[Institute GvG maps immediately.]

If I remember correctly, I originally became a commander so we wouldn't lose home border. Of course I still play to win matchups but am not that obsessed about flipping enemy towers all the time but rather defend ours and go for fun fights while being point efficient. Don't mind flipping some upgraded keeps and towers either in hope for a fight or to outsmart the enemy commander when the fights start dulling out.

It is true that lot of commanders think there exists some kind of line between PPT and fight commanders but the most popular commanders in the past excel at both. They make people proud of having a smart and charismatic commander, if you start failing at thinking the moment you have to take a wall down or borderhop, you're not exactly the smartest of the bunch, rather being carried by your guild.

Anyways my point is, you can become a commander yourself. It is a stony path for a commander that plays for points; I had to become top level in PvP, learn to understand bunch of classes, buy a PC that can reach over 20 FPS and get used to commanding before I started gaining enough following to flip upgraded keeps during daytime. But truth is you don't need that many players to take care of home border, yes there might be 1 keep you can't touch because enemy is camping it. But you can flip the rest then make holes in it and snipe some dollies/camps until a fight commander shows up and will take care of it. As you see, it is much easier to just gear up your firebrand and tag up, pretending to be a big important person that goes only for fights. I have run into so many overrated "fight-only" guild backed commanders that couldn't survive 2 seconds on a minstrel firebrand following me because they're so used to superior-compositioning enemies or playing pure pirateship.

Regarding your topic, every commander will go through their "GvG" phase when they're growing up. This is basically when their ego grows big because they win fights. Then when it falls down because server/guild starts doing badly, they either bandvagon throwing away all their progress and rot away at some overstacked server or face the reality that to enjoy WvW they need to become strong in other aspects of WvW as well. It would happen to you also if you ever decided to become a commander, so I wouldn't judge them too hard.

[Let's Talk Feelings]

You are right that auto-upgrades, tactics and abundant supply is making the gamemode overly simplistic. Also the fact that they lowered upgrade times and made each skirmish matter as much as another, regardless how hard you lost, reduced the weight of ones actions. Before a few players playing against 30 could make a huge difference by minimizing losses, now they just flat out lose skirmish and might as well log out during timezones they're weak.

You have the right idea that peoples actions and objectives need to have more weight behind them. However part of the reason behind that is not only that objectives upgrade too fast, but also the fact that attacking requires less thought and defending is easy. Before ACs countered catas and well coordinated group could take down ACs as soon as they're built which gave an opening to defenders. Now shield gens make any other siege useless so taking down objective walls and gates is super easy strategically. But defending is also super easy combat wise because respawn is faster, EWPs and increased stats. Meaning both combat or strategical battles are won simply decided by which side you're on.. Attackers get in easy, defenders win the fight easy, perfect balance? Not for me.

Some people claim "WvW doesn't have enough population for manual upgrades anymore" but somehow the server I was on was still managing 12 hours a day with less than 20 people, half of which was with around 5 people. It was just about being smart, not about numbers. Each day you had to battle to keep supply up, siege refreshed, escort dolyaks, save camps, communicate, keep track of enemy groups. Even if you failed to take something, you caused enemy major supplyproblems so you didn't feel bad about it. Now almost all of this is obsolete and using your brain with it. Not saying we need all of it back but at least shield gens and amount of supply could be hit quite heavily. Auto upgrades I am kinda fine with as long as they up the upgrade times, for example from 20/40/80 dolyaks to 25/50/100 dolyaks. Claim buff stats should also be reduced or even removed so strong groups can have long battles within keeps and towers.

[Can we talk about the real problem in WvW for a sec?]

Line of Sighting is a combat strategy. It allows decisionmaking from commanders, one side can get your group more space to work with whereas another can give safety from ranged pressure. It even allows flanking from single players or going down at a location where you can potentially be ressed.

Yes I agree we could use new map every year or so but I do not agree that having flat ground with 0 LoS options would be more fun. Fights at each tower and camp are different.

[A little more convenience ...]

Some people do map completion for money. You can sell the gifts (buyer provides mats to craft the wep) or just make weps and sell them for profit.

Doubt this will happen. It would push legendary generation 1 weapons to their material cost.

[EU Server Status do a check please.]

