Guild Wars 2

Things that ANet could comment:
-Exploits on Golem and in general (is it bannable offence, are you going to fix golem related exploits or address continuing exploits )
-Feedback on Golem Rush event (19 pages of feedback, is anyone even going to read this or is giving feedback just waste of time?)
-State and future of WvW ( For example multiple topics focusing on low population servers , future of servers )
-Lack of communication (Like this topic and no comments about feedback, but also topics like cry for help )
-Why developers opinions differ so much with players ( Most famous incident of them all , no one plays WvW only (not that all players always agree with eachother) )

Without input from developers we are left here to bicker with each other .

Spartyr.6795:

I see Josh at the end discuss how he basically implemented this whole event on his own time as part of the marketing team just to try and add something new into WvW, and this is the reaction he gets.

I’m just really disappointed in the playerbase.

I’m ok with people making mistakes, I’m ok with programmers breaking things by accident. I’m ok with balance team making the wrong decisions on balance tweaking. What I’m not ok with, is people not owning up to their mistakes, and not doing something about it.

The golem buff exploit and duping issues should’ve been fixed. And if they didn’t have the manpower or capability to fix these issues, then someone should’ve turned the event off, and apologized to the playerbase. People would’ve been more than fine with them apologizing and turning the event off early. Heck they would’ve gotten a round of applause.

Instead? We have 4 days of silence, no fixes in sight, no patches, no turning event off, nobody’s owning up to this terrible mistake of an event, and nobody apologized to the playerbase (paying customers) for messing up a whole gamemode. That I’m not ok with.

Players are not who you should be disappointed at, you’ve got it all wrong.

So moving reset day is probably not an option. And we obviously can not count on emergency fixes over the weekend, even if this has happend before. What about this compromise:

• Start events during the week (like tuesday/wednesday) EotM only. If everything goes well roll out on friday for regular WvW.

I know this might not be the best moment for this post with all the negativity around (let’s be honest, this subforum has been like that for a long time). kitten it, I’ll post it anyway.

So much potential… just left behind. It could easily have been the greatest RvR experience for years to come, with a little love and commitment. I am aware that resources are limited, but seeing what other game developers can pull off with a limited budget (both Indie and AAA) makes me wonder how disorganized ArenaNet really is.

DaoC, while outdated, just trumps WvW in so many ways, despite its terrible graphics. It was fun, incredibly rewarding and encouraged strategic play. WvW still has so much room for improvement.

I really don’t know if I should laugh or cry at this point. 2 and a half years without real communication and interaction between the devs and the wvw player base. It really feels like a hefty smack in the face.

I don’t want to play the doomsayer or anything but if WvW doesn’t get any meaningful updates this year then I don’t see a future for this game mode. Of course, it will always be filled with PVE players looking for karma but the players that love mass scale pvp will leave sooner or later.

A new map is nice and all, but we need fundamental changes like factions or alliances, immersion, real consequences, strategic play and most importantly smart avenues of communication between devs and player base.

Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. Thanks for reading.

- A concerned RvR enthusiast

Edit: No TL:DR. Read it, it’s a short text.

So…when you can make golems for free, icebow, and give buffs to players out of golems…because we do not test things. Here is some creative expression from HoD.

Enjoy!!!

-Grim

Trying to keep it short of a TLDR, so I’ll list the traits as:
Traitline (1/2/3) / (4/5/6) / (7/8/9)
For ease of reading and less text.

Overall I feel Zeal has few good choices and no variations. Raw damage increase and symbols is simply it.

Radiance has opened up more possible crit options for gear with low crit chance, but requires good burning sources. Grandmaster choices are weak.

Strong traitline, but shiled still needs some work.

The traits in here are mostly uninspiried, but the grandmaster traits compete against eachother too much.

This traitline makes virtues worthwhile, almost manditory I feel, as we rely on virtues for our basic class mechanic. Virtue passives need to be stronger I still feel.

