Tips for the Kurzick side of Fort Aspenwood.

Allow me to help you help me get more crap!
Since this is the double faction weekend in FA I figured I'd put down a few tips that make it easier for the Kurzick to win. Hopefully by following some of these basic rules you will become more aware of the battlefield and what works and then hopefully you'll end up on my teams so that I can get faction faster!

1. Go monk.
The point of the Kurzick side is to defend. Monks excel at this job.
Hence go monk.
WARNING:
Smite monks aren't monks.
Neither are fire monks.
Or domination monks.
Or ...

If you want to go in as the best possible option - go in as a healing/protting monk. There is absolutely nothing that can match this option.


2. As a monk, you need to focus on key NPCs.
Your priorities are:
1. NPCs
2. other healing/protting players
3. everyone else
And each time you are about to use a skill, you need to ask yourself if that skill is better spent on a player than a NPC. And around 90% of all case the answer is no. The only punishment for death of a player is the 10 sec wait.
The punishment for the death of Gunther is losing.

If you end up healing players most of the match, that means something went seriously wrong. Either the Luxon suck beyond words, or you suck beyond words. And this is also something that you need to be aware of each time you do not play a monk. Things are going wrong when your monks are healing you. Either for the Luxon or your team.

3. Positioning is everything.
As long as the doors the doors stay up ANYONE that requires a line of sight to perform a negative action towards you is NOT able to do so. And not only that, you are also able to get out of the casting range of the Luxon that can target you by simply making a few steps back. Plus it also means that the folks on the other side have a much harder way of following your actions - enabling you to minimize the chances of interrupts or other crap landing on you.

Here you can see my monky healing and protting the NPC without any danger to his cute little outfit:


Tank' n' spank in PvP.
Abuse it.

4. Or so you would think.
If you look carefully at the map of the picture you will see a red dot behind a closed green gate. That means that some "interesting" player opened the gate while there were Luxon near it.
YOU.DO.NOT.EVER.DO.THAT!
EVER!

If you can not get in, that means the Luxon can not get in.
And if the Luxon can not get in, they can not win.
Which, once again, means
YOU DO NOT OPEN THE GATES IF THE LUXON ARE NEAR THEM.

Which then brings us to the question:
5. What other guys can you bring if you do not want to go monk?
Once again, by choosing to not go monk you are choosing a sub-par option. Which means, you should be running a monk.

6. Screw your monks! I want something else!
A restoration ritualist.
The problem with restorers is that you do not have access to the insanity that is the Protection Prayers line. Despite the fact that the turtle removes enchantments with each hit, Protection is the thing you want to run. When the turtle hit for those 300 damage you'd wish you'd have had the Protective Spirit on the guy. Keep in mind - you NEED to cover it. Pretty much the most important skills are Protective Spirit and Shield Of Absorption. Everything else is used to pretty much just cover these two skills.
Now, if you REALLY do not want to play a monk and agree with the fact that this will cause your victory to be harder to achieve, a restoration ritualist is a very decent option. It gives you access to some very nice heals and it gives you access to unremovable weapon spells. Keep in mind - Weapon Of Warding won't work. The NPCs do not know when to stop attacking.

7. Oh, screw you again! I want something that is really different.
Fine.
Rangers.

8. Oh you didn't just say rangers!
As I have mentioned before, the main goal is to have the gates up. This means that the Luxon players that require a line of sight can not target you but this also means the Kurzick that require a line of sight can not reach the Luxon. Unless of course you use the teleporters which means you leave the safety of the Fort.
The reason why you want rangers is the range.
The Fort is a building that is built in an elevated area. Which means that a Kurzick ranger not only has the range bonus of a flatbow, the guy also has the elevation difference in his favour.

