Ways to break up "zergs"

Every so often I see players complaining about zergs/blobs… and trying to come up with ways to make is so smaller groups can contribute more… so I’m here to tell you how this can be done in 3 steps…

1- More maps in play with open area objectives. This will spread out players, and allow smaller groups and solo players to contribute more.

2- Much better support skills and designs are needed. This game was NOT created with strong heal and nonheal support designs. The UI isn’t tailored for support roles. Support skills were not designed to target other players. The ground aoe support skills are awful because combat is designed for players to move, and that makes a counter productive scenario. All non ranged aoe support skills force players to be in point blank range within x radius, so it forces players to stack. All support skills have such short durations individually that it forces players to stack for maximum benefit.

By contrast to the above, City of Heroes had a fully fleshed out support system with a good UI, player targetable aoe and single target heal and non heal support skills, point blank aoe heal and non heal support skills, long duration (60+ seconds…) support skill buffs… and later in the lifecycle the devs made it so single target buffs would also hit all surrounding teammates, so it was a huge qol improvement to play support… The best part is that all of their “professions” also had either a primary or secondary power set that was designed to be offensive… So no, you weren’t just some forced buff bot in City of Heroes… These designs allowed, and encouraged, players to move around a lot, and smaller groups could function great without needing to stack, unlike here…

If the gw2 devs want to learn how to make a better support system (and overall game), that encourages effective small team play… then look up this for some much needed inspiration from a game that was, and still is, way ahead of its time in the class and combat departments… https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page

3- Way more ranged aoe and melee aoe attacks coupled with the above changes… Another area where City of Heroes shines… There were a ton of player targeted ranged aoe skills (no, not like the ground target aoe skills here), point blank aoe skills, and yes, some ground target aoe skills… Adding more aoe attacks makes it more dangerous for players to stack, so naturally this forces players to destack more… But what about pve swagger? Just add more mobs and more toughness to those mobs… simple.

…All of these suggestions improve wvw combat gameplay and breaks up zergs/blobs more… And pve is no problem with changes 2 and 3, because all the devs need to do is beef up all pve encounters so there is more of a dynamic challenge to match on that side of the game.

You’re welcome!

Edit- And for those who never played City of Heroes, or can’t envision what I’m talking about… This video will give you a taste of what it was like to play a support character, in a movement oriented game like here, in a pvp zone… The point of view is from a “Controller” Archetype and the primary power set was Illusion Control (Offensive control powers) and secondary power set was “Thermal Radiation” (Heal and non heal support skills). This was one, of very many, power set options offered in the game…

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Illusion_Control

https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Thermal_Radiation

I'm not sure what... that... is supposed to be but it doesnt look one iota as something that encourages "effective small teamplay". Looks more like constant 5v1 stunlock teleport fest.

Either way, sure Anet could up healing... but given that condi specs got the only decent heal gear in GW2 (focusing condi and heal is far easier than trying to balance power/prec/fer and heal) yeah... we all would love more condi.

I don't think any of these suggestions will break up blobbing, let alone change the blobbing mindset. I did play City of Heros - not a great comparison in my opinion. I miss that game though. RIP The Caterpillar.

Hmm this would have been viable topic right after release when each server had full map zergs, in todays state of WvW, zergs are hardly an issue in T1 when many people have stopped playing he game.

You'd also have to address the balance on those classes that are OP when roaming against other solo or small group players...if that doesn't happen and relative safety only exists in zergs, then people will still zerg.

lessen Burst damage and eliminate ganking, and people would not blob, players blob because safety in numbers. As such any idea that punish people for trying to stay together is a bad idea and will just result in less people playing,not changing play style. Make it so that people feel safer solo or small team, and they will solo and small team. It's that simple.

A+ for effort OP. But to break up blobs and zergs, ANet will have to work within the game framework they already have. As the original game was intended to break and remove the class trinity system seen in other MMO's. They don't have the resources to redefine how every support skill works and targets across the game just to encourage a play style in WvW.

I don't believe it would break up zergs (bigger numbers often win), heck, i don't even believe that they should be broken at all, but that would dramatically improve the gameplay and give a lot more opportunities and give everyone a lot more freedom of movement, which can only make the experience better. That wouldn't be good only for WvW mind you, even if that's the primary concern here.

@Swagger.1459 said:Every so often I see players complaining about zergs/blobs… and trying to come up with ways to make is so smaller groups can contribute more… so I’m here to tell you how this can be done in 3 steps…

I also see these complaints and I'm at a loss to understand them. Smaller groups can already contribute more, in all sorts of ways. People like zerging because it's easy. If something else were easy, they'd do that and people would complain that there was no large scale combat in the game.

Personally, I don't miss healer whack-a-mole.