@Ben.2160 said:Out of curiosity What guild is the issue? I'm unaware, there was few on there.

KISS

[EU Server Status do a check please.]

@Ben.2160 said:

@"Threather.9354" said:Let me summarize the weaknesses of Piken:

• They play points with bad time distribution, meaning their night and morningcrew is inefficient and lacks numbers.
• Widespread attitude on server is that builds don't matter for how much fun you have for WvW because they dislike elitism. But good builds are still necessary for having fun winning and being efficient in both capping and fighting. This attitude goes to extent where every build discussion leads into "Builds don't matter, just play whatever class you have fun with".
• Their veteran and popular commanders basically abandoned the server and then quit the game because they disliked playing on other servers
• Their scouts play on different timezones (OCE) as their commanders (EU)
• They have bad guild manipulating primetime, 4-5 hours a day everyday. Basically the reason this guild is bad is because they lead open on external voice comms and closed squads where only their guild members are allowed. Basically they raid with the style most NA guilds raid with where you exclude players, even those willing to follow you and join voice comms, difference is that other EU guilds don't allow pugs to follow them and go EB when they're running closed squad+discord. Their commander has lost all faith in humanity which makes him unfit to be a leader.
• They are not strong enough to take, reset or hold their home border/Stonemist castle, which are both essential to winning/not losing matchups.

If the server is full, they simply have lot of players. This doesn't mean the players are good, on same map or accomplish anything.

As an FOW player who has been linked with Piken before this sounds about right. Quite a casual server, not that much toxicity in the chat. But the few guilds that do raid/zerg are very tight knitted and arrogant to be honest. One guild raid bumped into an enemy guild raid of same numbers., they gloated in chat that they would wipe the other enemy guild. I watched from afar as other guild group rolled over them in about twenty seconds... Also I followed a guild raid with plenty of PUG's tagging along as well. One of the guild players was actually quite friendly towards me in whispers. Invited me into their unfull squad just to kicked by the commander ten seconds later. They do seem to struggle against equal numbers. They couldn't get through a keep being defending by the same numbers. Overall just a casual server that feels disorganised and ineffective at winning against equal numbers. Shame, as the casual attitude is not all that bad, better than toxicity that's for sure.

Ah yeah. Piken is a great server despite me listing their weaknesses. Before the most hated guild on EU bandvagoned there, it was my 2nd favorite server. People were nice and supporting towards new/transferring commanders while having mature attitudes towards what is fun; humour and unity, not egoistic downtalking enemy/pugs. All they lack is strong active leadership, a few commanders, that try their best to win fights/points while not being toxic or elitist kicking people and raging.

Unfortunately Piken will be stuck at lower tiers as long as "the guild" remains there and kills servers original community by being antifun towards anyone who doesn't join the guild. Hopefully they don't bandvagon back to my server, because all guilds will leave and we will be stuck T4 again then. That is how bad it is to have them on your server.

[EU Server Status do a check please.]

Let me summarize the weaknesses of Piken:

• They play points with bad time distribution, meaning their night and morningcrew is inefficient and lacks numbers.
• Widespread attitude on server is that builds don't matter for how much fun you have for WvW because they dislike elitism. But good builds are still necessary for having fun winning and being efficient in both capping and fighting. This attitude goes to extent where every build discussion leads into "Builds don't matter, just play whatever class you have fun with".
• Their veteran and popular commanders basically abandoned the server and then quit the game because they disliked playing on other servers
• Their scouts play on different timezones (OCE) as their commanders (EU)
• They have bad guild manipulating primetime, 4-5 hours a day everyday. Basically the reason this guild is bad is because they lead open on external voice comms and closed squads where only their guild members are allowed. Basically they raid with the style most NA guilds raid with where you exclude players, even those willing to follow you and join voice comms, difference is that other EU guilds don't allow pugs to follow them and go EB when they're running closed squad+discord. Their commander has lost all faith in humanity which makes him unfit to be a leader.
• They are not strong enough to take, reset or hold their home border/Stonemist castle, which are both essential to winning/not losing matchups.

If the server is full, they simply have lot of players. This doesn't mean the players are good, on same map or accomplish anything.

[What makes a WvW vet?]

