Curse

tomcruisejr · Jan 06, 2007, 11:49 PM // 23:49

Hello everyone. This is your ever friendly :/ Scout, writing you a very useful article that will be your ONLY guide in getting gladiator points in random arena. As an avid player of the random arena, I've seen every build that has been played and observed different class combos that got me to 10 or more wins. I'm a rank 4 gladiator now and most of the gladiator points that i have came from there.

We all know that getting 10 wins is hard with a bad team, but is easy with a good team. This guide will give you an overview about major things about that arena and will give tips and advice on how to get your gladiator points from there.

Well, let's start.

What is Random Arena and who the hell plays it?
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Random Arena is the place where all can just come in and do their thing, literally. People usually go to Random Arena aka RA to play their individual builds without the need of other team mates. Some people also zone to random arena just to kill time and piss people off. But with the gladiator title added, almost all of the RAers zone there to get a gladiator point.

The Random Arena consists of different maps meant for 4vs4 combat that are rotated every match. To be able to fill the team with four players, RA has a system to get players randomly (duh).

Playing the Random Arena Like IWAYers to get a gladiator point
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Yep, like IWAYers. We all know that the successful IWAYers of the past rarely used vent. I can also say "like Koreans" but I don't want them to feel overly flattered (hey, KRs are good players, no doubt). Anyway, see, in Random Arena, you are not blessed with preparation time or voice software to coordinate among your team mates. So, you must play it by instinct. You must know what your team got, classes and skills, because knowing these two is crucial to your success.

Looking at your party window is the best way to give you a feel of how you should work together. Say you, a warrior/monk, teamed with 2 other warriors and 1 monk and the other team got a monk, 1 energy denial mesmer, a degen necro, an assassin. And say your 2 warrior team mates decided to pressure the monk. What should you do?

a) Also hit the monk
b) Help your own monk by reducing the damage he receives

These choices will pop in your head instantly and you will be a dilemma (I hope). Well, if the other team is all focusing on your monk and your monk doesnt totally suck, you should try to help your monk so their damage will be mitigated and at the same time, you are pressuring 2 opponents. You can either choose the mesmer (if you have damage skills equipped most in your bar) or the assassin (if you have kite assisting skills - e.g. knockdowns and cripple). In my experience, the only times
when choice a) works is that if you can simulate a perfect spike as a team or you have heavy mixed damage from varied classes or the opponent monk just sucks.

Similar logic cann also be applied if you are playing other classes. Use the skills against the appropriate ones and for your team's survival. Don't use Backfire on a warrior or Spoil Victor on an Elementalist or use Gale on a warrior that is chasing your necro team mate. Or say if you're an interrupt ranger and you have 2 warrior or thumper team mates, be sure to interrupt Blinding surge, blinding flash or any anti melee skills that your opponents have. Battle awareness and correct skill usage are key.

Team Setups
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Since its random, you cannot play a setup that you wish to play, but sometimes it just happen. So far, I've met successes in just 2 setups.

a) a team with monk(s)
b) overly offensive teams

In teams with monks, support is key. You should not always depend on your monk to heal you where ever you go. Remember that the other team is also after your monk. So the safest way to do things here is to play according to your role. In other words, use your skills accordingly. You dont want to put that faintheartedness on the monk, do you? Or try to interrupt 1/4 second cast spells using a bow, right? If you're a ranger and you feel laggy, instead of interrupting reversal of fortunes etc, you should say focus on the classes that gives hard time to your monk. Interrupt the backfire, the energy burn, the lightning orb aimed at your monk.

But with a monk, yes, you're blessed with decent support and you're free to infiltrate their defenses first before they infiltrate yours. So always be on the offensive. But if you think that the other monk is good, try to spread the damage, interrupt the offenses and when opponent monk is feeling safe and complacent, switch to him and focus. Good pressure.

