Guild Wars 2

Greens Daily Ritual.9025:

Anet gave you what you want, your Spvp right smack dab in the middle of WvW. I’m talking about the ruins in case you didn’t know.

to be honest, that wasn’t really what nearly anyone wanted. there wasn’t a single thread requesting them to plop sPvP with stat buffs in the middle of WvW anywhere leading up to it, and the overwhelming majority of players voted in disfavor of it in the thread about it. this isn’t limited to just GvG players either. a good number of people who play WvW as Anet intended didn’t want it either. but, Anet wanted it, so everyone is stuck dealing with it.

this isn’t something that will kill GvG only either. the ridiculously lopsided matches the seasons will bring will only be exacerbated by the ridiculously lopsided stat buffs. so it will kill WvW itself. matches will boil down to two scenarios. spawn camping, or getting spawn camped. neither is really something an entire game mode can be based around, and it’s quite obvious that people will just avoid WvW entirely at that point. sure, some may be stubborn and optimistic, and try to stick it out for a while, but eventually the boredom will overwhelm even them. the end result really is pretty obvious at this point.

Essence Snow.3194:

While I won’t be playing during that time, I think the bigger influence will simply be the data the scores provide. It’ll be so obvious via numbers alone, that if they don’t do something they will be effectively knowingly screwing up the soon to be implemented league system before it even starts. If that actually happens, I would surely hope the powers that be take a long hard look into who was responsible for such an obvious oversight.

not really. i mean, yeah, the data will be there, and it will be blatantly obvious to everyone……. except Anet. the data was there, and blatantly obvious to everyone with the original orbs. every match, in every tier, every week was a blowout in favor of the server that had all 3 orbs. there was a mountain of evidence, and they just kept looking the other way. it was like the OJ trial all over again.

the sad fact is, they couldn’t care less about the quality of their product, just if it’s a good enough prostitute. the only way they’d actually pay attention would be to kick them where it counts, in the wallet. if the players are capable of forming a massive protest, they have to take notice. if they ignore that, they lose money. and the money is ALL they care about.

the way i look at it, if people want to alt f4, that’s fine. i don’t have to worry about screwing around with the stomp mechanic, or them rallying off a moa. the massive 0-3 points they’re saving are a pittance compared to what they’re sacrificing. let idiots be idiots.

Radioactive.1248:

Why must you test over a 7 week period? The data from random matchups has been available all throughout the past few months. How will an extra seven weeks of increased score margins because of bloodlust have you reach any different of a conclusion?

because with the season, they have an excuse for not bothering to put out any updates for 7 weeks at a time. they can go back to ignoring WvW, and use their get out of jail free card when people complain.

then, at the end of the 7 weeks, they can plop in something that’s largely fluff or does far more damage than good, and of course is completely filled with bugs that they’ll never fix, and use the next season as an excuse as to why they can’t do anything about it.

it’s the perfect smokescreen for incompetence and neglect.

it isn’t just hitting the wall/gate. you have to damage them. since a player can’t damage a wall without using siege, they can fire arrows or stab it all day long and it won’t do anything. white swords appear 30 seconds after a wall or gate has been damaged. orange swords appears when 25 or more players are in combat. take note, that also counts if those 25 players don’t actually attack anything, and are just getting attacked, even by an NPC. i’ve led a group past the north gate of the hills to the west wall, and the NPC guard there starting attacking us, and even though we didn’t hit it back, orange swords still showed up. i felt kinda stupid, which is why i remember that.

insanemaniac.2456:

Zacchary.6183:

Theftwind.8976:

taek.9386:

espionage is all part of war

Only if you have a fair chance of capturing, torturing and then executing the spy. If you do not then it is nothing more then a glorified cheat!

All’s fair in love and war. Just saying.

killing a saboteur is fair.

we cannot do this.

no no no. you never kill a spy as a first option. you flip a spy, then send him back to his original side. you only kill him if you can’t convert him. granted, in gw2, neither of those are an option, but i have a thing about realistic accuracy.

that sounds like a great idea in theory, however the ranks themselves mean very little at all. they’re just an opiate for the masses. sure, if someone has their catapult skill maxed out, it’s better to have them using it than someone that doesn’t, but that’s rarely what happens. if i build a catapult, i have to tell people to use it, and be grateful that anyone actually hopped on it. and even then, they don’t even have too much of a step up on those who don’t have the ranks.

if the ranks meant anything other than how many karma/WXP trains someone’s been in, then having the cap work around that would be great. as it stands, they’re just a counter of how many laps someone’s run around a paper borderland. and even then, they don’t even get all that much for it.

a rank 5 player who understands the strategies is far more valuable than a rank 500 player who only knows “spam 1, get loot bags”. the ranks, however, are in no way, shape, or form representative of how useful someone will be on the map.

kribre.9683:

Phantom.8130:

i’ll be honest. i’ve never participated in a GvG. i’m mainly a map objective style player, with penchant for dropping an absurd amount of siege on a daily basis. i like defending and attacking towers and keeps (in that order), escorting yaks and running supplies. judging by the dev posts, i play how they intend WvW to be played.

that being said, however, i am…… very very confused. i mean….. a separate GvG map wouldn’t really need much to it at all. some have said just a big flat area would work, though i think sinking the floor to create kind of a pit-fighting deal would be better. then spectators could watch from above. there doesn’t need to be much scenery, just some collision boxes to keep spectators from jumping in, a repair merchant, some sort of portal entrance, and maybe some walls. all in all, not a major undertaking at all. and if Anet really wants a part of the game to be an esport, BLAM, there it is. the GvG community appears to be taking care of everything else about it, from organizing matches to working out rankings.

it really doesn’t seem like something that needs to be destroyed, just…. moved slightly. then everyone’s happy. GvG players can do their thing without worrying about stat discrepancies or interference. WvW players can do their thing without worrying about queues being affected. Anet gets a legitimate esport. i can’t think of any logical reason for it NOT to happen.

