Snowball Arena Question?

I really enjoy the snowball arena tourneys but it seems like some of the players are much stronger than I am or are using spells that I don;t have on my bar.

Also whenever I use one specific spell (can't remember the name but second from the end on the right) it seems to knock me down and kill ME???? I"m a level 19 N/M Are some of the players using chars created specifically for PVP that would cause them to be much stronger than my char?

My poor girl just seems very sluggish and of course being a Necro - I don't have great armor etc at this level....also the necro does her little "summoning" thing and becomes airborn briefly before casting snowball spells and sometimes I am getting hit in the meantime.

The Snowball tourneys are so much fun & jsut looking for a few hints on how I can be more effective and helpful to my team. Any basic strategy suggestions woould be great as well

Read the skill description, "Holiday blues" kills you, does 50 damage to all foes, and -15 degen.
Look here for tips:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dwayna_Vs_Grenth

There are a few things you should understand right away before you play Snowball to win it:

- You have 500 Health and some amount of Energy. Equipment won't change this. Equipment won't do anything anymore. Neither will primary attributes, or your character's level.
- The object of the game is to get presents to your respective avatar. Going around and killing other players all the time is one way of doing it wrong.
- Teams with Dwayna can Cripple the other team. Teams with Grenth are pretty much screwed.
- Each profession has a unique skill. Warriors, Monks, Elementalists, and Mesmers have the best ones for 4v4. Paragon and Dervish have the worst. Necro isn't that great in 4v4 either.
- Snowball has been around for at least three years now. There will be players and teams out there that you just won't have a hope of beating.

Read the Wikis and search the forum for old Snowball threads if you want to do more research. Playing the game is probably the best way of getting better though. If all else fails, learn how to play Dragon Arena next time it's available. If you're good at DA, you can pretty much own any of the Gamer arenas that you like.

Thank you both for the responses and info!! The wiki link is very helpful!!

Shayne...thanks for the info regarding specific chars. I do have a level 17 Elementalist so I will try using her and see if it works better for me But if I am understanding correctly then neither level nor armor matters...it is basically a level playing field for all which is great. Thanks again for taking the time to respond both of you

Everyone has the same health, armor, and skillbars in the snowball fight. Read the skills carefully and figure out how to use them strategically. That is the reason they are beating you. The little stinkers are clever, but they aren't cheating.

The BEST tip I can give anybody to winning in Snowball arena is this... use the ; key. ; autotargets objects (signposts in town, or in this case, presents). Thus, as soon as you knockdown somebody, you can hit ; and spacebar to immediately pick up the present. This will almost ALWAYS beat out players who are trying to change targets manually by actually clicking on the present to pick it up (which just takes more time).

Edit: Also, since level is meaningless, if you feel like you "like" another professions skill better, you can always make a PvP character who can automatically play it of the profession you want or a lvl 1 PvE character and delete it later. Although, the event is over, but keep this in mind for Wintersday in a few months.

But that is on the other side of the keyboard... so I should just take my hand off the mouse completely? I can click and pick it up too, it's not that hard.