Guild Wars 2

Organize your server if you want to win WvW. Snowballing exists because arenanet wants clear cut winners. It would suck if you fought for 7 days and felt like you didn’t actually achieve anything. I’ve been on a losing server for months and were finally winning match ups, and it isn’t because server transfers gained us anything, it’s because we organized to the point where we can win.

PACT is not just ‘a few guilds’, its friggin 12 guilds right now, and we covered 3 maps. I led Eternal with DKz, TWC, and CORE. Homelands was SZBY and I think GOAT but I could be wrong. Rest supposedly went to blue.

Also yes, there has been no mass server transfers except away from our server. We’ve lost, I believe, about 3 large sized guilds (for our server anyways) over the past few weeks. Our victory is an effort by the guilds. We had a 18 man ‘council’ meeting on thursday about how to win, just as we do every week. Last week we were trying something new, this week we tried something new again.

it’s possible. There are a few locations up there that are supposedly ballista proof though.

IMO it’s supposed to be untouchable, similar to stone mist on eternal battlegrounds.

Oh yeah, props to WAR on Anvil Rock, you guys are extremely organized on small unit tactics. I hope I’m that organized someday.

On our server, we had to rally a lot of people to advance out of the lowest bracket.

This week, were dominating the second lowest bracket.

Moral is, you have to make it happen, it’s not going to happen magically.

The pact essentially decided that blue was the target instead of green this week, and it worked out well. Go figure. I can say that the unsavory barricade was intentional, and orchestrated by the Pact. Were not happy about having to do it, but with so few numbers, it was required to gain ground on the other servers.

Great fun on Eternal tonight, if anyone here was on that map. I hope you kitten your pants at the sight of 9 useless golems defending stonemist, because I sure did.

Sorry anvil, we had to do it.

You shouldn’t consider rating as a kitten thing in the first place. It’s sole purpose is to match you with an equal server.

happens brother, no big deal.

Good luck to all contenders

You could spend 30 minutes on a different server and achieve the monthly achievement. It’s really that simple.

Dovgan.8605:

How about a day one picture instead.

I’m just stating facts, BP consistently attack AR out the gate then cries when they get hit on both fronts. I am tired of hearing excuses from some, and I emphasize some, of BP’s players, I am tired of hearing “playing for second” when you know darn well, that both AR and BP are outmanned most of the time.

You can continue to live in a fantasy world where there is some huge AR conspiracy to take you down, it just is nonsense. There is no secret board room, there is no grassy knoll, AR attacks you because you are there, but it doesn’t explain why you attack AR when the match resets, and have done so repeatedly.

Our server (and I assume no server except perhaps the very top) is coordinated enough to stop a random zerg from happening.

The great irony is that, while in commander mode, it’s incredibly hard to be strategic. You’re expected to run the zerg around to locations, which often blindsides you to any sort of good strategy. I bought the thing thinking I could just run the zerg around and get stuff done, but you end up underfoot because of the constant lack of strategy.

They need to change how it works, or remove it. I think WvW should be a guild function.

I’m glad you’re assuming that the only way to play WvW is to ram zerg into zerg and see who has bigger testicles, when even now that’s clearly not the case. I’m all for unique mechanics, mesmers can do LEGAL tactics that use portals that can be devastating to an enemy. For instance:

This situation actually happened, and a mesmer could had actually done this and probably have won the siege for them. Invaders managed to take our upper left tower and placed a TON of siege into it to prevent it from being taken back easily. They then placed 2 trebs in the tower to attack garrison’s left wall.

We managed to hold out with the wall actually collapsed because we fortified the inner door.

If a mesmer were working together with a group, as they usually do in situations where they can be of advantage, they could have stealth ran in (10-20 seconds of stealth is plenty of time) got up on the inner wall, dropped a portal, and their zerg could have completely skipped our wall of siege equipment.

I’m not against unique mechanics. I’m against mechanics breaking other obvious mechanics. Keeps require tactical measures to take, period. Having an insider mesmer stick around long enough to portal in 25-50 players breaks that mechanic.

