Yo yo! Thanks to everyone who ran Monday WvW with me, good work. We were ticking over 300 by the time I logged, almost solely due to my personal brilliance as a leader. The rest was due to my stunning good looks.
Thanks also to the people who showed up for practice. It went a little bit longer than I planned, something like 25 minutes, but we got a lot done. Now the time has come for me to get feedback. In NICE I don't want us to be super tryhard, but I do want us to be as good as we can manage, because winning fights as a group is a very satisfying thing. The top WvW guilds are not necessarily staffed with teenaged twitchy CoD superstar types who poopsock 16 hours a day. I mean I'm sure some of them are, but that's not why they're good. When you get in groups of 10-15 or more success is more down to teamwork than individual skill (and the level of individual skill in NICE is IMO actually pretty good - many times NICE has won fights I thought we were gonna lose because enough of us managed to scramble and stay alive even in a hairy situation).
So we can hold more WvW practices, and I promise not to make them too long, or we can go another direction. I think the practice today was a good one, but I don't wanna keep pushing them if others aren't into them. So, given the choice, do you all like
A. doing what we did tonight (and there is more to go over, always more)
B. doing shorter tune-ups (just a bit of movement practice and water blasting for instance) before heading out
C. not doing either
D. something not listed here
Lay it on me, this is a safe place.
D. something not listed here
I think approximately thirty minutes of practice will likely just make a lot of folks people show up thirty minutes later, especially if they think it's stuff they already know.
Instead, I believe it would be more helpful to just hear what you as a commander are looking for from classes, rather than doing class tutorials. Expecting people to dig out a certain weapon from their bags for when a blast is called, or to otherwise hold off on using those particular blasting skills until called for? Explicitly say that. Want a certain utility to be available on your call? Ask for a volunteer (or volunteers) to step up for that, or I suppose ask individuals directly. Just keep in mind that the more you ask for, the more you're potentially restricting those players.
Different commanders will have different expectations from their group, so knowing for certain ahead of time is good. Talking about the options for various classes in general could potentially be misleading on that front, perhaps giving the impression that the CC skills and stability skills and other things discussed are all expected to be run, which could be very difficult and / or extremely stiffling depending on the class and build.
Also, I think the running around practice, while well meant, is not helpful. Without going too long into it, I believe that issues it is trying to address (formation disruption and tails, basically) are largely precipitated by factors either not present in or not addressed by movement drills. Not that very short movement drills have no value; if nothing else they can help establish the cues for when to move, so players know what to look / listen for, and give opportunity to inform the group as to how tightly we're expected to stack when stopped. But really quick go, stop, turning drills are all you need for that.
Oh, and on another note, I kinda think that 100% swiftness is a pipe dream. Blasting is erratic, people add their own buffs to the mix, player error, etc. Over short distances, maybe, but the longer you go, the more of a tail will develop. It's nice to shoot for, don't give me wrong, and it's certainly possible to hit it occasionally, but please don't end up using it as a performance metric.
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VivixenneRemember your training, and we'll get through this just fine.Registered Userregular
I am also annoyed at the existence of Ascended Armor that you can only get by crafting as expecting drops you can actually use that suit your build is likely to be impossible.
I have decided that there is nothing about my exotic armor/exotic weapons/ascended accessories setup that makes me feel like I can't keep up or that makes me feel subpar. If nothing else I hold more than my own in all areas including Fractals+ even with folks carrying legendaries, and the only place where I have to test myself against others directly is in a place with even ground (i.e. sPvP).
Never felt the need for more ascended stuff, probably never will, particularly since I'd skin them all back to my current equipment anyway, and I've always enjoyed how my characters looked rather than the stats on the gear they wore.
It is disappointing that people wanting a gear grind now have one, but hopefully it will be over with this addition.
Thing is, when estimating the average level of knowledge I don't want to estimate too high and start a cycle of confusion. Occasionally in guild chat or NICE teamspeak I've had people say things to the effect of "what does it mean to 'drop a bomb'" on something, is it an engineer thing?" or the like. And I want to make sure everyone knows what the terms mean, and explaining elementary stuff will hopefully create an atmosphere where people feel confident and aren't afraid to ask questions. So yesterday was in super-controlled conditions (Lion's Arch, bombing a Moa), but future stuff will be more live. Ideally, we can do it while WvW'ing, and not have to set aside time at all. (I do however want to be in the habit of knowing our own class composition, and maybe taking a minute to set up parties at the start).
