The glicko score represents WvW population over the course of a week, nothing more. Once you realize this you also realize that mixing up the tiers can only result in massive losses by the lower ranked servers and absolutely zero competition for the higher ranked servers. It’s not like Division 1 schools playing Division 2 schools where they still have the same number of players on the field.
The difference in zerg sizes from tier to tier is quite noticeable. The difference in coverage is staggering. The ability to populate several maps at one time is almost game-breaking.
The servers are basically ranked by population right now due to the glicko system. At most I think Anet should consider some manual manipulation to fix the obvious failings of the system when they occur. And besides, who doesn’t enjoy a bit of manual manipulation from time to time?
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
what “size” are the big fights in tier 5 or lower servers?
I’m not sure after the influx of players due to the recent update. However, in Tier 4 skill lag is present in all SM battles and we’ve even experienced it in large 3 way fights in the open field (probably 100-120 combatants total).
Since the tier system is basically population ranking it makes sense that fights would be smaller in Tier 5. We (SBI) were in Tier 5 recently and the fights were smaller back then but it was prior to the WvW update so they probably increased their participation a bit. I don’t remember experiencing skill lag at all in Tier 5, we only have it in very large battles in Tier 4…so if you want to avoid it completely I’d start with Tier 5.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Pretty sure they’re starting with trivial benefits on purpose. If you start out with game-changing abilities and somehow someone figures out how to get to rank 2000 overnight there will be problems.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I’m free to think as I do because I do feel that Yaks bend is stronger than Maguuma.
You may be correct since we dont seem to be able to get out of T4, I can say this, they need to have come a long way, I hope and believe that Mag and Yaks will be an even matchup with NNK/dragonbrand giving us good fights as always at night but Yaks needs to have come a long way since we last met them..
Of course YB is better than Mag, they’re beating the team that Mag can’t catch in the ratings. Maguuma has failed to close the gap on SoS for weeks now despite playing against smaller population servers that they should dominate. Meanwhile YB has widened the gap between themselves and Mag while playing tougher (higher population) servers. I’m not even sure how this is up for debate.
Do you really want us to tryhard wvw all week, pop up wps in all your keeps, and camp you at spawn? Personally, I think that sounds a lot more boring for all of us. Keep going on thinking you’re a special flower though.
I think you should ask your server mates that question before you ask us. If you could pull that off you’d obviously move up a tier and it doesn’t seem to be the fight you’re looking for.
Btw, the last server that managed to take our keeps and camp us all week was Yak’s Bend (just for comparison purposes).
That’s interesting, because the score gap between us and you is not much different than the score gap between you and Yak’s Bend in your matches with them.
So, YB camped you all week and didn’t do significantly better than our current score. That’s pretty weird!
The difference is that CD had a much larger force back then than they do now and ate up a lot of available points. I’m sure you noticed that though.
My point was that you were making an obviously gross exaggeration. CD getting more points doesn’t do anything but further my point that you were exaggerating.
CD getting more points does nothing for your argument…period. Look, I know you guys want to think you’re better than YB. Most of us simply disagree based on going up against both of you and of course, the current scoring trends. You’ll never agree with us because your pride won’t allow it and we’ll never agree with you because well, we’re right.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
While this is true Wish’s statement is also true. I run mostly zerker with a couple pcs of PVT mixed in. Find a balance that fits you.
Might try a 10/30/30/0/0 Sword/Torch build. I use it for PvE but a buddy has been doing very well with it in WvW. He loves the damage it brings.
Yeah that’s the old thief axiom
I run around in full glass cannon zerker gear on my thief in WvW and it’s very risky but also very rewarding. So going with zerker gear on a more resilient character such as a guardian is definitely possible. I would suggest not starting out like that because avoiding damage and proper positioning is key to glass cannon play, moreso than delivering damage to your target (refer to the axiom). Give yourself a bit of a cushion with some more sturdy gear and then peel away the defenses as you become more comfortable with the playstyle.
Once you start seeing the big numbers and piles of bodies that can be achieved as a glass cannon it’s sort of addicting so be careful…once you go zerker it’s really tough to go back!
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I’m free to think as I do because I do feel that Yaks bend is stronger than Maguuma.
You may be correct since we dont seem to be able to get out of T4, I can say this, they need to have come a long way, I hope and believe that Mag and Yaks will be an even matchup with NNK/dragonbrand giving us good fights as always at night but Yaks needs to have come a long way since we last met them..
