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[Hawkian]

The biggest challenge posed by the supply one is the amount of ground you need to cover to stay on top of things. It has the least concrete design in terms of "beating it"- that is, holding out against the timer=victory, whereas every other challenge but one is only as long as it takes to finish all the objectives. The fact that there are so many spawn points makes it inordinately tougher the fewer people you have and easier the more people you have, but that's the way it's gotta be, by design. It would be a bigger problem if there weren't easier/less demanding challenges as well (now if only the RNG gods would stop rolling that for us 4 out of every 5 attempts).

Up next is recapturing our perfect 20-barrel victory. We've only done it once, but with our adjustments to strategy (and a bigger force) I am positive we can do it.

Quaggan one is actually great. Easy to fail if uncoordinated, but easy to complete even with a skeleton crew if you have good communication.

The two Branded ones (3 champs, or 5 crystals) require situational awareness. A party that isn't paying attention can definitely screw them up. However, if everyone participating understands the basics and listens, they're tough to fail. That's not to say they aren't tough- all three champ mobs are really nasty, and the crystals one makes that part of the Brand into a warzone, plus there's more to stay on top of over a wider area. I like them a lot too.

Karka crab challenge is fair, but the easiest one to suddenly and inexplicably fail. The crab holder has to have impeccable situational awareness and save the two dodge rolls for absolutely necessary moments. It's probably doable with a coordinated "you toss to me, I toss back to you" pairing too, which we haven't tried.

Skritt tunnel one is easy mode. They give you sooo much room before the spawns make it to the sentries.

Colin was talking to me about some interesting ways to leverage existing content as future guild challenges. I wonder if/when any of that will come to pass, could be quite cool.

 

[irfaanator]

The biggest challenge posed by the supply one is the amount of ground you need to cover to stay on top of things. It has the least concrete design in terms of "beating it"- that is, holding out against the timer=victory, whereas every other challenge but one is only as long as it takes to finish all the objectives. The fact that there are so many spawn points makes it inordinately tougher the fewer people you have and easier the more people you have, but that's the way it's gotta be, by design. It would be a bigger problem if there weren't easier/less demanding challenges as well (now if only the RNG gods would stop rolling that for us 4 out of every 5 attempts).
.

The other problem with that one is that the southwest turret can become bugged and stop working. I told the anet guy about it when he was with us, but idk if they've fixed it yet.

 

[Levyne]

Yeah, I still did plenty of pen/shelt when putting in a Leaf of Kudzu buy order in April, when the Champ Spiders had all of their shitty hatchlings and some other changes around that point but it was still decent money (and the northern camp seemed largely unaffected). Haven't been back recently but it still seems like it has somehow further worsened.

Back to my March strategy, which is Meta Events and Dungeon runs! Slower money but allows for a bit more variety....

 

[Katoki]

Yeah, I still did plenty of pen/shelt when putting in a Leaf of Kudzu buy order in April, when the Champ Spiders had all of their shitty hatchlings and some other changes around that point but it was still decent money (and the northern camp seemed largely unaffected). Haven't been back recently but it still seems like it has somehow further worsened.

Back to my March strategy, which is Meta Events and Dungeon runs! Slower money but allows for a bit more variety....

Yeah! I have more CoF and SE tokens than I can shake a stick at as of right now. I know I'll want to use them later on but I could use a bit more space at this point.

I'm starting to wonder what "regular" play is now that we can't farm after being hit with the nerf bat a few times in regards to farming. "Items acquired at some point in your next life from regular play in this game."

 

[Levyne]

I initially thought you just wanted SE armor to gear out your Guard, but then you kept going and going and..

 

[Hawkian]

So is regular play just farming then?

edit: Probably a decent idea to buy and salvage some rares with your excess dungeon tokens.

 

[Levyne]

SE wouldn't hit the ecto lvl afaik. Suppose you could mf some exos and pray.

 

[Hawkian]

SE wouldn't hit the ecto lvl afaik. Suppose you could mf some exos and pray.

