#tsw 101

[thessalian]

Thess vs Walking Bomb

It occurs that I’ve never actually shared the blood / claws build I use for DPS these days. Not to any massive degree. I showed it to @true0neutral and he tried it and the next thing I know he’s got plans to upgrade his fist weapons because he likes it that much. It’s more or less evil incarnate.

Actives:

Open Vein (Blood Magic; chain builder hitting up to five enemies)

Bloodshot (Blood Magic; single target consumer; exploits afflicted state)

Tear ‘Em Up (Fists; single target consumer; exploits afflicted state - next fist resource heals you and damage increase by 10% for 4 seconds if used on afflicted target)

Cage Fight (Fists; PBAoE; sets afflicted state - DoT)

Contaminate (Blood Magic; single target DoT; sets afflicted state; if target of attack is healed, healer takes damage [This sounds EVIL in PVP])

Bushwhack (Fists; charge attack; sets impaired state)

Plague (Blood Magic Elite; DoT; sets afflicted state; if target dies while DoT is active, nearby enemies become afflicted with lesser DoT [this is basically TSW version of Virulent Walking Bomb])

Passives:

Circulation (Blood Magic; HoT on setting afflicted state)

Salt in the Wound (Fists; deals small amount of direct damage on setting afflicted state)

Bloodsport (Fists; all attacks deal DoT; sets afflicted state)

Doom (Blood Magic; guaranteed pen after four successful penetrating attacks)

Blood Bank (Blood Magic; DoT damage increase on setting afflicted state)

Killer Instinct (Fists; small damage increase on each successful hit for five hits; next hit cannot be evaded)

Gross Anatomy (Blood Magic Elite; deal an extra hit for moderate damage whenever DoT expires or is renewed)

It’s the passives that make this one, it really is. Please note: heal over time on setting afflicted state. Direct damage on setting afflicted state. Damage over time increases on setting afflicted state. Extra hit for moderate damage whenever afflicted state expires or is renewed. And then Bloodsport. ALL attacks set afflicted state. Essentially you’re healing yourself and dealing all manner of extra damage with every successful hit. Not to mention that Tear ‘Em Up exploits afflicted state to the point of healing you and increasing your damage even more for a few seconds.

Now. In all fairness, this is largely the Dragon’s Wu build, with a few tweaks. And I might remove Contaminate for PVE because it hasn’t been that useful, particularly. I’m sure I can find another thing I can replace it with. But if you like effectively bleeding everything to death a lot faster than usual, that particular set of passives is probably the one for you.

[thessalian]

Thess vs AR / Sword

So @storieshaped set me something of a challenge - an AR / Sword build that follows on from and improves on the ‘beginner’ build of Modern Samurai as seen on TSWDB. The idea at this point seems to be a build that will allow a player to tag from a distance and then nuke cataclysmic-like with sword when they get close. Also ‘not dying’ is a priority. So, here’s a different take on an AR / Sword combo (which, I have to warn, is generally not hugely my style, so let’s hope I’m as good at putting shit together as I think I am...)

Actives:

Hip Fire - this one’s a good single target AR builder that gives resources for both weapons and, unlike Suppressing Fire, doesn’t spew bullets all over the place, hitting things you maybe didn’t mean to hit. Can be replaced with Safety Off if it’s too short-range, but there’s a passive that’ll deal with Hip Fire’s range issues.

Incendiary Grenade - AR ability, doesn’t consume resources, sets your attacker(s) on fire. Sets Afflicted state, so use that one before you use High Explosive Grenade and Steel Palace for maximum damage.

Steel Palace - blade consumer, basically one of the many things that turns you into a rotating blade arrangement, doing damage to anything near you. Exploits Afflicted state.

High Explosive Grenade - AR consumer. Things go BOOM. Exploits Afflicted state.

Trial by Swords - the ever important stun-lock. Single-target, does moderate damage and sets Impaired state, so basically if you see something channelling something scary, use that.

