Guild Wars 2

So what you’re telling me is….

I don’t have to give you the free frogurt we promised?

Kary! Hide the cookies!

Hadan.2841:

DB player here just stopping in. I have been watching your matchup closely this week and we are very excited to move up to this bracket. We were nervous we wouldnt be able to match ur guys coverage at times but with recent news of 4-5 guilds moving to dragonbrand today i feel we will be able to have a great matchup. To IoJ im sorry to hear what has happened. those of u staying, dont give up! your server will get it together again!

Welcome to Tier 3 DB.

I’ve been watching your scores closely as well.

It was a close race to see who would start this week in 2nd. But I think FA is going to hold it…. for now

Getting off of the transfer discussion:

This probably isn’t worth mentioning on this forum (who cares, amirite?) but yesterday RET had 30 people on ventrilo.

That’s the largest number we’ve seen to date. I think we can adequately say… at least over here—Morale is looking good.

There was very little remorse from our side about culling CD into oblivion… it was nice, for once, to be on the other side of that coin. But don’t expect it to continue. We were blindsided by how many people we had.

I don’t think there’s going to be a single borderland without a queue after tonight’s reset.

Haldunius.7864:

Altie.4571:

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Maybe in the past, you’d be right. But even with that as the case, it’s not like they’re all jumping ship for CD. They’re joining FA to give CD a good fight. Let’s keep it clean, shall we?

Actually it was a good fight last week. And the week before. This tier had the closest margins of scores for two straight weeks out of any other tiers.
THEY gave up as soon as IoJ lost green. That’s why the fight hasn’t been close this week. We didn’t get more people than we had two weeks ago, trust me. Heck, you yourself should remember that we almost lost 2nd place 2 weeks ago because the matches were close.

So forgive me if I don’t buy into the “lets give server X a fight by consolidating” argument. The recent past doesn’t seem to support it.

Your fear is showing.

Pretty much this :P

I think at this particular juncture, it’s pretty hard to call ANY guild a fairweather. With pay transfers coming up, it’s not a matter of server pride. It’s a matter of prospective homes. Come Jan 28, regardless of which server you once called home… your guild will be there, and there to stay.

Maybe in the past, you’d be right. But even with that as the case, it’s not like they’re all jumping ship for CD. They’re joining FA to give CD a good fight. Let’s keep it clean, shall we?

Also – FA will be starting this week as blue.

Aaawwwww yeeaaaaah

After 9 weeks of being RED in tier 3, we lost a lot of good guilds, and a lot of fairweathers. But after 9 weeks, we’re still in tier 3. It doesn’t even matter how we did it. The tenacity of our players has been shown.

I am certain that the guilds who transferred to FA did not do it out of spite for CD. They did it because of the meaningful competition this tier has offered and want to stay a part of it. I can think of no greater compliment to all of the servers: IoJ, CD and FA. This tier is by far the best. Casual enough to be friendly, but hard enough to be fun

We wish the remaining IoJ server all the best in their climb back to the top. And we welcome our new allies in the struggle for (what is now being dubbed) the beginnings of the push to tier 2. So let’s get on with it…

CD vs. FA vs. DB

The next few weeks are going to be good.

So today, FA received news of transfers to our server.

In celebration of our new allies, we decided to take it to CD BL. We didn’t have a chance of pushing to take first this week with the reset tomorrow, but we wanted to send a very CLEAR message to CD.

Next week you’re in trouble.
FA is on the warpath.

Edit: PS. Your borderland is not a result of the transfers. Every keep fell in CD BL tonight. HOPE, RET and GODS wanted to show our new oceanic partners what their new NA presence can do.

Adding this video to the thread for any prospective players thinking of transferring to FA.

This is the first video we ever made, and therefore not RET exclusive. Seemed like a fitting FA recruitment video until a better one can be made :P (I’ll remove it if im the only one who thinks so….)

Tagline:

Fort Aspenwood: Quality Over Quantity.

I’m going to just go ahead and quote the guy from Fort Aspenwood’s recruitment thread because I think it sums us up pretty perfectly:

Arcadio.6875:

I’ve seen many players complaining about server recruitment in this forum so I’d like to address that.

FA is not a bandwagon server trying to recruit even more people. This is our 9th week in T3 and we have not come in 1st place during any of those weeks. Our fairweathers have long gone and we have lost some guilds throughout our stay in this tier. We are still here fighting because we love this level of competition and it would be a shame if we dropped. T1/T2 isn’t even being discussed. We just want to become more competitive in this tier which won’t be possible if we don’t recruit to get our population back in line with our opponents.

will.2105:

Transfered yesterday and i’m glad to see such a welcoming community and smart, organized players, unafraid to take on a big zerg and fierce on the pursuit of their goals. Im glad i came to FA.

