Guild Wars 2

This suggestion is to add a few consumable items, that are similar to blueprints and traps, but place a npc guard at the location. Could be placed inside a tower or keep, or anywhere on a wvw map. see a zerg coming at you? everyone place a guard! they would behave similar to the sentries in that they would stand there and if an enemy came close they would attack it.
They consume supply to place, like the traps.
Suggested prices:
Guard = 20 badges to buy, 5 supply to use
Veteran Guard = upgraded Guard in Mystic Forge (like how you make superior blueprints), 10 supply to use
Archer = 20 badges to buy, 5 supply to use
Veteran Archer = upgraded Guard in Mystic Forge (like how you make superior), 10 supply to use

Probably wouldn’t be a good idea to have champion-level guards. for starters, they should need like 200 supply (require a building location and everyone can help build it). but more than that, it would make long-term occupations that much harder to take. on the other hand, shouldn’t long-term owners have that benefit? Anyways, they would be created in the mystic forge similar to superior siege now, except require like 10 siege masters guides instead of 1 and use the already-promoted veteran guards or archers.

No, I don’t need to be fighting a condi Thief and War and then have random open field NPC vets pelting me with bolas or rapid fire shots from 3 million units away. They’d kitten up small scale fights and be rally bait for big groups.

If they want to throw defenders a bone, add an alarm option in the structure upgrades. It goes off when any destructible component takes x% damage, instead of having these poor people semi-afking eating chips and watching Breaking Bad.

I think its not good idea. Guards are just visual effects against 10+ teams but can destroy good small scale fights

Adding more PvE to WvW is never a good thing. So no, its a bad idea.

Tarkus.4109:

Adding more PvE to WvW is never a good thing. So no, its a bad idea.

I understand this sentiment and I’d agree with it if the challenges were more balaced, but the alternative to PvE in WvW often isn’t PvP but often sadly unchallenging and predictable PvE (taking empty towers and camps defended by largely ineffectual NPCs — that is, “PvDoor”). As such, proving a buff to the defending or adding more defending NPCs isn’t so much adding more PvE to WvW as it is making the PvE in WvW more challenging than a momentary speed bump.

In order to protect small scale roaming from just being about who brought the most guards, I’d limit this to only be applicable within a tower or keep. Mostly to make keep defense easier. At the moment it’s almost more difficult to defend a tower than take it. Between all the AoE spam and the chance of getting plucked off the walls you just can’t do much in a siege defense without an arrow cart. Being able to reinforce a tower with extra archers on the wall would at least make invasions a bit harder.

Especially if guards were capable of body blocking. Put two or three along the stairs to stop people from literally running past all opposition to take out the lord. Set up archers around the walls to pelt attackers with arrows. You’d be able to hold off a much larger force of enemies with much fewer allies and make defense less utterly hopeless.

gennyt.3428:

instead of having these poor people semi-afking eating chips and watching Breaking Bad.

LOL

quoted for truth

What we really need is a legendary siege razer for keeps.

Ehecatl.9172:

In order to protect small scale roaming from just being about who brought the most guards, I’d limit this to only be applicable within a tower or keep. Mostly to make keep defense easier. At the moment it’s almost more difficult to defend a tower than take it. Between all the AoE spam and the chance of getting plucked off the walls you just can’t do much in a siege defense without an arrow cart. Being able to reinforce a tower with extra archers on the wall would at least make invasions a bit harder.

Especially if guards were capable of body blocking. Put two or three along the stairs to stop people from literally running past all opposition to take out the lord. Set up archers around the walls to pelt attackers with arrows. You’d be able to hold off a much larger force of enemies with much fewer allies and make defense less utterly hopeless.

That sounds like a good way of implementing the OP’s suggestion. Defense is already a thankless job even when it works. Getting additional help is always a good thing, and can lead to better, more interesting battles.

How about, in addition to/in place of these extra guards and archers, something more like a Guardian? A support unit with heals and buffs and condi removal. Something that will let defending PCs not melt quite as fast…stupid ramparts that impede more than protect.

A guardian/monk NPC would work too. I’d prefer monk for flavor since it IS the Mists. A gateway between worlds and times. I just like seeing little things like that.

But yes. Something to provide heals. Some body blocking effects so invaders can’t just bullrush in and slaughter everyone and everything immediately. In a real siege there’d be soldiers at the gates ready to hold off enemies in a confined space to offset the numbers difference. Nothing too strong, just enough to at least slow the zerg down and force them to blow knockbacks and such to get by.

The ramparts are pretty frustrating though, yah. Enemy AoE will just go over them most of the time. And the tiny little bit of rampart along the edges that stop your from having line of sight? Bugger those things. Defenders shouldn’t have to stand precariously on the edge to hit the zerg below.

McWolfy.5924:

I think its not good idea. Guards are just visual effects against 10+ teams but can destroy good small scale fights

I was picturing a zerg capturing a tower, then using the 100 supply they just captured to lay down 10 vet archers above the gate so it’s not easily re-captured. 1 wouldn’t really do much against 10+ teams. but 10, 20, 30 would.

This suggestion could be limited to defense points if people are worried about it too-heavily influencing 1v1 fights. though I feel in a 1v1 fight, if someone stopped and spent 5 seconds to lay down a npc guard, they will be killed before the guard is even completed. could even make it take 10 seconds to lay it down if it’s that big a deal.
Maybe have it be an upgrade-type thing you buy from the npc? they already have one for hiring several additional guards – this would just be a “hire 1 additional guard for 20s and 10 supply” that you could purchase multiple times.

I kind of like this idea for a number of reasons. First, everyone knows routes to just plow through an undefended structure and get to the lords room. What that means is those roaming speed bumps are mostly useless. By allowing people to place guards you could create some slowdowns allowing people the time to react that the guards were meant to do. Its also allows for more diversity in defenses and takes which keeps things fresh. Not to mention most servers have coverage issues and though this doesn’t solve the issue it does help mitigate it a little and give us another use of the badges. +1 from me, can see some merits in fleshing this idea out further.

Mystic.5934:

McWolfy.5924:

I think its not good idea. Guards are just visual effects against 10+ teams but can destroy good small scale fights

I was picturing a zerg capturing a tower, then using the 100 supply they just captured to lay down 10 vet archers above the gate so it’s not easily re-captured. 1 wouldn’t really do much against 10+ teams. but 10, 20, 30 would.

This suggestion could be limited to defense points if people are worried about it too-heavily influencing 1v1 fights. though I feel in a 1v1 fight, if someone stopped and spent 5 seconds to lay down a npc guard, they will be killed before the guard is even completed. could even make it take 10 seconds to lay it down if it’s that big a deal.
Maybe have it be an upgrade-type thing you buy from the npc? they already have one for hiring several additional guards – this would just be a “hire 1 additional guard for 20s and 10 supply” that you could purchase multiple times.

That’s the thing, fights are rarely 1v1. Even groups that pounce on solo/smaller teams often run to and hover around guards when their health gets low. Now they wouldn’t have to run, just have their friend(s) plop a couple down, and if it works like a trap then a class with stealth can do it unseen(I’ve dropped supply traps in zergs). Next thing you know, you’re catching a shield bash to the face. Essentially, it would be the small man equivalent of the bigger blob building open field siege to wipe a smaller blob. A clustered map like Eternal would become a nightmare.