Guild Wars 2

Don’t get the wrong idea guys, I actually like Stonghold, it has a MOBA vibe to it, and who doesn’t like MOBA?

But SH as it is seems to be veering towards that PvE speed meta, where faster is better.

I’ve just had a match were it was literally a race to see who could provide swiftness and get their Doorbreakers to the gates faster. Both sides was practically glued to guarding the first 5 Doorbreakers. No one wanted to break off, and risk losing their Doorbreakers and so yeah… That just happened.

That match was literally a race, barely any PvP at all, only when the random person wanted to try and interfere with the other team but they’d meet a 1v5 situation that always had the same ending.

Is anyone else having 3-6 minute matches? Am I just imagining things?

I’ve found that even 1 person on defense, either using the treb or aoe’s, can interrupt this “speed meta”. The doorbreakers die pretty easily to player attacks.

That’s only happened a couple times to me. People have it in their heads that the absolute best, be all end all strategy is to rush the lord and never do any defense at all. This works great when the other team is doing the same strategy, but is a bit risky if the enemy team knows what they are doing.

I think its way too early to call a meta for stronghold.

I really like the game mode when its more push-and-pull, rotating players from defense to offense and vice-versa.

And because doorbreakers are so easy to kill, I think players put a higher priority on escorting them or in offense.

When I think more about it, I wish there was another win condition revolving around defense, I feels like that might make for more interesting matches. Because its either kill the lord (offense) or stall out the match with more points (defense). But there are so many objectives already in kitten might make it too confusing and stretch an already stretched 5-man team.

I don’t know, still like SH, only thing I really don’t enjoy is the shorter zerg matches that I get from time to time.

BrickFurious.7169:

I’ve found that even 1 person on defense, either using the treb or aoe’s, can interrupt this “speed meta”. The doorbreakers die pretty easily to player attacks.

No they don’t XD not unless you’re squishy enough to get instantly downed by the enemy players. That’s the problem with SH right now, it’s not a “speed meta” it’s a “doorbreaker rush” meta. Doorbreakers simply have too much health for defending to be worth it.

I didn’t encounter this until later in the evening, specifically when I was solo queueing. I am not sure if it was a product of everyone getting the memo or of PUGs needing to simplify.

Generally, my team would spawn our skritt, then three or four would rush, while I or myself and one other went to the defense lane. The other team rushed five. I/we killed all their skritt and then went back on offense. We won. I did this with several professions/builds, including (and in fact mostly) cele. With the sample of players testing the mode today, including many relatively new to PvP, our capacity to analyze the tactics isn’t reliable.

I’m not sure that there will be a universal tactic once this becomes a standard game mode and it is played principally by people who want to play it. I can understand a concern about people playing for speed and rank points, but a lot of people also really want to win; since the prizes are virtual, winning usually trumps rank points.

I will try to remember to put this in every post: This must be its own queue, separate from the Conquest maps.

Capitol City.4856:

No they don’t XD not unless you’re squishy enough to get instantly downed by the enemy players. That’s the problem with SH right now, it’s not a “speed meta” it’s a “doorbreaker rush” meta. Doorbreakers simply have too much health for defending to be worth it.

Agree, defense is just not working out.

The doorbreakers take less damage than the heavy target golem, so I’d guess above 3.3k armor (compare that to a Cleric Guard with 3.1k).
(I critical hit a heavy target golem for 1.3k, but the door breakers only for 1k, so they need to have 30% more defense than the target golem).
Now put either someone on their side that supports them, or someone that just kills the defenders…

After the first beta, one of the recurring complaints was that it was too easy for a defending player to simply dance around the escort and kill the skritt, or in the other lane, the lord. Presumably in response to this latter item, the defending NPC health pools were increased. (I find that it’s still easy to do (especially the skritt), but apparently many disagree.) Now the complaint seems to be that the NPC’s are too difficult to kill and so defense must be ignored. Which is it? Which do you prefer?

For those having difficulty killing the skritt before they pop your door: Are you just using damage? The NPC’s move in a line and have no innate condi-clear. Consider a sample of abilities used by me or my teammates today to protect our doors: Body Shot, Chillblains, “Fear Me!”, Line of Warding, Net Shot, Pin Down, Point Blank Shot, Slick Shoes, Spectral Wall, and, most devastatingly, Entangle. I know it seems just like PvE, but it’s not quite; you’ve got to do more than just press 1.

Stronghold has been out for a day publicly.

Why the hell is there a meta already?

there isn’t one , bomb rushing never works against smart guild teams.