Guild Wars 2

I think we have bigger issues than the aesthetics of longbow skills, don’t you?

This is complete nonsense. Rangers will not be even remotely fine until all of their related bugs and broken skills and abilities are fixed…the real problem is not the design of the Ranger, it’s that it DOES NOT WORK AS DESIGNED.

None of us – no one – has played the Ranger as imagined by ANet. That Ranger does not exist. Period. Until it does, no definitive statement except this one can be made about whether they are effective or not…

Given the number of things that are in fact still not working – and that fix attempts such as Lick Wounds and Signet of the Hunt were unbelievable fails – I do not hold any hope for this changing any time soon. I love ANet’s art desiign…I love their ideas…but their execution is quite simply horrible. I’m sorry but the facts do not allow any other conclusion. Until Rangers get an ability that is fueled by gems…we are kitten out of luck my friends.

None of the above is true.

All traps except the flame trap persist for a good long time. You do not need to stay in range of them once placed either. I run a ranged trap build and this is absolutely unquestionable. While it is true that you will see the trap teleport to your location when it is triggered, this is a bug (which works as a nice alarm feature) – it is in fact activated at the original location, applying all effects and damage, as intended.

Didn’t play Aion, but GW2 has plenty of transforms, elite powers, the golems etc…I think something like this is quite appropriate. Would be a blast too. They may well have something planned to replace or redo Orbs, but this would be fun in the meantime…and again, from a coding perspective, there is very little change needed as far as I can see.

drake.2135:

Power Bolt dealing 62 damage? Even the Elementalist’s Water Blast (1st Water skill of the staff) would deal more damage than that.

The rest seem fine.
I like how you pretty much turn it into a sort of “I’m the boss!” item. Might be intriguing.

That was the damage in it’s previous incarnation, I kept all the original values.

Jon, or someone…anyone really, at Anet – would it be possible to get an update on these ranger issues you have kindly stickied? Information on what you have fixed, or believe you have fixed, or know or acknowledge is broken/still broken would be very useful.

I just went through this 2 month old list and it seems almost all of these things are still broken. I spent about 2 hours testing various things just now and a large number of things are not working at all or not as intended. I understand the need for patience, but over 2 months seems a bit excessive for these seemingly simple and numerous issues. Some kind of information would be helpful and appreciated – thank-you!

JonPeters.5630:

This is a fine place for this. I’ll get it stickied like the others. Thanks for your patience, these fixes will take some time to do, and about a week to test. They won’t all happen at once as we try to push through fixes ASAP.

Jon

Yes you read that correctly. I am actually suggesting reintroducing orbs…

With some minor modifications. :P

My suggestion is simple – put Orbs back in, with the same effects and stat modifiers for possession…but limit the latter to the individual player carrying the Orb, and remove the 15 timer. Very little coding involved, makes the Orb area on the northern part of the Borderlands maps a bit less of a waste of space and has a few other interesting consequences of a ‘WvW is getting a little old’ nature.

For those that don’t recall, the Orb-related bonuses are or would be as follows:

-Player carrying the orb’s location becomes visible on the map to all servers
-Holding the orb slowly drains the wielder’s health
-Wielder gains access to new skills:

Power Bolt – Release a burst of energy to damage your target. (62 Damage, Range 1200)
Orb Strike – Hit your enemy with the Orb, stunning them. (2 sec stun, Range 150)
Throw Orb – Throw the Orb towards your target, blinding targets that it passes through. It bursts, dazing enemies, and returns to you. , Daze: 3 sec, Range 1200)
Radiant Armor – Grant Retaliation to nearby allies. (Retaliation 20 sec, Range150)

Add 1 new power and 1 new effect:

Power Strike – Bash a gate for 8000 damage. (same damage, range and timer as a Ram)

-Orb Wielder’s character model is of increased size (2 or 3 times?)

While carrying the Orb, the player would also receive the stat bonuses one would have received if their team held all three Orbs, that being +15% HP, +150 to all Stats.

Again, no timer as was the case before, but Orb is once again lost on death and applies all the other limitations etc

What this does:

-As mentioned, gives that space where the Orb used to be some use again
-(re)Adds a cool mechanic with some neat powers and effects, without being unbalancing
-(re)Adds an objective of interest to WvW
-Gives something of practical use without being overpowering – a team that is ahead and owns everything on the map is not going to be overly advantaged by having one person on that team possessing these powers and bonuses…but a team that is over-matched and undermanned, could get a measure of benefit from having one of their number being somewhat more uber and hero-like
-Turning a player into a kind of mini-boss is just very cool, both for the people who managed to do it for themselves, and those trying to take them down. Think of it like a golem but somewhat different and again, much cooler

Some people are finding WvW to be a bit stale. This would add something to things without requiring much (or anything) in the way of new code, or by being unbalancing. The old issue with the orbs would not be the case with this limited implementation.

