Arenanet Politely Request Your Input

Hugh Norfolk from Arenanet was requesting player opinions on the Thursday Livestream, so I am posting here in the hope that this thread becomes a focus point for said input.

Check out the Livestream here.https://www.twitch.tv/videos/492728263

Specifically, he asks, "What do WvW players want?"

Was this removed before?

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/88775/world-vs-world-reborn#latest

Everything I want, and everything I think the mode needs is in here. I wrote it up on both the reddit and the forums and sure tons of people poo poo'd on it but I mean the community clearly doesn't know what it wants. If A-net desires skim through and pick pieces of it and see what they like or desire to use, The Ideas I had were just to pull the mode back to its roots (RvR) which WvW is based around conceptually.

It's easy , give us timing about alliance system and rewards plan they showed last 29th of August.Keep open all servers.

Yeah... I'm sure they'll listen "this time", just like the last balance patch.

Stream break down if you're only interested in certain things, think the stream was more informative than usual, with Hugh discussing various things.

NOTE: Use this as an index, not word for word full explanations of topics that came up, there are several points that are discussed from 1-5mins long.

Playing on a full server on EU Whiteside Ridge with blob. 7minsTalking about running fractals. 9minsAmazed where different servers place siege. 11minsTalks about levels of siege burials. 12minsRaymond has not played scourge since balance patch, he's on reaper. 15minsHugh favorite, when groups have perfect rotation of veil and just roll in. 19minsBalance is a fickle mistress, more in the future, very important to them. 22minsHugh is now systems team lead, was last working on strikes. 23minsSurprised they haven't been attacked and killed yet. 25minsSees red lingering around, thinks they're planning something big. 26minsTalks about strike missions and data. 27minsTalks about commanders. 33minsRaymond trying to convince Ben to take supply cost off mount chain pull. 38minsTalked about bringing back orbs and it's problems. 40minsRed zerg shows up at mendons.Raymond dies to achievement hunters. 42minsHugh likes tactic running off to side to build ac, thinks it would have been a lot of aoe damage to a blob. 43minsHugh surprised haven't seen a good veil. 43minsRaymond running back gets lanced, killed, buried with siege and merchant by a rev. 44minsHugh asks chat what people think about warclaw skills. 44mins.Wants warclaw to be good for the game mode, warbear suggested from chat. 47minsThought about moving down state from wvw? yeah, but big deal to do. 48minsData on no down state, a lot of people think it's fun and changes game mode, just as much feedback how it wrecks people's day. 49minsCare about all game modes. 50minsLoves shield gen. 51minsWarclaw finisher was meant to be impactful, whether or not good decision for game is point of debate. 52minsThinks finisher benefits small group against bigger group (green losing their ebg keep during this time managing single defenders). 53minsAlliances, What's next? Asks chat what do you guys want to see? like huge sweeping map changes? 55minsBetter performance suggested. 56minsLess siege wars suggested. 57minsRaymond trolling Hugh all week about finishing warclaw. 57minsBalance suggested, again says balance is important to them. 57minsReworked wvw mastery suggested, what do you mean, what do you want from that. 58minsLong discussion about mastery points starts. 59minsTalks about rewards were targeted for vet players. 1hr 2minsRed finally shows up with a counter zerg.Talks about ELO ratings and matchmaking. 1hr 8minsTalks about playing on different servers. 1hr 13minsLong discussion starts about skill performance issues tracking. 1hr 14minsRemove boons suggested from chat, huge ask. 1hr 16minsTakes green ebg keep again with no resistance.Talks about dev resources. 1hr 18minsWalks around t3 smc loaded with shield gens. 1hr 19minsHugh finally dies to high drop. 1hr 23minsFunny story about down state working. 1hr 24minsTalks about Carl's wacky ele downed build. 1hr 27minsRed stealth group gets run over by blob. 1hr 33mins

NOTE: These are my thoughts, not the devs.

Hugh is now back in wvw development I guess? he obviously hasn't been playing wvw in some time, working on his mount, doesn't know that the meta for things like stealth changed when scrappers got their buff for group stealth.

