Guild Wars 2

Stronghold seem better built for players that run burst damage builds for killing NPC faster. Seem like a good offense in this mode makes for a better defense.

I tend to play more defensive builds in SPvP, but its simply not useful in this mode due to how important killing NPC is here. There really is no defensive locations that a defensive build would be more useful than a offensive build.

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

For me I hate anything that is longer than 15 minutes. There is also a queue time to consider therefore instead of increasing the timer making the game faster pace would be appropriate. I’d increase the number of people on given game mode, and shorten the spawn on npcs so that players will really have to be aware of their map.

The game runs consistently longer. That being said, I’ve found that this format heavily gives favor to offensive builds. My team was mostly offensive with condis/zerker, and we beat teams handily that had more than 1 tank/support on their team.

Our only losses were against teams that were even MORE offensive than us.

I actually love this game type. I see a lot of build diversity in this format…

Zerk comps win.

This should not be a surprise… The primary objective is pve…and zerk and pve go hand in hand.

Take 2 shoutbow (or whatever celestial elem DD), go offensive side 2 defense and 2 tank runner (lets say banner or whatever
Kill NPC while zerk can’t come close, heal/purge NPC while zerk cant approche your large AOE either run at them since there is no more guards
Laught at zerker if runner is good, other can be awfull

Win

I find that shoutbow is strong in Stronghold.

Tons of strong support, extremely tanky and mobile. Great for the assault/smuggler role.

Support/Control builds seem to synergise better with the offensive lane htan the defensive lane. In the defensive lane you really need something that can force a player off an npc or spike down a door breaker before its guard gets to you.

I wish id known that on my first playthrough haha.

Once I accepted that and took my necro to fight in hte offensive lane I found that it practically devoured most of the people/guard combos I fought due to being able to apply constant pressure without having to peel off. Worked out pretty well for me from then on.

Shadelang.3012:

Support/Control builds seem to synergise better with the offensive lane htan the defensive lane. In the defensive lane you really need something that can force a player off an npc or spike down a door breaker before its guard gets to you.

I wish id known that on my first playthrough haha.

Once I accepted that and took my necro to fight in hte offensive lane I found that it practically devoured most of the people/guard combos I fought due to being able to apply constant pressure without having to peel off. Worked out pretty well for me from then on.

I’ve found this to be true as well. My zerker staff elementalist did really poorly in the offensive lane but dominated the defensively lane, but my spirit ranger was much better on the offensive lane than defensive.

I like it. It makes sense you’d take a strong, healing set up to lead troops into battle but use a powerful, tactical strike set up when defending yourself.

In all my games the best team I had was my spirit ranger and a backstab thief working together in the offensive lane. I kept the NPCs alive with my healing and gave the enemies something to hit while he ran around taking people out when needed. Though to be fair my opponents were really bad in that game. They kept focusing me and ignoring the thief ganking them.

at last, im so sick of skill less bunkers boring us to death, dps is always harder so lets just stop running bunker no skill braindead kitten and actually get the most out of this game

well yeah, some tank- and bunker builds obviously are not as good as in conquest, but competetively, no1 really ran fulltanks in conquest anymore either, cuz dps is high enough that no bunker can really hold off against 2 DPS anymore. During the height of Guardian Bunkers and S/D-Clerics Ele, they could hold a node against 2 DPS for a long time.

There are still “bunkery” builds that work incredibly well in Stronghold, like Staff-Ele, D/D-Ele, Shoutwarrior etc. basically any semi-bunker build we see currently used in high-end competetive conquest.

I think that semi-bunkers with lots of AoE-stuff could work very well too, because you’ll always have either teammates or at least some NPC’s around that can benefit from AoE: I think shout-guardian with staff could be very viable, just play it a little less tanky than before.

trolled dp thief+freshair ele+power ranger for 3 minutes just kiting around their base with shoutbow while rest of the team was just spamming minions ’n kitten…and thief eventually died too. They raged so much lol

if you know how to kite shoutbow is pretty much unkillable on dat crappy map…same for cele dd i guess..if you don’t have to stand on points gl trying to bring down a shout war or a celestial ele in open field…

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

I agree with you. More time for the strategies to develop would make the game a lot more interesting.

Straight bunkers don’t work, because the objective is not tonkill you, the bunker or push the node, but protect and kill NPCs.

Support oriented builds with a little bit of CC and damage work really, really good though.

This gamemode also brings couple neat plays. Ever tried Time Warping the bombers? Using that Tome of Courage on Guardian? You should.

Heck, I even faced Nature’s Voice Shout Ranger and Aquatic Benevolence Ele, both sustaining everything in their lord room and pushing of 3 zerkers off, because guys couldn’t really do enough damage before dying. They healed their lord good 6 times from almost zero to full health. And they won, because our DPSers just couldn’t sustain the pressure while rest of them was still pushing us, slowly but surely.

6 times. Nothing died. Over 10 minutes.

Don’t tell me that it’s zerker only.

Actually I was playing on Altruistic Bunker Guardian, and it’s really effective in defending.

You just gotta play your cards right. Usually have two people defending helps, if one person is a bunker, have a more damage dealing guy next to you, and you’ll be able to defend your lane with ease.

