No more culling

[Threash]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/world-vs-worldthe-end-of-culling/

[Spiff]

Well if it's everything they say it will be it's about as good as I would expect this to get in the near future, in GW2 or any other MMO trying combat of this size.
Tbh even with the culling I think they didn't do too bad compared to some others I've seen; Lotro and AoC's piss poor attempts come to mind.

As of late though the skill lag bothers me even more than the culling.
I do not enjoy pushing my heal 5 times before it fires and it feels like that particular problem has only gotten worse with the latest patches. They're also keeping pretty schtum about that one or any possible fixes they may or may not be working on.

[Crumbs]

The culling got pretty comical there for a bit.  Try running around a large group of people as they wait for a dragon to spawn, it's like a hall of mirrors.  People appear and disappear at random.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QF_H_KTNAY

The skill lag during events is bordering on game breaking.  That is, if you're lucky enough to not be sent to an overflow.  The guesting, I guess you can't really call it exploiting, but it doesn't seem like it's being used for its intended purpose. 

I'm still enjoying the game as a whole, and there do seem to be fixes on the way.  So there it is.

[Lantyssa]

Since they lowered the amount allowed in zones before reaching overflow I haven't been having much, if any, skill lag.  It was really bad at first with the chest events.

What I really don't understand is everyone trying to guest to JQ for chests.  You'd think they'd try a lower population server.

[Crumbs]

They do it on TC as well.  Are people scanning all server timers for this? 

[kildorn]

Since they lowered the amount allowed in zones before reaching overflow I haven't been having much, if any, skill lag.  It was really bad at first with the chest events.

What I really don't understand is everyone trying to guest to JQ for chests.  You'd think they'd try a lower population server.

This. So much this. What the hell, people.

As for culling and lag: I rarely get skill lag in WvW. It's entirely "can I even see a target to shoot at."

I'm curious if this will help with the redraw issues with thieves as well, but I kind of doubt it.

From the post though, it seems like culling will still happen at high volumes(based on your client settings now), but they'll always at least display a name plate and let you know where to target.

[kildorn]

They do it on TC as well.  Are people scanning all server timers for this? 

Yes, they just use the timer sites to find one happening soonish. Which has also led to people trolling the fuck out of the timers.

[Crumbs]

They do it on TC as well.  Are people scanning all server timers for this? 

Yes, they just use the timer sites to find one happening soonish. Which has also led to people trolling the fuck out of the timers.

And they kind of troll the servers too.  Not anything like the worst I've seen in other games, but enough to notice.  Especially on TC, which has been a consistently friendly server in my experience.

[Phred]

They do it on TC as well.  Are people scanning all server timers for this? 

Ppl complaining about guesting realize you can only guest on 2 servers every 24 hours right? Have any of the dragon zones actually gone in to overflow?

[Crumbs]

Wayfarer Hills goes into overflow on TC! 

[Phred]

Wayfarer Hills goes into overflow on TC! 

So people are piling in for the shaman event, you think? I asked about dragon zones going into overflow.

[Crumbs]

Maw event yes, and the dailies tend to funnel folks to Wayfarer (Shiverpeaks Killer, Sidekick Events, Gatherer, Jumping Puzzle, Kill Variety, etc, very easy to do all in this one zone).

I assumed the dragon zones were a given, as yes, they get full and produce overflows regularly.  If you're lucky though, and a friend/guildie is in the real zone, you can group with them and join their server.  Otherwise it's a no go. 

Re: skill lag.  I'm not sure if guesting is the reason for the new level of lag during events, but it sure did seem to coincide with guesting.

[kildorn]

JQ's dragon maps overflow pretty reliably.

[Ingmar]

Hey, one of the things that might actually bring me back came semi-true. Hmmm.

[kildorn]

Hey, one of the things that might actually bring me back came semi-true. Hmmm.

Just to warn you: JQ is pretty much the big dog WvW server, and it's usually a bitch of a queue to get in before around midnight PST.

[Lantyssa]

The ONE WvW fort I need for map completion was captured by JQ this morning.  I couldn't get into the Eternal Battlegrounds to nab it, so all I could do was stare helplessly from a borderlands map while Red and Blue woke up and started trading it.

Why the hell can we not be Team Red for ONE friggin' week?

[satael]

The ONE WvW fort I need for map completion was captured by JQ this morning.  I couldn't get into the Eternal Battlegrounds to nab it, so all I could do was stare helplessly from a borderlands map while Red and Blue woke up and started trading it.

Why the hell can we not be Team Red for ONE friggin' week?

We'd have to lose

edit:actually to be red we'd have to lose alot.

[Lantyssa]

I'd settle for random placement.  If it's going to be a factor in map completion, I need to have a fucking chance to reach it.

