Disruptive Frontline Gameplay

[Chasingstars]

It seems likely (although unproven) that on all three maps, optimal strategy is to build BH first, then use that to make capturing objectives easier. Indeed when I point out that you don't get any bonus points for capturing Mid on Onsal, I often get shut down by the assertion our team is there to build BH.

Battle high is more of a side effect on 2 of the 3 maps. With seal rock and onsal, having more battle high just means you can push an enemy off an objective easier. Shatter on the other hand is where battle high is more mandatory. As more battle high on your group in shatter means you break ice faster, breaking ice faster means more points especially in clutch situations, and more battle high means by proxy you can push enemies away from objectives faster.

Shatter I would say, at least from yesterday, really felt lopsided as people tried to treat it like the other two maps, leaving only around 1 to 8 people to slowly chip away at big ice while the rest go "pinching". But this also means their own team's big ice points is delayed which can be crucial thing. Even seen it with defending teams sending out their pinch parties. even if its all the way across the map. Sometimes a team that does this ends up in 1st place in the end, other times htey don't. Then you get weird standoffs, of bravado, where one team is at their designated big ice, while two other groups are at the entrance to the one with the big ice, yet neither of the enemy teams comes in. Or if one enemy team tries, they get double-pinched. Its absolutely ridiculous. As this sort of behavior is what I would expect and have seen out of 3rd and 2nd place teams that are pointlessly fighting in some grudge match on Onsal or Secure Rock while the third team scoops up points. Its a frankly dumb display of watching teams trying to force combat and therefore farm battle high. As yesterday it ended up one of the two loitering teams would have fed the other loitering team too much battle high and end up loosing. These loitering teams coming with the standard fares of dark knights, astrologians, dragoons. And the bonus about that whole thing of the two teams loitering? You can bet one of those teams has like only a handful of people slowly grinding down the big ice designated for their faction based on ramp access. Although to loop this back to battle high and other maps, battle high doesn't even mean everything. I seen premades loose because of just simply bad node spawns where one team gets back to back gold flags near their spawn.

Image below to illustrate what what I mean