The_Masque

Homework- Week 4- Non Match Week

So this Sunday we will be practicing together but there will not be an official match, however I'd still like to keep people thinking about PvP so what I'd like to do is offer up some Homework for points.

I will give you guys 2 hypothetical lineups and I want you each to come up with counter lineups. Points will be given as follows:

0.5 pts for just submitting an answer
0.5 pts for correctly identifying what the opposing team 'may' be trying to run (ie.. their strategy)
1pt for offering up a viable counter line up and strategy.

In addition 5 bonus pts will be given to the best answer from the group as a whole.

This homework will be open to the ringer emps as well however, they are not eligible for the bonus points.

Rewards this week-

Everyone who submits an answer will receive 20 million influence.


Scenario 1:

You are entering an 8v8 match and your opponent selects atlas as their map choice. You are locked into running a standard jump team and when you join the arena event you see that the opposing team is made up of 6 peacebringers and 2 emps.

Scenario 2:

You have been challenged to a duel by an elec/thermal corr who wants to fight you FITEKLUB style no insp, no accolades, no running!!!

Lets talk about alpha slots when we meet again Sunday, I think we have 1 person who may not be 50 yet.


Also thanks psi, I hadn't thought about rads. I had considered end/range on my pvp blaster especially if I was going to zone or duel on it.

Round 1: 9-1 Pimp Hand (5pts Pimp Hand)
Round 2: 9-2 Pimp Hand (5pts Pimp Hand)
Round 3: 13-1 Pimp Hand (5pts Pimp Hand)

Attendance points-

Pimp Hand- 7 pts
Pew Pew pew- 8 pts

hmm, well i do like Hibernate for pvp, but we could probably work a build around phase instead if you didnt want to take your defender to redside.

First Official Match is this Sunday at 9pm est.


Free agents should try to attend this as each team will be picking up 1 more player for its active roster.

The two teams will face off in 3 rounds with the following stipulations.

• Everyone who shows up for each team must be played in at least one round (this includes free agents who were just picked up if they are in attendance).
• Team size will be 6v6 minimal with the option to raise this to 8v8 if both Captains agree.
• Travel Suppression and Heal Decay will be turned Off.
• Inspirations will be set to small only.
• The maps that will be used are as follows: Round 1- Atlas; Round 2- Skyway; Round 3- Graveyard.

Points will be as follows:

Teams will be given 1pt for each player who shows up for all three rounds.
The winning team of each round will recieve 5 pts.

Prizes this week:

Everyone on the winning team who shows up to the match will receive:
100,000,000 inf and a Kismet +acc recipe.

Everyone on thee losing team who shows up to the match will receive:
20,000,000 inf and a kismet +acc recipe.

Happy Birthday oh pantless one.

Victory without Viv is just Ick-tory.

Happy Birthday to one of best and brightest stars I've had the pleasure of knowning.

<3

Purple.

You had me at Fluffy.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you guys.

I was very much for the team buff aspect of call to justice, but after really looking at the time of the buff 30 secs, with a recharge of 6 mins... I'm not so sure I'm sold on it.

I can see everyone getting off a great 1st buff but that only lasts the 1st 30 secs of the match (usually the time it takes to find the other team and lock) so a smart team would say.. "they are going to call to justice, lets sit here and wait 15 secs, then fire off ours" Which just leads to more waiting and less pvp.

In addition, I doubt that you will be able to get a team to 'gather and everyone fire your C2J, ready go'. So after the 1st buff cycle it pretty much becomes a self buff.


Frenzy on the other hand gives a nice little +damage/+recharge to the caster. So I could see this being more effective.

We will have to see how this plays out I guess.

Unofficial Practices- Friday November 26th @ 8pm est. Saturday November 27th @8pm est.

As always- If you have specific powerset/role questions please contact me via game/pm/this thread and we will set up a time to talk/practice about what your concerns are.

On tap for today- Friday November 26th

I will be running:

Posi part 1 and part 2 @ 1pm est
Numina to follow

I think at this point we should go ahead and let teams vote on their 10the person and remove the ringer emp from thee active roster. We will use MP and Gris's donation for the prize to the winning team in the 1st official match.

