I think we have a way to before T1. I really wouldn't mind it. WvW seems a lot more fun now. I guess it helps that there's actual commanders again.
Retro said:If we end up in the higher tiers, that means long queues, boring Coverage Wars and a lot of irritable commanders making map chat / Teamspeak unpleasant. No thanks.
I mean that's why I left SBI in the first place. If it's not EB during NA primetime good luck finding anything interesting going on.
When the new updated borderlands hit I'm going to permanently run a nightly havoc squad to control those ruins areas.
Scholars are worse than Ruby Orbs on pure stats, but they give a 10% bonus to damage at high health, which counteracts that. When I did the math for my character's stats (mesmer with mostly zerk gear), it turned out that I break even on damage if I'm at above 90% health for at least 21% of the time, which isn't really hard to do. That threshhold changes depending on what your stats are (goes up with higher power and down with higher precision / crit damage), but I don't think it will change all that much in general.
Even if at full health 100% of the time, it's only like a 7% damage increase for me. Low health 100% of the time is about a 2% damage drop.
Yep. If it weren't for the league system, I'm pretty sure we expected to sit at around T2/T3 or so. With the league system, we are still expecting to at least sit somewhere in the middle of the gold league which is perfectly fine. The way things are going, there's no challenge in the silver league (13-24th place) because as you can see, either Borlis Pass and Yak's Bend are tanking their way down right now, or we've just been making up for everything with all the people looking for new homes for the "war effort." Make no mistake, we still have guilds looking to join SBI right now and we will continue to rise again.
We WILL end up playing against JQ, SoR, and BG at some point or another while we're in the gold league when it starts. However, since we still have guilds coming in, I curious as to the state of things up in T1 because our newer players that may have joined after the exodus are hungry. I'm not sure if it's for the fights we've been going through or for the points to bragging rights bit. To top that off, the guilds we have acquired do fight for the borderlands now leaving EB to the general population to karma train under the more popular EB commanders. In general though they say EB runs itself and people that graduate from there will start fighting for the borderlands more fiercely.
Be seein' ya on the other side when it starts. We've also been sitting at 400-500 PPT outside of prime time lately, hitting 600 last night and getting a WP up in EB at blue keep with green keep halfway upgraded when I logged for the night. In fact, I tend to avoid prime time unless they need help in the borderlands.
Realize that neither map chat nor TS trolls necessarily have to affect you at all. Just block the annoying people and don't use TS, the end.
And coverage wars? I really don't understand how that would affect a casual PvX player like most of GAF is. Just don't worry about PPT and let the hardcore take care of it?
I don't agree with Neko getting GAF to follow him anymore because that's not what a lot of people are signing up nor are ready for.
Then since he's still transitioning over to this new role he's still king of everywhere and prone to the anger, disappointment and other such feelings regular people get. That's just the way I see it from being in GAF and TE and I'm trying to find a middle ground for us.
Oh, it wasn't the trolls, it was the commanders and their flock. Sitting in and listening to Teamspeak on Friday night reminded me just how bad the typical 'gamer banter' is, and how happy I am that we're spawned from NeoGAF. I've gotten so used to certain kinds of behavior being gone thanks to GAF's policies that to hear it again was kind of shocking. I won't go into the exact details since they're ban-worthy here, but Star Player and his guild reminded me of the crap I used to hear from kids on X-Box Live. Mocking people with accents, homophobic slurs, rape comments... stuff like that. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it would have been for the female players (there was at least one that I heard) or any gay players who were listening in. Kinda disgusting.
The alternative is to not listen to Team Speak and not contribute meaningfully to WvW, which is something I want to do. Map chat is generally okay, but the majority of the strategy is going on over voice comms. It was probably that specific guild, but if that's what can be expected of "hardcore WvW guilds", count me out.
