughout the week. Rarely do we find these guilds fighting side by side, but when we do, it is usually because our opponents are already doing so. Any other instances you find of Maguuma blobbing it up is pretty much always going to be when there is a pugmander that attracts the masses to their pin due to their reputation on the server (Synco, Xushin, Bloodie, etc.)… and that usually happens maybe 4-5 times a week for a couple hours each time? This is just a guess, but I’m pretty sure many other NA servers have a similar situation in terms of reset turnout versus WvW population during the week.
As for the current state of the game, zerg busting is rare these days, and I pretty much agree with most of the points brought up here. HoT specializations and changes to CC/condi/etc. have changed how guilds play in WvW, and that has unfortunately made some of the better classes irrelevant. I personally do not want to see KILL or any other blob using boonshare in WvW… but unfortunately, that seems to be the only way to remain competitive right now until ANet finds a creative way to balance these game mechanics. And until they do change those mechanics, it is hard for anyone to reasonably provide an objective analysis of any guild’s fighting ability due to the widespread use of these mechanics in WvW at the moment.
(edited by perseco.8321)
Fair warning to anyone thinking of transferring to FA:
You will likely face Maguuma/DR again in the very near future, and we got some shiny new fight guilds that just transferred and are looking to rumble. >;)
Try SweetFX? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzOvy6uTGcg
The most OP I have ever seen from stealth was recently when a trapper condi thief had what basically amounts to permanent stealth. He downed me twice before finally killing me with just condi traps, and he never once came out of stealth before or after the engagement (a period of about 3-4 minutes), even to do the killing blow warstomp. I was basically fighting a ghost. This really should not be possible… my reaper has over 2.6k armor and over 21k hp.
I whisper opponents quite frequently… usually to tell them nice fight or whatever, but on occasion, I have used it ask questions about their builds, organize fights, or gently prod them into going in the general direction my group is running just to get more fights. Really depends on the situation, but using the block/friend technique to exchange expletives and insults is an abuse of the system and shouldn’t be allowed or condoned.
However, there was a rare situation recently where I decided to taunt the commander of a small group from SBI… I sent him in-game mail with paper rams and told him to shame ram himself so I wouldn’t have to. He sent me back 10g and told me to buy a commander pin, brought a 30+ zerg to kill us, then sent me back the rams I sent. Best gold conversion rate I’ve found so far in the game.
As for score, objectives have a set score, dont they? If so, it’s just a matter of sorting out what objectives a given side has, itemize the points, and then just do the resulting math.
That will give you the current +PPT (which is not what I’m looking for), but if you want the average for the week, you have to store the data every tick and then average it out to find the average +PPT. My point is there should be a better method for retrieving that data without having to repeatedly make API calls and store the data.
I am currently working on a PHP application that pulls WvW stats and performs various calculations (such as projected match end score), which will show the results in an analytics type format (still a WIP). While the current WvW stats provided by the API provide a lot of flexibility, there are some stats missing that I think would be useful for showing players how their servers compare to their opponents and servers in other tiers. More importantly, I think weighing these statistics can reveal balance issues between the server match-ups that otherwise go unacknowledged.
For example, we currently have match time, time for each tick, score, kills, and deaths to extrapolate information from. With that, we can easily calculate stats like score per tick, percentage of score that comes from kills, and the kill-death ratio. But what if we want to know how much of the score comes solely from the +PPT without the score from capturing objectives like sentries? What if we want to find out the percentage of kills that are a result of war stomps? What if we want to show the total number of times each side has claimed keeps, towers, etc. so we can show the effectiveness of their PPT (total score from PPT divided by total number of objectives claimed)? We currently have no reliable method to parse out that type of information from the scores without making repeated API calls every few minutes and storing the data, which requires a lot of additional work.
Would it be possible to provide this type if data in addition to the currently provided information, and provide the same data on a per-map basis like it does currently for score, kills, and deaths?
If it’s just me walking by, I’ll usually leave them to fight 1v1, whether it is a duel or not. Players can’t get better at playing their class if they are always requiring help from someone else.