Razor Wire - if you’re about done with Chop Shop and just want to plug away at things for awhile, use this one - it’ll dash you backwards and reduce the movement speed of anything coming after you. Good for when you’re building up Chop Shop resources.

Four Seasons - My all-time favourite Blade ability. Basically hits your target five times, with increasing damage, and the fifth and last automatically penetrates.

Passives -

Bloodsport - this is a Fists passive, but it sets Afflicted state for all successful attacks, so if you’re feeling a bit low on HP and want to replace something with Turn the Tables, you can replace High Explosive Grenade with Turn the Tables and still make the most of Steel Palace.

Salt in the Wound - another Fists passive. This one deals direct damage every time you set Afflicted state. Combine it with HEG and Bloodsport and things will start dying VERY fast indeed.

Circulate - this one’s a Blood Magic passive, but gives you heal over time whenever you set Afflicted state. Given Bloodsport and possibly High Explosive Grenade, it’ll be on you basically all the time, and it’s saved my life a time or two.

Steady Hip Fire - AR passive, increases the range of Hip Fire, so you don’t have to get as close to start shooting.

Accuracy - AR passive. Increases damage and Hit rating, which is useful for...

Lethality - AR passive. Deals increased damage with every successful hit.

Flight of Daggers - the only sword Passive in this one. Every fifth successful hit activates an attack that deals damage and damage over time to enemies around you. Sets Afflicted state, so another one to capitalise on Circulation.

For this one, you’re probably going to want to focus on your Hit and Pen on your gear, to start with. There’s not a lot of auto-Pen on this build, but it does max out your Hit rating, so you’re going to want to make the most of that to make sure you’re doing maximum damage to the less squishy, more shielded targets. (I hate seeing ‘Blocked’ come up when I’ve critted; it’s a pain.)

I know that a lot of the passives in particular borrow from other skill sets. Believe me, they’re worth it.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Updates - AEGIS

Friend of mine pointed out that with the changes to the various systems, a lot of my TSW 101 posts are just a smidge out of date. So I am going over the TSW 101 posts I’ve done in the past and doing some adjustments, and basically reposting them. This also takes into account things with which I had little experience at the time (like my thing on PVP arenas - Fusang underwent a sea change again).

I’ll start with the AEGIS system, at least in part because they made a very significant change in terms of picking up AEGIS modules for your secondary weapon, and I can consolidate a couple of other posts involving AEGIS things at the same time. So copy-paste and editing, and you can ignore the previous post I did on the matter.

Once you get to Tokyo, the Filth isn’t just durdling around with Guardian Hounds and plain ol’ Filthy humans anymore. In Tokyo, it’s evolved. And one of the first things it evolved is fucking shields. There are three types - Psychic, Demonic and Cybernetic. If you don’t have an AEGIS upgrade on your weapon that matches to the type of shield the enemy you’re fighting uses, your hits do nothing, no matter how hard you hit them.

Luckily, the reward for finishing the mission to actually enter Tokyo gives you one of each type of augment for your weapon. My advice to you? Put all of them on the weapon that your builder ability is used on. Your builder should, by the time you’ve reached Tokyo and geared up well, whittle down the shields for most early mobs fairly easily, leaving you good and charged to hit the unprotected ugly with everything you’ve got once it’s down. It’ll get you through for awhile.

To get your secondary weapon kitted out, go see the crazy guy in the tank. He has a mission that will give you AEGIS upgrades for your secondary weapon. Now, it used to be that you only got one type of AEGIS upgrade every time you ran that mission, obliging you to do it three times before you got the three you needed. Things have changed, and now we get all three for running the mission once. Which is nice because, while a great way to grind for AEGIS research, it used to make for seriously unbalanced upgrading.

Thankfully, the mobs are generally spaced out enough in Tokyo for you to inspect them for AEGIS type before you get to within aggro range, so you can swap as necessary. Alternatively, try this mod for auto-swapping AEGIS on selection of mobs. However, if you don’t want to muck around with mods, here’s a quick breakdown of which beasties are likely to have which types of AEGIS.

