Redesigning WvW- the Blueprint

I have some ideas on how to revamp WvW, and want to explain the idea behind these suggestions.

originally, WvW was a very hyped up feature on the MMORPG market place early on pre-release. It was looked at in the same space as RvR in Warhammer, Alterac Valley in WoW, and RvR from DAoC of course. But obviously WvW never reached that inflated goal regarding its hype. I figured lets examine some of these areas that people like these kind of game modes.

Large Scale Offensive Fights (Zerg vs Zerg)Players vs Buildings (aka Sieging)PvPvE ( PvP Themed NPC fighting)Smaller scale PvP Missions/Quest*Territory Defense

In a perfect world, all these roles would be equal. But nothing is perfect.But with WvW, there is a huge imbalance here.WvW looks more like this:Sieging>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Zerg vs Zerg >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Defense>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Missions/Quest>>>>PvPvE

Also when it comes to the combat, there are lots of limitations due to certain mechanics. I have some ideas and suggestions. Lets review some of them.

*-REZing-Right now, the way the gameplay works, you can revive downed players, or the down player can waypoint back to whatever Waypoint they have at their keep or starter area. This in my opinion is not a good design. Starter area is fine, since thats not a combat zone. But Keep can be contested. There isnt enough places on the map to revive at. I have an idea, which I call "Shrines". These Shrines automatically revive players on a timer basis like in most FPS games have. So all people in the Shrine will revive at the same time once the timer finishes. There will be multiple Shrines on the map per Team. You are sent to which ever Shrine is near your place of elimination. Shrines cant be contested, but they can be shut down and captured for your own team. This feature acts as a way to get people back into the large scale fights to promote more of it. While also adding a balance mechanism to the system so you cant just instantly come back. You have to wait a timer to be revived. These Shrines also can act as mini forts to rally from for these large scale fights, because they also have to be defended.

*-Healing-GW2 was originally meant to eliminate the concept of Healers, but that isnt the best idea for WvW. It would be impossible to make a change to classes now to have healing, and extremely hard to balance such a change to classes so that the WvW healing changes doesnt effect other game modes in the game. This is why I have a different solution for this. The game already has a Golem suit mechanic, and Environmental Weapons concept. My suggestion is to add a sort of Mobile Suit Golem that has the sole role of Healing/Support. Anybody regardless of Class can jump in and play the Healer Golem once its been made. Each Team would have a limited number of them they can have at one time on the map. Healing Golems will have much better output healing compared to the classes. Better support skills. But have a weak defense as a trade off. They need their team to help defend them during major fights. These Healing Golems could also have their own Trait line dedicated specifically to them, to have their own custom play styles. Some players may want more Barrier shielding focus, while others may want a more AoE focus, or even a more HoT(Heal over time) approach. They can customize their healing Golem accordingly. Once Destroyed, players have to remake them through an event.

*-PvPvE-Right now, most of the NPCs in WvW are nothing. The NPC factions seem weak, and same for the Bosses in the WvW maps that hold capture points. The Events in the game for NPC units are weak and not that valued enough for some of the Zerg players to want to wander off from the Zerg to want to do them. This is why I suggest NPC Units get a major buff in terms of Damage/CC/Health/Defense. The NPC units need to be harder to kill, and more of a threat. Need more Wandering NPC units that can be a threat to your team's defenses, or a large boost to your team's assault. Closes thing we have to this is the Outnumbered Captain events. WvW needs Neutral Bosses that are hostile to all teams, but benefit the team that defeats them. The Small Scale Quest/Missions need to important enough to change the tide of battle, but soloable for players to be able to leave the zerg to carry out these smaller objectives over a decent period of time depending on how many players your team puts to the task of doing these objectives. The NPC units that these Missions produce, should be a serious threat, and just as hard to kill. There should be Quest/Missions that have players gather a certain material from hostile NPC factions, needed to make Airship fuel which can be used to summon Mani Gyro Copters NPCs that fly around dropping timed explosives on nearby enemies that do serious damage. Each team also would have their own unique NPC summon Boss Legendary unit that can be invoked/conjured which will attack one of the main Keeps/SMC (based on perspective). These Summon require players to do task events and collection events on the map, that they can choose to leave the Zerg to do, or the zerg as a whole can focus on these task, leaving their defenses vulnerable for attack, but with quicker results as a trade off.

*-Destroy-able Buildings-Right now, buildings instantly repair themselves after being captured. Not saying that is a bad thing. That should stay honestly. But some buildings should also be destroyable and require players to rebuild them by manually doing some sort of collection mission. This like in the above PvPvE discussion, gives the PvE players more task to do that can help their team win and be useful to their team. These Buildings would have some major importance, such as providing a buff to allies, or producing certain unique Sieges or NPC Units. Once destroyed, they have to be manually repaired, which takes time, unless their team's Zerg wants to sacrifice offensive position to address the collection Mission/Quest to fix these buildings. Its a trade off again. Because of this mechanic, the maps start off more spread out with buildings like these also in need of defense, and over time the map space gets smaller due to the destruction of these kind of non-automatic repair buildings, which creates more choke points for more large scale battles consistently over time.

*-Zerg vs Zerg-This is a major part of the appeal of WvW. Lag is an issue like in most game features that have large scale multiplayer gameplay, thats why many of the above suggestions are meant to give importance to other areas of gameplay in WvW so other players would feel rewarded for stepping away from the zerg every now and then, and still contribute to their team's efforts at winning. But also how can we improve the Zerg vs Zerg gameplay and fun factor is another major part of improving WvW. I listed a few already, with the above Healer Golem Suit concept, and the Shrine revival concept. This will make large scale fights last longer and more consistent thing, while getting people back into the fight quicker. Other ideas here is for more open field Sieges. Maybe more Mobile Siege unit types. I was thinking about some kind of Mobile Siege beast that may have some nice AoE damage and AoE defense, but weak Direct Damage protection. Making it good at large fights in reducing numbers but weak in smaller scale fights and focused assaults. Another idea is a build-able small outpost tower that can be built in the open field like any other siege, but it functions as a tiny base of sorts that players can enter and attack from the top. This would be limited two 2 per team at any one time, and would need to be built using resources collected from Missions/quest. Think of this as similar structure to the Supply Bunker in Starhawk PS3 game http://starhawk.wikia.com/wiki/Supply_Bunker

for now thats some of the concepts I have that should be reviewed for improving WvW's experience.

@Knighthonor.4061 said:*-Healing-GW2 was originally meant to eliminate the concept of Healers, but that isnt the best idea for WvW. It would be impossible to make a change to classes now to have healing, and extremely hard to balance such a change to classes so that the WvW healing changes doesnt effect other game modes in the game. This is why I have a different solution for this. The game already has a Golem suit mechanic, and Environmental Weapons concept. My suggestion is to add a sort of Mobile Suit Golem that has the sole role of Healing/Support. Anybody regardless of Class can jump in and play the Healer Golem once its been made. Each Team would have a limited number of them they can have at one time on the map. Healing Golems will have much better output healing compared to the classes. Better support skills. But have a weak defense as a trade off. They need their team to help defend them during major fights. These Healing Golems could also have their own Trait line dedicated specifically to them, to have their own custom play styles. Some players may want more Barrier shielding focus, while others may want a more AoE focus, or even a more HoT(Heal over time) approach. They can customize their healing Golem accordingly. Once Destroyed, players have to remake them through an event.

Uhm... WvW is the only mode in GW2 that has dedicated healers, its part of the zerg meta.