Join squads, please.

[Riba.3271]

Big issue caused by playerbase is that ton of people aren't willing to ever join squad. Especially on EB. Okay I understand not wanting to support some soulbeast or foodless airhead leading regularly on your server, but if the commander is actually on support spec and is doing his best, the fault is on the people outside squad. He doesn't have to be GvG god or your best friend to be qualified to lead open tags.

 

Does any of this sound familiar: Squadless people complaining about commanders and bad gameplay on mapchat? 30 man squads with 40 man queue? Necromancers, scrappers and support firebrands running outside squad? People who only join their guilds commanders squads but still stick around tags all day?

We will all have better time and fights with bigger squads. Nobody likes when there is a queue on map but 40 people afk or playing boonless.

 

Thank you.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Riba.3271

[Custodio.6134]

While this is absolutely true, there is some limitation on that. 

If it is an open squad, that´s entirely on the players. Nobody is preventing you from joining an open squad, and in this case, i 100% aggree with you. 

If it is a closed squad, that´s also entirely on the players. If the "randoms" don´t manage to get in the squad (aka, being invited), there is a distinct reason for it: --> they don´t match the commander's expectations. And this is also not the commander's fault, the commander has to work with the people, classes, and potentially voice-chat he/she has available. The commander is completely free to set the rules (usually based on the competetiveness and expierience of the commander). 

So, if the player doesn´t get invited, or gets kicked out of the squad, there´s usually a distinct reason for that. That may be: not playing a viable class (Note: i´m explicitly mention "viable", NOT "meta". that´s a difference, since well-played viable classes can still be useful enough to play), not joining voice (if the commander specifies this as requirement), sometimes more competetive commanders also kick certain players IF they stand out extremely negatively (running completely off-tag, frequently and instantly dying in first-push, not playing the build they claim to play etc.). That´s especially the case when the squad is full/near-full, in order to make room for players that actively want to contribute. 

[Dawdler.8521]

1 hour ago, Riba.3271 said:

Okay I understand not wanting to support some soulbeast or foodless airhead leading regularly on your server, but if the commander is actually on support spec and is doing his best, the fault is on the people outside squad.

Implying that being on that spec (or you can just say firebrand) suddenly make the commander that much better and demand you join it or its everyone elses fault.

But personally I cant join squads.

I'm allergic to people slower than me.

[Riba.3271]

46 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

1 hour ago, Riba.3271 said:

Okay I understand not wanting to support some soulbeast or foodless airhead leading regularly on your server, but if the commander is actually on support spec and is doing his best, the fault is on the people outside squad.

Implying that being on that spec (or you can just say firebrand) suddenly make the commander that much better and demand you join it or its everyone elses fault.

As long as they're using foods and put some thought into spec they're leading on, they're trying their best. Some people genuinely think Chronomancers and Scourges are great for leading so they're still trying their best and they're worth following.

 

When some bowuser tags up and doesn't relog when it gets hard, he put 0 thought into it and is most likely just farming pips.

 

46 minutes ago, Dawdler.8521 said:

But personally I cant join squads.

I'm allergic to people slower than me.

Yup, people are like snails. Somehow they seem to live on 5 second delay and it is definitely frustrating. But you know, being in squad doesn't mean you have to care about them. I just roam around fighting or trolling enemies 2000 range from tag when there isn't much to do on tag. But I am still in squad as long as commander is the one providing the action.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Riba.3271

[Riba.3271]

1 hour ago, Custodio.6134 said:

If it is a closed squad, that´s also entirely on the players. If the "randoms" don´t manage to get in the squad (aka, being invited), there is a distinct reason for it: --> they don´t match the commander's expectations. And this is also not the commander's fault, the commander has to work with the people, classes, and potentially voice-chat he/she has available. The commander is completely free to set the rules (usually based on the competetiveness and expierience of the commander). 