I think it would be a fun thing – new fun stuff like the costume brawl, the tonics, the events etc are of a similar vein. I also think it would be relatively harmless while being a nice new diversion. Thoughts?

Wasn’t me, but someone probably did.

Aaynhe and some others put together a golem army on Tarnished Coast’s Eternal Battlegrounds map the night of 11/30/12 – http://youtu.be/KsX5wCaYmWM is a hint of some of the resulting mayhem!

Aaynhe and some others put together a golem army on Tarnished Coast’s Eternal Battlegrounds map the night of 11/30/12 – http://youtu.be/KsX5wCaYmWM is a hint of some of the resulting mayhem!

Great round once again, looking forward to more of the same this coming week!

Ianervan.3415:

Your skill level is not yet at the point where you can recognize game changers…

You have no idea what you are talking about. You may want to consider that before questioning others…example:

“Speed building siege does nothing. The main limitation of siege is supply, not speed it’s built. Nor can you build siege by yourself, so you still need to wait for other people to finish building siege.”

There are several situations where being able to build siege quickly is extremely important. Since you obviously cannot think of any, I will describe a few:

-On an offensive push into SM’s Lord Room
-In a flanking position at close range of the enemy position to take out their siege
-Any circumstance where completing siege builds in 5 seconds and not 50 is vital…

A practical example. Treb on SM’s upper walls is hitting Towers at extreme range. Your trebs breach outer walls…you take a group of 3 rangers in, get up onto the outer walls of SM in range of the Treb above, speed build a ballista, take it down. This happened last night…getting that treb down, while in combat mind you, changed the whole dynamic.

A siege build has a HUGE profile on the battlefield, it’s a ‘come kill me’ sign…reducing or effectively eliminating the time that sign is visible is indeed a considerable advantage. Just because you can’t think of something doesn’t dismiss it..

“Never tried using traps as alarms…. I really can’t think of a single usage of this”

Again, you cannot think of something is useful or possible, so you take it upon yourself dismiss it outright, to someone else. Amazing.

There are many situations where you or your force will be operating in an area with limited access points, where early warning of entry by the enemy into that area will be not only valuable, but vital. Example – there are various spots in WvW, mesas or other elevated treb positions, that will be set up to fire on an asset. Trapping the chokepoint entry to that area means you will have advance warning to a move on your position. This works for any fixed position defense with restricted access points – siege positions, supply camps, even the jumping puzzle. We’ve intercepted more than one mesmer bomb using this method – it absolutely has value on the field.

“Pet Torpedoes. Don’t know what this is, and don’t know how a pet can possibly survive longer than few sec…”

“Entangle. The range of this thing as well as affecting only one person (AFAIK) make this useless in most cases. It’s a horrible elite, and I really like the idea behind it. Correct me if I’m wrong but Sylvari racial creates AoE vines…”

These two self-admissions of ignorance pretty much make clear that you have no idea what you are talking about, and I have no idea why you are dismissing the statements of someone who does when you yourself know that you do not…

Pets, can be ‘equipped’ with invisibility, invulnerability, or both…with increased health, toughness, damage absorption…you name it. They can area of effect daze, stun, fear etc, and despite their many admitted issues, can be sent into a cluster of enemies from a reasonably safe distance to deliver whatever package you’ve selected. Having the pet be the first point of contact to a cluster is very useful when rushing a stack.

As for siege, when you are a small force faced with fixed position siege – ballista in Pangloss for example – the ‘pet torpedo’ is very useful. A single player can disarm a siege engine using this method, allowing one to close to the target without getting chewed up on the way. Most people ignore pets, being of the opinion that they suck and are useless…and in many ways they do suck…but a fear, or daze, works just as well whether it was delivered by a pet or a player.

Just because you don’t see the value in something does not mean it does not have value. Especially when you are ignorant of the mechanics (Entangle is not single target, and the Sylvari racial is not an AoE)…there is a big difference between opinion and fact.

My main is a Ranger and I spend most of my time in WvW. It is definitely not a useless class, in fact it has some abilities which are extremely important, even vital, and I’m surprised they are being overlooked here – so much so that I hesitate to mention them.