Also, 100% swiftness uptime is doable. In skill groups it's very nearly the norm (there may be the occasional couple of seconds where you don't have it, but not for long and not enough to fall too far behind). I don't mean getting it just through blasting static (some groups don't even bother), but through a combination of warhorns, guardian symbols, runes of the centaur, and windborne speed from eles. That doesn't mean that we either have it or we suck, just that it's the goal to shoot for. The same applies to stacking. It's not actually tactically crucial that we stack so tight that we can all fit inside the big Charr - but it's a goal to shoot for. If we're gonna do it, might as well try to do it well.
Regarding calling for certain skills: this is a grey area. We don't ever want to exclude people because of their build or anything; all classes, builds, and experience levels are welcome. I don't like asking people to put things on their bar and only do it in very specific situations. But it's hard to gauge how much direction people want. I know when I first started I copied my first build wholesale from the internet, because I was just looking for a place to start, so I'm the type that likes a little direction. But I don't want to be all "here's how to play ur class noob" or "go soldier's or go home rallybots." So I've settled on just listing options, in part so people know what everyone else might be doing.
Oh, and on another note, I kinda think that 100% swiftness is a pipe dream. Blasting is erratic, people add their own buffs to the mix, player error, etc. Over short distances, maybe, but the longer you go, the more of a tail will develop. It's nice to shoot for, don't give me wrong, and it's certainly possible to hit it occasionally, but please don't end up using it as a performance metric.
I gotta agree with @Yougottawanna on this one. 100% swiftness is pretty easy to achieve, even on not-very-mobile classes. Generally, you're only going to be "on the move" for a couple of minutes (at most) and then in some kind of a fight. Then you re-buff and move for a minute or two. The only time swiftness is really an issue is in those travel segments. It only takes one or two well timed blasts, and then everyone uses their own personal speed buffs (whatever those may be.) The stack-and-blast buffs really are only the "filler" to account for the downtime where your personal speed isn't running.
Regarding calling for certain skills: this is a grey area. We don't ever want to exclude people because of their build or anything; all classes, builds, and experience levels are welcome. I don't like asking people to put things on their bar and only do it in very specific situations. But it's hard to gauge how much direction people want. I know when I first started I copied my first build wholesale from the internet, because I was just looking for a place to start, so I'm the type that likes a little direction. But I don't want to be all "here's how to play ur class noob" or "go soldier's or go home rallybots." So I've settled on just listing options, in part so people know what everyone else might be doing.
See, this makes me happy. I honestly think one of the strengths of NICE is that we -don't- tell people how to play!
I think the right way to approach it is to tell people "IF you have such-and-such skill, this is how you can use it more effectively...." I say this because I'm teaching a newbie how combos work ("What's a blast again? Do I have any of those?") and it's amazing how much people that are accustomed to playing solo or in uncoordinated groups simply don't know.
I had a good time in the wuv last night. Thanks mojo and yougotta!
W.r.t. to the training session... The saying "practice makes perfect" is only somewhat true. It's more accurate to say "good practice makes perfect". While I did pick up a tip or two running around LA, I'm not sure if there's a way to make a regular practice session outside of the mists effective enough to be worth the time. Folks are probably at different knowledge levels, the actual combat situations aren't reproducible, etc. If there was some very specific mechanic that we could go over in a couple of minutes, maybe that would be useful. Or maybe we could use a private spvp instance to practice CC, stacking mid fight, focus fire with small teams. Even then, it might be better to just "practice" in wvw itself.
Some other ideas about improving the team overall:
* During downtime (during or before queing) reserve a little bit of time to invite any questions players might have, especially if there are newer or returning folks. If there aren't questions, make sure everyone knows about good/cheap wvw consumables, about what's best to spend rank points on, etc.
* It's not NICE to prescribe certain builds/profs, but if our more knowledgable players want to share a short list of what is known to be particularly useful in small team wvw, folks might voluntarily adapt their play to that.
