Guild Wars 2

sendmark.4731:

Yeah have to say a bit disappointed, as my two biggest fears were present. One being that the mode is pretty snowball, in the games I played it was very difficult for the opposing team to come back as long as you had an active defence. Another problem is the amount of focus on killing mobs, with killing players being so far secondary. Technically you could win without killing a single player.

Other issue is Bodyguard too easy to nuke down when all he does is run, even with players covering. Maybe needs a bit more damage resistance or something until he actually reaches a gate. Although I suppose the flipside is that it almost forces the stacking of stealth on them.

I feel like you’re playing the mode wrong. I don’t really focus on killing npc’s but rather go around and kill people where it’s needed and I have no problem with it.

I can’t agree with the snowball effect either, my team managed to fail lord push and still win.

Also, I don’t think you can base these things on such a small sample of games.

I’m not saying the mode is perfect but I’d rather play it a bit more before judging it.

Anet is forcing this moba suckage on people who do unranked? Hah nice going there plebs

Yea simply 3 defenders and wait it out, easy win

1) Communication
I was not able to identify that our gates was down and got no warning until lord was attacked.
2) Teamplay close to 0
I have been spending 90% of the time alone. People are running to different objectives and are split in the map. Some fights occurs with several people but it is more a coincidence we get at the same place at the same time.
But this is maybe more due to the fact the map is new.
I am not enthusiastic up to now.

For me the problem of this gamemode is that random teams will never ever (at least without build templates) have the right setup for this or coordination.
The chance of them having the right amount of players for each objective (some need offensive stats, some defensive) is low and on top of that they can not communicate well and therefore not coordinate.
This gamemode will be mainly for premade teams and not for random partys without voicechat.

8v8 min. too much focus on npc, not enough focus on actual battle. 15:00 min is NOT long enough. 20-25 MINIMUM.

barely feels like gvg, really feels like LoL/dota

Kicast.1459:

1) Communication
I was not able to identify that our gates was down and got no warning until lord was attacked.
2) Teamplay close to 0
I have been spending 90% of the time alone. People are running to different objectives and are split in the map. Some fights occurs with several people but it is more a coincidence we get at the same place at the same time.
But this is maybe more due to the fact the map is new.
I am not enthusiastic up to now.

Play more. Ive seen a LOT of team play. For instance, I have someone clear guards while I (shout bow) escort minions with 100% swiftness, and others control mid and 1 defends. If the defender dies, I take his place until he comes back. Very flexible, and while we’re notALWAYS fighting TOGETHER until the last push/defend, we still are working together far more than conquest.

Assassin X.8573:

barely feels like gvg, really feels like LoL/dota

It is not GvG to begin with

ArrDee.2573:

FalconBeta.9185:

The objective in stronghold turned from defending a point from someone or capturing a point from someone, to defending NPCs from someone, or Killing NPCs someone is trying to escort. The player Engangement is still there, and giving the reliance on these NPCs and the increased movement, I say its even more engaging than conquest.

I would like the objective for PvP to be PvP and not PvE or standing on point but maybe it’s just me!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

^^ This, I honestly have a mental block that keeps me from liking this game’s PVP because it seems far too often my best option is to avoid the fight than to try and fight. I mean in other games sometimes holding up and waiting to regroup is best but here, you literally run away from a fight because you are better off not “wasting your time”… that entire idea bugs me, that a fight can be a “waste of time”. I’d really like a deathmatch… however this is a bit off topic, just couldn’t agree more with my “frand” here

Yea simply 3 defenders and wait it out, easy win, seems way to defensive based

So far we’ve ran Shoutbow, Power necro, Offensive guardian (defending/clearing lane), SF Ele and Hambow and played incredibly offensively and won 7/8 games now.

Well.. feels dated and uninspired.

Also the UI is bad as usual. Anet needs to realize that GUI can’t be merely random graphics and icons… the readability and teaching factor should be built-in, which it isn’t here.

TurtleofPower.5641:

Well.. feels dated and uninspired.