Just bring a group of people to the low end servers, bottom two brackets are where that happens very often.

Some servers will have nobody on them until someone notices things are being taken, and then the flip train commences.

Supersun.4603:

What are you doing up there BP? You certainly aren’t drilling for oil.
(Can’t tell if that screenshot shows it, but they tried to drop a portal as well)

I could be someone who says ‘shoulda swept your keep’, but I personally think mesmer portals are a form of exploiting if used as such. Especially in a tower? You can essentially steal a tower in 10 seconds with a single mesmer portal, and there’s plenty of places to hide on some of the towers (specifically that one, has the most nooks and crannies).

Unfortunately, with the current mindset of WvW, if you’re not using it, you’re losing it. Arena Net hasn’t made any official word on if it’s intentional or a side effect, so using it is what it is.

Wow, not sure where the thread went wrong. I like to think Borlis’s WvW community is rather humble.

Ah well, current stats:
Emery Bay 163k, +510
Anvil Rock 59k, +140
Borlis Pass 43k, +40

A daily reset would just reset the objectives of a map, the score would still be rolling but it would feel like a fresh start every 24 hours.

eternal battlegrounds? has next to no strategic value. why bother there when we can’t even fill every map as is?
didn’t we figure that out weeks ago?

On reset day, all borderlands are full.

Would be nice if it required you to buy it, and then people had a way to vote into it, like, the one with the largest squad (members wise) is the only one that shows up on the map.

I’m not against people getting commander and using it if there’s only one on the map, but it’s nice to know which one the server is behind, to prevent a ton of confusion.

Wizardauz.3761:

[AoN] from Ehmry Bay here,

Just wanted to say that i admire the fighting spirit both Anvil Rock and Borlis Pass show. They dont back down and they can be quite ruthless. We may outnumber you, but i wouldnt think of letting my guard down around you guys

See you on the battlefield!

-Tzenjin [AoN]

Our (BP) top level strategy this week was to try to be as offensive as possible. The idea worked pretty well on EB but faltered on the borderlands, sadly.

Firseal.4716:

I don’t really do much WvW. I certainly haven’t – and probably won’t – ever try this with my portals on my mesmer. Only read the topic because I like using the portal in PvE and came in this here forum to do a short complaint on something I ran into in trying to do monthly objectives (which is one of two things that forces me and other PvE purists into WvW, to the mixed emotions of all involved).

By my understanding, people are leaning heavy on portals in some cases. But portals can’t be thrown – a mesmer has to be willing to cast one end, then cast the other. A very simple fix is give a mesmer who has one portal half ready glows. We could make the glow slightly visible even if the mesmer is stealthed.

This prevents the skill from being ruined by ‘fixes’, means that paying attention is rewarded (catch that rascally mesmer! Yar!), and adds another level of strategy. See a glowly target – kill it. Or, well, else.

Also, again, forgive my PvE nature, but orbs have to be run, even if stolen, correct? Now, I usually look at WvW and as often as not, it seems like one side is trouncing the others. Seems to me we SHOULD let the orbs be easily stolen. Heck, make it possible for other classes to nab them. Add a grappling seige that can fire in and snag players or the orb and drag it out. Make whoever is carrying the orb visible on the map, same as a commander. This gives weak sides a way to try and get back in the game, strong sides something to worry about, and turns a bitter seige into a wild run-about game of capture the orb.

Just seems to me to be better overall, that.

The problem is that orbs are often glitchy when in transit, sometimes disappearing from the map entirely, until they reset. Yes I know they could fix this issue as well, which is another topic entirely.

To me, the orb should require nothing short of the whole map coordinating an attack to get to it, or a very crafty group of people using a lot of siege weapons to get to it, or a combination of both.

Theoretically right now, a mesmer and thief combination can stay inside the walls of a keep, invisible for nearly 3-4 minutes straight, well beyond the attention span of normal players. This can get people to at LEAST the second gate, if not inside the throne room. So all these ‘sweep your keep’ issues? fine, you should clear the keep before moving on. Should you be punished by a global objective being taken by a relatively small fraction of the map (25 people is only 1/6th of the players, for instance), I don’t think so.

