Yesterday evening Gigantic held its first EU Guardian Arena. There are no prizes on offer, but it’s the first opportunity for many players to get together as an organised team and fight against others, without the need to queue solo. With six teams taking part, some friends and I decided to get together and form GGTeaParty. Although we all know each other, none of us had ever played alongside each other as a team and going into the arena, we’d only had one quick discussion beforehand about our composition and tactics we’d use.

Composition

In our team, we decided that we’d all play Hero’s we were most experienced with, with the exception of Time Weaver who chose to utilise a build that complimented all of us (rather than playing his usual Tripp).

1. PlasmaNapkin - Tyto

2. Egleb - Xenobia

3. PersistentWorlder - Griselma

4. Killboy - Charnok and/or Voden

5. Time Weaver - Aisling

Subs

6. Lunami - Aisling

7. Sebalon - Tyto

Our thought process behind this composition was largely to ensure area denial but to also balance out buffs and debuffs. We would count on Tyto to be able to hound any opposing Tripp players, whilst Xenobia would offer both burning, slow and armor break potential. Charnok or Voden would provide ranged damage and Aisling instead of pursuing a damage heavy build would be support based utilising Cador as a heal or to increase the damage of others using Spectral Wave. Finally, as Griselma it would be my responsibility to not only secure Control Points but to allow for a group push when needed. Combined with Beastial Feast, we’d have free access to cleansing and a significant heal.

In general, I think our composition was solid but it did have its weaknesses. Although our area denial was exceptional and we had high damage, we had no sustain and no means of going toe to toe with Hero’s such as Lord Knossos, The Margrave or HK-206. These “tanky” characters are able to withstand punishment and push deep into the back of enemy lines, meaning squishy characters such as Xenobia, Griselma and Tyto were particularly vulnerable especially when fighting them in close quarter locations. We’d have to rely heavily on preventing opposition attacks, rather than being able to engage as a group when equal numbers.

Tactics

Our original tactics were to have Aisling constantly buff Griselma and her hands so that they received an early damage boost. Aisling and I would work together for the majority of the time whilst Tyto quickly picked up Focus orbs. Egleb on Xenobia and Killboy as Charnok or Voden would concentrate on spiking enemies down through the use of her immobilize.

Where summoning was concerned, we wanted to remain traditional to begin with, so placed a Cerberus on Pools, Cyclops on Reactor and Bloomer on Intake. It worked against the majority of teams, but fell flat against Imagine (our most skilled adversary) because it failed to reduce their access to intake. As a result, it made life difficult to protect the Bloomer because three entrances were too hard to cover with a composition that wasn’t built to go toe-to-toe with other melee Hero’s. After the first game we quickly changed tactics and placed down two Cyclops (one on Intake, one on Reactor) and a Cerberus on Pools. We coped largly fine without the Bloomer healing, thanks to Aisling and Cador handing out heals over time.

Positives

Winning 6 out of 8 matches certainly shows that the composition has potential. Those wins were steam rolls and at no point were we under any real threat of losing. In fact, four of those matches were so one sided we practically spawn camped because our area denial was so high. Several rounds ended with our Guardian having taken no damage. Even the two matches we lost went exceptionally well during the first half until we made serious errors, further demonstrating that area denial, coupled with entry restrictions from Cyclops’ is more than viable. It’s also particularly pleasing to know that you don’t have to select a healer and tank (such as Sven and Margrave) to do well.

Errors

Our biggest errors and which caused both our defeats were the following:

1. Failing to upgrade quickly enough

2. Failing to move to defend a Control Point as a five

Against Imagine (the team we lost to twice) we were ahead during the start, but begun to lose as they realised they could easily take us on 5 versus 5. The encounters we were winning were when we picked our fights or when they were poking us. When they turned up as a full force, we had no sustain or survivability to deal with it. Going up against The Margrave, Sven and HK-206 as well as Tripp and Mozu (or Xenobia) is a nightmare. Not only because three of the five are so tanky, but because those at the back (or waiting in the wings) can rip you to pieces once the heavy hitters have you distracted.

Failing to react quickly to their movement as a fail provided no opportunity to bunker down on a location and reduce their health before they reached the Control Point, leaving us in a situation where we either let the Control Point fall (to hand them a big dollop of Focus) or to try to kill them knowing we’d likely die in the ensuing fight. Interestingly and I think what really tipped both matches in their favor was the use of Sven. His armor break, knock back, heal burst and area denial allowed them to recover quickly but also fight longer than we could.

When it comes to upgrading, we were just too slow and some of our team wasted their first level Focus instead of upgrading. It provided several pips of power to the opposition that they capitalized on, allowing them deliver a deep wound we couldn’t recover from.

Final Thoughts

Overall I think we did exceptionally well. We’d never played together before as a team and made some errors that are easily rectified with greater communication. As far as our composition is concerned, I do think we were too squishy and our inability to trade blows with Hero’s such as HK-206 and The Margrave left us particularly vulnerable when being pushed. I also think that Aisling, despite offering great control, lacked the utility and healing output Vadasi and Sven can provide. Based on that and going forward, I’d pursue a composition of:

1. PlasmaNapkin - Tyto

2. Egleb - Xenobia

3. PersistentWorlder - Vadasi/Sven

4. Killboy - Charnok/Voden

5. Time Weaver - The Margrave

Finally, I wanted to thank all those that helped pull the EU Guardian Arena together (Feculator!) and Only6Inches for having his team, Imagine, provide the toughest challenge of the evening. At times, the match was on a knife edge.

If you want to participate in the next EU Guardian Arena, be sure to sign up and head to the forums and if you don't have a key, let me know!