Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Tyler Bearce

Tyler Bearce

Game Designer

Next

Hi all,

The WvW team has been hard at work since the latest round of public testing. Most importantly, we’ve enabled the new and improved Guild Claiming feature for the test. We’ve also reviewed the massive amount of feedback from the previous test and made a large number of changes based on it. These range from large changes like adding health scaling to all objective bosses and updating the rules for rallying off creatures in WvW, to smaller changes like adding map markers for supply depots and rebalancing guards. I’ve included a full changelist below and this week, during the stress test, many of you will get a chance to see all of those changes in action!

Important note: The client you’ll be using to experience the Desert Borderlands map shares a few common backend systems with our normal live servers. Most noticeably, you’ll be able to see your live-game friends list and communicate with your guild in chat. Please note that if you leave any guild for Objective Claiming testing purposes you will also be removed from that guild on your live account.

General WvW Changes

  • Overhauled Guild Claiming feature
  • New WvW Objective UI can be accessed by clicking on any WvW objective map marker
  • Arrow Carts (all types) now require 10 more supply to build.
  • Supply camps now auto-upgrade faster.
  • Supply depots now are marked on the map.
  • Players can no longer rally off of basic creatures in WvW. Only veteran rank or higher.
  • Objective bosses now have health scaling based on the number of allied and enemy players in the area.
  • Sentries will now mark enemy players on the map for 30 seconds.
  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.
  • Shield Generators (all types) have had their range reduced.
  • Exotic WvW equipment can now be salvaged. Badge gear yields badges. Tournament ticket gear yields standard exotic salvage materials.

Desert Borderland Changes

  • Oasis event now has mapwide announcements and voice overs.
  • Skysplitter now attacks all enemy gates, not just outer gates.
  • Skysplitter damage reduced.
  • Skysplitter has a new animation, updated audio and camera shake while firing.
  • Skysplitter now is marked on the map, during the event and while firing.
  • Fire Keep lord difficulty somewhat reduced
  • Air Keep lord difficulty somewhat increased
  • Tower and Keep guard damage slightly decreased.
  • Some Tower and Keep guards have had their CC durations reduced.
  • Gate guard aggro range increased.
  • Range to activate the Dolyak Protected Caravan buff increased.
  • Certain very large capture points have had their radius reduced.
  • Flame’s Embrace shrine bonus now grants 40% increased movement speed, instead of reducing burning duration. It still also grants immunity to lava damage.
  • The north supply camp guards repositioned.
  • Fire, Earth and Air shrine blessings have been converted into a single blessing that just increased movement speed by 40%.
  • The objective walls that only act to block shortcuts have had their health significantly reduced.
  • The north keep’s telepads now put a short duration debuff on players that prevents rapidly teleporting back and forth.
  • Vista cinematics have been made smoother.
  • Repositioned guards at shrines.
  • Reduced the number of creatures on the map.
  • Added more ranger pets to the map.
  • Reduced the number of air turrets.
  • Reduced the knockback distance of the air turret attack.
  • Rearranged some jump pads.
  • Keeps now have interior supply depots.
  • Terrain changed in a few places that will open up additional paths.
  • Tower cannons repositioned.
  • Fire Keep mortars repositioned.
  • Champion wyvern reduced to elite rank.
  • Improved shrine tooltips.
  • The Additional Guards upgrade will now also post guards outside breakable walls.
  • Disabled Siegerazor until we can solve his incorrect team issues.
  • Rebalanced the frequency of Oasis event dinosaurs spawning and the number of Power Cores required to turn-in.
  • Oasis Power Cores will now ping the map when a new dinosaur spawns, or a player picks one up.
  • Oasis Power Cores will now clean up properly after the event completes.
  • Earth Keep rock maze control console cooldown increased.
  • Earth Keep interior rock maze reworked to be less obstructive when only allied players are present. Half of the rock walls stay hidden until enemies show up.
  • Nights are less dark.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where life siphon damage was hitting object that normally can’t be hit.
  • Fixed some lava locations that weren’t properly damaging players.
  • Fixed a bug that caused camp guards to respawn faster than intended.
  • Fixed a bug where the Inferno Transform buff would linger after leaving the transform.
  • Fixed a number of terrain exploits.
  • Further protected against the elusive untargetable gate/wall bug.
  • Fixed a bug where wood walls could not be repaired.
  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.
  • Fixed a bug where patrols wouldn’t respawn.
  • Fixed a bug where supply depots sometimes wouldn’t update properly when empty.
  • Fixed a bug where the Fire Keep could sometimes become randomly contested.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Kraljevo.2801

Kraljevo.2801

  • Nights are less dark.