Yes, I wanted to write couple of sentences that this isn't linked with wanting to join voice chat but I didn't want to make too long of a text. Some people just like to play in silence without joining 1-man-shows, and they have right to do so. The commander chose to exclude them which is different from players queueing maps and choosing to be less than half of a player without boons and heals that squad can provide.

But ye, this is 100% about open squads. There shouldn't be big queues on a map with 25-30 people in squad and no closed raids.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Riba.3271

[Dayra.7405]

I stopped joining arbitrary squads/parties as it enables people to spy and judge me using tools like arcdps.

Preseve privacy, stop such tools.

Edited May 8, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Custodio.6134]

1 hour ago, Riba.3271 said:

As long as they're using foods and put some thought into spec they're leading on, they're trying their best. Some people genuinely think Chronomancers and Scourges are great for leading so they're still trying their best and they're worth following.

Absolutely. For a "good" commander it doesn´t matter which specc they are on. I´ve seen a lot of different speccs used on commanders (with the most popular ones being Firebrands, Scourges, with the occasional Chrono or Tempest here and there).

And even if they´re unexpierienced: if they are actively leading (no matter how good that may be or not), they are most likely willing to learn, which not only takes time, but also great courage to even tag up. That MUST be honored. 

Most commanders choose Firebrand because 1: Firebrand has some of the most important cooldowns you need to keep track of, and 2: some cooldowns (especially on staff) not only have a 1200 range (which makes it easier to judge distances for ranged spikes etc), but also align (almost) perfectly with other important cooldowns for other classes. for example: Line of Warding has a 30 seconds CD, that almost aligns with Necro-Wells (25/32s), Mesmer-Pull (25s), Shield of Judgement has 20s CD (which aligns perfectly with the Shade-Spike) etc. 

But basically any other Zerg-Specc just works fine, as long as the commander has the game-knowledge needed to lead (for example, but not exclusively: good estimate of cooldowns, strategic knowledge, good judgement of the capabilities of their squad/squad-composition, ability to adapt to all kind of factors etc. etc.)

Of course, a Specc that has high survivability (for example warrior or guardian) is preferred, because it really hurts if the commander gets downed. But expierienced commanders even often run slightly adapted builds just for leading in order to increase their own survivability, without giving up what their specc should do. 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Custodio.6134

[Chaba.5410]

1 hour ago, Dayra.7405 said:

Preseve privacy, stop such tools.

I assure you, no one needs such tools to figure out something they can learn also just by careful observation.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Chaba.5410

[Dayra.7405]

14 minutes ago, Chaba.5410 said:

I assure you, no one needs such tools to figure out something they can learn also just by careful observation.

Obviously a lot do or it wouldn’t spread like a virus, given that it also crashes the game often

[kash.9213]

I don't join squads because I'm not going to stay tight on a commander tag, so I don't want to be a squirreling dot on the map for them. 

I might be in the same area but it's likely not because of you. I'm reading maps breath and trying to get ahead of stuff with what time I get to log in after work. 

I make a big effort to stay out of your circles and to not lead eyes and ears towards something you're clearly prepping for.

I might be in a group with guildies, but we mostly still do our own thing while pinging the map for each other or linking up when we need to (usually to work as a 2 v ? split for your group). I don't want to be a disruption for your squad because I use Alert to Target a lot. 

I'm still there to cover and support everyone, it's what I build for, but you're very likely to put me in the back of the squad bus anyway with other thieves and probably a ranger or two so what's the difference? 

I move when I know I need to move. I don't want to be stuck moving against my instinct. I'll still probably go down trying to run damage control on some squads drive anyway and would have done the same work as being in that squad.

Squads, prep time, Discords, and their encounters are seriously hit or miss and I don't have a lot of time after work.

Edited April 21, 2023 by kash.9213

[enkidu.5937]

14 hours ago, Riba.3271 said:

Big issue caused by playerbase is that ton of people aren't willing to ever join squad.

Short version:

Adapt your tactic to the playerbase.

-----------------

TL, wont read version:

Most people play Meta, aka range cloud. Its natural that most people refuse to „stack on tag“, cause they already tried it and don't like to get farmed.