The only reason I can even think of that makes Anet not support GvG, is that it’s actually something the community made, and not something they actually made themself, therefore it wont be “their product” that they can take the credit for, and they are probably just to stubborn to admit their errors and mistakes. Selfpride ftw…..

that does seem to be a ongoing pattern with them. i’ve seen numerous suggestion threads that would greatly improve standard WvW play, on numerous fronts (such as countless proposed improvements to the commander/squard system, as well as ways to reward defense/map maintenance) which would actually align with their stated intentions, and yet….. nuthin’. it really puts a new spin on the phrase " the terrible twos".

Vanz.5976:

I bought into one guys idea from a previous thread, give us a portal from WvW to a copy paste of an empty Claw Island. It really is the perfect arena for crowds and the teams. Our community can do the matchmaking and scoring

while some of the suggestions i’ve seen would be a significant chunk of work to implement, that ain’t one of them. the hardest part would really just be deciding where to put the entrance portal. it does indeed sound like an ideal solution, especially if the GvG community is happy to handle everything else about it.

i’ll be honest. i’ve never participated in a GvG. i’m mainly a map objective style player, with penchant for dropping an absurd amount of siege on a daily basis. i like defending and attacking towers and keeps (in that order), escorting yaks and running supplies. judging by the dev posts, i play how they intend WvW to be played.

that being said, however, i am…… very very confused. i mean….. a separate GvG map wouldn’t really need much to it at all. some have said just a big flat area would work, though i think sinking the floor to create kind of a pit-fighting deal would be better. then spectators could watch from above. there doesn’t need to be much scenery, just some collision boxes to keep spectators from jumping in, a repair merchant, some sort of portal entrance, and maybe some walls. all in all, not a major undertaking at all. and if Anet really wants a part of the game to be an esport, BLAM, there it is. the GvG community appears to be taking care of everything else about it, from organizing matches to working out rankings.

it really doesn’t seem like something that needs to be destroyed, just…. moved slightly. then everyone’s happy. GvG players can do their thing without worrying about stat discrepancies or interference. WvW players can do their thing without worrying about queues being affected. Anet gets a legitimate esport. i can’t think of any logical reason for it NOT to happen.

skullmount.1758:

Heizero.9183:

THERE IS A DIRECT COUNTER IN WVW. STEALTH TRAPS. That is all folks.

They’re stationary, they have a decay/timer, not really large (if I remember how they described them when they came out, haven’t used the one I got out of a rank chest yet), they only get revealed status (which iirc its not that long, so they can just go back to stealth), and they take seige and quite a bit of time to setup/deploy. And they aren’t much useful in open areas. doorways and stairs (and possibly tunnels) are about the only useful places I can think of. So not really useful, especially out in the open.

they take 4 seconds and 10 supply to deploy, and the revealed debuff lasts for 30 seconds. the decay timer is an hour. all you need to do is just kite a thief over it, and the thief ends up completely helpless. or, you could deploy it, then just stand on top of it. when the thief gets to you, it will go off, and reveal him. it works even in the open field. i know, because that’s how i’ve used it, and have been hit with it. and the result was always the same, a dead thief.

Sacrx.6721:

tip my hat to the real masters of ANET the marketing team.

my sentiments exactly. gw2 started out as a fantastic game. then they decided to turn it into a massive tourist trap. it’s all about getting new people in, and getting them to fork of cash to buy useless overpriced souvenirs in the gem shop. there’s very little, if anything at all, designed to retain existing players. in fact, they’ve actively pushed existing players out, even flat out telling them to leave on these very forums. just get them in, get their cash, then to hell with them. it’s sad to see so much potential continually get wasted.

there’s so many things that need fixing in this game right now, and a good portion of it is just the broken and bad mechanics they they’ve added themselves. fixing it, however, doesn’t immediately give them short term profit gain, so the long term is completely sacrificed. it’s no wonder that every aspect of this game is used as a farm-fest, players are just doing the same thing Anet is. get your shinies as fast as possible, then move on to the next spot. quality? screw that. player retention? screw that? balance? screw that. fun? screw that. actually delivering on the marketing hype that caused people to buy the game in the first place? screw that.

so it all gets sacrificed. quality, balance, fun, longevity, honesty. why? cause dey gotta get dem shinies while dey can!

i’m not sure if it’s possible, but how about if a player contributes to building a piece of siege, they get get a small dividend each time it kills a player or siege, whether they’re the ones firing it or not? something like 2 WXp and 20 copper. so if i set up 5 carts in a tower, and it gets attacked, and 3 people hop on the carts and start firing and kill 10 players, i’d get 6 silver and 60 WXP. then cut the dividend in half for those who tick the siege. so 3 silver and 30 WXP for all those that ran through the tower and ticked it. make it so the ticking bonus resets every hour, so it needs to be done regularly.

