Curse

Kim Sythe Weilder · Nov 06, 2008, 11:28 PM // 23:28

I have been playing Guild Wars for about three years now and I have just recently gotten into PvP. I got really good on my derv and my worrior. I wanted to do more so i went to TA but alot of them ask me my rank as gladiator. I'm trying to get them up with RA but it is going REALLY slow! Any suggestion on how to get them up faster?

Thanks in advance

Evil Eye · Nov 06, 2008, 11:54 PM // 23:54

Learn to monk well.

jiggles · Nov 07, 2008, 12:02 AM // 00:02

either, be able to quarterknock monks properly and play in the asian district. Or monk well and play in the english district

Kim Sythe Weilder · Nov 07, 2008, 12:31 AM // 00:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evil Eye

Learn to monk well.

i made a monk and looked up good build and im getting pretty good but still not the best

Swayj1020 · Nov 07, 2008, 12:32 AM // 00:32

Make good use of double weekends too.

wind fire and ice · Nov 07, 2008, 12:38 AM // 00:38

Monk,if your half decent its byfar the fastest way.

Slic · Nov 07, 2008, 12:46 AM // 00:46

Don't listen to them. Find what you enjoy playing as and/or what you're good at and stick with it. There must be at least a few builds out there like that for you.

Depending on the player's style/etc, monk/healer is not always the fastest way. Sometimes, spiker is, sometimes rangers/interrupt, sometimes something entirely different.

For example, for me, it's solo spiking/"pain train", as can be seen in my vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vVVNMRiTiw&fmt=18

Monking for bad teams leads to long games (and it's rare that you will get more than 1 decent damager/support on a team in RA as a monk), so the points/minute ratio goes down. Again, find what you enjoy and/or are good at and do your best to help out your team.

God_Hand · Nov 07, 2008, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Again, as everyone's said, Monk if you can. It's by far the fastest way to get glad points, unless your RA team is just so bad no amount of Monking will keep them alive... or unless you run into a double-monk team w/ some shutdowns on your monk.

But if you don't want to Monk, you don't have to. Me? I'm perfectly happy with my Spear Master. Go with what you like.

Bug John · Nov 07, 2008, 01:05 AM // 01:05

monking is the best to get points

above all, you'll need patience... once you master your build, you'll have to get in a decent team to get 3 (or more) points

there are so many people in ra that don't even understand they can kite melee or move out of aoe, use crappy builds that do nothing, attack wrong targets, run out of your range to get killed, can't use their build correctly...

I know many people who made lots of points in ra, before the dishonorable update, but now, most of the time, you're stuck with ***** that will never /resign

the best way to make glad points is certainly team arena (if you can find a pvp guild)

Numa Pompilius · Nov 07, 2008, 01:19 AM // 01:19

Glad points from RA is brutally slow. If you manage to get a good team you can get 3 glad points, then the ride's over, and it's time to start rolling the dice for a new good team.

Monk or ritualist are your best bets, as they improve the survivability of your team. Make sure you bring defense, as you'll be the piñata of the arena.

Or you can get a good team together, and sync. That's probably the only way to speedfarm glad points in RA.

Phe Belladona · Nov 07, 2008, 01:20 AM // 01:20

they mean if you're a halfway decent monk then it doesnt matter whats on your team or that much what you're facing (unless its some terrifying synergy of hex insanity) so you should generally always be able to win unless the other team has a monk too.
but tbh RA is there for fun its not serious i suggest if you wanna pvp skip TA anyway its rubbish HA is more fun.

Luminarus · Nov 07, 2008, 01:30 AM // 01:30

Being a good monk isnt everything. I gave up on monking coz I would never win wen monking coz my team would always suck. So I would go damage. Then it would take me forever to get a monk. Basically try and opposite the trend. Most RA'ers do one of 2 things. Monk, or damage. If they keep getting multi monk teams theyll swap to damage. If they get no monks theyll swap to monk. So if you do the opposite to this (monk when theres no monks, and damage when theres 2 many monks), it can be quite good.

realtalk916 · Nov 07, 2008, 01:46 AM // 01:46

if u cant spell warrior, dont play it. haha RA is tough considering random grouping, try monks

Lady Violante · Nov 07, 2008, 02:13 AM // 02:13

I think the easiest way to farm glad points is to play blindbot EDA dervish in International district. I usually get a team with monks and it's very easy to win matches except when you face an all squishy team where the match will be a little longer. You can also try syncing.

Krill · Nov 07, 2008, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Stance monk, curses necro and VoR mes are the easiest wins. If that sounds terribly boring (it should), turn back now because guess what, you'll get to play the same boring shit in 1337 ranked TA pugs. Maybe after a few ranks TA puggers will deem you worthy of even more fun thumper and beastmaster builds...wooo!

The Silenced Spets · Nov 07, 2008, 03:03 AM // 03:03

I just go to international with what I play best and then from there hope for the best :P

Lord Natural · Nov 07, 2008, 03:15 AM // 03:15

Dervs are garbage in Arena, with very few exceptions.

