The newest CC map has been somewhat of a sour topic for a lot of CC enjoyers, and I genuinely think that it comes to one main, positive aspect of the map, and one main, negative:
The 25% checkpoint
Adding another midpoint to clear isn't necessarily good or bad I think, but one has to question why exactly it was added and what it does add to the game, beyond making the map more unique with a quirk.
It's like the devs aren't exactly sure where to stand where it comes to stalling and on the other hand, unrecoverable snowballing games.
Let's remember that in late EW and early DT significant changes have been made to Guard and notably in regard to PLD: Guard duration reduction, that back then was justified as trying to reduce the stalling aspect of the job and the power of cover.
Now in contrast to this, the new library map adds that 25% checkpoint that is an obvious additional hurdle into finishing games too early, which can be good to slow down bad snowballs, but also bad because it has the potential to stall games forever, which I've seen happen quite a lot in ranked until the 15min mark of overtime kills the game and declares winner the team which is currently holding the crystal into the other's side.
One of the main issues is that unlike the standard 50% checkpoint, it's faster to clear sure, but it also resets whenever someone steps in, which leads to constant suicides while the other team plays tower defense killing the other one by one as they trickle back to it stubbornly.
Another issue is that the respawn is very close to it which means running back to that 25% is done in a matter of seconds.
So I do think the 25% wasn't a bad idea, but it was:
1) made too close to respawn
2) resets instantly as soon as someone steps in, where it should perhaps have been a slower progression going back and forth between the two teams
The Heal Pad
I do love the heal pad, and for one major reason, even though it also doesn't help with the aforementioned 25% stalling.
There is a trend that you tend to see in most high ranked games, and even to a lesser degree at times with lower level games: unless it's team comps literally made of support jobs (green/blue or especially PLD), you'll see one target marked for burst, and people will dogpile on them until they die.
This makes sense especially if the target drops. But more often than not the target will not drop dead, will defend the first burst well, but will keep getting pummeled because bursts last more than a couple of GCDs like back in EW, and you end up with long chases of 3-4 people chasing after the same person all over the map. It can even happen on both sides actually.
Personally I'm not fond of that. If you defend well, I feel it's kinda shitty to eventually die just because 3-4 people follow you to narnia until you die anyway. You can still take pride that you made them wasted as many resources as possible to do so, and hope your team did better on their side, but I don't think it makes for stellar gameplay either.
I think that once someone defends well, and continues doing so, the game state should move over to something else, another target, or anything else.
And that's precisely what the heal pad actually allows in the new map. I do really appreciate it because it completely breaks that tendency and refocuses the game on the goal and the team fight.
Continue reading...
The 25% checkpoint
Adding another midpoint to clear isn't necessarily good or bad I think, but one has to question why exactly it was added and what it does add to the game, beyond making the map more unique with a quirk.
It's like the devs aren't exactly sure where to stand where it comes to stalling and on the other hand, unrecoverable snowballing games.
Let's remember that in late EW and early DT significant changes have been made to Guard and notably in regard to PLD: Guard duration reduction, that back then was justified as trying to reduce the stalling aspect of the job and the power of cover.
Now in contrast to this, the new library map adds that 25% checkpoint that is an obvious additional hurdle into finishing games too early, which can be good to slow down bad snowballs, but also bad because it has the potential to stall games forever, which I've seen happen quite a lot in ranked until the 15min mark of overtime kills the game and declares winner the team which is currently holding the crystal into the other's side.
One of the main issues is that unlike the standard 50% checkpoint, it's faster to clear sure, but it also resets whenever someone steps in, which leads to constant suicides while the other team plays tower defense killing the other one by one as they trickle back to it stubbornly.
Another issue is that the respawn is very close to it which means running back to that 25% is done in a matter of seconds.
So I do think the 25% wasn't a bad idea, but it was:
1) made too close to respawn
2) resets instantly as soon as someone steps in, where it should perhaps have been a slower progression going back and forth between the two teams
The Heal Pad
I do love the heal pad, and for one major reason, even though it also doesn't help with the aforementioned 25% stalling.
There is a trend that you tend to see in most high ranked games, and even to a lesser degree at times with lower level games: unless it's team comps literally made of support jobs (green/blue or especially PLD), you'll see one target marked for burst, and people will dogpile on them until they die.
This makes sense especially if the target drops. But more often than not the target will not drop dead, will defend the first burst well, but will keep getting pummeled because bursts last more than a couple of GCDs like back in EW, and you end up with long chases of 3-4 people chasing after the same person all over the map. It can even happen on both sides actually.
Personally I'm not fond of that. If you defend well, I feel it's kinda shitty to eventually die just because 3-4 people follow you to narnia until you die anyway. You can still take pride that you made them wasted as many resources as possible to do so, and hope your team did better on their side, but I don't think it makes for stellar gameplay either.
I think that once someone defends well, and continues doing so, the game state should move over to something else, another target, or anything else.
And that's precisely what the heal pad actually allows in the new map. I do really appreciate it because it completely breaks that tendency and refocuses the game on the goal and the team fight.
Continue reading...