Obviously there are a lot of people who are unhappy with the current state of affairs, and an equally large number of ideas or suggestions on how to deal with it. Here are a few of mine:
1) Bloodlust Changes
I feel the point control mechanic and aesthetic of the borderlands ruins are quite nice, however the granted buff is poorly considered and contributes to imbalance between the servers, much like the orb buffs did.
I would propose 2 possible new version of Bloodlust – 1 easy to implement and one likely a bit harder, from a coding perspective:
1a) Change the Bloodlust effects so they are similar to the current Outnumbered effects – +15 Magic Find, +33 Experience, +15 World Experience – and have them stack both with eachother (3 possible stacks, 1 from each BL) and with Outnumbered should it be in effect as well. Bloodlust would not remove repair costs however.
This change would both reduce the imbalance the current effect causes for those who have it, while still giving them something in return for their efforts. It also as a side effect helps those servers who are overmatched and outnumbered, by giving them access to something that will pay dividends longterm, and encourage play even under difficult conditions, a.k.a., getting repeatedly crushed by forces many times your size. This will help population on otherwise outnumbered servers.
1b) Keep the same stat-buff type buff that Bloodlust currently is, but scale it so that it’s effects are inversely proportional to the number of people on the Borderlands in question. Imagine the buff amount is of a total maximum size in terms of amount of stat points, and divided by the number of people receiving the buff.
These are several ways to actually do this so that it is not taxing or overall complex for the system to calculate or manage, but this too would provide some reward for the server who acquired the buff, and help those servers otherwise overmatched, if they managed to secure it for themsellves.
2) Anti-Zerg Mechanics
Like the above, I have 2 potential ways to address this issue, of very different types.
2a) Use mechanics similar to those which detect the number of players required to trigger swords, to detect when a group of players within a certain area is above a certain size and impose a new debuff called ‘Combat Fatigue’. This would impose a movement speed debuff, say -10%, on groups of players over 25 in size.
This would be a subtle, simple but substantial mechanic that would help the smaller groups or solo players compete with the zergs, and do so in a practical but not punishing way. Travel time and not getting run down are significant factors in the dynamic that results when zergs are out rolling.
2b) Add a new large area-of-effect debuff called “Blood-soaked Ground” which would come into being in any location where more than 25 downed or defeated players are detected. This debuff would reduce healing effectiveness and endurance regeneration by 15%, and cause killed players to go directly to downed state. Other more elaborate effects could be the spawning of risen from dead corpses, or of a large boss-type mob, a Reaper, that attacks everything in sight.
This idea of course would impact both sides of a battle, and would discourage even zerg vs zerg fights. The specifics of the debuff could vary, but the general idea would persist.
3) Add a new supply-built siege item named ‘Field Camp’.
This small earthwork and stakewall structure (using perhaps one of the various existing models of this type, such as those the centaur art employs) would be about 1200 units in diameter, cost 200 supply to build and have HP equivalent to 25% of that of an unupgraded tower wall. It’s sole purpose would be to provide some open field LoS blocking from ranged attacks and to create artificial chokepoints. It would also be impossible to deplay if you do not have the Outnumbered buff.
4) New Supply Mastery skills
Rank 6 Cost: 10 – Gain ability to drop supply. (becomes a chest like the yak would drop)
Rank 7 Cost: 15 – Recover supply from players you kill. (5)
Rank 8 Cost: 20 – Recover supply from yaks you kill. (5)
Rank 9 Cost: 25 – Gain ability to steal supply from enemy supply depots if not in combat mode. (applies movement debuff)
Rank 10 Cost: 30 – Gain the ability to deposit supply into a supply depot. (Only works if you are carrying the maximum amount of supply possible for you, F thus becomes a toggle between Take and Deposit.)
sPvP Build – WvW Build
Tarnished Coast Server- Anthrage Stormrider on Youtube