User:Ventaurion/ServerTransfer

Player Server Transfer

This document is written to help players who are considering a server transfer. This is not meant to explore whether or not a guild should transfer servers. That is a separate issue.

First, understand the basic details about your home server.

Current Server Dynamics

This is mainly to provide historical context in the future.

• Server transfers cost 500/1000/1800 gems depending on the destination server population. You cannot transfer to a full server.
• Transfers have been free in the past. It is unclear whether or not this will occur in the future.
• Currently in the middle of WvW Season 1.
• When a map on a server becomes full, Overflow instances are created where players queue up to enter the main map. Currently, players who are on their home server do not have priority over guesting players for entering the main map. This may change in the future.

How your home server affects you

Your home server determines...

the default server you log in to.

Emphasis on default. It is important to remember the ability to do guesting. In particular, being able to guest means you can explore Tyria from any server. This means being able to do world events on any server. This means being able to participate in guild missionss regardless of where the guild resides. To repeat what should be obvious by now, your PvE experience is not restricted by your home server.

the server you represent in WvW.

When you enter WvW, you will always be representing your home server, starting from your server's side of the map. No exceptions.

Power of the Mists bonuses.

These are server-wide bonuses based on how well the server is doing in WvW. It resets each week with WvW.

the WvW Season 1 Reward Chest you get.

If you manage to obtain the WvW Season 1 Reward Chest Key, the chest you get is determined by your server's overall performance in season 1. Since this is determined by your home server when a WvW season starts, transferring after the start has no effect. However, this issue may come up again for future WvW seasons.

Reasons to Transfer

Since transferring has a high cost, you should have a strong reason before doing so.

Given the above, some good reasons to transfer are:

• You frequently want to play with a particular world/community (or avoid your home server/community) and can't be bothered to guest each time you log in.
• You guest all the time, and the limit of 2 active guest worlds is not enough.
• You spend a lot of time in WvW and don't like your current server's WvW dynamics. Beware of high queue times on higher ranked servers.
• You play WvW a lot with your WvW guild and they are moving.
• You play/farm so much that the extra Power of the Mists bonuses on another server justify the cost.

In general, think about:

• How much you are willing to put up with the extra clicks to guest to where you want. What is the difference between a player on a home server A and a player who always guests to server A every time they log in? As far as PvE is concerned, none. If your guild has decided to transfer to server A, and you only play PvE, and you are willing to dedicate one guesting slot to play with them, you have effectively transferred with them.
• How much time you spend in PvE vs WvW.
• Who you interact with, and what world(s) they generally play on.

Thanks for reading. Did I miss anything? Have questions or comments? Feel free to PM me.