Psychic: Ghosts, in the main, and the Evolved Filth critters near where ghosts can be found (cemeteries and so forth).

Demonic: Demons, pretty obviously - oni, Deep Ones, hellhounds, etc. Also the Evolved Filth near where the demonic critters hang out (the bathhouse, for the most part).

Cybernetic: Droids, and the Evolved Filth near where droids hang out - largely the Wall.

When it comes to upgrading your AEGIS, it’s sort of a two-tier system. One involves upgrading the upgrade itself, and another piece of advice that served me well - upgrade Speed first. Sometimes you will have to swap AEGIS types very fast, for example when you get the bastard mobs with two shield types. Speed is vital. Speed, then Efficiency, then Shielding. Start transferring only when your Skill Point cap won’t let you do anything else.

The second is a little more complicated. Every creature you kill with a certain AEGIS type gives you points in the AEGIS upgrade of that type. You also get points from canisters some mobs drop. Check your gear regularly; it is supposed to update you when you reach 100% but sometimes it doesn’t or you miss it because you’re in the middle of a fight. (The mod helps with this because it tweaks the HUD to show you exactly how far you’ve got towards 100% on all AEGIS types for both weapons, and your shield when you get it.) When you’ve reached 100%, go to the lone Orochi guy standing in a far corner of Ginpachi Park. He sells upgrade kits. When you’ve reached 100% in anything - shield, weapons, whatever - you can buy an upgrade kit and raise your AEGIS of that type to the next level. Your highest level dictates what Enhancers you can use.

Enhancers drop from mobs or are quest rewards. Capacitors increase the damage your weapons do to the AEGIS type to which they’re tuned (or heals for shields, or how much damage your shield will take), and modules give other bonuses. Modules are the ones that you’re going to want to really pick and choose about, since enhancers are basically “the better your gear, the more damage you’ll do to AEGIS shields”. Upgrade as a priority; towards the end of Tokyo, some mobs with dual shields have their shields regenerate if you don’t take them down fast enough, turning a relatively simple fight into a complete bitch. When you’ve upgraded one, don’t just throw away or sell the old ones; go to your crafting window and disassemble them; they’ll give you research towards the next upgrade.

Shields are the first thing you pick up after you’ve started Chapter 10. The first thing you do in Nightmares in the Dream Palace is go find Jake Hama. When you have, prioritise the action mission One For The AEGIS that he gives you. Completing that will give you shields in all three AEGIS types. You can swap shield types on the HUD with and without the mod I mentioned above, but you need to keep the other two shield bits in your inventory or the swap won’t work.

Also, when you’re opening biohazard containers or disassembling old enhancers, check and make sure all your AEGIS gear is switched to the one on which you want to use the research. Including your shields, when you get that far.

AEGIS adds another level of challenge to the game, but it is worth it. It makes you reconsider tactics, for one thing. It sounds more complicated than it is, so just remember:

Put your first set of AEGIS upgrades on your builder weapon

Go see Kurt the tank dude at first opportunity

Upgrade Speed first, then Efficiency, then Shielding

Check your gear for percentage to next level, and upgrade often

Choose your modules wisely and disassemble old ones for more research

Give ‘em hell, guys.

[thessalian]

Augment question when you have time. You can't harmonize an augment of a higher level without harmonizing the ones previous to it, correct? I mean you can't harmonize a level 5 augment without having already harmonized versions of it from 1 through 4? So like I wouldn't be able to just hoard enough augments to get one to level 5 right off. The 3 different pages on augments I read through weren't exactly clear on this point.

No. You definitely cannot just skip to a level 5 augment. You have to go through each in order - 1, then 2, then 3, then so on. I’m pretty sure I mentioned in a previous thing about augments, but there’s so much information in those it’s probably easy to miss. Basically, think of it like your abilities, back before you hit Panoptic Core. You couldn’t skip directly to the 50 AP abilities you wanted for that one specific deck; you had to do all the others first.

