• Fixed a bug in the Jennur's Horde mission that made it possible for Margonite corpses to accumulate endlessly.

Guild Wars Factions has been nominated for Multiplayer Game of the Year by Billboard Magazine’s Digital Entertainment’s Media and Marketing Excellence award. Winners will be announced at an Awards gala to be held on November 29, 2006.

Guild of the Week
The Gameamp Guides [AMP]

Celebrating its first birthday in November, the Gameamp Guides [AMP] was founded by members of the Gameamp.com forums. The founding members wanted to see their forum community united inside the game, as well as out, and so the guild was born.

AMP's ethos boils down to respect, helpfulness, and fun. These traditions stem from the forum rules of behavior. AMP prides itself on having a friendly community that offers help instead of frustration. Potential members are directed to the "AMP Agreement," which sets out the philosophy and code of behavior for participants. No swearing, bigotry, or flaming is permitted. When a new member is accepted into the guild, they add their name to the agreement.

AMP aims to achieve a continued positive presence in the game, not only within the ranks of their alliance, but outside it. Members take pleasure in assisting anyone who needs help. The guild also hopes to attain more experience in all aspects of PvP. The group has mostly focused on PvE play, not due to any policy, but rather as a reflection of member interests. However, as the guild roster expands to include more active PvP players, the guild has broadened its horizons.

All members of AMP joined through the site forums. Because of the friendly nature of the Gameamp community, players hail from all nationalities and walks of life. The only requirement is that members be respectful, friendly, and can speak English. The ranks never fall below 90, and the guild is generally maxed out at 100 members.

At present, AMP expects to see the guild evolve with the needs of its membership. Currently, that means providing more PvP-oriented activities. The guild also is considering the option of starting a second AMP guild to host the growing membership. In the meantime, AMP is expanding on their alliance by uniting with other strong, like-minded guilds.

PvE Discussion

AMP has two approaches to PvE. The first, and most common, is a spur-of-the-moment quest or mission. Priorities are based on what members need at the time. Most recently, titles have been a popular project. The guild embraces the idea of cooperation and always manages to succeed. The other approach is planned, and usually involves an elite mission or major goal.

Most guild members have more than one character at their disposal, allowing a great deal of versatility. If a mission proves difficult, teams have no problem adjusting the party to meet the challenge.

AMP doesn't lay claim to any special tricks for success, besides having a great roster of players to party with. The number of competent members means that almost any tactic can be used successfully. The guild also uses traditional strategies, such as taking care to avoid aggroing too many groups of enemies and making sure that casters are protected.

PvP Discussion

AMP traditionally has more PvE players than PvP, though recently, more members are becoming interested in the competitive side of the game. PvP is something AMP is trying to encourage within the guild. To realize this goal, the guild has appointed a dedicated team of PvP officers. Each officer has been organizing teams for HA.

AMP's current build for tackling HA features the Nightfall Paragon and utilizes some of the new elite skills. AMP describes it as a "build very much in progress," and they evolve the build as they play it. The team is an unusual mix that comes from previous experience using pressure, holding, and balanced builds. Lacking an official name, the guild presently refers to it with the very tongue-in-cheek name "AMPway."

The Paragon proves to be a great asset in this build. It provides support by protecting and healing allies with its Shouts. Other team members put pressure on the opposing team by targeting the enemy Monks, interrupting their Healing and Protection. Both the Warrior and Ranger are the main damage dealers, and make extensive use of knockdowns and damage pressure.

AMP has found this build to be successful against a variety of tactics. The biggest threat so far has proven to be the Necromancer Hex "Vocal Minority," which renders the Paragon's Shouts useless.

RaO Hammer Ranger
Ranger/Warrior
12 Hammer Mastery, 12 Beast Mastery, 12 Expertise

Rampage as One (Elite)
Charm Animal
Comfort Animal
Crushing Blow
Mighty Blow
Irresistible Blow
Hammer Bash
Resurrection Signet

Blessed Monk
Monk/Mesmer
16 Divine Favor, 12 Protection Prayers, 8 Inspiration Magic

Blessed Light (Elite)
Reversal of Fortune
Signet of Devotion
Protective Spirit
Mend Condition
Mantra of Flame
Inspired Hex
Revealed Hex

