Guild Wars 2

Alsonia.4753:

Fray Formana; best commander on BG!

Loses UPGRADED BG Garrison to get Hills. Loses hills minutes later. Didn’t even get Hills at a points tick.

Last I checked, we are still winning. He is out there working his kitten off every day. You only continue to lose respect from the community by trying to drive wedges between players. You’ve spoken about the greatness and exceptionalism of Blackgate, yet you are the first one to take the most negative stance on any situation. Not every battle ends in glory, but he keeps coming back. That earns him respect in my book.

Yes. Absolutely. People still come out to WvW with little actual incentive since there is no progression. That has to tell you something.

I bleed for Blackgate and most of our server will say the same. There is a certain intangible feeling when your server name is your battle cry. Pride may be greater on the more active servers, but right now, it is the only thing keeping WvW going.

The crying is overwhelming here. Portal only works well in organized groups. The mesmer has to get into a keep through an opening. I’ll agree that there should be some stealth detection, but odds are that even if the mesmer was on a suicide run, they could drop the portal anyway. There are a lot of CC abilities that would stop a person, visible or not, in their tracks. ANet nerfed the cooldown time on portal and not the amount of players that can take it for a reason. They wanted them less spammable, but saw no actual problem with how they are. The sooner you jackkittens realize that it is a tactic that is easy to counter the sooner we can have a thread that actually accomplishes something. Portals also enable inferior numbers to get the drop on a larger group and wipe them. My guild running with 25 people has wiped groups of 40-50 with a well-placed portal flank. It isn’t just an ability for the “ZOMG ZERG” to use. The best portals aren’t even placed in the middle of an enemy.

Portals add another layer to tactics. If you don’t have portals, then you can just camp a chokepoint with siege. An open gate or a hole in a wall would be useless because the enemy team could keep you out indefinitely. It adds spice and variety to the game. Everyone is so quick to scream for nerfs instead of realizing what a class has to do or give up to succeed at their trade. Mesmers need to bring mobility, invisibility, and portal. Essentially, they are full support. They don’t have damage dealing skills on their utilities. They also need to build tanky the same way any class that is “op” for healing had to actually spec into healing and toughness and vitality and the same way a backstab glass cannon thief can’t bring any defensive stats if he wants to burst. You have to spec for what you are trying to do. Not every mesmer can just drop portals where they need to be dropped.

Everything is a trade-off and the crying here simply wants to nerf, nerf, then nerf again with no consequences or balancing to any other class. Portals are not the “huge” part of WvW that everyone thinks they are and they are far more tactically themed than they are a brute force mentality. When the culling issues are fixed, which is easily the root of the whole problem, you will have nowhere to place your blame.

If you have an argument with my facts, I would love to hear it. ANet nerfed heals to a cap of 5 because they decided that “turtles” were not working as intended. Portals, essentially, received a nerf from the heal nerf because of how they related to each other. A bad portal is now absurdly susceptible to AoE because you can’t just stand their and heal through it. The cooldown was increased to stop them from being spammed.

The baseline facts here: Portals are now working as ANet intended. They are no longer a thoughtless zerg bubble. If a larger force overwhelms you easily with a portal, you were likely going to die anyway.

/thread

I pray that this cesspool of crying and little kiddies trying to swing the nerf bat for the first time doesn’t influence any future decision made by Anet.

Culling is the problem. They are working to fix it, but engine changes aren’t that simple. Think you can solve the culling problem? Please, try coding.

Portals only bypass gates and walls if you let the mesmer survive on the other side of the wall. Sounds like some shotty defense to me. Additionally, the fixes being proposed here are all designed to make portals essentially useless because you all can’t figure out how to counter a counterable strategy. ANet only increased the cooldown for a reason. I thank God that the individuals asking for nerfs are not developers. The sort of carebear attitude portrayed by people that want everything that is marginally effective to be nerfed is just sickening. I forgot how entitled and incompetent everyone is. Jeez.

Kurieg.4158:

Anet should go ahead and actually give counter-stealth skills, i.e. True Seeing/Heightened Senses/Detect Illusion or something like that. Portal attacks, imo, benefit too much from Anet’s awful stealth implementation.

I can agree with this. It seems sort of silly that there are no skills that can reveal an enemy in stealth. I also think when you hit someone with an attack (note: not AoE), but a physical projectile/melee hit, you should see damage numbers. They might be stealthed, but it doesn’t make them during into thin air and can’t be hit. If I hit an invisible person with a sword, it would still feel like hitting a person even if I couldn’t see them. That would be a fair implementation rather than swinging blindly even if you know you’re hitting them (e.g. when a thief is down and stealthed).

Limiting a portal to a certain number of players taking it would absolutely destroy any viability of the skill. Bottom line is that greater numbers will, most likely, defeat inferior numbers. Whether they portal bomb you or not, which I’ve previously gone over as being extremely counterable, you will lose to a greater force most of the time. The biggest issue with Portal is culling. ANet is trying to fix this issue and it is not a result of portals, it just tends to show the engine’s deficiencies more often. Stop trying to swing the nerf bat and actually adapt to a tactic for once.

