The Importance of Positioning

When I said formation I did not mean it like a rigid formation on an RTS or turn-based tactical game. Formation in GW would need to be loose and fluid, if there is any at all. We already know that most of the time warriors need stay in front, casters in the middle, and monks in the rear of the group. I was simply wondering if there is a value to expand this into a formation in GW, but I guess there probably is not.

Another advice to remember if you are playing as a warrior: always be aware of your team position, especially the monks who have to heal you. Basically you need to make sure that you are always in the healing range of your monks (unless your team strategy dictates otherwise). A lot of times a warrior can run too far ahead (to chase an enemy monk for example) and accidentally pulled his healers to the front, exposing them to unnecessary dangers. It can also aggravate your monks if they have to run forward in order to be able to heal you because the time they spend running is the time they spend not healing).

As formations go, I find the fighter wedge (center, right wing, left wing) seems to be easy to use and tends to help the lead when wondering where his mates are.

If you have a wedge breaker trying to get through you can have one of the wings peal off and hamsting and back attack him. It's also useful in blocking path. You just have the center bump up to the target as the wings move to the sides forming the "triagle of death" around the vitctim.

After a few rounds with your buddies it gets real easy. Haven't tried anything more complex though.

3 - 1 - 2 - 2 formation at start is good though.

Thanks, a great resource. Have any specific info on vertical positioning as well? I've been tryng to experiment but it all seems random...

As an E/R I don't find myself in the thick of combat very often, but I have found that at times Alesia will suicidally throw herself into melee combat and if I can get myself between the enemy and her, I can block the attacks with my body and she can go back to her job of healing and ressurecting the rest of the team.

I know I hadn't figured on even basic complexity like this in GW.

Lets look at other similiar games quickly-
EQ, WoW - no collision detection/run through, AC a total numeric
no localized damage, you need line of sight, enemy mobs fire/hit thru rock

Diablo2 - collision detection but AC remains total numeric
no localized damage AFAIK, pretty simple affair

I'm getting the game this week, I'm guessing there's some of the armor breakdown as you mention in the manual, or did you derive that? Also looking forward to position/technique in a fight actually meaning something.

I'll be happy to add as I dig - I'm a bit of a game geek that likes to delve deep and chat. Had been looking for a community to get some good discussions going, hopeful here - cheers

oh, how many times my body has saved our team.

awesome post, very well thought out, i suppose its easy to know, mastering it is another thing. that can only come with practice

positioning is a matter of life and death.......at times

Just a question on the use of the sidestep keys Q and E. For example: If you press W+E together (so you sidestep forward and right) does that create the critical strike penalty?

I've tried to test it but things go so fast that I can't work it out so I was wondering if anyone else had been able to.

Many Thanks

No, critical penalty only happens when your running away. So basically when your back is turned to the person...not your sides, or even side of your back (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong), just your back. That's a 1/8 chance and pretty much negligible to hit as long as you don't turn your back on him If your running away then keep him on your side-back and not straight behind you.

hum how useful is this now? A while ago i noticed i could stand infront of the monk and take the hits from the warriors around him as well as the projectile attacks, but now they just go straight through me (direct damage) and so positioning doesnt seem to matter as much anymore...humph

If they form a line, run your team at them in a line, like the naval crossing the T. Have all kinds of standing health and damage reducing enchantments active on your first guy in line. When they start attacking him, have him sidestep left or right and the rest of you can pour through the gap when his opponent gives chase.

nobody has discussed height advantage. Has anyone experimented with this and can anyone say whether height has an advantage for damage? I know that in multi height has a visual advantage but since ranged attacks are auto-target anyway that wouldn't really matter. Likewise NPC's don't seem to really care about height advantage.

I don't know the exact numbers but your chances to score a higher hit, even a critical hit increase the higher elevation you are form you're opponent. I don't know this for sure, it's just something I've seen, because since beta I've always tried to gain the high-ground before an attack.

I know that ranged attacks get a damage bonus (or maybe a critical % bonus -- I just know you do more damage) from being higher up. I don't know if it works for melee also, such as fighting on a slope.

Some great info there, and definitely something many ppl will find invaluable, especially in PvP. Top stuff.

Tactical considerations like this are not common knowledge. I could tell you some pretty funny stories from other games to demonstrate the point, but I'm sure you're familiar with them.

Don't be depressed... with time, more and more people will become aware of the complexity and possibility in battle Guild Wars offers and when they do, these types of conversations will really be involved and interesting.

In closing, thanks for posting this for review. It has really helped confirm some of my own theories and opened questions for me to follow as well. It's all good.

When you create a character you can choose the height of the character as well. Does this have an impact on the chances of e.g. head blows ?

For example Two warriors facing each other,one is largest scale and other is smallest scale. Will the one with largest scale have more chances to hit the other's head and chest than when they would be of same height and consequently will the small scale warrior have more chance to hit the larger scale warrior on the legs and feet ?

Someone experimented with this ?

I am interested in the answer to that question as well, partly because I usually make minimum-size characters. Does anyone know if character size influences these percentages?

I personally build my characters as small as possible.
Not that it gives me an advantage in any shape or form.
In my mind I think...I'm as small as a field mouse.
They can't target me if I stand behind the big warriors(we all know they like to make themselves giants among men).
If ANet took it upon themselves to give an advantage to those that are taller for headshots; it stands to reason that a shorter person should have a better chance of landing a hamstring or crippling shot.
Not that it works that it works that way or ever will. I'm just pointing out that you'd have to offset that with something else.
Otherwise we'd have a game full of same height toons running around.

Mind