Guild Wars 2

If only there were a people with a certain sense of wonder, panache and interest in cucumbers. Because those people would be entranced by my attention to detail.

We like detail here. We still portal bomb. I put up siege on tiny boats just to confuse people. I’m going to knock the walls down on your keep and then RUN AWAY. We will attack your structures simultaneously. All of them.

If your name rhymes with grapefruit, please apply within.

Leap.2760:

I stumbled upon this to read out of curiosity and I just had to saw, I LOVE your sense of style with your posts! You have me intrigued.

I saw that you added me Leap. We’ll get you sorted once I finally get back online. Power outage. Storm of the century. Zero pants.

Its a great idea. Just needs to be player driven at this point. I like the contest idea for recruitment purposes.

To put a serious note in here (not sure why that is expressly necessary in this case): the EOTM map could have been successful for many reasons. The intention of having this be utilized for a overflow map has never really worked. Pretty certain that there are a number of flaws with this map that have been detailed by the community more than once.

Additionally, the community turned it into a k-train map and at this point attempting to shift the perception back to something else would be incredibly difficult.

Mushin.3928:

I wonder if many serious WvW players will end up having 2+ accounts on different tiers just to keep things from getting stale (or else just stop playing the mode). I have an account on FA and BP, and although the quadserver is overpowered, I feel like things are just more fun in tier 4 just because they are so chaotic. T2 (FA) tends to just be blobs, meta and siege everywhere; there are some good fights to be had, but you spend a lot of time looking for them. Jumping between the two tiers, I have so far managed to keep things interesting for myself.

Of course having two accounts is suboptimal in other respects (to say the least), but so is transferring around looking for the greener grass. I wish ANet would let each account play on two worlds, but they don’t exactly have the economic incentive to allow that.

raises hand I have three. Only one of which is T1.

Reverence.6915:

Fatherbliss.4701:

The incentive? Lamentation. Driving the hordes before you. Plus, we all know that servers like BG keep their Sylvari under grow lights in their Garrison. Its next to the bacon.

We the inquest are curious as to how plant matter has achieved sentience. Do not disrupt our ongoing research.

nodding I can understand and appreciate this sentiment. Sadly, if the laboratory continues to be placed in such an unfortunate local as behind the Lord’s commode, we will have to find a better way to compromise.

Jayne.9251:

CrimeMaker.8612:

So basically you guys are saying you do not want players from pve and you do not want new players? Then how do you expect WvW to get better?

Bah don’t listen to the snobs.

If I ever get ANY time off work, I’ll take ALL of you pve folks interested in WvW and run clinics. And then we will collectively smoosh all the snobs

Idiots who expect you to come into game knowing everything are just .. well .. idiots.

The only way you can learn is by making mistakes. And the only way you can fix mistakes is by learning from others.

Pretty much every server out there used to run zerg, siege and scouting clinics for all new incomers. It may be time for each collective server to revisit that, invest the time, and set up a schedule of events, and invest in your community.

Agreed. I know the folks who used to run those on TC stopped due to lack of interest. I’m seeing more people stop in now which is good. Gotta replace those burnt out crispy Toasts somehow.

Allow people to build crafting stations in their home instance. Sell a permanent pass that lets you teleport directly there (already in game). Profit.

Personally I’m not sure why people want them back? I’ve never been in WvW and suddenly had the urge to Craft something. I think its more of a convenience item which could be better placed in other areas of the world.

Of course if I could create a five golems that combine into one big kitten sized VOLTRON using those stations, that would be excellent. Then we could do Rock ’em Sock ’em style combat in the middle of the map. Whomever loses self destructs automatically killing every enemy player within 4,000 yards.

The incentive? Lamentation. Driving the hordes before you. Plus, we all know that servers like BG keep their Sylvari under grow lights in their Garrison. Its next to the bacon.

Interesting. Do you have a newsletter?