Axe/Shock Warrior
Warrior/Elementalist
16 Axe Mastery, 13 Strength, 3 Air Magic

Frenzy
Sprint
Eviscerate
Executioner's Strike
Shock
Bull's Strike
Distracting Blow
Resurrection Signet

PS Interrupter
Ranger
13 Expertise, 13 Marksmanship, 10 Wilderness Survival

Punishing Shot (Elite)
Distracting Shot
Savage Shot
Read the wind
Troll Unguent
Whirling Defense
Debilitating Shot
Resurrection Signet

SoR Paragon
Paragon/Warrior
2 Tactics, 13 Motivation, 12 Leadership, 9 Spear Mastery

Aggressive Refrain
Song of Restoration (Elite)
Ballad of Restoration
Aria of Restoration
Finale of Restoration
Energizing Finale
"Watch Yourself!"
Resurrection Signet

Glimmer Monk
Monk/Mesmer
11 Divine Favor, 16 Healing Prayers, 8 Inspiration Magic

Words of Comfort
Glimmer of Light (Elite)
Healing Seed
Infuse Health
Healing Touch
Mantra of Flame
Channeling
Resurrection Signet

Member Profiles
Meet some AMP

Handle: Evil Geek
Location: London, England
Preferred Character: The Necromancer is truly versatile and can handle so many different types of situations in so many different ways; mostly I play MM because I love having my own little army to send out to do my evil bidding.
Gaming Background: After getting into games on the Atari, way back when, PC puzzle-based adventure games got me well and truly hooked.
Position: Guild Leader

Handle: Patrickvp, Alila Kitail
Location: Oregon, USA
Preferred Character: Alila was my very first character and I have been playing as her for a fairly solid nine months now. I tend to end up with straight Ranger skill builds. Before I started reading other suggested builds, I had kind of worked out my own "favorite" build for general PvE use, which is actually very similar to a standard B/P build, with a pet, Barrage, interrupts, and a few defensive skills.
Gaming Background: I'm a bit of an old dog and have been playing games steadily since the first arcades and early consoles (Itellision, Atari 2600, Coleco, even Vectrex.) Until about a year ago, I was more of an FPS player. Every couple of years, though, I get a hankering for some kind of RPG game. I picked up Guild Wars and have been in love with it ever since. Sometimes my work buddies get a little annoyed that I'm not fragging as much with them any more!
Position: Member. I am also one of the resident "Gaile-stalkers," waiting to collect a chat-log for our site!

Handle: Dragonius (Sonny)
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Gaming Background: FPSs. Before Guild Wars I wasn't really into MMORPGs so you could say that my first time in Guild Wars was a whole new experience for me; I loved every moment of it.
Preferred Character: Dragonius X, my Elementalist. I tend to pretty much design my own PvE builds. My Elementalist isn't limited to a single element as most others are. I prefer to run an element more suitable for the job I'm set to, making her more versatile when it comes to magic.
Position: General Guild Officer

Handle: Meow Katty
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Gaming Background: Mainly PvE as most of the guild is PvE-oriented. With the double fame weekend I got a lot more into PvP and have enjoyed it. So now I PvP a lot more than I used to. Ranger spike with AMP is the best though.
Preferred Character: That would be Meow Katty my Ranger. I've found Rangers can do almost anything. They can solo parts of the FOW, they can duo the UW, they can Trap, they can spike, and there is loads more they can do as well.
Position: Member and loving it.

Handle: Rogue
Location: California, USA
Gaming Background: I come from a broad genre of games. RTS? Yes. FPS? Yes. RPG? Yes. Racing? Yes. I came to Guild Wars straight out of a different MMORPG (which shall remain nameless) and loved everything I saw.
Preferred Character: My ranger, Rogue Flare. He and I have been through a lot together.
Position: I haven't decided if I'm the comic relief, the guild mascot, or just a normal member.

Handle: Lady Alica
Location: UK
Gaming Background: I'm a staunch PvEer, though I have slightly branched out into nice gentle PvP, such as Alliance Battles. HA and GvG still scare me though.
Preferred Character: I love playing my Elementalist, Xun Yin. I love sneaking up on things and nuking them to oblivion, especially in AB. I play the classic E/Me, but I prefer echoing Rodgort's to Meteor Shower.
Position: Proud member.

