Guild Wars 2

Evan Lesh.3295:

Before there was a ready check there wasn’t a problem because you’d just hop into the match once you finished loading. Of course this meant more AFK players.

The servers were completely rewritten at the end of 2014, and now there more sophisticated requirements to getting the PvP servers in sync with the game servers wanting to pause/destroy your roster when you hit load screens. The more people queuing outside the mists without fixing this, the more likely people will start seeing problems like ‘random’ dishonor.

Would the problem be solved if we couldn’t swap maps but could queue from anywhere? I’d like to be able to, I don’t know, queue from WvW or a HoT map. We’d be able to at least participate in WvW or PvE for 10 or 20 minutes while we’re in the queue.

Not going to lie, I used to PvP. Now I don’t because I hate sitting mostly afk in queue for ages. When more time is spent waiting for a queue than actually playing the PvP match, something is wrong.

Why request that they acknowledge concerns. Semantically, that merely requires that they say “hey, we see this” instead of doing something about it. Ask for Anet to acknowledge and address the issue.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

We’ve avoided adding this feature because we don’t believe it would be healthy for WvW. While we can appreciate why some players would want a feature like this, lots of other players only engage in WvW when, upon entering a WvW map, immediately see a commander icon to follow. We try and avoid adding features that can be used to intentionally exclude other players.

Two things:
What about commander tags within squads?
If you folks were so intent on not adding features and making changes which would be considered unhealthy for the WvW community, perhaps you should look into other recent changes which have actually been unhealthy for WvW, such as the meta event which lags the whole borderland, the banners which screw over many players or the airstrike thing which lags most SM fights.

When will it be disabled or fixed? The lag is getting unheard of. When the orbs in wvw were messed up, they were taken out until a suitable alternative could be worked on. When will that happen here? It’s broken… Fix it or remove it.

Josh Davis.6015:

AegisFLCL.7623:

Snip.

I’ve thought through the implications of removing cele from PvP and what would happen to elementalist quite a bit, actually. It’s pretty risky. I think elementalist would need a new 4 stat combo to be viable at roughly the same level (maybe something like 1050pow/1050condi/560vit/560healing).

So put the new trinket in, instead? If you take out a trinket, things will evolve. Sure, some people might think that you’re destroying a class, but let’s be real: you’re only destroying specific builds and even then, it’s not like you haven’t killed builds before.

Removing cele will change things. Will it fix things? No idea. Nobody can know. However, it will force a few things into being. You’ll be able to get an amulet which is fairly sustainable, but it won’t have the power/precision/condition damage/etc combination that cele has. You’ll be able to have an amulet which allows you to do lots of condi damage, power damage or both, but you’ll have to sacrifice sustainability to do so.

At the very least, cele should be nerfed to the extent that it is noticeably weaker than running settlers/marauders/carrion, etc. Cele should be a compromise, not a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario. If I take cele, I want it to be because i want the condi and power and precision, but i want to keep some toughness/vitality at the price of damage.

I’ve never experienced much lag outside of large wvw fights. This past week I decided to venture back into wvw after months of only pvp and pve.

Now, whether I’m in a fight or not (outside of the OS) I get these weird lag spikes that seem to come out of nowhere and mostly when people use dragon banners or the airstrikes. I’m assuming that it’s because of these major events.

Last night I was in the OS and I experienced almost no lag despite the fights of almost 20v20 at a time. Probably 100 characters standing around or using skills. No lag there. Go into eternal and the borderlands and there is immediate lag despite being almost alone. My settings have been reduced. Still lag spikes. It’s insane.

Evan Lesh.3295:

As for what changes would most improve leagues, you’ll have to wait for more info on that.

Can we at least get someone (you or someone else) to explicitly state that something is in the works to address situations such as these? All I read from your post was ’we’ve got systems in place and matches are made from that. Working as intended. At the end there’s just this little bit of non-information suggesting that changes will happen but nothing even slightly specific about the changes. They have something to do with leagues. We know that. That’s all we know.

Please realize that we have no faith that such changes will change anything. It would be an incredibly good idea for the PvP team at Anet to give at least an idea of what will be changed. At the moment, when I hear ’you’ll have to wait to hear’ I’m thinking ‘there is nothing currently in development but we’re gonna get to it soon.’