Setsunayaki.4907:

You know, its people who kept complaining because someone else used their Class to their advantage which started getting entire builds and classes broken in Guild Wars 1.

I remember when regular skills were split into PvE and PvP versions. I am wondering if ArenaNet will do the very same thing with skill-sets. make WvW versions, because I would not want to lose the PvE element of a skill simply because a bunch of WvW players can’t stand another using certain skills.

Portal is a unique thing that mesmers can do. Just like Elementalists can Meteor Shower a keep and do devastating damage. How about all the stuff that Engineer and Guardian can do that can make them feel like the most overpowered classes in the game?

Oh and don’t reply that Engineer isn’t overpowered. I laughed when I took off my armor in PvE and had no trait Points and just ran circles around the enemy AI and killed two veteran enemies and four regular enemies with just bombs simultaneously. Or how about the Guardian Groups that raid AC in 15 – 20 Minutes?

Ok, so what is my point?

Don’t punish one class because all the other builds have not been found. I know several builds in different classes where I guarantee and even make a $100 bet that if you put 2 – 3 of those builds in a zerg of equal numbers fighting another zerg of equal numbers, that the zerg with those three players under the same build will always win against the zerg without. (This providing there is no Siege to one zerg and its 2 zergs in an open field.) I know this because I’ve already seen it with the Class-Build combination that I play.

Can Mesmers be abused through Exploitation? The answer is yes. Why? Because every single world (be it American and European) has at least reported that at least once. Is it the Mesmer’s fault? Guess what. It isnt! As long as the “System” itself allows for an exploitation to occur, it will happen. Its human nature. Punishing the whole class is not an answer considering there are Mesmers who do not exploit Portal (or even use portal as each class has good builds.)

Fixing the Exploit itself is what should be done!

Personally, it’s not a problem with the move, I love it for what it is, a very interesting mechanic in normally a dull environment. To me, the orb is intended to be a server wide objective. If anything, orbs should get the same effect as the home server altar, where it requires you to beat the keep lord to take it. This still allows mesmers to do their thing, but requires a much larger coordination, requiring 40-60 people to accomplish.

See, I’m okay with mesmers teleporting a mass amount of people into whatever place they are. I’m NOT okay with a mesmer teleporting 1-5 people in and effectively stealing the orb without capturing the keep.

It defeats the purpose of a keep, why not just have the orb out in the open?

Kaineng, Devona’s Rest, Fergison, and Borlis pass rarely ever have queues except on reset day.

FOR:
– Part of integral game mechanics, you should really sweep your keep before you move on to the next objective.
– It adds another layer of strategy that would normally not be there.

AGAINST:
– Power Orbs should be a goal that requires a proper siege, including taking down the keep lord.
– The fact that you can smash the altar solo is appalling.
– Certain points allow you to skip doors without even having an inside mesmer.
– It relies on a single class to add effectiveness to the army.
– Too many people can use a single portal, creating situations that would normally be impossible.

I’ll add more as people pile up comments. I’d really like a response from aNet, but I’m not really expecting it.

We’re finally pretty solid in the second to last bracket, instead of bouncing up and down between it and last place. EB, not sure how you lost so hard to get stuck down in this bracket, you have more numbers, more organization, and more geared 80s than both of our servers. On eternal I didn’t see you use a single siege tactic point for the 6 hours I was able to play, except rams occasionally.

I did like your lord room chokepoint around 10pm yesterday at stonemist, pretty nice.

7 golems down the kitten in Eternal, silly pilots decided they could tank the oil for some reason. Sad day for us.

One day we will win, just not this day.

Wait, SoS has 700 people? Where were you on day one then?

Borlis Pass has maybe 500 active WvW players TOTAL, our largest guild being maybe 100-125 people in total.

isnt that what the little percent things are for? I love the 20% chance to critical gather, for instance.

im saying, if you get there with 30 seconds left, I wouldn’t expect a reward.

