Guild Wars 2

Overview
As many players feel or have felt, WvW is getting a bit stale. The power of zerging and limited environmental interaction has left many players burnout as there lacks the depth needed for long term enjoyment. With upcoming MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Camelot Unchained, Guild Wars 2 will be faced with some stiff competition in the near future and on.

Of the many issues WvW has, I feel the main one that needs addressing at the moment is improving the role of small groups. This directly relates to zergs as empowering smaller parties will help diminish the massive zergs thus improving combat. One way to help smaller groups is by making the environment provide a benefit other than visual graphics. By allowing smaller groups to utilize the environment, we can ensure guerilla tactics becoming viable. While some of ideas here may not be very feasible or even clunky, the key idea is simply let guerilla warfare work in WvW in some way or form.

Examples of environmental effects:(1)
Difficult Terrain [swamps/mud]:

• Lowers mobility, debuff intensifies when in a big group. The stacks increases when in 600 range proximity to another player/enemies. These are non-condition based effects, overrides similar effects from conditions.
• When a player reaches a certain amount of stacks of the debuff, getting knocked down will cause a chain effect to nearby players/enemies (50% chance and 8 sec cooldown)
• Smaller groups generally pass through with little mobility lost.
• Some areas with Difficult Terrain can cause poison or confusion.
• Group revive effectiveness halved
• No deployment of siege weapons within this area.

Unstable Terrain [rocky grounds/cliffs/snowy mountainous areas]:

• May cause disruptive effects and falling boulders and debris.
• Effects intensify as more players move or fight in the area (Rockslides and avalanches)
• Stunned/knockdown players take extra damage from falling objects/slides
• May cause a slight mobility debuff.
• Group revive effectiveness halved
• No deployment of siege weapons within this area.

Underground Terrain [caves/ tunnels]:

• Randomly occurring cave-in (low aoe damage; no special effects)
• Larger groups/battles will trigger larger cave-in (strong and wide aoe damage; wide range of disruptive effects)
• Higher intensity cave-in does extra damage to downed players
• Group revive effectiveness halved
• Massive cave-ins if a zerg was to fight underground
• No deployment of siege weapons within this area.

Tall Grass: (2)

• Cloaks players/npc from far away observers, but reveals within moderate -close distances. -Slight mobility debuff, movement causes swaying in the plants, larger number players causes heavy swaying and wildlife to move out of area.
• Causes REVEALED while in area.
• No deployment of siege weapons within this area.

Heavy Fog:

• Limits visibility at range, visibility improves at medium ranges.
• Naturally occurring, benefit from allied NPC, or even from a new siege utility.

Breakdown of the ideal map

• Map will be 15%-25% larger, if not possible underground area will be increased instead
• 25%-40% of the surface map will be affected by enviro-effects
• 70% of underground will be affected by enviro-effects
• Number of towers and keeps untouched
• Number of supply camps increased, camps will be surrounded by enviro-effects of varying proximity and saturation.
• One of the camps would be a high priority camp with double dolyaks. The winding route will be the longest and most saturated with enviro-effects.
• Shortcuts would be through enviro-effects, Zergs will have to stick with the main roads
• Any siege deployable spot completely surrounded by enviro-effects would be dangerous map design as it would hard to attack a zerg entrenched there, so this will need to be avoided.

Other Environment changes/additions

Water system overview:

The water combat in GW2 feel pointless in WvW, as it is almost no different from fighting on land but with limited abilities. Water should be a means for stealthy travel and access to special routes or even act as a barrier.. It should cloak/camouflage (can’t see tags) players swimming low enough on a river bed, while an observer on the surface should see them if they are close enough. Players underwater will see each normally without any cloaking/camouflage. Underground water routes could provide exclusive access to specific allies like quaggan. Some routes may lead to the underground caverns. Flowing water could be implemented to make destroyable bridges viable (something more elegant than the way it works in SAB). Water also needs to provide more penalties such as group reviving effectiveness halved and mobility debuff.

Underground cavern/tunnel system overview:

• Gave up writing.. point form now
• Underground tunnels accessible from all parts of the map, entrances will be surrounded by enviro-effects. Some small ponds or lakes may have an underground entrance to serve as supply line ambush locations.
• The underground will have a few moderate volume caverns, height will not be too much as primary game play should be on the surface. Lots of interconnecting tunnels of walkways.
• All areas underground should have a purpose, be it for ambush, hiding, or even special npcs
• Some area will have entrances/passages that change due to time, player interaction or NPC’s service
• Perhaps players can sabotage the foundation under a keep to weaken walls? Too tired to elaborate on this one
• The underground caverns will be one of the main choices for NPC recruitment, there will be skritt, dredge, quaggan(underwater passages) and even destroyers (indirectly helping you though). Some NPCs could have rival groups of same or different race.