Handle: Crimson The Fierce
Location: Georgia, USA
Gaming Background: I started off with RTS games. After those, I started playing good, fast-paced FPS games. After FPS games, I got more into MMORPG. I got into Guild Wars.
Primary Character: My first and favorite character is Crimson The Fierce. I have a lovely full adren build that can take a 100 armor target down halfway as well as inflict Deep Wound and Cripple in one attack chain. I'm the kind who likes an up-close and personal encounter with my enemies.
Position in the Guild: Member

Handle: Genesis Dragon (Gen)
Location: Halifax, UK
Gaming Background: My online gaming started with FPSs, but I was lured to Guild Wars by a member of my online gaming clan...I've never looked back.
Preferred Character: Warrior or Monk. My oldest and most established character is my Warrior, Axxor. He's a Title fan, and currently has both the Protector and Explorer Titles for the two continents and is currently working on Elona.
Position in the Guild: General Officer

Handle: Tarja Nightshadow
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Gaming Background: When it comes to Guild Wars I've always enjoyed PvE just a tad more than PvP. I'm mainly an RPG/fantasy fan.
Preferred Characters: I currently have one PvE Character for each profession and try my best to divide my time between them evenly, simply because all of the professions are incredibly fun to play. I've kept the same last name for all of my characters because it makes identifying a little bit easier in a big guild.

Handle: Divine Fireslayer
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Gaming Background: After my RTS period, I went on to some FPSs, but didn't really enjoy it. I bought Guild Wars, and I loved it. I'm more of a PvE player in the game, but when the opportunity arises for PvP, I get there immediately.
Preferred Character: I prefer to play a Word of Healing Monk, a Shock Axe Warrior or just about anything else in PvP. In PvE...Mending Wammo!
Position: Annoying PvP Enthusiast.

 

Guild Nominations Accepted

Do you have a guild you would like to nominate for a Guild of the Week article? Perhaps a guild you've met on the field of battle that has impressed you with their sportsmanship and skill. Maybe you would like to learn more about a specific guild on the ladder. Or perhaps you would like us to feature your own guild because you feel you and your teammates can offer valuable insight into Guild Wars or interesting information about guilds or strategies in general. Please see this page for information on the Guild of the Week nomination process. And thanks for your help in providing excellent coverage of Guild Wars guilds!

This weekend, Balthazar will bless those who do well in Hero Battles with a double dose of Faction. Get double Balthazar Faction per point scored and per Hero Battle victory, too. This opportunity begins at Noon PST on Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday.

As if Chinese gamers didn't have enough online gaming to occupy their leisure (and work) time, The9 has announced Guild Wars China will begin closed beta testing on Nov. 29. One of the most anticipated games on the mainland, Guild Wars attracted 200,000 applicants on the first day of beta registration last week. Maybe an aspiring Chinese clan will unseat South Korea's reigning Guild Wars champs The Last Pride at the next world tournament.

The9 also hosts World of Warcraft and Webzen's Soul of the Ultimate Nation, but it is unknown if the Shanghai-based developer's Guild Wars deal with NCsoft also includes the Factions and Nightfall expansions.

There really is very little that can be said detrimentally about Nightfall; it's one of those games that, if it gets its hooks in you, could have you playing for weeks or months. Possibly the best compliment I can give the game is that I've racked up over 40 hours play in a little over a week, and I've nowhere near experienced all that there is to see (there are some convenient indicators in one of the interface screens that tells you how many of the missions you've completed and how much of the content you've explored).

Not only that, but it serves as the perfect introduction to the franchise or indeed MMORPG games in general, as the quest system is exceptionally easy to follow, while the presentation and visuals are top notch. So what are you waiting for - there's whole new continent waiting to be explored, and it wont cost you an arm and a leg each month to do so.

Gamers already deep in the Guild Wars experience may be ever so slightly miffed that they’ll need to effectively grind for reputation experience to gain access to higher level quests. New players sprouting from this Nightfall’s chapter therefore have a little advantage over veterans; this way certainly stops characters from completing the new content too quickly.

Leadership in Guild Wars

By Adam Sunstrom

Ask most Guild Wars players who the most important person on a team is, and practically everyone will give you the same reply: "The Monk." They are wrong. I have been around Guild Wars since before the first PvP map was put into the game, and my focus has always been competition. In my experience, what separates a good team from a decent team is nearly always the leadership. Not the leadership of choosing members and deciding play times, but the in-battle leadership that PvPers refer to as "calling." This article is about how to do it effectively over voice communication like Ventrilo or Teamspeak.

The Caller

The player who does the calling has to have certain qualities to be effective. The caller has to be able to think on his feet and adapt to unexpected scenarios. He needs to be able to speak loudly and clearly so everyone can understand him; good callers are usually talkative and somewhat cocky. He must be decisive and confident, because if he constantly second-guesses himself mid-sentence, the team will lose all direction.

In addition, the caller must have intimate knowledge of the game and the build your team is running, and she must be able to analyze an enemy's build quickly so she can adapt the tactics accordingly. The caller must also be experienced enough to be able to foresee the enemy team's tactics, like blocking the door and shooting the Trebuchet when Victory or Death arrives.

Positional awareness is another key skill, because the caller needs to be able to identify enemy movements and take advantage when they overextend away from Monk healing range or when they split up. Last but not least, the caller should be someone who has been around the guild for a while and has built up some authority and trust from the members.

One thing the caller does not need to be, however, is the nominal leader of the guild. If the founder or leader of the guild is not the person best suited for calling, she has to be humble and realistic enough to delegate the job to the person who would be best at it for the benefit of the guild.

The Calling

What follows are some tips that can help improve the performance of your caller. Hopefully there will be something useful here even for callers with a lot of top-level experience, because it's a difficult job and nobody ever gets it completely perfect.

• ABC: Always Be Calling. Long silences leave room for confusion, and it's your job to make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to do throughout the game. Call targets to attack as often as suits your build, and make sure your team's positioning is good. If you are facing a team with strong Area of Effect damage, remind your team to spread out. During lulls in gameplay, such as while waiting for the enemy to come out of their base at VoD, discuss how you will adapt to different possible scenarios the opponents might put you in after the lull.
   
• If you're sure the main team is under control, ask players not visible on your compass how they are doing and make sure they know what's going on. Follow up on the status of your earlier order, whether it be pushing in the Repair Kit or killing NPCs in the enemy base.
   
• When calling targets to kill with a spike build, try to count down in actual seconds. Players with longer cast time skills such as Lightning Orb need to time the start their cast for a certain second, and if you count too slow or too fast you will ruin the spike.
   
• If you or some players on your spike team are experiencing lag in the voice program, use the in-game clock to count down spikes. For example: If the clock shows 14:30, say "I want a spike on target X at 14:40."
   
• When you want a player of a certain profession to do something, say his name instead of his profession. For example, if your flag runner has Death Penalty and you want one of your two Warriors with high armor to push the flag to the flag stand, say "Bob, take the flag from the runner and go cap." If you say "I need a Warrior to take the flag and cap it," you risk wasting the team's time in the confusion of deciding which Warrior does it.
   
• Stay focused on the game at hand. If you're in a lull and you start discussing a great movie you saw last night, chances are you won't adapt quickly enough if the enemy team pulls something unexpected.
   

Effective Communication

Here are some further tips for effective communication everyone should observe, not just the caller.

• Minimize noise. Subjects or discussions that are irrelevant to the game at hand take away focus from players and can clutter up the sound space when the caller needs to issue an order. If you are not the caller, keep your communication and commentary to the minimum necessary for your build. If you're a flag runner, update the team on flag status. If you're a Warrior, call for Blindness removal when necessary. The Warrior shouldn't talk about the flag runner's job unless it involves her.
   
• Discuss problems, not players. If a player keeps repeating a mistake, discuss what needs to happen from now on rather than what that player should have done differently or that player's skilled level.
   
• Save build discussions for after the game. If your Warriors are getting all of their attacks blocked or evaded, try to adapt by pressuring or interrupting whoever is casting the Aegis or Ward Against Melee. Do not say: "I told you this build needed more Enchantment removal, but you wouldn't listen." It isn't productive, and there will be plenty of time after the game to discuss it.
   
• Keep it positive. No matter how badly it's going, don't give up hope on winning and, most of all, do not start to lay blame. If you allow the communication to degenerate into snide little digs or a shouting match, you not only risk losing that game, you risk losing the whole reason to play the game, which is the entertainment value.
   
• Evaluate between games. Whether you win or lose, take some time between each game to think about what could be improved in terms of build, tactics, communication, and individual play. If you have a loss, let the caller be the moderator and ask each person what problems they ran into and what they think should happen. Show respect and let others finish before you reply.
   
• Refrain from second-guessing the caller. Even if the orders seem like bad tactics, it's better if everyone follows orders and makes a bad move together than for a few players to go against the orders and render the entire team's effort ineffective. If the call was bad, discuss it after the game is over. There are obvious exceptions. If you think the caller is making a poor decision based on lack of information, provide the info, but still follow orders until they change.
   

Common mistakes

Finally, here are some common mistakes to avoid if you want to be an effective caller.

• Faltering under pressure. It seems obvious, but this is the single most common mistake I see callers make. When the momentum of the game starts to turn in the enemy team's favor, you must not let it dishearten you and you must not let it make you quiet or angry. Some callers are superb when everything is going well but fall apart when under pressure. Try to keep your focus on the options you still have, keep talking, and don't let the team get disorganized.
   
• Unclear wording. Avoid ambiguous terms that can be confusing to players. For example, "fall back" can be interpreted as either "disengage and retreat" or "stop overextending." When you can't find accurate words, draw on the map where you want players to be.
   
• Wrong character build. The caller needs to be playing a character that is fairly straightforward, that stays with the main team and that targets enemies. If you are forced to play a complicated build that has to target allies, split off from the group or use many interruption skills, it will take away from your ability to direct the team. Ideal characters for a caller are Warrior, Elementalist, or Paragon as they allow for a lot of positional thinking, and these professions typically fight near the front lines where you can see if an enemy gets low on Health or overextends.
   

I hope this article has made it clear that communication is an important skill in Guild Wars, and that it's worth your effort to improve yours. I'm sure that you'll think of details I have missed or omitted from this article. Remember not to get complacent even if you're doing well, because there is always something you could do better.

Adam Sunstrom has been playing Guild Wars since February 2004 when he joined the Alpha test, and has been interested in the competitive aspects of the game from the beginning. In the early Beta Weekend Events, he led his former clan, The Fianna, with success. He is currently a member of Black Widow [Wi] and the proud holder of one [iA] stamp of approval.

End of Halloween Event

Now sadly, the madness is ended
Laughs abounded and no tears were shed
King Thorn has returned to the Underworld
Pumpkin still very much on his head.

No more scares for Elona and Tyria
No more transformations or spooky décor
Peace comes at last, though we can’t help but ask:
Will the Mad King return once more?!

Game Updates:

• Modified damage text so that its size scales based on the distance from the viewer.
• Fixed various quest NPCs that were inappropriately body-blocking players.
• Added an option to adjust the damage text size.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Heroes to equip more than one elite skill.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some dyes from stacking.
• Fixed a bug that caused skills requiring upkeep to be removed whenever cinematics began.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Lightbringer Title bonus to be used during PVP matches.
• Modified the Trade panel to report offered trades in units of gold, not platinum.
• Removed the previously enforced time delay between fighting and salvaging or identifying an item.
• Increased duration on the skill "Exposed Defenses" to 5..20 seconds. (This update was missing in the previous skill update.)

End of Halloween Event

Now sadly, the madness is ended
Laughs abounded and no tears were shed
King Thorn has returned to the Underworld
Pumpkin still very much on his head.

No more scares for Elona and Tyria
No more transformations or spooky décor
Peace comes at last, though we can’t help but ask:
Will the Mad King return once more?!

Game Updates:

• Modified damage text so that its size scales based on the distance from the viewer.
• Fixed various quest NPCs that were inappropriately body-blocking players.
• Added an option to adjust the damage text size.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Heroes to equip more than one elite skill.
• Fixed a bug that prevented some dyes from stacking.
• Fixed a bug that caused skills requiring upkeep to be removed whenever cinematics began.
• Fixed a bug that allowed the Lightbringer Title bonus to be used during PVP matches.
• Modified the Trade panel to report offered trades in units of gold, not platinum.
• Removed the previously enforced time delay between fighting and salvaging or identifying an item.
• Increased duration on the skill "Exposed Defenses" to 5..20 seconds. (This update was missing in the previous skill update.)

This week's news scroll covers the passage to Elona (with notes of interest concerning dye drops) and reviews the recent visit of The Mad King. It also offers a lengthy list recognizing kind and generous citizens from throughout the three regions. Find Issue #21 here.

I've logged a good 556 hours in Guild Wars since the original game's April 2005 release and 18 months later, I'm still diggin' it -- thanks in no small part to the just-released Guild Wars Nightfall, the third campaign setting for ArenaNet's free-to-play action-MMORPG.

As Guild Wars releases tend to do, Nightfall gives a very positive first impression. The early experience doesn't differ greatly from what we've experienced in the past, but it's addictive and polished nonetheless. Needless to say, we're going to be all over this one for the foreseeable future, so stay tuned for our full review very soon. Till then, feel free to jump on it -- the weather may be arid, but the water is fine.

Mummies and Daddies; Boys and Ghouls: Give a hearty "well done" to the winners and honorable mention recipients in this year's Halloween Art Contest, co-sponsored by Ideazon (creators of the Zboard Gaming Keyboard)! Each winner will receive a fabulous prize or prize package, along with the appreciation of the entire ArenaNet team for an excellent contribution to our Halloween 2006 celebration. See the winners' list here.

This weekend, you will have double the chance of scoring a dye drop in Elona. Come to the land of Nightfall and stock up on dyes for all your new characters. The event starts at Noon PST on Friday, November 3rd, and runs through 11:59 p.m. PST on Sunday, November 5th. Truly, this is an event to dye for.

With the conclusion of the Guild Wars Autumn Ladder Season, we've put together an extensive analysis of the season and the concepts that it introduced to the tournament system. Read about how the season was organized and what impact this trial may have on future seasons in the article, Experiments in Guild Wars GvG.

Hello,

We will be upgrading one of our primary web servers this weekend and this will require some limited downtime. This maintenance is scheduled to begin early on Saturday, November 4th, 2006. We will do our best to keep the downtime to a minimum.

This upgrade is intended to improve stability, performance and security for our primary web server.

State of the Game—October 30, 2006

One on One with Team Quitter [QQ]

By Christian Brellisford

The Autumn Season is finished and last week the Idiot Savants [iQ] were crowned as the number one guild; however, it wasn't an easy road for iQ. They had to defeat the #1 seeded guild Team Quitter [QQ].

QQ first formed under the name One Hit Quitters a few seasons ago from an amalgamation of a few disbanded guilds. Once they developed a stable team and strategies they renamed their guild Team Quitter for the Autumn Season. Their intentions were to represent their territory (America) at the highest level of Guild Wars competition.

I had a chance to speak with Tommy Equals Ftw, Custodian, and Deamon from Team Quitter to talk about their guild. I found out how they got started, what it takes to make a top guild, and their recent matches against iQ in the Autumn Season Finals.

Building a winning team

Q: How did you guys initially form and how many players are in your guild?

A: Team Quitter is composed of nine members from varied backgrounds: we have three members from I Guild I [iGi], three from We Pwn Char [Char], one from Clan Kgyu [KGYU], one from Fallen Angels [fA], and we have one member who is currently involved purely with Heroes Ascent. We all knew each other from constantly competing against one another in regular GvG ladder matches. When all of our guilds disbanded at relatively similar times (though some have since reformed) it was easy to join together as friends with identical goals. Thus, the guild One Hitter Quitters [QQ] was born. After finishing third place in the first of several "fun seasons" One Hitter Quitters changed our name to Team Quitter, knowing we had formed a solid, highly competitive GvG team.

Q: What does it take to climb the Guild Wars Ladder? How often do you guys play?

A: For a team to climb the ladder, they need to constantly learn from their mistakes and know what was done right to beat them. A stubborn team will never improve, and the only way to become better or more knowledgeable is to constantly play and gain experience. A consistent roster helps too. Being able to predict your teammates' actions in situations and rely on them is something we do often.

We normally play GvG from three to five nights per week for about three to five hours at a time. As for playing as a guild, we are constantly doing things with one another, whether it's "guesting" with someone else, playing in the Arenas, Heroes' Ascent, or Alliance Battles, or helping someone through PvE. On any given night, there will be at least five or more members in Vent doing something together when we're not GvGing.

Q: You played a few different builds in the Autumn Tournament, how many team builds have you guys developed?

A: In the season leading up to this tournament we made the effort to have experience with many different build styles. We felt it was important to be versatile, as teams with only a few builds and strategies are easily countered. In the first two seasons that we played together, we played two builds that were meant for getting fast rating points, and as the Autumn Tournament was announced, we shifted our build-making focus to tournament-style play.

We entered the tournament with a series of different builds and, based on our opponent and the map choice, we chose which one of those builds to run. Of course, we always have the ability to change a few skills here and there to hopefully gain an advantage over our opponent. We currently have five builds that we feel confident using in a tournament or ladder environment.

The Autumn Tournament

Team Quitter finished as number one for regular season play, winning 114 games. They were the number one seed in the Autumn Tournament which culminated in two hard-played games versus iQ where they eventually lost 2-0. Tommy and Daemon talked about the two matches and what they could have done better.

Q: What do you think of iQ? Did you make any specific build changes to face them?

A: iQ is probably the scariest team to play in a tournament setting. Most other guilds create their builds from some kind of template, and that can lead to predictability and familiarity with the situations that arise. iQ, however, tends to run far more experimental builds that can revolve around a single purpose or instant in the game. If unprepared, even for a quarter of a second, it can cost your team the game.

When we found out we were to play iQ in the final round, we went in with our most practiced build. We switched in Unnatural Signet because we knew they would have Spirits of some kind, and we also switched in Ice Prison to take advantage of the layout of the Nomad's Isle. Though expected, we had no idea of the magnitude of their incredibly strong strategy at the Victory or Death mark.

Q: It seemed you were ahead in game #1 with iQ until Victory or Death. What happened at that point?

A: iQ had an incredible amount of shutdown and very little damage, so scoring kills at the flag stand early in the game were rather difficult. We did manage to drop the Monks and Ritualist several times, but major pushes proved to be ineffective, as there would be no chain deaths, but simply solitary ones. We were also able to secure a morale boost, but unfortunately not able to wipe their team and get into their base to kill some of their NPCs. We knew that our strategy was going to have to be to overwhelm and wipe them before the twenty-minute mark because theirs was going to be to stall the game and play defense until Victory or Death for an assured victory.

The kills that we had scored on iQ's Monks and Ritualist early in the game, however, were not enough to defeat them once VoD struck. The only option at that point was to take the battle to their base. We fought at their gate with some success, dropping several of their players while taking minimal damage ourselves, but then their Knights and Bodyguard came to interfere. As we fought in their base, they had enough NPC support to finally take us down and we couldn't avoid them no matter where we went. The NPC advantage turned out to be too much.

Q: Knowing iQ was likely going to bring Glyph of Sacrifice/Meteor Shower again, what were you guys thinking about changing in your strategy and how you would combat their VoD plans?

A: We have a certain style of dynamic play that we don't want to compromise. In the first game we attempted smash-mouth tactics to moderate success, but simply did not have enough to get through their defenses in the time allotted; going into the second game, we saw two possibilities as far as a change in strategy. The first was to directly counter their Meteor Shower by implementing counters of otherwise useless skills and playing an even more defensive build. And the second was to run a split build with the idea that we could reduce the advantage they would have on us at Victory or Death, even if we allowed the Meteor Shower combination to go through. Unfortunately, their build's defensive nature allowed a formidable defensive counter-split to handle our assassins and the NPC advantage that we had at VoD was not enough to equalize the numbers.

The Future

The future shows no bounds for Team Quitter. With their number one spot on the ladder and number two finish in the Tournament, QQ plans on playing together for a long time. They have high hopes of playing in and winning future official tournaments. All of their members are looking forward to Guild Wars Nightfall and are welcoming the shift in the metagame that it will likely bring. iQ might have beaten them this time, but these guys are resilient, and Team Quitter won't be quitting any time soon.

Lastly QQ has some advice for small guilds trying to stay competitive. Stay organized. They recommend schedules, outside and/or forum communication, voice chat, regular times for playing, and determining the best possible roles each player has on a team. Team Quitter relies on voice-chat to help them stay coordinated in game, but all of them agree that outside coordination is the key to their success. They also say not to get discouraged by losses and to treat all games as learning experiences. Nobody starts as an expert; there is no substitute for experience.

Thanks to Tommy, Daemon and Custodian for their time to answer these questions and show the public a glimpse of what it's like to be in a top guild!

Christian Brellisford is a college student currently studying video game design in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in hopes of pursuing a career in the field. A gamer since an early age, Christian has been involved with Guild Wars since the E3 for Everyone Event in 2004, and currently leads the Spirits of War guild. You can find him in game under the name Saidin Writer.