Guild Wars 2

What We Learnt:

1) Efficient Use of resources

WvW is really much more forgiving when you have numbers. You can dump tons of siege at non optimal position and still win the battle. However, when you have diminished numbers, every siege placement, every supply and every player counts. With a smaller force, you have to maximize the leverage of every advantage you have and any slight mistake will mean a failure to take an impt objective. With the lesser numbers, the differences between WvW veterans and casuals become apparent. Veterans always make sure they have supplies all the time and make use of siege, while casuals tend to run around without supplies, spend their time shooting at doors and dueling the enemies in general. A full siege arsenal for defending and attacking now takes 3 times the time needed as veterans run for supplies, leaving the less experienced casuals to guard the holdings. When facing against a superior Zerg, every seconds count and that means efficient use of resources is paramount in fighting a larger enemy with lesser force. We need to train up our less experience casuals to replace the experienced veterans who left for other servers

2) Taking initiatives

Commanders are having problems putting teams together with the lesser numbers. As we need to spread our more experienced people around for various task, the efficiency of various teams diminished as the casuals tend not to take initiatives to do the boring stuff. There are calls for focus elementalists, supply flipping thieves task force, Dolyak escorts and supply camp defence. Commanders made multiple calls and few casuals turn up to help. Take for example of defending a Treb. Enemies will set up a counter treb pretty fast and whoever can get the shielding team up the fastest will win the treb war. Every second counts. However, despite multiple calls by the trebbing commander for help, no casuals came forward to help and the rest of the veteran elementalists cannot afford to leave their positions. We need to help our people understanding the need to take initiatives to do the boring things, which matters a lot in the war effort.

3) Coordinated flanking and portal bomb

This is one thing that we learn from KN. They are very strategic with their portal bombs and getting a squad to flank the main force to trick them thinking that the enemies have more numbers than us. Even with a fight with even numbers, our main zerg tends to retreat once they are flanked, even though the numbers are even. Commanders have taken a page off this strategy and starting to implement them against KN

The following narration is based on personal observation. Actual incidents may defer from this written account. Afterall, I am just a KoME CD War reporter who only sees one side of the picture! All the timing is based on Asian +8GMT timing.

26th Jan 2012. 9am (5pm Server Time): KoME has gathered in masses, ready to jump into the new tier fight with YakBend and Kaineng. We know that this will not be an easy fight, and probably, a stomping from Kaineng but 40 of us gathered.

10am: The fight kicks off, we have queues on 3 borderland with the exception of Yak Bend. The combine force of the Asian/Oceanics/NA players from CD managed to fight on even ground. Kaineng doesn’t sound look intimidating in the face of our numbers. The fight comes to a standstill

12pm: Asian players start logging off as we go about our Saturday business. Meeting girlfriends, spending time with families and catching up with friends (Yes, We have real life outside GW2!) and the areas held by Asian/Oceanic guilds start to lose ground.
4pm: We have lost our entire holdings in CD,YB and KN borderlands. EB is still standing as the NA players held their ground there. But their numbers are dwindling as many logged off for the night.

7pm: KN held the entire 4 maps. Asians/Oceanic players started to login. We made ineffective push in a highly predictable manner. Doing the breakout event, Capping Northmost Supply Titan Paw. By than KN players are so bored that they jump to any green icon almost immediately.

10pm: CD commanders decided to lull the KN into complacency by having a party at CD Spawn. We were feasting, getting drunk and cursing all those guilds who used to pledge, “Ever dying Loyalty” to the server.

11pm: We seige up Titan Paw, flip the camp and promptly went into hiding. The KN Raiding Party came. We wipe them. This process continued for an hour until the Raid party numbers diminished, as they get bored of being farmed on while taking such a minor objective.

12am: The NA servers logged in. The combine Asian/Oceanic/NA force now has enough people to take on KN. KN is pretty complacent and probably bored to death now. We split our forces into 2 one taking on Hill’s Keep and another force into the much better guarded Garrison.