What do wvw players want? it's repeated every week.Population balanceClass balanceCombat balancePerformance updatesReasons to bother playing and winning a match these days.New home map would be nice for a set of 3, but long term.Graphical updates to current maps would be cool.Updates to current game play would be cool, orb doesn't have to be the only mechanic.

Running no down state event once a month, or weekend bonuses, might even let people know the mode hasn't been abandoned. 1226 points needed for current mastery lines, they are mostly seen as required points since they affect siege and improving player effectiveness. At at 1227-10k points open a new line of masteries after the main ones have been done for more cosmetic stuff, titles, badges, skins, finishers, auras, etc, stuff that's not "required" to be effective. But oh gem store, guess we can scrap that.

I'd like Quality of Life improvements to keep happening

Really so if they're good for pve as well as wvw

And a special event for a month where server ranking is only made by its kdr and not ppt.. so all the servers good at fights go to the high tiers

Oh and

please fix the lag in big fights

I press skill buttons lots of times but my skills never turn on. A lot of ppl on my server are saying it happens to them too, and they can't move away from the other zerg running at them, so they die

Edit: Also make the diamon repeatable rewards better, maybe even add wvw skirmish claim tickets to itRemove warclaw from WvW and make it another PVE mountBefore we coudl do stuff like invisable strategiesWarclaw should not instakill downed players, thats too much power alongside an initiator abilityYou shouldn't get a speed increase in your own zones, warclaw means less successful roaming possibilities as people can defend too quick

decrease the damage in wvw severely

gvgconvert pvp swiss for this

It's not so much what players want in WvW it's what WvW needs. One of the main things WvW needs is for players to stop asking for nerfs or throwing out changes without considering what it will do to the overall game mode.

We need a guy in charge that knows what to do and doesn't need to be told what to do from random players.

@hunkamania.7561 said:We need a guy in charge that knows what to do and doesn't need to be told what to do from random players.

We need a person actually on WvW at the minimum. That's step 1.

D:

Maybe they should get a look at the forums and look at the suggestions being made since 2012 that have all been ignored.

I would personally like an apology for completely neglecting one of your selling points.

Do they ever get on in the quieter servers or the quieter times when there are no comms and very few people around and no organisation and play then?

It's not all about running around in a big blob and stealth bombing...

They plan on getting on every host server once around with NA EU taking turns ever other time they play, but half the time I think they tend to hide out on desert bl.

@"Svarty.8019" said:

Specifically, he asks, "What do WvW players want?"

no order

1) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87430/idea-three-seated-mobile-siege-engine#latest2) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/74999/each-faction-can-summon-their-own-powerful-hydra-monster-to-attack-enemy-keeps#latest3) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/74508/would-be-lovely-if-developers-built-an-incentive-to-have-more-structural-zerg-raids-in-wvw#latest4) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/73426/wvw-need-some-kind-of-timer-based-destroyable-mobile-waypoint-portal-siege-machine#latest5) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/71909/wvw-mounts-should-be-a-resource-at-a-new-structure#latest6) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87232/which-global-adjustment-would-you-like-to-see-added-to-wvw#latest7) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87303/how-would-you-all-feel-if-borderland-maps-were-redesigned-to-be-a-2-faction-map-instead-of-three#latest8) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/86542/new-idea-for-wvw-outpost-bases-new-structure-that-can-be-built-and-provide-tools-for-large-war#latest9) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/85353/i-believe-some-of-the-old-design-concepts-from-old-av-would-be-lovely-here-in-wvw#latest10) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/85067/idea-capitol-city-siege-new-instances-pvp-mode#latest11) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/83198/what-if-the-borderlands-were-connected-by-a-few-locations-like-eotm-map#latest12) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/82104/idea-new-feature-skyscale-bomber-an-event-that-transform-players-into-a-attacking-skyscale-unit#latest13) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/82013/wvw-event-idea-keep-away-week-all-keeps-are-neutral-territory-and-cant-be-controlled#latest14) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/81877/i-would-be-interested-in-an-npc-ai-buff-in-wvw-how-about-you#latest15) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/81419/the-problem-of-wvw-is-that-there-is-no-real-simultaneous-offense-and-defense-large-scale-fights#latest16) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/80553/curious-wvw-fans-do-you-want-any-new-gameplay-features-if-so-what#latest17) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/79954/i-really-would-like-open-field-siege-fights-to-be-a-thing-in-wvw#latest18) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/76278/fight-fire-with-fire#latest19) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87800/i-would-like-dune-rollers-to-become-more-of-normal-thing-in-wvw#latest20) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87488/airship-battle-wvw-meta-event#latest21) https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/75327/idea-rez-the-dead-event#latest

