Kurzick or Luxon?

This evening i joined a small guild, nothing permanent i don’t think but just something so that i can play alliance battles, i always like to play the Kurzick side of the war and have fell into the trap of thinking of myself as a member of the Kurzick war.

Isn't its strange how we fall into the trappings of taking sides in a virtual war and more importantly actually start to loathe the opposing team.

For games like World of Warcraft with its choice of ‘side’ being a massive influence in the daily life of a character its easy to understand this sense of team but in Guild Wars its really only one of two missions in the Factions campaign that is effected by your choice.

When it comes down to the actual meat of the PvP your choice of ‘side’ really does not influence things that much, so why do we feel this alliance?

I think the answer is because of the fantastic cut senses and strong story that the game guides us through. that and the PvP title track that appears when we first hand in some of those glorious faction points, i mean, once you are ‘Friend of the Kurzicks’ your hardly going to stab them in the back are you?

Anyway what side are you on and does it mean much to you?

Unlocks?

There is allot of talk in the Guild Wars In-Game shop about Unlocks. but what does this really mean? well let me explain this and how you can get your unlocks for free.

When you load Guild Wars for the first time you have only the most basic skills for each profession and through playing you ‘unlock’ more from skill trainers and quest rewards.

Every time you unlock as skill its available account wide, this confuses people because every new character has to get the skill from a skill trainer, but ‘unlocked’ does not mean its given freely to any PvE character, it means that its available for all your AI heroes and for all your PvP characters.

Buying those unlock packs from the store would not give you instant access to every skill on every character but it will make you a much better PvP player as well as give your Heroes more snap crackle and pop

But here is the good news, you don't have to pay to unlock skills. your skill unlocks are for the lazy player, because you can unlock the skills by playing PvP and winning Balthazar Faction points. you can take your faction points and talk to a priest, yes, a priest, he can be found in your guild hall or in the Great Temple of Balthazar (Battle Isles)

You can use your points to unlock skills, Elite skills, items and heroes. you may not have the time or desire to unlock every skill the way the shops unlocks do but you can probably get all the skills you need for your heroes builds with little effort.

Its especially useful for getting those elite skills for your heroes, after all capturing every elite skill you want may take you a while and at 1,000 Gold her signet of capture it can be expensive. saying that though at least the signet of capture will give your PvE character access to it.

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