We talk with Mike Ferguson and Habib Loew about the new WvW Progression and removal of Culling.

One of the concerns that has been in WvW since launch is the zerg. Is anything that you are adding with this patch going to help break up the zerg and entice players to defend points or anything like that?

Habib: The zerg is obviously a major point of interest for us. We're always taking a very careful look at how people play the game. I think that culling is going to have some impact on the zerg, though we are not totally clear what that will be, just because people will be able to see much more clearly that there is a zerg from much further away. So that's going to change some behaviors. But in addition to that there is a whole bunch of other stuff that we think about in regard to that, that I think Mike can probably speak to.

Mike: Yeah, obviously the zerg is a play style that is good for people when they are first getting into and learning the game, but we also want there to be more play styles than just zerging. I don't know that anything we are putting into this update will help address that directly, but it is definitely, like we have said, something that we are always looking at and we are evaluating our various options to see what we can kind of do to split people up and supply those smaller tactical engagements for people.

Habib: And of course, it is too early for us to say anything and we are notoriously closed-mouth about things we are not ready to talk about, but it is definitely something that we are thinking about and working on. ...and that's about as committed as I'm willing to get.

Was there anything you wanted to say before we go?

Mike: We do have another update that is coming in that I don't think a bunch of people have heard about yet which is our Badge merchant update. Badges of Honor are kind of our currency in WvW and up until this point it hadn't had a whole lot of value to it. So one of the things we are doing is updating the Badge vendors to include various stat combinations and appearance options for armors and weapons so that way people can get a little more of the variety that they were able to get in PvE but not in WvW up until this point.

And that will be part of this patch?

Both: Yep.

That was all my questions. Thanks Mike and Habib for answering them!

Both: Yep, thanks Matt.

The new Ranks and Abilities WvW progression system and the end of Culling in WvW will be added with the March content patch coming out tomorrow. You can find more information about WvW culling here on ZAM and for more information on what else the patch has to offer, you can read the short list of major features here as written up by one of ZAM's new recruits, Lyssness.

Matt "Mattsta" Adams