Riba.3271

They go to weakest server corner to fight without claim buff. Otherwise they will be forced to deal with siege, portal campers, tactics and cloud in addition to enemy having additional 1 runeset worth of stats. While it doesn't seem like a large deal, I would give equally strong blobs (50-50) about 70% chance of beating the other when defending on first engage without considering respawns. So by attacking instead of winning half the fights, you win less than a third. Defending is just unfairly strong. So you try to find neutral ground meanwhile doing something. There is also the case where if you swap owners of claim buff (double the effect), the fights just become flopsided. So it is better to stay on neutral ground most of the time to have better control over quality of fights.

Problems with linking system that should have been fixed: Linked players seeing enemies and linked players being able to be seen by enemies on which maps they are at. Every zerg knows where enemy zerg is with 0 effort or communication. Transfer costs of link and main server not being same leading to increased transfer frequency Flattening of population statuses due to full status being based on highest pop server: everytime each main server lost a guild, they can fit 1 guild less before being full. This lead to pugs vs guilds split, both can't coexist on same server. All tiers having monotonous population thus difference between tiers is very small Timezones getting reset every 2 months. Find a good timezone? Good luck spending a month finding new one. Underpopulated Full unlinked servers in EU WvW Playing a lot being punished with less players after 2 months None of these problems would have existed if they just kept old system but with less servers. Yes, T4 servers would have had less players than T1 but they would have still would have had times when they climbed up 2 tiers or dropped to T5 due to transfers. But higher tier servers are a broadway show: high quality and entertaining while lower tier servers have potential to be so. Why do they both deserve same amount of players? What is the reasoning that server that puts effort in entertaining general populace has same population as server that does nothing? More players doesn't equal better: Lot of guilds and roamers liked lower tiers. Point of smaller lower tier servers is that is that if some group is planning to build a strong server for cheap, they will go to emptier server instead of starting with equal population. So we wouldn't see as much server stacking as before. So artificially setting server populations equal every 2 months actually leads to more unequal matchmaking. Anyways, if your argument is that servers are more than the people in them, what are they now? 35-65% of people on your server are actually on your linked server. You can't build a big united server because you're set full once you hit that 65% population mark. You can't cover lot of timezones and fit guilds on your server at same time. Servers surely were more than people back then, but instead of linking system preserving that identity for most of the servers, it destroyed server management and goals for all.

As long as there exists dragon stats as option instead of marauder, you should leave your build slightly below 95% crit chance for WvW. You lose about 0.1% DPS but gain 4% DPS near friendly claim buffs (so around ~40% of the time). This also applies to zerg builds. I am also platinum ranked in sPvP and have done plenty of dueling and small scale. I have never presented myself as just a zerg player. I have also ran multiple smallscale guilds. 25 stacks of might on skillful build is 750 stats as condition damage is wasted stat. Which is exactly difference between 2 claim buffs (800 stats). Of course there are 1v1 condition players out there but large majority of players play power Are you suggesting someone waits at OS for enemy for 30 minutes? How OS duels work is that you go there with someone you already know. Meaning you met them at regular WvW roaming. Sure it is easy to make omelette if you already have eggs but what if the store is placed far away? So claim buff makes the 1st step of finding dueling partners, roaming itsellf, completely unbalanced and uncompetitive.

What I typed was that the original system was much better but there were too many servers. You can't just quote one sentence and disregard the rest. Linking system was carebear solution "to not hurt anyones feelings by deleting their server". Yup, as long as they deleted the completely dead servers, it would have been fine. I have met plenty of people that enjoyed having choice of less/different activity in lower tiers. Current system forced each linking to have same population and no server can ever grow big or entertain larger portion of people. Imagine this, before you had a choice of lamb meat, fish, beef and chicken. Now every server and tier have the same population. Chicken every day.