Of course YB is better than Mag, they’re beating the team that Mag can’t catch in the ratings. Maguuma has failed to close the gap on SoS for weeks now despite playing against smaller population servers that they should dominate. Meanwhile YB has widened the gap between themselves and Mag while playing tougher (higher population) servers. I’m not even sure how this is up for debate.
Do you really want us to tryhard wvw all week, pop up wps in all your keeps, and camp you at spawn? Personally, I think that sounds a lot more boring for all of us. Keep going on thinking you’re a special flower though.
I think you should ask your server mates that question before you ask us. If you could pull that off you’d obviously move up a tier and it doesn’t seem to be the fight you’re looking for.
Btw, the last server that managed to take our keeps and camp us all week was Yak’s Bend (just for comparison purposes).
That’s interesting, because the score gap between us and you is not much different than the score gap between you and Yak’s Bend in your matches with them.
I’m free to think as I do because I do feel that Yaks bend is stronger than Maguuma.
You may be correct since we dont seem to be able to get out of T4, I can say this, they need to have come a long way, I hope and believe that Mag and Yaks will be an even matchup with NNK/dragonbrand giving us good fights as always at night but Yaks needs to have come a long way since we last met them..
Of course YB is better than Mag, they’re beating the team that Mag can’t catch in the ratings. Maguuma has failed to close the gap on SoS for weeks now despite playing against smaller population servers that they should dominate. Meanwhile YB has widened the gap between themselves and Mag while playing tougher (higher population) servers. I’m not even sure how this is up for debate.
Do you really want us to tryhard wvw all week, pop up wps in all your keeps, and camp you at spawn? Personally, I think that sounds a lot more boring for all of us. Keep going on thinking you’re a special flower though.
I think you should ask your server mates that question before you ask us. If you could pull that off you’d obviously move up a tier and it doesn’t seem to be the fight you’re looking for.
Btw, the last server that managed to take our keeps and camp us all week was Yak’s Bend (just for comparison purposes).
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I’m free to think as I do because I do feel that Yaks bend is stronger than Maguuma.
You may be correct since we dont seem to be able to get out of T4, I can say this, they need to have come a long way, I hope and believe that Mag and Yaks will be an even matchup with NNK/dragonbrand giving us good fights as always at night but Yaks needs to have come a long way since we last met them..
Of course YB is better than Mag, they’re beating the team that Mag can’t catch in the ratings. Maguuma has failed to close the gap on SoS for weeks now despite playing against smaller population servers that they should dominate. Meanwhile YB has widened the gap between themselves and Mag while playing tougher (higher population) servers. I’m not even sure how this is up for debate.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I only have an interest in dealing damage, rather than healing or supporting? I’m focusing on power with my guardian (vitality and toughness behind it)
I stopped reading right here. P/V/T gear is tank gear, you’re building your Guardian as a tank and you don’t realize it. Power/Precision/Crit damage is the damage dealing gear.
The dps of a dead guardian is zero
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
People love the new outmanned buff so much on SBI that we now have a queue to get in to EB to enjoy it. Too bad it’s not displaying properly now, it was bugged during our entire primetime tonight
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
The tool tip for the second tier of the Cannon Mastery and Ballista Mastery abilities shows the wrong percent increase. The tool tip for both of these should say that it increases damage by 25%
Honestly it doesn’t make no sense by comparison with the defensive stats against siege weapons increase (25% vs 5%) unless those are wrong as well. They should balance each other out offense and defense.
5% reduced damage from all types of siege – Rams, Catapults, Trebuchets, Ballistae, Arrow Carts, Golems, Burning Oil, Cannons, Mortars.
vs.
25% increased damage from ballistae or cannons.
Seems fine to me.
So, basically 45% reduced damage from Siege if you take them all into account. That seems reasonable to me.
Wow…
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Reveal debuff..so CnD no longer puts you in stealth?
It works exactly the same now as it did before the patch. You get the revealed debuff when you hit CnD. You can easily wait it out prior to exiting stealth, at which time you are instantly ready to CnD again and re-enter stealth. The revealed debuff went from 3 seconds to 4 which means nothing to WvW thieves who all have points in Shadow Arts.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I personally enjoy these fight clubs quite a bit and have missed the last few that were held. Shall we schedule one before Mag moves back up a tier? Tonight would work best for me (server time.)
You’ve got plenty of time. Mag isn’t moving up anytime soon. Not sure if they’re even trying to actually.
We tried for a little while, realized we weren’t going to close the gap, then quit being tryhards.
