Mettle's Theater:
Mettle's Theater is a map that's shaped as a pentagon, with 5 tower-like structures at each 'point' of the map. These towers ( or bases as the game refers to them ) are fought over by players to claim for their respective teams. Aside from the towers, there's a spawn point for each team, and a third one that's only available for the team that's 200 points behind. Directly south of the map, there's a small area named Watcher's Purlieu which houses an NPC that rewards the team that slays it a nice chunk of points for their team!
The overall objective of Mettle's Theater is to capture - and hold - towers to accumulate more points than the opposing team to win. You need a total of 10,000 points to win, and each tower awards 3 points each second to the team that owns it. Since killing players is inevitable, you get 5 points for each kill until your team gets 7,500 points. Once you're at or above that score, you no longer get points from kills. Last, but not least is the NPC located to the south; the almighty dragon. If your team manages to kill the dragon, it awards you with a small buff to yours stats, and gives your team an extra 500 points.
Point breakdown without all the text!
Towers- 3pts. each second per tower
Kills- 5 pts. each
Dragon- 500 pts. *each
*I believe the NPC spawns twice each game, depending on if it had been slain previously.
General Strategy:
Since the main goal of this map is capturing towers, this should be your main priority. A lot of players believe that killing the dragon at the start of the map is advantageous; it's not. While most of your team is at dragon, your opposing team will probably be capturing towers. It's not uncommon for them to capture four, or even ALL of these towers. I've seen this many times. A 4-cap is 12 pts. a second, not including kills along the way. While this may not seem very significant when your team just got 500 from dragon, you also have to factor in the time it takes to get those bases back. Usually, this takes around a minute or so, depending on your teams overall skill level, and if their splitting up instead of running around as a huge group. It's literally an uphill battle trying to recuperate after a four or five cap at the start if your team goes to dragon. Do your best to persuade people into otherwise before the battle begins.
Despite dragon being a tempting point boost for new players, it has its role in Mettle's Theater. If you've played other MMORPG's like Final Fantasy XIV:ARR, or Guild Wars 2, you probably understand just what this "noob" magnet is really for; an all-or-nothing attempt to win at the last second. Of course, it can be used for other reasons as well. Like say, you're winning, and lack 500 points. Your team could just go kill dragon instead of waiting around a few minutes fighting to hold capture points. Or, a small party is sent to go KS it ( Kill Steal ) out from the other teams' noses. Things like that. It's meant to be a game changer, not a game opener.
TL;DR version of the above:
Go cap your bases and defend them!
General Tips:
- If you're a somewhat sturdy class like an Earthguard or Protector, and have enemies incoming to your captured point, stay there! Use the tower to LoS ( Line of Sight ) them, and smack those that try to capture it to interrupt them. This does 3 things: Causes players to get off their mounts and kill you, wastes time for the enemy team, and gives your team more points each second you keep the tower!
- Don't worry about getting MVP! It's an objective-based game mode. Focusing on them instead of your kill count helps everyone. You may get less Hero Badges than that MVP, but it's better than only getting 100 or so for a loss!
- If you're in an all random team ( no guild mates or friends ), just leave Dragon alone! Focus on capturing and defending points instead.
- Don't camp the enemy team's spawn point if they're losing! Oh man, I've seen this so many times it's unreal. If they're a couple of hundred points behind, there's no reason to do this. They have Espirit activated, and can respawn in the center of the map. Seen quite a few games turn upside down because of other players hoping that one little Archer will come out of their base while the rest of their team caps.
- If you're ranged, focus on Rogues, Mages, and Archers! Don't bother pewpew'ing tank classes unless they're right on top of you. Do your best to kite them.
- Don't run away. Yes, they'll get 5 points for killing you. But by not running away you buy your team a couple of extra seconds, and hopefully points. This also means that the enemies will be be focusing on you, which wastes their time instead of doing what they should be doing; capturing towers.
- Don't be afraid to suicide into a group of players! Yes, you'll look stupid. But since like, 80% of the players just want to increase their kill count, you have the same effect as my previous point.
Rewards:
The rewards vary depending on which 'bracket' you're playing. If you're 10-59, you'll get a handful of Hero Badges, a little bit of silver, and a healthy dose of experience. You'll get more of each as you level. For those that are level 60, you get between 100-500 Hero Badges, and that's it. Which really, is all you need at that point. This is for winning, of course. Half all of those rewards for losing, or contributing a whole lot of nothing in a game.
Hero Badges are used for a variety of items. You can purchase PvP gear, +5 Lucid Gems, Primal Essence, Potions/Bandages/Scrolls for the Battlegrounds, and even a mount! It's important to participate in BG's, simply for the easy Lucid Gems and Primal Essence. And the mount. That thing's awesome.
That's about it on Mettle's Theater. I hope you all learned a little something, and will use it in future BG's.
-Snares
No comments:
Post a Comment