You're right, the armor is 65. You could just salvage the exotics (mask, gloves, greaves for 180).

 

[Spehornoob]

Okay guys, going into noob mode again for a moment.

I'm mostly a PvE player, but I'd like to get involved in WvW. I've gone a couple times on my own, but I have no idea the strategies to use or, really, what to do at all. I mean, I get the basic goals, but I don't really know how to go about doing it in ways that I can feel like I'm contributing. Is there a quick primer on WvW anywhere?

 

[Hawkian]

I think I remember this being a good one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg9dLdybZp0

Also (for Hythloday) I have posted pics of my pup on the newest pet thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=61458061

 

[Katoki]

So I haven't gotten the chance to fight the Karka Queen yet. Is this really a world boss that can wipe out zergs?

also, because Hawkian told me my character looked fierce yesterday:

1. I haven't seen the queen karma wipe zergs but it does down melee easily if they get caught in the roll. I haven't tried going up close to see what else it was capable of at close range.

2. Hawkian = asura = of course you're fierce. That image will make it through time and the internet though.

 

[Jira]

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

The latest case of “farming nerfs” was actually a bug fix. I’m aware of this because I was asked to help identify the issue. The area in question contained a spawn that was defined to have more creatures than spots for those creatures to spawn. So for example, 25 skelks spawning on 10 points. This is not intended. Not only does it just look absurd, it’s also leads to some extremely bizarre play conditions. This is one of those bugs that’s so buggy, the fact that our toolset even allowed this to happen is a bug. Another bug caused this bug. Bugception.

If we didn’t want players to be able to farm, we wouldn’t have put in the huge (and free) magic and gold find buffs for Southsun Cove. We wouldn’t drop loot from the giant mobs of creatures that appear in upscaled events. We certainly wouldn’t have put in chests that appear after events which cycle every 8 to 10 minutes. How quickly all of that content goes completely forgotten in the angered responses to a simple change to an area that was clearly bugged. :/

On farming in general, there’s a sweet spot that combines good loot with fun, engaging content. I think Southsun had that going for it, especially before certain aspects of the content were isolated as optimal. As someone who’s actively working on upcoming Living World releases, I’m aiming to find that sweet spot and hit it in a big way.

.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Also (for Hythloday) I have posted pics of my pup on the newest pet thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=61458061

Didn't know that was a thing! Some adorable little things there, I'll have to post a couple pics of Arcee and Tigris later.

Edit: Done.

 

[Black-Wind]

I have decided that maybe it would be a good idea to start running COF for gold (or at least TRY it out for a bit).

So how many people here run it? What's the best style for a ele to take? Just got all the culture gear I want for now and I'm ready to make a combat set of gear to transmute them to.

. If we didn’t want players to be able to farm, we wouldn’t have put in the huge (and free) magic and gold find buffs for Southsun Cove.

Ha... I like how they point this out. As if they didn't go back and make the drop rates sooooo effing low that it doesn't matter how much MF you have, you're still gonna get chump change white-blurs most of the time ... and that's IF you get a loot drop. Most all my drops come from 1/4 or 1/5 (1/8 when farming ...) of all things I kill there :/

 

[hockeypuck]

I had 11 t6 dust. That's from playing since launch.

Wat. Back when Plinx was farmable I would get so much T6 dust. Had well over a stack's worth after 50-70 runs in total. It is hard to look back and realize that Crystalline Dust used to cost less than 1 silver on the TP...

I have decided that maybe it would be a good idea to start running COF for gold (or at least TRY it out for a bit).

So how many people here run it?

The guild usually broadcasts 1-2 CoF runs every evening, NA timezones. No one in the guild that I know of broadcasts in guildchat for the 4 warrior, 1 mesmer zerker farming run that is currently the fastest way to make gold without TP shenanigans.

 

[Hawkian]

Everyone runs COF. If you are confident in your skill just go for a pure damage build (almost certainly berserker's gear).

