I promised dwarven weaponry in my last post. I've already discussed two of these and hinted at a third.
These are the 4 group types in PK warband strategy.
Hammer - The single target assist train. (Viable scenario group on it's own.)
Bomb - PBAoE group (Also a viable scenario group on it's own.)
Anvil - Tank/healer heavy group used to hold points and draw enemy fire/morales. (Not good on it's own normally. Not enough damage output unless all the tanks are suicide or at least DPS spec. With all the tanks putting out damage, this becomes the 3T group.)
Cannon - Ranged group used to deal damage from afar, outside the range of Challenge, Crippling Strikes, and other damage debuffs. (Not good on it's own. Too vulnerable to melee. Needs an anvil group to protect them. Very effective if you can double queue with an anvil.)
In the old city, PK always used 2 hammers and 2 anvils and held two of the three points that way. 1 anvil parked at apex. 1 anvil parked at temple. The 2 hammers moved to help whichever anvil the enemy was hitting.
Guards, Challenges, and Distracting Bellows are all used to reduce incoming damage. We're more reliant on Challenge and Distracting Bellow than Guard since those two abilities protect all our allies. We can have most groups with only one tank with an anvil group in warband because of this. Single target knockbacks are used against enemy tanks in the front line to move them out of Guard range.
Typically, the anvil groups will always engage first, followed a few seconds later by the other groups. This way we can get damage spread going to further protect our less sturdy groups. Usually only a hammer group will ever wander off on its own to work the flanks. Sometimes I'll send a bomb to do that, but it's rare. A cannon group needs to be with an anvil group to protect it, but it can deal damage only worrying about Guard and Bellow/ID reducing their damage. Tanks in the front line should be punting enemy tanks away to handle Guard anyway.
We'll talk how this works in practice next time using the new city as an example.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
ORvR is back.
We had some fun fights in Praag on Volkmar tonight.
That one was fun, especially considering we held out until the BO capped against at least 3 times our numbers.
There was also a keep defense at the Southern Garrison where it was something like 379-463 kills, 89 Order to at least 97 Destro (closer to 120 I bet). I didn't get that screenshot though. That fight lasted well over an hour. That was the most fun I've had in while in WAR. I hope there's more to come.
There was also a keep defense at the Southern Garrison where it was something like 379-463 kills, 89 Order to at least 97 Destro (closer to 120 I bet). I didn't get that screenshot though. That fight lasted well over an hour. That was the most fun I've had in while in WAR. I hope there's more to come.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Team Play - The 3T Group - The 3T Bomb
In the last part, I introduced a very important concept. Grouping players within a party together into teams simplifies communication and helps define roles easily. This will be important before I introduce warband tactics.
Just an an example, I'll go over how you'd use the 3T group as a pseudo-bomb group. It's still technically an anvil group.
For the split assist group, I split the group into two teams. The teams themselves won't change, but their names will because the tactics are different.
Team 1, Bomb Team: 2 suicide tanks, AoE DD, Healer
Team 2, Focus Team: DPS Tank, DPS or DPS Healer
The idea is the same as the PK Bomb Group. The bomb team applies pressure using AoE damage and the focus team mops up.
It's risky, and I wouldn't do it. But the point was to show that you can. I also wanted to reinforce the idea of taking focus off individual players and grouping them as teams.
There's really only two viable strategies for scenario play when you only get to control one group of the two. Those are the bomb group and the assist train. There's tons of variations on these ideas. I've only gone over a few non-traditional ones. The other group types that I use require at least a second group in order to be viable.
So next time, we'll get into what dwarven weaponry and warbands have in common.
Just an an example, I'll go over how you'd use the 3T group as a pseudo-bomb group. It's still technically an anvil group.
For the split assist group, I split the group into two teams. The teams themselves won't change, but their names will because the tactics are different.
