Guild Wars 2

With alliances, what about players with no guilds but actively participate in their server’s WvW efforts? New to WvW and have no direction on which alliance to pick?

Alliances may sound nice in theory, but I think it’ll only put up barriers to people getting into WvW, as it may forcefully separate friends due to alliance population limits. As an example, if this were to be implemented today, the majority of Blackgate would choose to move as one. Would an alliance fit that many people? or would the population cap be a lot lower and force people who’ve played together for 2 years give or take (majority of Blackgate’s guilds) to split up?

Jim Hunter.6821:

fishball.7204:

Even T2 is completely a barren wasteland anything after midnight PST up until like 9am (SEA timeish). I don’t understand why these lower tier people think there’s enough people in WvW in T1/2 to pad 24 hours a day on 24 servers and STILL have WvW be enjoyable for non-NA prime players.

We’re fighting BG/JQ this week and even those guys don’t have insane off hour coverage everybody thinks they do. WvW is very dead compared to a year ago.

This thread isn’t about the overnight coverage issue. This thread is the population imbalance issue. A clue to that was the thread title.

Both issues are important, as are many of the other things that people have brought up in this thread like hard rezzzing, rally mechanic, PPT issue, etc. and all of these will need to eventually be addressed.

But we need to take this 1 step at a time and propose solutions we can realistically expect to be implemented. When I say realistically I want everyone to keep in mind that it took 2 years for colored commander tags.

Population and coverage are essentially the same thing: Who can field more people over the 24 hours of the day.

Take a look at Devona’s Rest for example. Strong NA population, gets wrecked due to having very little else.

If I’m roaming, I generally wait for people I see to attack me first before I fight them. I’m not really interested in chasing down a bag. More interested in a decent fight. I even roam on a glassy guardian for that purpose so that people will actually fight me

munkiman.3068:

Reverence.6915:

Having played in Darkhaven and ET before, I can tell you those servers are not organised at all. They have pugmanders that aren’t in TS karma training and avoiding fights unless they outnumber their opponent because there’s no coordination. There’s little to no use of their public TS even though there may be 50 people on the map (which happened when I was in ET, huge number of people on the maps, total 6 people in the entire TS, no tag up). It’s that lack of organisation that hurts the lower tiers. The lack of team work and team spirit and making an effort to communicate with your teammates.

In T1, there’s very little of ‘wiping pug zergs with guild groups’. Why? It’s not cause the guilds are bad. It’s simply due to the fact that when you have an entire 40-60 man zerg in TS with the pugmander, it doesn’t matter that it’s not a guild group because it’s still going to move like one. In DH, there was a ‘zerg busting’ guild that I followed around for a bit just to observe. That guild could’ve been taken out by havoc squads in T1 and T2 but were killing groups 3 times their size. There’s a simple difference in organisation between the lower tiers and the higher tiers that you simply can’t cross in a short amount of time and is the difference between Gold and Silver league servers.

And that’s absolutely fine, their score can reflect that there is no organization. Right now though, it doesn’t. It reflects more about who brings more players to the table and has better 24/7 coverage. With the current system in place we wouldn’t even be able to tell how competitive we are to a kitten server since we’ll never get a chance to fight them, let alone on a level playing field. Fact is, unless we get numbers to totally obliterate ever server in tier, we don’t have the ability to move much in the ranks at all. When we fight BP, we are on fairly even numbers/coverage game. Its a good match-up overall. We know this as even on reset, we don’t get queued, like almost never.

My point is that even if you give those servers the same population and coverage as BG for example, they will still get roflstomped and call BG stacked. Fact is, most of BG’s guilds have been playing together (or against each other) for close to 2 years now and the teamwork and communication that has risen out of that experience of playing together for that length of time have given us a real edge in organisation, something which pure population can’t overcome without a similar level of organisation

Glicko issues are a whole different thing altogether and I think the old 1 up 1 down system worked better, even with constant roflstomp matchups (we get fairly balanced matchups with the current system but it’s too slow in responding to server population fluctuations).

munkiman.3068:

Rasudido.6734:

This is sad. Most posts are some made up complaint about how T1 servers should be the ones modified rather than the obvious where lower tier servers are the problem.

