WvW Thoughts

[Ingmar]

That's not what they're talking about really. They're talking about night capping in empty frontiers, which is the only reason Henge is "dominant." During prime time WvW is hardly PvDoor. There are players to fight everywhere.

[Nebu]

That's not what they're talking about really. They're talking about night capping in empty frontiers, which is the only reason Henge is "dominant." During prime time WvW is hardly PvDoor. There are players to fight everywhere.

I get your point.  Perhaps my experience was colored by the fact that I was playing WvW heavily in the first month.  When you could get past the queue, it seemed that the action was at keeps far more than in open territory.  Keep fights are pretty dull affairs. 

[Threash]

During the first month people could barely afford the amount of siege weapons required to get through doors in a timely manner.  Fights are still almost always at keeps, the most open it gets is at supply camps.  Two large groups meeting in the field almost never happens.

[Ingmar]

Yeah the lack of siege made early fights a serious slog. Really that's the main thing that makes me laugh about the LATER GUYS WE WON GW2 post from TA, they're basically patting themselves on the back for being organized before the game started, and ditching it just as everyone else is getting to be rich/leveled enough to compete.

[Fordel]

No competition, so better leave before it shows up.

[Genev]

That's not what they're talking about really. They're talking about night capping in empty frontiers, which is the only reason Henge is "dominant." During prime time WvW is hardly PvDoor. There are players to fight everywhere.

I get your point.  Perhaps my experience was colored by the fact that I was playing WvW heavily in the first month.  When you could get past the queue, it seemed that the action was at keeps far more than in open territory.  Keep fights are pretty dull affairs. 

Keep fights are awesome if you're with an organised group.
With the zerg... yeah, ok, i see your point, but running with an organised group makes it all good, being on TS together and working together... :D

[satael]

Yeah the lack of siege made early fights a serious slog. Really that's the main thing that makes me laugh about the LATER GUYS WE WON GW2 post from TA, they're basically patting themselves on the back for being organized before the game started, and ditching it just as everyone else is getting to be rich/leveled enough to compete.

As far as I know only 2 guilds of those who were part of TA actually left the game. Rest are still playing either on HOD or on some other server despite Titan Alliance ceasing to exist. TA was only one of the so called alliances to pop up before the game started though most of those seem to have fizzled out (some even before the game actually released). TA just had the organization/luck to become the alliance perceived to be at the top for the first month of the game.

[Dark_MadMax]

As far as I know only 2 guilds of those who were part of TA actually left the game. Rest are still playing either on HOD or on some other server despite Titan Alliance ceasing to exist. TA was only one of the so called alliances to pop up before the game started though most of those seem to have fizzled out (some even before the game actually released). TA just had the organization/luck to become the alliance perceived to be at the top for the first month of the game.

Perceived? They were unbeaten . The organization efforts that went into TA fully paid off in terms of victory. No one beat them even when they had 2 on 1 effort.  But most players also burnt out of www. - long queues,  stale matches.  TA already did  what they wanted - get "champion of www" title.

With most MMOs being "3 monthers" (and gw2 turning out to be not an exception) that as much one could ever hope to achieve.  Who knows maybe they will fix www eventually , but as of now - its done and done. WwW has been won, no one cares about it either

[Threash]

Kicking ass the first month after launch is lame as it possibly gets.  If they had pulled it off for at least a year they mighta been able to claim some kind of victory.

[Dark_MadMax]

Kicking ass the first month after launch is lame as it possibly gets.  If they had pulled it off for at least a year they mighta been able to claim some kind of victory.

First month is possibly the only time anyone cares about it. 1 year later no one gives any fcks about the game at all ,let alone about www part

[satael]

As far as I know only 2 guilds of those who were part of TA actually left the game. Rest are still playing either on HOD or on some other server despite Titan Alliance ceasing to exist. TA was only one of the so called alliances to pop up before the game started though most of those seem to have fizzled out (some even before the game actually released). TA just had the organization/luck to become the alliance perceived to be at the top for the first month of the game.

Perceived? They were unbeaten . The organization efforts that went into TA fully paid off in terms of victory. No one beat them even when they had 2 on 1 effort.  But most players also burnt out of www. - long queues,  stale matches.  TA already did  what they wanted - get "champion of www" title.