Yup, the whole game is revolving around low radius buffs these days. No more flanking & no more focus parties. Just zoom around in 1 stack and kill everything. It has become quite unskilled due to boon durations and AoE superspeed. Linking system was based on what bad gacha games use as a bait: "you might get good things in a few months, stick around! Spend money to potentially get something good now!". WvW was succesful with old system but some servers naturally died out over time. But linking system introduced so many new problems... Dirt cheap transfers, seeing which map enemy is on, inconsistant timezones, language issues, playing a lot being punished... What they should have kept is the old system but with less servers. Now my question is, will alliances go too far from original succesful system where people could invest their time in WvW and their server while seeing improvement in population? Yes. Server communities will die completely. Guilds will be alive... But only as long as there are enough enemy guilds to fight. Of course the dumber guild leaders are salivating for alliances because "people will be forced to apply" but they do not realise that the gamemode will be dead otherwise and they will have less to fight against or recruit from. Honestly, current linking system is terrible compared to what we had, and alliances will manage to be even worse. I do not know why are they so stubborn to just not go back to old succesful system with less servers. The system wasn't faulty, the amount of servers was just too many.

And what changed? Objective claim... Reduced upgrade times.. Desert map... Dolyak escort buff.. Watchtower.. Gliding.. Mounts..

I mean of course at super low level dueling stats aren't as relevant as results are mostly defined by how many key skills you can land and lot of it is can be made up by running stat heavy runes and foods 100 power and 100 precision for 2500 power build is about 8% damage. This is reasonable number because there are very few builds that can maintain more than 5 average might stacks. This is unarguable. Well while 100 vitality is about 5% of your total health and 100 armor typically has higher value than this while as it also makes your sustain stronger. Where it might not be 15% more damage that your enemy needs to deal to kill you without claim buff, it is at least 10% more burst required. Of course it is also class specific. For example if one side is condi noob, they get 0 benefit from offensive claim stats and if someones reaction time is so bad they can't react to burst with 3k extra health available, it might not be noticeable for them. But I am making assumptions that we are dealing with skilled power users with well rounded builds. Another way you can see it is: 200 power = 20 stacks of bloodlust sigil, 200 precision = 10% crit chance on both weapon sets (1.5 sigils of accuracy), 200 vitality = 2 sigils of renewal, 200 toughness = 1.5 fully stacked sigils of momentum. If you cannot notice having 5+ extra sigils worth of stats, I don't know what to say? Do not feel bad about it however, we were all new once.

Nah, if there is no scene, there are no opponents either. Imagine dueling bunch of guys happily in one matchup, then south camp/SM swap owner and you just get facerolled. Same applies to camp fights. While claim buff seems neglible, it is losing 8% of your damage and taking 15% more damage while at same time enemy gains what you lost. In addition to this when you have nothing to do => you push enemy objectives for fights => you end up losing to quite a bit worse players more than 50% of the time => you go back to sPvP or play some other game. This leads to a cycle where roamer groups spend less and less time in WvW and any remaining roamer groups have less non-feeding action thus spend less time as well. Claim buff was ultimately bane of 24/7 WvW which is clear from mathematics and how the player actions have evolved over time. There are plenty of players around, they just choose to not opt for this tomfoolery

Current implementation of outnumbered: It is for whole server across the map Doesn't provide stats Updates every 5 minutes Suggested implementation of outnumbered It is only for current objective when defending: Active in smaller zone where you see timer of the objective but counts number difference in whole claim area Boosts Objective Claim by 150% (Base stats of Objective Claim reduced from 100 -> 40) Updates regularly Think about it, claim buff is obviously fight killer. Have nice fights against someone near your SM today? If he owns SM tommorow, you get rekt completely (You lose 1 runeset worth of stats, your enemy gains 1 runeset worth of stats). Only argument for having claim buff provide so much stats is that it helps you defend when outnumbered, otherwise it just kills any competitiveness and promotes disorganisation. Following benefits are expected: - Local scouting will be easier and troll tagging objectives won't be as tilting for the scouts - Sniping objectives will be possible with medium sized groups because outnumbered buff won't be global anymore - Less clouds and more duelers/roamers - Longer activity periods as difficulty level difference between defending and assaulting against same group won't be so steep - Small group scene will be revived - Guilds can again fight each other in keeps for hours - Being on overly strong server won't be as optimal for content as taking things would be too easy and clouding won't be as effective - More commanders would tag up regularly as fights would feel more fair and timezones more consistant