Cecilia.5179:

Want to advertise WvW?
Command on off hours for WvW until you know what you’re doing. People will follow you, and you will gain a positive reputation for doing well in important hours.
Start a guild. People kittenpect you may be willing to run with you if you command.
Start training pugs. This improves the quality of people on your server.
Now that you have a good following, tell people in your guild to invite their PvE/PvP friends to run with you. If they like it, they will come back.
This is how Dragonbrand’s Battleground Heroes [Hero] started way back when. That guild ran strong until its leader left the game.
Good leaders make WvW a better place. The only thing that I request from the devs is to cut the price of superior siege (regular ac is trash, and superior flame rams are a must vs non-paper gates). Being a regular commander is very expensive, and relying on donations is not reliable or appropriate.

Very well stated. I am finally getting around to forming up my own guild. It is slow work. I’m a goofy person, I like to have fun while playing WvW. The best piece of advice I’ve seen so far is that it takes time to build up the type of atmosphere you want to see.

I am seeing people trickle in who are interested. But they are massively intimidated considering that the game has been out for some time now. People willing to show the basics are in need. It isn’t going to be for everyone. There are a ton of roles within WvW and I have found that all players have a niche. We just need to remember that not everyone loves frontline combat. Which is fine as long as someone does. Lol.

Definitely need the Glicko to be reset. I imagine that is what they are attempting to do with the “volatility” aspect right now but it would be much easier to blow it up. Like a doll. You know the kind. Crazy eyes.

I believe it is still possible. It really depends on the opponents. Random pug zerg who is playing with their Jar of Bees and smoking out behind the ruins? sure. Kill the tag. Done. But if we are talking a coordinated guild group of 40+? I’m not buying that for a second.

Unless you pay them off in bacon. That might work.

We know how to properly throw a lightswitch rave. (When Strongbad is out of town is the correct answer.)

zdain.3192:

Interested. PMed IG.

Sounds good! I shall answer there.

Ophidia Moonstone.2587:

OMG… Thank you! Thank You! Something as simple as where to find the reward track was impossible for me to find when I looked at the wikis and youtube videos I watched. This was soooo helpful!

Tag lots of things on the map you are on too. Camps, towers (hit guards in both cases), sentries. You can do that solo and bolt if your build isn’t suitable for soloing. Point being, when someone else hits those same objectives you still get some form of credit. Depending on the server you are on its reasonable that once a camp is ready to be captured other people will help. Really depends on the time zone plus the population of your server.

Finding even a few people to run with definitely helps. Also, when you are on a Borderland map if you click on the icon for a Camp for example on the map itself, it will bring up a timer at the top that shows you how long that Camp has been controlled. This gives you an idea if you can capture it or if an enemy is likely to flip it.

The ruins in the middle of the maps (on every WvW Alpine map other than EBG) are also easy to take on your own and count towards credit. One of the easiest ways to move forward on the reward track is to run with a bigger group who is active.

Good luck! Ask any clarifying questions if you need to. Most groups I know will explain what they are doing to some degree. So logging into Teamspeak or Mumble for voice communication is huge towards understanding what you are doing. Or even finding a veteran player who will walk you through the basics.

My list: Bring your own buffs (oil and food)
Make sure you can give yourself Stability
Make sure you can cleanse Conditions
Always carry Supply
Purchase Supply and Stealth Traps, have them at all times

You can only have one trap type down on the map at a time. But doing any of the above (flipping camps, killing yaks) really helps out your main forces on a map. Its super irritating.

Good luck!

We are not just another guild that performs strange rituals on unsuspecting Humans with hummus and a taser late at night. No. We are the guild that attaches itself to your leg in a manner that implies cuteness and ends in ever increasing amounts of horror over time.

Plus it is known that chocolate chip cookies summon the devil in mass quantities. IT IS KNOWN.

Leap.2760:

I stumbled upon this to read out of curiosity and I just had to saw, I LOVE your sense of style with your posts! You have me intrigued.