Ha... I like how they point this out. As if they didn't go back and make the drop rates sooooo effing low that it doesn't matter how much MF you have, you're still gonna get chump change white-blurs most of the time ... and that's IF you get a loot drop. Most all my drops come from 1/4 or 1/5 (1/8 when farming ...) of all things I kill there :/

Gotta say this appears highly inaccurate- people were calling out drops left and right yesterday night when we were around southsun. I don't know if you're referring to before or after the skelk density change, but farming throughout southsun for the last month has been extremely lucrative, and post-change I don't believe I've witnessed any change in the drop rate beyond the obvious side effect of the fact that there are fewer skelks. Though admittedly I had a particularly bad set of drops last night while everyone was calling out the good stuff they were getting.

It is hard to look back and realize that Crystalline Dust used to cost less than 1 silver on the TP...

Hell, that is nuts.

Hmmmm.... maybe I should see about getting in on this action and either cashing out or some optimized farming for direct sales. Of course I do want Immobulus one day and don't have close to a stack either. I firmly believe they'll eventually come back down, either naturally or not, however.

 

[Jira]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/devon-carver-on-the-future-of-world-vs-world/

 

[Jest Chillin]

I have to say that I think drop rates are really not that high and a few very vocal people are have had very good runs of RNG with drops. I never farmed Southsun Skelks daily but when I did go there I usually spent anywhere from 30-90 minutes there at a time and I personally never got a ton of T6 mats. That was with MF somewhere around 330-350 if I recall correctly. I primarily received T5 mats, which were still fairly profitable though.

I know that my results are anecdotal but what makes me think this way isn't just that I had relatively poor drops compared to others but when I think about the way that Ecto's "drop" from Rare's as well. Up until about two weeks ago I usually averaged out to 1:1 ratio of Ecto's to Rares (this is regardless of how the raw numbers shook out). However ever since the Master Salvage Kit bug, I've returned a noticeably lower .5:1 ratio (roughly). There are other players though that swear up and down that around a .5:1 is what they've always received. Anet has said they haven't adjusted the rates, so which is the outlier? I sort of have the feeling that the higher end of the results is the actual outlier and most people who talk about the drop rates have just had really good runs with RNG.

Could be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time with this game.

 

[Arcteryx]

I have decided that maybe it would be a good idea to start running COF for gold (or at least TRY it out for a bit).

So how many people here run it? What's the best style for a ele to take? Just got all the culture gear I want for now and I'm ready to make a combat set of gear to transmute them to.


Ha... I like how they point this out. As if they didn't go back and make the drop rates sooooo effing low that it doesn't matter how much MF you have, you're still gonna get chump change white-blurs most of the time ... and that's IF you get a loot drop. Most all my drops come from 1/4 or 1/5 (1/8 when farming ...) of all things I kill there :/

For straight speed-clears/all-around PvE: Berserker Staff w/ boon(or might) duration. It might take getting used to if you haven't used Staff before or if you're not used to that "squish", but it drops things INSANELY fast. I use my Ele all the time for CoF p1/p2 speed runs(you can 5 second down the p2 ending with meteor+GoS+ice bow even if your team has shit dps); if you want the build I use let me know and I'll link you it.

 

[irfaanator]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/devon-carver-on-the-future-of-world-vs-world/

the anti zerg tech should be interesting also the guild stuff

 

[Pumpkin King]

Arcteryx could I get a link of your build please? Thanks.

 

[Lunar15]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/devon-carver-on-the-future-of-world-vs-world/

Well... er... that was vague.

Not sure I got the focus of what they want WvW to be, or how they're going to achieve that.

 

[jersoc]

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/devon-carver-on-the-future-of-world-vs-world/

can it be?! they are going to make another way to get points?! i hope so, because that's what wvw really needs right now.

