Arjun
07-27-2010, 12:30 AM
Attention Forum Dwellers, Lurkers, Speakers, and Tweaker’s; I’m only discussing it cause it needs to be discussed.
Running through AO2 is about a hell of a lot more than simply rushing in and spamming mana and health potions and looting loots. There needs to be a demonstrable execution of strategy and skill to get it just right.
As Master Yoda himself has said: Control. You Must Learn Control.
Now we have all pulled our fair share of D’jinns to know that they are a near sight easier to kill without their mummies to back them up. But here’s the thing. Even the mummies themselves are much much easier to kill if you keep them just far enough apart so as to prevent them from healing each other. And I wouldn’t think this needs to be discussed but you’d be surprised at how many groups are ignoring this fact.
Speaking from recent experiences at the plasma pyramid, it was hard to deal with mobs of the mummies wrapped in those greenish rags. The blue rag dudes are easier. But again only if separated by about that much from the greens. Because the greens is healers. And the more closely grouped together the more healing they get going between them. Clearly, Im ignoring the white rag ones because they are the exclusive victims of xp farmers and such.
Getting back to the mob of healers - the most uber-warrior can be hacking away with his uber-rare-never-to-drop-again-ever-pink-wep; and it won’t make much of a difference as long as he/she is in the middle of said mob. To get around the problem of mobs that heal; what has got to be done is effective crowd control. For instance, if a mage wants to fireblast, the idea is to chose an angle that sends as many badguys into the teams killbox as possible. If this means taking a few extra hits to move into a more favorable position - then do that.
What is the killbox? Well it’s like Ironman2 got explained to him in his most recent Hollywood outing; the killbox is where you go to get ded. Or where you bring baddies in to make ded. The choice is yours.
Basically you and your crew of five has just fought furiously to clear a room or a corridor as you begin your midnight raid. This being the room or corridor immediately in-front of the team spawn-point. Use that space to surround single targets and finish them off effectively. Remember, this as opposed to running forward and going ballistic on potions while hacking away at a zombie dude what should have been ded three slashes and two stomps ago at the very least.
If a warrior wants to stomp; then swing around ur target and send him out of range of his healers. Or his healers out of rage of your current target. Unless of course you got a Kopesh of Anubis and a PL official shield and the devs is ur buddies and have the game rigs so tht u always rule. What you want to do is put ur opponent into your team killbox [can apply to PvP as well but I’m just talking about PvE here].
Choose your Battlefield wisely and the loot is already won. Sounds like old Stun Tzuy I know. But is Me.
Archers - for PvE you need thornwall and thornroot. You have to deploy for crowd control. Your job is to protect the magey as much as the warriors is. Because it’s a long and lonely walk back to the front. Especially if you have to watch sweet pink loots drop like so much acid rain on your way back in. And unless the Archers have suddenly learned to cast Revive Spells I don’t see what business they have in a PvE dungeon having attributed 0-2 skill points on thornwall and given nothing to thornroot. Seriously. I’m going to start asking.
Mistakes, meanwhile, stand to be made. A magey can fireblast having negotiated themselves into a good position only to send the warrior hacking away happily into the midst of a mob. Target fixation as pilot’s call it. Or being too lazy to tap and reselect the next nearest target wot is a threat as in this case. Which is what any characters controller should have the good sense to do. Archers - you can’t cause damage to a baddie wot’s been fireblasted and stomped to the far side of the battlefield. Tap and click to shoot at something closer. Had you been foresightful enough to skill up thornwall, you can hold that target off to snipe at again later.
The Key, ultimately, is to stay as shallow as possible. Healing radius of the magey.*Archers rooting targets long enough for warriors to hack them apart while expending as little mana as possible - between which and the healing magey should save enough gold to spend on the other good stuff - elixir’s and goods looted by someone else. For which bidding will shortly commence at the local auction house. No?
Bonus Material: Formation Flight.
Now I haven't tried this in the Pyramids yet (wot with the corridors of attack being much narrower), but I have led many a successful group through the swamps in what is fondly (and respectfully) referred to as - a flying V formation.
More on this as I edit. Was keen to put up the strategy and hope it gets maximum eyeballs. So the next run feels more coordinated and less of an effort to simply reach the slot machines, sorry D’jinns, having suffered as few death’s as possible.
