Guild Wars 2

For future reference, whenever you type into chat “< close”. It means the following:

1. You will cap close
2. You will ALWAYS keep an eye on close
3. It is your job to KEEP it capped.
4. If there are too many inc, you HAVE to call for help BEFORE you lose the point
5. Whatever else you’re doing (if anything), you must never move so far away from close that you can’t reach it before the enemy does and call for help if needed.

If you can’t perform these functions, don’t say that you’ll keep close. Whatever happens elsewhere, close is the best chance of getting reliable points. It’s worth spending one person over exclusively (even if they do other stuff in the meantime).

It’s an important job – a critical job. I understand if you want to “get into the fight” or “can’t always keep an eye on it” or whatever. Then SAY so at the start of the match and that important job can go to someone else.

This is true to a certain extent, however say I’m the ranger guarding close and see a decap engi coming to me. Depending on map I have multiple options:
Stay on point and laugh because I have a little piece of wood that keeps me on point despite the engi’s best effort to spam cc on me.
Leave the point and:
If there is 4 people of the enemy team fighting over close I can move to mid and tell someone to push far from the midfight or run far myself.
This is just 1 example and there are many more, e.g a 1 0 4 split from the enemy or a push with guardian involved.

DanyK.3842:

This is true to a certain extent, however say I’m the ranger guarding close and see a decap engi coming to me. Depending on map I have multiple options:
Stay on point and laugh because I have a little piece of wood that keeps me on point despite the engi’s best effort to spam cc on me.
Leave the point and:
If there is 4 people of the enemy team fighting over close I can move to mid and tell someone to push far from the midfight or run far myself.
This is just 1 example and there are many more, e.g a 1 0 4 split from the enemy or a push with guardian involved.

Fair enough. All I’m saying is that as the person on close, you need to alert the team if a new strategy is needed. Not go like “Oh, close is lost? Lemme go recap”.

you can keep an eye on close but it means often you stay on close doing nothing. Only the mesmer can join a fight and port back in time to get on close.

Lupanic.6502:

you can keep an eye on close but it means often you stay on close doing nothing. Only the mesmer can join a fight and port back in time to get on close.

Or stray far enough that you can see when an enemy will be approaching. Like the ledge on kyhlo, or the part peeping over the graveyard in foefire, or staying at the “stillness” spawn point in temple.

You need not just sit at close. You can move far away enough, but never so far that another enemy member’s distance to close is less than yours.

bhagwad.4281:

Lupanic.6502:

you can keep an eye on close but it means often you stay on close doing nothing. Only the mesmer can join a fight and port back in time to get on close.

Or stray far enough that you can see when an enemy will be approaching. Like the ledge on kyhlo, or the part peeping over the graveyard in foefire, or staying at the “stillness” spawn point in temple.

You need not just sit at close. You can move far away enough, but never so far that another enemy member’s distance to close is less than yours.

you are correct and “stillness” is really a good spot to guard your point.

iow.. don’t participate in combat..
bring a tank, trapper or KB engi..
Sit around 60% of the time or more..
get yelled at when you get swamped because your team can’t hold their own or over extend.
pick nose while watching youtube..
support your team on the rare occasion.
search the forums on different gamemode progression while watching a timer..

sums it up pretty much

bhagwad.4281:

Lupanic.6502:

you can keep an eye on close but it means often you stay on close doing nothing. Only the mesmer can join a fight and port back in time to get on close.

Or stray far enough that you can see when an enemy will be approaching. Like the ledge on kyhlo, or the part peeping over the graveyard in foefire, or staying at the “stillness” spawn point in temple.

You need not just sit at close. You can move far away enough, but never so far that another enemy member’s distance to close is less than yours.

A thief pops stealth at the middle of kyhlo, makes a few ports and even if you could see him on the way he will still get the decap. Even without stealth he has a good chance, especially if he uses shadowstep. And then you cry to the teammate who lost it?

Amplifier.1704:

bhagwad.4281:

Lupanic.6502:

you can keep an eye on close but it means often you stay on close doing nothing. Only the mesmer can join a fight and port back in time to get on close.

Or stray far enough that you can see when an enemy will be approaching. Like the ledge on kyhlo, or the part peeping over the graveyard in foefire, or staying at the “stillness” spawn point in temple.

You need not just sit at close. You can move far away enough, but never so far that another enemy member’s distance to close is less than yours.

A thief pops stealth at the middle of kyhlo, makes a few ports and even if you could see him on the way he will still get the decap. Even without stealth he has a good chance, especially if he uses shadowstep. And then you cry to the teammate who lost it?

Obviously you have to take circumstances into account. But this situation is no fault of the person guarding close. But if a thief caps it and the person guarding close is happily doing something else, then yeah they deserve to be yelled at.

With the thief discussion, if a thief speed or stealth decaps you fast it shouldn’t really matter because whoever is guarding home should NOT be able to be solo’d by a thief. It’s just a minor setback until your home pt can rotate back home and solo the thief or freecap it again. Sitting at home doing nothing though is the worst.

DanyK.3842:

Stay on point and laugh because I have a little piece of wood that keeps me on point despite the engi’s best effort to spam cc on me.

What? Little piece of wood? Enlighten me please, what is this anti-cc piece of wood?

Guarding close is even more complicated than what you would expect, from reading this thread.

When you are dedicated to close, meaning by your definition you are NOT teamfighting mid, like, ever – there are many things wrong with this.

While defending home, IF your team has anyone that pushes far, and I’m talking even dips out of mid for a second, it’s like condemning 60% of your team to an outnumbered 4v3 death. You can’t control when a PuG in solo queue goes to fight/decap far. It could happen anytime. You have to play intelligently and leave home when you see there is an outnumbered fight mid or a 1v1 happening far. It’s then your job to train anyone back to the point who breaks off.

Basically, defending home without being on VOIP and without map awareness is impossible to perfect. Getting mad at the home point defender for rotating when it appears there is nobody able to contest it – not entirely helpful.

Arenanet needs to streamline the way that the homepoint defender gets information about the rest of the battle to determine where he’s needed without VOIP.

I thought guarding close meant getting on a class build that has no intention of ever killing anybody and sitting in the middle of the circle spamming knockbacks. Oh wait thats guarding every point I forgot man spvp is fun.