Impressions from a WvW vet.
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.