I understand that you see the tempting theoretical potential of „stack on tag“ and „gid gud“ by daily training. But 85% of the players, like in every other PvP game, are not in a fight guild, do not play with voice chat, are not on full support / glass cannon builds etc.

They play Meta, and as for every PvP game out there, Meta means: The tactic that works most efficiently for the broad player base (aka casuals), in as many situations as possible.

I really enjoy to participate from time to time in that „Pseudo-Meta“ with FB + Zerker Scourge, its definately worth it. But don't be surprised when most ppl give a quaggan on „ArcDPS cover boon strips“ and „ArcDPS 15k Damage on those downies“. The Tempest did 300 cleanses in a 1 minute fight ? Good job! I admire, honestly, thats skill. But may I ask, why did those teammates suffer from such a crazy amount of condis? 🙂

Its really hard to follow coms that claim „clouding is not fighting“ and willfully lose by numbers cause of „voice chat mandatory password“ 😏

Edited April 22, 2023 by enkidu.5937

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

Respectfully, no.

Me and many others will happily scamper around the map, take camps, escort dolyaks, run to sword-icons to check, refresh siege where we see them, and make call outs like "30 Green, Cata 4x South Bay".
None of this requires a blob, in fact in large fight guilds we are just taking up valuable squad space.
Communication? We literally just announced in Team Chat, sometimes we repeat it, if you don't catch it, then even being in a Discord VC won't help you notice either, since clearly the squad/comm isn't paying attention, or is holding off responding in favor of completing something else.

If you think having an extra 10 people in addition to the 45+ you already have will help you make the final push into SMC lord room and finish the capture, then call us and we will come.

The way the thread was worded, it feels like "you are all playing WvW wrong if you are not physically on the tag at ALL times".
Cannot agree with this.

PS. I don't see people complaining about bad comms, on my server all we see is "any tags"? LOL
Complaining about bad tags feels like a 1st world WvW problem, we kitten low backwater servers don't have this issue that often.
(...why is urine censored??)

Edited April 22, 2023 by MercurialKuroSludge.8974

[kash.9213]

2 hours ago, MercurialKuroSludge.8974 said:

Respectfully, no.

Me and many others will happily scamper around the map, take camps, escort dolyaks, run to sword-icons to check, refresh siege where we see them, and make call outs like "30 Green, Cata 4x South Bay".
None of this requires a blob, in fact in large fight guilds we are just taking up valuable squad space.
Communication? We literally just announced in Team Chat, sometimes we repeat it, if you don't catch it, then even being in a Discord VC won't help you notice either, since clearly the squad/comm isn't paying attention, or is holding off responding in favor of completing something else.

If you think having an extra 10 people in addition to the 45+ you already have will help you make the final push into SMC lord room and finish the capture, then call us and we will come.

The way the thread was worded, it feels like "you are all playing WvW wrong if you are not physically on the tag at ALL times".
Cannot agree with this.

PS. I don't see people complaining about bad comms, on my server all we see is "any tags"? LOL
Complaining about bad tags feels like a 1st world WvW problem, we kitten low backwater servers don't have this issue that often.
(...why is urine censored??)

Ya, I hope I didn't come off as combative in my other post. I appreciate people tagging up and being the connective tissue across maps. I also appreciate them pulling map queue aggro while giving a little guidance to some pugs. It gives people something to do on a few scales. I usually end up right on them for a good stretch anyway, I like most of our tags in moving fights. 

[Riba.3271]

2 hours ago, MercurialKuroSludge.8974 said:

Communication? We literally just announced in Team Chat, sometimes we repeat it, if you don't catch it, then even being in a Discord VC won't help you notice either, since clearly the squad/comm isn't paying attention, or is holding off responding in favor of completing something else.

Actually there are often times 40 people in squad don't notice something important in teamchat midfight especailly if in enemy keep. And even if you do, often you need additional information such as how many players we have and how long can we hold without showing up, which is obviously impossible to type in chat while commanding.