That said, a few of them are:

-Trapping entry points, using traps as alarms (due to a ‘bug’, detection range is far)
-Speed-building siege
-Strong AoE Healing (spring, spirit and pet)
-Pet Torpedoes (lots of problems with pets, but they have good tactical utility when used properly – especially against siege)
-Entangle – even though it is bugged, when used well this is a game changer
-Self-Revive – being able to self-revive via Lick Wounds also has great tactical value, when used properly

The 1500 Range option, for both single target and AoE, is also very useful – though damage is not what it could be. Ranger is definitely a niche class – if you’re playing one and not finding yourself of value in WvW, then a build or playstyle change might be warranted.

BTW thank-you Liberis.9573 very much for being a source of information, much appreciated.

kittening amateurs.

Pathetic. Really kittening pathetic.

A delay isn’ t the problem. Telling us absolutely nothing is a HUGE kittening problem.

raziel.8375:

i hope they reset it soon maybe there having problems with the new patch and lost shores.still not fair for all us Wv3 guys

The disrespect with which ANet treats it’s customers with is astonishing…I anticipated this game, I played the hell out of it in beta, but since release, they have shown nothing but disdain for us. How in the world can they not be bothered to tell us the reset has been delayed, the time changed, or the rounds changed to 2 weeks? It’s disgusting.

I use it as well sometimes, but find it is more situational than the others. Pairing this with the healing reduction of Viper’s Nest with ranged traps is great for stack-busting.

Isaac.6041:

Any particular reason for the axe?

Please let us know your trait allocations and skillbar setup….

For groundwork, I prefer Axe over sword etc due to it’s ranged nature (900 units) and bleed, which work well with the ranged traps (600 units). Bleeds stack in intensity, and with the weapon bleed, trap bleed, trait-opened sharpening stone and a pet bleed – to say nothing of Entangle when used – the overall effect is quite good.

I slot Flame Trap, Viper’s Nest and Spike Trap, left to right – in order of cooldown time – and use Heal as One for healing. My Trait setup is:

20 Marksmenship – Keen Edge and Eagle Eye
30 Skirmishing – Sharpened Edges, Trapper’s Expertise and Trap Potency
20 Wilderness Survival – Soften the Fall and Off-Hand Training

For wallwork I go with the Longbow (traited to 1500 range), and if the circumstances call and allow for it, I switch my skills to Muddy Terrain, Sharpening Stone and Quickening Zephyr. The latter two combined with Rapid Shot tend to result in assured killshots, while the former is useful for putting down in front of the gate to increase the effectiveness of Arrow Cart fire.

Again from walls, for Elite, if solo I tend to switch to Rampage as One – if with a group of people in a stack or if I’m operating siege I use Spirit it of Nature. In such a case I also switch to Healing Spring and make sure I have a heal-capable pet up, the Fern Hound or a Moa.

I find with the Ranger, it is more important than with most other classes to modify your loadout based on what you are doing. Some people do not consider doing this, as you need to be out of combat to do so, but generally – especially when going from the ground, entering a fortification, up to a position on the walls, you will go out of combat naturally and be able to make the necessary changes.

The same holds true for pets – using your pet’s F2 ability, where it works mind you, is very important. In many cases it will dovetail well with one of your own abilities – using those synergies will help you get more out of your build than otherwise. This is especially true for a condition build.

If anyone is interested in seeing how these things play out in combat, let me know and I’ll record and post something. This build is negatively impacted by some of the bugs we Rangers face – Entangle for example does not take one’s condition damage number into account – but I feel it is still effective in combat, especially group combat in WvW. Your traps will significantly reduce the time it takes to kill groups of guards at camps or doors, and are very good for killing yaks/sentries.

Traps are also much appreciated when dealing with those stealthers preventing you from capping.

One last note – when using the traps as alarms for chokepoints when you want to know if someone has come into an area you are working in, do not use the Flame Trap. Unlike the other traps, it will time out and disappear, needing to be replaced.

I run an all-in Condition Build. Traps, Longbow for wall-work and Axe/Warhorn for ground work. In long-duration asset-based defensive fights from the walls down, I will go out of combat before getting up and swap the horn for torch. Weapon switching allows you to throw the torch down to the ground – 1200 range when offhand is traited – and also do the bonfire at your feet for switching back to Longbow and a nice burning Rapid Fire.

For down up to the walls, Longbow traited for range and the Warhorn for the ranged attack and mobility. With traited ranged traps, you can actually place them so they are triggered by people on the walls…stack Flame Trap, Viper’s Nest and Spike trap along with a well-timed Barrage, and you will kill people on the walls from the ground. Very effective.

