LF Lower tier host server for WvW NA havoc/roaming

Looking for input on a lower tier (3/4) host server with respectable NA coverage across PST/EST, but specifically with strong havoc/roaming culture (preferably of the more mature variety).

Looking at wvwstats.com TC, NSP, and maybe FA all seem to fit the coverage bill pretty well, but looking for input on what the culture is like and what's out there for havoc/roaming guilds. Looking to find somewhere stable to live until restructuring and hopefully find a guild to move into restructuring with.

Thanks in advance!!

There have been some people that post here consistently who are from each server and have a good feel for each. @Sovereign.1093 is on NSP@Chaba.5410 is in FA@Fatherbliss.4701 is TC

I don't always agree with them, but they have a very good understanding of the climates on their servers. Others? Well, hard to say. I would PM them and ask for info.

FA has an adequate amount of fun and respectable havoc guilds that regularly run with around 10 people through EST/PST primetimes. However, I would note that while some players from these guilds are skilled and formidable players, the majority of the rest are average or below average when it comes to fights. That doesn't stop them from being very fun to run with, as what they may lack in skill is more than enough made up for in genuinely fun banter and antics.

I have no experience with TC or NSP other being their opponent, where TC has a fair bit of salty players, and NSP seems generally mild mannered.

@"Turk.5460" said:FA has an adequate amount of fun and respectable havoc guilds that regularly run with around 10 people through EST/PST primetimes. However, I would note that while some players from these guilds are skilled and formidable players, the majority of the rest are average or below average when it comes to fights. That doesn't stop them from being very fun to run with, as what they may lack in skill is more than enough made up for in genuinely fun banter and antics.

I have no experience with TC or NSP other being their opponent, where TC has a fair bit of salty players, and NSP seems generally mild mannered.

I'm nothing special skill wise, definitely into having fun over "perfection", my one potential reservation with FA is they float more into T2, but avoiding T1/Mag is my ultimate goal (realizing Mag could easily be T4 in 2 weeks).

There's been a particularly annoying ;) UNIV Deadeye about in T2 this week.

@Tinnel.4369 said:There's been a particularly annoying ;) UNIV Deadeye about in T2 this week.

Purrhaps he was a Charr with an eyepatch? c.c

@Turk.5460 said:

@Tinnel.4369 said:There's been a particularly annoying ;) UNIV Deadeye about in T2 this week.

Mmhmm!

Yeah I hate that guy he is a jerk.@Kovu.7560 please confirm

FA does have a pretty strong roamer/havoc thing going on. Lots of individual and small group roamers that are pretty good at reading the map and showing up en masse to take/defend larger objectives then breaking back out to go cause chaos. Been on the server for two years and it's pretty fun as a mostly solo roamer type.

NSP culture is solid and more on the mature side as far as who you hear on TS.

I’d also say that I expect some solid WvW alliances will be built around the current NSP community. I’ve been there since the beginning of the game and I still see names there from years ago. As some say “NSPride.”

@saerni.2584 said:NSP culture is solid and more on the mature side as far as who you hear on TS.

I’d also say that I expect some solid WvW alliances will be built around the current NSP community. I’ve been there since the beginning of the game and I still see names there from years ago. As some say “NSPride.”

I was linked to NSP as SF awhile back and really liked it. Probably my top pick, but wanted to seek out more feedback before dumping the gems (hopefully for the last time)!

My smaller group transferred to FA about a month ago and we've been having a blast. We left our larger guild on a higher tier server to slum it on lower tiers and take it a bit more casual, after a year we decided to move to go a back into higher tiers on a server with better coverage on our time zone and picked FA. Mind you the T1 visits can be frustrating at times with larger scale blobs rolling over a smaller group, it's just a matter of moving quicker and staying away from them. Still fun though, we get laughs out of it. The community has been pretty cool as well, most are pretty fun to hang around with. From what I've seen as well the smaller groups don't mind banding together to defend an objective when there's no tag on the map (always a plus for me) and seeing the response from larger groups to come help in a pinch has been nice to see.

