First, let me say that the new terrain in the middle of the maps is excellent. Awesome job there Anet. You really put a lot of thought into the map design.
Now, with that said. The Orb buffs will ruin WvW for small man fights.
The stat gain is significant for 1v1s, but for 5v5s it is even more of a problem because it is a force multiplier. Good 5v5 teams focus targets. So, if a side has all three orbs their focus target is taking the extra damage from the stats from all of the players targeting him. This is leading to some damage spikes that are just way over the top.
Small man fighting is all about managing your health by going offensive and defensive depending on positioning and who is getting focused. But, now when facing good groups who have good builds and know how to focus target the incoming damage can not be managed or in a best case scenario puts you at a huge disadvantage. The worst case scenario being that you just get blown up.
Now, let’s flip that around. Any good and serious small man out there plays for the challenge. THEY DO NOT WANT AN ARTIFICIAL ADVANTAGE OVER THEIR OPPONENTS. Let me say that again, because it is important and it seems to be something that a lot of game developers don’t understand about us. WE DO NOT WANT AN ARTIFICIAL ADVANTAGE WHEN FIGHTING OUR OPPONENTS.
You see, you are not only ruining the fight for the side that has no Orbs… you are also ruining the fight for the side that has all three Orbs. The reason for this is because they want to know that they just won the fight because they outplayed their opponent not because they had some kind of bullkitten Orb buff.
Bottom line: New terrain is awesome, keep it. Orb buffs are horrible. Replace them with something meaningful that helps the realm win the matchup but doesn’t interfere with open field fighting.
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