Post by Garibaldi on Jul 2, 2010 7:47:00 GMT -8
Disclaimer: This post is comprised of conventional game wisdom and traditional practice. It does, however, also contain a good deal of ideas and attitudes that are based on personal observation and, therefore, is prone to inaccuracies. I encourage others to comment either in agreement or disagreement.
Seasoned mates know that teaming in teams of 2 or 3 (no more) is considered to be the best way to team against bots in a swordfight melee. It’s been observed over the years that bots will stall (play slowly) when more that 3 players team on them. When the bot stalls he’s keeping the 4 or more mates busy and his cohorts will be able to pick away at the other pirates. We’ve all seen the last bot hold off 10 or 12 mates for much too long. 2 or 3 mates teamed on a bot will knock the bot out more quickly since attacks and sprinkles from both or all 3 will be sent to the bot and he won’t be stalling.
Attacks and sprinkles aren’t sent to the foe immediately. They’re held in a queue until the foe completes a drop. That’s true of bots and pirates. While the bot is stalling the hits from 4+ pirates will be stored in the bot’s queue. When the bot is knocked out any attacks that are still in the queue are lost. This is also true if only 2 or 3 are teamed on one bot. If you think you’ve sent a killing strike it might be a good idea to re-team even though the bot is still active.
Take a page from the “Bot Big Book of Swordfighting” and stall when necessary. If you can handle 3 bots stall when there are more than 3 targeting you. Maybe 2 or even 1 will be the point at which you want to stall. I stall when 2 or more are on me. Even when the bots are no longer targeting you, you’ll want to stall for at least a few more drops, until your attack queue is emptied. Stalling is less about preventing attacks than it is about lasting as long as possible so you distract the bots targeting you to give your untargeted mates more time to take out some of your foes. You’re going to get those hits sooner or later. You can control, somewhat, whether it’s now or later.
Conversely; if there are no bots targeting you, build your combos as quickly as you can. Play quickly and use the space bar liberally.
So, how important is teaming? When you have a good bnaver that can go max – 0 or max – 1 in the sea battle, teaming isn’t usually very important at all. If your crew is made up of legendary or ultimate sword fighters that can build fast insta-kills, teaming isn’t very important.
If the naver is less than wonderful and the count is more like 4 – 3 and/or your crew is made up of less than elite swordfighters, teaming becomes more important. Even a crew of average swordfighters should be able to win a melee at max – 0 or max – 1 with only marginal teaming.
Notice I said “isn’t usually very important.” There are occasions when even a max – 0 melee can be lost without proper teaming due to the size and skill of the bot crew.
The numbers the bots bring to the melee is a factor. The more outnumbered your crew is, the more important good teaming is. Even at max – 0 you’ll be hard pressed to win a melee if the bots out number you 2 to 1.
Yet another factor is the type of bots you’re fighting. Even at max – 0 and with impeccable teaming, it’s difficult to win the melee against a brigand king crew. It’s the same with “chainsaw bots”. You’ll encounter chainsaw bots occasionally especially on harder routes after a few wins.
Because you might be fighting a brigand king, chainsaw bots or an overly large bot crew, it’s best to think about teaming and team as well as you can all the time.
There are a couple of things to think about before you shout, “Team up mates.” First there’s the 5 second lag. Changes to the mini-puzzles or teaming movements only update to your monitor every 5 seconds. This makes teaming tricky sometimes and could make the “Team up mates,” shout unnecessary. They may already be teamed. Wait 10 or 15 seconds before you decide that someone is ignoring teaming. It may be that by the time you shout they’re already teamed. I see it happen often.
Another thing to consider is “puzzle focus”. If your crew is able to see your shout in chat, they can probably see that they’re not teamed. The fuller a mate’s board is, the less he/she will be paying attention to teams or chat and concentrating on staying alive.
