Was Underworld ever part of the Team Metagame?

[epyon96]

This is something that has been bothering me so I like to get some other opinions on this.

At any point during GW's history, has Underworld ever been friendly to pickup groups? I played the game since release and remember Underworld was pretty much always a 55 Solo smites, trapper groups that focus on smites, and now it's all about Perma Speedway.

The ratio of 8-player team builds actually intending to clear Underworld was pretty much non-existent. Every once in a while, I see someone creating a group but it takes like 1-2 hours to get interested players. Fair enough, high end areas tend to require specialized builds and everything but I find the Underworld to be a little ridiculous.

I am not advocating for holy trinity teams in underworld or other gimmicky teams. But the fact that Underworld is very party unfriendly. Maybe a simple change of changing the starting point away from the axe warriors would encourage more people to enter it. I think enough grievers get pissed at the fact that when they sample a new area and get wiped within the first few mobs and having lost a 1k.

I like to hear other people's experience.

[Ryuujinx]

Before the pet nerf (when they left corpses) i used to run with a B/P team all the time in there.

"There's nothing you can't beat if you throw enough rangers at it"

Good times..

[MoonUnit]

Originally Posted by Ryuujinx

Before the pet nerf (when they left corpses) i used to run with a B/P team all the time in there.

"There's nothing you can't beat if you throw enough rangers at it"

Good times..

Did that with The Deep with my alliance last week. Maybe UW is next.. hmm...

[Erikir]

The only trips to the UW I've done (and I've done many) have been with PUGs. 2 of those trips were successful, many ended with either the ice wastes or chaos planes quests killing the group.

These days it seems like it's all speed clear. I tried that once, and it was boring. Even FoW can be difficult to find a group that doesn't centre on an nearly unkillable tank, 6 nukers and one healer.

[Ryric Krael]

I've done it with my guild and were more come as you are friendly towards it. Obviously a monk or two is necessary, but in general we all just grab what we like and hit it (minor adjustments relating to the area at hand). A lot can be said for teamwork, knowledge of the area and comfort with your build. Cons and DP removers of various sorts have widened the margin of error in this regard.

As for pugs...I have enough trouble doing a normal mish with a pug, I'm okay with foregoing UW PUG 's. I would suggest any number of casual friendly PvE guilds if what your looking for is access to end-game type content.

Think the only end-game area I've PUG'd was the Tomb's back when B/P was god, and if you met those requirements you were in... (did do FoW once as well...but just once with a PUG)

[Simply Kedde]

As mentioned there were a million B/P teams back then.

[InvictusBlood]

There for a while everytime my guild and I went to ToA we always saw those damn Ursan groups PUGing. This was mostly for FoW, but a decent amount also went to UW. Since Ursan got nerfed (took them long enough) that obviously stopped.

[Fluffball]

PUGs aren't meant for end-game content; you need a team that works together. Proof? I person and 6 heroes can do UW without breaking a sweat because they all attack the called target and they all bring an appropriate build that complements all the others. If UW was doable by something other than what I just mentioned, it wouldn't be any harder than, say, Thirsty River.

I suspect the team strategy focus of GW is something that we won't see in GW2 (based soley on what we've heard so far.) I hope I'm wrong.

[raspberry jam]

Originally Posted by Fluffball

I person and 6 heroes can do UW without breaking a sweat

How on earth do you complete the four horsemen without a second player? i consistently failed there when going on my own, so I eventually gave up.

[FourthVariety]

UW started with solo smite, which got nerfed for obvious reasons. It wasn't aimed at clearing the UW.

Then the dual team with one person Spellbreaking and one person using Spiteful Spirit became the norm. Still, a build only aimed at certain parts of the UW.

With Nightfall people did "Rent-a-Hero", which is 2 humans and six heroes, one human leaves after entering, the other can take his time earning spider pets. Not very practical for clearing UW though.

Ursan really marked the first time people made full 8 person teams with the goal to clear the UW and the actual timeframe to make it.

After Ursan was gone, some perma-Sin + Terra-Ele teams prevailed. But the mainstream of players was gone again.

That is the history of UW in a nutshell. Regular teams have always been a minority. Picking up a team as if you were on a mission always has been a rarity. The only teambuild that ever found broad acceptance among players got removed. Since the UW has a lot of potential "fail states", finding pugs in the first place is not an easy task. It's one of those places you should opt for voice chat, except you join a specialist party.