Curse

Milennin · Sep 28, 2010, 09:27 PM // 21:27

I was wondering if Alliance Battles are still balanced, or have they been updated? I remember the good times in AB 3 years ago or so, but nowadays Kurzick seems to lose every single game, even on the map where they are supposed to have the advantage. On the Luxon maps Kurzick won't even get above 100 points before losing the game due to having not a single shrine capped.
It just seems weird, a few years ago before my break it just seemed like a fair 50/50 game, now Luxon wins 100%. Anyone else noticed?

diabiosx · Sep 28, 2010, 09:59 PM // 21:59

its not balanced because in kurzick maps, the kurzicks can get to most points faster, so they have an advantage from the start and vise versa for luxons in luxon maps.

Premium Unleaded · Sep 28, 2010, 10:35 PM // 22:35

The average quality of players on the kurzick side tend to be several orders worse than on the luxon side.

Milennin · Sep 28, 2010, 10:40 PM // 22:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Premium Unleaded

The average quality of players on the kurzick side tend to be several orders worse than on the luxon side.

Any logical reason for that? It used to be pretty much equal.

some-_1 · Sep 28, 2010, 11:04 PM // 23:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by diabiosx

its not balanced because in kurzick maps, the kurzicks can get to most points faster, so they have an advantage from the start and vise versa for luxons in luxon maps.

When the kurzicks are losing it moves to the kurzick maps to give them the advantage and vice versa with the luxons (there was another thread not too long ago which went in to details about the mechanics of ab) - That isn't unbalanced it keeps it fair and is supposed to stop one team from winning 24/7 although has kinda broken recently.

IMO I think it all started around about when anet rebalanced the lux/kurz titles making them easier to obtain, AB is one of the slowest methods so noone really does it any more to get the title (Esp. when there was DTSC and MQSC), and those who do AB are probably only there to mess around or take a break from pvp/pve, it kind of seems as if it has lost all seriousness - that's just my opinion on it though.

Chthon · Sep 29, 2010, 02:54 AM // 02:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milennin

Any logical reason for that? It used to be pretty much equal.

Kurzicks have superior faction-farming options like DTSC, MTSC, etc.. That siphons off many of their best players. Luxons are much harder pressed to find a more efficient source of faction than rolling the Kurzicks over and over.

FoxBat · Sep 29, 2010, 03:14 AM // 03:14

That understanding made more sense in the days of HFFF, but MQSC is a hell of a lot better than AB, so I don't think that explanation suffices anymore.

On the other hand, FA has only recently become a very lucrative form of PvP for Kurzicks, due to the combination of reward increases making it surpass AB and the map quality itself that greatly favors intelligent kurzicks over intelligent luxons. So there is a greater tendency for Kurzicks that like winning against players to spend time in FA, leaving a competence gap for remaining luxon ABers to exploit. JQ inhabits a kind of middle ground between pve grinding and even casual PvP, as it is so thoroughly NPC-based, that it does not appeal to exactly the same population as FA and AB do.

I'll also add that on Zquest days the trend can easily reverse, with luxs getting rolled repeatedly. The temporary reward boost will draw more players of all types, evening out the typical skill imbalance between the two factions.

Krill · Sep 29, 2010, 03:51 AM // 03:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milennin

Any logical reason for that? It used to be pretty much equal.

AB has degenerated to a few Luxon guilds farming hapless Kurzick pug groups. There's no point in even trying to play the Kurzick side most of time. JQ on the other hand, while nowhere near as fun as AB used to be is a good way to get Kurzick faction all the time.

Milennin · Sep 29, 2010, 09:17 AM // 09:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krill

AB has degenerated to a few Luxon guilds farming hapless Kurzick pug groups. There's no point in even trying to play the Kurzick side most of time. JQ on the other hand, while nowhere near as fun as AB used to be is a good way to get Kurzick faction all the time.

Ohh, I see. The fact that Kurzick has better ways of gaining faction is a good explanation, thanks. And yes, I noticed when I did the Zaishen quest in Jade Quarry, every single match was won by Kurzick. It was weird.=p Alrighty, thank you guys for explaining.

Missing HB · Sep 29, 2010, 10:45 AM // 10:45

Easy things to know :
- AB : team with most monks , most guild teams , less melee wins
- JQ : team with most wiki Mo/P N/A and less melee wins

And no , people rather play JQ because even if you lose there , you can still get more points by winning in AB ( AB win is usually 1500 pts , which is same than a non epic lose in JQ ( means having 5-7 pts ) )

nem coke · Sep 29, 2010, 05:04 PM // 17:04

I never actually did any research why this happened, I just assumed that the decent players maxed out their title and switched sides. Since Kurzicks had so many more players before, it would be logical that a larger number of better players switched to luxon side and... well imbalance happened.

galactic · Oct 01, 2010, 03:26 AM // 03:26

is AB considered a PvP thread topic?

distilledwill · Oct 01, 2010, 09:05 AM // 09:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by galactic

is AB considered a PvP thread topic?

Le sigh.

You fight other players, its PvP. This arguement is tired.

Anyway, in my opinion theres a couple of good explanations as to why the Luxons seem to consistently win against Kurzicks.

Primarily, it seems to be linked to the fact that early on a lot of Kurzicks just did HFFF for faction - the effect of this is threefold:

1) A great number of Kurzick players maxed their titles early on, removing them from the potential AB playerbase (if they started playing AB back when HFFF was popular they would be very experienced ABers by now, and an experienced player will always hold an advantage over inexperience).

2) Luxons have been ABing to gain faction from the very start. There are, therefore, large guilds which focus on gaining faction through AB, and they are very very good at it. Luxons in general, therefore, are more experienced players in this format. It is normal for Luxons to accrue faction through AB and they enjoy it.

3) Due to Kurz maxing their titles through HFFF, as nem coke said, they switched sides to Luxon - means older and more experienced players on the Luxon side.

urania · Oct 01, 2010, 01:37 PM // 13:37

the "pvpness" of AB could be debatable considering most of the population (esp on Kurz side) plays like pve mobs or worse (at least the mobs usually go for low armor/caster weapon targets) and is usually farmed by opposing faction.

but then again, the same can be said for RA too.

distilledwill · Oct 01, 2010, 01:54 PM // 13:54

[offtopic!]
I totally see where people come from when they like to bring up the "AB is PvE" arguement, you can go a whole game without meeting an opponent (rare, but it can happen), but I feel its all just a bit petty. The fact of the matter is that you compete against players. You yourself are a player. It is, therefore, Player vs Player.
[/offtopic]

urania · Oct 01, 2010, 05:44 PM // 17:44

most players are worse than pve mobs. hence pvp is more like pve.

JONO51 · Oct 01, 2010, 08:04 PM // 20:04

AB really went downhill after the faction reward changes. Ended up switching to FA/JQ to get some semi competent players to finish luxon.