How do you decide who to team on? There’s some controversy concerning this. First; there’s no reason to “team on the bot with the hat” first or last. It makes no difference to how easy the melee is or how much poe is won. The only good reason to tell your mates to team on the bot with the hat first is to get them to focus their teaming. The bad reason is too many mates will probably team on the bot with the hat and the rest of the teaming effort will be lacking.
Some mates say that teaming on more powerful swords first is a help. Taking out the bots with skull daggers, falchions, scimitars and maybe cleavers first will make the melee easier. Some mates say it makes no difference but asking your crew to team on those swords will, once again, focus their teaming. There’s still concern that too many will target the same bot. I see merit in teaming on the more powerful swords, but I don’t think it’ll make or break an average melee.
Who should I team with? The idea that you don’t team with a dot that’s the same color as your dot is a bogus myth. The color of the dot is only an indication of your swords handle and hilt color. The only place color means anything significant is the color of the strikes and sprinkles a sword makes. Because of this, some old timers will caution against teaming with a mate that has the same type of sword you do. On the other hand, there are old timers that say it makes no difference. The bots don’t react to color blocks the way pirates do. Bots play a percentages game sending their attacks based more on the size of the attacks and sprinkles they receive than on the color of the attacks and sprinkles. Some even say that it doesn’t matter whether you fight bots with a high-end sword or stick since they don’t care what color the blocks are. I’ve heard this often from mates who have computer programming skills.
Who can ignore teaming? Elite swordfighters that can quickly build insta-kills don’t have to team. The problem here is if they only send a large attack, the bot now has ammunition to send back. The bot has to go out soon after the big strike. The other problem is that your mates may still want to team with you. Jumping from foe to foe to keep your mates from teaming with you can be counter productive.
Who must team? Swordfighters that aren’t capable of sending quick insta-kills. Their small strikes and sprinkles are also ammunition for the bots. It’s almost better to leave the bot alone to get his ammunition from the drops than to have one mediocre swordfighter on him/her.
Serenaders may have noticed that I don’t always mention teaming when I nav. When I’m naving with a crew of Serenaders, I know the teaming will be reasonably good without saying anything unless I didn’t get us far enough ahead going into the melee. Then I’ll mention teaming as a reminder and to indicate that I’m concerned that I didn’t shoot them enough.
I also don’t think it makes a wit of difference what swords (or sticks) are used against the bots. I’ve seen a single stick take out the last 2 or 3 bots in a melee. However, I’m not convinced either way on the idea of teaming like swords against a bot, but I lean toward it makes no difference.
Reminding the crew about teaming early in the melee or while the melee is loading can be helpful. Late in the melee when many may be struggling to stay alive, it’s nearly useless. Anyone who has time to read chat will be looking at the teaming and adjusting as necessary.
A word about ‘Ghosting’.
Ghosting is the art of moving off the bot you’re targeting to send a combo to another bot. If you’re teamed properly on a bot that has a rather empty mini puzzle and you’re about to break a nice combo, it can be very helpful to take a look at the other bots. If you see one with a nearly full puzzle and retarget just long enough to break your combo that could be want it takes to kill that bot.
Ghosting works particularly well in PvP melees. The foe won’t know what hit 'em. In fact, in a PvP melee, an effective teaming strategy is to wait until the first 2 or 3 drops to team. After the first couple drops the foe has probably decided how many are teamed on him/her and has decided whether to stall or not. If the mate isn’t stalling, you can easily eliminate one opponent. Likewise teaming on one foe early and moving to another might cause the first foe to stall. If that foe isn’t paying attention and continues to stall, his/her strikes will be fewer and easier to handle.
A few years ago a couple mates and I tested delayed PvP teaming in the inn. We teamed, made 2, 3, or 4 (whatever we decided on) quick drops and re-teamed. We won a lot of matches against elite swordfighters that should have beaten us because they didn’t notice us re-teaming.
Is good teaming important? Sometimes. On an easier route at max – 0 it probably doesn’t make much difference but with less than perfect bnav, on harder routes, or when out numbered, good teaming will often prevail.
