Guild Wars 2

Look at all you tough WvW champions complaining about dolyaks.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

Swagger.1459:

It’s always interesting to read computer tech stuff because I’m a complete noob about it.

All I know is that the devs designed the game to put many players in one space, so stronger steps need to be taken to make improvements because it’s far from smooth playing at times.

I run a 3.5k machine, live in the US and have great internet, but still suffer from performance issues when the masses gather… Just saying that things could be better here and we all know it.

Where there is a will there is a way, so it’s not beyond the scope to make more improvements. Businesses reinvest all the time and it’s just what it is. I’m assuming that making improvements will also give the devs better tools to work with in the end and remove some limitations for themselves.

Players also have to make their own upgrades as well because y’all can’t sit there on 5-10 year old machines and expect miracles.

I just tried to explain and show ppl they might want DX 12, but the hardware is available since 2011-2012 and unless you SPECIFICALLY bought a PC for DX 12 in the 1st 2 years afterwards you can actually have a PC from 2013 or 2014 whcih cannot take advantage of DX 12 at all !!

SO the window could be 2-5 years actually… and not 5-10…. Does this change your view?

I’m an idiot when it comes to any of this computer stuff, so I didn’t have a view on specific stuff like DMX, Vulkan, Clingon, Gungan Style, Java the Hutt… I’m just sayin’…

All I know is that when I play there are some major disturbance in the force sometimes, and then I’m like… “What the ….!!! Geez, thanks Anet!!!”…

Ya see, my “job” here is to play, buy gems, complain about not having nice things, play more, buy more gems and complain more… I’m doing my “job” pretty well, so we just need the devs to pull their “job” weight on this issue.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Swagger.1459:

Guild halls should be about fun and creative expression… Not gold sinks on rails…

You’re wrong. People can be very creative with guild halls. Especially after the SAB update. Just because it also involves investment doesn’t mean it’s exclusively gold sink.

Just some examples (in random order):
The [nA] Guild
Reddit Thread
Their Guild Hall picture gallery
Their SAB floating island

The [HC] Guild
SAB picture gallery

The [ARR] Guild
Reddit Thread

And that’s not counting all the guild halls seen in Wooden Potatoes’ videos where they go even crazier.

Our guild hall currently looks like:

Here’s the thing, we have a prefabricated map that we can upgrade and put decorations in… That’s not creative.

I’m not going to post a bunch of videos from other games here, but there are games that provide much better building tools and more creative freedom.

The devs should have just focused on home instances and given players full creative control to build what they wanted. The home spaces could have served as guild meeting places and areas to show off true creations. Scribing and gold sinks could still exist and the devs could even sell builders packs on the gem store.

There were and are better ways to do this player space stuff.

It’s always interesting to read computer tech stuff because I’m a complete noob about it.

All I know is that the devs designed the game to put many players in one space, so stronger steps need to be taken to make improvements because it’s far from smooth playing at times.

I run a 3.5k machine, live in the US and have great internet, but still suffer from performance issues when the masses gather… Just saying that things could be better here and we all know it.

Where there is a will there is a way, so it’s not beyond the scope to make more improvements. Businesses reinvest all the time and it’s just what it is. I’m assuming that making improvements will also give the devs better tools to work with in the end and remove some limitations for themselves.

Players also have to make their own upgrades as well because y’all can’t sit there on 5-10 year old machines and expect miracles.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

This would be the end of Power of the Mists buff. Most players don’t really notice the buff. Nor do they play WvW specifically for the buff, so it hasn’t served as an effective motivator for winning matches. It also tends to reward PvE players more than WvW players. The upside to removing the buff, for WvW players, is that it should help our case for further improving WvW rewards, because it’d be lowering the rewards entering the game from elsewhere.

Does that “case” include unique wvw legendary weapons, armors and back pieces?

Elden Arnaas.4870:

If you’re going to be a supporter, you might want to learn to spell “Vulkan”.

I know some Vulkan!

May the force live long and prosper!

Aza.2105:

Guild wars 2 will never be balanced. The foundation it was built upon isn’t balanced so anything built on top of it won’t be either. GW2 is destined to always have very extreme shifts aka something is either really good or something is either really bad. No in middle ground.

That’s all about to change soon I think

Now, here’s how to really balance things…

Improve core professions that have been mostly neglected since launch.

Reduce cool downs on all core slot skills.

Work on the cc and stealth systems.

Create really good and various roles within each profession so there is more build variety.

Balance pvp (wvw and spvp) separately from pve.

Let’s start with those and I’ll give more amazing ideas.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I’m very excited for this, and I also think that the ‘controversial’ change is worth doing. Great proposal, team!

Belenwyn.8674:

There should also be points for successfully upgrading objects and defending the objects against attacks.

They said that upgraded objectives count more for skirmish points, rewarding defending them more than simply flipping them.

I agree with Rising Dusk here about dropping in the “controversial” change along with.

Ok people here are the issues…

Core Tyria is 111111, dodge, 1111, 6, dodge, 11111 zerker ultra easy mode… It’s almost as if you don’t really have to play your character, know what I mean?

The devs put core profession development on the lowest table, and it’s still there currently.

Players complained about 111111, dodge, 1111, 6, dodge, 11111 zerker ultra easy mode, and the devs are trying to get rid of 111111, dodge, 1111, 6, dodge, 11111 zerker ultra easy mode so they made HoT.

