GvG Reports: 3/16/07 & 3/18/07

[Lurker Wyrm]

We had 2 different GvG sessions this weekend. The first was our regularly scheduled one on Friday and the second was an ad-hoc grouping on Sunday. Rather than make 2 topics, I'll just post about both of them here.

For Friday, our team was:
Wyrm - Hammer War
Fox - Ranger
Hawk - Para
Vort - Rit
Moo - Axe War
Jude (DA guest) - Monk
Aravis (KKoP guest) - Ele
Dirk (KKoP guest) - Sin

There's not much to say about the individual matches. We had 3 guests with very little GvG experience and a build that was less than optimal for the situation (we didn't really run the build either since we had to make several skill substitutions). In truth, I consider these matches my first major failure as the GvG leader. I still think the build is capable of working, with a few minor alterations (i.e. LoD flagger) and people with a bit more experience. Anyways, lesson learned, let's move on.

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For the ad-hoc meeting on Sunday we decided to try the build I copied from [Vibe] and, as it turned out, things went much more smoothly once we figured stuff out. It took us forever to get off the ground, but once we did we were able to keep going for quite a while. The team this time was:

Wyrm - Cruel Spear Para
Moo - Crippling Anthem Para
Veraxis - Axe War
Merlona Meercat (DA guest) - Sword War
Fox - Ranger
Derezer (AB guest) - Mes
SF - Monk
Vort - Monk

Xyn (once Moo left) - Crippling Anthem Para
This Is A (HRK guest, once Merlona left) - Sword War
Seijin (once Derezer left) - Mes

Our setup wasn't ideal. Veraxis only has Prophecies so he had to run the axe war, which is really where I should be for leading. He also had very little experience, and as such wasn't really contributing to spikes. For the first match, we didn't really have a hold on the build (at all) so we were kinda running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We lost, to say the least.

After the second match, Moo left and Xyn stepped in as the other para. The next few matches were fairly easily, we fought a couple teams with ratings below 980, which we thought were smurfs, but aparently weren't.

The fourth match against Resurrection Of The Almighty [RIP] was really our best effort. Even though Derezer has connectivity issues, we were able to keep it a fairly close match, though we had problems with the whole 2 flag stands thing. At the start of VoD we had the Bodyguard, both Knights, and 3 archers left alive while they had all of their NPCs. We were able to keep control of the upper stand around 21-22min, which helped us finish off their NPCs and then we got the lower stand and were able to get a morale boost while they stood and waited for the GLs to come out at 25 min. Once the lords came out we still had the upper stand so that helped. They weren't healing their lord for whatever reason so we killed him shortly after 26 min.

After that match, Derezer had too many connection issues to continue and Merlona had to sign off, so we hung out and watched the 4th match on observer again to see how we managed to pull it off. Seijin signed on and took over the mes, and a HRK guy who was going to join us earlier but D/Ced was back and took over the sword warrior. By this time we were starting to get a handle on the build and our spikes were better timed.

All in all, I enjoyed the build and I think we should use it for a while. We might need to make a few alterations depending on preferences, but it served us well.

Also, after the GvG our HRK guest took us over to HA for a few runs there. He actually knew what he was doing, so he led. After making a few alterations to the build we went in and did better than pretty much all of our other previous entries. I know this isn't GvG, but I know that personally, I learned a lot, not just about HA, but also about leading. It was definitely worth it for us to stay around all that time to get things going.

[DamadmOO]

As said already i had to leave after the 2nd match.

I did watch the last match on observer and i only saw 1 thing we could have done a lil bit better. Fox did a good job running the flag. The first time he could get away with putting the flag near the flagstand and did a nice trick. However the time after that he did put the flag just outside. The runner from the other team now knew that fox had his flag somewhere and kicked it back.

A thing i have seen from observing others is that they put away the flag on a place where it can't be seen from the flagstand. This so the other flag runner is not able to see it.

[FoxBat]

This isn't making up for my mistakes as flagger but a ranger is really not an ideal choice. Half the reason I had to set the flag down was because I can't use my bow with that thing in my hands. Burning arrow ranger is also a bit of a waste if you don't entertain the option of them ganking archers.

I recommend something with healing for our flagger role, so they can provide some defense against ganks without forcing a monk split. That's probably an air/water ele or ZB monk. You could grab resto rit but they seem better as part of an optional gank team. Also, triple aegis chain is a bit cheesy but extremely effective.

[Lurker Wyrm]

If you're solo flagging and need to put the flag down, it should go closer to our base, near the NPCs or just inside the gate. If they have the tower then just cap it.

Bow ranger is a bad idea for flagger and, really, the mes should be capping. However, for the first 4 matches or so, our mes was a guest that was having connectivity issues, and since Fox doesn't like being a mesmer it fell to him flagging with the ranger. Like I said, we can adjust the build, but the basic concept of it is good (I did see a similar build by [PAL] that was pretty impressive).

There's one other thing I want to mention about the past few matches that I forgot to put in the original report, and that is about the swearing being used on vent. It would be better for people to not swear. I know we're all adults and reasonably mature, but it's a little improper and adds a negative to a situation that doesn't need to be there. If you feel you have to swear at something, then turn your mic off first.