Guild Wars 2

>spying

Since release i was spying and deployed spies in enemy alliances, TS`es, forums, guilds – both of direct rivals we fought against and other major forces in US like say Team Legacy or Titan for sake of getting info about tactics, organization and strategy we could use.

TS spying was effective, very. However we did not use it in the end, since it just kills the tension. When fighting say Blacktide and Far Shieverpeaks and knowing exactly where they go and what they do… its meh.

Strategical/tactical info… there were some thing, but mainly it seems we were the only ones taking strategy and organization seriously to degree enough to have secrets and things worth stealing (well, some US alliances did good job too).

So mostly spying for for diplomacy – all the political info, inner drama, diplomacy, knowing about enemy moral etc. Its not EVE, so in GW2 metagame spying quickly became irrelevant. It IS effective – especially TS spying and having players on other servers, but it simply not worth it: wining in that way is boring and people will complain if you always provide them with enemy movements and actions, since majority actually just wants to play normally.

Spying was part of metagame, still is to a degree, and is entirely normal. What i dont like is sabotaging- say wasting enemy supply, disinformation in map chat etc. but i am not aware of any organized effort for such things: just kitten individuals.

That said, if you ever fought against me – its very likely i read your forums, was on your TS, or was a member of the guild you length kicked for inactivity (even the spanish/french guys.. was amusing passing applications by google translated crafted dialogues). Spying is fun. However its belongs more to proper sandbox games, not big minigame like WvW where the best info you can fish for is enemy drama (which is only useful in forum battles).

WvW is ultimately a strategy game. If you are not interested in strategic aspect of it, not interested in your server wining, dont keep in mind simultaneously all what happens on map, where you are needed, what you should do to contribute to victory, where enemy can attack next, how to destroy that annoying treb out there, how to secure supplies upgrade and fortify etc. – its just a dumb big map where you ran and kill people pointlessly. In fact – many of real "wvw"ers dislike those kind of people that come to wvw just for “fun”. WvW is serious business!

Theres a whole metagame you just dont get – starting from strategic situation on map, guilds organizations, time shifts, exciting times with sleepless nights like match resets, switching forces, trying to minimize losses being outnumbered etc. If you dont get all of this – you are only enjoying a small fraction of WvW you could be.

If you really want to enjoy it to the max – get competitive, get dedicated: join an active WvW guild, dont just fight for sake of fighting – fight to win. You think running with the zerg is boring? Have you ever spent hours on lookout monitoring map and informing about enemy movements? Have you run supplies through half the map multiple times just to repair damaged wall or build a vital treb? Have you camped in a corner waiting for enemy doylak to come, so that they would not be able to upgrade while your army prepares for attack? Have you seen ultimate defences with dozens of dozens siege weapons and no choice but to fight through them and win? Spend dozens of gold on upgrades and siege weapons that would be lost overnight? Sacrificed yourself to delay enemy a bit so they woudnt cap while reinforcements arrive?

WvW might be meh as simple run and fight game (however only if you have little clue about it, everyone expirienced will fight any kind of fight he want – from solo to small group to huge zergs), but the main thing about it – its not action, its strategy. Once you get it in your head, you`ll start seeing it entirely differently.

It is. But it will return eventually, with new Worlds and stuff. Probably this year, but from what said so far unlikely very soon.

I dont really get the complaints – skill lag was always there since they raised numbers of players cap in wvw. So what makes it so critical now? People starting to run in huge blobs only after culling patch?

Expecting WvW players to do PvE… yeah.. no. Since early BWEs i never finished a single dungeon. I have personal story unfinished since it requires group dungeon run…

Its bad enough there is no WvW only daily as there is for SPVP, i sure as hell not gonna farm fractals.

Tallis.5607:

What I do not understand is this… At a full zerg vrs zerg vrs zerg fight in WWW, there are maximum 450 players (I’m being generous here). And another -say- 150 pets, decoys, phantasms, what not. Let’s add another 20 NPCs or so.

So, 620 things doing their thing, with the serve having to calculate what they’re doing.

But… that is not THAT much, now is it? 620 of such calculations on a high-end server is nothing. A top-top-top server can nowadays have 32 CPUs each with up to 8 cores. Obviously, ANet does ot have this. But even on a lower-end server, with 8 CPUs with 4 cores, that should be plenty of calculating power!