Noo!

Why? I liked the way it was.

Did people complain? xD

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: BrickFurious.7169

BrickFurious.7169

  • Arrow Carts (all types) now require 10 more supply to build.
  • Players can no longer rally off of basic creatures in WvW. Only veteran rank or higher.
  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.
  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Amazing. Now if you wouldn’t mind porting these changes over to regular WvW while we wait for HoT…

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: frvwfrtwo.6109

frvwfrtwo.6109

  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Can you clarify what this means exactly? Is this removing the “Spam waypoint in 5 seconds” stuff?

BG/YB/FA/JQ – Thief Character
My Name Is Thief Charac[ter]

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Tyler Bearce

Previous

Tyler Bearce

Game Designer

Next

  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Can you clarify what this means exactly? Is this removing the “Spam waypoint in 5 seconds” stuff?

Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: lordkrall.7241

lordkrall.7241

Keep in mind that we are also getting this:

Emergency Waypoint
Availability: Walled Objectives
Temporarily creates an incontestable waypoint at the objective.

Krall Bloodsword – Mesmer
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: TirzahBauer

Previous

TirzahBauer

Environment Artist

Next

  • Nights are less dark.

Noo!

Why? I liked the way it was.

Did people complain? xD

Don’t worry, it’s just bumped up a tad for people with darker monitors. Still looks very nighttime

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: BrickFurious.7169

BrickFurious.7169

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

That’s great! While we are testing things could we try disabling rally mechanics all together in WvW? While it makes sense in other parts of the game, rally mechanics in WvW unfairly punish experienced groups that are inclusive of new or inexperienced players.

Punishing players that are doing the right thing by being inclusive just doesn’t seem to be in line with the established modus operandi.

(edited by Kadin.2356)

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Tyler Bearce

Previous

Tyler Bearce

Game Designer

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: HighPlainDrifta.9280

HighPlainDrifta.9280

—> Crash <—
Assertion: MathInRangeFirstLast(pos.x, -SIZE_LIMIT, SIZE_LIMIT)
File: ..\..\..\Engine\Frame\FrApi.cpp(2063)
App: Gw2Stage.exe
Pid: 432860
Cmdline:
BaseAddr: 00320000
ProgramId: 105
Build: 52772
When: 2015-09-08T18:10:20Z 2015-09-08T14:10:20-04:00
Uptime: 0 days 0:00:25
Flags: 0

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Kadin.2356

Kadin.2356

It would also be interesting to see what the effect of removing hard resing of finished players from WvW would be. It might go a long way to promote smaller group tactics if you could whittle away at larger forces.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: zsomer.9547

zsomer.9547

I wouldnt mind if we could play this lovely map.So good and stuff but i wanna play it already

Desolation – [PT],[IRON]

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: BrickFurious.7169

BrickFurious.7169

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

Thanks for the response. Throwing my 2 cents in: Given how massive the new borderlands keeps are, and the ability for PU mesmers to currently maintain very high stealth uptime, it could be quite hard to track down one even if he is marked on the map temporarily between stealth. Even moreso if that mesmer had a thief buddy with him. That stealth reduction debuff could go a long way toward making finding mesmers after a keep take more fun and less annoying.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Glouryian.3765

Glouryian.3765

Sounds to me like small roaminggroups wont be able to much in the future. Dont know, if I like that. There is enough blobbing already imo.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Hot Boy.7138

Hot Boy.7138

dumb question:

how do I access the desert borderland so i can participate of the stress test?

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: mmzn.8201

mmzn.8201

  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Can you clarify what this means exactly? Is this removing the “Spam waypoint in 5 seconds” stuff?

Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

Right after the first season of WvW I give gw2 a break and I’m slowly coming back to see how things are before the expansion launch. And IIRC this time windows of spamming the waypoint to defend was massive used, this was what? 2013? And you are saying that what we were doing was a bug fixed in late 2015? Almost 2 years after I give the game a break things like that are still around.

