News Post

Cragtop Ours in Under 5 Mins

[ Sun 27th Jan, 2013 @ 2:19pm ] by Aspeh

It began at Stonemist Castle in Eternal Battlegrounds. Toglos, Aspeth, Sparrk, Tehbes and Korvash had been hanging about, kicking stones, spitting in the dirt, and generally looking for trouble, when Omphin logged in to Mumble and suggested moving to a borderlands.

We went to Seafarer's Rest Borderlands and waypointed to Shadaran Hills keep to practice portalling golems over to Cragtop tower. Ideally we needed another Mesmer, then along came Tratpan to join the fun. After a cliff suicide by an individual who shall remain nameless, we ran supply from the camp north of Hills back to the Hills vista where the golem was being built. Stage one complete, the golem was up. Then the Mesmers, Omphin, Aspeth, Tratpan and Tehbes got a guided tour, courtesy of Omphin, of where to be standing and portalling. Meanwhile Toglos was fuelling his addiction to siege by building a second golem. Initial efforts failed, with one portal being too far and another running out of time. After couple more attempts at getting the portal distance right (to minimise golem walking), we were there! Two golems all the way up to Cragtop in under 30 seconds. We took Cragtop with the help of some PUGs, and then waypointed back to try it again and really get the strategy down.

“All ready?” asked Toglos.
“Yep” was the unanimous reply.

All the Mesmers put down their opening portal and ran to their exit points. The golems popped through Aspeth's portal, took a couple of steps and jumped through Omphin's, then took a couple more steps to the shelter of the cliff under the supply camp and into Tratpan's portal, and then made the final leap, bundling into Tehbes portal and appearing at the top of the cliff behind Cragtop. Omphin, traited for glamour cooldowns, popped a portal entrance then disappeared round to the gate and dropped the exit. BAM! The golems were on the gate like flies on s**t. The Mesmers popped their Time Warps on the golems in alphabetical order, while some SFR defenders ran in to start defending. The gate went down in what must have been less than one minute, and then we all went in, the golem drivers, Toglos and Korvash dumping their golems just inside the tower. We dodged, blinked and ran like a group of naughty chuckling boys up the ramp, round the cliff and into the lord room, and there, battle commenced. We were outnumbered by SFR, and we were fighting against their NPCs and the lord himself, and as if that wasn't enough, there was a ballista firing on us too!

“Get behind the pillars, the ballista can't hit us!” shouted Tog. “On me for a big heal!”

Heals were being popped, ethereal fields were all over the place, fiery greatswords were appearing, and SFR and the NPCs had DkR clones in and out of every orifice! After a good four or five minute fight, against all odds, we were all still alive, they were all dead, and the tower was DkR's. And not only that, the golems were still up.

That's how it's done. No zergs required, just some fine skill from all involved and a strategy from Omphin that worked a treat.

After that, we spent a few more minutes practicing portalling the golems from Cragtop to the garrison east gate via the ravine just south of the tower, and then the night came to a close. It was goodnight at 2:30am UK time. It probably took my brain another 45mins to actually switch off after that... damn that late-night adrenaline!

Notes on Reflection: Practice using your different combo fields to actually learn first-hand what they all do. Don't wait for official practice sessions, just start doing it. The more you do it, the more it will become a standard part of your play. Leap and blast in other people's fields and see what they do. Combo field + blast finish = AoE buffs. Do it. It WILL make the difference in group situations.

This golem portalling strategy would work at absolute best, and on major targets, if we had our zerg, or the server zerg, running elsewhere on the map acting as a distraction. If our enemies are busy zerging about, fighting our own zerg, then a Mesmer/golem team can be working elsewhere.

Nothing can replace individual skill, and that takes time. Be it through natural aptitude or through good hard practice.

It's a hard life being a Mesmer. One mistake and the whole chain fails. That's a lot of pressure for one player (same applies when hiding in towers/keeps etc.). I think it would be fair to assume a 50% success rate on such strategies due to mistakes, enemy zergs, and other unforeseen circumstances. Ultimately, the enemy go out of their way to specifically target us (Mesmers) and kill us.