Here Anet I give a large pool source for finding your answer.

bi-weekly presence actively using the forums and providing actual updates...not soon

@"Svarty.8019" said:Hugh Norfolk from Arenanet was requesting player opinions on the Thursday Livestream, so I am posting here in the hope that this thread becomes a focus point for said input.

Specifically, he asks, "What do WvW players want?"

Well, in my opinion, this question ("What do WvW players want?") represents an insult for the entire WvW community. And a statement that this was indeed a politely way to pretend they are interested.Because any dev. interested in WvW can read all the trads and opinion posted in the WvW forum in the last year. It is a time costing activity? No matter. ANet did (almost) nothing for WvW in the last 7 years. A 2-3 months for reading, understanding and filtering the ideas from these topics means nothing. The problem is that no dev is actually willing to do this. Even if they claim they want all the good things for WvW.

@"XenesisII.1540" said:Yeah... I'm sure they'll listen "this time", just like the last balance patch.

Hugh surprised haven't seen a good veil. 43minsRaymond running back gets lanced, killed, buried with siege and merchant by a rev. 44minsHugh asks chat what people think about warclaw skills. 44mins.Wants warclaw to be good for the game mode, warbear suggested from chat. 47minsThought about moving down state from wvw? yeah, but big deal to do. 48minsData on no down state, a lot of people think it's fun and changes game mode, just as much feedback how it wrecks people's day. 49minsWarclaw finisher was meant to be impactful, whether or not good decision for game is point of debate. 52minsThinks finisher benefits small group against bigger group (green losing their ebg keep during this time managing single defenders). 53mins

Running no down state event once a month, or weekend bonuses, might even let people know the mode hasn't been abandoned. 1226 points needed for current mastery lines, they are mostly seen as required points since they affect siege and improving player effectiveness. At at 1227-10k points open a new line of masteries after the main ones have been done for more cosmetic stuff, titles, badges, skins, finishers, auras, etc, stuff that's not "required" to be effective. But oh gem store, guess we can scrap that.

How disconnected from the reality they are =)

• "Hugh surprised haven't seen a good veil. 43mins" - So, first erase the Chronomancer from the WvW, letting only the Mirage to roam. And after that wondering why you don't see mesmers in a blob? But wait - the veil effect is canceled by any Watchtower in the area. So, again the mesmers are not so useful in blobs.
• "Thought about moving down state from wvw? yeah, but big deal to do. 48mins" AND "Warclaw finisher was meant to be impactful, whether or not good decision for game is point of debate. 52mins" - Are you really serious here? If the downstate is removed from WvW, then the Warclaw finisher loses all its impact - so, this skill is NOT GOOD, but instead to remove it you want to remove the downstate?
• "Thinks finisher benefits small group against bigger group " - LOL! - it is exactly the contrary. The larger group benefits the most from the finisher.

In my opinion the No Downstate is one of the most uninspired events ever brought in WvW. No matter if some players are happy - they can run one shot builds without any fear - even against 3-4 players they can press one-two buttons and voila - my 40k/2 sec build made me extraordinary skillful. Only the downstate was in my way. A lot of players are unhappy. So, instead of trying to do something for all the players you want (as usual) to have only one part content? HM - the WvW population is already small enough. Do this and you may find that only the content part remained. How large it is? You can find - implement the no downstate in WvW.

Why you don't simply ask for an week with Bonus XP + Bonus XP for example. Or a Bonus XP + Repeatable Skirmish reward track? Or ... simply Bonus XP. Without anything else? Even this "might even let people know the mode hasn't been abandoned"

And from this: Alliances, What's next? Asks chat what do you guys want to see? like huge sweeping map changes? 55mins - I understand that nothing has been done with the Alliances. The devs have no idea what the Alliance system will be. Good bye Alliances.