Welcome!

Fort Aspenwood has a great community and works together regularly on team chat.

Of course there are trolls like any other, but on the whole it’s very receptive/communicative.

Isaac.6041:

SoS is recruiting as well. So why can’t Crystal Desert?

SoS is also getting flack for it :P

anonymouse.9053:

Is there a server that has that AND mostly small group action, or am I asking for too much?

It sounds like what you’re looking for is a guild, not a server.

Find a guild that prefers this kind of teamwork and I imagine you’ll have much better luck.

As far as servers go, I would try Tier 4.

Heinel.6548:

If you want a longer block, traited sanctuary can be used the same way as line of warding. And you should have seen the other uses of that skill from [ND].

I was under the impression sanctuary was only a self-target AoE block. Would this not require the guardians to walk BEHIND the enemy to put up the wall? (Pardon my guardian nubness. That IS why i’m here after all)

Do you have any videos? Or can elaborate further? I’d love to hear how it’s done.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

We found it works really good for the mobility blockers to go up BEHIND the enemy right before we hit them with the spike DPS. So when they get hit, they immediately run, only to bounce right back into us.

Actually, there’s one good instance of this happening at 1:55. A wall went up behind them and caught 4 on the bridge.

Thank you for the update! I saw that CD and destroyed our BL and I was getting nervous…

Today’s fighting is going to be fierce….

Reset tomorrow! Let’s bring it

Arcadio.6875:

I’ve seen many players complaining about server recruitment in this forum so I’d like to address that.

FA is not a bandwagon server trying to recruit even more people. This is our 9th week in T3 and we have not come in 1st place during any of those weeks. Our fairweathers have long gone and we have lost some guilds throughout our stay in this tier. We are still here fighting because we love this level of competition and it would be a shame if we dropped. T1/T2 isn’t even being discussed. We just want to become more competitive in this tier which won’t be possible if we don’t recruit to get our population back in line with our opponents.

This.

In every way, this.

So… CD has enough people in the oceanic timeperiod to do this:

https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/38383/gw110.jpg

But they need more oceanic players?

Hmmm…

Edit: Well I suppose you didnt take the IoJ borderland entirely, so sure. Why not. More players needed.

Thanks guys for your responses. Just wanted to let you know that I’m still reading your replies.

We’ve taken your suggestions and put them into action. We’re still working on perfecting it though.

The group composition we’re working with right now is basically: 25% elementalists, 25% guardians, and 2-3 mesmers for mass invis to cover the churns.

The main thing with the guardians is the ranged reflect wall, and the mobility wall blockers. The ranged wall use is pretty self evident in the video. The one not featured here is the mobility blocker. We found it works really good for the mobility blockers to go up BEHIND the enemy right before we hit them with the spike DPS. So when they get hit, they immediately run, only to bounce right back into us.

The main problem with the mobility blockers is their extremely short duration. The timing needs to be really solid… which means that we can’t cycle them properly (IE putting one up immediately after the first, then second, etc). Basically, all guardians drop their mobility blockers when the spike hits (which naturally staggers them by 2-3 seconds) which blocks the enemy retreat for (probably) a total of 5 seconds. That’s all we really need.

More instant replay action from RET. Wiping zergs with 10 people—and Karykarywook finally makes it into a video!

Good fights at SMC today.

Nice to know FA still has the gall to take down that castle—fully fortified and fully supplied.

Of course, with IoJ so close on our heels it’s no surprise they were trying to cut us off at the knees :P We had 20-some odd IoJ literally standing out front of overlook killing the reinforcements to head and defend it.

IoJ…. you sure are dastardly!

This match may yet be over…

Darnit…….. Looks like it’s going to be another week as red for FA -_-

All seriousness aside…

FA has a lot of serious guilds with a heavy emphasis on PvP.

We have the smallest server population out of our tier (and smaller-still population than servers in tiers under us) and we have been here for 5 weeks.

Our guilds are very organized and friendly and willing to work together.

On average, the players are very receptive to strategy and teamwork so long as you communicate with them effectively.

Sign up today and get a free frogurt!

Whenever I find a thief I go to the water because they never have any idea what to do when they can’t just stealth and run.