My guess is that they have like really low-end servers.
Together with two design choices (no skill queue and no global cooldown), this really hurts performance.

The problem is, ofcourse, money. You got to look at how many people WvW, how many leave because of the (let’s be honest, occasional) lag and how many dollars these players spend on gems.

The questions is: how much does it cost to make lag go away. And how much money are we losing because of lag. Sure, ANet has other costs too, but that is not the issue here, those costs are independent of the hardware cost.

My guess is that ANet did this math, like every profit-based company would do. And then said ‘sorry, not worth it’.

Please list how many MMO games you know that can support non laggy 450 players combat, preferable action oriented one where server needs to track all projectiles etc. as GW2 to.

Stop blobbing and be happy? I barely get any skill lag. Only in Stonemist if 3 servers fight with whole force at once, but thats pretty normal.

morrolan.9608:

Preacher.9018:

jkctmc.8754:

They don’t need [MAPS], they need a single, very large map. Take a look at the Elder Scrolls Online concept of PvP, and how everyone will be fighting on the same map.

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411

that in the end will turn out even smaller than what we have here..

Based on what?

Galactic wisdom.

SilencingMachine.5049:

Arena net said WvW is casual

and we laughed at a good joke, because for majority of people who did WvW initially when competition mattered – it was a 2nd job, because the scoring system requires it. Anything but casual – it requires constant dedication and time if you want to win.

Anet might say whatever they like, but in case of WvW with that statement they clearly misunderstood the people to whom WvW appeals, and made a score system so stupid that WvW either turns into hardcore 2nd work, or boils down to which server have more people and time coverage and fights themselves being meaningless.

Neverless -WvW is what people make it. And i assure you, at least for the first half of the year after release – it was anything but casual. For many people still not is. Its not “casuals” that make up majority of wvw regular players. Quite the opposite.

jkctmc.8754:

Preacher.9018:

jkctmc.8754:

They don’t need [MAPS], they need a single, very large map. Take a look at the Elder Scrolls Online concept of PvP, and how everyone will be fighting on the same map.

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411

that in the end will turn out even smaller than what we have here..

The only good example would be Darkfall, where you need hour to cross the continent to get to place of battle – but it does not fit GW2 WvW concept, which is basically a big continuous minigame for score.

I applaud your loyalty to GW2, but I’ve been gaming since 1995, and my flavor of a game is PvP only. Quite frankly GW2 has been the worst PvP experience I’ve had with any game I’ve played (keep in mind I never played WoW). They would have to do a complete overhaul of this game to keep a majority of their playerbase. Two PvP oriented guilds that came to GW2 with me, with over 300 players each, have quit. Out of those players 20 of them are in ESO Beta, and they’ve all said; “this game might have just got the current weather of PvP right”.

Mind you i am playing pvp MMOs since Ultima Online/Meridian 59 too, and formed and organized a wvw alliance in EU on Seafarers Rest that lead the server from 8th tier to 1st place (though my guild already quit and is playing Darkfall and i am just checking GW2 back as well).

GW2 WvW is just fine. Its not open world pvp, its not proper warfare and sandbox like say Darkfall, but its enjoyable, involves a lot of strategy and organization and it does what most MMOs fail even if they try – provide truly massive battles of hundreds players. As someone who fought mass warfare in Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, Neocron etc. – it is truly an achievement to have a game that does not start to impossibly lag/crash when hundred players fight, and have action dynamic combat as a bonus – Lineage might have similar scale combat, but the actual combat is kitten.

I`d say my favorite PvP games are Ultima Online, Neocron 2 and Age of Conan, with Darkfall having special place, and my tastes gravitating more to PKing and open world combat and guild warfare – but i neverless enjoy GW2 WvW and its one of the best pvp experiences we had with out guild – that went through many pvp games.

So as far actual combat, warfare, fun goes – GW2 WvW is fine. The reason most people i know quit is simple: they were tired of doing same thing for many months, and there were no substantial updates, and it being basically a big minigame and not sanbox – fighting for score got old. Still i enjoy it in current state, and the only thing i really`d like to see is content updates – new maps, new siege weapons, new mechanics. Until someone makes a perfect sandbox pvp MMO with huge maps, and massive scale unlaggy battles and nice combat mechanics – GW2 is easily the best there. Darkfall, with all its nice things – still turns into mess when lot of players get involved. Archeage have terrible combat system. ESO is basically trying to recreate GW2 WvW/AoC sieges with some warhammer flover – nothing new whatsoever. Until i see their siege warfare and maps and combat system being fun and it actually working and hundreds players being able to fight – its all promises.