Teams without monks can also do well, provided that they are killing things quickly. Usually, these teams are mostly melee with a damage/edenial caster. Key is that focus fire and if things don't drop for like 5 seconds, spread the damage then focus fire. Be sure that you eliminate the opposing players with anti melee skills first. See, you dont always go for the monks, because it's possible to out damage his heals while he's using up his energy. If say you are all melee and youre facing a team with a good kiting monk and a Ineptitude or Anti-melee curse necro, your team will be wiped out without even putting the other monks health to less than 50% if you dont focus on the mesmer or necro.

Also, for both setups, it is recommended to use Ressurection signets ASAP.

Classes to play
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So far, I've met lots of success playing Thumper, Sword Warrior, GoE-Gale-Domination Mesmer and Cripshot/Conditions ranger. Those are good in dishing out the damage and giving support to other team mates. If you are good at monking, play your monk and hopefully your team mates have read this article before playing with you.

Oh God A Goodie!
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Yep, you can "hax" the RA atm and get your friends or guildmates playing with you. It's common knowledge now and I'll just echo it.

Step 1 - Go to a RA district
Step 2 - Press "Enter Battle" in sync

Wrapping up
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Most serious PvPers take random arenas for granted, because of its nature. Little did they know that training that instinct and making individual split second decisions are RA-like.

So yea, I think that not only RA can teach you how to beat Wammo using Ineptitude but also RA can help you at least initially develop your battle awareness and team support instincts. And with battle awareness and team support instincts, gladiator points are just a bonus.

love,

Scout
Melonni Ate The Hotdog [MATH]

Divineshadows · Jan 07, 2007, 03:16 AM // 03:16

I stickied your thread, but I feel that this information is very useful to newer players trying to learn PvP and hence want this thread more visible.

I did some formatting of your article and fixed some of the grammer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomcruisejr

Don't use Backfire on a warrior or Spoil Victor on an Elementalist or use Gale on a warrior that is chasing your necro team mate.

Using gale on melee players is necessary in some situations to relieve pressure from your team. Granted gale is a very useful offensive tool, but its potential defensively is also very good.

Absum · Jan 07, 2007, 03:38 AM // 03:38

Encouraging people to get gladiator points in RA.... why why why WHYYYYYYYY? *explodes*

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomcruisejr

Don't use Backfire on a warrior or Spoil Victor on an Elementalist or use Gale on a warrior that is chasing your necro team mate. Battle awareness and correct skill usage are key.

Don't use these skills in this fashion unless the situation permits. Backfire can kill a wammo and is hilarious. Spoil Victor on an ele is a good idea if it's already on the opposing melee and support classes, or if the ele is the main source of damage on the other team. Good call on the not using gale on your 'necro' teamate though. I don't know if Divine caught that important detail. If melee is pressuring your monk then it's a great idea to gale them.. melee pressuring a necro.. there are surely more important ways to use gale in that circumstance.

Blame the Monks · Jan 07, 2007, 03:54 AM // 03:54

I too enjoy RA and consider it a nice way to practice my individual awareness and decision-making. Some tips:

In most RA teams, the ability to shutdown offenses or punch through defenses is more scarce and more valuable than either raw healing or raw offense. IE, having the interrupts on your thumper's bar to shut down the bad guy's ritualist is far more powerful than some +damage from iblow. And as mentioned above, rather than mindlessly attacking the monk, think. You need to know given the map, your team, and what the other guys' team is likely to have which is more likely to win games -- trying to shut down the necro (or the mesmer), to lineback the warrior, to try and steamroll the monk, to focus fire (or spread it around), or even to gank the priest.

Likewise, the key member of the other team's defense is often not a monk. It may be a blindbot, a warder, a rit, or various other builds. Having a way to get blinds off your warriors as fast as the other guy's blinding surge recharge wins game (draw). Interrupts are golden, and daze is the king of RA. But at least as important is knowing what to interrupt and when.

Most of this is basic pvp skills. But RA is different in that you have no teammates as a crutch. You can count on your teammates having terrible builds and skill. Yet one good player can consistently dominate games as long as you think and have the right tools.