it wouldn’t reward siege griefers that set up troll rams, since they’re just a waste of space, but would reward people for setting up and maintaining defenses. worst case scenario, people set up useful defenses and keep them maintained, and encourage others to make use of it.

hell no i don’t want a stat buff.

i went through the orb era once. i remember how embarrassingly one-sided those matches were. each and every single match, each and every single week, was a MAJOR blowout in favor of whatever server had the orbs. the data was all there on the millenium site for anyone to see. it was extremely telling how much of a problem the stat buffs were. the hacking of the orbs was just a minor annoyance by comparison.

what people liked about the orbs was the extra dynamic they provided. going up to the north camp, taking it from the altar, the mad dash to get it back to a keep, and then focusing on defending that keep.

so, basically, they left out the good, and only brought back the bad. there’s no other way to describe it other than flat out ignorance and/or incompetence on Anet’s part. either they’re actively trying to kill WvW, or have no clue what they’re doing whatsoever.

compound the buffs with the hideously unbalanced matchups the seasons are going to provide, and WvW will be a ghost town by the end of the first week. how they can’t see what’s so blatantly obvious is beyond me. it’s like they’re stubborn children that refuse to accept the reality they’re dealing with, and just cover their ears, stomp their feet, and do the opposite of what they should as some sort of deranged act of defiance. that may sound harsh, but it’s the honest truth at this point. they are absolutely destroying what used to be a good game, and it’s only been a frickin’ year. there are brain damaged drug addicts that don’t make decisions this stupid. if WvW survives another 3 months in any kind of competitive form, it will be a miracle.

though, if everyone gets fed up and goes to wildstar when it comes out, NCSoft wins twice and gets to laugh all the way to the bank. so it’s not really hard to see their motivation behind continually crapping the bed with every single opportunity they’ve ever had. every. single. one. it’s just plain pathetic at this point.

AndrewSX.3794:

I thought you were refererring to Dev’s ears, which seems to be deaf to this forum lately.

to be fair, there has been more dev responses over the past couple weeks than there have been for the entire rest of the year. the problem, though, is that devon pops in every now and then, spouts a few cryptic things like charles manson, then disappears without usually giving us any information at all. then, when they do finally implement something, it’s the exact opposite of what’s needed, and everything just deteriorates even further. it’s almost like watching some sort of social experiment at this point.

Kjeldoran.3849:

Phantom.8130:

you realize that at 1700 toughness, that’s 85%, yes?

that’ wrong… toughness will never lead you to 100% damage reduction.
Just look on gw2 wiki for some information about “how toughness works” and “how skill damage” is calculated (in this situation is easier since they are conditions).

Also 1700 tougness are around -40/45% damage reduction not 85% (talking about heavy classes) and as you noticed (do you noticed it?) toughness is the only stat which stacks better with few points and lose effectiveness when high traited (over 1800 toughness you need like 50-80 toughness to gain 1% damage reduction).

Anyway to reduce condition damage with toughness will be a really nice idea! This will nerf their power in Hearth of the Mists (in which they are op) but can lead them to punish those who run full zerker (like nabs). Maybe will be a good idea to:
1) sightly increase condition damage
2) make toughness reduce condition damage
3) protection and other stufs for damage reduction can’t reduce condition damage

also this is the wrong section (suggestion is the right one)…

actually….. if you read the first post, the suggestion was 1% mitigation per every 20 points in toughness. that means 200 points for 10%, and 2,000 points for a full 100%. meaning that at 1700 toughness, the damage reduction as proposed in the first post (which i was clearly responding to, since i was the second post) would be 85%.

it doesn’t matter what the wiki currently says, as the only thing relevant in this thread is the suggestion made at the beginning of it. and, as was already pointed out by a few people already, vitality is the counter to condition damage, toughness is the counter to burst damage. if you want better mitigation against condition damage, more vitality on your gear is the best way to achieve that.

you realize that at 1700 toughness, that’s 85%, yes?

Wintuo.1356:

suck contest

i just skimmed though, but this part caught my eye.

how do i sign up to be a judge?

Aberrant.6749:

Anyone else feel like this is looking at a slip pic? Some one revealed just a little bit more than they should have…

ok, so maybe the thread should be titled “hugh’s tip slips” instead….

SoLeciTO.3490:

Phantom.8130:

well…. that escalated quickly

hahahaha love you . . . .

fixed

well considering the direction the thread’s now heading, you may want to edit the title to “hugh’s freaky threesomes” we might even get some first hand confessions.

well…. that escalated quickly

LampGhost.9658:

well it has the cannon mastery image, maybe some changes coming so that people may actually pick it? quite a lot of the other abilities seem nicely balanced to me since i always have a hard time deciding what to save up for, but cannon is far down my list.

still a shame the ranks aren’t account bound, now i have to save up on different chars

well, if nothing else, you at least have the unique pleasure(?) of being in the middle of a dev sandwich on the WvW forums. remember this moment.