The best thing about GW2 WvW – is that they delivered exactly what they promised, and it works. Something AoC for example, could not do until the very end and Warhammer failed to make work longterm

jkctmc.8754:

They don’t need [MAPS], they need a single, very large map. Take a look at the Elder Scrolls Online concept of PvP, and how everyone will be fighting on the same map.

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/media/videos/411

that in the end will turn out even smaller than what we have here..

The only good example would be Darkfall, where you need hour to cross the continent to get to place of battle – but it does not fit GW2 WvW concept, which is basically a big continuous minigame for score.

shawn.6793:

I found this on SAB when I fell through the map lol don’t recall seeing it up top at any time

Is that a tool Josh uses to measure jump lengths when designing levels?

Yeah this one is a bit tricky, especially with a lag. Its possible to jump from the middle of the mushroom if everything is ok, sometimes one fails even when jumping from the border of the mushroom.

I kinda got used to it, and now do it easily – i just let myself bounce a few times on a mushroom, and then when starting to bounce up just press Forward and dont let it go until i land. GW2 has some strange system, where you dont just can navigate midair, but holding directional button makes you fly further… so instead of jumping and pressing forward once, keep the “W” button pressed until the end.

But main problem there is not distance, its lag – its very glitchy if servers (not yourslef) lag, and it can mess up the timing. So i let myself bounce to make sure i am not laggy and gain momentum, then just press “W” once i am bouncing up (not at the moment of contact with mushroom and not when on top of trajectory, but while it bounces you up)

Basically thats how works for me. At worst case, i jump from mushroom border, than it works for sure.

Great~! Hopefully all band wagoners will get frustrated and leave.

Speaking about maps, wheres this bonus level?

The fact is – they can turn any map to PvP map: they did multiple times in events, where players were able to fight each other on PVE maps.

Integrating those maps to WvW system is another question though… But yeah. People are length tired of existing maps after fighting on them for months.

SlaYer.2138:

My comments/suggestions:

1. I don’t like the cost of keys. Trade 25 baubles for 40? I better just go kill random mobs for the key or just not bother with the chest at all, since buying a key from a store and carrying it over to the chest aren’t much convenient anyway, especially for zone 3. Also, for zone 1, it’s 25 baubles for 20, totally not worth the deal. My ideal cost for a key is 15 baubles.

2. In Rapids, sometimes I can’t hit those alligators with my stick (I have to switch to bomb), and it happens several times that I get pushed off from the rock in the moving water for no reason while standing on it. Please move the alligators closer to you and make the rock a little bigger.

3. It’s unfair that a player can receive another 2 bauble bubbles by playing a different toon. It strongly encourages farming SAB. For example, I have 8 toons. Basically, I just play all of them and get a skin within 2 days. Comparing to my friend, she plays only one toon, so she can earn only 7 baubles per day unless she farms baubles. And because she hates farming, she just buys her favorite skin from TP. My suggestion is to make those drops from chest account bound and increase the reward of bauble bubbles to 5 per chest AND per account, not per toon.

Anyway, thanks for creating such a cool game, Josh.

1. Key cost is ok. If you want to minimize RNG and optimize baubles income in run, they serve good purpose – otherwise you`d have to run around killing every mob hoping for drop. Additionally – chests are requirement for achivement unlocks, so in zone 3 for example, its convenient to just buy keys to open the chests.

2. Use whip.

3. Multi-character farming is only issue because of chance of drop of Skin (pretty low one though, so you`ll have to do really lot of runs) that can be sold on TP. If what you want is babubles – just getting a shovel and running world 1 zone 2, beginning of zone 3 would net you 500 baubles easily and fast, giving you 2 bauble baubles. You dont even need to kill the boss. Just dig, and rerun.

Josh Foreman.8250:

KaptK.9608:

Only one request of more group puzzles.

I’ve got several sketches for group mechanic puzzles just waiting to be implemented. It’s certainly tricky to design group puzzles for anywhere from 1-5 players! But I think we’ve got some decent plans in place.