"The mutha 'ucka runs a racist 'uking grocery / The mutha 'ucka won't sell an apple to a Kiwi"
This is kind of my own fault for using the word "practice" to describe what I want to do - I chose the word because I couldn't think of a better one, and because it makes use of the concept of WvW zerg-as-sports-team, which is an analogy that works on some levels but not others. But the aim is not really to increase our skill levels - that would be impossible in such a short time anyway. It's to get us all pointed in the same direction so to speak, and create a baseline for what we do. A couple of examples/considerations (today is typing day!)
1 - Once we go over the basics, like what exactly we should do when the commander says "bomb here," we can start to build a repertoire of moves to use. Things like maneuvers before the two groups meet to get them to blow their CC early, or pre-pushes to get them to blow their stability early, that sort of thing. There was a bit of that last night with the business of dividing into groups A, B, and C and having them each bomb separately. That's not something I've seen other guilds too for the most part - most blow most or all of their CC on the first push, which I think is kind of a waste as too much CC becomes redundant - three static fields are not three times better than one. Things are like are things we can do to give ourselves an edge, but if there's not some time spent hashing them out beforehand, no one is going to know what "bomb A" means.
2 - I think it's useful on a psychological level to know that everyone is committed to a push and that everyone has a useful role. When you push into an enemy zerg, there are two conflicting impulses going on your head. The first is "kill kill kill, bags bags bags" and the second is "my god, there are so many of them, and I'm running right into the middle of their stack, shit shit shit I'm gonna die." Now a certain amount of the second impulse is healthy, we don't want a bunch of kamikaze pilots. But too much of it is bad - it makes people flinch and scatter at a crucial moment, and you get the worst of both worlds: something that's almost a push but not quite. It's the WvW version of the tragedy of the commons - everyone's trying to be individually safe, creating a situation where we're collectively much less safe.
On the other hand, if everyone knows that their guildmates have their back, if they now the guardians are gonna give them stability and protection, that warriors are gonna clear their conditions, that necros are gonna be blinding and/or dazing the bad guys, that a whole stack of people is gonna be dropping the bomb as one, and there's gonna be a water field waiting for them on the far side, suddenly they push with confidence, making the pushes more successful, further reinforcing that confidence, and so on. Suddenly it's the enemy who's eating spike damage to the face and going into panic mode, suddenly it's the enemy who's getting 4-5 people instadowned before they can even react, suddenly it's the enemy who's already eying the back door as soon as they see us moving towards them. A little bit of confidence can lead to a lot of extra cohesion, which can lead to a big difference in performance, and knowing what your teammates should be doing - and having reason to believe that they'll actually do it - is the first step.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited December 2013
Hit 80 just now.
Set my self up with some decent rares via my armorsmithing and TP via following, you know, builds and things. Of course by decent I mean "better than level 74 greens".
I know what I'm going to do in the future build wise, just can't do it right now.
Not sure what I'm going to do right now. But in any case, I'm pretty happy I finally hit 80. Yay!
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
So.... getting to 500 is expensive....
getting ascended only costs time?
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
WvWvWednesday is today!
8 pm eastern- we will use the bazinga.me TS3 as it will be an event we 'host'
All this means is that we will do what we normally do, randoms can join in.
Come on out and get some wuv!
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
Hit 80 just now.
Set my self up with some decent rares via my armorsmithing and TP via following, you know, builds and things. Of course by decent I mean "better than level 74 greens".
I know what I'm going to do in the future build wise, just can't do it right now.
Not sure what I'm going to do right now. But in any case, I'm pretty happy I finally hit 80. Yay!
Exotic armor is pretty cheap now if you have the funds for it, alternatively, look for me in the game (Berit/Miliktov/Camus/Clive/Sasarai) and I'm working on my armor crafting, I can probably make you some armor and a weapon or two.
Lots of time. The insignias take 3 damask bolts apiece, so unless you buy some off the AH, you're going to be spending at least 18 days making just those, on top of what you need for the actual armor piece.
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Yeah..... ima go for my back piece first....
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
I may not play anymore for a variety of reasons, but I'm now logging on everyday just to do the Wintersday jumping puzzle. I think it's easily the best jumping puzzle in the game and an honestly good piece of platforming. I love it!
The old wrinkly asura face is the best one IMO. I actually like the noseless sylvari. Sylvari should look a little weird, they have a race concept that could be used for crazy far-out designs but most of the models available just look like people like leaf hair.