Relentliss.2170:

if the maps were bigger and the objectives spread out you could not zerg so easily and cover all the points of interest… very little in the gameplay would need to be changed then

they said that is the maximum they can make the maps

I suppose they could make more maps for busy servers and limit the number of people on each map to 40 or something… then small team play would be more important

actually, there is a way to spread the maps out, by not looking at each individual map as a separate entity. instead, use all 4 maps as one giant map. a zerg might be able to deal with multiple groups on one of the maps, but it’s nearly impossible to deal with 5 groups spread across 4 maps while running in a single zergball. especially if 3 of those groups understand that their job is to solely act as distractions, and are prepared to get killed quite a few times. it’s a somewhat advanced strategy that i’m only just starting to see come into play now. hopefully it will start to be more common, and Anet will remove the waypoints in keeps to nurture it. because it does counter the omni-zergs that have been the norm, and actually turns their strength (being a giant wad of people) into a weakness.

they really do need to completely redesign the ranking system. using glicko at all was a flawed design from the start. it doesn’t take into account a server’s varying population at all. if i remember correctly, it’s not even designed around a 1v1v1, it’s set up for literally a 1v1. one person against one other person. WvW isn’t anything anywhere even close to that. add in the initial population inbalances, that were made much much worse when the decided to open up free transfers, and it’s all just one giant disaster.

hell, going with a point system similar to hockey would be better than what’s currently in place. 2 points for coming in 1st, 1 point for 2nd, 0 points for 3rd. have the points only count back the last 10 weeks or so, to account for variation, and create a 3 rank spread in either direction that a server can be matched up against. it may not be perfect, but it’s better than a system that’s not designed for anything even remotely resembling what it’s being applied to.

NeHoMaR.9812:

You only need to look at this fast to know how impossible and ridiculous is this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_vs_World_%28achievements%29

Examples:
- Escort 500,000 supply caravans
- Capture 1,000,000 objectives.
- Capture Stonemist Castle 25,000 times. <- this is my favorite! hahaha! plus the reward is 25 points!

If you cap SM one time per day, you will need 68 YEARS to get this 25 points, I will die first (in real life), unless immortality is invented, before completing that.

well, that’s why they’re considered lifetime achievements. if your lifetime is long enough to actually get it, that’s one hell of an achievement.

Handin.4032:

scootshoot.6583:

If Anet was really concerned about the impact of throwaway level 1 trolls on their 2nd account or trial period all they need to do is up the level requirement required to zone into WvW.

I don’t think this would be very good, because then there will be a huge debate about what level it should be, etc…I know several people who leveled entire characters from 5-80 using only WvW.

Another option would be for them to have a couple of employees (or even player-employee’s like there are in some game) who would act as GMs. Whenever there is multiple reports of certain people grieving on a map, they could pop in, see whats going on. Most of the time it only takes a few minutes to see what’s happening. This would result in fairly quick action.

that would be the ideal solution to several problems, but….. it would mean they would have to actually pay attention to WvW every now and then. so while it IS the ideal solution, it’s highly unlikely it will ever happen. or at best they’re “looking into it” (someone at their office read the thread once) and we can expect it to happen “soon” (2046)

Handin.4032:

DevonCarver.5370:

Fixes for these are being worked on. As well as changes to the WvW achievements to make them more in line with all the other achievements in the game. And to reward a suitable amount of achievement points. However, making changes to achievements that are already live is far more complicated than it would seem and we have focused on other areas so far. This is on our list to fix by the end of the year, however.

Will the be emphasis to try to make them as retro-active as possible, so that someone who has played WvW for a year, or more by that time, will have the AP’s to show that? We have a situation where doing a JP (which takes a few minutes) is worth the same number of AP’s as, for instance, capping 2,500 supply camps. Before achievement points gave rewards, it wasn’t a big deal, but since you can now get a decent amount of gold, and new skins, badges, etc from AP’s, I think this is again a very critical issue that shows the imbalance between rewards for PvE and WvW (especially with the new farm-based LS events).

i would wager that would be the complications he’s referring to. i mean, just adding more ranks in and of itself wouldn’t be overly complicated. making sure everyone who ever surpassed any and all of the new ranks would be rather tricky, or an insane amount of work.

also, thank you devon for that answer. it addressed the issue, and gave an approximate timeframe for when it can be expected. even if it does end up taking more time than expected, i think most people can handle a little extra wait if necessary, due to the straight forward answer you gave.

as a defensive player, my take on it is this. the initial damage and range on the carts were fine at launch, the extra damage and range from the mastery traits would have been fine too. the 80% damage increase was unnecessary. a slight buff of, say, 15% or even up to 25% would have been acceptable.

the problem was never really with the damage. it was always with the rewards. it was never a problem with being able to defend, it was a problem actually getting people TO defend. buying siege and upgrades was a massive gold sink, with nearly nothing to offset that cost. that hasn’t changed at all. there was no incentive to do sentry duty, other than keeping the siege ticked that you bought so you weren’t just flushing your gold/badges down the toilet. that also hasn’t changed at all. those were the issues that they needed to fix, but their “solution” instead went in the complete opposite direction and pretty much just encouraged people to run laps flipping and reflipping paper towers/keeps to farm as much gold/karma/WXP as possible. sometimes even directly organizing those efforts with opposing servers.

and if they really wanted defense to be easier, then all they had to do was make it so only siege could damage gates. there was no need to buff carts up.