All tier 1 servers have a healthy WvW population, all the servers cap their maps, make heavy use of TS, have great organization, play constantly and have map blobs. All of these can be reduced to what people really want : an active server population.

I used to play in Ehmry Bay, moved over to blackgate. The reason I moved was the lack of a population in Ebay, WvW was a ghost town except for a few guilds who would do their private raids in their private TS and not invite people. This is different in Blackgate, guilds do run by themselves privately but they communicate between each other, there usually is a large guild running the “map tag” where any PUG can join in TS and listen. I dont even care about the rewards as I play 3 times a week with my guild JUST FOR FUN something that was impossible in Ebay.

And here is the reality anyone in the lower tier servers SHOULD be forced into a t2 or t3 server to “balance” the population. You want more Blackgates and Jade Quarries (the two t1 servers that have survived this long), you want more servers to get bummped up like TC did. Most people are proposing the inverse where you want to destroy T1 through harsher caps when what you want is to be a T1 server? You could probably shoot SoS into kitten compete with JQ/BG/TC right now just by moving a couple of guilds from the lower tiers into it.

I understand any lower tier server players having pride and not wanting to move, but if your complaint is that population is an issue and you dont want to move to a server with better population? thats all on you guys not the other servers…

Speaking for myself and a lot of the server players i know, we play for good fights, not to be on the biggest populated/organized WvW servers. We have great organization communication and we know, when we go up against numbers, we have to up our game. So no, we don’t want to be on blackgate. I wouldn’t suggest changing Blackgate anymore than changing NSP. We don’t have a problem being silver or bronze or gold for that matter. We simple want good fair fights, not the Roflstomps we get on either side. We want WvW to reflect good play tactics, not the number of bodies on the field. I’d love to see a WvW that pit us against Blackgate on equal footing, but that’s not going to happen in this current system.

Having played in Darkhaven and ET before, I can tell you those servers are not organised at all. They have pugmanders that aren’t in TS karma training and avoiding fights unless they outnumber their opponent because there’s no coordination. There’s little to no use of their public TS even though there may be 50 people on the map (which happened when I was in ET, huge number of people on the maps, total 6 people in the entire TS, no tag up). It’s that lack of organisation that hurts the lower tiers. The lack of team work and team spirit and making an effort to communicate with your teammates.

In T1, there’s very little of ‘wiping pug zergs with guild groups’. Why? It’s not cause the guilds are bad. It’s simply due to the fact that when you have an entire 40-60 man zerg in TS with the pugmander, it doesn’t matter that it’s not a guild group because it’s still going to move like one. In DH, there was a ‘zerg busting’ guild that I followed around for a bit just to observe. That guild could’ve been taken out by havoc squads in T1 and T2 but were killing groups 3 times their size. There’s a simple difference in organisation between the lower tiers and the higher tiers that you simply can’t cross in a short amount of time and is the difference between Gold and Silver league servers.

RvBvG could work if loyalty towards 1 faction was rewarded and the scoring system changed to reflect different instances. Server loyalty doesn’t mean much if your server had no one on it.

I’ve given up on the argument and am just gone full condi for my roaming characters. Nearly impossible to kill and dishes out insane damage. Only another condi user more skilled than me or caught me off guard kills me

Though I’d love for BG and SFR to have a match (our old friends SUPR and ZDs are there), this isn’t technically possible

Guild bank definitely needs to be accessible in WvW other than in an upgraded keep

Meh, contesting keeps is a pretty good way of cutting off reinforcements in zerg fights. 1 person can slow a huge number of people running back to the fight. This can only be a good thing.

Generally speaking, the best way would be to split push the keep on 2 different sides, drawing all the defenders to one side while the other breaks down a gate, or at least does as much damage to it as possible. A well defended waypointed T3 structure with full supplies should not be easy to take.

Another tactic would be to build open field trebs to both take out their siege and to damage the gate/walls, with a zerg to protect the trebs. This requires a hell of a zerg though due to the sheer amount of supplies required.

