Guild Wars 2

Whenever I read through my server’s matchup forum thread (T1), there’s always people accusing others of “blobbing,” as if it were a shameful crime. I play this game, for the most part WvW, mainly for its large scale battles. I love it when my server’s “blob” goes against another server’s blob face to face and see armies get decimated. Heck, that’s really the only reason why I play WvW or this game. If I wanted to play smaller scale battles, then I would be playing structured PvP or some other game.

Can someone explain to me why blobbing is such a shameful thing to do? If it’s because it promote “easy play” or “no skill,” so to speak, then by that logic, is it also shameful to be wearing full exotics? Or use siege weapons? Or use hotkeys? Maybe we should be all keyboard turning since using mouse to turn makes it “too easy.” Someone please enlighten me!

The issue really isn’t zergs, which exist in all RvR games.

The issue is that the maps are so small that zerging crowds out almost all other forms of play.

Also, mechanics like the AoE cap, the downed state, and no Trinity mean that smaller groups have far more difficulty taking out zergs by superior play than they should.

That’s really at the root of the “blobbing” complaints.

Thrumdi.9216:

The issue really isn’t zergs, which exist in all RvR games.

The issue is that the maps are so small that zerging crowds out almost all other forms of play.

Also, mechanics like the AoE cap, the downed state, and no Trinity mean that smaller groups have far more difficulty taking out zergs by superior play than they should.

That’s really at the root of the “blobbing” complaints.

This.

There’s no skill involved with blobbing. You just run after that blue tag and hope you got the bigger blob. It should be possible for a small well coordinated group to hold a camp, tower or even defend themselves from the blob. As it is today there’s no way for five people to hold it against 50…

To strengthen what was said above me, I will give out my point of view as a wvw guild leader .
When ever I drop my members on a border,sometimes together with another guild, we tick 20-25. Very stable and balance zerg, not need to go into numbers.
When we see a 50+ zerg infront of us, we don’t exactly enjoy interacting not only because of the numbers they have, but also because of the skill lag they drop. You can only press "1"regardless of the bags we eventually get.

We support zerg roaming between 25-35 and not more. More is seen as blobbing, and in this meta , which my guild try to change, the quantity still overpowers tactics when you have 50 people covering all your routes.

So Anet, Please start implementing incentives for smaller groups like 25 ppl rather than 50.

Geiir.7603:

Thrumdi.9216:

The issue really isn’t zergs, which exist in all RvR games.

The issue is that the maps are so small that zerging crowds out almost all other forms of play.

Also, mechanics like the AoE cap, the downed state, and no Trinity mean that smaller groups have far more difficulty taking out zergs by superior play than they should.

That’s really at the root of the “blobbing” complaints.

This.

There’s no skill involved with blobbing. You just run after that blue tag and hope you got the bigger blob. It should be possible for a small well coordinated group to hold a camp, tower or even defend themselves from the blob. As it is today there’s no way for five people to hold it against 50…

I’m not a WvW expert by any means, but from what I’ve witnessed, blobbing doesn’t necessarily mean free wins. In one case, my server was fighting against an opposing server that was blobbing hard. Our commanders made a decision to hit Bay and Hills, both owned by the opposing server, simultaneously. Our bay offensive group got destroyed by their blob, but we took hills because they didn’t have enough time to wipe our bay group, swim across the lake, and save hills in time. So I definitely see pros and cons to blobbing.

As for 5 people going against 50 and not having a chance, I’m not sure if that was supposed to be an extreme example, but I don’t really see a problem with that :P

A low AoE cap (only 5 people, really?) and the rally mechanic makes blobbing important, but when you can attack 4 targets at once with 4 organized groups of 20, then you have something going there.

However, people are drawn like fireflies to the big fights, almost always to their own detriment.

I don’t mind blobing really. I too usually roam with my guild group of 20 to 25 and it’s pretty easy to move around the opponents blob and capture points. The real issues of the game (WvW wise) are intense skill lag hapening when a blob attack us (all anyone can really do is spam auto attack and in that regard the blob will always win) AND the waypoint blobing (that is the major issue here, it’s inexcusable from Anet to have a year old game and still having exploitable issue that obvious known to everybody not fixed) easy massive map hopping is also something I would like to see changed.