that being said, however, carts can be worked around. a treb can be build solely to take them out. not to try to take down the walls, not to take out players, only to hit the carts. a defensive treb acts as a counter to that, so two offensive trebs need to be set up from multiple angles just to take out the carts. after the carts are down, then rams can be set up. the problem with this, however, is that it requires a larger group to have enough supply to pull it off. the extra supply capacity from the WXP traits are ridiculously expensive, so that’s not a feasible option in any way, shape, or form. so the only way to go about it is to form a bigger zerg. which…… goes in line with every other change they’ve made so far. all they’ve done is buff the zerg, and increased the rewards it gets, while screwing over anything else.

so…… the best thing they could really do is reverse the 80% damage increase on the carts, make it so only siege can damage the gates, and actually give rewards to the defenders instead of the whole lot of nothing they get now. and by giving rewards to the defenders, i mean increasing the rewards they get from the defense quest to match the capture quest, as well as giving some form of reward for people staying in defensive positions when those positions aren’t directly being attacked, even if that just has to come by way of fending off NPC mobs. reward players for smart play, instead of running laps around the map and spamming 1. the rewards for doing the chores in WvW are an absolute joke, and the rewards for playing poorly are just plain staggering. on top of all of that, they won’t even give us the tools to play intelligently, instead just giving everyone further incentive to full map queue WXP train around the maps. it’s beyond bad at this point, and they’re showing zero sign of improving the situation, instead doing everything they can to make it worse. meaning, Anet has been systematically destroying WvW since launch.

so when people say that WvW will be empty as soon as some of the upcoming games launch, it’s not hard to see why. and the players can’t really be blamed for it, because they had a better game at launch than they now do a year later. and even if they do start reversing their direction, and start going in a positive one, it will take ages for what they do to make it into the game.

the kicker is, WvW was screwed the instant they first opened up free transfers, and has only gotten worse from there. it’s just plain beyond repair at this point. because even if they do get the game itself fixed, the population is so out of balance that it’s impossible to have any close matches outside of tier 1. nothing they do will ever be able to fix WvW.

Turtle.4130:

The merchants respawn in 20 seconds or so for those that are unaware.

they might respawn, but when they do, they stop working. i’ve been on the receiving end of it, and they took out our siege merchant. fortunately, they didn’t kill the one on the other side of the citadel, or we would have been screwed for the entire week.

also, if it’s the spot i’m thinking of, i mentioned it to a dev when i saw him in game ages ago, as well as telling him how people were able to kill the legendary defenders. the legendary defenders were fixed, but i guess the other spot wasn’t.

it’s pretty much the same as exploiting into a tower or keep. so the answer is……. possibly, if they actually feel like bothering to look into it, which is doubtful. so like every other exploit in WvW, there’s a 5% chance. if it were PvE, you’d be banned within 20 minutes. but it’s WvW, so they can’t be bothered to make sure people are playing legitimately.

i have to admit, i was very very skeptical. now, i’m on the fence. i have to see how things pan out with the new capture points in game before i make any judgement on them.

that being said, i still feel the same way about the WXP system entirely. all it does is encourage people to flip-and-run in circles around the map to farm points for lackluster abilities. basic siege was fine when the game was released, it’s fine now. it didn’t need anything changed about it from launch. it was one of the few things they didn’t need to tinker with at all. i’d still rather they’d just get rid of the masteries entirely, and focus on the things that were actually problems. (the commander/squad system, numerous bugs/exploits, party UI)

i had to google it, but here’s the link i found: http://www.guildwars2live.com/

i think it’s supposed to start at noon PST.

Moon.6371:

Hey guys,

Devon mentioned a livetream today regarding upcoming wvw changes. Does anyone know where and when this livestream is going to happen? A link maybe?

Thanks in advance and best regards.

just did a quick search and found this: http://www.guildwars2live.com/

to be fair, having different shapes would be a far more complete solution to help color blind people than turning everything fabulous. square, circle, triangle. very distinct, no chance of anyone not being able to tell one from the other. no one needing to wear sunglasses to look at hte map without being in pain.

Buzzcrave.6197:

DevonCarver.5370:

Watch this Friday’s livestream.

What is it now? Critters Mastery? Killing a critter creep will give you 1% crit chance? I love it Devon! Btw, more PvE update so WvW will be so lively Devon!

we’ll be getting PvE mastery
rank 1: +50% magic find
rank 2: +50 gold find
rank 3: ability to steal gold and/or items from WvW players
rank 4: create-your-own-ability, we’ll put it in game, but only for PvE
rank 5: developer domination. you get 100% of Anet’s attention 100% of the time, up from the previous 99%.

AmFah.5974:

wvw colors back to normal please!

i have never +1’ed a post on the forums in the entire year i’ve been here.

until now.

Buffy.9246:

Honestly, Why is this a major issue? This is not even a big deal. The colors are still the same, Red is red, blue is blue, green is green. Different shades but still the SAME color. Other pressing matters to worry about then one simple thing you will get use to…

you’re absolutely right. there are other pressing matters to be worried about than the colors of the dots on the maps. which is the problem with them changing the colors on the maps, and leaving the other pressing matters untouched. this change is purely cosmetic, and does nothing to help WvW at all. in fact, since the new fabulous blue is so close to the single color a commander icon can be, it actually hinders WvW. no one requested this change, but there have been numerous requests for changes that will actually help matters in WvW. changes that have been answered with “soon”, which we’ve come to realize is code for “not in this lifetime, sucker”, since the betas.

instead of taking care of the improvements that are necessary, we get superficial crap that only harms the game overall if anything. people have the right to be disappointed at this point. especially since the changes aren’t major overhauls, but things like different color commander tags and functional UI, and have been requested since the betas. here it is, a year later, and the problems haven’t been addressed, and we’ve just been given shiny distractions to try to get us to ignore the problems. it’s just plain insulting to our intelligence at this point.