Secondary WvW Ideas (Standalone Compatible):(3)
Outmanned Improvements
This will tie in with the NPCs we have in game. When one side is OUTMANNED, they will be able to recruit extra npcs to harass the enemy’s camps/towers. The number and extra benefits the NPCs offer will depend on how outmanned the weaker server is compared to the server they are using the NPCs against. When the skewing of balance reaches maximum capacity, special NPC champions with siege engine capabilities can be recruited. If the dominant server does not bother defending, these upscaled and numerous NPCs should be able to take down camps and tower if given time(towers with player interaction). When population starts to return, the NPC numbers will scale back to normal (they run back home) and any special benefits will end.

NPC Improvements

• Outmanned servers recruit NPCs with lesser effort
• Non-outmanned servers require more effort to recruit NPCs against outmanned ones
• If the population is too unbalanced some NPCs will be hostile towards the dominating server for a set amount of time before it re-checks.
• If the two server are both outmanned considerably, and have lost almost all objectives, they can recruit NPCs for a simultaneous breakout event (with the aid of recruited NPC allies).
• Some Npcs will not need you to fight for them, instead you provide supply for their services.
• Example benefits, skritt will raid and steal supply from supply camps and yaks, quaggan could summon weather effects like lighting strikes and ‘Heavy Fog’.

Randomly Generated Security
Ghost capping? Well not so much. The Asuran have created a device which they proclaim to summon “infinite number” of defenders for a tower/keep besieged when everyone is out for lunch. This is a somewhat expensive upgrade for towers/keep that randomly summons 3-5 registered test subjects into the tower/keep when the door is being damaged. The system takes into account how long the perpetrators are at the door and if there 2 or less defender for it to activate. After activating, the device will start it’s XXsec cooldown phase and will require a possibly large amount of supply to startup again. Interested individuals should go see their nearest hill, border or citadel to sign up to be placed into a queue at a yet to be announced price. When chosen, the individuals will be prompted and provided they are not in combat, will take 8 secs to be destroyed and rebuilt at the desired but random location. The authorities have yet to determine the time individuals are registered for and unfortunately if it expires or player changes maps, no refund. Note:The important thing about this is that it does not replace active sentries as they can constantly provide intel on zerg movement and provide first line defense.

Minor Defensive structures [guard post, guard tower].
Completely destroyable/repairable. Can be captured but not counted for points. May upgrade to have a defensive siege like a cannon with a faster build time or have additional guards.

Bridges:
Primarily for best access to certain objectives on the map, alternative routes will be through enviro-affected areas. These serve as the main form of access for zergs and targets for small specialized groups. These structures require quite a bit of manpower and supplies to repair if destroyed. NPCs could be recruited to attack these locations. Outmanned servers could destroy these with greater ease with the aid of NPCs.

Visual and Aural Improvements:
Improvements in visual and aural aspects of WvW could make the game not only more livelier but to also add functionable gameplay mechanics. In PvE such addition would certainly be desirable but the subtle effects will be wasted as most players will miss it or simply don’t care. In WvW, such crucial clues allow player to react without checking the map or waiting for typed response. * Player tags in zergs are too overwhelming, they should be shortened and appear more muted. They should still be visible enough to gauge numbers in zergs though.

• Players should show up at extreme distances as 2d sprites so vantage points could be useful.
• A zerg should create a lot noise, so it should generate distinct sounds when approaching from a distance. Perhaps some dust can be added as a zerg travels or when in a massive clash, dust can be seen high in the air at a distance.
• Damaged towers/keeps should emit smoke trails into the sky. Small fires should be seen.
• Some effects should be subtle, like bubbles from a small raiding party waiting under a river for an inattentive zerg passing by.
• Enviro-effects would need status notification as well as visual and aural clues as the players will need to see and feel the intensifying effects. IE: when underground players see falling debris/slight screen movement/sounds; when in a swamp players see the dark water shift and change, and characters change to a temporary color when knocked down in the swamp.
• Cave entrances should indicate movement inside when any movement or battle happens near the entrance. Larger events would cause bats to fly out for a period of time. A large trigger zone a few secs into the cave would work. Generic sounds with different levels will be ideal.
• Caves should be hard to see, not dark as in the player having to turn up the gamma, but as in the objects at a distance should be clouded or barely visible( tags will not show up). Spots along the cavern will have an eternally lit light source like torch or plant(If stealth is an issue the light will cause REVEALED to players). (3)
• Sound bounces underground, so varying generic running and battle sounds of different levels will echo from it’s source, with this the lone roamers venture more cautiously in this underground labyrinth.

