Guild Wars 2

styx.7294:

I think this would be a fantastic and fresh change for season 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHcO6Xo8eJ8

Where instead of 3 servers fightin the servers are split by 3 colours and fight each other with WvW guesting allowed to servers within your colour.

I can +1 this. I have reservations about it, but still… very promising!

logs.1493:

I have been stuck in ques for hours, <snip>

You are your problem. Transfer!

Forum moderators, can you please move this to the bugs forum please? This is a huge bug that needs urgently looking into.

Grav.3568:

Good ideas:

- An accurate WvW population indicator, based on a server’s total hours spent in WvW in the last 24 hours. By all means keep the existing overall indicator as well, but base the actual transfer cost on the WvW measure. Medium pop and below are always free to transfer to.

- Allow a guild to retain its influence etc when transferring, but only when transferring down.

- Scale the PPT timer to be based on the smallest of the three server’s WvW presence at any given time, recalculating at every tick. Example: reset night on T1 there might be 10 mins between ticks, night time on T8 during the week might be an hour.

- Whenever a server has more than 50% of PPT, players on the other two servers appear as yellow to each other instead of red and there are no rewards for taking “yellow” server objectives.

- Accurate queue timers, and the ability to queue multiple maps at once.

- Outmanned buff needs more granularity, i.e. instead of simply being outmanned or not outmanned, scale the buff for more rewards the more outmanned you are.

Bad ideas:

- Anything involving more Siegerazer-style NPCs. A balanced player coverage should be the goal here; NPC-based solutions are a crutch and won’t solve anything.

- The league system. Server rankings absolutely must determine match-ups on a weekly basis, otherwise dying servers only die faster.

- The edge of the mists. T1 players should be encouraged to transfer down, not be rewarded with a new map for their stubbornness.

Wow, I agree (very strongly) with all of these except the league. I think if they do everthing else on this list, the league will be a good idea. +1 for you, Sir.

Cereus.9027:

I thought they wanted to tell us if they change something like this…
Isn’t this the same situation like the patch with the karma boost nerf?

Yes, it is. I’m disappointed.

Solstice.1097:

1. No forced transfers

No forced transfers, but no complaining about queues while there are free transfers available.

Jharkin.9357:

Dutchares.6084:

Jharkin.9357:

Mercenaries

Mercenaries open up when a specific server is extremely outgunned. What mercenaries does is allow guilds from other servers to temporarily join the outmanned server to help balance the odds. Only guilds from servers that are winning their matchup may become mercenaries. Mercenaries get a bonus in wxp and money, however are unable to interact with supply in towers and keeps to avoid griefing.

Did you ever see a zerg avoid a supply camp because the NPC orges are in it?
[stuff]

May want to read that again. I was talking about players and not NPCs.

Rename them “Freelancers” or something instead

We’re Blue. Ablobadon’s are Green.

Regarding Bloodlust, I believe that two nodes should have been put near the skill points in the corners instead.

Xavi.6591:

So…Yak’s Bend has a queue on all 4 maps pretty much since reset. The problem is that it seems that we can only account for 40-50 on our borderland map when FA has 80+ on it.

If players log out of the game while in WvW, are those players still considered part of the population which doesn’t allow any more players into the map?

Or, are the queues that bad where they get hung up and won’t let players in?

This really needs to be looked at.

We’re experiencing this in Gunnar’s Hold. Ablobalobaboladon’s Mouth have 100 man zergs running around, while we have queues and half as many.

Would 16 hour WvW windows be a solution? i.e. close WvW in off-peak periods?

This shouldn’t cause a problem for night workers, as they can still join a server in another time zone.

Dutchares.6084:

And I don’t think adding NPC’s to the outnumbered servers will help either.
Especially since most servers run in a zone blobs, having a few more guards inside a keep wont change things. DAOC had sometimes very, very strong NPCs in high upgraded keeps.. but this only mend the keep couldn’t be stolen by a small group. The normal zerg wont have any problems with NPCs. Especially since all AI’s has weaknesses you can find and exploit.

