Make the defeated state a meaningful consequence in WvWvW by using the same mechanics as used in the dungeons. If sent to defeat, a player can not be rezzed while either they or the players attempting to rez them are still in combat.
If defeated, a players’s only options are to waypoint and run back to catch up with their party, squad, zerg, or blob or wait for the battle to conclude (assuming their side is victorious/out of combat).
This suggestion is consistent with balanced cost-versus-benefit choices. If a player wants the security that comes from running with greater numbers in WvWvW, that’s fine; that’s the benefit. However, doing so shouldn’t confer de facto immunity from a defeat; secure in the knowledge they will always be rezzed due to being surrounded by an overwhelming number of allies.
As it stands, there’s no cost to balance this benefit. Making defeat irreversible while still in combat becomes the cost. Don’t want to die? Don’t stand in the AoE. Don’t want to have to run all the way back from a waypoint? Dodge out of that arrow cart’s red circles.
There’s already precedent for this in how rezzing was changed in dungeons. If it can be implemented there, it can be implemented in WvWvW. The only difference would be, unlike dungeons, players sent to defeat in WvWvW can still waypoint.
What’s more, if they can trial something as major as a culling change like they did back in December, it should be relatively easy by comparison to trial this suggestion for one week, as well. Especially in light of the fact that the coding for it already exists for the dungeons.