Guild Wars 2

Whoa awesome. This matchup looks really good right now; congrats on the comeback, Stormbluff! From our match a couple weeks ago, I knew you guys were worthy opponents, and it’s good to see you holding up to those expectations : )

Gave up after probably 10 total hours over a few days.

Mostly frustrated that keyboard-strafing makes the player slower when they walk sideways; I can’t turn smoothly//accurately enough with the mouse and I can’t turn fast enough with keyboard turning.

This game really needs analog-stick gamepad support.

Yeah I haven’t been able to connect either all day.

Unless my bow just shoots ridiculously fast, there appears to be no target limit on piercing arrows either.

I hope we don’t have to assume the party escort submission position.

This jump puzzle is harder than Mega Man 9.

Breaking your fingers isn’t actually that challenging if you try it. Go on, give it a whack.

The Act 3 Event recurs periodically in Lion’s Arch without skipping to cinematic mode (i.e., you can control the camera freely). Granted, the lion statue is already exploded when it starts, but everything else is identical.

+1, like guesting, but you don’t have to have friends already playing to do it!

Simple change. Bags given as rewards from special events (e.g. Halloween’s 10-slot Trick-or-Treat bag) should gather event items first.

- Candy Corn
- Nougat, Teeth, Skulls
- Mad King’s Memories, etc.
- Bittersweeet Omnomberries, etc.
- Seraph Badges, etc.

Oh hey never mind it looks like the cutscene replays sporadically in LA, but with free camera. Thank you ArenaNet for allowing me to experience what I missed the first time around when Blackgate LA was totally packed.

Wait what? The Mad King was in the cutscene? I seriously only saw the statute explode and then a zoom on the hole in the piazza.

The sentries already have team flags, and it’s kind of sad to see them always level 80 even when everything else on the map is level 82. It would be great to see sentries claimed by guilds and upgraded with guild buffs etc.; it would give small guilds a lot more opportunity to have an impact.

A little bit disappointing that this means the max bonuses for WvW are 20% and 10%, and only achievable in after a full week of domination.

As much as I enjoyed farming WvW for candy corn and free daily achievements, it’s nice to be back in a competitive matchup.

Way to go, Blackgate, finally clawing our way up to the top, and may the best teams have boatloads of fun!

AND MY AXE

(kitten)

Elementalists (with water attunement?) also have a bubble skill which lets them teleport from the water into the bay keep (as well as skipping a huge part of the Mistwrought key jump puzzle).

All of these feel like exploits, though aside from rendering issues, the mesmer portal I believe is the only one that’s actually functioning as intended.

Unfortunately any “daily” system will disproportionately disenfranchise some time zones while greatly benefitting others.

Alternatively, players in WvW queues have the option to jump into an “Overflow” WvW, which is actually one of the “underdog” servers you describe, selected randomly. Players in WvW as “overflow” would gain WvW and Guild points for the server they’re guesting on, but not benefit from WvW or Guild bonuses from their home server.

You can’t kill bots on your own team unfortunately.

Any way ANet can implement a captcha test for anyone who gets reported for botting by more than 5-10 people? It doesn’t need to be all over PvE, but at the very least boot them out of WvW because in WvW botting has huge potential for griefing.

Blackgate from day 1 here. We’ve always been great and will continue to be a great server. Reasonable WvW queues, outstanding friendliness among player base and guild alliance.

The only problems right now are the absolute domination we’re showing in Tier 2, and I’m fairly certain that’s just because HoD and ET haven’t gotten bumped down sufficiently since they lost their power guilds (i.e. we’re actually playing more like a tier 4 match right now). Once free transfers close up and the WvW tiers stabilize, I think we’ll have some steady excellent competition at a solid tier 2.

+1. If I could +1,000,000, I would. Trying to find that ranged sweet spot is ridiculous.

Pardon me if I’m completely kitten but… isn’t PvP already split from PvE? Last I checked the Heart of the Mists had a totally separate progression and specialization system, 100% unlocked skills, maxed equipment, etc. and allowed players to compete solely on their PvP skill. Leaving Heart of the Mists switched you back to PvE progression, and neither affected the other.

What more do you want?

So… travelling form or mounts? Sounds good to me.

Just had a really frustrating experience on a ballista trying to click on an enemy to target him only to later realize he was dead and I should have been clicking the OTHER name because that dude was still alive.

Please give us this option.

There is a button for putting weapons away. However, you can’t choose to exit combat if you’re still being attacked. You can still put your weapon away, but you will take it out again each time you’re hit.

The key is not bound by default, but it’s there in controls.

We do get rewarded for WvW score. Have you ever looked at the WvW scoreboard? There are bonuses to: Crafting, Endurance Gain, Gold Find, Health, Gathering, Defense, Experience, and Healing

Yeah that’s kind of messed up. But it’s not purely the server going down that won us the garrison. Our main guild alliance had all queued up for BG borderlands about 5 minutes earlier.