Also the UI is bad as usual. Anet needs to realize that GUI can’t be merely random graphics and icons… the readability and teaching factor should be built-in, which it isn’t here.

What’s hard about it? It even shows door/boss health. o.O (Actually curious here…)

In my opionon this is a very promissing gamemode, however atm there are still some problems:
1 – Gates go down too easy, and i only know somthing is happening when it already happened like door break (either team).
2 – Lack of strategy (possibly due to most people not knowing how to play yet), as most of my games were either each wanders where they please or Zerging, and some games both teams were 5 ofensive first one to reach lord wins, so (apart from myself that tried to defend :p) the game could have ended without player contact.
3 – Supplies. i think there should be something like a cooldown (either for the supplies crate or the player) as i’ve seen endless team-fights where they just want to kill because either team gets TONS of supplies and then TONS of archers/doorbreakers. after that is zerg rushing. (all this makes the game too fast imo)

Anyway this gamemode is fun, just needing some ajustments.

BUG: Mesmer clones can pass though ANY GATE. I was defending (i’m a mesmer) and besides being able to create a clone behind the gate when i went to face the enemy mesmer both me and my clone passed through the gate, when i was retreating i went behind the gate and saw the enemy’s clone passing as if it was from my team, resuming it’s pursuit behind gates

still way more fun than conquest

JerryMain.4371:

Assassin X.8573:

barely feels like gvg, really feels like LoL/dota

It is not GvG to begin with

yes and no. it has the base elements from gw1, with the added npcs breaking down gates for you.

gw1 main objective is to kill the lord and game over, gw2 main objective is to kill the lord and game over.

the only difference was that in gw1, when the timer did run out after 30 mins, the (Guild) Lords and any remaining (strictly static defensive) NPC guards marched to the middle of the map, for a “VICTORY or DEATH!” final battle. oh, the gates stayed open the entire fight.

would be way more fun as the gw1 iteration.

Does anyone else experience random stealth and knockbacks when no one else is around? Or am I going crazy?

The heroes should NOT be able to be capped so easily. If you’re on a class with zero knockbacks, you’re screwed. Sure, the channel is long, but even as a squishy ele I can just sit in water and if the other player can’t knock me back, I can cap long before they can get me close to down.

If you get HIT, the channel should end. Just like it does everywhere else in the game. Supply is whatever, but for something as strong as the hero why is it mad easy to get?

Aerial Melodies.4938:

The heroes should NOT be able to be capped so easily. If you’re on a class with zero knockbacks, you’re screwed. Sure, the channel is long, but even as a squishy ele I can just sit in water and if the other player can’t knock me back, I can cap long before they can get me close to down.

If you get HIT, the channel should end. Just like it does everywhere else in the game. Supply is whatever, but for something as strong as the hero why is it mad easy to get?

As a squishy ele you won’t be able to cap the hero. I don’t understand how sitting in water would help.

PvP today is like fresh breath. This game needs even more modes. Stronghold seems to be really good further development of Fort Ashpenwood.

But 5 vs 5 is too small. More likely 6-8 players per team would be real fun. And I really want maps with different offensive NPC types, archers are dull.

Yakez.7561:

PvP today is like fresh breath. This game needs even more modes. Stronghold seems to be really good further development of Fort Ashpenwood.

But 5 vs 5 is too small. More likely 6-8 players per team would be real fun. And I really want maps with different offensive NPC types, archers are dull.

Seems like we barely ran archers. For the most part we spammed DBs, swifted them to the doors and slammed the lord hard. I dont see much value in them.

Thought so far is: awesome.

Mixed it up after ye olde game mode was getting stale. Need MOAR maps though!

I really like it so far. However, there are 2 simple things that would improve the game mode IMO.

- Increase timer to 17-20 min. In the last 3 three games I’ve played no one managed to kill the lords because the time ran out. Considering that those games will be streamed on twitch some day, it is preferable to have a nice ending with a lord stomp. The game should end with a fight in the lord room, not because time ran out. Super anticlimactic imo.