Why thank you! I fully believe that humor is the best medicine for everything going on in the world. At least to soften the blows as we hopefully make some positive change. I also think there are way too many kitten trolls in gaming and I try to offer people a broad based goofy setting within which to succeed.

(TC is open right now…just saying.)

We play naked on the weekends. Only the weak need to rely on “stats” and “armor” as a crutch.

X T D.6458:

Don’t get involved with server politics and you will be a lot happier and have more fun.
Just go out and do what you like to do, best way to help wvw.

This is probably the best piece of advice I have read here yet.

There are some valid points in the OP post. Doesn’t change the fact that population is still going to win the overall matchup. Not that it is a reason to stay inside a tower.

We had a residual spike in population (I came back myself during that time a few months ago.) There are a number of games that launched recently. That is going to pull people. It is summer, folks are out of school here in the States, people are on vacation, etc. Many factors are at play beyond just the game itself.

This doesn’t change the fact there needs to be more changes from anet if this mode is going to survive long term. And I do believe they are trying. Attempting to preserve the type of play people enjoy is important. The easiest method would be to combine or blow up the existing matches into some other form. But then the folks who enjoy being on the servers other than T1 are highly likely to have to play in a way they don’t want to do.

Realize that there is a subset of people on TC who don’t want to be in Tier 1. There are people who like to roam and not blob up. There are people who would rather be having fun by role playing, killing people occasionally and ignoring PPT. So yes, that would fall under the category of disorganized. There isn’t a common server goal. I believe BG as a whole is more focused.

I do often laugh at people who continually say that PPT and score mean nothing. If that was true ignore all of the objectives and just go for kills. What you actually want is to have your Tier experience and fights too.

Looking for a few brave souls to spread destruction, death and general mayhem on the battle field. Previous experience in killing without hesitation is a plus. Enjoying the sight of red all over the place in myriad patterns is also beneficial.

Come run with us. Enjoy the hunt.

Who pets the cat? We pet the cat! Who crab walks to the precious ruin of doom? We do! Come join us for festivities on the borderlands along with a healthy dose of goat cheese.

I’ll never know what you are wearing if you don’t join my guild. Or if you want to cuddle. I mean, what will I do with all of this bacon? I can’t eat this by myself.

This is real talk people. REAL.

I think the main issue for me is that the matches aren’t competitive under the current setup. The majority of games I’ve played so far this season are blowouts. Sure, my win ratio winds up being close to 50% overall. But the matches are precisely entertaining for either side. Last night I finally, finally had a match that ended 500-498 and went down the the wire. That is by far the exception.

Now, to be fair, I’m at the lower end of the pool. From what I’ve read this week about how the MMR seems to work it isn’t logical at all.

Looking for in-game models to show off the sloth backpack while flanked by people in the fairy wings. For science.

Of course your assessment is correct, flooding the system with polls is not going to be the long term solution. As there is more saturation in the MMO market each week that goes by Arena-net is going to have more competition. The competitors have the advantage of watching what goes on here and adapting their strategy accordingly too. However, communication is pretty awesome and certainly more welcome than silence.

I’ve seen Anet being much more engaged and also willing to make changes to the system based on our feedback. Will it be enough for us as players? That is an individual decision.

I like my balance like I like my partners. Readily available for shenanigans and in even doses spread out over a period of years.

Teon.5168:

If I wasn’t based on Kaineng, I would probably hit ya up for an invite. But being on KN, no telling where we’ll be in another month or two.

Yep, might as well wait. I was discussing this today with a friend about the servers. Right now people should see what happens before transferring or anything too. I’m liking Kaineng enough that one of my alts is going to magically appear there.

(You could always friend me in game so at least we can do PVP!)

We have discussions about Metal most evenings. Why? Because it is awesome and embodies life as we know it and an urge to kill things with fire.