Hell no! https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/sab/Keep-Super-Adventure-Box-Casual/first#post1769112

Big appeal of SAB for a lot of people is that it can be done solo. Dont turn it in just another dungeon like Fractatals and other useless stuff that a lot of players frankly dont care about. Multilayer running with party should be just fun – not a requirement.

Adding group puzzles that cant be solved solo would be as frustrating as in the end of Personal story having group dungeon.

hackks.3687:

It’s really just an uber efficient build though. You’d like to think ANet had this kind of efficiency in mind for every class when creating builds.

Famous last words.

DarkieDuck.9521:

We never had such queues before

We did. Seafarers Rest, the lowest populated and last ranked in wvw at time server was choosen on release to begin with because of terrible queues in BWEs – as opposed to most populated at time Desolation which was rank 1 and Augury Rock which migrated to Vizunah (and then all french migrated back and forth multiple times) . After release multiple hour queues still were present at time, still bit better than say Vizu – where they litterally had to queue at 18:00 , go do something for few hours and than hope they`ll get in past 0:00 at night.

Prior to WXP patch every servers population dropped, so even in T1 one could join maps aside EB without queues, which said a lot about GW2 WvW population drop, especially considering now theres no real competition between server tiers – there T1 where all active people are, and everything half dead else.

After WXP and culling patch SFR seemed to do fine – queues were back, since lot of people came back to check out WXP patch. Transfer situation increased queues again (now cant blame them though, since transfer people loose interest if server looses and dont queu for wvw – so transfers or not theres really no problem getting in right now).

The current situation has to do with different factors – few guilds leaving/taking a break getting tired of T1, and overall state of WvW being not hardcore meta wars as it was before in age of alliances and game being new. There is no dedication to approach it as job (which burned a lot of way out on a SFR way to the top) or overall strategic gameplay as before (from all sides). There are some great commanders, but state of game changed.

From what i seen of current SFR i like it though (though barely old names and some of my past bitter enemys are under SFR flag now), so situation will stabilize soon enough.

About “blobbing” – not the culling patch is to blame, but change in metagame. There is no competition and organization from either side that could be comparable to what was before- mostly seems since people stopping taking it as competition and just enjoy fights. Blobbing is not problem since blob cant react everywhere – meanwhile different guilds/groups can cause a lot of havoc around the map, taking over and downgreading stuff even if keeping it would be impossible. Take the situation in EB for example – barely anything changes hands, at most towers and SM gets zerged since its half times empty and all walls destroyed since no one cares about keeping it safe. Meanwhile in the past, every objective, no matter how hard defended used to fall, constant attacks behind enemy lines and no room for mistake and leaving any objective unattended,…

Still believe SFR in current state of the game is in still in better situation than pure crowd servers, thanks to guilds and community keeping in touch and organizing things. I really hope for some proper WvW update eventually that could revitalize things and bring at least a fraction of interest and initiative to play it it had before. I am kinda surprised so many people still play same thing for that long.

For future updates please add ability to reflect projectiles back with select weapon if using right timing to hit them.

Should make snakes lives harder, and allow to play badminton with monkeys. Or rather add enemy type that can be killed only by its own reflected projectiles.

Other Asura claim its dangerous, and likely there will be some world event/update involing it eventually. Or Moto just gets trapped inside the box himself.

It certainly is. Kinda disappointed though that on one hand its such valuable reward – getting Obsidian Shards etc. for cheap, on other hand: if you are not planing on getting Legenadary weapons they are useless to you – thus the only way to spend baubles is on skins…

Should add “Orrian Box” for baubles or something instead.

I`ll post something for which many engineers and possibly others would hate me, and it`ll mit myself too, me spending lot of gold replacing rules/sigils… but there is something most people describing HDH builds dont write in their guides, a real secret for it.

Once its out, it`ll probably get nerfed… so i am writing it with mixed feeling as i use it…

“Enhance performance” trait Explosives, that gives you 3 stacks of might when you use healing skill got a trick to it… and the trick is – it procks when you equip med kit. Not when you use MedKits heal, but just equip a kit. Thus giving you 3 Might every 10 seconds. There is also armor rune that does exactly the same, thus giving you 6 stacks of might whenever you click medkit. With Might duration runes and boon duration, you can easily stack it to 25 even out of combat, by just clicking MedKit once every 10 seconds.