For gear, I’m full-on Carrion. Gives me a bit more than my minimum preferred levels of 20k HP, 1400 Condition Damage and 30/30 Crit Change/Damage. Undead Runes, sigils are Earth (bleed on crit) on the Longbow, with Earth again on the Axe and Hydromancy on the Warhorn…this freezes nearby foes for 3 seconds when you switch to it in combat – this works very well with the practical usage of Warhorn, for escapes when things get too hot, or for getting out after you’ve dropped your Entangle.

Torch has Sigil of Smoldering – increases burning duration by 10%.

I prefer Condition Damage of Duration, simply because conditions are often removed, and you get more out of it with higher damage ticks. Entangle at my level is listed at over 20k damage…unfortunately it is broken at the moment. Use a pet that does poison, preferably an AoE, or Shortbow – this allows you to effectively keep a target poisoned indefinitely, due to the duration stacking. This is important less for the damage and more for the healing debuff.

Condition builds can be very effective, depending on your playstyle. A trap build is very useful in WvW, the traps can be used as alarms, giving you a warning when you have incoming to an area you are working in etc. A Trapper Ranger is a good support character in large battles, as each trap which does a combo field buffs everyone else’s damage as well.

I disagree. F2 should cause the pet’s skill to go off, wherever it happens to be when you press F2 – period. This is how it has always worked, and this is exactly how it should be. It should not cause the pet to run off and attack your target – there is another method of sending your pet to your target…that being F1.

I am sorry, but I disagree with your thinking, and your logic. If nothing else, the fact that it worked otherwise in the past would seem to suggest the current functionality is….questionable. In practice, this running to the target has gotten me killed more times than I can count…and I know I’m not alone. I agree with the OP – it should be addressed.

Caught it here

Caught his arrival on film here!

I could care less about Ranger improvements, balance etc…I just want all the bugs and things that are broken, fixed. One of our elites is broken …I think that deserves some attention.

It does seem to have been fixed. TY ANet.

Wait a minute, are you telling me are not allowed to ask for our bugs to be fixed? Did ANet actually say that? If so, I’d like to see it for myself because that would be a pretty significant thing. People who play rangers paid just as much for this game as those who play other classes…we deserve to have our issues addressed as well.

Can someone tell me if the vault door has been fixed? Because while I see they’ve added MORE puzzles, I saw no mention in the notes they’ve actually fixed the 3 that are bugged. So before I waste more of my time on something that is broken…if someone can confirm nothing has been done about this I would appreciate, thanks.

Part 2

-Allowing instant WvW participation after an instant transfer still leaves a major bulk of issues in place: Spies, Supply draining, Bandwagonning, Fair-weather freeloaders, Realm Bonus leeches, Queue-cloggers, etc.

Again, the current system is no different in this respect. In the system I am proposing, you can transfer ONLY to a server that is outside your tier, downstream. I do not forsee many people spying or sabotaging a match that is not their own, and has no bearing on their outcome. Is it possible that the 3rd place team, if they won, would alter the composition of future tiers, and that this could be a basis for transferring to said server, so as to change what teams you will face in your next match-up? Yes, this is the one thing people could do…but to do so, THEY HAVE TO HELP THAT TEAM WIN. Mission accomplished.

For paid transfers, I would not suggest they be instant – again, as the existing system is planned to function. So no issues with Bandwagonning, Fair-weather players etc.

-You can’t PvE across servers. Not until “Guesting” is actually implemented.

Yes, you can actually, right now. It’s clunky as all hell, but it is do-able. Ask someone who has done it and they will both confirm this fact and explain it to you.

Again, your objections look legitimate on paper, but in practice, I do not see them as real issues. Could I come up with a system which avoided all possible risk of all issues? Certainly. The idea here is to design something which addresses the ‘quality of experience due to population imbalance’ issue, AND is likely to be done, and it is more likely to be done if it is a slight modification to the existing system, rather than something entirely different and thus involving great dev resources.

Your suggestion’s goal is entirely different from mine – yours would not impact imbalanced population rounds at all due to the 7-day wait period. It may be a fine idea in it’s own right, but it has no utility whatsoever in addressing the very real problem the system I describe is intended to address.

So +1 for effort, but -2 for results. P

Part 1

Actually, most of your points are not valid in my opinion:

Quoting:

:-In close matchups where the leading server is winning on merit alone, a flood of transfers that are forced into the “current” 3rd place server could ruin their hard work and discourage them from continuing that weeks matchup, leading to a new dictator based not on merit, but on mechanics.