I know this can sound a rant but I always felt that WvW and sPvP was the best thing this game have to offer and the development of both is so slow. I mean, after almost 2 years I’m getting back and sPvP basically offers the same things.

I remember when WoW introduced Rated Battlegrounds, it was so fun because they already had so many maps with different objectives.

Sorry if this sounds aggressive but it’s just a point of view of someone who loves pvp and I see in sPvP something that have so much potential but if we have to wait new expansions to receive new game modes I feel sad about it but I know I couldn’t demand more I guess since the game don’t have a subscription system.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: werdernator.6105

werdernator.6105

  • Reduced the number of creatures on the map.

Did you remove some of the npcs on the big plateau at air-keep?
that would be the scrim spot of my dreams


Github | Werdes

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: lordkrall.7241

lordkrall.7241

dumb question:

how do I access the desert borderland so i can participate of the stress test?

If you have access you have gotten a mail that tells you what to do.

Krall Bloodsword – Mesmer
Krall Peterson – Warrior
Piken Square

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Kodiak.3281

Kodiak.3281

Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

RIP Mesmers/Thieves.

Kodiak X – Blackgate

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Bristingr.5034

Bristingr.5034

  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Can you clarify what this means exactly? Is this removing the “Spam waypoint in 5 seconds” stuff?

Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

That’s heavily disappointing to hear.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Bugabuga.9721

Bugabuga.9721

Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

RIP Mesmers/Thieves.

Thieves can stealth for 5 minutes I wonder if it’s possible to add periodic ping of “revealed” (i.e. once a minute the objective would apply Revealed for 10 seconds on enemy players)

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Brianrietta.8325

Brianrietta.8325

Sounds to me like small roaminggroups wont be able to much in the future. Dont know, if I like that. There is enough blobbing already imo.

Yeah good luck taking one of these new quicker to full upgraded camp with iron hide guards with anything less than 3 and even then…

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Holland.9351

Holland.9351

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

We don’t need any help finding people who can’t stealth. Chronomancer will have a very easy time being in stealth endlessly. They can cause problems because they have Portal.

‘Marked’ needs to Reveal or there is no point in having this feature.

You could also hit Mesmer stealth with a giant nerf bat (Prismatic Understanding trait, The Pledge trait and the Chronomancer F5: Continuum Split) which you probably need to do anyway.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Holland.9351

Holland.9351

  • Added more ranger pets to the map.

New kinds of pets or old pets?

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: emendez.3705

emendez.3705

goodbye mesmer portals?

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: LINKAZZATORE.8135

LINKAZZATORE.8135

  • Fixed a bug where waypoints were available for a few seconds between repel events.

Can you clarify what this means exactly? Is this removing the “Spam waypoint in 5 seconds” stuff?

Yes, that’s exactly what that means.

Why such change? now if a group has to save a wp must run all the way back from another wp… this will just bring servers that uses to golem rush get an advanced since the group can’t waypoint inside and defend.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Ceeps.3185

Ceeps.3185

“Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.”

Can you just not make that change?

Have you guys never felt the joy of hiding as a mesmer and allowing your team to port in?

Ceeps
Fort Aspenwood

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Simzani.4318

Simzani.4318

Keep in mind that the new borderland is not meant to promote pvp, but to erase it from wvw and to allow the same pve train that run in eotm. Don’t worry too much about pvp interactions, they are not mean to exist there. Test more the events and click on the objects to see if it works, it’s the sort of feedback they want.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Christof.9618

Christof.9618

“Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.”

Can you just not make that change?

Have you guys never felt the joy of hiding as a mesmer and allowing your team to port in?

You’re right, but good luck with that argument. It’s not about what’s best for the game. It’s about the largest group that complains the loudest.

This is coming from a thief who finds mesmer the most annoying class in the game to hunt down.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Lunacy Solacio.6514

Lunacy Solacio.6514

“Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.”

Can you just not make that change?

Have you guys never felt the joy of hiding as a mesmer and allowing your team to port in?

