A smile for those who've been griefed in arenas...

I was playing around in the competition arenas today. I don't PvP much, as I prefer PvE greatly; however, I like to think I at least know a little of how things work.

In any case, we came up against one of the griefers I've heard about who, when his/her party is dead, runs around so as to make the battle drag on indefinitely. Two of my teammates dropped before we even had a chance to corner the offending W/Mo, and so it was only myself and our monk left. We ran around after the griefer for a while, but it was quickly apparent that just crippling her wouldn't slow her enough for us to pin her against a wall, and we had no third person to help us block her in elsewhere.

We decided a change of strategy was in order, so we stopped running, sat down, and decided to talk in team chat while we waited (we agreed not to utter anything in all, since that's most likely what the griefer wanted). As we'd guessed, the griefer either got impatient or thought we were away from the computers, 'cause she came back and attempted to attack us. I unfortunately jumped the gun this first time and pinned her down when she got near. The cycle of her running away renewed and we once more sat down and resumed our little conversation.

A bit more leery now, it took a while for the W/Mo to return. By the 16 minute mark she started counting the minutes off and bragging that her longest grief run was 27 minutes. We turned the all channel off and had quite a pleasant conversation.

It took a while, but she did eventually come back. This time, we waited for her to start attacking the monk. Then I pinned her down and worked myself so that my attacking pet and I would make 2 points on a triangle around her. While I was doing this my monk sat there pretending to be away, but once I was in position, he stood up and and we had the stupid griefer blocked in. The rest didn't take too long.

So, I got to make a new friend and ruin a griefer's fun with the invaluable aid of the pet I've been flamed for using. lol It was priceless.

Nice strategy Patience pays off hehe

LOL...great job taking advantage of someone's griefing and turning it back on them.

Nice usage of the pet.

Congrats on a job well done.

That pet looks scary when its jumping in the air like that!

Nice work, btw

I don't know about you all, but I just quit if someone is running and I happen to play something that doesn't have a Snare (IE: Monk) or I'm dead and can't be raised. Whether they are on my team or not.

It's not like they "win" if you quit, they win if you stay and cry about it.

Faction is horrible enough without having the occasional ten minute/one hour long game of tag. Not to mention, not caring about a runner one way or the other is the best victory you can have over a griefer.

It's the principle of the matter.

Never been greifed that bad, get runners every now and then, but never ones that take half a hour to kill.

I don't play video games for principles, I play online video games for fun.

So, have fun making the griefer enjoy every second of wasting your time. He doesn't mind in the slightest when he finally faulters, just that he squandered your time in a battle of which team is more stubborn than the other instead of Guild Wars.

Playing video games for fun is your "principle".

The idea of what he mentioned extends into all aspects of life and transgressing it tends to be the quickest way to offend someone.

Well then we're agreed since I don't find being griefed like that fun. What I do find fun is maybe beating someone at their own game or turning it around on them when they're just trying to make my life as much of a pain as possible. Different strokes for different folks.

lol you wasted 27 seconds of your life.

YOU ALL LOST!

Perhaps the OP's idea of fun is catching a griefer at their tawdry little game. To each his own, I guess.

Not at all. I find value in talking about this, because I am at least dealing with rational human beings. I don't agree with how the OP approaches this issue, which that's why I am giving my personal solutions to the problem.

Griefers should not be paid attention to or encouraged. Finally beating a griefer at his own game doesn't discourage him. Most griefers I've seen and had chased down after a long struggle laugh it off and go "haha I stretched this match out for (however long)." They are often more proud of the result of the cat and mouse chase more than you will ever be.

You don't beat a griefer at his own game, he automatically wins when you decide to play it.

Running in the arenas is definately a cheap tactic and irritating but I wouldn't describe it as griefing. Griefing implies their only goal is to cause other players grief, the true aim of a runner is to get easy faction/win. And to be honest if you can't kill them then you need to look at your own skillset and tactics.