This is extremely unlikely. Regardless of relative population, the server in 1st place always has an advantage…through orb ownership in most cases, through asset ownership and related advantages, upgrades….even if we assume equal skill level (which is most likely not the case) and equal population level, at the point where populations become equal and the 3rd server no longer is open to such transfers, the 1st server will still be in a position of advantage. You may see this as quitting as occurring on paper, but I believe it to be extremely unlikely in practice.

In fact, the only reason I have seen a first place server give up, is when they are so far ahead, that there is nothing left for them to do. This solution addresses that issue as well.

-The outmanned buff (underdog) buff will go away as soon as a significant number of tranfsers forced all onto the same 3rd place server specifically to gain said buff for the incentives you just listed, contradicting its entire purpose.

Even if that were true, it will still serve as a motivating factor, and still benefit those who transfer until such time as the population balances – it does not, at all, contradict it’s entire purpose, that purpose being motivation, not reward, which are in reality two different things. In addition as I mentioned, the buff could be manifest as a personal and not team-based round long buff, in which case it would be on for the duration of said round.

The point is to bring about even populations so as to ensure quality of experience for all three teams in a match-up, including the first place team. If you have ever been in first place by 400k+ points, I can assure you it is no more fun than being in last place by 400k+ points…and such a first place team would not are in the slightest if the others received a karma or experience bonus, as long as they had someone to play against.

-“Free” downstream and “Paid” upstream leads to a “Pay to Win” system which will alienate a majority demographic which chose this game because it has no required fee, and they expect it to be fair for those who do not spend additional money to enjoy it fully. The incentive to purchase gems with real money is one where the player feels no pressure to do so, but rewarded for their generosity if they do.

Paid Transfers are part of the existing system, my suggestion is no different than what is currently planned in this respect. It is in fact is more fair, as it gives those people who do not or cannot pay, a way to transfer servers…

If someone wants to move to a different server based on that server’s position in the tiers – to pay to win as you say – they can do it in the system ANet has currently planned. I also do not see this as the definition of ‘pay to win’ that is commonly considered as the issue, that being, paying to gain an advantage in an individual fight, an advantage over someone else. Not the same thing, at all.

It was something I considered, but I think over the longterm that the impact on server communities would be minimal – I forsee over time that the overall playerbase might average out over the servers, and gel that way. I also think that in practice, people might tend to transfer to a specific server repeatedly, kind of a sister-server in a way, and at most either stay there, or bounce back and forth between that and their server of origin etc

One of the things I like about this concept is that in addition to improving the experience for players across the board, it may also strengthen the overall community as well. Right now, as servers are interacting with others in a competitive way, they are also in some cases gaining a healthy respect or even fondness for some of their opponents. Not being able to identify the individuals by name in game has been discussed a lot as a negative in respect to the overall community…this would have as an additional benefit a level of interaction that would feed back into when the players found themselves on opposing sides again. Something which I think can only make for healthier, better gameplay in the long run.

Part 2

I should point out that even if through some mechanism all WvW team populations were kept within a very narrow range of eachother, this does not alone mean that said teams will have equal chance of winning. It should however, ensure a minimum quality of experience which I feel is the most important factor, for 90% of the player base. As some have recently stated, they would rather be in 3rd place in a good, competitive match-up, than 1st place in a blow-out.

So, the restrictions would be as follows:

-Free transfers from any server to any other server, ‘downstream’ only, outside of your current match-up or tier only, and only once per round. Resets at round end – call it ‘Timed WvW Guesting.’
-Paid transfers possible at any time, upstream/downstream, any tier and permanent – call it Changing Home Servers

‘Downstream’ means moving only to tiers or match-ups below you, and only to the team in 3rd place in said tier.

Now, some people will say, why would anyone want to transfer to a losing server? Well from what I’ve uncovered, it’s not as unlikely as it sounds:

-Ability to WvW SOMEWHERE, bypassing a prohibitively long queue
-Higher Karma/Experience gains due to Undermanned Buff (rename it to Underdog)
-Ability to fight AGAINST your own guildmates (provided the match-ups across rounds swap as would be required)
-Generate Influence on multiple servers, for future possible use in a permanent move
-Allow WvW map completion for people incapable of getting access to certain assets

I am 100% confident that, given WvW is the only thing people who transfer servers cannot do with their guildmates – you can chat, PvE etc regardless of what server you are on – people who cannot WvW with their guildmates anyway, would choose to transfer temporarily to a ‘losing’ server, so they can WvW and by doing so with others who choose similarly, in fact play a real role in that server competing again in that round. This is undeniable.

