Welcome to Blocking Tank (Domination) Flag Game Weekend!

SandandStars

I really enjoy battlegrounds for the most part because A) there tends to be less lag than Cyro, I enjoy getting put on teams with a mix of people, C) I like the variety of the different objectives (would love to have more! even 1!) and D) the relatively short duration fits my schedule.

AND one of the games I enjoy has been Domination, as it typically requires good teamwork to win. All 4 of you have got to be good judges of what flags can be captured 2 v 2, 4 v 4, 1 v 2, etc., and how long they can be held before needing to grab others that are flipping... lots of fun variables go into the strategy.

HOWEVER, with the onset of Domination Blocking Tank weekend, I've already seen how it's going to be... TANKS, TANKS, undt more TANKS... sitting on flags, shield out... Sitting there.

I ramped up my penetration and managed to get 4 kills in a match. No one else had more than 1 kill, with most people having 0.

I don't think this is necessarily a flaw in combat design/balance, but in human nature. I just don't understand how sitting on a flag holding your shield and occasionally healing yourself can be fun. At all.

Any of you Flag Sitters care to enlighten me? What am I missing?

JanTanhide

Tanks! Going to bring my super blocking Tank into BGs!

SandandStars

You are not Velcome.

JanTanhide

LOL! TBH I usually go in and just die, die, die. I don't do PVP except to rank up so I can use the Assault and Support lines for PVE.

I try to do the leveling on my characters when they are young and under level 50 so I don't look so bad. LOL! Anyway, have fun in BGs. It can't be as bad as you make it seem. Can it?

SandandStars

Vat? You tink I kid? Ees bery bery bat. Ees heinous.

Seriously, though, it does kind of suck. I think the game is at its least interesting when people are pressing one or two skills repeatedly, whether that's fossilize and whip, or a werewolf spamming howl literally 20 times, or the NB who spams nothing but concealed weapon with an assassin's will tossed in periodically.

So, basically, it just takes what could be a complex fun dynamic experience and makes it one-dimensional.

Oh, I forgot to mention the lightning staff heavy attackers on that list of single-button pressers.

I understand it's just a personal preference. I just struggle to believe there can be that many people who enjoy hitting one button over and over again. Whip for Brains...

JanTanhide

LOL. I understand your frustration. I've been playing this game since it was released and PVP was there to annoy me. I'm too old to move my fingers like the young ones out there so I cannot respond as quickly. I realize that so I learned to not worry about dying all the time in PVP.

But I do enjoy BG's when I go with friends and we just don't care that we die. So far we keep our group full so a random PVP player doesn't have to deal with us losing all the time. It's just a fun experience and something to do besides running dungeons and trials.

Oh the one bar builds! Yes, I have a few of those now. Never thought about taking it into BGs. That would be interesting. I'm sure I would be cannon fodder though.

Hope you have fun in BGs and don't run into too much frustration!

JanTanhide

Oh, did you see the bug posted about the Tri Stat issue? Holy smokes. It's in Bug Reports now. It's "Zos are you going to fix this" title iirc. Have a look!

SandandStars

I gave you an Awesome, friend. Glad to hear you're enjoying the game, and not worried about dying a bit in PVP. That seems very healthy, to me. I die too.

I encourage you to try a 1bar build in PVP, as it is not only more doable for older fingers, but also really makes a difference in that you don't have to experience the lagging/failing bar swap which happens frequently in PVP.

I have couple of 1bar builds that I regularly use in BGs and they're a lot of fun. The really sweaty guys are all on 2 bars, because you can just get better results, (I go 2bar if I'm feeling "serious") but it's definitely a lot of juggling of buffs and bar swap frustration.

I hope you have some fun in the BGs this weekend!

SandandStars

I didn't see the bug! I will take a look. Thank you

LittlePinkDot

SandandStars wrote: »

I really enjoy battlegrounds for the most part because A) there tends to be less lag than Cyro, I enjoy getting put on teams with a mix of people, C) I like the variety of the different objectives (would love to have more! even 1!) and D) the relatively short duration fits my schedule.