HoT scales upward in difficulty. Along with that difficulty, the devs made elites with that in mind. These elites were to bring us thing that are like roles, but they are kinda like a baby’s first step right? It’s a good try and we are all proud of that step, but the baby has a long way to go to start walking… The devs know this. They know they have a long way to go. They know HoT was not the end of changes, it’s just the beginning…

Devs now have to scale upward core profession, keep working on HoT elites and bring us more and better and cooler and some sweet sweet elites.

My suggestion from all of this is for some of you to buy the expansion, play the game so you are not behind when the next xpac comes, keep making threads so the devs improve core professions and wait like the rest of us for the devs to care about our special little pixelated characters again.

Don’t lose sight of fighting for profession improvements either… Don’t let Gaile swoop in and charm you away from this posting task. If she locks your thread then make a better and more constructive one! Don’t let John Smith and his icy cold fingers of economic doom get you down and distracted, just load up the forums and fight it! Don’t let MO throw you off with his almighty posts of a better tomorrow in Tyria that make you settle for these professions and elites! Don’t let polls and promises deter you from this quest either!

Fight on my Tyrians, we will be victorious soon™!

:)

Guild halls should be about fun and creative expression… Not gold sinks on rails…

It’s frustrating to jump through hoops for stats. Hope they let us craft this stuff soon and drop them in various vendors.

Anvil.9230:

Perhaps we simply miss a guild tax system as those you can find in games where guilds need hudge amount of ressources to develop facilities.

It would be very useful because from HOT, construction of the hall and manufacture of guild consumables are expensive.

An adjustable tax from 0% to X% of all money received (quest) or droped by players representing a guild would be useful.

Each guild and players could agree on a % automatically charged to feed the guild wallet…
A choice of 0% means the absence of joint effort and therefore a choice not to enjoy the fruits of this collective effort.

This feature would allow players to manage guild Investments without forcing them to:
– Either hold tedious accounts about members’ participation, avoiding recovery.
– Either leave the bulk of the effort to weigh on part of the guild, while the other part only enjoy.

Incidentally it would avoid any tension between players about collective effort once the tax rate agreed.

That’s not a god idea…

I have a better one, how about the devs give us the tools to create unique spaces. Scribes can still create unique decorations requiring minor guild member support. The devs can release guild hall decoration packs on the gem store as well.

Lacuda.8543:

I have a guild that functions with roughly 5 active players at our peaks. We have been around for years and we do not wish to be forced to either join a larger guild or grab our credit cards just to get the BASIC upgrades.

We are guild level 29, and running out of available upgrades. We will be forced to make the Tavern tier 2 soon…but this is not viable. This singular upgrade that grants absolutely nothing in itself costs a horrendous TWELVE THOUSAND flax seed piles if farmed.

This is seriously BS. Please, PLEASE. Fix the expensive upgrades! Find a way to flood the market with Flax and Flax fibers. SEAWEED AS WELL, it only has like 12 spots it spawns and it’s VERY irregular.

I agree.

Guild Halls are Guild Gold Sink Halls.

These are not places for freedom of creation, they are prefabricated areas that require gold and resources to build up. Decorations and trophies are the only things that can be added, but still at high costs.

You’d figure with Anet being so creative, they would give players the freedom to build a truly personal space and be excited to see the unique creations from the tools provided…

HARDOFREADING.7298:

The sad amount of advantages that HoT has over Core makes the game virtually unplayable. Now there are going to be people from all over this forum trying to troll but yet they’re all more than likely running HoT builds or they’ll say there are still some Core Guardian builds in spvp.
Doesn’t change the fact that a vast majority of HoT skills/architecture are simply much better than Core. Now there are too many advantages to list…Ill leave those for the people that know the game well enough to know what they’re talking about…But had I been told that any expansions would be far superior & in fact designed to make you uncompetitive so you would be forced to buy them, I never would have invested any time/effort/money in a business model that is clearly “Pay to Win” now. In fact, we were told the opposite.

So were you also bothered that swtor xpacs increased player levels by 5? Did you complain that it was unfair and that you were not competitive?

This is not the “give you everything free” mmo…

Valoiz.9857:

I think Core Game- HoT should be add to gems store. I own the base game (not a free player) and now i completly stop playing cuz i really dont want to invest money on “secondary” games while i am paying sub elsewhere. Is very discourage to know u will not be able to really try the full game when u enter a “f2p”. All those “extra bussines models names” are crap, things are F2P , B2P or P2P. Gw2 is still B2P and u get a “long beta” when u play it for free.

You are paying a sub in another game and want everything handed to you free here?

Yeah…

Listen peeps, I know y’all spent 3 years not having to worry about Rangers at all, but let’s not get dramatic here… It’s like some of you get your pixels crushed by a skilled player on Ranger then y’all go all video rage…

Gudradain.3892:

I think that having observer could greatly improve the raid experience on many point.

What is a raid observer?

Someone that can watch the fights but is not there “physically”. The observers are not part of the 10 players doing the raid.

Why I think it could help?

1. It could be a way to quickly swap out players. If you have observers, when someone disconnect or have to go, you could simply replace the missing player by one of the observers without going through the LFG once more. The waiting time is what is really killing the raids and this might reduce it.

2. Give something to watch while your guild group is full.

3. Might help to teach/learn the fights

Thoughts?

