Guild Wars 2

After playing a lot of 2_fort on TF2, I wondered what if GW2 had a CTF-style game mode?

Would anyone like it? I definitely see how it would improve sPvP roles:

Engineer and Necromancers could be a defense force to guard the intelligence, setting up turrets and minion to ambush your unsuspecting pray. (Close-corridors combat makes the engineer a force to be reckoned with, packing immobilize and bombs.)

I imagine Thief would naturally use its stealth to bypass foes, much like the Spy of TF2. A slight nerf to stealth in PvP might be necessary (burning and chill shows a thief’s silhouette, as opposed to “revealed” condition.) but I do imagine Thief would be a vital role.

Warriors and Elementalists I imagine to be like frontline scouts. They lack the offensive and defensive capabilities of a Guardian in sPvP, but their mobility options and stun breakers allow them to blaze through an enemy field, in hopes of outrunning the foe.

Guardian, as said above, would be your run of the mill frontline user. They buff allies, heal, and pack a punch! They are like pawns in a game of chess, growing stronger in numbers! The role of a Guardian in a CTF-style map should be to brute force their way to the flag. They are key to front-line, direct assaults.

The Ranger I imagine to be a defensive unit. Like their names imply, they are focused on range. Going high up on a hill and firing their 1500-range longbow allows them to reach distances even an engineer with grenades cannot! (Due to how projectiles work.) Possessing an AoE cripple-field (barrage), a decoy pet they can send out while the Ranger sits back, traps to stall enemies approaching them, the best access to CHILL in the game, and a knockback to flick people off your high vantage point! The Ranger would be a vital defense role to guarding a base!

Finally, the Mesmers are the utility of a team. Able to open portals and turn the tides of a battle with Time Warp, like the Ranger, they are a great unit to sit back and defend a base or aid in early frontlines.

If we look at the success of 2_fort in TF2, we could conclude that the key to developing a good CTF map is large exteriors, with closed, tight interiors where the intelligence is hidden. The closedness of interiors allow defensive roles to be much more planned and organized.

What do you think of CTF? I think it has a lot of potential depth for GW2!

They have a map with a CTF aspect

I hope they will never add one.

ANY pvp mode would be better than just conquest 24/7…

I have yet to CTF work in an MMORPG. It always results in specialized roles where certain classes are required and stalemates as two immortal tanks hold their teams’ flag. We’ve already seen some of the issues on Spirit Watch that resulted in all its special and inconsistent rules for orb carriers (you can leap but not teleport forward). And people complain non-stop about bunkers. Yet if you do CTF, each team now has a bunker with a flag, except now they don’t have to stay in a small circle. If you add a “takes extra damage” debuff, then you’re just hurting the non-takes even more and giving preference to tanks that avoid damage rather than reduce it.

The reason CTF works in an FPS is because the flag carrier, no matter how tanky, is always vulnerable, almost everyone is ranged, and even if there are different classes and weapons, the differences are minor compared to an RPG. If you look at the Wintersday PvP game, it worked pretty well because you were limited to three possible roles that balanced survivability, damage, control, and mobility.

A full CTF with a linear map rather than a radial one would be awesome.

CTF is great, but I’m not a fan of the orb capture that we have now.

But in the end, anything that’s not conquest would be a welcome change at this point.