The old wrinkly asura face is the best one IMO. I actually like the noseless sylvari. Sylvari should look a little weird, they have a race concept that could be used for crazy far-out designs but most of the models available just look like people like leaf hair.
And considering the original sylvari models *were* people with leaf hair, that's saying something
The middle male/female sylvari look like muppets to me.
New norn male reminds me of a Dr Who Sontaran in his necklessness.
Is there any special info to connect to bazinga, pw or port?
I think for the team analogy in Wuv, its best to have a little pre-game warmup. Like I said before, whether its practice (in terms of skill improvement) or not, it puts me in the right mindset for the rest of the night.
Joiry on
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
The middle male/female sylvari look like muppets to me.
New norn male reminds me of a Dr Who Sontaran in his necklessness.
Is there any special info to connect to bazinga, pw or port?
I think for the team analogy in Wuv, its best to have a little pre-game warmup. Like I said before, whether its practice (in terms of skill improvement) or not, it puts me in the right mindset for the rest of the night.
no port/ No password- but you must be vested to join a channel.
Luckily i have powers over there.
And I agree with you. lil pre gaming is not bad.
mojojoeo on
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
Also, I did like the rebalancing of the groups - its something that's not intrusive to the individual player but may help a bit. We have people coming in and going throughout the night, so it'll not always be perfect, but I think its worth taking a few moments to do. Like after a wipe when we're all back at spawn, a quick minute or two while repairing/selling.
I think the idea of WvW strategies is bullshit. All we need to focus on is attacking the same spot over and over again until the other servers either submit or drown in our badges and bags. Also, field maneuvers before and during every push.
+1
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
I think the idea of WvW strategies is bullshit. All we need to focus on is attacking the same spot over and over again until the other servers either submit or drown in our badges and bags. Also, field maneuvers before and during every push.
this guy gets it.
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
I like to go over what I want done when I say different things, beyond that, drilling just gets in the way of having fun.
F:E, when I say Might. I want people to drop fire fields and blast finish, guardians to empower, and warriors to use FGJ. When I say banners that means drop your warbanners into the fight etc.
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
I like to go over what I want done when I say different things, beyond that, drilling just gets in the way of having fun.
F:E, when I say Might. I want people to drop fire fields and blast finish, guardians to empower, and warriors to use FGJ. When I say banners that means drop your warbanners into the fight etc.
someone is soooooooo 2000andlate.
but your point is valid. And pretty much what i do.
mojojoeo on
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
PSA: Toypocalypse drops insane amounts of gifts. You get between 50-60 for completing it once. That's for 30 minutes of gameplay.
also PSA - 200 glory = 20 of the biggest gifts,
so if like me you wanted all the patterns..... thats a cheap way to grind it out. (bear in mind the socks and wool crap can be re traded for more gifts)
So between @aldo and me- please do not fret over the patterns..... they can be had,
mojojoeo on
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Hit 80 just now.
Set my self up with some decent rares via my armorsmithing and TP via following, you know, builds and things. Of course by decent I mean "better than level 74 greens".
I know what I'm going to do in the future build wise, just can't do it right now.
Not sure what I'm going to do right now. But in any case, I'm pretty happy I finally hit 80. Yay!
Exotic armor is pretty cheap now if you have the funds for it, alternatively, look for me in the game (Berit/Miliktov/Camus/Clive/Sasarai) and I'm working on my armor crafting, I can probably make you some armor and a weapon or two.
I would take you up on this offer it's just that.
Like I feel like I should say this up front.
I may not play anymore for a variety of reasons, but I'm now logging on everyday just to do the Wintersday jumping puzzle. I think it's easily the best jumping puzzle in the game and an honestly good piece of platforming. I love it!
Really? I don't really mind the other jumping puzzles but I got bored quickly with the halloween one. Where is the wintersday one?
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
Hit 80 just now.
Set my self up with some decent rares via my armorsmithing and TP via following, you know, builds and things. Of course by decent I mean "better than level 74 greens".
I know what I'm going to do in the future build wise, just can't do it right now.
Not sure what I'm going to do right now. But in any case, I'm pretty happy I finally hit 80. Yay!
Exotic armor is pretty cheap now if you have the funds for it, alternatively, look for me in the game (Berit/Miliktov/Camus/Clive/Sasarai) and I'm working on my armor crafting, I can probably make you some armor and a weapon or two.
