TLDR: Any guidelines for when you decide, in advance, that going for node 3 is a good idea when you already have 2?

 

In NC and CW, when we have 2 nodes and are defending, sometimes people go for the third. I'm not talking about the situation where we are owning them, and taking the 3rd is a lark. Instead the situation where were are working our @rses off to defend, and someone goes to "their" node instead of coming back to defend the one that's under attack. My first reaction to this is always "you friggin idiot! why can't you defend what we already have!". But then, sometimes I have to admit to myself that it turns out useful in one of two ways... either one person manages to draw two or three away from the heavily-fought-over-turret, thus giving us an advantage in numbers for a while. Or they actually manage to cap it just as we are losing the fought-over node, and thus we still have two.

 

But that only leaves me with being able to tell if it was a good idea after the fact. I'm wondering if people have techniques/rules they use to decide that it's a good idea up front. How many, and what classes does it make sense to send? Do the same rules apply if each team has 1, and the 3rd is uncapped and being fought over? Does it matter which 2 you have (like, if you have East & West in NC, vs. you have South and East/West (whichever is the natural node for you)?

 

I am usually guarding *our* off node on my Shadow, so I will hardly ever get a chance to do this myself, but I'm just trying to get an idea of when I should be less outraged at the people that do.

especially in novare, but also civil war to a lesser extent, it can make sense going for the third if you are the weaker team (ie losing a straight up fight) because you know you're going to lose one of the 2 you have soon.

Most of the time, there is no reason to go for the third. You just give them a chance taking 1 of the 2 you already have, and if you can hold all 3 you were probably going to win the warzone no matter what you do

Sometimes it's good to go for 3rd node as you will split enemy.

but, it only works if you are stealth, quick and strong, so you can actually kill and cap or ninja cap.

If you get killed, you gain nothing and you are 1 defender less for time of try, also if you can solo 1 person quickly and cap, you are not defending, so defense is weaker, but then you are 3 cap and they probably need to send 2 to get it back.

 

it's risky, can give you extra edge, solo medal, and faster win, but can also can cost you a win as you may not succeed, and loose one that you would be guarding/helping defend.

 

in short, it's situational, and you mostly shouldn't, unless you know you should (yeah, judgment call).

 

but if you go, warn your team 'hey I go ninja, try hold out for me for a minute'

if they only have 1 or 2 defenders on the 3rd node, and everyone else is assaulting your node, most of the time, they will redirect a few folks to that 3rd node, which lessens their pressure on your team on the node they are focusing.

 

if i see a lone defender and count the other 7 on the map elsewhere, if i'm on my smuggler/op/sin i'll go to that node, and 90% of the time get it. On my non stealth classes i pick my spots, but usually i can have better impact on those classes on the focused node, whereas my stealthies are better served adding pressure on the enemies remote nodes..

this game would be 1000 times better with ops voice chat..so you could organize a fake attack or a ninja cap to split your enemy at least for a couple of spawn..too often you see the teams changing objective completely..and you always se a cople of toons still going to the old objectivve and die for nothing

this game would be 1000 times better with ops voice chat..so you could organize a fake attack or a ninja cap to split your enemy at least for a couple of spawn..too often you see the teams changing objective completely..and you always se a cople of toons still going to the old objectivve and die for nothing

 

this is doable with ops type chat if people would type... you don't need voice chat for it. so you could say:

this game would be 1000 better if people would learn how to type and read.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Atramar

About 90% of the time I am guarding in NC, if the fight at south is tight and its uncapped and I see who is defending their node and know I can take it from them I will. Usually in doing this it will allow for my team to cap south and ill high tail it back to east. It works pretty well, I don't do it often but it can be done but only to get the cap at south. I only do this on NC as I cannot see what is going on at the off node in civil war.

I think it makes sense depending on team composition.

 

If I'm on my very geared sentinel, but the rest of my pug team is mostly getting beat up.... Upon respawn I may head for the third node, knowing with my burst I can quickly take most classes + players 1v1, and at least 50/50 vs a mediocre 1v2.

 

But it pisses me off to no end when a mediocre gunslinger, commando, or sage thinks they can sneak up / solo a defender. You won't get it quickly enough to beat the defenders coming back, and we could REALLY you as a meat shield at the current contested node.

A good time - If your team counts 8 of their players at the two other nodes. You'd be surprised how often teams (rated included) do not count who is in combat.