With most MMOs being "3 monthers" (and gw2 turning out to be not an exception) that as much one could ever hope to achieve.  Who knows maybe they will fix www eventually , but as of now - its done and done. WwW has been won, no one cares about it either

The perception part is more about how big part TA was compared to the rest of the server. No matter how big (realistically) the alliance it can't cover all the wvw maps all the time.

[Dark_MadMax]

The perception part is more about how big part TA was compared to the rest of the server. No matter how big (realistically) the alliance it can't cover all the wvw maps all the time.

well .... it did. I been in a  guild who one of the founding members of TA. Every map had their primary guilds assigned for each timeframe. And they were there

[Kageru]

The amount of chest beating that comes out of PvP guilds is amazing.

[Threash]

Kicking ass the first month after launch is lame as it possibly gets.  If they had pulled it off for at least a year they mighta been able to claim some kind of victory.

First month is possibly the only time anyone cares about it. 1 year later no one gives any fcks about the game at all ,let alone about www part

The first month nobody knows what the hell they are doing, most people are busy leveling up and the matching system was not even on for the majority of it.

[Ingmar]

As far as I know only 2 guilds of those who were part of TA actually left the game. Rest are still playing either on HOD or on some other server despite Titan Alliance ceasing to exist. TA was only one of the so called alliances to pop up before the game started though most of those seem to have fizzled out (some even before the game actually released). TA just had the organization/luck to become the alliance perceived to be at the top for the first month of the game.

Perceived? They were unbeaten . The organization efforts that went into TA fully paid off in terms of victory. No one beat them even when they had 2 on 1 effort.  But most players also burnt out of www. - long queues,  stale matches.  TA already did  what they wanted - get "champion of www" title.

With most MMOs being "3 monthers" (and gw2 turning out to be not an exception) that as much one could ever hope to achieve.  Who knows maybe they will fix www eventually , but as of now - its done and done. WwW has been won, no one cares about it either

They aren't champion of shit. Do it again in 6 months when everyone has their act together, then maybe.

[Tmon]

It does kind of seem like they are bragging about having the best record in the preseason. 

[rk47]

It's kinda hard to put into words, but I don't feel any ownership in the World versus World stage.
There's literally nothing at stake here. At least I came into WAR RvR knowing what to expect and why do we fight, while GW2 came across as ...uh.. 'Here's a place where you can perform large warband combat. Come join us for fun large scale PvP!'

I liked Alterac Valley enough because there's tangible rewards and it was quite playable (less model load lag etc). It took a lot of patches to remove the dead lock situations, but in general the fights were pretty involving and I kinda did it for the rewards.

WAR RvR too gave tangible rewards in terms of RvR gear unlocks and chest from taking down keeps. Although server failure puts the Capital Sieges on 'fail' - I enjoyed leveling from their form of 'sPvP' and spending fun times in the open warfare.

I can't say the same about GW2. It failed to involve me and I see felt no incentive to join my guild in my support guardian cause I'll just be healing and healing and healing and healing for not much of tangible reward (aside from monthly quote of WvW kills I guess) at most I'll be just trying to 100% explore and do some karma farms to hit that 65k for one piece I want. And answer dungeon invites if there's any for tokens.

[Genev]

Actually, guardians are quite useful beyond healing.
A few guardians can hold a breached door for a long time using a concerted effort with Line of Warding, our Guardians also had tons of fun when it was a 3way and the other 2 servers were facing each other by angling reflection wall between the 2 groups, etc
Together with Mesmers, Guardians are the most useful in an organised group

[Spiff]

The 'invisible enemies' bug(s?) have reached an almost unplayable level since last patch, to the point where people just aren't appearing at all even if I'm standing next to them for minutes.
Having asked around, seems a lot of people are experiencing it intermittently.
They wanted massive combat and combat that is quick, reactive and revolved around visual queues; these problems are hitting them hard and atm they are flailing.

When it's playable though I'm still getting some fun out of WvW.
It's open world-ish pvp and I've been jonesing for that for a long time now, but I get what you're saying about feeling detached from it.
The meta layer still feels quite empty atm and there is just little to no personal gain for holding/taking keeps specifically (you just get the same generic karma/gold as you do for anything else, and seeing my server's current points go up a tiny bit doesn't really move me).