I would take you up on this offer it's just that.
Like I feel like I should say this up front.
I may not play anymore for a variety of reasons, but I'm now logging on everyday just to do the Wintersday jumping puzzle. I think it's easily the best jumping puzzle in the game and an honestly good piece of platforming. I love it!
Really? I don't really mind the other jumping puzzles but I got bored quickly with the halloween one. Where is the wintersday one?
enjoy the view from third place? Baziiiiing!
No all are always welcome here.
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited December 2013
Yeah. You just wait till the next time that's all I'm saying. I've got plans.
Seriously though I do feel a bit funny about taking help like that, but if it's cool then I'm totally up for it.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
I like to go over what I want done when I say different things, beyond that, drilling just gets in the way of having fun.
F:E, when I say Might. I want people to drop fire fields and blast finish, guardians to empower, and warriors to use FGJ. When I say banners that means drop your warbanners into the fight etc.
someone is soooooooo 2000andlate.
but your point is valid. And pretty much what i do.
I often don't have enough guardians and warriors with me :P.
Hey, it's me, Teldra! Did someone say "greatsword"? [Eternity]
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mojojoeoA block off the park, living the dream.Registered Userregular
harumph
there was like 4 militia on the maps we visited last night. So doing it on bazinga.me was pointless as ther was ret gods bomb and everyone was guilded/following them.
maybe we just make wvwvwednesday our thing and do it in our ts3. if its small squad its small squad.
Chief Wiggum: "Ladies, please. All our founding fathers, astronauts, and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine."
So, looking though the dev posts on the official forums, I found this treasure, about the 40% off of things you gift to other players:
Sorry for the confusion, I’ll try a different phrasing to see if that helps.
Each gift earns you a discounted purchase, even of a different stack size.
So for example you can gift 1 black lion key to a friend, and get 40% off a purchase of the 25 stack of keys.
Note, Collection expanders are not gift-able due to being account limited purchases. So sorry no discount on those.
I already did the math, and 40% off of the 25 key stack is 1260 gems, or 1385 gems total for the one key you're giving to someone else, a net savings of 715 gems.
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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
I'm in [SDS] and we usually have small groups running many nights of the week. We often wind up running from place to place working on smaller objectives.
This has been a bad week for stumbling into large zergs of TC, in my experience at least.
Posts
I think approximately thirty minutes of practice will likely just make a lot of folks people show up thirty minutes later, especially if they think it's stuff they already know.
Instead, I believe it would be more helpful to just hear what you as a commander are looking for from classes, rather than doing class tutorials. Expecting people to dig out a certain weapon from their bags for when a blast is called, or to otherwise hold off on using those particular blasting skills until called for? Explicitly say that. Want a certain utility to be available on your call? Ask for a volunteer (or volunteers) to step up for that, or I suppose ask individuals directly. Just keep in mind that the more you ask for, the more you're potentially restricting those players.
Different commanders will have different expectations from their group, so knowing for certain ahead of time is good. Talking about the options for various classes in general could potentially be misleading on that front, perhaps giving the impression that the CC skills and stability skills and other things discussed are all expected to be run, which could be very difficult and / or extremely stiffling depending on the class and build.
Also, I think the running around practice, while well meant, is not helpful. Without going too long into it, I believe that issues it is trying to address (formation disruption and tails, basically) are largely precipitated by factors either not present in or not addressed by movement drills. Not that very short movement drills have no value; if nothing else they can help establish the cues for when to move, so players know what to look / listen for, and give opportunity to inform the group as to how tightly we're expected to stack when stopped. But really quick go, stop, turning drills are all you need for that.
Oh, and on another note, I kinda think that 100% swiftness is a pipe dream. Blasting is erratic, people add their own buffs to the mix, player error, etc. Over short distances, maybe, but the longer you go, the more of a tail will develop. It's nice to shoot for, don't give me wrong, and it's certainly possible to hit it occasionally, but please don't end up using it as a performance metric.
I have decided that there is nothing about my exotic armor/exotic weapons/ascended accessories setup that makes me feel like I can't keep up or that makes me feel subpar. If nothing else I hold more than my own in all areas including Fractals+ even with folks carrying legendaries, and the only place where I have to test myself against others directly is in a place with even ground (i.e. sPvP).