 

[hythloday]

Also (for Hythloday) I have posted pics of my pup on the newest pet thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=61458061

<3<3<3<3<3<3 look at her wagging her tail fluff omg

Also to be on topic: 9 Crystalline Dusts. AH AH AH! (said in the voice of the Count)

 

[Jira]

Devon's post addresses my two biggest issues with WvW. Those being rewarding people for holding a structure and also taking them since holding will be more rewarding. Also, doing something to combat the zerg. Those are the two issues that I have with WvW and I'm glad to see they're working on addressing them.

 

[Retro]

Also (for Hythloday) I have posted pics of my pup on the newest pet thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=61458061

Dude, you better hide your dog;

 

[hythloday]

I was totally kidding!

Devon's post addresses my two biggest issues with WvW. Those being rewarding people for holding a structure and also taking them since holding will be more rewarding. Also, doing something to combat the zerg. Those are the two issues that I have with WvW and I'm glad to see they're working on addressing them.

Same here! I know it's pretty easy to just join the zerg and loot badges, but when I DO play in WvW I have fun with smaller groups. Nice to see they're giving that some thought.

 

[Lunar15]

I definitely prefer going around in smaller groups. Any action they take that reinforces that style of play definitely helps. I just felt like nothing they said was that substantial. I know that nothing's ironed out yet, and they want to assure people that is changing so they stick around... but ultimately there's not a lot of takeaway.

I think a major problem people have in the game is a lack of personal responsibility. I know it's a team game, but it's so large that sometimes I feel like I'm not contributing all that much, even though just by being there, I am. It's just hard to feel credit in a win or a loss.

 

[Retro]

Guerrilla-style Havok Squad WvW is Best WvW.

Less likely to attract zerg attention, hits the enemy where they think they're safe, disrupts the flow of supply and provides a steady stream of gold, xp, and karma at a much faster rate than following the mob.

 

[Lunar15]

Guerrilla-style Havok Squad WvW is Best WvW.

Less likely to attract zerg attention, hits the enemy where they think they're safe, disrupts the flow of supply and provides a steady stream of gold, xp, and karma at a much faster rate than following the mob.

Also, skill is a huge factor with small groups. A really well coordinated and skillful group of 3 can easily take down a group of 6 unskilled players.

 

[Virzeth]

Variety:

...Right now our game rewards you for holding an objective, not necessarily for taking it, and overwhelmingly favors the last server to log out for the day. We have some ideas in the pipeline to try to increase scoring when people are playing the game and to make it much more difficult to keep your territory without actively guarding it.

Why on Earth would they do that? Do the 24/7 servers really need a push?

 

[Retro]

Why on Earth would they do that? Do the 24/7 servers really need a push?

I think he's saying they want to change it so that when the majority of people are on during the day doing stuff, they're earning points for their server. As it is now, the "last server to log out" just sweeps everything and sits on it and racks up the points overnight while everyone else is in bed.

Hell, Stormbluff Isle didn't start to fall in the rankings until War Machine transferred out and we had no overnight crew to lock things down.

 

[Complistic]

yeah, current match up notwithstanding, sbi usually does really good during the day. We just have no night presence.

 

[Arcteryx]

Arcteryx could I get a link of your build please? Thanks.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator...0.2s.0|u67c.a6.0.a6.k48|39.7|1l.1q.1o.23.28|e

That's the one I use pretty much all the time in PvE.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator...0.2u.0|u65c.a6.0.a5.k48|39.1|1l.1q.1o.23.28|e

That's the one I use in WvW.

 

[leng jai]

.

Good to see a response - it's just too bad it misses the mark. I love the audacity of him saying they wouldn't have put it a chest that drops eery 8-10 minutes when they just actively removed it. The skelk nerf made the respawn rate far worse than what it was pre-event. He hasn't addressed the fact that the Penitent/Shelter path has been stealth nerfed to shit where the events only proc once every 30 minutes.

Pretty much anything Anet says about farming nerfs can be invalidated by the fact they continue to leave CoF path 1 untouched.