I think the fairest system would be to put a cooldown on spending supply. Somewhere along the range of 240-360 seconds (4-6 minutes). While someone throwing ballistas down on legit build sites is annoying, having proper comms is the simplest most effective way to tackle that specific issue. It might affect smaller teams trying to take certain objectives is the biggest issue I see with my idea, but short of actively policing every matchup, is the best idea I can come up with. Exhaustion simply wouldn’t work on a 3 minute timer since siege trolls build at around that speed anyway.

WvW maps are too small :/

Remove EoTM events from counting toward your achievement progress if it’s that easy. What the flying squirrel.

Sankofa Jimiyu.1567:

Fernling.1729:

Vayne.8563:

I’m pretty much convinced that if Anet brought the VIP membership here, half the game’s population would just walk. Straight away.

Which doesn’t mean the game would necessarily be less profitable.

What do you think would happen to the game if it went F2P with a vip type membership? I could only imagine that it would do very well.

I don’t know if half the population would leave, but it would likely be the part of the population that makes the game worth playing.
We aren’t all here for the personal and living story.

If you’re a PvP/WvW player, VIP doesn’t affect you beyond seeing some friendly players with a purple name tag instead of green if they’re not in your guild or party. With the exception of bank access, which is basically like having a deluxe version of gw2, everything else is turned off in WvW and PvP

illgot.1056:

Reverence.6915:

Just going to add for all the VIP haters since I actually have an account on all 3 regions for GW2, the VIP is bought via the gem store and is not a subscription. There are ways to get a days worth of VIP through in-game means and a 30 day VIP card for a fairly large amount of gems (relatively speaking, since China gem store prices are very different due to a different currency). You could literally farm dungeons for your VIP. There’s seriously nothing wrong with it. My China account has no VIP and my friends tell me not to bother since I’m a PvP/WvW player, as it only benefits PvE (porting to friend, insta bank access, bonus XP gain etc). Nothing else is restricted except sending in-game mails.

Imagine farming dungeons for VIP for a year just to get a precursor. That’s what you’re worried about. F- me

it all seemed like PvE buffs you could currently buy in the Gem Store. Just bundled up for a larger savings.

Basically. There’s also slightly bigger bank tabs and an extra bag slot (9 instead of eight), but they’re no big deal for me either

Just going to add for all the VIP haters since I actually have an account on all 3 regions for GW2, the VIP is bought via the gem store and is not a subscription. There are ways to get a days worth of VIP through in-game means and a 30 day VIP card for a fairly large amount of gems (relatively speaking, since China gem store prices are very different due to a different currency). You could literally farm dungeons for your VIP. There’s seriously nothing wrong with it. My China account has no VIP and my friends tell me not to bother since I’m a PvP/WvW player, as it only benefits PvE (porting to friend, insta bank access, bonus XP gain etc). Nothing else is restricted except sending in-game mails, which we have on the US/EU servers anyway

Imagine farming dungeons for VIP for a year just to get a precursor. That’s what you’re worried about. F- me

Honestly, having never been hacked in any MMO I’ve played in over 13 years, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I’ve had my account IDs, emails and game keys leaked through database hacks (pretty persistent 2-4 years ago and still on-going but to a lesser degree) yet still never gotten hacked (not through lack of trying, I still get a few emails every month from games I’ve long quit with “forgot your password?”).

Some tips I use though:
1. I keep a separate email I use for games and other secure accounts such as online banking and paypal. Everything else goes to a main email (including game accounts I don’t care much about and have actively shared different account/password info with other people, they haven’t gotten hacked either)
2. Firewalls don’t matter. Don’t go to seedy websites (to download pirated software and such). Hacking technology outpaces security technology by miles and simply visiting those websites will install worm/trojan viruses and keyloggers. Use programs such as “sandboxie” or virtual desktops (google them).
3. Mobile authenticators might help, but I find them a waste of time (experience with blizzard authenticator, I’m starting to hate it ><). Same with in-game PINs. If you take appropriate steps to keep your computer clean, you won’t need them.
4. Keep off “fan” sites. Many of these sites might ask you for your in-game ID and require your email. Add some self-installing malware on the homepage of those sites. Boom – your account may as well be theirs. Stick to large, reputable sites (IGN, Neoseeker, Kotaku, official ANet or ANet endorsed forums etc.)

