Winterfestival Finals

[thecarrion]

Anyone else watch that near all-mesmer team win? That has gotta be the nicest "surprise!" I've seen in awhile. How would you handle that team?

[Tucks]

Anyone else watch that near all-mesmer team win? That has gotta be the nicest "surprise!" I've seen in awhile. How would you handle that team?

Seeing as it was a spike, in the normal ways you counter spikes. Granted, the map was limited for splitting, too bad for Cel.

[Hendrixbrother]

It's really funny, because the build designed by Ward Against Noobzz, the team that finished last, was the one to eventually win the tournament.

[GhostOf]

PnH knew what Cel would probably run - their Warrior/Dom spike - and chose a build that could spike faster and harder, simply. The limitation to it being that if Cel had the opportunity to split PnH would have had a seriously hard time keeping them in check, which is why they went with Burning Isle to try and force Cel into an 8 vs 8.


It's really funny, because the build designed by Ward Against Noobzz, the team that finished last, was the one to eventually win the tournament.

The difference being that Wa could *only* run that spike build well, having used it all season in order to get a qualifying spot. Any opponent of theirs would have known to expect it and take counters. PnH on the other hand is a great guild that brought it out as a wild-card that Cel would not be expecting, because they have the experience and flexibility to be able to do so.

Wa probably would have finished 32nd regardless of whether their players had been able to show or not.

[vader]

Is there an official list of the order of finish for the tournament anywhere? guildwars.com says Peace And Harmony won and I would assume The Celebrities came in second but I can't find an ordered list anywhere.

[Almas Darksoul]

The 5 mesmer spike build is hardly an "original" build - though it was rarely ran, a lot of guilds had considered the idea and decided against it (as a lot of the alternatives are a lot more versatile).

Rather funny to see PnH winning with it though - a statement to the spike vs spike fotm running around.

[Parker Bsb]

More a statement to PnH finally getting noticed for being a truly good guild. They didn't spike their way to the finals after all :rolleyes:

[HappyPants]

Anyone else watch that near all-mesmer team win? That has gotta be the nicest "surprise!" I've seen in awhile. How would you handle that team?

3-2-1 SUPRISE! I guess I am of a different opinion then you. I don't find the current state of guild wars "nice". Spike has always been a very powerful build that brought teams to the top that didn't necessarily deserve to be there. In the past these teams could be kept in check by the good teams that made it to the playoffs. This is not the case anymore as spike has grown more powerful and more versatile. Spike is probably the most powerful build in the game and perhaps takes the least amount of skill to play. It seems that everything has moved to spike.

In no way am I saying that PnH did not deserve to win. They are a great bunch of players and I was happy to see them win.

[mrankh]

lol funny how you hadent seen the build before. I was expecting one team to run it eventually... take someone by suprise. Wa imho would have done better had they not had team dropouts due to weather problems effecting there connection lines... anyone notice why they had henchies?? now you know. They didnt really have a chance cause there team wasnt able to play. Im pretty sure they wouldn't have ran the mes spike right off the back though, but probably were planning on running a variant of it if they had won a match.

[Parker Bsb]

I pretty much agree with everything Happy said, as for the OP's question - how would I handle facing all mesmer spike?

Let's see, they can carry all the general disruption they need (diversion + gale), they can spike most normal targets down fast; on a map like burning you are forced to vs them as a full team instead of a split (and even if you CAN split mesmers are versatile enough to be able to split with a non-aegis monk backline)
Either
a) play a faster spike build and crush them before they crush you (OF spike comes to mind - you just gotta hope their monks arent good enough to catch the first few spikes).
b) bring a bunch of copies of diversion and gale, and hope you can interrupt their spikes.

As for what I'd do? Our team is running something similar to what was seen a bit in the playoffs (2D, 3Me, 2 Mo, 1 runner) so we could pray the 3 mes were able to catch and stop most of the spikes.