Everyone on the winning team who shows up to the match will receive:
100,000,000 inf and a Kismet +acc recipe.

Everyone on thee losing team who shows up to the match will receive:
20,000,000 inf and a kismet +acc recipe.




Also of note- If anyone has characters on Virtue Smallz runs a fight night there on Fridays so if you want additional pvp time that could be another way to help you get a little more practice.

PvP Boot Camp.

MP/Gris- I would be for it, but lets call for a vote on both teams to make sure everyone is good with adding one more player to their roster.

Deuce- I will send you a PM about this even and see if you are still interested in joining us.

Happy Birthday Kara

good stuff MP.

A lot of information on the PvP University thread has been posted thanks to a great PvP team on Champion.

-Evasion tactics on the various arena maps
-Screen shots explaining evasion techniques
-Another UI screen shot
-Jump Team (high damage) strategy
-Guide to playing psi/em

Also please note that MP and Ele both have up threads for team discussions, you should use those for questions/comments about team specific comments.

MP did a nice write up on the accolades and I will ask her to post that on the PvP University thread for future use.

I just wanted to say you guys are totally impressing me with your dedication and drive to do this event. The talks and discussions on the global channel have been great.

Here is Punki's description of how he plays blaster on a jump team:

Here's some tips that I follow playing a blaster (mainly psi.em) on a jump team:

- When you are not the target caller, you can right click on the target caller and set him/her as waypoint (at the start of the match/buffing phase). This way you can see the yellow marker as to approximately where your target caller is when you've successfully evaded and needs to get back into locking on the target.

- If target caller is evading then don't go to the waypoint and find a target by going to another spiker on the team if you don't see the target. Hit follow on the spiker for like 1 second to get direction and then break off into your path with a good view of the direction your teammates are heading in.

- Another way for me to tell where my teammates are is by having the map up and monitor where all the green arrows are in relationship to you. Do not follow the lone green arrow (most likely teammate that is evading, hopefully being followed by another arrow signaling a healer to the rescue), you want to be where the mass of green arrows are.

- Repearing what Pixel already mentioned: Understand that if you had just phased or hibernated, that you will likely be the next target so proceed with that in mind.

- Again Pixel made mention: Positioning is key when you launch your attack chain. Usually the caller will try to time the 3 at the peak of the target's jump and 1 when target would be landing. Anticipate where your victim will land and time that start of your jump while attacking chain ex psi's WD-PD-TK-PD/MB. Usually if most of the spikers are on cue, the first 3 attacks should surfice.

- When I am late to lock on target, if 1 second after "spike" had been issued, I will go PD-TK-PD/MB or a little more than 1 second late, go straight to TK-PD-MB. The key is to time all the incoming damage into victim about the same time.

- I usually have my target window, my health bar and a tiny resized check tab with either hit-rolls or incoming dmg on the top middle area of my screen to easily gauge incoming spike to me. Some people after each spike against, will right click and clear the history of the check tab. Your miles may vary, but I usually don't do it unless I'm phased or hibered. Even then I'm tabbing to find my target rather than take the time to clear history. YMMV.

- I also have show health/end bar from options up for myself (this is a little redundant if you already monitoring your main health/edn bar). for foes, I display health bar and name for easier recognition of target name and health/end status above their toons' heads.

- On the occassions that I am being end drained or -recovery. I will rotate the following if available:
1) H-Geas/V-Force of Nature
2) Conserve Power
3) Hibernate (last option if you do not have blue insp to pop and know toggle will drop soon)

By all means, you do not have to do any of these or use your own flavor of how to track your victim and gauging your vitals.

This is how Pixel describes a jump team:

The most basic large team PvP strategy is the standard jump team. It's a run-and-gun style of play with a lineup approximately consisting of:

2 Emps
5 Blasters
1 Rad

The emps are there purely for support - buffing and healing teammates. They don't participate in offense at all. Mind/Emp and Ill/Emp controllers are most popular here, but the other power set is mostly used for IO set mules, so pretty much any emp will do. Defender emps just got a virtual buff, as well, with the ability to switch sides and get the good version of Power Boost.

