Guild Wars 2

Yaks Bend. We maybe old and consequently not having the fastest apm disadvantaging us for small skirmishes, but we are dedicated tenacious, sneaky and strategic
as well admirers of good and fair play.

Few Guilds leave our shores and sadly just as few join us but we are resolute!

If you are over 25 and delight in reading the tears and tantrums of youngsters on the forums after taking their keeps and castles or hearing about a group of 30 teens who do not have the attention span to watch all angles on the battlefield as 15 guys over 40 portal bomb into their midst wiping them utterly, then Yaks Bend is the place for you.

Could someone make an external poll on whether MF is a good or bad design mechanic. Would love to see the results

As for the patch changes overall they sound excellent. Just hate hate hate MF.

I noticed Tier3 Cultural Armour is 110 gold for a complete set.

Does anyone have it and if so do they think its better than the more common and far easier to attain Dungeon armour?

Basically would like to see some pictures of people actually wearing. not previewing this stuff

Legendaries are stupidly difficult to obtain. I would have to turn it into a job for a year to afford one.

I agree legendary requirements are a bit of a joke. So bad in fact it just feels pointless trying.

MiasmicMist.1420:

The rendering issue is bad enough without it loading custom dyes.

This made me chuckle. You are correct

Brunners.7251:

They definitely have plans. Didn’t you see Habib’s post yesterday? They’re currently working on ways to reward players better in wvw that might also include some form of progression (I hope to god that would only be cosmetic though).

They’re definitely working on it, they’re just doing it silently, behind the scenes.

Whether we’ll see any of the changes they’re mentioning any time soon…who knows.

Yes I saw it. He said he could not tell us much but the reality is he told us nothing. All other aspects of the game have had content updates and ANet have published details on more to come very soon. WvW is looking a sad, lonely and neglected member of the family.

HabibLoew.2590:

I can’t say too much just yet, but we’re doing some work related to rewards and character progression in WvW even now. It will be a little while before we’re ready to talk about more details though. Rewards, progression, and incentives for play are hot topics around the office. We all care about this stuff and once we have some more details hammered out we’ll let you all know we’re up to.

As someone who plays way too much GW2 for my own good my feeling is WvW offers far less rewards per hour played than PvE.

Is that something ANet recognise and are working on?

CharliePrince.2071:

Vortex.3604:

Curious is there any chance we could get some love for WvW? Its pretty sad that the first major content update has absolutely nothing for WvW.

For a matter of fact the only thing you have done since release is a dirty fix for orbs. Is that really all that we can expect? Population is already in a steep decline. Totally ignoring the whole player base which purchased this game for WvW is a low blow.

Bottom Line: ArenaNET made wuvwuv for Casual Play and for Casual Players. It was something you hop into, get into some battles, get some kills, log off. That’s it.

It was never meant to we have turned it into: Endgame

All you need to do is look at SPVP and
-all the updates done there
-all the tuning
-all the added maps (yes, plural)
-paid tournaments
-GEMS for tournament play
-all the projects in the spvp pipeline including spectator mode, customized maps, sandbox arenas, etc etc

and it is painfully obvious where AN’s focus and plans are

wuvwuv? they don’t care. they made it the way they wanted to. CASUAL PLAY for Casual Players

not we all want it to be, arenanet simply does not care about wuvwuv because they already achieved they wanted to make it

Agreed. However from my own experience far more people play, talk about and enjoy WvW than sPvP.

As someone that is totally into eSports I was very much looking forward to exciting sPvP but its boring, predictable and lacks the x factor.

WvW needs more love as I have stated however I have also had some terrific fun playing it.

So perhaps we need to ask ANet to consider re prioritising to what the vast majority want rather than a very niche group. Great if they can do both but seems not at the moment.

As a thief I completely agree with the OP. This should not be happening and needs fixing

My understanding is there are separate teams working on different parts of the game so hopefully that includes WvW.