Please be advised that my suggestion can be adjusted and the HPs on doors can be raised, guards increased in power and respawn rate to a degree where it IS difficult to take an objective even if it is completely undefended and zerged.

Put it this way: it can be made nigh-Tequatl hard.

The system will work because it will be easy to cap stuff back and once you have it back, it’s very hard to recapture.

Roman Barracks Idea
When the empire spread too much, it collapsed.

The basic premise is diminishing returns. The more you have, the harder it is to hold.

Set a total number of guards that any one server can have. This number is then allocated to all the objectives owned by that world.

That’s all.

This system means that when you have few objectives, you have more guards at each. When you have more objectives, you have fewer guards at each. Making it easier for the losing teams (usually outnumbered teams) to ninja things quickly.

This could be tied into other mechanics:

1. make hit points on objectives vary depending on how many objectives they own. The more objectives, the fewer hit point.
2. the more objectives you own, the fewer supply you get to them, or the more rare supply caravans are. -note- It is important that this varies depending on the dominant force, rather than making dolyaks easier to kill – it is often the case that one side hasn’t got enough people to deploy dolyak squads because they get killed by larger patrols from the dominant side.

Seasons are a good move, but for servers at the bottom of leagues, it’s a horrible, prolonged experience with not much hope at the end of the tunnel. The glory of being Champions should be what incentivises the winners, but for those not in contention… what’s in it for them? What’s in it for those who have only the bottom few slots to fight over?

Septemptus.7164:

Sure around hours like 6pm to 11pm its balanced, then we fade and around 1am there is almost no one in there. I’m nut surprised since I usually don’t stay that long. People have families and live. We can’t afford to play 24h/7days but somehow other servers do that and that made me feel sad and bad to the point I don’t see another reason to go into WvW aside from making meta progression.

I was on another server that is now in bronze league and we had the same problem.

THIS is a major problem. Why would people want to be on a server where the community is mostly asleep when they are online? They are more likely to transfer to a server with lots of people on at that time of day, naturally. So we end up with massive zergs on some servers at night and on other servers, complete ghost towns.

I haven’t a clue how to solve this without locking objectives between certain hours, but that seems a little draconian.

There is only one balance issue. Queues are not a problem Arenanet should be addressing, they are a symptom of players being unwilling to transfer or ignorant of the transfer opportunity.

The balance problem is that of coverage. While some servers have many overnight players, other servers have barely any. This leads to situations where the maps are completely one colour overnight with waypoints and full upgrades in every keep. This, in turn, leads to boring games that nobody enjoys and makes the score irrelevant.

Ntranced.7415:

There are two main issues which need addressing as I see it, and personally I see it in this order:

1. Fix Queues

There is nothing more frustrating than sitting in a WvWvW queue.

If you have queues, YOU are the problem. Transfer!

SlappedYak.7489:

My guild is on SFR, we have been since beta (mostly cos we liked the name being old Luxon fans)) so we find ourselves in tier1 mostly by luck. The fluidity of server transfers, and the new league meant that people swarmed to this server…and as a result the community of the server has been completely lost under a homogeneous pug zerg. People haven’t integrated, they have made no attempt to bond, and that is because server loyalty DOES NOT EXIST…at least not in the big servers. At times I have considered moving us to a med to pop server with a decent community.

Server loyalty is all well and good, but you state yourself that it doesn’t exist on your server. If you consider moving from a server with huge queues and no server loyalty but decide not to, YOU are the problem.

People don’t even CONSIDER moving from their server, a lot probably aren’t even aware of it as an option. For this reason, I propose the following;

1. full means full. No more transfers to full servers.
2. when a queue is x people long, the “there is a queue, would you like to wait?” popup should suggest a server transfer, with a list of which servers cost nothing to transfer to at that time. In order to encourage long-term transfers, offer a reward if an account remains on the new server for six months or more.
3. cancel Edge of the Mist in it’s current form. The plan as it stands will simply encourage people to remain on servers with large queues.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Zerole.7306:

15/10/20/25 tweaks the build a little bit more.

Mainly removes the dependency for using the greatsword and opens up the possibility for large symbols, longer symbols, or faster recharge on all 2hand weapons.

