Guild Wars 2

I used to love this zone until players started forming one massive zerk leaving only a few players at times to do the event. Yes ppl in the zerk get massive exp but for those who only fight in, lets say north, they have to do it with low numbers when the zerk moves on and sometime the meta fails because of greedy players. This is the only kitten meta where you can have one zerk in the HoT zone and it should get nerf. I haven’t played this zone in months because of it and I’m not about to start until this BS is stopped. Put up veins in between or something. This is only hurting the quality of game.

“ppl in the zerk”
You have no idea How much I want to respond with:
“as opposed to: people in the nude?”

Seriously though they can and should spread out after a rotation of all vines, so it’s not a big deal. just chill out and go with the flow on it.

What? I’ve not seen this ever. Maybe you’ve been unlucky with your maps, but then I’m on an EU server, so that might be it.

wait…you said you haven’t played the zone in months so how do you even know what strategy works or doesnt work? The zerg strategy still relies on a handful of players staying behind to lower the slime layers and do small burns whenever they can, so I don’t see what the problem is.

BrotherBelial.3094:

What? I’ve not seen this ever. Maybe you’ve been unlucky with your maps, but then I’m on an EU server, so that might be it.

Im on EU, there is a rotating group on every ab meta I play.

To be honest it doesn’t appear to hurt anything. As long as no one then afks after, i havent seen any noticeable problem.

Randulf.7614:

BrotherBelial.3094:

What? I’ve not seen this ever. Maybe you’ve been unlucky with your maps, but then I’m on an EU server, so that might be it.

Im on EU, there is a rotating group on every ab meta I play.

To be honest it doesn’t appear to hurt anything. As long as no one then afks after, i havent seen any noticeable problem.

The last time I played AB, everyone seemed to rotate through all four areas as opposed to four groups staying in each one. This was the first time I’ve seen this strategy, but it worked and we got the meta done. Not sure if this is what you mean, though.

Is there any reason why there needs to be people stationed at each door before the synchronized kill? The vines don’t regenerate while they’re slimed up, do they? If everyone participates in all aspects of the event (so the desliming, the clearing out of breachers, and the burn phases), then as long as you have time to spread out for the kill (and as long as players actually do spread out), there really shouldn’t be a need for permanent groups throughout the event.

Of course, all zerg renders the armors pretty worthless. I’m torn on it, to be honest, because the armors are cool, but they’re fiddly to actually use (heaven forbid you idle for longer than seconds) and seem to attract trolls.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Randulf.7614:

BrotherBelial.3094:

What? I’ve not seen this ever. Maybe you’ve been unlucky with your maps, but then I’m on an EU server, so that might be it.

Im on EU, there is a rotating group on every ab meta I play.

To be honest it doesn’t appear to hurt anything. As long as no one then afks after, i havent seen any noticeable problem.

The last time I played AB, everyone seemed to rotate through all four areas as opposed to four groups staying in each one. This was the first time I’ve seen this strategy, but it worked and we got the meta done. Not sure if this is what you mean, though.

Not seen a full map rotate before. That’s a new one to me. Usulaly it’s a rogue squad doing it.

The ability to zerg the event in and of itself I don’t have too much of a problem with. Granted, I’d prefer a situation where everyone has to split up and coordinate to a zerg, but its not a gamebreaking issue or anything.

I do wish they’d do something about being able to get 4x rewards for doing it, though. It sucks that anyone who sticks to one lane and is integral to its completion (like those players using armors) is getting the normal reward while everyone running around spamming with the zerg gets far, far more in terms of experience and currency rewards. It “forces” people to zerg or get less loot, and that’s bad. If people want to zerg, it should be because they would simply rather play that way, not because they get more stuff for doing it, and the people who prefer to station themselves at one section and see it through to the end shouldn’t be getting less.

I don’t get extra rewards if I go and smack a second Gerent in TD, so why does smacking an extra Octovine get me more?

kimoulys.6234:

I used to love this zone until players started forming one massive zerk leaving only a few players at times to do the event. Yes ppl in the zerk get massive exp but for those who only fight in, lets say north, they have to do it with low numbers when the zerk moves on and sometime the meta fails because of greedy players. This is the only kitten meta where you can have one zerk in the HoT zone and it should get nerf. I haven’t played this zone in months because of it and I’m not about to start until this BS is stopped. Put up veins in between or something. This is only hurting the quality of game.

1. HoT zones already have enough gating. I vote ANet remove restrictions rather than add to them, especially vines.
2. I have yet to see a Tarir defense fail because the zerg was the issue. I’ve seen issues where the people in it didn’t know the mechanics or the people staying a NEWS events didn’t. I’ve seen pretty much every location get frog stomped to failure (which arguably is people not knowing the mechanics well enough).