We had a treb on that northeast wall for like 3 hours. What you saw wasn’t magic. The server going down on the other hand… I have no idea.

…what just happened?

… is Blackgate the only server that just got entirely booted out of the red borderlands?

You think Ele’s headpieces are fugly, try rolling a ranger. Yuck : p. Every headpiece is either a stupid bandana or a stupid hood.

+1. If I could +1,000,000 I would.

LOL you actually did jump ship? Here I thought Narathkor was trolling.

Protip: if someone puts +5 supply on a supply camp, USE IT.

Few things more depressing than running through a supply camp with 250/250 supply and the +5 carry upgrade while people yell in map chat “Who has supply?”

Protip: Siege does not trigger orange swords, so if you want to stealth cap, don’t use auto-attack

(On a similar note, if you want to stealthcap, don’t take all the camps and sentries in a direct line to the point you want to cap. it’s a dead giveaway. literally.)

Protip: It only takes 3 pearls to get a gold medal on Quaggan weather nodes.

If there are other allies nearby (and you aren’t in danger of losing it to another team), let them get theirs in before fully capturing the node so the most people can get rewards.

Protip: use the back/side door

If you have any influence in directing your server’s zerg, don’t direct them to the front gates of a keep. Not only will there be more siege built at the front gates, but all the siege at the inner keep will be positioned to point at the front entrance. Not only do most defenders forget about alternate entrances, but many of them don’t even know it’s there and can’t even find it when their guild leaders are yelling in mapchat. Whenever you capture a keep, find all its entrances and exits and consider whether the one -you- use is as well defended as the one you expect the enemy to use.

Protip: Quaggans are great distractions

If you want to attack the Garrison, don’t capture the North Quaggans. Capture the East/West. The swords that show up when guards attack the keep/supply depot will be enough to divert a few reinforcements to the false alarm and may buy you the extra time you need.

Protip: party up, even when you don’t have matching objectives

The main advantage Commanders have over us laypeople is the little blue arrow over their head that lets you know where you can find a group of teammates. For those of us who aren’t commanders, we can do the same thing for teammates by using parties. When you’re partied with 4 people, you can always look at the map and see 4 blue dots where you know there will be allies. You can watch their health bars to have an extra set of eyes to alert for oncoming attacks.

Lastly, the morale bonus of seeing those blue dots scattered throughout the map cannot be overstated. Thanks to culling problems, it’s easy to feel alone in WvW, but if while sitting at the vale you can see a blue dot over by the hills, by the cliff, by the bay, and by the quaggans, you get a renewed sense of hope that y’know what? Our team isn’t so small after all. Look at how far we reach. Look at the places we can go, the opportunities available. Let’s go out there and kick some butt.

Also, regarding your point:

“Server Rankings might actually mean something.”

Yes, they mean that the only people who will gain advantage are the ones at #1. Everyone else will have the problem of [Win This Week]→[Seeded Higher]→[Lose Next Week] and will never be able to hold the WvE zone for more than a week. Worse yet, ranks #2 and #3, assuming they are close enough to #1 not to be dropped down to second tier, will never get to enter the WvE zone as they’ll be stuck fighting a neverending war against the strongest server, whereas lower ranked servers which swap seed positions every week will at least get to see the zone once a month.

See also: every WvW jumping puzzle.

I dunno about your servers, but last week when Blackgate coated EB in paint, we led a full raid on the jump puzzle. There were so many Blackgate folk in there at once that I had the invisible character problem. We also did the same in green borderlands after a full cap.

I’m not sure a Darkness Falls solution would have the consequences you intend. Those people interested in the PvE aspects of WvW are much more often the same type of people that hardcore PvPers rage at for filling up queue slots. Once all the PvE’ers jump ship to the WvE zone, they’d open up Queue slots for the hardcore PvP guilds to man the borderlands and actually get keeps upgraded to defensible standards.

This is the best matchup we’ve had yet.

As a member of the greater Blackgate community, I take offense at the OP’s claims.

I have played at just about every hour and zerged with just about every commander. I’m not a “high ranking member” of the Blackgate Alliance, in fact, I don’t know if my guild is even officially a member, and nonetheless when I bring productive suggestions to the battlegrounds, I get nothing but the most courteous support.

I do see arguments break out now and again, but they are usually good-natured, in the interest of Blackgate’s success, and rarely personal attacks. When personal attacks do break out, they are usually not from apparent ranking members in the alliance (not that I have any idea how to identify ranks other than that little blue arrow over commanders’ heads), but from people who either just joined the map or just started speaking up.

Given how few others can corroborate the OP’s claims of mistreatment, I strongly suspect there has been a misunderstanding. I have seen many similar situations in my home guild, where someone takes offense at something another member says, but fears calling that person out because they perceive that member to be of senior rank simply because he was being particularly vocal in chat, when in fact the person held no rank at all.

