Guild Wars 2

I think some people still have not noticed it, but John Corpening is now a game director for WvW. One year ago, he started few discussion threads about population balance and scoring system. If you want to get insight of what might be comming…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Scoring-Discussion
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Solution-to-fix-the-population-imbalance/first

This post is very interesting, he talked about guild alliances and how would it work.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Solution-to-fix-the-population-imbalance/page/10#post4443606

If they are really working on this big overhaul for 1 year+, i dont think they have picked easy way to “fix” population imbalance by just merging servers or making eotm system.
With guild alliance system, server community would still be able to play together, there would be now alliance pride.

You can’t attribute the decrease of players to the desert borderlands.

• A new expansion has come with big promises to wvw and people are still disappointed which can be a reason for not playing.
• Also you need to grind a lot for your guild and I know one guild that only does WvW and since the expansion was out they do more farming in PVE than ever to rush to the +5 supply upgrade of the guild.
• The new maps are challenging for commanders cause they need to go solo for 4-6 hours and figure out the map and then start leading people. But most don’t do this and they just follow the roads and end up in dead-ends, fall off high cliffs and die, get stuck in barricades, etc. So commanders blame the map for their incompetence and followers blame it too cause that’s the easiest thing to do.
• Old borderlands were not that popular back then either and people still prefered EBG. On SFR you would always had a 30ppl queue for EBG while the home map had some people, but the other 2 maps where kind of deserted. Some exceptions were made when a new season would start or the reset night.

Catalin.5341:

1. Not really. You want to have a situation where a small team can use the terrain against a blob and annihilate it with choke points, portal bombs, stealth etc. Bland plain maps are boring.

Which is a different thing to ‘a map that forces combat more often’, it is supposed to be an RvR type mode with “massive battles” (or just battles fullstop), yet the whole system / maps in WvW are poorly designed in that “winning” involves PvDoor, avoiding fights and playing at times when the other server does not, which is a joke, and is partly why the game mode has been bleeding players most of the game.

The new map just takes that problem and makes it worse, it is even easier to avoid fights, and PvDoor on it, slower for people to intercept, etc.

Which is why several other RvR type game modes have maps that are either somewhat akin to lanes, at least for the main objectives, or restrict what objectives you can attack to what is immediately adjacent to the area your faction controls, this forces fights, unlike the joke that is WvW.

1. Not really. You want to have a situation where a small team can use the terrain against a blob and annihilate it with choke points, portal bombs, stealth etc. Bland plain maps are boring.

2. Learn the map

3. If by PVE you mean shrines, well, just forget about them and do your own thing. Why care?

4. No. That’s sPvP. I think you’re in the wrong forum

Same for auto-upgrades.
People keep asking to bring back the alpine borderlands and expect for auto-upgrades to go away.
They are present in EBG too, so even if they bring the old maps back you still have the same bugs, same auto-upgrades, guild claiming, etc

I was hoping to generate convo about roaming. it seems like eotm has GREAT roaming potential, but it is ovwewhlemed by zergs. regular wvw maps can work if i move to a low population server. right now i am in JQ and it is ok but still feels crowded.

i was hoping to have a map that felt like its purpose was minor objectives with small groups being favored. like a lot of camps that dont require seige.

as i write this it sounds like pvp, but the bigest differnce is that i want my death to be VERY significant. in pvp you respawn and jump back into the action, while in wvw you have to run back to the objective. fights are more decisive.

on mobile appologize for spelling and capitolozation

Another thing to hope for in the WvW revamp that’s supposed to be coming up soon. A really big map with lots of camps/outposts that is not designed for long (if any) siege. Persistent PvP. Maybe on a swamp map. Hey, sounds a lot like Hossin for Planetside 2… awesome!

hedix.1986:

cafard.8953:

Found on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u7bo1/no_hope_for_legendary_effect_on_engineer/cxcqyvo

A bit sad that the devs are more active on Reddit than providing official communication.
It’s probably all the cupcakes that the PvE fans buy them…

You have ANets words about the major overhaul sticky in this subforum. Just read it again: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-Invitational-Statement-from-John-Corpening-game-director-for-World-vs-World/5350913

Afterwards you should know who is in charge of WvW since a year: John Corpening (game director for World vs. World)

And what are the topics of the overhaul:

• population imbalance
• scoring
• unrewarded contributions like defense/scouting

Wolfric.9380:

Gearing the character for WvW is one of the major goals in this game which drives players!