It’s possible that they were in a party with one of the diamonds, then left the party via the chat command in order to not be told that he was abusing the mmr.

Lol, just kidding.

http://i.imgur.com/9zsYhhP.jpg

I mean seriously… Couldn’t split that up, even? One legend/sapphire duo one each team instead of both on one against the rest of us who queue normally?

Edit: removed names because apparently people care about that but not abusing the system.

This. I’m guessing it’s a bug, but it was called a bug fix.

Takes a thread about communication to get communication from the communications team. Bravo.

You’re telling me that you’re so good at one class that you’re in legendary, but not even adequate enough on other classes that it’d take weeks for you to win 5 times on them? Are you serious? Absolutely none of my friends or queue-mates only play one class. Some only play 2 or 3 well enough to make do, but that’s what bunkery builds are for. If you really only want to play one class, then tough kitten. You’re going to be unable to progress through some achievements. Not even sorry about it.

When are we going to get new armor skins instead of outfits? We got what is it? 3 armor full armor skins with HoT, but most of the new things I’m seeing released are outfits or individual shoulder pieces.

Guild wars is all about fashion. It really is. There are so many great possibilities for armor, and there would be even more amazing combinations if the outfits were released with either more dye customization options or, ideally, or they were available as individual pieces of armor.

Or, you know, adding a feature which actually punishes these people? A simple macro lets them queue up and afk for the queue because the queue pop is always in the exact same place.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8enknB1qhNqBmpBEgilTjiMAWgg68Iiirreav2tF-TpBFABAcBAa7gAQwDAYhjAg4lBYf/BA

I think this is more similar to what people are running if they’re going for damage (assuming they’re taking the inspiration trait).

Otherwise, you’ve got this one:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8enknB1qhNqBmpBEgilTjiMAWggqeaz2ttcEauwB-TpBFABE8AAYf/BxLDswRAotDCAAXAAA

What you’ve got going for you is something between tanking and damage. I’d recommend with mesmer to go for one or the other. Otherwise you’re giving up too much to tank or giving up too much to be effective damage (in my opinion). Phantasm generation is great, but you’re still primarily using them for shatters. I’ve played both builds and had a fair amount of success with them.

We all know PvP leagues have issues, but recently I’ve come across players that aren’t quite AFK. They’re simply not playing well and when you ask them why, they say “I’m only here for the dailies.”

That is to say, the PvP league dailies. The dailies you need in order to progress through Year of Ascension. Why is 3 a day a requirement? It’s encouraging players who don’t have the time to commit to 3 matches a day to throw the games to get them over with as quickly as possible. And it’s all for a backpiece :?

Kinda gamebreaking… Playing PvP with my friends. We get 2 downs at mid. I stomp one of the guys. He rallies. I looked at our party bars and we’re not dead. Nobody from our team was stomped. None of their team was resing this guy. No banners were dropped. No res skills were used. Literally their whole team was off the point a ways or downed.

I don’t see how esports can happen if you can rally off your own team’s deaths.

Slomoshun.6317:

Melanion.4892:

The majority of the commanders she interviews (despite their assurances otherwise if you talk to any of them) prefer to run in groups of 25+ people. That’s not the wvw a lot of us enjoy. That’s not the wvw a lot of us outside of t1 and 2 can do.

Couple points.
T1/T2 NA outnumber pretty much any other tier group combined. If you’re going to get your info on how to fix WvW that’s where you ask. I do agree it wouldn’t hurt to collect info from lower tiers and other timezones to kind of find a balance and see where things differ.

25-30 vs 25-30(even numbers scenario)is many peoples sweet spot for fights in WvW. Any more than that and it gets laggy. WvW is meant for large scale fights, it’s not designed around small roaming groups taking camps, occasional towers and the off peak hour Keep or SM. That said, I don’t condone 80man blobs running on the same pin just spamming auto attack on any enemy they see. It’s pathetic and lacks all skill. We need to be able to have large fights but we also need to be able to punish the baddies that run these map blobs.

The thing is, I prefer 15-20 man groups. Not going to criticize someone that runs with 5-10 more than that, but I’m going to criticize the fact that there is only one person I’ve seen an interview from that is on an EU server and 0 from any NA non-t1/2 servers.

