Armaggedon's coming!

Opinion is a quick column for when I’ve been getting my think on.

TL;DR

Capping the length of a Warsong Gulch match at 20 minutes in Patch 3.2 will not solve the inherent problems that cause turtling, it will only prevent matches of nightmare length. We need better fixes.

1. Add a lengthy delay to flag respawns.
2. Hasten the flag carrier debuff.
3. Create a mortal strike power up.

A good instance of Warsong Gulch provides more fun than any other battleground, more opportunities for small scale combat, and a greater sense of player efficacy. The down side is that two flag carriers supported by three healers each may never die, ever. BORING, but it can be fixed. Read on.

Lengthy Flag Respawns

Imagine an enemy, a plate wearing Blood Death Knight with 40k hit points is holding your flag on his roof, supported by two lol-invincible druid healers and a ferocious warrior/rogue combo that wears down any offense you can muster. Your flag carrier is doing the same thing on the other end of the map and neither team can score until one flag carrier is dead.

Imagine a burst of PuG coordination the likes of which you have never seen, in which

1. A Priest Mind Controls the enemy flag carrier off the roof.
2. A Warlock fear-bombs his healers.
3. A Death Knight Death Grips the EFC (enemy flag carrier) from line of sight.
4. A Mage and a Rogue in waiting pop cooldowns and burst the EFC, causing him to explode into smithereens. They then return the flag.

…

5. An enemy Rogue sitting in your flag room grabs your flag as it immediately respawns and returns to his base unharassed, skill-lessly negating any gains earned by your perfect, coordinated play and lengthening the match indefinitely.
6. The enemy tree druids come out of fear, cast Innervate, run in circles, and type /lol at your Warlock because they can’t even wand to do damage.

How frustrating. A team musters the force to overcome a nightmare scenario, to find victory only lasts for as long as their lag allows. Create a 30 seconds window between flag respawns to allow a successful offensive team to score.

The Flag Carriers Are Now Even More Vulnerable to Attack!

Blizzard noticed the turtling problem long ago and introduced the Focused Assault debuff, ideally (and often successfully) hastening the demise of flag carriers. The problem? It takes 10 MINUTES to activate! An EFC can make it back to his or her base in 60 seconds, at which point he or she is already turtling. Activate Focused Assault after a flag carrier has been alive for three minutes because if they’ve survived that long they have already been proven extremely difficult to kill.

Speed Boots, Berserker, Leaf, and a WICKED HUGE SWORD

As Blizzard toys with the idea of giving baby mortal strike debuffs to Frost Mages and Shadow Priests, I toy with the idea of giving it to every class in Warsong Gulch. A mortal strike, or healing negation power-up in every leaf hut would add a new tactical element to the WSG map and further assist in bringing down stubborn flag carriers. This is only a mild suggestion, as it is the greatest departure from the core mechanics of Warsong Gulch, but a fun idea to toy with nonetheless.

Good News IRL

“Finally Wonzy blogs!” I can hear you say. My delay in blogging is the same reason I’ll be blogging more often — I got a job! This is the sort of job where bursts of frantic activity are followed by lulls of expected and accepted downtime. As soon as I learn which is what, I’ll be blogging with a pleasant consistency. Next in the pipeline – The Arathi Basin Strategy Macro. (-:

When Should I Capitalize Class Names?

I promise I’m a smart Priest, but I haven’t been to school in a long time. Let me know.

-Wonzy and Out!

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http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/07/15/epic-pug-opinion-1-better-fixes-for-warsong-gulch/