Guild Wars 2

I use ONE metric to determine where I put rando pugs in squads. It’s ‘activeness’.

If someone has been talking in squad/map, knows his business, and actively whispers to me to me to ask to be put into a frontline party, then I’ll oblige him. If he wants to be in a frontline party and is aware of the need, then he’s competent enough to be in here. I’ll put him in. I’ll prioritize good players I’m familiar with (and I WvW enough to know who they are in a timezone), then those who are on teamspeak, then those running zergy classes (meaning all Heavy and Light armour classes), then randos running medium armour classes. Sometimes if there aren’t many people around, I’ll ask them individually about their builds.

Oh, lemme describe you a common scenario. There are 4 Tempests milling around, not in squad. I invite them in, they join fine. I ask “Is anyone here running Heal/Auramancer Ele? Please X up in chat.”

Not one reply. So I shrug and put them in the same party as that one 400 AP vanilla ranger. Don’t care if they’re running full Ministrel’s Auramancer or Masterwork Shaman with Staff. They need to interact to get a good party, simple as that.

And if a commander is being an kitten and refusing you even after you ask politely, they can kitten off, because clearly they don’t need you and don’t care. You can go off and roam or something.

(Reminder that anyone who says “Epidemic has a huge cast time and tell!” has most likely never seen it outside sPvP or a <5 man fight.)

Xenesis.6389:

You bunch of ingrates.
They wanted to give you mobile cannons and you didn’t want it.
They wanted to give you repair hammers and you didn’t want it.
They gave you scoring changes all you do is argue over numbers 3 2 1 2 1 1 5 4 3 100 99 98.
They proposed more worlds to dying wvw and you said no.
Then people wanted mercenary worlds which is the same but you can’t agree on it because identity crisis.
Anet proposes 1 dbl 2 alp, you say no, vote says yes, anet checks on scrapping dbl, you say no, anet checks for 1 dbl 2 alp again, you say yes.
Then cry about veterans not playing for 2 years didn’t get a fair vote, you need bunch of ranks and a bunch of wvw hours to vote, you cry the vote was rigged cause pve players care about a wvw map.
Then you cry about the empty red borderland when the other two borderlands are also empty, while ebg is over queued every night.
You cry for population balance, they lower the threshold to keep bigger worlds from getting bigger, you cry about it to players from 20+ dead servers, we’re gonna die if we don’t open up!
They gave you golem week and you cried about a minor golem buff exploit.
They gave you some new commander tag colors and you cry about every other color not available.
They gave you reward tracks and you complain about not getting a legendary backpack.
They put gift of battle in the track and you complain about not getting a years notice before so you can buy it with free badges.
They took away crafting stations and you cry about not being able to skip a loading screen.
They gave you you a “big giant sized” guild hall with a “small dinky” arena to do your gvg’s and you cry about it.
They reorganized the wvw upgrades into your guild halls and you complain about the minor cost of spending months in pve.
They gave you fun to use banners and you complain about it being op.
They gave you extra upgrades to scout for you and all you do is complain about small groups.
Big fancy airships to make the big castle in the middle of ebg feel more epic you cry about it killing you every 15 mins.
They put a big fat cannon in the middle of dbl to promote fights every 3 hours, you cry about lag so they take it away, and then you cry about it being empty and no bloodlust.
They gave you new elite specs to freshen up classes after 3 years of getting old and boring, and you cry about imbalance pfft like that didn’t exist before.
They gave you boons to counter the increased damage but you complained no one was dying, so they fixed it after months and months and months of hard testing, and then you complain about dying to conditions.
They made conditions good so you don’t feel limp in zerg fights and now you complain about spreading it.

Pfft.

I think you need to put in an /sarcasm somewhere in there, because there’re people who’re actually believing you.

Rangerdeity.5847:

X T D.6458:

Rangerdeity.5847:

you could removethe tactivators and simply add them as a dialog option to the upgrade npc so that people who dont know what they do wont hit them out of curiosity. that would eliminate over half of the abuse

Npcs can be killed which would make them unusable.

make that one singular npc non-combat and immune to damage……. pretty kitten simple if you ask me. the tactic of killing siege vendors has been dead for ages anyway since people just carry stacks of 100 around

No, it’s because Permanent Portable Provisioner is a thing.

