Guild Wars 2

The current upgrade really is only so the dolyaks won’t be lost by npcs killing them. It also actually is a good deterrent against non-80 solo players(depending on their build). Any team that’s serious about upgrading doesn’t want to lose a possible 35-140 supply(depending on camp upgrades) because an npc or some random lowbie picked off their yaks.

And any team that’s TRULY serious about upgrading won’t leave yaks alone if they know enemies are out there, same with upgraded supply camps. You do these upgrades to help deter some enemies and slow down others. I’ve never heard of people say “Briar tower’s being attacked!” ….. “Don’t worry we’ve upgraded it, it can defend itself”. These upgrades are just padding to relieve pressure from players, not remove it completely.

Dinas Dragonbane.2978:

And any team that’s TRULY serious about upgrading won’t leave yaks alone if they know enemies are out there, same with upgraded supply camps. You do these upgrades to help deter some enemies and slow down others. I’ve never heard of people say “Briar tower’s being attacked!” ….. “Don’t worry we’ve upgraded it, it can defend itself”. These upgrades are just padding to relieve pressure from players, not remove it completely.

The difference is, if you have people defending Briar it’s very likely they won’t take it.(At the very least you have as good a chance preventing them from getting it as they have of getting it.) Whereas, if you’re guarding a Yak it doesn’t matter how well you defend it…if it’s being attacked, the chances are VERY high it’s going to die. This is why I tell my people when “Walking” Yaks to their destination “Watch for enemies, then escape when they attack. We’ll come back in force and try to wipe them before they can do it again.” Because if they try to defend, chances are all that’ll happen is we lose the Yak anyway.

The “Hire Additional Guards” upgrade in the camp should hire 2 more guards for the dolyak as well, so that could be useful, because if your at vale escorting yaks to briar, you probably have a good defence in there already but the yaks can be ganked by 2 people, 1 distracting the guards, the other killing the yak. However if you upgraded it to 4 guards, 1 person definitely couldn’t solo it (its like rushing in the middle of a supply camp all by yourself) and “Raise Guard Level” should also effect Dolyaks too, making their health doubled, (even though their health should be way more too).
These two changes (and maybe more original dolyak health) would effectively make dolyaks harder to kill and more defended.

100% behind the OP’s idea. This should be implemented.

I’m gonna have to disagree. Players should be able to choose their target, not forced to kill certain targets before others. I would recommend though having a system similar to the Bodyguard – GuildLord system in GW1, where while the guards are alive the Yak takes less damage (maybe like 25% less per guard).

I’m fine with something like an armored yak upgrade though.

Just saying, have any of the people agreeing with this post played in T1?

If you don’t defend / heal your own Yak’s thats your servers problem, it shouldn’t be free supply. If this sort of thing was implemented getting Bay to t3 would be a sinch because the Yak literally walks 20 metres.

The only way to deny a bay upg is to snipe the Yaks / flip Vale which can be impossible as it is right on the opposing players spawn.

If you defend your Yaks the guards are invaluable, they chain blind and immobilize, this is overpowered if the attacking player cannot cure stacked conditions it can mean the guards blind and the others immobilise is death for yak slapper.

Supply chain cutting as stated by Anet many times “run in a small group or on your own and cut the supply chain” “WvW is for everyone not just big guilds”

The suggested change would be terrible.

LieutenantGoogle.7326:

Open field monsters nor sentries will actually kill a yak except for the hylek/dredge/orge/skritt and hatarmi invasion mobs.
Those random kraits or bats and sentries serve to slow down the yak, if there is no actual inference then the yak will be fine. The guard upgrade serves to speed up the yak ever so slightly be removing the combat speed when being attacked by the standard monsters.

For actual defense though, they are next to useless.

In addition to giving the yak protection as long as the guards are all up, let the yak break into 33% boosted run speed as soon as they or the guards are attacked as well.

This would at least force people to play small teams to take them down or some sort of cripple/freeze in effect.

Wanderer.3248:

Sounds like most of you would like invulnerable yaks and have supply camps take 10 players so you can get back to running around in zergs without having to worry about small raiding groups outmanoeuvring you.

If someone is soloing your yaks, points and supply camps (even towers) 1-2 competent players can easily ruin their day. A 4 person team can easily roam the map and nail solo players. Most solo players will move on to easier pastures or retreat to the zerg if they keep running into small gangs.

BTW walking along with the Yak or standing around the camp is dumb. Move around. Ganking a player who’s distracted while soloing the yak/cp/camp is much easier.

Oh I need 4 people to guard a yak from a solo player… even a yak with guards, is that what you’re saying?