Yeah you guys seem to peak around the middle of the week with regards to closing the gap on SoS (got within 0.5 points awhile back) then on Thursday the gap usually widens back to 20 points or so.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I personally enjoy these fight clubs quite a bit and have missed the last few that were held. Shall we schedule one before Mag moves back up a tier? Tonight would work best for me (server time.)
You’ve got plenty of time. Mag isn’t moving up anytime soon. Not sure if they’re even trying to actually.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
They probably gave us entry level abilities to gauge how fast levels are gained. If they had abilities that could decide battles and only a few people had them because they played round the clock for a week that would be a bad thing. Moderate, deliberate additions are best for the game.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
The Revealed was there to stop cloak and dagger to instantly stealth again which was making it virtually impossible to target a theif and do damage or stun them.
Now that has been fixed I really dont see a problem with killing theifs. If you cant stun or damage a thief in 3 secs then this game is maybe too fast paced for you :/
That’s just it, you can still instantly stealth again with CnD. Not sure which thieves you’ve been killing but they’re doing it wrong.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
This nerf is much bigger than most realize. It hits an entire trait line in the face.
Here’s what it affects for my balanced (10/30/30) build
-blind on stealth goes from 3s cd to 4s cd
-cd on healing in stealth goes from 3s to 4s.
-cd on bs 3 to 4s (huge dps nerf)
-cd on condition removal 3s to 4s
So I received nerfs to damage and survivability beyond just having more visability. Meanwhile instagib thieves remain untouched because they don’t use the survivability from the shadow arts trait line.
I play a thief, and if you think this is a huge nerf, you’re lying so you don’t get nerfed more.
You will not land stealth every 3 seconds on the dot everytime…Unless you’re chaining stealth over and over again with CnD which most didn’t.
You will not notice this change at all in actual WvW.
They Copped Out of actually making stealth require a semblance of skill and decided to go with this pathetic measure so they didn’t hurt the easiest of classes to play.
Pretty much this ^
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
No it’s not, the sky did not fall. Go play your thief like I did just now and tell me if you even notice anything. I didn’t (and I have 30 Shadow Arts).
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Bad troll is bad imo…saying everyone is wearing PVT when he was stating a Mesmer could kill a GS thief…Seems to me hes referring to a mesmer is Dps gear not PVT. Stop stretching to try and make you point…
Yea…Either the OP is a troll or a narcissist. Either way he is not worthy of rational dialogue. Judging changes before they can be properly evaluated in game is weak sauce.
I’ve evaluated stealth. There is no noticeable difference. Stealth nerf is a myth.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
As we played with the stealth changed mentioned in the SotG, we recognized that in conjunction with the change to culling this was an unpredictable change to make. We also felt that it was too big of a hit to these stealth professions, so we ended up pulling that change in favor of just increasing revealed duration by 1 second.
Congratulations on completely destroying the PVE D/D rotation. I can tell this game doesn’t give two kittens about PVE, and PVP is the only priority.
What rotation are you talking about?
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I just logged in after the patch. Absolutely nothing has changed.
Yes it has, revealed lasts now 4 secs and quickness is nerfed a lot.
have to play a bit to judge if i like it or not, definetly kills a lot of thief rythms. S/D got nerfed a lot with that change, i wish they would have put in the change they talked about earlier, because it would have prevented bad play. (CnD spam) while this one kittens with rythms a lot.
I’m telling you I just logged in a played my thief, nothing about stealth has changed. They may have extended the Revealed debuff but if you have Meld With Shadows your playstyle has been unaffected. There’s nothing different about stealth in this new patch.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Changing the revealed buff from 3 seconds to 4 seconds is going to do nothing to fix the extensive thief problem in WvW. Now players have 4 seconds to drop a thief from 100% —> 0% instead of 3.
No you don’t, you still only have a fraction of a second. Culling isn’t the issue. I just logged in and tested the “nerf” and I can still chain cloak and dagger like always. There is no nerf.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
The biggest abusers of culling were the zerg portals. A thief can’t help the fact that culling existed, although some no doubt benefited from it. What would you have them do… wait for 5 seconds after each attack so you can kill them?
Portals where used to actively exploit this however.
What will be funny is that the same people complaining about thieves, will be the same people who still get their kitten handed to them from the same thieves.
That’s true, most thieves were just sitting in stealth waiting out the revealed debuff before hitting CnD again. To be completely honest culling was never needed for this.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Maguuma has an addiction, and one man is supplying us. The first image is the normal golem standby. Those despawned so the second picture happened.
