What happened to Commanders?

[shiri.4257]

Just bring a firebrand or scourge and a commander will bring you into squad. Should check the JQ discord in case they're initiating another blackout to get a link end of month.

[Magnuzone.8395]

> @"Rimu.7105" said:

> So, I log into play some WvW to make a legendary weapon... (Im personally not a fan of WvW so thats the only reason im doing it) Im on Jade Quarry, a tier 1 server from what ive been told, but there is NEVER a commander on ANY map... before there use to be many commanders one pur map almost at all times...did WvW die any no one tell me?

 

Several servers lost good commanders since a lot of ppl who used to play guards apparently went scourge or quit the game. So now zergs are made up of condi scourges and maybe 5 FB's tops. While that attract some players, it made a lot of players quit. We lost a lot of dedicated players.

[Sierra.6547]

This might be a late response but to those who question guilds running tagless here is my point of view . There are 2 reasons for running tagless and some other commanders will prob agree on the big reason #1 Spies. Running tagless and using a guilds own discord is to prevent other servers from basically cheating against them. and #2 Testing guild strength. If a guild can pull a good 15+ guildies in a raid they will have closed raids 1-2 raids a week to test the guilds core players as a whole, without pugs in squad to mess with the comp as all guilds (mostly fight guilds) have their own builds that work together that make a fight guild what it is.

[Etheri.5406]

> @"Mil.3562" said:

> > @"Rimu.7105" said:

> > > @"Roxanne.6140" said:

> > > There are commanders. They just run closed or tagless. Not all and not all the time, but it's getting to be the trend.

 

Avoiding pugs makes the game more enjoyable.

 

> And what is this rallybot cancer that people are starting to spread? Those pugs, roamers and solos that joined the commander are doing exactly what everyone else is doing. They fight enemies, build sieges, repair walls and revive downed allies. In fact, i noticed that there are some guilds whose members who revive only their own and no one else.

 

I jump and throw siege on the pugs too. Gotta make them feel welcome ;)

[Etheri.5406]

> @"Magnuzone.8395" said:

> > @"Rimu.7105" said:

> > So, I log into play some WvW to make a legendary weapon... (Im personally not a fan of WvW so thats the only reason im doing it) Im on Jade Quarry, a tier 1 server from what ive been told, but there is NEVER a commander on ANY map... before there use to be many commanders one pur map almost at all times...did WvW die any no one tell me?

>

> Several servers lost good commanders since a lot of ppl who used to play guards apparently went scourge or quit the game. So now zergs are made up of condi scourges and maybe 5 FB's tops. While that attract some players, it made a lot of players quit. We lost a lot of dedicated players.

 

A lot of good commanders left the game since a lot of their veteran core left - for various reasons related to the state of WvW - and their replacements are too busy yelling how special and amazing their builds are while refusing to do anything their commander asks.

Commanding is no longer leading a group, it's babysitting 50+ snowflakes that all run into a different direction to go do something else; and no matter what you decide to do half of them will get upset about it.

 

If guilds don't want to lead public, it's probably because they don't want to play with the pugs. If they don't want to play with the pugs, maybe it's time the pugs wonder why that is ;)

I suggest you start blaming anet for not ensuring every pug is super useful !!!!!! Surely it's anet's fault; right?!

 

No offence OP; but even you. You're not asking "where do i find a group to have fun with" or anything. Nope. Where do i find a comm to farm XXX. Yeah, I'd love to tag for you. Jk.

[Israel.7056]

They went to sor

[BlaqueFyre.5678]

> @"Rimu.7105" said:

> That sucks... i really need stuff for my legendary.

 

You can get GoB really fast just by capping camps, sentries etc. you don’t have to blow around, since all that is needed is maintaining participation. Goes by even faster if you pop a few boosters.

[Strider Pj.2193]

> @"Israel.7056" said:

> They went to sor

 

And got bad?

