PvP thoughts, part 1, AB

Last night tired of playing my new Ranger and fetched my main character from the bench, he is a Mesmer primary and the secondary changes almost every time I play him. this is because i have seven Mesmer skills equipped and the eighth skill can be anything from an elementalist AoE skill to a resurrection skill.

but last night i joined my small but friendly guild in a spot of Alliance battling. Alliance Battles or AB as they are commonly known are a wonderfully fast pace PvP Type. (Player Vs Player Combat)

In this mode 12 people (that's 3 cooperating teams) face off in a king of the hill style match against 12 people from the opposite team.

There are 5 large maps that are chosen from the current wins and losses of each faction in the game.

for instance if the Kurzick aligned player win more than the Luxon aligned player the a map that gives the Kurzick players a slight advantage will load, and vice versa. then there is a neutral map for if the wins and losses are evened out.

Each capture is worth points awarded every few seconds, the game is over when one side reaches 500 points. There is no loot in AB and only level 20 PvE or PvP characters can play.

AB is part of the Factions campaign and only accessible to players with access to this or the PvP access kit.

To gain access to AB you have to talk to the Alliance Battles representative NPC who is found within your guild hall. the side you play for is dependant on your guilds allegiance.

Common tactics and tips for AB.

Mobbing – this is when all 12 player group together and take the various points on at a time. good if your opponents are disorganised but an organised opponent will capture many points in alternating order making it ineffective (you cant mob and be in two places at once)

Split Capping – this is when each of the three teams takes a different point as fast as possible then moves on to the next one.

Do not equip a resurrection ability for AB as player are resurrected every 20 seconds, also resurrection abilities are catered for a single group not cooperative team so they are largely ineffective anyway.

Necromancers are especially useful as the death toll mounts up very fast leaving many corpses to exploit.

There is no death penalty in AB so dying is acceptable as long as you are scoring points with each life.

Due to the large teams there tends to be a very diverse mix of professions so ‘monk 55’ characters are not very useful and die often (i will go into the 55 builds in more detail at a later time)

Rewards.

Every member of the winning team receives 1000 faction points (Kurzick or Luxon) they also receive points based on their end score. each kill is worth 10 faction points and 10 Balthazar points. (points are used for unlocks of skills and equipment for PvP among other things)

battle also effect a regions control line on the main world map that effects prices at merchants and in some cases access to outpost.

AB is allot of fun and as a PvP arena is stands up against the likes of Warhammer Online’s Scenarios battles and the combat found in LotRO’s ettinmoor area. if you have not tried it then please do, its fun.

if anyone is interested in some AB and does not have a guild or would like some help then please contact me in game as ‘Laird Hex’ or through Xfire as HexDSl