 

[Katoki]

Guys, I think it's time to start a few dedicated elitist CoF farm groups now. Gotta make that coin to buy what we should be farming.

 

[Shanlei91]

Guys, I think it's time to start a few dedicated elitist CoF farm groups now. Gotta make that coin to buy what we should be farming.

We do P1, then P2. Then switch to alts and repeat. For maximum money!!!

 

[Proven]

The WvW articles is, as people say, vague. It feels like we won't see any improvements until July/August at the earliest (after most of the summer is gone, the time when college students and below are most interested in playing an MMO). There are a number of things they have to tackle that I could list, but I really can't get an idea of the overall direction they want to move WvW towards in relation to PvE and PvP.

I have decided that maybe it would be a good idea to start running COF for gold (or at least TRY it out for a bit).

So how many people here run it? What's the best style for a ele to take? Just got all the culture gear I want for now and I'm ready to make a combat set of gear to transmute them to.


Ha... I like how they point this out. As if they didn't go back and make the drop rates sooooo effing low that it doesn't matter how much MF you have, you're still gonna get chump change white-blurs most of the time ... and that's IF you get a loot drop. Most all my drops come from 1/4 or 1/5 (1/8 when farming ...) of all things I kill there :/

Good to see a response - it's just too bad it misses the mark. I love the audacity of him saying they wouldn't have put it a chest that drops eery 8-10 minutes when they just actively removed it. The skelk nerf made the respawn rate far worse than what it was pre-event. He hasn't addressed the fact that the Penitent/Shelter path has been stealth nerfed to shit where the events only proc once every 30 minutes.

Pretty much anything Anet says about farming nerfs can be invalidated by the fact they continue to leave CoF path 1 untouched.

I have to agree on Hawkian. Do people not realize how good the Southsun buffs are? Right now loot quality wise it's Southsun with buff > WvW > Every other open world spot in the game. They changed changed the instigator loop to something that would involve going to more places so it'd be less stagnant, and with overall more enemies to kill along the way. The only thing I don't have a comparison for is dungeons, because I haven't been in a dungeon in months.

CoF path 1 is a separate issue entirely. If it wasn't CoF path 1, it'd be some other dungeon in the game. CoF was probably also designed to be a shorter dungeon in the first place. Each dungeon is it's own experience in both challenge types, difficulties, and time spent, which is nice for variety. The issue there feels more about tweaking encounters and/or class balance and fixing effort:reward ratios. The encounter balance and the class balance I want especially looked at because it's absolutely a shitty situation when you have the best class for PvE be the absolute worst class for PvP. I'm looking at you, Warrior.

 

[Hawkian]

CoF path 1 is a separate issue entirely. If it wasn't CoF path 1, it'd be some other dungeon in the game.

SE1

I so do hope some form of Vanquishing rewards for dungeons manifests eventually...

 

[Jest Chillin]

I think the move will be something to combat the ability for the larger servers to just pressure the crap out of their opponents while leaving one guy to upgrade all their stuff making it impossible to ever lose for them. It will either be a buff to Rams or a nerfing of lower tier doors/walls to encourage people to actively defend with a force rather than depending on the ability for the zerg to sweep around and clear off a smaller group before they can get inside.

I also don't think they'll nerf zergs as they have their place in large battlefields but something that will increase the WXP rate of smaller havok squads. At most I could see them maybe capping how many people can get credit for a single players kill.. which would kind of nerf zergs WXP viability but wouldn't actually hurt their effectiveness.

I've got faith that whatever they do though.. it'll be good for smaller scale skirmishes without eliminating the usefulness of zergs in the overall battlefield.

 

[irfaanator]

They could do like a percentage increase of xp/gold/karm/wxp for number of people around you. Optimally it could be that 10 gives you the most and then decreases for numbers larger than 10.

 

[Proven]

Personally, I want either bigger maps with possibly more towers added with the ability to have waypoints to them. Keep the waypoints spread apart, but make swiftness less of an easy way to get across the map.

