The Winterday patch for Guild Wars 2 Â is coming this weekend, and Habib Loew, one of the WvW iconics on the Guild Wars 2 forums, stopped by for a quick peek at what to expect in the snow-covered, mist-shrouded battlegrounds. He hinted at larger developments for a huge game update in February, but these smaller changes are much needed.
The first two revolve around client stuff. ArenaNet can push at least 6 builds a day if they wanted to, and this can severely cripple WvW offensives. Now players get a notification that a build is on its way, which will help somewhat. The other thing is that killing the client will no longer save your sorry butt from dying. It takes a long time kill people with my necromancer, and any time I 1v1 my target usually knows a few seconds in advance that death is inevitable. Poof! I get nothing. Well instead of a server-side countdown akin to some other MMOs, the client-killing player automatically dies and gives the opponents experience and loot. Poof is now autolose.
For content, there is one small change in WvW and one big one. The small one deals with destroyed walls and gates. Players used to be able to repair a 0% gate and the model, along with collision blocking abilities, would come back. Basically this just created a silly push-me-pull-me of invading players running through a wall, the wall going back up for a second separating the invading players, the wall going back down, etc. Now, the wall won’t return until it is 10% repaired.
The big change is a Breakout Event, which occurs when no defensive structures are owned by a team. This does not include pithy little supply camps. It seems like some sort of Dolyak Lord will rally the troops behind the invincible wall and go straight for the nearest keep with defensive boons and what not. That should make things a little more interesting especially since I like playing WvW in the off-hours.
I know there have been times both where we had nothing and where we had everything, where it seemed a little stale. It’s boring for both sides, and I felt that most people just transitioned to a different battleground instead of building up a steamhead to knock through the map holders. If nothing else, hopefully this will at least be like a Bat Signal for players to stick around and rally.
I’ve been doing a lot more WvW lately including daily Sanctum of Rall Borderlands jumping puzzle. It’s nice because the jumping puzzle gives expendable siege weapon plans with the reward. I’ve actually never bought any siege weapon plans, so it’s good to have some to use at my whim without feeling like I am losing money on the placement.
These changes are most welcome along with the player culling trial currently ongoing. My wishlist still includes a WvW build saver and randomized server color placement (Sanctum of Rall has been blue for weeks and weeks). Hopefully some day those will come. In the mean time, next time you see my necromancer in red lettering, there will be no escape.
–Ravious
Heh! You beat me to posting about this although I might still have my say tomorrow.
Changes look good to me on the whole, although the Dolyak Lord one is…odd. Also I literally didn’t understand what the “build announcement” thing meant, so thanks for explaining it.
I had no intention of concentrating on WvW. I always intended to dabble but no more than that. No-one’s more surprised than me, then, that it’s become my main activity over the last few weeks. Ironically perhaps, given your previous postings on the matter, it was only when I took my necro to the Frontiers that everything clicked. Nothing beats layering wells, marks and AEs onto a choke point and watching the enemy push falter. I can also kill more players as a necro than I managed as a Ranger, Warrior or Engineer, and I get credited for kills while assisting far more consistently.
People who voluntarily choose to WvW are such poor sports that they disconnect to spare themselves a death??? Good grief people suck. :-) Glad they’re fixing that escape hatch. I still haven’t ventured into WvW. Maybe I’ll get in the queue after the new year.
The game lets them so people do it. They suck but I also blame GW2. No other MMO lets me just disconnect to escape combat, be it PvP or PvE.
And now they change it so it just kills you instead if in combat. It always feels weird if devs reinvent the wheel without any obvious reason.
Personally I like this insta-kill better than “you stand there disconnected for 10 seconds”.
I can’t help but call the Dolyak Lord the Pity NPC In my mind.But I guess it is a good thing in general if it brings more people to WvW on struggling servers.
It’s not just struggling servers. Maybe you are tier 1, but on tier 2 we have borderlands sweeps at times. It does take some time to build up the momentum to break out… I know I’ve left borderlands at times when it seemed nobody wanted to be in a swept one.
My post on this is up now. I discussed the changes with Mrs Bhagpuss (who virtually lives in WvW) and we both agreed that we’ve almost never seen a complete wipe of towers and keeps. Once, in fact, we saw it, during the weird week when Yak’s nearly got 500K points and the second team got about 50k. WvW has a fair few problems but I doubt this was a significant one.