Oh it can be annoying, and doesn’t even have to be mesmers or thieves hiding, but if people don’t sweep, then someone trying to hide should have a chance to take an objective. But this as is means it will effectively take stealth teams to be able to ‘hide’ in an objective, and anyone without stealth have no chance at all. I’ve seen non-stealth classes try to hide to take objectives, and I’ve seen them succeed because no one swept. But with this change, you can just look at the map? This seems like another lazy counter…

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Bubule.7589

Bubule.7589

With the turtle banner, the skill 3 apply 5sec of invulnerability to 10 people around you on 15sec cd.
But if you take the banner, press3, drop it, then an ally take it , press 3, drop it ect..
You can stack invulnerability if you hav at least 3 people.
Maybe make an ICD on the banner skills.

(edited by Bubule.7589)

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: jamesdolla.3954

jamesdolla.3954

Still need to add a waypoint on east and west keep. good changes listed so far though.

Native Maguuman

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Pink Ninja Man.4375

Pink Ninja Man.4375

With the turtle banner, the skill 3 apply invulnerability to 10 people around you on 15sec cd.
But if you take the banner, press3, drop it, then an ally take it , press 3, drop it ect..
You can stack invulnerability if you hav at least 3 people.
Maybe make an ICD on the banner skills.

This should be it’s own thread so it get’s visibility.

Twitch – PinkNinjaMan [/\///\/_//\]
Main Class – Ranger [Bezerker/Trapper Hybrid]
Main Mode – WvW [Gate of Madness]

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: MaRmot.4539

MaRmot.4539

Not sure if this is a bug, but found that trick shot on thieves bounced off the earth shrine.

Been really enjoying the map so far
Its very large but I like it.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: morrolan.9608

morrolan.9608

General WvW Changes

  • Overhauled Guild Claiming feature
  • New WvW Objective UI can be accessed by clicking on any WvW objective map marker
  • Arrow Carts (all types) now require 10 more supply to build.

How about reducing the AC damage as well.

Jade Quarry [SoX]
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Nate.3927

Nate.3927

I can’t play until I get home, but does that shrine change now mean that shrines only gives the movement speed boost and nothing else?

Or is this specifically about removing the offense/defense bonuses, but the “no fall damage” etc stuff is still there?

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: SchrodingersCat.8190

SchrodingersCat.8190

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

As annoying as they can be, skilled mesmers hiding in flipped keeps to portal in allies has been a staple of WvW strategy and easily something mesmer players are often proud of being able to do successfully as well as earning the endearment of their allies. Teams securing keeps are often trained to look for these mesmers and it nulls the strategy as well as the thrill of the hunt to have players easily marked or reduced stealth.

I think it’s a valid use of mesmer skill to effectively infiltrate during assault, hide, and then portal in allies that is well within the game’s strategies and rules. Frankly, I’d encourage reconsidering this whole “marked inside keeps” thing.

Disclaimer: I am not a mesmer player and never have been.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Memphisjz.1405

Memphisjz.1405

Great changes!

A humble request for an additional general WvW Change:
Can you please add a number floater for Trebuchet Mastery #5 ‘Basic shots that hit enemy supply depots will now destroy 10 of the objective’s supply’. Or any form of indication that you are actually successfully draining on hit?

Currently, it is impossible to tell whether or not you are actually draining the supply depot, rendering this mastery useless. After all this time i’m still not sure whether you actually have to hit the supplies themselves. or whether it is sufficient to just land a hit on the depot building (e.g. the roof of the supply depot)

Hylo Hammerswing [AoA]
Treb Master of the Shiverpeaks

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Subversion.2580

Subversion.2580

Sometimes it would be nice to hear your line of thought on these things.

With a couple of changes in recent time you have created balance issues between a superior- and inferior force that makes players gravitate toward the largest servers and clump up on the maps (and cause those clumps to exhibit anger at smaller roaming parties or guild-groups on the map, because they detract players from main pickup groups) as numerical superiority determines most outcomes in WvW now, after changes like the stability change.

On another note, it has also made groups more unruly, making it more difficult for players who tag up to actually lead the players that surrounds them. Considering that they are what enable content in the process, that is a rather troublesome trend that risks creating larger differences between servers.