Alternatively, with smaller maps you should add back an attacker's advantage. That way being there as a place is being attacked is better than running in late to defend. Would also add more importance to scouts.

 

[Tomas]

Got best zerker armor/weapon on my warrior. Transmuter that ugly garbage into shiny karma armor from Iron Marches. Also got an ascended amulet, other trinkets gold/exotic. I had resources to do so for a long time...

And... What now? I feel like I flat out finished the game, only Dragon Festival looks like something worth doing. There is nothing rewarding enough now when I have everything I need (unless you count Legendaries or some +1% improvement trinkets). Help!

 

[irfaanator]

Personally, I want either bigger maps with possibly more towers added with the ability to have waypoints to them. Keep the waypoints spread apart, but make swiftness less of an easy way to get across the map.

Alternatively, with smaller maps you should add back an attacker's advantage. That way being there as a place is being attacked is better than running in late to defend. Would also add more importance to scouts.

I believe hawkian/jira/ash/whoever told me that those wvw maps are the biggest they can be. They can't make them any bigger.

 

[Proven]

I believe hawkian/jira/ash/whoever told me that those wvw maps are the biggest they can be. They can't make them any bigger.

Doesn't mean I can't wish.

 

[Black-Wind]

Everyone runs COF. If you are confident in your skill just go for a pure damage build (almost certainly berserker's gear).
Gotta say this appears highly inaccurate- people were calling out drops left and right yesterday night when we were around southsun. I don't know if you're referring to before or after the skelk density change, but farming throughout southsun for the last month has been extremely lucrative, and post-change I don't believe I've witnessed any change in the drop rate beyond the obvious side effect of the fact that there are fewer skelks. Though admittedly I had a particularly bad set of drops last night while everyone was calling out the good stuff they were getting.

Farming Skelk is pretty decent though I still fell like I get FAR more drops by killing stuff well waiting for Jormag. I'm more so talking about pretty much ever other mob I come across in the "Crazed animal!" outbreaks.

The guild usually broadcasts 1-2 CoF runs every evening, NA timezones. No one in the guild that I know of broadcasts in guildchat for the 4 warrior, 1 mesmer zerker farming run that is currently the fastest way to make gold without TP shenanigans.

Ok, cool!

Gonna try to keep an eye out on that.

For straight speed-clears/all-around PvE: Berserker Staff w/ boon(or might) duration. It might take getting used to if you haven't used Staff before or if you're not used to that "squish", but it drops things INSANELY fast. I use my Ele all the time for CoF p1/p2 speed runs(you can 5 second down the p2 ending with meteor+GoS+ice bow even if your team has shit dps); if you want the build I use let me know and I'll link you it.

Thanks! Would love to see this link!

 

[Katoki]

Got best zerker armor/weapon on my warrior. Transmuter that ugly garbage into shiny karma armor from Iron Marches. Also got an ascended amulet, other trinkets gold/exotic. I had resources to do so for a long time...

And... What now? I feel like I flat out finished the game, only Dragon Festival looks like something worth doing. There is nothing rewarding enough now when I have everything I need (unless you count Legendaries or some +1% improvement trinkets). Help!

It's more finding cool stuff in a random corner of the world like jumping puzzles or views or just running around doing stuff like events and dungeons with a friend. Does any of that interest you? I'm sure someone like Hawkian would be better for an issue like this because I do the above but still try to min-max to an extent so I cam continue to run dungeons comfortably.

I'm still amused by the small things I find like this one time I had jumped into a balcony and realized the NPC there had dialogue. The NPC basically went on about how jumping around was dangerous to oneself as well as anyone you might land on top of.

 

[Virzeth]

I think the move will be something to combat the ability for the larger servers to just pressure the crap out of their opponents while leaving one guy to upgrade all their stuff making it impossible to ever lose for them. It will either be a buff to Rams or a nerfing of lower tier doors/walls to encourage people to actively defend with a force rather than depending on the ability for the zerg to sweep around and clear off a smaller group before they can get inside.

