I’ve been playing WvW for a while, and thinking about new blueprints to add some more variety and tactics to it. Here are a couple that I thought might be interesting to consider:
Bombs: I’m from a relatively small server, so some people don’t want to join WvW on the grounds that they think that one or two players won’t change anything in WvW, especially during off-hours for their server. The idea behind the bomb is to create an immobile bomb build site (or something of the sort) with a low supply requirement, such as 10 or 15. This could be used on walls or gates, but would suffer from the convenience of being made by a single player by being expendable (one build site, one bomb) and having less damage than their permanent counterparts (maybe 33% less than rams/catapults?). A possible example:
Regular blueprint: ~2.5k of damage, 240 radius and brief knockdown period. 10 Supply.
Superior: ~3.5k of damage, a larger radius (maybe enough to hit people on top of the wall/gate?) and the same knockdown period. 15 Supply.
I don’t really pay attention to the actual damage on siege, so these are just rough guesses. Admittedly, this also benefits smaller servers more than larger ones, but it still can have tactical advantages on any server size.
The supply cart: I realize this one would be trickier to balance, but I think it would be an interesting one to see. This would be effectively a mobile supply camp. The balancing ideas that I could see for this are to limit production of them (Maybe only allow one build site every 20 minutes on a camp or hour on a keep? If the balancing is done enough to allow for blueprints, I’ve got a rough idea for them as well), require considerably more supplies to make it than you get back (i.e. 80 supply to make a cart with 50 supply), add a cripple buff to anyone moving it to make it an easier target and finally give it relatively low hp. Example:
Cost: 15s, 80 supply. 50 supply on cart.
Build site is created near the Quartermaster immediately. Finished cart has 5k of hp, so it can be easily destroyed. Self-destructs once materials run out.
OR
Regular blueprint: 50 supply to make a 30 supply cart.
Superior: 100 supply to make a 70 supply cart.
Blueprints based on allies: Since most of the ally camps (Ogres, Dredge and Hylek) already have merchants, maybe add some blueprints that can only be used if your server is allied with them. As an example, the Dredge summon turrets once allied with a server. This is an expansion on that concept. Each one could also have a unique function. Dredge turrets could deal damage to walls as an example, the Hylek could have the poison spitters (or whatever their turrets were called) that excel at controlling zergs while the ogres could have a warbanner that summons 5 ogres to it to assist anyone within 1200 range of it (revive players and attack the nearest target maybe?). If a server lost their ally, then these buildables would be lost as well. Maybe require something like 60 supply for the turrets and 30 for the warbanner?
These are, of course, just some really rough numbers. I feel like these additions would help make smaller groups feel like they have more value and be more likely to run in WvW during off-hours for their server and could make it more interesting as a whole. Sorry if similar ideas have been suggested also, but I did a quick search and got no results and some of the people I play with liked the ideas, so I figured why not post it.