Yes, t1/2 is the majority of the population. How is hearing from them about fixing wvw going to do anything when the rest of the tiers are dead? It really doesn’t give much information with which Anet could attempt to ‘fix’ wvw.

Also, most of Reyana’s commanders are folks who enjoy ppt and 30v30 fights more than anything. If they had their way, every wvw encounter would be something to do with that. Even the ‘fights’ commanders are talking about the necessity of PPT. It’s really not representative. Otherwise, just rename the interviews to reflect that it’s only a small subset of the wvw commanders that you’ll find.

Gaile Gray.6029:

We also wanted to express our thanks to Reyana and the commanders she has been talking with in her World vs World Commander Interview series. Reyana is a dedicated member of the WvW community and a WvW streamer. She has brought together a diverse group of community leaders to constructively share different perspectives on how they play with their guilds, and our team has taken a lot of the commanders’ feedback to heart. Reyana has put a lot of effort into organizing these interviews and we want everyone to know that the efforts that she and the commanders made have been greatly appreciated.

Not to, uh, kitten in anyone’s breakfast here (and I do really appreciate what Reyana is doing. It’s a big undertaking and it’s likely the only way we’re going to see appropriate forms of feedback to Anet about WvW) but the “diverse group of commanders” part is pretty funny. I haven’t watched many of the interviews, but I’ve stopped in to see a few and there has been 1 (to my knowledge) commander from anywhere other than tiers 1 and 2 of NA. Maybe I’m missing one or two more, but the sample of commanders she’s collecting is heavily weighted towards blob vs blob fights. The majority of the commanders she interviews (despite their assurances otherwise if you talk to any of them) prefer to run in groups of 25+ people. That’s not the wvw a lot of us enjoy. That’s not the wvw a lot of us outside of t1 and 2 can do.

I’ll say it again, great work on getting this started, Reyana, but the group of commanders is almost surely not diverse and not representative.

Jiggawattz.2697:

How is this going to balance the nearly spam-able team wide distortion and blur that are non removable, non corrupt-able, non counter-able invulnerabilities?

Doesn’t shocking aura interrupt things while blurred, still? And retal?

Relax, team. This will be addressed with the patch in 2 months. Go outside. Stop playing the game. It’s what Anet wants.

This is a terrible idea. I want to wait in HotM for 20 minutes while I’m in queue. Can only wait for queue times to get longer with a higher rank.

You’re all going to have to wait until the 31st to see. If we take any indication from Anet’s conduct the past few months, little (no) information will be provided until the patch goes live. Don’t expect any responses other than “We are being held hostage by upper management and are not allowed to give any useful information whatsoever.”

Knighthonor.4061:

Melanion.4892:

Knighthonor.4061:

Check box would have been best. Problem is it will expose population issues in SPvP

What population issues? Game isn’t dead. Population is stronger than ever. Esports.

population is not getting stronger than ever. Its getting smaller. It got a small bump from new players from the F2P move. But that also is fading.

I thought the sarcasm was clear here…

Knighthonor.4061:

Check box would have been best. Problem is it will expose population issues in SPvP

What population issues? Game isn’t dead. Population is stronger than ever. Esports.

What happened to courtyard? Was my favorite map and it’s disappeared. Can we replace stronghold with courtyard or something?

saturn.4810:

Melanion.4892:

So far that’s 2 people on the thread that say they’ve been on the map when it’s been queued or closer to full. Of everyone complaining, that’s 2.

I don’t think everyone would ignore WvW if they took out EBG, by the way. And I didn’t say take it out forever, just take it out for a week to see. There’s really no harm in trying these things. People didn’t quit for golem week any quicker than they’re quitting for the current state of WvW.

Probably no harm done, but players would still complain a kittenton. Remeber golem week…

Not that this would change much nowadays, though.

But you see how much complaining there is already?

So far that’s 2 people on the thread that say they’ve been on the map when it’s been queued or closer to full. Of everyone complaining, that’s 2.

I don’t think everyone would ignore WvW if they took out EBG, by the way. And I didn’t say take it out forever, just take it out for a week to see. There’s really no harm in trying these things. People didn’t quit for golem week any quicker than they’re quitting for the current state of WvW.