 

A reasonable time - If your team rolls through the other team and you want the WZ to finish faster.

 

A fun time - Because you want to mix it up and it can be fun to go wild card.

A good time - If your team counts 8 of their players at the two other nodes. You'd be surprised how often teams (rated included) do not count who is in combat.

 

A reasonable time - If your team rolls through the other team and you want the WZ to finish faster.

 

A fun time - Because you want to mix it up and it can be fun to go wild card.

 

Oh man, in PTS warzones, it's consistent - unguarded nodes. I chalk it up to people not really caring about results, and more about actually playing their characetrs with the changes, which I can understand a bit. Still - they don't TELL anyone in OPS they are abandoning it. They just...do.

Its not a necessity, but it same as in any domination gametype:

 

Sends the enemy either into disarray, typically all grouping up to capture the familiar point (snow/grass or east/west).

 

Or you can capture sides on CW and hold those down.

 

Or it gives you breather on mid/south if the enemy is facerolling you in dps

there are some games- especially in nc - where the entire game is just a node rotation race

where one team is "stronger and zergier" but also "stupider" and backcapping nodes is the only way to victory

 

so let's say a team has south and east and the enemy is beginning their zerg to south

the next move is to backcap west as the zerg gets south

then the zerg either zergs east or west and then you can backcap south and so on

 

this isnt so much "going for the third/off node" and 3 capping as it is staying one step ahead of the zerg

 

as another poster stated- if you can 3 cap and keep them then the game was already won from the getgo

and harrassing the off node with a stealth (usually but not necessarily) is a fundamental way of drawing enemy strength off of the contested node so your team can capture it

When the Civil War score is winding down and we have more than x2 points (say like 250 to 100), that means the enemy team must 3 cap to win.

 

I'll say in chat let's go visit them at the node they are all camping at. The ensuing battle usually takes up the rest of the match anyway. Sometimes we win, usually we don't, but it's all part of my plan to slowly make RETARD MODE ACTIVATE a normal part of all warzones, and not just the terribad ones.

 

It's insidious

IMO there is never really a time where a 3 cap is the "surest path to victory"

 

But sometimes the other team will be overwhelming or running around in a pack and the best choice is to try to turn their aggression against them. You see the enemy are trying to take snow, mid is clear. They sent 7 snow and left 1 grass. In that situation the move is obvious run at grass while your allies just throw themselves to save the cap. If you can tell your allies not to kill people just stop cap and stall that would be preferable but not biggy.

 

You know that they are going to take snow, you just need to get grass before they have a chance to organize. And if you did this properly you should be ******** on the solo defender of the off node as the enemy team clears out snow. By the time they manage to throw out cc's to stop the rezzers from interrupting, you have grass and the pattern repeats itself when they zerg the next node.

 

So the goal here really isn't to three cap, not for long anyway. Just to cap the 3rd node to relieve pressure on the one they want.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Mookind

When you are in NC, have west and south, and you count 7 attackers in south while west is calling 1 inc, you know their east is unguarded. I could help west, but even better scenarios is their attacker lose in 1v1 to our defender while I cap east. Some times you need to take a calculated risk.

I'm a deception assassin and if I know I can beat the defending forces on the 3rd node I'll go there. Its easier to win 1v2 and cap in Novare Coast because there is no direct spawn like the speeder in Ciwil war. If I 1v2 in civil war the 1rst dead will come back before I kill the other or 1 sec after I start to cap.

 

Also, if the 3rd node have been frequently attacked by some of my teamates I will not bother attacking the node because a) there is probably 2 defenders or b) the ennemy team will send back up quickly because they know we are going to attack it.

 

If the solo guard is a non stealth dps, I will attack the 3rd node 99% of the time. If its a tank I migh attack too because a) I will kill and cap or b) I will bait 1 or more ennemies and reduce the pressure on my team.

 

Also, in Civil war if you are the 2nd guy on your natural node and the 1rst one stay there and defend and nobody interupted your team and nobody interupter their side, as a deception assassin I go to their side and attack the node because a) a will cap it b) My team will have it easier to cap mid or c) My team is loosing mid but pulling out some ennemies will help my team to win mid.

 

In Novare Coast, just use you brain, I you can reach and cap the 3rd node before the ennemy cap south and come to the 3rd node to kill you, do it. But if the ennemy team dominate south and the solo guard is a tank or a stealth you wont win unless the solo guard is terrible (it happen 75% of the time lol).