Greetigns

Wolf

Not for me major goal in this game is just have good fights were skill matters not gear or class setups.

As title states, is old wvw being deliberately left to die while other game modes are worked on (pve/pvp) – so that a radically redesigned wvw can be relaunched to minimal protest in the near future?

2 years or even 1 year ago, the idea of server merges/removal of the old server system altogether would have been unthinkable, due to server loyalty and established communities. However with wvw as it is currently – on life support – the impression I get is that people would now be open to this: if it brings wvw back from the dead. Massive changes to the match up system and way PPT works could come hand in hand with this. As wvw currently works with multiple servers and unbalanced populations, there is no obvious solution to these issues – but a relaunch without the old server system may be the answer.

A relaunch would also reinvigorate wvw with new and returning players, reversing the massive combined population loss of the past 3 years, that has only been worsened by the new BL map.

Call this a conspiracy theory if you like, but it makes sense to me.

New shinies.

/15charr

In theory, you could go and play WvW to form your own opinion instead of seeking the forced view of other people thats already been regurgitated over and over again in 100+ thread should you choose to read the forum.

kroter.1326:

I have even simpler idea – cut out every wvw-specific reward out of EOTM. Because it’s stealing players in huge numbers.

Thing is, EotM is still WvW. And cutting out their rewards won’t bring those people back to borderlands – it will just antagonize them. It’s not like they left in search of WvW-specific rewards.

Seriously… how is “hey, he’s enjoying that – quick, take away his loot” a good fix to anything? People are lured by rewards, not confiscation.

Xillllix.3485:

It’s a glimmer of hope for WvW, but it’s very imprecise in regards to what we should expect. They’ve been working for over a year on a “Major overhaul”. This implies that it’s going to be a huge change, bcause I doubt you would work a year on something as simple as a server merge when it was already done for PvE a long time ago.

Hopefully this “Major” update is a new scoring mechanic, a new reward system, and a new alliance-based server system that prevents the accumulation of empty maps.

Read the above again if you are in this thread to spread wild speculation and or stressing out over what this means . This is not news to anyone who has been paying attention. The questions about what and when remain unanswered and likely will continue to be so until they are ready to talk about them now matter how many temper tantrums we throw on the forums.

The only things left for us to discuss is how much the game landscape may have changed since last year when these changes first started being worked and what we as players might need to do to help ANET see where our opinions have evolved on some issues since then. We only need to go back to last years mega WvW CDI’s thread to get a sense where they might be going with things. Lets just hope they have one of the trendy adaptive management strategies in place to adjust to changes the WvW scene has undergone recently.

Now that we lost the primary reason to complain, the WvW forums have suddenly … gone silent.

I actually like the active on wrath as is, it can be quite nice in PvP for some specs.

Though i would agree the passive needs some changing.

The change to signet of mercy is interesting.

Judgment is actually the one signet I like as is.

My suggestions would be thus

Signet of Courage: Passive heal reduced to about 1/9 what it is now, however it now heals every second.
Signet of Courage Active: Grant nearby allies protection (8 seconds) & stability (2 stacks for 8 seconds) _(1/4 second cast time & 50 second CD)

Bane Signet Active: Now knocks down all enemies in a narrow cone (900 range, 2 second knock down, 35 second CD) (think warrior off hand mace)

Signet of Wrath passive: Increases run speed by 25%
Signet of Wrath Active: Immobilize (3 seconds) & burn (2 stacks for 3 seconds) target enemy.
(CD remains the same as is now)

Signet of Mercy Passive: Increases boon duration by 20%.
Signet of Mercy Active: Grant nearby allies resistance (5 seconds) & heal them.
(The heal would start low, say 300 ish at base but scale similar to how pure of heart does. Cd would be around 45 seconds with a 1/2 second cast time)

Perfect Inscriptions: Reduces the cool down of signets by 20%, in addition whenever you use a signet you cleanse 2 conditions & gain 3 stacks of might (for 15 seconds)

Steelo.4597:

he was a complete failure as a wvw dev, but he says some true words about modern times, how people have to be friendly and constructive all the time to get into the closed circles of the powers that be in business. basically how you cant expect a thing from people in charge except them knowing how to smile and nod and fire / ban / close you down while thinking they got it all figured out.