Vets are the people that understand that WvW doesn't only function on open field fights and karmatrain.Vets are made some of, but not all of:

• Understanding what your actions mean to all parties involved, enemy or ally groups, not just you, your squad or your guild.
• Understanding meta isn't just 1-dimensional 7-build thing and different builds are necessary for different situations and playstyles
• Contribution to server, guild, players or WvW in general. Having personal memories and experiences. (The time played part)
• Mechanics; having experience to dodge stealth bombs, being able to differentiate between different sized AoE fields, having right settings.
• Understanding the difference single scout, commander or active player can make in outcome of a matchup or a fight
• Understanding the factors that decide when group fun goes over objectives and when objectives go over your personal fun
• Give and take attitude; Sometimes you let guilds GvG so they let you have your fights later. In crucial matchups you might do morning or nightcrew despite it not being your timezone.
• Understanding your personal strengths. Some people can't play melee, some get bored playing ranged (rev btw), some can't zerg, some can't scout, some can't be loud, some can teach others, some can be funny.
• Understanding importance of movement and positioning, in-fight and outside fight. Unfortunately PvE doesn't teach you this.

Now there are people that can be 10k rank but gained it in EotM following some random ktrainer commander without learning anything. These aren't WvW veterans but rather people who played some other gamemode. There are also people who AFKed or played 1-style on same build for 5k hour in WvW sitting in SM, these aren't veterans either because they didn't learn anything.

[Firebrand nerfed, what now?.]

@Yannir.4132 said:

@"Lonewolf Kai.3682" said:Ugh, that’s a terrible idea and wouldn’t solve anything. What needs to be changed is the healing power coefficient on guardian heals. Also, I think they should remove stab from courage 1 and replace it with something else, like maybe a power damage component.

Removing the F3 Stability would hurt other Guardian builds more than Firebrand. Terrible idea. DH and Core Guardian are nerfed enough.

Personally I think they should change Archivist of Whispers and nerf Force of Will.Make AoW a tome cooldown reduction trait instead of more pages, or make the extra pages somehow conditional. Make FoWs outgoing healing a flat +10% increase instead of scaling based on Vit.

He ment the Courage tome "autoattack" skill, not the trait that makes f3 tome give stab.

[We need chrono back now!]

@kraai.7265 said:

@"Threather.9354" said:Chronos okay. Just play DPS with Dueling + Chaos. I don't want to share the exact build because it is connected to other people and guilds not much related to me.

You already have Illusion of life (saves a few people), double grav (kills a few people), veil (stealths whole zerg), shield 5 (stuns all enemies) with plenty of other choices to be more useful than a few players. And a class that is worth than a few players is viable, for example rangers, dps engis and thieves struggle killing 1 person alone in a zerg fight, even if they down one, they can't finish him. Chrono destroys dozens of them with just gravs, shield 5s and pulls, maybe GS shatter combos if you opt for that build.

Its just simple math: Save a few people + kill a few people = you're worth more than a few people.

Yes boonshare chrono was easier to play and you might miss it with all your heart, but Chrono itself is compeletely viable in WvW. The spec being realint on another traitline is not acceptable balancing though but I am just countering your arguments of Chrono being dead rather than discussing that topic.

Lol it's si funny when people reply without Even readingVeil: You mean that 2 seconds stealth with a huge visual tell? No thx commanders prefer sceappers for that massive smoke field with no visual clues.iol: as i stated is a stupid skill, between warclaws and powercreep that skill has so much delay it almost never works as intended.Double grav well: are You kidding me ? I just stated it's impossible to land one with the one clone requirement, do You Even play mesmer? i tried every single setup i could in order to generate clones in the middle of zerg fights, even the retaliation on clones trait, you know what happens? they get destroyed almost at the same time they are casted.Greatsword: m8 i already talked about gs in zerg, its as usefull as a shortbow soulbeast, You can't defend yourself at all, thats why everyone uses scepter, same Range dmg but with a free hand and a block, gs only works for roaming.

And btw if what i want back is boonshare i would ask for signets rework, but if You have read what i'm posting My complains revolve around cc dps Chrono(that dueling-chaos-chrono build you are talking about), no one is expecting boonshare to come back. Also i was always talking about organized groups, i already know that when someone plays casually it doesent really matter which Build ir class he is using.

