Curse

Burton2000 · Aug 08, 2007, 12:34 PM // 12:34

Straight from http://www.wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/U...t/VoD_feedback

Ive been working on a change of how VoD works, I wanted to hear what everyone though and share some of my ideas. Things are still being worked on so things might be different but I wanted to hear your suggestions and ideas.

Currently this is what I'm planning on doing

* VoD started at 18 min, Guild Lord Marches at 20 min. (this will make AT rounds 30 min long)

* Npc's movement is broken up into 3 paths and there are 3 waves, 1st wave arrives at the stand 45s after VoD, 2nd wave arrives at 60s after vod, and 3rd 75s after vod. The 1st and 2nd wave are the outer npcs of the guild hall and the 3rd wave is the boat NPC's.

* Added NPC's I added NPC's so that no map has fewer then 1 guild lord, 1 bodyguard, 2 knights, 8 archers * 2(for both teams). Maps like Isle of the Dead, and Fissure has very low number of NPC's.

* Swapped bonus damage around: the Guild lord now takes extra damage from npc's rather then doing extra damage to npc's

Other changes I've been debating

* Changing VoD buff from reducing health, to reduce healing.

Either way Let me know what you think. ~Izzy

This change will limit the possiblities of gank me thinks if you havent cleared their base of npcs pre vod anyway. Wether thats a good thing or not im not sure but whatever.

twicky_kid · Aug 08, 2007, 12:56 PM // 12:56

I think each map should have its on unique vod effect.

Right now any build can plan for VoD because you know what's coming. Big group of NPCs (use nukes) and damage is upped (train targets till the monks give out of energy).

If you have a unique world effect for each map this would be very difficult for any team to specifically make their build for VoD. I look at VoD as a tug of war breaker. When each team is evenly matched in skill and build VoD can force a win. Instead we have builds that are created to win at VoD and stalemate for 20 minutes.

With a unique effect on each map this would stop most guilds from wanting to go to VoD because they know they would be at a disadvantage. There would be more urgency to finish the game before VoD.

Lorekeeper · Aug 08, 2007, 01:20 PM // 13:20

VoD is a necessary evil i think. It is necessary to prevent fights between even matched teams from going on forever. VoD is the catalyst that punishes tiny mistakes where they might not usually have made the difference and tips the balance in favour of 1 team over the other.

Its become a victim of its own design because as the above poster has pointed out, alot of teams focus their build and strategy towards exploiting the effects of VoD to their advantage. So you might pack alot of AoE, you might run a split squad aimed at wiping out enemy NPCs before VoD. You might run a melandrus dervish with splinter weapon to tank and wipe out NPCs when they reach the stand.

Im not sure why these changes were necessary.

I think the only problem that needed solving was the pathing of the NPCs at VoD. Its far too easy to control their movement with aggro and to force them to ball up.

*Reducing healing is a bad idea. Fights do not last for very long at VoD as it is. With less healing ability teams are going to explode in seconds. Its going to be very messy indeed.

*Taking away the reduced health will give a big advantage to teams with 10% morale. It will be much harder to clean spike them.

*The staggered NPC arrival is interesting. It might make the impact of NPCs less, since in theory, you would only face them in waves rather than 1 huge pile. Gaining NPC advantage at VoD will not be such a huge advantage anymore. Because of this, splitting into a enemy base is no longer that much of a threat. As long as you have someone to defend the guildlord from the gankers you neednt worry about defending the NPCs anymore because they have such a reduced impact at VoD.

* Im not 100% sure what i said above will come true. Mainly because the gap between the NPC waves is only 15 seconds. If it was 30seconds+ the waves would be more distinct. 15 seconds is not that much time, it depends on how many and what NPCs arrive with each wave i think.

*18 min VoD? hmm i guess this was done to reduce the overall duration of ATs which is a big concern for many gvgers who do not want to or cannot stay up 5-6 hours into the early morning or night to play the game. Earlier VoD makes the entire match much less forgiving since teams have less time to claw their way back up from a wipe.

* Guild lord takes more dmg from NPCs? This will depend on the following, will the staggered arrival of NPCs make it easier for monks to keep an eye on them or will it also make it easier for teams to take them out since there are less of them? The increased NPC dmg on the guild lord will only have an influence on the fight if there are any NPCs left at the stand at VoD.

* Perhaps it is worth getting an NPC advantage after all.

TheOneMephisto · Aug 08, 2007, 01:34 PM // 13:34

I think that the tiered NPC arrival is to reduce the potential effect of AoE, but I'm not entirely sure how effective it will be.

And NPC advantage will definitely still be a major factor if the archers start hitting on the guild lord.

Riotgear · Aug 08, 2007, 11:40 PM // 23:40

15s seems a bit short of a delay between waves, IMO.

Reduced healing instead of damage = Regen+degen become more potent?

twicky_kid · Aug 09, 2007, 12:39 AM // 00:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

Reduced healing instead of damage = Regen+degen become more potent?

Also makes Mel dervish even stronger at VoD.

Nights Death Dealer · Aug 09, 2007, 02:12 AM // 02:12

Pre prot > Mel dervish....

The issue with reduced healing at VoD imo....hexway becomes a problem...its hard enough to heal through that at times, let alone with reduced heal. I thought we were trying to get away from hexway? Reduced healing will only promote it more.

Fix the way the Npc's Agro and you solve a lot of VoD problems....eg...make archers scatter on aoe dmg...dont make them sit in it and tank...give them some brains. Also....Body guard needs to cool down on his chasing opposition...to easy to overextend him...he should be at stand with lord...not runnin near gates of opposition base chasing some dervish that agroed him.

Div · Aug 09, 2007, 03:48 PM // 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riotgear

15s seems a bit short of a delay between waves, IMO.

Reduced healing instead of damage = Regen+degen become more potent?

Can't you see izzy is trying to give mending and healing breeze their chance to be king? I'm all for it!

assassin of the god · Aug 09, 2007, 07:59 PM // 19:59

The waves of NPCs will give aoe less power to compleately explode the archers. Healing reduction instead of health will greatly reduce the power of spike and increase pressure. As for the hex builds being more powerful at vod, the currently 2 most popular hex builds are very vod orintated anyway( one is renohex with a powerful split and 2 sins, and the other has 2 mel dervs,2 copies of rising brile, putrid, deathly swarm and rotting......)

So......overall not that bad.

idahoajr · Aug 10, 2007, 12:54 AM // 00:54

you got what you wanted