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Hi everyone! This is a little bit of a continuation of the WvW server discussion. I wanted to float the idea of forming a War Snakes group to run havoc in WvW once a week (day, time, and frequency subject to voting of interested members.) I've been doing some research and communicating with the members of a havoc guild on SBI (violent tendency). Here's the info: What are you talking about? War Snakes would be a 3-5 person havoc group. (Obviously, if there's more than 5 people interested, that would be awesome too.) What would this group do? Run around in WvW taking camps, killing yaks, capturing towers and, of course, wrecking all those who stand on our way. What classes and builds would we run? (These are some ideas from the current meta. I'm sure we'll have others depending on people's preferences.) Support elementalist Condi Revenant GS reaper Axe Reaper Power warrior Power Mesmer (guide to big dick damage here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8t85lJqwp8 ) Power chrono Really? This sounds kinda crazy. Granted, but check out these videos. It looks like a ton of fun: https://youtu.be/Y4CbvzeLsV8 https://youtu.be/hfQ0NMSLwzk https://youtu.be/2lKjKmvKfjw https://youtu.be/bx9wc02pMi8 UPDATE Server: Gates of Madness Day: Tuesday Time: 8:30 to 10:30 Frequency: Once a week to start

Since the WvW rewards update, I've returned to playing WvW a good amount of time per week. It is undeniable that my server Tarnished Coast is struggling right now. The server that I remember from 2 years ago that was full of commanders, guilds, and militia in almost all of the time zones (frequently queueing multiple maps) is gone, and TC is a very different place today. Luckily, I'm also a very different player than I was 2 years ago, and the combination of the two has allowed me to find new ways to enjoy WvW. In my previous WvW life, I was a zergling. I ran the build that I was told, I fulfilled the role I was assigned, and I stuck to the commander like white on rice. That was fun and it is one way you can play WvW (I still do this for around half of my WvW time). However, this time around, I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of sentrying, defending, and havocing. A perfect example is yesterday afternoon. I zoned into TCBL and a commander and small group (not really Zerg size) was running around capping stuff. I joined them just as they took Hills, and I decided to make it my new home. I told the commander my intention (as a side note a sentry/defender who is in TS with a commander is worth at least 5 who aren't) and he told me "I haven't bothered to siege or defend Hills this afternoon because they keep flipping it." I said to him, "I understand, but that stops now." Over the next 2.5 hours I proceeded to siege the entire Keep, add useful improvement and tactics, and defend from enemy attacks. I'm especially proud of one of my counter attacks that slowed the enemy long enough allow reinforcements, including the commander and our Zerg, to arrive, saving Hills from certain disaster. Turns out one door trebuchet at an outer gate is worth at least 3 arrowcarts, especially when the enemy commander is too stupid to keep his Zerg away from your supply draining putrid cows. (For those who are interested we still own Hills and it's been 17 hours since I was there.) Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that if I make a tower or keep my new "home" help starts to materialize. As Hills started to upgrade, I got visits from roamers who captured the camps that send supplies to Hills, escorted yaks, and helped me refresh the boatload of siege weapons I had build for Hills's defense. Yes, when TC was strong I would never have taken on this role, mostly because it was already being done by others. However the new state of affairs has given me incentive to learn how to siege and defend towers and keeps, how to efficiently capture camps by myself or with just a few other people, how to keep myself alive when a thief tries to gank me (when will thieves learn that not all eles are squishy?!?!), and more. I really feel like my personal actions contribute to our score (a keep or even a tower saved from the enemy contributes a significant amount of points to the skirmish score). Yes, my former WvW commanders have contacted me and asked me if I'd like to transfer. Some have even offered to pay my transfer fee. But I'm torn. Server loyalty is a relic now with server linking and the large changes many servers including TC have undergone, and it would be nice to be on a "winning" server for those extra pips. On the other hand, I'm learning a ton and it feels like I'm making an actual impact. It's the classic struggle of intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards, and I'm not sure whats going to win in the end. See you in the Mists! PS I'm going to get together the resources I've been using to learn about WvW life outside of the Zerg. I'll hopefully post them in the next entry.

