I am aware there is a dedicated Guild Wars Reforged feedback thread, but I would like more of a focused discussion on this since I feel it is the #1 issue keeping this game mode from being truly enjoyable at the moment.
So, my claim: Takshaka needs to be removed from GW defense teams, or at the very least limited to one per team.
I don’t think this is an insanely controversial statement. I was a strong B1 player back in old Guild Wars, I have been paragon of my top guild several times in the past few wars in the current iteration of the game mode, and I think this is the most consistently toxic game element I’ve seen across all that. Life & Death was annoying, Doomed Books were certainly a challenge to deal with, but Takshaka defenses in GWR feel more inherently mean-spirited than any of those to me at least. What is otherwise a fun mode that encourages creativity through team building with limited resources is dragged down immensely by the constant looming threat of getting helplessly wiped in a turn by a team with 3 Takshaka and usually an Essence of Evil or some other exploding weapon. The troop is so centralizing in the defense zones it’s allowed in (Divine and Naga restrictions + the Palace) that early players often prefer to take paths to the Palace that don’t include them, which can interfere with the overall tactics of going for full sets.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can absolutely beat Tak teams. Just like you’re not always going to be caught in a loop by goblin teams, you often have ways to win against a triple Tak as well. But I don’t think I’m alone in feeling like I’m rolling a die every time I boot up a battle against one of these teams no matter how well prepared I am. A bad starting board can absolutely end a battle immediately in these cases regardless of any Snap Freezing, and especially in particularly difficult restrictions like the current Urskaya one, it just leads to so much unnecessary frustration. The worst feeling in this game is when you felt like you played as well as you possibly could and still lost, and I think that happens too often against these teams compared to every other common defense setup. Again, it’s not that it’s impossible to beat, it’s that it’s so much more consistently overpowered than any of the other popular defenses, including Maelstrom Dagonath and Crysantherax teams.
Lastly I am well aware of how rare direct balancing action against specific troops is in this game. However, considering we already had Stellarix (admittedly a much more broken troop) and Wand of Stars see automatic replacements on defense teams, I don’t see why we can’t at least have a conversation about this one. Have a good day!