Darklight.5487:

Melanion.4892:

I know for a fact that Anet is working on some things to address wvw, but for some reason they’re not talking about them even if they’re changes we’ve been asking for. Terrible PR decision if you ask me.

Well i know someone in the WvW dev team who says that you are a story teller, so who is right now?
The person i know from a-nets dev team or your person?

Or do we both don’t know anything and you just try being important?

Sorry, I lost all my hope in a-net doing the right thing so its not personal against you its just me beeing over and over skeptic towards anything that would include a-net talking to the right ones. I guess they have chosen ther all time fav beloved streaming dullys.
Well at least one could give proper feedback if i would not believe that he is a typical German that crys out loud on his stream but dosent have the balls to talk for real if its needed.

I mean, it seems Yuffi and I know something that your dev friend either doesn’t know or won’t tell you (because he doesn’t exist maybe?) or isn’t allowed to tell you. Anet is working on something. Few details exist as to what it is. I don’t want to sound important, I’m far from the only person who knows about it. I just don’t want to speculate as to what that entails. I’m still relatively in the dark about it.

Random.4691:

Melanion.4892:

Why is the timer even a conversation piece? Take away the timers of all the bosses and there are still mechanics which prevent success. Take the second boss, for example. I’d love to see a group try to go much past the timer there considering there are a maximum of 4 gliding phases.

In the Vale Guardian kill, the timer is realistically not an issue. People more frequently fail because they screw up the mechanics. A longer/nonexistent timer isn’t going to change that. You can tank the boss enrage. You can’t easily tank the mechanics.

While that may hold true for VG, Gorseval is a completely different game, part of what make him more difficult is he is a hard DPS check. If you don’t DPS enough in X time you’re not going succeed, take away the timer and it becomes dull and boring because the timer is very much imo part of the mechanic.

In both encounters, I meant take out the timer but don’t necessarily take out the timed aspects of the fight. Gorseval might not have an enrage timer, but you’d need to keep up the DPS in order to kill Gorseval before he one shots the whole raid and before you run out of updrafts to use. Removing an enrage timer doesn’t exactly stop this part of the fight. In reality, I don’t think it’d change Gorseval at all. You’re still going to have to work to phase the boss so that you don’t use too many updrafts.

Punter.7648:

Melanion.4892:

It’s up to developers to encourage this pvp. Too few people spread too thin will only result in everyone failing to find the pvp. EBG has constant pvp because it’s more populated. Why? People are lazy and don’t want to try the new map, sure. But why is it the player’s responsibility to try something new and different when more likely than not it’s going to be empty.

If the devs take out EBG for a week, people will be forced onto the other maps. They will learn the maps. They will find fights on the maps. It will be more fun. Most of the people I hear complaining about the new map say “I don’t like the new map, there are never any maps.” That’s got nothing to do with the map. That’s a lack of people to fight. It’s being dumped on the map because that’s an easy out. In reality, it’s the lack of people on the map that is the issue and if Anet really wants us to get on board with the new map, they need to find a way of forcing us to go there. Otherwise any guild that says “where should we go tonight” will immediately queue for EBG. It’s simply easier.

I assure you that the new map is just not fun. Shutting down EBG would be a horrible mistake that would invoke an extraordinary amount of rage.

How can you know? Have you played the new map when there are more than 10 people on it? Everyone’s hiding in EBG because they don’t want to try an empty map. I’m not saying take EBG away forever. Just try a week without it. People will go to the other maps and play around a little. Maybe they’ll have fun. Maybe they won’t. The point is that we’d actually know rather than have people saying “I hate the new map. It’s no fun. I don’t know what’s happening and there’s nobody to fight.”

Yuffi.2430:

It’s good to hear that Anet are talking to, or will be talking to, some selected WvW commanders but this also worries me.

I understand that probably people can’t be named, no problems there, but look at the current Desert Borderlands: if you wanted a map that was good for large group epic fights then it’s actually not bad at all. What has killed it however is the fact that it’s not easy to learn your way round from the start and many of the roamers and small groups feel they can’t or don’t want to face T3 upgrade stuff all the time. It seems to be the quiet time players and smaller groups who have seen the biggest impact of the change.