Sigil of Strength and Battle, elexir might train etc. are minor in comparison.

I switched to Pistol+Shield on my Engineer, just to run with it. The shield looks simply awesome. I prefer rifle, but running mostly with kits in wvw, its not so much difference. Love the blue trail the shield leaves when you run.

Works for me, example of G13 keyboard macro. Barely using it in SAB though, since its not that useful – its max distance jump that cannot be controlled, while most jumps are easier normal, since you can control yourself midair like in Quake 2.

Made 6 runs in World 1 3rd zone, using dufflys guide and exploring myself, got all the bubles – no achievement… i am getting desperate.

1 UP

- add it as a Daily Achivement Category
- remove skins
- add something like Orrian Box with random loot that can be bought
- allow buying Black Lion Key for 10 Buble Bubles (yeah, like that`ll happen..)

Thats what i`d like to happen. Now what will most likely happen at the end of the month: box malfunctions. World is invaded with 8bit monsters and Bosses and players need to slay them. Motto is trapped inside the box, and until Asuran researches find a way to fix it box is disabled and princess and Motto remain captive.

And still waiting for underwater sieges and fortresses.

Add “Urban Warfare” map – with 3 side fighting inside huge City.

Happened yesterday. Got a title, but no reward for last zone, and no Gift of Exploration…

Same here. 3 times all baubles – no achievement.

i was all pessimistic before, but just got a 2nd skin drop, doing my 5 chars daily run. So some of us are just really unlucky.

Not really, but i am lazy and prefer them to Frog Boss fights. Simple is best.

rtommaso.3120:

maybe we might had a change of drop rate with last update… or only the unlucky people has been posting lately.

It sure looks so. Only skin i got was in begining, now no matter the number of runs nothing drops.

Cipaku.9675:

" But how would you know it?, you weren’t even playing back then… for how long?"

Oh really you got me i played from launch to end november took break in december and january so my logic must be flawed i play when server was in lower tiers and took break when server was strongest. Came back in february because i heard some people bailed (that is you mister) and they needed players again.
You dont have to explain to me you dont care about server you play is obvious from your actions you dont. Then again you claim you love Deso now. Uhm?
Im sure you aproached VoTF to join them no problem too bad you didnt take the time to also say farewell to people and left overnight without a peep.

“My only explanation by all that hate is you being left out cause you weren’t playing at all at the time?”
Unlike you i play for same guild for 6 years now and still counting.

“, the queue’s were insane and the quality of play insanely bad.”
Oh IRONation better keep dem queues low and the blob tight or uncle Murtas might get mad:0

“then you pick me for bailing on SFR when I didn’t do so.”
Good news everybody Murtas has been playing on SFR all along he is here right now he just discovered perma stealth.

“Oh and you know more about SFR than me i supose dear Murtas?”
“Up until that point, sure I did”.
yes ofcourse since uPT created/organised FUBAR not Futilez?

" you should be ashamed to accuse such a proven guild along the years by saying that"
‘Deity voice’: Thou shall not say anything about….oh kitten..what was the guild name again? Such longevity such prowess i wonder how they do it? Oh wait they poach easily impressionable people to refresh ranks every 3 weeks;)

As for me turning into a forum warrior: i have two monitors i multitask im also an ingame warrior;)

Please develop a personality dear Murtas and i hope you wont bail again when going gets tough on whatever server will you chose to play for.

Bure, calm down. You are making it sound as if WvW still were serious business and making me feel guilty i am doing jumping puzzles in Super Adventure Box thus betraying the server by not providing more firepower. We have our sworn enemies now fight in our name here, while ex players/guilds else where. No need for drama.

Posts of that kind made me chuckle every time.

Its nice nerfing a mechanic that can be abused in group, but what about all players that play solo?

Without a Whip, Bee Queen simply becomes obsolete – since risk of fighting her is not worth the reward.

I`ll elaborate on a point why it should stay rather than be removed.

Yes, it will get old and interest to it will fall drastically soon enought, once people squired the skins they want. However,

- new content can be released, new maps, new items tied to special events etc., new things to bring people back. Release of new maps will bring same hype/interest back -regardless of the game staying whole year or only being available short time.
- players that did not had a chance to play it this month, still would be able later
- you finished it, got your reward and it became obsolete? So are most dungeons in this game – no reason to remove it though, as long as someone enjoys. There are hundred ways to play the game, and each person enjoys some aspects more: so if you get tired of it, you can ignore it. In fact, game was designed so that you could play different aspects of it entirely separately not mixing WvW/Spvp/pve at all for example.