Caliban.3176:

I’m sure you meant no offence and I understand why you would say this, it is however not true. The truth of it is that we know of all these other ways to attack and get an objective but we don’t really care enough. If garrison has a defensive treb, some well places ballista’s and catapults and AC’s, I’d rather walk away. It’s not worth it. We will poke around to see if we can provoke some even fights against actual players but capturing the objective is always of secondary importance.

In days long past we used to care a lot more about those objectives and the right siege placement as well as the countersiege tactics. I just find them boring and no longer have the serverpride to power through the boring stuff (maybe if I ever go back to SFR).

There are more reasons than just our experience with attacking that lead us (me especially) to say this about defending. We have done our fair share of defending as well and even without maximizing the defending potential from proper siege use we do very well against larger forces and there are others like us.

Defenders have a great advantage in this game but they have to be there to defend. That is the greatest advantage attackers have, they can walk away from a defended structure and go attack an empty one.

based on just the example you gave, i’m certain i can improve your methods. you can punch straight through to the lord’s room in the garrison without ever needing to worry about a defensive treb at all. and that method was developed several months ago. there have been significant advancements since then as well.

in the end, however, the choice is yours. i won’t press the issue, but do keep in mind that the offer is out there.

Caliban.3176:

- Defenders way too disadvantaged. A small group of smart and capable defenders should be able to hold off a much bigger force for a while. I remember pushing back zergs of 50-60 players with two parties trenched in a keep, with smart use of GTAoE and PBAoE spells. Impossible here with the pathetic cap on AoE attacks.

I agree with your main concerns but this is just wrong. While it is not possible to hold of 50 people with only 10 or so, defenders are in no way disadvantaged.
Defending is easier than attacking by a long shot already especially considering overpowered AC’s. A properly sieged keep defended by 30 capable and coordinated players is pretty much impossible to take with less than 60 and even with bigger zergs it would be very very hard.

actually…. no. see, i’ve seen your guild group in action and, no offense, you just didn’t know what to do. there are very easy ways to take keeps with a 60 to 30 numbers advantage. you guys just never bothered to learn them. believe me, every other guild group i’ve come across, in both NA and EU, have been able to secure the objected when outnumbering the enemy 2 to 1. they employed methods that you guys never even bothered to try, methods that are pretty much old hat at this point.

i don’t mean to insult you guys, but you’ve been the most vocal about “defenders having the advantage”. the fact is, you just never learned how to attack. i’m sorry, but it’s true. you’re great in GvG, but are well behind the rest of the class in every other aspect of WvW.

as someone who’s successfully defended against you guys while being severely outnumbered, i saw where the holes in your game were. if you’re open to the idea, i can tell you how to fix that as well. just send me a whisper in game, and i’ll teach you how to break through any siege defense.

Caliban.3176:

Phantom.8130:

a mesmer is fantastic for its utility skills. portal, veil, null field, timewarp are pretty much essential for any group to have. there just isn’t any other class that can bring what a mesmer can. afterall, when a keep flips, no one ever says “sweep for guardians!”

Mesmer is great but portal is pretty much dead. I don’t think I’ve taken on in the last 4 months. I really thought they’d let the watchwork portal devices work in WvW then people would have to sweep for guardians.

no, the portal certainly isn’t dead. portal bombing isn’t as prevalent as it once was, but there are still ways to make it work. it just requires a bit more creativity. however, portal bombing is, and always was, only one of the many uses of the mesmer portal. multiple mesmers are used to chain-portal golems across the map in a matter of seconds, to be able to hit anywhere at any time. then there’s always the tried and true “mesmer hiding in the keep” thing, as well as portalling in reinforcements after the defending side has patched the outer gate. i’ve also used it with blink to reduce a zerg’s tail, and keep everyone moving as a tight group. not to mention, it can also be used to move a zerg past a choke point that’s being covered by arrow cart fire, to the back lines, to kill them all easily.

a ele is fantastic for group support. they provide the combo field needed for buffs and healing, as well as being able to do quite a bit on their own as well. stakitten are great for AoE, d/d bunker for roaming.

a mesmer is fantastic for its utility skills. portal, veil, null field, timewarp are pretty much essential for any group to have. there just isn’t any other class that can bring what a mesmer can. afterall, when a keep flips, no one ever says “sweep for guardians!”

-the commander system as been completely revamped. it’s now account-bound. the UI to create a squad now includes different options for the icons, as we as colors. there is also an option to toggle your tag to show publicly to all those on the map, or privately to only those in your squad. furthermore, new UI has been added to display 6 parties of 5 in the minimalist view, with numbers beside each name showing how much supply each member of your squad has. the total supply is listed beside your name. the range for /supplyinfo has been tripled.

-the rally mechanic has been disabled if WvW. the downed state is still present. players who are dead can be revived within 3 minutes by someone who is out of combat. at the end of 3 minutes, if a person hasn’t been revived they are automatically respawned at the starting waypoint.