Some very common and effective builds:

Thumper
10+2 beast, 8+1 exp, 12 hammer
dblow, bash, crush, beast maul, ROA, pet, res pet, sig

Blindbot:
12+2 air, 8+1 es, 10 shadow
gale, BSURGE, orb, strike, shadow of haste, deadly, feign, sig

Hex Spam
12+2 soul, 11+1 curse, 6 shadow
sig sor, REAPER MARK, faint, pbond, shadow of haste, deadly, feign, sig

Monk
12+2 prot, 11+1 divine, 6 shadow
draw, ZB, rof, soa, mend touch, purge, death retreat, dark escape
Alternates: res sig, sig dev, goh

tomcruisejr · Jan 07, 2007, 04:01 AM // 04:01

lol divine. why stickied? anyway thanks. :P feel free to fix grammatical mistakes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Absum

I don't know if Divine caught that important detail. If melee is pressuring your monk then it's a great idea to gale them.. melee pressuring a necro.. there are surely more important ways to use gale in that circumstance.

it's just an example of how can you support your team. and say if the necro is near death and a warrior is 1 hack away to nailing down your team mate, that gale is good. or gale that necro to help him kite.

yep, just use the skills to the benefit of your team - offense or defense wise.

and I encourage other RAers to post their tips too.

Agyar · Jan 07, 2007, 08:57 AM // 08:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomcruisejr

I'm a rank 4 gladiator now and most of the gladiator points that i have came from there.

Sounds like a headache to me, I can't stand being in RA long enough to get 10 wins any more. It reminds me too much of PvP in WoW, with every idiot doing whatever the hell they feel like at the time and yelling at each other like deranged neighbours. It might be more tolerable if you turn off chat, mute the sound and even leave the room but I hear this kind of thing can be counter-productive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Absum

Encouraging people to get gladiator points in RA.... why why why WHYYYYYYYY? *explodes*

moko · Jan 07, 2007, 04:11 PM // 16:11

i have to agree with

Quote:

Encouraging people to get gladiator points in RA.... why why why WHYYYYYYYY? *explodes*

i think after the first 25-50 points you should stop getting gladpoints from RA, so the quality of gladiators might actually increase, because most of those RA farmers are incredible bad. this is probably encouraging many people on ragequitting teams that do not follow what the guide suggests, but it might actually improove builds used in RA. [/whine]

and boom, your actually encouraging them to time. sorry but this is horrible. its random arenas and not half of team arenas, if you want to farm with friends go to TA and stop freaking chat in RA. its annoying - honestly.

anyways, what i use in RA when i feel like having a decent chance on a gladpoint:

an assasin spiker << spike nooby casters or overextending wammos, or noob monks
monk << duh
hexnec << pwned in most cases
BHA ranger << owns everywhere
bsurge shutdown mes << melee hate ftw, disabling casters is awesome also
rit spirit spam << i dont use it, but so many teams lose to it, its just incredible
rao << well it works :|
air blinder with wards << melee hate, helps monks with wards

Thomas.knbk · Jan 07, 2007, 04:22 PM // 16:22

Shouldn't this be in Lyssa's Faction?
j/k I liked it.
The quality of RA seems to have increased (grown? improved?). I haven't seen a wammo with mending in ages (one with Live Viracilously though today) and touchers and 55 monk seem to disappear as well

Gimme Money Plzkthx · Jan 07, 2007, 06:55 PM // 18:55

The quality of RA has improved, but improvement is relative... in this case, very much so. Past few times I've tried RA, I've logged out exasperated.

necrosfeelyaks · Jan 07, 2007, 08:07 PM // 20:07

I perfer RA over TA simply because it is easier to find players to play with (duh!)
My guild dosent TA much, we are simply GvG and HA, but I like to 4v4 when I'm bored

JYX · Jan 07, 2007, 08:15 PM // 20:15

To be honest, I think the quality has gone down from when we had actually useful premades.

I'd like to add something about the usage of runes, a lot of people in RA appear to think that 380-400 hp is a good number to have. This is not the case, drop those sups.