Plz next time You try school Simeone take the time to read what he's saying before writing, it's so infuriating to get this kind of replies. All of what You said is completely inaccurate and was already adressed in my original post

And if You still disagree go Build a Chrono try to "save some people, kill some others" with that joke of a res skills, and that single Gravity well, try to land that stupid iol skill in between warclaws finishes, and try not to get destroyed landing that single Gravity well with Focus pull, without on demand distortion, stability or heals, hope your fb keeps right beside You at all times.(because in case You don't know it has a really short Range, we aren't like backline eles throwing meteors)

I said dueling, you can just dodge to summon a clone and shatter afterwards before the clone gets destroyed.

I am sorry but it is literally impossible to fail this unless you click both your dodge bar and shatter with your mouse, neither of which you should do.

Yes scepter is the more mainstream build but I did mention greatsword as a variant MEANING it isn't the main build but it still can work if you know all the greatsword mechanics. Indeed scepter and focus are easy peasy to use and will fit melee train better, but unfortunately there are fights when following open commanders where you get outpressured by enemy, can't finish downs and greatsword would be more useful.

And if you call both gravity and illusion of life joke skills, I don't know, maybe stop shooting them around reactively and read a few seconds ahead in a fight like a good player? Like I said, chrono is harder now. You have to be better than on other classes.

[Does the opinion matter of the players that were once hyped up about the concept of WvW but not now?]

People that don't play WvW can't have meaningful opinions about current balance. They can have state their opinion why they quit WvW in the past but that is extent of it, they can't be part of any discussion that considers any events following them quitting such as balance patches, mounts and upgrade changes.

Its like listening to a guy who hasn't played a class once trying to explain how class is supposed to be played. Yes they can repeat opinions of someone else and be correct but often they're basing their opinions on completely wrong information. So either they don't bring anything new to conversation or are just flat-out wrong.

[We need chrono back now!]

Chronos okay. Just play DPS with Dueling + Chaos. I don't want to share the exact build because it is connected to other people and guilds not much related to me.

You already have Illusion of life (saves a few people), double grav (kills a few people), veil (stealths whole zerg), shield 5 (stuns all enemies) with plenty of other choices to be more useful than a few players. And a class that is worth than a few players is viable, for example rangers, dps engis and thieves struggle killing 1 person alone in a zerg fight, even if they down one, they can't finish him. Chrono destroys dozens of them with just gravs, shield 5s and pulls, maybe GS shatter combos if you opt for that build.

Its just simple math: Save a few people + kill a few people = you're worth more than a few people.

Yes boonshare chrono was easier to play and you might miss it with all your heart, but Chrono itself is compeletely viable in WvW. The spec being realint on another traitline is not acceptable balancing though but I am just countering your arguments of Chrono being dead rather than discussing that topic.

[Future Potential WvW-centric Balance Changes - September 13th 2019]

Lot of suggestions here about ranger in WvW:

The fundamental issue is that ranger has no good weapons for Zerg fights. And yes sorry, your bow is infinitely worse than elementalist staff. You should be suggesting weapon changes for ranger. Druids and Soulbeasts already have plenty of unique support in form of buffs/boons/superspeed/stealth/ressing but the fact that you're not doing anything when your stances/allies don't need heals is an issue.

For example: Imagine Worldly impact, one of the easiest to hit ranger melee skills. It has only 240 radius. Compare this to likes of Necromancer axe 3 that has 600 radius and covers 6.25 times more area which still doesn't hit targets for majority of the fight. Essentially it is near impossible to hit more than 1 target as a ranger close range and you're stuck running a bow. Of course you can combo the skill with a leap but then you're just running poor mans earth shaker from a warrior hammer.

Now ranger needs a largescale weapon rework to be viable in WvW. Similar to a treatment Guardian Mace and Shield got but even on a grander scale.

[Future Potential WvW-centric Balance Changes - September 13th 2019]

Yea. This scourge change is in wrong direction. Why 10 targets?

This just means you won't be placing your shades down ever and run a melee ball. You can't afford of 15 seconds of the only anti-push class to lose their shade skills.Also it buffs sustain of the zerg massively up to a point where anyone that places a shade down is trolling. Giving barrier and cleansing 10 allies is worth more than placing the shade down, maybe if the shade lasted 5 seconds but it lasts 15 seconds and you can't remove it.... You can also combo the fear with corrupts and hit 10 targets with shroud melee range easier.This is just making scourge easier to play while punishing the people who lack knowledge. And Scourge being too easy was the problem, not it being too hard.