I am also fairly sure that many of the people who currently are clogging queues on winning servers are doing so largely for the perceived greater chances at Karma, XP and so on. Using the Undermanned/Underdog buff to draw these people to low population servers instead, would help the clogged queues as well as the empty servers. It may need to be tweaked a bit higher, but as it is a percentage, it should be fine to do so. Restricting it to the 3rd team as regards population, NOT score, should be done as well. Indeed, it could be an additional round-long personal buff after executing a ‘Timed WvW Guesting’, and not a server team buff per se at all.

Without having to make drastic changes to the existing system, using only these ‘minor’ modifications and restrictions, I think the quality of experience for WvW players will go up across the board. It would also help address the night-capping issue.

I would encourage ANet to seriously consider such a system…people for the most part love the WvW mechanic. When the fights are good, they are some of the best large-scale PvP battles seen in any MMO, ever. This system would simply help ensure that the fights are good on more servers than is currently the case.

A more flexible concept of guild and team identity, a more sensitive mechanic of transfers, and a smarter way of load-sharing could I think not only improve the quality of the player’s experience dramatically, but improve the game itself. WvW when fun, is amazingly fun. It just needs to be potentially fun for more people.

Thanks to all who made it down this far!

Part 1

So, having collected some data, analyzed a number of matches and put in a good amount of thought into things, I’ve come to the conclusion that ANet’s system is not bad afterall…in fact, various elements of their system currently in place which appear to be problems, may in fact be solutions. They are just a tiny bit off in terms of their manifestation…but to give you an example, I think making transferring easier, not harder, would improve things….

Crazy right?

First, lets get some facts out of the way. WvW has some real issues…no-one who has played it extensively can deny that. However, it is also true that even with these issues, extremely, insanely, absolutely epic fights can be had…whole awesome rounds can be had, and in a few – very few cases – have been had. This is fact.

The question then becomes…what aspects of the good matches, and the bad matches, are there, and can they be addressed simply within the current system. It seems that the single determining factor in match quality – not winning or losing, but the quality of the experience, which score aside, is the only thing that really matters – the real deciding factor above all else, is population.

Population manifests negatively in two ways…servers can become stacked with transfers, or are just high population, and queues become intolerable. Some people simply cannot play WvW at all on their server – period. At the other end of the scale, you have servers which have no queues and/or very low population for their WvW maps…this being either the cause, or the effect, of their being beaten badly in their match.

It seems to me, that these primary problems we all have in WvW, are such that they could cancel eachother out, using existing mechanics – with some minor modification.

Here are some more facts:

-It is already possible to transfer from one server to another
-Guilds can already exist and do exist in reality on multiple servers
-Players can play with people on other servers without transferring, excluding WvW
-Server matchups are tracked in real time
-Allowing or disallowing transfers to a server can be done based on a dynamic variable

Many people, myself including, have expressed the opinion that free transfers have impacted the game, specifically WvW, negatively…to put it mildly. It seems to me however, that MORE transfers may in fact be the solution to the above-expressed problems. Making minor modifications to the transfer system could, I think, turn what is in the opinion of many a huge blunder by ANet, into a stunning, complete and instant win.

Thanks for the replies, please keep them coming folks!

So, we’ve seen a large number of people complaining about the state of WvW, a great many posts by a great many people, but I am curious as to a somewhat more telling, or perhaps more impacting, measure of satisfaction, as far as ANet is concerned. That would be, the purchasing of gems since release.

My questions then to you are…

1) Have you bought gems using real currency in the nearly 2 months since release, and if so, how much have you spent?

2) Has your feeling on the game’s current state, caused you to be more likely or less likely to make such gem purchases?

3) What single issue, if addressed, would change your above opinion

I suggest we keep responses to the data only and leave the opinions for another thread – I think an examination of not only how we are affecting WvW, but how WvW is affecting us, would be useful. So, my responses:

1) Yes, 80$ for the game purchase and 50$ so far in gems.
2) Less likely
3) Free Server Transfers

My thanks in advance to all who help with collecting this data and who keep the responses to this basic format!

I never said these were the reasons JQ s currently number 1 – I am getting tired of people who cannot read. I clearly stated HOD was number 1 prior to recent events. I specifically stated that JQ’s community is what allowed it to deal with what the OP described as the “masses of noobs show up only wanting to run around and say hey I’m awesome I’m on the number server in” issue. Do they not teach reading comprehension in school anymore?