That's kind of the point, it does affect the casual PvX player because it makes WvW an exercise in futility for them, because the tactics don't allow them to contribute meaningfully. When WvW devolves into coverage wars, the average player can't do much more than flip camps because they have people sitting around babysitting everything else, ready to call the zerg in at the first sign of attack. In the lower tiers, we've been able to run a group or two of GAFers and actually cap stuff. For example, Neko had about a group and a half a week or so ago, and we actually did stuff that contributed to the game. That sort of thing can't happen in Tier 1, or at least it didn't when we played there.
Basically, the higher tiers reminds me of trench warfare; everyone sits on what they've got and waits for the other guy to stick his head up or the heavy artillery to arrive. For me, it was boring because nothing could be accomplished unless you ate, drank and slept WvW. I'm sure that's fun for some people, but given the way most of GAF avoided WvW and the way the SBI.com community welcomed leaving the lower tiers, I don't think I'm alone in my casual attitude. I hope all of these new WvW guilds moving to SBI don't expect a notoriously PVE-centric server to suddenly rally around them because they say so.
I wrote a pretty big post rebutting most of what you said, but then I just deleted it.
Honestly, and I hope this doesn't come off as too offensive, but I get this huge "old man yells at cloud" vibe from all of this talk. Like, people are out there trying to play the mode how its supposed to be played, trying to improve, trying to WIN at something, and that's somehow not ok.
TTTT
I mean, you're not gonna be able to grab 5 GAF members and PvDoor a tower during NA prime anymore. You're going to have to work for it a bit more, you're going to have to play the map, become more aware, communicate and coordinate with others to get things done - you're going to have to out-skill somebody else, but that's how it's supposed to be, that's how it's designed to be. That's the beauty of it.
Anyways, I got a little carried away after all and I'm probably arguing with a straw man at this point lol. I just hope you can understand where I'm coming from here.
I get this huge "old man yells at cloud" vibe from all of this talk. Like, people are out there trying to play the mode how its supposed to be played, trying to improve, trying to WIN at something, and that's somehow not ok.
I didn't even notice crude language. Not saying I heard it and ignored it; it didn't even register. I thought more people were upset at how "mean-spirited" he was.
You're may not even be aware of it, but this comment is not-so-subtly implying that anyone who doesn't have the "24/7 WvW-or-die" mentality is lazy, against improving the way they play or is somehow playing the game wrong.
The attitude and approach of Tier 1 is completely different from the lower tiers SBI was at. I enjoyed the lower tiers because it was a much more relaxed approach and a handful of players could still accomplish goals. Not some uncoordinated, unaware band of morons pounding on a door as you imply, but a group larger than a Havok squad and smaller than a zerg, When SBI was tier 1, everything felt like a numbers game where coverage (especially overnight) trumped tactics and skill. I like hoping into WvW for a few hours to do stuff and have fun, something Tier 1 doesn't allow; sue me if that's what I think is fun.
Now, I'm not saying other people can't enjoy an ultra-competitive, bash-your-head-against-the-wall 24/7 style of play, nor are they playing it 'wrong' either. I'm just saying that's not my cup of tea and I hope that SBI doesn't get dragged into it again.
As to whether that's how WvW is "supposed" or "designed" to be played, I'd disagree; the implementation of the Ruins of Power seems like the application of the Scarlet Invasions applied to the WvW mode; give players a ton of simultaneous objectives in different places and a zerg becomes wildly inefficient. Farmers aside, it took hours to figure out that zerging the invasions would only result in failure, and I think that's what ArenaNet is trying to accomplish here.
That said, I don't think we're going to agree on anything in this regard so we might as well drop it. We both know where this particular discussion ends and the thread has better things to talk about than that.
You're may not even be aware of it, but this comment is not-so-subtly implying that anyone who doesn't have the "24/7 WvW-or-die" mentality is lazy, against improving the way they play or is somehow playing the game wrong.