What if... · Jan 07, 2007, 10:18 PM // 22:18

Here's one:

Don't make your monk's job any harder than it has to be. Watch your radar and if you see something big armored and armed (or just something you can't kill) running towards you, hit "x" and press "r". Don't stop running until they've either changed their mind or they've killed you and don't forget to stay within monk range as well. This can keep you alive even in teams with no monks quite well. In my opinion almost all builds should carry some sort of flexible anti-melee skill to deal with dangerous melee class combos like RaO and Sins which flourish under RA's fighting conditions.

Legendary Shiz · Jan 07, 2007, 11:39 PM // 23:39

tbh, I haven't RAed a glad point in quite some time. TA is much more fun, and MUCH more effecient.

There are many posts about good builds to run in TA. It's simple, if you want a glad in RA either play a monk or play something that will kill the other team faster than they can kill you. An RaO thumper is a good example of the ladder part of the suggestion.

Vermilion · Jan 08, 2007, 06:17 AM // 06:17

Good guide Tom. One of several guides I wish were unnecessary.

Anyway, Shiz said it pretty well. I don't monk really ever, so Rao is something anyone can play and guarantees your team might be able to kill something.

Ive always wanted to get into TA, but maybe its that I and people I play with are scrubs, but its a lot more difficult. You get a few wins in, and a team from Kame/res/serp/ghey (older examples I know) etc etc rolls you. Its funny that those teams beat you faster than a team with 3lbs awowa chop chop and kestrel.

urania · Jan 08, 2007, 06:21 AM // 06:21

i agree with moko and absum...gladpoints gained in RA are not worth as much as those gained in TA where you meet well organised teams.

despite that i do RA quite a lot lately since i don't have a regular team to do TA with and i must admit that the part of RA that is more "competitive" ia definately intern distr...not only cause most of better players come there, but also cause you often meet lame korean/taiwanese/chinese/japanese synchroers with builds like 2 paragorns or monk+nec degen spreader+mes shutdown and blinder...adds to the challenge, i could say =p

-.-

i don't see why the thread should deserve a stickie though <_<

@vermilion, anyone can roll a nub team, if you can't beat any of the main TA teams, then you just need to practice some more, i guess. or get a new build lol

Absum · Jan 08, 2007, 07:20 AM // 07:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by urania

idespite that i do RA quite a lot lately since i don't have a regular team to do TA with

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Divineshadows · Jan 08, 2007, 06:28 PM // 18:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by urania

i don't see why the thread should deserve a stickie though <_<

Are you threatening me? -- Beavis

Respect my authority. -- Cartman

I stickied it for newer, more inexperienced players trying to learn the game. Many of these players begin their learning experience in RA due to lack of having built up a friends list containing PvP players. Syra provided some nice insights for players trying to learn the game in RA and some of the thought processes about the choices you can make during a match. I wanted this information easily visible and accessible to these such players.

tomcruisejr · Jan 08, 2007, 09:52 PM // 21:52

^

and there are times when you need to do things on your own, or coop with your split team of 2-4, say in GvG, unless you play pure spikes. also, this is the ONLY guide you'll need to refer to if you want to play RA, lol (but i was surprised really when it got stickied).

it's not a build discussion. it's not which skills are better. it's not a formulaic series of steps to success. it's all about encouraging the players, especially newer ones, to know what to do, when to do things and how should they do it with the current skills they have and adapting to a team on a fly. it's not absolute though and things may vary from one player to the other, but the important message i think is clearly there.

urania · Jan 08, 2007, 10:08 PM // 22:08

well, i hope you won't teach the newer players they should play in RA only to gain points..

tomcruisejr · Jan 08, 2007, 11:49 PM // 23:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by urania

well, i hope you won't teach the newer players they should play in RA only to gain points..

why not?

this was my RA team that went to TA and rolled TA teams 52 times (too bad gladiator points weren't there yet)

it can happen.

but yea, newer players should not only play RA but should progress to TA, HA and GvG as well. points are just a bonus, remember.