Guild Wars 2

A quick background: I am a Death-match kind of player, Random Arenas from GW1 were by far my favorite kind of game, followed by Alliance Battles, Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry, but unlike those big populated maps where kills were more frequent and rewarded more points compared to capturing a spot, conquest mode in GW2 tires me really fast as kills take longer and holding a point is far more rewarding (score wise). Unfortunately Courtyard did not got enough popularity and despite been in the roster for unranked matches I do not get to play it as often as I would like. All that means one very important thing: I expect Stronghold to address some of that.

After around 30 matches in Stronghold, this is what I have to say:
1) I liked how moving even one player around different setups can have a big impact on the outcome of battles.

2) The Lord feels a little bit weak, as it can be easily kited by being a melee opponent (he also seems to change targets very often, some times walking around more than attacking.)

3) The Hero spawns make a really good spot for concentrating the action.

4) Been able to get the aggro from the guards before doorbreakers get in feels almost like cheating, not sure about this mechanic.

5) Defending is as important as attacking, but the defense doesn’t feel as rewarding as storming in, what if the NPC awarded some score too?
6) 15 Minutes seems quite generous, as most games would either end in an overwhelming stomp or get “score wise” by the last 5min.

Some considerations:
1) I would like to have an exclusive queue to Stronghold, as the same thing might happen with this map as what happened to Courtyard, which makes it really hard to come by when you are playing solo and most people don’t even want to play it. Maybe an algorithm that would take in consideration my own voting when selecting the match could help solve issue by prioritizing my favorite maps with other players that also like them.

2) I understand the limitations for having only 5×5 and I am very aware of how my favorite GW1 PvP modes “dried out” with time, but I see Stronghold having a good potential to be something more like Fort Aspenwood and less like a different conquest objective. I would like to see more focus on the full Player vs Player combats as we had in FA, or when a Lord was under attack and both teams converged to attack/defend, not in another 1×1, 2×2 or occasional 3×3 broken around the map. A full party fighting together, not splitting up.

3) Given the increased objective value, having a 4×5 because a random players is just leeching your party breaks the fun out of the match even more, and yet not much have been done to address this long issue.

I would like to finish saying that I did enjoyed Stronghold way more than regular conquest maps (not as much as the courtyard, may I add), and I think the game mode does well in working as a middle ground between Death-Match and Conquest.