There are easy fix to that and it would make the game so much better. I’ll keep dreaming lol

I think people who complain about blobbing fall into three categories:

1. They can’t stand when the game’s performance drops to horrific levels.

2. They crave open world hand to hand combat badly and WvWvW is the closest GW2 will come to it but the ‘zerg’ crushes their hopes of small skirmishes or even straight up ganking. There’s a subset of this group that complains about people using siege.

3. They want to upgrade structures, prep siege, capture objectives etc and are tired of their work effortlessly steamrolled by a group that outnumbers them 3 to 1.

Blobbing/Zerging = Zero Skill (is why people don’t like it)

Sadly, ArenaNet created this game around 100% blobbing and zerging.

anyone can drool on their keyboard until their drool pushes 1… and kill you cuz their blob is bigger than yours

insanemaniac.2456:

anyone can drool on their keyboard until their drool pushes 1… and kill you cuz their blob is bigger than yours

^ What this man said

Blobbing and Zerging are different in my book. Zerging applies up to a 40v40 in my opinion, blobbing is when extreme skill lag occurs and is usually one dorito map queues. (I.E> everyone on one commander tag).

I dont enjoy the lag and I also think its a vastly watered down and ineffective use of resources. There is no skill in pressing 1. Some more macro tools by ANET such as private guild tags or even party tags will go a long way into advancing the macro-tactics in the game which would encourage moving away from ‘blobbing’ into more reasonable skill-based encounters from zerging to havoc to individual roaming.

…because 80% of forum users are bored thieves, posting in between yak kills, and they’re mad, because they can’t one shot people safely while they are all blobbed up.

I suppose the biggest issue for me and blobbing, other than skill lag, lack of player skill, lack of independent though, or the lack of a counter is that blobbing is counter-intuitive to how combat works in the real world.

In the real world, there is synchronization and formations spread out among the landscape at various tactical locations. Our army doesn’t just gather tightly together because missiles arbitrarily only hit 5 people in that area. If I see 30 players group up in to a tight ball in WvW, I should be able to shred them effortlessly with my wells or grenades, depending on what I’m playing. But I can’t. They remain an impenetrable mass of of players who outheal any damage I do to the group because I can only hit a few of them at any time.

Nobody likes the blob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glzcxa7jtoI

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

In the real world, there is synchronization and formations spread out among the landscape at various tactical locations.

formations get you killed

theyre so 1800s

The issue is that if you are blobbing, keeping in mind there is a difference between being in a large coordinated zerg and blobbing, then you are basically playing the game on auto-pilot and this game rewards you for it.

The fact that so many people are content to just blob around playing like chimps is a point of irritation for everyone that wants to see a game with evolving and competitive meta.

It is looked down upon by pvpers because there is no skilled play involved by individual players who most of the time couldn’t use there skills even if they wanted to. There are skilled commanders, but that is really a moot point with the ability to teleport across the map: 60 men can move as fast as a group of 20.

I would like to see a hour cap on way points myself apart from home point. Or they could lower the player cap.

Most wvwers are not pvpers and don’t do well them selves. There is strength in numbers, but it is taken to far and leads to very poor game play. I find it hard to stay on a tag because I want to fight not stand in a group to feel safe lol. I end up missing caps trying to pull one or two players away to duel and end up getting jumped by 8 people more often then not like hot join spvp lol. Overall its a play style that no one enjoys apart from commanders, but casuals enjoy it more than getting japed by roaming pvpers.

In hot join you run into the same type of play the reason tpvpers feel it’s a joke. In both wvw and more so in hot join it removes the strategic element of the game for at least one side making the game fun for neither.

Ezeriel.9574:

…because 80% of forum users are bored thieves, posting in between yak kills, and they’re mad, because they can’t one shot people safely while they are all blobbed up.

