Anet, thank you for the (dragon) banners!!!

[Eternity.2843]

Dear Anet,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you SO MUCH for adding dragon banners to the game! These have really added to game play and made it so much more fun for – and also extremely beneficial to - our server!

First, we fight in full squads of 50 people all the time and we have managed to rise to Tier 1 from Tier 4 by using dragon banners on smaller groups of 15-20. This is how it’s done, in case you are wondering: 1) engage a smaller group who is trying to use real battle strategies to fight against our 50 man squad; 2) have three or four dragon banners hiding within the squad (very easy to hide and protect the banner wielders with this number of players in squad); 3) wipe them over and over until they all become so frustrated they just log out of the game entirely (yay PPK!!!); 4) back-cap all their objectives on EBG and on their home BL, upgrading as many as possible before they can get players back into the game (YAY PPT!!!). This has been SO easy for us to do with dragon banners to assist us and it has enabled us to rise in tiers very quickly - not to mention all the wonderful WvW levels we have been getting! Even the old EOTM cannot compare to this WVW experience gain!

Also, even if we only have 15-20 people in a squad at an off time period, we can easily take on squads of double our size and wipe them, as long as we have a couple of group stealth classes, 3-4 dragon banners, and a few bubble warriors to go with them. Here is how we do it, in case you are interested: 1) stealth as many people in our group as possible (it’s ok if we aren’t all stealthed, since the other side will just think the few that aren’t stealthed are insane when we move in); 2) move into the opposing side stealthed, preferably from behind, as far as we can within their group; 3) lay down bubbles as we move, then have the dragon banner carriers hit dragon banner 5 as they enter, so that it goes down underneath the bubbles; 4) BOOM! Everyone dies! (YAY PPK!!!) What works even better is when you immob underneath the bubbles and on top of the dragon banner #5's! It's so funny, too!

Lastly, another of my favorite uses for dragon banners is when an enemy is at the gate of one of our objectives, or on catas near a wall. It is so easy to hit them with dragon banner 5 under the gate or from above, standing on the wall (I know this is supposed to be a ground spell but it works – so YAY some more!!!).

I just can’t finish saying enough nice things about these awesome banners without mentioning dragon banner #3. The immobs are amazing on that skill! We love to cast it then cast #5 on top of it. Or even vice-versa! It works SO well!

As you can see, there are just SO many wonderful uses for dragon banners in the game, so I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you for including them as they just add SO MUCH to our WvW game play! I am sure more players will have their own reasons to thank you for them that they may add to this thread, but these are just a few of MY personal ones. Maybe we should rename our game mode "World vs. Banners"? I mean, I'm just sayin' --- more accurate, maybe? What do you think? Maybe we could have a poll?

Have a GREAT week, Anet, and thank you again for the dragon banners! (YAY Anet!!!)

[primatos.5413]

YAY Body is 7 characters too short

[Mini Crinny.6190]

Is this Sky from Wsr?

[Ferus.3165]

the only thing that needs to be done about dragon banners is that you should not be able to teleport or stealth with it. Other than that they are fine. And btw. a 50 man zerg will always crush a 15 man zerg with or without dragon banner.

[XenesisII.1540]

Add this buff to banners.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistlock_Instability:_Social_AwkwardnessThe more people around you the more annoying it gets!

[Sovereign.1093]

Banner is the precursur of having buildable siege or stuff from structures that you carry around to have an edge over the enemy.

It favors those with numbers >∆<

Banner should be like that sky map in pvp. Person in keep targets attackers for a limited period

[Jilora.9524]

It's banners in general. I was wrecking with a centaur one the other day. I like your post was a good read.

[GokuNA.7354]

10/10 good read

[DemonSeed.3528]

@"XenesisII.1540" said:Add this buff to banners.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mistlock_Instability:_Social_AwkwardnessThe more people around you the more annoying it gets!Zergs could have some kind of debuff the more people there are, or if they are in a big squad haha. Some kind of dimishing return on boons and condi which automatically lowers target caps etc XD

[Lottie.5370]

At least they tuned down the damage a little last patch - but I still think it has a way to go. The damage and the target cap are way too high, especially when you can put one in pretty much every objective you own on a 20 min cooldown. It's always fun going to a borderland for a fight, clicking on the objectives and seeing 7 dragon banners have been popped. That's you Deso and WSR.

I really think you should lose use of your utility skills/f skills whilst holding the banner also, kitten revenant.

[subversiontwo.7501]

7 paragraphs of sarcasm, impressive :3

[DeLys.5380]

I recently (prior to the 25% damage reduction) suggested the following to Anet:

_1. Only allow each team to have one banner of each type active/in use on each BL/EBG at one time;

2. Only allow banners to be used inside objectives since, after all, they ARE tactics (as you know, tactics in the game are supposed to be defensive measures and these dragon banners have become offensive measures);
3. Change the way they work to where they require more effort on the part of the TEAM to make them that powerful (for example, needing to be blasted in order to have significant damaging effect), or just reduce the damage #5 does completely._

Of course, the recent "damage reduction" is barely noticeable since the servers that rely on these tactics tend to use 3-4 banners in one fight. The #3 on dragon banner is also a big issue, as mentioned.