[Chaba.5410]

> @"Etheri.5406" said:

> Commanding is no longer leading a group, it's babysitting 50+ snowflakes that all run into a different direction to go do something else; and no matter what you decide to do half of them will get upset about it.

 

Also known as "cat-herding".

 

[Subversion.2580]

Alot of people have already gone out in tangents and anectdotes. My take on it would be to reel it back in a bit and look at the basics.

 

* Commanders tend to come from guilds and guilds tend to come from organised player groups while organised players come from an environment that promotes such organisation

* The frequency of commanders (while I'm sure different on EU and US for various reasons) can be seen on long-term- and short-term rise and/or decline

* Think of it as two lines on a graph

 

**The long term** has been in general decline due to underattentive development (twofold as in a general lack of sufficient attention and as in a history of poorly focused attention). To some degree that can be understood, from a developer standpoint, as open world PvP (or WvW) by nature is self-sustaining and self-resetting. The phrase "to some degree" is important though as it is self-sustaining etc., _to some degree_, but for the past six years it has dropped below what is acceptable neglect. I don't give much credence to all the philsophical muttering about anything living dying or old games dying - if interest can be tickled often enough then interest can be kept afloat and games will live on. Especially _mostly-self-sustaining_ open world PvP design. Anet are looking to adress some of those issues now with the "Alliances" rewrite. It has come at a very late time though and the announcement itself is bound to make people play it slow and wait to see when and where it ends up (I am one of the players guilty of that). Anet could stave some of that off by being more communicative on the development but generally things are very quiet and mostly followed with quiet, cautious optimism.

 

**The short term** is mostly down to class balance. Every expansion has seen the same cycle of changes setting in: New expansion, new specs, overtuned specs, overtuned ranged- and control-oriented specs. This was the case with HoT (mostly Revs) and has been the case with PoF (mostly Scourges). This results in majority of players (and thus group compositions) that are bad for Commanders. Commanders have traditionally been played melee (as ranged can act on melee tags but melee can not act on ranged tags). The imbalance leads to tactics termed "Pirateships" (akin to old naval battles where everyone is cautiously manoeuvering around at distance to find optimal approaches to broadside and being agressive often makes you lose) that are simply boring to command or straight up "Pinsniping" where classes are given imbalanced tools to focus target commanders, also making it boring to command and everyone suffers as a result.

 

**Again**, these have been issues since release or issues Anet should have taken experience from with HoT. Add to that, that PoF hardly brought anything to WvW (or to the players and/or guilds that produce the commanders). HoT at least came with things like the Guild Halls which kept guilds interested for a fair amount of time (before balance and underattention ruined that too). Another thing is that with HoT came raids and the raiding community have the ear of the balance team. In that past co-existing with the PvE playerbase wasn't too much of an issue since open world PvE had low demands on balance. Raids have a very high demand on balance but a different demand than WvW. Recently we've seen more changes where PvE is allowed to dictate balance over WvW in a manner that has taken depth out of the mode. While not a breaking point it has certainly compounded on the issues with PoF in a sense that we did not see with HoT. So, you should probably brace yourself for rather slow times in WvW until Alliances hit and then pray that Anet pulls that off in a good manner without much co-development from the veteran playerbase. At least things are looking interesting initially, with more agency of the WvW administration being seceded to the playerbase.

[Turk.5460]

It doesn't ever seem to cross the minds of OP's for posts like this that they themselves are capable of putting up their own tag and attempting to lead militia against towers.

[Vicious.3042]

Sheep don't turn into a hawk overnight, but most sheep pay attention and know what's going on just from map chat, this one is special. Stay sheeping

[DragonSlayer.1087]

We were up against JQ last week and it was basically a freebie.

[shiri.4257]

When the bristle back is the strongest player in your squad...it's time to tag down.

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"shiri.4257" said:

> When the bristle back is the strongest player in your squad...it's time to tag down.

 

Why? Obviously you need *more* bristlebacks then.

[Sovereign.1093]

what is that?

[Sovereign.1093]

what is that?