If you go by numbers then reset onwards for 2 hours is a lot of players – and it’s about big fights. The other 22 hours are a bit quieter… and we need WvW to work then too.

If you go by numbers then the top tiers make up perhaps the majority of WvW players – and those players are on those servers for the big fights. The other 5 or 6 tiers are a bit quieter and we need WvW to work for them too…

Either way, if the conversations between chosen players and Anet don’t include some people who understand the smaller scale of play for non-prime time and lower tier servers, I fear we’re going to face the same situation we have now.

Yes. I’m not one of the commanders they’ll be talking to, but I know that some (probably many) came from tier 1 because that’s where Anet’s immediate focus seems to be. However, I suggested a few people from tier 3 who are more fights oriented than ppt oriented, so maybe that will help in some way.

Realistically, Anet’s not going to do away with their new map. Asking for it to be gone is dumb, but I’m hoping that at least some of the people Anet’s going to be talking to will at least give something workable to them…

Why is the timer even a conversation piece? Take away the timers of all the bosses and there are still mechanics which prevent success. Take the second boss, for example. I’d love to see a group try to go much past the timer there considering there are a maximum of 4 gliding phases.

In the Vale Guardian kill, the timer is realistically not an issue. People more frequently fail because they screw up the mechanics. A longer/nonexistent timer isn’t going to change that. You can tank the boss enrage. You can’t easily tank the mechanics.

You can tank the first boss as a druid healer/tank (my group did it and killed the boss with time to spare).

You can tank the second boss with a chrono tank that literally doesn’t have to dodge the boss despite being 2 cavs pieces away from full zerk.

The reason people suggest going hybrid tanks is because that frees up a slot. Chronomancer doesn’t have as much damage as some of the other classes, but it brings utility. Why not squeeze that into the tank’s build. Druid healer is almost necessary, but why not make that person also a tank. You have to move the boss a little more, but you gain an entirely new DPS class by doing so. Makes things much easier, in my opinion.

Crinn.7864:

Melanion.4892:

Sure, every class has access to condi cleanse, but does that make it something they’re taking? No.

And? If you ain’t going to spec into condi cleanse then you deserve to die to condis.

And you still haven’t covered the fact that condi builds are penalized by everything a power build is penalized by (blocked/evaded abilities don’t apply condi) in addition to being penalized by cleanses, transfers, and duration reduction traits. Not to mention condi builds typically having much longer ramp time than power builds.

Condi builds are underpowered in this meta, and will continue to be so with or without the existence of Diamond Skin.

Condi classes have a higher ramp up, sure, but they also have a greater ability to kite. You could apply condis, kite around while the condis tick, then apply more (or apply more as you’re kiting). There are few (almost 0) condi classes that can apply damage while not actively attacking or even l.o.s.ing. With a power class, I could pressure you off a point and you’d have to leave to heal. With a condi class, I could be pressured off point but the damage still ticks. Not saying this is bad. It’s what you get when you go condi, but you can’t have it both ways. Condi takes longer to get the damage out, but the damage lasts longer once the condi is appplied.

I’d respond with a fuller argument, but it appears Sunshine’s beaten me to it.

ZERONIX.5873:

Why do people think I’m poor geared 2578 power guardian longbow with a 83 percent critical chance hitting 26ks and 5-6 k for my base attacks in over 60 try’s with teams guess what vale guardians still not dead.

Then either you or your group are not doing it right.

Are people soaking the green circles? Are people getting ported by the lightning? Are people rotating around the arena properly? Are people cc-ing the boss when he begind to channel? If not, address this. Tell people what they’re screwing up and try to fix it. Until you’re at the point where you’re not getting teleported and your group has 4 people soaking the green circles, you’re not going to win.

Crinn.7864:

Melanion.4892:

Does nobody see the necessity of counters like this?

If you don’t have a class or two that can completely nullify a full condi build, condis will run rampant.

There are counters to pretty much anything in the game except for tanky/sustain cele builds, and even the tanky/sustain builds can be bursted if caught out. The inclusion of these hard counters is how anet keeps certain builds from running rampant and unchecked. If you didn’t have stealth high damage classes, other classes can run much glassier and without as much in the way of damage mitigation.

You don’t need hardcounters when the game is choked full of softcounters.

