Q:
First off SMC. I’ve heard many people say that SMC isn’t meant to be held for a long time. Personally I think It should be held the entire time. I would rather defend an SMC with a wp and let the my T3 keep fall. SMC is in the middle of the map with a wp you can wp back and get to anywhere on the map in half the time, while our keep is located right next to our BL wp. Yes I know SMC is bigger and easier to keep it undersieged.
That being said I think there should be greater incentive and rewards for holding SMC longer. Each match up or round is a whole week long, so there should be side meta events like “Hold SMC for 2 or 3 days” or even 24 hours and you get a Champion to help guard an outer gate, and inner gate or a corridor of the Lords room. After the 2, 3 days or 24 hour is achieved then the next tier will bring another Champ or a trio of Champs to patrol the outer, inner courtyards or the Lords room while the Lord is moved to the 2nd floor. The patrolling champ(s) can even patrol outside of the castle making it harder to gather intel and timer tap. Finally Tier 3, hold SMC for 6 days and the Lord is moved to the third floor with 2 champs guarding the 2nd floor and 1 champ guarding the first floor. There should be a pool of 10 to 15 champs you can choose from. It would be nice if the champs were unique class of themselves, like the Monk, the Crusader / Paladin, on the toad swamp side the Mist Walker / Shaman, and on the Ogre side the Jugganaunt. During Tournament play these meta events can be even more attractive by offering skins, or minis of the champs that you’ve earned by Holding SMC for an X amount of time / days.
There can be more incentives and rewards like the Trio time limit in Frostgourge Sound. This is where escorting 10K Dolyaks wouldn’t seem so boring and unsatisfying. After the first tier is achieved “Hold SMC for 2 Days” AND a wp is built, a meta event would kick in and give you the opportunity to swift buff and escort those Yaks to their destination(s) to achieve a certain amount of supplies before the timer is up. If they do complete the event(s), then for a reduced amount of coin and badges you can either choose which side or whichever side the most supplies were delivered from and put up 1 to 3 sieges, trebs, catapults, acs or ballistas at 3/4 of the supplies needed to build them. Or they can be already built and you choose where to put them. Another option could allow a 2nd wp to be built in the outer courtyard. The Yak escort event could be available for each side of SMC. You can then choose to build a wp on each side of SMC and be unhinged from the Lords room wp. Meaning when the outer wp(s) is contested the inner Lords room wp is still available to use. Of course this would only be available after you’ve at least achieved the first tier of the 6 day hold event. The outer wps could further be unhinged from each other after the 2nd tier of the hold is achieved. Now that would certainly be so much more rewarding than just getting a bronze, silver or gold medal with no experience, silver or karma to go with it. When those Yak event pop the opposing side would also have stop the Yak / supply delivery events pop. The incentive and rewards could be anywhere from lots of gold, temp buffs, slowing the arrival of the champs or disabling a set of gate guards, mortars, cannons etc… on one side of SMC and the champ that was earned from the first tier of holding for a limited amount of time. If the map is full then 2 or 3 simultaneous bonus Yak events can pop at the same time. On the attacking side, if you manage to stop or event cripple, i.e. treb the opposing teams supply depot and reduce it to 0 or a certain amount then the reward / disabling time could go as long as 1 day.
Finally, if you manage to hold SMC for the entire duration of the round, about 6.5 to 7 days. Then you can start the next round with a T3 SMC with a wp already built and ready to rock. Future match ups can pit 3 servers that achieved this amazing feat and start them out with a T3 keep with wp built and let them mad dash for control of SMC and try to be the best of the best. You can give them further incentive by offering the 7 Unique Ascended or Legendary weapons or armor skins or the mercenary champs outfit / armor as rewards. Now that would be a Tournament to end all Tournaments.
I’ve got a few more ideas for Borderlands and Tower mechanics but that’s for another day.
If you have any suggestion feel free to rock n roll.