And that is vital for:
9. Glitching the turtle.
And here you have some examples of my guy doing just that.
The first position - center of the Fort:

This enables you to make stop the turtle in it's tracks. The turtle will keep firing at you, why is why a SELF HEAL is a must here! If the turtle is not getting healed, you should be able to take it down in some 10ish seconds.
If on the other hand the turtle is getting healed, that means that the healer needs to juggle between the turtle and his team-mates.
Because the turtle can only be shot at ONCE the outer orange gate falls, this will mean that the healer will sooner or later need to make the decision whether to leave heal the turtle or go after his team-mates on the orange side. And the only winner in a decision like this - is you.
If the guy goes after his team-mates you trash the turtle removing some nice damage and enchantment removal.
If the guy stays, you removed the turtle, the warriors AND a luxon player out of the game.


The second position - between the gates:

Flatbow range allows you to reach the turtle while being COMPLETELY out of reach of the Luxon. You either kill the turtle or just stand there making the turtle glitch while still being able to cover huge ground due to your range.


You can also glitch it in way like this:

Notice that this will not allow you to actually HIT the turtle, but at the same time it will get stuck. Which means you can just stand there and then shoot down anyone that runs between the doors.


Keep in mind that there are places the Luxon can hide at where you WILL not be able to reach them. So there absolutely ARE downsides to the bow. But all in all, it is going to be one of the best options for this map.

10. Taking the mines.
Flatbow range will also allow you to take the orange mine by standing on the outer Fort defences. And then you just shoot down anyone that tries to take it back.
taking the mines is a tactic that is heavily advertised in FA. The problem is that you don't need to take a SINGLE mine and still win.
This also means that the rangers should be positions in the Fort that I mentioned and the monks should go DIRECTLY to the gates and start healing and protting when the first wave comes in.
If the players decide to take the mines, keep in mind the specifics of your character. And here, once again shows superbly why you do not want to run anything that requires a line of sight to achieve a goal. Most options that require a line of sight are martial options. And martial classes NEED their weapon to actually do something. Which means, if you will be taking mines, please go with a caster. That allows you to use your skills EVEN if you are carrying an amber chunk. And this comes in handy if there are Luxon at the gate. You will need to kill them first, but it's going to be "hard" executing that Eviscerate with amber in your hands.

Also keep in mind WHEN to take mines.
The green area NPCs will NOT take amber if there are Luxon in the green room. Which basically means when the green gate is down you do not want to be anywhere else other than the green room.

11. Taking other cap points.
Do not take them. There is absolutely no point in taking the mines so you can imagine how useless taking the command posts is.
DO.NOT.CAP.COMMAND.POSTS.

12. Taking control.
This is PvP so some basic knowledge of the skills used is needed. This also means that you'll need to understand who are priority targets.
Priority targets are targets that need to die pretty much instantly.
If you can't take them down alone - call the target.
This is how a recent battle looked in the team log:


Now keep in mind, it's also advisable to call skills USED by the Luxon players. This doesn't mean that the player needs to die instantly, but it signals which player could pose a threat. So, you call skills that will give other players some sort of a basic idea of the build the player is running. So you will call things like Word of Healing, Blessed Signet, Aura of the Lich, ...

Calling the targets becomes REALLY important if the green gate goes down.
That way EVERYONE focuses on one target, killing it pretty much instantly. And then you move onto the next target.
Rinse and repeat.

Once things get hectic, it's important to keep your cool. And certain players will find having targets called for them or being giving advice mid-battle really helpful. If not for that battle, then for the next one. It allows bad players to go into C+SPACE mode.


And last but not least:
13. Just get in the way.
If the Luxon are killing you, they aren't killing NPCs and if they aren't killing NPCs, they can't win.



So have fun, abuse the map and earn me some keys!
(I plan on adding additional tips and pictures, but everyone else is free to add them also.)



(The reason why I put this into Riverside is:
1. it's current
2. it showcases some imbalanced crap that needs to die, but until it does - abuse the hell out of it
You are free to move it after the weekend is over, but until then I'd LOVE to see it stick around here so that my team-mates learn something from it.)

I found that Air of Enchantment spam is pretty much Kurzick victory.