People fear my sloth backpack. It is known.

mrauls.6519:

I want to play on a server & in a tier where I can expect a lot of roamers. I’m currently on YB, but my experience here hasn’t been that great as far as roaming. Am I just not looking in the right places? I usually look around SMC. Please help me.

Also, if any WvW guilds want to send me an invite feel free to do so!

What time zone do you play in? (Personally I roam on the Alpine maps. Camps or Bloodlust areas are good. Watching the yaks path around is also a guaranteed area for conflict.)

Baldrick.8967:

I think it’s variable. It’s also not the same for each side. That’s as much as we can determine, other than one side’s q might be 20 and yet 50 total on that side whilst another server is running a 70-80 man blob.

It’s probably controlled by some clever bit of programming that fails to react to big fluctuations hence why it seems one side has huge numbers whilst the other struggles.

This. I’ve witnessed a number of strange factors such as one server having a queue even though you don’t see more than 20 players across the map. I mean its always possible people are playing beach blanket bingo down south but I highly doubt it.

My theory for a long while is there is a cap across the entire map and there is an equation that gives each participating server a portion of the populace. It isn’t static.

Definitely an option with more underwater features would be fantastic. There are a lot of theme areas that could be put into the WvW with features that aren’t game breaking yet still amusing. I was just thinking of something along the lines of the costume changes that happen when you put on the goggles and swimwear for the diving achieves. What about something along the lines of an area in Alpine where players can become polar bears? Duke it out in a costume battle. I see this as a polar bear NPC you can talk to on the side of the map. Something innocuous. Same thing on a beach, you get into your skivvies and have shades on. Limited duration obviously.

Arial platforms? Heck even the ability to build a platform that goes over the wall would be interesting. It would have to be expensive and not easy to pull off.

Forest area of the map, much more than the southern area of Alpine. Islands would be entertaining given the fights in the water that would happen naturally.

Underground options.

I’ve also always wanted to see a day/night cycle implemented. Where it actually got dark enough you had to use torches or some form of light. Similar to the part in OS where it is pitch black. That would have to rotate pretty quickly though due to players being in so many time zones.

Those are very random ideas and I’m sure have big gaping holes for implementation.

Ran out of people to talk to two days ago. Its rough out here. Oxygen low, growing food. I hope there is something to listen to soon besides disco.

Send help.

Hmmm. That could have been sarcasm earlier on this page. Not sure. This will take further study.

My approach has always been to combat them using humor. Its amazing how often they stop once you distract map chat with another topic. The trolls get drowned out in the noise.

Treat ’em like vampires. Take the food away.

Dhemize.8649:

It’s best to keep servers linked in order to split up bandwagon servers. The problem is that 3 months is way too long and should only last a month before changing pairings. Those who want to blobwagon will have to keep paying for it.

Yep. +1 on that comment.

I’m with Phantom (often in the evening, standing right next to you or on the same map actually.) Some of the shiny is wearing off. Absolutely. Really my only major complaint is the lack of a public tag. But see this is where I don’t go off the rails and take other people to task about that. I have a tag. Therefore if I’m not willing to use it I am certainly not going to give other people crap about running in a private group.

We still have a number of players who are playing that took a long break. Faces I haven’t seen in over a year are returning. It got a bit quieter and I’m not sure that is a bad thing.

As people point out every year around this time, it is also the beginning of summer for many of us. Outdoors is a much more attractive option especially on the weekend.

Plus I just bought Doom and Overwatch.

Each night after raiding I will send one lucky guild mate whatever is in my bags. This could be a precursor, a centaur mini, an over sensitive player with a man bun, even the location of the coveted jar of bees. ANYTHING.

All players welcome including enemy servers. Because nothing is more amusing than a long courtship followed by an amazing death scene at the top of SMC complete with video capture and a soundtrack.

21. You gonna die. Players born under the sign of Gemini, you gonna die twice. (Compliments to Chris Rock)

This is probably a silly comment to make but when I see changes like this I’m always hoping for a more broad explanation of why it was implemented.