I'm really against anything in WvW that allows ONE player to have a large effect on the outcome of an encounter with very little effort by, or risk to, themselves. Anet would not allow this in PVE, so I'm not sure why they are allowing it in WvW. I guess it's because there are not as many developers paying attention to what goes on in WvW on a regular/ongoing basis. I used to see them in WvW quite frequently but now hardly ever.

[Ghostof Luzifer.6159]

players with banners could made visible on the map for everyone to see + a target similar too a pvp gizmo above their head. Might be a targetfor roamers to take these players out. Like a map wide bounty hunt.

[Svarty.8019]

The trouble with banners is that the trouble isn't with banners. It's with OTHER mehanics which facilitate SNOWBALLING.

Again.

To accumulate banners, you need to accumulate objectives. To accumulate objectives you need to have "the greater force". Which means that generally* banners benefit bigger groups and/or dominant servers.

The way the banners work doesn't matter, the powers on the banner don't matter, it's purely a case of accumulating advantages i.e. SNOWBALLING.

*not when a big zerg first appears on a map of upgraded objectives. This occurance happens probably once (at the beginning of prime time), and may continue for an extended period if the defenders manage to fend off the invaders. The point being: As the defenders lose objectives they lose banners.

[Svarty.8019]

@DeLys.5380 said:I'm really against anything in WvW that allows ONE player to have a large effect on the outcome of an encounter with very little effort by, or risk to, themselves.

I disagree with this. I like the idea of someone being super-powered and an important factor for the enemies to think about. I find that INTERESTING and VARIETY - something that the game desperately needs.

[RisenHowl.2419]

Banner 5 would tick for ~3k and 3 would hit for 6-8k if anet would stop player stats from affecting their damage. You know, the way every other piece of siege works for the exact same reason.

[hunkamania.7561]

Great post i bet the wvw anet devs took that serious and gave themselves a pat on the back...

[ArchonWing.9480]

Indeed! The introduction of the Dragon Banner in 2015 was definitely one of the things to revive a dying game mode! It's been the lifeblood of many map queues. Along with the Desert Borderlands and costly Guild Halls, they're the best thing to happen to the game. I suggest that we make all 4 maps Desert and disable all skills besides banners. They should also take away everyone's guild upgrades and make them do it again for 100x the price because that's content. We should all be glad that we're getting any changes at all, because they're doing out of the goodness of their hearts.

I mean, it's going that way anyways.

[Riba.3271]

Guys calm down... it only took 4 months of complaining to get placebo nerfs to dragon banner... If we keep it up for 3 more months, maybe we can get real ones... Oh wait, nvm, keep it up :)

At this point like 30% of the posts on these forums are asking for dragon banner nerfs. Feels bad being ignored.

[Zikory.6871]

If banners are indeed to help the smaller* force. They should just scale with the amount of people, either on map or in proximity. The more people you have, the more worthless they should be.

[Svarty.8019]

@"Threather.9354" said:Guys calm down... it only took 4 months of complaining to get placebo nerfs to dragon banner... If we keep it up for 3 more months, maybe we can get real ones... Oh wait, nvm, keep it up :)

At this point like 30% of the posts on these forums are asking for dragon banner nerfs. Feels bad being ignored.

The gankers' solution to everything. "More complaining".

Well it's worked so far. Why change now?

[Brujeria.7536]

Banners are a wasted opportunity in this game. Their use should be to add an additional layer of tactic, support, possibilities, like for example superspeed to get out of sticky situations, heavy boon removal, downstate rezzes or even stealth. Basicly everything that enables more tactical gameplay and options. Potent effects, short durations, long cooldowns and a required tactical and timely use. They even could go crazy and add like a lifeweb effect that equalizes damage between a couple of targets. Instead it mostly boils down to damage sticks with a complete weapon kit. Make these effects like special interaction key skills, give the banner bearers also a better way to get spotted and targeted, to add even more counterplay.

[Justine.6351]

:'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

[CrimsonRise.7650]

https://clips.twitch.tv/WittySolidCockroachPrimeMeThey should nerf Dragon's Breath for the meantime.

[Teratus.2859]

@"DeLys.5380" said:I recently (prior to the 25% damage reduction) suggested the following to Anet:

_1. Only allow each team to have one banner of each type active/in use on each BL/EBG at one time;

2. Only allow banners to be used inside objectives since, after all, they ARE tactics (as you know, tactics in the game are supposed to be defensive measures and these dragon banners have become offensive measures);
3. Change the way they work to where they require more effort on the part of the TEAM to make them that powerful (for example, needing to be blasted in order to have significant damaging effect), or just reduce the damage #5 does completely._

Of course, the recent "damage reduction" is barely noticeable since the servers that rely on these tactics tend to use 3-4 banners in one fight. The #3 on dragon banner is also a big issue, as mentioned.

I'm really against anything in WvW that allows ONE player to have a large effect on the outcome of an encounter with very little effort by, or risk to, themselves. Anet would not allow this in PVE, so I'm not sure why they are allowing it in WvW. I guess it's because there are not as many developers paying attention to what goes on in WvW on a regular/ongoing basis. I used to see them in WvW quite frequently but now hardly ever.

I agree with all of that.