Guild Wars 2

The Desert borderland Shrine buffs are such that it’s impossible to rely on them.

• The buffs are increasingly useful,
• It is impossible to use the buffs since there is a high chance of them no longer being available when you do,
• This results in people assuming they are never available,
• The resulting play is that nobody cares about shrine buffs,
• No commanders use “zero fall damage” or “fire portal” in combat,
• Nobody makes any effort to activate them for the buffs/strategic value, just for credit/loot instead.

Conclusion

• I believe that if there is to be a buff, it needs to be reliable, not one that could just vanish when it is needed as part of a strategy.
• The “zero fall damage”, “safe lava/portals”, and “invisibility cloud” are all great ideas, but they aren’t implemented in a practical manner.

• Numerical bonuses would be more appropriate for the “maybe it’s on, maybe it’s off, who cares, it’s just a bonus” nature of the Shrines.

‘Ur commanders’ don’t use zero fall damage or fire portal cause they have no idea how to play the map. That’s not the game’s fault.

IMpossible to rely on? Well it takes real effort to get them all inplace at the same time. The reward for doing so is rather lackluster tbh but if it was any better ‘some’ people would complain nonstop for months to have them removed.

If ur smart you are always directing ur squad to the nearest shrine you pass by. It gives 140% base movement speed to all ur members. WHich is a fairly significant edge for combat. Whether or not ur server puts in the effort to retain the shrines is another story. Our pairing has no problem getting all 3 shrines active. Its gonna differ depending on ur server obviously. SHould anet balance it based on server use and commander competency? The answer is no they should not. Its gonna fall on you and others in ur server to teach people how to use them.

Cerby.1069:

Its gonna fall on you and others in ur server to teach people how to use them.

Do you think that any commander is going attempt to rely on the falling damage/lava/portal/stealth knowing that the enemy can remove it at any time?

It simply isn’t practical.

Svarty.8019:

The Desert borderland Shrine buffs are such that it’s impossible to rely on them.

Conclusion

• I believe that if there is to be a buff, it needs to be reliable, not one that could just vanish when it is needed as part of a strategy.
• The “zero fall damage”, “safe lava/portals”, and “invisibility cloud” are all great ideas, but they aren’t implemented in a practical manner.

• Numerical bonuses would be more appropriate for the “maybe it’s on, maybe it’s off, who cares, it’s just a bonus” nature of the Shrines.

Actually it’s quite the opposite. They are very easy to spot when available and very easy to rely on, when available.

- You can see the ‘fall damage’ buff in your list of buffs
- You can see the fog easily
- You can see the ‘Lava Portal’ text over the portal if it’s available.

Also, one very quick glance at the map will tell you if the required Shrine(s) are yours.

It’s NOT difficult at all. Seriously if you can’t see when they’re available and make use of them accordingly then you really just need more time getting used to what to look for at a glance.

I agree with Cerby, this is a story of a commander that doesn’t play to the map they are in.

I can’t attest to fall damage but have seen the other two utilized to great effect by group/zerg. Also if you aren’t making a point to cap simply for run Speed then you are missing out big time, shrines are easier solo caps than camps and camps are easy. Your roamed alone should be caping half of them to begin with.

Also…DBL moral bonus for color washing the map…it’s similar to claiming home BL bloodlust points, color washing demoralizes the enemy even if it’s minor and provides no ppt

Balthazzarr.1349:

Actually it’s quite the opposite. They are very easy to spot when available and very easy to rely on, when available.

- You can see the ‘fall damage’ buff in your list of buffs
- You can see the fog easily
- You can see the ‘Lava Portal’ text over the portal if it’s available.

Also, one very quick glance at the map will tell you if the required Shrine(s) are yours.

It’s NOT difficult at all. Seriously if you can’t see when they’re available and make use of them accordingly then you really just need more time getting used to what to look for at a glance.

That’s not my argument. My argument is that the shrines can flip at any time, removing the essential buff, meaning that it can’t be relied upon for any particular strategy that a commander might have in mind.

Perhaps if the best buff were for holding two shrines instead of three shrines, the commanders would be more willing to risk using them, since they would have a 1-shrine cushion. It’s unlikely they would lose two shrines at once.

lol Svarty.. yes that’s true.. that’s why you have to watch the map, watch your buffs, and so on… You can’t just rely on “knowing” something is there.. Just like your food and utility buffs… they time out as well. Your skill buffs, same thing.. It’s all about paying attention and when it comes to the shrines you must pay attention and NOT rely on them being or not being there.

What would be the point of having a buff that never goes away? Now that would just cause tons of forum entries in itself. No, the point of having these shrines the way they are is to that you CAN get buffs if you want to but you have to work for it, and keep an eye on them so you can use them when you need to…

Or you could do what most people probably do which is to NOT be concerned with these fleeting buffs most of the time; use them when you can; carry on…

These buffs are not worth the effort of keeping them, thus why no one bother keeping all the shrines… We just flip 1 or 2 to disable annoying turrets when attacking the side keeps and that’s most use you’ll see from them.

Balthazzarr.1349:

lol Svarty.. yes that’s true.. that’s why you have to watch the map, watch your buffs, and so on… You can’t just rely on “knowing” something is there.. Just like your food and utility buffs… they time out as well. Your skill buffs, same thing.. It’s all about paying attention and when it comes to the shrines you must pay attention and NOT rely on them being or not being there.

What would be the point of having a buff that never goes away? Now that would just cause tons of forum entries in itself. No, the point of having these shrines the way they are is to that you CAN get buffs if you want to but you have to work for it, and keep an eye on them so you can use them when you need to…

Or you could do what most people probably do which is to NOT be concerned with these fleeting buffs most of the time; use them when you can; carry on…

Please refer to my previous post. I’m not saying that the buff should NEVER go away, just that it should not go away with no warning whatsoever.

Svarty.8019:

Balthazzarr.1349:

lol Svarty.. yes that’s true.. that’s why you have to watch the map, watch your buffs, and so on… You can’t just rely on “knowing” something is there.. Just like your food and utility buffs… they time out as well. Your skill buffs, same thing.. It’s all about paying attention and when it comes to the shrines you must pay attention and NOT rely on them being or not being there.

What would be the point of having a buff that never goes away? Now that would just cause tons of forum entries in itself. No, the point of having these shrines the way they are is to that you CAN get buffs if you want to but you have to work for it, and keep an eye on them so you can use them when you need to…

Or you could do what most people probably do which is to NOT be concerned with these fleeting buffs most of the time; use them when you can; carry on…

Please refer to my previous post. I’m not saying that the buff should NEVER go away, just that it should not go away with no warning whatsoever.

Same non warning you get for all buffs….

Balthazzarr.1349:

Same non warning you get for all buffs….

Other buffs aren’t held by objective… And you receive a warning when you gain or lose bloodlust which would be the closest to the shrine buffs. You argument is invalid.

oh groan, bloodlust? lol well yes there is that…ok I retract my “all buffs” comment… but that is the ONLY buff that actually tells you when you or someone else gets it. All your other buffs are there until they timeout etc. Totally valid without regard to bloodlust.

At the end of the day all but this buff are ones that you yourself has to monitor and pop them when you need to (if skill related), or click the utility or food etc etc.

I mean you could split hairs if you really want to but… bloodlust is the only buff that actually clearly tells you who just got it.

Whether held by objective or not… it’s still up to YOU to check to see if it’s usable or not.