Basaltface.2786:

xXBurningEmberXx.6085:

Yes it’ll all come in the next patch. Sane with the engie bs with their 1 million nades skill.

oy get your informations straight. The skill is called infinite grenade works

I am the gunpowder to my grenades,
Zerker is my body and rampager is my blood.
I have tossed over a thousands grenades,
unknown to Asura, nor known to Charr.
Have withstood pain from creating many bombs,
yet my profession will still be the least played.
So as I trait, unlimited grenade works.

When Q’ing for WvW make them account bound so that you are free to change characters etc while still playing, the Queue will still pop as normal and if you are on the wrong char then you can either hit enter on the char or re-enter the Queue,

For example tonight the Queue for EBG was 105 when I joined it, that means that im forced to play the same char for upwards of an hour just before I get into WvW…….

Im sure many other people have also had the same problem.

Still pretty much in development but if you want to see the strength of each server per timezone, now you can :

http://coveragewars2.com

WvW is dying because Anet has nobody taking care of it.

Achievements are impossible, everyone is maxed out with guards stacks, so there is no long-term progression. The utility and food cost more than the gold you make. There is not even a good reward for winning a week.

The PPT system is so meaningless that over half the guilds just want to fight. Mistakes like the siege disabler didn’t help. If it’s already meaningless to win, don’t make it annoying as well.

The only thing holding WvW together is the community of guilds, something that Anet isn’t even responsible for. Last night prime time we had 3 people in EBG, yet the server is listed as “high population”.

It doesn’t help that now a lot of classes are unbalanced and that we’ve had no WvW content since launch, and no content at all in the last 6 months.

I guess the expansion is all we can hope for now.

remove WXP from capturing an objective in eotm.
give them karma.
give them badges.
give them gold.
give them everything else except WXP.
WXP should come from player kills only, in eotm.

Malediktus.9250:

Here are what I would find realistic requirements for the final tier of the WvW achievements – based on my 4 digit hours I spend on different activities in WvW:

[SNIP – had to remove your list because the overall post was too long with them included]

I think these requirements would motivate more people to play WvW – and more importantly do all aspects of WvW including dolyak escorts and defending. I expect with these requirements it would take about 2000 hours (= 5.5hours per day for a year) for the average player to max out WvW achievements.

I agree that the current kill/cap/defend numbers for WvW achievement brackets are almost all ludicrously too high, but I think the numbers you are proposing are too low for an absolute cap. The problem is, this game is still basically pretty early on in its lifespan. Given how long Ultima Online. EverQuest 1, Dark Age of Camelot, WoW and Eve Online have lasted, its reasonable to think that GW2 could easily last past 10 years although with a much smaller population than it currently has.

There is also a huge disparity between long time dedicated WvW players and casuals for how much time, effort and progress has been made towards these achievements. Any change that is made should try to meet the needs of both categories of player.

I would also like to point out that at present, there is a huge disparity between the achievement point pools possible of the 3 game modes: PVE, sPvP and WvW. At present the totals are:

PVE ~10,450 permanent achievement points (including all Living Story)
sPvP 1,651
WvW 1,737 (including all 3 WvW seasons)

This is even worse than it looks because it is quite possible for a PVE player playing on a more casual time frame to have gained all of those PVE points while it is extremely unlikely that even the most hardcore WvW player has gained even half of the WvW ones.

This time/effort/reward disparity in achievement points is part of an overall imbalance of time/effort/reward throughout the game so just fixing the achievement part alone isn’t going to be a panacea to the sPvP and WvW game modes but at least it COULD help change the perception that both sPvP and WvW are the forgotten modes of the game.

My proposal to fix this is to borrow an idea from the world’s militaries. The “Medal with Cluster” system. Clusters are additions to a base medal to denote multiple awards of that medal… so an Iron Cross with 2 clusters means you were awarded the Iron Cross 3 times.

So, treat the WvW titles as the Medal. Drastically reduce the goals to achieve the current titles, lower even than the totals you suggested. Make earning the base title worth 50 achievement points (spread out over a tiered system like there is now), but every time you earn enough extra credits to hit that base title number again you earn a cluster… 50 more achievement points and an icon added on to the end of the title.

