Fact or Fiction: Lower Tiers are less skilled than Higher Tiers

[Chaba.5410]

> @Rumba.3174 said:

> So if a band-Waggoner moves form a tier 4 server to a tier 1 server that player is suddenly way more skilled?!

 

Yes, that is what they are saying. That's why everyone wants to transfer to BG so they too can be the best skilled player ever.

 

[Genesis.5169]

LOL here we go, this is where people say servers like blackgate and magumma beach don't belong where they belong or didn't earn it.

ITT Haters gonna hate thread.

 

Haters gonna hate but is okay blackgate and magumma people gonna transferr to your servers anyways as soon as they can keep kicking ass.

[gmmg.9210]

> @EremiteAngel.9765 said:

> I've seen comments like 'you must be on T5 for your build to work' or 'if you were playing like this in T1 or T2, you are going to get killed'.

> There seems to be a conception that higher tier = more skilled than lower tiers.

> Is this the truth? or is it only a coverage issue?

 

Clicking the non-existing thumbs down button. Really could use one right about now.

It's a misconception, there are plenty of highly dedicated players who are great on lower tier servers.

Also the poll should instead be "fact- there is" or "fiction- it isn't true" not "fiction- lower is better". smh

[Crossaber.8934]

The fact is player will transfer, we cannot force high skill player to stay a specific server and low skilled players can transfer to a high tier server.

 

So it goes to the 3rd option.

[minion.1987]

i'm just going to say none are better since it involves blobbing and meta.

[Subversion.2580]

I'm sure someone else have already said it (and I'm at fault for not mustering the energy to read through the thread) but the answer to the question is rather simple. It depends on whether you ask if they have more skilled players or if the average skill is higher or lower. Larger servers have more skilled players by virtue of having more players (and with that a wider spread of experience). The average experience or "skill" is likely to be fairly similar on both larger and smaller servers.

 

Active players tend to get better however so even if direct population imbalances in the game mode are fixed and fights have more equal numbers a larger server is more likely to stack more experienced players in one place simply by them being more active and frequent on the maps. Activity on a smaller server is likely more normalized.

[Ricky.4706]

this thread is missing one thing, the criteria for what defines a skilled player ?

 

the one with the best auto button mashing meta build ?

the one that can 1 shot someone wearing green armor ?

the one that can stay invisible while killing someone ?

The one that can follow a commander ?

the one that gains most points for their server that roams and caps all camps in all borderlands ?

the one that has a team specifically set for guarding towers and makes them uncappable ?

 

the one that gains the most points, or the one that gets the most kills ?

 

what exactly is the criteria for this most skilled player ?

 

 

[ykon.8214]

It was a fact ,back in the date when the game began , 2012 . All the good players were stuck in 2-3 servers destroying any opposition and climbing tiers . But just before www season 1 Anet allowed free transfers destroying any diversity among servers . After that people were spread equally among servers skillwise .

[ArchonWing.9480]

On **average** this is probably true. Higher tier servers in general are more organized, and while that in and of itself doesn't dictate if it has more skills or not, it's going to make it that player density is higher, which results in more chances to get killed; you'll have to naturally pay more attention even as a moderately sized groups should you run into one of the many blobs or just sheer mass of gankers if alone. That means you have to be aware of the surroundings more than lower tiers which may be dead. On a lower tier, if you knock a camp or tower, you may have a defender eventually checking out what's happening. On a higher tier, it is much more likely the hive mind will send a cloud of minions after you much more quickly because it actually cares about you taking said objective.

 

There's also the notion that serious guilds gradually trickle up servers to look for more action of which case you won't be able to run with them unless you get in comms with them (if even), and also tryhards that constantly pay to be on the winning server. While that doesn't make anyone skillful on their own, you still have to deal with people that take the game more seriously, or at least have people that have more experience running away, and players that want to win at any cost will generally pick "underhanded" tactics. Sometimes this involves lamer runaway builds, but I'm also talking about crap like making alt accounts for deception and while that happens at any tier, it will just get worse at a tier where people actually care about winning. Now, obviously that isn't skill at all, but that means people have to deal with that kind of crap, and adapt.

 

Of course, there's always the nature of the more localized metas. People in lower tiers often run incredibly off the wall things they can surprise people anticipating a certain thing. One humorous thing is the inevitably higher use of rangers in lower tiers and thus lower tier groups are generally much more aggressive at using reflections as a result, while I have noticed higher tier groups are much more slower to react to this, though obviously the later is generally stronger of course. It's sort of a weird paradox where something is so bad it actually works because people think nobody would do something so stupid. This is also why disorganized groups are often better off by using a scatter style of fighting instead of knocking heads against an organized train that would most certainly run them over, despite it being an objectively inferior tactic.

 

However, this discussion is largely academical especially after the existence of links of which players from every server have had the chance to deal with these situations as well as anything below t1 fluctuating heavily due to said links. That, and this game is a pretty easy game anyways, and little about the skill balance (well, basically none) promotes any kind of skill. So we're just really asking if the scrubs here on average are slightly less scrubby than the scrubs over there. Using that is a metric for stroking egos would fail pretty hard.