I find this to be too intrusive, just like the pvp one.

Bolded part- The wait time is a symptom of larger issues.

We need systems to make raids more accessible to play so players can get comfortable, learn and become interested enough to come back.

Magira.6390:

Bah, it’s all bad. Roaming is pointless at each camp are defenders, most camps are fully equipped and additionally provided with guild extensions. At Tower (I have previously taken alone) is not to be thought.
The (old) Maps are absolute junk for Roamer, only now I realize how good Desert Borderlands were.
Currently I am on Gandara. Makes a server switch to a less populated Server sense or is it “thanks” World Linking all so bad.

This is wvw, it’s not a small scale players vs small scale players zone. Empty maps are bad because these zones are supposed to be filled. You can still “roam” solo…

Spvp might suit your tastes better…

The devs have already acknowledged that there are scoring issues… The have all the stats… They know… Official voting happened… They are working on it…

/thread

Edit- Honestly, if most of you were to start reading the forums a bit more often we could avoid banter like this filling up the space and focus on issues…

Xyonon.3987:

Heya,

So … I’m rather new to the wvw especially the new reward system. The thing is I need 1000 Badges of Honor for my legys but how can I farm those with utmost efficiency. I “wasted” 2 hours yesterday and was rewarded with 60 tokens :P I think I’m just messing up a bit

So what is the best way to farm BoH these days? Thanks for your help!

Greez!

Join a squad and fight.

Buy the xpac.

/thread

Liston.9708:

less tomes of knowledge please. ty

No way. Players level through pvp, create lots of characters and tomes can be used for spirit shards. If anything, tomes could could be upgraded to have additional uses for level 80 characters.

Yeah, moa is an all around junk skill really.

It honestly doesn’t have to be 3. Balancing for pve and pvp (spvp and wvw) is all that needs to be done.

Unfortunately, though, this is what’s happening…

MO quote…

“Karl is working specifically on WvW-focused skill balance. He’s looking for the wins for WvW that don’t screw the rest of the game.”

We will never have a good pvp experience as long as the above continues.

Old school hard core pvper here…

Moa was and still is problematic. Take any hard cc skill and give it a 6 or 10 second timer that’s unbreakable and you have problems.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to use such a broken skill… Get opponent low in health, hit with Moa and win…

With all the visual combat chaos and attention needing to focus on many elements, more often than not players are getting hit with Moa.

Just like how stealth functions mid combat, it’s skills like these that are factored into the profession equation. Thieves almost universally need to have a crap ton of stealth to survive and find success in pvp modes, but once you take that away the profession falls apart. So much like stealth for thief and stealth and moa for Mesmer, each profession here has its gimmick that is needs to build around to have any chance to win. This in turn limits build diversity because it’s like pulling teeth to be successful outside of these limited builds…

Having said the above, the overarching main problems with GW2 has nothing to do with individual skills. It has to do with these…

1. The devs design(ed) and test(ed) everything profession and combat related for PVE first. I’m sure a couple of things had pvp in mind, but hardly anything meaningful.

2. The devs REFUSE, yes REFUSE to make any real efforts to make balance separations between pve and pvp because (paraphrased quote) “we discussed it, but it would add a lot of overhead to balance patches”… This is great that a company taking in millions per month won’t devote the proper time and resources to the pvp side of the game… Even Mike O’Brein recently asked for balance suggestions that implied separations wouldn’t be made…

3. 1 and 2 ARE fully developer issues, not profession or player issues.

The devs are fully aware at this point of problems with professions, combat, certain individual skills in pvp modes, lots of other stuff…, but until profession development becomes a priority we will always have issues.

I’m not advocating any other game, but the classes and combat in CU are being built with pvp in mind because it’s not a pve game… And even if there were plans for pve stuff, I guarantee strong efforts would be made to make balancing efforts between pvp and pve modes unlike here..

What we need to do is stop blaming players and individual skills, we need to budge the devs to start caring about the pvp side of the game.

We all know that the devs could make GW2 into one of the best fantasy combat mmo so if you really want change then you all should get out there and make your voices heard that the devs need to start balancing this game between modes. We have to show the devs it’s time to make pvp modes a priority. I’m not saying go and rant negatively, but get out there and make your constuctive videos, talk to popular gw2 streamers out there, start constuctive blogs… We can get the devs to act once we get these issue out from under the rug that arenanet has swept them under.

There are other game companies that come out and say “this is not good enough for our players” and proceed to blow up and rebuild core elements to their game. Arenanet needs to do the same here with professions and combat stuff… It’s time for professions 2.0 peeps…

Gaile Gray.6029:

Zeivu.3615:

Randulf.7614:

Lions Arch

No Lion
No Arch

That’s because the Lion was blown up and destroyed by Scarlet.

Hamfast.8719:

I miss the central lion statue too. We no longer have a central gathering spot or focal point for festivals. The world has grow a bit colder.

You know how that guy in Silverwastes has constant fundraisers for some cause or another? Why couldn’t we have a “Put the Lion Back in Lion’s Arch” fundraiser for Lion’s Arch?

I miss that statue, darn it! When I came across it in the ruins in the bay, I honestly welled up. LA is the heart and soul of Tyria, after all.

Oh and good finds, OP. This is a fun thread!

Bolded part- Well said! That’s precisely why special events should be run out of LA, not DR!

