KMKM.COMAn introduction to Guild versus Guild combat
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An introduction to Guild versus Guild combat
saeimc Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:43 am
Nope. I figure I might as well write one
An introduction to Guild versus Guild combat
Table of contents
1.0 Basic information and summary
--1.1 Party Composition
--1.2 Death Penalty and Morale boosts
--1.3 The Flag Stand and flags
--1.4 The ressurrection shrines
--1.5 Victory or Death
--1.6 The Guild Lord platform
--1.7 Catapults
--1.8 The Guild Thief
2.0 Guild Islands -- Not finished yet
--2.1 Hunter's Isle
--2.2 Warrior's Isle
--2.3 Wizard's Isle
--2.4 Frozen Isle
--2.5 Nomad's Isle
--2.6 Burning Isle
--2.7 Isle of the Dead
1.0 Basic information and summary
In GvG, two teams of eight characters do battle at one of the Guild Halls belonging to the teams in combat. The objective of the game is to kill the other team's Guild Lord, a sturdy NPC who stands inside the guildhall, protected by other NPC's. It is also possible to win by killing each member of the opposing team until they reach 60% Death Penalty, but if one is capable of doing so it is generally faster and easier to kill the Guild Lord.
Located between the two guildhalls is the Flag Stand. If a team controls the flag stand, they will gain a morale boost at predetermined intervals. Morale boosts offset Death Penalty and are thus hotly contested. The majority of GvG battles are won or lost at the flag stand.
Every two minutes all dead party members who have not yet reached 60% Death Penalty ressurrect at their team's Ressurrection Shrine, located in the respective team's base.
If the battle has not been decided in 20 minutes, the NPC's will activate the shout 'Victory or Death'. All doors open and all NPC's save for the Guild Lord then rush to the flag stand, attacking everything in their path. The battle then continues as before until one team can manage one of the win conditions mentioned above.
That is all you need to know to play GvG sucessfully. For people wanting more knowledge, we'll take a closer look at some of the concepts mentioned above.
1.1 Party Composition
In order to play a GvG battle, you need to field a team of 8 characters. Four of these characters need to be native to the guild. The Guild Leader, all Officers and all Members count as native. Invited guests from other guilds do not count as native players. In addition to this, at least one of the party members need to hold Officer or Guild Leader rank in order to initiate a battle.
In every guild hall there are Henchmen, AI-controlled players who are always available to play. There are currently four; a Fighter henchman who approximates a human swordsmanship Warrior, an Archer henchwoman who approximates a human marksmanship Ranger, a Mage henchman who approximates a human fire Elementalist, and finally a Healer henchwoman who approximates a human healer Monk. If you have Chapter 3 you can also use Heroes if they are unlocked on your account.
The most common party composition, though absolutely not the only viable one, is four characters concerned with dealing damage, one concerned with running the flag, two monks concerned with healing, and one monk concerned with protection. More complicated designs for teams can be created.
1.2 Death Penalty and Morale boosts
Death Penalty and Morale functions exactly like it does in PvE, which means that for every death a character incurs, they lose 15% of their maximum Hit Points and Energy. A character can incur a maximum of 60% Death Penalty; once they hit this number they will no longer ressurrect automatically at the ressurrection shrine, requiring a manual ressurrection from a team mate to fight further.
There are two ways to reduce death penalty. One is to be alive when your party kills a member of the enemy party - 2% death penalty is removed then. This way of reducing death penalty will only take you to ±0%. The other way is to have your team control the flag stand for 2 consecutive minutes. When this happens, every member of your party - living or dead - will experience a 10% reduction of Death Penalty and a recharge of all their skills, including Ressurection Signets. This morale boost can bring you to +10% hit points and Energy.
1.3 The Flag Stand and flags
The flag stand is located between the two guild halls, in the relative center of the map with the Frozen Island and the Isle of the Dead being the two exceptions. If a member of either team brings a flag to it when it is either neutral (at the beginning of the game) or under the control of the opposing team, the flag bearers team will take control of the flag stand. If the flag stand is under the control of one team for two consecutive minutes, that team will recieve a morale boost as outlined above. This morale boost will then occur every two minutes until the enemy team takes control of the flag stand.
