Describe a typical hour for you in the Alpine Borderlands in the past. For example, What size of group were you running in? What kind of tasks did you run? What activities did you do?
Spend a few minutes running from one target to the next, attempt to take the point. Either move on to the next or respawn and run back if it failed. Roaming groups were 2-5 people and usually worked on causing havoc by flipping camps, killing yaks, or ninja’ing towers while zergs were usually 20-30ish and focused on the big objectives like keeps. I would do both, depending on what class I was running at the time. In an hours time it was easy to successfully complete a minimum of 5 objectives.
Compare your experience described above with a typical hour spent in Eternal Battlegrounds, if you went there at all. Does your style of play change between the 2 maps?
Essentially the same as above, with more likelihood to run with the zerg to control as much of the map as possible. I preferred the Alpine BLs to EBG.
Compare your experiences described above with an hour spent in the new borderlands.
In the new BLs, it’s not uncommon to spend 45 minutes of the hour just running between targets. It’s difficult to navigate due to the expansiveness of the maps and the vertical element, even after getting acquainted with the layouts. Side elements like the shrines are interesting in theory, but disruptive to gameplay in practice. It’s extremely frustrating to have limited waypoints so if/when I die I have to try another target or spend a significant amount of time running back to the first one, only to find that I’ve missed the window where it’s vulnerable and have to wait for it to pass, or start running elsewhere again. It seems like only thieves and rangers run solo now and everyone else sticks with the zerg, which are now 40+ most of the time.
Describe the nature of combat in the borderlands in the past. How have the new borderlands impacted this paradigm for you? What style or build changes might it cause? For example, knocking people off cliffs or into lava might play a more important role.
Combat used to be organic and people weren’t afraid to engage. The fights were fun, even if your side lost. You could die and run back in a reasonable amount of time. Now if you die in midfight, it’s usually over before you can run halfway back. Also, there is too much interference from the environment (shrine effects, cliffs, etc) that detracts from PvP. For example, if the enemy controls enough shrines, your side is slowed and get barriers thrown in the path, then the enemy gets to leap in un-hindered and invisible. Using stability or another condi removal to improvement movement means it’s not available when the enemy attacks. It seriously tips the scales and player skill means very little. Things like chokes take some strategy while still allowing for player skill to matter. It’s also changed open combat so that it hardly exists. Most of the time people just hole up in their towers/keeps under heavy siege. If you happen to catch them out, the instinct is to run right back under siege cover.
In your experience, compare the time it takes take a structure or objective here, then it did in the past.
Supply and yaks definitely play a more important role in the new setup. In theory, the requirement to escort yaks in order to upgrade things should mean that small havoc groups make a return. That isn’t the case though. Since zergs are so massive now, you practically have to have siege to defend and with the addition of guild siege the time it takes to capture a structure is diminished. It used to be common for 2-3 pieces of siege. Now it’s not uncommon to drop 7-8.
How is the loot and wxp for you compared to in the past? Will it be able to sustain whatever you are doing? Did it take a hit, or was it improved? If you are planning to unlock an elite specialization, do you think you were helped or hurt in these regards? Do you think you could pursue any other in-game goals just by playing WvW?
Unsure. I’ve noticed a lack of ascended drops, but I never got many before either so…I like getting heroic tokens that can be used to purchase hero points for the new HoT zones, but don’t like that they’re no longer account bound.
How will the map change impact the long sessions (multiple hours) you spend in WvW?
WvW is the last thing I do in game now. I focus the bulk of my time doing PvE dailies, fractal dailies, and harvesting. Whatever time I have left I’ll spend in WvW. I get frustrated quicker and find that I’m not inclined to stay logged in to WvW as much.
In 100 words or less, describe how the new BLs could be improved.
Remove shrine effects except altar buffs, no fall damage, jump pads and the blowing statues near the keep. Decrease the vertical aspect and twists/turns so that it’s not so confusing or arduous to get between points. Make the maps smaller so less time is spent running.
In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a new WvW player.
No idea.
In 100 words or less, describe how the borderlands work to a veteran WvW player that is new to the maps.
The new bosses are fine overall, but rather PvEish. On the surface, the points line up with the old maps, so you know that “air keep” = “hills”. But once you get to that area, things don’t really line up. You waste time trying to figure out how to get in. It’s a frustrating time sink where you feel like you’re making very little progress/accomplishing nothing.
Which map am I most likely to find you currently, if you’re on Gw2?
Most of the time I’m in EBG, assuming the queue isn’t too deep. EoTM if it is. I avoid the new BLs unless it looks like one of the camps near our spawn is available to take or if a known guild is running a raid there.