The solution is not upgrading the graphics engine. Graphics has absolutely nothing to do with lag, only FPS (if your FPS is low even with low settings, get a better PC).

The solution is quantum computing. It’s a tad expensive and experimental, so I hope you understand if ANet is unable to implement it.

FA will swap with SBI soon, yup, and we’ll be back to the SoS/FA/TC matchup that was when I started playing. I’d be glad to see it, though I don’t think FA can actually compete in Tier 2 either, against the numbers and coverage both SoS and TC can put out. But it won’t be as bad a stomp as it used to be the last time FA was in T2.

I expect FA and SBI to keep swapping between Tier 2 and Tier 3, which is frankly the best outcome you can hope for. Tier 3 could be SBI, YB and DB next week, which is a far better matchup.

It’s just that NSP has only a ‘decent’ primetime coverage (not overpowering) and next to no offhours coverage, so they can’t guarantee skirmish wins at anytime to keep up, same for CD. HoD is the exact opposite.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Maybe this is a silly question, but is there a guide to what upgrades are good or bad to get somewhere?

No guides, but I’ll tell you: Supply Drop and Chilling Fog are both good. Dragon and Turtle Banners are good, Centaur Banners are absolutely worthless. Emergency Waypoint and Invulnerable Fortifications are both good (use the former normally, use the latter if you know there will be a lot of enemies and not many people from your server.)

Otherwise, uhh, Iron Guards, Hardened Gates on everything. Watchtowers on Towers, Presence of the Keep on keeps. Those are generally the best passive upgrades, the others are more situational.

Kovu.7560:

Lol just play during EU. NSP has more numbers than FA in that timezone.
But yeah, FA is likely to roll up to probs T2 next week. What FA is doing to T4 now will pale compared to what JQ or TC will likely do to FA next matchup. As well, DH actually has a player base, which is more than can be said for SoR.

By all means, though, let the salt flow.

~ Kovu

DH has a playerbase because they’re currently in Tier 4.

[quote=6468701;DevilishLyx.2340:]

Permanently merging servers wouldn’t work because (1) complete dissolution of whatever server identity remains. It would be very unpopular (2) Temporary linkings allow ANet to control the population of a server and adjust it every couple months, preventing any one server from being stuck in the same tier for too long and helping weaken bandwagons.

Secondly, ‘every other week’? Dude, what? Relinkings are every 2 months, not 2 weeks.

And thirdly, that’s the whole point. Servers are linked in order to provide every server in a tier with even coverage.

Still, did you even read up on anything before coming to post here? We’ve been through this before.

Swamurabi.7890:

Fatherbliss.4701:

I now want to view a cutscene with a zerg coming up from below, knocking my character into infinity. Internet, make this happen!

Is there a vista high up enough that DOESN’T involve jumping and a zerg would actually go?

ABL gari might work, but you wouldn’t die from the interior vista and you might hit water from the other.

Sounds like a top priority map enhancement for the temporary WvW dev.

Blue EBG keep, most likely. It’s high enough to kill from the fall and the steps up to it are easy enough that the average player would be able to reach it if they have ‘Jump’ keybinded.

morrolan.9608:

The GW2 client doesn’t seem to be a normal streaming client which continues downloading in the background whilst you play, it just stops downloading altogether which makes the decision to let a player begin playing before its fully downloaded a silly option.

This part can be changed from options, I believe. Whether to stream files or not.

SoS is very high pop, I assume, because of balanced coverage, not anything else. Running 2-3 map queues in NA and sizeable 25-40 man groups through OCX, SEA and EU consistently tends to give that to you.

Compared to JQ, who as I saw a couple weeks ago can queue 1-2 maps all through NA and SEA, and run 40+ in OCX and EU, and are currently full.

This distinction in numbers seems perfectly fine to distinguish between Very High and Full.

Try looking at Mag’s numbers over a full 24-hour period, would you? Then comparing to another server on a lower tier’s.

Teanti.2376:

Give commanders with 25+ in squad unlimited stability.

joneirikb.7506:

Naah just make them invulnerable, so the enemies definitively can identify them.

dukenukem.9072:

Kind of got me thinking about treating commanders as Champions. Give them a break bar and extra health/armor (scales to number of enemies within 2000 range or something)

Offair.2563:

Let’s give em +100 toughness/vitality for each squad member while at it!