Each team's flag will spawn just outside their guild lord encampment within their guild hall. Any player character belonging to the flag's team can pick it up when it is on the ground. It will then replace what they held in their hands before picking it up, and it will slow them down by 15%. It will appear in their hands as a huge flag in their team's colour, making them an easy target. Like with any other hand-held item, switching to another weapon slot will make the character drop it. The character carrying the flag can still operate levers to open doors or fire catapults. In order to capture the flag stand, the character has to walk up to it and then press the flag stand graphic while carrying the flag.
When the flag is on the ground, any character from the enemy team can walk up to it and attempt to pick it up. Doing so will return it to its starting position inside the guildhall. If timed right this can devastate the opposing team and guarantee a morale boost to the controlling team. Due to the extreme strategical importance of gaining morale boosts many teams will dedicate an entire character slot to running the flag.
1.4The ressurrection shrines
The ressurrection shrine is located close to the guild lord platform in every hall. Every even minute, all dead party members not at 60% death penalty plus the guild thief, if present, ressurrect. Once ressurrected they are immune to taking damage for 5 seconds [I need someone to verify that duration] or until they move, whichever comes first.
1.5Victory or Death
If a guild battle has not ended when 20 minutes have passed, "Victory or Death!" occurs. At VOD, all NPC's except the guild lord and the guild thief start heading for the flag stand, aggroing everything in their path, and all doors open. If any NPC comes within shout range of a human player they will use the shout "Victory or Death!" which lowers HP and healing by 25%, and increases damage dealt by 25%.
On maps where they are present, controlling the catapult is key at VoD. A well-timed shot will wipe out the entire NPC squad of the enemy team, allowing your NPC's to guard and dominate the flag stand.
Ressurrection shrines and the flag stand continues to function just like they did outside of VoD, and there's no time limit to finish the battle.
1.6The Guild Lord platform
At the heart of every guild hall lies the Guild Lord platform. The guild lord, one bodyguard, two knights, and four archers stand ready to guard him. The archers are standard NPC archers with Pin Down and Troll Unguent. The Bodyguard is an Elementalist/Monk NPC with high-level Incendiary Bonds, Rodgorts Invocation, Maelstrom, Firestorm, Fireball, and glyph of lesser energy. He also has a special skill that will give the Guild Lord a massive heal. The guild lord himself is a Warrior with 2400 HP and an inherent five arrows of health regeneration. He also carries an amulet that limits the maximum damage he can take per second. At the beginning of the game he can lose no more than 50 health per second, this effect wanes during the game and is increased to 250 health per second around the 15 minute mark. He also only suffers half duration from hexes and conditions.
Assaulting a platform is always difficult if it is defended by the opposing team. Their damage dealing capability is greatly increased, and many battles are lost by carelessly attacking an entrenched position. It's always worthwhile to at least lure out the Knights who pull clearly out of the entrenched area, kill them, then kill the bodyguard before attempting to kill the enemy guild lord. The Body Guard's massive AoE damage coupled with his ability to heal the lord can't be ignored.
1.7Catapults
On three maps - Warrior's Isle, Hunter's Isle and Wizard's Isle - there are catapults, stationary map objects with which you can interact. There is one outside each guild hall. At the start of the game, they are deactivated - you need to bring a Repair Kit to each catapult you wish to use. There's one repair kit for each team, located on a hill overlooking the choke point leading to the flag stand. The Repair Kit works like the flag in carrying, with the exception that it is neutral - both teams can pick up and use either repair kit. Once a repair kit is brought to a deactivated catapult, there will be a brief animation and the catapult will be ready for use.
Next to each catapult is a lever. The catapult has two states - loaded and empty. When the catapult is empty, triggering the lever will cause the catapult loading animation, which takes approximately 10 seconds [need verification and exact time]. The catapult is then loaded and can be fired by triggering the lever a second time. A shorter animation will then send a burning rock into the enemy base. That rock will cause 686 damage to anyone - friend or foe - caught in its huge area of effect. The catapults will fire into the courtyard of their respective guild halls. Each shot will cover approximately 1/3rd [verification] of the courtyard, rotating in a seemingly random pattern [verification needed]. After being fired the catapult needs to be loaded once again. In order to activate the loading animation the firing animation must have stopped completely - if the lever is triggered before this happens, it must be pressed two more times before the catapult can load - patience is a virtue when trying to rain fiery death on the opposition.