AND one of the games I enjoy has been Domination, as it typically requires good teamwork to win. All 4 of you have got to be good judges of what flags can be captured 2 v 2, 4 v 4, 1 v 2, etc., and how long they can be held before needing to grab others that are flipping... lots of fun variables go into the strategy.

HOWEVER, with the onset of Domination Blocking Tank weekend, I've already seen how it's going to be... TANKS, TANKS, undt more TANKS... sitting on flags, shield out... Sitting there.

I ramped up my penetration and managed to get 4 kills in a match. No one else had more than 1 kill, with most people having 0.

I don't think this is necessarily a flaw in combat design/balance, but in human nature. I just don't understand how sitting on a flag holding your shield and occasionally healing yourself can be fun. At all.

Any of you Flag Sitters care to enlighten me? What am I missing?

It's just a playstyle that happens to benefit from sitting there camping.

But 1 tank can only camp at 1 flag at a time. Either your group needs to gang up on lone tanks to get them off the point, or you need to go find another point.

jerj6925

Can shield blocking be made directional? Meaning from the sides and back positions blocking with a shield does nothing. At least shield blocking players would have to put in some effort.

SandandStars

I hear you, @LittlePinkDot , and typically there are only 1 or 2 of these impenetrable blocking tank builds in a bg, and I proceed exactly as you reccomend; however, because players know it’s going to be Domination Flag Game all weekend, there are now like 80% blocking tank builds, sitting there, facing each other off at a flag… block, block, block, heal, hit for no dmg, block, block…. block…

For this reason, I much prefer having a variety of bgs rather than the 1-Game-Focus weekends. The uncertainty of the game mode lends to players using more versatile builds, which makes play/combat a lot more interesting,

TybaltKaine

I enjoy playing my unbreakable redguard build because it is easier for me to feel as if I can actually contribute to my teams success. I have mobility issues, so I typically only play one bar builds in PVE content (with or without Oakensoul, depends on the character) unless I'm specifically healing or tanking for dungeons and trials.

I used to love to PVP, I did it until I couldn't anymore, mostly because of my hands. Tanking in a BG (with a little damage on the side thanks to shield bash builds) is a way I can still get my PVP fix without needing to ice my hands after a match.

I do think a rotation of games would be nice, and would also appreciate more BG modes maybe something like a stealth challenge, maybe a race to a point type game (first to reach scores, think Fall Guys with combat) or honestly, anything else to add some more fun to BG's.

Tanking and holding a point against everything a player is throwing at you is fun, especially when they change strategies and you have to adjust on the fly. I love when someone comes after the one point I'm holding, and we have a chess match to see who can develop a winning strategy that goes beyond "bash each other until backup arrives".

I finished a match yesterday with 3 deaths, 4 kills and 3 assists and had the most fun I've had in a while because there was a very good arcanist player who was going back and forth with me on one flag for the whole match. We were both equally tanky and could dish out good burst damage, and it became a clash of styles and trying to figure out who could pull out an unexpected skill or combo to get the edge.

edward_frigidhands

https://eso-sets.com/set/shell-splitter

gariondavey

I just avoided bgs this weekend, did cyro and ic instead. I can't stand domination weekend (or crazy king, or capture the relic)

CameraBeardThePirate

The flaw is in how flags can be captured in this game even if enemies are in the area. Why build to kill people if you literally don't have to in order to take flags? Get 4 tanks and you can take flags away from any team with nothing they can do about it.

There are no other games I can think of where an attacker can flip a flag, zone, or hill without killing the enemies occupying that zone.

Same goes for capture the relic. Why bother building in any offense if you can just go full tank and spam the button to pick up the relic until the enemy either gets bored, makes a mistake, or the game bugs and allows you to pick up the relic anyways?

JerBearESO

Block is OP for PvP. When built into it creates stalemate. That has no place in PvP. Hope they make some kind of adjustment, but it's hard to imagine they would due to it's core role in PvE.