 

And if you are the solo guard in Novare Coast and if you can see who's guarding on the ennemy side and feel confident, you can attack the 3rd node but I reccomend to spec dps and you have to be a stealth class obviously.

Because if the ennemy defender call:Hey nobody is guarding lets say West and the ennemy team send 1 or 2 there your team will hate you.

 

Attacking the ennemy node when you are the solo guard if like flipping a coin. You cann succed and carry your team to victory or loose and be the most hated guy on the server for the next 2 or 3 hours XD

Well, I just lost a 50 NC game because 1/2 the team decided, every time we had 2 nodes, they needed to visit the third. No exaggeration. We had 7 shadows and a commando. I don't know if all the other shadows were just so used to the mentality of "have to go try to ninja node" or what. But EVERY SINGLE G>D> time we got the second node, they'd all run away from it and go after the one we didn't have. Almost lost a second (sub-50) when a couple guys decided to try the same thing (with us losing south as they tried for east in NC - but we got that one back, and I guess they learned their lesson because they didn't try that again the rest of the match). It's a good thing I don't rage in WZs or I'm sure my blood pressure would be through the roof by now.

 

So, despite many of your well reasoned arguments, I'm still leaning towards the, "WFT are you doing!? Get back to defend what we already have you idiots" reaction. But thanks for the posts. They'll give me something to think about after I calm down from those two WZ's a bit.

Cap two, keep two. It ain't hard. Except for very rare occasions/circumstances, trading nodes is FTL, especially if you give up one of the side nodes on Alderaan so you can get mid. Likewise, giving up south so you can twiddle around on the far away node on NC is FTL.

 

Cap two, keep two. I know you want kills. The kills will come to you, Little Timmy, at your node.

If the team has an advantage with strength, your advantage is with numbers. An organized group of 3 can take the 1 or 2 they have defending their node and keep it longer (ie. while the main force is attempting to take yours) than it would take that force to secure your node and then assault theirs again. Each team is different and not all teams will allow you to do this, but it can work to your benefit if done properly.

Yea the whole leaving a node un-defended and going Braveheart makes me rage to no end, all I try to do is communicate and hope people listen before the game is too far. Edited March 6, 2013 by Caeliux

I've seen plenty of people rage about undefended nodes. Why weren't the compaliners watching the node? It's particularly egregious coming from a stealth or tank class. Dude, that's a big part of your role.

In NC, cap two, keep two.

Sure, if all your defender teammates died and you just respawned, just go to the other node which will certainly have less enemies, but other than that attempting a 3 cap will make it more difficult to defend the 2 other nodes. And this unacceptable in a tight game.

 

Two cases that really frustrates me: Typical case of swapping nodes, we take a second node then 2+ people go for the third one. Obviously we instantly lose the second one before we get the third, which they get later and becomes our second node. And then again and again until we lose.

 

The other case happened to me recently. Playing Republic in a close game we couldn't retake south, but suddenly one of our teammates took east. I go with my sage to help that guy and we kill one enemy. Then other two showed up, then 3 more.

We held the node for a long time because they didn't focus on me and I could just heal my teammate pretty nicely, but we 2 were outnumbered so we eventually died. When I asked why noone else helped defending east the answer was "You idiot, east is too far away". And yeah, they failed at taking south too, so we lost

Here's your sign.

Edited March 6, 2013 by TakaAioko

I've seen plenty of people rage about undefended nodes. Why weren't the compaliners watching the node? It's particularly egregious coming from a stealth or tank class. Dude, that's a big part of your role.

 

I would but alas I usually find out too late (usually right after they cap) I have no problems guarding and do it often. I just assume if someone's running to cap the node they'll defend it. Silly me.

really should only be used as a stealth character to try take a third, many times the guard being surprised by the assault will call out incoming hurry..etc. because of the sudden attack and being caught off guard, leaving the other side to sometimes over commit resources due to just a single attacker. Non stealth shouldn't do this because the guard can see them coming and alert his team how many, who, etc....if theres only 1 coming, he may have 1 team member show up to help, not three or 4.

I would but alas I usually find out too late (usually right after they cap) I have no problems guarding and do it often. I just assume if someone's running to cap the node they'll defend it. Silly me.

 

^this x1000

 

You turn it...you defend it.