I ran with NSP previously before they became a host server and honestly I enjoyed their community, too. Nice people and fun to run with. Some of the friends we made are still there on that server. My alt account actually ended up being paired with them for a bit after they became a host and would run around there from time to time. Good peeps and had a ton of fun. I think the main draw back we had when looking for a new server was their coverage outside of NA, though they were contenders when we looked to relocate.

@SwankyMutt.9521 said:My smaller group transferred to FA about a month ago and we've been having a blast. We left our larger guild on a higher tier server to slum it on lower tiers and take it a bit more casual, after a year we decided to move to go a back into higher tiers on a server with better coverage on our time zone and picked FA. Mind you the T1 visits can be frustrating at times with larger scale blobs rolling over a smaller group, it's just a matter of moving quicker and staying away from them. Still fun though, we get laughs out of it. The community has been pretty cool as well, most are pretty fun to hang around with. From what I've seen as well the smaller groups don't mind banding together to defend an objective when there's no tag on the map (always a plus for me) and seeing the response from larger groups to come help in a pinch has been nice to see.

I ran with NSP previously before they became a host server and honestly I enjoyed their community, too. Nice people and fun to run with. Some of the friends we made are still there on that server. My alt account actually ended up being paired with them for a bit after they became a host and would run around there from time to time. Good peeps and had a ton of fun. I think the main draw back we had when looking for a new server was their coverage outside of NA, though they were contenders when we looked to relocate.

Thanks for that response!

I don't run much outside of NA except maybe on weekend mornings and I'm MST, so high PST/EST is perfect for me. Which, based on the stats NSP has about equivalent coverage EST/PST that's middle of the pack among all servers.

@"Turk.5460" said:

I have no experience with TC or NSP other being their opponent, where TC has a fair bit of salty players, and NSP seems generally mild mannered.

I've been on both. When I was on TC a couple of years ago it was solid T1, and quite hardcore, though I imagine that has changed in the past several months. NSP is much more laid back. If you prefer "meta or go home" type of hardcore environment, NSP is probably not the best choice.

@Euryon.9248 said:

@"Turk.5460" said:

I have no experience with TC or NSP other being their opponent, where TC has a fair bit of salty players, and NSP seems generally mild mannered.

Precisely what I'm trying to avoid! Thanks for the feedback.

@Turk.5460 said:Yeah I hate that guy he is a jerk.@Kovu.7560 please confirm

Confirmed.

Howdy! I've been paged. :) I'll answer regarding TC first. If you enjoy roaming without running into 50,000 people doing so outside of NA is usually best. Thought generally if you are either enemy BL and not Home or EBG you'll still find some solid fights. We are heavily weighted towards NA Primetime as far as population. Right now with two links it seems like we are fielding some good sized numbers again. It really depends on your mindset. For myself and my guild (I'm the proud papa of the Goats of Thunder or GOAT) we like playing off tag these days. For the longest time I'd run main tag or one of mine fine officers would do so (frankly they did that thankless task more than I did) across multiple maps. We got burned out. Coming to TC means a few things are true: You will either be outnumbered or feel outnumbered 99% of the time. I'm a crazy person who loves that. I have bounced around to many servers and even spent time on the EU side. TC is my home - warts and all. We have some totally crazy personalities, view ourselves more as a (dys)functional family and have a great time. This doesn't mean we win all the time or even the majority of the time. Many of my close friends are here and I doubt at this point I'll leave again. We still do goofy theme nights, have random karaoke sessions and generally treat folks with respect. Are there salty souls here? Yep. Of course there are. Vocal ones too. They are by far the minority. But they do speak up quite often. Guilds on the server are much smaller than other places I've been. Reset night is by far our "biggest" night. Most guilds field 15-20 on a good night. And I mean a really good night. lol. Reset night is better attended. When we manage to work together it is magical. There are definitely some large personalities here. Generally it is assumed that TC skews a bit older in population but that could just be the folks who bother to make themselves known too. :p I think the roaming and havoc squads here are great but I'm biased.

