Fixing WvW: The Melee Train is a Part of the Answer
I’m going to approach the issue of battle philosophy, balance, and what makes WvW combat enjoyable and epic.
Looking back at all my past experiences and the fights I’ve enjoyed most in WvW, it’s all about those moments where the melee train is rolling through the enemy forces in an epic fashion. I’ve pretty much only ever run Necromancer/Reaper in WvW, and it’s those times where as a smaller organized force we’ve been able to train through the larger more disorganized force and at least have some kind of chance to overcome the odds stacked against us; those are the moments that I feel the adrenaline burst and endorphin release. It’s kind of like sex. The melee train based playstyle also makes even fights fun and exciting with constant movement, repositioning and less pirate shipping around one another and less waiting for cooldowns.
The melee train is sadly becoming a thing of the past, but the solution in my opinion, is to re-imagine battle philosophy by recreating ranged classes to be able to run closer to the melee (more hybrid builds) and to lower the amount of CC so groups can have some opportunity train through one another. The pirate shipping; standing around and watching your enemy until they flinch or get bored or have cooldowns up is not working.
Fights like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA6lukCWKyE are what we need again.
Ways that this might happen are:
• Spread out necessary frontline skills that only guards possess now to one or two ranged classes like elementalists/tempests. Currently two guardians is the bare minimum for a frontline group. We need more flexibility in this.
• Give each ranged class options that enable them to more easily run frontline or hybrid. The Reaper is a great example of a step in the right direction.
• Reduce the strength of crowd control (and conditions?).
• Empower stability.
On another note, lower the effectiveness of the cancer keep upgrades like chill fields and emergency waypoints and reduce the overall power of siege which is notorious now for ending the days of the good old fashion keep fights.
P.S. – For balance purposes this may mean also giving melee classes some hybrid/ranged options. We see this playing out well with Dragon Hunters and Revenants currently, which are both considered powerful classes.
Exactly, We need old good meele trains… At this point I would like to add 1 thing to ur comment… Buff warrior! As he was terribly nerfed over last year patches and now isn;t asm uch viable as used to be. Expecialy “worker” build. It was meta and should stay meta build for frontline warriors… would be amazing to have those old times back ^^
Agreed. Also,
1) All the tactics /improvements need to be nerfed. like Iron hides is 10% DMG reduction and hardened gates is 10% less dmg from PVD. Also needs to be made cheaper and not require PVE. Each game mode should be able to stand on their own. Part of the solution might be reward tracks or letting dungeon/map meta runes be bought with badges.
2) Reinstate stabs or fix it or buff it. Maybe a rune set that gives stab when within 600 range of an enemy?
3). Give Roamers /small guides back +5/whatnot. BLs need to be changed to make things more strategic and roamers easier way to get to palces. Barricades should be nerfed for instance.
4) Give way more ways to deseige. Siege humping with a zerg should be discouraged, not rewarded a it is now. Maybe better ppk over ppt? Maybe points from structures and kills from siege should be altered? Less incentive to run away from fights. The mode should be more of WvW, not WvE, not Seige versus player
5) Commanding should be rewarding, instead of draining gold though using siege and feasts/whatnot.