Guild Wars 2

Zerg breakers -
It’s a consumable, similar to the new traps ANet recently added. ZBs are deployed on the ground and last for some time. Probably only a short time, so you couldn’t just drop a few at your gates and go AFK for the reset of the evening.

ZBs deal a certain amount of damage to players in range, and deal extra damage for each time they have already dealt damage, eg:
first contact: 50 damage
second contact: 50 + 50 damage
third contact: 50 +100 damage
…
This way, ZBs are fairly harmless in small engagements. There is room to move around and few players mean few contacts and little damage. A ZB dropped in the middle of a 50 player zerg…

Numbers like range and the bonus damage curve are obviously up for debate.

Instead of ramping up the damage with each contact you could also add a ZB debuff to players damage by a ZB, and the more debuffs you have the more the ZB will hurt, instead of insta-gibbing players 30, 31, 32… who touch the ZB. That way, players staying in range of the ZB will get hurt more. Though this wouldn’t scale the damage with the zerg size which is the only thing that will break up a zerg.

[edit]
I don’t think ANet can provide any incentive that will cause people to abandon zergs, unless they hand out precursors to anyone who solos a camp. Anything less than that and people will stick with the easier and safer zerg. I am with the group approaching the issue from the other side, i.e. penalizing zerg-sized groups.

This is not taking away from running your 20 man group in a smart way with tactics, and strategy and a cherry on top, rather it should protect you from getting run over by 40-50 man groups, who rely blindly on quantity > quality. Smart super-sized zergs might still give you a hard time, because they may only send in a safe number of 25 to engage, while the remaining group circles around and cuts off your escape.

This won’t help small groups defeat zergs, it’ll just strengthen zergs against each other. And you won’t break up the zerging with this because let’s face it, no one is going to 5 man Stonemist or any of the larger towers. If anything this’ll just make keeps and tower impossible to take when defended.
I know the common thought about zergs among small groups is, they’re just a bunch of mindless bads, but the fact of the matter is zergs are becoming smarter as commanders gain more experience. New tactics are forming, things like; only the commanders can place siege, commanders communicating with each other via various means, might stacking, building for survival instead of damage, staying as tight on you commander as possible. They aren’t so mindless anymore, and a zerg run by a seasoned commander is way more useful then a 5 man gank squad.

Dual.8953:

This won’t help small groups defeat zergs, it’ll just strengthen zergs against each other.

The zerg breaker will cause large zergs to basically shred themselves or retreat. That’s what it’s meant to do. With this, if you have 20 and go against 40 and assuming an even slightly geometric damage curve, the 40 would die pretty kitten quickly, even if both sides deploy ZBs.

Dual.8953:

And you won’t break up the zerging with this because let’s face it, no one is going to 5 man Stonemist or any of the larger towers. If anything this’ll just make keeps and tower impossible to take when defended.

This tool is not meant to enable 5 people to solo SM…? ACs make any fortification with defenders pretty safe, because rams are useless against a gate guarded by 5+ ACs. Unless you ninja a keep or tower, you already need a large force to protect your catapults or trebs, which are your only way past the walls.

I don’t think ANet can provide any incentive that will cause people to abandon zergs, unless they hand out precursors to anyone who solos a camp. Anything less than that and people will stick with the easier and safer zerg. I am with the group approaching the issue from the other side, i.e. penalizing zerg-sized groups.

This is not taking away from running your 20 man group in a smart way with tactics, and strategy and a cherry on top, rather it should protect you from getting run over by 40-50 man groups, who rely blindly on quantity > quality. Smart super-sized zergs might still give you a hard time, because they may only send in a safe number of 25 to engage, while the remaining group circles around and cuts off your escape.

Mattargul.9235:

Dual.8953:

This won’t help small groups defeat zergs, it’ll just strengthen zergs against each other.

The zerg breaker will cause large zergs to basically shred themselves or retreat. That’s what it’s meant to do. With this, if you have 20 and go against 40 and assuming an even slightly geometric damage curve, the 40 would die pretty kitten quickly, even if both sides deploy ZBs.

Dual.8953:

And you won’t break up the zerging with this because let’s face it, no one is going to 5 man Stonemist or any of the larger towers. If anything this’ll just make keeps and tower impossible to take when defended.

This tool is not meant to enable 5 people to solo SM…? ACs make any fortification with defenders pretty safe, because rams are useless against a gate guarded by 5+ ACs. Unless you ninja a keep or tower, you already need a large force to protect your catapults or trebs, which are your only way past the walls.

I don’t think ANet can provide any incentive that will cause people to abandon zergs, unless they hand out precursors to anyone who solos a camp. Anything less than that and people will stick with the easier and safer zerg. I am with the group approaching the issue from the other side, i.e. penalizing zerg-sized groups.

This is not taking away from running your 20 man group in a smart way with tactics, and strategy and a cherry on top, rather it should protect you from getting run over by 40-50 man groups, who rely blindly on quantity > quality. Smart super-sized zergs might still give you a hard time, because they may only send in a safe number of 25 to engage, while the remaining group circles around and cuts off your escape.

If a zerg can draw orange swords on a single roamer, I think you’ll probably be dead before the breaker has a chance to kill them, unless you’ve placed in well enough ahead of time. The breaker may be more useful if it was visible, then at least it’d make them have to run around it.

The ZB is not envisioned as a nuclear strike from orbit, it shouldn’t allow one guy to take out 50, unless the 50 are hilariously stupid. But if you have say 3 thieves get into your 50 man zerg, drop 3 ZBs and you then charge in with your main force of 25 it should be devastating.

It would make anything larger than 25, 30 a no-no, because you’d just drop a ZB into a larger force, watch the HP of everyone in the zerg drop by 30, 40%, and then go to town on them.

Not 100% sure if it should be visible in advance or not. Either has some tactical nuances. Trap vs barricade.