I also wake up every day looking for unicorns. Then I go to bed sad once again.

(This is a growing and successful list elsewhere on the internet. I figure this group would have even more relevant suggestions.)

Acquire booze. If that doesn’t strike your fancy, acquire something else that may or may not alter your consciousness. Like Ramen or White Castle.

Next, follow these easy yet lucrative steps towards success:

1. Bring your own Buffs and Stability.

2. Dispense with all forms of pants

3. Follow the Commander. Even off of that cliff. If you are laying dead next to them once they go down, you win.

4. Always have supply

5. Always have a Yak tonic or some way of showing that you are indeed “Of the Toast”

6. You will be outnumbered. Deal with it.

7. Figure out how to survive. Then work on tactics.

8. Do not backseat command. Ever.

9. Engage the Buttlust at the earliest opportunity, for thy stomps shall count for more than just bragging rights.

10. Wear tights in real life, so that you shall know you are mighty and full of cowbell.

11. Fashion a beard from the leg hair of your opponents. Be selective.

12. Understand that people actually take vacation days to PvD in order to win matches. It is known.

13. Listen to Justin Timberlake songs while doing a particularly awesome three way…defense.

14. Sentry. Just do it.

15. Get in the ring.

16. Thy shalt not PvD unless explicitly required to do so.

17. Swim at the lowest point when underwater.

18. Equip some kitten Exotic underwater weapons.

19. Never, ever go to the Skritt place.

20. If you come upon a group of people, naked, by the windmill – you should move on.

Just give me a server that is pure open world PVP. Glorious battles in the main cities, carnage across the landscape. No place is safe.

Or rather than server tie us to a faction. That has been mentioned before too.

I agree with a lot of what you said above. It will always be harder to change an existing game though and certainly one where the current issues weren’t predicted. There are a lot of good suggestions out there for assisting the situation. For me I came back due to renewed interest among my friends in the game mode. You have a lot of differing (valid) issues in your post. All of which take a number of solutions to put into place.

For a long while I didn’t see much improvement or involvement with WvW. Now we are making some forward progress at least. No solution is going to be perfect out the gate. Why? Because of the unpredictability of players for one thing.

Any new game has the advantage of learning from Anet and developing around the needs of the player base. We’ll eventually see another company get it right and have a winner on their hands. I have no doubt about that. A lot of people I know have been playing since GW1 launched and don’t really seem keen on leaving for good. Taking a break? Sure. That I would see as being a real possibility.

I think a lot of people are waiting to see what changes are going to be implemented. Sure, I’d like to see changes in the engine too. But at that point does Anet just start working on GW3?

I want to go back to where we talk about rubbing my Spam against the gates.

I’ve wondered before on TC if this is why over time we stopped seeing as many golems in keeps. For years we had trolls who would suicide any golems left behind, turn siege the wrong way, waste supply – you get the idea. Not spies to my knowledge. Just people who wanted to be a pain in the kitten . I can’t even imagine how on earth that would be considered fun.

Spying is tough. There aren’t many methods of punishment we could enact in game that won’t be abused by someone. Many matchups have a huge population imbalance which makes that sort of behavior more than a little ridiculous.

Game designers appear to believe that PVP players want to show off a bit. In most games I’ve played you get better armor for higher level achieves (which often comes with better stats.) I guess I look at it that way. That Anet has that feature to show longevity and prestige in the game mode or something. Which isn’t entirely accurate as everyone knows. I know people who run defense and scout that have hardly any ranks at all after years of play.

Driver sniping is effective in a lot of cases. Certainly works when there is a lot of militia around. But really any form of distraction can work in that scenario too. Having an option to turn it off might not be a bad idea.

Sometimes the best laid plans are those that involve not only yaks but also goats. Mostly goats. They are superior in every way.

I guess I tend to think about situations like this a bit differently. So, pretending I’m Anet for a moment this is a discussion more about framing a concept.