IoJ is still more than present imo. Don’t listen to CharliePrince. Remember, they took 2nd last week and SoR, who once led by 25k on the weekend, took 3rd. It’s always anyone’s game based on who shows up to play during the week. Finishing a research paper, but you’ll see me out there all week

Sent you a PM Hope you like what you see!

I’m excited. New maps, actual progression, it is going to be fun. February is hardly 2 months away. It’ll be here before we know it.

There are a lot of counters to a portal. If the group you are portaling into has a higher level of coordination than you, you get nuked. The convenient thing, it stacks you all up in one place where enemies can just pile on AoE after AoE. If your group isn’t organized coming out of a portal, you will die. Also, portals take 1 second to activate after the exit is placed, giving the enemy plenty of time to cast on top of it or guardian bubble or anything. If you think portals are game breaking, maybe you should learn to counter a tactic before you decide it needs to be nerfed (which it already has been). Time Warp only effects 5 people, golems can only move across a map with a series of mesmers portaling them (requiring coordination or they get left in an open field), portal has a longer cooldown, and heals/buffs only effect 5 players now so AoE will out damage almost any heal. It makes you spec for the situation and actually plan to layer skills and buffs on portal exit and place portals strategically rather than in the middle of an enemy force. Sounds like you need to study up on some WvW tactics or get a more organized guild because groups that are portal bombing successfully are generally in VoIP. Blame coordination, not rendering problems. Portals have been unsuccessful as often as they are successful in Tiers 1 and 2 for the past 6 weeks. I don’t know where you all have been.

Map pressure definitely exists, although that is a more strategic relationship than an environmental one.

If you put enough pressure in another map, especially a server’s home BL, it makes them leave enemy BLs in order to counter it (when maps aren’t full, which is basically the current state of the game). EBG is sort of its own island, however, because it is the purest form of a 3-way battle and has the most potential points for your server since it has half of your server’s default towers in addition to SM so servers won’t leave it to defend elsewhere. Your home BL has 2 starting towers, garrison, and 3 native supply camps making it the second most important map. Often, it is more important to place pressure in another map in order to shift the balance of power and numbers on the one you are playing on.

Indo.8629:

Anyone for a guild v guild?

Post up if you’re interested. I’ll PM you where we will meet for the battle.

And if setup fights aren’t your thing, zone into IoJ BL, we are waiting. So far we’ve had IMBA and ICOA that have zoned in then quickly zoned out again. We want more blood.

I’d take you up on the offer, although I think that even numbers would be needed to ensure a balanced playing field :P

Can anyone show me a picture of what celestial dye looks like for the metal on a Human Female Heavy?

I’ve previewed it and will be getting the Chest, Legs, then shoulders with the possibility of boots and gloves later. However, I want to know if it just looks really silver with Celestial Dye or if it actually shows the bright white as it does on cloth? (as I can’t tell if it’s the default color or not in the preview) Similarly, if it is silver, can anyone show me what it looks like with White Dye?

My apologies, Warlord. I misunderstood your post and tone because I couldn’t quite tell that your screenshot was of you inside the wall. Thank you for your addition to the thread and being a voice of reason when so many are quick to write certain guilds off as cheaters. I think we can all agree that a public forum is not the proper channel for baseless speculation.

Warlord.9074:

I went to this tower, to see if I could legitimately hide in the same spot “If I was in the tower when it got flipped” http://oi47.tinypic.com/dqsu85.jpg I could but I couldn’t get back inside. So either this guy is using fly hacks or you need to learn how to play.

I’m not sure why you’re telling me I need to learn how to play.

We should stop the speculation until the person who took the screenshot talks to Hollywood and they get a statement from the thief in question. If it is a game bug, it could be pretty difficult to recreate. In the screenshot, I couldn’t see him inside the tower, it just looked like a dead person in a very reachable spot. Let’s not assume things.

Cat Amiss.9463:

Esoteric.5490:

Cat Amiss.9463:

He was inside of the redbriar spot attacking the trebs above, thats once we killed him, i couldnt get a guild tag shot till he was dead, he didn’t own the tower, and was a thief

and calm down raven i was asking ICoa to look into it, since i have no idea who the player is, was simply stating its stupid to see it again after all last week

I’m not Raven, although he is in my guild. A lot of people confuse us. Honestly, I’m not overreacting; you could always send a PM to Hollywood Fiend from ICoa and he could look into it for you. If he was down where you saw him, he could have easily hid there when you flipped the tower. I’m just tired of the conclusion immediately being that someone hacked when you didn’t actually see it. Speculation should be dealt with in PMs, not posted on public boards. It just perpetuates generalizations especially when you are “warning” a guild for the supposed actions of one player.

My bad then thought i read Raven lol

Was only pointing out he was glitched INSIDE the building, he wasn’t on the outside attacking anything, was glitched into the inside of it like being underground

That’s an entirely different issue then. I thought you were taking about him simply being there. In the screenshot I couldn’t tell he was physically in the tower. Anyway, Hollywood Fiend is the ign of who you want to talk to. Playing the devil’s advocate the thief may have gotten stuck inside the tower on capture or upgrade so that is always possible. It could also be a graphical error. I’d like to know what the player has to say given your assertion.