The only exceptions I make is if the enemy player poses a threat to an important objective, or if I am running with a blob, who will end up just killing the enemy player anyway.
Point 2. has already been taken care of. You just have to get the ascended mat converter/eaters via PvE. Most of them take 20 minutes to do.
One of them appears to only be available during Wintersday, and the other is only available for those who purchase HoT. That might be fine for some people, but I would prefer if there were alternative uses for these mats.
1. Nah. Its already at a point where the defenders get a buff if the structure is claimed, building upon that even further would make taking structures a real pain in the butt.
That’s why I said it would need to be balanced. Either reduce the buffs from claiming or make them apply only to the guild that claimed the objective.
2. Magic find won’t keep offenses pushing strong. Magic find can also get tricky because of the impact it has on the economy.
I considered the same thing, but I don’t see much of an alternative outside of offering better loot. Originally, my idea was to start rewarding random ascended gear if the SMC boss hadn’t been killed for over 24 hours. But I figured that would be too much, and servers would start collaborating to hold or trade SMC captures at specific times just to get that ascended gear. Increasing the magic find seemed like a much better alternative.
Maps are tricky. They take a lot of work to balance and polish. I think if you made different maps for each BL, you’d get into a lot of people just wanting to play say a snow map. Then they get sick of it and want to play the desert or farm map and the guilds and players on that map are unwilling to move/trade. What then?
I think that risk is low enough to not be a significant problem. And if it does somehow become a problem to the point people are just fighting on one of the borderlands, then they should start making further adjustments to the other maps to make them more fun to play on.
Tiers. I think it really just needs to be broken into categories. Change the population caps for each category so we have true fighting guild, blob, and roaming servers. I don’t know how much this would benefit but its probably better than just linking a bunch of servers and them staying full the entire time. There is just a bit of anger around the WvW community that roaming servers enjoyed their quiet nights and are now faced with queues and blobs. While some hate that, others are loving it. I could go on about fixes for that but I want to touch base on all the OP’s points.
Servers generally don’t stay full the entire time. They get very busy at reset and then they stabilize going into the weekend. The only map that tends to stay full all the time is EBG.
GvG’s won’t be happening anytime soon outside of what we already have. Its not something even on Anet’s radar at this point. They deserve credit here though. While the news might suck, at least they are starting to fix the glaring issues we’ve been facing for years now and that’s a good start.
The problem is the current WvW setup forces these GvG players to take up slots in WvW maps (increasing queues) instead of contributing to the ongoing battles. Adding content specific to GvG’s would make queues less of a problem, especially at reset. I don’t think guild claiming objectives did enough to encourage these guilds to actually attack and defend objectives.
Why empower PPT blob servers that already cap everything?
Cloaking waters should be taken out of the game completely. Even a 30sec invis on a blob is absurd.
The point is to encourage more fights… to assault and defend objectives for a reason instead of just karma-training the whole map and letting people back-cap. Currently, people abandon these objectives too easily because they have no real reason to hold onto them when they can just back-cap it several minutes later. By giving them incentives to fight for it and hold it, it increases the likelihood that these servers will have enough points to move up to the next tier at reset (as per my other suggestion in my post).
As someone who has been a WvW veteran for a while (mostly playing in Tier 1 and recently moving to Tier 2 and 3), I wanted to address some points and offer some suggestions for improvement.
REWARDS
The first thing I want to address is rewards. The recent addition of a reward track is a nice touch, and I really don’t have many complaints about it, but there are some other things that need to be addressed.
1. My main is a water/tempest elementalist. I’ve fought in T1/T2/T3 WvW. My job for most fights is largely just healing and crowd control. This puts me at a significant disadvantage when it comes to collecting bags from large fights. I may get 2 bags from a fight while a warrior or well necro gets 10-20, even though I was the reason he stayed alive long enough to collect those bags. What is my motivation to continue being heal spec, other than it being a guild or squad requirement? I think this aspect needs to be addressed such that support roles can collect bags based on their participation in the fight, and not just from damage dealt.