Remember: MMOs are about keeping you playing as long as possible. Any reason to grind is a good thing for them because it keeps the player base active. So always assume that it’s going to be the longer version of whatever upgrade function you can think of.

[thessalian]

Would you happen to have some advice for PVP healing? Since I'm kind of a newbie with PVP I don't really trust myself in an important role so I've just been waving a sword around wildly, but healing is more fun and my heal gear is better anyway :)

Okay, I’ve been meaning to do a thing on heal builds anyway, and I guess PVP is the best way to start, so thank you for asking. This is going to get long, and please keep in mind that your mileage may vary - some people have a distinct thing about blood-heal builds. Now, mine’s not only blood heals, but there’s some distinct reasons that I went with the build I eventually did for PVP healing. So let’s start with the build itself, and then I’ll get into why I use each particular element of it, and field tactics.

Actives:

Linked Veins: Chain heal that places an absorb barrier on your target and nearby friendly targets. Does not apply to self. Builds a resource for weapon type. (blood)

Shelter: Grants small direct heal and heal over time effect to all nearby targets, yourself included. Builds a resource for weapon type. (fists)

Blood Pact: Places absorb barrier around yourself and up to six other nearby targets that impairs the first person to hit them for three seconds. Consumes five resources, can be powered by your own HP. (blood)

Blast of Light: Cone blast that drops a direct heal and Heal over time effect on all targets in blast radius. Consumes all resources, scaled to how many are consumed. (fists)

Vigour: Drops a healing area on the ground, healing all targets in area. (fists)

Sleight of Hand: Removes all crowd control effects and makes you briefly immune to further CC. (misc - survivalism)

Cold-Blooded: At the expense of 3% of your health (which is healed on use anyway), significantly heals all members of group and places a heavy absorb barrier on them. (blood)

Passives:

Splatter: All chain abilities jump to additional targets. (blood)

Mad Skills: Whenever you critically hit or heal, your critical hit chance increases. (pistol)

Sanguineous: Heals you for a moderate amount whenever you place a blood barrier. (blood)

Making Amends: Increases the healing done by all your heal over time effects (fists)

Glimmer of Hope: Moderate chance of healing yourself for a moderate amount when using heal over time effects. (fists)

Shadow Medic: Improves all heals. (assault rifle)

Empowerment: Applies a direct heal to the target whenever a heal over time effect critically hits. (fists)

Auxiliary Weapon:

Charge-Density - Charge is single-target HoT; Density, when used while defensive target has Charge active, drops a persistent ground effect healing friendlies in the area.

Probability Rules - quantum abilities have a chance not to require cooldowns.

First thing to note: there’s a lot of stuff that does not require selecting or focusing on a specific target in there. Linked Veins you can just sort of throw on a target and get everyone in the vicinity. Everything else requires no target at all. This is something I set up because people move in and out of range all the time, PVP being a high mobility area, and even though it’s easier for me to select friendly targets now, it’s still a button press I’d rather not take the time to use. Basically, remember that you are in the middle of a war zone, you are going to be a target and you want to get as many of your people, yourself included, in on the delicious healing action as possible.

Hence the passives. Note there are a lot of passives that increase healing on you while you’re healing everybody else. Remember that you are going to be the primary target on any given field as soon as anyone figures out what your primary role in any PVP is. PVPers have LONG memories. They may not even have to tag you to remember that you’re the one that does heals. Use the right passives and the right actives, and keep clear of crowd control as much as possible, and you’re effectively impossible to kill without three or more people focusing multiple impairs and the harder-hitting DPS abilities on your minimal-HP ass.