Kek

Sanchez.4017:

To be honest, why would Anet close the gate to these bandwagon? They are making profits out of this.

Perhaps because it’ll show that they care about the community and are actively against ‘bandwagons’.

Offair.2563:

The OPness of hammer trains was cause of meta, not cause of skill lag….

It came from both.

Korgov.7645:

We all are painfully aware of the lag, don’t like it, and wish it never existed in the first place.

If I may side track the discussion a bit:

Which prof and build is the most resilient against skill lag? Can it still do any damage? Could you assemble a squad of those and be successful?

This isn’t sidetracking the discussion. This is what the discussion SHOULD be, instead of whining and crying about something that can’t be fixed and refusing to understand why it can’t be fixed.

I’ve found that, well, in skill lag your opponents are having pretty much the same lag as you are. The easiest thing to do is to grab as many hammer warriors as possible, gear them up to like 25k hp and 3k armour, and go ham. Indeed, the idea of ‘hammer train’ came from this. In 2017, a hammer train also needs tanky frontline Reapers to strip enemy boons, however much as possible amidst skill lag, for maximum impact.

Taobella.6597:

desert lords are no joke they carry fights XD

No joke.

I’ve seen 25 wipe against 4 people plus Air Keep Lord.

Aphs.9528:

if these guilds had any brains they would move to SoS since they already have 1 time slot covered for tier 1 .

O.o SoS has no timezone that’s fully T1. Only our NA does okay in T2.

That said, SoS will welcome any guilds that want to transfer there (so long as you don’t bring the rest of the bandwagon with you ;D, we don’t want one either).

EU has a discussion thread, so NA could use one too. Please keep it clean and keep the heckling to a minimum, there’re other places for that. The currently linked worlds are (copypasted from the locked linking thread):

Here are the worlds for NA:
• Jade Quarry
• Yaks Bend
• Blackgate
• Maguuma
• Tarnished Coast
• Sea of Sorrows, Gate of Madness
• Fort Aspenwood, Darkhaven
• Dragonbrand, Borlis Pass, Anvil Rock
• Northern Shiverpeaks, Kaineng, Ferguson’s Crossing
• Stormbluff Isle, Eredon Terrace, Sanctum of Rall
• Henge of Denravi, Ehmry Bay, Devona’s Rest
• Crystal Desert, Isle of Janthir, Sorrow’s Furnace

(I spellchecked :P)

For me, it’s nice to be back with GoM. They’ll cover SoS’s EU pretty decently, while FA’s biggest gap, SEA, gets well covered by Darkhaven. I’m pretty satisfied with these linkings on both my servers, though that SBI triple link looks a little scary imo.

If you see an ANet dev on your server, its because they’re normal people who play the game too when they’re not working. ANet devs don’t take sides in WvW in any official manner, they just have ingame toons, sometimes they go to WvW, sometimes they claim stuff. That’s why you’ll only see them in NA primetime, rarely on EU primetime even in EU servers, or OCX/SEA times. They’re employees at ANet who go home after a long day of work and open up GW2 to chill and some of them play WvW.

It’s all a matter of your servers. For instance, I know there’s one guy who plays on SoS pretty regularly. He’s the one who claimed Air Keep for SoS today, I believe.

There’re no representatives. No select groups. Just individuals playing a game and using the ArenaNet guild in the same way as any other guild.

All we need is a flashing “Don’t Claim” box beside the “Claim” box.

Nothing CAN be done by Anet. It’s up to the people on Darkhave nto size up and consolidate and try to grow up again, either by recruiting old veterans up or enticing people to stay in the server, whether by forming ‘server-based’ guilds are won’t xfer off or by making the community engaging and fun

From what you’re saying, a lot of Darkhaven’s community issues seem to be caused from within, not without. There is absolutely nothing ANet can do about that. Plus, Darkhaven only reached Tier 4/5 before the relinkings, compared to other servers that died off completely. I agree DH seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in regards to linkings, but so have other servers.

It seems to me that you guys never really had a large enough community that was stable enough to survive through the ups and downs. Just… individuals.