(1)These environmental effects do not have to function like in real life, they could have special properties since WvW is in the Mists. Also different maps can different set of rules and themes.
(2)These are ideas I feel may not be as critical for the balance of WvW but nonetheless interesting mechanics to have implemented.
(3)Might be a controversial idea as it can be annoying to balance with stealth and thieves…

Thanks for reading and please forgive my terrible writing. Comment/Criticisms?

Consider the lack of changes to WvW since release I am not sure the point in suggesting a bunch of complex changes to the game and maps? In my opinion most of your suggestions would change nothing and the issue is not the ‘role’ of small group’s, it’s getting people to actually play in small groups. The role is there, but when your entire reward structure favors not playing that way, no one plays that way.

ANET had the opportunity to make WvW more diverse and rewarding for all play types when they released the WXP system, instead they did the bare minimum and made a system that encouraged zerging even more. Their system is a joke.

We need changes, not really big ones, to current game systems to encourage quality play. If I was going to start somewhere it would be with the squad system. We need raid frames or whatever you want to call it. A squad system where you can see everyone and their vital information, be able to form organized groups within the squad, etc. Not just for commanders either, anyone should be able to form a squad.

This would have no real balance impacts on the game, but I think would make a profound difference in how people play the game.

WvW sucks because zerging is promoted. Idk a solution.

I disagree with every suggestion that penalized people for grouping into a large group.

Niim: I agree that large complex changes/idea never see the light of day in fan suggestions, I was certainly bored before I started writing about this idea. It was a fun exercise for me since I haven’t written much after finishing school years and years ago.

I honestly feel that some of these ideas would change a lot. Players can play in a small groups with more confidence as they will have a larger window to work with. Underground travel and environment zones allow small groups to escape, annoy, flank, and even reconnect with zergs. With the increased harassment from small parties, zerg numbers will diminish when they are forced cover multiple objectives.

Rewarding small parties is a good ‘must have’ first step, but like you said it will offer “no real balance impact”. If we give them the tools and the rewards, then it would be guaranteed that it will change how they play.

Lordrosicky:Which is why small parties need to be empowered with tools to make it worth it. Players don’t like to be wiped by a zerg, so by giving them the ability to slip pass one will certainly promote people to play in smaller groups.

CreativeAnarchy: Yes, most of these ideas penalize zergs, but there is not enough to reward smaller parties. Zergs no matter what size, has and will continue to play a pivotal role WvW, environmental effects simply acts as stop signs spike strips. The bulk of a larger map with environmental effects will still be open-field. Zergs will evolve to be more modular over time. The end result would make large guild groups much more interesting as they can splinter in to small groups to wreak havoc and form back up when brute force is required.

Note: Not that anyone would be interested, I don’t hate zergs. I play in a tier 2 server and 70% of the time I play in a zerg.

Revilo G.4352:

Niim: I agree that large complex changes/idea never see the light of day in fan suggestions, I was certainly bored before I started writing about this idea. It was a fun exercise for me since I haven’t written much after finishing school years and years ago.

I honestly feel that some of these ideas would change a lot. Players can play in a small groups with more confidence as they will have a larger window to work with. Underground travel and environment zones allow small groups to escape, annoy, flank, and even reconnect with zergs. With the increased harassment from small parties, zerg numbers will diminish when they are forced cover multiple objectives.

Rewarding small parties is a good ‘must have’ first step, but like you said it will offer “no real balance impact”. If we give them the tools and the rewards, then it would be guaranteed that it will change how they play.

Lordrosicky:Which is why small parties need to be empowered with tools to make it worth it. Players don’t like to be wiped by a zerg, so by giving them the ability to slip pass one will certainly promote people to play in smaller groups.