Also hence the crowd control. The favoured way of taking down a healer by DPS players (particularly Dragon, I’ve noticed) is to sneak up and hit you with Domino Effect, then hit you until you fall over in a more permanent way. ‘Cos healers are squishy. This is why Sleight of Hand. My favourite move when dealing with Domino Effect attacks is to hit Sleight of Hand and then immediately hit Cold Blooded while nopeing away, a move I tend to call “ha ha fuck you no”. Blood Pact is something else again. It seems a bit useless because it doesn’t drop a heal particularly, but tell that to the four melee DPSers who got stunned when going after the healer/tank combo on top of the El Dorado relics because Blood Pact was active, and then got summarily picked off while stunned by a DPS with a chain ability and the nifty manifestation someone dropped. Crowd control is a good thing, and if you can spread it around, the less chance you’re going to get dropped. This build has no offensive capability at all, so this and Sleight of Hand are your salvation in troubled times. When targeted, break any CC you can and move to the rest of the pack as soon as possible so your team can get the enemy DPS off their tasty heals.

Which brings me to … mobility is also key. If you’re going to drop Blood Pact, or hit Blast of Light, you want to get as many people into its area of effect as possible. Also, the more you move, the more likely you are to get out of range of someone trying to target you, or break line of sight. Running around the field spamming Shelter is a viable tactic. If you’re going to drop a Vigour or Density puddle, find a quiet corner and make sure you’re not being targeted overmuch. Rubble is useful for that in El Dorado; pillars in Stonehenge. Shambala you’re probably a tiny bit screwed for ‘quiet safe place to hit that’, but Vigour’s bad for Shambala anyway since no one stays still long enough. Vigour is useful for the centre of the Stonehenge arena, particularly if your team is dominating the centre, or over the relics your team has collected in El Dorado.

In terms of stats - Crit and Crit Damage. You need NOTHING else for this build. Heal builds in general, I think, but this build in particular. No hit. No pen. No nothing. Crit and Crit Damage EVERYWHERE. You’re using a lot of HoT and you want to make it count, you’re not actually hitting anything and your team does not have a block rating against your heals so pen isn’t necessary. Crit and Crit Damage. Mad Skills will help with that.

In summary: keep moving, spam Shelter whenever possible, and resign yourself to the fact that you will be scraping yourself up off the floor on a regular basis.

…Damn. Before I started writing this, I thought I was just flailing through PVP heals. I never thought I had actual strategy…

[thessalian]

Thess vs Savage Coast Relentlessness

As promised, still working on the Relentlessness Runs from various areas for newbies or those levelling alts. This time, Savage Coast.

Best place to start is actually the entrance you’re sent to in the story mission - the one that you reach from the tunnel near the Kingsmouth Town Agartha portal. If you really want to blow a weekend running Relentlessness, doing the Kingsmouth Town Relentlessness Run and ending it with Badge of Honour at the police station gets you close to that one and lets you carry on to the next zone.

Pick up Dear John and Send More Cops right as you enter; when you’re turning in Send More Cops, pick up Hellscape and Hell Hath No Vacancy. (Leave Hell and Bach for now.) When you reach John Wolf (hi, Varric!), start with The Black House. (Yes, it is a sabotage mission. No, I don’t think it should count as one.) From there, go on to Taking the Purple. Now, you can hit the Nicholas Winter quests in Atlantic Island Park at this point but they are kind of involved, and for a speed run I generally just skip to Jack’s Back. You can pick up Wisped Away while you’re at it, as well as Property of Innsmouth Academy.

Once at Innsmouth Academy for the end of that one, do all the missions there, since they’re nice and centralised - start with The Rec Centre Cannot Hold, then The Strange Boat House in the Mist, then to Montag’s (The Breakfast Cult, Science and the Arts, The Faculty, To Sir With Love). By that point you’ll have unlocked Carter Unleashed, which is worth doing, so go for it.