Constant small scale used to be a thing in higher tiers before Heart of Thorns release but as soon as guilds upped their claim buffs, it just died. Just like dueling. It just ain't fun to play outnumbered while also being against people who have 1 extra runeset worth of stats. It just ain't competitive. So most people just sit in keeps or wait for discord announcement for a commander. Not like any rivalry or thrilling timezones can develop when there is massive stat swing everytime you swap from agressor to defender.

Competitive environment: No weird stat advantages on one side or stat swings in pure open field. No uncounterable siege and massive defensive buffs. If defenders want to defend then use siege and spawn for your advantage. If stacked enemy server is too strong and take your keep easily then they're the bored ones. Also one server shouldn't have desert map while others have alpine.. Longterm goals: Meaning functioning server system that maintains playerbase. If you train people or make friendships with guilds or commanders, there should be higher chance they're still around in 2 or 6 months. Also playerbase activity shouldn't be uniform throughout tiers. If people want to build a new strong server, let them start from low population server and PPT up, not choose from already equally populated server linkings. Removal of uninteractive tactics: Too many groups are carried by following things: 1) Hugging claim buffs or 2) Long-term stealth. I do not want to fight against a guild that has 1 strategy and if it fails, they go to another map. I do not want to see this scrubby "I do not want fights, I only want wins" attitude be rewarded. It isn't fun for either side. Sure their commander gets false feeling that he "outplayed enemies by doing same thing over and over 200th time". Yea, sure, great gameplay, clap clap. You're definitely unique using these high level strategies that no other ape could implement Changing stuff up: Well it is simple, succesful competitive games see regular changes. We have systems but numbers were never changed. Keeps still upgrade with exactly same amount of dollies, Objestive Aura gives same stats, walls and siege are exactly as sturdy as 3 years ago. The game just needs to evolve. And outdated boring systems like Borderlands bloodlust and EB NPCs need rework of some kind. For example new ogrewatch is worse than old one but it was fun for at least quarter year. Meaning changes do not need to be perfect to entertain people, just introduce new feel.

Necros have plenty of other good utilities to choose from, both wells just happened to be S+ tier (Must run) Now well of suffering can be replaced with Signet of Locust (boon rip), Sand Swell (Mobility), Signet Of Undeath (Revive), Spectral Ring (CC + boonrip with absorption sigil), Serpent Siphon, Spectral Grasp (pull, mostly for reaper), Elixir of Ignorance/Bliss, "You are all weaklings!" etc. There are plenty of low cooldown S and A-tier skills for necromancer that other classes would dream of.

Not face tank, it is positioning behind melee EP EP EP EP EP <- Enemy players vs G G G G W <- Heavy classes soaking coalesence of ruin and necro axe 3s in hard situations N N N E M <- Light classes hiding <50 range behind heavy classes That is simplified form of it but it is skill expression where support classes position to front to soak damage and light classes try to be minimum amount possible range behind them. 10 target cap skills make this kind of high-level positioning nearly impossible

Precision is already as good as power for DPS so buffing it would make it much better than power. Maybe they should put everything at 20 stats -> 1% and in return buff power coefficients of skills. This would make power builds less reliant on stacking 3 offensive stats.