- when a player is dead, the map screen opens up automatically and cannot be closed manually.

- combo fields no longer stack. they still function as normal. if someone currently is currently under the effect of a combo field, a new target it chosen to receive the benefits.

- trebuchet range has been reduced from 10,000 to 7500.

-the garrison on the borderlands has switched places with the northern camp.

- the skritt and centaur have been removed, and two new towers have been added in their place.

- siege no longer despawns if built inside a structure your server owns. siege built in the field decays after 15 minutes of not being used. rams can no longer be built inside structures your server owns.

- each area now has a “sentrying” event, which spawns after someone has been in an area for 15 minutes and ever 15 minutes in which an area goes without being attacked. to help alleviate the boredom that comes with the role. there are multiple types, consisting of minor PvE attacks, run-and-fetch style missions to the closest camp set on a timer, and escort missions to the closest structures and back. these events do not reward any gold, xp, or karma, but purely WXP at a level to compensate the tradeoff.

- defense quests now give equal rewards to attacking quests.

- upgrades no longer cost gold/silver. instead they use karma, so that it’s finally good for something other than finding ways to convert it to gold.

- the orbs have returned! however, they no longer grant stat buffs. instead, holding 1 orb will decrease the costs of the upgrades by 15%. holding 2 orbs will cause the upgrades to build 10% faster. holding all 3 will reduce the supply cost of all upgrades by 5% (credit goes to manatakuta for coming up with these bonuses) furthermore, the orbs are no longer able to be carried by players. instead, each keep will have an “orb herald” which is able to carry it. the orb herald must be escorted to the orb, and protected while carrying it. he does no damage, but has defenses and HP equivalent to the breakout commanders.

-speaking of breakout commanders….. they no longer go to a tower. each server now only has 2 breakout commanders. one in EB and one in their home borderland. they now go to the keep/garrison, instead of to one of the towers. they are breakOUT commanders, not break IN commanders. to prevent them from being exploited for a free supply refill, they cannot be triggered if a server owns any areas on the map aside from camps.

- new siege has been added.
* “spyglasses” can be built for 10 supply, and allow those using it to see much greater distances.
* “sapper bombs” have also been added. these cost 40 supply to build, and are able to damage walls, and are single use items. they do damage equivalent to 3 hits from a ram on a gate.
* “tripwire traps” have been added. these cost 10 supply, last for 1 hour, and are not destroyed when triggered.

- waypoints no longer go uncontested in between defense events

- white swords no longer appear on the map/minimap when an area is attacked. if you want to know about it, you better have someone there to keep an eye out for it.

- all terrain bugs/exploits have been fixed.

- hacking has been added to the list in the report function. it automatically takes a screenshot when selected.

- referees have been hired to oversee each of the matches. they are simply there to make sure everyone plays by the rules and do not affect the outcome in any way.

- a public test server has been added so that we can revamp the WXP system, as well as other things, with feedback from the community that will be affected by any changes we make to the game.

- we’ve let Devon out of the basement where we kept him chained to the wall with nothing but a laptop and a rubber ball for exercise. he’s been allowed to eat. we’ve also hired a full team for him to work with, replacing the chimpanzee and bowling shoe that were previously helping him. we wish them both luck in their future endeavors, and we’re sure they’ll have no problems finding employment.

Johje Holan.4607:

No an Asuraball/Bollaball field!

Avatar of Belle.9623:

ASURABALL/BOLLABALL!!!!!!!!

i echo these sentiments. it would be awesome to have an official court for it, especially if it can double as a GvG arena as well. then it would just be up to everyone to work out schedules, which they currently already are with no problems.

Ok I Did It.2854:

I personally would love to see WvW maps made for the zone they are from,

Yaks Bend for example is in the Northern Shiverpeaks, the map should be mountains/snow etc etc, the garrison should be extremely hard to cap/control, whereas camps further out should be easier to take unless protected etc,

Sorrows Furance, was in the Southern Shiverpeaks, yet was underground, a map for this should say have the garrison underground, again difficult to attack, yet supply camps outside on the surface as less difficult.

Crystal Desert, clue is in the name I guess, you see where im going with this,

Personally each world should be different, and the envading world should have to really battle hard for control, something like this would be game changing, and I personally wouldn’t care if it took them 2-3 years to achieve this, but its a time investment problem I guess, as im sure its been looked at.

i suggested the same thing ages ago. however, even if they were able to make all of them in a timely manner, there would still be one key problem to all of it.

player from server A: (insert area name on server B’s map) is impossible to attack! it’s OP and gives server B an unfair advantage! NERF NERF NERF!!!

player from server B: yeah, but you have (insert area name on server A’s map), which is just as difficult to attack…..

player from server A: we’re not talking about what WE have! we’re talking about what YOU have!!! if YOU have something, and it’s not easy for us to take, it NEEDS TO CHANGE!!!

player from server B: but….. if we BOTH have something that’s equally hard to attack, doesn’t that mean it balances out?

player from server A: (RAGE AND OBSCENITIES)

player from server B: you know, we also have (insert a different area on server B’s map) which is extremely easy to attack, and almost impossible to defend. should we ask them to make it harder to attack then?

player from server A: NO!!!! but they DO need to make (insert the server A version of the same area) a LOT harder to attack!!

player from server B: but…

player from server A: STOP HOARDIN’ MAH LOOT BAGS!!!!

as ridiculous as that may seem, i’ve seen that conversation play out on these forums already countless times over different topics. class balance being the most glaring example. it would be pretty much guaranteed to happen over specialized maps as well, even if the differences were purely cosmetic. it’s all a matter of perception over actuality. it gets to a point where no amount of facts, logic, or evidence will ever overcome perceived reality. once it gets that point, you read through the posts and just think “ya know…. maybe that mayan 2012 thing wouldn’t have been that big of a tragedy afterall…..”

