Costume Brawl, Balance and Strategy

Since the other Costume Brawl 2010 thread has been dominated by discussion about the random team composition format, we can't really have any discussion about costume brawl combat itself.
I thought it would be wise to separate that out to its own thread.

So here is a thread for you to discuss balance and strategy with this year's costume brawl.

I don't particularly like the newest map. It seems like the best path to go from one of the morale shrines to the battle cry is through the other team's base. It seems too easy to camp the ressing of people. The random lava lake is also kinda pointless. It restricts space, but there is never a reason for somebody to go there (unlike other maps with lava or ice which occasionally there is a reason to travel on them). It might as well just be a bottomless chasm that people can't walk into.

I actually like ths simplicity of the new map. But i can see it flaws. Because in a 5v5 fight at the center shrine, the winner will basically be the match winner. And with only 3 shrines, it's not the most exciting and tactical map ^^

My favorite map is "Whitefury Rapids". I really like the setting and the map itself.

Yeah, i don't really like the tight space either. The lava lake on the other hand, is kinda useful. I was playing as a warrior and me and my team we're going 5vs3 on the bridge in the middle. The other teams two, a necro and a monk, were below the bridge. The monk cast breeze on the necro then starting spamming attacks on our team. The necro went and walked into the lava and then starting using plague sending on my whole team. We got totally owned.

I don't really see how the lava will be useful in future years if there's no plague sending though.

Played Rit thru 10 victories... enjoyed it and would definitely play a lotta 5v5 in Gw2 if it'll be anything like this.
It was fun to play and even more fun to raeg about and I caused more than my fair share of turnovers when I had another ally to work with so Rit felt really solid overall. Opposing melees seemed to ignore me an awful lot which is a relief b/c none of my teammates ever tried to stop the ones that did go after me.

Only 2 complaints: everytime I tried to work side by side with a Monk, we lost. I dunno what's going on there but I'm used to Monks & Rits being force multipliers and it just never panned out. Why is that? Also, that one map where everyone just clumps together at the same shrine b/c it's not symetrical and had only 3 cap points... Yeah I don't like that one either and it didn't feel like a healthy victory most of the time we actually did win it.

Umm, I don't know why you lost, but monk/rit co-opperation is too damn good. With Healing Breeze and Spirit Light Weapon you can easly tank 2 meele, no matter what AR you have. Regen is huge.

I dislike new map too. It's too small, not really much to do than 5vs5 at battlecry. If you win first battle you probably win the whole game. Although method in Kysten Shore is similar, this map is so much cooler.

I've had trouble when there were more than two of the same profession on my team. So far I only won with 3 rangers. For the rest you can win with nearly any combination.

Despite what some other people are claiming in other threads, tactics isn't that much of a problem. I see most people willing to follow the pings/lines and target calls.

I'm also not very fond of the new map; being too small and all. But the lava/plague sending is pretty cool!

Plague Sending + lava = kinda creative. I feel derp for not thinking of that.

I've played Ranger exclusively yesterday, had a lot of fun trolling physical classes. That time I kept 2 warriors and a dervish busy without them even being able to deal damage to me was especially lolzy.

Ranger seems to be this year's assassin. Though they really become bad when it's either a necro or a mesmer hexing you, or a monk on your team giving you Healing Breeze. In fact, Monks and Rangers don't synergize at all this year. Anything a monk can do for a Ranger (regen+condition removal), he can pretty much do it himself better.

In big numbers though, rangers are king. For balance purposes, I'd say they should nerf the ranger bar just a wee bit. Maybe Dodge over Natural Stride, Ignite over Kindle arrows, or Dual Shot over Forked Arrow.

Meh, it's Pin Down that makes them really strong. Being able to outrun pretty much everyone is very, very strong.

98% of teams need BC to win safely. Also always call targets. Avoid killing paragons unless they're the last ones standing. Don't leave/resign unless it's 15+/6-.
Kysten - cap BC and move to the center. Move as a mob. If the opposite team already capped the center, that's nothing, just kill them one by one.
Whitefury - cap BC and roll them on the way. Move as a mob or split if the opposite team splits. React accordingly.
Plikkup - cap Health shrine and BC. Move as a mob. Respond to enemy's positioning and splitting. Remember that if you control BC, you want to hunt them down and keep the pressure.
Deepway - rush to BC and win the fight over it in the first place. Stay at BC and kill anyone coming. If they avoid you, leave someone at BC (ranger, rit, mes, monk, para) and hunt down the morale cappers.

In 1v1 combat:
Ele beats sin and war, has high chance to beat derv, high/moderate to beat ranger and para.
Mes beats ele and monk, has moderate chance to beat anything with ranger being the hardest.

Remember that your weapons retain modifications other than health and energy - high def set proves highly useful. Rune your armor accordingly.

Agreed. Especially when I switch to a long bow just for that from distance and then switch back. Rangers can even kite other rangers if they don't properly weapon swap and you do.

I hate pin down, ranger is powerful this year, my sin is weaker, and after 5 hours I got bored and have played CB since Friday....

Ranger is pretty much the new sin, lol. Not going to explain the obvious, but ye. By nerfing the Sin, they've simply relocated the problem, because now the ranger has, by far, the most overal bar. Lacks some damage compared to the old palm strike, but is still the most powerfull one.

I played mostly ranger, but i also played with the Warrior. Today. i started to play with the ele, they r also pretty strong.

@Drkn. how can eles beat rangers? with my ranger i never lost against a ele 1v1. you have antidote signet to remove blind, savage shot to rupt strong spells and troll unguent for healing.

ranger has good bar, but not THAT powerful providing they have the slowest/slowest casting heal. For balancing, I think removing the signet will do.

sin isn't tooooo bad as many think. they probably is the best 1 on vs melee (no snaring)

Two knockdowns, quite strong healing ability and the blinding spell having quick recharge. Despite Antidote, i can usually keep rangers blind for most time so they can hit me once, usually trying to Pin me Down. I cover it easily with Glyph's healing.
It's much harder to cope with a ranger than with sin or war, but an ele can keep him disabled for long enough to avoid being damaged while still dealing damage - Antidote Signet takes time, Troll Unguent takes time. When crippled, Windborne Speed lets you cope with the impaired moving speed.
Add kiting, high armor set... and when the ranger starts to run away for any reason (knockdowns, blind, sheer damage), he's mine unless he managed to SShot my LSurge before fleeing.

Not saying it's 100% win situation - SShot may be painful, my Attunement may be on recharge if i used it just before the last death. Ranger simply is the new sin, too imbalanced when compared to other builds this year. Yet still, if i were to choose who to use against ranger in 1v1 it'd be ele or necro, with having more experience with the former.


To balance out the ranger's superiority this year, it'd be enough to swap Pin Down for something else and swap Antidote Signet for another cond-removal skill (no idea if rangers have anything else, to be honest, but AS is too powerful and spammable in the current overall CB format).

This^

Once it lands, it's impossible to remove it b/c they just keep spamming more conditions on top of the crippling. /// though this is more of a failure on the UI & Engine itself to allow us to pick and choose which conditions & hexes we want to remove first ....saying that cover conditions are overpowered is as old as the game itself so I don't need to go there.

@Drkn. Ah i noticed that it's really helpfull to rupt the ele's elite with SS. That way they only have whirlwind for a KD, wich can easily be evaded by escape etc. (and still have antidote incase).

But yeh i can see how eles can also win. Fakecasting etc. shud help alot.

I'm kinda shocked (even at CB) that most Rits hardly use their weapon spells, and if they do they usually use it on themselves...