Should I get a commander tag.

[Infinity.2876]

I'm still on the fence about getting a commander tag. I'm not sure if it would be helpful in setting up metas or bounties when there doesn't seem to be any in lfg. Is it worth the 300 gold price tag?

Thoughts?

[trunks.5249]

i find them helpfull. if i come across a legendary that is out ill put it on and tell people a legendary is on my tag and most of the time people will show. another example is in Crown Pavilion put it on and stand where a boss will be popping  up and people will come. if you know the ins and outs of a meta they are good has well. if i do not understand an event  i will leave mine off and join a tag that understands the event

[Farohna.6247]

Do you wish to summon a squad or party easily?  A tag is an effective way to do that.  People love to follow tags.  They will come to see what you are doing just out of curiosity or to see if an event is going. Call it out on map chat, post in LFG, they will come.  Makes bounties, metas, or anything you need help with a lot faster when other players can easily see someone else is there too.  

So yes, it is subjectively worth the gold. 

[Garrison Storm.3046]

You mention two specific use-case... If you intend to frequently organize and run metas, then being able to assemble squads, sub-groups, etc., for this coordination is very useful.  For simply luring/calling people out to your location to help with basic events like Champs, Bounties, JPs, etc., then using the Mentor (aka Apple) tag is sufficient for that purpose, and without the 300g expense.  Being able to change colors for the Commander to do the same thing is convenient for when maps have multiple mentors active, but that's a pretty hefty price for that convenience... 

Ultimately spending the gold on the tag comes down to the value add it will provide you for your intended use... and relative to your gold and what you might be giving up to to get in it's place.

[Danikat.8537]

It definitely helps with attracting people for events. The two questions I think you need to ask yourself are:
1) How often do you do that?
2) How difficult is it to get 300g?

It might help to think of it as a cost-per-use. If you buy the tag and only use it once than organising that event cost you 300g. If you organise 10 events then each one has cost 30g, organise 100 and it's 3g each, etc. How many would you have to organise before the price seems worthwhile, and are you likely to hit that number?

I have a tag I don't use often, but I'm ok with that because I was able to get the gold from something I was going to do anyway and I didn't have much else to do with it at the time. But also because I actually want to organise events more than I do and having the tag and feeling like I should use it helps me do that.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Danikat.8537

[mikko.4013]

3 hours ago, Infinity.2876 said:

I'm still on the fence about getting a commander tag. I'm not sure if it would be helpful in setting up metas or bounties when there doesn't seem to be any in lfg. Is it worth the 300 gold price tag?

Thoughts?

It is totally worth it... if you use it. Seems obvious but if you are not pro-active about it, you will waste your gold.

Some of the commander tag possibilities :
- you can tag for a meta-event, so that people can join
- you can organize your squad as you wish : subgroups, map markers, target markers
- you can lead raids and strike missions
- you can use it in openworld to get help when you are doing some annoying quests (bridge events for legendary Vision in Dragonfall, I'm looking at you) 

About the gold, don't spend it if you are still struggling to farm gold.
Just keep in mind that "daily quests" are a good way to get gold : daily fractals (5 to 30 golds), daily strikes, the classic 3 dailies (2 golds), daily Meta-events, etc... you can find tons of video about how to make gold in gw2, anyway.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I have found, given enough time, that a tag will pay for itself.  You need to take the initiative to use it, though.  

[Widebody.5071]

Makes a good oh kitten marker, and in competitive modes (wvw) when the troops need someone to rally behind. In pve they're great for forming parties and attracting attention when you need a little extra help. 

[stormemperor.3745]

11 hours ago, Infinity.2876 said:

I'm still on the fence about getting a commander tag. I'm not sure if it would be helpful in setting up metas or bounties when there doesn't seem to be any in lfg. Is it worth the 300 gold price tag?

Thoughts?

I saw some new player being com, dying in boneskinner first reds and apologize for lag. That guy is smart.

[Widebody.5071]

2 hours ago, stormemperor.3745 said:

I saw some new player being com, dying in boneskinner first reds and apologize for lag. That guy is smart.

It's good to buy when you have extra gold laying around.

[Endaris.1452]

You don't need it, but it's a nice to have item.

It mostly depends on where you stand economically with your characters. Getting your first 2-3 characters outfitted in full ascended is pretty long-winded and I wouldn't recommend anyone to dump gold on a commander tag in that phase.

If you're in a situation where you would consider crafting legendaries without having 77 clovers sitting in your material storage, the commander tag is definitely worth a thought. It has a similar cost or rather even lower cost than 1 legendary armor piece or 1 legendary rune or 1 legendary sigil. It is a convenience item just the same, even if you may not use it terribly often. Just having the option is great and people already gave you some examples for usage. Other examples that I haven't seen mentioned would be marking traps during guild races or doing scavenger hunts with friends such as lost coins in silverwastes.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

19 hours ago, Infinity.2876 said:

I'm still on the fence about getting a commander tag. I'm not sure if it would be helpful in setting up metas or bounties when there doesn't seem to be any in lfg. Is it worth the 300 gold price tag?

Thoughts?

Compared with Mentor tag, you can see where everybody on your squad are located (light blue dots on minimap/compass). It makes it easier to help other player to locate where group are going and to see where yourself as commander are located. There are also marker tools that you can set up in controls (keybind) to show certain places during meta where maybe some of group should stand or where they should avoid. So for PvE it is very good tool to have.