CreativeAnarchy: Yes, most of these ideas penalize zergs, but there is not enough to reward smaller parties. Zergs no matter what size, has and will continue to play a pivotal role WvW, environmental effects simply acts as stop signs spike strips. The bulk of a larger map with environmental effects will still be open-field. Zergs will evolve to be more modular over time. The end result would make large guild groups much more interesting as they can splinter in to small groups to wreak havoc and form back up when brute force is required.

Note: Not that anyone would be interested, I don’t hate zergs. I play in a tier 2 server and 70% of the time I play in a zerg.

I still disagree with any penalty to players just because they are in a area where other players are.

If this was actualy environmental effects, such as rocks and such actually being there to actually slow them down and break up the zerg, that woudl be different. However, you are suggesting that a group get penalized just becuase there are a large group of players in a area regardless of the actual environment. I disagree with this.

There isn’t anything wrong with a zerg. A lot of you people want to compalin about them and penalize them just because you all don’t care for them yet you are also trying to penalize those that don’t mind them.

I don’t like to be forced to do something and you are trying to force something upon me just because others are around.

If you want to create something specifically to encourage players to break up the size then that is different but penalizing players for congregating in a area is the wrong way to do it.

CreativeAnarchy: I happen to like zergs (despite the theme of my original post) but I mainly want to change how they flow. I just feel they function a little too lite for something so powerful.

The reason I had environmental effects work in such way is that it is hard to implement a good environment system. It is not easy to create a sense of difficult terrain with the way things work in GW2. Your suggestion of physical obstacles is certainly good though, but I feel there isn’t any other options to slow down a zerg. We definitely can’t use collusion-detection in players as that would be disastrous to implement and would cause even more problems.

What I want is to simulate the bulkiness of a zerg, because physically a large mass of individuals should make travel difficult with. I am simply making areas less accessible to them and not giving them something absurd like a global speed debuff for zergs. Environments like a swamp should be difficult to travel in, which is why I had them simulated in such way (a non-intuitive way but it is at least an attempt).

Forgive me, I don’t see how you are forced to do something, as you do not have to chase after groups that utilize these environments. The environments is a somewhat of a risk vs rewards systems anyways. Fleeing and pursuing groups could even up stuck together if they happen to be too close as the environmental system does not discriminate against servers.

Revilo G.4352:

CreativeAnarchy: I happen to like zergs (despite the theme of my original post) but I mainly want to change how they flow. I just feel they function a little too lite for something so powerful.

The reason I had environmental effects work in such way is that it is hard to implement a good environment system. It is not easy to create a sense of difficult terrain with the way things work in GW2. Your suggestion of physical obstacles is certainly good though, but I feel there isn’t any other options to slow down a zerg. We definitely can’t use collusion-detection in players as that would be disastrous to implement and would cause even more problems.

What I want is to simulate the bulkiness of a zerg, because physically a large mass of individuals should make travel difficult with. I am simply making areas less accessible to them and not giving them something absurd like a global speed debuff for zergs. Environments like a swamp should be difficult to travel in, which is why I had them simulated in such way (a non-intuitive way but it is at least an attempt).

Forgive me, I don’t see how you are forced to do something, as you do not have to chase after groups that utilize these environments. The environments is a somewhat of a risk vs rewards systems anyways. Fleeing and pursuing groups could even up stuck together if they happen to be too close as the environmental system does not discriminate against servers.

My rant about you people wasn’t directed specifically at you, just people that keep harping on about how the zerg is the doom of civilization. It is getting annoying.

I can agree that environmental effects should slow people down, but it shouldn’t just be since there are a lot of people in a spot. Swamps for example should be difficult just for one person to go through.

I could argue that many people can make it easier to get through tough terrain. It isn’t like we are acutally hauling anything behind us anyway.

CreativeAnarchy: I can understand your reservation on this idea, I still feel this idea could possibly change things for the better but having been with ArenaNet since Guild Wars, we all know what the results would be. Even with altering the idea without such a bias towards zergs, it could make for some interesting mechanics.

It was wrong of me to dump so many idea out at one time as there is still a few ideas I want to explore/discuss. The outmannded/NPC suggestions and Randomly Generated Security are ideas I am wondering what people think of them. It is not fun playing against servers with large populations and wide time zone coverage on all maps. This would at least give the dominating servers some resistance and larger window for weaker servers to move about.