- I can’t help but think that 5v5 is too small for this type of game mode. There are many roles to fulfill and therefore 7v7 or 8v8 would be fantastic. Not more than 8v8 though.

5 matches 4 losses, 4v5 all day, team running around like headless chickens.

Seems all you do is kill npc after npc, not sure where pvp is

Did play once, got the upper hand then got ping bomb and disconnected (i feel sorry for my teammate) cant see the other side of the lane, like what are the others doing while im defending killing skritts. we need overhead camera view (optional of course).
Long story short,map is fun to play with, but the more the merrier to play it competitively.

Yakez.7561:

And I really want maps with different offensive NPC types, archers are dull.

Agreed, we need wagons.

Lexiceta.4156:

Seems all you do is kill npc after npc, not sure where pvp is

If you say so.

Obviously you are wrong, but I suspect people like you will never be convince, so why bother trying to convince you otherwise?

My Negative Impressions;
- Trebuchet has a few dead zones where the projectile will get eaten by air. I’ll try to show them in a video later.

- Archers should be made more useful by either having them ignore players or having them do more damage to players as well as Guards.

My Positive Impressions
-It’s fun
-Communication is key
-Listening is important
-CC is king
-Mandatory Rez skill on all chars incoming ala GW1 RA

All in all im really enjoying the map. I run a debilitation focused build so defending is pretty rewarding to my playstyle. Keeping chill poison and weakness on the guys trying to spike down your guards causes them to lose alot of time while the rest of my team is pushing them. I also find im using many different skills and considering using different utilities that would be stupid to use in conquest in any situation. Ive already run into people using builds I havn’t seen in months as well and being rather effective with them.

Im happy with this so far. Looking forward to it being in the main running.

Okay, anyhow I agree that capping heroes is pretty kittened. It should cancel on being hit, there is literally nothing I can do against a bunker guard capping hero when I use both of my cc skills which are both on pretty long cooldown, please change that.

I’m getting the WvW dolyak bug on the NPCs… they don’t sync up so you can’t attack them as they run because you have no idea where they actually are. This is annoying in WvW, this is game breaking in stronghold.

Laraley.7695:

Okay, anyhow I agree that capping heroes is pretty kittened. It should cancel on being hit, there is literally nothing I can do against a bunker guard capping hero when I use both of my cc skills which are both on pretty long cooldown, please change that.

No it should be cancel on CC. Are you sure you are usingi your CC properly?

1. Fix treb sounds
2. Stab is really strong, especially when people are capping objectives. Boon strip is limited. A team with a lot of stability will most likely cap everything.
3. Lord gets revealed in downstate too fast when you try to stealth, AI design needs better work.
4. NPC’s die too fast, Door Breakers with only like 1-2 up can break a door down quickly. Give gate or NPC’s more HP. Need the casters with swirling winds at Lord for better defensive options.

silvermember.8941:

Laraley.7695:

Okay, anyhow I agree that capping heroes is pretty kittened. It should cancel on being hit, there is literally nothing I can do against a bunker guard capping hero when I use both of my cc skills which are both on pretty long cooldown, please change that.

No it should be cancel on CC. Are you sure you are usingi your CC properly?

No, it shouldn’t. I’m sorry I don’t play rifle engi and don’t have cc available at all times. I have two cc skills, one of 50 cooldown and the other one on 25, what am I supposed to do against a bunker guard who places sanctuary and caps it?

Meteor.3720:

The main issue I’ve found so far is that there are so many fundamental objectives for 5 players, the team ends up splitting 1-2 players to each task, and never moving from that role. I’ve spent 15 minutes killing archers and skritt, or 15 minutes running supplies. There is very little chance to do multiple things because objectives have to be mindless focused on. Remove npcs/ lessen their impact and it might be more fun.

I’ve found it’s just the opposite. When ever I die I do a different role entirely… depending on what I feel is needed at the time. Whether that be defending, pushing, or supplies/counter supplies.

Playing this with your designated PvP group brings Stronghold on a whole new level.