Suggested icons are: bronze star (1 repeat), silver star (5 repeats), gold star (20 repeats). Lets say that an example title for Yakslapper would be 500 kills. At 1k kills you would have 100 achievement points and your title bar would say: Yakslapper with a bronze star after it. At 3,000 yak kills it would be 300 AP and Yakslapper with a silver star after it; 3,500 = 350 AP and Yakslapper with a silver and a bronze star; 10,500 Yak kills = 1,050 AP and Yakslapper with a gold star, etc.

The same principle should honestly be applied to sPvP achievements, by making the class specific rated game wins open ended and on the same AP scale, also adding clusters to the “Champion” titles.

In conclusion: If you’re going to change the WvW achievement system you might as well solve multiple issues at the same time by making it more accessible to casual players while at the same time reflecting the time and effort put into the game mode by vets as well as the open ended nature of WvW and PvP game play.

Can I just say…

I only want rainbow dye because I grew up in the 80’s and love rainbows?

I mean there are people who just like rainbows.

Egon Vidar.9125:

All people want is representation. I’m not saying rainbow dye is the absolute best way to do it, though it doesn’t hurt. But when almost all you see in media is one specific type of person, when there’s so much incredible diversity in the world, it becomes, well. A bit of a downer to be in one of those marginalized groups. You know what marginalization means, yes?

Yes, as a Puerto Rican male that has been slammed against a car by 5 white cops for having the “audacity” to walk through Spanish Harlem on a Saturday morning, I know full well what it is to be marginalized, tyvm.

As someone who’s had a gay friend jumped and beaten simply because they were gay, i know what its like to see people hurt due to another ignorance.

As someone who is frankly terrified for his 2 young daughters and the world that still insists on dictating to them what their gander can and can’t do, i get it. Really I do.

Here’s what you seem to be missing from my statement above, and that is, I don’t mind it when it is meaningful or helps in some way with the plot, etc. I genuinely liked the Marjory/Kas thing, not only because they are a couple, but because they actually touched upon the fact that not everyone in this world of Tyria is necessarily OK with it. THAT is a good way to put a social message in the game without beating people over the head with it.

In Last of Us, the info gleaned about Bill and his partner was very well done and was full of feels, and they way it was all delivered in game was done in such as way as to make it both meaningful without being preachy.

Simply adding X group into a game or X message into the game because they have some some kitten in their lives, and then doing so as a dye in support of, or some other we put this here cuz reasons, frankly cheapens the message and the issues they actually deal with day in and day out. it trivializes the whole thing and makes Anet look more like they are saying “look at us! we’re inclusive!” So what?

maybe they need to put in a mini pet llama with a “Save Tibet” banner over its back. Oh wait, no, they can’t do that if they want to still sell the game in China.

Not to mention the act of doing so means nothing outside of the game and ultimately amounts to naval gazing.

Anet has already shown their support loud and clear for the LGBTQ community time and time again, and its great, but everyone and everything doesn’t need to have their own personal soap box in the game. This isn’t the capitol square of Madison, WI on a Saturday morning where every group, big and small, needs to come out with their banners. Save it for the real world.

ArchonWing.9480:

Still, I consider the full situation a potential problem which may limit the growth of otherwise deserving communities. The other problem being that the megaservers may limit intraserver communication if you may want to encourage people that pve only to try out WvW.

I felt this needed a change of terminology. It’s not a POTENTIAL problem that MAY limit growth. It’s a MASSIVE problem that DOES limit to the extent it STOPS almost all growth of a server. I am on SoS and as has been stated, we’ve lost a number of our WvW focused guilds of late, which has severely hurt our community due to our lower WvW focused population compared to the servers we are matched against. The server as a whole would like to stay competitive in WvW, but the inane population calculation system that is in place is pretty much preventing us from getting anyone on to the server to WvW with us. We can’t even replace what we’ve lost because even with people leaving, the server only remains open for short periods of time sporatically throughout the day. Megaservers removes almost all ability to rally people from any non-WvW maps. I doubt people outside of the WvW regulars even have a clue as to what their home server is at this point in the game.