Edit: Ah I noticed your first screenshot

Restoration rit is pretty good actually for this as well. I use to restore all the time in FA, but recently quit doing so, cause of the massive noob spirit spammer builds. three year old rit and a two year old rit just wasting away bah. But good guide though. Mostly if there is teamwork and not stupidity your team will do fine, but in the end there will be people who won't listen and just throw this to the side. ~Sighs~ gaming communities today ._. Oh wells, good guide though I likies

and if you on luxon side bring anti healing and enchantment.

Only tips you'll need: take the whole team of 8 healing rits and heal npcs at the gates.

Mwahahaha. Your tactics are now useless, Kurzick o.o

Kind of hope Kurzick's dont read this because most of them just run sins/wars/roj monks. Pretty simple to deal with...

Or play luxon and beat the crap out of the Kurzicks

only tip you need:

Life Barrier
Life Bond
Some heals
And some covers

13. Just get in the way.

I'd say this would be the most important point of them all tbh, if not the whole point of FA for the defending team. All you're supposed to be doing is stall for time, one way or another.

This thread pretty much sums up why FA needs to be entirely reworked.

It also reminds me how sad I am that I've already maxed Kurzick and have been monking for the Luxon there lately when I get bored.

Oh my God, Upier! You just gave away the secret of being successful in FA with Kurzick!

Tips for Luxons: Be a necromancer. Gogo soul bind and gaze of contempt.

The best way to win as Kurzicks is to run amber, this speeds the game up so you get more faction per hour. Sure monks make for an easier win, but slow and boring, not very profitable.

A couple of rangers running amber makes a massive difference. Best of all is if some noob warrior or sin wants to get you, cripple him and taunt, while he is raging all over the map after you he is failing at his job. It's not uncommon to have at least two ragers trying to catch you and I've had three of them plenty of times, they usually give up, but not until they have wasted 5 minutes or more. If they ever do manage to kill you (they shouldn't but hey, sometimes tehy bring some useful skills) you just rez back and pick a fight with them again, they will chase you again

Oh, and rangers can cap the command points very easy, do it, it stops the turtles and the Luxons have to re-cap them, eventually, when they notice they have lost them.

Reads like some frustration being vented against Kurzick players in the form of some decent tips.

This is what I would have recommended as well...

I don't like FA. I know how to play it the way it's supposed to be played but, I just do not like it. Call me crazy but I love JQ a whole lot more. 1 Decent bobomber in JQ, for example, can turn the entire tide of the match and get you an auto-win.

Bleh. I've got 2 accounts both with dual Savior so in the end I don't play to win. I play to kill as many NPCs/shrines as I Can to farm me some good 'ol zKeys. :3


Having said that: nice guide, Upier.

Tanking the turtles has always been my specialty, so I agree with the authors viewpoints on this. However, it should be noted that as you tank the turtle and the monk healing it out of the game, you are taking yourself, the tanker, out as well. Though I can understand that is not a huge con. The authors method of tanking is nice, by the way. So long as the tanking squishy has support.

like someone said before this is why kurz side needs to be nerfed a bit... have the turtles move constantly between attacks before the first two gates. Improve the warrior NPCs for the turtle or even add monk to that team. Or make the turtles attack armor ignoring.

I find nuking the Luxons when they bottle neck at the gates seems to work well too.

To each their own

Nah, I'd be frustrated if I'd be still playing for the Luxon.

By capping mines you introduce more risk.
Which means that the rewards could be greater or worse.
Given the quality of the players there - that's not going to be worth it. You want to minimize the risk as much as possible.

If on the other hand you do end up with a good team, then yeah, kill, kill, kill, cap, cap, cap.

Yeah that's going be an issue with the center tanking. Still, if you see that you are needed elsewhere - of course leave the turtle and you'll take it down as a group later.

Additionally, there is also another reason why rangers are so good for this job.
You are on the edge of the ledge in an elevated position which means you will have a quite decent range giving you additional options who to target. For instance, you can move back a bit and shoot into the fort if the Luxon get in while still holding the turtle in place.