Laraley.7695:

silvermember.8941:

Laraley.7695:

Okay, anyhow I agree that capping heroes is pretty kittened. It should cancel on being hit, there is literally nothing I can do against a bunker guard capping hero when I use both of my cc skills which are both on pretty long cooldown, please change that.

No it should be cancel on CC. Are you sure you are usingi your CC properly?

No, it shouldn’t. I’m sorry I don’t play rifle engi and don’t have cc available at all times. I have two cc skills, one of 50 cooldown and the other one on 25, what am I supposed to do against a bunker guard who places sanctuary and caps it?

Isn’t that part of a strategy?
In any case your instead of whining which you are, you could you know make a suggestion to increase the channel time. Then again losing a channel isn’t the end of the game either.

Also how is that any different from any of the maps that have channeling? This isn’t a problem exclusive to the new game mode. Also the price a bunker pays for playing the map is effectively be useless, short of being a supply runner.

silvermember.8941:

Laraley.7695:

silvermember.8941:

Laraley.7695:

Okay, anyhow I agree that capping heroes is pretty kittened. It should cancel on being hit, there is literally nothing I can do against a bunker guard capping hero when I use both of my cc skills which are both on pretty long cooldown, please change that.

No it should be cancel on CC. Are you sure you are usingi your CC properly?

No, it shouldn’t. I’m sorry I don’t play rifle engi and don’t have cc available at all times. I have two cc skills, one of 50 cooldown and the other one on 25, what am I supposed to do against a bunker guard who places sanctuary and caps it?

Isn’t that part of a strategy?
In any case your instead of whining which you are, you could you know make a suggestion to increase the channel time. Then again losing a channel isn’t the end of the game either.

Also how is that any different from any of the maps that have channeling? This isn’t a problem exclusive to the new game mode. Also the price a bunker pays for playing the map is effectively be useless, short of being a supply runner.

The difference is on other maps channel gets interrupted on hit, that’s what I suggested. Maybe read before talking.

YourFriendMarvin.4127:

4. NPC’s die too fast, Door Breakers with only like 1-2 up can break a door down quickly. Give gate or NPC’s more HP. Need the casters with swirling winds at Lord for better defensive options.

Yes this…Npcs seem so useless besides door breakers and heroes. 1 person should not be able to solo kill all the guards inside the first gate quickly. Archers…I dont even know what their purpose is besides holding aggro, they seem like a waste of supply.

And the capping of heroes definitely needs to be fixed. I don’t mind that supply requires a cc but the heroes cap should be stopped by any attack since they are pretty important objectives.

Other concerns:
1. Map at times seems a little small for all the objectives present. The heroes and supply are very close to each other and often times your team or the enemy team can just swarm through all three. (not sure exactly how to explain this becuase its not always an issue, but it seems to promote zerging and clusterkittening)

2. Not enough time allowed, games sometimes seem to go to whoever has the most dps rather than who utilized the best strategy.

3. Would work better with more players, also on other version of stronghold it would be interesting to see other objectives as well.

Didn’t really enjoy it- too many NPC’s coming down the lane, not enough players with any sense – in one match I even stopped to type ‘two in our base at inner’ and still no one bothered coming back until the lord was almost dead- whilst our ‘offensive’ team had just about opened outer and were busy playing ‘wave at the other team’.

Feels more like pve with a couple players randomly around the place at the moment.

Saw a few MM necros….and a turret engi defending, and a turret engi and friend camping supply..

1. Add 5 minutes to the timer (too many matches we should of won was lost simply by points)
2. Add more players – guildies complain about too many fights you are better off just running from. More players will force the issue and build more 2v2 3v3 fights. Get a variety in fighting that is more team oriented.