Not bad flexability for a “does it all” build.

True, not too bad. You sort of completely changed the build though. There were several points to this build. One is Virtues and Boons, the other is the GS. But I can understand the want to get away from GS because not everyone likes the weapon.

Actually, I meant Hit Points in general, but if a regen guardian was made more viable, then the issue we have with max HPs would perhaps be mitigated.

Svarty.8019:

This effort (thanks for all your work Kai – wow, I remember those books) highlights the massive problem with HPs on Guardians.

When will we get our fix?

For Magnamund!!! That’s awesome that you know where my name comes from! I still have the originals and am getting the new ones that are being republished.

Health per second, correct? Yeah, I still think that VoR needs a bit more of a increase, even with all the extra healing from traits, skills, and boons being thrown in the mix.

kiba.2768:

a full medi build with sigils of generosity has little problems with keeping condi off.

if i wasn’t so happy with my current build, i’d give this a try. perhaps in the next few months

I had a lot of fun with the medi build before the changes in the recent patch so I can imagine it’s quite nice now.

When you give it a try, let me know how you like it.

This effort (thanks for all your work Kai – wow, I remember those books) highlights the massive problem with HPs on Guardians.

When will we get our fix?

CMF.5461:

Other professions may have been over buffed and are slowly being brought back down,

When was the Warrior brought down? I missed that.

coglin.1867:

Any direction on this would be greatly appreciated, as would any links to related builds. Thanks in advance for your help.

Roll a Warrior, mate. Save yourself a lot of heartache.

“Everybody leave so the cap drops”.

Until it is made easier to defend, this should remain as-is.

ALL of the world abilities, since the system was introduced, have been about increasing damage.

We need ways of making it harder to capture keeps/towers now.

Warthog.6870:

I don’t see the problem – just spend 5 minutes gathering for the daily and you’re in.

edit oh – you might be on a broken server

I agree. If you have long queues, you’re part of the problem.

THis needs to happen. Especially with the new, horrible, immobilise.

Andrew Clear.1750:

Svarty.8019:

xok.2915:

7+ hours on queue @ WvWvW ! unacceptable !!!!

The refusal of zerglings to transfer is what exaccerbates the problem with the current system.

Agreed. So, they either deal with it or transfer. Anet isn’t going to give people priority access. They are not gonna up the map limit. They are giving an overflow map at the beginning of the year. So, wait, or transfer.

That capitulation map is a mistake that validates hanging around on a “winningest” server. Why be on any of the others?

xok.2915:

7+ hours on queue @ WvWvW ! unacceptable !!!!

The refusal of zerglings to transfer is what exaccerbates the problem with the current system.

We have similar. In all of our matchups and at any time off-peak, there’s always one server that’s got millions more people than us. What’s the point even having the option to upgrade, if the enemy can 50v0 it all away when you’re asleep?

Svarty.8019:

Sirendor.1394:

And the conclusion is: this system does not work. Servers will always have more or less numbers and the ones with more will always win. It’s not about skill.

The game mode is broken.

Arenanet have stated that this, specifically, is something they both know about and intend to address. To quote Devon:

Devon Carver said,
Breaking up the Blob: We have some ideas here that are likely to come out next year, in the earlier portion of the year. It’s a complicated problem because of the principles of our game, namely that we don’t want to punish you for playing with more people. So it comes down to ways to incentivize and/or empower small groups more so than punishing large ones. That creates the problem of finding solutions that don’t help even larger groups. We have some ideas for changes to siege weapons that I think might help, but it is a major concern for us. To be clear, we are concerned about the value of skill over simple manpower. If you get together 50 skilled players operating in unison, we don’t want to hamper that. But we do think a smaller, more coordinated group should have the advantage over a larger, uncoordinated group.

Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/397784/page/1

Devon Carver said,
We agree completely with the issues relating to score and population. We have some ideas for how to address this, but nothing is ready to be discussed yet as we haven’t moved beyond the idea phase.

Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/397784/page/2

To add to what I said earlier (above), I would love to know what these plans/ideas are, as part of the collaborative development, before Arenanet sets off on a path which may or may not work. Let’s remind ourselves of how Bloodlust works counter to their intention because it merely serves to empower the already powerful (ironically something Devon expressed concern about in his above quote).