The blasters are generally Psi/, but Sonic/ and Fire/ are good, too. The secondary is always /EM, for the benefit of Boost Range.

The rad is typically a rad/psi or rad/sonic defender. Son/rad, Rad/rad, and fire/rad corrs are also valid. The primary purpose of the rad is to increase the damage dealt by blasters with the toggle -res debuff Enervating Field, and provide a few attacks on a spike as well. Due to having less range than the blasters, the rad is a little more exposed, so the rad may not tee off with as many attacks as the blasters do - typically the rad will throw the EF and 1-2 attacks, then back off and play evasively.

5 blasters is a bit redundant, and there is room to play with the lineup a bit. A blaster might be replaced with a stalker that is good at getting AS off on fast moving targets, or some disruption in the form of a taunter (tank/brute/scrap) or Trick Arrow controller. Teams that expect opponents to bring stalkers may play a Widow here. Replacing a rad and a blaster with a dom and a stalker is also a valid choice. But having 5 blasters also has the benefit of always having enough damage even when players are evading, hibernating, respawning, or just being slow to get on target.

One player is designated as the target caller. Having the rad call targets is a popular choice, but having a blaster call targets is good, too.

At the beginning of the match, the 2 emps typically divide the team in half, one emp taking the top half of the team list, the other taking the bottom. For the initial buff period, emps hand out Fortitude and Clear Mind to their half of the list while everyone toggles up. They also should try to CM each other. The target caller may make an early call on who will be the first target, or may decide to call the first target that pops up. Just before the starting bell, emps and the rad release RA's and AM, and the match begins.

Between spikes, all players should play evasively. Stay loosely together, so that you can all see the same targets and are in range of your emps. STAY OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE BATTLEFIELD. By backing out of the middle, you become less likely to be targetted, and more likely to successfully evade when you are targetted. You also have a better view of the battlefield, so you'll be able to pick up targets better, and watch your opponents' movements so you can see in advance who they may be going after - if all of the sudden all of their blasters turn towards you - RUN! Also, try to stick near some terrain features, so that you have something to duck behind if you are targetted.

The target caller selects a target and announces it in Vent. "Target is Batman." All members of the offense try to lock on that target as quickly as possible. Keep your camera zoomed out, mouselook around, and tab quickly but not so fast that you tab past your target. When you have the target locked, say in Vent: "locked". Depending on how the offense runs, the targetter will wait for 1-3 locks. The more experience the team, the fewer locks he will wait for. Once you're locked, try not to telegraph the spike by heading straight for the target - hang back until the countdown starts and track your opponent's movements so you can maneuver into a good position to get a full attack chain off on him while he jumps by at full speed.

When the targetter is satisfied with the locks, he begins the countdown. "Batman in 3...2....1....spike!" During the countdown, hit either Aim or Build-Up (not both - alternate one or the other per spike), and maneuver into position. Begin your attack chain right on the work "spike" - no earlier, no later. Going early warns the opposing team, and lets their healers start the healing. Going late means your damage won't come in until after the target has already started popping greens. If everyone spikes with perfect timing, no squishy will survive. If you haven't locked on to a target before the countdown starts, keep looking; you still have 3 seconds to find them and get in on the spike to push the damage over the top.

For a psi blaster, the attack chain should be Will Dom -> Psi Dart -> TK Blast -> as many other MB, PD, TKB's as you can get. Because of the peculiarities of the animation/travel times, the WD-PD-TK chain should allow all the damage from all 3 attacks to hit at about the same time, making healing or evading very difficult.

The rad should lead with the EF toggle debuff, and a few attacks.

Attackers should be careful not to plant in one spot when firing off attacks - learn to jump and attack, allowing you to somewhat pursue your target while attacking and helping you to avoid being vulnerable to attack or a stalker's AS.

The attacking continues until the target dies or the target caller calls off the attack. You probably moved towards the center of the battlefield to launch your spike - get your butt outta there, start playing evasively, and start looking for the next target ASAP.