All events have a short timer, regardless if you contribute or not. If you get there too late, you wont get credit.

I run into this when I run into the grenth event slightly too late, and have had it happen on the Claw of Jormag event as well.

Between us and Ferg, we have the least populated servers when it comes to WvW. Just curious if there is any interest in a ‘rollup’, which we all jump on a single server and try to climb the server ranks, instead of fighting each other over and over.

Just for clarification, I’m from Borlis Pass. Were stuck between tiers, alternating each week between getting stomped on completely, and stomping on y’all. We don’t like it, and I’m assuming y’all don’t like being crushed either.

Bunks.5273:

Unfortunately, that is how its working at the moment. Not by design.

Queue is capped at 150 per server, for a maximum of 450 total. You can only have 150 on your team in a battleground, no more regardless of enemy activity.

Trust me, servers are as balanced as they possibly can get. The ranking system moves you around based on your success/failure, and that includes server population. I’m sorry for devona/kaineng being dead last, but that’s just a product of their server’s not having a lot of people on them.

Anyways, I’m talking about the orb being bugged.

Bunks.5273:

Anet seems unwilling to admit that servers are not equally populated. If the pop for a map is 200-200-200, and your two lower populated teams can only muster 100, then it becomes 400-100-100. What’s worse, is when you try to bring in the 101’st guy, he has to sit in a que.

it doesnt work that way, but not the topic.

It’s been like this for nearly 12 hours.

You’re missing it razzer, plok and silva are annoyed that you are doing this, we’ve been working together all week with the top 5 guilds on an overarching strategy.

Were starting to get big enough that we can fill all 4 borderlands though, so I guess that’s a plus.

From borlis pass,

last night was the first time we had full servers in all 4 battlegrounds since beta. We also just walked away from getting crushed by NSP who apparently had dropped 2 brackets from the previous week, so we were ready. I lead the charge on Eternal Battlegrounds for the most part until about 12am EST.

There’s still a lot of disorganization, even on Borlis Pass, but it’s clear that numbers > strategy in most situations. We were able to cover all 4 servers, even though our initial strategy was to simply cover our own.

It would be cool if we could somehow roll up these servers into one giant server to start climbing the ranks.

An alternate option is to allow a guilds to display their members in special ways on the map to fellow guild members, and do away with commanders entirely. Guilds are absolutely more important to WvW than a Commander ever will be.

heh, never thought about it, but that’s pretty funny.

It’s only been 3 weeks of full WvW gameplay, and I’m already starting to see trends in player habits and morale. I play on Borlis Pass, currently ranked 4th from last on the US server ranking list. It’s clear the the ‘elo’ rating is heavily influenced on total numbers of people sinking time into WvW, as it should. Unless somehow an absolutely massive guild moves from one server to another, it is very unlikely that a server will move from it’s current bracket of servers.

I’m okay with this, I can predict that I will win WvW every other week with this system, and players will be ‘happy’ 50% of the time with WvW until they start to realize were stomping the same servers over and over, and getting stomped by the same servers.

Opinion on the orbs? I read a post somewhere about objective based goals and point based goals. With the orbs, WvW is objective based. Once the orbs are seated in a secure location, it is neigh impossible to remove them.

Little anecdote on the topic, yesterday night I coordinated with the top guilds on my server to preform what I now call a ‘smash and grab’ strategy on an orb. This was not to obtain the orb, but to simply get it to reset to its default location, out of the hands of the dominating server and into the other enemy server. It worked, near flawlessly. We plowed through 2 reinforced doors and killed the keep lord in less than 4 minutes. This was way faster than the winning server had time to react. The result was that we owned the orb, ran it out of the keep, and got it reset. The winning server crushed us within an hour and they regained the orb within 3 hours.

Anyways, to draw this to a close, when you’re winning, it’s boring but nice to have. When you’re losing, it’s frusturating to fight up stream, and lousy for server morale and obviously the bonuses you get along side it (jump puzzle access, % bonuses on pretty much everything). I guess my sole suggestion is that WvW should be daily, or possibly by weekly.