EragamerLG.2390:

Before getting into my concern, I think there’s a fairly big distinction to make:
LS(Living Story) and LW(Living World) and very different, if complimentary, things.
The LS is an ongoing story that unfolds in Guild Wars 2, and progresses the narrative.
The LW is a concept based on events, progressed by the narrative, that somehow changes the game world, as well as progressing the real-time GW2 timeline.
Link to the GW2 timeline: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Timeline
I know the above can be somewhat subjective due to the nature of such concepts, and even though this is NOT the MAIN topic, I’d still like to know your opinions on these.

Now, we know that the current business model is as such:
“For Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, we didn’t want the core game’s price to be a factor in a new player’s decision to begin playing Guild Wars 2. In the future, if we release further Guild Wars 2 expansions, we plan to offer all of the prior expansions, the core game, and the latest expansion for one single purchase price.”

To be honest, I would understand this. It would make sense. Especially if WE, early adopters, got to experience the content, not only first, but to have the opportunity to change the world of Tyria, this would make it worthwhile.
The big issue here is that, although the Living Story is currently ongoing(to some extent), the Living World, and it pains me to say this, is currently NO WHERE TO BE FOUND. Living World, last time we saw it was with Season 1, where things actually changed at faster pace. If you “zoom out” and check the bigger picture you can include Season 2 and HoT into it, but that’s not a true Living World, that is just a Living Story.

My main concern, is that the current business model, due to the nature of the Living World concept not being active, is simply worth less than it could/should. You can include the time-limited free access Living Story Seasons, but you need to have the latest xpack and log in at the time of release.

Perhaps it’s still too early to talk about this, but considering 2015 saw a content draught and a somewhat dead Tyria for.. 7, 8? Months, and we’re nearly half way through 2016 and the same is applicable(except a few things such as Wintersday and The Shatterer), I can’t shake this feeling that Living World was the most interesting part of GW2, and now that we only have half of it(LS), it’ll forever feel incomplete, especially considering ANet managed to tap on part of the potential of the LW, and looking back, it was amazing, it made the ongoing Timeline have a much bigger meaning.

After the reception of the expansion, I saw the expansion as a 2 year re-sub to the game, which was fair considering the amount of content AND EXPERIENCES given to us, but now, 7 months in, no LW, no LS, the second content draught, my question now isn’t whether HoT was/is worth the buck for players. It’s whether the subsequent expansions, judging by ANets sudden change of vision for GW2, are worth THE DEVELOPMENT and the sacrifice to other forms of content.

If there were true Living World Events a la Season 1, where world-changing events happened it would make the early adoption of ongoing expansions much more feasible and worth not only the buck, but the time as well.
In Season 1 warriors of Tyria came together for world-impacting events. Season 2 and expansions are much more akin to linear Single-player games, and last I heard this is supposed to be an MMO.

Thoughts?

Living world is coming back. Story is coming back with expansion. Confirmed by Anet.

I felt a great disturbance in the Black Lion Trading Company, as if a thousand voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

Neox.3497:

Ohh no! Mats become cheaper!

It’s horrible! Super John Smith better come save the market manipulators from this horrible fate!

Reward tracks were very much needed.

I personally feel most of the rewards are good, but the skins are completely bland. WvW needs to start getting unique weapon skins and armor skins and back skins and wings and infusion/item auras… Essentially, WvW needs specialized WvW rewards.

Other games have added levels when they release xpacs so we can’t really complain about elites. There will always be new stuff to entice players to buy xpacs.

The solution is to buy the hot xpac honestly, or if you can’t buy it now then start saving for the next xpac that will include hot elites plus (most likely) new xpac elites.

This game uses the “pay once and play forever” access model which is pretty generous.

Having said all that, yes, the devs still need to make improvements to core professions. In the meantime, though, you should buy hot and enjoy what it offers and so you are not so far behind when the next xpac comes.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Swagger.1459:

It would be akin to a smaller scale pvp server… This style is not uncommon in mmo games. Do you all classify players on any number of mmos that have filled pvp servers as “loot trainers”? No. Players are playing and having a great time, duking it out and getting a better experience than watching points on a screen while developers need to manipulate match ups and scores…

Y’all really need to think beyond “eotm k train blobs” because wvw is almost the same, except that wvw will continue to struggle with population and scoring issues despite the devs efforts unfortunately.

You’re all getting a touch of eotm now with alliances, and just wait until server match ups are a mess of 1 server vs 2 allied servers vs 3 allied servers for 3 months, then changes to all random and mixed up alliances keeps cycling through every few months…

What’s happening now is an expiremental fix, but sadly it’s not a long term solution.

If 4 years of a struggling wvw doesn’t cause you all to think of alternatives then I don’t know what will…

Character builds will fine, there are zero issues beating up npcs now with pvp builds…

How are server alliances anything close to EotM style play? You apparently don’t play much WvW if you believe this. Server alliances are two communities that work together. Your super server garbage is a bunch of randoms thrown together.

The current beta fixes are experimental but I’m glad that you have already decided that they aren’t a step in the right direction. After 4 years of WvW struggling I’m happy with the direction Anet is currently headed.

If you do play WvW I’m pretty sure that your play style and mine are completely different.

I would suggest rereading what I wrote.

Eotm has combined servers with randoms.

WvW is getting combined servers with randoms. And you’ll get new randoms every few months.