Had you taken the time to communicate to any members of the Blackgate Alliance, I’m sure your concerns would be met with fair consideration, but alas we cannot know now because instead of taking the effort to attempt to resolve the issue, you have instead run away from the problem, leaving us to be surprised by it later.

I hope that you treat the leadership in Dragonbrand with more respect than you have us, and that you give them more than an instantaneous chance to address any issues you might find before running to the next winning server when morale begins to drop.

Thus far this seems like the most even fight we’ve had. Both our opponents were able to hold off pretty strong garrison pushes to the inner keep thus far, and I’m even having good competition with the Quaggans for once. I’m honored to face you all on the field of battle.

Yup. Right now Blackgate owns all the keeps and garrisons in every Borderland and we still don’t have the third orb buff.

Something’s wrong with this picture.

@kouhei: You say you want to be enlightened. Feel free to join any PvP or WvW map at any time to see how falling damage is a crucial and integral part of game balance.

PvE is a huge part of the game, yes. But you’re still playing a game titled Guild Wars, and at the end of the day, the driving force in game design will be interesting, fun, dynamic, and fair behavior in PvP.

Probably won’t ever be free, because essentially what the cost of teleporting must do is subtract money from the economy in proportion to the gem cost of serving the zone transfer.

Right now, though, the price is probably too high if it’s causing enough people to demand 4x the zone transfers on the server.

You can ctrl+click skills right now.

Many zones have meta-event chains with concise information about dynamic events all over the zone displayed on every player’s screen, so they can know when they’re needed to go help out with a big assault or defense. Why not add something similar for WvW, a dynamic event which is accessible from every zone, affects the entire world, and often needs a little extra support from players who don’t happen to be checking the WvW pane at the moment?

Simplest notification would show a bar in the corner with % WvW holdings (by points rewarded).

Slightly more detail would include a blurb with the status of StoneMist and the three Orbs.

Expanding the notification could show bars with % holdings for each of each of the borderlands.

Serious detail could have indicators for the number of capture points currently being assaulted or defended by our world, or even a population count for each borderland.

Simple notifications like these would allow players all across the world to be quickly aware when they are most needed in WvW, without having to teleport to Lion’s Arch and yell in mapchat, or get a guild member online in WvW to scout, or even just opening the WvW pane every 10 minutes to see whether it’s changed, all of which are very active habits that must be maintained, as opposed to everything else in the game’s PvE which players can passively absorb and react to.

To clarify, I’m not suggesting any changes be made to the notifications currently in place in WvW. The way the map and event system functions in WvW itself is close to perfect. I’m only suggesting passive WvW status notifications be added for players in PvE and possibly PvP.

Here’s a couple possible solutions to the outmanned problem most servers are facing during their off-hours that don’t discriminate against regions by placing arbitrary time-zones on WvW bonuses:

1. Scale NPC health inversely to a world’s share of the borderland population, relative to the base 33%.
2. For every 5 empty slots in a borderland’s population cap for a world, add a squad of 5 basic (level 80) NPCs that run a patrol/assault route (like the meta-event chains in PvE, complete with morale meter) from a random controlled waypoint down pseudorandom roads to other control points.
3. Scale NPC respawn time with the world’s share of the borderland population.

Three good reasons for falling damage:

1) Jump puzzles need concrete penalties for failure
2) Jumping off a cliff should not be a safe way to instantly escape from a battle you are certain to lose (as mobs will not follow down cliffs)
3) Further incentivises creative use of terrain in PvP.

Also, though it may count in #3, falling damage is critical to the design of the WvW battlegrounds.

+1, most of the time someone asking for donations in-chat results in a success, and under the current system (no secure way to ensure the donation goes toward the upgrade), the system could be exploited by gold farmers.

As an anecdote in support of this, sometimes I have asked in chat for donations to upgrade something because I legitimately didn’t have the money. I got most of the money I needed but was still off by 5 silver or so, and nobody else would donate. Now I’ve got an extra 70 silver that people just -gave- to me, expecting to get an upgrade out of it, but I can’t actually buy the upgrade, and because I’ve had to delete messages to make room in my inbox I can’t even easily refund the money.

2.5 + 0.5 * Level + 0.05 * Condition Damage per stack per second

If this formula is true, what stops players from griefing by having (exaggeration) level 1 players with 10 condition damage stack 25 bleeds dealing only 3.5 DPS each, thus locking out level 80 players with 2k Condition damage from dealing their potential of 142.5 DPS each?

Speaking of helping guildmates, why not make renown hearts just infinitely repeatable events with small rewards, like achievement titles? After you complete a renown heart, you get another bar to recomplete it for karma+exp rewards (probably best not for gold lest they be farmed). This way it’s not worthless to help guildies complete renown hearts with thankless tasks like stomping frogs and answering trivia questions.