For a game that wants to promote community and actively pushes people to play together, it’s done a fantastic job of doing a lot of harm to the SoS community. A community people have put a lot of time and effort into making a warm and welcoming place to people only to watch it suffer at the hands of something completely outside of their control. We aren’t the first community to suffer in this fashion, but maybe we can be the last to be torn apart by such a problem.

ArchonWing.9480:

It is my honest opinion that the current process of producing superior siege is outdated, especially taking in the new system in context. You have to create them ONE at a time; of which it is pretty absurd. So it is my unfortunate assessment that wvw was not taken into account.

What would be some reasonable ways to tackle this?

To compensate for the harder to obtain shards, would it be reasonable to change the pricing, to say 1 shard for 2-3 guides, sell for badges, or allow it be possible to craft them— perhaps we could get some wvw specific crafting siege materials.

How I would do it:

> New Recipe(s) for Artificer
5-10 T5 wood (depends on siege-type)
5-10 T5 metal (depends on siege-type)
1-5 T5 fine crafting materials (choose the currently cheaper ones, to push their price on the TP)
1-5 Siege blueprints (depends on siege-types)

There you go, the artificer is now able to craft high amounts of siege, for roughly the same price, with just a few clicks, without any artificial cap.
Since all resources are available on the TP, it’s a players choice if he rather spends silver or honor badges on his blueprints.
This courages using superior siege, eases the constraints on a commanders purse or clicking-fingers, and will make the lifes of those who supply the TP with siege a lot easier, while also increasing the amount of silver that T5 farming can earn you.
And it makes sense lorewise in light of the upcoming changes as well, since the new profession, the “scribe”, will be able to craft guild-siege anyways.

Flamethrower is currently bugged. Incendiarry ammo only applies half the amount of burn stacks (1 instead of 2).

With a fix for that flamethrower is a decent DPS and Control (airblast) addition. The blind and napalm are also decent utility skills (for example might stacking or to shoot mortar 1 through it). Only flame blast seems a bit out of place now. Still waiting for it to automatically detonate and apply the blast finisher when hitting a surface instead of “going through the earth”.

Liston.9708:

Or plan ahead…..

As I stated above, much planning goes into reset , and you are coordinating many guilds on a server prior to reset. AT the meetings, it is decided who is going where, however no one knows what color the team they are fighting is going to be until they actually change color right before reset. With them spread out farther due to a massive PVE portal area crammed into the wvw area , you do not have time to change colors and it will cause guilds to be split and stuck in ques. WvW players should have an area that meets the needs of WvW players to rally too. We used to have one, and it was removed. Having an area where everyone can gather and prepare for wvw allows all guilds to share banners, feasts and bonfires with everyone prior to it starting.

In addition, food and siege for Guild members is restocked multiple times daily in our guild bank. Commanders use up siege and feasts faster than you can keep them stocked and the trove is filled with individual food and stones for players that are used up during the runs. When wvw is reset, that is when they make a mad dash to restock since they often are playing all the way up until being kicked out. Think of it more as " the pit" for nascar drivers.. you run in get your stuff done and get back in the game. That is how this should work for wvw players.

EDIT: Need regular bank, guild bank, guild services, Armor Repair, Merchants, Trading Post and Crafting Stations for food, oils and stones near WvW portals to make a good wvw rally area.

gagi.4012:

Once expansion hit in and guild halls start to roll, are we gonna be able to play WvW properly?

To enter battlegrounds fight and kill any guys with red names over their heads, to capture and defend towers and keeps, to use siege and roam around, to be organized in small or big groups, to have your guild go out and play WvW to defend place we claimed with any means necessary, without any judgement.

To do all that without having bunch of “veterans” “guilds” “guild leaders” “pro mad skillz (watch me on twitch) roamers” bashing at you,cursing you and telling you not to do all that because you add up in 1vs1, interrupt their duels, gvg’s, scrimms, because you are danger that server might win matchup and rise up in rank, _________________________ type in all other stupid reasons.