So far we have seen the removal of reward for escorting Yaks and removal of Orbs because of hackers and the rewards of possession exacerbating one sided match ups.

So the question is what if anything are ANet working on in respect of WvW? Do we also only see the tip of the iceberg or, as fear we see everything we are going to see until 2013 at the earliest?

It has been a terrific match so far and things are now panning out. TC are clearly the strongest server as they have the most WvW players over a 24 hour cycle.

YB and CD both have the zerg advantage at different times. I think CD have their zerg advantage for longer than YB, but conversely have the smallest zerg for longer too. YB tend to be able to hold their own, often in 2nd place to either the CD or TC zerg.

As we all know when it comes to the final scores having the biggest zerg for the longest time is all that matters however I have noticed a few things.

I believe TC are the best organised of the three servers. This maybe because they have the most experience in the top tiers. They attack, defend and scout well and have great reaction times. However they do rely a great deal on their zerg and I feel could do even better if they allocated resources rather than just sticking together in one army per map.

CD I believe are the weakest in regards to WvW. This may be due to inexperience in tough match ups. They either crush everyone with their off peak zerg or get crushed as they don’t have the peak time numbers. I still see too many CD players milling about whilst putting Keeps and castles under siege and make it far easier than TC do to break or least earn a lot of badges. They certainly have some good PvPers though when it comes to small skirmishes.

YB (my server so certainly biased) are either really well organised or a bit of a mess depending on which commanders are on. I think our progression through several tiers has helped us coordinate far better than even 3-4 weeks ago. Bar the weekends we are unable to create queues on all maps and tend like most I suspect to converge on EB and our own borderlands. We cannot currently field enough people to challenge the higher tiers and its certainly a struggle to maintain our current position but if we can solidfy that I think we will have done well.

Areas I think YB could improve on is allocation of resources. We spend way too much time defending statically and I would like to see more coordinated approach to reallocate players across the 4 maps. We often have waiting times on YBBL when we hold everything there when we could be transferring far more people to harass enemy BL’s or pushing more into EB as the situation demands.

Brilliant match up..Lets keep this up

Not a big fan of Server Transfers as my other posts on WvW would indicate. I believe a lot in server loyalty.

However it seems you have given it a good go and if you are looking for a place where you can make a real difference I suggest checking out Yaks Bend. We are a solid Tier 4 Server have yet to be impacted by server transfers either way so our community is enduring, strong and well organised at both NA and OC timeszones relative to our tier.

You and your team would support and help plug the gap betwen our Oceanic guys going to bed and our NA people logging on and also keep a Brit company

Lastly would just say only come if you are willing to stick it out as we abhor server hoppers and want to build a lasting community.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

salluks.6017:

I think a better idea is to just merge eu and na servers.. This will give variety and solve nightcapping problems

This cannot happen soon enough

ANet. Sorry but Ratings are not that accurate when there is such a flux of people moving around servers. What are you guys considering to fix this?

Any way to discourage people moving servers and making a mockery of server ratings is a good idea and this is a particularly good idea.

Yes I am missing them as it makes the game more bland

Eredon Terrace, Yaks Bend and Fort Aspenwood have been locked in combat all week and an eventful week it has been.

Unfortunately ET have been almost absent due to previous server transfers decimating their ranks which essentially made it a two horse race. This alone negatively impacts the match up and is a direct cause of server transfers.

Back to the match. YB took a huge110k+ point lead. That said the early fights were hard enjoyable affairs.

However behind the scenes FA have been brilliant in attracting server transfers. Whether these guilds will stick with FA or move again I know not, but they have managed to double and in certain time zones treble their combatants, completely flipping the match and locking out ET and YB from a single map asset.

Personally I think this will cause FA issues at peak concurrency such as when the new match up kicks in resulting in yet more transfers.

With the broken Orb mechanic removed WvW has become even more of a bland zerg fest and therefore server transfers are causing huge disparities and wrecking Server ratings.

Please please ANEt show some love to WvW.