So the best course of action would be:
1) Make Skins limited to this month. After month, replace rewards with something else or just leave Philosophic Stone/Crystals etc. as rewards, with maybe generic loot bag with random regs added.
2) Add SAB to daily/monthly achievement – so that people will have option to use it to finish dailies/monthlies.
3) On holidays/events – can add themed content to SAB.

And basically – will the game be forgotten or gains popularity instead depends solely on what approach developers will take. If it will be 1-2 updates with new maps a year, it`ll mostly loose novelty, but still will be fun way for people to enjoy playing GW2.

If developers instead choose to advance it further – improve it, add new worlds, new aspects, new games: it in opposite can grow even more relevant and bigger, especially if it is integrated into game world and in some way advances your character (i.e. add 8bit xp!)

1UP

And add character progression for it. And slowly move whole GW2 dev teams from GW2 to SAB and release mew SAB as mew game with GW2 playable as minigame inside.

I started SAB just thinking its another gimmick i`ll check for a minute and forget about, yet it turned out to be great fun i enjoyed for hours exploring and running through.

That said, one thing that appeals to me in it is – its Solo friendly. I am a wvw player, that spent most of my time organizing things before and in whole playtime since early BWEs did not a single dungeon run – since came to GW exclusively for pvp. Now, after a while returning to the game i find myself enjoying casual gameplay without prior stress of constant need to do something/be somewhere and having fun.

Yet i find that aside from doing dailies, theres is surprisingly little solo friendly content – other than open world bosses pugs.

Dungeons, Fractales etc. – all require team, and being lazy returnee, with whole contacts consisting of people that look confused when word “pve” mentioned and wipe the blood of enemy invader from their axes: i dont like group pve content much. And if i`d like for example ascended gear – i am pretty much forced into it (though i hope it`ll be added to wvw eventually).

The appeal of SAB was – it was managable, and enjoyable: SOLO. Sure, running 5 man on teamspeak would have been a lot of fun – but its nice that i had an option to do it WHOLE solo, and no content was impossible for me.

THIS is what i point out is important – the content is casual friendly and fun, and part of it is: one can run with a group, but one does not need one. PLEASE LET IT STAY THAT WAY, in future iterations/worlds also.

Designing/balancing things keep in mind, that absolute majority (correct me if i am wrong) do SAB solo – and while seeing its popularity its tempting to make things BIGGER, HARDER, MORE CHALLENGING! – please do it in a solo friendly way.

i.e. no puzzles that would require more than 1 man for solution
, no bosses one cannot defeat alone
, no rooms filled with monsters where to survive one needs team

i.e. dont turn it into just another PvE Dungeon.

With big respect,

WvW carebear.

All items in shops can be picked up and thrown to be destroyed – destroying them nets 1 gem.

Shop door hides 2 gems, need to hit it with a stick.

So destroying all furniture inside shops might easily net 10-20 gems

Iluvien.7450:

ethier.3417:

SFR has been taken over by a load of useless pugs.
….
If any guild or player, joins our server, we will treat them like hostiles unless they make a decent effort to join our community)

Wow. With an attitude like that, especially from a ‘community website moderator’, how can you expect anyone to WANT to join your community? So, if you’re not part of one of the buddy guilds, you’re useless and not welcome? Wonderful community spirit, right there.

That was the attitude from the beginning. I got banned from Guru from scaring people from rolling on SFR on release. Initially it was just FUBAR guilds and all guilds i personally contacted, negotiated and invited is. End previous year, format was changed to encompass whole server community – integrate everyone ins wvw network and fight as a server, providing players teamspeak, site, guidance, planing tools etc. Still – SFR was never a place where random people and pugs were welcome with open hands if they were not willing to fight for common cause.

That “community spirit” brought lowest populated on release EU server that was dead bottom in wvw in BWE to Top 1 place in wvw ladder. A lots of guilds/people changed over the duration of game, but the spirit of the server remains the same. WvW is organized effort. If you think otherwise – look how well it works for all the other higher populated “crowd” servers.