Cat Amiss.9463:

He was inside of the redbriar spot attacking the trebs above, thats once we killed him, i couldnt get a guild tag shot till he was dead, he didn’t own the tower, and was a thief

and calm down raven i was asking ICoa to look into it, since i have no idea who the player is, was simply stating its stupid to see it again after all last week

I’m not Raven, although he is in my guild. A lot of people confuse us. Honestly, I’m not overreacting; you could always send a PM to Hollywood Fiend from ICoa and he could look into it for you. If he was down where you saw him, he could have easily hid there when you flipped the tower. I’m just tired of the conclusion immediately being that someone hacked when you didn’t actually see it. Speculation should be dealt with in PMs, not posted on public boards. It just perpetuates generalizations especially when you are “warning” a guild for the supposed actions of one player.

Cat Amiss.9463:

So this is ICoa being warned for the last week

…just get this under control, not talking crap but its kinda stupid seeing this still

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/9/gw016ib.jpg/

Can you elaborate on what I’m supposed to see here? I see a dead player and no indication of foul play. Post screenshots of consequential evidence if you are going to accuse players, or an entire guild for that matter, of cheating. We’ve been over this before, but those who cheated were kicked and the situation was handled. Let’s not make the mistake of one, generalizing a whole guild as cheaters and two, assuming anyone who appeared to be hiding in a tower or keep was cheating. Let’s keep in clean here. The report feature exists for a reason and if you think he was cheating let the powers that be make that designation. I see one player there and not a guild so let’s not go calling out a group of players who had responded to the transgressions by former guild members.

Hi, check your private messages please

Hi, check your private messages Not going to spam more here.

preech.4071:

How bout i dont and BG plays the game as its meant to be played …… try using something other than an army of mes’ and thieves and stop hacking. Theres a reason we cant find ALL the mesmers u guys hide …. ur entire realm is mes’ and thieves, cheap class realm much?

Umm, I’m a Warrior :P We actually have a cubic puppyton of Guardians and Warriors. A decent amount of Thieves and Mesmers too, but let’s be honest, a war is won in the trenches. A mesmer can’t charge an enemy line (portal bombs aside).

preech.4071:

One thing im still trying to figure out is how BG is pulling ahead of SOR so fast if our potential pts are as close as theyve been ….. as much as i hate to point fingers (thats a lie ) i believe BG is chaeating agn ……. the points arent adding up and i heard they are getting more pts for yak kills than any other realm and im not sure why theyve been at even ##’s with SOR the past 2 days as well, holding the same amount as we have but rocketing past us in overall points. Again id hate to acuse ppl but I believe there is foul play afoot!

Please don’t. There is no foul play when it comes to actual point tallies. Let’s not have baseless speculation. We gank yaks frequently, I’ve even ran from Hills to Garrison’s outer wall just because I saw a Yak heading there and we wanted to stop it. What you don’t see, in all likelihood, is how BG pulls ahead after the NA side largely goes to bed. We have a lot of West Coast NA players that roll into our strong Oceanic prime where most other servers have less Oceanics and a lot of East Coast NA guilds making them go to bed earlier (they also start earlier). We get stronger as the night gets later.

For the record, when people are asking for screenshots/videos, it is not referring to the original occurrences, rather, the further accusations that have been made. We know that there is proof that these acts were committed and all we are asking is if further acts are committed to please post proof (or PM it to those who request it). It becomes a slippery slope to just assume that a server is always hacking when you see a certain person or guild capture a keep. Without proof, it becomes all to easy to continue to accuse a server, whether or not your claim is true, because it has happened before.

Great fights in BG BL last night between [KnT] and [LUN]/[TW]/[TWL]. We may have lost quite a few skirmishes, but I think you had just a few more players than I was rolling with I was afk when you were desecrating my body at Sunnyhill All too tempting to do that when you see an enemy commander, I’m sure :P

If you are saying they did something illegitimately again, please post proof. Vid or SS would be nice so we have actual reasons. If ICoa takes Bay, it isn’t alright to say that they hacked every time they take a keep.

Indo, tonight, Blackgate dines in Garrison. Also, which Asuran commander are you? The one in the CoF gear?

Maybe people haven’t read a word I’ve said. We are sorry that it happened. When this came to light, as a community we told our players to let you have the keep back. We can’t really do anything else other than report and make a public statement. We do not and never will support hacking or defend it. It is unfortunate that it happened and we would like to move forward.

I speak on behalf of Blackgate when I say that we would like our name to stop being dragged through the mud. We haven’t done that to you, we’d like the same respect.

Indo.8629:

Your math is assuming that ICOA didn’t just move from map to map and exploit bay, which is quite possible because at many points, all 3 bays have been held by BG.

The amount of points skewed by the exploiting is underestimated by everybody.

And you don’t have to like what I say, but I’m a competitor and anyone who cheats isn’t worthy of respecting as an opponent.

As for TW, I’m the guild leader and we play for the competition, period. The end result win/lose/draw is a by-product of the “fight”. The actual fight is what makes the game fun. When someone is cheating, it ruins both the fight and the result.

