Guild Wars 2

I have no respect for players/servers that focus the weaker opponent as opposed to fighting the stronger one. Losers will say “but….PPT!”; but the only way things will get better is if you can take on the strongest enemies and improve.

Bumpity bumpity; having a great time in leagues

Look, the only reason it’s so bad right now is that they keep doing these seasons. The season 1 announcement broke 6 server’s populations in the lead up to the first season.

The aftermath, saw 3 more destruct and the dust was still clearing when this one was announced.

There’s already one server on the chopping block for post-season exodus; and there is a giant question mark about another (not naming names to prevent thread closure, but you know who I am talking about) that entered the season fighting about 3 tiers below it’s weight class.

The worst drag on the WvW game-mode right now is the naked cycnicism being displayed by the development team in implementing these leagues that encourage the worst sorts of behavior in the name of gem sales. The deliberate pillaging and politicking as servers stack or de-stack based upon their predicted league placement or predicted ranking in that league.

We’re treated to a #1 server that screams in every forum related to the game that they are some sort of underdog wonderkind.
We’re treated to servers falling apart due to perceived tanking or stacking. It’s taking away the simple enjoyment of things for what they are.

It’s a dead issue anyhow. ANet raised the server capacities again (or a lot of people in <insert poorly implemented competing MMO here>) and there is no incentive to destack.

The problem lies in that every time they have put in free transfers; a Flavor of the Month bandwagon forms.
SBI was the highest ranked server with a cheaper transfer cost; so it became a bandwagon. HoD was free to xfer to, so it’s become a bandwagon.

Something I thought missing was an interlude between the main story and the greater LS surrounding Scarlet.

As brought up before, the orders had joined forces to form an nearly invincible army, navy, and air-force; with the player character as the #2 guy and the point-man on any operation that would take place outside of Orr (Trahearne having devoted himself to it’s restoration).

There needed to be explanation(s) as to the impotence of the pact and why the PC is not able to call down tanks, choppers, and massive air firepower against Scarlet’s forces.

Premise: The representatives of the three orders cannot agree on the next target. During this Trahearne stays devoted to his Wyld Hunt; the restoration of Orr, essentially shirking his duties as Marshall.
The Order of Whispers demands that Kralkatorrik be the first target; so that the order can hope to pursue it’s ancient feud with Palawa Joko. The other orders, feel differently and with the continued silence from the Marhsall, the orders go their separate ways.

This accomplishes several things:
1. Explains why Scarlet is not squashed like a bug 3 seconds after showing up
2. Explains why the Risen are still thick as fleas in Orr without any changes to the landscape (without resources, Trahearne’s task is impeded and slowed greatly
3. Also explains why no offensive actions have been undertaken against any of the other elder dragons.

This would explain why the commander is slumming it with DE 2.0; and why the original DE might not be back in the saddle.

HoD appears to be T2 material, but I expect they’ll be at the bottom of the tier and will switch back and forth with FA.

Blob tactics work well against T2 because in our matchups 30+ is a blob. Compare to T1 servers where they don’t engage with less than 50+

If HoD is running with 50 man groups they’ll be tough for T2 to beat (20-25 is the average size of T2 zergs, usually with 2-3 per map on a busy night); but unless their skill improves dramatically it won’t matter much.

It’s impressive to see HoD doing well. If they beat FA they’ll come to T2, where bandwagons go to die so we’ll see if they improve enough to hold their own in the post-season.

HoD has late NA and some SEA it looks like. HoD will wake up in the morning feeling kitteny… And then the other boot will fall.

The fight that I would like to see… That wa are not going to get because the Swiss system sucks; is HoD-IoJ-SBI.
HoD has the numbers but those two servers have the experience.
People are talking big about next week’s match but HoD is going to experience it’s worst whupping since Nov 2012’s match with IoJ and SoS (they averaged about +10ppt).

Which will be good because they’ll learn where they will need to improve and maybe pull a surprise by the end of the season.

Next week will give everyone a clear picture of what HoD really is. With YB and FA in the match, they are getting their baptism of fire and quite frankly I don’t expect a server that’s been K-training for weeks/months to handle the shock well.
When their 50 man blobs get melted by 25 man guild groups from FA and get pushed off from every YB keep and tower… I suspect shorter queues to follow.

Every suggestion about reducing ppt reduces the play experience for those not in the server’s “primetime”. Nvm ppl with different schedules, students, and ppl who play where there are no servers that they are part of “primetime”.
This argument had gray hairs on it back during the 2nd beta weekend event, it’s old and pathetic.

