The Guild wars official site has been updated with another edition of their State of the Game series of articles. This week's title? NPCs, Splits, and You.
The current guild battle metagame favors teams capable of splitting well. With builds investing heavily in static defenses, splits are often necessary to produce kills and advantages in battle. At the same time, successful splits can often create an NPC advantage, which is more important due to changes to VoD. With a 200% damage buff against the Guild Lord, a large NPC swarm applies heavy pressure at the flag stand.
NPCs are a highly valuable asset and are an irreplaceable resource (unlike Death Penalty, which can be reset). Before VoD, they protect the Guild Lord and define a buffer zone where teams can retreat and relieve some pressure. At VoD, an NPC advantage can easily sway a battle at the flag stand. A common split goal is to reduce the opposition's NPC swarm to build an advantage at the flag stand during VoD. To accomplish this against defenses like Shield of Regeneration flag runners, a gank squad may simultaneously attack multiple NPCs, thus stretching the abilities of a lone healer to maintain every NPC. Generally, a team will have to split multiple characters for defense if to preserve its outer NPCs against a gank team.
Besides NPC considerations, each map has its own split complications. For example, the "siege" maps—Warrior's Isle, Hunter's Isle, and Wizard's Isle—present a unique factor to splitting. The siege weapons on these maps are an element unlike anything presented by other guild halls. Controlling the catapult can dramatically shift the balance of a guild battle.
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Read the full article here.