 

 

 

tl;dr it really doesn't matter. It is likely that whoever made that statement would probably get rekt by OP anyways.

[MadBomber.3719]

In the past, the best fight guilds tended to migrate to the same tier usually around T1- T2 because they can get more fights and fight each other. So yes higher tiers tended to have a higher concentration of "skilled" players.

Nowadays there's a couple servers that stand out more so than others but for the most part it's all pretty even now.

[Balthazzarr.1349]

I picked lower tiers just for the troll of it. This poll is basically non-sensical... There's no way of knowing where the most skilled players are period. Some say it's the higher tiers cause there's more people, some say that just means there's more pugs.. and so on.. I say it's probably a pretty even mix of skilled and non-skilled percentage wise across the board. I could be wrong but since I'm usually right I'll go with that.. bahaaa

[shiri.4257]

higher tier servers respond and man siege better. zerg busting guilds post 2017? what a chuckle! please tell us more about them!

[shiri.4257]

> @ykon.8214 said:

> It was a fact ,back in the date when the game began , 2012 . All the good players were stuck in 2-3 servers destroying any opposition and climbing tiers . But just before www season 1 Anet allowed free transfers destroying any diversity among servers . After that people were spread equally among servers skillwise .

 

they didn't smash opponents trying to climb tiers. there was "tier locking" and glicko exchanging to manipulate this. if we had 1up/1down back then, would be a much better glimpse in skill vs match manipulation skills. Skirmishes has helped alot for evaluating guilds skill level. you win your skirmishes, the guilds you have in that time zone can arguably say they are better skilled. whether that skill is zerg busting, siege humping, or metablobbing.

[Lahmia.2193]

PoV from FA: during our T4 bout, there were far fewer organised groups we fought than in higher tiers (of which we mostly stream rolled). So in that sense, lower tiers have less skill. People talking about personal skill and that there is no skill involved in wvw are half wrong. As with actual war, it is more than just a soldiers skill that wins a battle. Organisation, tactics and player contribution through builds are all considering types of skill from my perspective.

[shiri.4257]

agreed, there are less organized guilds in lower tiers. as they all move and stack. but the links let us fight up and down the tiers. majority of "organized guilds" in so called higher tiers are still crap compared to some core guilds on lower tiers. FA boasts the most organized guilds outside of T1, and still struggle in t2/3. NSP/HOD/TC/CD have like what-1-2 organized guilds at most? But outside of 1 guild in each server, majority of the guilds struggle against those core guilds on each server. They usually resort to ajamming with the multiple guilds. I think they call it "team work" in higher tiers.

[Miko.4158]

tiers? it's server by server.....

we've moved around alot and even the 'highest' tiers have a preference who their little partner is. its not the size of the dog....

[Fatherbliss.4701]

What would the benchmark be for being skilled? Do we go by total percentage points gained from PPK? Who can manage to still PPT with the lowest amount of activity needed? I've watched a ton of skilled players move all over this game including crossing NA to EU. Lower tiered servers are used to being outmanned and roam constantly. They do more with less. But even that is a huge generalization. If you look at WvWStats, SBI currently has the most points for NA Primetime. Yet on the NA side Mag gets the most points gained from kills on a percentage basis. Plus the population are so completely different in size I would almost be curious to ask this question based on time zone too.

 

[atheria.2837]

> @Choppy.4183 said:

> > @atheria.2837 said:

> > > @EremiteAngel.9765 said:

> > > I've seen comments like 'you must be on T5 for your build to work' or 'if you were playing like this in T1 or T2, you are going to get killed'.

> > > There seems to be a conception that higher tier = more skilled than lower tiers.

> > > Is this the truth? or is it only a coverage issue?

> >

> > I can tell you the poll is flawed.

> >

> > There are good individual players on every server in every tier.

> >

> > And that, my friends, is the truth.

> >

> > A roulette wheel where good players don't share their knowledge or teach others because they are afraid their builds will be nerfed if anyone knows their builds.

> >

> > Wow, Anet, thanks for a **_need to hide_** for some and **a total lack of mentoring** and care for GW2 integrity.

>

> Which good players are afraid to share their builds? First, most builds aren't particularly unique or difficult to figure out on your own. Second, most good players I know are always willing to answer questions, teach techniques, etc. if asked and if they have time. Some even make teaching videos.

 

Baloney! The most valued of all builds will never see most player's keyboards...

 

Sorry but I've seen the builds - and if they aren't hacks, they are very secret.

[Choppy.4183]

> @atheria.2837 said:

> > @Choppy.4183 said:

> > > @atheria.2837 said:

> > > > @EremiteAngel.9765 said:

> > > > I've seen comments like 'you must be on T5 for your build to work' or 'if you were playing like this in T1 or T2, you are going to get killed'.

> > > > There seems to be a conception that higher tier = more skilled than lower tiers.

> > > > Is this the truth? or is it only a coverage issue?