 

Not saying it is absolutely necessary but scouts were vocal part of community back in single server system. People who cared and shared their passion/knowledge to others while being part of same group, rather than just running separately. I guess separation is a must though with double server system where community keeps changing and tier you're in is more important than winning.

2 hours ago, MercurialKuroSludge.8974 said:

The way the thread was worded, it feels like "you are all playing WvW wrong if you are not physically on the tag at ALL times".
Cannot agree with this.

This thread was literally worded in a way that if you're around the commander, join the squad. Since you're home border person, you might be oblivious to the fact that often EB squads can have 20-30 people outside squad around the commander, lot even on support or boonrip classes that need to be in squad to do their thing.

 

The reason I am reminding people about this is because as the game has aged, large portion of playersbase has developed super bad habits which just undermines their own fun when combined with other players it also affects others.

 

As for scout players like you I would like to point out that it would be nice if scouts were in squads they can fit in too so information where scouts and commanders are and when they leave can be spotted on map. Why this is information is important even for scouts is that for example lets say your commander is pushing blue EB keep at 4 pm (so quite far from primetime), then it is unlikely they will have massive group coming to attack their corner on your borderland and you can focus your active scouting efforts on home border towards the other side of the map.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Riba.3271

[Caille.7214]

./hiss

[Riba.3271]

3 hours ago, enkidu.5937 said:

 

I really enjoy to participate from time to time in that „Pseudo-Meta“ with FB + Zerker Scourge, its definately worth it. But don't be surprised when most ppl give a quaggan on „ArcDPS cover boon strips“ and „ArcDPS 15k Damage on those downies“. The Tempest did 300 cleanses in a 1 minute fight ? Good job! I admire, honestly, thats skill. But may I ask, why did those teammates suffer from such a crazy amount of condis? 🙂

Its really hard to follow coms that claim „clouding is not fighting“ and willfully lose by numbers cause of „voice chat mandatory password“ 😏

Yep, you are correct and the meta for open tags is kind off from my point of view too. All DPS listed as "metabuilds" are way too squishy and it has devolved to state where half commanders are just running chrono and pull bombing everything.

 

Bow Berserker is one of the weird ones as it seems to top the DPS charts but it shares 0 boons, cleanse, heals or CC while being one of the first classes to get downed in a real fight. Most of the DPS is also spread across so many players over a long duration that it is just wasted. Arcdps players are like cult these days and builds are definitely becoming dumber and dumber.

 

I am one of those people who are certain that within a fight every single build stacking is just stupidity and some people should orbit, frontline or flank, but it doesn't mean people shouldn't be in squad to see health bars and get some sweet juice to keep them going.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Riba.3271

[Sugar Min.5834]

These days, most tags only want two kinds of players in their squads; their guild members or meta classes. This is why they either tag up with a closed tag or go invisible. And, when you asked for an invitation, the answer is always, "please bring meta  class if you have and must join our discord."

I missed those days when a true Commander will throw an invite to you regardless of who you are and joining discord is never a must.

Open squads, please.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Min Min.9368

[Riba.3271]

9 minutes ago, Min Min.9368 said:

 

I missed those days when a true Commander will throw an invite to you regardless of who you

Lot of people don't accept invites and just leave them hanging. Also inviting person also invites all their party members.

 

So unless you want to play with unaccepted invites on the left side or getting chat spam for kicking people from cancelling them, you shouldn't invite people. People should join themselves.

 

9 minutes ago, Min Min.9368 said:

Open squads, please.

I agree with this. But I also feel like half of the closed squads are just to avoid having gazillion people running outside squad or having to lead those nightmarish "2 support guards and 0 revs in 40 people" squads. Like the commander is trying to win but people are on completely different page.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Riba.3271

[enkidu.5937]

1 hour ago, Riba.3271 said:

I am one of those people who are certain that within a fight every single build stacking is just stupidity and some people should orbit, frontline or flank, but it doesn't mean people shouldn't be in squad to see health bars and get some sweet juice to keep them going.

