User:JediRogue/Nerf Shadow Form

After coming up against these Shadow Form players in HA, I knew that I had report this. This is ridiculous. I would like to share my correspondence and my issue to get others' feedback.

My first issue
This happens far too often in HA. In HA, I keep running up against Shadow Form assassins in Heroes' Ascent. They are able to win matches by being invincible and waiting for the other team to resign. The new dishonor system and the time limits in RA matches make me feel as though you agree with this deliberate prolonging of matches to win by wasting time is wholly inappropriate and ruins far too many matches.

As I write this, my team is staring down a pair of assassins after easily destroying the rest of their team. With Arcane Echo, Shadow Form and Deadly Paradox, they are able to keep us from touching them while they gain fame by waiting for us to leave.

Currently the players being reported are xxxxx xxxxxx

On behalf of myself and all honorable PvPers, I hope that you are able to ban them for this extremely inappropriate and unsportsmanlike behavior and also look very carefully into how you can nerf this foul act.

Response from Anet (GM Oghma)
Please understand that this is a valid gameplay tactic. We will never ask a player to give up and be defeated in a PvP battle. It is not considered a violation to stay alive using the skills which are equipped in your skillbar. We suggest that you equip some type of snare or slowing skill in order to defeat players who use these skills. If you have any more questions, please let us know and we will be more than happy to assist you!

My answer
The response I received indicates a lack of understanding of the issue.

The players and tactic I am complaining about are people who come into a match with the sole purpose of winning through stalling. They are not players who simply run around at the end of a match to avoid defeat who can be defeated with a snare as you suggest. They join teams who are easily defeated and use a skill bar which can kill no one (and therefore cannot defeat an enemy team) but are able to stay alive through use of Shadow Form, with shorten recharge via Deadly Paradox and echoed with Arcane Echo. They cannot be targeted with spells and cannot be hit with attacks. This means there are very few skills which can be used against them, most of which are unlikely to be brought by a normal team.

This is "intentional stalling of arena matches," which I am quoting from the update notes from the Thursday, September 27th update notes. It seems clear that this would fit the parameters of dishonorable play.

My issue (which is shared by many others) is with both their ability to even make a bar which would make them indefinitely invulnerable to virtually all skills and with the inability of teams who face them to win by any other means than waiting.

One could simply say that we should wait it out. But this seems unacceptable. These are players who come in with the intention of winning purely by making teams wait. They know that they are going to be sitting there and prepared for it. Other teams are there to play.

We are torn between waiting and ruining our game play experience, or resigning, sacrificing fame and faction and the chance to continue which they would have otherwise earned, and basically sending a message that this tactic is okay. It works. It gets fame.

You stated in your responce to me that, "we will never ask a player to give up and be defeated in a PvP battle." By doing nothing, you are asking us to do that. Asking teams who want to play the game, who want to play fairly, to win an even match be defeating our enemies rather than exhausting their patience to give up.

So, I ask you, reconsider your response to this.

Final answer from Anet (GM Oghma)
We encourage you to consider posting your suggestions on one of the many Guild Wars Fansite message boards. A compiled list can be found on the official Guild Wars web site at http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/. By posting on one of these message boards, other players can comment on your ideas, concerns, and suggestions, and Development Team members are able to catch up on what the community wants to see in Guild Wars. Fansite forums make it easy and efficient for us to learn from those playing the game.

Thank you for your efforts in assisting us to make Guild Wars the best gaming experience possible.

Conclusion
It seems that Anet decided to nerf paraspike which I was playing at the time (they saw from the screenshots) rather than this. And to nerf Chilblains so it no longer is untargetted. Way to do exactly what I didn't want. (Actually the Paraspike thing didn't have anything to do with this but I thought I'd throw that in there.)

However, I will be posting links to this all over and I hope that others will comment because I am not the only one who thinks that this needs to be worked on.

Another Conclusion
Tuesday, October 16, 2007. Deadly Paradox's effect was reduced from 50% faster to 33% faster meaning that the original Shadow Form will not recharge fast enough to keep it up indefinitely. &mdash; ♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 00:38, 17 October 2007 (UTC)