Now as for your other choices....FA fields some of the best roamers and havoc players I know. I can say that considering many are friends of mine who aren't on TC anymore. lol. I spent time there many moons ago and enjoyed my stay. I just get wanderlust at times. They stick to their own, understand scouting and defense plus what wins matchups. Solid choice.

NSP is frequently a thorn in my side (their daredevils definitely proved worthy of my scorn today) and also does quite well. I believe their community is very positively minded and I've heard good things about them.

If you have any further questions let me know! Good luck whatever you decide.

@"Fatherbliss.4701" said:Howdy! I've been paged. :) I'll answer regarding TC first. If you enjoy roaming without running into 50,000 people doing so outside of NA is usually best. Thought generally if you are either enemy BL and not Home or EBG you'll still find some solid fights. We are heavily weighted towards NA Primetime as far as population. Right now with two links it seems like we are fielding some good sized numbers again. It really depends on your mindset. For myself and my guild (I'm the proud papa of the Goats of Thunder or GOAT) we like playing off tag these days. For the longest time I'd run main tag or one of mine fine officers would do so (frankly they did that thankless task more than I did) across multiple maps. We got burned out. Coming to TC means a few things are true: You will either be outnumbered or feel outnumbered 99% of the time. I'm a crazy person who loves that. I have bounced around to many servers and even spent time on the EU side. TC is my home - warts and all. We have some totally crazy personalities, view ourselves more as a (dys)functional family and have a great time. This doesn't mean we win all the time or even the majority of the time. Many of my close friends are here and I doubt at this point I'll leave again. We still do goofy theme nights, have random karaoke sessions and generally treat folks with respect. Are there salty souls here? Yep. Of course there are. Vocal ones too. They are by far the minority. But they do speak up quite often. Guilds on the server are much smaller than other places I've been. Reset night is by far our "biggest" night. Most guilds field 15-20 on a good night. And I mean a really good night. lol. Reset night is better attended. When we manage to work together it is magical. There are definitely some large personalities here. Generally it is assumed that TC skews a bit older in population but that could just be the folks who bother to make themselves known too. :p I think the roaming and havoc squads here are great but I'm biased.

Now as for your other choices....FA fields some of the best roamers and havoc players I know. I can say that considering many are friends of mine who aren't on TC anymore. lol. I spent time there many moons ago and enjoyed my stay. I just get wanderlust at times. They stick to their own, understand scouting and defense plus what wins matchups. Solid choice.

NSP is frequently a thorn in my side (their daredevils definitely proved worthy of my scorn today) and also does quite well. I believe their community is very positively minded and I've heard good things about them.

If you have any further questions let me know! Good luck whatever you decide.

Thank you for the detailed response! Stats definitely spell out the tale of TC being very heavily weighted NA (#1 for EST/PST in points this week). I don't mind being outnumbered as much as the general attitude while being so.

Naturally, not expecting one uniform personality throughout the community, just want to get a feel for what people think is favored. ;)

@Tinnel.4369 said:Looking for input on a lower tier (3/4) host server with respectable NA coverage across PST/EST, but specifically with strong havoc/roaming culture (preferably of the more mature variety).

Looking at wvwstats.com TC, NSP, and maybe FA all seem to fit the coverage bill pretty well, but looking for input on what the culture is like and what's out there for havoc/roaming guilds. Looking to find somewhere stable to live until restructuring and hopefully find a guild to move into restructuring with.

Thanks in advance!!

=) Ns is open and accepting. Players are fun to hang around with. i met some of the most creative ones here. We have good coms. Feels like a family.

Of course NSP moves to Very High pop this week. :(

I have played for all 12 of the host servers through either being on that server or through a link, and I am a roamer.

