Guild Wars 2

A couple weeks ago I was one of 20 or so people in a BL map where one enemy server had two 30-40 man zergs roaming around speed-taking towers. They would turtle up with group swiftness, drop 5 rams, and generally take a tower in less than 2 minutes. At some point I was manning an arrow cart against them and watched as the zerg ran in, took the tower, and ran back out without even bothering to kill me.

I play a mesmer.

Since then I’ve made a point of hiding in keeps / towers that are getting steam rolled and then spamming map chat to get 5-6 people together so I could portal them in to retake 5 min. later. Any given server tends to catch on after this happens a couple times, but the magic is that they’re now stuck either spending 5 min. looking for the mesmer or leaving people behind to actually defend stuff. This means that instead of taking a tower in 2 minutes and a keep in 8, they now take 10 to 15 for either, which gives us half a chance to counter them, even with our inferior numbers.

WvW needs mesmer portals, or outmanned servers are doomed to always lose to the server with two 40 man zerg balls on every map. Winning in WvW should require at least a little strategy. Mesmer portals, like thief stealth, are a measure towards forcing that strategy to be necssary.

I like mesmer portals. They’re fun and I appreciate having them around.

What I don’t like is the number of people using them as a crutch. I’ve seen plenty of commanders on my server demanding mesmer portals for raids/sieges. That usually ends up with us wasting 10 minutes setting up instead of just busting the gate down with our superior force. In that time the other team tends to notice us and bunker down.

Portals should be used in the way you’ve described, imho. Running distractions/harassment/blitz attacks is where I’d like to see them stay. I don’t want to see a group of 40 players balling up on a hill outside of a tower just so that we can pop in at the gate.

I’ve had an opposing guild successfully mesmer bomb a fortified camp before. We lost the camp, but it was cool to see one guy run in (we at first assumed for the point of interest) only to have 10 guys suddenly pop out of no where on top of our siege. That’s smart play and the type of portal use I enjoy.

No more of this “we need mesmer chains to get anywhere” nonsense. Mesmers are a resource to make use of when you have them. They’re not a limiting factor or the hinge upon which your force hangs. We need to move past this portal honeymoon period.

I thought the enemy at your (reinforced) door with flame rams was enough to force defending. Portals forcing strategy? Cool man. I’m certain a lot of players don’t mind spending hours hanging out in towers/keeps twiddling fingers waiting on a Zerg they can’t stop without a Zerg of there own just to avoid portals. What fun game time that would be! AreaNet knows us gamers man! Word.

As a mesmer I still think portals should have a limit to how many people can use them. A single player blinking in entire zergs is just too OP. Yes I know there are counters to the tactic but it doesn’t mean it isn’t OP still.

AOEs should be set to damage all in a radius. That would be the best anti-zerg weapon. And other mmos had them set that way, and players did not stand next to each other..

“I’m certain a lot of players don’t mind spending hours hanging out in towers/keeps twiddling fingers waiting on a Zerg they can’t stop without a Zerg of there own just to avoid portals”

This is a facetious argument. You spend 5 minutes and find a mesmer. Two people are enough to check a tower, five will do for a keep. If you leave defenders, it’s to deal with the speed zerg. Ten people is enough.

Honestly, the number of zergs I see where 10 out of 30 are naked people spamming auto-attack tells me that a lot of people play WvW hoping to brainlessly farm badges / karma. Please don’t support that behavior.

greyblue.4962:

“I’m certain a lot of players don’t mind spending hours hanging out in towers/keeps twiddling fingers waiting on a Zerg they can’t stop without a Zerg of there own just to avoid portals”

This is a facetious argument. You spend 5 minutes and find a mesmer. Two people are enough to check a tower, five will do for a keep. If you leave defenders, it’s to deal with the speed zerg. Ten people is enough.

Honestly, the number of zergs I see where 10 out of 30 are naked people spamming auto-attack tells me that a lot of people play WvW hoping to brainlessly farm badges / karma. Please don’t support that behavior.

Portal bombing is why I’m play Planetside 2 right now. Call it Facetious until your face turns blue but Portals are a problem in WvW.

Peace,

Portals are only good if used by good players. Bad players will fail at using portals, just as they failed at using the turtle tactic.

You can still kill 3-4 times your own numbers trying to portal bomb you. In doubt? Then watch this video:

greyblue.4962:

Two people are enough to check a tower, five will do for a keep. If you leave defenders, it’s to deal with the speed zerg. Ten people is enough.

I’m curious. What trash server are you playing against? The Zergs I see show up with rams, balis and cata’s. At times they even use arrow carts from the ground level. They smash any siege weapon cannons in the tower/keep to bits. It’s practically suicide to stand on the walls most of the time.

But yeah, the severs you play against must not be serious. I’m talking JQ SOS SBI attacks bro.

Smokee.1754:

Portals are only good if used by good players. Bad players will fail at using portals, just as they failed at using the turtle tactic.

You can still kill 3-4 times your own numbers trying to portal bomb you. In doubt? Then watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0TJU59ESk

Yeah that’s nice. But tell that to people who work hard for every tic only to loose tics to portal bombing. Oh, I forgot portal boming is easy to defend against. For get the points right?

Gospel.7630:

…
Yeah that’s nice. But tell that to people who work hard for every tic only to loose tics to portal bombing. Oh, I forgot portal boming is easy to defend against. For get the points right?

How is this an argument?
You can say the same for anything else in the game.

Tentacle Love.3412:

Gospel.7630:

…
Yeah that’s nice. But tell that to people who work hard for every tic only to loose tics to portal bombing. Oh, I forgot portal boming is easy to defend against. For get the points right?

How is this an argument?
You can say the same for anything else in the game.

You must not play WvW if you don’t know what I just said. I could care less about an argument here with you (whoever you are on the other end). You’re not important. ArenaNet will address what I’m talking about at some point in the future. When that happens (AND IT WILL) you can search back in your short term memory bank and be like, yeah I was a fortblossem.

Peace,

I hate sweeping for mesmers in certain places. It’s annoying and unfun, especially in places like Dredgewater Bay.

On the other hand, I love it when I get to take a mesmer port past a wall in a keep raid myself. That’s fun, and feels so deliciously dirty. So you know, it’s just accepting the bad with the good.

portal bombing is fun

Gospel.7630:

Smokee.1754:

Portals are only good if used by good players. Bad players will fail at using portals, just as they failed at using the turtle tactic.

You can still kill 3-4 times your own numbers trying to portal bomb you. In doubt? Then watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS0TJU59ESk

Yeah that’s nice. But tell that to people who work hard for every tic only to loose tics to portal bombing. Oh, I forgot portal boming is easy to defend against. For get the points right?

If you loose points to people bombing you, it either means you are significantly less players than they are, or significantly worse players than they are, in either case you dont deserve the points, and you would most likely have lost them any way.