And to provide a counter tale to yours. A while ago in the random arenas playing as my R/Me RP character my team being not very organised got slaughtered very quickly leaving me the only one left (simply because I, being a ranger, was further back) facing 3 warriors (IIRC, not too sure, at least 2 though) and definately a ranger. Unfortunately for the opposition they hadn't brought anything more powerful than sprint for bringing down runners. So taking the opportunity granted to me I led them on a little chase resulting in accusations of noob and the like to which I obviously responded "if I were a noob you could catch me" (such high-brow stuff in the team arenas ). Lacking any kind of team work they split up and ran off all over the place which meant there was usually only one or two on me at a time. A combo of pindown, whirling defence and stormchaser kept me away from them. Not satisfied with forcing a draw I began to fight back using skirmish tactics pinning the warriors down and hitting them with Melandrus Arrows and Penetrating Shot meaning their mending and nice armour was going to waste and hitting them with distracting shot any time they tried to heal. Eventually I managed to whittle a warrior down and then another, even with res spells as soon as I got one it became a matter of time til I got the rest due to DP. Eventually I was left in a one on one with the other ranger who managed to put up a decent fight before turning to run themselves, however with pin-down and Melandrus Arrows and since they had no stances the end was inevitable. The ranger was polite and reasonable throughout the match so I almost felt bad for them, the warriors on the other hand got what they deserved.

It was immensly fun watching the players who had 10 seconds earlier been calling me noob etc. for running being forced to flee themselves. So before you go accusing runners of being griefers make sure you're ready to stand and face that angry Warrior or ranger when it's your health thats rapidly disappearing .

Unfortunately I have only one screenshot of the match at the point where there's just the ranger left since it was the only spot where my full attention wasn't on the game.

Sanji, I'm just going to have to agree to disagree with you. We're not going to see eye to eye. Beating a griefer, to me, gives satisfaction. Having to map out because someone wants to run around all the time gives me negative satisfaction. There's no argument there. What's good for me is, apparently, not good for you. I don't see either as being right or wrong but just two different viewpoints.

Lathal, that's completely different. You fought and won. It's not even in the same ballpark as running solely in the hopes your opponent will leave or lag out.

AeroLion: I agree 100%. Sanji, your thinking on it suits you. Perhaps the OP's thinking suits him/her. Let's just leave it at that.

Well, i'm glad he got what he deserved..really good tactics pays off.

I had a similar experience today although it was all legitimate fun. It was myself, r/mo against a w/mo.
I had used my res signet (yeah i know, should take full res) but the warrior had restore life.

I had no degenerative skills, just interrupts, distracts and a good old crippling shot[E].
I couldn't res, neither could he because of my good shooting. He had mending on and my basic shots couldn't wear him down.

It wasn't a case of him running...more of a draw...a real draw. I played like a good sportsman and conceded, so that our team (and theirs) could continue with the next round and get more faction.

He would occasionally chase me but, it's only fun the first time and i wouldn't want to get a bad name.

Bwahahahah! NICE!

Now see, this doesn't bother me at all. lol This was more about winning your match than anything else. Guerilla tactics are somewhat different than running indefinitely while flaming other players. In my case the W/Mo was telling us we had better drop because we'd never catch her. Of course, that was about the time the all-channel got turned off.

I'm in agreement with Aerolion, as Aniewiel seems to have noticed. To me, its much more fun to prove I am better at their game than they are rather than quit and let them brag to their friends about how they forced everyone to drop. Sure, they can brag to their friends about how long they dragged out the battle too, but that doesn't seem like it would be as satisfying. Besides, it's not like my time was wasted. If it had been, my opinion would probably be different. The conversation I had with my teammate, a person I would have never talked to otherwise, was quite rewarding and I've now got another good player on my friends list.

lol Not to mention, the fact that we never talked in the all channel had to irk the W/Mo at least a little.

Well personally I have to disagree on both counts. First I'd like to say that it had always been my intention to take them on and win but to be honest my only goal was to fight to the end using skirmish tactics that would allow me to survive for longer than a head on fight. Winning was a nice surprise but not what i had expected. Especially not versus a team with multiple players with a ranger. So while i didn't expect to force them to leave out of boredom it was never really my intent to win. Even my build was set up with the possibility of running in mind so I can't really claim the moral high-ground here.

I'd also like to point out that to my mind running is viable and fair tactic. If you can't kill them and they can't kill you why should it be them that has to quit? I would argue that if you can't bring them down then you have as much of an obligation to quit as they do.