There is little chance of this predicted outcome changing unless ANet randomized tied scores

Remember, the Swiss rules can make it so that the 3rd strongest server could place 6th and so on.

I was clearly wrong about SBI, they are doing a lot better than most people expected.

Sean.8274:

We will see how the season pans out. But TBH, HoD has no chance against FA off hours. We may get top 3 in Silver, but no chance at the win. But either way, it will be nice to face off with some servers we have never really met on the battlefield

Actually FA has no organized off hours. You are going to find out exactly what your numbers are worth when you face them.

Anyone thinking FA is not going to run away with this needs to consult a doctor and get a CAT scan of the cranium.

If you still have a guild member left behind or someone you trust, you can ask them to send the stuff to you after you add them to your guild.

Let me add to the question: What happens in determining the matchups in case of a tie.
ie, Week 3 in Gold League there will be 4 servers with 6 points total. Will pre-season rankings determine it or will it be randomized?

Harrish.8743:

SoS has traditionally had a strong Oceanic crew. They don’t have a lot of EU coverage and a good chunk of their SEA coverage is Oceanic players putting in late hours (which means their early SEA coverage is a lot stronger than their late SEA coverage).

TC has decent OCX and SEA numbers, and a very strong EU (with several EU-focused guilds).

Of the two, TC has more balance between these periods. Both have good NA coverage if that matters.

Also, keep in mind the tier differences. T2 has much lower overall SEA/EU populations than T1, which means fewer opponents to fight during these time periods.

I respectfully disagree. There are plenty of Mag and SoS groups fighting, and both servers have true EU guilds.
While you don’t see EU queues everyday (has been some this week); there is no shortage of people to fight and things to do at this time.
I’m assuming you want activity + not being blobbed out.

Le Rooster.8715:

(PAIN) are active during this timeslot

Yeah, [PAIN] on SoS fits exactly into that timeslot. A lot of their people are SEA who stay up late but they raid early morning PST and midday EST.

EoTM keeps spawning new versions of itself so there will be no EotM queues.

At reset, unless they break it LOL

Prysin.8542:

TC if you want the best rewards our of TC or SoS. Aaaaand thats about it.

Add the math up on who should get the higher score. If you figure it out, join SoS. If your light doth not shine brightly, there is a blob for you on TC.

Back in the day…
It was understood if you had 3 map queues collide in SMC that lag would happen and we understood that was the price of such actions.
Now it’s on every server, in every matchup; and it happens when just 3 large zergs just get near each other (don’t even need to be fighting).

Why is it that every other update ratchets up the lag?

I assume you want to know why it’s lower and not higher?
Because if you were to transfer tomorrow, you would miss the rest of the current match AND the proceeding week.
They don’t want to lock anyone in, but they don’t want to create a situation like we had last season where the Gold League was settled by a large transfer at the beginning of the 2nd week.

If someone transfers over the next week because they can’t stand the queues, or find that their server is underperforming (whatever reason); they will be able to transfer but will not be able to affect the outcome until the 3rd week.

To be fair, KoME did transfer right at the start of the free transfers, effectively putting the stinkeye on their hopes of a transfer windfall.
If it’s HoD’s plan to join T3; then you did right by your new home and screw CD’s feelings on the matter. If it isn’t/wasn’t; then you might have some justifiable bad karma there.

In 7 days, 8 hours, and 20 minutes from now; HoD will learn where the wall is. I suggest using this week to improve and run training.
Seriously, I’m kinda rooting for you guys but there seems to be a lot of naivete about FA, even from Silver League veterans from last season.

FA lost two guilds, but their NA was T1 quality and almost in quantity before that. Make no mistake, your NA’s are going to get wrecked in the face by them. SoS had added most of Kaineng’s and Ehmry Bay’s NA, plus TW and NS; and we still ticked low against their NA.

After seeing what DB’s NA brought to the table this week; I promise that HoD will not be able to do jack against them; no matter how many maps they queue.

Frosch.7809:

Chris.3290:

2. YB – modest 24 hr overage but I rate them #2 because their casual population is very on board with their defensive-based strategy

That’s funny because not so long ago you sounded like this:

Chris.3290:

The Bad

YB A nerf to arrowcarts would send this server to T6. Their defense culture is the only thing that is keeping them in the higher tiers.

