Updated: August 2017
Hello community,
As you already know there is a PVP-Event ongoing at the moment, where you can earn more rewards. First I want to thank Gameforge for this kind of event and implement more rewards for the PVP community.
Reason of the thread:
During the last and current battleground event some friends, guild members and myself find out, that many players queue for endgame PVP battlegrounds, although they do not know the basics of it. At beginning I blamed the incompetence of players, who do not inform themselves (i.e. guides) how this battleground works. Usually these players were people from a PVE orientated server and I wrote a german guide some time ago. Now I managed to translate it into English.
I hope I can teach some players the (really) basic knowledge to prevent games with 5000:100 points in the future and make Fraywind Canyon a much more exciting battleground.
My person/character:
My main character is called “Amenti” and is being an archer (human); I played a long time on the German PVE server “Kaidun” and transferred to “Killian” a long time ago. Reasons for that were i.e. no active PVP players at Velika Outskirts, and a small amount of players for PVE runs and so on. I have never regretted the transfer till today; rather I learned many things about dueling, battlegrounds and GvG from other players.
While playing on Killian I also realised that a class is played totally different in PVE and PVP.
Fraywind Canyon Guide (Part 1):
Crystals:
As already mentioned the playstyle in PVP is totally different than in PVE; if you want to get more details I recommend the class forums. Generally all players should change the crystals in weapon and armor. Indeed there are individual changes each class (check class forums), but these crystals work as a decent basic:
Damage-Dealer (DD):
Weapon: Savage/Forceful/Cruel/Salivating
Armor: 4x Relentless (optional: 1x Resolute)
Jewelry: Carving, Powerful, Griefing (each 4 or mix 2/2)
Tank:
Weapon: Savage/Forceful/Cruel/Salivating
Armor: 4x Relentless (optional: 1x Resolute)
Jewelry: Carving, Powerful, Griefing, Indomitable (each 4 or mix 2/2)
Healer:
Weapon: 3x Brilliant, 1x Swift
Armor: 4x Relentless (optional: 1x Resolute)
Jewelry: Indomitable
Same as in PVE the best crystals are so called “fine niveot”. Because they could be a bit expensive for you and you cannot afford them, I recommend using “fine crux”. Either you buy them from broker or farm it from BAM’s (easy drop). If you still missing crystals you can buy some white ones at crystal merchant in Velika for a few golds. Because of the fact crystals do not get destroyed in battlegrounds this is a once time (pretty important) investment.
If your gear score is less than 412, you get equalized gear in the battleground. (No crystals! You need to use them anyways).
Important note: Do not use crystals like “hardy”, side damage (spiteful, bitter) or front damage (wrathful); they only work in PVE and not PVP.
Teambuilding:
After you successfully changed your crystals, you should look for more teammates. I recommend using the “LFG-Tool” with hotkey “Y” (default hotkey); open a new LFG with the text i.e. “FW DD, Tank, Heal”. Same as you do in PVE you should inspect the applicants (i.e. /inspect Amenti) and check if they also already changed to PVP gear and PVP crystals, then you can invite them to your party.
Maybe someone asks himself: “Why do I need 4 teammates and cannot queue with 2-3 people?” Answers:
- The queue system prioritizes 5-man parties in matchmaking. That means the system collects all 5-man parties and checks after that if still people missing. Then it fills them up with solo queue players to get a match 15 vs. 15. So you get a higher change to get invited in Fraywind and not sitting in queue for 30min.
- Also it reduces the chance of getting matched with solo queue players (mostly beginners in PVP) in your team who reduce the chance of winning.
At team building of your 5-man team you should pay attention to queue with one tank, one healer and 3 damage-dealer. In best case the damage-dealer are being a mix of melee and range fighters (not important, but recommend).
Necessary: Do not queue with double heal (mystic, priest), without tank or without any healer. Maybe you also ask for the reason of that:
The reason behind that is you getting a nice balance of enough heal, damage and tankiness, to win a match. In every other combination you lack damage or heal and this is a huge disadvantage for beginners in FW.
The map:
The match starts with two teams each 15 players. Your aim is to reach first 5000 points and win the game with that.
You can earn points for your team, while…
- Killing enemy players (priority 1)
- Killing neutral monsters (priority 2)
- Cap pyres and hold them (priority 3)
Explanation to the map:
(1) Base/Starting point of your team (blue flag): Depending on the match making your base could be on right top and the enemy on left bottom. Here you are going to start after the matched started and getting respawned if you die in a fight.
(2) Base/Starting point of enemy team (red flag): Depending on the match making your base could be on left bottom.
(3) North, middle, south pyre. Also called “N pyre”, “M pyre”, “S pyre”. These pyres can getting capped by 3 players; custom hotkey “F”
(4) Red buff: This easy killable monster grants a buff, which increase your attack speed and damage for the next 3 minutes. After the buff is running out a new red buff is spawned at same position. (Make sure to kill the two small monsters as well)
(5) Blue buff: This easy killable monster grants a buff, which protects you for 100,000 damage in the next fight. Like red buff this also respawns after 3 minutes.
(6) In south the raid monster “Teralith” (so called “Tera”) and in north the “Naga”. Both monsters spawn exactly after 3:40min (Tera) and 5:40 (Naga) and after that exactly after 4:30min (Tera) and 5:30min (Naga) they get killed. Usually it takes around 20 sec to kill a BAM so the times are around about:
Tera: 3:40 – 8:30 – 13:20 - 18:10 - 23:00
Naga: 5:40 – 11:30 – 17:20 - 23:10 - 29:00:
Compared to red and blue buff, not only one player gets the buff when killing the teralith, but the whole raid getting this buff, which increases your damage drastically for the next 3min. After the BAM spawned your need to focus the BAM or stun/sleep/knockdown enemy players. Killing players in this time getting low priority; get this BAM its huge push for your team and could also be game changing moment; like a comeback.
For killing the naga in north pit you do not get a buff, but 500 points to your team score.
Strategy:
In the old “Fraywind Canyon”-System highest priority was capping/defending pyres, because they getting many points compared to kills and monster. This system was changed a few years ago, so currently it is more important to kill players and secure the Tera buff than losing a few pyres.
Start/Preparation:
At start of the match you have 60 seconds to prepare yourself; buff the team (priest/mystic) and use your self buffs (i.e. archer, warrior,...).
Also the raid leader usually marks all healers and tanks with red/blue/yellow marks. Check the colors of tanks and heals and memorize them (details later).
After that, mount up and go to gate till the match starts.
Matchstart:
Once the match starts, the gate opens and the two buffs (red/blue) are able to be killed from the two teams. As a Fraywind newcomer you should ignore these buffs and leave them to experienced players in your team. Usually players with decent PVP gear and battleground experience take this buff. After that you are riding with your 14 teammates to mid pyre, to kill the first enemy players to get points. As tank and damage-dealer is important to push both sides of pyre in the same way and push them back into the narrow entrance, to hit them easier with AOE skills.