Sirendor.1394:

And the conclusion is: this system does not work. Servers will always have more or less numbers and the ones with more will always win. It’s not about skill.

The game mode is broken.

Arenanet have stated that this, specifically, is something they both know about and intend to address. To quote Devon:

Devon Carver said,
Breaking up the Blob: We have some ideas here that are likely to come out next year, in the earlier portion of the year. It’s a complicated problem because of the principles of our game, namely that we don’t want to punish you for playing with more people. So it comes down to ways to incentivize and/or empower small groups more so than punishing large ones. That creates the problem of finding solutions that don’t help even larger groups. We have some ideas for changes to siege weapons that I think might help, but it is a major concern for us. To be clear, we are concerned about the value of skill over simple manpower. If you get together 50 skilled players operating in unison, we don’t want to hamper that. But we do think a smaller, more coordinated group should have the advantage over a larger, uncoordinated group.

Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/397784/page/1

Devon Carver said,
We agree completely with the issues relating to score and population. We have some ideas for how to address this, but nothing is ready to be discussed yet as we haven’t moved beyond the idea phase. In my opinion its the single largest issue that still faces WvW and one that we intend to make major strides to address as soon as we can. The league itself doesn’t do much to address it, beyond the achievements which should provide some incentive to play winning or losing. We are approaching this exact problem with the mindset that is behind your question though, and that is that even if you are losing we want there to be a reason for you to keep playing. That’s a high level goal for us in WvW.

Source: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/397784/page/2

I think this is a problem that only Arenanet can solve. Whilst they have implemented a scaling tariff for transfers, this seems to be a very watered down measure and I believe that something much more draconian is necessary. This isn’t some ideological free market hokum, you can’t expect it to magically correct itself.

Bazzoong.7145:

Nice.

Please add “total time owning the outmanned buff” in the next one.

I agree. The graphics just glorify the winning team, with barely anybody else making the list. If

1. the match ups were more even-sided AND/OR
2. other metrics were shown,
   they’d be much more varied and interesting.

GG everybody. Seems this match is decided. No need to drag it out for a week. Hey Anet, cheque please, we’re done here!

Luna.9640:

First of all i want to wish everyone a really good season.

So let’s see who you’re putting your money on shall we ?

My prediction for Gold:

1. SFR
2. Vizuna
3. Piken

Silver:

1. Deso
2. AG
3. Gandara or Ablobalobalobadon (simply for their numbers).

Desolation are going to come first, word is they rigged their matches so they’d be in the easier league. I will let players make their minds up what they think of that.

Bronze:

1. Vabbi
2. RoS
3. Drakkar

Don’t mock! I firmly believe Vabbi will get a lot of quitters players from other servers.

werdernator.6105:

Miller’s Sound – Gunnar’s Hold – Aurora Glade

Beautiful image, but Anet have some questions to ask themselves about balance when they look at this.

Especially, how AG could have Bloodlust for 10.9 days in a week!

The only thing that made this week tolerable was that we’d been kittened over by Piken and Vizuna even more in the previous weeks. AG are an awful blob server and Millers are getting there.

Horrible. Just horrible.

Cone heal/condi removal (torch)/protection (shield) are completely nuts on a class that is supposed to be standing in front of the people it is healing/removing condis from or protecting.

Or one better one. Burning is especially kitten because it only stacks duration.

I think we should be able to respec them at the end of each season.

We played Piken (3rd on the ladder EU) and Vizuna (#2EU) and they both run as a single gigantic zerg. That’s all. If you want to call that “Roaming”, I think it’s a misnomer myself.

In the mid-tiers you get lots of guild-only groups. It’s a lot more fun.