My thief have no problem killing people in a blob. The fact that the blob is so unorganized usually end with the downed player left behind. People are so obsessed in staying with the commander for speed buffs that they will just leave anyone behind if they die, and this make a thiefs job very easy.

BAEK.8561:

Whenever I read through my server’s matchup forum thread (T1), there’s always people accusing others of “blobbing,” as if it were a shameful crime. I play this game, for the most part WvW, mainly for its large scale battles. I love it when my server’s “blob” goes against another server’s blob face to face and see armies get decimated. Heck, that’s really the only reason why I play WvW or this game. If I wanted to play smaller scale battles, then I would be playing structured PvP or some other game.

Can someone explain to me why blobbing is such a shameful thing to do? If it’s because it promote “easy play” or “no skill,” so to speak, then by that logic, is it also shameful to be wearing full exotics? Or use siege weapons? Or use hotkeys? Maybe we should be all keyboard turning since using mouse to turn makes it “too easy.” Someone please enlighten me!

Well if you look a little closely it’s really the same posters that are qqing over blobs. It’s more trolling more than anything.

Blobs smobs, everyone does it, everyone cries about it, simple fact is their “blob” smashed yours therefore QQ.

Small ops works and if you don’t believe this your not trying hard enough. I often lead 10ish+ people on a map where we have “Outnumbered” and take keeps because you keep up the pressure and hit multiple locations at once the “blob” is rendered useless sure they’ll kill you a few times, but the goal is to take the tower / keep not get kills, like some posters would have you believe.

Geiir.7603:

Ezeriel.9574:

…because 80% of forum users are bored thieves, posting in between yak kills, and they’re mad, because they can’t one shot people safely while they are all blobbed up.

My thief have no problem killing people in a blob. The fact that the blob is so unorganized usually end with the downed player left behind. People are so obsessed in staying with the commander for speed buffs that they will just leave anyone behind if they die, and this make a thiefs job very easy.

This is a major reason why I refrain from hopping in a zerg or blob. I’ve picked up allies and had the same allies ignore me when I go down because of this blob mentality. This has only taught me to leave my allies to die but I would sooner avoid zerging before I would ignore allies that I am more than capable of saving.

There really is no individual thought in the blob and the game heavily punishes those who attempt to have one.

insanemaniac.2456:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

In the real world, there is synchronization and formations spread out among the landscape at various tactical locations.

formations get you killed

theyre so 1800s

Bad formations get you killed. Good formations avoid friendly fire.

shimmerless.4560:

zergs are rewarded a lot better than smaller groups for pretty brainless play, plus they strain the servers and the game just isn’t mechanically designed well for massive engagements

WvW is designed so you can “play the way you want to play”

So Zerg might be most viable option at the moment, but its also fun when you run 80 ppl into 80 people and their 80 people die.

Also hella fun and kitten boosting to take a keep with 10-20 people when you know there is a queue on the map from enemy server, try playing the game for fun and not reward.

They designed PvP in this game to not be a grind fest for “points” as it is in other games like Aion, the loot and currency (badges) is a casual side effect, not a determiner of success/failure in pvp. I play WvW for the strategy, cunning ability to beat larger groups or outsmart my counter-parts on the WvW field the kitten jolly is usually enough for me, how about you?

You can totaly find small scale though you just have to make sure your not near a zerg your or theirs and stay off the highways. take out yakers and those spawning and most times you can goad out a scout/sentury.

Blob vs Blob isn’t really the issue. It’s when it’s blob vs 10 – that’s when there’s raging and QQ on the forums. As a member of a guild that regularly fights outnumbered, we can say that if we have 20 people and the other group has 30-35 it’ll be most likely in our favour simply because once people get used to blobing – when at lower numbers where tactics and things such as aoe heals matter the “blob” or even a smaller version of it forgets about this stuff and is essentially trying to tag whatever they can to get bags and exp.