Team 1, Bomb Team: 2 suicide tanks, AoE DD, Healer
Team 2, Focus Team: DPS Tank, DPS or DPS Healer
The idea is the same as the PK Bomb Group. The bomb team applies pressure using AoE damage and the focus team mops up.
It's risky, and I wouldn't do it. But the point was to show that you can. I also wanted to reinforce the idea of taking focus off individual players and grouping them as teams.
There's really only two viable strategies for scenario play when you only get to control one group of the two. Those are the bomb group and the assist train. There's tons of variations on these ideas. I've only gone over a few non-traditional ones. The other group types that I use require at least a second group in order to be viable.
So next time, we'll get into what dwarven weaponry and warbands have in common.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Team Play - The 3T Group - The Split Assist
This is a spin on the typical melee assist train group. Here's the template of the 3T Group again.
Suicide tank
Suicide tank
DPS tank
DPS
DPS Healer or another DPS
Healer
For the split assist, you are going to be in two teams.
Team 1: 2 suicide tanks, DPS, healer
Team 2: DPS tank and the DPS Healer or second DPS
Team 1's job to deal with the front line. Team 2's job is to push the back line and tie up the enemy healers or stay on the front line and simply hit a different target than Team 1.
The idea is that you want to force the single target healing of the enemy onto one target while the other team kills another target. Most POGs use a group healer (usually DoK/WP) and a single target healer (usually AM/RP/Shaman/Zealot). The PK bomb group sought to neutralize single target healing with AoE pressure damage by contrast.
The 3T split assist is more efficient than the PK bomb group, but it is more difficult to execute. You now become subject to damage spread where that was not an issue for you in the PK bomb group. You want to hit everyone you can in the PK bomb group. That's not the case here.
In order to beat this group, you need to first realize that you are getting the 3T split assist done to you. Team 2 often works the flanks, so if that's what they are doing, you can CC Team 1 and take out Team 2 quickly. Also realize that the non-tanks are all guarded by tanks. Tanks that are likely to be running Focused Offense. You have to neutralize the tanks to beat this group. That's one reason this group is so effective. People have ingrained in their heads not to beat on tanks when that's exactly what you have to do to beat this group.
Also realize that this group only has one real healer. That healer is well protected, but you can completely stop their healing with a single stagger or silence. You'll still have to deal with 3 tanks reducing your outgoing damage a lot, but at least they won't be getting heals for a little while.
Next time, I'll go over another way to play the 3T group. It's a bit more risky, but it kills stuff fast.
Suicide tank
Suicide tank
DPS tank
DPS
DPS Healer or another DPS
Healer
For the split assist, you are going to be in two teams.
Team 1: 2 suicide tanks, DPS, healer
Team 2: DPS tank and the DPS Healer or second DPS
Team 1's job to deal with the front line. Team 2's job is to push the back line and tie up the enemy healers or stay on the front line and simply hit a different target than Team 1.
The idea is that you want to force the single target healing of the enemy onto one target while the other team kills another target. Most POGs use a group healer (usually DoK/WP) and a single target healer (usually AM/RP/Shaman/Zealot). The PK bomb group sought to neutralize single target healing with AoE pressure damage by contrast.
The 3T split assist is more efficient than the PK bomb group, but it is more difficult to execute. You now become subject to damage spread where that was not an issue for you in the PK bomb group. You want to hit everyone you can in the PK bomb group. That's not the case here.
In order to beat this group, you need to first realize that you are getting the 3T split assist done to you. Team 2 often works the flanks, so if that's what they are doing, you can CC Team 1 and take out Team 2 quickly. Also realize that the non-tanks are all guarded by tanks. Tanks that are likely to be running Focused Offense. You have to neutralize the tanks to beat this group. That's one reason this group is so effective. People have ingrained in their heads not to beat on tanks when that's exactly what you have to do to beat this group.
Also realize that this group only has one real healer. That healer is well protected, but you can completely stop their healing with a single stagger or silence. You'll still have to deal with 3 tanks reducing your outgoing damage a lot, but at least they won't be getting heals for a little while.