Eotm has blobs.

WvW had blobs.

There are some similarities between the two modes and I know the differences…

What’s helping now will be a short term fix and will require constant match up and scoring manipulation by the devs because that’s the plan to keep wvw afloat.

I’m not here to poll personal play styles, that’s irrelevant to me. I’m here to discuss possible long term solutions.

Edit- “From the WvW team”… “for the future, we may redistribute worlds as populations drift over time and because the system is flexible, we can potentially link 3 or more smaller worlds as appropriate.”

Inevitable server hopping + matches that need to be manually manipulated + scoring that needs to be manually manipulated = constant issues and band aids fixes.

And so much for the “server pride” when we all know populations shift…

Have fun with server shifting and random combinations instead of looking for ways to make a more stable wvw that solidifies, grows and evolves in a healthy way…

It would be akin to a smaller scale pvp server… This style is not uncommon in mmo games. Do you all classify players on any number of mmos that have filled pvp servers as “loot trainers”? No. Players are playing and having a great time, duking it out and getting a better experience than watching points on a screen while developers need to manipulate match ups and scores…

Y’all really need to think beyond “eotm k train blobs” because wvw is almost the same, except that wvw will continue to struggle with population and scoring issues despite the devs efforts unfortunately.

You’re all getting a touch of eotm now with alliances, and just wait until server match ups are a mess of 1 server vs 2 allied servers vs 3 allied servers for 3 months, then changes to all random and mixed up alliances keeps cycling through every few months…

What’s happening now is an expiremental fix, but sadly it’s not a long term solution.

If 4 years of a struggling wvw doesn’t cause you all to think of alternatives then I don’t know what will…

Character builds will fine, there are zero issues beating up npcs now with pvp builds…

Edit- Arenanet is also a business that has to try stay competitive in the market. Band aid fixes like these to the pvp side wont generate long term interest and income among pvpers.

Dawdler.8521:

Sich.7103:

Problem is that for EU we have 6 tiers, this make 24 maps…

No, that isnt a problem.

The problem with megaserver WvW is how on earth you would solve scoring and matchups.

Without a ladder or some sort of matchup system, it would all boil down to have 33% chance of being #1. Which would get pretty boring after a while. Especially if the sides become so unbalanced that we become locked in a perpetual state of absolutely zero movement. If you kept the servers and shuffled them around every week, it would still just be completely randomized victory. Pure luck depending on which color you are for the week.

Scoring is even harder since maps would have to dynamically close and open or it wouldnt be megaservers. We could do small time slices every 3h like EoTM and tally up the score at the end of a week, true. But that would really loose on of the main charms of WvW – a perpetual battlefield. WvW would become just large sPvP rounds where you only join to win that round.

Short of simply saying kitten it lets do EoTM for everything I honestly dont see how megaserver WvW would ever work in practice.

This would be a 1 world pvp zone that doesn’t have map copies… Think of it as a pvp server that draws players from all servers.

@Jayne

Let’s be civil here.

I have not claimed to speak for any developer, you obviously misread.

The devs designed a megaserver pvp zone that doesn’t suffer from the ongoing issues with wvw, so that’s where I drew part of my inspiration from…

Aezyr.5304:

Once in a moon he comes with another glorious idea….

Stick with EotM if you realy like that megaserver idea.

Yeah, it is glorious! Thanks!

I’m selflessly trying to make WvW great again for all of you. You’ll thank me later for it.

Seiroxena.6350:

I’m getting DDOS’ed with packets my network is about to explode when i’m doing well in sPvP. I require developpers admins and gamemasters to investigate my account.

How to deal with this ?

Thanks

Maybe you’re just too good and it’s breaking your network?

Phantom.8130:

Swagger, you’ve been pushing for megaservers since HoT came out, and countless people have said no, given numerous reasons why it wouldn’t work. Which you’ve blatantly ignored, while you’ve single mindedly pushed your agenda of turning WvW into the EotM that you love. WvW is not, nor should it ever be EotM 2.0. You can spew the same few lines of rhetoric all you want, but it doesn’t change that.

The server linking showed that people do still have server pride. While, yes, the bandwagon guilds that hop from server to server never had any, they’ve also been kitten to WvW as a whole, and should never be catered to. Catering to those bandwagoners, by killing off server communities, would be the biggest disaster WvW’s ever seen. If you thought things were empty in the Desert Borderland after HoT released, you’d quickly find out what empty really is when there aren’t enough players left to fill one tier worth of servers.

It’s a bad idea, that will kill WvW if implimented, and one that people (aside from server hopping bandwagon guilds) have been rejecting and will continue to reject. Let it go.

Now, moving on to the single map idea, that’s just plain not feasible. There are indeed technical limitations. The devs have already flat out stated that the maps are as large as they possibly can be already. They just plain can’t make them any larger. So that’s not going to work either.

Yup, because it’s an absolutely amazing idea that the devs came up with that has a tremendous amount of potential.

Server linking showed us that the devs will have to continue to manipulate servers and scoring. Every few months we will have various linking of random servers comprised of groups of people who came from other servers… Look at all the tranfers to tier 2 recently, hardly anyone gives a kitten about server pride, they want to fight, get rewards and win… Guarantee a ton of people will shift again as soon as the devs unlock transfers.

Again, I suggested an absolutely amazing idea, as per usual, that was inspired by the devs.

