With the big WvW updates looming, the Scrying Pool sets its sights on the commander and squads.

The commander's book can still be the way commander is unlocked, but the method of obtaining it should be changed. Having the book created by the Mystic Forge would be a good way to pull multiple  methods together to create the commander book, but that would require four items to put into the Mystic Forge.

The first item that came to mind was the Gift of Battle. This item requires Badges of Honor, a currency token that is account bound and obtained only through WvW. This does require a huge chunk of Badges of Honor, however, which may warrant a new item for fewer Badges of Honor. The use of the badges allows a player to pool WvW experience across his/her entire account.

The next item is something I think should be awarded after obtaining a specific rank in the new WvW progression system. As far as I know ranks never give an item currently, but the rank system seems very similar to the rank system for sPvP that gives an animal rank specific chest through a pop-up. For those not familiar with sPvP, this is the same pop-up you get at the end of dungeons and for the reward after completing your weekly guild mission. The item could be anything as it will just be fodder for the book. It could even be called the Commander Balloon with a nice balloon icon. Maybe flavor text that says “Congratulations! :)”

The progression system is character based and not account based. The Commander Balloon would then need to be character bound. Having these first two criteria would mean the prospective commander would have experience on that character, following the idea of specific characters earning their commander fame by commander being character based, while also potentially having gained WvW experience with more than one profession.

The last two items would then be the opposite. One of the bonuses of buying commander with a large amount of gold was seeing players come together and pool their gold to create their commander. This was very common at launch where guilds would fund a single player to be their guild commander. The first of the two items would be another bought item, though much cheaper so that help could be given but it could also be easily obtained by an individual. The last item, where guilds and communities come together, would really shine.

I call it the Gift of Overwhelming Odds. This gift would be created in the Mystic Forge after obtaining the four specific items required to create it. How do you get these items? Each of these items would have a very, very rare drop rate from killing enemies in WvW. These items would not be bound in any way, as the idea is that no single player would get all four by themselves. Odds are it would take an overwhelming amount of time to do it solo, hence the name Overwhelming Odds. Gift would also be fitting as friends and fellow guild members would ideally gift them to a single commander when they obtained one the prospective commander was missing. You could still be that guy (or girl) that buys gifts for themselves and just use the trading post to obtain them.

After obtaining all four items (Badges of Honor item, Money item, Commander Balloon and the Gift of Overwhelming Odds), the player can throw them into the forge, obtain the commander's book and use it to become a commander. Think this is unfair to those who did not buy commander before when it was just the 100g? I would remove commander from everyone with the patch and send those who lost commander a mail refunding them the 100g. Now everyone would have to get commander the new way and no one wasted the 100g.

While it is obvious commander changes aren’t coming in this patch, I wouldn't have put in these changes at the same time as the progression system. Allowing players to potentially get to the rank required to get the balloons would allow the possibility of new commanders popping up right after the old ones vacate. Adding the items for the Gift of Overwhelming Odds a week or two prior to the patch would also help to this effect. The gift would just be useless or unforgeable until the patch.

Matt “Mattsta” Adams can be found on the Blackgate server, probably leveling one of his many alts.

If you are interested in the changes coming to WvW, check out the interview I had with Mike Ferguson and Habib Loew (the Lead Designer and Programmer on the WvW team) talking about the progression system and culling.

I also want to send a shout out to Brujería of TripleB for helping me unlock commander for researching this article by sending the amazing, overwhelming amount of... 5g.

Have a question for me you would like to see answered here? Comment below or tweet it to @MattstaNinja.