Protective Spirit and Protective Bond will both save someone from dying to the catapult. It was recently discovered that it is possible to operate levers while dancing, adding a whole new dimension to firing the catapult.
1.8 The Guild Thief
On the three maps with catapults there's another NPC standing near the Guild Lord, armed with a bow but no ranger skills. This is the Guild Thief, who can open the door to the enemy guild hall from the outside. Unless the enemy team is careless and leaves a door open while the opposing team is in range, or unless your team uses Consume Corpse / Necrotic Transversal to enter via a enemy corpse, the guild thief is the only way to enter the enemy Guild Hall.
In order to move the team's guild thief, a character needs only speak to her when she's not being moved by someone else. She will then follow that character until he dies or he talks to her again - she will then stop at that location. If the character leading her moves near an enemy door lever she will go to it and use her 'Claim Resource' skill. That will open the affected door. If she is left close to an enemy door lever she will continually open the door until killed.
It is generally very unwise to lead the guild thief into an enemy base, because if she's not then killed, the enemy team will have no conventional means of entry until Victory or Death occurs. When the theif is killed, she respawns at the ressurrection shrine just like a player, and will need activation again.
--------------------------------
This is a work in progress. More information will be added as I think of it - significantly some explanations of layouts and strategies for all guild halls. As it is now it's still quite a helpful guide for people new to GvG.
Anything I missed? Anything I got wrong? Please tell me your suggestions, and what you think of this introduction to GvG!
--------------------------------
Credits:
Whams: Alerted me that henchmen are no longer native, reminded me that knocking down a flagger will not free the flag, and that the Guild Thief stays behind at VOD. Dead members do not rez at the flag stand, either.http://www.theamazonbasin.com/gw/forums/index.php?showtopic=4536
An introduction to Guild versus Guild combat
Table of contents
1.0 Basic information and summary
--1.1 Party Composition
--1.2 Death Penalty and Morale boosts
--1.3 The Flag Stand and flags
--1.4 The ressurrection shrines
--1.5 Victory or Death
--1.6 The Guild Lord platform
--1.7 Catapults
--1.8 The Guild Thief
2.0 Guild Islands -- Not finished yet
--2.1 Hunter's Isle
--2.2 Warrior's Isle
--2.3 Wizard's Isle
--2.4 Frozen Isle
--2.5 Nomad's Isle
--2.6 Burning Isle
--2.7 Isle of the Dead
1.0 Basic information and summary
In GvG, two teams of eight characters do battle at one of the Guild Halls belonging to the teams in combat. The objective of the game is to kill the other team's Guild Lord, a sturdy NPC who stands inside the guildhall, protected by other NPC's. It is also possible to win by killing each member of the opposing team until they reach 60% Death Penalty, but if one is capable of doing so it is generally faster and easier to kill the Guild Lord.
Located between the two guildhalls is the Flag Stand. If a team controls the flag stand, they will gain a morale boost at predetermined intervals. Morale boosts offset Death Penalty and are thus hotly contested. The majority of GvG battles are won or lost at the flag stand.
Every two minutes all dead party members who have not yet reached 60% Death Penalty ressurrect at their team's Ressurrection Shrine, located in the respective team's base.
If the battle has not been decided in 20 minutes, the NPC's will activate the shout 'Victory or Death'. All doors open and all NPC's save for the Guild Lord then rush to the flag stand, attacking everything in their path. The battle then continues as before until one team can manage one of the win conditions mentioned above.
That is all you need to know to play GvG sucessfully. For people wanting more knowledge, we'll take a closer look at some of the concepts mentioned above.
1.1 Party Composition
In order to play a GvG battle, you need to field a team of 8 characters. Four of these characters need to be native to the guild. The Guild Leader, all Officers and all Members count as native. Invited guests from other guilds do not count as native players. In addition to this, at least one of the party members need to hold Officer or Guild Leader rank in order to initiate a battle.
