Why don't people contest skyhammer?
My biggest guess (aside from those two guys actually sounding like idiots) is that in the old skyhammer, a lot of people rarely gave two craps about the hammer and only went to contest when someone was actively making a nuisance of himself (like the treb on khylo).
I understand where you’re coming from but honestly at this point people should know how important Skyhammer is because it decaps all enemy occupied points. This happened in Gold 1 too. No one here’s that great or anything but they aren’t silver or bronze players either. One would assume they at least understand the fundamentals and quirks for each map (and there aren’t that many in ranked anyways). It’s really frustrating when something like this happens. The kitten I lost is never coming back either thanks to the two funniest clowns in Tyria.
I started playing 2 days ago after a year and a half hiatus and just hit plat last night. I honestly didn’t know the skyhammer decapped points lol. Duly noted.
Well, if I’m any proof, you dont need much game knowledge to climb in this game (or at least in NA lol).
Yeah, the last few skyhammers I’ve played, I’ve been the only one on my team there and have had to deal with 2 from enemy team. Sometimes I can stall, but mostly I just have to give it up to them and go to recap a point. I think people can get tunnel vision a lot and don’t look to see what’s happening elsewhere. They probably thought they were “defending”
Thing is, the game gives you ample information to use in the middle of the match.
Like for instance:
No action has shown up on the kill/death list, no points are being captured, and your team sees nobody while an alternate map objective has opened up. Where could everyone possibly be :P? The biggest place youll notice this on is in temple at the notorious 8:30 mark. Ive seen several players just run around thinking that the point isnt being contested, meanwhile a full scale team fight happening at tranquility that this player’s team will be losing because they chose to try to run around and cap points that will be immediately lost once his team gets downed.
You have no excuse to sit there and idly defend when you’ve been given enough information to use to guide your rotations.
(edited by SlayerSixx.5763)
Thing is, the game gives you ample information to use in the middle of the match.
Like for instance:
No action has shown up on the kill/death list, no points are being captured, and your team sees nobody while an alternate map objective has opened up. Where could everyone possibly be :P? The biggest place youll notice this on is in temple at the notorious 8:30 mark. Ive seen several players just run around thinking that the point isnt being contested, meanwhile a full scale team fight happening at tranquility that this player’s team will be losing because they chose to try to run around and cap points that will be immediately lost once his team gets downed.
You have no excuse to sit there and idly defend when you’ve been given enough information to use to guide your rotations.
You are making it sound like Tranquility is the only important thing on the Temple. I don’t like Conquest so my opinion probably doesn’t weigh much but honestly if all 5 enemies are at Tranquility I’d call that a blessing. 4v5 at Tranquility. Hey, if you can get all the points your colour for as long as the fight lasts it’s worth something. That 1 player can recap one point quickly if the enemy gets Tranquility. Get stillness on the way to the next one. Or more players focusing on capping points while the 5 enemies go for tranq… Mid will probably be white by the time they are out and close and far will be easily retaken. Then if the enemy is 5 at Tranq and outnumbered the players on your team still get it, well they’ve lost all their points and don’t get a quick retake.
Not trying to say you should ignore objectives, just saying I think you are putting a lot more importance than needed in them. I love Stronghold, I’ll admit, I do get annoyed when I go alone to get far mist essence, my team are all near close(sometimes not even an enemy near) but they just run past it like it isn’t there. Enemy ends up getting it because none of my team took the easy opportunity.
Skyhammer, I guess like Tranq, it is a nice thing to get but not something I think a full team should run for.
Worst objectives are probably the forest creatures, they appear, that thought of 25 points makes the desk their computer is on rise an inch for some players. They ping on the map while you are in the process of trying to capture a point. Several run for it, letting the enemy decap their points. Then a lucky enemy player manages to get 1 hit in and get the 25 points. Points decapped and as the team did most of the damage the enemy got fed 25 points.
Skyhammer isn’t Tranq. Having more than 2 people there to cap it pretty much ensures you’re abandoning the map to the other team even if you do eventually win it; since it’s “just” a decap, and one that is done over time to boot. an enemy player standing by (or standing in, you can still dodge it, right?) can recap the point after it finishes firing looong before you can coming from the hammer, even on mid.
Heck, I’ve lost count on the number of Temple and Skyhammer maps I’ve seen flip at the 11th hour because the team that eventually capped Tranq or the Hammer took too long with too many people, letting the other team cap the whole map and get enough of a lead to still win after having to recap point(s) right afterwards, largely thanks to already being there when the other team is a practically the furthest you can possibly be from most of them.
Me bringing tranquility up was just an example. I know tranquility is a more powerful objective than skyhammer and only appears once per match.
Unless you’re a thief (we can maybe allow mesmer in this case as well), the time it takes for you to go between home/far or home/mid or mid/far (and dont be funny telling me youll cap all 3) is seldom worth the effort and time taken to cross that much distance. Youre much better off actually scrapping it out since (especially the higher you climb), an outnumbered fight can and usually will end in favour of the side with more players and quickly, might I add. Ive had several instances where I’m 2v1 or 3v2 etc and I’m left to free fire from off point while my team contests and we end up winning the fight VERY quickly since (if left uninterrupted) I end up doing an incredible amount of damage.
Youre all gambling on the hope that your team can contest tranquility long enough for you to rotate around however many points you hope to capture and still be able to either join the fight or quickly recapture whatever points were taken by the enemy. (Almost as if kills dont add points to the scoreboard either :P).
As for skyhammer, if there happens to be a team fight that you can join at little cost to your team (no risk of losing a captured point like what seemed to be OP’s case) then, for the love of god, do it.