I thought it would be nice to ty and throw information into one spot for the Dev’s to read about everyone’s opinion good or bad and why they think that way for the map. So please try and look at the map itself and express balance concerns instead of just saying “I liek map”.
I will first say that I play a ranger so my bias’ as to how the map is imbalanced in one way or ther other will be based on what I play, so without further ado…
My first concern is the map visibility imbalance between the two side points. from the altar capture point you can clearly see through the middle area between the two home nodes. Whereas the walled in temple node care barely see out the door to the entrance (far too late to call for help). This imbalance favors one team over the other while capturing points. When the capturing of the node is complete both off node holders tend to push out, and experience a slightly different map imbalance. The area to walk around the “drop chutes” to the 3 point cap commune have unequal sizes of paths to skirt around them. For a trap ranger this means that the closest “skirting path” to the temple is too large to be blocked by a single trap (similar to kylo’s imbalance on the pathway up to treb on either side, one side can be covered with a single trap, the other cannot).
Another issue is the sidepoint design, it is far too prone to harassment from a theif or a mesmer. The high ground at its best can give you an 8 second window of attack where certain skills that allow you to jump up and down the raised section are on an initiative CD or 12 second CD. It makes certain node defenders much weaker and re-enforces the need for a mesmer or teleporting off node player (saying that a ranger become a weaker offnode due to the inability to flank).
The visibility of the buff spawns could do with a bit of an upgrade given that you can win or lose on one engagement with them. Perhaps a visual indicator of when the important ones will be spawning such as an icon of each buff/CD for them. By now most teams do know most of the timings for them however new players do not and it will make this map a little more friendly to them.
The ability to use shadowstep and portal while communing also has to be removed, I assume this was not an intended mechanic but looking for a thief or the other side of a mesmer portal to interupt it is not a good mechanic. Also for the double point tick commune you can pop timewarp and a mesmer invulnerability to capture it in the midst of an entire enemy team. Perhaps what I mean by all this is that perhaps there are certain abilities that should break communes (invulnerabilities, teleports) but I will leave it to men more intelligent than myself to decide which. I do agree that haste should speed up the commune, but haste in collaboration with invulnerabilities does not promote skillful play.
Underwater portions, while I don’t hate underwater fights (I am a ranger… yay) I don’t think it is in a state that is ready for competative play. There are underwater sections in forests however it is not something that you are regularily using (who goes for a swim at beach?), on this map the underwater section actually plays a part meaning the class imbalance underwater will play a role in determining the victor.
the “teleport return” problem, this is more of an issue within a fight between the two home nodes. Some classes have the ability to drop a mark to return to, when they jump down the holes to the water you cannot actually chase them allowing classes that already have a high life expectancy to have it much easier.
The map time is also over much quicker than any of the other maps as the bonus kills and double point ticks allow for points to be aquired much faster. While this is not a bad thing I believe it gives the player themselves a feeling of less bang for the buck upon entering it. Also this map’s “two exits” are much smaller in area than most other maps leading it to be the easist to spawn camp. For example the position between the home point and the home +pts per kill buff has a position right by the stairs where both are visible. and easier still to intervene.
That is all I can currently think of, but please add your own opinions of the map and add in your class as well so we can have a perspective on what classes have what standing on the map. Also if you watch streams and have an opinion on the excitement level of the map that is also an important factor for maps as this game is trying to become an e-sport so feel free to add your opinions as well from an observer standpoint.