My suggestion:Make Sand Savant make every 3rd shade large shade and keep rest of them normal shades. Reduce the cooldown of Sand Savant shades in WvW by 10 seconds. This means cooldown on large shades will be average of 60 seconds, double from before. Increase the amount of shades allowed to 3, meaning they can have 1 large shade and 2 small shades up (4 additional targets than before) but they have to use all shades for that.

[Do you intend to craft the Legendary Runes & Sigils?]

I am almost done with my last legendary armor set. After that it will be just Runes, I think. Easier to move them on multiple characters than legendary trinkets or weapons. Of course id get sigils instead if I had the weapons.

[Sand Savant Suggestion (Mostly for WvW)]

Hello everyone! I have an interesting idea how they could rework the larget shades trait without completely removing it or scourge from the game.

Current (WvW):

You can summon only one shade at a time, but this greater shade has a modified recharge. You affect more targets and influence a larger area with Shade skills.A greater shade counts as three shades for related traits.Increased Targets: 2Recharge Increased: 100%Radius Increase: 120

What I suggest (WvW)

Every 3rd shade you place is a greater shade. Greater shade and you affect more targets and influence a larger area with Shade skills. Larger area and increased targets will always occur around the scourge.Increased Targets: 2Recharge Increased: 33%Radius Increase: 120

This means scourge would gain:

1. 10 second off shade cooldown (down from 30s to 20s)
2. ability to place 2 small shades in addition to big one (Hitting up to 16 targets instead of 10 but you have to use all your shades)But:
3. There will be at least 20 seconds between big shades so enemies can play around it
4. Having to coordinate with other allies regarding big shades
5. Twice as long average large shade cooldown (up from 30s to 60s)

Now I agree Scourge will still be stronger than Reaper and Necromancer counterparts in WvW but this would partly fix the underlying issues of scourge being too easy and denying too much area.

[Future Potential WvW-centric Balance Changes - September 6th 2019]

Firebrand is still going to be little too strong. Reduction of dodge roll healing power ratio (Honor) from 100% to 80% could be one way to touch Firebrands somewhat passive strengths.

I would have rather made purity of purpose only convert only 1 condition into boon per cleanse, you're nerfing tempest too much by rework of antitoxin runes. So support tempest could use some makeup buffs.

Also you should consider increasing Elementalist staff CC (air 5, earth 4) targets to 20 so it is worth running over other classes while not making it overbearing regarding damage.

All the suggested changes are great tho.

[Why do people like WvW?]

Well I have played a lot and have run into at least these emotions:1) Challenging yourselfWvW is challenging PvP gamemode. Make an amazing build, fight enemies, HYPE! Sometimes you just get those epic lord room fights where your team resses others left and right while killing enemies for dozens of minutes until manages to come out victorious. 1 wrong step and you lose. Obviously you need PvP oriented builds because if you put PvErs against each other, the fight is over in 2 seconds.2) Hype commandersUnfortunately most of the commanders these days don't do hype commanding but WvW used to be filled with commanders screaming funny things that made a man hyped. Following commanders like Ins, who was very well known on EU, getting hyped shouting likes of "PEPPER THEM PEPPER THEM CASTERS" ... " CHOO CHOO !!!" is an epic experience. These people genuinely loved WvW and it was contagious.3) CommunitySometimes people are just nice and work towards same goal expecting nothing at return. Then you just make friends, some verbal some not. Once you get some happy memories with people, coming across them makes you happy despite not being directly connected with them. Same can even extend to guilds within the server despite you not knowing the player in question.4) Pride/EgoAll guilds and commanders pack a little bit of pride. This allows them to go through some rough periods of time just by believing in them being better than the results they have achieved. This isn't exactly positive feeling but it does keep people around.5) AmusementEvery server has had their clowns, these days it is mostly tasteless teamchat trolls. But back when people used to be smart there was warriors doing stupid yolo pushes every fight coming unschathed typing funny things. Mesmers making troll portals to kill noobs. Pulling a grub inside enemy tower before capping it. Playing lord roulette with SM buffed lord. Most of these things are fun only for the first time, but still there are countless of them. And most of these people were doing these "nonsensical things" to make other people laugh, not to make them feel bad.6) Teaching peopleYou get a burst of nostalgia when you see someone struggling with something you used to. So you teach them how to do it correctly and feel like you helped someone. In return he will become a strong player of your server.7) CreativityCreativity is fun, you can do it with siege, playstyle or builds. Pretty cool.8) RivalsWell even this date when server pride is considered dead (it's not), I derive some pleasure from crushing servers or commanders I dislike.