In every guild hall there are Henchmen, AI-controlled players who are always available to play. There are currently four; a Fighter henchman who approximates a human swordsmanship Warrior, an Archer henchwoman who approximates a human marksmanship Ranger, a Mage henchman who approximates a human fire Elementalist, and finally a Healer henchwoman who approximates a human healer Monk. If you have Chapter 3 you can also use Heroes if they are unlocked on your account.
The most common party composition, though absolutely not the only viable one, is four characters concerned with dealing damage, one concerned with running the flag, two monks concerned with healing, and one monk concerned with protection. More complicated designs for teams can be created.
1.2 Death Penalty and Morale boosts
Death Penalty and Morale functions exactly like it does in PvE, which means that for every death a character incurs, they lose 15% of their maximum Hit Points and Energy. A character can incur a maximum of 60% Death Penalty; once they hit this number they will no longer ressurrect automatically at the ressurrection shrine, requiring a manual ressurrection from a team mate to fight further.
There are two ways to reduce death penalty. One is to be alive when your party kills a member of the enemy party - 2% death penalty is removed then. This way of reducing death penalty will only take you to ±0%. The other way is to have your team control the flag stand for 2 consecutive minutes. When this happens, every member of your party - living or dead - will experience a 10% reduction of Death Penalty and a recharge of all their skills, including Ressurection Signets. This morale boost can bring you to +10% hit points and Energy.
1.3 The Flag Stand and flags
The flag stand is located between the two guild halls, in the relative center of the map with the Frozen Island and the Isle of the Dead being the two exceptions. If a member of either team brings a flag to it when it is either neutral (at the beginning of the game) or under the control of the opposing team, the flag bearers team will take control of the flag stand. If the flag stand is under the control of one team for two consecutive minutes, that team will recieve a morale boost as outlined above. This morale boost will then occur every two minutes until the enemy team takes control of the flag stand.
Each team's flag will spawn just outside their guild lord encampment within their guild hall. Any player character belonging to the flag's team can pick it up when it is on the ground. It will then replace what they held in their hands before picking it up, and it will slow them down by 15%. It will appear in their hands as a huge flag in their team's colour, making them an easy target. Like with any other hand-held item, switching to another weapon slot will make the character drop it. The character carrying the flag can still operate levers to open doors or fire catapults. In order to capture the flag stand, the character has to walk up to it and then press the flag stand graphic while carrying the flag.
When the flag is on the ground, any character from the enemy team can walk up to it and attempt to pick it up. Doing so will return it to its starting position inside the guildhall. If timed right this can devastate the opposing team and guarantee a morale boost to the controlling team. Due to the extreme strategical importance of gaining morale boosts many teams will dedicate an entire character slot to running the flag.
1.4The ressurrection shrines
The ressurrection shrine is located close to the guild lord platform in every hall. Every even minute, all dead party members not at 60% death penalty plus the guild thief, if present, ressurrect. Once ressurrected they are immune to taking damage for 5 seconds [I need someone to verify that duration] or until they move, whichever comes first.
1.5Victory or Death
If a guild battle has not ended when 20 minutes have passed, "Victory or Death!" occurs. At VOD, all NPC's except the guild lord and the guild thief start heading for the flag stand, aggroing everything in their path, and all doors open. If any NPC comes within shout range of a human player they will use the shout "Victory or Death!" which lowers HP and healing by 25%, and increases damage dealt by 25%.
On maps where they are present, controlling the catapult is key at VoD. A well-timed shot will wipe out the entire NPC squad of the enemy team, allowing your NPC's to guard and dominate the flag stand.
Ressurrection shrines and the flag stand continues to function just like they did outside of VoD, and there's no time limit to finish the battle.