MagiKarp.8201:

Just saying, have any of the people agreeing with this post played in T1?

If you don’t defend / heal your own Yak’s thats your servers problem, it shouldn’t be free supply. If this sort of thing was implemented getting Bay to t3 would be a sinch because the Yak literally walks 20 metres.

The only way to deny a bay upg is to snipe the Yaks / flip Vale which can be impossible as it is right on the opposing players spawn.

If you defend your Yaks the guards are invaluable, they chain blind and immobilize, this is overpowered if the attacking player cannot cure stacked conditions it can mean the guards blind and the others immobilise is death for yak slapper.

Supply chain cutting as stated by Anet many times “run in a small group or on your own and cut the supply chain” “WvW is for everyone not just big guilds”

The suggested change would be terrible.

Are you suggesting that in T-1 there is never a single incident where a single Thief can take out a yak guarded by multiple players as well as the guards? Or is the worry that a servers 1-2 person thief teams having to change their strategies?

This change would benefit everyone and force them all to play more strategically. At no point should one character be able to teleport in, kill a heavily guarded target and get out in <3-5 seconds as happens now because they know that the yak is next to defenseless compared to guards/players.

One person can still take out the yak but if they are guarded they have to actually beat the guards first, that’s the point. If Bay is upgraded, that’s what siege is for.

Chessrook.8643:

Kerithlan.1659:

I don’t get any sort of reward when I defend a yak from getting killed and get it to barely slip by into a tower portal, but the person attacking the yak does get a reward for killing the yak.

Yeah, that’s because when there WERE rewards, bots were walking the easiest Dolyak routes 24/7 and getting loads of cash and karma while swallowing up space for actual players.

Sounds like it’s a problem ANet needs to fix with bots, not hurting actual players, which is what happens now. I think one of the reason people don’t escort yaks sometimes is because of this. shrugs

Niim.9260:

While they are doing this, they should also make it so that sentries have a point. Whatever the new setup is, they should be able to stop a dolyak from getting through. Dolyaks just walking past them, defeats the point of them even being there imo.

Roving route guards? Hmm, be interesting if a 5-6 pack of mixed vet guards roamed the roads like they do around the supply camps. Independent of the yaks themselves (who would have their own guard party)

Lanthrudar.1437:

Niim.9260:

While they are doing this, they should also make it so that sentries have a point. Whatever the new setup is, they should be able to stop a dolyak from getting through. Dolyaks just walking past them, defeats the point of them even being there imo.

Roving route guards? Hmm, be interesting if a 5-6 pack of mixed vet guards roamed the roads like they do around the supply camps. Independent of the yaks themselves (who would have their own guard party)

That would make the sentries actually usefull providing that this come from the road (thus the sentry) and not from the camp… I just see they as easy exp/karma/silver gain right now since it’s simply a lone veteran in the middle of a desert road (and it’s a veteran even weaker than those random veteran events in the borderlands maps).

Victory.2879:

1. Give yaks a ‘reveal’ skill that uncovers any stealthed player within 1500 range of it as it walks along.
2. Give yaks a 1500 radius that prevents movement at faster than walking combat speed within that radius so d/d eles can’t kite back and forth all over the map and kill your yak without 5 players being able to do anything about it.
3. Give yaks 5 times as much HP points as currently, so no class can burst it down on their own in a few seconds.
4. Yaks take no damage before the guards are killed.
5. A yak being attacked flashes up on the map as soon as the guards are aggroed by a player.

Simple changes that could make escorting yaks with a chance of it actually reaching it’s destination

I actually think all of these are great! Especially 1, 2, and 4. It would make it easier for defenders to kill attackers and dolyaks would not be such a joke. This makes it kind of fun to escort them and see if a skilled profession can take me and the guards down.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

I had a similar idea: make it so that caravan guards (the NPCs, not players that are nearby) able to resurrect the dolyak they’re guarding as long as they’re still alive.
I think it might work a little better than this since you could at least stall the dolyak while you killed the guards by downing it, but would still serve the same purpose of making the NPCs prevent you from killing it so long as they’re still alive.

I was going to suggest that.

Lanthrudar.1437:

MagiKarp.8201:

Just saying, have any of the people agreeing with this post played in T1?

If you don’t defend / heal your own Yak’s thats your servers problem, it shouldn’t be free supply. If this sort of thing was implemented getting Bay to t3 would be a sinch because the Yak literally walks 20 metres.

The only way to deny a bay upg is to snipe the Yaks / flip Vale which can be impossible as it is right on the opposing players spawn.