Anyone who cheats to win, whether by not speaking up or even participating, is just as bad as the cheater.

And I’m being vocal because quite frankly BG needs to be made an example of so that all the legitimate servers and guilds out there manage their player base better collectively so we can have good fights. Especially because of how many people actually used the exploited portal, that is what is the most troublesome. The TiD issue was a small guild, the ICOA exploit portals was at times the entire BL porting in with an exploit, that’s outrageous.

I gave you actual examples. Your assumptions are just that, baseless facts and theorizing without a shred of proof. Show me a screenshot or a video that shows these 60-70 people portaling in or even 30-40 portaling in. I saw 10-15 people in the video. At the most, in the video, there were 20 people outside the keep before it was taken. Moreover, provide proof or even accusations that a different Bay was taken by less than legitimate means. I bet you can’t, aside from the fact that I took Bay in SoR BL myself yesterday while this other nonsense was going on. Once again, Indo, exaggerations.

Making an example of Blackgate is pretty comical seeing as essentially each server has a guild who is guilty of the same offenses. This is almost as bad as Vihar from SBI saying that Blackgate needs to be punted out of Tier 1 because people that weren’t even a consequential part of WvW or in any major guild, and in all likelihood were from SBI itself, hacked orbs. It is clearly misplaced blame on your part. You hold us responsible as a server when every major guild has condemned these acts, kicked, and reported anyone involved not to mention there is no evidence of this zerg that you claim portaled through in its entirety. Both of the guilds, [ICoa] and [TID] dealt with the matters publicly, yet, somehow, our server is more in the wrong.

You might be a competitor, but so are we. My guild and any other guild that is involved in any significant way in WvW kicks anyone who is caught hacking or exploiting. We didn’t get the nickname Beastgate because of how well we can hack into a keep.

If you are the guild leader of [TW], then you truly are representative of your guild and, therefore, I have no respect for you or your guild if you can be so ignorant. Better watch your back out there because we’ll be headhunting for you and your wolves.

When the orbs were hacked, in a match that was now 5 weeks ago, they were hacked by accounts that were known to have been native to SBI. I don’t paint SBI with the blame because there will always be trolls and the only way for them to have fun is by making things not fun for others. Blackgate condemned the hacking then and condemns the hacking now. How someone can just ignore the responses by our community and paint us all with the same brush is just mind boggling. The only issue that there ever was, up until midweek, SBI claimed that they were losing because of the orbs. Now, let’s be real here, orbs don’t give you points. End of story. You could have all 3 orbs and they still wouldn’t be accruing points for your server. Therefore, just because a server had an orb, doesn’t enable them to win at all.

Now, let’s look at the case here. Certain individuals are trying to assert that Blackgate, if we win, will have won illegitimately. Last I checked, Blackgate was leading by 7k. Let’s do some quick math to see how much this keep theft has affected the score. Assuming that SoR is the server who lost the keep to BG, SoR is sitting at -25. Since Blackgate gained the keep, they are at +25. This is a net gain of +50 ppt over SoR for Blackgate. For that +50 to turn into a 7k point lead, 140 point ticks would have to pass. Those point ticks would span 35 hours. Blackgate did not hold this keep for 35 hours, or anywhere close to that. I will concede that the game would be closer, but Blackgate would still be in the lead by roughly the same margin. Claims that this lead is not earned, are over-exaggerating the situation at hand. This is a common emotional fallacy and I understand that you are upset, but you have to realize that Blackgate has come this far through legitimate means. If you take away the time that SoR has held keeps that have been stolen, I’d say that the tradeoff in points would just about break even.

There are many accusations of more Blackgate guilds than just [ICoa] exploiting into the keep and I’m going to ask that people actually provide PROOF or EVIDENCE. I realize that this is the court of public opinion, but when you post the same lies, exaggerations, or accusations over and over again, you start to believe them as fact when it could not be further from the truth. What do you stand to gain from trying to defame and smear Blackgate’s name? Do you think it will somehow make your server win? Tactics do that and leaders do that, not spreading lies about others. There was a video showing that there was an exploit and it enabled Blackgate, as a community, to report those responsible and handle the matter internally. If you actually want something done, post screenshots and videos. If you decide you’re going to just type accusations and ignore providing proof, you will be written off as a troll and ignored. We are more than willing to handle cheating when it occurs, but if you are going to accuse a server of it, screenshots or video or it didn’t happen.

I watched the video, and actually looked for tags. It seems like I’m the only one who did this from the statements about “all of our guilds being privy to the act and willfully participating in it”. When the portal was activated, I saw mostly [ICoa], one Asuran mesmer from [HB] and an Asuran from a guild I do not recognize, [Pond]. Unfortunately, the person who took the video was running for his life, so I could not see any other tags. The fact of the matter remains that this was an act perpetrated by an individual formerly in [ICoa] and that these “other tags” were simply not there.