There are plenty of issues with the HoT metas; this isn’t one of them as far as I’m concerned.

Disclaimer: I don’t myself participate in the zerg. (DS has tired me out of running around in circles, even if they are bigger and more interesting ones in AB.)

1- Zerk =/= Zerg.

2- I did the Octovine Zerg for the first time yesterday, and it was hella fun. There was more people on the Zerg than static, so the Zerg was the real force behind the event. First we smacked East until it was close to 0 life, then North, West and South, always leaving the Octovine at the brink of death. Then the group divided in four and did the coordinated killing. Simple, effective, and fun.

3- Armors should get 4 times the reward because they cant move with the Zerg to get the other areas.

It’s a misconception that the Zerg is detrimental to the AB meta succeeded. What the Zerg typically does is start and east and then rotated counter clockwise doing the mechanics and DPS phases. Yes, there are those that slack and don’t help with the me mechanics but you’ll have those same players regardless as to whether there was a Zerg or not. We had a large number of those players before the Zerg became a thing. After the Zerg finishes up at south, they typically split up to the four quadrants.

The thing is that people would not do the Zerg if it meant that the meta would fail. I have yet to see it fail because of the Zerg. Instead it typically fails because people do not listen and kill their octovine before everyone else is ready.

Other than the time the Zerg takes to make roaring between each quadrant (typically 30 seconds), they are actively contributing to the success of the meta. It’s actually in their best interests to otherwise they wouldn’t really get as good of a reward from the rotation. The really problem, if any, are from those that AFK next to the octovines waiting for the DPS phase.

I was in an AB that failed twice in a row in one day using the zerg model. The problem comes in at the end when the final burn is uncoordinated and somebody accidentally pops their vine (many times the zerg itself does this by failing to stop their burn in time).

This leaves 3 undermanned zones to do an emergency burn that they are unprepared for. Many times there is 5 people or less in these zones and they can’t de-slime fast enough to get the final burn done.

I think once the vines get down to 10% the zerg needs to dissipate.

I never had a problem pre-zerg with AB.

Edit: Also it should be made clear that the difficult zones should burn first; my order:

- South bombs
- North herbacide
- East air bombs
- West mushrooms

Ayrilana.1396:

It’s a misconception that the Zerg is detrimental to the AB meta succeeded. What the Zerg typically does is start and east and then rotated counter clockwise doing the mechanics and DPS phases. Yes, there are those that slack and don’t help with the me mechanics but you’ll have those same players regardless as to whether there was a Zerg or not. We had a large number of those players before the Zerg became a thing. After the Zerg finishes up at south, they typically split up to the four quadrants.

The thing is that people would not do the Zerg if it meant that the meta would fail. I have yet to see it fail because of the Zerg. Instead it typically fails because people do not listen and kill their octovine before everyone else is ready.

Other than the time the Zerg takes to make roaring between each quadrant (typically 30 seconds), they are actively contributing to the success of the meta. It’s actually in their best interests to otherwise they wouldn’t really get as good of a reward from the rotation. The really problem, if any, are from those that AFK next to the octovines waiting for the DPS phase.

This was my experience last time I did AB as well. The zerg appeared to make up 90% of all players and was explained in map chat prior to start. I had never tried it in the zerg before, but we started in East and burned off 40% of the vine in one burn there. It went North and burned down maybe 30-35% there, West and burned about 40%, then South and burned maybe 20-25%. Then it went and did another rotation. Most of the zerg stayed at South after the second rotation since it is most difficult but some spread out to the others. It went smooth as silk and succeeded. I have seen the meta fail without the zerg.

The rewards seemed noticeably larger from being in the zerg. It wouldn’t surprise me if ANet nerfed it just because they don’t want people getting good rewards, but there is no reason to complain about the zerg as far as success or failure go. The zerg is not a reason for this meta to fail. Also, even if everybody participates in the zerg, as long as a few people spread out at the end for the final burns, the meta will succeed. I see no problem with it and no reason for people to complain. The zerg appears to be more organized than many of the standard maps without zerg that I have seen.

I think it’s because it’s 4 events instead of 1. I suspect it was a technical limitation but I agree it should be fixed. It’s just unhealthy all around for the meta.

Mega Skeleton.8259:

I think it’s because it’s 4 events instead of 1. I suspect it was a technical limitation but I agree it should be fixed. It’s just unhealthy all around for the meta.

Making it 1 event would screw things up due to scaling …

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I was in an AB that failed twice in a row in one day using the zerg model. The problem comes in at the end when the final burn is uncoordinated and somebody accidentally pops their vine (many times the zerg itself does this by failing to stop their burn in time).

