Guild Wars 2

Just wondering if there are any people trying to do the ranked league by exclusively playing Stronghold.

Does it seem any more “fair” that the Conquest games you previously tried in league play?

Fair as in I’ve only lost one game out of the last 10 listed, all but one being Stronghold. It seems people haven’t really come to grips with it as much as they have with Conquest.

Also builds which depends on the smaller NPCs, Reaper in particular and Necromancers in general to a lesser extent, do better on Stronghold. Not necessarily more or less fair, they just do better than they otherwise would.

No, relies on AI and lords tend to be powerful as all heck. This is because the game assumes at least two players are attacking it.

I think the basic idea for stronghold is great, but instead of defeating NPC’s we storm the game, charge to claim a node like a temple buff, and hold the node. Point progression would be like other maps but instead of three maps you have two, this encourages offensive and defensive play since both sides want both nodes. A potential strategy when ahead could be turtling at your own node, but that might be a potential problem with two node setups.

SW:tOR had some excellent maps (not just Huttball) where you had to attack and defend certain points in order to reach a datacore. There were bridges you could fall off and everything. Voidstar and Huttball were some of my best times in gaming.

If you think about it PvP is the fairest game mode (especially Khylo) because while some matchups seem unfair those players that are better skilled and coordinated have access to the very same classes, builds and advantages you do. Skill can overcome unfair advantages (case and point I soloed Ascalon Catacombs on a daredevil where high HP super durability bosses that hit like a truck needed to be beat)

Laserbolt.6731:

Just wondering if there are any people trying to do the ranked league by exclusively playing Stronghold.

Does it seem any more “fair” that the Conquest games you previously tried in league play?

Stronghold relies on more team strategy than individual skill to win. So if you’re running a full premade on voice coms, Stronghold rules/mechanics will give you a strong advantage if you take advantage of your ability to communicate with you team. Likewise, PUG/solo queue players can have a huge disadvantage in Stronghold. Assuming equal skill (MMR is suppose to at least get us in the ballpark with match making), even if the opposing team has a duo that’s communicating and your team is 100% solo queue, the opposing team has a a big advantage because of the importance of team strategy. In Conquest there is strategy, it’s just usually the same strategy. Hold mid and home and then go after the map bonuses/secondary mechanics based on the map and what the other team is doing.

TL;DR: Because match making will pair premades to solo queue team, Stronghold is more likely to give an advantage to premades. Solo queue players don’t really have any advantages in League play, but at least in Conquest you don’t have the huge disadvantage when the opposing premade is on voice coms running strategic plays.

I just hit Ruby as soloQ and here’s my experiences- I don’t have a ton of time to play, so in trying to maximize my playtime/lower my que, I currently set my que for both. When I did this in Sapphire during the week the Stronghold matches were super easy to carry as a Druid. Basically you just keep the doorbreakers alive and fight off any defenders. It’s not super fulfilling but you can carry as long as your team has a basic awareness of the gamemode.

Last night I had pretty terrible luck with it as nearly every game was against a premade. When this is the case, it’s basically impossible to carry a win. Premades tend to do a full rush down your lane and it snowballs from there.

I’d suggest trying it during the week as weekends tend to have an increase in guild groups. Also maybe try Druid or Reaper as those can have a pretty huge impact even as a solo player.

Nope. Not until tempest gets axed or interaction with npcs is examined.