WvW does have its bad periods and requires certain knowledge of timezones and commanders within the server so you can find a group worth following. Good commanders can always find something fun to do as long as it is not the deadest hours of the game and you're not on an overstacked server.

[How to rework Sand Savant (Scourge big shades). Idea.]

Hello everyone! I have an interesting idea how they could rework the scourge big shades trait without completely removing it or scourge from the game.

Current:

You can summon only one shade at a time, but this greater shade has a modified recharge. You affect more targets and influence a larger area with Shade skills.A greater shade counts as three shades for related traits.Increased Targets: 2Recharge Increased: 100%Radius Increase: 120

What I suggest

Every 3rd shade you place is a greater shade. Greater shade and you affect more targets and influence a larger area with Shade skills. Larger area will always affect around the scourge.Increased Targets: 2Recharge Increased: 33%Radius Increase: 120

This means scourge would gain:

1. 10 second off shade cooldown (down from 30s to 20s)
2. ability to place 2 small shades in addition to big one (Hitting up to 16 targets instead of 10 but you have to use all your shades)But:
3. There will be at least 20 seconds between big shades so enemies can play around it
4. Having to coordinate with other allies regarding big shades
5. Twice as long average large shade cooldown (up from 30s to 60s)

They also have all the necessary animations and mechanics so it isn't extra work.

[World Linking 8/30/2019]

@aspirine.6852 said:

@Threather.9354 said:

@aspirine.6852 said:So let me get this, you give the number 1 server a link, and piken who is struggling in t4/t3 gets none. And no I am not on Piken.

Gunnars hold was medium pop. Dzagonur (their last link) full and unlinked main server now.

But it is high enough now to be host server, and still going to stay at nr1 spot by the looks of it. Piken is far from T1 right now. I sometimes think the numbers Anet uses for linking is not very correct, that is all. I mean Gandara has been full for a long time, always gets a link.

That is because they got linked with Kodash that was unlinked. Kodash has looooot of people but 0 commanders that have interest leading outside primetime. Not to mention dzagonur people are abadoning ship to Kodash.

[How long does it take to gain 1000 levels in WvW for you at the moment?]

You get approximately ~80-100 ranks a week if you play 12 hours a day without boosts while capping, defending, scouting and fighting things. Basically playing normal WvW; blobbing, smaller groups, scouting.

That is 84-105 hours for 100 ranks. 840-1050 hours for 1k rank without boosts. 420-525 hours with birthday boosters. Less for blob only players, more for worse players; my defense success rate is somewhere at 80-90 percentile and offensive success rate at above 60, granted I only go for T1 or above objectives instead of easy T0 towers.

[World Linking 8/30/2019]

@aspirine.6852 said:So let me get this, you give the number 1 server a link, and piken who is struggling in t4/t3 gets none. And no I am not on Piken.

Gunnars hold was medium pop. Dzagonur (their last link) full and unlinked main server now.

[Things that 100% make WvW unfun atm]

@"KeyOrion.9506" said:If all the Commander wants to do, is fight, and he's not interested in PPT...what is the point of WvW at all. It's nothing more than largescale pvp is what they want. And you can do that in Obsidian Sanctum and kitten to hell Eternal Battlegrounds or the Borderlands maps. Seriously. If your a commander and all you want to do is fight, Obsidian Sanctum has an Arena, that was specifically built for your GvG needs. But you don't use it.

Um, all the changes I suggested at the start of the thread push away from having to blob PvP. They give long-term siege fights back making small groups more useful. They touch the meta nerfing the most op blob specs.