This leaves 3 undermanned zones to do an emergency burn that they are unprepared for. Many times there is 5 people or less in these zones and they can’t de-slime fast enough to get the final burn done.

I think once the vines get down to 10% the zerg needs to dissipate.

I never had a problem pre-zerg with AB.

Edit: Also it should be made clear that the difficult zones should burn first; my order:

- South bombs
- North herbacide
- East air bombs
- West mushrooms

You’ve been lucky if you’ve never seen a failed defense of Tarir. Like others, I’ve yet to see it fail because of zerging — it has always been because people didn’t understand how it works (including people in the zerg, of course).

Again, I’m not saying it shouldn’t change. I’m just saying it’s not as big a problem as people perceive it to be — there are many other things I’d prefer to see changed about HoT meta events before addressing this.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I was in an AB that failed twice in a row in one day using the zerg model. The problem comes in at the end when the final burn is uncoordinated and somebody accidentally pops their vine (many times the zerg itself does this by failing to stop their burn in time).

This leaves 3 undermanned zones to do an emergency burn that they are unprepared for. Many times there is 5 people or less in these zones and they can’t de-slime fast enough to get the final burn done.

I think once the vines get down to 10% the zerg needs to dissipate.

I never had a problem pre-zerg with AB.

Edit: Also it should be made clear that the difficult zones should burn first; my order:

- South bombs
- North herbacide
- East air bombs
- West mushrooms

You’ve been lucky if you’ve never seen a failed defense of Tarir. Like others, I’ve yet to see it fail because of zerging — it has always been because people didn’t understand how it works (including people in the zerg, of course).

Again, I’m not saying it shouldn’t change. I’m just saying it’s not as big a problem as people perceive it to be — there are many other things I’d prefer to see changed about HoT meta events before addressing this.

Well having it fail is pretty easy. All it takes is one person at east doing bad things …

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I was in an AB that failed twice in a row in one day using the zerg model. The problem comes in at the end when the final burn is uncoordinated and somebody accidentally pops their vine (many times the zerg itself does this by failing to stop their burn in time).

This leaves 3 undermanned zones to do an emergency burn that they are unprepared for. Many times there is 5 people or less in these zones and they can’t de-slime fast enough to get the final burn done.

I think once the vines get down to 10% the zerg needs to dissipate.

I never had a problem pre-zerg with AB.

Edit: Also it should be made clear that the difficult zones should burn first; my order:

- South bombs
- North herbacide
- East air bombs
- West mushrooms

Players didn’t split up properly similar to players all stacking in east, without zerging, and not spreading out. The thing is though that the Zerg finishes in about 7 minutes before dispersing (typically before any side is below 50-70%). No side should be low manned, and if so, someone should speak up.

Again, those two failures were not because people zerged.

Khisanth.2948:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

MaximillianVonSchatten.6278:

I was in an AB that failed twice in a row in one day using the zerg model. The problem comes in at the end when the final burn is uncoordinated and somebody accidentally pops their vine (many times the zerg itself does this by failing to stop their burn in time).

This leaves 3 undermanned zones to do an emergency burn that they are unprepared for. Many times there is 5 people or less in these zones and they can’t de-slime fast enough to get the final burn done.

I think once the vines get down to 10% the zerg needs to dissipate.

I never had a problem pre-zerg with AB.

Edit: Also it should be made clear that the difficult zones should burn first; my order:

- South bombs
- North herbacide
- East air bombs
- West mushrooms

You’ve been lucky if you’ve never seen a failed defense of Tarir. Like others, I’ve yet to see it fail because of zerging — it has always been because people didn’t understand how it works (including people in the zerg, of course).

Again, I’m not saying it shouldn’t change. I’m just saying it’s not as big a problem as people perceive it to be — there are many other things I’d prefer to see changed about HoT meta events before addressing this.

Well having it fail is pretty easy. All it takes is one person at east doing bad things …

Actually it’s peeps using Armors (i.e. don’t have a clue how to use them) in my experience.
Run around once, hit all the vines then split up, read chat to see what lane needs more people , go to lane to finish. Seems simple and no need to nerf.
As mentioned, so many more areas of HoT that need to addresed 1st.

Event rewards for slaying the octovine are now given all at once instead of individually. Participating in one “Slay the octovine!” event now gives improved rewards, but players will only be eligible for this reward once.

Wish granted.

/thread

Rauderi.8706:

Event rewards for slaying the octovine are now given all at once instead of individually. Participating in one “Slay the octovine!” event now gives improved rewards, but players will only be eligible for this reward once.

Wish granted.

/thread

Think you’ll be copying and pasting that a lot today