In WvW you will be able to see your groups (squad) total amount of supply (sups) which is important for building siege weapons and to repair walls. You can split squad into sub groups and delegate leaders within squad as a commander, if that is necessary. In PvE the ability to create sub groups and have leaders for each group can also be helpful in such events like during Guild Mission (where you need to search for different NPC).

So all in all Mentor tag only let other player see where you are and doesn't offer the same amount of tools like a commander tag. It is also helpful to have access to different colour if there are more player around that are tagged up (Mentor tag look the same and can be hard to know who is who if you don't look for their names in map chat when they make a shout out for what they are doing).

Get a commander tag (but decide if you want the default or the catmander version as you have to pay 300 Gold for the first and if you later add the other version you have to pay 150 Gold). They are identical in feature, it is only the look from icon on map that is different.

 

_____

EDIT:
After reading other comments about the cost in Gold, yes, it cost a bit, but you will probably also faster get back that Gold by creating groups much faster to complete events and stuff in game then without it and you will also gain more control for what is going on during meta events or during other events as you can make a closed tag where only you invite players and also hide tag from map which you can't on a Mentor tag.
 

You also have the special Broad cast message which will place that message in white larger font in centre of screen that message for all in squad to see, so you can get players in squad to actually notice your message in case they might have set up chat to show some messages with filters or aren't using tab (channel) that is for map or team chat at the moment you make a call out in chat for your squad. You also have ready check in case you want to squad to wait until you everybody are ready.

For Guild Wars 2 commander tag is much better then LFG that other MMO make use to get people to do the same suff as you in most cases already have people that join you from map, LFG will also be much easier to use as a squad (as you can have up to 50 player in your squad).

Edited August 8, 2023 by ShadowCatz.8437

[Infinity.2876]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

So far what I understand is that it is makes up the price the more you use it. So if you are going to use it a lot then get it if not then don't.

I hope this clarifies for anyone else like me looking into the commander tag.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

56 minutes ago, Infinity.2876 said:

Thanks for the input, everyone.

So far what I understand is that it is makes up the price the more you use it. So if you are going to use it a lot then get it if not then don't.

I hope this clarifies for anyone else like me looking into the commander tag.

Happy to help!
 

As for how much you use it, well I use it a lot as I play WvW every day I log in and when there is no tag up or there is a Tower, Keep or anything larger I want to take (cap) then it is easier to do that then solo a Tower Lord or a Keep as it fast to get overrun by the time you get walls down or door and get to Lord as it take time which is essential to be able to take anything in WvW. (If those to other server isn't very active at that time of night or day).

In PvE doing Bounty is also possible to solo some of those Bounty, but it is much faster to do it with other random people then do it alone as it is a countdown when you enter the ring for Bounty NPC.

Mentor tag is something I got as I needed to unlock some other things on that Mastery track. I haven't used Mentor tag at all after I have got a commander tag and I have two account, so you can imagine how much time it took to get there.

I will expect when you stat to use a commander tag, that you will also experience game content in another way as you have more freedom to do stuff then before and as I described you also have another set of tools to reach your goals then when you are depending on Party tools (which Mentor tag just extend on).

Good luck!

[Danikat.8537]

2 hours ago, ShadowCatz.8437 said:

Compared with Mentor tag, you can see where everybody on your squad are located (light blue dots on minimap/compass). It makes it easier to help other player to locate where group are going and to see where yourself as commander are located. There are also marker tools that you can set up in controls (keybind) to show certain places during meta where maybe some of group should stand or where they should avoid. So for PvE it is very good tool to have.

This is also very useful for times when you don't want the entire squad together. The Boss Blitz during the Festival of the Four Winds is a good example - if most players are in a squad everyone can see where everyone else is and it's a lot easier to spot if any of the bosses don't have enough people.

It also comes up during Dragons Stand when groups can split off to do two events at the same time, and it's very useful during the first phase of Serpent's Ire when you need to search for the Branded Forgotten Zealots. Often the hardest part of that phase is getting enough people to join in and getting them to spread out and search instead of following the commander tag around, so it helps a lot if the people who do understand what they're supposed to be doing can see where everyone else is and where needs more people to search.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

1 hour ago, Danikat.8537 said:

This is also very useful for times when you don't want the entire squad together. The Boss Blitz during the Festival of the Four Winds is a good example - if most players are in a squad everyone can see where everyone else is and it's a lot easier to spot if any of the bosses don't have enough people.

It also comes up during Dragons Stand when groups can split off to do two events at the same time, and it's very useful during the first phase of Serpent's Ire when you need to search for the Branded Forgotten Zealots. Often the hardest part of that phase is getting enough people to join in and getting them to spread out and search instead of following the commander tag around, so it helps a lot if the people who do understand what they're supposed to be doing can see where everyone else is and where needs more people to search.

The main problem here is that most player that have never bought a commander tag might not even know how all this work and it is rather time consuming to explain for random players how things work when they have not self used a tool like this. What you describe is when player have some knowledge how commander tag and squad work and also accept how to play in organised squads like this.

Sometimes I wish we had some simple text message we could store in chat to inform about do not get to close to Bounty before most of squad will be there to avoid trigger countdown instead of having to write that every time in chat or toggle between a copy pasting from a document stored on computer to chat in game. Discord or Voice Chat apps make some of this easier, but without ability to copy a link from chat it can be hard to invite new player or random player to Discord to give this kind of information.

Edited August 8, 2023 by ShadowCatz.8437