DevonCarver.5370:

I agree with kitten , take a break from commanding. Whether you roam around tagless, play some PvE, play some PvP, or just take a breather from the game, WvW will be there when you are ready to re-up. And it’ll probably be even better!

Obscure One.4357:

WvW Player: “Hey ANet, I think that passion we used to have is gone…”

ANet: “Oh come on baby, check out this living story, it’s got loads of new content.”

WvW Player: “It’s not you, it’s me…I have needs.”

ANet: “Oh come on baby, check out this living story, it’s got loads of new content.”

WvW Player: “…and I feel like you don’t even listen to me anymore…”

ANet: “Oh come on baby, check out this living story, it’s got loads of new content.”

WvW Player: “alright, !#$% this I’m out!”

ANet: “We’re aware of the problems and are working towards ideas that may potentially work to resolve them in the future.”

WvW Player: “Really!? Like what?”

ANet: “Not prepared to say at this time…in the meanwhile check out this living story, it’s got loads of new content.”

WvW Player: “Oh what the #&$%! We need a break…maybe we can try this again when you get your #$%& together!”

/sigh……

Kalan.9705:

Does extremely small allocation of dev resources, ineffective monetization, and alt excluding measures like one character only WXP lead to poor revenues?

this one. i know people who have spent (several) hundreds of dollars who only play WvW. in fact, every time there was a new shiny put into the gem store, i’d see countless people running around with it in WvW. not to mention the whole “credit card commander” thing. so at least at one point, people who play WvW primarily were spending quite a hefty chunk of change in the gem store. i’d even go as far as to say that many still do. however, more and more are seeing the lack of support they’re getting, despite how much money they’ve spent, so they’re less inclined to continue spending money.

Benjamin.6235:

Greens Daily Ritual.9025:

This probably isn’t going to be a popular statement with a lot of you, but I’m all for getting the GvG comments out of the WvW forums. It’s pretty much irrelevant in a WvW matchup thread, although it does bring a certain amount of drama to the table. The drama I don’t mind, but all the high fives, GG’s, ect., ect. are quite boring.
That being said, I doubt Anet will giving anyone a GvG format and/or map to play on. They’ve got Spvp tournaments and you have the ability to PAY for your own areas to fight in. There’s your level playing field and your GvG format. I can almost guarantee that would be Anet’s standpoint as well. I’d be very surprised if they actually did create an actual GvG arena for free.

What else is there to talk about? Bragging about population and PPT while pretending it’s skill has gotten a bit old. Oh hey, we can talk about the only changes anet has really made in this past year, wexp and siege buffs, further reinforce karma train zerg blobs. Oh wait. That topic is stale already too. Face it. GvGs are the only interesting thing going on these days.

well, there is an untapped option still: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/UNLIKELY-ASURABALL/first#post2622308

out of curiosity, if there anywhere in obsidian sanctum that would suitable for GvG? the arena in there seems like it should be a logical choice, but the PvE and boulders up top pretty much ensure it would be trolled or otherwise disrupted. it would need to be somewhere off the beaten path to the chest. i’m not in there too often, so i don’t know the layout well enough, but it being in its own queue seems like it would be the ideal place for it. at least until they (hopefully) introduce a proper GvG arena.

(i’ve never actually competed in one, but i’ve watched a lot of them. they’re a great way to train a group, as well as nail down the group’s composition.)

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

Just remove rally.

I don’t see that happening though because of finishers.

they could leave the downed state in, and just remove the instant rallying from an opponent/PvE getting killed. then the finishers would still be useful, and 1 person wouldn’t revive half a zerg if they got killed.

or take 5 seconds to read the tooltips on the skills. if people don’t want to be bothered with that, it’s really their own fault. they don’t need a crutch, they need a kick in the pants.

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

The main issue is that you want an objective to be difficult to open/take when there overwhelming numbers outside (e.g., 80 outside vs 15 inside) – but easy to open when there are smaller (5 vs 10) or even numbers (18 vs 22) outside.

actually, i have an idea for how they could go about this. remove any visible signs of an area being contested on the map/minimap. large groups have the luxury of being able to go in the front door. small groups, however, need to ninja. the trouble with trying to ninja a place is that there’s a visible alarm that goes off when you do, the white swords. remove the white swords, and small groups are viable to operate, and even become a very potent threat if utilized properly. if servers don’t have any defenders somewhere, that place becomes easy prey for the small groups. which means that full queue uberzergs would be a liability, since they can’t be omniscient anymore. devon already said that they’re looking into removing the waypoints, so that means the uberzergs won’t be omnipresent anymore as well. then you can safely shorten treb range and make it so players can’t damage the gates. then if a server wants to set up trebs, they have to do so in the open field, giving the defenders the option of going out to attack them. making for a much better experience for all involved.