(also why is it ONLY Darkhaven that seems to come here to talk about their server’s death and how Anet hates it? No offense, just curious. I don’t see this stuff from other servers.)

A baby cat may have gotten in and startled the hamsters.

;)

Warrior, as described above, is a very, very solid option for roamers. I’d talk about it since I main it myself, but Nikki’s mentioned pretty much everything about it.

Other classes you might want to look into include Dragonhunters and Druids. Both are ranged alternatives to the Warrior’s extreme melee’ness. In fact, Dragonhunters counter other popular roaming classes like thieves and warriors, though at times they might feel ’bunker’y.

If only it were so simple…

Flick a switch that says “SKILL LAG” from On to Off.

The issue is that current network infrastractures and Anet’s resources simply can’t handle the number of calculations and bloat.

There’s one way you could easily solve skill lag, of course! Simply donate ten or fifteen million dollars to Anet, so they’re able to purchase NASA’s server systems. There is absolutely no point in complaining about something that is as fixed and immutable in the game’s engine and infrastructure as breathing air is to you. You’re simply wasting time.

Next time, remember that nobody’s forcing you to participate in those three-way SM fights. Go to a BL and get some fun 20-30 man fights.

Chaba.5410:

Since this thread seems to have become a “recruit for my server” thread, you should probably wait until after the server relinks occur on Jan. 6th before making any decision because Anet evens out the averaged population of each server when making the links (they claimed for example that CD+DR+DH had more population than BG).

With server links there is much more movement between tiers, especially below T1. It remains to be seen if, for example, Maguuma in T1 doesn’t lose it’s link and fall back down into T2 or JQ gain a link.

The linked servers are usually easier to transfer to because their smaller populations make them a cheaper option and if patterns remain the same, there will be some bandwagon-y type movement within the first two weeks after server linking that will shake tiers out. There also tends to be a lot more activity across all tiers at the start of a new linking period.

I did say I’m shameless

There are both Pros and Cons of going to a guest server over a host server. In a Guest Server, as Chaba said, its cheaper, and every couple months you get saddled with a brand new matchup (you could go from Tier 4 to Tier 1, for instance). On the other hand, it makes it harder to possibly adjust between tiers (take, for instance CD and its linked servers who haven’t managed to stir from Tier 4) and also to recruit: not many people like to go from a larger server to a smaller server.

IMO, with the current linkings SoS, FA, SBI and DB are all good choices. Alternatively, you might want to wait a couple weeks for the relinkings and then for the dust to settle.

I’d shamelessly say SoS would be a fine place to start at the moment. Lots of pugs for NA and OCX, and for the next few weeks SoS will most likely be moving between Tier 2, 3, and maybe one or two rolls into Tier 4 if we’re unlucky.

This means a lot of variation in the guilds and opposing servers. Tier 3 would be a good place to form up and whet your blades, then Tier 2 would be best to prove your skill.

Tier 1 is a no-no for Zergbusting. Why? Because this isn’t 2013 anymore. In Tier 1, almost all the pugs know the basics, and run in exotics instead of blues and greens that they used to back in the prime days of zergbusting. You’ll almost never be able to take anything more than 2 vs 3 odds in Tier 1. In Tiers 2 and 3, if you’re good and organised enough, 2-to-1 or 5-to-2 odds become feasible.

Hit me up if you need anything ;D

What timezone do you usually play? That could affect a lot of things.

Fluffball.8307:

I guess I was more focused on the “what should I do after gearing up” bit.

Dungeon berserker gear is used to run… dungeons which are obsolete.

Fractals, raids, PvP and WvW are typically considered endgame, where dungeon gear is useless or suboptimal.

?

You need Berserker Gear to, run, for instance, Fractals. Are you advocating for him to do Fractals with a hodgepodge of yellow and green gear? In WvW (even though Berserkers is really not recommended unless one is playing Backline Ele or Necro), Exotics are the minimum expected. In Raids, Exotics are the minimum expected.

“useless or suboptimal”. If he’s asking about dungeon gear, you can reasonably assume he’s far away from ascended and need at least a stepping stone.

Dungeons are the fastest way for him to get Exotic Berserker Gear before he moves onto other things (which you listed).