These forums are a gold mine for what players want already, so let me just say that Hugh Norfolk really seems to love WvW and sometimes that's all that keeps me coming back.

edit: To be clear, I'm not saying I agree with him on anything. Everyone I've ever seen play at Anet is a Damn Dirty Zergling and seems to just K-Train around with no purpose at all. I'm also a bit miffed that he stresses that they know we care about balance when their actions are no where near the same level.

so what the question ?something no good ? for me all is - ok

is mount finisher good ? yes, why not. It is fun.about squads .. Idk, I play on wvw 90%+ time solo or wiht small 2-3 party.new maps ? why we need it? No way. This is not pve content.

Is biulds ok? for me - yes. Is some build overpowered ? If you think so - play this build.Is needed any additional wvw event? For me - not.

May be I not see main idea in this video ? OR people just try populate the stream ?

@"Cristalyan.5728" said:How disconnected from the reality they are =)

• "Hugh surprised haven't seen a good veil. 43mins" - So, first erase the Chronomancer from the WvW, letting only the Mirage to roam. And after that wondering why you don't see mesmers in a blob? But wait - the veil effect is canceled by any Watchtower in the area. So, again the mesmers are not so useful in blobs.
• "Thought about moving down state from wvw? yeah, but big deal to do. 48mins" AND "Warclaw finisher was meant to be impactful, whether or not good decision for game is point of debate. 52mins" - Are you really serious here? If the downstate is removed from WvW, then the Warclaw finisher loses all its impact - so, this skill is NOT GOOD, but instead to remove it you want to remove the downstate?
• "Thinks finisher benefits small group against bigger group " - LOL! - it is exactly the contrary. The larger group benefits the most from the finisher.

In my opinion the No Downstate is one of the most uninspired events ever brought in WvW. No matter if some players are happy - they can run one shot builds without any fear - even against 3-4 players they can press one-two buttons and voila - my 40k/2 sec build made me extraordinary skillful. Only the downstate was in my way. A lot of players are unhappy. So, instead of trying to do something for all the players you want (as usual) to have only one part content? HM - the WvW population is already small enough. Do this and you may find that only the content part remained. How large it is? You can find - implement the no downstate in WvW.

Why you don't simply ask for an week with Bonus XP + Bonus XP for example. Or a Bonus XP + Repeatable Skirmish reward track? Or ... simply Bonus XP. Without anything else? Even this "might even let people know the mode hasn't been abandoned"

And from this: Alliances, What's next? Asks chat what do you guys want to see? like huge sweeping map changes? 55mins - I understand that nothing has been done with the Alliances. The devs have no idea what the Alliance system will be. Good bye Alliances.

You're going to have to let me know if some parts of that is addressed to me, cause the bottom half of the post were my thoughts not the dev, not sure what you're trying to say with the bonus xp line. Also I basically made quick bullet points for topics of the stream, use it as an index not a word for word of what was said.

There are several parts that have longer conversation and explanation for things, like the area about no down state and warclaw finisher, some of these were just answering random questions from chat, not official statements of future changes. Also I would cut Hugh a tiny bit of slack since he just moved to his new position involving wvw, he was involved in wvw development years earlier, although not having a mount and not know some of the meta shows he hasn't been playing at all lately.

@"Timelord.8190" said:Their moderator on Twitch removed my message when I asked if they answered any questions about alliances release time.

I don't think some of yall understand that the plan was to repeat "soon" for as long as they could until most people forget about it, and the ones left that still do, that are now calling them out on it, they are now acting like it just doesn't exist/was never talked about before. I have been asking to be proven wrong by the devs or mods, time and time again that alliances actually had ANY work done to it since it was first talked about and it's been nothing but silence. It's because them deleting your comment about it IS their answer about alliances, and that answer is, it's not coming. They have ruined large areas of the game, and ignored or made a total mess of the competitive sides (both WvW and sPvP) and I don't see them spending more effort on those, their main goal is monetization for what is left until the game no longer makes enough money at which point they hope they have a new game out to bring in money.

Until they implement Alliances, most of us that have left will not be returning.