10 targets = Mindless AoE spam 5 Targets = AoEs with placement mattering 1/3 targets = Gameplay where only hitting key targets matters So reasonings are following: - Target priority (Incoming): Targets in middle of fields or first hit by user centered attacks (CoR, projectiles) will take the damage. This allows squishy players to stay in range of enemies while allowing to not get hit by their abilities. If the ability can hit 10 targets, it will almost certainly hit you removing 1 skill expression from the game. - Target priority (Outgoing): Like above, if you place your field too deep into enemy, you will be just hitting targets that some of your teams user-centered skills can't hit. Meaning skill expression is required. Them standing on your fields isn't enough in 5 target system, actual placement matters. - Damage: If skills deal little damage and hit more targets in return, game naturally becomes less skilled. Burst is non existant and game would be balanced upon downing 10 targets at same time rather than 5. This would also shorten the fights. - Proximity priority: Heals seeping outside your party are proximity based. So in a way it is more skilled. But it will mean tightly packed players will have more sustain and kill any other playstyle. Currently you can receive plenty of support orbiting provided 600 radius support skills are used and equipped properly. - RNG: If outgoing heal numbers and damage numbers are both doubled, will the game will play out similarly? No. You have to consider case where someone receives lower end of RNG healing due to CC and party mental state, and higher end of this newly doubled damage While I am huge fan of most support skills hitting 6 targets and reducing overall healing to increase skill expression by introducing out-of-party proximity healing/damage reduction, I do not think going anywhere beyond that makes sense. As I see, 10 target skills were Anets attempt of diversifying PvE raid meta so you need only 1 tempest, 1 Herald and 1 scourge etc. They never attempted to make 10-man party a legit thing so I believe it was not WvW related.

Blobbings was kinda dying tho. Almost no server has commanders that tag up outside weekend. It is all guild raids or clouders. It just shows that 50v50 meta wasn't that much fun. Fights were basically 1 ranged spike, killing 10 and then yolo push shouting "uga uga" or other monkey noises. It also affects clouds massively. Some servers were literally just sitting in SM with ranged builds farming any newbies. While it seems fun, one server stacking with experienced players holding SM every day of the week and winning every fight while not dying kinda kills the map and any chance of introducing new players to WvW. Servers quality before this patch was literally decided how many good dps revs, guards or eles they have on the server, not by how organised they are. Just go to stacked server and cloud in SM. Honestly. I do not see why 20v60 should be a balance goal. Just go open tag or group with other guilds. Your enemies and allies are people too.

Fix this by - Concentration: 1% per 15 -> 1% boon duration per 21 concentration (in WvW) - Expertise: 1% per 15 -> 1% condi duration per 21 expertise (in WvW) Meanwhile also nerfing minstrel and trailblazer stats in directly. Start with that. Q: Why 21? A: Because then it matches stat given by precision fitting in existing game systems and being equally easy to remember. 25 would already be too much of a nerf for other statlines.

Great changes. All necro specs were running 2 wells and ranged damage was too high. Especially Phase smash. Fiery GS had no place being better than catalyst elite in blob fights. Now just nerf concentration stat and increase sustain cooldowns (prot, aegis, regen, burst heal, cleanse) slightly. Then we got a skilled game. GS + Mace/Sword Vindicator anyone?

Honestly when normal foods give around 170 stats and ascended foods give +10% damage reduction (minimum 220-400 armor) + 170 stats, having ascended foods up or foods at all is good measurement of scrubness. Of course you could add 4th level that you communicate in chat to team where the food is but just dropping it for nearby friendly players or at spawns should suffice. Nowhere here was it asked you to play muiltiple classes, just swap your playstyle or build. For example full zerker shiro herald, that was "meta" for a long time, isn't the best choice to go for in keeps. Eles can swap utilities and elite specs around depending on necessity. Boonripclasses can choose to position to counter push or apply constant pressure. There are plenty of changes you can do to next fight. But yes, 0 points is supposed to be hard to get. You cannot obtain it just by "doing enough", you have to stand out in some way. I rejoice to hear you learnt how to increase your servers cohesion and can keep contributing more and more.