1am: We took KN by surprised by taking over the Hills and most of the southern towers. We got back both our breakout towers and got into the inner Garrison. Reinforcements from KN arrived from all the borderlands (They are probably as bored and hoping for some action). There is a queue in CDBL. YB seems to have given up. KN turn their entire 4 map might on us.

3am: Asian/Oceanic players started to log off for a well deserved rest. We started to lose our holdings as the NA players valiantly try to defend them with much lesser numbers. We were finally overwhelmed and fell back to flipping camps and towers for the amusements of KN players. YB seems still to be PvEing. Unless they are partying at their borderland spawn like us, waiting for an opportunity, they probably has given up.

Titan.3472:

Well I expected DB/Kaineng/YB but well… CD lost from not a large margin. This matchup is special for me as I started the game in YB and leveled and wvw in CD. Just transfered in Kaineng last week. I will be only on Kaineng BL to defend it then.
What is sure, is my dear friends from CD, whatever is the score I invite all the wvw guilds from both YB and CD to join Kaineng NEO alliance before the free transfer closure. Lets gather our strenght on Kaineng to go top tier T1. Already we went from high pop server to very high in less than 24 hours. Warmachine, some SoS guilds, some old Titan Alliance players and guilds, lots of skilled players and commanders… yes Kaineng is THE PLACE TO BE. We need your talent and coverage to make Kaineng the new T1 server for very long. At the moment I know it can reach T2 with no problem. But all want to be in T1 to proove all that this server is the Official wvw player base dedicated that could gather bests talents and guilds.
By the end of week please consider coming to us to go further and together in tiers.
Neo Alliance is in exponential growth. I wish to see you in our server soon.
Good luck and good fight to everyone. Lets make this week be great.
YB’s and CD’s I love you all. And to the guilds from CD that moved to any random server I am just telling that Titan War [LORD] is in Kaineng. Prince Jarvan my friend is also with his huge guild [RISE]. My wish would be that all guilds from our past alliance fall back all together to reinforce NEO and go to the TOP in no time.

Much love and respect.

Titan War.

Hi Titan,

On behalf of KoME, your message was relayed to the whole guild via guild chat. Some of the responses are rather… colorful.. But out of respect of your pass contributions to CD, I have watered down some of the remarks:

From my Guild Leader:
" If you are so weakminded and cannot even stand 1 defeat, how can we trust your leadership to lead the CD who transferred over to T1?"

From Various Commanders and Members:
" Thank God, our guild got more backbone than that."
" I rather be T4 and below than be a sell-out."
" If you want to go T1, why not just transfer to a T1 server?"

Training to be soldier
Fight for our land
Once in our life
1 week of our time

Have you ever wondered?
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land
And we want it to be free to be free yeah

Looking all around LA
People everywhere
PvEers having fun
While we are getting broke

Have you ever wondered?
Why must we serve?
Because we love our land
And we want it to be free to be free YEAH!

Altie.4571:

You can’t say “never give up” in a “give up” post!

You should be thrown to the Maguuma trolls.

Come on. Sir tryce did contribute a lot to CD during his time. We should wish him well. Take it that you are seeing a hardworking colleague who has resigned and went on to another company with better pay and career progression. At least he took the effort to come to forum to wish us well, as compared to those who left without even saying farewell.

You may take our keeps and torch our camps
You may kill our people and slaughter our dolyaks
You may bribe our people and spread deadly rumors

But you will not take our pride and our the desire to defend our land
We will continuously fling our bodies at the walls of you keep
Running into your Zerg naked and broken swinging swords and throwing bombs
Turn our country into red and blue, but we will reclaim our lost lands when you are complacent.

Inspired from our CD fight back battle just moments ago.

And we are only 2 threads away from the record breaking 1000 reply thread! Let’s Make history! Come and post in the forum!!

