Flame On! WvW Catches Fire Again: GW2

The title of the eleven-page thread on the GW2 WvW forums suggests not everyone's happy with the changes to the ranking system that came in a couple of weeks back. For Yak's Bend, however, far from being terrible it's given us the best WvW action of the year and kept it coming for three straight weeks.

Mrs Bhagpuss and I were on holiday for week one so we missed most of the first Yak's Bend/Crystal Desert/Kaineng three-way. YB finished last but not much more than 20k points separated top from bottom. By all accounts it was a tight, exciting match so when the randomizer put the same three teams together for a second week there were few complaints.

Frustration leads to a slip in standards

I spent more time in WvW last week than I've done for a couple of months. Following a period in late Winter when we dominated our tier for a while, we moved into a long period of stagnation through the Spring, struggling with servers like Dragonbrand and Maguuma, who have both higher WvW populations and overwhelming off-peak coverage.

We held our own but week after week of matches in which the result was a foregone conclusion had an inevitable impact not just on morale but on interest levels in general. Yak's Bend has a robust and dedicated WvW community but at heart it's a PvE server. With stale, predictable matches week after week and lots of new PvE content flowing out from the Living Story pipe numbers in WvW dwindled noticeably.

GW2 has a whole family of red-headed step-children. Everyone thinks his or her particular favorite is getting the sticky end and, as has been observed in the past, ANet are stretched thin everywhere. WvW players certainly feel they aren't getting their due. The various tweaks and twiddles from the addition of Traps to the disappointingly PvE-oriented Ranks and Abilities have all been a little underwhelming. Perhaps only the removal of culling was received as an unmitigated success.

The thrill of the chase. Or something.

The new matchmaking system with its random factor that can throw the puppies in with the wolves seems to be another example of ANet's predilection for running test projects on Live servers. In response to the mounting criticism from players whose minnows were being pitted against WvW whales, ANet WvW Dev Devon Carver countered with this:

"We are going to wait at least a couple more weeks before changing any of the math behind the new system, but it is very likely we’ll decrease the size of the variation at some point."

In other words, the suck-it-and-see approach that has characterized WvW development to date. And I'm not complaining. With a set-up that pitches entire servers against each other in groups of three it's hard to see how much testing could be done away from the Live environment. Live testing is unavoidable.

The second round of YB/CD/Kain finished even closer than the first. Yak's Bend pulled into second, just 5k behind Crystal Desert, who won again. The highlight of a very entertaining week's fighting for me was the hours-long defence of Stonemist, which we held against repeated large-scale attacks from both sides, frequently at the same time. Stonemist Castle was a ruin with most of the outer walls down all evening and the Inner Gates barely standing.The sense of satisfaction and, yes, achievement when the attacks eventually tailed off and stopped and we were able to start repairs was delightful.

More important perhaps than individual glory and last-ditch stands, thrilling though those are, was the evident fact that any of the three teams could win the match. Positions changed frequently throughout the week and no server could afford to ease up at any time. So unlike the weeks and weeks of dead rubbers where at best we were fighting for second place and more often purely for pride.

Honestly, he never stops moving. Ever!

This week Crystal Desert got promoted, or randomized, I don't know which, giving them a short-straw placing in Tier 2 against Tarnished Coast and Sea of Sorrows. TC have getting on for twice the points of both the other two put together. Doesn't look much fun.

Yak's Bend on the other hand struck lucky for a third week. We kept Kaineng, who we
loathed when they were hot-join favorites a few months ago but with whom we are now perfectly matched in their depleted out-of-fashion decline. Instead of Crystal Desert we got back our old enemies Ehmry Bay, who we haven't seen since we sent them down to Tier 5 back in March, the same week we moved up to Tier 3.

It's another nailbiter. The last two nights I've been up there doing my bit, such as it is. Painting Eternal Battlegrounds blue, defending our frontiers, putting pressure where it's needed. Running around after Commanders I know and respect, or at least am amused by, in other words. EBay probably have the better of us and we probably have the better of Kaineng but the joy of it is no-one can be quite certain. Halfway through the match and still barely 10k between first and third.

Let's hope that when the next tweak to the algorithm arrives it does what's intended and every server gets matches as good as this. And keeps on getting them, week after week. Is that even possible? Probably not but we can hope.