why is alliance battle dead?

seriously this is such a fun thing to do, I went to the alliance battle lobby via the guild hall and there was nobody there, I dont know why and how this died out its probably the funnest pvp game in guildwars.

can Anet please do something to promote this more and get it back up again?

JQ provides better rewards with shorter games.
It sucks b/c AB is much more fun.

Besides what was said in above post you can play JQ/FA with 1 press of a button while you have to form a team for AB that still might lose. Besides AB is usually stuck on ancestral shitlands.

I used to love AB. It was my favorite PvP format for sure

I think that the lux/kurz faction update signaled the beginning of the end for AB. Before that update (and even, for a little time after), AB was extremely active because it was the best way to earn faction. Sometimes I wish that the lux/kurz faction-gaining methods could go back to those days. As is, I think the best band-aid fix would be to randomize the map selection and to slightly increase the faction gain.

Agreed, faction earned in AB is not worth the time it takes. I really like AB but I also like JQ so when it comes to a choice I go with better faction.

I never really cared much for the rewards it was just really fun for me.
Anet should really do something to make it more popular.

People don't play AB mainly because it's the lack of organized groups. Faction wasn't the meaningful factor in this because getting a team set up includes "OMG WE DON'T HAVE A MONK!!" plus the excessive amount of time waiting.

Everything's set to scrub groups now. If you want organized, you have to join a Guild, but they mainly do Guild Battles now. If Anet needs a solution, AB should allow random and have a major controlling (cut-off) influence to what you can be awarded, or have access to. The current method to running this game now is actually blocking all interest in being part of it.

I wouldn't mind setting up a "Save Alliance Battles" thread, but I've seen enough of the community to know how that'll be treated.

There are some good ideas listed in the other forum, Glads I think.
Either way, something should be done. As it stands, it's the only casual form of pvp left where we can form our own teams.

I'd like to see a standard map rotation that plays a map 3-4 times then rotates to the next one.
I wouldn't oppose 1 hench per team.
I'd love to see some kind of mAT for this format.
I'd love to see a true alliance (guild) option where one alliance could compete against another alliance.

It's a great format that deserves to be saved.

-i

Why AB is dead?

*Bad factions
*Long Matches
*Long waiting times
*Can't make a difference on your own due to the large number of players
*Relies on meta team builds making it a sad HA/GvG imitation
*PUGS PUGS PUGS and more noob PUGS

Due to the Imperial factions waiting time depents on the side you are with and doesn't matter anmore

The number of factions you get needs to be buffed since it isn't worth the trouble and the team system needs to be eliminated. It's because of the team system that it's dead like Codex wich has the identical flaw.

Increasing the reward and getting rid of the team system is plenty for AB to be resurrected.

Agreed and where are Anet's thoughts on this?

Can we get someone over here?

That, or add a NPC-monk in each 4-man sub-team. This means that each sub-team will have 3 human players, and 1 NPC monk. The NPC monk will follow the team leader, and if the leader is dead, the next in line.

I have always thought that this is the preferred way to do PvP because the amount of no-monk rage-quitting is phenomenal, even in RA. Why? Because guild wars does not afford dedicated healing skills for all professions, and speccing in a secondary for heals/prot is inefficient.

For RA, keep the 4-man human teams, and add a 5th player which is a NPC monk. This will at least give many teams a chance to try.

JQ/FA offer better rewards for the casual gamers. The competitive people have moved on and/or quit. [anc]'s alliance is pretty much dead iirc.

Because:

-Capping shrines is boring
-People are reluctant to cap the boring shrines despite it being the route to winning
-Leechers
-Leavers
-Too many people; the individual's contribution is very diluted to the point of being virtually ineffectual.
-Most people use a build from the same handful of skill bars (Burning Arrow, Stance WoH, Wastrel's spammers, Grenths, Invoke etc.) The rest use their raptor farming builds.
-JQ/FA offer more faction per hour
-Too many people have their faction titles maxed.

Alliance Battles only comes alive during bonus weekends or Zaishen Quest Day.

Why is it dead now?
There are many factors that lead to the death of several PvP formats, but lets focus on AB.
Jade Quarry and Fortaspenwood were once in the same situation that AB is in today. So Anet decided to up the rewards for these arenas. Instead of making the rewards of equal value to allow freedom of choice, the faction rewards went above AB's. This of course started to deplete the population. Spreading them out through out the 3 arenas. However AB was still alive and well.

Another factor was making Zaishen quests for PvP repeatable. When they were first introduced, it was not repeatable on the same character. This decision caused the majority of player base to abandon all other PvP formats for the day. To focus on the high reward value they present.

Any one farming the title does PvE vanquishing or certain challenge missions where little effort is taken to do these titles. e.g. Morostav Trail & Mount Qinkai.
The PvE books also depleted the population by providing people another alternative means other than PvP to gain faction for the title.

Alliance Battles as always been a casual arena where people never cared what build you had. As long as you had skills in the bar. The fact that people can switch sides tried to eliminate the factor of not enough people on one side. What it ended up doing is having everyone be on the same side because the maps advantages.
In the past Kruzick alliance were owning all the towns causing the map to stay on the luxon side. Now it seems the Luxon alliances are out numbering their challengers. It is very rare you see the map move.
This causes people to sigh at the map location and not even try to port to the outpost.


In Conclusion, Alliance Battles without a bonus weekend or Zaishen quest, as become the least reward for the most effort. People will always take the path of least resistance. It is not just one thing, so many little factors added to the equation of the most popular PvP format to become undead only on special occasions.

You forgot not listing to each other and mobbing

I'd laugh if I saw mobbnig applied in JQ.

I have to take issue with these statements. As it's only 4 man teams, it's much easier to not have some idiot who insists on wiki builds in your party. So you can try something different yourself, AB is an ideal place to do so.

The double AB reward weekend last month, me and the girlfriend went as dual double dragon/burning speed/kinetic armour eles, we tag-teamed sooooo many 4 man meta TA style players.

Bodyblocking squishes and killing them in a few seconds while laughing at the melee who can't out-damage our aura of restoration/kinetic armour combo just never gets old. Oh and laughing at the rangers trying to rupt 1/4 sec and 3/4sec spells on 40/20 sets, was just like AB used to be when JQ and FA were ghost towns.

Got bored and started calling out the luxons/kurzick opponents (we switch sides a lot as both our titles are r12) to stop bringing wiki bars when it became too easy.

Then we switch to necros and tried blood spam like the HA team, was fun too killing the high armour targets first.....etc etc etc


TL;DR : Don't run boring meta bars in AB, the place is only active for a short period of time these days.


If they ever put AB rewards back in front of JQ/FA/vanqing as they should be, due to requiring more effort, then the place will be bouncing once again in no time at all.

RA is more fun and you don't have to wait or anything, thats the reason I don't AB.

It's just boring after 1 -2 battles.

They should just put it back to its Factions preview weekend state: random single player entry just like RA.

Not really.
Loosing vs 3 sync teams in a row, it'snt that fun. And this happened to me just yesterday night.


Anyway to renewal AB: give the chance to PUG a whole 12 players party.
No more random idiots or noobs with you in the other 2 teams.


Ah, obviously It's needed to raise up rewards as well.