Hi Anet devs, A fantastic idea for a wvw week event and easy to integrate.

Right now the combat is very stale in WvW, Meta hasn't changed from 2014 and with the new implementations (like mounts and movement creep) roaming is dying. You get a downed and the blob will automatically ress it in a second. Because the blobs pass unhindered thru enemies casters aren't safe behind the melee train, as diminishing their strategic uses. And because of that same reason there is no other strategy than one push the blob thru the enemy and get advantage of the blob numbers.

So just to test it out to see if it clicks , one week event:

• Disable F action to ress downed players if your are in combat. Getting in combat while perfoming the action also interrupts it.
• Force activation of the functionality "melee assists" to all wvw players.

Those simple enough changes will accomplish many objetives:

Removing F to ress action if player is in combat.

• We will see if all classes can get an spot or use in grand scale combat (like thief or ranger) . Latests changes to thief (preparations) were very good unfortunately the game echanics do not allow this utilities to shine because players will look always for the easiest/cheesiest way to play (im included). And that is FB/SC/HE.
• It will bring forward ressurection skills which are used in other game modes: Battle standard, Ilusion of life, signet of the undead, nature's renieval... This could possibly open an spot for revival builds.
• Guild squads better prepared will be able defeat blobs, as they will not be able to use the sheer numbers to ressurrect downed allies and the impossibility to go thru enemies will allow to create different strategies.

Activating Melee assist.

• Will make combat more strategic as players can not go thru enemy players, squads can use effectively a melee wall to stop the enemy. "One Push" doesn't have any risk right now and it uses the stacking in one pixel to overcome enemies. As such promoting blobs meta play. With this it will not be enough to force the blob over the enemy as they would be stopped by the enemy melee tanks and their casters can look for better oportunities.
• Skills like the new preparations for the thief (thief portal), scourge and mesmer portals will make a lot of sesnse from an strategic perspective. If a havok group want to get to a very well protected enemy caster group, the best way would be to be teleported to them. Or break the melee/tank wall. A mesmer, thief Or scourge could acomplish that with a portal.

This both changes applied at the same time:

• It will make combat more interesting as now squads can use different builds to be used in different strategies for different results.
• Blob fights will not get longer. The TTK will be the same and a player downed it will be probably lost unless ressurected by an ally skill. It will have an adaptation time until players and commanders stop using one push, and move forward to a more complex strategy.

This changes will make any zerg combat to look more like american fooball where one team can use tanks to stop the advance of the enemy while teleport classes can introduce havock groups into the enemy backline.

The no downed state weekends IMO was an step in the good direction. However the game is not designed for no-downstate. As such the downstate is kept, but no player in combat can't use the F action to ress an ally anymore.

This will not impact roaming or dueling at all.

And who knows we may get the meta shaken a bit after 5 years (warriors more than kamikaze bubble, revenants uses as tank and not glass dps, deadeyes as snipers, more mesmers and thief portals....)

Well this is the only thing i could think for aside alliances to balance the population and better class balance to avoid cheesy builds.

I could do without the melee assist.

As for removing in combat ressing, it has been talked about a lot. GW1 had skills to revive, which was better than just spamming F in a blob to get someone up. As you had to make a choice, do I use up a utility slot for a revive skill? They also had cast times, meaning you could still stop a revive, and they had CDs, meaning you could not revive a downed player over and over again, which I was reminded of this week when I was fighting a Scourge and FB combo, I could down the Scourge over and over, but the FB would almost instant revive through my DPS, and downing the Scourge was hard enough with the FB support. Had he needed to slot a revive skill, this would only happen once if he used it, the second down I would have been able to finish and then focus the FB.

The melee assist thing is horrible, also, you can still walk through enemies, you just dont press 1, its that easy, you press any other button youve got.

It would also only increase the pirateship meta, that sure is hella fun.... Not.

Ranger, or any other non meta class, wont be made viable just cause of a... Res skill. Necros wont give up their wells for a res skill that takes 3s to cast, has a 150s cd (and is also bugged), spellbreakers wont give up bubble for a banner that has a 180s cd, (noone will take a core warr or berserker over spellbreaker btw). Illusion of life is a skill that mesmers take cause mesmers are already gutted beyond belief (and that skill has also been changed recently). Firebrand MI should be looked into, as it can instares people most times from fully minstrel geared, 25 stacks of benevolence healfood firebrands. That definitely needs a nerf.