I think we're losing track of the point of this post. This game was clearly set up to exploit erebus' batswarm on the map. The last second switch to erebus right before launch proves it. The playing public should be aware that these two players are planning on pulling a bait and switch.
If you want to have a drawn out portal-locking festival then say it in the lobby. DON'T just assume we have all come to a consensus that erebus is a well balanced character for Crucible, and expect a tit-for-tat locking game that I have to buy specialized equipment or favor items to combat. Yes of course it can be dealt with, I'm not fucking retarded, it doesn't mean I have to like it though.
The experienced players who have chimed in here seem to be agreeing that this mechanic sucks. I don't see how forcing players to deal with the unexpected (by the designers) and exploitable problems of a map and therefore reducing the number of balanced and playable maps even further helps anyone. In fact, I'm surprised this hasn't been addressed more. The number of playable maps is already anemic to the extreme.
Thanks for taking to flesh out your thoughts a little more here. I understand what you are saying here. You feel like 2 guys were being jerks, pulled a fast one on you with a last second change to erebus, followed by launching the game. When they went for your base portal and started to cap it, neither you or teammate were prepared to port back to your base at the time. So, then they locked it and kept locking over and over again. Presumably you and your teammates had no interrupts or way to disrupt the other team. I'm guessing that covers that.
As you are aware, crucible is currently setup so that any general can port across using the cloak of night or erebus can batswarm across or any player can buy warpstone. It is a mechanic that favors erebus (at level 5) because he can port across without any items. It also favors generals as they can port across at level 1 with the CoN. You can counter it without any special equipment by purchasing teleport scrolls and/or having a character that can interrupt a lock AND keeping a watchful eye. Don't see erebus anywhere? Wonder where he might be heading, etc.
I personally don't have any problem with this mechanic and have to think that perhaps the developers had it in mind. Actually, to me it seems pretty obvious that this was by design. Even if it was slightly off, clearly a level 2 batswarm erebus would be able to bridge the gap without issue. But as you can just barely get across with ALL of the teleport items, it seems intentional. But, let's say its not. They'd have to change it so that the distance between both sides is greater than batswarm 2. That's about the only way to make it impossible. And I don't think SD is going to shell out any money to GPG to increase the distance on both sides. Hell, we've been asking for new maps for quite some time now and haven't even received alternate maps with just towers and portals moved.
I don't play much crucible. Not because I have to watch my portal or what you consider an exploit, but because the distance between the crystal and waves of creeps is so short that, even with giants, good players can fight for an extremely long amount of time.
Anyway, to me, it wouldn't impact me much if some jerk decided to make a last minute switch to erebus. You might be dead right that these guys felt like it was some sort of exploit or that someone would complain if they chose erb. Might I suggest a simple solution though? Just host your own games on crucible if that's what you want to play and don't allow people with erb to play. But, keep in mind that there are other ways to get across the gap, so keep a watchful eye on your base port and always have a tp scroll ready.
Sure, you might want to see the map changed so that this isn't possible, but does anyone out there honestly think that's going to happen? And if its not going to happen, then you need to just play with people that agree not to do this in advance or be ready to counter it.