Here's hoping I'm just misinterpreting all of this, 'language barriers' and whatnot, and it's also (ohshi-) almost 4 AM here, but I still think that these possible changes would hurt the outmanned server much more.

A small force cannot keep capping structures while leaving people behind to defend, The Zerg could. They have the numbers, as simple as that.
Nerf to paper walls/gates - with less people around there are less people to contribute for the upgrades. And while their commando was struggling to get the tower, it's quite likely they've lost all their camps, so no reinforced wall (I still can't understand WHY the first upgrade couldn't be for the gate), and no defensive siege either.
Rams buff - The Zerg throws down and build three of them in 10 seconds tops. AoE sweeping the walls --remember, they have a swarm out there-- the defenders can't even get close enough to take a peek without being insta-killed. And the gate is melting away. Not much to do there but flee, WP away or just quit.

Meanwhile, we have the Outmanned buff. +Magic Find, +Experience, +World Experience, unbreakable armor. Which is nice, but not nearly useful enough. You could dive into lost battles with no regrets*, except you'll then have to walk back, just to find the tower(/keep/whatever)'s guards and archers attacking you. And a Red Sea of tags behind them.

* Assuming, of course, that you don't lose the buff just before dying because it just so happens that a couple of players from the third server decided it was time to steal some of the camps in your BL. Sh*t happens.

/rant(?).

 

[Jest Chillin]

Here's hoping I'm just misinterpreting all of this, 'language barriers' and whatnot, and it's also (ohshi-) almost 4 AM here, but I still think that these possible changes would hurt the outmanned server much more.

A small force cannot keep capping structures while leaving people behind to defend, The Zerg could. They have the numbers, as simple as that.
Nerf to paper walls/gates - with less people around there are less people to contribute for the upgrades. And while their commando was struggling to get the tower, it's quite likely they've lost all their camps, so no reinforced wall (I still can't understand WHY the first upgrade couldn't be for the gate), and no defensive siege either.
Rams buff - The Zerg throws down and build three of them in 10 seconds tops. AoE sweeping the walls --remember, they have a swarm out there-- the defenders can't even get close enough to take a peek without being insta-killed. And the gate is melting away. Not much to do there but flee, WP away or just quit.

Meanwhile, we have the Outmanned buff. +Magic Find, +Experience, +World Experience, unbreakable armor. Which is nice, but not nearly useful enough. You could dive into lost battles with no regrets*, except you'll then have to walk back, just to find the tower(/keep/whatever)'s guards and archers attacking you. And a Red Sea of tags behind them.

* Assuming, of course, that you don't lose the buff just before dying because it just so happens that a couple of players from the third server decided it was time to steal some of the camps in your BL. Sh*t happens.

/rant(?).

You bring up some good points but zergs can already do exactly what you're saying as it is now just through sheer force in numbers. If the zerg is split up to defend, then they're less of a zerg making it easier to defend for the smaller servers.

The goal isn't to make smaller servers equal in strength but to give them more tools to have even fights rather than just getting rolled until they quit. Lowering the strength on T1 walls and gates will strengthen smaller groups more than larger groups because at some point the zerg becomes overkill and inefficient. More to the point though, it prevents larger pop servers from having their own borderlands basically become impenetrable even with no one there because smaller groups can flip towers faster than the zerg on other maps can rally to defend. It would just require people be more spread out which results in less blatantly one sided fights.

 

[Stephen_drewz]

6 more hours and I can finally jump into this game. I hope its amazing. I've been looking forward to trying this for quite some time.

Time to re-read the OP classes section me thinks. Can anyone recommend a beginner friendly class(by this I mean something that later on I am not going to get demolished by mobs of AI without knowing a lot about skill builds etc) or am i pretty well safe across the board? I am a Starcraft 2 and Dota 2 player so I can easily handle performing lots of actions in small amounts of time. I prefer being a ranged spell caster, but if there is a melee character with a few really cool abilities I would definitely consider it.