Once upon a time WvW was place where u played with your team, helped you team, played for win, where u fought and killed reds with your team members. Now all i see is WvW turning into personal battlegrounds for individuals where team players are liability.

I just hope that people who dont want to play wvw can take thier duels, gvg’s, scrimms to some other place like guild hall arenas and leave wvw to those that want to play it like it was meant to. The OP claims to be a real wvw player but really has no idea what that means.

And please rename this http://www.gw2wvw.net/ to http://www.gw2gvg.net/ ty bye

There is no way to play WvW “properly” and this guy has rose-tinted glasses on regarding “once upon a time”. SINCE RELEASE WvW has been a sandbox PvP environment with players playing WvW in many different ways, not the way the OP wants them to.

This guy ignores that there are different types of units in an RTS with different roles. He wants everyone to play WvW as an RTS where there’s only one type of role, the one he defines. Lame because that’s not how RTS works. Claims to be a “real wvw” player but really has no idea what he’s talking about. Ironically the coming updates to WvW and guild halls with HoT are going to make WvW unrecognizable from dreamworld OP seems to live in.

I’d give more consideration of what else the OP wrote but it really isn’t worth it. OP is just looking to stir up drama.

Proper Life Force management is the key to being a chore for people to kill.

First I’ll speak from the perspective of fighting a Necromancer rather than being it;

If a Necromancer is glowing green, do not attack him/her. He/she has activated a Spectral skill such as Spectral Armor or Spectral Walk which will grant them Life Force when they are struck. The more you attack them, essentially the more you are giving them “health”.

Don’t stay in melee range when a Necromancer is surrounded by Locusts. If they are using warhorn they will gain Life Force every time those Locusts hit you which again, is essentially giving them health.

If you have any form of CC, you’ll want to save it for interrupting the Necromancer’s heal since it has a long cast time, or interrupting their Death Shroud #4 channel “Life Transfer”.

If you apply any conditions to a Necromancer, you’re going to want to avoid Staff #4 and Dagger #4 if they are using either/both of these weapons. Having them hit you will remove the condition from the Necromancer and will instead apply it to you. Also, if you see them using Plague Signet, you’re going to want to be _VERY_careful about how/when you condition burst them (if you’re a condition build) because they can just throw it back in your face, top it off with a fear and lulz as you die from your own conditions.

When a Necromancer exists Death Shroud is the best time to lay on the deepz. Unless of course they are glowing green, or surrounded by Locusts… Are you starting to see how a Necro can be difficult to bring down? ~ You have a short frame of time to pressure the Necro while they are not in Death Shroud. Try to save major attacks for immediately after they exit.

Now, from the perspective of being a Necromancer;

You’re going to want to use your dodges sparingly. You are naturally tanky and have multiple skills which will benefit your Life Force if you are taking damage. So save dodges for avoiding key skills like a Warrior’s Earth Shaker or Eviscerate, a Guardian’s Whirling Wrath, a Ranger’s Rapid Fire, etc.

Spectral Walk/Armor will grant you stunbreaks but they also grant you Life Force. Spectral skills are very important for smaller scale stuff so you’re going to want those if you’re roaming/dueling, etc. ~ Don’t always try to save Spectral Walk/Armor specifically for stunbreaks unless you’re against an opponent where you’re going to need those stunbreaks such as versus a hammer Warrior. Otherwise, you’re going to want to activate Spectral skills to feed your Life Force.

Don’t camp Death Shroud for too long. If you’re a condition build, you’re not going to need to anyway. If you’re power, you may feel inclined to sit in it for long periods of time because of the huge damage spikes that Life Blast can deliver. Sitting in Death Shroud for too long however can end up meaning less overall damage and locks you out of utility that may prevent you from being killed/having your Life Force totally drained. Learn to manage your time between being in and being out of Death Shroud properly.