Never felt the need for more ascended stuff, probably never will, particularly since I'd skin them all back to my current equipment anyway, and I've always enjoyed how my characters looked rather than the stats on the gear they wore.
It is disappointing that people wanting a gear grind now have one, but hopefully it will be over with this addition.
Also, 100% swiftness uptime is doable. In skill groups it's very nearly the norm (there may be the occasional couple of seconds where you don't have it, but not for long and not enough to fall too far behind). I don't mean getting it just through blasting static (some groups don't even bother), but through a combination of warhorns, guardian symbols, runes of the centaur, and windborne speed from eles. That doesn't mean that we either have it or we suck, just that it's the goal to shoot for. The same applies to stacking. It's not actually tactically crucial that we stack so tight that we can all fit inside the big Charr - but it's a goal to shoot for. If we're gonna do it, might as well try to do it well.
Regarding calling for certain skills: this is a grey area. We don't ever want to exclude people because of their build or anything; all classes, builds, and experience levels are welcome. I don't like asking people to put things on their bar and only do it in very specific situations. But it's hard to gauge how much direction people want. I know when I first started I copied my first build wholesale from the internet, because I was just looking for a place to start, so I'm the type that likes a little direction. But I don't want to be all "here's how to play ur class noob" or "go soldier's or go home rallybots." So I've settled on just listing options, in part so people know what everyone else might be doing.
Never mind, found it
I gotta agree with @Yougottawanna on this one. 100% swiftness is pretty easy to achieve, even on not-very-mobile classes. Generally, you're only going to be "on the move" for a couple of minutes (at most) and then in some kind of a fight. Then you re-buff and move for a minute or two. The only time swiftness is really an issue is in those travel segments. It only takes one or two well timed blasts, and then everyone uses their own personal speed buffs (whatever those may be.) The stack-and-blast buffs really are only the "filler" to account for the downtime where your personal speed isn't running.
See, this makes me happy. I honestly think one of the strengths of NICE is that we -don't- tell people how to play!
I think the right way to approach it is to tell people "IF you have such-and-such skill, this is how you can use it more effectively...." I say this because I'm teaching a newbie how combos work ("What's a blast again? Do I have any of those?") and it's amazing how much people that are accustomed to playing solo or in uncoordinated groups simply don't know.
W.r.t. to the training session... The saying "practice makes perfect" is only somewhat true. It's more accurate to say "good practice makes perfect". While I did pick up a tip or two running around LA, I'm not sure if there's a way to make a regular practice session outside of the mists effective enough to be worth the time. Folks are probably at different knowledge levels, the actual combat situations aren't reproducible, etc. If there was some very specific mechanic that we could go over in a couple of minutes, maybe that would be useful. Or maybe we could use a private spvp instance to practice CC, stacking mid fight, focus fire with small teams. Even then, it might be better to just "practice" in wvw itself.
Some other ideas about improving the team overall:
* During downtime (during or before queing) reserve a little bit of time to invite any questions players might have, especially if there are newer or returning folks. If there aren't questions, make sure everyone knows about good/cheap wvw consumables, about what's best to spend rank points on, etc.
* It's not NICE to prescribe certain builds/profs, but if our more knowledgable players want to share a short list of what is known to be particularly useful in small team wvw, folks might voluntarily adapt their play to that.
1 - Once we go over the basics, like what exactly we should do when the commander says "bomb here," we can start to build a repertoire of moves to use. Things like maneuvers before the two groups meet to get them to blow their CC early, or pre-pushes to get them to blow their stability early, that sort of thing. There was a bit of that last night with the business of dividing into groups A, B, and C and having them each bomb separately. That's not something I've seen other guilds too for the most part - most blow most or all of their CC on the first push, which I think is kind of a waste as too much CC becomes redundant - three static fields are not three times better than one. Things are like are things we can do to give ourselves an edge, but if there's not some time spent hashing them out beforehand, no one is going to know what "bomb A" means.