Ok, didn’t know. I also suggested having interconnected surface and underground maps, but you happened to miss that.

GW2 will always struggle on the pvp ends until profession and combat development are given priority, and the devs make balance separations between game modes.

X T D.6458:

Sardath.8524:

I can’t honestly understand how people cling to something like server pride, especially when you claim stuff for your guild. Not to mention the fact that it’s one of the most selfish things presented here. You’d rather have a name that you personally like, written somewhere, instead of others having meaningful battles around the clock. It’s just mind baffling.

The issue here is that Anet needs to add a real incentive for you to fight, especially in a megaserver context. It’s one of the things that ESO does better in WvW. If you have pride for your alliance it’s due to the story + awesome lore. If not, you still fight for real end game rewards + the chance of becoming the freaking emperor.

If they ever implement this megaserver thingy they should further incentivise guilds somehow(exclusive rewards for top guilds maybe), so people can invest their pride where it belongs.

When your part of an actual server community that can coordinate, communicate and enjoys working together you will understand.

We understand that the individual server models aren’t working… Shouldn’t this be obvious now that they are combining servers and manipulating the point systems?

X T D.6458:

No thanks, I don’t feel like playing taxi wars to be able to wvw, or to lose my connection to my server community and guild, or for wvw to have no purpose.

I should have specified. As mentioned, these would be big kitten maps with big kitten underground maps that will not require multiple versions. This would be 1 world.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Sorry – no. The reason being is that is what EotM is and it has no server pride or anything else involved. It is just mindless blob vs. blob. There is no strategy involved and I think that is what makes WvW .

If you want megaservers, play EotM, after all that is what you are asking for.

Actually I’m asking for an epic wvw where the place is “alive” and that pools all pvpers into a big space.

There are many issues with the current wvw model that will continue to get band aid fixes.

Players moving around shows there is less care for “server pride”. Whatever pride remains gets shifted to faction pride for the spoils of victory for individual players, their guild and faction.

There has to be a greater purpose than looking at points and chest thumping for a server, comprised of a bunch people who transferred from another server, to win by points on the board.

There also has to be a wvw where efforts and contributions are equal at any time of day or night.

WvW going forward now will be a system of the devs always tinkering with the scoring and interconnecting different servers every few months to keep things “balanced” because players are going to continue to hop all over…

Tournaments will always be “ok we are coordinating to stack here so we can win 500 tickets to buy a weapon this month”…

Arenanet is talented and creative enough to pull off a truly epic wvw experience if they devoted themselves to it.

Edit- And I don’t know about you people, but I’d rather have a WvW++ where I’m battling it out for loot and resources and badges… to make some kick kitten looking wvw legendary gears, have cool new stuff to drop in the guild bank for the scribes and to play at any time of day or night while progressing and contributing to my guild and faction.

I feel wvw has grown stale despite the recent changes and feel there will be too much manual manipulation needed by the devs going forward.

I feel the time has come to really shake up WvW.

The individual and alliance server models have clearly shown major flaws that can’t be fixed long term. Those flaws are…

1. Population balance issues. It will always exist under the current server based model.

*Hopefully these suggestions mean less linking work over time.

2. Scoring issues. Peak vs off peak scoring will always have problems. The current scoring system also leads to stacking on winning sides and demotivates the losing side from playing.

*Scoring changes are on the radar, and can still be used, but maybe these changes can have a good impact as well.

3. #1 and #2 make for unhealthy tournaments because players shift servers and matches become predictable.

*I feel it would be best for the long run to have developers balance “things” for 3 sides instead of needing to manage many different match ups.

This is a model that I feel will work best long term…

1. Have Mist “islands” or series of interconnected maps like we have in pve. All maps pool players from their assigned server color side.

2. World vs World vs World should feel like (excuse the wording, but I think it fits) Living World vs Living World vs Living World to fight over. Think of this in terms of having a WvW that’s full of “life”, objectives, events, special events and stories like in pve, epic monsters and creatures and npcs roaming the lands, unique champions and their minions that spawn to defend structures when players are not present to do so, unique resources to loot and gather to craft unique personal gear and guild stuff… Essentially, create a place with all the bells and whistles to make a truly epic pvp experience.

Having something like this offers gameplay styles for everyone and is more engaging. Meaningful personal and guild rewards can be achieved through playing at your pace. The shift goes from fighting for server PPT to earn tournaments scraps, to fighting for a “living and breathing” world that grows and evolves.

I understand that the EU will have some language barriers, but I feel that something like this could work well anyway.

Edit- This is the way I see it… Currently wvw and eotm are not epic enough. I personally feel their designs are outdated now. The Mists provide an opportunity to create new races, creatures, stories, events, tons of stuff… that won’t step on any GW lore.

Edit 2- The expanded suggestion…

Ok, I’ve put more thought into this suggestion and I’d like to present the following for the community to discuss. I’m going to take existing elements in game to build a better pvp zone space and experience… I don’t mean “space” as in a few maps where we watch points on the screen and need the devs to completely manipulate servers and scoring like we have going on now. I’m talking about a 1 “world” Mist War pvp place that feels “alive”, keeps players interested for the long term and hopefully improves participation rates.

Read through it. Think about it. Add to these framework ideas if you have any. Share constructive thoughts, not negative or disruptive comments.

The goals of these suggestion…

*To pool players from all servers into one big playground and create an epic 3 sided faction war.