You know….it’s kinda a shame that so many free to play games give such a big advantage to those with the larger RL bank accounts….
even though I do understand the need to make a profit
They’re exaggerating. I get most of my golems from donations. Generally everyone in my guild has at least one or two that they’ve gotten from random drops or from jumping puzzles. At any given time, I probably have 20 golems, and access to guild golems as well.
They’re incredibly effective weapons, probably the best siege if utilized correctly, and guild golems are only slightly more expensive than rams, so there’s really no downside to them.
OK, but it is still a battle of the haves vs the have nots….if we ever have more then 2 golem at one time it is a major golem rush for us…(I think I have seen 5 max at one time since all the big guilds left)
While you guys have havocs with that many….and as many as 20 with your zergs…..20 gold for one rush!? I have never even had 20 gold total at one time! o.O
Think about it for a few minutes…
This matchup isn’t competitive. Maguuma resets everything we take. CD flat out won’t fight them most of the time because they are a tougher target than we are. So anything we take is only ours for a short while and will have very little impact on the final score. Why would we waste all that gold to take a tower or keep that’s going to be flipped within an hour or two? Maguuma can throw 40-50 people at an objective very easily, we simply can’t defend against those numbers with any measure of reliability, especially after NA primetime.
When we finally get a competitive matchup you’ll probably see more money being spent. Hell, if you really must know, a lot of cash is already being spent. Bannok spends tons of gold on siege equipment, he never has less than 40-60 of each. I run with about half that, same for a lot of our other guildmates. Last weekend after reset I dropped over 60 pieces of defensive siege between Veloka, Overlook, Mendons and Ogrewatch. Bannok was probably in that neighborhood as well. Of course it was gone the next time I logged in but that’s the way it goes.
Currently it’s more important to spend money on defense, not offense. Actually it’s always more important to spend money on defense…
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
Haven’t checked the score in a few days, anyone got an update?
Here’s the score that matters. We need new blood up here, Mag has to stop slacking!
Projections
SoS: 1 721.069
Magoombas: 1 719.758
Would be a nice change of pace. This tier is currently decided at reset every friday. I realize SoS might result in the same boring match but it would be nice to mix things up after 3 weeks of lopsided competition.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
This lame matchup again? At least we get the WvW patch to save us from soul-crushing boredom.
Weird, do you think culling and passive progression will really make WvW more exciting? Most people I talk to seem to think otherwise.
Not sure what’s in the patch so it’ll be something to occupy my time on Tuesday. Since this matchup is already decided several hours prior to reset anything to keep our attention is welcome
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
They have talked about a timer on the siege. I hope it is in this patch.
I hope so too. Refreshing siege is a chore as it is (and it should be to a point) but knowing when the timers are up would make it much more manageable.
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
I have to say, if there will be no faster way to earn ascended with the patch only through playing wvw I’m really depressed. I mean we have the daily, but there should be some combined way like less laurels, but in addition some badges or/and ectos. Just through laurels is really unfair for the hardcore wvw players…
Is it really? How many ways can you earn laurels?
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
And I will admit, WvW tokens (or whatever they are called) maybe should be character bound, but the rank title should not IMHO.
If you’re a good warrior and you kill a ton of people, so many that you get a nice shiny (meaningless) title…then you switch to your ranger and completely suck at playing it, do you really think you’re worthy of displaying that nice, shiny (meaningless) title?
Again, PvP and PvE titles/ranks are account bound. So yes. If I hope on an alt, I want people to still see that I spend way to much time in WvW.
Right now, I can pop ‘dungeon master’ on my level 2.
Yeah and that’s completely stupid that you can do that (of course “dungeon master” is kind of an embarrassing title to begin with).
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
The only guard change I’d like to see was posted here a few months back. I can’t remember the guy’s name or I’d give him credit for a great idea:
Yaks should be invulnerable until the escorts are dead. Right now as a thief I can completely ignore the yak escorts and take out the yak as easily as I could before the other team upgraded to have the escorts. It’s a useless upgrade that should be implemented better.
Maybe they should just give us the option of upgrading the yak itself (hitpoints, veteran status, armor, etc.)
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
And I will admit, WvW tokens (or whatever they are called) maybe should be character bound, but the rank title should not IMHO.
If you’re a good warrior and you kill a ton of people, so many that you get a nice shiny (meaningless) title…then you switch to your ranger and completely suck at playing it, do you really think you’re worthy of displaying that nice, shiny (meaningless) title?
Malzarius – Guardian
Malzerius – Thief
Dark Covenant (SBI)
