Impressions from a WvW vet.

Impressions from a WvW vet.

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Spurnshadow.3678

Spurnshadow.3678

Thank you for allowing me to participate in this latest round of beta testing.

The new map looks great! I love the variety of terrain. While a lot of people say that this map is huge, I find it rather the same. We just don’t know the fastest way to get from point A to B yet.

I love what you did with the towers. I see what you mean about them having strategic value. The fact that they block off routes and contain WPs makes them highly valuable.

I would strongly reconsider not having WPs in keeps. While the maps are not necessarily larger, it can take a long time getting from your home to the north, even if one has a tower WP. Considering all the nooks and crannies for siege at keeps, assaulting, and successfully taking a northern keep will take multiple attempts, as the first ones will most likely result in a wipes while trying to take out the defenders siege. Since the northern keep has a WP, it gives them a tremendous advantage over the attackers. They will be able to repair and build new siege long before the attackers have reformed and are back to continue the assault. Even if the enemy attacks with a full map, due to attrition of respawns and the time it takes the attacking force to get back compared to the defending force, the attacking force will loose every time.

I see this resulting in a few possibilites. People will get frustrated at having to run north over and over again, and not even bother assaulting the northern keep at all. The only way they would assault the northern keep is to do a coordinated push with the other team on the map, resulting in a forced double team due to the map layout. Now, perhaps that is what you had in mind: to give a fairer chance for the northern keep to defend against a 2v1. If that’s the case, kudos to you. However, it does mean it will be the only way to take the northern keep, which is a bad thing. Granted, this will be balanced in the sense that each map will have the same dilemma. The other result is that it will encourage more off hours players to zerg, for the above reasons, as they may not have the support of the other server attacking due to population issues.

I love how each zone has a different look and feel. There’s lots of attention to detail, even at the sentries. I love their little backpacks hanging off a post and how you can get some first aid from them.

While I was staunchly against the auto-upgrade before coming to the stress test, I think I can understand why you did so: it gives us more time to fight and assault. That’s a good thing. There’ve been many times we’ve had to give up an assult and port back to defend camps. That seems a little silly for such a small objective. Also, it makes karma training a little slower because most structures will have some form of upgrade.

Yet, I’m still very much against this system. It really does make camps rather meaningless. That takes a large part of strategy out of the game. Why dumb this down? The strategy is a huge, fun aspect of WvW. There was never anything wrong with having upgrades being directly correlated to actual supply. Also, regarding the K-train aspect, it will only slow it down a little. If a structure is at it’s 2nd level wall, big deal, so it will take a few more cata or ram hits. The lord will still die fast. It also lessens the impact of roamers. Because there will be less roamers and small groups defending camps, they will be with the commander, meaning larger zergs, something I know you are trying to combat.

There’s a ton more reasons against the auto upgrade system that I, and many others have written about. Just look them up. After playing the map, my thoughts have not changed.

Blackgate Native. It takes tremendous strength and skill to pull a lever.

Impressions from a WvW vet.

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Spurnshadow.3678

Spurnshadow.3678

While camps are rather meaningless, roamers will still probably go after them just for the XP, karma, rewards, and to be a nuissance, but even if they didn’t, there’s still a lot for roamers to do. The shrines are very important, and are a new strategic aspect. Many hate the buffs to the shrines, find them EotM like, or PvE like. I personally don’t care and welcome the added strategy. I’ve always been a big fan of the re-worked center of the BL maps and the bloodlust that came with them. It’s a shame to get rid of those. PPK is a great way for lower populated servers to gain PPT over larger populated servers. I wish you didn’t get rid of it.

That being said, the air and fire turrets have to go. We want to fight people, not the environment. With the mid-march patch, stability became rather useless and a more needed commodity. There are many classes, like backliners, who just don’t run with stability. Add on top of this the new generator siege, those air turrets will be the most annoying aspect of the map. This isn’t just a “zerg busting” mechanic, it will hurt any sized group. Just get rid of it. The fire turrets aren’t as bad, as they just do damage, but again, why have it? This is player vs. player. It seems like a real gimmicky mechanic put in to help very low population servers. If that’s the case, get rid of them and force server consolidation, or whatever, just get rid of this, please.

Another thing that just needs to go are the champion wyverns in the NE of the map. I couldn’t figure out what purpose they serve, but what will happen is farmers will just clog the ques and go form BL to BL killing these champs. If you really want to keep them in the game, then make it so they don’t drop any loot so the farmers won’t come after they’ve learned that.

I’m really looking forward to playing my mesmer and hiding in a keep somewhere. I’ve already found lots of nooks and crannies to hid in. I suspect you put them there just for us. Thanks for that!

There are too many NPC creatures around. At the top, I stated that with the lack of WPs in keeps, it’s going to take a long time to get to the north. This will just slow us down even more. What’s worse, they will be ways for enemies to rally. That is the last thing we want as WvWers. I think it’s fine to have a few here and there. It adds to the ambiance, but once we leave spawn, it almost feels like a pve map. This has been a huge complaint for years in the WvW community. Please listen and cull the herds.

The center event: in many posts, you’ve stated that this was something for smaller groups to do. I don’t see that. I see it as being a zergfest with smaller groups trying to havoc objectives. A zerg will be able to complete the event much faster than small gorups. If they succeed, said zerg, being in the center of the map, is now ideally positioned to assault a keep. Again, too many NPCs in the area to aggro, but what’s worse, they’re veterans. This is just added damage we don’t need. And if you think that is an anti-zerg mechanic, just remember the AC fiasco and what that resulted in. Please, rethink this entire event, or, if you insist on keeping it, then cut down on the number of NPC monsters in the area.

I really look forward to playing this new map with my guild. We are going to have months of fun trying to figure out the best ways of doing things here, which will probably result in years of changing strategies. I really hope you take my post to heart as I want to be able to have fun on these maps for a few years while you guys develop the next stage of WvW. Thanks again.

Blackgate Native. It takes tremendous strength and skill to pull a lever.