Running through AO2 is about a hell of a lot more than simply rushing in and spamming mana and health potions and looting loots. There needs to be a demonstrable execution of strategy and skill to get it just right.
As Master Yoda himself has said: Control. You Must Learn Control.
Now we have all pulled our fair share of D’jinns to know that they are a near sight easier to kill without their mummies to back them up. But here’s the thing. Even the mummies themselves are much much easier to kill if you keep them just far enough apart so as to prevent them from healing each other. And I wouldn’t think this needs to be discussed but you’d be surprised at how many groups are ignoring this fact.
Speaking from recent experiences at the plasma pyramid, it was hard to deal with mobs of the mummies wrapped in those greenish rags. The blue rag dudes are easier. But again only if separated by about that much from the greens. Because the greens is healers. And the more closely grouped together the more healing they get going between them. Clearly, Im ignoring the white rag ones because they are the exclusive victims of xp farmers and such.
Getting back to the mob of healers - the most uber-warrior can be hacking away with his uber-rare-never-to-drop-again-ever-pink-wep; and it won’t make much of a difference as long as he/she is in the middle of said mob. To get around the problem of mobs that heal; what has got to be done is effective crowd control. For instance, if a mage wants to fireblast, the idea is to chose an angle that sends as many badguys into the teams killbox as possible. If this means taking a few extra hits to move into a more favorable position - then do that.
What is the killbox? Well it’s like Ironman2 got explained to him in his most recent Hollywood outing; the killbox is where you go to get ded. Or where you bring baddies in to make ded. The choice is yours.
Basically you and your crew of five has just fought furiously to clear a room or a corridor as you begin your midnight raid. This being the room or corridor immediately in-front of the team spawn-point. Use that space to surround single targets and finish them off effectively. Remember, this as opposed to running forward and going ballistic on potions while hacking away at a zombie dude what should have been ded three slashes and two stomps ago at the very least.
If a warrior wants to stomp; then swing around ur target and send him out of range of his healers. Or his healers out of rage of your current target. Unless of course you got a Kopesh of Anubis and a PL official shield and the devs is ur buddies and have the game rigs so tht u always rule. What you want to do is put ur opponent into your team killbox [can apply to PvP as well but I’m just talking about PvE here].
Choose your Battlefield wisely and the loot is already won. Sounds like old Stun Tzuy I know. But is Me.
Archers - for PvE you need thornwall and thornroot. You have to deploy for crowd control. Your job is to protect the magey as much as the warriors is. Because it’s a long and lonely walk back to the front. Especially if you have to watch sweet pink loots drop like so much acid rain on your way back in. And unless the Archers have suddenly learned to cast Revive Spells I don’t see what business they have in a PvE dungeon having attributed 0-2 skill points on thornwall and given nothing to thornroot. Seriously. I’m going to start asking.
Mistakes, meanwhile, stand to be made. A magey can fireblast having negotiated themselves into a good position only to send the warrior hacking away happily into the midst of a mob. Target fixation as pilot’s call it. Or being too lazy to tap and reselect the next nearest target wot is a threat as in this case. Which is what any characters controller should have the good sense to do. Archers - you can’t cause damage to a baddie wot’s been fireblasted and stomped to the far side of the battlefield. Tap and click to shoot at something closer. Had you been foresightful enough to skill up thornwall, you can hold that target off to snipe at again later.
The Key, ultimately, is to stay as shallow as possible. Healing radius of the magey.*Archers rooting targets long enough for warriors to hack them apart while expending as little mana as possible - between which and the healing magey should save enough gold to spend on the other good stuff - elixir’s and goods looted by someone else. For which bidding will shortly commence at the local auction house. No?
Bonus Material: Formation Flight.
Now I haven't tried this in the Pyramids yet (wot with the corridors of attack being much narrower), but I have led many a successful group through the swamps in what is fondly (and respectfully) referred to as - a flying V formation.
More on this as I edit. Was keen to put up the strategy and hope it gets maximum eyeballs. So the next run feels more coordinated and less of an effort to simply reach the slot machines, sorry D’jinns, having suffered as few death’s as possible.