On the surface, I get the main argument. I want to start this post by saying I can empathize with everyone when it comes to the frustration of seeing your opponent slip away. I get that.
But I think that very often we get swept up in the emotion of frustration on this topic and we lose sight of how important escape mechanics really are to the quality of combat.
Now for anyone who has read my posts about nerfing cloak, my biggest gripe with cloak is that nightblades can simply poof out whenever they want regardless of the number of pursuers they may be facing. Specifically my biggest gripe is that the meta of the game specifically does not allow any other class to do this, even going so far as to remove this ability from sorcerers. My stance has been that if it is not acceptable for any other class, why do nightblades have this privilege?
That said, this is not a thread to debate the merits of cloak - the bigger issue I hope to discuss here is that really all classes should have some sort of escape utility, at least pertaining to these ridiculous 10+v1 zerg situations.
Let's be real here for a moment. There is an increasing consensus that the zerg is a problem, both in latency, and in the protections it offers against solo players and lesser groups. While I am built and trained in be mobile and I work tirelessly on my ability to evade groups, there are inevitable situations, situations we have all experienced, where you just getting zerged down 1v10+ hopelessly.
This group killing is not only unskilled, it is fundamentally disgraceful for the outnumbering group. The 10v1 isn't combat, its a massacre. Unless you are a god player, the odds of being victorious in that encounter is non-existant. In that scenario, you are forced to evade. This leads to the following two arguments:
"Well if they are running they should die." - But why? If there is no other choice, shouldn't that player have a running chance at escape? If 10+ players cannot keep up with one player, why is their grounds to make a forum argument that the solo player should be punished? The group has a very clear, decisive advantage already in numbers which protects them from relative harm. A solo escaping opponent is already at a disadvantage without nerfed or missing mobility or group tanking skills.
And of course the second argument
"It should only be a chance to escape." - This is a flawed argument because the reality is with escape moves it is always a chance to escape. If you employ escape abilities too late in a fight you run a serious risk of dieing. Furthermore, the reality of the 10v1 is that there actually is no chance to escape given a perfect storm of variables.
So with all this in mind I leave you with this idea:
Do groups not already have enough advantages inherent to the group itself that we need to further punish players who are forced to flee from combat?
Do we not want to foster a PvP environment where a players success or failure is determined as a factor of their skill and not simply because they were hopelessly zerged down?
By giving only one class this ability, are we not just pigeonholing people into playing one class to optimize their meta? Why not give proficient escape or zerg tanking abilities to all players?
Edited by Cathexis on December 30, 2015 9:03PM