On Tuesday, February 4, we’re releasing the new Edge of the Mists WvW map and major improvement to the queuing system for WvW. We’ve been doing some behind-the-scenes work on our systems to provide more transparency with the queue and to fix some of the frustrations players have had with it.

It was vital to us that we make these changes as a part of the release of the Edge of the Mists, which introduces a brand-new overflow map to WvW, allowing all players interested in WvW to have the smoothest experience possible without the wait.

The first time you will experience the new queue system is when you attempt to enter one of the existing WvW maps in the updated WvW UI screen. Each map now has its own entry button that contains information about the queue for that map. If there is no queue, the button will say “ready” and you can instantly join that map. Otherwise, the button will indicate the number of players already in the queue and allow you to join the queue for the map. Once you are queued, your position will be updated in the UI screen so that you can see how many players there are ahead of you for the map you have chosen. When your position in the queue is up, you will be given the option to join the map you queued for or to remain in the map you are currently in.

We also made a number of quality of life updates to WvW. The WvW UI will now show the status of your world’s match up when you are in an overflow map, a dungeon, structured PvP, or guesting on another server. In WvW, the right-click context menu that may be used for party invites and other social functions will now correctly show more options than just “report” while still restricting communication options with enemies. The player location information that shows up while mousing over a contact will now also correctly display that player’s map and world while they’re in WvW.

With the Edge of the Mists update on February 4, players can play in a WvW environment and gain associated WvW rewards while queued for the existing Mist War maps that affect the weekly score. Now you will also be able to see just where you are in the queue and look forward to joining the fight as soon as possible!