[ICoa]’s leadership has come forward and handled the matter publicly as well as internally. The leadership of [TID] have also come forward and handled the matter with the community as their witness, and I admire that. Indo, I respect what [TW] has done on SoR, but I cannot possibly believe that you are representative of them. You are so high on tearing down Blackgate with your words, that the things you are saying are far from their original base. Yes, there was an exploit and we reported those who did it. No, it is not all of our guilds. You do not get to tier 1 and stay in tier 1 by cheating, no matter how you look at it. If you doubt me, please see my math above.

Overall, I have a lot of respect for SoR and IoJ. There have been great battles and these last 2 weeks have been a lot of fun. Blackgate is not all over these forums slandering SoR and neither is IoJ. Indo, you are obviously the ring leader here and trying to stir things up. It needs to stop. Plain and simple. The match has a hell of a lot of potential as do the future matches. It looks like we are going to be seeing each other for a while, so we are going to have to get along.

Stole this reply I made from another thread. Would be nice if we could have a dev chime in

GvG had a ladder, various objectives, 8v8 PvP play, a variety of viable builds, and was played in Guild Halls that were owned by your guild. These factors alone make it about 10 times more dynamic and interesting than sPvP in its current state. HA provided the same things, but also had 3 way competition on a world scale where you fought between other regions (NA/EU/Korea) for the “favor of the gods” and if you won, your guild/team name was displayed to the entire world that you won a Hall of Heroes match and because of that, your whole region had access to an Underworld dungeon where you could farm rare mats and drops off of hard-to-kill mobs until you were not favored any longer. Sounds pretty not stale to me. 5v5 is boring and cookie-cutter, point capture is unoriginal and repetitive, and there is no place for guilds in any of the current sPvP in a game called GUILD Wars. Seems quite silly. Additionally, the game type that guilds do have, WvW, needs a lot of work regarding bugs, glitches, and the overwhelming fact that there is no way to coordinate a large group without a commander icon and even then, the system is often buggy and not useful. Guilds need to be prioritized as a group that should be playing a role in these PvP modes, not just being able to farm influence and karma and experience in PvE.

GvG had a ladder, various objectives, 8v8 PvP play, a variety of viable builds, and was played in Guild Halls that were owned by your guild. These factors alone make it about 10 times more dynamic and interesting than sPvP in its current state. HA provided the same things, but also had 3 way competition on a world scale where you fought between other regions (NA/EU/Korea) for the “favor of the gods” and if you won, your guild/team name was displayed to the entire world that you won a Hall of Heroes match and because of that, your whole region had access to an Underworld dungeon where you could farm rare mats and drops off of hard-to-kill mobs until you were not favored any longer. Sounds pretty not stale to me. 5v5 is boring and cookie-cutter, point capture is unoriginal and repetitive, and there is no place for guilds in any of the current sPvP in a game called GUILD Wars. Seems quite silly. Additionally, the game type that guilds do have, WvW, needs a lot of work regarding bugs, glitches, and the overwhelming fact that there is no way to coordinate a large group without a commander icon and even then, the system is often buggy and not useful. Guilds need to be prioritized as a group that should be playing a role in these PvP modes, not just being able to farm influence and karma and experience in PvE.

Diashame.6328:

*worst reputation for hacking – check
*substantial evidence of major hacking and then contribution from community – check
*defensive responses from innocent community members – check
*evidence of attempt to eradicate the problem – uncheck

It’s hard to build a positive image but very easy to fall into a negative one. It’s even harder building a negative image into a positive one. Good luck beastgate at fixing your problem. – My suggstion would be to stop crying wolf and do something about your “problem children”.

For the record, I’ve been through that video about 15 times checking tags and character appearances to figure out exactly who was responsible and who participated in the act. Be assured that those responsible will be reported and ANet will sort out the rest. I’ve already spoken to [ICoa] leadership as soon as I heard about the video and expressed that this sort of occurrence is unacceptable. Honestly, I’m pretty sure we gave the keep back and if we haven’t you should have it now. We won’t stop you.

Blackgate wants an honorable end to this match and many more to follow it. It looks like we’ll be seeing each other for a while, so why should we be hostile or hold a grudge? We’ve handled the matter on the forums as well as internally. We ourselves, however, cannot bring down the ban hammer. I don’t care if this was retaliation for the actions of other guilds; we need to let it go and accept that those responsible will be punished. These acts, ultimately, will not change the outcome of this match, so let’s not let them be an excuse and move forward with intentions of sportsmanship.

Great fights tonight in SoR BL tonight. Saw quite a bit of [GSCH] and [TEST] out there from SoR. I lost track of how many times we tried to take your garrison :P

Here’s my pride and joy

Home World: Blackgate
Guild Name: [KnT] Knights of the Temple
Guild Website: http://blackgatewvw.com
In-Game Contact: Esoteric.5490 (Riven The Valorous)
Focus: Hardcore WvW
Quick Notes: Must represent and be willing to participate in WvW regularly. Age requirement of 18+.