As I said at the opening of this post, I welcome comments either supporting or refuting the ideas presented
Advanced Teaming in Swordfight Melees
Seasoned mates know that teaming in teams of 2 or 3 (no more) is considered to be the best way to team against bots in a swordfight melee. It’s been observed over the years that bots will stall (play slowly) when more that 3 players team on them. When the bot stalls he’s keeping the 4 or more mates busy and his cohorts will be able to pick away at the other pirates. We’ve all seen the last bot hold off 10 or 12 mates for much too long. 2 or 3 mates teamed on a bot will knock the bot out more quickly since attacks and sprinkles from both or all 3 will be sent to the bot and he won’t be stalling.
Attacks and sprinkles aren’t sent to the foe immediately. They’re held in a queue until the foe completes a drop. That’s true of bots and pirates. While the bot is stalling the hits from 4+ pirates will be stored in the bot’s queue. When the bot is knocked out any attacks that are still in the queue are lost. This is also true if only 2 or 3 are teamed on one bot. If you think you’ve sent a killing strike it might be a good idea to re-team even though the bot is still active.
Take a page from the “Bot Big Book of Swordfighting” and stall when necessary. If you can handle 3 bots stall when there are more than 3 targeting you. Maybe 2 or even 1 will be the point at which you want to stall. I stall when 2 or more are on me. Even when the bots are no longer targeting you, you’ll want to stall for at least a few more drops, until your attack queue is emptied. Stalling is less about preventing attacks than it is about lasting as long as possible so you distract the bots targeting you to give your untargeted mates more time to take out some of your foes. You’re going to get those hits sooner or later. You can control, somewhat, whether it’s now or later.
Conversely; if there are no bots targeting you, build your combos as quickly as you can. Play quickly and use the space bar liberally.
So, how important is teaming? When you have a good bnaver that can go max – 0 or max – 1 in the sea battle, teaming isn’t usually very important at all. If your crew is made up of legendary or ultimate sword fighters that can build fast insta-kills, teaming isn’t very important.
If the naver is less than wonderful and the count is more like 4 – 3 and/or your crew is made up of less than elite swordfighters, teaming becomes more important. Even a crew of average swordfighters should be able to win a melee at max – 0 or max – 1 with only marginal teaming.
Notice I said “isn’t usually very important.” There are occasions when even a max – 0 melee can be lost without proper teaming due to the size and skill of the bot crew.
The numbers the bots bring to the melee is a factor. The more outnumbered your crew is, the more important good teaming is. Even at max – 0 you’ll be hard pressed to win a melee if the bots out number you 2 to 1.
Yet another factor is the type of bots you’re fighting. Even at max – 0 and with impeccable teaming, it’s difficult to win the melee against a brigand king crew. It’s the same with “chainsaw bots”. You’ll encounter chainsaw bots occasionally especially on harder routes after a few wins.
Because you might be fighting a brigand king, chainsaw bots or an overly large bot crew, it’s best to think about teaming and team as well as you can all the time.
There are a couple of things to think about before you shout, “Team up mates.” First there’s the 5 second lag. Changes to the mini-puzzles or teaming movements only update to your monitor every 5 seconds. This makes teaming tricky sometimes and could make the “Team up mates,” shout unnecessary. They may already be teamed. Wait 10 or 15 seconds before you decide that someone is ignoring teaming. It may be that by the time you shout they’re already teamed. I see it happen often.
Another thing to consider is “puzzle focus”. If your crew is able to see your shout in chat, they can probably see that they’re not teamed. The fuller a mate’s board is, the less he/she will be paying attention to teams or chat and concentrating on staying alive.
How do you decide who to team on? There’s some controversy concerning this. First; there’s no reason to “team on the bot with the hat” first or last. It makes no difference to how easy the melee is or how much poe is won. The only good reason to tell your mates to team on the bot with the hat first is to get them to focus their teaming. The bad reason is too many mates will probably team on the bot with the hat and the rest of the teaming effort will be lacking.