I've mostly shied away from the bigger battles at keeps and towers, instead just roaming around a bit taking out supplies and people trying to reinforce the zergs.
There have been a few very fun 'orb raids' as well, when there's no clowns trying to bug it out those are cool.
It's been good fun, but it's not something that'll keep me regularly logging on for months on end.

[Genev]

Up against Blacktide at the moment, first time where i actually see dodgy stuff happening... orb resetting and within seconds appearing in the Garrison, heard the Bay got capped when it shouldnt have been possible (i wasnt there, but this isnt coming from guys who scream "Hacks" at the least sign...), etc
We're winning in points at the moment, but they might actually catch us up because of their early morning team + dodgy stuff.
The Early morning thing is normally quite beatable, easier than late night since they got less time, but for some reason nobody is around today o.O

[sachiel]

Sucks they pull this crap when JQ is leading over #1 Henge at the moment.

[Ingmar]

Or maybe that's why. 

[sachiel]

Or maybe that's why. 

$10 Henge gets a culling exemption as a "test server" because it's the most wvw active... Devs play henge, calling it now.

[Fordel]

I want to say Devs actually DO play on all the top servers, a few of them openly.

[Venkman]

Wasn't sure where to put their new sPvP article


Can see their logic at face value; however, went unsaid might be that these are also the first players likely to pay with gems and therefore potentially with $$ to e-Sport. And I can't fault them for that either. We all needz some folks to be paying lots so we can get more content

[MediumHigh]

Milking the hardcore   

Still waiting for team death match to care   

[KallDrexx]

The fact that they are adding rentable private "servers" before adding proper guild vs guild is pretty O.o

*edit* also the fact that they prioritize rentable private servers over leaderboards.....

[Threash]

Still waiting for team death match to care   

Ditto, which is surprising since it was in GW1.

[MediumHigh]

Still waiting for team death match to care   

Ditto, which is surprising since it was in GW1.

And ArenaNet regretted having it every day since.

[Genev]

Eeeeh, sounds awesome!

Pity my guild is really WvW focused and its not always easy to try and get people to do different stuff, we've finally managed to cobble some people together for regular dungeons on the less busy WvW nights, if i also have to find the people and a free night for tournaments....

[Crumbs]

As the name implies, paid automated tournaments have an entry fee. You’ll need tickets to enter a paid tournament, which you can purchase in the gem store...

...Yes, you read that correctly: you can win gems in paid tournaments. If you are REALLY good at GW2 sPvP, you can actually make gems while playing in paid tournaments

 

Fooled again, we were.  Get ready for empty WvW maps.  Given the choice between focusing development on something that requires gems to participate and something that doesn't, it's not so hard to see where this is going.

[Zetor]

For every uberleet spvp team raking in the gems (and I don't think it'll be "raking it in" unless you do tournaments like 16 hours a day), there'll be 4 teams pouring gems into the system and getting buggerall in return.

Kinda like MTGO drafting, only this time you don't get to sell the mythics/rares after bombing out of the tournament.

[ezrast]

You'll have to pay currency to be able to scrim? Gosh, how wonderful.

[Ingmar]

As the name implies, paid automated tournaments have an entry fee. You’ll need tickets to enter a paid tournament, which you can purchase in the gem store...

...Yes, you read that correctly: you can win gems in paid tournaments. If you are REALLY good at GW2 sPvP, you can actually make gems while playing in paid tournaments

 

Fooled again, we were.  Get ready for empty WvW maps.  Given the choice between focusing development on something that requires gems to participate and something that doesn't, it's not so hard to see where this is going.

Er, what? Why do you think people will ditch WvW for this?

[Nebu]

Er, what? Why do you think people will ditch WvW for this?

The sport pvp crowd will see more return on investment.  As it is now, WvW is just a timesink/epeen thing.  When the pvp crowd gets board lugging the zerg around, it will retreat to pvp that provides a more useful payback. 

Most of the serious pvp crowd that I played GW2 with (people from DAoC/WAR etc) have long given up on WvW.  They get their fix from tweaking their tourney team and will eventually play in the tournaments.  It's really a nice way to play if you enjoy twitch-based sport pvp (rather than WvW which is more strategy based).