The Fields of Glory (Shatter)

[Ultimatecalibur]

I believe a lot of the complaints are more due to people not yet full figuring out what they need to do in Shatter matches.

The variation in crystal compositions and spawn patterns keeps you on your toes and you and your GC need to be flexible. Groups that just try and Zerg everything seem to end up losing more often than not.

I had a crazy 72 match where all the small crystals activated at the same time and then we ended up battling the other two GCs waiting for the 4 large crystals in the center to activate.

[Februs]

I believe a lot of the complaints are more due to people not yet full figuring out what they need to do in Shatter matches. The variation in crystal compositions and spawn patterns keeps you on your toes and you and your GC need to be flexible. Groups that just try and Zerg everything seem to end up losing more often than not..

I'm not so sure that this is the case. There are only so many variations that can be applied to the simple objective of "kill the crystals," and killing crystals is pretty much the only viable way to win a match. RNG keeps things fresh, I suppose, but it doesn't surprise me to see players who shrug off the novelty of playing a 72/24-man game of whack-a-mole. By comparison, your story about a crystal free-for-all match sounds much more entertaining, especially near the end when you had to fight for the last four crystals. Even it it still just comes down to a Dps race, at least it would be a change of pace; so, it would be nice to see more matches like that.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I'm not so sure that this is the case. There are only so many variations that can be applied to the simple objective of "kill the crystals," and killing crystals is pretty much the only viable way to win a match. RNG keeps things fresh, I suppose, but it doesn't surprise me to see players who shrug off the novelty of playing a 72/24-man game of whack-a-mole. By comparison, your story about a crystal free-for-all match sounds much more entertaining, especially near the end when you had to fight for the last four crystals. Even it it still just comes down to a Dps race, at least it would be a change of pace; so, it would be nice to see more matches like that.

Your mentality and those like it is part of the problem. You see it as a game of whack-a-mole rather than a game of zone control. Its a much better strategy to split up into smaller groups to cover more area and potential spawns than bunch up and zerg cyrstals as they activate. People need to return to a mentality closer to 72 man Secure's rather than that of Slaughter or Seize.

I suspect one of the best distributions for 72 might be party A covers the left side to enemy GC base, B covers Mid and your own base and C covers the right side to the other enemy GC base.

[Februs]

Your mentality and those like it is part of the problem. You see it as a game of whack-a-mole rather than a game of zone control.

It is whack-a-mole. Even if you split the map between your three alliances (which is only possible in a full, 72-man), those teams are still reactionary only. Cutting down the size of the area they are responsible for does not change the fact that they are still responding to crystals as they spawn, just like whack-a-mole.

Further, this is not a one size fits all strategy. No matter how organized you make your three alliances, your best laid plans can still be utterly crushed by RNG and the dps strength of your enemies. It's certainly true that a divided team can respond to spawns quicker, but that response is also weaker. If they are outnumbered, then splitting the team only puts them at a disadvantage. A team of 8 cannot rival a team of 24, let alone two teams of 24. Depending on how crystals spawn (clustered/spread out/big/small etc), any of your Zone Parties could be easily out-paced on dps, even if they get there first. In the worst case scenario, they get destroyed by over aggressive teams looking for bonus points. Worse still, if any of the three divided teams are under assault, they are unlikely to receive reinforcements before it is too late due to the map size and geography; so, splitting up your fighting strength is not always the best option.

The bottom line is basically this: no matter what you do, you're rolling the dice. What decides if those dice come out good or bad is mostly the RNG of crystal spawns and enemy positions. It's a gamble, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still playing a game of whack-a-mole in which the fastest and strongest dps win. The only time that even remotely changes is if players have a reason to actually fight, instead of focusing purely on crystal spawns. In that regard, I'm happy that we at least have Capture points which can be contested, even if that only happens occasionally.

[Xenosan]

I suspect one of the best distributions for 72 might be party A covers the left side to enemy GC base, B covers Mid and your own base and C covers the right side to the other enemy GC base.

I think a steady strat would be good as well. But my suggestion would be for everyone to go mid, and the Party-specific objectives being that when crystals spawn, only 1 party breaks off to kill. However, the only small crystals this party goes for are the crystals near their team's flag. the contested flags in center are everyone's responsibility.

Where* crystals spawn is not RNG, only when* they spawn. I think too many groups get themselves in a panic when they're losing by ~300 points, and start doing something stupid like pursue small crystals (or stagger attack large crystals) outside their Flag's quadrant, way inside enemy territory, you're just giving points away and wasting precious time 'birding' which generates zero points. Whatever point gain from taking that crystal is often handed right back by getting killed, losing your flag, or letting the rest of your under-staffed alliance get picked off elsewhere.

Does your party wipe in the process? -40 points to you, +40 to the enemy. That's a differential of 80, small crystals only give, at best, 70.

Times KO'd is the most consistent stat I've found for winning matches. Seems logical doesn't it? Team that dies the least, wins. Small crystals are important, but they are also red herrings meant to break your alliance up, making it easy for enemies to kill you. That's the conclusion I'm coming to, at least. Get the crystals near your flag when they pop, get as much of the contested crystals in mid (in other words, always have a presence mid, steadily killing wandering enemies). That's it. Otherwise it's Large Crystals then TDM.