Once you’re done with Innsmouth Academy, head for the lighthouse to talk to Sam Krieg. Start with A Reasonable Man (though that one you can skip if you’re in a hurry), then Life Imitating Art, then Crime and Punishment (with a slight detour for Field of Nightmares)... which will take you back to John Wolf again, or nearabouts. Go back to him and pick up The League of Monster Slayers, which will bring you to Red’s Bait and Tackle. I generally skip these quests (but then, I generally skip The League of Monster Slayers too, because I hate ak’ab SO MUCH), but it’s worth at least picking up The Player, Not The Piece. At that point, you’re probably nearly done for the day, so head back to the Overlook and pick up Hell and Bach. This will end you in London and is a great place to log off. Repeat as necessary until you’re ready for Blue Mountain.

Honestly, I don’t do a lot of Blue Mountain quests, so there’s probably not a lot of detail to go through there, but generally spamming the quests in the Wabanaki trailer park works out okay. Much like with the other two zones, the last zone really doesn’t have a whole lot that can really be called a Relentlessness Run, so next time I’ll stick with the Scorched Desert run I normally do. And honestly, these are mostly just suggestions - the straightest lines around the zones with the most payoff, at least as far as I’ve been able to tell.

Have fun, and good luck!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Kingsmouth Relentlessness

I mentioned awhile ago that I had relentlessness runs for areas other than Transylvania. I’ve been asked to list them, but it’s been so long since I really did them that I’m going to have to go from scratch. So I’m going to sort of liveblog Astrid’s journey through various relentlessness runs.

Honestly, Kingsmouth Town is its own entry, because there is a lot to it. Start with For A Fistful of Zombies and Bullets for Andy - they won’t net you much in later runs, but they’re right there as you enter Kingsmouth Town and anything’s better than nothing, right? After that, blow through Elm Street Blues - it’s quick, you’re right at the start point and it doesn’t take you very far. By this point you’ll be reasonably close to Norma Creed, so head over for her. Ignore the side quests on your way for now; you’ll be back here loaded up with another main mission soon. Grab Something Wicked, largely because it will take you back to the police station, near as makes no odds. Jog over there and grab Supply Run, being sure to pick up Missing Persons as a side mission, since it follows that mission’s route.

Head back to the station - again - and go for Death and the Instruments Thereof - you’ll end up right back at the station again, but there’s some good side missions to grab on the way - The Curious Case of Joe Slater right by the station, Journey’s End at the bed and breakfast, The Tentacle Trail as you approach the fire department and Dirty Laundry on your way back. Appetite for Destruction is another good one at this point but tends to take awhile so can probably be skipped, but here’s where it fits in on a non-speed run. Jog back over to the church and get the two Investigation missions, The Kingsmouth Code and Digging Deeper. Seriously, Investigation missions are your best friends in the early stages of The Secret World.

Speaking of, after those two, jog over to Madame Roget and pick up The Vision, and at this point you can pick up the side missions you skipped on your last visit to Norma Creed - Tomb Raider and the Book of Bokor. Pick up Message in a Bottle while you’re at it - it finishes up at Norma Creed, same place as Book of Bokor does. The Vision ends you up near the hippie camp, so go back over there and grab Rolls Downhill, then pick up the side mission Bringing Sexy Back. Don’t turn it in yet, though - instead, head back over the bridge from The Vision and grab Badge of Honour first. When turning in Bringing Sexy Back, pick up Men in Black Vans, then head up to Radcliffe and Blake for Evolution of the Species and Hulk Smash. If you've got this far, you’re probably ready to nip on over to Edgar, but this is a speed run so I tend to avoid that whole sector of the map.

That about does it for a relentlessness run of Kingsmouth Town - good for beginners and alts that need leveling. It’ll take a couple of hours to run through the whole thing but it’s worth it. Next time, Savage Coast.

[thessalian]

Thess vs PVP Zones

Last night, I tried Shambala, which is the newest of TSW’s PVP zones. This prompted me to start talking a little about PVP zones in general in this game.

