Random Arenas - avoiding the endless runner syndrome

Occaisonally in a random arena you get someone who has a runner build and there's no-one on your team who has runner suppression. While this is interesting strategically for a little while, the runner will sometimes adopt a bore-to-death strategy where they will simply wait until the other team quits. (I tend to stay and wait them out; I have seen > 2 hours).

We could simply reduce the effect of healing after 10 mins in a random arena, maybe drop healing by 10% per minute > 10 minutes. That way battles couldn't last longer than about 22 minutes.

Random arenas are supposed to be quick + dirty, but they can be pretty dull in a bore-to-death strategy. Anyone have some other ideas for how to bring them back to life?

how bout U quit complaining bout runners and take a snare to stop em in there lil cowardly ass they are

How about YOU realiziing that not every class can do that? And how about realizing that it will be impossible to get the other randomers to bring snare when 98% of them are allready too dumb to bring a simple res signet?

I'va found that best way to deal with runner nobody in team can beat is to ignory him. Have whole team sit down and talk about something for a while. Most runners get bored when they see that nobody is intested in wasting time on them. If he get's close have monk heal damage and rest of party keep ignoring.

Ive not been a ranger so correct me if im wrong.

Snare ect causes cripple or another slow down effect?


Purge conditions would counter it.

Deep Freeze, Mind Freeze, Shard Storm, etc.

Or you could try to make a wall.

I never see anyone do this for some reason, but make a wall and wait for him to run into it and then surround him and kill him.

Every class has some sort of method to slow a runner down.

Show me the monk's way of effectively snaring an enemy.
Show me the Necromancer's way of effectivly snaring an enemy.

A single knockdown... woooo that is SOOO gonna stop a runner specced on running away. Hint: People run through Lornars Pass and there is a lot MORE knocking down thrown at them.

alright sorry but i'm so tired bout seeing people complain bout this i couldnt think of anything smart to say and i agree running is lame

snare equals slowing down

Water elementalists would turn that "runner" into a turtle with the ability to slowdown opponents without having to rely on a projectile. Oh wait, water? Nevermind I must have flipped my lid.

Side note: With the update I'm hoping to see waters usefullness come to light (more people may give it a try with skill reworks).

For warriors and rangers snares are generally crippling, which could easily enough be countered by the runner... but the slow hexes from elementalists and mesmers are very nice indeed. I'm of the opinion that if you head into Random Arena without a means to snare you're hurting yourself whether or not you come up against an actual runner.

Warriors can't hit as effectively if the target is always running.
Rangers arrows can miss more easily if the target is running.
Any kind of caster will be dead in the water without a way to slow down harrassing warriors.

My last encounter with a runner in random arenas was on my warrior. It involved an Iron Mist, shocking axe haft, and Eviscerate spike. It was over in less than 5 seconds.

I've never had issues with this. Whenever we encounter a runner, half my team splits up and owns him wherever he goes.

While I agree running is lame, I don't like the healing thing. What happens when you have two very good teams against each other and they naturally extend the match a long time? It shouldn't come down to a "whoever gets the damage in first will win" just because the healing suddenly starts to suck.

actually, i fought a pair of runners with out 10th comp arena streak, and they both had hex removal, condition removal, and both of them had charge for unlimited charge. I beat them by just sitting there, as they couldnt do any damage to me, but its almost impossible to stop a pair of runners working together.

Ran into a runner who actually brought no attack skills (!!). He ran around, challenged us to 1v1 (both the earth-healing el/mo, my mesmer/necro, and our warrior started to own his ass before he ran away), proceeded to spam me about whether I was *really* a girl (and then ask for pics plz!!).

Took us 69 minutes of sitting and chatting on a bridge. Every time he came close, we'd stand up and attack him until he ran away, then sit down again with a bit of "Our bridge. -_-" in general chat. That bridge is my favorite place in the arena. <3

At the end of it, I'd done my physics. We waited him out, and I had two new friends because of it.

I'd advise just bringing along a good hex and a few conditions if possible. Even if they have remove hex, chances are you can catch up to them enough to layer stuff before they can get away.

I had a similar experience when I was on my ranger and my crippling kept getting removed by a running W/Mo. We actually sat there and continued to sit there until the W/Mo moved in to beat on our monk. Then all but the monk got up. Thinking our monk was AFK due to boredom, the W/Mo tried to sneak in a kill before running... but our monk wasn't AFK and was waiting for us to get into position around the guy to pin 'im. Worked like a charm. One of the best moments I've had playing this game.

DoT works wonders against runners, poison, life transfer, conjure phantasm, etc...just keep close enough to spam your DoT skill and they will go down.

I would actually like something like this to be incorporated. I've been in random arena matches where there were two monks on both teams and nobody was a spiker. It was impossible for anyone to die.

a single good player > your average 2 random arena monks.