I'd avoid:SoS (blobs)BG (you will rarely get a fair fight without your servermates jumping in, also B L O B S)Mag (you will rarely get a fair fight without your servermates jumping in, also blobs)DB (poor coverage, lack of solid NA community)

Solid but could be better options:FA (a fun server with solid coordination, but risk of T1)SBI (echo what I said about FA, but less coordination and more memes)YB (odd culture, also risk of T1)CD (I'm here right now, it's a strange mix of too much coverage in NA combined with dead off-hours, you can see more about the CD situation in the World Restructuring post. That said, I like it)

Solid bets:JQ (ages-old server community, ideally will not go T1 without a link, quite a few good players)HoD (Scrappy t3/t4 server, outnumbered a lot but you'll get good fights)NSP (the old "roaming" server, which has fallen quite far but they give good fights)TC (fallen even further than any other one of these servers, don't expect much backup in fights, probably the best place you want to go as a solo).

It seems that you're solo, so I'm guessing your biggest consideration is finding a guild or stable group to roam with.

I can't speak much for other servers, but NSP has a number of active roaming guilds: [vT], [Voxl], [tM] and some others. They're definitely all more fight than objective-minded, so if having a "havoc" type of option available for you is important I can't say I recommend it.

We're all fairly laidback, but tend to keep to our own circles as far as day-to-day roaming is concerned. Not really any childish beefs or drama as far as I'm aware. Can't speak for recruitment status of other guilds, but [tM] is pretty open to grabbing new players. You can send me a mail or message if you're interested in learning more.

@"ventusthunder.5067" said:I have played for all 12 of the host servers through either being on that server or through a link, and I am a roamer.

I'd avoid:SoS (blobs)BG (you will rarely get a fair fight without your servermates jumping in, also B L O B S)Mag (you will rarely get a fair fight without your servermates jumping in, also blobs)DB (poor coverage, lack of solid NA community)

Solid but could be better options:FA (a fun server with solid coordination, but risk of T1)SBI (echo what I said about FA, but less coordination and more memes)YB (odd culture, also risk of T1)CD (I'm here right now, it's a strange mix of too much coverage in NA combined with dead off-hours, you can see more about the CD situation in the World Restructuring post. That said, I like it)

Solid bets:JQ (ages-old server community, ideally will not go T1 without a link, quite a few good players)HoD (Scrappy t3/t4 server, outnumbered a lot but you'll get good fights)NSP (the old "roaming" server, which has fallen quite far but they give good fights)TC (fallen even further than any other one of these servers, don't expect much backup in fights, probably the best place you want to go as a solo).

SoS (closed)BG (closed)FA (closed)JQ (closed)YB (closed)Mag (closed, they also queue up mostly one map because they like to play in ebg especially since there's a general lack of commanders for the server, you'll find roaming on the bls)DB (NA bandwagoned too many times)

NSP, SBI, CD, TC seem like decent choices.

Thanks again everyone for the feedback.

NSP seemed to fit the most of my requirements, lower tier, respectable NA coverage across EST/PST and a respectable culture. Sucks the gem cost went up, but I just transferred and am excited to get going. @nomdeplums.5780 I prefer to be in a small group depending on the class I'm on (I'll solo on thief or burst mesmer) and enjoy everything from strictly fights to bunkering up an objective for fun, I may hit you up!!

As feedback from @"ventusthunder.5067" and for anyone else reading and trying to make a similar decision, I was on HoD for quite awhile and your summary is accurate, biggest downfall of them for me is they fall off very sharply in coverage for PST evening, I'm MST so I would usually catch the end of EST, but then find myself largely alone/severely outnumbered. Current stats say this trend holds true. I have most recently been hopping linkings to YB as I am in BOZ. BOZ is a great crew, but I think it's fair to say they are not largely into roaming, but rather camping for fights (which they're quite effective at). I quite like YB, but the constant T1/2 teetering is old and having to constantly hop links cause YB is closed is not fun. I am now happen chancedly linked to Mag for the second time which is utterly incompatible for a multitude of reasons.