I've never done any PvP prior to this, aside from Zaishen farming (which aren't really PvP). Won about five in a row. Not bad.

Edit: I realize this is a double faction weekend, but is this at all feasible for faction farming outside of weekend events?

This happened to me last night. Some guy let a touchy in. Didn't do much but he brought the juggernaut in. The gate "breached" and we drove him out. Someone let the same guy in -again- and their whole team took advantage of that.


I'm going to find that guy. Srsly. >.>


Side note: Gogo Necro/Rit. Spam heals with no worries of energy cost = win!

Running Bonds is bad and a waste of time.
All you need is Prot Spirts, SoA, a cover, and some red bars go up skills and your good to go.

I was pwning in FA with an Ice Ele (snares FTW) but I like some of your tips. I'll take these into consideration.

Don't forget to bring Vengeance!

Me/Mo with IoP + WoH

GG

these tips blow, i roll monk and turtle in the pit and everytime i win but i get dishonerable after every match. EVERY MATCH

So protect gates before protecting Gunther, then people won't think you are a leech bot

Lol, some monk in FA (kurz side) keeps spamming this thread in team chat. He's god awful and it's hilarious

I'm usually a Jade Quarry, Jesus-beaming, monk. Feeling a bit a perky, I loaded up the skills in Upier's first screen shot, today, and had some fun in Fort Aspenwood. The build works very well, except against a few skills. I was able to keep an NPC alive against four or five Luxons and Turtle barrage with no energy issues, on numerous occasions.

My biggest issue was Amber runners leaving the gates open and letting in the red dots.

14. EoE NEEDS to die.
If you see EoE put up take it down as fast as possible. It's a non-mobile foe with low armour and health so a few hits will take it down. Given how easy it is to take it down and the potential devastating effect it cam have, there is no reason not to take it down.

15. Communicate.
Now I totally forgot to write down, but discussing tactics with your team-mates is going to do wonders. Especially if the other side doesn't do the same. And given the fact that this is a random format, you can expect the other side to NOT be chatty by default.
For instance, the ranger that wants to glitch the turtle in the middle will NOT be able to hit it until the outer orange gate is take down and the turtle moves forward a bit. So if you have monks healing and protting the outside gate it's you will be useless up there. So in cases like that, follow the monks though the inner gate and go up the stairs that are located between the gates. That will allow you to take the mine and it will allow you to harass the Luxon in front of the gate.



Keep in mind that when you apply an enchantment it goes on top. So this might cause problem when you have multiple monks on your team. For instance, I've had cases of protting the ele perfectly (which would mean PS being the deepest (or in my case Air being under it), followed by SoA, Guardian and then covered by Vigorous and Patient - btw this also means that Dwayna's Kiss, especially when paired with a few hexes, will give you better heals that you can ever expect from WoH!), the Luxon having no ench removal and then when the turtle hit it almost one-shot the ele. The problem was that the other monk placed PS as his last skill and the turtle removed it with it's attack and caused massive damage.
You seriously need to understand the importance of covers here!
I can not stress this enough.




On a side note:
I giggled yesterday as I was advancing my assassin though Nightfall and a buddy whispers me saying "This is stupid!" followed by a few more "Stupid!"s. The guy was on the Luxon side in FA going up against 4 or 5 monk Kurzick teams. And for the next few minutes all I heard form him were reports of how many Luxon raged because they couldn't do anything (mixed with "This is stupid!" of course) and then finally him deciding that he'll do JQ instead.

I have just a small tip, don't know if it's already mentioned.
Don't rely on enchantments only for defense

I've made life miserable for Kurzicks in a couple of rounds (could not play much this weekend) with my necro.
Rend or Gaze combined with Well of Profane did fair with some covered reduced healing hexes (and some nice energy drain to keep monks pressured).
I encountered some 4 and 5 'healer' teams, the main problem we had there were the rounds where Luxon had too many monks and not enough offense rather than the Kurz defense.