Unfortunately as long as there are ways to abuse the gamemode, people will do it. So for anet to reduce blobbing they have to remove the shield gen attacks and defenders massive advantage so that going to enemy border with smallish group isn't just a suicide 90% of the daytime. You must understand that for mentalities of people like us that play for points (log-in gradually) is different from PvP-only blobbers that only log-in at certain time (starting with 40-70 people), so smaller scale being fun is essential for your point commanders to build numbers to match enemies better and have fun.

It is true that lot of commanders these days don't care about points these days but the meta is favorable for their playstyle thus it is the dominant style. Most of the "points too" commanders stopped commanding because the playstyle is too unimaginitive (shield gen attacks, can't treb because gens) and unfavorable (defender advantages). This doesn't even count the fact that enemies are attacking less because the same reasons. I believe your issue isn't the fact that there are fight commanders, but rather the lack of the commanders alongside them; After all WvW isn't just limited to that 1 blobbing metablind commander. So the maps/balance is definitely an issue and by these changes, which aren't small, I aim to bring meaningful WvW gameplay back by making it more fun for all sides. The reason I kept the suggestion at a reasonable scale was so that it doesn't take too much resources from ANET.

Now do note that for ANET it is much easier to make the balance more fun for your preferred playstyle, causing gradual increase in the playbase that thinks like you, than changing the existing player mentality with some immoral propaganda. ANET kind of already reduced one of the specific problem within fights by making damage reduction foods more widespread with ascended feasts, not an approach I would have thought of.

[PuG Zerg Meta?]

I lead with this style. Often with discord, sometimes not.

I adapt to what pugs are running, the amount of melee we have, f/e you can't run melee ball against off-healer comp when you have no off-healers, and how outnumbered we are.

Yes I teach people to think for themselves and promote everyone to use their own brain during combat instead of just staying on tag. It gets little messy sometimes, but I have most fun with this way rather than trying to force some military attitude to everyone. Some blobbers disagree but they're just brainwashed by memories that no other style is effective. People who have witnessed pirateship commanders against melee commanders, can agree. My style is more of a chameleon that adapts to the conditions.

In one sentence; I teach people to understand the way I am thinking so they can figure out future movement to spots which matches winconditions or line-of-sight being favorable for us.

I allow rangers and thieves to join squad but I also promote builds ~every 30 min. They will eventually swap their builds to fit the fight were at. Not many new players will have discord or necessary gear on first day. I believe some respect for the commander and love for WvW is necessity for them to truly listen. I have also witnessed good soulbeasts and thieves carry smaller fights, so I don't want to exclude those mains from WvW.

Builds are kinda set in stone what classes are necessity; Firebrand, off-healer, rev, scourge. But amount and some traits/runes/stats can vary; sometimes you can run 20 revs instead of 10 and actually be stronger despite it not being close to meta. Staff weavers, melee tempests and even condi conversion holosmiths can easily be worth multiple people in a fight despite not being necessity. it is just about the style.

[Ty for killing wvw more...]

My math is saying that difference between ascended and already existing foods is about 15-30% (might per crit ones excluded)

For example lets take 10% damage reduction + 100 power + 70 vitality food fighting against a power build with a power buildEnemy and you go through 40k health during fight:Asc food10% damage reduction: ~4.444k health (1.1 4000+0.1^2 4000+ 0.1^3 4000 etc)70 vitality: 0.7k health100 power: 4% damage increase with 2500 power.Hitting enemy for 40k damage total during fight 4% will add up 1600 damage = 1600 healthAlready existing foods10% damage reduction = ~4.4444k health70 power 0.71600 = 1120 damage

So the difference is (4.4444k+0.7k+1.6k)/(4.4444k+1.12k)= ~1.2121 -> 21.21% better food

Enemy and you go through 20k health during fight (burst fights, for example thief vs thief):10% damage reduction: 2.222222k100 power: 800 damage70 vit: 700 healthSo difference is (2.2222+0.7+0.8)/(2.2222+0.7)= ~1.2738 -> 27.38% better food.

Now this is just math regarding foods I might use out of the ascended ones, but I am sure some people prefer some other stuff, like the might per critical strike might add easily another 90 stats making the difference over 40%. And I am only touching power fights which are both blobbing and roaming meta.

But yea in flat numbers it is only 800-1600 damage increase. Not massive but should win like 3-5 duel like fights more out of 100. In blobfights single player can deal pretty often like 500k damage so it would be10 times more.