Next time, I'll go over another way to play the 3T group. It's a bit more risky, but it kills stuff fast.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Team Play - Group Composition - Tarelther's Triple Tank Threat
I just call it the 3T group for short. Here's the template.
Suicide tank
Suicide tank
DPS tank
DPS
DPS Healer or another DPS
Healer
I once ran this group for 8 hours straight in scenarios and never lost once. (The reason we were running the scenarios was to get a Royal Crest for someone in the group. It never dropped.) The version was with the 2 DPS and Healer rather than DPS/DPS Healer/Healer. So obviously, our healer was often jumped on quickly by the enemy and we had to keep him up at all costs.
When you are using the DPS Healer, he is responsible for rezs so the main healer can continue healing the group. If the either healer drops, the other healer will have to get him back up quickly, so one tank uses morale to cover the group until the healer is back up.
The reason I prefer the DPS Healer to the second DPS in this group is the extra rez and the element of confusion this presents to the enemy. With only one healer, it's easy to pick out the key to the group. With two, it takes longer for the enemy to figure it out.
The basic idea of the group to use tanks to make one healer do the job of three. With three guards and challenges, there's no reason the DPS and healers should get hit for full damage ever. The tanks will rotate and call challenges to prevent overlap. I like to have 2 tanks go full out DPS including Focused Offense, the 2 suicide tanks, and have the last in a regular DPS kit without FO, the DPS tank. Ideally, you'll use one of each tank. A challenged target hitting someone guarded only does 35% of his normal damage to that target, so that's one healer doing the job of three because of all the tanks.
No shields allowed. You lack DPS in this group, so everyone has to contribute to damage to make up the difference. This group can be played multiple ways, so next time, I'll go over different ways to play this group makeup.
Suicide tank
Suicide tank
DPS tank
DPS
DPS Healer or another DPS
Healer
I once ran this group for 8 hours straight in scenarios and never lost once. (The reason we were running the scenarios was to get a Royal Crest for someone in the group. It never dropped.) The version was with the 2 DPS and Healer rather than DPS/DPS Healer/Healer. So obviously, our healer was often jumped on quickly by the enemy and we had to keep him up at all costs.
When you are using the DPS Healer, he is responsible for rezs so the main healer can continue healing the group. If the either healer drops, the other healer will have to get him back up quickly, so one tank uses morale to cover the group until the healer is back up.
The reason I prefer the DPS Healer to the second DPS in this group is the extra rez and the element of confusion this presents to the enemy. With only one healer, it's easy to pick out the key to the group. With two, it takes longer for the enemy to figure it out.
The basic idea of the group to use tanks to make one healer do the job of three. With three guards and challenges, there's no reason the DPS and healers should get hit for full damage ever. The tanks will rotate and call challenges to prevent overlap. I like to have 2 tanks go full out DPS including Focused Offense, the 2 suicide tanks, and have the last in a regular DPS kit without FO, the DPS tank. Ideally, you'll use one of each tank. A challenged target hitting someone guarded only does 35% of his normal damage to that target, so that's one healer doing the job of three because of all the tanks.
No shields allowed. You lack DPS in this group, so everyone has to contribute to damage to make up the difference. This group can be played multiple ways, so next time, I'll go over different ways to play this group makeup.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Team Play - The PK Bomb Group - Positioning and Weaknesses
In part 3, I covered the use of the melee focus. This time, I'll go over ideal positioning of this group and it's weaknesses.
The bombers are the sword and shield of the group. They apply pressure damage to the enemy group. This pressure damage also serves to discourage melee from closing in on the group.
Everyone needs to stay within the PBAoE that the bombers are generating if possible. This allows the melee focus to easily hit and kill anyone foolish enough to try to close in melee with the help of the AoE damage. This also prevents Witch Elves from using stealth on someone. You also gain the benefit of damage spread. Damage spread is caused by the difficulty of picking out one target from a mass of players. Typically, you will prevent a focus fire on a key target with damage spread. This only negatively affects the melee focus in this group. Players by nature will hit the target nearest to them until they notice another target. This will buy you at least 2 seconds just from a typical person's reaction time plus whatever time you get from the difficulty of targeting.