Secondly the only time I've ever had a long drawn out chase with a runner was my smiting monk versus a ranger. I'd arrogantly left any res out of my build and no long range stuff since I thought with my build and a decent team the enemy would be dead before they could run or we'd be overwhelmed in which case it wouldn't matter. Things were going well until the 12th consecutive victory where we come up against a good team. Most of my team and most of their team was wiped out fast leaving only me and a ranger who'd been well outside of my smiting range. They ran off leaving me with no way of ressing my team and no way of killing them, they couldn't do nearly enough damage to overcome my self-heals so we were stuck in a stalemate. As long as they didn't turn to fight neither of us could win. Eventually after 20ish minutes I got bored and left and vowed never to waste my time like that again. So basically it was entirely my own fault that I couldn't bring down this ranger and their fault they couldn't bring me down. Unfortunately for me they had more patience and more free-time so they won.

Basically if you can't bring a runner down you don't "deserve" to win. If you don't bring res or pin down etc it's your own choice. True, sometimes you can't bring them down because your team has quit but you would have lost just the same if they'd quit at the start of the match so I see that as being part of the random nature of the arena not something wrong with running.

Sure it's great to bring that runner down for wasting your time but personally I don't get worked up about it. If the only way they can win is by running, their time in the arenas is going to be wasted. It's much more fun to lose and learn then go straight back in whether you're a runner or facing one you can't bring down.

/Edit
Didn't mean to suggest your actions were not the best ones for you. My attitude is as long as you're having fun it's all good. Having taken down runners myself I know how satisfying it can be. Merely trying to point out their fun may be in ruining your plans just as yours is in ruining theirs. That's the nature of competition and doesn't make anyone a griefer. Abusive messages are not on however whether they're from runners or the players who're after them. The arenas are just for fun and as long as nobody is cheating I don't think anyone should get worked up at how other people get their kicks.

I can't see how anyone is able to criticize the OP's actions here. The sole purpose of running in arenas is to drag the match out as long as possible, true, but...the runner at the end is only enjoying themselves when the remaining opposing players give chase.

And that didn't happen here. In fact, there was no attention given to the runner that he or she could see. The OP and his teammate sat down for crying out loud. Playing into the runner's hands? Hardly.

The fact that the runner ran back up to them is testament to the OP's strategy effectively ruining the runner's plans.

I'm not critizing the actions of the original poster.

I am just giving my view on the matter that most of the time when your team isn't equiped to stop a runner it really isn't worth the mostly pyrrhic victory gained after dragging a match out for more than a half hour. It's an act of futility and makes me wish there was a limit on how much time an arena stayed "live" before somehow calculating a winner. This goes for Random, Team Arena, Hall of Heroes, or Guild Battles.

Sanji, remember that a runner only wins when you give chase. When you feign (or honestly show) disinterest...the reaction is the same as a child throwing a tantrum. When a kid starts yelling, paying attention to him will only encourage him further. Same principle applies here.

And wouldn't the true act of futility would be giving chase? Seems to me the OP hit the runner where it hurt him the most:

He ignored him.

My first post was more aimed at situations where it's more futile and you can't fall back on snares or using Guild Wars as a glorified chat program. It's great when you can deal with it, but most of the time, in my opinion, it's better to just step away.

Sure, he gets 10 faction, but you get to go on with your life. I say this from someone who has all too commonly got pulled into these contests of wills and ego. Perhaps I'm alone in the feeling that it's just not worth it.

Fine. But running on both sides must be 3 times normal speed and the soundtrack must be changed to "Yackety Sax" from Benny Hill.

A most empathetic YES. This would force me to indulge even the crassest of runners.

Before anyone thinks I'm making light of the situation, I'd like to point out that the OP had Pin Down and outwitted the runner strategically. I think that's something we can all get behind.

ill be honest here.. ive run off occasionly - usually hwoever its tactical in purpose - i.e i pin down and storm chaser away form a warrior, who turns to go fter a different target, figuring me to be too much of a pain.. at which point i turn around and proceed to shoot him in the back. X.x

that said, Brilliant dood - great use of your pet, and a all around nice way to one your oppent.. ^^