Proposal: Advertise for a month in advance that two new worlds are going to be created. Have a naming contest for each world. Perhaps even a cosmetic back piece or armor item that can be worn (in game achievement?) to give an incentive for players to move. Sure, the transfer is free. But we’re trying to get worlds to de-stack.

If I am an enterprising group of guilds that wants to start over on a new world, patch up any issues with timezone imbalance you basically just handed out a winning recipe. To me it sounds like a field day for guilds and players to rally around those new worlds. Course in my mind I would be tempted to create worlds where PVP is turned on all the time and those two worlds only face each other and a rotating world in WvW for combat purposes.

In the eyes of Anet there needs to be a change. The players also feel there needs to be a change. One of the issues in opening up discussion is that we as players rarely can agree. Heck, even in my guild groups we have different opinions.

But I do agree with the other comments that I’m not sure this fixes the main issues. Players will find a way to break open any system. WvW and sPVP populations are incredibly competitive by nature. Give people an incentive to win, give them a reason to transfer, etc.

Anet seems to be attempting to preserve world identity on some level. Naming conventions during linking aside (since this is Beta I would hope that is addressed eventually.)

PVP players are by far some of the most vocal yet also most loyal in a game. The raiding population and PVP population will keep a game going for a very long time.

You want to know what I find endearing and amazingly attractive? A partner in crime. I want people who will come up with absolutely positively the worst ideas, most insane builds and most outlandish concepts ever.

Then we will go do them. With enthusiasm. Probably some long ponderous looks into the moonlight too. After all, the best plan is always plan B. The one where we YOLO into the base.

Teon.5168:

Just an update, as I waiting for this to happen, as I have experienced it before on T1 servers. The hardcore wvw’ers were out in force on TC tonight, and wow, are they a nasty bunch. Screaming at people to get off EBG if they’re afk(can I just take a few minutes to heal myself and get rid of some inventory?), and guildies telling me that they were kicking people from groups that either didn’t have TS, or wouldn’t get on TS.

Apparently, they’re getting tired of getting their butts kicked by BG. I got news for ya, gang…..it is not because of the small numbers from Kaineng, but because BG is so overstacked that they outnumber TC and YB by at least 2-1, if not more. Guess that is not sitting well from with the over-serious wvw’ers on TC.

But, it is all good…..my guildy friends and I were getting a good laugh from it. It is something to be expected, and I am surprised it took this long to experience that sort of attitude. T1 can be fun, but the blob warfare can get dull pretty quick. Glad I have a second account where I can go mess around on T4 where the attitude should be better tonight. I’ll get back on later on T1 when the too serious players have gone to bed. (Got high school and junior high classes tomorrow, after all….lol)

In the end, most of my guildies and I still like the action, as this doesn’t seem to happen too often so far. The TC matchup, overall, has been a good one. Just one night with the spoiled brats out in force.

As one of our main guild leaders said tonight…..LOL….“ah, the cool kids are out tonight”…..but he also said that a few of the other TC tags were telling them to kitten and sit on their thumbs…..lol. Gotta love the drama.

Traditionally TC is pretty cool overall. But we of course still have some folks that have always done exactly what you described above. EBG seems worse than other maps too. To be fair, there is also a big issue with maps hitting a queue and players sitting in spawn for long periods of time.

It is usually about that point I start talking in map chat about flavors of pie or what you can do with honey in sticky situations between sentry points. Because fark that type of behavior. lol.

A number of people I know absolutely hated Golem Week. I think at the time the feedback my guild gave to Anet was around it not lasting an entire week if they ever did anything like that again. Personally I thought it was incredibly funny but almost like a gag that lasts just too long.

One thing that could work for this is a highly publicized charity event once a quarter that coincides with a “day off” where we get to play with developers or well known A-net personalities. Celebrities perhaps? There are a number of ways in which this could be inclusive or bring the community together.