Put a week imbargo on WvW for players transferring in and reinstate Orbs even if it just gives a points bonus. We need a reason not to just zerg.

Thank you

Lets face it FA’s WvWers volumes are increasing daily and have essentially doubled their numbers as the week has progressed and consequently should be in a higher tier than YB or ET.

I think FA original players will have mixed feelings about this in the coming weeks as their weekend queues will essentially lock out a lot of people but I guess that’s the sacrifice required if you want to be top tier which they will be very soon if they retain these huge numbers.

I think we can match you player for player but in the attracting new talent to your server YB have had their backsides kicked.

Good luck next week.

WvW is very good fun and more of my guild are becoming attracted to it. It does need rewards that are commensurate with time spent when compared to PvE however.

elegant idea and one we know ANEt have the technology to execute on. Lets make this happen soon please

you could catch up if you have more days like today

As an aside I play WvW alot and pretty much everyone that plays as much as I use a Ele, Thief or Mesmer for WvW

I am an altoholic and in my experience Mesmers and Thieves have the edge in utility, escapability and firepower.

Mesmers utility includes pulling people off walls and portals whilst they have confusion and reflection in large scale fighting and if you are in a one 1v1 what class is more annoying to face?

Thieves have Shadows Refuge and due to their speed skills/traits are tremendous scouts.

In 1v1 their massive stealth burst damage wins before their opponent even knows they are fighting and Shortbow is OP in large battles especially if it explodes mid air.

Elementalists are also good.

All other classes need ANet to make them more relevant

We definitely need more opportunity for sophisticated tactics to be deployed. At the moment its either
1) Join a Zerg and go knock on doors
2) Small numbers harass targets such as supply camps
3) Zergs up against bigger Zergs using Mesmer bombs

The above can all be fun and intricate but its not enough to attract more PvErs who are WvW curious from giving it a sustained try. We need game mechanics that reward greater team work for both large and small groups.

Good job FA. Your recruitment drive is definitely working as you have managed to get a significant influx of WvWers for off peak.

I hope you enjoyed taking on Yaks famous/infamous ToG guild. We might be old but I hope you agree we put up a good fight and we certainly enjoyed restraining your Zerg.

This is far better than owning maps uncontested as we witnessed at the beginning of the match up and should help attract more and more people to play WvW on our cool servers.

I was their for your initial push and you guys did good. Fortunately when pushed Yaks pushes back. This gives our players heart when we are outnumbered knowing help will be coming.

Hats off to Commanders again as yet more good (not yet great) organisation.

Have fun on FA. They are a solid lot and have out up a decent fight even after taking hard knocks at the weekend.

Of course you could come over to Yaks Bend. We have alot of mature , experienced, organised never say die players with good NA and Oceanic coverage. If we can supplement that with European guilds who will put up a similar fight we would make it to the top tier.

If not, enjoy FA and look forward to meeting you on the battlefield!

I am an altoholic and love my Necro the most. It comes to life if you can play with one or more friends or in a group (WvW??)

My Shamanic Necromancer.

Love to hear thoughts and ideas I could try to further improve this look.

Thx

Ps…Any WvW focussed Asian/European guilds looking to make a difference. Yaks Bend needs you in order for us to compete in the highest tiers…Pls consider joining one of the friendliest, hardest working WvW communities.

FA did pretty good for a few hours today but at no point were Yaks scoring less then 310 points a tick.

Yaks WvW presence has grown organically and the players/Commanders have got better each week and learnt how to tough it out when playing against larger enemy forces. We still could improve a great deal which is encouraging but I think numbers wise we hit above our weight already.

Lets see what happens during the week. AS a Yaks man I am kinda hoping for ET to make a comeback and think its time for them to phone home .

Vytality.3195:

FA and ET need to coordinate some stuff so we can do what the 2 of you did to FA on the ETBL Friday. (We got doubleteamed off the map, even with full cap.) If any ET leaders want to try to get somehting going, send me a mail ingame.