What made you change your mind? This week’s result? Do not take that too seriously and do not count either BP or SoR out for the League.

I for my part do not want YB to repeat the result of 1st season (if we are capable of that), because it sent us to a post-season rating which did not reflect our strength, and into matches with Zombie horde servers for weeks, which wasn’t good for the morale of those who stayed after season 1 was over.

To sum it up, the exceptional effort of my server during season 1 was worth nothing and only had negative consequences. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, ANet.

My prediction:

1. FA 2. IoJ 3. SBI 4. HoD 5. any of the remaining

I mean both. YB lives and dies by it’s defense. A nerf to defensive siege would drop YB way the heck down there. However, YB has embraced that type of combat fully and has made it their own. It gives YB an edge to servers that haven’t had to face that kind of defense very much. IoJ and HoD haven’t had to do much in the way of protracted sieges, so I give a slight edge to YB.

I think you give too much credit to SBI, I think YB can take them in their current state. BP I pick to do poorly because they are still adjusting to their losses and CD has gained guilds. CD won’t beat them by much, but I think they can.

SoR, is a ghosttown and will be a non-factor. They really should be in bronze and are getting the shaft by being in this league.

Ok. Basing this on a few assumptions. HoD losing to IoJ and YB; YB beating IoJ, SBI beating CD, CD beating NS and BP.
Lastly, if pre-season rankings matter when determining a tie when matching up (highest pre-season glicko gets highest matchup)

1. FA with 45
2. YB, HoD, and CD with 29
5. SBI and IoJ with 27
7. NS with 25
8. BP with 23
9. SoR with 9

This is caused due to the odd number of matchups and the fact that losers one week will be winners the next. Those that win the first week (odds) will have a huge advantage over those who don’t.

So, CD shouldn’t try too hard to beat SBI and IoJ better beat YB in week 3.

The CD/SBI shifts and the NS/BP things are actually asssuming that the server that scores higher is the one that loses to the other in head to head matchups.

So $#@! is whack.

I just did the math and the YB vs IoJ for 2nd comes down to week three when it will be FA-YB-IoJ. FA will focus IoJ more but IoJ can gain more points at night. If the YB defense holds, they will get it by simple virtue of IoJ having less defense and they’ll get farmed in EU and NA more.

Interestingly enough, that is also the first time that CD will face SBI.

So week three is the BIG week for Silver and will effectively settle things unless it’s very close or shenanigans.

1. FA – even minus 2-4 guilds they have the most experience and can put up superior numbers in EU and NA. Their OCX and SEA are insufficient for T2, but will do the job for silver

2. YB – modest 24 hr overage but I rate them #2 because their casual population is very on board with their defensive-based strategy

3. IoJ – could very well beat YB but no idea how deep their militia lies or how skilled it may be. definitely has an edge in guild coverage and night coverage.

4. HoD – it has the numbers, but their pre-season score does not reflect that. If they actually manage the base level of organization to out blob their opponents they’ll do well. Not enough to break YB’s defense or IoJ’s coverage. Oddly, they’ll probably do better against FA than the other two.

5. SBI – I’m tempted to rank them lower, as SBI will have almost zero depth in casual interest. After two dramatic falls from grace, I’m willing to bet their “civilian” population wants nothing to do with WvW. However they retain some of their pre-season 1 numbers and those that are left have been through the gristmill… Some cases twice

6. CD – another server that could do better than this spot due to good off hours coverage. A sometimes contentious community continually is it’s own worst enemy but they could surprise.

7. BP – a short time ago this would be unthinkable and still feels odd given the talent level is still high on this server. They are still reeling from mass desertions and haven’t had time to catch their equilibrium so I expect them to underperform.

8. NSP – plenty of moxie and reportedly home to many excellent duelists and roamers. This allows their bronze-sized population to over-achieve but it’s hard to see how they could pervail against their league-mates

9. SoR – getting stuck in Silver is just the latest in a long string of indignities that has befallen this server since their crushing disappointment in the first season.

It’s a good game, with room for improvement. With modern game development basing itself around an 8 mon cycle, GW2 is a game changer as long as the dev team does not rest on their laurels. Many here feel like they are in many ways.
As odious as they may find the endless complaints, people would not be posting if they did not care and it is the rawest form of feedback they can get.
When the dev team is willing to wade through the mud, they can get a plethora of direct input on what changes excite the player base and which disappoint.