2 - I think it's useful on a psychological level to know that everyone is committed to a push and that everyone has a useful role. When you push into an enemy zerg, there are two conflicting impulses going on your head. The first is "kill kill kill, bags bags bags" and the second is "my god, there are so many of them, and I'm running right into the middle of their stack, shit shit shit I'm gonna die." Now a certain amount of the second impulse is healthy, we don't want a bunch of kamikaze pilots. But too much of it is bad - it makes people flinch and scatter at a crucial moment, and you get the worst of both worlds: something that's almost a push but not quite. It's the WvW version of the tragedy of the commons - everyone's trying to be individually safe, creating a situation where we're collectively much less safe.
On the other hand, if everyone knows that their guildmates have their back, if they now the guardians are gonna give them stability and protection, that warriors are gonna clear their conditions, that necros are gonna be blinding and/or dazing the bad guys, that a whole stack of people is gonna be dropping the bomb as one, and there's gonna be a water field waiting for them on the far side, suddenly they push with confidence, making the pushes more successful, further reinforcing that confidence, and so on. Suddenly it's the enemy who's eating spike damage to the face and going into panic mode, suddenly it's the enemy who's getting 4-5 people instadowned before they can even react, suddenly it's the enemy who's already eying the back door as soon as they see us moving towards them. A little bit of confidence can lead to a lot of extra cohesion, which can lead to a big difference in performance, and knowing what your teammates should be doing - and having reason to believe that they'll actually do it - is the first step.
Set my self up with some decent rares via my armorsmithing and TP via following, you know, builds and things. Of course by decent I mean "better than level 74 greens".
I know what I'm going to do in the future build wise, just can't do it right now.
Not sure what I'm going to do right now. But in any case, I'm pretty happy I finally hit 80. Yay!
getting ascended only costs time?
8 pm eastern- we will use the bazinga.me TS3 as it will be an event we 'host'
All this means is that we will do what we normally do, randoms can join in.
Come on out and get some wuv!
Exotic armor is pretty cheap now if you have the funds for it, alternatively, look for me in the game (Berit/Miliktov/Camus/Clive/Sasarai) and I'm working on my armor crafting, I can probably make you some armor and a weapon or two.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Lots of time. The insignias take 3 damask bolts apiece, so unless you buy some off the AH, you're going to be spending at least 18 days making just those, on top of what you need for the actual armor piece.
makes me wonder if theres some new creepy sylvari enemies coming.
And considering the original sylvari models *were* people with leaf hair, that's saying something
New norn male reminds me of a Dr Who Sontaran in his necklessness.
Is there any special info to connect to bazinga, pw or port?
I think for the team analogy in Wuv, its best to have a little pre-game warmup. Like I said before, whether its practice (in terms of skill improvement) or not, it puts me in the right mindset for the rest of the night.
no port/ No password- but you must be vested to join a channel.
Luckily i have powers over there.
And I agree with you. lil pre gaming is not bad.
this guy gets it.
F:E, when I say Might. I want people to drop fire fields and blast finish, guardians to empower, and warriors to use FGJ. When I say banners that means drop your warbanners into the fight etc.
someone is soooooooo 2000andlate.
but your point is valid. And pretty much what i do.
also PSA - 200 glory = 20 of the biggest gifts,
so if like me you wanted all the patterns..... thats a cheap way to grind it out. (bear in mind the socks and wool crap can be re traded for more gifts)
So between @aldo and me- please do not fret over the patterns..... they can be had,
I would take you up on this offer it's just that.
Like I feel like I should say this up front.
I'm on Sea of Sorrows.
This week I'm the enemy.
Is this...is this still okay? *puppy dog eyes*
Really? I don't really mind the other jumping puzzles but I got bored quickly with the halloween one. Where is the wintersday one?
enjoy the view from third place? Baziiiiing!
No all are always welcome here.
Seriously though I do feel a bit funny about taking help like that, but if it's cool then I'm totally up for it.
What server your own doesn't make a difference to me. Hit me up in game the next time you're around.
<random>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7jtC8vjXw8
</random>
Hey, it's me, Teldra! Did someone say "greatsword"? [Eternity]
there was like 4 militia on the maps we visited last night. So doing it on bazinga.me was pointless as ther was ret gods bomb and everyone was guilded/following them.
maybe we just make wvwvwednesday our thing and do it in our ts3. if its small squad its small squad.
I already did the math, and 40% off of the 25 key stack is 1260 gems, or 1385 gems total for the one key you're giving to someone else, a net savings of 715 gems.
This has been a bad week for stumbling into large zergs of TC, in my experience at least.