Guild Wars 2's subsequent considerable content update is heading your way tonight, bringing with it a brand new PVP map. Spirit Watch is a mix of conquest and capture-the-flag, set in the primal land of the Norns. Intense brawls are situated at the control points, while high cliffs, bridges and valleys shift the focus to vertical play.
ArenaNet gave me a tour of Spirit Watch, in addition to checking our mettle in a number of rounds. Read on for my impressions of this upcoming new map.
The objectives of Spirit Watch are easy, but hide subtle differences than your common conquest map. There are three control points on the map, identified by 3 of the Norn animal aspects. These aspect shrines will net your team points at intervals if you control them, like any other conquest styled map.
The difference lies in the center of the map, where an Orb of Ascension is seated on a pedestal. Players can obtain the orb after a short commune time, where they must then relay it to any of the 3 shrines. <a href="http://www.gw2gold.net">guild wars 2 gold</a> Players will nonetheless have the ability to use their capabilities while carrying the orb, however they will move at a lowered 40% movement speed. They'll also drop the orb if they use any teleport skill-sets or turn out to be downed.
If the orb reaches a shrine that your team controls, you're awarded thirty points. However if the orb reaches a shrine that is in control on the enemy team, you are only rewarded fifteen points. This does come with the added bonus of forcing the shrine to turn into neutral, allowing for an easy capture.
After the orb reaches a shrine, the points are added plus the orb respawns after a 10 second duration.
The map design of Spirit Watch is pretty much perfect for these objectives, with verticality playing a substantial role on team tactics. It's an all out rush for the orb at the start; where my Elementalist zipped across the battlefield as a ball of lightning. It nearly normally ends up being all out war in the centre, only ending when someone can get their hands on the orb.
Then it is the long haul up ramps & stairs to the shrines, avoiding the sheer drops that the enemy team so desperately want to launch you off. Skill-sets that slow, root and knock down are awesome for grinding the orb carrier to a halt. Likewise, skills that make you nigh invulnerable will ease the brunt of the focus fire.
Once you finally make it to the shrine & deposit the orb, the trip back to the pedestal is just a short jump down. This permits everyone to get back into the mad squabble over the orb pretty much instantly. The height of the shrines coupled with the movement penalty of the orb, creates an illusion of length in the time it takes to ascend.
The map is open to many tactics, which will need to keep each game fresh and exciting. You can allocate members of your team to each shrine and the orb, focus only on the shrines, only capture one shrine & constantly relay the orb to it or even try & put the orb as far from the shrines as feasible.
Spirit Watch is both fun and dramatic. Our playtime made tonnes of tense, keyboard mashing drama. Those moments included performing an aerial assault on the orb carrier & thwarting the enemy team's victory, or finally reaching a shrine only to be launched off by no other than ArenaNet's Evan Teicheira. Every round we played usually ended up saying "close game", due to the fact with determination & coordination a certain win can fall apart in seconds.
Make certain to go look at Spirit Watch yourself later tonight when the patch hits. In the meantime, why not take a consider our hands on of the new Guild Missions.