Proper use of CC is the group's major weakness. The group will need to pay attention to any incoming staggers from a Chosen and either hit Resolute Defenses or spread out in a calculated manner to avoid it. If a Chosen hits both healers with a stagger, you're screwed. A zealot spec'd for the single target stagger or a Sorc or Magus with the morale 3 stagger on a healer in the back will also end up being bad for this group.
For this reason, healers should not be standing on top of each other. They should be on opposing flanks if at all possible. Ideally, they want to stagger the healers and silence/disarm/knockdown a DPS.
The PK bomb group is easy to defeat, but played properly, you will give your enemy precious little time to execute. Hesitate and you will be lost. Play fast, push hard, and be smart.
Next time, I'll talk about Tarelther's 3T group. It's unusual, but effective.
The bombers are the sword and shield of the group. They apply pressure damage to the enemy group. This pressure damage also serves to discourage melee from closing in on the group.
Everyone needs to stay within the PBAoE that the bombers are generating if possible. This allows the melee focus to easily hit and kill anyone foolish enough to try to close in melee with the help of the AoE damage. This also prevents Witch Elves from using stealth on someone. You also gain the benefit of damage spread. Damage spread is caused by the difficulty of picking out one target from a mass of players. Typically, you will prevent a focus fire on a key target with damage spread. This only negatively affects the melee focus in this group. Players by nature will hit the target nearest to them until they notice another target. This will buy you at least 2 seconds just from a typical person's reaction time plus whatever time you get from the difficulty of targeting.
Proper use of CC is the group's major weakness. The group will need to pay attention to any incoming staggers from a Chosen and either hit Resolute Defenses or spread out in a calculated manner to avoid it. If a Chosen hits both healers with a stagger, you're screwed. A zealot spec'd for the single target stagger or a Sorc or Magus with the morale 3 stagger on a healer in the back will also end up being bad for this group.
For this reason, healers should not be standing on top of each other. They should be on opposing flanks if at all possible. Ideally, they want to stagger the healers and silence/disarm/knockdown a DPS.
The PK bomb group is easy to defeat, but played properly, you will give your enemy precious little time to execute. Hesitate and you will be lost. Play fast, push hard, and be smart.
Next time, I'll talk about Tarelther's 3T group. It's unusual, but effective.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Tarelther's Take on the Quest for the Holy Spec
Warning! This post is not for the feint of heart. If you are easily offended, you may wish to leave this site now and not come back.
I've seen a lot of questions on the official forums recently asking for the "best spec" to use. Said questions typically will not give the activity taking place, numbers on both sides, group composition of at least his own side, or anything else that could be remotely useful for tweaking a spec to work properly. (If the person provided this information, I could very easily and quickly pull a spec off this blog and help him out.) This person is looking for a one size fits all spec.
I hope those of you who can't handle it have already gone away.
Lazy bastards. And they wonder why they get rolled? They won't build a group ahead of time. (I know this because they don't give a group makeup.) Even if they do, they won't modify their spec to accommodate their group. Heck, they're typically not even in a guild. (Gee, I wonder why they're not in a guild.) They aren't willing to get sufficient understanding of their own class to understand how their abilities work with other abilities of their group members. They just want "the answer" given to them.
The person asking the question intuitively knows that there isn't one spec that works for everything. It's common sense. The question is usually an attempt for a person to justify their own laziness. I tell those people to read my SM and group utility series hoping the light bulb turns on. I get responses like that's interesting but I can't decide whether I want to do X or Y.
I'm sorry, honey. There's not one perfect spec for everything. Your response tells me you acknowledge I'm right, but you are not willing to put forth the effort required to play this game at a high level. You have to engage your brain and work with other people in order to win at this game. You can't just say "This is what I'm doing and I don't care what the rest of you do" and expect to beat someone who is willing to change spec and play style to accommodate their group makeup.
