So how's the balance at FA this weekend?

So since there weren't as many leechers as we all thought (for me at least), I've been having a win/loss ratio of ~50% on kurz side, after playing through many, many matches (working on my kurzick title). So the question is: with the leechers temporarily gone, how balanced did you guys think FA is now with everyone participating? For me, I saw a lot less stupidity and a lot more competition. So do you still think one side still has an advantage over another? *cough* Siege Turtle *cough*

Discuss...

I played ~6 games each night and had either an AotL or NR/Tranq/etc. griefer at least once a night (Kurzicks FTW obviously). Not counting those games, it was roughly 60/40 for the Kurzicks in my games. Matches were certainly more contested than I was used to.

I did about 20 JQ matches on the lux side and lost probably 3/4 of them, though I noticed many times where we had a leacher or leaver. I didn't make it to FA, though it sounds like maybe I should have.

Balance has nothing to do with it when everybody runs trash. Seeing the Luxons unable to out damage 1 WoH/Heal Breeze monk sums it up.

I mostly won JQ on Luxon side. There didn't seem to be as many Kurzicks jesus beaming as Luxons.
FA was 50:50 for me, but I usually got smashed when pitted up against a team with any decent number of monks.

Let me see...Kurzicks have 0 monks.
Luxons have 7 RoJ monks and 1 WoH monk to keep the turtle alive,5 of them are from the same guild.

I did 20 FA today:

Luxon: 17
Kurzick: 3

I'm kurzick

I did tons of FA..I'd say it was 70:30 (Kurz being 70). Not many leechers/leavers/griefers/bots in my matches. Lots of good monks/rits, good team players & everyone knew what to do. When we lost it was because we had no monk or the team was made up of nubs...

I know that for me, it was like in the old days: if you had any less than 2 monks on kurzick, chances are you would probably lose. I suppose that's probably how it is on luxon side also? Oh how I missed the challenge of FA back in the days...

Edit: I noticed a lot of the random teams ended up with either no monks or 4 monks at a time. Other than that it was relatively balanced. So please, please, please, Anet, no more buffing the damn turtles!

Congrats to ANet on keeping the leechers out this weekend!

I think the Fort is balanced. If you have two experienced teams, it usually comes down to the wire behind the Green Gate.

Problem from the Luxon side is that average teams lose focus at some point and are willing to settle for just knocking down the two inner doors and then retreating to the outback for miscellaneous folderol until the timer runs out.

The lack of leechers is indeed great. I also witnessed some good matches, less noobness in general. I'm Kurzick and only played FA. The win rate was about 65%, maybe a bit higher. A lot of the matches were on the edge.

All in all a decent fun weekend imo.

I played about 15-20 FA matches as Kurz and only lost once. A good Luxon team with a few players that know they only have to kill Gunther (and not every Kurzick that moves) can make for a very interesting match, and there were more then a few of those in those matches. Problem for them was that a decent Kurzick team can hold the green gate and inner area fairly well even after it breaks because most of the time the Luxon's just come one at a time as they respawn. Basically, I think it's pretty balanced when the circumstances are right, but the Luxon's are hurt far more by a lack of organization then the Kurzick's are.

Good weekend, apart from the occasional griefer. Nice win ratio maybe 4:1. Many were close matches with green broken and only Gunther left. Many times I ran amber like mad and repaired the green gate at the last minute. The usual leechers *cough cough R.L.W.* were noticeably absent and the wait wasn't too bad either. This is what it should be like all the time.

Team syncing with my alliance have helped a lot. Otherwise i wouldnt even join FA. Score : 20:2 (2 loses because we had a bad team-syncing)

I think it should be possible to team up a bit. You need very specific skills to kill of the kurzicks (monks, enchantment removal + nukeing + mesmer to annoy the other monks).

My thoughts about balance:
- Make the ressurect time longer so when beaten you wont be up in a few seconds especially the kurzicks have the advantage with this timer.
- In the FA outpost you can make small teams.

I still stand by my original view that it's insanely imbalanced.
And the only thing that is keeping it in check is this:
Although contrary to Zenny though, it's the Kurzick side that has the advantage.
The only reason why Luxons win is because the Kurzick suck.
Because when they stop sucking - it becomes impossible to win.

True. Monks > Luxons.

/rant: When Gunther dies, it takes about a second to register. Kill Gunther -> /cheer -> Timer reaches 100% -> Kurzicks win. GG T__T Happens rarely but is still annoying.

Monks ftw. No game in wich they are not effective. Everyone wants em, everyone loves them. There is just nothing bad about monks. <3

(But RoJ needs to cause scatter, damit!)

i find FA balanced. I made +450K lux faction on the weekend so i really be sure how many games i played,,,,but i played all saturday and all sunday and nothing must else from 7am until 1am each day.... i would say that in the end, it was about 50:50. some times were better than others.

i did play JQ a few times, but really..... that is soooo unbalanced towards the kurzicks that it is not worth running there at all.

I did Fort Aspenwood as a Luxon countless times and won around 70% of the games I played (EoE/Zealous Benedicton turtle-healing monk <3.)

I'm pleased that there were relatively few leechers because serial leechers were spread more thinly amongst multiple teams, which I didn't expect.

There's gonna be an issue with the Kurzick side as long as they have mutliple monks and ritualists spamming heals on NPCs. There were a lot of Air of Enchantment monks on a spamming frenzy keeping Kurzick Elementalists alive, although they do crack under the pressure eventually and are forced to retreat. They considerably delay the Luxons though. Then, once Luxons push in to Gunther, the monks continue their frenzied healing and protting with the aid of the Gatekeeper NPCs which means that some Luxon member has to bring Rend/Gaze and or Scourge Healing/Soul Bind to cope with it. But with all of those monks, hexes don't stick and enchantments are slapped back on in a moment. Edge of Extinction does an excellent job, too.

I never once had a game whereby an AotL MM or spirit spammer killed Gunther. :'(

I would say from the ~25 games I've played, it's been maybe 60% Kurzick wins (me playing Kurzick). I must say when the Luxons dont have 2-7 leechers like regular days it's actually quite a fun match. Only a few ragequitters (one Luxon was complaining about having a leecher on the team so left...guess he doesnt play FA much ><)

There's been a lot of close matches where the hard fighting is done within Gunther's chamber, and I have seen a lot more "tactical" game play rather than mere rushing. Havnt seen many "rubbish" builds as usual days though which is rather good.

I would say though that the Kurzick have the advantage still. A Kurzick side can just do nothing and win, whilst the Luxons actually need to be on the offensive. If the Kurzick have healers then life for the Luxons isn't fun (Run an AoE monk sometime). Had one match where the front of the green gate was a absolute massacre, had Luxon minions and Spirits everywhere but the Kurzick managed to hold on (given that we spawn so close to where all the fighting occurs).

I made added 400k Kurzick to my title without ever running into a single leecher on my side. Worst thing that happened was a couple of leavers. Overall, I had a good time, better than I expected, which is why I ended up spending so much time there.

Balance is an afterthought as far as I'm concerned. It's all too random to me to give a damn. Maybe the Kurzicks have an inherent advantage, it still takes a few decent players to capitalize on it. Some decent players on the other side easily trump a lesser Kurzick team. It's all in the luck of the draw. And when decent players on different sides meet, games can turn out pretty exciting.