So what?

I guess as an older person it seems like a lot of you make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Yes, you should be friendly to others if you expect them to be friendly to you because they outnumber you. That is nothing new. Politeness was not invented in modern times. Negativity does nothing progressive. Do you think this historic event was the result of negativity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo Without failure no one can learn to how proceed.

Summoning automatically when swapping into ventari and sticking to you until you direct it to move somewhere would be a dramatic QOL fix I feel.

While I like the idea of upkeeps and I think it could work for natural harmony, I prefer the current bursty condi removal provided by purifying essence since I often have to removal cripple and immobilize etc at the same time.

IMO apart from the mechanics (and the radius of the tablet feeling a too small) there’s a few other main issues that come straight to mind when I use ventari – Natural Harmony really feels too weak for it’s energy cost, and Energy Expulsion too slow, unreliable and time consuming to be useful either as a personal heal or a group tool. It is kinda fun blasting fields and knocking stuff around with it though.

I have found myself using project tranquility surprisingly often, as I seem to find myself playing quite frequently with people who have can’t be bothered to slot their reflect skills since they now have traps and wells to play with.

Masori.3528:

Phantom.8130:

There’s problems on so many levels, that even fixing one level completely won’t have much impact. Everything from the very foundation all the way up needs redesigned and completely reset. And that even includes the mindsets of a loooooot of players. Unfortunately, that’s just plain not possible. Anet isn’t going to fix the foundation as well as all of the details built on top of said foundation, and the playerbase isn’t going to go do some studying of actual strategy. So….. we end up with the constant karma train. Because that’s what it’s set up for, and that’s all a lot of people know.

+1

The blobmentality is what broke WvW.

What broke WvWvW is WvWvW, it simply is not sustainable when it needs large scale participation but is so incredibly prone to imbalance and thus cannot even be rewarded so players will evaporate rapidly. People blob because “safety in numbers” and “taking the easy road”, that’s just human nature. If someone is making games and isn’t taking this into account then they should probably consider a career switch.

Like it or not, GW2’s combat is made with small teams in mind not massive battles, in PvE blob fights like temples and bosses, its not so apparent because the encounters are simplistic and NPCs don’t get annoyed at being on the wrong end of game mechanics and log off. AoE caps and rally system issues aside, actual large fights lag the ever living kitten out of the servers, which is hilarious considering the mode. WvWvW doesn’t have another three years of “soon” left in it and its not because of blobbers.

Just take 1 keep on each map, then yo will have 3 WP… Use community guild to speak accross map and call for help when needed… Problem solved…
I miss the old BL with 1 team controlling all the map, but we can’t on this map. And to be honest, we have more activity when we play like this.

I think there should only be 1 BL map (and EB), and the 3rd place/red server gets the “home” starting location. Seems like the biggest problem with the new maps is a lack of players on them – I see a lot of criticisms but I don’t think you can complain too much until we have seen how the maps perform when full, or close to it, for extended periods of time.

I know there are lots of “systemic” issues with WvW that need to be addressed but this seems like something easy to do that could really help out. The only issue I can see with this is queues on T1 during primetime/reset, but from what my friends on JQ say that shouldn’t be a problem.

Thoughts?

The current system fuses Armorvalue + Statvalue + Rune into one single item. Straight to the point: I think this is bad and does hurt the game.

The Problem

So what does happen: People craft the current Armor and cannot change anything about it anymore. Sure it is possible to extract the rune with the Gem-store thingy. Sure it is possible to change stats of ascended armor in the mystic toilet. And also possible to overwrite a Rune in an Item.