> > >

> > > I can tell you the poll is flawed.

> > >

> > > There are good individual players on every server in every tier.

> > >

> > > And that, my friends, is the truth.

> > >

> > > A roulette wheel where good players don't share their knowledge or teach others because they are afraid their builds will be nerfed if anyone knows their builds.

> > >

> > > Wow, Anet, thanks for a **_need to hide_** for some and **a total lack of mentoring** and care for GW2 integrity.

> >

> > Which good players are afraid to share their builds? First, most builds aren't particularly unique or difficult to figure out on your own. Second, most good players I know are always willing to answer questions, teach techniques, etc. if asked and if they have time. Some even make teaching videos.

>

> Baloney! The most valued of all builds will never see most player's keyboards...

>

> Sorry but I've seen the builds - and if they aren't hacks, they are very secret.

 

You've seen the builds, but they're closely guarded secrets that aren't shared. Are you claiming to be a top tier player?

[Lunarlife.5128]

There is Bias in this post for several reasons.

 

One is that one option is labeled as: "FACT", while the other is labeled as, "FICTION". I believe this is wording Bias.

 

Next up is information BIAS. From what I've seen, what I've heard, and so forth, in my 200-300 hours+ (Not that much, maybe 50 percentile) of WvW, is that there are different tiers of T1, T2, T5, T8, and so forth.

 

Having played against Maguuma and Black Gate at the same time they didn't feel similar. Maguuma was far more advanced.

There are also servers that on purpose leave their score low to be T2 instead of T1. SoS if I remember did this, which is why Dragon ended up against Maguuma and Black Gate. While hilarious, we spent a decent amount of time on EBG defending or loosing our main Keep.

Right now I'm on GoM, which did have a massive power shuffle recently (Two of the big WvW guilds left). We're T4 I believe. However, we have guilds and groups that when they do run seem as good as the groups I ran into on T1. However, when the time zones misalign, about 11 East, we get outnumbered buff pretty much immediately and things go from there. As of right now, the "T4" server has more skilled players than the T1, T2, and T3 groups I've played with.

 

There are different time zones that have to be accounted for. Some of the server-merges I was on had great at all times amount of players while other groupings I've been in have had really good time spots and really bad time spots.

From Reddit OKarizee, "In my experience, the higher tiers have more around the clock coverage and a wider window of prime time coverage." (

)

 

There are also different playstyles in WvW which is pretty awesome. There are some builds that are pathetic if the group is too small and other builds where they can't shine if the group is too big. This creates a Bias in the answers because you have different WvW areas. You have places like EBG and then you have the Desert and the balance, rotations, supply count, vary massively.

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

I have accounts that hit all the tiers. T1 has the largest number of trash - as expected with their massive number of players. The bottom two tiers have had the better small group fights (5 ish a side). Those fights don't get as many random roamers jumping in. Individually, its all the same.

[reddie.5861]

> @Ogre.3124 said:

> Pre-expansions and early Heart of Thorns the best players/guilds were in Tier 2. In tier 2 the best of the best were on Maguuma (official spvp / gvg retirement server). At the moment BG/Maguuma have the talent; though, PoF's meta skill is irrelevant.

 

rofl, just because zerglings gather up in 1 guild/server doesnt mean they are any good..

this poll ask me personaly where are the better skilled players well so far the zerglings arent that skilled as far i noticed, i never been an amazing player but any blob guy left alone or caught from the tail is a dead guy. they cant do a shit alone even the ones in the so called pro blob guilds.

 

lower tiered servers back then had far superior players, simply cus they had small scale fights where it did require a little bit more then stack up empower and 111111111111111 with ur loot stick through a little group..

[Elementalist Owner.7802]

T2 is the sweet spot imo

[Strider Pj.2193]

> @"Elementalist Owner.7802" said:

> T2 is the sweet spot imo

 

Probably this week as you don't have Mag there.

[Bigpapasmurf.5623]

Option 3: There are good and bad players on both high and low tiers.

 

I have been linked with and against lower and higher tiers. I have been on MAG/CD/DH and JQ myself before settling down in my current one. As a solo/small group roamer, I tend to gravitate toward PPK a bit more, thus look for people to fight (gotta sharpen my skill). When I see we are up against BG or Mag, where they are more populated I tend to roam in their BL, however the quality of fights are are a bit better when against lower. Biggest difference is that I have to look over my shoulder more as these servers tend to lean toward zerging/blobbing, making it harder to find roamers/smaller scale that are distanced from their blob so you wont get steamrolled.

 

Higher tiers naturally have more people, thus their zerg impact are more noticed than smaller tiers. BG vs DH zergs, no comparison due to sheer numbers.

 

One other thing I noticed is the higher the tier, the more disrespectful the roamers (laughing/dancing on your dead body, throwing siege tombstones....etc).

 

Higher tier = More overall people, thus more overall fights, more blobbing

Lower Tier = More roamers/small scale, better quality

 

So all in all, depends on if you prefer small scale or larger scale fights, and if you prefer quality or quantity.