It’s fun for our guild and several others like us, but for the guilds that are either more casual, fields less than 15 at a time, or even the pug groups of 10-20 fighting a blob is a real problem. Tactics are out the window and it’s just a free for all. Whoever can spam aoes and 1 the most will get the loots and wxp – unfortunately that’s just how it is. But don’t get me wrong we QQ anytime it’s 20 v 50 and then when that same group is fielding only 30 at the time they run away – and that is what’s so frustrating about blobbers. 0 backbone unless they can visibly see them outnumbering the other group. There are some instances where this isn’t true but 90%+ of blobbers will run away the closer it gets to even numbers. And unfortunately all of those runners are in t1 LOL. The tiers below – most people will actually come out and fight regardless (there are some runners but not as frequent).

From my experience it’s not the blob itself what ppl dislike but what comes with it and especially skill lags … when my guild fields like 20 men we can wipe twice the number sometimes triple … if there are no skill lags.

The other thing is their cowardnes (especially seen at german servers – yes u Riverside). They bunker in towers behind bazilion sieges untill they are like 3-4 times more and then they go out. But sometimes when we kite them to open field from the reach of their ACs they fall back in the tower … in those moments I’m like WTF? your are outnumbering us 3 to 1 and u run away? This kind of gameplay is boring as hell – I understand you play for then win (never go into fight that you can’t clearly win) but is that worth it?

Because they don’t have any alternatives.

The only in game grouping system allows for a single 5 man groups or a blob. Why do we zerg… because we have no other in game system to organize. I guarantee we’d have less zerging if they allowed us to form private or guild only squads.

Skill lag, framerate drops, and severe bandwidth congestion because the gerbils powering their servers need a break too yknow?

I think people get lazy when they fight in big numbers and have zero incentive to improve their skill and learn their class thoroughly. When you don’t have to improve and grow in order to win, most people won’t. If you stop growing, the game stagnates because there’s nothing new to experience. Not everyone is in the game to maximize their class’s potential, but for those that are, getting stomped by 70, instead of being challenged by 20-30 is a zero win for both sides of that equation. Neither side walks away learning anything.

gennyt.3428:

3. They want to upgrade structures, prep siege, capture objectives etc and are tired of their work effortlessly steamrolled by a group that outnumbers them 3 to 1.

This one for me. And I have a simple change that might alleviate it: If players could not damage doors with their attacks, a small group would be able to defend objectives and force the bigger group to reconsider their approach.

I don’t think it would be looked down upon if it didn’t cause skill lag.. I’ve often encountered zerg battles of say 35 on 35 and everything is fine…

It when this certain server in T1 insists on mega blobbing everywhere (including responding with 70+ people to 5 guys taking a camp) that are screwing things up. I’m pretty sure they know who they are. The other server in T1 doesn’t quite seem to run with the same numbers and thus lag is never as bad fighting them.

Until Anet figures out how to take care of skill lag, I really think they should be putting some sort of debuff on group of 50+.

Blobbing is both very easy to do and also the most effective tactic. So of course its looked down on when even a monkey could pull it off.
You just spam #1 and roll through everything, of course it kitten es people off.

Can someone explain to me why blobbing is such a shameful thing to do? If it’s because it promote “easy play” or “no skill,” so to speak, then by that logic, is it also shameful to be wearing full exotics? Or use siege weapons? Or use hotkeys? Maybe we should be all keyboard turning since using mouse to turn makes it “too easy.” Someone please enlighten me!

Your " then by that logic" does not hold here :P.

Blobbing is easier, if you’re fighting an inferior enemy. If two pug blobs collide, larger numbers always win.

Personally our guild runs 20-25 and I enjoy the large blobs we hit, they just create more bags and a challenge. If we hit a truly coordinated blob, they win sometimes. C’est la vie.

To answer the OP’s question people complain because that’s what people do to make themselves feel better. People generally want to attribute some weird sense of superiority for pressing keys in a game and talk down to anyone using words like “Scrub, blob, etc” to do so. It’s the internet and they can’t be held accountable for being rude.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

Why are blobs looked down upon?

Replace the human players with bots and would the blob be less effective?