Come seasons, I think the sea of PvE heroes will come out of hiding for SoS during the T2 matchups and fill their gaps pretty well considering they’re a ‘Full’ server. We shall see. If that doesn’t happen, then yeah, they imploded.

nirvana.8245:

If I were given a choice, Id probably have considered heavily going to the China servers, but I suspect there would be problems with that.

China servers give me 350-500ms from Sydney. There’s also nothing to do except karma train until around 9pm when most people finish dinner and start forming up.

Anyhoo, population imbalances has always been an issue. Just gotta deal imo. There just needs to be better mechanics to allow people to fight outnumbered in a way that won’t give the advantage to the bigger blob

Wait what? /cheer

Siege should have a countdown timer to avoid troll siege being stuck there until an enemy comes over to take your structure. It’s a pretty good way to ensure that siege you don’t want gets removed. 1hr isn’t that long that troll siege placement can be extremely devastating, and it isn’t that short that you can chill about siege refreshment since it’s once every 50-55mins for around 5-10 mins

EoTM with its… siege (red side), stupid movement debuff (blue side) and condi clear (green side)?

Yeah… no. It’s a horrible map for any competitive WvW because of the inherent imbalance of the map. It just lends itself to long drawn out siege wars if it makes it into actual WvW and fights will be near non-existent cause of the terrain

Step outside your traditional MMO boundaries. Shake off your chains. Accept what is better than kittening player to player trade. I don’t want to filter out everything except guild and party chat due to ‘S> Ectos 35s, 2k in stock’ spam

It sounds like they’re changing the way their web app interacts with the game? More client sided stuff, probably through cookies and such. The APIs will probs have to change, but I don’t see them stopping

Why be part of the zerg? Join us today

I don’t get why it would be removed, though it does need a major rework due to the removal of armor repair costs

Join a hardcore WvW guild and raid in WvW daily.

Guardians tend to hit like a wet noodle regardless. It’s not about the gear tier but your gear type is still important for the stats, as well as the extra boost from runes.

Interested in T1 but not in blobbing/zerging? Join us today!

Afya.5842:

If DB get into gold, I wouldn’t be surprised that we will pull another Maguuma. You don’t know how many guildies in the small PVX guild I’m in transfered after last tournament. Some SOS, some FA, I also considered transfering if EDGE didn’t come. Getting base kitten d isn’t fun. And fun is what keeps the pugs in wvw.

Can understand that (BG got it rough last season), but this whole “race to the bottom” is even worse for your server imo, as it gives the impression that your server isn’t trying to someone who may come in to WvW for the first time say, today, since WvW will be flooded with AP hunters when S3 starts and coverage goes out the window with near full maps for most of the first week and the whole “tanking to get out of gold” becomes rather irrelevant

Kaineng was less a bandwagon, more an experiment by War Machine[WM] to see if they could drag a bottom tier server up to T1. And they very nearly succeeded if it wasn’t for burnout

Early HoD was a freak of nature followed by insane bandwagoning. I doubt a repeat could ever be made. s2 HoD was just a sad bandwagon for rewards

I don’t see the difference, it’s all red tags in the end

I prefer even slightly balanced matchups to curb stomps because that’s much, much worse for a server

Watching the tanking going on right now is sad

A strange lack of warriors

Number 1.

We really need a WvW CDI and I don’t think the wider community would vote for that so…

Been getting interest from all classes except warriors. Still looking for warriors!

Been using Overwolf since it was in late development. Only recommend if you can put up with constant crashes.

As for WvW apps… I need an overlay for timers that works, doesn’t crash and actually shows the right RI timer…

Aeolus.3615:

Reverence.6915:

Dano.5298:

To Truearrow’s point as well, ET easily competes with servers well above their ranking during NA prime time. The reason for ET’s low ranking and rating are mainly due to very low numbers (nearing on noone) for just a couple hours per day.