The attitude and approach of Tier 1 is completely different from the lower tiers SBI was at. I enjoyed the lower tiers because it was a much more relaxed approach and a handful of players could still accomplish goals. Not some uncoordinated, unaware band of morons pounding on a door as you imply, but a group larger than a Havok squad and smaller than a zerg, When SBI was tier 1, everything felt like a numbers game where coverage (especially overnight) trumped tactics and skill. I like hoping into WvW for a few hours to do stuff and have fun, something Tier 1 doesn't allow; sue me if that's what I think is fun.
Now, I'm not saying other people can't enjoy an ultra-competitive, bash-your-head-against-the-wall 24/7 style of play, nor are they playing it 'wrong' either. I'm just saying that's not my cup of tea and I hope that SBI doesn't get dragged into it again.
As to whether that's how WvW is "supposed" or "designed" to be played, I'd disagree; the implementation of the Ruins of Power seems like the application of the Scarlet Invasions applied to the WvW mode; give players a ton of simultaneous objectives in different places and a zerg becomes wildly inefficient. Farmers aside, it took hours to figure out that zerging the invasions would only result in failure, and I think that's what ArenaNet is trying to accomplish here.
That said, I don't think we're going to agree on anything in this regard so we might as well drop it. We both know where this particular discussion ends and the thread has better things to talk about than that.
I don't have a problem with "mean-spirited"; his comments about non-guildies leaving when the invasion began was probably the meanest thing he said, and it wasn't that bad.
Like I said, I'm probably just too used to GAF behaving, but I've never felt less "server pride" than that particular evening.
LIKE GREATSWORDS
The keep's fortified walls were key to stopping two separate massive YB golem rushes earlier this morning. I was having too much fun tossing mortars and catapult boulders from my tower.
Update:
So last time i posted, i complained about the difficulty of AC Story Mode.
So since then i tried it a couple more times and it was MUCH MUCH Easier. It IS possible i had crap gear. At the pace I was leveling it was really hard to keep up with gear that was better than i already had equipped.
I like AC's story mode for the most part now. It's the perfect introduction difficulty. Just a shame you have to be level 30 to experience it. Or have a gorup of 80s power you through it.
You should open a pizzeria with a fantasy theme, with great swords displayed on the walls. That'd pretty much cover all of your bases, wouldn't it?
You could call it the "Pizza Pit" too.
I would love it if they lowered AC down to 20, or introduced a new dungeon in another starter zone at around that level. Since there's scaling, it wouldn't really be frowned upon by the high level players, and explorable modes can always be built to be tougher.
I could do a kickstarter for it. I would make millions.
Pft, we get up to like 650+ on wvwvw this round.
Pft, we get up to like 650+ on wvwvw this round.
It took all week, but I finally crafted my Ascended pistol. Next up, a Legendary shield!
Guys.
It's just 2 more sleeps until TACO TUESDAY.
It wasn't your gear, AC Story Mode was definitely the hardest story mode of the game, even harder than some Explorable modes. It underwent a pretty massive revamp along with the rest of AC a while ago, to the point where 5 80s in exotics kind of feels like cheating.
I don't mind since it's the first dungeon, and story mode is intended to be the introduction to that dungeon overall. Still, it feels bad to just stomp some of those bosses now.
Level 15 or 20 seems to be about the ideal level to start, and the dungeons go every ten levels until 70. Maybe a new mini dungeon at level 10/15 to ease players in, bump AC down to 20/25, and a new dungeon to replace AC?
Norn starting zone as well.Asura starting zone is missing a dungeon. It could be a nice spot for a dungeon
About WvW:
I like the idea of ANet trying to split the Zerg. Right now, WvW is about trains coliding with each other and watching which side dies less, it's down to that. And it's this way, because the mechanics of assaulting keeps and capturing them doesn't work with a 5 man team. Or 10, or 15. You need lots of firepower.
As such, Guerilla warfare is completly out until something changes. It would be fun if a small team could jump the walls, like infiltration and try to kill the guild lord. It would force to split the zerg into small squads protecting the areas around the small keeps
Oh yeah, is it too late to start Super Adventure Box?