As a general rule, 3 offense and 2 defense is the way to go. Obviously you will need to coordinate yourselves when everyone needs to rush or when everyone needs to defend.

To say Bunker is not viable, is not really true…it’s about the combination of players. Try and find the right combo really.

Yea, this was my experience as well. I started off with a soldier’s amulet and swapped to zerker after the first game and it was a big improvement.

I think very support-oriented builds can do well here, but they won’t be able to be without strong dps unless something changes. The short time limit is hindering and even if that wasn’t a factor, it just doesn’t seem to contribute as much to objectives as more balanced or dps-focused builds.

Good! No more hiding behind and getting carried by your passive defenses to over come your lack of ability to doge. Rekt by glass l2risk and reward scrub not this bs no risk/good reward kitten!

Lol jk

But seriously I think the potental is pretty even, I mean staff Eles and heal guards are actually super fun… Sure time will tell viability but I do feel the game type is lacking in areas that make each match feel like your rushing and hence the feel that burst is better. The timer I agree is a big part of this. 15 min on a moderately sized map makes it a bit of a chore.

I think if there was no timer, the map was bigger as well as letting the lanes play out a bit more would be better.

And we need jousts! Jousting is what makes the gametype fun if we don’t have that then regardless of spec viability dusk is going to suffer.

Also currently team fights are the same as they always are just no point to fight on, which would be better if our team fights were more fun over all and the engagements were a bit more focused, plus way to much leeway given to over extending for A LOT of builds that are common.

I realize a lot of the gripes are heavily comp related but if this is going into the regular queue on release then even premades will feel like a pug on both sides and be yet another cluster of boringness like our conquest.

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

Exactly, this reminds me of Alterac Valley now a days…. It was a great campaign of resources and bosses, now its a Zerg and over in mins.

I think Strong holds timer should be extended by a large amount. This should be a great back and forth battle to win, not a first to zerg wins!

Shieldbash.5304:

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

Exactly, this reminds me of Alterac Valley now a days…. It was a great campaign of resources and bosses, now its a Zerg and over in mins.

I think Strong holds timer should be extended by a large amount. This should be a great back and forth battle to win, not a first to zerg wins!

Agreed, timer can easily be upped 5-10 mins.

Timer ran out in easily 50% of my games I’ve played so far and it was even sometimes the case, that we would’ve killed the Lord in the next minutes but somehow the other team won by points.

Not as much time-pressure just gives your team more freedom how they want to play the Map.

PowerBottom.5796:

Shieldbash.5304:

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

Exactly, this reminds me of Alterac Valley now a days…. It was a great campaign of resources and bosses, now its a Zerg and over in mins.

I think Strong holds timer should be extended by a large amount. This should be a great back and forth battle to win, not a first to zerg wins!

Agreed, timer can easily be upped 5-10 mins.

Timer ran out in easily 50% of my games I’ve played so far and it was even sometimes the case, that we would’ve killed the Lord in the next minutes but somehow the other team won by points.

Not as much time-pressure just gives your team more freedom how they want to play the Map.

just be more offensive and the timer will be just fine. Play more damage base builds

Quint.3765:

PowerBottom.5796:

Shieldbash.5304:

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

Exactly, this reminds me of Alterac Valley now a days…. It was a great campaign of resources and bosses, now its a Zerg and over in mins.

I think Strong holds timer should be extended by a large amount. This should be a great back and forth battle to win, not a first to zerg wins!

Agreed, timer can easily be upped 5-10 mins.

Timer ran out in easily 50% of my games I’ve played so far and it was even sometimes the case, that we would’ve killed the Lord in the next minutes but somehow the other team won by points.

Not as much time-pressure just gives your team more freedom how they want to play the Map.

just be more offensive and the timer will be just fine. Play more damage base builds

Really? HONESTLY?

There seems to be a divide in the "Time=Fun* thoughts on this map so far.

I agree that the timer should be upped so we can have more build diversity/strategy/fun.
I see what the zerker meta (my time is precious so zerk) people are saying also with keeping the timer as is to rush everything.

nah..more time fighting is more fun, just give us bigger rewards.

Quint.3765:

PowerBottom.5796:

Shieldbash.5304:

Sorel.4870:

The real problem is the timer. Even when your defense is strong and you’d probably win in the long run, the amazingly short timer rewards the most aggressive strategy every time. If the timer was, say, 20 or 25 minutes, I bet defense would be a more viable option.

Exactly, this reminds me of Alterac Valley now a days…. It was a great campaign of resources and bosses, now its a Zerg and over in mins.

I think Strong holds timer should be extended by a large amount. This should be a great back and forth battle to win, not a first to zerg wins!

Agreed, timer can easily be upped 5-10 mins.

Timer ran out in easily 50% of my games I’ve played so far and it was even sometimes the case, that we would’ve killed the Lord in the next minutes but somehow the other team won by points.

Not as much time-pressure just gives your team more freedom how they want to play the Map.

just be more offensive and the timer will be just fine. Play more damage base builds

But then it’s a badly designed gamemode, because the gamemode designates how you have to play, instead of giving you the freedom to choose.

Yes, a too high timer on the other hand would maybe encourage too defensive builds, thats why I wouldn’t cut the timer completely, just add 5-10 mins.