It's time to fix Seal Rock.

[SalamanderIX]

I like Seal Rock, there's just been one small problem since forever.



North barely ever wins. Just add One control point to the north, a bit more land too? The zone of control for north is too small. 9/10 games start with S/W and S/E pinning north, making the cave entrance in the south wider could also help, so that SW and SE are separated by a chokepoint, whereas north is wide open.

[Valence]

Seal Rock is my favorite map by far for its tactical aspects and the terrain that is a lot less braindead than Onsal.

That being said the layout has always been a big issue, not only for the node imbalance that you point out here, but node access and obvious pathways teams will take:

1) North only has 4 nodes vs the 5 immediately accessible to E and W.

2) Node terrain layout access: N and W have direct access to their nodes, E has 2 nodes that require to go around them to access them.

3) Node terrain defensive entrenchment: N has no realistically defensible node positions, they're all in the open, the one between them and W has some palisades around but that's about it. E has no really defensible node entrenchments either, but it's easier to defend the node just in front of that chokepoint between the cliffs, and it's also easier to defend the one at the uttermost bottom because any enemy team coming there can get pinched very easily from north and is very exposed. Finally W in the cave have the absolute goated hand because 3 of their nodes are placed in a defensible promontory that forces attackers to CLIMB while they get blasted away. Not only that but the one overlooking the middle of the map is also only accessible from behind for the enemy, which is ludicrous.

4) Imbalanced alliance pathways: the middle rock cliffs are too off center toward W, which means that it generally pushes N and E team to just rush toward each other in most games, while cave team W usually ends up having the choice of which team to pick on and flank for free, unless very specific node spawns. You will almost never see N and E team move toward W unless W is winning. The cave is really inaccessible and has too many entrenched positions (see above).

[Random0]

I would make 3 node changes :

1. The node at The Dig should have fortifications similar to the westernmost one in the northern territorial zone.
   
2. There should be a ramp scaffolding on the eastern side of the 'upper' mid node to give northern/southeastern forces a path to it that doesn't involve them looping around through the western force caves.
   
3. The current 'lower' mid node should be moved about 1-1 1/4th grid to the top of the rock formation to its northeast, with multiple ramps leading up to it (or it could be moved into a small cave with multiple tunnels). That would give the northern force a 5th node in their territory to bring them in parity with the western and southeastern forces.

[TofuLove]

I think this is fair, but i am not sure I trust level designers at SE to not mess up the rebalancing because I don't actually believe they play the mode very much so they will probably overcorrect it.
Seal rock is my favourite map even with some spawn RNG it's got the epic scale and uniqueness that I would hate to lose.

Personally I don't think node proximity to spawn is a huge problem, because if you are in lead theoretically you should be just spawn camped. That being said i wouldn't mind if they adjusted it ever so slightly.

This is very difficult to talk about without pictures but i shall try...

My problems with Seal Rock as a map:
-Opportunities for rotation are too unequal. Cave team has too many advantages in rotating around rocks and using higher ground to escape a pinch. Just put more rocks or shacks on the north side please. Like 1 big one would do.
-Higher ground above mid is too strong position wise - it needs to be shifted towards the caves even more or be higher up or removed entirely, so you wouldn't be able to pinch from the top of it, or have a second ramp. It controls too many routes if your team is parked there waiting for pinch.
-Slight shifting of the north and south upper level nodes within serpent's throat (west side). It would be great if they were slightly closer to the east to enable north and south more equal access to them. Though i am not fussed about this one as much.