I often do this, close to tag, on voice, but not in squad. Guilty as charge 😉 Reason is because FB + Scourge Meta is not about great synergies, it is heavy reliance.

 

So, when I played vault thief, I didn't want to „steal“ the precious stab from our glass cannons. Cause vabbi.org told us that thief is not only „not Meta“ but „not viable“ in zerg.

 

When I played bubble bot, I was in squad, cause of „bubble 1, bubble 2“ stuff.

 

When I tried heal FB for a short time, I was not [sic] in squad, cause I tried to get into the build first, before I get sorted into the role of:

„Hey great, welcome FB! We appreciate, so here is your subgroup with your 3 glass cannons that completey rely on you“.

 

And when I played DH, me and all of our damage classes (except 2) were according to the com and his arcDPS just not good enough in dealing damage. And since face-tank Meta requires 45% on full support, I was just not good enough to justify my „role“ (cause its a RPG I guess 😏)

 

----------

On a side note:

I would claim to have a good idea about the concept of boon spread, shared cooldowns for bombs and com calls, stack-on-tag to spread incoming damage etc. But I will never understand the importance for some people of „whose fault is it?“.

 

If its not working, its not Meta and ppl will refuse to play it. So you either adapt your tactic to the playerbase, or wait and hope for another 10 years that the playerbase will adapt.

 

Strangely, its the fight coms themselves that say that their Meta is not working. Did assigning the fault to someone ever solved the problem? So maybe its true that we casuals are all just lazy and stupid, and leech bags from Meta coms and the hard-working supports.

 

Just quoting your average fight com in your neigbourhood:

„It doesnt work, cause . . .

. . . not enough ppl on voice

. . . not enough ppl in squad

. . . not enough ppl stacking on tag

. . . not enough FBs

. . . well bomb in 3-2-1 → wtf only 3 red rings!?!

. . . NEVER move backwards, just double dodge through → half zerg moves backwards and instantly dies

. . . stealth in 3-2-1 → 7 smoke fields dropping and a single symbol of swiftness on top 🤡

 

So, I personally would say, if this would be the exception, then its the fault of the players at that day. But when its the common situation, then its the wrong tactic and not the Meta. Even if we all already seen what a huge fun it can be when it works. That was mostly back in 2013, when there was 1 full Meta-only zerg on border that just rolled (and 1 PPT zerg on homes trying to def middle keep vs. 2 full zones, 1 Ktrain on another map, and EBG was just one big cloud). But in the end, I don't care whose fault it is.

 

Last week on EBG, I was recording (for general analysis):

great com + some experienced players + lots of casuals open field facing SMC. The enemy com just did one thing again and again: he / she placed a veil, zerg went invis for 2 secs and half of our zerg instandly died while back-paddeling. Our com explained it again and again (I mean it should've already been obvoius for everyone), he even called before the veil dropped. But it still happened again and again and again. Ppl stack on tag, and can't manage to dodge obvious doom 🫠

 

That's why I'm usually not in squad. Either the stack-on-tag Meta with FB + scourge works in general, or range cloud is your Meta. Maybe build some melee train subgroups and put everyone else on cloud with a coordinated bomb call.

[subversiontwo.7501]

One thing to point out: It doesn't matter what "side" of this you are on, most of this delves down to the social collapse of our communities (in large part due to the developer management of the mode).

If people do not join public squads, do not understand the place of competence and competition in pvp when joining public squads or when squads are private-public closed off to a substantial part of a server that has never been intergrated into its community - that is just the end result of our communities socially collapsing.