ET is far from dead.

It’s not about lack of numbers. It’s about lack of organisation.

WvW is all about coverage and numbers of player on field if fighting with a huge gap in just a few minutes is only what it takes to loose and entire BL.

With the correct organisation, if all you’re after is PPT, smart backcapping can easily maintain your PPT. With fights, at the bottom tiers, there’s no decent fight guilds at all, so if you get your peeps into teamspeak, you can easily wreck zergs 3x your size provided they aren’t hugging siege.

Rimmy.9217:

Reverence.6915:

ErlendR.6107:

Reverence.6915:

It’s not about lack of numbers. It’s about lack of organisation.

Fail troll

When you have 20-25 on the map and 0 people in teamspeak and no commander tag? Yeah that’s called lack of organisation

Some servers can just get things done without having to be in teamspeak, and if anybody ever signs into a map and doesn’t know what to do without seeing a commander tag, that’s a sign of a bad server right there.

Having no commander tag means people new to WvW in your server will not know what to do. Having 0 people in teamspeak diminishes the sense of community. Having no focus on a map means you won’t be able to attack or defend efficiently, further demoralising new players. All this fuels the ‘ded server’ name

ErlendR.6107:

Reverence.6915:

It’s not about lack of numbers. It’s about lack of organisation.

Fail troll

When you have 20-25 on the map and 0 people in teamspeak and no commander tag? Yeah that’s called lack of organisation

Dano.5298:

To Truearrow’s point as well, ET easily competes with servers well above their ranking during NA prime time. The reason for ET’s low ranking and rating are mainly due to very low numbers (nearing on noone) for just a couple hours per day.

ET is far from dead.

It’s not about lack of numbers. It’s about lack of organisation.

Looking for warriors!

Looking for warriors!

retsuya.4708:

sorry felt like he was selling t1 as the wvw utopia

I was refuting the point you made in your post. That’s not making a recruitment message for T1.

azizul.8469:

OCX and SEA are actually 2 different time zones. CD has SEA coverage, but OCX is a bit lacking, what we have is late NA going into overtime.

Indeed, something many people don’t realise. There’s probably a decent amount of OCX on 6 servers in total across both EU and NA servers, so for those asking for OCX players to ‘destack’, get bent

retsuya.4708:

main point is, those guilds moving/stacking into T1 are killing themselves into the staleness/blobbing they are complaining about

It’s not T1 complaining about staleness FYI and every tier complains about blobbing because it’s an easy thing to accuse someone of when they outnumber you at that point in time

That list quoted is a complete joke. Many disbanded guilds listed and overstating guilds on both TC and BG.

Deli.1302:

Reverence.6915:

Deniara Devious.3948:

Welcome to visit Desolation. Almost no queues at any hour, tons of enemies to fight and run away from, since Deso is EU tier #1 and enemy servers tend to be stacked.

How’s the NA-OCX presence? I’ll be sure to come over after the tournament thingy since I’ll be only on my main account during that time for obvious reasons

If their NA commanders are on, Deso has the largest NA presence in EU. If a well known commander is leading during ocx then they have a presence there as well.

Sounds like I’ll have a good time there

I’m mainly an Oceanic player so it’s more important to have some kind of Oceanic presence as opposed to NA presence, as I can play NA really only on weekends

Phedre Scion.1520:

Blix.8021:

retsuya.4708:

KcB.6890:

Its simple. The wvw population has continued to drop to the point that it can only support 1 tier. So now everyone is consolidating into T1.

False, if guilds in t1 spread out we’ll have 6 or more servers having t2-t3 population we can have different matchups every week

How many major guilds do you think tier 1 has?

More than the rest of the servers

NA-wise, no. Other time zones, yes. But guess what, OCX, SEA and EU guilds on T1 have no desire to move because it’s dead as f during their time zone outside of T1. SoS’s OCX can kind of put up a fight but since they’re all casuals with the exception of a couple guilds, they tend to log early if they meet too much resistance, a daily thing in T1