2. The amount of ascended mats received from killing lords is either too high or needs to be addressed in some way. I have thousands of these mats just taking up valuable bank space with no way to get rid of them other than to craft them or destroy them. Adding Princess was a nice touch, but it only eats one type of ascended mats. Perhaps ANet could look into adding a way to trade in a stack of 250 of these mats for currency that can be used towards purchasing Ascended gear from a vendor?
KEEPS, TOWERS, SMC
I think most of the lords in towers and keeps are fairly balanced (in terms of difficulty) at this point compared to what they were before HoT. However, they currently do not provide much motivation to defend or capture, other than becoming a strategic position.
1. In terms of defense, I think there should be increasing buffs for periods of time that each are held. For example, for every hour that a tower is held, it will apply a stacking +5 to all stats buff (including % magic find), with a maximum of +50. For every hour that a keep is held, it will apply a stacking +10 to all stats buff (including % magic find), with a maximum of +100. For every hour that SMC is held, it will apply a stacking +10 to all stats buff, with no maximum.
2. In terms of offense, the magic drop rate for the attackers should increase as well. +10% per hour (capped at 100% for towers and keeps, no cap on SMC) should see some really engaged offensives. In addition, if a keep or SMC is held for longer than 12-24 hours, the points awarded for kills and war stomps doubles. This will allow a greater chance for a server grouping to come back from a deficit when they lack coverage during off-hours.
These buffs listed in 1 and 2 would apply regardless of whether someone has claimed a tower or keep (and could potentially stack, if ANet can balance it).
3. The “tactivators” look terrible and make little sense as levers attached to the ground. I would rather see interactive pads/stones on the ground with glowing runes that change color when they are activated or on cooldown.
4. SMC’s cloaking waters buff needs to be nerfed. Ideally, cut the stealth time down to 20-30 seconds, and don’t let it be reapplied for like 3-5 minutes.
MAPS
1. While I am excited that the Alpine Borderlands are coming back, I am hoping that it has received some improvements in terms of both visuals and gameplay. When you say “alpine”, you generally think of lots of trees, mountains, snow, and glacier blue lakes/rivers. Ditch the farms (and maybe the quarry) since WvW no longer uses the multiple types of supply. Mines inside the mountains, fishing docks, and logging camps are better suited for this map theme.
2. Desert Borderlands still needs some work, specifically the parts that are not very consistent with a desert theme. That includes the northern towers and the west keep. I think others have posted their concerns/complaints with regard to these borderlands, and I agree with most of them.
3. A third borderland type should be added, which would mostly be hills and farms with fewer line of sight obstacles. Many people enjoy open-field battles, and they don’t want to have to traverse difficult terrain while they are fighting. This unique type could include siege and support elements that each realm could capture to support these battles, as opposed to ruins/shrines/etc.
Ideally, all three of these borderlands would eventually be active at the same time (Alpine – Blue BL, Desert – Red BL, Plains/Countryside – Green BL), bringing diversity and various different tactics depending on the borderlands you are fighting in.
TIERS
The tier and glicko system itself has become the biggest source of server stacking lately. Entire guilds are moving servers just to break up the monotony of facing the same servers every week. I think the glicko system needs to be removed, and the tier groupings should be based on the servers that end up scoring the highest and lowest number of points each week. For example, the server grouping with the lowest score in Tier 1 at the end of the week drops down to Tier 2, while the server grouping with the highest score in Tier 2 moves up to Tier 1. The people that want to stay in Tier 1 must put in the solid effort every week to stay there.
BATTLEGROUNDS?
One of the main things I think many are frustrated with is a lack of PvP/GvG content to fill the gap between 5v5 and large-scale WvW battles. If you could implement some squad-scale PvP/GvG for 10v10 or 15v15 fights on maps slightly larger than PvP maps, that would definitely bridge the gap and provide relief for some of the WvW queues. Some people go to WvW just to participate in these GvG fights instead of attacking objectives and engaging in large-scale battles.
In conclusion, these are some of my suggested improvements for the WvW experience. Obviously, the values I have provided for buffs and such are arbitrary and likely would need some balance, but they were meant merely as examples for the concepts I presented. Let me know what you think of these suggestions and any problems they may create.