As most of you are aware, I have taken on the project of leading the charge to further upgrade our guild hall, starting with the War Room. Even though we might decide to get all of the upgrades in the end, I'm trying to prioritize the order we get them in a way that would benefit our current WvW players. In my mind the upgrades fall into two categories: useful and not useful. Useful is further subdivided into three categories: useful for everyone who can claim objectives ( anyone in NPC can do that as long as you are higher than a Green Mamba), useful to leveling scribes, and useful to leveled scribes [i.e., improvements and tactics that scribes could craft that are actually useful in WvW.]) As of right now, this is my priority list (please feel free to leave a comment if you would like to suggest a change): Invulnerable fortifications (for scribe leveling, also a useful tactic) Hardened gates (next few are useful when made by scribes for defending camps and towers when sentrying or havocing) Speedy dolyaks Iron guards Guild claiming: Stonemist castle (No, I don't think any of us are going to need to claim Stonemist anytime soon. However, this upgrade is a prerequisite for some other important upgrades.) Objective aura 7 vitality (Yeah! This will be a major milestone that provides all the important aura stat boosts when NPC claims something. If someone complains that they need the extra 20% magic find from the last aura to properly defend something, tell them to stfu.) Emergency wp (for scribe leveling, also a useful tactic) Watchtower (for scribe leveling, also a useful tactic) Chilling fog (useful tactic) Guild ballista Guild catapult Guild trebuchet Guild flame ram Guild siege golem Presence of the Keep (extremely useful improvement but can only be placed on keeps, hence the name) Dragon banner (useful banner, but banners got nerfed so hard they are not an important part of fights anymore. Nevertheless, they are fun to use and towers and keeps have a tactivator that can only be filled with a banner.) Assault roller (fun but it's either underused or useless. Seems like invulnerable dolyaks is a better tactic for a camp) Turtle banner (seems like people prefer centaur and dragon over this one) Hardened siege (useless in my opinion because the first thing people do is take down the cannons, mortars and oils and this doesn't do much to stop them. Plus, the other option for this slot is iron guards which gives the lord more health and armor so it's arguably better.) Sabotage depot (minimal usefulness in my mind. Has some niche applications.) Armored dolyaks (useless because speedy is better) Packed dolyaks (I've seen people use this but I still think speedy is better) Guild shield generator (this one is an outrageous amount of aetherium) Objective aura 8 magic find Airship defense (only useable at Stonemist) Cloaking waters (pretty useless, only useable at Stonemist) Turret gates (useless. In fact this is worse than useless-it's actually detrimental because it takes away the upgrade slot you could use for Presence of the Keep which is actually good. Please don't put this anywhere if you like your server.) We've made so much progress in the last weeks I'm really proud of us. I know the road ahead looks pretty intimidating, but this is a long term goal to be completed when people have extra mats they don't mind donating to the cause. Also, we still have access to the improvements and tactics that scribes make without unlocking them in the War Room. Anyone who has permission to spend claimable upgrades can use the ones deposited in our guild war chest. The majority of the ones in there right now come from choosing the Improvement and Tactic pack from Skirmish chests. This gives you a random tactic or improvement. Almost all of them are worth more than a gold, so it's actually one of the best options to choose from the skirmish chest-if you are going to use them for the benefit of your server and you don't need any of the other options. Thanks to everyone for all of your generous donations so far. Special shout out to Mold, Fred, Ser, Bone, Pyro, and Khani for their help! (I hope I didn't leave anyone out, I'm writing this at work so I can't look at who donated. I'm super sorry if I didn't mention you!). See you in the Mists! (Unless you're Oddgo. I suggest you avoid his "hugs" at all costs.)