WAR is a game that HEAVILY favors teamwork and organization. The developers themselves have said this. It is intended that a smaller, well organized group can defeat a larger, less organized group. I've been in battles outnumbered 4 to 1 recently and won just because my group was better organized than the enemy groups. You can't do stuff like that with the mindset that's looking for the lazy way out. I find winning a whole lot more fun that losing, but that might just be me.
I used to be the clueless idiot like that. Then I met some people who worked with me and showed me this truth and some stuff on how to improve. I took their advice and implemented it. (What a concept! Asking for advice and using it!) It worked. I got addicted to this whole actually winning thing. So I started experimenting with other things. I am now the Master Tactician for the Player Killers Alliance on Volkmar. I write the playbook on group composition, group specs, warband composition, and basic play style. I try to make the strategy the Master Strategist comes up with work in practice. This blog is basically the written out version of that playbook with an obvious slant towards the SM.
I'm not concerned about someone else finding it and using it against me. Most people who read this will never take any action on it. Heck, someone using this stuff against me will allow me to further analyze and improve it. So go ahead. Use the stuff here against me. I don't care. I welcome the challenge.
Bring it Volkmar Destro.
I've seen a lot of questions on the official forums recently asking for the "best spec" to use. Said questions typically will not give the activity taking place, numbers on both sides, group composition of at least his own side, or anything else that could be remotely useful for tweaking a spec to work properly. (If the person provided this information, I could very easily and quickly pull a spec off this blog and help him out.) This person is looking for a one size fits all spec.
I hope those of you who can't handle it have already gone away.
Lazy bastards. And they wonder why they get rolled? They won't build a group ahead of time. (I know this because they don't give a group makeup.) Even if they do, they won't modify their spec to accommodate their group. Heck, they're typically not even in a guild. (Gee, I wonder why they're not in a guild.) They aren't willing to get sufficient understanding of their own class to understand how their abilities work with other abilities of their group members. They just want "the answer" given to them.
The person asking the question intuitively knows that there isn't one spec that works for everything. It's common sense. The question is usually an attempt for a person to justify their own laziness. I tell those people to read my SM and group utility series hoping the light bulb turns on. I get responses like that's interesting but I can't decide whether I want to do X or Y.
I'm sorry, honey. There's not one perfect spec for everything. Your response tells me you acknowledge I'm right, but you are not willing to put forth the effort required to play this game at a high level. You have to engage your brain and work with other people in order to win at this game. You can't just say "This is what I'm doing and I don't care what the rest of you do" and expect to beat someone who is willing to change spec and play style to accommodate their group makeup.
WAR is a game that HEAVILY favors teamwork and organization. The developers themselves have said this. It is intended that a smaller, well organized group can defeat a larger, less organized group. I've been in battles outnumbered 4 to 1 recently and won just because my group was better organized than the enemy groups. You can't do stuff like that with the mindset that's looking for the lazy way out. I find winning a whole lot more fun that losing, but that might just be me.
I used to be the clueless idiot like that. Then I met some people who worked with me and showed me this truth and some stuff on how to improve. I took their advice and implemented it. (What a concept! Asking for advice and using it!) It worked. I got addicted to this whole actually winning thing. So I started experimenting with other things. I am now the Master Tactician for the Player Killers Alliance on Volkmar. I write the playbook on group composition, group specs, warband composition, and basic play style. I try to make the strategy the Master Strategist comes up with work in practice. This blog is basically the written out version of that playbook with an obvious slant towards the SM.
I'm not concerned about someone else finding it and using it against me. Most people who read this will never take any action on it. Heck, someone using this stuff against me will allow me to further analyze and improve it. So go ahead. Use the stuff here against me. I don't care. I welcome the challenge.
Bring it Volkmar Destro.
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