Faction-Based Pressure In Guild Wars

Guild Wars fans expected that when Factions was released last month, it would have long-ranging effects on the Guild vs. Guild metagame. At the moment, it hasn’t changed much.

Part of the reason is a new “Guild Scrimmage Feature,” which allows guilds to try out new skill combinations and builds before playing rated games. This is particularly helpful as we get to the end of the season, and will have some bearing on new ideas introduced next season.

Last season’s “Dual Surge Pressure Build” is still popular and used quite a bit. Unfortunately, it’s a Prophecies build, and therefore not much use to those who have only Factions. There is a slightly modified version of the DSP build that uses some of the Factions  skills, however, and some of the characters use skills available only to those who own Factions (which is a “stand-alone” game).

Some examples of the format include:

– The Warrior/Assassin: a Sword Warrior with Death’s Charge, using only Factions and core skills.
– Warrior/Elementalist:  a  Hammer Warrior with Shock, using Prophecies skills
– Mesmer/Ritualist:  uses Domination skills to pressure casters using Factions and Core skills
– Mesmer/Monk: uses health degeneration to create pressure using Factions and Core skills
– Elementalist/Monk: a  Heal Party flagger using Prophecies skills
– Elementalist/Monk: a modified version of the Water Elementalist using both Factions and Prophecies skills.

Being as Factions is a stand-alone game, a potential problem lies in that some players may have access to only one of the two current campaigns, when creating builds, teams should consider this and try to make accommodations.

Guild Wars fans expected that when Factions was released last month, it would have long-ranging effects on the Guild vs. Guild metagame. At the moment, it hasn’t changed much.

Part of the reason is a new “Guild Scrimmage Feature,” which allows guilds to try out new skill combinations and builds before playing rated games. This is particularly helpful as we get to the end of the season, and will have some bearing on new ideas introduced next season.

Last season’s “Dual Surge Pressure Build” is still popular and used quite a bit. Unfortunately, it’s a Prophecies build, and therefore not much use to those who have only Factions. There is a slightly modified version of the DSP build that uses some of the Factions  skills, however, and some of the characters use skills available only to those who own Factions (which is a “stand-alone” game).

Some examples of the format include:

– The Warrior/Assassin: a Sword Warrior with Death’s Charge, using only Factions and core skills.
– Warrior/Elementalist:  a  Hammer Warrior with Shock, using Prophecies skills
– Mesmer/Ritualist:  uses Domination skills to pressure casters using Factions and Core skills
– Mesmer/Monk: uses health degeneration to create pressure using Factions and Core skills
– Elementalist/Monk: a  Heal Party flagger using Prophecies skills
– Elementalist/Monk: a modified version of the Water Elementalist using both Factions and Prophecies skills.

Being as Factions is a stand-alone game, a potential problem lies in that some players may have access to only one of the two current campaigns, when creating builds, teams should consider this and try to make accommodations.