By weekly method would be Mon-Thur, and Fri-Sun. You don’t even have to change the opponents, just a fresh start to give that ‘invasion and strife’ feel to it would be nice.

I wish WvW was slightly faster paced, by which I mean, doesn’t last a whole week. The current design shows clear cut winners, which is nice, but being on the losing side of a battle for a whole week is absolutely terrible for morale. I’m on Borlis Pass btw, were getting steamrolled by the next bracket, so you’re clearly not missing much.

I personally don’t like that players are being punished for being good at the game. If a dungeon is tuned incorrectly to allow speed running, fine, but other than that, diminishing returns on speed runs is terrible.

Anyways, hard mode would consist of the following:
1. Tweaks to dungeons to make mistakes more punishing. I can’t state specifics because they are simply too numerous. Biggest one would be any attack that wouldn’t normally kill you should be 10-25% more damaging.
2. Remove unnecessary waypoints, any one that would make respawn running easier to do is the big one. Fights would actually require everyone to stay alive and keep each other alive.
3. Trash encounters reset over time, further preventing any respawns.

Of course, with bigger risk, should come bigger reward, in all ways.

I love the concept of a global commander, I’ll get that out of the way before I get down to what I consider gripes and complaints. Secondly, I have the Commander’s Compendium on my character, so these claims are not biased by jealousy. I’ve spent the last week leading my server through several siege based events, ending in quite possibly the best mass PvP experience I’ve ever had.

There are a few problems I have with it. First, the method of which you attain the ability to become a Commander. Second, the problems that arise with multiple Commanders. Third, the control scheme that doesn’t exist with squads. Last, some personal opinions of the concept I’ll go over.

Currently the method of becoming a Commander is to gather 100g and buy a book. There is no WvW involved, no approval system, nothing. Get 100g, and you too can be trusted by the server to know how to take down a door without ever doing it. This is BAD. At the very least, it should require the equivalent of basic knowledge of how to play WvW, if that is the intention of the Commander ability. I would suggest a 1,000 Badge of Honor requirement on top of the 100g, for starters, and possibly some way to verify that you have a guild backing (item through influence points, possibly rank 5 Art of War) you on your ascension.

With multiple commanders comes confusion. I believe this is partially caused by the extremely poor squad system. This creates substandard strategy in situations where multiple commanders are not needed.

Squads are a mess. There is no interface involved with squads. You can’t invite players, and you cant remove players. The only way you know who is in your squad is by a ‘/squadinfo’ command which is text based only. /squad is rarely used, and I still can’t see squad members on my map. My suggestion is to have a squad tab added to the map menu, which allows you to drag and drop objectives with a number of players associated with them, as well as to be able to see who/what are where which would actually be useful.

Below is just my opinion of what commander’s compendium should be changed to.

War Standard

- Icon on Map like you have now
– Commander carries a Standard, and cannot use profession skills.
– Grants buffs to himself and surrounding players equivalent to the Orb bonus, but does not stack with the orb bonus.
– Is made in the mystic forge with an item equivalents of: 100 skill points, 1,000 badges of honor, 100,000 karma, and 100g.
– May only be activated once per day, and lasts a maximum of 6 hours.

To me, commander should just be a focus of the map, not a ‘leader of the server’. It should be a pleasure to fight next to a commander, but guild leadership should be the strategical center of GUILD wars, not some random guy with 100g.

At least, that’s the concept. Since cosmetic equipment is not an upgrade to stats, they can make the dungeons as hard as they want. The incentive to run a dungeon is to play the game.

Is that true though?

This is kind of depressing. The other route I’ve done isn’t too bad, just a little long.

Just a quick question: How are the Grenadiers SUPPOSED to be handled?

I know the best way to handle them right now is to kill two of them and kite the last one around while the other 4 on your team clear the obstacles, but I feel this is somewhat of an exploit while doing it.

I hate to complain about difficulty, but if you’re supposed to kill them repeatedly while clearing the path, why do they take 5-6 minutes to kill when the boss takes 3-4? Are they overtuned? I’d really like some developer input on this.