Espybuns.1890:

shanmugong.6750:

What you believe it to be rationale and in their best interest, may deem to be ridiculous by others. Have you ever wondered that these people who talks about server loyalty actually believes in that and place that of higher importance than self interest or personal fun? To us, they may be pretentious, but to them, it may be a life and death issue. If we all take a step back and thing from another person’s shoe, perhaps we can create a better community. Well, that is difficult as we can’t even claim that we can understand our girlfriends or our wives well.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, though I may have worded it too harshly and my point may not have been emphasised enough. Dishonesty with one’s self is just ugly, though if one is pure of heart then I have no qualms (until the preaching begins)!

Somehow I feel like this conversation is starting to go completely offtrack.

I want Maguuma to kitten me in the kitten at reset.

Nay, it is a good conversation. A refreshing change from all the mud slInging.

Btw. Great golem rush from FA on the EB CD keep. We spotted your golems and we were running ard looking for it. Where did you hide them?

Now we are red and blue again on every map. Oh boy. Another long night of clawing back our holdings.

Deathdom.8250:

Altie.4571:

great, 11 of us now!

I make 12 and we could add these people in as well. http://nerdpickles.com/?page_id=13

OMG! What a great website! /bow

Espybuns.1890:

ryan.3915:

Espybuns.1890:

Is there something I’m missing about the whole notion of “server loyalty”? Why does the term hold any value? A server is simply a server; shouldn’t that loyalty be directed to the friends you have on that server instead? If your fun is being compromised by staying on a particular server—or you feel that more enjoyment could be had elsewhere—then for what reason do you have to remain apart from your friends?

Speak to them; convince them that it’s just a bullkitten concept. We paid money for the game; you shouldn’t feel like a certain fallacy should prevent you from enjoying it as much as you should. In the end, it’s quite possible that this meaningless pride is just going to be detrimental in the long run.

Server loyalty is a strange thing. Every one has a choice if they want to leave, and they may feel that their goals differ and they wish to find more like-minded people.

For me, I’ve gotten used to the community, not just WvW but also in PvE. I like seeing the familiar guilds and my guildies around. It’s more meaningful for me to advance with people I’ve come to know and respect.

As long as they stay, I have a reason to continue in Crystal Dessert.

As long as you truly mean it, these are good reasons.

My difference of opinion lies with those who utilise the concept of pride and loyalty as a pretense for remaining on a particular server, despite it not being in the individual’s best interests when the decision is thought about rationally. It’s self-deceiving and ostentatious; when they begin to lay down the guilt trip, it becomes nauseating too. </quote>

My friend, humans are not rationale. That is why we have conflicts and people blowing themselves up leaving behind widows and orphans for a cause which may see no light. People get overdosed in drugs or play too much guild wars (guilty as charged) despite it is not in their best interest. What you believe it to be rationale and in their best interest, may deem to be ridiculous by others. Have you ever wondered that these people who talks about server loyalty actually believes in that and place that of higher importance than self interest or personal fun? To us, they may be pretentious, but to them, it may be a life and death issue. If we all take a step back and thing from another person’s shoe, perhaps we can create a better community. Well, that is difficult as we can’t even claim that we can understand our girlfriends or our wives well.

Go/stay where you think you will enjoy the game the most. If your server is dying and WvW is getting boring, then do something about it, even if it ultimately leads to the decision of transferring off.

This I agree with you. If something is wrong with your life, do something about it. Don’t just QQ kittens about it and do nothing and sit on your butt waiting for things to happen.

To my fellow CD warriors,

Guys, this is the reality of life. People stay together because their self interest is align but they will leave when that is no longer true. Look at all the countries who used to be bitter enemies now claim to be the best of friends. We should wish them well with a smile because they may be going to a better place. What is the best for us may not be the best for them. There are things that can it be controlled or changed, no matter how we wish it to be. We can only do what we can do within our own means.

Encourage ur own guild members to turn up for WvW. Organize training and improve guild proficiency in WvW. When we ourselves can do good, people will gravitate to us and join our cause. I can only say that for KoME, we fight because we love the fight, whether we are overmanned or undermanned.