Every class in the game has access to condi cleanses, and that’s not even counting cleanses/transfers from sigils and runes. On top of that there is the resistance boon, in addition to things like plague signet and necro staff #4. Additionally there are a number of traits and runes that straight up reduce the duration or damage of condis. Oh and lets not forget the occasional cleanses from combo fields.

And if after all that you still somehow have issues with condis, you can always bring a bunker guard with the double AoE cleanse on each shout + triple cleanse on F2.

Sure, every class has access to condi cleanse, but does that make it something they’re taking? No. Chronomancer has access to one condi clear outside of sigils if they choose to bring the heal well. Otherwise I have to run inspiration or illusions and even then, the condi cleanse isn’t great. Dragonhunter has access to condi cleanse, but DH has 2-3 condi clears on somewhat long cooldowns when considering classes can stack 20 bleeding, 18 torment or 12 burning in a few seconds. on a fairly short cooldown (doesn’t account for dodges, but whatever). Engi has some, but not amazing condi clear with the current meta. Daredevil is the same (only removes condi on heal or on evade, so it’s not great, not terrible). Outside of celestial form, druid has few condi clears. Herald has very few clears.

My point is that most meta builds do not have access to an entirely large amount of condition cleanse or mitigation. Necro and Ele are perhaps best equipped for condi pressure and one of the reasons they are useful is because they can nullify a condition focused team. It forces you to bring at least some cele or power damage.

And no, I’m not saying conditions wreck every other class. If you can kill the condition class before they get enough conditions on you, you’re gucci. There are obviously counters outside of condition cleanse or transfer. Not the point here. I’m saying that a team must at least consider the possibility that one or two diamond skin eles are going to be on the opposing team and they’re going to have to deal with it. It’s about having things in your team that make the other team have to try a little bit harder. There are a number of ways this happens. In this case, and condi-reliant class must have help at least getting the ele below 90% before they’re able to do much. Simple as that. If you’re having issues fighting a diamond skin ele, don’t rely so much on conditions? I’ve found DS eles as a power build and it’s not that big of an issue. I’ve fought as a DS ele and it’s not like we’re invulnerable to anything, we’re just invulnerable to those who rely solely on conditions.

Jski.6180:

Players make pvp not the maps or even the game type. If you can fight another player that is pvp and its up to players on both side to keep it active not the game makers.

It’s up to developers to encourage this pvp. Too few people spread too thin will only result in everyone failing to find the pvp. EBG has constant pvp because it’s more populated. Why? People are lazy and don’t want to try the new map, sure. But why is it the player’s responsibility to try something new and different when more likely than not it’s going to be empty.

If the devs take out EBG for a week, people will be forced onto the other maps. They will learn the maps. They will find fights on the maps. It will be more fun. Most of the people I hear complaining about the new map say “I don’t like the new map, there are never any maps.” That’s got nothing to do with the map. That’s a lack of people to fight. It’s being dumped on the map because that’s an easy out. In reality, it’s the lack of people on the map that is the issue and if Anet really wants us to get on board with the new map, they need to find a way of forcing us to go there. Otherwise any guild that says “where should we go tonight” will immediately queue for EBG. It’s simply easier.

Baron Oakley.1539:

I like the maps, and honestly think they would be fine if so much of the WvW population hadn’t been forced into PvE by the HoT content that cannot be obtained in WvW. A number of NSP guilds had a lot of fun on the new borderlands at reset after some communication with an opposing server where we agreed to be on one specific borderlands. To be clear, after travelling there we were not communicating our positions to each other.

Yes. This exactly. If people keep avoiding the map, nobody will ever have fun there. However, the population is so spread that EBG is the only place things happen because it’s the easy choice.

Notsoperky.2348:

Melanion.4892:

I know for a fact that Anet is working on some things to address wvw, but for some reason they’re not talking about them even if they’re changes we’ve been asking for. Terrible PR decision if you ask me.

Can you prove that fact, ie are you one of the actual devs actually working on it, or is this more along the line of ‘I was in the pub the other day, and overheard someone say something about them working on some stuff for wvw’.

Or are you directly connected with Anet or someone who works there and is working on wvw?

Otherwise, we’ll believe it (if we’re still around) when we see it. Too many past promises of future improvements under the bridge (CDI’s, LOL!) to think any more optimistically than that.