Here is some basic information about the guild:

Leader: Riven The Valorous (Esoteric.5490)
Guild: Knights of the Temple [KnT]
Server: Blackgate
Members: 330+
Focus: WvW
Time Zones: Pacific, Central, and Eastern U.S. with International members
VOIP Capacity: 1000-slot Mumble
Average Guild Level: 80
Upgrades: Fully Upgraded in all categories
Website: http://blackgatewvw.com

Knights of the Temple [KnT] is a friendly, competitive, and hardcore WvW focused guild on the Blackgate server. We participate in daily WvW and frequently field parties of 25-40 members during prime time play. We are a predominantly West Coast US guild playing from 6pm-1am PST at our peak activity. Additionally, we are also looking for international players; we have a small collection right now and are working towards full coverage around the clock. We are part of a server-wide coalition of more than 50 guilds dedicated to WvW play. We also have full use of a 1000 slot mumble server with private channels for the guild. We are recruiting all professions and anyone ready for a dedicated WvW guild is welcome. Our current website is community based, but a new website is in the works for the guild. We do require that you be both willing to represent the guild and participate in WvW. This is a mature guild, please be 18+. If you desire an exception to the age requirement, please speak to me personally.

Our guild is a pillar of the Blackgate community and we have built this server from Day 1 to our current levels of success. If you are looking for the best place to WvW on Blackgate, look no further.

Send me a message on here or find me in game under Esoteric.5490

Here is my level 80 Human Warrior “Riven The Valorous” (soon to be changed to “Riven The Exile”)

*Not pictured: Awesome, character appropriate Fellblade

I suppose anything that they institute would be an improvement on sPvP objectives. Let’s be honest, capturing a circle on every single map is quite short of visionary or “esport worthy”.

Are these game types going to be seen in Guild Wars 2? If so, are we going to have to wait until an expansion to get them?

The game is called Guild Wars and the 2 most successful PvP types from Guild Wars 1 are nowhere to be seen in this game, most notably there is no fighting against other GUILDS in a structured match. I played GW1 for 5 years just for HoH and GvG. These game types were massively successful and never got stale. Why are they not in the game?

Guild Halls, GvG, and HoH were some of the aspects that made GW1 such a great game. I’ve been very disappointed to see that they haven’t come back, especially when the systems were so well designed. I know I’m not the only one that thinks this. THESE game types are dynamic forms of PvP. Guilds need to actually play a role again instead of solely being an organized force for WvW. 8v8 is a great number for PvP and currently, I feel like WvW doesn’t do enough for guilds who play it and sPvP is so streamlined that guilds don’t have a whole lot of freedom to make group comps because of how small the teams are. There are far too few styles of play, in my opinion, and those styles are pretty much cookie-cutter builds.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? This is, of course, open to discussion.

10/10 I really like the le faye at the end and Mhorghain is an original spelling, but a classic name

Because of name reservations, my female human warrior is named “Riven The Valorous”, but as soon as we have name changes available, I managed to get “Riven The Exile” when GW1 names were released. Not the most original idea, but my character is a dead ringer for League’s Riven and I use a Fellblade :P

The day that Kaineng beats HoD will be more symbolic than anything. I’m waiting for it.

Fantastic! Can I get a link for where you got the last song? I’m a big FF7 fan:) awesome video though. I must get one of those moose transformations:P

Sorry for double post. Had to split my post to fit it in the allotted space.

Commander isn’t some achievement and I strongly believe that that is what many people are considering it as. With the lack of true benchmarks for time put into WvW, individuals feel as though only the most dedicated players should get the commander icon as recognition for their time and effort. ANet has fundamentally failed regarding titles, ranks, etc. for WvW and made it so that we have to feel as though commander is the closest step for those who put a lot of time into WvW. This is a problem that isn’t really based off of 100g being fair or not, it is a problem of perceiving what the commander tag means.

I have about 5,500 kills in WvW in about 400 hours. I know players who have 2-3 times that amount of kills in the same time frame. Kills most often are based off of your profession and how much of a glass cannon/damage dealer you are rather than any sort of leadership ability. Hey, I can 2 shot with a thief too if I wanted. For this reason, getting a title or paying badges just aren’t a reasonable for anyone that plays a support class. Supports are one of the most crucial roles to any organized group or even a PuG group and these sort of policies would directly discourage that sort of thing. Badges are already a joke if you are a Support class and don’t get a lot of kills. Influence is also flawed. If you are in a small organized guild or no guild at all, it gives you no opportunity to gain these benefits other than things that are detrimental to your guild. My guild gets maybe 8-10 thousand influence per day and we are one of the larger ones on the server. It just isn’t reasonable. All of these solutions are flawed to favor a certain community. You could be a great tactician and sit on siege while coordinating assaults so you don’t capture a lot of territories and even if it was based off of territories captured, it would just result in people flipping supply camps every day in order to get to that number, once again not proving any sort of leadership, dedication, strategy, or experience.

For lack of a better analogy, money talks. It is the one thing that is consistent among every single player. 100g provides a good barrier to dissuade players from casually purchasing the commander tome, but it also makes it accessible for players in any situation. I’ve made about 20g saved in my bank (after siege, repairs, etc.) in WvW over the last couple weeks. Sure, it isn’t as easy as farming Cursed Shore or dungeons, but it is still reasonable. Most people won’t spend 100g to get the tome if they won’t use it. Anyone that has 100g to spare is likely putting it toward Mystic Force weapons, Tier 3 Cultural Armor, or Legendaries. There may be a solution to this issue, but currently it is not clear. Until it is, gold is the best way to make this tool available.

