For anyone who plays tpvp extensively, it’s probably obvious that the current meta revolves around bunkers, and they’re almost mandatory to win games. Of course there are factors such as group communication and player skill, but bunker builds are without a doubt one of the most effective builds for the current pvp system. If you’ve ever tried to fight a guardian bunker who’s supported by an elementalist bunker, you’ll know what I mean.
Why is this a problem? Simple. This means there is little to no variety in tpvp matches, because team composition revolving bunkers are the most effective, and there is no need for other choices, it also means a coordinated team with bunkers will almost certainly destroy a coordinated team without bunkers. I, for one, am not interesting in this kind of bland gameplay in esports.
The obvious solution would be to nerf bunkers into the ground. But it’s not a very good solution. While admittedly some bunker builds are a bit over the top, they’re not absolutely overpowered. Nerfing them would also affect Spvp, which we want to avoid as there is a whole different set of dynamics in Spvp.
What makes bunkers so strong right now, is due to a slight exploit of the game mechanic that no one can capture a point while an enemy is sitting on it. This is not an illegal exploit obviously, but it does mean that bunkers don’t actually have to do anything but staying alive on the point. Bunkers are kind of a separate thing from the team. Their job is to stay alive as long as possible, not so much to help other members of their team.
So let’s fix how the capturing system works. I recommend bringing back the same system used in alliance battles in Guild Wars 1.
For those who don’t know, this is how it worked:
-One person standing on a point would give one tick of capture to their team.
-Two people would give 2 ticks, and so on up to a maximum of 4 players giving 4 ticks.
-When there are players from both teams on the point, you subtract the ticks coming from both sides. So a 2 v 1 situation would give 1 tick of capture to the team outnumbering the other.
What does this mean? It means that the defending player will be holding the point from capture vs one other player. However, if he wants to hold that point when outnumbered, they HAVE to get help from allies ( as opposed to the current system that you’ll only need allies when you’ve exhausted all your survival tricks. )
But that also means that the other team is being outnumbered somewhere else and possibly losing their point as well. So it evens out. Instead of “send 3 bunkers out to hold 2 or more points, and then roam to each point when one is under attack”, now teams have to actually move around a lot more.
Obviously this brings some issues to the surface as well; specifically the mesmer portal, cuz that’ll probably be way more OP with the amount of mobility it gives an entire team. But let’s face it, we all knew mesmer portal needs a rework.
For Spvp, Anet will also have to decide what happens when you have teams of more than 4 people on a point. There are 2 ways this can happen
1) Subtract the players as normal; so an 8 v 4 would give 4 ticks.
2)Make 4 players and 4 ticks the absolute max. So 8 v 4 means neither team is capping.
At first the 2nd choice seems counter intuitive. But in reality, this discourages zerging as there is no point in sending more than 4 ppl to a point purely for capping. You’d only send more than 4 people if you want reinforcement in a fight, which is pretty much what’s happening naturally anyways.
Well, here are my thoughts.
TL DR
Change the capture system to something like Alliance Battles in GW1, where each player contribute to the rate of capture of the points up to a set maximum. Makes bunkers actually need team’s help instead of just surviving and preventing capture indefinitely.
(edited by Shadowflare.2759)
) easy wins most of the time unless they think of to bring couple of necros then i just swap to thief and its still win