As a member of Yaks Bend, I say bring it on. It is getting boring night capping you both 24/7

Think YB edge it in coordination and significantly in Timezone spread. Thanks FA for all the badges!

Would love for the devs to show us some videos of sP}vP where Necros are difficult to escape from. It is just not true at the moment

I love what you are doing with the game ANet and agree wholeheartedly with your Profession philosophy regarding Thief and Mesmer. As an aside would like to have the complete list?

However… I agree with the people on these boards that Necro is substandard when it comes to holding, detecting or catching up with their fleeing enemy making it way too easy for them to escape.

I think there needs to be balance changes else when you add rankings or league tables we will need the worlds most powerful microscope to see any Necros anywhere near the top half of the list or be able to see anything in fact that is not a Mesmer, Thief, Ranger or Warrior

Agree with the decision.

However both I and many of my guildmates are tinged with disappointment as Orb capture/defence added complexity and provided some of our most memorable WvW moments.

One happened just this week where we had a three way scrum for the orb and portal bombs were going off all over the place yet in the end, it was one guy who picked it up and unbeknown to the majority calmly walked it back to our keep before annoucning it on TeamSpeak..

We need more epic moments like this not just banging on doors. Thank you.

Armour in this game in generally good to great but medium female is poor and needs work

Think those who have today off are going to be disappointed. ANet let us all know exactly when game launched. Bar their 4 hour prewindow we all knew the start time. This patch we have a 24 hour slot of uncertainty

Agree with OP. However think we need more ways to get 1 million karma first

Hi ANet,

Let me start my first post on these forums by saying thank you for such a lovely game. My wife and I play daily and we are enjoying the many and varied aspects of GW2.

Now my request for some guidance or a roadmap to a resolution on a particular issue my guild and I are encountering.

I belong to a Guild on Yaks Bend. It is a big guild, so big in fact we are split across 4 guilds (last time I checked). We are called the The Older Gamers or TOG (Never too old to play games is our motto!). This splitting of guilds is necessary due to the membership cap on Guilds.

So yes we have got around the guild cap but at a price. Now the crazy first few weeks have calmed down, people are naturally logging in less frequently making it more difficult to leverage the advantages of a bigger guild due to our active membership being strewn across four segregated guilds.

We have the Squadron channel in WvW however by definition that portion of the game is more organised anyway. Is there anything available or coming soon for when we are in PvE? Ideally we want everyone to be able to ask in one unified channel that all our guild members have access to, if anyone is up for a dungeon or wants to take part in a guild event like we did a couple of nights ago where about 50 of us got together dressed all in pink (It is Breast Cancer month don’t you know!) and marched across the map in order to ensure everyone knew about the dragons and their spawning points and could take part in killing these beasts in the future.

I know you have a lot on and have to prioritise so many different issues but, I am hoping you would agree this functionality would help to build community both for our guild and the others out there in a similar position. People play online games over the long haul not just for the great game itself but because of the people they meet and play alongside. Please help us cultivate a persistent thriving community for years to come.

Thanks for reading and look forward to hearing from you.

Iren

I also hope they are talking to the likes of DJ Wheat. People that really know what makes a good eSport and moreover know how to engage large number of viewers to watch.

I play Starcraft2 alot. I watch it a lot. Yes, I love PvP . Before SC2 I played chess online. Totally different type of game but same idea. Me versus that other guy in a balanced battle of wills, skill and experience.

When it is done right it is constantly evolving, easy to follow yet exceptionally hard to master and fun to both watch and of course play. sPvP is none of those things. it is a mindless zerg which the game mechanics encourages. GW2 is a fantastic game but sPvP is by far its weakest aspect.

I hope Mike O’Brien picked the right guy to lead this in John Peters and that he and his team have a lot of improvements upcoming. Not next year but soon. eSports is the buzz word in Gaming at the moment and if its not soon it will be never as other titles like Riot, Valve and Blizzard race ahead.