I don't mean to come off as some doomsayer, I'm just trying to point you towards that fact. It doesn't really matter if we are servers with more or less open or closed communities at this point. Very few servers have the organisation that lays the groundwork before squads are formed anymore. This involves bringing players into the server communities and educating them as much as it involves providing leaders with players that let themselves be lead or maintaining closed support structures around public leaders. That has all erroded over time and we have been coasting along until more and more players see these end results. None of this just happens, we have been living off the experience of past laid ground for quite a long time. We need to rebuild community to change it but no one is going to do that for as long as ArenaNet dangles Alliances as some distant carrot ahead of us.

Edited April 22, 2023 by subversiontwo.7501

[Custodio.6134]

7 minutes ago, subversiontwo.7501 said:

I don't mean to come off as some doomsayer, I'm just trying to point you towards that fact. It doesn't really matter if we are servers with more or less open or closed communities at this point. Very few servers have the organisation that lays the groundwork before squads are formed anymore. This involves bringing players into the server communities and educating them as much as it involves providing leaders with players that let themselves be lead or maintaining closed support structures around public leaders. That has all erroded over time and we have been coasting along until more and more players see these end results.

Yeah, i see that too. It´s slowly but steady progressing towards "unorganized" or "barely organized" squads, and (what i think is REALLY scary): 

Experienced players teaching "not-so-expierienced" players is slow but steady dying out. The biggest issue here is (at least on my server), that not only are there people rarely willing to teach others intensively (e.g. with a specific training-event that requires a bit more preparation and time). Even IF such an event gets organized, you find one to teach a specific class/build, you often rarely see players accepting the offer. Usually, the majority of people that actually show up, are also veterans that may not play said class too frequently and who want to know what´s new, checking professions out they may pick as alternative to their main etc. But those are not the people that the event is targeted at. 

Those that WOULD benefit from them just.... don´t seem to care at all. And THAT's an issue. Nobody is mad at a player that isn´t as good or expierienced, because that is literally a skill you need to acquire over time. HOWEVER: they are rightfully mad at them if they are not WILLING to improve at all. 

This comes all the way back around to the original topic: players not willing to basically "do stuff that benefits everyone". And that´s a variety of things, like joining squads, joining voice if the commander makes it a requirement, playing a suitable build (and just reminder, although i said that before: it doesn´t have to be a perfect meta-build, but it must be a VIABLE build), asking for clarification if one doesn´t understand something, appreciating commanders tagging up, making useful calls in chat, staying on tag and players teaching other players (or accepting the offer to learn from the experienced players). 

[subversiontwo.7501]

1 hour ago, Custodio.6134 said:

Yeah, i see that too.
Experienced players teaching "not-so-expierienced" players is slow but steady dying out. The biggest issue here is (at least on my server), that not only are there people rarely willing to teach others intensively (e.g. with a specific training-event that requires a bit more preparation and time). Even IF such an event gets organized, you find one to teach a specific class/build, you often rarely see players accepting the offer.

This comes all the way back around to the original topic: players not willing to basically "do stuff that benefits everyone". And that´s a variety of things, like joining squads, joining voice if the commander makes it a requirement, playing a suitable build (and just reminder, although i said that before: it doesn´t have to be a perfect meta-build, but it must be a VIABLE build).

I hear you too, but what you describe is also very much apart of the problem(s).

It is too much of a one-off, there is too much of an information gap and we are many times starting off at the wrong end or trying to teach the wrong things simply because experience has erroded so much. Events, simple uncontexted viability and training for training's sake just isn't working well.

Spoiler

That also includes how success is measured and what roles players and groups fill throughout a server (and the knowledge about what does work or why things aren't working out has erroded or has been closed-off by now).

A good example is that one of my servers got heavily carried by how strong Scourges were in the first two years after PoF. Since then quite alot of training and events have been focused on teaching players to Scourge. On a surface level that is not an issue. It has remained a strong build and is very much a staple of the meta(s).

However, training has been focused on playing the Scourge in a meta role (and as a carrot it has been pointed to how it can be fun, gives bags/XP and can dominate two meters at the same time) without really teaching them what that meta role implies - especially in relation to the other roles of a meta and they have later been put into an environment where many of those other roles have been lacking, making it hard to understand what the Scourge does and what it doesn't do: Lacking secondary supports or primary spikers etc. It becomes details over fundamentals and trees over forrest.