I play a warrior and have about 500 hours in game on that character. 400+ of those hours have been spent in WvW. I lead a very large guild on Blackgate and I was fortunate enough that they decided to sponsor my commander tag for me. I have been one of the more vocal leaders on the server since launch and got the commander tag a couple weeks in. I will not say that I was an excellent leader prior to getting the tag, but I was certainly competent. Now, after hundreds of hours and a very large guild to help with coordination and operations, I and several other players from my guild of 300 are competent commanders (we have 9). Some of these players sponsored it themselves and that was perfectly fine. It is good to have more commanders. A lot of times I could be really tired or stressed out. Commanding only servers to stress you out more when you have tough decisions to make. Having others that can play that role while you can sit back and play while you serve an advisory role makes sure that you don’t burn out on WvW, at least until they give some incentive for it.

For those talking about the issue of having bad commanders, trust will be gained or lost based on their success and reasoning. If they lose upgraded keeps, get you wiped repeatedly, or don’t communicate, players won’t follow them. It is the responsibility of those following them to decide if they are competent, and if they are not, they should not follow them. Conversely, a commander is only as good as those he commands; meaning that if the players following the commander do not listen or are just plain poor at PvP, than the lack of success may not be the commander’s fault. If there are commanders who are struggling, the more experienced commanders need to make the effort to mentor, advise, and take them under their wing. These players, for the most part, are out their trying to help your server. You are fighting for the same common goal. Perhaps running with the commander with your guild could help them improve. Asking them to join you in your VOIP to coordinate or learn could also be a big help. By shunning, ignoring, or flaming these players you only hurt your own server. Instead of being elitist, act like a leader and reach out to someone who has good intentions, but needs help getting there.

The vast majority of players are not going to have 100g just sitting around. It just isn’t going to happen. For the most part, those who buy the commander tome are trying to be leaders for their server. I am glad that people are stepping up. Some people are elitists, but they need to realize the fact that someone needs to command the armies when you are not there or when you need to work or sleep. Frankly, having more commanders doesn’t hurt a server. The sentiment that these commanders that aren’t you or your guildmate are incompetent is what hurts the server. It is more ironic than anything that people can rage about these commanders that maybe aren’t as experienced, but then do not talk to or coordinate with them, effectively shunning them. The irony here, is that the commander icon is meant to be a tool for heightened communication and teamwork and this is the polar opposite. Many people are trying to make it a popularity contest where that is never the solution. My guild could just only elect myself and my officers and where would that leave the rest of the server or commanders from smaller guilds? It’s just a silly concept.

Check your messages. Best of luck with you and your guild’s decision. Cheers!

Thorvald.5432:

The easy fix would be : no catapult can be build inside wall.
I don’t think doing an exception for just 1 weapon siege would really be that hard and they don’t need to rewrite engine for that.

Problem with this is that also limits tactics, such as putting a cata on a supply depot roof to defend outside the wall. Many catas behind a gate can fire over a wall and affect a fight going on outside. This exclusion would limit more strategies and would be a bit too much of a blanket approach to the problem that the AoE shouldn’t bounce beyond the gate. when a ram hits a gate you are standing behind, it doesn’t knock you back. It’s simple physics, but a game engine needing to be coded differently is more difficult than it sounds.

Arani.9057:

“while SB let JQ do the fighting” you mean while they watched us waste our resources on you wipe then they take what we “loosened” lols. Not to take away from SBI for the tactic of course, just sux to be on that side of it. You guys kill me when saying there is server teamwork on any organized level. I do get how it feels that way sometimes, you can even hear us say it on TS “yep there’s SBI watching BG kill us” … Knowing survival means getting ready for next wave lol.

Was a really great Garrison Throne room 3 way that was so much fun. Soooooo much red.

Something I agree with you on. It’s perfectly legit to back off and let someone else do the dirty work just to sweep up the victory. I’ve done it myself. There are a couple guilds that are working together across servers, to my understanding, but on a whole, they are not friends or allies and they want to win just as bad as we on Blackgate do.

I think the best potential for a commander is being part of a more organized force. Anyone can zerg, but it takes a leader and organization to do something more refined or tactical. I also think that maps need more than 1 commander. If you aren’t there, it is hard to try and make battle decisions. Running the left side of the map while you are leading a zerg on the right side just isn’t practical. Be willing to do the dirty jobs like sitting on trebs and other siege. If anything, that can give you a tactical location to effectively command if you are the only one on the map.

earendil.1290:

This is pure BS. Please send me any proof for hackers were from SBI by PM – It’s the first time I hear about it – I will personally check with our leaders and clear the issue. It’s not impossible – but it’s the first time I hear about it.

