Changes to Shatter

[HermitUK]

We won by just walking back and forth between whichever of the two large ice spawns wasn't heavily contested. I rarely queue for Shatter anyway since the last rework, but that was heaven compared to this. I barely saw the enemy teams for the first 10 minutes of the match.

[Araxes]

Even less incentive for pvp and even more PvE. Head--->Table.

I do not know what to say.

[Mayhemmer]

Even less incentive for pvp and even more PvE. Head--->Table.

I do not know what to say.

Ironically, as I seem to be surviving team fights more often thanks to the near-complete absence of a third team during said fights, I'm actually enjoying those fights more, as I'm not getting instantly vaporized (most of the time). Maybe I've just gotten lucky, or maybe it's just a convenient side-effect of the changes, but the lack of that additional source of damage and cc is nice for a change.

[Anzaman]

Just finished match of Shatter, since it's the daily Frontline.

Outside of usual Dark Knights doing Dark Knight things, who knows how long they'll allow that, there was no PvP.

[HermitUK]

Outside of usual Dark Knights doing Dark Knight things, who knows how long they'll allow that

I mean they said they'd be looking at PvP content in 7.1 at FanFest, so they'll probably allow it for the next 11 months or so.

[Jettinson]

Yeah... after 2 matches I honestly can't see this being any fun. Might as well be a Golden Saucer event

[ShirakoShinkai]

Yeaaahhh after doing one game, I'm pretty sure this feels worse. I already hardly ever did shatter since the change, and now I think I will just avoid it altogether. I kind of liked the small ice changes at least; having a moment part way through the match to regroup and have a bit of a breather to get small ice is fine, though it would be nice if it was used more in a way for the losing team to catch up on points a bit. Like maybe only having the ones in their base spawn? But man. Big ice sucks right now. It would be a lot nicer if only one spawned at a time and probably still needs less health, or at least a larger break in between them spawning.
They're slowing getting there with the changes, but still needs a lot more work... Strange how it always feels like the devs are always on the extremes when it comes to changes EXCEPT for when it comes to shatter.

[Mayhemmer]

I had a match earlier where the duty timer actually ran up before any team could win. I can't remember the last time I saw that happen.

On one hand, I'm liking the smaller engagement sizes. On the other, if this was their attempt at gauging how smaller engagements tend to play out, I think there are better ways to do it.

I wish they'd just axe the third team entirely in DT.

[OzzRabbit]

Throwing my two cents in here:
The changes to how crystals spawn are not great.
One of the things that was enjoyable about the mode was the ability to contribute to by running around the outside and going after the smaller crystal spawns, and the changes have completely ruined that aspect.
As it stands, the current mode encourages a wrecking ball approach where one team just steamrolls everyone else while just a few of their members hack away at the crystals for points, pretty much causing a steamroll while the third team is off in a corner somewhere working on their crystal in a vain hope to catch up.
Maybe this is me talking as a casual who tends to stick to either Roulettes or CC for the Malmstones, but it is NOT FUN to be working towards the objective (as one should) only to be yanked into a mob and die in about two seconds as the dominating team rolls in like a flood, and wins with double the points of the other two teams combined.
The mode was a lot more tolerable (dare I even say 'fun') when weaker members of the team could actually FEEL like they were making a difference going after the smaller clusters.

[Scintilla]

One of the things that was enjoyable about the mode was the ability to contribute to by running around the outside and going after the smaller crystal spawns, and the changes have completely ruined that aspect.

This was kind of one of the issues which players had with the previous Shatter: when a third of your team spend the entire game chasing small crystals, leaving the rest to somehow survive vs a more aggressive team whilst heavily outnumbered. And even once further into a game when a team has BH and is taking a notable lead, trying to encourage your team to stick together and focus more on siding with the other losing team to take them down, many will totally ignore it and stick with the safe 'focus small crystals' method. Yes, I would agree it was preferable to what we have now, but even the old Shatter wasn't ideal.

Focusing more on this newer one though: personally, I think it's terrible. The games are slow. The time is just spent running from large crystal to large crystal. The only time spent PvPing is if the third team (whichever team doesn't have a ramp-accessible crystal active) happens to choose your crystal to fight over and, as they are destroyed so quickly, those fights never last long. 1v1v1 fights don't really happen anymore, except in the unlikely event that all teams meet over the middle large crystal. While two teams are fighting each other over one large crystal, that leaves the third team to do nothing other than twiddle their thumbs while they destroy their own and wait for new spawns in the hope that something remotely interesting happens. I have never spent so much time just destroying crystal as I have done in these new Shatters.

The only tiny benefit of these changes is that, excepting the moment when the small crystals all spawn at once, they do keep the team together. But, personally, I don't find that comes remotely near to compensating for the countless other negative changes which were made. It's now more mind-numbingly PvE than ever.