Best way to maximaze your points in RA is to figure out the most effective builds and learn to play them well. Monk and Warrior (particularly hammer) are givens, but there are others. Degen/interrupt Ranger, curses Necro, and VoR Mesmer are always effective. Anyway, the build is just a start. Beyond that, you need to learn how to play in order to really make yourself an effective player - How to kite, what to interrupt and when, how to res, what to target and when, and so on. The build helps of course, but once you figure out how to play, you can get points with pretty much anything.

Kim Sythe Weilder · Nov 07, 2008, 03:45 AM // 03:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phe Belladona

they mean if you're a halfway decent monk then it doesnt matter whats on your team or that much what you're facing (unless its some terrifying synergy of hex insanity) so you should generally always be able to win unless the other team has a monk too.
but tbh RA is there for fun its not serious i suggest if you wanna pvp skip TA anyway its rubbish HA is more fun.

ya but then comes the problem of gladiator points again, good teams won't accept you without at least g1

Sun Fired Blank · Nov 07, 2008, 04:17 AM // 04:17

Quote:

good teams won't accept you because they have friends lists, and when they PUG, they definitely want higher than g1.

Fixed. 12 chars.

Jeydra · Nov 07, 2008, 06:58 AM // 06:58

I'll give you an honest answer here.

Probably the easiest way to earn Gladiator points is to play Shovespike (aka. Gothspike) in TA. The build, using 1x Shove War and 3x Monk spikers, is extremely difficult to counter and brutally effective - if you have a good caller. There are very few good callers in the game, so few that I can count all of them on one hand, which is why the build is currently listed as 'not working' on PvX and there's so much hate against it. But I'll tell you that when the caller is good, you hardly ever lose. The build is the equivalent of GvG's bloodspike in TA. It doesn't take much skill, but it gives you wins even against good teams. On the other hand, playing Shovespike is good only for farming Gladiator points. There's very little skill or practice to be had if you're playing one of the Monks; the Warrior basically gets all the fun. And of course you get a lot of hate mail when playing it, given how lame the build is.

You will need working Ventrillo to play this build, though a microphone is not necessary. If you do want to farm Gladiator points using this method, you'll have to look for a caller interested in helping you through (try searching the discussion page on Wiki; you can tell who are experienced with it from their posts there).

If you don't want to farm Gladiator points using this method, then you'll have to do it through RA. Here are some of my own deductions from my experiences at RA.

The best way to earn Gladiator points is to be a good player with whatever bar you're running. A good player playing almost any bar is an asset. Having a healer is not necessary to win (good individual players are enough), but it is still an advantage. However, this does not mean 'play a healer' like some people have said above. One of the biggest problems when you play Monk is that the other players in your team are terrible. Since there aren't many good RA players, you will find yourself in quite a few frustrating games as well as get flamed by players for not keeping them alive. Being a good Monk will give you Gladiator points, but not as quickly as some people imply.

If you don't want to Monk - and you can earn Gladiator points just as quickly without playing a Monk - you can play something else. There're a variety of roles you can fill in RA, such as primary damage (Warrior, Derv, Assassin), secondary damage (Necros and Mesmers with anti-melee / anti-caster hexes), support (Foul Feast, etc) and so on. Any role if played well will be an asset to your team, but consider this. The teams that do best tend to be rather well-balanced, with defense and damage in good proportions, but RA is random by nature and there's no guarantee you'll get good synergy between teams. While choosing builds you don't want to pick those that require so-and-so members in the team. For example, an out-and-out damage character will always be an asset, while playing a bar with Spirit of Failure + Clumsiness + Price of Failure + Reckless Haste will be useless if the other team has no physicals. You want your build to be at least functional under most conditions. There are such bars around, or you can make your own. Another thing to do is to look at what's going on in RA. If RA is being dominated by physicals, it makes sense to load up an anti-physical bar (and so on).

And a final word on where you play from. American Districts have the worst players, although you can get occasional good teams there. International Districts have significantly better players, but the builds and attitudes also tend to be heavily polarized: people leave if they get no Monk, and they have extremely damaging builds with zero defense, such that teams explode in one minute even when they have a Monk. The Korean Districts have very good players so you'll probably get a good team - the downside is of course you'll also be facing good teams. It's up to you where to play from; I'd suggest either ID or AD.

Myself, I alternate between playing Monk and Elementalist, depending on my mood, and average about 3 Gladiator points an hour with either profession. Rank 1 Gladiator is not hard, and neither is rank 2, although the higher ranks are incredibly insane (40,000 points, what the heck - the top TA players have not more than 15,000 points or so right now).

PS: Fully agreed with this post:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Natural

The build helps of course, but once you figure out how to play, you can get points with pretty much anything.

I'll add that since I get Gladiator points at equal rates with either Elementalist or Monk, there's no inherent advantage to playing Monk. You can play a Monk and hope your teammates are good, or play something else and hope you get a Monk, it's almost the same gamble.