*To encourage all types of players to get involved.

*To cater to different play styles.

*To provide a place where all players can contribute to their side in many ways despite possible queues.

*To make “scoring” more about personal and guild rewards instead, and placement means reward pace.

*To make WvW into a “living” WvW experience that receives closer to equal amounts of attention from the developers. I’ll be honest here and say that it is bothersome that PvE receives the majority of developers attention, while the PvP sides and profession development gets the short end of the stick.

*To make a space that both developers and players care more about.

Imagine a WvW like this…

PvP Maps

These maps are the “No PvE” zones that remain conducive to quality open space mass pvp.

*1 Eternal Battlegrounds.

*1 Alpine Borderland.

*1 revamped Desert Borderland.

*1 new Arctic Borderland.

*1 Edge of the Mists.

New PvP maps

These would be the EotM factions inspired borderland maps.

*1 expanded Badlands Borderland with a castle.

*1 expanded Frostreach Borderland with a castle.

*1 expanded Overgrowth Borderland with a castle.

Guild Wars inspired PvP/PvE Maps

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/The_Mists

Let’s call these “Hot Zones” (for this discussion) that draw elements from GW lore. Players can play and fight here as normal, and these maps are host to meta events as well. WvW wide alerts can be given to indicate a meta event will occur.

The main goal of these maps is to provide a good place for solo and small groups of players. I would like these maps to be more event and open area capture point based, and less structure capture based.

Homeland PvE maps

I’d like to take npcs and factions from EotM and WvW and expand on them. Let’s give them a purpose for their existence in the Mists, an open world story for players to go through and a compelling reason for players to be fighting the Mist War with them.

These homeland maps would be the entry zones for WvW depending on the color side you are on. From here you can portal to other maps. These homeland maps do not have to be just 1 map for each side, multiple smaller maps could be used as well or added later.

*Enemy players cannot enter opposing sides PvE homelands.

*These maps are treated and played like any Tyria PvE maps.

*Players are not forced into other types of WvW maps, they are only encouraged by rewards.

General “Stuff” for Maps

*I’d like to see underground maps and areas utilized more in the Mists. Homelands and Hot Zones would be great for this.

*Add tunnel systems, like in EotM, to various maps for strategic use and map travel.

*It would be great to have a cohesive story and consistent groups of npcs for each faction across all maps.

Map Copies

Ideally I’m looking to create 1 Mist “world”, but feel the PvE maps would need to use the map copy function.

Maps Recap

8 PvP maps (EB, AB, DB, Arctic B, EotM, BB, FB, OB) with 4 castles in total (EB, BB, FB, OB).

X number of PvP/PvE Hot Zone meta event maps that draw from Guild Wars lore.

3 PvE Homeland maps.

Scoring system and rewards

I’m going to try to bring up a basic outline of scoring and rewards. I feel the ideal scoring system would have more of an emphasis on reward pace, not just about 1st, 2nd and 3rd place rewards. To do this, I’d like to see a tiered reward vendor system (similar to Dry Top) based off of “war score”. Tiers would either scale up in quality for purchasable goods and rewards, or lower in cost for purchasable goods and rewards. Badges of Honor and gold are used as currency to purchase items.

*ALL maps contribute to the Mist War score total for each side. Yes ALL. The purpose behind this is to have all players contribute to the war effort in the way they feel comfortable.

*Personal reward tracks remain in place.

*Loot as normal from player kills, npc kills, events and capturing objectives.

*All maps have unique crafting materials to gather, and these materials are only found in the Mists. They are used to craft specialized Mist War gears, new guild stuff and used as a component in any new crafted items introduced to the game so they become part of the global economy.

Tournaments and Match Rotation

I’m not sure we need tournaments in the traditional sense, we could have “campaigns” every couple months for 2 weeks instead. Weekly rotations would still occur outside of “campaigns”.

*During these 2 week “campaigns” players could earn double rank points and double reward track points to improve participation.

*1st, 2nd and 3rd place rewards are given to players that complete repeatable “campaign” achievements.

*At the end of “campaigns” we can reevaluate and change linking if need be. Scoring as well.

Castles

I feel it would be a great change to have multiple capture points to castles. This would require some changes to EB, but feel it’s worth it.

I’d like to see more reasons to take and hold castles. Perhaps gaining access to unique armor, weapon and back piece skin vendors per castle. Huge bonuses to magic find while held by your side. Increased badges of honor per player kill… Stuff that doesn’t give an advantage during combat.

Unbalanced Populations

Currently the devs are attempting to balance populations through “linking”, but I feel it’s a lot more work than needed under the current segregated WvW design. I’m assuming it would be a bit easier in the long run to balance 3 sides total instead of multiple different match ups. I think the 1 “world” and 3 sided designs would provide more population stability overall for everyone, but if things become unbalanced then a few individual servers could be shuffled.

Outnumbered Buffs

Maps will always have population disparities at different times due to human and time factors. To support outnumbered sides on individual maps I’d like to see this…

*Any side that is outnumbered gets a bit of extra help from their homeland faction. Have an additional Champion, with tough minions, spawn to help protect structures.

New Races

The Mists provide a great platform to do many things without breaking Tyria lore. I believe that new playable races like Tengu (seen in DB), Kodan (in EotM) and Dwarves (need to make a comeback or I’m quitting forever)… could easily be added in flawlessly.

