Guild Wars 2

So the other day, running tournies and the like, my party eventually ran into an unstoppable force which finally brought our undefeated spree to an end. This took place at the Battle of Khylo arena and many of you could probably guess what happened. A crafty mesmer camped the trebuchet for the entire duration of the fight and rained hell upon all of us. So we tried what every sane group of people would do and tried to attack the problem directly and sure enough we took out the trebuchet. but as we were leaving, the booming voice over the loudspeakers chimed “ENEMY TREBUCHET HAS BEEN REPAIRED.” Sure enough, the mesmer was back on its merry way raining fire and brimstone upon the folks at the windmill. We marched back up scared the mesmer away and took out the treb once more. Once more it was back up within seconds. So instead of wasting more of our time and man power, we leave one person to deal with the mesmer and trebuchet. One of two things would happen: either a) the mesmer kills the person we leave behind, or b) the same scenario happens where the mesmer runs off and portals back with the repair kit. Eventually the enemy wins because of their Treb support and our one less man working on trying to stop the treb.

So what happened.

Well the mesmer is able to drop a portal and run (as you all may well know, when a mesmer wants to get away, it’s sure as kitten going to get away) then repair the treb faster than one to five people can destroy it. Now while most people cry “MESMER PORTAL OP,” I’m not so sure it’s the portal that’s the problem. The real problem is that while it takes a few seconds to destroy, the trebuchet can be repaired instantly. If the trebuchet can be repaired so easily and so quickly, what is the incentive to protect it? The mesmer knew this and that’s why it would drop a portal and run when things were slightly not in their favor. It was easier to let the treb fall and rebuild it than it was to fight a drawn out fight just to throw more rocks at people.

So what can be done to keep Kyhlo from “he who camps the treb wins the game”?
Make the repairing the treb take time. Make it hurt when the enemy team takes out your seige engine. Make the Trebuchet worth defending. Make the consequences for not protecting your siege more significant than ten seconds of down time.