Well, I know people who are in direct communication with devs, so that’s one thing. I don’t want to get them in trouble and misrepresent the things that are intended. But another is that they have changed things in wvw that haven’t been addressed publicly. You can no longer rally off pve creatures in wvw. Server population was artificially inflated so that 6 or 12 servers were full (depending on your region) and after a few people complained/pointed out that the algorithm for measuring server populations was flawed, it miraculously fixes itself.

I’m not going to be a white knight for Anet. I’m annoyed by it, as well. I’m annoyed that I know things are happening behind the scenes but literally do not know if anything will come of them. I’m annoyed that there is no communication whatsoever. I’m annoyed that we were told that wvw work would begin once HoT was released and they’re not at the point where they feel like they could tell us where they’re at as far as changes. I’m annoyed that they say they’ll tell us about things once they’re closer to being released and then legit spring things on us last minute like the reset day changes. I’m endlessly annoyed and where I used to play wvw for 2-3 hours any night when I wasn’t busy, I now actively seek things to busy myself with so I don’t have to wvw. That includes farming the silverwastes, an act which I was vehemently opposed to only 4 weeks ago.

TGI FRIDAY.6275:

Salamander.2504:

Espire.9723:

…There was a thread lately (pretty much daily at this point) where someone pointed out people are getting stomped by premade teams while playing solo and you finally answered. And your answer was?…

Just a heads up, in case this changes how you frame your argument: the dev quote you are citing is from 11 months ago. Also your English appears to be great.

^THIS. However, the lack of communication is pretty disturbing. With leagues on the horizon, it’s just going to make things worse. Blade & Soul can’t come any sooner.

I have a feeling that there’s been some sort of directive not to address the forums again. We had a nice run where Anet was actually fairly communicative, but we’re back to the old ways. What a shame.

I know for a fact that Anet is working on some things to address wvw, but for some reason they’re not talking about them even if they’re changes we’ve been asking for. Terrible PR decision if you ask me.

The new map is not the issue. I’m used to the mechanics by now and they don’t necessarily kill you if you know how to manage them (just like knowing which parts of the alpine map are blinkable and which can be fallen down without dying). The issue is that nobody gives the map a shot. Take EBG out of the rotation and give only the new map. People will be kitteny to start with, but they’ll get over it.

Does nobody see the necessity of counters like this?

If you don’t have a class or two that can completely nullify a full condi build, condis will run rampant.

There are counters to pretty much anything in the game except for tanky/sustain cele builds, and even the tanky/sustain builds can be bursted if caught out. The inclusion of these hard counters is how anet keeps certain builds from running rampant and unchecked. If you didn’t have stealth high damage classes, other classes can run much glassier and without as much in the way of damage mitigation.

UnbentMars.9126:

Rising Dusk.2408:

AESOkami.1072:

TL;DR: HoT’s story content + very difficult content = bad.

There is literally no story content in the raid. Read this:

The one to Rule.2593:

all it is is a group of pact soldiers gets captured by bandits and you set out to save them only to find out that it’s too late.

Because some other poster on the forum is a great source…Anet has even stated that there is story in the raid if you look for it and that raids will tell a portion of the story moving forward, and other posts on the forums have been talking about stuff they’ve found that offer some story.

So maybe he should read the forums for the story? Or wait till WoodenPotatoes or someone like that releases a lore video about the raid?

A lot of what raid groups are currently looking for is utility which comes with dps. Chrono brings quickness and alacrity. Herald brings boon sharing. Berserker brings boon sharing. Condi engi brings healing (through turret) and knockbacks. Druid brings cc and some damage/condi along with healing. When tempest is brought, it is for the excellent ranged damage. Some people have found ways to make other classes fit into roles where it’s not a huge loss (or an improvement) but in general, reaper, dh, dd, etc don’t bring as much to the raid.

That being said, there’s always a way around things, it just might involve more work. I’ve heard of teams of necros using epidemic quite effectively on the second boss. Daredevil tanks. DH tanks. Etc.

We all knew DnT was beta testing. The reddit post essentially said “We beta tested, this is not world first, but we’re done”

Idk who was complaining

Gaile Gray.6029:

I thought it might help to let you know that stickying this thread was a suggestion from a couple of players. I asked John, and he and I thought there was still content of value in his older post, so that’s why it was stickied.

