How to counter melee Squig Herder stacking in cities?

[Dteekay]

Before I get bombed with "stop whining" comments, I want to assure you this is not one. I am not here to call for nerfs or changes. I couldn't find a thread where an actual discussion about what WE can do happens so trying to make one.

What I want to discuss are some of the strategies and tricks to counter melee squig herders in City WBs. Most of my cities now have at least 3-4 mSH that fly around like meatballs. I find it very challenging to fight these WBs with mSHs so I am reaching out here for guidance. As a tank, I try to KD and/or knockback SHs flying in to try to apply CD increase on our healers. That seems to not have much of an effect as they can jump right back in. Another strat we tried is rooting the SHs to move past them into backline but they just spam bounce and we take in a top of DPS while running by.

If anyone has had success against ORGANIZED WBs (not pugs) in cities when destro stacked mSHs + choppas, please share your experiences and what you have done that worked/did not work!

PLEASE DO NOT WHINE IN THIS THREAD ABOUT OP CLASSES. No one is going to benefit from that and you just look stupid.

[phononHYPE]

Well, I view it like this: mSH jump to their targets and do CD increase and then aoe. They are out of range of their guard, and perhaps a healer is hot stuff and pre-hotted them. They have armor and a self-heal (channel?) to survive until the rest of the WB catches up. Vs slayer and WL that do the same thing, slayer does aoe CD increase and aoe, and WL pouncing to their desired target and wrecking them. The slayer will be in guard range and the WL has armor (and perhaps again some pre-hots).

I tried to make that as unbiased as possible. So, we can look at this as either:
1. mSH has too many options for this one type of rvr event (city) - which leads to how it does else where?
2. Order has more variety and is not tied to having just one class to get what it needs.

As there are no shortage of BWs blowing stuff up (or dps AMs), nuke that meatball. Same for any over-extending class, lots of damage but vulnerable. Additionally, slayers do great in all forms of rvr, and WL are not too shabby either I hear. Rumor has it their aoe in city is OP now too, but that is off-topic.

As a close, what about just knocking them back? AM, RP, and WP have aoe knock-backs, I 'think' SM does too but I am not sure. You see the pounce in - boot them back out. More options for you.

[Kwatchi]

As a close, what about just knocking them back? AM, RP, and WP have aoe knock-backs, I 'think' SM does too but I am not sure. You see the pounce in - boot them back out. More options for you.

The healer knock back is a minimal distance and not a preferred solution for a few reasons:
1) You hand out cc immunity to the mSH in your backline, who still has a second "pounce" coming.
2) The targetted healer is usually blindsided and knocked down anyway, so they not casting anything for ... 3 secs(?) regardless.

For the record we haven't figured it out either yet. :'( We had a long discussion last night about it though.

[cursedflesh]

1.) disarm him - he cant use his skill in squig form while disarmed
2.) knock him, so he cant parry
3.) kill him

[Wiede]

Buff range specs -> less mSH

SCNR

Can't do much about it. The mSHs will bring their debuffs and damage, no matter what. The same situation as with WL.

Nuke 'em is the best solution.

[cursedflesh]

Buff range specs -> less mSH

ranged squig is insanely strong, look at Jurki

[wonshot]

Having your own healers spreading out, to minimize how effective the cooldown increase potentially become.
Having the healers slot groupclensing and then taget clense the 2nd healer in the party, not Themselves, to keep "masking debuffs" and CDI off as much as possible from your healers.

In terms of countering Them. Its All about the interrupting their channeled aoe! Either With taunts, cc, or SM aoe interrupts if they Are stacked on top of eachother. Since sh is originally a ranged archtype they dont have a snare nor rootbreaker, so these types of control stick on Meatballs. Champ channel or WL m1 roots Are exelent to contain Them. A knock down into dogpile burst can also work as the class doesnt have an aoe pboe detaunt as melee archtype does.

An other key bit of information, they Are super cooldown dependant. Having a BO or choppa in their group to feed Them waaagh or Chop faster is like 50% more efficientcy on their up time. If you can out last the duration you might find more breathing room (just dont stall Till they have 2400 m4)

[Arla]

Squig Herder is most powerfully broken class in the game. I am waiting for a revision installing a healing line so we can just see warbands full of squigs.

[kok]

Buff range specs -> less mSH

ranged squig is insanely strong, look at Jurki

When even OP range SH Jurki goes melee in city , you know there is a problem.

[MoltenCoreMoshpit]

Squig Herder is most powerfully broken class in the game. I am waiting for a revision installing a healing line so we can just see warbands full of squigs.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>order poster