But let’s face it: That are final, non reverse able changes and not feasible if one wants to temporary use a different build. Currently people are “locked” into their build.

Here is an example: I do play my Ranger with Zerker gear for “easy” content (dungeons, low level fractals, open world, story). I play my Ranger with Condition gear for “hard” content (high level fractals, raid). And I play my Ranger as Druid in Healer gear for some other content (need to babysit in high level fractals not everyone is a pro, raids, sometimes open world).

That are 3 armor sets with 3 different stat-values and 3 different runes – but all with the same armor value (I won’t talk about trinkets + weapons here because I do not think that a change there is that necessary).

This problem of multiple armor sets is not limited to me or rangers (I play most other classes as well but only my ranger has 3 sets).

A possible solution

I want to seperate Amor and Stats and Runes (into 3 parts)

The armor will still be crafted. It will have only an armor value (light/medium/heavy+rarity). It will still have a slot for a rune. New will be that there will be a slot for an insignia. Ascended Armor will also ofc have the infusion slot.

The Stats will also still be crafted in form of the insignia. The insignia will NOT be part of the armor recipe anymore but basically interact as a rune: You put it into an armorpiece’s new insignia slot and the armorpiece will gain the stats of the insignia

Runes will work the same as before: Just put them into the armor.

And now the important part: Insignias and Runes will not be fixed to the armorpiece anymore but can be removed without any cost or risk that the armor will be destroyed. It should only require you to be out of combat.

Effects
You will only have the “armor” that you have equipped. Additionally you will have insignias for each of your builds and runes for each one. You can change them out of combat and easily change your build

It will still not be “cheap” to get different stats. Even now insignias are the costheavy part of crafting an armor. For characters that only have (play) 1 build nothing will change costwise. For chars with more than one build the cost of crafting the “armor” will be missing

You wont have more than one armor-outfit expect if you craft a new set. So more transmutation-charges will be used (most likely)

The Rune-extractor thingy will be removed (or unnecessary for armor) from the gem-store and ANet loses 3,50$ of the people buying it to remove a sigil of generosity. /s

A few inventory slots will be free for chars with more that one build again (from 6 slots for armor to 2 slots for runes + insignias. So 4 free slots per additional armorset). 1 Build chars wont have more space.

[some economical impact. But I am only talking about a gameplay issue not an economy issue]

e.g. the value of loot will change. because the stats can be seperated from the armor. So less desired stats will maybe gain some value since the “armor” part of them is just the same as any other meta-stats-armor

What is to balance/discuss

Material-cost should be shifted so that insignias will cost less and “armor” will cost more. With that build diversity is not that costly anymore (which would be good for the game imho).

Is there any need to compensate people that bought upgrade extractors? (I think not. They got what they wanted and saved the gold that would have been lost if they had salvaged the armor – they wanted to keep that and that’s what they paid for)

What about people that have multiple armors for one char? (I think nothing. Existing armor will be reworked like I proposed. So they can simply separate the armors into pieces and use for other chars if they do not want to use different skins)

What should be soul/account-bound? (I think “Armor” should be soul and insignias and runes account bound (after use!). That way there will be no chars without any armor and Alts/non-mainchars can easily be geared if the player decides that an other char shall see some more action. Also “old” armor (e.g you crafted an ascended armor and do not need your old exotic any more) is not completely useless since the insignia can still be used for alts.) Keyword: Alt-friendly

Should this change apply to all armor? Isn’t this change too much for new players? (I think it should be applied to all armor. It would allow low level chars to improve their armor because they can transfer the stats they need into the armor they need instead of having the “wrong” loot and runing around with equipment -20 their level. Also I would not expect this change to push new players too hard)

final word

Since other “locked” mechanics like the traits that you could only reset by paying some silver (or the gem-store extractor) are gone I do not think that this change pushes in a different direction than the game should go.

English is not my mother tongue so forgive me (at least some^^) mistakes. Feel free to make comments on any point I made and discuss. I think that change is absolutely necessary for the game to be healthy but I am only a single player.