That's just one outstaning example of rather widespread issues. While the fundamentals are far more simple than that, as easy as having community guilds and putting effort on providing basic information in those among players who have proven themselves willing to join and learn simply by joining. It's about establishing routines, taking things at-a-time and fostering cultures over time: Simply teaching people what horisontal progression implies with multiple classes and roles, if people come in hellbent on playing one very specific thing that is not in a mid-level meta or is going to take a much longer time to learn how to play usefully: eg., learning how to play things with a tag before they can learn how to play things independently in relation to a tag (ie., learning revenant meta-roles before learning elementalist off-meta roles).

So to cut to the chase, we may still have training events that people either join- or do not join same as they relate to either joining public squads or not, but how many actual community guilds to establish solid routines and foster players are left?

Edited April 22, 2023 by subversiontwo.7501

[neven.3785]

Common reasons why i don't join random squads:
1. I currently am not running meta and don't want people assuming i am a role i am not based on my elite specialization.
2. Joined before and the commander lumps everyone into party 1
3. Many commanders will tag up every day, with the same people, but not put any work into balancing their squads for success.  This means 5 man parties: FB/Support/x/x/x.  If you have a core following, use that core to better your enjoyment out of the game.  People who don't want to contribute and never balance out, keep them in party 1, so they get second priority on boons.
4. Commander is rude, delusional, or insists on running people into a meat grinder without doing #3 above.  I dont care if i die, but i dont want to waste my time feeding.  This includes tags who demand the whole map get in their squad.
5. I dont want to join discord and deal with certain annoying people or soundboards
6. Some guilds play style doesn't match mine, normally relates to several of the above

Why i join some squads:
1. They are respectful of peoples time and organized.
2. If they fail, they don't devolve into a miserable voice chat about why they hate the game and how balance sucks.  They instead will try to figure things out and take the challenge on.
3. New commanders starting out so helping them out with giving them an extra experienced support/dps

In our guild runs what we ask for:
1. Get in comms to listen
2. Run a meta build
3. Don't be disruptive
4. Stay on tag, no squirreling
Squad remains open most of the time, if we are having problems with survivability, we drop the people who dont obey the above, so boons go to folks who are respectful of our time.

I should also state we aren't elitist, we have new players, players from launch, young adults, and people enjoying retirement, it just comes down to respect in the end above all. 

Edited April 22, 2023 by neven.3785

[Knighthonor.4061]

Sorry OP, but you cant have it both ways. Cant have this terrible Stealth Tag mechanic yet cry that people dont want to join the squads. 

 

The way population info in WvW is handled, is very poor. It leads to toxic actions like this that eventually chain into player just stop joining squads overtime since so many squad leaders want to exclude people so often. 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I'll pass most of the time these days, because the first line of text is "come join our Discord", which is quiet frankly the worst thing to ever happen to online gaming and is a social media platform these days. It's not TeamSpeak or Mumble anymore, its like someone took MySpace and jammed it into IRC.

 

Players even put entire guild wikis on their Discord now, its become rediculous. If I join an open-tag, they better know how to type on a keyboard if they want me to do something. You know, the same technique we've been using to communicate in online games since 1994?

 

I also stopped running open-tag after many years of doing it because the number of players willing to join my squad kept falling further and further each year, until about 2021 or so when it was regularly expected even by players that the commander would be highly skilled, highly experienced, have their own WvW guild making up 10-15+ players in the first few subgroups and run a Discord server for comms, all so they can run over disorganised groups that don't stand a chance while all the "worthless" PUGs on their server get destroyed while trying to cloud due all the supports being vacuumed up on the tag like a black hole.

 

This is the stuff that killed open-tagging in general, I think. Players would always talk about how they didn't want WvW to be PvE, but all they've done is make it more and more like PvE.

Edited April 22, 2023 by SoftFootpaws.9134