What killed IWAY?

Wirt

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2007

Conscripts of Ascalon

W/

At the time IWAY was raging, I was still leveling my first character and had no idea what the heck a "iway" was. Now after about 2.5 years of playing, I have yet to use "I Will Avenge You" shout on my warrior. I was thinking of messing around and trying AB with a group of guildies with IWAY builds (I think it wont work).

But that comes to my question, What killed off IWAY? Was it a nerf of the skill? Was it the down time of skills when the pet dies? Was it just a general shunning of the build? Does anyone still run that build or a variant?

Also on wiki, I couldnt even find the IWAY builds in pvx. Maybe I didnt look hard enough.

Thanks for the answers.

PlasticBlue

PlasticBlue

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2008

Middelburg

The Sneezing Dragons

E/

I think it kind of was everyone knowing that when you came in with warriors and pets, that you were playing IWAY. So in the end everyone knew how to counter it (don't kill the pets).
I could be wrong, but didn't I see IWAY making a comeback last couple of days?

Hou Yuanjuai

Hou Yuanjuai

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2008

The Arms of Sorrow[KsE]

W/

I was playing Sway the other day and we got rolled really badly by and IWAY team

The Red Messenger

The Red Messenger

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2008

America

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hou Yuanjuai
I was playing Sway the other day and we got rolled really badly by and IWAY team
Thats awesome! i would love to see IWAY make a comeback, so we do a full circle

i remember running IWAY way back when, and we got rolled over by an all ele/monk team running smite skills a few times...not sure what this was called

Wirt

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2007

Conscripts of Ascalon

W/

I figured it was the pet death causing downtime in skills for what, 6 or 10 seconds. I dont remember that being an issue way back when. But I wouldnt mind trying to run a 4 man IWAY team in AB, just for kicks, haha.

Cathode_Reborn

Cathode_Reborn

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Sep 2006

The last IWAY variant, "zerg iway", went dead after the 6 sec recharge was added to "Fear Me". It revolved around using Steady Stance + Desperation/Drunken Blow to spam "Fear Me" and easily drain the other team's energy. Eventually, the pressure and e-drain becomes too much for the monks to handle.

Izzy seemed kinda hesitant to do some nerfing because the war builds had a bunch of skills that are normally unused crap, but happened to fit perfectly into the setup. I think he kinda liked the idea of bad/unused skills actually seeing use....*remembering some of his quotes*

As for the older iway, don't remember much about it =\

Killed u man

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2006

Nerfs to IWAY (From top of my head):

-Range, now it's Radar, I think it used to be intire map (not sure)
-Stacking of IAS got nerfed. (IWAY would overlap itself, and eventually give you 50+ speed buffs)
-Stacking of Orders (OoV/OoP I think) got nerfed.

Non-Direct "Nerfs":

-Thumpers took over
-Zergway

Bowstring Badass

Bowstring Badass

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Character selection screen figuring what I want to play...

Purple Lingerie - :D

The true iway build was killed by [order of the vampire] and [order of pain] not stacking.

HawkofStorms

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

IWAY still existed for a long time with "Zergway" which was just a heavily modified IWAY that used Paragon healers instead of monks and the steady stance build. Certain nerfs to paragons and the added recharge to fear me did not really "kill" that build, but made it a lot less reliable.

Really, things kinda move in and out of fashion. The "it" build used by the average HA pug is no longer an IWAY varient. Zergway still works, but all the button mashing elitest HA players (ie, ones who only run cookiecutter builds but have no concept of why the builds work) have moved over to Sway. Its not that Zergway doesn't work anymore, its that all the people are running something else now, so its a lot less common to see groups forming for it.

Musei Karasu

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2007

Mo/

Zerg IWAY was the last variant of it and it went out with a crash when "Fear Me!"got nerfed. I also seem to recall that playing and playing against that IWAY was really boring. It also died out when the Heroway with EoE and Tainted got started.

JR

JR

Re:tired

Join Date: Nov 2005

W/

IWAY didn't die due to a nerf, though it did recieve several. It was simply pushed out of the HA meta by the 'nightfall power creep', which brought in other easy to run gimmicks that were harder, better, faster and stronger.

Abedeus

Abedeus

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Niflheim

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowstring Badass
The true iway build was killed by [order of the vampire] and [order of pain] not stacking.
Imo IAS cap was worse nerf to IWAY, not the stackage.

NeHoMaR

NeHoMaR

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wirt
What killed IWAY?
Don't read more speculations. The real reason of IWAY disappeared is: NIGHTFALL.

When Nightfall was released, heroes was released too, and with HA with 6 players only, you was able to solo play HA: You, 3 heroes and 2 henchies.

Everybody playing IWAY just for farm fame (99% of IWAYers was) thought soloing was a better way to farm fame, even better because wasn't needed to wait for form a pug team, so every popular pug fame farming build disappeared in a few days, plus new 2 professions and a lot of overpowered elite skills (some intentionally designed to destroy popular builds (and sell Nightfall)), bye bye IWAY.

Nightfall release = IWAY death.

Side note: a LOT of whiners appeared because the possibility of solo HA, you know, typical noobs not able to defeat one man with 5 bots, and ArenaNet changed it gradually to as it is right now.

Painbringer

Painbringer

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2006

Minnesota

Black Widows of Death

W/Mo

I still take it to RA now and then (not much faith in the team i guess)

Musei Karasu

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Nov 2007

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by NeHoMaR
Nightfall release = IWAY death.
Except there were IWAY teams on a regular basis until the nerf of "Fear Me!".

Sethellington

Sethellington

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Sep 2005

nn

N/

i think when people realised just how easy it is to counter IWAY, people stopped using it cos they got rolled. IWAY went to VIMWAY then ViM got nerfed. then there was zergway. haven't really seen it since.

pamelf

pamelf

Forge Runner

Join Date: Aug 2006

Australia

Lost Templars [LoTe]

Me/Mo

Lol, IWAY was the last time I ever PvP'd... brings back memories.

Shadowfox1125

Shadowfox1125

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

PST

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by JR
IWAY didn't die due to a nerf, though it did recieve several. It was simply pushed out of the HA meta by the 'nightfall power creep', which brought in other easy to run gimmicks that were harder, better, faster and stronger.
I see what you did there.

But yeah, IWAY brings back memories.. it would be nice to see it make a comeback, but I don't think that's going to happen very soon.

bandalen syhali

bandalen syhali

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2006

6er Ha killed Iway.