And sure thing is that I would be happy if ANet does implement this (or sth. with a similar effect) :P

My greatest fear: Something like I proposed is only implemented for legendary armor because that will push the gear-race to a completly new level.

I’m 100% aware nothing I say will change how anyone here thinks or acts. This is the internet after all.

I’ve been on these forums reading silently for years and it never changes. Every time there’s even a slight nerf there’s an outpouring of trolls who act like someone from anet has come to their home and personally spat on them. “A slap across the face!” and what not. So ridiculous, how detached from reality must a person be to actually believe people making balance changes for a video game have a personal vendetta out for them.

These same people will 100% ignore anything positive they get though. They’d rather hyperexaggerate the reality of the game to lobby for outrageous buffs for their class of choice, while simultaneously calling for nerfs to everything else.

You use to be able to the forums to get productive and beneficial information about the class, but now its almost entirely pages upon pages of either the same exact topic in 20 forum threads of people whining, or people declaring they’ve “quit the game for good this time and I mean it!” when everyone knows they haven’t.

“White Knight” <— this is a term you throw at someone when they don’t agree with you and you have no actual tangible argument against what they’re saying. Sort of like the opposite end of the spectrum if someone were to call you a “forum whining scrub” without actually saying anything towards the argument at hand.

And already here two people trying to argue that Druids are bad are in complete and absolute contradiction of one another. Crapgame claims druids are good in spvp and wvw but horrible in pve. Stickerhappy claims pve is easy and EVERYONE should be great in pve but that apparently druids are really bad in spvp. So which is it?

And the only fact I need to know is that while you troll the forums all day attacking anyone who says druid’s are actually viable and no way near the unplayable, broken, bug infested, give me all the buffs I want class you pretend to claim it is, I’m over here enjoying mine with absolute success in pve and pvp.

Just as fast as anet can “knee jerks” balancing, you’re sure to be on the forums “knee jerking” some “They’re out to get me and my class! THEY DON’T RESPECT ME!!!!!” bs forum post. I mean seriously “They don’t respect us?” You want christmas card this year from them? You think its some personal slight against you that a balance change goes the other way and not in your favor? Get a grip on reality man.

I agree with you, OP.

Each class has it’s strengths and weaknesses and each class is balanced to the best of ANet’s ability. Nothing will ever be perfectly balanced but that’s why there are frequent adjustments – to keep things as close to being balanced as they can be.

Yes, ANet makes mistakes and sometimes they neglect to understand the communities desires but we can’t always get what we want. At least they admit to their mistakes when they make them (most times) and reverting the Smokeskales F2 ability was a perfect example of that.

Druid is just as playable as the other elite specs. It might not be as exciting as some of the others but it’s not completely broken. Balance patches will continue to happen so long as the game continues to thrive and Druid/Ranger, like all of the other professions, will have it’s ups and downs.

It’s fine to be upset with ANet’s decisions but crying on the forums tends to result in a “be careful what you wish for” situation more often than not. Perfect example was when I made a post requesting for arrow cart line of sight to be fixed in WvW and they definitely fixed it but they also made them completely unusable for a while, too.

If you dislike the way something is being handled, take a constructive approach to finding a solution instead of just “WAH, WAH, ANET HATES US, I’M REROLLING” or “naw they don’t you just gotta l2p.”

Unfortunately most people don’t have enough insight to give constructive advice and would rather make baseless accusations or just flat out insult any one who disagrees with them.

There are posts on the Necro forums about how Necro will be 100% non viable in all games modes soon enough once people begin to understand how to play their other classes. There are rev posts talking about how “anything a rev can do another class can do better” Its all the same everywhere you go; “My class is bad and needs buffs and all other classes are OP and need nerfs”

And again right here in this post are the paranoid knee jerk reactions as usual. Did I nerf ranger? I didn’t realize I was a programmer for Anet but here people are jumping at me for pointing out the fact that they jump at anyone or anything that doesn’t claim ranger is a 100% unplayable class and that everyone should march on Anet corporate headquarters and put their heads on pikes.

