Motion: Twin Adder perma Echo boost at Aether server

[Atreus]

The other night I had a match I didnt know one name out of all 23 players. It was horrible game. 20 people couldn't push the adders off one spot.

lol Ohhh yeah they're definitely switching over now. All the scared people who wanna run around and depend on RNG.

[Kyuru]

Here's my personal take on Aether Twin Adder pugs, and why Adder 1st place finishes are so rare. IMO, it's not because Maelstrom or Immortal Flames are significantly more skilled - it's just because of a couple core issues that are really hard to solve without a shift in overall strategic mentality across the entire GC:

Adder PUGs are far too pacifist and passive for their own good.

In the early weeks of Seal Rock play when mechanics were still being worked out, the most vocal Adder players advocated a "defend and hold" strategy that prioritized holding nodes / points over engaging in combat with other teams. While this may have worked during Seal Rock's infancy because no one knew what to do, it's unfortunate because it seems to have stuck with PUG Adders as the predominant go-to strat despite it being a very poor one. Why is it so poor? Because:

1. It wrongly assumes that the other two teams will either hold still or engage one another while avoiding the node(s) in Adder possession. To put it simply, it relies on the other two teams being dumb to be successful. What often ends up happening in this scenario is that either Flames or Storm will get a node pop that's either closer to Adder-occupied nodes or have to compete with Adders for the same node, and because they're not getting any opposition, will just send their entire alliance into that location to overwhelm unprepared Adders PUGs. What follows is angry shouts of "WHY COULDN'T YOU HOLD?", teams getting scattered apart, and all manners of other things that reduces the likelihood of an Adder win from the get-go.

2. It leaves the Adders in poor position to capture new node pops and causes tunnel vision. Inevitably, the lack of resistance means that when new nodes pop, the Adders are busy fighting an opposing GC that's come to take their node(s) in games where Flames and Storm aren't just fighting one another. At this point, many PUGs tunnel vision on defending their existing node that's at 10-15%, instead of being ready to take new nodes in other locations. This is also why many PUGs complain about Seal Rock being entirely RNG-dependent, when in reality it's about prioritizing the right objective at the right time to help mitigate RNG.

3. It deprives PUG Adders of the opportunity to develop offensive awareness. What many people don't realize about Seal Rock is that winning isn't solely dependent on your ability to defend and hold nodes, it's also dependent on the alliance's ability to recognize when to prioritize offense and get kills when not in combat. When Flames and Storm are fighting one another, there are key moments in when a full-strength Adder alliance can swoop in and destroy the two depleted opposing GCs after they've spent a lot of their energy fighting one another.

Instead, when people adopt the "defend and hold" strategy, they invite the stronger of the two opposing teams to build up a sizable lead against their weaker opponent and then be in prime position to attack Adders and/or capture new nodes. The top premade groups in Seal Rock excel at knowing when to take advantage of two depleted enemy GCs at the right time.

That's it. It's not skill, it's not RNG, it's a fatal over-reliance on the defend and hold mantra to the point where inexperienced PvPers think the word "Seize" in Seal Rock: Seize means that the key to victory is to avoid combat.

[Liselsia]

Lately I been noticing Flame getting rabidly worse and worse. Last few days it seems like a 33% toss up for any GC. Skill and dumb mistakes seems to even across all GC on Aether now.

[Evangela]

Adders on Aether were bad since 2.X.

[Stormrider]

So this came up in discussion amongst a few flames. In pug groups you regularly see people who are higher rank quality players. When you get enough of them the match may become really lopsided in their favor. While I am not suggesting any of these players carry the team, it is beneficial to have some anchoring players. We have no chat going on, we did not place dead bodies in the adder team so we would get more kills, but we might have more players with multiple beneficial classes.

Now here is the point for adders. If we agree that each team may have only so many quality players. If all the quality players que together that leaves none left for pugs. Which means that as you see this week we have some adders with decent win totals and win %. Also from a quick glance 80 of the top 100 are from the same three servers.

I am a little jealous saw a couple matches where they were able to que in 3 full parties. Not sure what the wait time was like. Also Blubbers stop killing the flame sch in blue. Some garish yellow pld kept targeting me one match. Let the flames healers heal freely

[Blubbers]

Some garish yellow pld kept targeting me one match

HAHAHAHAHAH that made me laugh!

[Atreus]

Everyone has different experiences, matches, and plays at different times. No GC is always bad. Some players like to take those matters into their own hands.

[Liselsia]

Everyone has different experiences, matches, and plays at different times. No GC is always bad. Some players like to take those matters into their own hands.

I defintely feel a lot of recent sentiment is hyperbolic. Sure at beginning of 3.0 Adders was in the dog house. But as the serious pvp got ranked they wanted about a month. Now all three GC are mostly filled with people wanting tomes. It basically a toss up now. If you play enough games, your more or less guarantee to win 30% of the time. I feel a lot of the complaints are either people who hasnt pvp in several weeks to experience the shift in skill, or play like one match a day then extrapolate their conclusions from there.

[Amiaze]

I'm Malestrom on the Aether data center, and I honestly have to say that I normally see the Adders performing quite well no matter the time of day. I vividly remember Malestrom giving the Adders flak for having 0 points during one match, and I just knew they were going to bend us over the table next go around.

And they did. Mercilessly. I see them win more than anyone else.

As for Maelstrom...Faelstrom by day, Maelstrong by night. At least, in my experience.

[Ultimatecalibur]

I'm Malestrom on the Aether data center, and I honestly have to say that I normally see the Adders performing quite well no matter the time of day. I vividly remember Malestrom giving the Adders flak for having 0 points during one match, and I just knew they were going to bend us over the table next go around.

And they did. Mercilessly. I see them win more than anyone else.

As for Maelstrom...Faelstrom by day, Maelstrong by night. At least, in my experience.

It is always a good idea to look at the server make up of the parties when Adders are doing well/zerged one team into the ground. This week Gilgamesh and Adamantoise both had very active premade parties.

On Tuesday Flames suffered a long stream of losses and Mael in many cases won because the Adder premades were zerging us and any tomeliths that spawned in our area leaving Mael to claim any tomeliths that spawned in both the Mael and the Adder areas.

In one case this week we were at nearly 750 (300 ahead of both other GCs) when Adders zerged up to our spawn and beat us down to third place allowing Mael to win. When I checked the Adder roster I was unsurprised to find that party A was from Gilgamesh, B was from Adamantoise and C was 5 Adamantoise 1 Gilgamesh and 2 from other servers.