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

I disagree with every suggestion that penalized people for grouping into a large group.

same.sry but there are guilds that like to play together and sometimes they have a lot of people, so why punish them? It’s called guildwars not family feud!

selan.8354:

CreativeAnarchy.6324:

I disagree with every suggestion that penalized people for grouping into a large group.

same.sry but there are guilds that like to play together and sometimes they have a lot of people, so why punish them? It’s called guildwars not family feud!

LOL We can call it Zerg Wars.

@OP My solution is to head over to lower tier matches. Smaller zerg and only occasional large zerg. Obviously not a real solution but hey it works.

Remove orange swords, white swords, and the supervisor buff. Goodbye forced zerging!

Peetee.9406:

Remove orange swords, white swords, and the supervisor buff. Goodbye forced zerging!

the supervisor buff was imlemented to stop people from flipping a camp back and forth for profit. as your other suggestions, would you be willing to be a scout, hanging out just in case someone was trying to ninja a camp/tower?

Peetee.9406:

Remove orange swords, white swords, and the supervisor buff. Goodbye forced zerging!

Please stop repeating other people words without thinking about it.
The only thing that will do is have the defending force be split up all over the map, do even more boring tasks and have the bigger force blob up in people of 70 so they can take things even faster because the defenders are all split up!

kitanas.3596:

Peetee.9406:

Remove orange swords, white swords, and the supervisor buff. Goodbye forced zerging!

the supervisor buff was imlemented to stop people from flipping a camp back and forth for profit. as your other suggestions, would you be willing to be a scout, hanging out just in case someone was trying to ninja a camp/tower?

Kicking my feet up, cracking a beer, playing a little PS3 while scouting a tower. I love it, been doing it for months.

Ilesyt.7084:

Peetee.9406:

Remove orange swords, white swords, and the supervisor buff. Goodbye forced zerging!

Please stop repeating other people words without thinking about it.
The only thing that will do is have the defending force be split up all over the map, do even more boring tasks and have the bigger force blob up in people of 70 so they can take things even faster because the defenders are all split up!

Constant back and forth action, flipping of towers and keeps, frantic open field fights of varying size, all of this is a bad thing…..why?

for 1, that’s more of a support to zerg and 2: I prefer my keeps t3 with wp and i like to take down t3 it gives me a sense of satisfaction, you do that then will almost never have t3 keeps.

selan: It doesn’t necessarily punish people from running with a large group, and it is not like you can’t go into environmental effects with a zerg. It just requires bit more finesse and coordination to split up then reform after passing through.

Yenn: Lower tier is certainly interesting , but I am pretty content in my current server.

Peetee: I would love to see that. Nevermind.. for some reason i didn’t see the “supervisor buff”…

iiMulch: Maybe my original post wasn’t as clear. Purpose of the environment effects is to spread player around more evenly, to promote the defense/raiding of objectives. It is still large scale WvW but things will be happening everywhere simultaneously. You will still need large groups to accomplish thing even with this system but the need of a mega zerg will not be as necessary.

A thing people need to understand with my idea is that environmental effects are not entirely in your way, the route to all objectives is generally open and clear. Environment effects just happen to be on the sides and outlying areas. It should also be noted that such system would introduce new tactics for large guild groups. What’s stopping guilds from forming a couple of small groups to hunt others (groups that work in unison but keep their distances from each other.).

Here’s a crazy thought. Why do we zerg? What makes it a bare essential? Besides ofcourse the people who merely seek strength in numbers, but lets be fair a roaming Zerg is pretty useless.

Zergs are needed because defenses are so strong. A dozen people with some arrowcarts and keep a whole zerg from getting into a tower or keep for quite a while. Let alone what they’d do to a much smaller force.
Forcing keeps to almost always be trebbed if it has active defenders, and Trebs are expensive supply-wise. So, yet another reason to need zergs.

And the OP suggests even more buffs to the defense aswell as flat out punishing zergs, wihle not adressing any of the root problems that cause zerging to begin with.

Same applies to the downed stuff, he wants to half how fast downed players are rezzed, but doesnt adress the much bigger issue of Rallying on Kills. Which is far more in favor of a zerg then having 5 ppl cease all activity to pick someone up. Because now people dont have to stop to pick up allies, just keep steamrolling, get some kills and they’ll get up on their own.

There are already plenty of reasons ingame not to zerg. From not having to deal with massive skill delay and lag, being able to strike more places at once, to having much greater map control and awareness if properly communicated.
All these advantages are swept under the rug the moment you try to take a tower or a keep. Because a handfull of defenders can easily keep a 20man group (which to some is already getting close to a “zerg”) out of their fortified position. Or atleast stall long enough for reinforcements to arrive to the aid of the defense. Deal with that.