We do understand you have questions and concerns. The stickying of this thread was only a convenience measure for forum members suggested by forum members. It’s really that simple.

Where should we voice these concerns aside from in threads where you post when the only red posts we see are in other forums and in this thread?

I mean, thinking from the perspective of a forum/communications coordinator, I would think that even a little “devs have read this” notification or a “anet has considered this” or even just a “Anet is not, in fact, a company of one person pretending to be many people”

Because apparently it’s important for us to read this (as if it answers any of our questions), I’ll be fairly abrupt about my questions regarding John’s post:

Firstly:

As work on Heart of Thorns wraps up, we’ll be treating resolving the remaining core areas in WvW as our #1 live development feature priority for the game to ensure we deliver on making World vs. World not just the great experience it is today – but the incredible experience we know it can be.

When are we to determine that work on HoT has wrapped up so the team can work on WvW? Has that begun? Is the ‘work on HoT’ the entirety of the expansion and now you guys have moved on to WvW work? Is the HoT work over when raids are released? If raids are the thing that’s still worked on, are we saying WvW work will begin when the first wing of the raid is released? Are we saying it will begin when the final wing of the raid is released? Could I be entirely wrong in assuming that more work is to be done (eg: does Anet consider the ‘remaining core areas of WvW’ already addressed)?

Secondly:

As this effort ramps up you will be hearing more from us about the work in progress.

The fact that we haven’t heard anything dramatically concerns us. This small sentence means we’ll be hearing something. We have heard little to nothing. Deduction leads us to the assumption that there are no works in progress. I know (hope) that you guys have something in store, but the lack of any information and this quotation leads me to believe that there is nothing immediately in store. Therefore, we have no works in progress which are far enough along that we’ll see them before sometime in late 2016.

Thirdly:

An example of this work in progress is the recent change to how world populations are determined. Going forward worlds will be marked as full or not based on actual World vs. World participation rather than accounting for every player in the game.

This is just flat out flawed. Either the formula for calculating WvW participation needs numbers readjusted or it takes into account EotM attendance. Yak’s Bend is currently rated as “Very High” instead of Full despite being the highest rated wvw server on NA. Is the formula measuring a weekly attendance thing? Is it registering people zoning into WvW instead of time spent in WvW? Did my quick trip to the borderland to craft something count as my presence in WvW for that day/week? World balance is tricky, but if it’s not addressed again, things will go south. Guilds can no longer recruit from off their server and (I know from experience) are told that the best course of action to take is to transfer to a lower tier (please ask one of the 0 devs who plays wvw what their experience is outside of NA prime on a lower tiered server) or to try again when servers open up (not going to happen if the measurements are flawed). I’m guessing something was tweaked because now only 6 servers on EU are full instead of 12, and only 5 on NA, but I’m thinking it still needs addressing.

Please don’t take our reactions as meaning that we hate you or anything. Take everything said on the forums with a grain of salt, but when we get quotes like this:

We are eager to see the strategic play that develops from the Desert Borderlands with its new mechanics, unique objectives, astounding beauty and layout that both supports team fights in some areas while breaking up blobs in other areas.

And then you see the reality of the situation: few players on the borderlands. Towers and keeps upgrading without any human presence at all. I was at the streamed beta test thing with Heurix, Chemso and that other guy. It was a lot of fun because the map was populated and everything was new. As the novelty of it all wears off, it becomes less fun, which is understandable, but show me a borderlands map that for more than 3 hours a week is anywhere near as exciting as it was when you guys forced everyone onto a borderland. The fact that EB is still an option means people will go there and not explore other maps. That, coupled with the fact that certain aspects introduced into wvw and the surrounding experience (like the necessity of pve to upgrade one’s guild) have led to people not prioritizing wvw like they used to.

Mishi.7058:

azizul.8469:

they don’t care. they want you to play the new PvE maps and buy the glider skins…..

Even the PvE maps are becoming much emptier then they were.

So I doubt that’s it lol.

They’re playing a game of ‘alienate the playerbase’ and took bets on who would win, WvW, PvP or PvE. All of them think they’re winning.