[Trajan.4953]

In my humble opinion, server merges or "links" basically killed most communities. Granted a lot of the OG guilds and commanders left the game eons ago, but communities had their Commanders that everyone knew. Day by day, month by month these guys/gals burn't out, be it from over work or harassment from links. One by one they stopped running. Guilds used to run "open nights" and, while they still happen, are much less frequent. I used to pugmand now and again but I can't be bothered now because nobody will get in comms or play a decent group oriented build. Zero point in just being a bag farm for a better group.

 

The game has changed. With less focus on Server identity and more focus on immediate rewards it has simply shifted to a new game. Best to think of your time in WvW now as a 2 hour match in PuBG or Fortnite rather than something worth getting that invested in.

[Zephyra.4709]

> Im personally not a fan of WvW so thats the only reason im doing it

 

Looks like you're mostly a PvEr that wishes to grab the shinies (legendary GoB I'm assuming) and get out. In that case - if there's no commander on the map you can do the following to help your server out (to get _participation_ and _keep it up_):

 

* Cap camps/sentries, protect yaks

* Repair objective walls/gates that are under attack (and no... I don't mean sitting in smc all day... at least _try_ to repair objectives that are _actually being attacked_)

* Play a class that is good at roaming/small scale combat and find other roamers to kill or _tag_ (and hopefully someone else kills them) so you still get kill credit

* Attack paper objectives and be communicative about it; tell players you're cata'ing x tower - that you'll need help capping it. Maybe get a small party going

 

It's pretty easy to keep participation up so long as you're attentive to the game. Hope that helps.

[LordMadman.5812]

I have rejoined this game 2 months ago and I don't see guilds running WVW on blackgate. It's a random commander and then pugs follow, but I only see commanders on the weekends. WVW has been like this since it was in the game though... stomp or get stomped.

[Roxanne.6140]

> @"Sovereign.1093" said:

> what is that?

 

It's a pub-stomping build that throws bristles at players chasing you. It's pretty op really, like I had a high kill-score the first time I used it. I think it will get nerfed soon.

[Blocki.4931]

> @"LordMadman.5812" said:

> I have rejoined this game 2 months ago and I don't see guilds running WVW on blackgate. It's a random commander and then pugs follow, but I only see commanders on the weekends. WVW has been like this since it was in the game though... stomp or get stomped.

 

And there is nothing wrong with that. Players are creating all issues by bandwagoning. Closer fights are rare, but they definitely make up for it, though it must suck being on a bad server I agree

[Dinas Dragonbane.2978]

> @"Trajan.4953" said:

> The game has changed. With less focus on Server identity and more focus on immediate rewards it has simply shifted to a new game. Best to think of your time in WvW now as a 2 hour match in PuBG or Fortnite rather than something worth getting that invested in.

This right here, I voted against linking and am not looking forward to their future system because of it for the same reason. It hasn't felt good being a link server, but soon everyone will be one.

 

[Threather.9354]

Bandvagoning and the fact that guilds disbanded I guess, players and commanders on the server change every month or two meaning no1 will really be able to enjoy players around it.

 

Not to mention just logging in the game is pretty hard when you have to play healbot firebrand/chrono 95% of the time or get rekt trying to lead on something bad because there isnt many other commanders on the server.

[Nate.3927]

I used to tag almost every day for maybe 2-3 hours a day. I stopped because it ended up feeling like a second job (herding cats is an appropriate description), one that doesn't pay at all. Public tags also often get abused by people who seem to have unreasonable demands e.g. I was once abused on map chat for not rushing to help defend a keep that was just lost (50+ attackers). I literally just loaded in from another map with a small group of maybe 6 people. The keep was already lost by the time my game finished loading and our group of 6 wouldn't make a difference anyway against 50. There was no cross map callout made, none of us in my small group even knew the keep was under attack.

 

I play video games to have fun and relax, not to have a second job.

 

I still tag occasionally, just usually private/invisible tags.