Guild Wars 2

From what I’ve seen, and I’ve been playing since official release, is that 5 v15, you will lose, roughly 75-85% of the time, if you’re in the smaller group.

15 v 30, if you get the element of surprise and boosted stats, you’ll crush your enemy in about 15-20 seconds, about 80% of the time, again as the inferior force.

15 v 30, if you do not have the element of surprise, or did not commit to a stack prior to attacking. You will lose about 85% of the time.

This surprise v no-surprise gets even more unforgiving as the size of a zerg goes up.

So let’s be blunt here. Numbers win. They will ALWAYS outclass skill in the end. The Russians proved it in WWII, they beat the German Forces who were superior in every way except bodies to send.

That’s the problem. Anet can be as conflicted as they want about debuffing huge zergs, but the truth is unless they do, the servers with the largest number of bodies, across all timezones WILL WIN. Because 10-15 really skilled people will still die to 30-50 man zergs.

Yes, big battles are fun, and I don’t want to see them removed. But big battles are supposed to mean, big battles, spread out over a wide area with a whole bunch of chaos.

Not 30-50 guys clumped together into a rolling ball of death, with a consistently defined strategy that is reduced to, stack, might, charge.

Worse than the 30-50 man zergs, is their side effects. Because you need numbers to win, it encourages inflated servers, buying guilds to transfer over. You know what that means? It means Money Wins. That means people farming rather than playing, or just flat out buying gems to turn into bribe money.

Know what other game is like that? Try almost every other MMO. There is no greater sin to commit in what is supposed to be a skill based contest, than “money wins.” That’s not the game I bought, it’s not the game I want, and it’s not the game Anet promised.

Turn WvW back to skill based victory.

I run as a flame tank Engie (flamethrower + Juggernaut Traits) I have very little trouble keeping up with a zerg. I run medkit, so I can use the stimulant to boost my speed, and I run power shoes trait to give me a passive 25% speed bonus.

That said, about the Mortar, yes. it sucks. It’s structurally weak, easy to spot (siege icon), low damage, slow fire rate, and a ridiculously short range for a MORTAR POSITION!

Ok I get Anet doesn’t want it to be OP, but at least give a 10-20% boost in damage and give it half the range of a siege mortar, so that is can be set up somewhat away from the main zergs.

Alternatively, give basic fire incendiary abilities, via trait, preferably the one that boost mortar range as well, does 150-200 burn damage per sec, on location, on top of initial impact damage. Give it 30% more range and 50-75% more health.

Either make it so the mortar fires from a real, meaningful distance, or give it the ability to survive the amount of zerg HATE that’s going to come raining down the moment that siege icon pops up. One of the two.

Yeah to make a point off of Quell’s point, one really shouldn’t leave the objective alone if it can be helped. However later at night U.S. time the field is basically deserted, which is an issue.

That said, traveling in a group of 3-5 might not save you, actually if you’re a mid or back liner it probably won’t. I have stood in the middle of some of the most gruesome zerg clashes of Blackgate, JQ, and SOR and survived like a champion, and I’m an Engie so that’s saying a little something.

But thieves? Nope. I’ve maybe killed three thieves 1v1. One in particular comes to mind. I used my rifle to net him, ran up, hit him in the face with a wrench (confusion), switched back to my rifle used the power shot to knock him and me back. You’d rocket boots to promptly stomp him into the dirt and get back to right next to him, and then went psycho with the flame thrower till condition damage just overwhelmed him.

So why did he die? Because I saw him first and gave him 0 opportunity to stealth. Because if he’d stealthed, it was game over for me. That’s just wrong. It’s wrong to have a single class mechanic that’s so powerful you KNOW you’re going to lose to it.

Oh and returning to the travelling in groups thing. I see thieves 1 v 3-5 all the time, and win.

Also, unless something’s changed, Engies do not get a stealth skill. Thieves and Rangers only. If that’s wrong, and something has changed, let me know.