This is a very difficult issue to resolve. How do you mitigate the strength of the defending side when it reaches a certain level? While also making sure that something similar happens on the attacking side. So stacking 30 defenders on a tower isn’t an efficient thing to do, and neither is stacking 40 attackers against the same tower.
I think a place to start is by nerfing the defensive aspect of WvW, and then limited how effective stacking attackers is.

So what happens when two small groups suddenly collide?

“You stupid fools, stick to your assigned part of the map.”
“ kitten you, why aren’t you guys on TS?”

Would be hilarious if a guild suddenly showed up on a map, guild run capping suddenly caused a whole server riot because they interrupted 2-3 small group coordination.

Rather than penalize or buff, encouraging players to spread across the map by adjusting the meta is probably easier and fairer.

Imagine how inefficient zergs would be if camps were worth the same ppt as towers and keeps, or if yaks were worth 20ppt per kill or escort.

Players would then spread out naturally, while zerging would still be possible, powerful and depending on the situation – effective; a server would as a whole, prioritize spreading across the map in smaller teams rather than concentrating on certain points.

To prevent towers and keeps from becoming worthless, they could modified to provide buffs/debuffs in an area, im sure there are many creative and map consistent mechanisms that can be applied to towers and keeps to keep them valuable for map control without having ppt concentrated on those points.

So OP’s saying: the zergs are too big in WvW, so turn it into PvE. I am willing to bet that all these changes will promote zerging even more.
To remove large pug zergs you need to penalise their gameplay directly. Make them drop their legendaries as loot for starters

So I’m disclaiming this with the fact all zergers will disagree but I don’t care because Zerging is the first step out of like 20 to becoming a good pvper. That being said, Zergs are fixed very easily, knock off the Aoe cap, downed state players can only be rezzed out of combat, and objectives are basically meaningless to take other than for up levels who need the exp. This is a TRUE fix for Zergs but 90% wont like that because 90% don’t actually know how to play in player vs player environment. They want easy mode sit on an arrow Cart all night or run with 30 people to feel “epic” and buffer their inexperience so they don’t die in first 10 seconds of a fight.

I think it’s cute how all of the elitists want to push their playstyle onto others. If you don’t like zergs, bring more.

Neeho.3859:

I think it’s cute how all of the elitists want to push their playstyle onto others. If you don’t like zergs, bring more.

Truth is you dont win when you dont run with 30, otherwise you wouldnt run with 30. Sorry dude, cry some more. If Anet changed it to a real player vs player environment, youd quit.

The NPC summoning/recruiting is probably the best way to balance the fight in a outmanned scenario.

I’ve suggested something like spawning events that would scale up depending on the number of enemy players there.
ANET has a scale up code already for it’s PvE events, and implementing the same short of events with NPCs that would side with outmanned server shouldn’t be too difficult, specially because it would not involve any short of pathfinding or AI since they just show up a the points like towers, keeps, etc and try to capture it.

This would ensure at least that by the time prime time comes along a server is not without nothing.

Jscull.2514:

So I’m disclaiming this with the fact all zergers will disagree but I don’t care because Zerging is the first step out of like 20 to becoming a good pvper. That being said, Zergs are fixed very easily, knock off the Aoe cap, downed state players can only be rezzed out of combat, and objectives are basically meaningless to take other than for up levels who need the exp. This is a TRUE fix for Zergs but 90% wont like that because 90% don’t actually know how to play in player vs player environment. They want easy mode sit on an arrow Cart all night or run with 30 people to feel “epic” and buffer their inexperience so they don’t die in first 10 seconds of a fight.

I couldn’t agree more. Probably the one thing that rewards grouping up more than any other is the AoE cap. An end to, or at the very least an increase in, the AoE cap would solve quite a few problems. It would no longer be viable to cluster up and brute force your way into towers or keeps as a small group of defenders using focused AoE could have the potential to wipe the entire zerg.

You would also see that small groups of highly skilled players would have the potential to kill much higher than their number in open field combat (though the advantage would still be with the zerg)

Overall I see it as the perfect way to increase the effectiveness of small groups without directly punishing zergs. It shouldn’t be too much to ask that people running in zergs pay attention to the red circles on the ground or the players they are fighting.