(Part ~ I)

ArchonWing.9480:

It would seem that we need battleground size customization (or perhaps it could be an upgrade), an ability to set matchup sizes (honestly, it’s a guild hall, you should be able to decide it) and perhaps even some kind of brawling court? In any case, the size of the place needs to be more clear. Using OS as a measure seems to be a good idea.

So is 20v20 considered “standard sized”. If there’s a consensus in this thread, i’ll just be forwarding this over asap.

all gvg’s go up to 20v20. 15v15 is very fun as well, requires different strategies. 10v10 isnt really viable because it truly becomes all gank and a total mess. it’s that awkward area between 5’s and 15’s. 15’s allow for a gank squad while maintaining a sustainable frontline ball.

we never go more than 20 per side, unless raiding of course. i cant imagine any gvg guild wanting to go beyond 20v20.

ArchonWing.9480:

Ah, so less than 15s and there’s too much emphasis on gank. I’m guessing too many and it gets too blobby so 15-20 creates a proper balance between frontline and gank.

And somehow this thread got teleported.

yeah, you would have gotten a ton of support over in WvW, but thanks for doing it regardless.

i was there during the birth and evolution of the scene 2 years ago and participated in it for about a year. the consensus is that generally 10’s don’t make much sense as a gamemode with gdub’s mechanics.

in 5’s, you can be very tactical and emphasis is on skill of a single player. or rather, on teamwork but on a smaller scale.

in 15’s, you have to move as a unit but mistakes are very punishing because each player still makes a huge difference. losing a man in 15’s is a big deal. gank squads are extremely valuable but at the same time the frontline needs to be very fluid and skilled.

20’s emphasize “move as a unit” concept the most. gank squads are still very important, but this is where the frontline is truly emphasized. damage spikes are huge so missing or wasting a dodge roll is often certain death.

each game mode has its own distinct feel. 10’s are chaos because there is no frontline backbone. and it’s too big and messy for tactical plays. so limiting the arena to 20 players total, for example, would make it entirely unusable for gvg’ers.

CnaeusDane.2938:

Yes. Yes they will. And small groups of 10 who know what they’re doing will be much more efficient. Discuss.

They arent efficient already?

Yesterday we held a 50+ man blob and a 25ish guild group from capping bay with just 30 peeps on tag. We had to bring in EB. That’s how much we wanted to keep that T3 bay. The fight lasted an entire evening.

Guess who took bay at the end? A god kitten 8 man guild group that had been harassing us all evening. Bay was swiss cheese, we where fighting hard at the south camp to kill a treb and… a havoc group capped bay. kitten.

The thing is, this “stampede” debuff wont stop blobs. Especially not at 600 range. You’d need like 5000 range. The only thing its going to hurt is stopping to stack, which is generally either for utility (stack to see supplies) or for defensive and regroup purposes (which can be very dangerous in combat against larger/equal forces).

On top of that, its a system that punish players. You dont want to punish players for playing. You want to encourage players not to blob yes, but that’s a whole other thing than adding a debuff. This is the eqvivalent to instead of having outmanned buff, the game had a overpowering buff where the sides not outmanned get -25% speed, -25% power and -25% vitality. Yeah. People would go apekitten. Its a bad, bad practice.

What you want instead is a buff to smaller groups.

Example: You tag up as commander. 10 people join your squad. Now you get a “commanding presence” buff which give those 10 people and you a small boon. If you want to give that buff to the other 20 people in your zerg… Those need to be in 2 different 10 man squads. It doesnt force a split, but it encourage more commanders on the field and simple tactics of a zerg (you, red commander, go right with your 10 man buffed squad!).

The issue with the design of the arrow carts is that they rely on ground targeting. All the other siege fires projectiles that must have LoS to the target to be able to work, whereas arrow carts can allow you to shoot all sorts of places, even when it doesn’t make much physical sense.

The only thing I think they can do to “fix” arrow carts is to remove the ground targeting ability and make them work more like catas do. Of course, if they had too many restrictions placed on where they can’t reach, they might end up being too useless.

Either that or they could make it so that arrow carts can’t damage siege, but that would make it extra tough for people to even defend gates in the first place.