How this works is that you give yourself points depending on how you act in WvW Question 1: When do you use foods? 2 Points: I only use foods when other players drop a tray 1 Point: I use personal foods when there are no trays 0 Points: I drop ascended tray when I have no foods and no one else is dropping Question 2: How much of a pug are you? 2 Points: I am never in squads 1 Point: I am in squad and always standing on tag helping best I can but I always stick to same gameplay 0 Points: I am in squad and adapt my playstyle or change class/build depending on how fights are going Question 3: Do you use voice comms? 2 Points: I do not use voice chat at all 1 Point: I join voice chat whenever commander/group is there but do not use my mic outside guild raids 0 Points: I call things in voice chat even when it is not my guild leading Question 4: How good is your build? 2 Points: I do not know how strong metabuilds are but I feel like I am being useful 1 Point: I know meta and I think my build is almost as strong 0 Points: I play meta or better builds Question 5: How useful are you to the server? 2 Points: I never do any activity outside following commanders or guild raids 1 Points: I scout or roam trying to keep server either strong or active even when there are no commanders 0 Points: I tag up when it is necessary, even if it is just to defend 1 objective, once in a while Point distribution: 0-2 Points Godlike: Congrats. You are someone every server wants. You pull your weight and do your best to win. 3-5 Points Experienced: You have grasped WvW basics but can contribute more to the fights 6-7 Points Average: You do not stand out as much as you want and there is lot to improve 8-10 Points Scrub: You need to take a long trip to Tibet to meet Dalai-lama and cleanse your evil sprit Creator note: This is just something I made for fun. I bet I forgot a few relevant questions.

I think lot of you guys are misunderstanding the positives of this: 1) It will improve sPvP population by noticeable amount. Almost all guild players will be spamming sPvP and tournaments. 2) It will give sPvP badges a location where it is valuable 3) It will make WvW playerbase better at the game 4) It will make getting friends easier since obviously if you're plat player, you want to roam with players that can keep up with you and have decent builds. Yes, toxicity and elitism are already part of WvW but at least it won't be "oh you're not in any good guild" based but rather your current level and you can do something about it as solo player. Also existance of sPvP titles doesn't make PvP badge unnecessary because: 1. You need to click players for it to display 2. It might be outdated 3. It also shows for opponent (pretending to be a scrub will allow bigger bursts and outplays) 4..You can only display one thing at a time

Just think about it. People need incentive to play sPvP and WvW is not only perfect environment where your PvP status is respected, but also great queueing lobby when queues are too long. In sPvP no one is going around in lobby to look at your badge. Imagine going into WvW with your plat badge, smacking some kids around and making some roamer friends. I do not see any reason why PvP badges shouldn't be visible in WvW now that you have option to toggle it off. It would be ultimate peer pressure to get people in sPvP if your WvW pals had gold/plat badge and you didn't

I play solo and am facing against top players in EU PvP the months I play sPvP. I do not think "top duos" are as unbeatable as people think. And I like the possibility of queueing with someone similarly skilled and likeminded even though I haven't found another such individual yet. Honestly DuoQ should stay. They already removed it once in the past and sPvP almost died. I even remember when people were queueing with 5 people and it was actually pretty fun fighting guilds you know as solo. From what I see, the issue here is more related to drop of sPvP player population so you face against same people over and over. Unfortunately Steam launch didn't happen. That would have fixed it.

From what I have experienced, reaper is the strongest necro spec as long as it is provided necessary support. There is no reason to make it self-sufficient in sustaining. Same applies to nerfing its sustain. It isn't easy to master but rather easy to get started at. Reaper shroud: Literally press 33 and 11111 enemy to death in 2 seconds. If you want to tank more than 1 person alone, not even supports can do it. Honestly reapers aren't strong, but I still fear them. They do their job pretty well being avatar of death and tend to snowball out of control due to deaths giving them life force.

Why just that? Dueling gets pretty boring fast. They should add series of "PvP/PvE" maps with decent PvE rewards and slighty more gathering resources. Squads would be disabled on this map. It is about time we get some replayable solo/party content. Issue with WvW is that any small group just gets outnumbered and ran over as soon as they step near towers, sentries or keeps. Of course meta events on that map would be outside PvP zone but some of the setup for it could be inside. It would be just a few maps to cater audience that likes the thrill of PvP possibility while doing PvE. I am sure Anet could make the maps epic and somehow connect with each other. What I am thinking of is a design where outskirts of the 4 maps are PvE zones and the middle covering about 60% of total area of the 4 maps would be PvP zones. So square within a square.