I originally had the Homeland PvE zones as starting points for races, but I changed it because weekly rotations add limits. However, there could be neutral PvE maps for this to happen.

I’ll update this more so expect some edits.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts?

*Anyone good at making maps?

Yup. This cc system works better for pve, not pvp.

Anet is aware, they just need to act on it. Hopefully with the renewed effort for wvw this will be a priority to work on for pvp modes.

DoctorDing.5890:

Auto-follow would be a great feature for bots…

Sure, but it could be disabled in open world pve so it’s not an issue.

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

At 0 range?

Seems like you are willing to eat any and all damage…

I’m trying to remember most ranges:

180 melee range for most melee(, mostly cleaving weapons)
240 field radius AOE fields (marks/wells/feedback) tend to extend to this range
360 field radius for large area fields: (timewarp/meteor shower (meteors themselves 180))
400 “melee” elementalist dagger auto (Ill try to be between 360 and 400 most of the time. only moving in for combo’s/ special skills)
600 “melee” guardian staff auto, a.k.a. lootstick range
900 scepters and “limited range long range weapons”
1200 classic max long range weapons staves, longbow, rifles
1500 engineer mortars and traited ranger longbows
2000 some attack skills allow 2000 range (e.g. charzooka’s at Claw of Jormag)
5000 max range of mesmer portal

Ok, melee has to be in melee range to hit correct?

You still have full control over your character, it just helps you stay on target as they move. You can still dodge, move, side step… whatever… It can be broken in different ways like losing sight or your enemy going invis or pressing a single key.

Watch the first video I provided earlier and you will see at times when the character zones into the other then makes an attack… There are manual movements, but that Tank character is also using auto tracking/following with a simple press of a button to hone in on the target.

See how pets follow and try stick on the target to attack? That’s the exact same auto follow movement function. So for example, instead of the run function in game that makes you run in a line, run could be designed to follow your target instead.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

-Auto follow target combat assist. This will make melee combat far far far more user friendly and enjoyable.

I’m also curious about this one. Can you elaborate? Do you mean when you target something, your toon literally runs after it? Or something else?

There are other games that use auto follow and I’ll elaborate with an example…

Press “R” and you run toward your target. Press “R” again to stop following target.

Ah. I see what you mean. But it sounds a little hazardous. Running straight towards something is the surest way to get killed.

You still have full control over your character, but it just assists to stick on target and particularly helpful in melee combat situations.

I’m just having trouble envisioning it. If you press “R” to run towards your target, how close does your toon run to the target?

Target enemy.

Press “R” and you run up to target.

You start smashing your target’s pixelated face with your pixelated hammer.

Your target dodge rolls to the side.

Your character automatically turns to face the target and automatically follows and you continue to smash pixelated face…

…It’s an automated follow system that tracks your target so you can focus more on attacks. You still have full control over your characters movements. You can break the tracking at any point. Your auto follow can break under certain conditions like losing sight or they go into stealth.

It’s been a common feature in mmo games since ancient mmo times.

Yes… but how close does your toon run to the target? 300 units? 600? 1200? Does it depend on what weapon they’re wielding?

I haven’t played any other mmos, so I’m not familiar with this feature.

Basically you get right next to the character and are in melee range, so 0 units.

Yes, the follow function works with any weapon.

Ok I gotcha. The auto follow is a very nice qol tool for movement based combat to help stay on your target.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

-Auto follow target combat assist. This will make melee combat far far far more user friendly and enjoyable.

I’m also curious about this one. Can you elaborate? Do you mean when you target something, your toon literally runs after it? Or something else?

There are other games that use auto follow and I’ll elaborate with an example…

Press “R” and you run toward your target. Press “R” again to stop following target.

Ah. I see what you mean. But it sounds a little hazardous. Running straight towards something is the surest way to get killed.

You still have full control over your character, but it just assists to stick on target and particularly helpful in melee combat situations.

I’m just having trouble envisioning it. If you press “R” to run towards your target, how close does your toon run to the target?

Target enemy.

Press “R” and you run up to target.

You start smashing your target’s pixelated face with your pixelated hammer.

Your target dodge rolls to the side.

Your character automatically turns to face the target and automatically follows and you continue to smash pixelated face…

…It’s an automated follow system that tracks your target so you can focus more on attacks. You still have full control over your characters movements. You can break the tracking at any point. Your auto follow can break under certain conditions like losing sight or they go into stealth.

It’s been a common feature in mmo games since ancient mmo times.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

-Auto follow target combat assist. This will make melee combat far far far more user friendly and enjoyable.

I’m also curious about this one. Can you elaborate? Do you mean when you target something, your toon literally runs after it? Or something else?

There are other games that use auto follow and I’ll elaborate with an example…

Press “R” and you run toward your target. Press “R” again to stop following target.

Ah. I see what you mean. But it sounds a little hazardous. Running straight towards something is the surest way to get killed.

You still have full control over your character, but it just assists to stick on target and particularly helpful in melee combat situations.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Swagger.1459:

-Auto follow target combat assist. This will make melee combat far far far more user friendly and enjoyable.

I’m also curious about this one. Can you elaborate? Do you mean when you target something, your toon literally runs after it? Or something else?

There are other games that use auto follow and I’ll elaborate with an example…

Press “R” and you run toward your target. Press “R” again to stop following target.