Tip1: Dont take tips from a guy running an enchantment based bar. He's rendered utterly useless by the first luxon with a brain (admittedly there is a shortage of these).

Tip2: Dont listen to a guy that suggests only monks are needed to win. Allowing the opposition a totally un-pressured offence is rarely a good idea.

Tip3: He is however correct on 1 count. RoJ monks are useless for Kurzick. Fire monks are useless for anything.

That's beauty of this - we can learn.
So given the fact that we are dealing with a random format which means that not only the quality of the players there will not be of the highest level, the builds will also be sub-par, if for no other reason because of the fact that you aren't dealing with a selection of 64 skills but are rather dealing with 8 times 8 skills and we will run into folks that feel that healing NPCs isn't as much "fun" as killing people which will lead to the fact that you will ALWAYS end up with offensive characters on your team, what would be your suggestions?

Ok, suppose I was playing on Kurzick side.
My first choice would be monk (but that's also on Luxon side).

Next choice would probably be domination mesmer with mixed caster and melee hate.
Caster to keep nukers and monks quiet, melee to make sure the npc's are safe when green gate is under attack or breached.
Skills that slow down other players are also good.

Another decent choice would be some kind of back-line warrior build. Can run amber but also keep vital players on the ground (stone fist insig ftw). When pressure goes up it's very possible to build adrenaline on a random and suddenly switch to the monk/nuker and keep him on the ground for a couple of seconds with a hammer build. Or Bull's and shock.

Next anything that can snare, daze or blind. Water ele would do well I guess.
When opponents cannot do much damage, they are useless.

Just think of one thing. You don't need to kill as much as you need to make the decent opposing players as useless as possible. Applies for both sides.

Yesterday i have been in a team with 5 monks and a rit plus a sin and me as a ranger. On the luxon side there was around 2-3 healers. Guess how many balt faction gathered? Well around 200-300 and the thing is if the battle is a bit longer we would loose because both turtles got pushed to "finish". I would easily choose a 2-3 healer setup than that crap.

My suggestion for either side would be to bring a character thats fun to play but can still be useful for the team.
You can take pretty much any class and come up with something that will be constructive to do. In some cases you only even need to devote one or 2 skills to it.

It also depends what side you are on as to what is constructive.
RoJ monks are a great choice for luxon side. They are an epic fail for kurzick side (same applies to most aoe for kurzicks).

My personal favorites:
Kurzick
Healers Boon monk
Toxic chill necro with Life/Recuperation and some corpse exploitation
Power block mesmer with empathy - shuts down any ele's/necros and hurts melee
Burning arrow ranger
Command Para ("fallback"/"syg" etc) + holy spear for minions

Luxon
MM Necro using soul reaping to spam sheild of regen. (+ gaze of contempt and Well of Profane for opportune moments)
Any other death necro with Well of Profane.
Fire ele(+ gaze of contempt)
ZB monk(+ gaze of contempt)
Havn't tried the RoJ/Healing hybrid yet, but looks fun and effective.

Now please teach people how to play JQ, somehow people still don't understand how to play it......

Luxon

Blood/death necro it is fun being a little pain in the arse to kill… wells wells everywhere steal a corpse hear and there. Bring your minions next to me and with one skill they work for me good fun

Monk/rit prot with a couple channeling rit skills for the heck of it.

Resto rit with AOE healing spirits

Now thats a pretty depressing game format.
The map is to big, and its more suited to organised pvp.

E/Mo or Mo/E
20% enchant staff
16 air, 12 prot OR
14 prot, 12 air
Windborne speed
Cond removal, hex removal, some other stuff (wont need it much)

In my experience (admittedly I only played about 20 games before getting mindnumbingly bored) spamming windborne on the carrier over and over = win.

The funny thing about Fort Aspenwood is that if Kurzicks all went Monk Prot/Heal and/or Ritualist Heal then they'd probably win almost every time.

You have 3 lines of defense, 4 heal / prots on each side could easily suck minutes at each line of defense if Luxons even got past the outer gates.