That said, do not confuse HOD’s nature with that of JQ’s – they are different. JQ DOES have a healthier community and stronger non-alliance leadership, this is not an opinion, it is fact – if it were not so, things would not be as they are. So save your superiority complex for someone else….a more aptly named poster I have never seen.

As you say, HOD guilds are leaving in droves…and without those guilds, the remaining community of players is less effective. This does in fact speak to community strength. HOD’s effectiveness was far more reliant on a single alliance or group of guild’s than JQ’s – the larger size and more vital nature of HOD’s core has left a great void now that it is gone. This fact is entirely counter to your premise.

And another thing, people need to stop talking about a number’s advantage – WvW has a cap. If a server can’t field enough people to fill that cap, then there is a reason for it – you want to cry about a number’s advantage, how about you look to the reasons BEHIND it.

And they call US JQQ…amazing.

It continually surprises me that more people are not aware of this, but JQ has already been through this process….

JQ was highly successful during the BWEs, and saw it’s ‘native’ population flooded with bandwagon type players just prior to and following release. The various forums and game chat were full of ‘we came here because we want to be on the winning team’ statements. It is no coincidence that our pre-release manifestation and that of our post-release were highly different. Alliances and groups set up pre-release suddenly found themselves unable to get their people in, and discovered things were a lot more difficult than they were before, with the ‘PUG’ forces clogging the queues, and outnumbering the guild/alliance people.

In JQs case however, just as there were pre-release alliances, there was also a strong community infrastructure in place. A great many of the people played in Jade Quarry identified with their server, and refused to transfer even when they could not get in, or when things were going badly. A huge amount of effort was put into coordination and communication, people stepped up and put the TS server in place, took on leadership or command roles, and the PUG population were brought into this overall community and the level of play increased. The server played as a server, and it continues to do so more every single day.

HoD was the top server, no question. Both in terms of their infrastructure and their gameplay on the field. It is my opinion however, and events have born this out, that they lacked the kind of broad base of community which allowed JQ to adapt and evolve when it’s admittedly smaller alliance groups could not get in as whole units to drive things. JQ has, through beta and now release, always played as a server, and I think the results of that are reflected in these recent events – and are a credit to everyone who was a part of this which I describe above. Kudos to all, from the bottom up and the top down, who have worked to make JQ a true team, and not just a server destination.

Binafus.8153:

JQ is going to learn something that the old HOD players already know.

It is Zero fun being on the top server, it is either work or long Ques.

It is not fun when the masses of noobs show up only wanting to run around and say hey I’m awesome I’m on the number server in GW2

The whole time HOD was unbeaten people kept saying Anet do something Anet do soemthing.

The balance to this game is up to the players not Anet, 90 percent of the good palyers will not stay on the number one server, for the ten percent that do I truely do not envy the task you have to keep your server number one.

While there have been many suggestions for changes to WvW and the points system being used to address various issues, I believe the system I will outline below to be THE new system which deserves serious consideration.

This system is designed to address these following issues and more:

-Tick-capping
-Demoralization due score differential
-Orb advantage/undermanned balancing
-Night capping
-‘Zerging’
-Queue Issues

The system requires these changes. First:

-Resources camps would be worth 10 points, not 5
-Towers would be with 15 points, not 10
-Keeps would be worth 30 points, not 25
-Stonemist would be worth 40 points, not 35

Put more simply, every objective would be worth 5 more points than it is now. This would give you a total of 1000 points ‘on the board’, as opposed to the current 695. This is a nice round number, which is more favorable for that reason, as well as one to be revealed in a moment.

Next:

-Rounds would be 6 days in length, not 7
-Rounds would start on Sunday at Noon and end on Saturday at Noon
-Ticks would no longer be every 15 minutes or 96 per day, but every 3 hours, or 8 per day – and thus giving us 48 ticks per week.
-Once a day, asset ownership would reset as it does at the end of a round. Point totals do not reset.
-Between each 6 day round, from Noon Saturday to Noon Sunday, there would be 1 24 hour round, with the same team match-up as the 6 day round which follows it
-Each of the 8 ticks for the last day of every round would have a points modifier of 10 times.

While starting and ending these rounds on these days is ideal, it is not vital to the system overall, and the current day could be retained if needed. The same is true for shortening from 7 to 6 days and the addition of the 24-hour ‘feel out’ match.