I think that with water fighting the reason people find it so difficult is because classes change their roles. As an elementalist, I’ve noticed that my role changes from DPS (on land) to crowd control (underwater). I feel this is true with a lot of the other class abilities as well and some people just don’t realize the paradigm shift which is why they find it difficult to adjust to underwater combat.

Edit: Yes, I like the lakes.

Current contender with IoJ here.

As an opponent, IoJ has been a very respectable server with lots of potential. It has a strong oceanic presence with very few organized NA WvW guilds which is the only reason for their slide downward.

Join them for good fights and a good shot at Tier 2.

You make a strong case. I concede the point.

Seems to be we’re actually taking the score in the early mornings/oceanic period.
Meanwhile, CD just dominates the 8PM primetime.

Columba.9730:

eve.

so Titan doomsdays were cool with you then.

More PvP action packed into a tight little replay.

Our first foray into the world of Guardians. Unedited footage because I’m very lazy.

etrigan.4213:

Naw. You Benders should come to FA. If you miss Tier 3, come back to it!

FA doesn’t need more players—we need oceanic guilds if we want to move up Our NA presence is already pretty strong.

Mif.3471:

FA focuses IoJ non stop from reset, largely ignoring CD

It’s starting to sound like a broken record in here…

Blue is red’s natural opponent (Durios and Bay being easier to take). Green is blue’s natural opponent (Klovan/Bay).

FA isn’t killing IoJ because they want second place. They’re killing IoJ because the towers are easier, and you have less resistance.

RET walked into the IoJ borderlands today with 10 players. We took Bay and got it to reinforced gates before IoJ even started trebbing the darn thing. Then we ninja’d garrison (about 15 players by this point). No resistance.

I think IoJ has lost heart

But then again, we were warned by some blackgate players back when IoJ first dropped to tier 3 that they really like those early-morning golem rushes on Wed/Thursday nights.

We may see a turnaround yet.

Columba.9730:

I agree with the OP. I think that the stealth as implemented in this game is about the most imbalanced mechanic I’ve ever seen in a pvp game.

You must not have played a lot of pvp games…

No mention of new maps

Saw this on another post on this forum, which I thought I’d bring here and share with my favorite servers in all of GW2

We’ll introduce a system of prestige and advancement specifically designed for WvW. This will give players a progression path where they earn new WvW-only abilities and bonuses, and with them gain prestige and visible titles/recognition. Also, we’ll add a new motivation to the WvW domain that goes beyond the overall weekly score to give more short term reasons to be winning in WvW as well.

Source:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/

Huzzah!

We’ll introduce a system of prestige and advancement specifically designed for WvW. This will give players a progression path where they earn new WvW-only abilities and bonuses, and with them gain prestige and visible titles/recognition. Also, we’ll add a new motivation to the WvW domain that goes beyond the overall weekly score to give more short term reasons to be winning in WvW as well.

YES!

… no mention of maps Something tells me we’re still stuck with EB/3x BL

This just in:

CD +/-0
FA +1
DB +1
IoJ -2

EEEEEK!

Tier 3 update 1 hour ago
Tier 4 update 30 mins ago

The group up—and then swing around was duly noted and definitely showed the discipline in your group. We were about 13 players strong at that point, but I think we had 3 or 4 pugs following us around.

I wish I had filmed some of that, because despite the loss—it was a fantastic few fights

Noticed something interesting today…
Maguuma is in place to move into tier 4 next week.

DragonBrand is VERY close to moving into tier 3.

If FA and IoJ manage to hold their ground until next week (remain in tier 3) then it’s possible the added competition of Maguuma vs. Dragonbrand may stunt DB’s progress enough to keep them in Tier 4.

Or… someone’s dropping to tier 4 to fight Maguuma and likely be stuck there due to the new contender.

Darnit… the heat is ON this week!

Karykarywook.2481:

Just wanted to put out there that there were great fights in the borderlands last night. I believe RET visited each BL and each time, found great opposition. Certainly, found huge crowds of CD just about everywhere. Although our numbers were not nearly as great, I think we put up a good fight. Fun times.

Special shoutout to [TG]. Was some good fights. You guys sure know how to stay tight together

Niim.9260:

I couldn’t for the life of me draw a correlation between your big post and what I said.

The tl;dr of my post is:

If the purpose of this game was to win (and not have fun…) then the best way to do it would be to forget the small-groups and put everyone into one massive zerg following a single commander icon.

Edit:

The correlation can be found here:

Niim.9260:

The 10 TC defenders who kept piling supply onto that wall were rendered effectively useless (in fact, more than useless for wasting the castle’s supply).

