Curse

Alex the Great · Jan 16, 2008, 08:52 PM // 20:52

this new strategy promotes super defensive builds, becuase you don't have to kill much, just one more guy than you opponant to win easy. so teams would bring little offence and a bunch of defence, and all kills would just be by luck

nty

Rohan · Jan 16, 2008, 08:54 PM // 20:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by olXor

1. ANet probably won’t do it.

Yep.

take me to twelve

Neo-LD · Jan 16, 2008, 09:57 PM // 21:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by olXor

However, VoD in its current form serves not so much as a tie-breaker but as a win condition in and of itself.

Well, this used to be true. The complaint was that teams could just load up on defense, with no intention of killing anything until VoD, and then letting VoD do the work for them. However, nowadays its very rare to see two 8v8-based teams pound eachother for 18 straight minutes without result. Party-healing is crap, and defense grids are incredibly fragile against good teams. Games between unevenly matched teams are over in minutes. Evenly matched games are usually similar to a game of chicken, with one team wiping seconds before the other. VoD often doesnt get a chance to be a factor.

What does need to change though, is NPC VoD pathing, their piecemeal advance, and Splinter weapon. Its really retarded that an 8v8 build can undo the advantage that a split build works for 18 minutes to create, in about 10 seconds.

Vanquisher · Jan 16, 2008, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wasteland Squidget

I'm not sure what teams will accomplish in 25 minutes of splitting that they don't accomplish in 15 minutes. With modern split builds you regularly see bases getting wiped and NPC advantages being gained in short periods of time. It gives you more time to swap guys back and forth and hope they screw up their split defense, but that gets less useful against strong teams.

Is this supposed to impact 8v8 blockway builds? Because those builds will keep right on using defensive characters to keep their NPCs up against splits, whether they have to do it for 15 minutes or 25. That will be a successful strategy regardless of whether the silly VoD changes the OP proposes are implemented. It has nothing to do with limited time and everything to do with skill balance and optimized tactics.

Dedicated split is built for getting around defence that's sent back to deal with it. Builds that aren't designed solely for split though, need a chance, and that's more likely to happen with a longer VoD. Likewise, you have more opportunity to try other strategies such as multiple flag runs, and other, often unseen things (much like Te's spontaneous decisions to send their entire team to the other teams back door at various stages in a matches progression.