Maguuma stopped being the roaming community after meeting these guys. Not unusual to see BLNT guys going 1v3 and being the one to walk away.

As a commander you are justified to ask for cooperation, but demanding it will have the opposite reaction.
If things get to the point where you are not getting cooperation, tag down and run with only your guild by having them target you.
You can always tag back up later if ppl start saying they need a tag.

One of our most active community members on SoS was a nice lady who never did WvW before the first season. Because people when out of their way to help her, she’s now a commander and does a lot of good work during our off hours play. It’s one of the things that has keeps us ahead of Mag and FA.

96 player queue on HoD? T2 will eagerly wait to make their acquaintance in the post-season. you have almost 3 months to make sure you bring clean underwear LOL

Ignore the trolls. Try to find your server’s community website and honestly ask what you can do to get up to speed on things. Many servers are even holding training sessions for folks who don’t normally WvW and it would be a good idea to get involved with something like that so that the WvW event is not a painful experience.

No love for necros?

Sometimes all it takes is smarter drivers and voices in the community.
During the leagues, every time servers should 2v1 the stronger server. No one in NA Silver is going to enjoy themselves unless they are 2v1’ing the T3 servers all the time.

Malediktus.9250:

You dont even need to do that. You can hit 3rd floor trebs from outside the walls with arrow cart mastery

3 guys with 15 supply can take down each treb. The only real counter for it is a cannon on the third floor. If one side holds SMC to the point where they upgrade to cannons, chances are you are having the floor wiped with you and your problems go a lot deeper than who has SM.

No one ever is going to have any sympathy for queues in T1.

So, three way tie for Gold League; meanwhile Mag and DB only get to play SoS and BG all season long?
I’ll laugh if it goes that way.

Sounds like it will be in the April 15th patch according to the patch blog schedule.
I wonder if they realize they are losing revenue, since it discourages people from playing alts…who might buy gems for star character slots and permanent harvesting tools.

Just welcome your new…. I mean returning FA overlords. IoJ is in good position for second unless HoD is more impressive than their score implies.

DB hasn’t embarrassed themselves on reset night. Their skill level is far behind their opponents, but they are making up with it with numbers and tenacity that wasn’t expected. We’ll see how they hold up.

Quick Mouse.7635:

Thanks so much Allie!
So if I understand this correctly, matchups will not be restricted by leagues?
Eg.
First round TC vs BG vs JQ, SoS DB Mag, FA SBI IOJ,
TC SoS and FA win
next matchup is TC vs SoS vs FA following swiss style?

No, there will only be 6 in the Gold League. SBI and IoJ will not play the top 6, the #7 spot is not yet decided.

etrigan.4213:

Chris.3290:

Kitiara.2706:

etrigan.4213:

Honestly we haven’t had a question answered in this forum for awhile.

Not even sure they read it…

I have even resorted to sending PMs to devs asking if they even read this forum anymore. They are really busy in the pvp forum, but not this one.

They seem to love SPvP, despite the fact that I have only ever met 2 people for whom SPvP is what keeps them playing GW2.
I know an exponentially higher amount of people who love WvW and admit that the draw to PvE is even higher than that.

At this point I think the GvG scene alone is bigger than sPvP…. :P

The last few weeks my time has been split:

70% WvW/GvG (40/30)
25% PvE
5% SPvP

I don’t know jack about HoD, but they will be lucky to beat any of the true T3 servers. FA/DB, IoJ, and YB will be hard to beat.
I personally think the most interesting matchup in Silver will be HoD vs SBI. HoD’s momentum vs SBI’s experience.
The next closest thing to an interesting match will be CD/NS/BP. BP has had a high skill-level but by losing so much of their core it should be close.

Kitiara.2706:

etrigan.4213:

Honestly we haven’t had a question answered in this forum for awhile.

Not even sure they read it…

I have even resorted to sending PMs to devs asking if they even read this forum anymore. They are really busy in the pvp forum, but not this one.

They seem to love SPvP, despite the fact that I have only ever met 2 people for whom SPvP is what keeps them playing GW2.
I know an exponentially higher amount of people who love WvW and admit that the draw to PvE is even higher than that.

Unless HoD has gained a massive OCX/SEA force, they are kidding themselves about beating DB. I personally doubt HoD can take SBI and IoJ.

DB would be better than FA. Getting beat in off hours is frustrating, but FA will wreck any NA in a head to head.
FA’s NA is T1 in quality and quantity so you’ll be all hugging EotM if they come down.