Then:

-Stat and HP bonus is removed from orbs
-Stat and HP bonus is tied to points per tick, given according to those values for the 3 hours following said tick, and equal to your points total subtracted from 1000, multiplied by 10%. This replaced the undermanned bonus – example:

Red Team has 425 points
Blue Team has 375 points
Green Team has 200 points

Red Team therefore gets a stat bonus of 57.5
Blue Team therefore gets a stat bonus of 62.5
Green Team therefore gets a stat bonus of 80

This element of the system plays out in interesting ways, but it primarily helps the losing team with bonuses that do not persist through the entire round, but for the limited duration of each tick, inversely based on their performance.

Orbs are given an entirely new mechanic. Any Keep which has an orb slotted at the daily asset reset, would retain it’s team ownership, but instead lose the orb. In other words, having an orb in one of your keeps at the daily reset would allow you to selectively retain ownership, and upgrades, of one of your Keeps.

Additional changes:

-Sentries give 10 times as many points when killed, have 10 times the hit points, and the position’s take-over speed is 10 times longer.
-Yaks give 10 times the points when killed, have 10 times the hit points, no longer do attack hit-point damage but instead do a knock-down attack.

-Jumping puzzle areas are given player detection, and players in these areas have the AFK timer applied to them, regardless of whether they are showing signs of activity or not.

These changes, in whole or in part, would I think produce a better system over all, one less prone to some of the issues we are seeing currently. Teams would not see themselves behind but such a large number of points, and would both have and FEEL they have a way to get back into the round, even if they find themselves behind on the last day. A greater level of strategy would be involved in terms of disposition of forces during ticks, involving harder choices, with a larger range of worthwhile objectives and considerable point-gaining opportunities existing.

I hope ANET looks as these suggestions and examines how they would play out and impact the nature of matches as well as the difference it would make in player experience. Again some elements are not crucial to this primary effect, but the fundamental changes would be both vital and significantly impacting, producing a better WvW system overall.

If you read all of this, and more so, if you understand it; my thanks.

I disagree, and my scorecards from release and pre-release do not support that statement. From my personal experience, SB is also a very strong team, and has been consistently improving over time – which by the way, some servers, such as my own, have not been doing. I do not think they need HoD to compete overall.

That said, experience speaks for itself. What happened in this round is an aberration, and anyone who suggests otherwise is disingenuous at best, and outright lying at worst. Future rounds where JQ and SB are paired without the presence of HoD will demonstrate this very clearly…there is no need to argue about what happened, just wait and see what will happen; that will clarify things pretty well.

SoulstitchMMO.1396:

My (personal) theory is that without HoD carrying them SBI wouldn’t even be in the top 3. This is the only way they can stay in the top 3, by being HoD’s… #2.

The only close match has been between HoD/JQ/ET, and as long as HoD keeps SBI in second, HoD won’t ever have to face JQ and ET together again.

I have played in all of the BWW’s and stress tests, and every day since headstart, on JQ. I know it’s issues, but also have a fair understanding of it’s capabilities. I also have screenshots of the end of round scores for every round thus far, and know exactly who does how well in what match-ups.

I was also on for the first 9 hours of this latest “HoD vs SB” vs JQ match-up. As someone who was actually there, and who makes this judgement in the context of all of the above mentioned experience, I can say without a doubt that SB and HoD did in fact prioritize JQ, and pass up combat opportunities between themselves in instances where doing so served the purpose of ensuring JQ was neutralized/opposed.

I describe this in a very specific way, because to say they coordinated/communicated at X level would be both untrue and unfair – I have no personal, direct knowledge of that specifically, and anyone who does not have personal or direct knowledge of something should not make that kind of accusation. I have been on the field with JQ in WvW for countless hours however, many of which with this specific WvW make-up, and I was there for 9 hours last night…and there is no question, none whatsoever, that JQ was prioritized as a target.

As for why that might be, there are some obvious theories. I will say that this kind of thing is entirely legitimate in WvW. It is however, in the specific context of the obviously superior HoD team and the history of SB being very slightly below JQ (by the statement of many of it’s own players mind you) in the match results overall thus far, highly questionable from a tactical perspective, while very understandable from a strategic and emotional perspective. Ultimately you do what you have to do to win, or in this case, to not lose.

For myself, I can only assume that this tactic had it’s origins in SB, as HoD certainly did not need the help in beating JQ, so going forward such target prioritization will be made on a similar basis against SB. Such things are valid in WvW yes, but as anyone who played Shadowbane knows, every decision has a consequence. SB and HoD will not always been with eachother in the match rounds, and this particular chicken – an apt analogy if ever there was – will before long come home to roost.

And I my friends, love me some friend chicken.