You can all be as angry and paranoid about ranger, or either of the other classes claiming they are clearly the worst class in GW, as you’d like but other than the first few days of trying to get my bearings on new content, I’ve been having an easy time clearing the new content, completing hero challenges and killing others in pvp. If I were to believe these forums, I should be dying every three steps in the jungle, only be 10% done with my elite spec and be unable to even down someone in pvp.

If I were to believe these forums as of yesterday, I should be almost completely unable to build my celestial power bar. It should be ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE based on the whining going on in these forums. And yet, here I am, not even using staff at all, completely able to use celestial form whenever I want to or whenever I need it. But again, this should be impossible based on the completely exaggerated posts of these forums.

Lack of communication is evident here but if I were a dev, I wouldn’t want to come anywhere near these forums either. There are so few constructive and helpful posts and far too many “my class is broken garbage, anet are scum!” uneducated and knee jerk paranoia posts on these forums.

Every single class forum is FULL of people who claim their class is the red headed step child of Anet while all other classes are OP and get all sorts of attention from Anet. I mean have you really looked at all? Engineer’s claiming they’re the “least played and worst class in GW2” warriors claiming “Anet doesn’t care about them and they are an abandoned class” thieves all saying “no reason to play a thief now and forever” and its the same in every other forum. Hell, even the guardians have posts that are all doom and gloom and how Anet has forsaken them.

I find it funny how you’re all 100% sure that Anet is just out to get this one class you play and loves all the other classes. So many of you talking about “knee jerk” reactions by Anet when balancing and yet these forums are a cesspool of paranoid “knee jerk” reactive posters and people who just jump right on the paranoia bandwagon because they read one post from someone else, equally misinformed, who said the sky was falling.

I’ve spent a month now playing around in the new map and have some time to spare, so thought I’d try and give some constructive feedback if Anet happen to be monitoring this thread if any.

The good

1) New map looks gorgeous. Really beautiful and interesting to traverse. The varied terrain offers some interesting fights both for zerging and roaming. I’ve had some hilarious battles whilst roaming and have fallen to my death a lot.
2) The designs of each new tower are great. Interesting themes with different lords to mix things up. Nice work. I look forward to seeing what lords will be created for the future WvW maps.
3) Keep buffs are actually very fun to utilise. The stealth buff is probably the best designed of the three by creating a very much localised but very potent effect. It actually creates a very dangerous environment that you would be mad to walk through without first de-capping a shrine. The other two buffs are subtle but a nice addition.
4) Removal of gold sink in WvW was a great move. WvW players don’t have much gold really so this was the next step to making this game mode more approachable.

The not so good…

1) Removing the player interaction with base upgrades kind of removes a lot of the fun. There’s no satisfaction in capping a fully upgraded camp anymore because the enemy hasn’t allocated any time or resources to upgrading it. It’s now just a hollow PvE event that kind of just…happens.
2) Requiring absolutely no supply to eventually upgrade a keep also removes player interaction detrimentally. If you don’t get around to recapping a keep for a while, the players who eventually do are just massively inconvenienced with fully upgraded walls and such, where no enemy players having had any input in its strengthening. Again, just feels like a hollow PvE event now – like your fighting time instead of the enemy.
3) Guild WvW upgrades are buried under a mountain of time consuming PvE content. This just isn’t very fun – needs to be changed for the sanity of WvWers.
4) The big group event in the centre of the map just empowers karma trains/zergs and creates unfair scenarios. Whenever the event is up, enemy zergs just waypoint to the map for an easy, free -50% health to every door structure. It just doesn’t feel right that on the dot every hour or so you can just zerg this event as a preamble to karma training the rest of the map. It’s a disappointing event.

Megaserver vs megaserver is coming, I think. …eventually.

EotM was the test bed for that style of play.

Pretty popular it seems too…for all the wrong reasons.

Don’t think they need to do the effort to create yet another new map.
Those who are serious about wvw quit and those who were not so serious wander off to EotM.
Problem solved.

(You have a lot of truth in your OP though).