I really liked that you have to constantly watch your minimap, learn when to disengage, and try to pursue different objective goals at the right time in order to take the momentum in your team’s favor. However while the map may be small enough for 5v5, which i disagree, there are way too many objects to have competitive play at low/mid level. While not having everything is good, the current size forces players to run around way too much, not having enough skirmishes. Guards are way too weak, objectives are way too far apart for 5v5, and there is almost no chance of coming back from the opening split.
10v10 maybe too big, but 7v7 or 8v8 would definitely increase more skirmishes for objects. Currently its giving up skirmishes such as supply channel to kill enemy npcs due to spreading out of fights.

Nyx.7342:

YourFriendMarvin.4127:

4. NPC’s die too fast, Door Breakers with only like 1-2 up can break a door down quickly. Give gate or NPC’s more HP. Need the casters with swirling winds at Lord for better defensive options.

Yes this…Npcs seem so useless besides door breakers and heroes. 1 person should not be able to solo kill all the guards inside the first gate quickly. Archers…I dont even know what their purpose is besides holding aggro, they seem like a waste of supply.

And the capping of heroes definitely needs to be fixed. I don’t mind that supply requires a cc but the heroes cap should be stopped by any attack since they are pretty important objectives.

Other concerns:
1. Map at times seems a little small for all the objectives present. The heroes and supply are very close to each other and often times your team or the enemy team can just swarm through all three. (not sure exactly how to explain this becuase its not always an issue, but it seems to promote zerging and clusterkittening)

2. Not enough time allowed, games sometimes seem to go to whoever has the most dps rather than who utilized the best strategy.

3. Would work better with more players, also on other version of stronghold it would be interesting to see other objectives as well.

I agree Nyx. I can solo roam all 6 guards from first gate to last gate… that’s just not right.

We could double the Guards damage + health while also setting their priority aggro to Rangers (since technically, they Are more of a threat). I think that would be best.

I don’t want it to be impossible for us to solo guards… I just want it to be challenging!

Really didn’t enjoy it. It puts too heavy of a time constraint on players where fighting opposing players is often a waste. Time to kill players is too long in relation to the objectives especially when players have the option of just running. Can’t say I have seen an honorable fight play out yet which is really what the game has been lacking in a competitive mode.

I like Stronghold. One thing I did have problems with was channeling the hero. After we got the message that it was available the delay until you could commune was too long and then the commune itself seemed too long. But other than that if you have a team that knows what to do it’s great and fun. I would recommend reducing the channeling time a bit.

xehn.3420:

The mini map is too small. We need to be able to zoom in.

This. The minimap is TINY. It was hard for me to tell where anyone was I want to make the minimap bigger or be able to zoom in.

Think there’s too much stuff. People sit on treb doing nothing and treb doesn’t really seem to matter in the map.

I have very little of an idea of whats going around.

But Im having fun, I really love the map and the cheesy lines, something I miss from beta.

I agree with Anet saying that npc’s shouldn’t do heavy damage on players, but they are so face roll that one single player can kill them so easily, making them useless. So npc’s imo should do more when encountering a player.

I think guards should have heavy defensive buffs and pushbacks as they are the defenders. Archers should have immobilize, cripple, blinds and all that good stuff. Door breakers should do massive aoe damage when they die, and this would be the only exception for an npc doing heavy damage to a player.

This would be a unpopular opinion but my idea to make it better was to make it:
10 vs 10
options to place minimal siege (AC/Ballista)
30 minute timer
Few more NPC’s
Would be perfect for a small GvG group

I had fun. It was great because lots of people played, the queues were short and the matches were fairly even. A few things I noticed:

1. The hero is very powerful. If the enemy gets one you better kill it.

2. If the matchmaking can be made to match players of similar skill then it will be great. If not then RIP Stronghold. I had 6 or so matches where it was pretty even. Won some lost some but it was fun. Had 2 blowout matches where the other side was clearly better in every way. Not fun when totally outclassed.

3. Change the scoring so that it doesn’t add 500 points when the lord is killed. Make it so that a lord kill is a win but either don’t add any points or make it just boost the points up to 500. Losing 800 to 250 is a lot more demoralizing than losing by 300 – 250 plus Lord Kill. Or even 500 – 250. Anet if you want people to play this you can’t have them demoralized at the very start.