Then you seem to become aware of the issue, but only try to stave it off with changes to server transfers, while you keep adding even more gameplay changes that further stacks the game in favour a superior force: Fewer rallies (that required delicacy on part of a superior group) and counter-capping measures, like WP-spam and portal-sweeping (that is far more important to inferior forces on a map than to superior forces), while the proposed changes directly benefit the uninvested behaviour of a superior and successful group (eg., quick map access for 5-min sweeps, then send everyone to the next objective).

Also, while it’s nice that we can salvage WvW-gear (after three years), you should probably consider doing something about the extreme income-disparity and disparity in access to gear and skins between WvW and eg., dungeons. That one type of gameplay is more profittable and attended than another is common, difficult to manage and understandable or tolerable, but when it reaches differences of 1:10 the problem is clearly with you and not with an insatiable community. The differences have slipped so far.

(edited by Subversion.2580)

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: NeroBoron.7285

NeroBoron.7285

“Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.”

Can you just not make that change?

Have you guys never felt the joy of hiding as a mesmer and allowing your team to port in?

Yep, one of the things I enjoyed the most in wvw with my mesmer. I also flipped a lot of keeps and towers solo with my engineer after hiding.
Currently it’s ridiculous that mesmer can go invis for that long, so we can easily hide. But that is another problem and should get fixed. But beeing marked, completly removes the possibilty of hiding in there. I don’t want to see that change neither. It completly rips us from one of the most awesomethings mesmers can do in wvw.

And there isn’t much we can enjoy like that. Flipping a 250er Camp is impossible at least not with a build that will be reliable in other situations. It already sucks to flip normal Camps and 150er Camps are already pain in the kitten . In a zerg we often have to play a picker and/or a veil / portal kitten for our commander, since we lack in aoe damage and can’t make good use of our shatters within the zerg. And soon we can’t hide in keeps anymore. Wuhuuuu. -.-*

Also I hope Spy Balloons don’t cover the whole area, else it will suck to play as a small scale group, when we get marked instantly on trying to flip a t3 tower while our zerg goes for something else. “Oh hey there are 3 people on the tower, lets send out 5 to kill em”

Don’t get me wrong I don’t want that we always have to scout our keeps, but I don’t want that to happen that way that we always get marked without any action of our opponents.
That could happen (suggestion) by some wards that we can place like in edge of the mists that last like 30~60 minutes. And every person can only place one like with traps. Also they should have a limited radius to report people in there and not the whole keep. Further it shouldn’t report stealthed players.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Naleth.6214

Naleth.6214

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

Why not simply have the keep flash with an alarm for 5 minutes if the enemy is in it rather than actually showing their location? Then there is play and counter-play because, while the owners know the enemy is in there, the enemy still has a chance to hide if they’re good enough to do it for 5 minutes.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: Bubule.7589

Bubule.7589

What are the automated turrets?
http://i.imgur.com/BYOs5nn.jpg
Can’t find it.

Welcome to the Desert Borderlands Stress Test

in WvW Desert Borderlands Stress Test

Posted by: morrolan.9608

morrolan.9608

Hi all,

  • Keeps will now mark enemy players within their perimeter, for the first 5 minutes, after being flipped.

Will this mark also apply to stealthed players? And if so, will it actually reveal them too, or if they are stealthed will you see the mark on the minimap but not the player?

The ‘Marked’ debuff will apply to a stealthed player, but the player will only be visibly marked on the map while unstealthed. We may set this debuff to also reduce stealth duration, but wanted to get feedback on the basic version first.

As annoying as they can be, skilled mesmers hiding in flipped keeps to portal in allies has been a staple of WvW strategy and easily something mesmer players are often proud of being able to do successfully as well as earning the endearment of their allies. Teams securing keeps are often trained to look for these mesmers and it nulls the strategy as well as the thrill of the hunt to have players easily marked or reduced stealth.

I think it’s a valid use of mesmer skill to effectively infiltrate during assault, hide, and then portal in allies that is well within the game’s strategies and rules. Frankly, I’d encourage reconsidering this whole “marked inside keeps” thing.

Disclaimer: I am not a mesmer player and never have been.

I wouldn’t, the keeps in the desert BL are huge, it is going to be impossible to find PU chrono mesmers without the mark. If it only shows when they’re unstealthed I don’t see a problem.

Jade Quarry [SoX]
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro