Curse

vinoth · Sep 10, 2008, 06:06 AM // 06:06

ok since i have quit guildwars - i just want to explain a thing or two about the misunderstood sway/iway (not so much iway now) and the beauty about the way it is/was played.

Most of u must think it is an easy build to play with warriors doing x get on y and trappers who find balled grps and n/rts healing.

As the game starts trappers will trap the doorway and drop spirits. this is only a precaution as the best way to beat sway is to rush them and not to wait. (most teams do rush sway these days). If 'Correctly played' sway needs to push the other team as well especially in smaller maps such as fetid and burial. This is because

1. if the other team pressures you, ur necros have something to run back to.
2. other team melee or fire ele has to push in to 'the sway backline' to kill nr/tranq

first off in sway u have 3 r/ds, r/ds have amazing dp. and thier 4 skills recharge in around 10 seconds. they have the potential to kill a 60 armour target in 1 'spike'- the useage of 4 attack skills on a non protted target.

to play the R/D, just go after soft targets without shields to start with (monks usually have them to start so just ignore em unless one of them is not in range of the other). good targets to hit are eles, heroes thumpers.

At start of the game, people usually go after spirits. they usually fall into massive traps to kill spirits. so r/ds will watch the warrior go suicide or the fire ele go suicide. (Very easy to kill fire eles on conditions when ganked by 2 r/d).

As an R/d its usually good idea to avoid spiking monks cuz most of the times, ur spike does not go through due to reversal of fortune. its ok to pressure them however. R/ds need to make sure that channeling is down as much as possible. they also need to ocassionaly pressure the warrior who calls the spikes to help the necros.

The advantage of the R/D is that they can overextend within a reasonable limit. when they know they are the target , they need to switch to a shield set. against balance, its easy to see a warrior run towards an r/d to change sheild in reasonable time.(most balance wars dont do this but once some pressure gets in they balanace wars have to backline a bit). against R-spike, u can see the direction of the rangers to change shields on time.

Common mistakes as an R/D. is running after a monk , or spiking when the target has prots or DA up, or not running back for heals (VERY COMMON). R/D needs to run back for heal , n/rts are not channel tanks and will try to stay back as far as possible, so r/d and n/rt will meet in middle. as 1 overextended r/d will kill entire team for the sway. positioning is key to sway.

so overall sway can only win if they have competent r/ds. even 1 bad r/d can spoil the run.

Trappers. their job is to keep spirits up and making sure that necros can follow their traps. the beauty of sway/iway comes in the backline/midline co-ordination between trapper and necro. sure one might argue its easy to intuerpt traps but sway has 2 trappers, if they are smart, they can evade interupts or fake cast to get their barb and dust. they usually trap behind the necros (trapping infront of necros will leave them to be in range of wanding). they also call all their traps on vent and in game. this makes it easier for the necro to follow the trapper.

remember at the start i mentioned that sway has to rush other team. this is because trappers and necros need space to run back and trap. if u have no space to run back, then trappers can get intuerpted and necros will die. the trappers need to know when to go offence and when to go defence. usually a single dust trap puts off a the warrior frontline. the trappers , rit and necros need to stay quiet far back from the r/ds. the r/ds main source of heal is life, and kaoli. if trapper is getitng inteurpted, he can make the itnerupter over extend which becomes easy fodder for the r/d ( happens often). if trapper drops nr, r/d need to watch the person overextending for nr, (fire ele usually or a ranger in r-spike). if necros are low on energy, the r/d have to backline the melee.

ritualists are soft armour targets that will get spiked at every opportunity. he must be using a shield set at all times. he has to stay back and watch the mesmer for incomig diversions. he must not venture into frontline. he only puts weapons on r/ds if they happen to be in range. following r/d to put weapon usually results in death. the rit only needs to go in if r/d specifically asks for hex removal or warmonger.

necro is the easiest to play. necro has to stand as far as he can in range of kaoli and just put warding on the the target the frontline is about to spike. life and kaoli to heal everything. if ur warding is inteurpted just use transfer. necro has to communicate backline positioning to the trapper so he can put defence traps efficiently. most spikes from opposing team will fail on trapper and r/d. so really the necro just needs to watch the rit and the other necro.

so the verdict is . sway is very hard to beat where they can run.
underworld,
dark chambers

sway is impossible to beat in heroway maps

sway is very hard to beat in relic run cuz its easy to split a balance team there and when balance teams splits, its easy to kill.

sway is easily beatable in small maps, fetid and burial.

in all other maps sway is in same power as any team. ie courtyard and hoh.

if ur team has only 2 monks, and some rit, a foes and no other snares. u will lose.if u have 2 monks, a DA and some snare. u can win on small maps. if u have more defence u are going to have 30 + mins matches in 1v1 maps.

if sway is played right, it should end up in mostly flawlesses.

some friends who i give tribute to and consider them to be good swayers and played with them on a regular basis.

good R/d

1. Natallie Geller
2. Evil Kane (old math officer, took MATH to top 10 in GvG)
3. Karl
4. Papa noel no existe (mute this guy on vent. very screechy voice)
5. Sarlock ( nice guy, was leader of some top 20 guild)
6. VW gale
7. Bamboocha (some top 10 guild player. good swayer/iwayer)
8. Shin barb dru

good trappers

1. Todbrigaande Saat (old MATH trapper, almost 50k fame only from trapping)
2. Trappy trappster - only rank 7 prolly r10 by now
3. VW gale
4. Ghostly haste
5. Pride and honor
6. Takida

good rits

Atun tun tun - r7 only but plays for r300 ish guild.
Haldir
Iron maiden

good necros
Any GvG monk can play necro well however HA monks suck at it.
Iron Maiden
Evil Seraph
Monoxide Luluby
Fanta

this post ignores r/w sway, only r/d and iway. as r/w is pure x and y while r/d and iway was based on how good u play.

Ben-A-BoO · Sep 10, 2008, 06:32 AM // 06:32

Haven't seen Sway in AGES (did you hear they nerfed a few skills buddy?) and where is your promised Iway part?

The beauty of it was that newcomers could organize a PuG without the need for vent and such and still by chance win a match against higher ranked groups that forgot how to wand. And that is about it. And trust me R/W is the stronger template and needs as much 'skill' or however you wanna call it as your dearly loved R/D (which is nerfed out of HA anyway).

Sway/Heroway/Iway are like fast food, you know what you get and you get it fast but you can't nurture from it in the long run. Muesli makes you stronger!

Unlike others I didn't dislike it that much to play against. It was a easy door for newcomers to make their first steps. Though nothing I would take serious and give a player respect for lolz.

Have fun whatever you play

Arya Nibelrund · Sep 10, 2008, 08:19 AM // 08:19

Noone runs sway anymore.
No need to comment about it.