Some mates say that teaming on more powerful swords first is a help. Taking out the bots with skull daggers, falchions, scimitars and maybe cleavers first will make the melee easier. Some mates say it makes no difference but asking your crew to team on those swords will, once again, focus their teaming. There’s still concern that too many will target the same bot. I see merit in teaming on the more powerful swords, but I don’t think it’ll make or break an average melee.
Who should I team with? The idea that you don’t team with a dot that’s the same color as your dot is a bogus myth. The color of the dot is only an indication of your swords handle and hilt color. The only place color means anything significant is the color of the strikes and sprinkles a sword makes. Because of this, some old timers will caution against teaming with a mate that has the same type of sword you do. On the other hand, there are old timers that say it makes no difference. The bots don’t react to color blocks the way pirates do. Bots play a percentages game sending their attacks based more on the size of the attacks and sprinkles they receive than on the color of the attacks and sprinkles. Some even say that it doesn’t matter whether you fight bots with a high-end sword or stick since they don’t care what color the blocks are. I’ve heard this often from mates who have computer programming skills.
Who can ignore teaming? Elite swordfighters that can quickly build insta-kills don’t have to team. The problem here is if they only send a large attack, the bot now has ammunition to send back. The bot has to go out soon after the big strike. The other problem is that your mates may still want to team with you. Jumping from foe to foe to keep your mates from teaming with you can be counter productive.
Who must team? Swordfighters that aren’t capable of sending quick insta-kills. Their small strikes and sprinkles are also ammunition for the bots. It’s almost better to leave the bot alone to get his ammunition from the drops than to have one mediocre swordfighter on him/her.
Serenaders may have noticed that I don’t always mention teaming when I nav. When I’m naving with a crew of Serenaders, I know the teaming will be reasonably good without saying anything unless I didn’t get us far enough ahead going into the melee. Then I’ll mention teaming as a reminder and to indicate that I’m concerned that I didn’t shoot them enough.
I also don’t think it makes a wit of difference what swords (or sticks) are used against the bots. I’ve seen a single stick take out the last 2 or 3 bots in a melee. However, I’m not convinced either way on the idea of teaming like swords against a bot, but I lean toward it makes no difference.
Reminding the crew about teaming early in the melee or while the melee is loading can be helpful. Late in the melee when many may be struggling to stay alive, it’s nearly useless. Anyone who has time to read chat will be looking at the teaming and adjusting as necessary.
A word about ‘Ghosting’.
Ghosting is the art of moving off the bot you’re targeting to send a combo to another bot. If you’re teamed properly on a bot that has a rather empty mini puzzle and you’re about to break a nice combo, it can be very helpful to take a look at the other bots. If you see one with a nearly full puzzle and retarget just long enough to break your combo that could be want it takes to kill that bot.
Ghosting works particularly well in PvP melees. The foe won’t know what hit 'em. In fact, in a PvP melee, an effective teaming strategy is to wait until the first 2 or 3 drops to team. After the first couple drops the foe has probably decided how many are teamed on him/her and has decided whether to stall or not. If the mate isn’t stalling, you can easily eliminate one opponent. Likewise teaming on one foe early and moving to another might cause the first foe to stall. If that foe isn’t paying attention and continues to stall, his/her strikes will be fewer and easier to handle.
A few years ago a couple mates and I tested delayed PvP teaming in the inn. We teamed, made 2, 3, or 4 (whatever we decided on) quick drops and re-teamed. We won a lot of matches against elite swordfighters that should have beaten us because they didn’t notice us re-teaming.
Is good teaming important? Sometimes. On an easier route at max – 0 it probably doesn’t make much difference but with less than perfect bnav, on harder routes, or when out numbered, good teaming will often prevail.
As I said at the opening of this post, I welcome comments either supporting or refuting the ideas presented
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