[Fordel]

Random Question: Are Rangers still ass? Like are they still utterly chained to their buggy pets for half of their damage/utility output? Do Spirits have any health yet, or are they wet noodles still.

[Lantyssa]

Yes, they're still 'ass'.

Mine's always been okay for PvE out in the world.  Dungeons I can generally get by with a ranged spider/devourer combo.  Fractals I take a big hit on.  WvW my pets are mostly good at dying and causing me to enter combat and slow down.

I like my weapon selection though.  Rangers have some fun weapon skills.  Shame our damage is 'meh'.

[Fordel]

Poopy.

I see they at least made the speed signet 25% instead of the 10% or whatever.

[kildorn]

Rangers and Eles got the 25% speed signet. The main issue with Rangers is that they're so tied up in the pet that when pets work the class is borderline overpowered (see BM rangers in sPVP), and when they don't work (Fractals, anything involving pathing like WvW) they're pretty much half a class.

[Brogarn]

Rangers and Eles got the 25% speed signet.

And Necros.

[Ingmar]

Rangers and Eles got the 25% speed signet. The main issue with Rangers is that they're so tied up in the pet that when pets work the class is borderline overpowered (see BM rangers in sPVP), and when they don't work (Fractals, anything involving pathing like WvW) they're pretty much half a class.

Look, someone has to be the theurgist.

[kildorn]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/world-vs-world-introducing-world-ranks-and-more/

Light on details. But in addition to Culling, WvW is also gaining Realm Ranks. The abilities seem mostly passive so far (more supply carried, less siege damage taken), and no values provided as to it being 1-2% or 10-20%.

[satael]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/world-vs-world-introducing-world-ranks-and-more/

Light on details. But in addition to Culling, WvW is also gaining Realm Ranks. The abilities seem mostly passive so far (more supply carried, less siege damage taken), and no values provided as to it being 1-2% or 10-20%.

If that's all that is going to be in the fabled wvw-patch I'll be pretty disappointed. Hard to see anything (except maybe the culling but that could be patched in separately) that would require a month delay (feb->march). I wish they'd add stuff like top10 guilds (of the server, of all, of this week's match, or all time etc) on kills, camps/towers/keeps captured, upgrades paid for, supplies used(repairs, siege built) etc. so you could actually have some guilds "warring".

[kildorn]

The month delay is planned. They have moved into a monthly patch cycle that's pretty much always the last tuesday in a month.

This month's known changes are:

Living story stuff
Culling
WvW Ranks
Guild Mission changes (other thread)

I'm not sure they'd do guild based leader boards though. The leaderboards in spvp were pretty much considered a huge joke and only an indicator of time spent playing.

[satael]

I'm not sure they'd do guild based leader boards though. The leaderboards in spvp were pretty much considered a huge joke and only an indicator of time spent playing.

The whole wvw is about time spent playing (or coverage if you want to call it that) 

[Crumbs]

Yesterday's patch was....interesting.

Skill lag and slideshows are still the norm during big fights.  Worse than skill lag is the dead keyboard...push the button and there isn't even an indication that the skill is in process.  I turned everything way down in the new WVW graphics settings, but when we were having huge fights or even slightly large fights, forget it. 

WVW Ranks!  New stuff to buy!  I haven't seen it firsthand, but according to the forums, players have already started organized keep trading between servers.  This is something I wondered about way back when I first heard about GW2 in development, having seen the "fight club" organized kill trading when SWG had Jedi ranks.  We shall see how it pans out here; I just hope the lag and skill unresponsiveness is fixable.

Name change: 800 gems.  So that character named Joe Don Baker that I changed into a female with the total makeover kit can finally have that name change for a higher price than the gender change.  Makes sense.

There is still so much I like about this game and I plan to stay, but this is amusing/sad to watch.

[Spiff]

Credit where it's due; for me at least culling has been mostly fixed; I've seen battles with around 100 people on my screen happen without too much graphical hassle.

The zergs seem to only be getting bigger now the culling has been dealt with however, couple that with catapults not hitting through doors anymore and it's all about 1 humongous offensive zerg now; defending anything is folly unless you have bigger numbers in which case you should just run out and stomp anyone in sight.
And of course the lag is as bad as ever in these huge battles, if not worse.

The buffs while an interesting idea, are largely pointless: there's a whopping 8 in total and they're all 'do 1% extra'/'take 1% less' damage per level stuff (with a max of 5 levels), except the extra supply carrying capacity which is nice, but also a lot more expensive than the rest.

They're trying and all so you know, they get a pat on the back for that, but it's all so lackluster.
Considering this was the "big WvW patch" it's underwhelming at the very least.
I like a lot about this game and I want to like it more, but they're losing my interest fast with all these 'half assed could've been' patches.

[Phred]

So major "failed" lag control removed and more lag ensues. Big surprise.