This job, carried out by the ‘would be’ small group could have been better served just to stand with the zerg.

I’m not saying this is a philosophy I follow. I am merely stating that I disagree with small-groups being an important part of PvP. It’s just more fun to do it this way When our groups get too big, we divide them for this purpose.

Niim.9260:

I think it is pretty silly to believe that all tasks that need doing in WvW are better done by a large group of players. Solo and small groups respond faster, have more specific focused impact, are not worried about dying to do their task, better able to shadow/scout large forces, etc. Most of the people I see running supplies to repair gates and walls, keeping dolyaks guarded or cleared, suicide on siege, and the other host of small things that make up a successful WvW campaign, are small group players.

As much as I wish this was true, I can’t honestly stand behind it. You are right in saying that there are small-party tasks (guarding dolyaks and camps), but the sad truth is that most WvW tasks are best accomplished by massing the most number of players in one spot.

It reminds me of one week we fought TC. We sieges SMC for 2 hours. We set up trebuchets to hit the outer wall and literally wittled down the supply until it hit zero. Finally, the wall breached. The players rejoiced and charged in.

No. TC had sent one guy to their borderland to inform their players of this event. 40-some-odd players transferred into EB and immediately loaded up supply from their keep (Or they could have gotten it from their borderland garrison. I don’t know)

Massing (almost) everyone in the battleground, they annihilated the attacking force before even the culling could finish. Having a full 40-60 players (full supply), they unloaded it on the wall and had it back to 100% in under 5 minutes of being in the battleground.

Seeing the FORTIFIED WALL go from 0% to 100% was terrifying. Nothing was more demoralizing to the folks who spent 2 hours trying to siege that castle, that… without even blinking, they returned to their borderland.

The 10 TC defenders who kept piling supply onto that wall were rendered effectively useless (in fact, more than useless for wasting the castle’s supply).

He with the biggest zerg wins because the maps are too small. The objectives: too few. A single zerg can easily go from one tower, to a tower on the far side of the map, well before the wall will fall. So why break up into smaller groups? Just get as many people into one group as possible.

Small groups are only good for countering OTHER small groups, which would be better served as part of this faceless mass of players stomping around the field. And to anyone who thinks otherwise: I guarantee you your 5 man team will have far less success raiding supply camps at the same expediency as the 40 man zerg. Yes, you may flip their supply camps. No, you won’t do it as quickly as they’ll flip yours.

But that’s why I like tier 3. This sort of stuff doesn’t happen frequently. The worst of it is a few specific guilds who storm around as a wad which is still (at worst) 30 players big. But you can’t help that.

The only change that needs to happen is:

When a played is killed, he can’t be resurrected. Downed state is fine the way it is.

Shaojack.3871:

we got chicks.

Urban myth.

Nice try though.

Turkey.3605:

If your server ever had a queue for a borderland

Nope.
So technically, if he’s running around killing deer, he’s still useful to FA

Nice video.
Lots of sweet crits

Ioj pulls back to second, FA trailing closely behind. Dragonbrand sneaks up from behind the turnpike… it’s gonna be a close one folks!

Arcadio.6875:

Mos site has IoJ and DB’s new ratings two points away from each other. Our tier’s score is 5 hours old though. Going to be an interesting week. Next week’s matches are not yet decided.

Intense!!!

IoJ! Step it up!! We don’t want to lose you to tier 4!

As of this morning, the score discrepancy between IoJ and FA had gotten to a point where IoJ will fall to third place if the current scores remain the same to the end of the week. Step it up, IoJ. We’re missing you out there.

FA is a very consistent server because we’ve been in third place for so long. We’ll see if it pulls more of our players out to fight when they realize we’re movin up. Then we’ll be giving CD a run for their money

rhonyn.6810:

^multi map queues?……what is a queue?…..never heard of it. (<—concerned FA player)

This. Lol

Also – IoJ is looking in danger of dropping to third place this week =/ If it ended today, FA would be in second place by 3 pts.

:D That’ll be a first in over 5 weeks.

Woo!

I’m sitting here reading the posts, and I can actually see all the little lightbulbs going on over the heads of every CD player.

“Ooooh… they were taking durios because it was the easiest to take. Not because they hated us…..”

Hahaha… silly CD.

Here’s another one: When CD was in 2nd place, that put the Bay (in your borderland) nearest the FA spawn. Bay is a lot easier to take than hills (Which we would have had to take if we were attacking the IoJ borderland while they were in first).

It….it’s all starting to make sense now….

Never the matter, though. FA morale seems to be holding strong.

Good fights so far.