As for Vihar’s call and “the leaders that backed him” – just read the thread by yourself – it’s still up on our forums – the only ones in this tier available to anyone. We have nothing to hide.

http://www.stormbluffisle.com/index.php/forum/wvw/907-a-thought-on-what-we-can-do-for-fair-play

I read that thread, previously. As for the info on the accounts, I’ll see what I can get for you. I don’t own the evidence personally as I seldom play on BL’s

“Esoteric, it seems regardless of your long ridiculous posts, you won’t be convinced that we did not hack (about what you are talking about), so I’m just going to ignore your posts. Go post on the glitches/exploit forums, don’t post it here because it don’t matter. There’s nothing that anyone can say that will disprove what you are talking about even with screenshots/video because you clearly got it stuck in your mind that JQ is hacking for whatever reasons.” -aphillyboy.2064

Prove me wrong. You are from the guild in question so it only makes sense. Yourself, Arani, and others have just adopted the policy of “deny, deny, deny”. Now that we have his account name, let’s see how wrong you are when ANet bans him.

Not to mention, he would have had to hide there for 8 hours, not 4. Your missed facts only raise more questions. I’ll say it again, PROVE. ME. WRONG.

Arani.9057:

earendil.1290:

A mesmer that hids in the Hills for 4 hours, not discovered and not moving, while possible is highly unlikely. The thing to do would have been to take screenies.

I formally require from now on that any mesmer that hids takes regular screenshots, just in case his presence is contested. In absence of said screenies, people have the right to call foul play.

This was brought up, and I even said a couple times “jeez they are gonna QQ on the forums over this one I should SS”, but #1 it gives away where and how I was evading for so long and #2, that’s up there with asking every time 9 golems show up at water-gate tho show your work. When you do something really well, just because they didn’t figure out how we did it doesn’t mean we need to show them our math.. lay out how it was done to ease their minds.

Don’t forget that our inner keep and outer keep was never breached. So you should have taken a screenshot. Because we have video and we saw how JQ was clumped towards the wall trying to do something. Until there is a shred of proof that your play was clean, then my opinion and the evidence that we have remains unchanged that this was foul play without a doubt. You have some serious gall to show yourself here and proclaim that you were hiding for 4 hours and then not provide a shred of proof by shrugging it off as a trade secret.

For the record, I’ve seen more complaining about the complaining in the last part of this thread than I have seen actual BG players saying a 2v1 is unfair.

I’m a Blackgate GM and a Commander and in every tier ever, you are fighting a two front war. 2v1 exists and we as a server accept that. Those who complain about it are clearly inexperienced and don’t know how to face adversity. I will never complain about a 2v1 even if it seems tactically ridiculous to be participating in one. For example, a 2v1 against an underpopulated server during off-hours when they are outmanned, perfectly legitimate because it lets you pick up points with minimal resistance. A 2v1 against the 3rd place team during primetime when every map is full, not advisable. I think what BG players who are upset are trying to say is that the 1st place team should be the target if all sides are offering equal resistance because you are playing to win, right? Personally, I don’t really see a reason to stick it to the third place team when they are fighting just as hard with a full map as the first place team. Logic would dictate that 2nd would want to fight 1st, 3rd would want to fight first, and 1st would want to fight 2nd to keep them down in points. These roles would change fluidly based on who is in what place. Potentially, it is also viable to attack whatever team holds the most points at any given time so when Blackgate is at +300 in a close game even though they are in 3rd, a seeming 2v1 against us would not be unwarranted.

Overall, the truth of the matter is there is a LOT of unwarranted hostility towards Blackgate regarding orb hacks that were condemned and reported by our community. It was also documented that the accounts of those orb hackers were accounts that were known to have been on SBI previously. SBI’s leadership (Vihar GM of [Rage] especially) has explicitly stated that they wish to “punt” Blackgate out of tier 1 because we don’t play with honor. I am personally offended by this and the leadership on SBI has also stated that they don’t care about what JQ is doing as long as they can stick it to Blackgate. These opinions are those of SBI’s leadership and I find them to be incredibly immature. They not only paint the entire server with the brush that we are a bunch of hackers, but they then stop playing the game and start a personal vendetta against Blackgate. I was hoping that this week could improve things, but the elitist sentiments on SBI to decide who deservers to be in tier 1 seem to be clouding what otherwise had the potential to be a great match.

So before anyone starts denying that a degree of unnecessary force is being sent towards Blackgate, you should probably check what the leadership of major guilds and communities on your own servers have said. We’ll keep fighting, but don’t think that collusion doesn’t exist just because 2v1 is well within the intended parameters of WvW so it makes all actions in war beyond reproach.

There have been certain factions from SBI and JQ that have said that they were going to do nothing, but attack Blackgate. I am a GM and Commander on Blackgate and I don’t have a problem with this. I’m in it for the fights. If they want to 2v1 a server and win like that, then that is their prerogative. If we are in the lead, as we were last week by 20k points, I fully expect to get 2v1’d. It makes literal sense. Here is a Blackgate player who is online every day saying that this system is working as intended. Odaman, I am sorry you feel that way about our server. I have a lot of respect for all of FA and I really like playing you all. Our server really isn’t as filled with transfers as you may think. A look at some population and queue times charts would testify to that.

Superior Runes of Infiltration stealth when you drop below 10% health. Just so people remember other classes can stealth too based on runes.