Yesterday night (Asian timing) we logged in to see our eb blue and red with a sea of FA standing in front of our keep, while another group of DB occupying our towers. We have no supply camps and our cdbl is totally red at that pt of time. The only thing standing is the green keep in the enitre 4 maps. The keep has a total of 7 breaches but thanks to the combine effort of the CD server, we managed to repelled both FA and DB. We spend the rest of the night defending our holdings and doing supply runs to fix the ruin keep and being a pest to DB and FA. However, Many people agree that this is one of the best battle we have ever seen for a long time.

We love WvW for moments like this. Status and points are an extra perk for doing the things we love.

Look forward in seeing such good fights in the future.

Gismor.8407:

FA:
I’m Gismor/Sir Tryce, WvW coordinator for Last Words [LW]. I, along with Donn from GoF, were the ones who took your Hills. No, we didn’t glitch, we had a mesmer planted in there, guild tag GoF. That guy that you have the picture of was not the one that enabled us to get Hills.

I also just want to compliment FA on quick reaction times. We took couple hours and many attempts just to snag the Hills, and we FINALLY did it. I think we managed to actually contest your Keep so you couldn’t mass wp on us and wipe us. xD

Many epic fights, and I’m loving this matchup!

-Gismor/Sir Tryce [LW]

Great job guys! Supporting you guys spiritually from the desk in my office.

ryan.3915:

I log on, and there’s 10-12 of us vs 2 massive forces of 30-50 (hard to tell with summons/illusions and pets) and I can see a number of people thinking it’s pointless.

So off I go pve. I prefer WvW when the 3 servers have scores between 200-300. Even playing against TC, I don’t remember round the clock coverage this strong. We at least had a fighting chance during Asian primetime.

Will sit it out until FA goes to tier 2/1 where they belong for their size now.

I’ve noticed that our Asian/Oceanic WvW presence has dwindled down, to the point where the NA presence seems stronger. I suspect a combination of factors:

- Some have gotten bored with the game and would only come on when there are special events.
- School has started.
- Chinese New Year is around the corner. There’s lots of preparation to be done, spring cleaning what-not.
- Ungrateful pugs who insult commanders, but don’t bother to spring for upgrades/ siege.

This
Ungrateful pugs who insult commanders, but don’t bother to spring for upgrades/ siege

And some unknown commanders who insulted veteran commanders

Our guild leaders have to send some of our commanders to southcove for a holiday and let them vent their frustrations on karkas.

KoME fielded ard 30 warriors at eb last night. We are fighting with an outmanned buff all the time. Nearly managed to ninja smc thanks to Titan but some over enthusiastic pugs went ahead and chop up the sentries creating a big orange x on our heads.

Good times. Reminds me of the times we were against TC. Build character.

Elixir x is actually pretty good if you actually take time to understand how the both modes work. It can be used as an offensive, defensive and escape tool. 900 hours engineer here.

Hail fellow engies!

The idea of a line of turrets is simply making me shiver!

It’s sad that there is so few hardcore engies even within my guild to carry out such a feat!

At the CD server now, I doubt I can join you guys in FA, but I look forward in seeing mass tornadoes and turrets in the fields of WvW. Let’s steal the limelight from all those bands of roving thieves & warriors, unkillable elementalist and portal spamming mesmers.

Love the winter’s day music. I just stand at LA and let it play at the background while I do my usual work on another PC. The best event so far. Love the griffon and Foostivoo. Keep up the good work Anet!!

CD player here

Loved the idea of the doly walk. Would have joined the walk if not for the timing of the event when most of the oceanic players are rushing off to work in the morning. I am pleasantly surprised how such a parade can take place with all the intense rivalry all week. I only get to read about the coverage the the happenings on the forum from my office. Kudos to those that took time off to join in the parade.

Shanmugong from Kome

Missed the final event. Invite me pls! shanmugong . US Server