Even if it is a problem, how is this a solution? If it’s effective as a response then any team sufficiently dominant to cause it to come into effect will simply decline to take the last tower. The cowed team will still be confined to spawn, with the additional humiliation of knowing they nominally own a tower which none of them can reach.
As for the F4 thing I think it is a typical short-sighted complaint by players who don’t see the big picture that has caused this to come into being. The point of WvW is to win matches. You win matches by getting most points. If an opposing player F4s out, he will be hors de combat for longer than if he died honorably and waypointed. You will be freed up that much sooner to do something else to help your team. Making these fights go to the bitter end is a strategic disadvantage for the winner.
Forget your loot, xp, badges etc. Think of the team! You should have been laughing and cheering every time some twerp F4’d, not reporting him or qqing on the forums.
Two things come to my mind:).
Owning all. I hate WvW – I spawn there only to get my monthly and maps completed (what can I say? I hate sPvP, I hate WvW, I’m an PvE beeing). My server is some kind of medicore (Far Shiverpeaks) but due to my lacking presence there, I’ve seen more than my share of complete domination of one of the teams (usually enemy, but from time to time we own whole maps too).
altF4 – people do it to avoid breaking armors and I totally understand them. If they are in WvW only to get whole maps and monthly – yes, then it seems like sucking, but I still understand them. But when someone is not so good (I have few friends who really suck, but still love to get their ass kicked in WvW) and gets punished every time he tries? Spoilsport. Removing the only “medicine” for “illness” is not the smartest move…
For you the point of WvW is to win the match, but for other people the point can be any number of things.
Hell, I just want to kill people over an over with 10 or so friends. The only reason any of us care even the slightest about points or moving up tiers or any of that nonsense is because sometimes the changing environment necessitates a server transfer to avoid pairings where their isn’t enough suitable prey.
And while personally I think it’s funny when people are such sore losers that they alt+f4 out to preserve their pitiful k/d ratios I could see why other people would rage about it.
@jcSadOne
I’m having difficulty envisioning repair bills being a significant drain on anyone’s wallet. It’s only ~12s to repair a full suit of damaged exotics at 80.
And? 12s is a lot of money to someone who have 30-45 minut daily to play ;).
More than that, it’s not about costs. It’s about punishing you for trying. You’re starting WvW? Get your ass kicked over and over again? Rapair armor and gtfout.
WvW is for 2 kind of people (from my perspective). For those who like to run with zerg, or for those who like to run with friends in WvW (killing other players). And I’m far away from both. Maybe because my friends either hate WvW or suck so much, it hurts my eyes to watch them try.
So breaking the armor is not financial barrier, it’s more like psychological. If armor is broken – You’re doing wrong. So stop doing it. Easy, isn’t it?
I don’t know what to say to anyone who’s dying more than 6 times in less than an hour. What the hell are you even doing?
If you just want your monthly kills then why aren’t you with the zerg? Or if you need map completion then why not move to another server that’s dominating its matchup?
Because in last month my server was the underdog whole 24h per day, most month. Or just between work studies and other hobbies I couldn’t catch any better situation. Our “zerg” as You called it, had around 10 people, while other two servers had small operational teams bigger than that, roaming through the land. I’ve logged there, spend more than a day just to get my 50 kills (it was easier and faster to catch soloing idiots than to run with zerg, that was getting wiped time after time and killed every easy pray, while system didn’t recognize my contribution into fight – maybe it comes with low dps of Ele, but I still manage to win most of 1v1 fights, while waisting hours on beating enemies with zerg and left with nothing… call it a bug or whatever You like, but it was frustrating).
And no – I’m not going to change server because of that, I’m PvE oriented and WvW is just a bonus (and not a pleasant one, while You do it only for monthly). And I don’t want to waste 7 days of cooldown for server jumping, while being cut off from my friends activities (blame still not existing guest feature ;) ).
But please note it’s just complaining, because I have map completed on at least one character (WvW maps on 2 more alts, but they are not even 80…). And that’s only because I decided that I’m willing to cross the line of “fun” to get stuff I need for legendary weapon. At the moment, I’m not sure if it was worth it ;).
“The only reason any of us care even the slightest about points or moving up tiers or any of that nonsense is because sometimes the changing environment necessitates a server transfer to avoid pairings where their isn’t enough suitable prey.”
With due respect, I cannot wait until server transfers are for gems only so that is kind of behaviour stops and people have to be responsible for their own servers.