If you defend your Yaks the guards are invaluable, they chain blind and immobilize, this is overpowered if the attacking player cannot cure stacked conditions it can mean the guards blind and the others immobilise is death for yak slapper.

Supply chain cutting as stated by Anet many times “run in a small group or on your own and cut the supply chain” “WvW is for everyone not just big guilds”

The suggested change would be terrible.

Are you suggesting that in T-1 there is never a single incident where a single Thief can take out a yak guarded by multiple players as well as the guards? Or is the worry that a servers 1-2 person thief teams having to change their strategies?

This change would benefit everyone and force them all to play more strategically. At no point should one character be able to teleport in, kill a heavily guarded target and get out in <3-5 seconds as happens now because they know that the yak is next to defenseless compared to guards/players.

One person can still take out the yak but if they are guarded they have to actually beat the guards first, that’s the point. If Bay is upgraded, that’s what siege is for.

The idea is floored, I can zerg a Yak with the guards and 2 people (not if really good) hitting me yes as a D/D ele I’ve designed myself this way. Problem is the suggestion is untenable as you would have to kill 3 elite hp bars which would take upwards of a minute meaning that all you would have to do is put swiftness on the yak, heal the guards and a yak can never be sniped.

You miss read me, but in T1 when you are in an opposing BL Yaks getting sniped is key to victory, so I often go to kill a yak to find 4+ JQ swiftnessing it or healing it meaning it can never be killed. I wouldn’t call having to use 5 people+ to kill one yak as more strategic, strategy is playing smarter, not by making it arbitrarily harder. You’d be surprised how easy it is to keep a Yak alive, my guild often rotates 2-3 people escorting a key yak to a fort we have just taken / under siege and bam thief problem nullified, a thief can’t out dps an Ele healing a yak and CCing him.

You also missed the point about upgrading bay, the idea is to stop it from upgrading so it is easier to siege, so when you finally do go on the offence (say you are being pushed hard by guilds like WM, FOO etc) When they finally relent you can take a T1 or T2 fort back instead of them easily being able to defend a t3 (which is strategy) from your understanding of what I said you don’t sound like you WvW much (I might be wrong).

If 1-2 thieves sniping Yak’s is your servers biggest problem, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Not trying to be condescending at all if there is any tone of that ignore it, I think Yaks are fine the way they are and in their current state Yaks require protection and slappers job isn’t as easy as people make it out to be, I often wipe time and time again sniping yaks going into bay on SOS BL I miss countless when they are well defended.

MagiKarp.8201:

Stuff that is mostly relevant.

Their issue isn’t in 5v5 for a Yak…Though to be fair, if you have 4-5 people and you want that Yak dead…it is freaking dead even if 4-5 people are buffing it. The issue is that if you go with a Yak to protect it, and you meet anyone, the chances of successfully keeping it alive are slim to none. I have taken out a Yak with 2 PC Guards and the 2 NPC Guards with just my 1 Guardian. Did I die?…Yes. But I took out the Yak. That’s not a fair trade.

Personally: I would like it if the Yak had 2 Buffs…1 that made 40% of the damage go to one Guard, and 1 that made 40% of the damage go to the other Guard. In this way you are dealing some damage to the Yak, but the Guards make the Yak much more capable of taking attacks.

It would be another push toward streamlining WvW and reduce the amount of total participation as with all events seeking to marginalize casual participation.

DancingPenguins.9875:

It would be another push toward streamlining WvW and reduce the amount of total participation as with all events seeking to marginalize casual participation.

Right now it already prevents people from participating in that people very very very rarely protect any Yaks. There is no reward for protecting them(while there is for killing them) and if someone attacks it you can’t protect it. What this would do is help(because there still needs to be a reward) promote walking Yaks.

Today there is no player reward for escorting dolyaks. You can complete the event, but with 0 reward.

However your team benefits a lot for escorting dolyak safely to destination. Your team gets +3 points and the supplies into the keep. The opposite team is also denied points for killing the dolyak – that’s valuable, too.

Korgov.7645:

Today there is no player reward for escorting dolyaks. You can complete the event, but with 0 reward.

However your team benefits a lot for escorting dolyak safely to destination. Your team gets +3 points and the supplies into the keep. The opposite team is also denied points for killing the dolyak – that’s valuable, too.

Whereas someone killing the Yak gets points for his team, prevents Supply getting to a Tower/Keep AND gets money/xp/karma rewards. Point is that killing Yaks is more rewarding than protecting them.

Just give them 1 guard. Commander Siegerazer.

this is an excellent suggestion!

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

Just give them 1 guard. Commander Siegerazer.

Better yet…Have the Yak BE Siegerazer!