First, keep in mind that TSW is the only game in which I have done PVP. Ever. Maybe I’d like it in other games. I don’t know. I somehow doubt it. All I know is that while I haven’t actually signed up for Stonehenge or El Dorado, I’m thinking about it, and I did Fusang regularly until they changed the rewards system on it, and now I’m going to grind Shambala like it’s going out of style (which, given what happened to Fusang’s rewards system, it might). So! Here’s what I understand of the various TSW PVP zones, from the point of view of someone who doesn’t ordinarily like PVP AT ALL.

El Dorado: I don’t entirely understand this one, but the general gist I get is that it’s a ‘capture the flag’ sort of deal. There are relics and you must gather them, protect them and whoever’s got the most at the end of it wins. Or at least that’s the impression I got from the recent livestream. See, the mechanics of El Dorado have apparently changed lately; at one point, the relics gave you buffs so that the more you had, the more likely you were to keep them. I don’t know if this change has taken place yet, but the devs were talking about a major change in which the relics give you debuffs, to make sure you’re not just stockpiling all your relics and buffs in one place and basically being invulnerable fortress all the time. This strikes me as a sensible change in mechanic.

Stonehenge: This one I really don’t know about. I think it’s another capture the flag situation but with the giant anima well in the middle of Stonehenge as the ‘flag’. Team claims the well, team defends the well, and likely whoever has the well at the end of the match wins. It seems simpler than El Dorado and makes it one of the less free-for-all PVP zones that I feel like I might actually try.

Fusang Projects: I ran a lot of Fusang Projects while trying to gear up my Illuminati Gunslinger. The situation is this - you’ve got a sort of free-for-all zone wherein the three factions are fighting for territory. They claim anima wells, they claim facilities ... thing is, there’s no ‘end’ to the match, and thus no decisive winner. The zone just keeps going, claimed territory shifting as each faction claims more ground.

...Thing is, it’s a little sad what happened to Fusang. See, in the beginning, back when there were more currency types, you got White Marks of Venice just for being on the field. The more territory your faction had, the more White Marks you would get per minute of being on the field, and you traded those White Marks in for Black Marks, which in turn bought you gear the way black bullion does across the board today. That gave people incentive to defend their territory. Now, though, the only way you get bullion out of Fusang is the missions you can pick up - claim an anima well, claim a facility, kill X number of Y enemy type. It’s become less tactical defending of territory and more random kill-spree, and I lost interest when defending your claimed territory stopped being a thing.

Shambala: Shambala is the newest PVP zone, and the one that really rewards you for participation while not catering to premade PVP squads. In fact, Shambala doesn’t allow premade PVP squads. It goes like this - two teams, ten players per team ... but these players aren’t selected by faction or even role. They’re randomly selected and dropped into a random squad. Then they’re shunted into an ever changing battle arena and told to duke it out, with random power-ups and hazards appearing on the field to make things more interesting. Once you die, you’re locked out of the arena; one life per match. Last team standing wins.

...Let’s emphasise that: Last TEAM standing wins.

Unfortunately, because it was advertised as a ‘free-for-all’ and there are no premades, people who are used to premades often forget that this is still a team exercise. They also tend to forget tactics very, very quickly. The problem with Shambala’s locking out even the possibility of premade PVP squads is that the stupid tends to get spread around. There was this guy who started every match by telling the raid, “Rushing - onward to victory or death”. Every single time, it was the latter option. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Two matches I was with him, and he got us all killed. Next match, I was against him and we won fairly handily. I was in healmode but I watched him die and it was kind of satisfying.

I like Shambala, though, because it’s a quick arena fight, it stays interesting, and you are rewarded for participation. 25 black bullion per match whether you win or lose is nothing to sneeze at, and I’m happy to grind a bit for what I need - consider how many times I died in Fusang, where I’d have to be on the field for at least twenty minutes to get even a shred of something worthwhile. The only problem is occasionally getting stuck with nitwits, and that’s going to happen damn near any time you’re in a PUG.