@jcSadOne: unfortunately the ‘punished for trying’ issue is a common one in any PvP in my experience, but I think it’s a somewhat inevitable consequence of PvP. You’re suddenly dealing with real people, not a balanced PvE challenge, and I don’t think artificially limiting people to try and achieve a balance is actually a good idea. Instead, you have to rely on social connections to protect you in any PvP, in my view.
No offence taken. We only have to transfer because other transfers come in and ruin the population balance.
I don’t like transfering, but when it gets to the point where 50 man zergs lurk around every corner our little 7-15 man group just can’t compete. So we either switch servers or switch games.
I know – I merely note the point, that monthly achievement is one for PvE and WvW players. That’s the main problem for me – and it lies in design. If Anet will chop it into two different things – I’ll do both (like I started to play my daily sPvP share, just to get daily and monthly) and I’ll stop whining about WvW kills because it will be my choice (to do WvW monthly or not). The same goes to the dungs/fractals in monthly. I totally understand why WvW oriented players hate it. Not everyone does Swampland to beat one self time record and call it “fun”.
I generally am very pleased with the changes, albeit they are small. However, as a long-term WvW player, these are all common-sense, quality life changes that will greatly enhance the game over the long term. Glad to see them made before the upcoming February WvW patch, I was so tired of having people disconnect to avoid death.
I never realized we were on the same realm. If you are ever looking for friends to complete the WvW jumping puzzles, send a whisper to me. (Aeneas) I’m often with two friends, and would love to have you join our small group for some WvW action. We are very chill, but generally pretty skilled. See you on the battlefield!
But but… I /like/ being blue all the time. Early in the game, it swapped around, and I was entirely befuddled. The place names are different! Wait, that’s not home! Where’s Woodhaven? (As we concluded last night, Woodhaven is the only keep with the Starbucks upgrade.) My vision isn’t all that great with red/green anyway, so blue is helpful. We need more landmarks, if you ask me. I suppose it’s the old Camelot player in me, getting attached to a homeland, learning every tree and rock, defending it to the death.
I now gather that the colors are different maps and there are great differences. The common wisdom is that some random element should be introduced to the assignment process to spice things up.
Stay out of Emain.
Roac (Quillan Muire)
“Sanctum of Rall have been blue for weeks and weeks”! Ack – Aurora Glade haven’t been blue for AGES I know of of loads of people whose final 1% of the map is all in the deepest darkest Blue borderlands/EB.
I have alt-F4’d on 3 occasions each was when I was downed by several invisible enemies, not thieves in stealth, but regular players just being able to see me but me not see them until I’m already downed. This wasn’t in a huge zerg v zerg battle. This was me running to a jumping puzzle so I can do my PvE content (legendary) that for some reason is buried in PvP-land and suddenly taking 20k+ damage in an open field with nothing but a rabbit around me. Then suddenly a group of 3-5 invaders show up out of nowhere after I’m already downed.
If I enter WvW to do WvW I’ll fight to the bitter end, but punishing people with bad internet connections or PvE players who have no interest in PvP because they found a workaround for your bad design decisions or flat out bugs (invisible players killing people is a bug) is utter crap.
Granted, people that are in WvW for the PvP and alt-f4 are turds, but you shouldn’t be instituting punishments until you make sure to only be punishing them.
They’re fixing step 3 before addressing step 1 and 2. It’s just like their profession balancing by tweaking numbers, etc. while bugs are still rampant in the profession traits/skills/mechanics.
1. Get the PvE stuff out of PvP zones. Now only people in WvW are there for WvW/PvP.
2. No invisible enemy deaths/Fix your culling.
3. Now you can punish people who are alt-f4ing (if you DC at this point you knew the risks going into a PvP zone with only PvP goals).
WvW and holiday events news make my eyes gloss over and I stop reading. I fear that the way these events are going in GW2, I will end up using those times to take a break from the game. They do not entice me to play, they make me lose interest.
Honestly, I don’t see a problem with that. It might be a problem for ArenaNet if you disengage entirely from the game, but if you take a break on a month full of Wintersday stuff and then come back in January of February because a different kind of event is on that appeals to you more, I think that’s a perfectly reasonable way of just playing what you enjoy while ArenaNet get to offer a range of things for the people that want them. The people who don’t like what you like can take that month off (or, more likely to my mind, just with reduced play time. We ARE allowed to not play every day).