I’m having a lot more success in (Hot join) PvP with this build:

Zeal Minor 5 (Symbol of Wrath below 50% HPs)
Valour I, X, XII (Reduce recharge on Meds, Fury on Med activation, using Med heals you)
Honour Minor 5 (Vigor on crit)
Virtues IV, X, XI (Retaliation when dazed etc, Virtue of Courage Grants Stability, Virtue of Justice passive does PBAoE burn)

So: 5, 0, 30, 5, 30

Utilities: All meds
Weapons: GtSwd with (Fire), Mace (Air)/Focus (Energy)
Runes: 6xWarrior (Vit/Power)

It’s probably a really old spec from ages ago, and it’s possibly sub-optimal, but the Fury is huge and it’s working for me.

I agree. I’d also like to see some more combos on several other classes. It seems that there’s a master plan that states only certain classes can have lots of fields, and those are the high-skill button mashtastic ones (engi, ele).

Stice.5204:

I think warriors’ current level of passive healing is dubious from a balance standpoint and will probably be nerfed in the future so I’d be reluctant to use it as a comparison point.

Orly? A nerf to Warriors? {snicker}

BladeDVD.6234:

Svarty.8019:

I’m flipping these, why don’t you just pay the high price? I invested a considerable percentage of my gold into this asset.

It would be extremely unfair to me and my fellow speculators should Arenanet change the supply IN ANY WAY.

“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

You said it yourself, you “invested” in them, you are “speculat[ing]”. This is an inherently risky thing to do. Anet changing loot tables is just the risk you take when you play in this market.

As you say, it is already inherently risky. We should not have to guess how benevolent John Smith is feeling at any particular time (i.e. we should not have to speculate on supply as well as demand).

I want to see which CC they used to root me before the zerg wiped me.

Performance is great on GH. No lag at all!

Here is some basic arithmetic for you:
1vX = Mesmer/Thief

The reason is that they can make people lose target lock. A lot.

Edit: Engineer is also capable of this, but they tend to take a LOT more skill to play.

PvE guys have a little more scope for variety of build, but mostly guardians run into problems with HPs if they vary away from Valour 30+Honour 30. I’d love to spec Virtues, but the other toughness/vitality are necessary.

When enemies are pumping out the kind of damage highlighted in this image, you simply can’t compromise on survivability.

Hunter.4783:

Finnway.2183:

This feedback only represents a small portion of Guardian players.

This small portion is what truly matters,
the rest of the player base is running full PTV staff 0/0/30/30/10 without giving other skills a second thought. For me they are simply mindless drones and will run what is considered “effective” 4 months ago;.

This is a fact. I know I do – frankly, other builds just don’t have a patch on it thus we are forced to spec that way.

Edit: When enemies are churning out this kind of damage, it forces all guardians to try to make up for our abysmal base HPs. That’s the ball-and-chain that’s preventing us from speccing as we like.

Silent Shino.7239:

Noss.4105:

Silent Shino.7239:

Noss.4105:

Silent Shino.7239:

why don’t GH just simply have 1 vs 1 fights instead of having to double team all of the time? The only GH I have seen respect 1 vs 1 fights are members of [TEO]
edit: I lied, now even [TEO] are double teaming me
where’s FURY? they’re the only ones so far (apart from hihey who actually beat me 1 vs 1) that I can get a decent fight out of :L

I guess you don’t mean duels?
From the little roaming I’ve done in this matchup, I’d say around 80% to 90% of my fights with AG end up with me in 1v2+ situations.

yeah, I’m not meaning duels, I’m just meaning roaming in general, in GH borderlands about 95% of fights end up in 1 vs 2 situations, in eb, 90% of the fights were 1 vs 3 or more, the rest were 1 vs 2s :L with the exception of a FURY elementalist who ambushed me while I was attacking the grub, it was still a good fight tho

Well, FYI it’s not just GH.
I had high hopes for this match up roaming-wise, but I’ve been a bit disappointed. I guess it’s the influx of new WvW’ers that make solo roaming a bit hard.

I’m not going to lie, AG do it a lot as well, but GH players in eb do it a heck of a lot more, for insnace, I had 5 GH gate crash my 1 vs 1 with a guardian outside of SM, they actually chased me all of the to the western gate where I finally managed to get rid of them

Yep, AG and Millers both just put out gigantic 50+ man zergs we can’t ever combat. It’s boring, but it’s what the “best” servers do to win.