AFireInAsa
#1
So I've seen a lot of talk about how people believe chasing and defense is overpowered and I wanted to weight in my opinions on why and what we can do to indirectly buff offense. I'd like to preface by saying I don't think chasing with shield core is broken, though it is currently overpowered in needs a nerf. I don't think that it should be taken out of the game because it's necessary for medium-large (think Elegiac-Zenith) maps chasing, which I always felt was lacking in this game and is too hard to do, along with certain routes on small maps that people often run, like the front to backs on Frostbyte.
I think everyone can agree offensive coordination declined while dueling and chasing skills (despite it being easier, people are just better at it) have skyrocketed. This is due to there being less team competition, PUGs, and reasons for anyone to get better at anything other than solo pursuits. People used to go out on a limb to practice together in pubs or by themselves to improve their passing, routes and timings. *Tribes: Ass-End*, as an example, has (or had?) greater offensive coordination even in PUGs. This is a result of it being more important in the game towards the goal of getting the flag out.
A big reason for that is the super fast-paced style of Legions. You constantly need people on their way to the other base, otherwise the other team has a chance of getting out and capping with no egrabs ready. The general map pool is a big proponent of this. We mostly play small, front-route heavy OD maps that are dominated by defense. If we played more maps, it'd be different.
In the last Gorge PUG we played there, defense dominated on both sides for the first half of the game because the offenses had an extremely hard time doing anything with their lack of coordination. As the game progressed, they realized this and started running more unique, well-timed plays which led to them getting out more (at least the other team did, my team's offense just started running more sneaky fronts). I feel although defense seemed very strong on Gorge, a map like that has a lot of offensive potential, especially if you play it with a *Tribes: Ass-End* style where the entire offense is organized.
How does this work? First, the capper(s) stays back for a few seconds while the clear moves out towards the base, but not to it, and gets in position. If they're having trouble doing this because of being tied of to the defense physically leaving their base and dueling with them, they can stick together or designate someone to duel him while the other get into a sneakier position. When the capper is ~15 out, the offense, already in position, moves in and focuses the defense, specifically the HoF first and chaser second.
Making every run count instead of freestyle-cowboying is the way to go on maps like Gorge that we don't play often. We don't play them often for a few reasons. For one, there's often a large problem with these maps that can be, are being, and should be fixed. Gorge's middle needs to be reworked first. Forgotten is getting reworked which is awesome. Some people think Reactor has some small problems that could be easily fixed. Fallout and Mirage both need their base and stand reworked. Sleepwalker's bases need to be more similar, especially the bridge stand side that could be changed.
Next, they don't pop up in pubs very often because of player numbers. This then leads to the maps not getting played in PUGs because people don't know them enough or straight up forget about them. The last reason is a result of those two last ideas - there's a distinct lack of good cappers and good cap routes on maps like this. This hurts the prospects of playing the game with more coordination and teamwork. While that might not be everyone's cup of tea, I think it brings variety and depth to Legions in the form of teamwork that I'd like to see more of.
So how can we fix these problems? Well, a lot of it is already going on. We're getting more players to play bigger maps more. We're fixing a lot of the maps we have problems with We're playing more PUGs. We just had a team competition that will hopefully end up being a monthly thing. The other problems can be fixed with a bit of a nudge. Here's what we can to do:
1. Tinker with the existing maps. Send them out to test with fixes and new iterations more often.
2. We need to find and share cap routes. The best way we can do this is from cap routes and sharing capping demos. Something like Zhou 2 would be great, meaning an awesome route video focused on the maps we could be playing more and new routes we haven't seen/people don't know. Reactor, Sleepwalker, Stygian, Gorge, Whiteout, Zenith, etc.
3. We need to play more maps and start trying new offensive strategies on them in PUGs. To do this, we really need people to speak up and lead - and not just the cappers. This would also require pressuring people to use their comms more and buy damn microphones.
I think everyone can agree offensive coordination declined while dueling and chasing skills (despite it being easier, people are just better at it) have skyrocketed. This is due to there being less team competition, PUGs, and reasons for anyone to get better at anything other than solo pursuits. People used to go out on a limb to practice together in pubs or by themselves to improve their passing, routes and timings. *Tribes: Ass-End*, as an example, has (or had?) greater offensive coordination even in PUGs. This is a result of it being more important in the game towards the goal of getting the flag out.
A big reason for that is the super fast-paced style of Legions. You constantly need people on their way to the other base, otherwise the other team has a chance of getting out and capping with no egrabs ready. The general map pool is a big proponent of this. We mostly play small, front-route heavy OD maps that are dominated by defense. If we played more maps, it'd be different.
In the last Gorge PUG we played there, defense dominated on both sides for the first half of the game because the offenses had an extremely hard time doing anything with their lack of coordination. As the game progressed, they realized this and started running more unique, well-timed plays which led to them getting out more (at least the other team did, my team's offense just started running more sneaky fronts). I feel although defense seemed very strong on Gorge, a map like that has a lot of offensive potential, especially if you play it with a *Tribes: Ass-End* style where the entire offense is organized.
How does this work? First, the capper(s) stays back for a few seconds while the clear moves out towards the base, but not to it, and gets in position. If they're having trouble doing this because of being tied of to the defense physically leaving their base and dueling with them, they can stick together or designate someone to duel him while the other get into a sneakier position. When the capper is ~15 out, the offense, already in position, moves in and focuses the defense, specifically the HoF first and chaser second.
Making every run count instead of freestyle-cowboying is the way to go on maps like Gorge that we don't play often. We don't play them often for a few reasons. For one, there's often a large problem with these maps that can be, are being, and should be fixed. Gorge's middle needs to be reworked first. Forgotten is getting reworked which is awesome. Some people think Reactor has some small problems that could be easily fixed. Fallout and Mirage both need their base and stand reworked. Sleepwalker's bases need to be more similar, especially the bridge stand side that could be changed.
Next, they don't pop up in pubs very often because of player numbers. This then leads to the maps not getting played in PUGs because people don't know them enough or straight up forget about them. The last reason is a result of those two last ideas - there's a distinct lack of good cappers and good cap routes on maps like this. This hurts the prospects of playing the game with more coordination and teamwork. While that might not be everyone's cup of tea, I think it brings variety and depth to Legions in the form of teamwork that I'd like to see more of.
So how can we fix these problems? Well, a lot of it is already going on. We're getting more players to play bigger maps more. We're fixing a lot of the maps we have problems with We're playing more PUGs. We just had a team competition that will hopefully end up being a monthly thing. The other problems can be fixed with a bit of a nudge. Here's what we can to do:
1. Tinker with the existing maps. Send them out to test with fixes and new iterations more often.
2. We need to find and share cap routes. The best way we can do this is from cap routes and sharing capping demos. Something like Zhou 2 would be great, meaning an awesome route video focused on the maps we could be playing more and new routes we haven't seen/people don't know. Reactor, Sleepwalker, Stygian, Gorge, Whiteout, Zenith, etc.
3. We need to play more maps and start trying new offensive strategies on them in PUGs. To do this, we really need people to speak up and lead - and not just the cappers. This would also require pressuring people to use their comms more and buy damn microphones.
)
. Im with ya Fire!
. The more the challenge is thrown at us, the more we adapt and coordinate. This happens throughout every game we play. So if you want people to acknowledge the importance of offense coordination, the defence first needs to be challenging, frightening even. Although, you can't expect the same level of challenge from the enemy team every time you play a pick up, so why not set a minimum defence level by increasing natural defence on all the maps. Just my thoughts.