Guild Wars 2

The map Dragon’s Stand is a unique play experience that I do not believe we have seen before until now. I appreciate the idea of having a time limit on a map so close to the Dragon’s lair as no elder dragon should be okay with having an army build up right at the front door and do nothing about it. However the timer creates an interesting map dynamic that we have never seen before where players are either “Starting” or “Standing”.

From my own experience, the time limit seems to create one of two kinds of maps. The “Starting” maps are the kind where there is enough time where players feel comfortable to organize and complete the map-wide meta. The second is the “Standing” maps where the map is in a weird limbo where the map will not die out due to players migrating in and out, but there is not enough time left to complete it. The appropriate amount of time needed to complete a map is debatable and will depend on player experience, numbers, organization skills and more. Depending again on how comfortable players are, they may or may not salvage a map.

It is the second kind of maps that I feel are an issue. Naturally players come to the game and the map to play, but depending on the map you end up on or taxi in to, you may be forced to do something else in-game or you need to stand around and wait to have fun. There has to be a way that the map can maintain the time limit and timer mechanic without creating these “Starting” or “Standing” maps.

Couldn’t we keep the timers, but the timers start when the meta is initiated by players rather than having the timer start as soon as the map instance is created? At least in this way a maps success or failure is dictated by player initiative alone and not a clock on the screen counting down from the moment it is created.

This unfortunately won’t fix all the issues with Dragon’s Stand, e.g.: Players losing morale and abandoning maps due to one or more groups struggling through the Blighted Towers or taking down dragon champions, etc.. I do however think this helps take care of issues with maps being either a “Starting” type or “Standing” map though.

I admittedly play during non-peak times during the day so my play experience might not match others, but I would like to hear what other players have experienced and what they think can be done about making the map more about playing and less about sitting and waiting to have fun.

tl;dr : Can timers start when players begin the map meta instead of when the map is first created so there is more playing and less sitting around waiting for the map to die.