1.6The Guild Lord platform
At the heart of every guild hall lies the Guild Lord platform. The guild lord, one bodyguard, two knights, and four archers stand ready to guard him. The archers are standard NPC archers with Pin Down and Troll Unguent. The Bodyguard is an Elementalist/Monk NPC with high-level Incendiary Bonds, Rodgorts Invocation, Maelstrom, Firestorm, Fireball, and glyph of lesser energy. He also has a special skill that will give the Guild Lord a massive heal. The guild lord himself is a Warrior with 2400 HP and an inherent five arrows of health regeneration. He also carries an amulet that limits the maximum damage he can take per second. At the beginning of the game he can lose no more than 50 health per second, this effect wanes during the game and is increased to 250 health per second around the 15 minute mark. He also only suffers half duration from hexes and conditions.
Assaulting a platform is always difficult if it is defended by the opposing team. Their damage dealing capability is greatly increased, and many battles are lost by carelessly attacking an entrenched position. It's always worthwhile to at least lure out the Knights who pull clearly out of the entrenched area, kill them, then kill the bodyguard before attempting to kill the enemy guild lord. The Body Guard's massive AoE damage coupled with his ability to heal the lord can't be ignored.
1.7Catapults
On three maps - Warrior's Isle, Hunter's Isle and Wizard's Isle - there are catapults, stationary map objects with which you can interact. There is one outside each guild hall. At the start of the game, they are deactivated - you need to bring a Repair Kit to each catapult you wish to use. There's one repair kit for each team, located on a hill overlooking the choke point leading to the flag stand. The Repair Kit works like the flag in carrying, with the exception that it is neutral - both teams can pick up and use either repair kit. Once a repair kit is brought to a deactivated catapult, there will be a brief animation and the catapult will be ready for use.
Next to each catapult is a lever. The catapult has two states - loaded and empty. When the catapult is empty, triggering the lever will cause the catapult loading animation, which takes approximately 10 seconds [need verification and exact time]. The catapult is then loaded and can be fired by triggering the lever a second time. A shorter animation will then send a burning rock into the enemy base. That rock will cause 686 damage to anyone - friend or foe - caught in its huge area of effect. The catapults will fire into the courtyard of their respective guild halls. Each shot will cover approximately 1/3rd [verification] of the courtyard, rotating in a seemingly random pattern [verification needed]. After being fired the catapult needs to be loaded once again. In order to activate the loading animation the firing animation must have stopped completely - if the lever is triggered before this happens, it must be pressed two more times before the catapult can load - patience is a virtue when trying to rain fiery death on the opposition.
Protective Spirit and Protective Bond will both save someone from dying to the catapult. It was recently discovered that it is possible to operate levers while dancing, adding a whole new dimension to firing the catapult.
1.8 The Guild Thief
On the three maps with catapults there's another NPC standing near the Guild Lord, armed with a bow but no ranger skills. This is the Guild Thief, who can open the door to the enemy guild hall from the outside. Unless the enemy team is careless and leaves a door open while the opposing team is in range, or unless your team uses Consume Corpse / Necrotic Transversal to enter via a enemy corpse, the guild thief is the only way to enter the enemy Guild Hall.
In order to move the team's guild thief, a character needs only speak to her when she's not being moved by someone else. She will then follow that character until he dies or he talks to her again - she will then stop at that location. If the character leading her moves near an enemy door lever she will go to it and use her 'Claim Resource' skill. That will open the affected door. If she is left close to an enemy door lever she will continually open the door until killed.
It is generally very unwise to lead the guild thief into an enemy base, because if she's not then killed, the enemy team will have no conventional means of entry until Victory or Death occurs. When the theif is killed, she respawns at the ressurrection shrine just like a player, and will need activation again.
--------------------------------
This is a work in progress. More information will be added as I think of it - significantly some explanations of layouts and strategies for all guild halls. As it is now it's still quite a helpful guide for people new to GvG.
Anything I missed? Anything I got wrong? Please tell me your suggestions, and what you think of this introduction to GvG!
--------------------------------
Credits:
Whams: Alerted me that henchmen are no longer native, reminded me that knocking down a flagger will not free the flag, and that the Guild Thief stays behind at VOD. Dead members do not rez at the flag stand, either.http://www.theamazonbasin.com/gw/forums/index.php?showtopic=4536
saeimc- Posts : 133
Join date : 2008-04-01
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