Its not a warm and friendly home for passing travelers. Its a WvW server with common goal in mind – was so since beginning, from the point where there was absolutely no one there but us.

I had for long time, dont know when picked up exactly. Does not seems like anything special, i use it for the Krytan Armor set i use in WvW.

Reslinal.2359:

We don’t really have a meta back then as people are clueless about combat mechanics.

I beg to differ. You obviously have little clue about kind of wars, spying, politics, organization within alliances and strategically and tactical cooperation in wvw was there before and how much work, planing, team meetings and discussions was involved. People started preparing for WvW as early as first BWEs, and by the last one there were already proper alliances wars. First week of release where chaotic, but after a month when majority was lvl 80 – a competition like never before started.

http://i.imgur.com/5gIV9mB.jpg

Nothing is as vocal as cat in heat. When trying to speak to 100 people on teamspeak no info could be related, no orders could be given – since everyone broke down in laughter when the cat in loud voice started to whine whenever i started speaking.

My cat commanded server WvW force on teamspeak, not joking.

WvW IS on decline. Compared to last year thats not even a question. Now the action concentrated on few top servers, while still attendance is incomparable to what was before. Before WXP patch one could join maps without queu in prime time in tier 1….

The “metagame” changed too – all big alliances left, there is no real hardboiled competition there was before: form of WvW fighting changed, became more “casual” maybe – since there are no previous goals at stake: you`ll not prove anything right now by “wining” WvW.

So yeah, a lot of people/guilds burnd out length ago and left for other games, however the influx of new players still maintains WvW alive, thankfully – though its nothing comparable to madness and types and complexity of fight and depth of metagame that were in BWEs/after release (just my personal opinion as organizer of one of a biggest wvw forces, i did not play for long and just checked a game again, so might not have full insight in current situation).

Sadly, evolutionary changes, like WXP, culling fix etc. will not bring players back. Need real whole load of new content – something like full WvW expansion with new maps, new mechanics, new siege weapons.

People did not leave WvW because it was imperfect or broken – far from it, it was very enjoyable with every state, even with 4h queues, all things that werent fixed than etc. People left since they were doing essentially same thing for multiple months – and that gets old.

I believe even if nothing is done, as long as GW2 as whole will have nice number of players, WvW will be fine – however i dont see it ever coming back on a level of glorious wars of the past. It became far more casual in most aspects – maybe thats what Developers actually wanted.

Revolution, not Evolution. Evolution is nice, but it will not revitalize WvW and bring all the old people/guilds back. Small changes and even big changes like current WXP system will pass by unnoticed mostly.

For months we seen tweaks in WvW, making it better – but even in state it was it sell was great and fun and people played it and fought thousands of battles. However in all that time barely anything “new” was there (wxp being the nearest).

Frankly speaking, people did wvw for X monthes and if asked to return to GW2 to “improved” WvW they`d ask – whats new? to do the same thing for X more months?

We need something drastically new, and not bit by bit – since even if in the end such changes will change wvw entirely, they still will pass unnoticed. We need a whole add-on amount of content, no matter how long it`ll take to develop: new maps, underwater sieging, new siege weapons, new mechanics. I know arena.net decided not to go for GW2 as they did in GW1 – releasing standalones/expansion packs, however essentially – all wvw “evolution” is evolutionary path to extinction. Even current surge of players checking out WXP and returning queues are laughable in comparison to amount of people and battles fought in first months of GW2. The population will only decline. Basically it reminds me of path AoC went with its pvp system – adding vxp, than pvp gear etc. but in the end it still died.

If you want people back, do something entirely new, and in big piece, so they wouldn’t “check it and leave”. I know one such thump card for Arena.net is GvG, but as WvW fan – i`d rather see WvW really have a big update/expansion so that i`d could tell my guilds and friends “look! theres year more of thing to do! and its not the same thing you did for year before! lets try it again!”.

TLDR
Evolution of WvW is evolution to perfect, stable,.. and empty WvW.
Pick up pitchforks, fire the torches and bring us Revolution!

sostronk.8167:

The prices seem extremely expensive. Im pretty sure I could get equivalent gear off the trading post for less gold and no badges…

You are very wrong. At least check Trading Post before posting. The new vendor prices are very very good, and harm craters – and they cant even lower prices, since ingredients alone cost more than for what gear is sold on wvw vendors.