All of the above happens FAST! As fast as possible. The target caller should be calling targets with a solid pace, and the offense needs to lock quickly. The more spikes you get off per minute, the more points you'll score, and the more the opposing offense will be evading and hibernating instead of attacking you.

Be ready for target callers to switch targets on a moment's notice. It is a waste of time to keep chasing a target that has an emp locked onto him, or that has chosen a nice evasion route. You want to switch to the next target quickly, before the emp chasing the last target has time to reset. Also, if the target caller notices an opposing emp use Absorb Pain, he will likely switch to that emp and start a new target without waiting for any locks, just a very quick "Switch to Protecto-Dude in 3...2....1...spike!" Make that switch fast so you can score an easy point and leave the opposing team short on support while the emp respawns.

The target caller will likely be cycling through only a few select targets: the opponents' most farmable players or players in key roles. Also, when an opponent phases or hibernates, the target caller is likely to come back to that target in the next spike or two. Use that knowledge to think ahead and lock on targets faster.

While all of this locking and spiking is going on, the emps are watching buff bars and the opponent's offense like a hawk. As soon as the emp sees a teammate's buff bar fill up with attacks from the opposing player, the emp springs into action - moving into position to get off a well-timed heal. It's a very tricky business, recognizing the opponent's target, quickly judging between using Heal Other and Absorb Pain, maybe fitting in a Power Boost, and getting there before the target is dead. That's why emping a PvP team is one of the hardest things to do in the game, and why even though they never show up on the scoreboard, the team's emps are very often the biggest difference between victory and defeat.

Oh, and while they're doing all that, they are also responsible for keeping CM and the occassional Fort/AB on the offense.

I'm definitely not the best person to give advice on emping - Neuronia will give you some great guidance there.

So...locking, spiking, healing, buffing, all at very fast speeds - that's a lot to do. But that's only half of what you need to do in a PvP match - all players also have the very important responsibility to NOT DIE.

DO NOT DIE! At anytime, if you become the spike target, not dieing is the one and only job you have, until they move on to someone else. Don't be that brave little soldier in the middle of the action, taking it on the chin to fire off one more futile attack. That guy forces the emps to put themselves at risk by APing, and still ends up dieing!

At all times while PvPing, be vigilant. There are a variety warning signs that you are the target. The obvious one is when your buff bar suddenly fills up with attacks. Some PvPers play with a chat window open that shows To-Hit rolls - a sudden string of to-hit rolls in the chat log means those attacks are coming! If you're being a good player and playing back from the action rather than in the middle, you will see all of the opposing blasters turn and head your way. Also, if you see the word "Placate" float above your head - you probably are being shot with a will dom. Watch for all of these early warnings. Note that taking damage isn't a good warning sign - if the spike is good, by the time you take damage it will be too late.

As soon as you realize you're the target - all other responsiblities are off - SURVIVE! Take off on an evasion route that breaks line-of-sight as quickly as you can, and keep on going. Put your finger on the button to pop your green insps, and as soon as the first tick of damage comes in, pop 1-4 of them. Use Phase or Hibernate to escape, but be careful; if the psi blasters have already put the damage into the air that will kill you, hibernating won't save you - it only stops attacks launched after you hibe. Mose successful hibernate escapes involve popping a couple of greens and then hibing.

Emps and rads have healing auras to lighten the load on their insp trays, but need to be cautious - there can be a bit of a delay after the aura animates when you can't quite pop greens yet. It is my experience (when playing rad), that it is best to pop a few greens and then use the aura.

Once you've successfully dodged a spike, try not to use your insps to refill your bar to full - insps are for surviving spikes. Emps/rads can refill with their healing auras. Blasters should count on your emps to meet you coming off your evasion route to top you off. Now - get back in the action! More locking, more spikes! Quick! Quick! Quick!

This is going to be the basic and most popular style of lineup for matches 6v6 up to 8v8. Other lineup options are viable, but they all revolve around the basic tactics used on a jump team. Learning this strategy will be our first goal towards getting this team competitive.