Star Wars: The Old
Republic currently has five Warzones (instanced PvP battlegrounds) available: Novare Coast, Alderaan, The Ancient Hypergate, Huttball and Voidstar. I rather enjoy the first three and utterly dislike the
latter two so much that I'm always on the verge instantly leaving when I see
the loading screen.
Please bear in mind that
the following account pertains solely to my experiences advancing the Republic’s
war effort below the level cap as I may have only ever once participated on the
Imperial Side. In addition, my first-hand PvP knowledge is limited to two
healing Advanced Classes, namely the Jedi Sage and the Scoundrel. Moreover, this is the
perspective of a solo player operating without the support of pre-made teams. I
would like to recommend reading this post by Shintar if one desires
a more in-depth view into SW:TOR’s PvP content,
particularly at the level cap and concerning the adjusted “Bolster” mechanic.
Success in Warzones can
only be achieved by focusing on the objectives, not by randomly killing as many
enemy players as possible. That should not indicate, however, that the latter
is in any way prohibited by the former. Things normally go best when the leader
declares a common (and sensible) strategy during the preparation phase which in
turn everybody follows. Unfortunately, in most cases that is wishful thinking.
Either people openly or privately disagree and follow a different, yet not
disclosed, battle plan or they are completely new and lost or they have a
different motivation all together and get their kick by “pwing some nubs” one
on one. This will most certainly result in a terrible defeat which then again
does not really matter because SW:TOR (such as WoW), of course,
rewards losing and playing badly.
I have participated in a
considerable amount of Warzones by now and I can count the number of times that
a Tank was guarding me on one hand. I usually announce that I am a Healer during
the preparation phase of every match. It seems that Tanks are either guarding
their personal friends and/or guild members (fine by me) or simply cannot be bothered. Talk about lowering the
odds right from the start. Usually though, most players follow their own
(aforementioned) agenda and their primary goal is killing as many enemy players
as possible, regardless of the overall outcome. Afterwards they are happily
complaining that “pubs suck” because “we lost again”. Unbelievable!
(1) Novare Coast
My favourite Warzone is Novare Coast
where the objective is to take (and keep) control over at least two (of three)
mortar emplacements. Once capped, they will begin attacking the enemy base. A
very successful strategy lies in capping the western emplacement fast and
keeping it controlled. This is best achieved by any Jedi Consular due to Force Speed. The rest of the team should
relentlessly focus its entire attack on the southern emplacement. As soon as
both emplacements are safe, five players should remain at the southern one,
while one additional player is deployed to the western emplacement (ideally a
Healer and a Tank or a strong DPS are now on guard duty). Just standing there
and doing nothing for the remainder of the match can easily become boring but
it is still vital to keep that emplacement safe. Depending on the attack
patterns of the enemy, one or two additional helpers need to move across the
battlefield from time to time fighting off approaching enemies. Following this
method will usually yield very successful results, a landslide victory with the
home base remaining undamaged.
However, when no strategy
is declared in the beginning and people just run around aimlessly, all the
while only serving as cannon fodder for the enemy, things will suddenly look
very bleak indeed. I distinctly remember one occasion where I was defending the
western emplacement on my Jedi Sage and another player kept accusing me of
doing nothing but standing there and “afk-farming” medals. He simply could not
understand that the key to victory in Novare
Coast is to keep the western emplacement safe at all times (always!). Losing “west” for a
prolonged period means almost inevitably defeat. So be smart: keep “west” safe,
even if it is boring or other people are yelling at you to do something else.
(2) Alderaan
Another Warzone I greatly
enjoy is Alderaan Civil War which is
very similar to Novare Coast
in terms of objectives. They only differ in name (turrets instead of
emplacements and troop transport ships instead of beachheads) and in the layout
of the map. The strategy, of course, is similar as well: cap two turrets and
defend. What happens, however, is that usually everyone storms the central
turret like headless chickens while the enemy is capping the eastern and
western turrets. Lately, it seems that the Empire has completely given up on
the middle as I have noticed several times groups of four capping the outer
turrets (“grass” and “snow”). Good luck defending against that onslaught on your
own.
The typical Warzone match then
goes something like this: at least 7 Republic players storm the middle and
maybe 1 (lucky or rather unlucky) sod heads to the western turret (grass) in hopes of capping it.
Meanwhile the Empire has split up into two teams of 4 each moving forward east
(snow) and west (grass). They can then easily cap those and just need to defend
them in order to assure almost certain victory. Usually it takes some time
before the 7 Republic players, who are vehemently defending the empty middle
against nobody, are becoming aware of what has transpired. I cannot remember
ever winning this Warzone and any attempt to convince the group of the
alternate (Imperial) strategy in the preparation phase is futile at best.
(3) The Ancient Hypergate
This Warzone is quite
literally the middle-ground for me as I am neither overly fond of it nor do I
detest with all my heart. I must say that I cannot provide a surefire winning
strategy even though this is the one Warzone I win most of the time. Whenever I
see the loading the screen, I instantly think “hooray, another victory”. Since I basically have no clue what to do
there other than healing people and collecting orbs and dropping those at our
pylon, it must be that my team mates are usually very strong and competent. Why
only in this Warzone though? I have noticed that most victories follow a
similar pattern: the entire group ventures towards the central complex where we
collect orbs and defeat enemies. At some point, shortly before the timer
reaches a critical phase someone, somehow captures both pylons and our meter
goes up. Do that two maybe three times and the Warzone ends with a congratulatory
victory screen.
I do apologize if my
account of this particular Warzone does seem rather lacklustre. Maybe someone
can enlighten me as to the finer details.
(4) Huttball
A very controversial
Warzone, Huttball, puts two teams
against each other in a match of the dangerous new sport that has captured the
hearts and minds of the people on the Smuggler’s Moon of Nar Shaddaa. The goal here is simple enough: grab the ball, throw
the ball and get the ball over the opposing team’s line anyway you can and your
team gets a point. The tournament area, however, is not without hazards and
careless players will suddenly find themselves swimming in pools of acid and
catching on fire.
There is one technical
reason and one gameplay reason why I seriously dislike this Warzone: from a
very practical point of view, and even though my machine exceeds even
recommended specifications to play the game by far, this Warzone is very taxing
on my performance. My frame rates are usually at the lowest in “The Pit”,
sometimes as low as 4. That is simply very exasperating, especially in a PvP
environment. I honestly cannot say why that is and I plan on writing a detailed
post about the technical horrors that have befallen SW:TOR at some point
in the future. Suffice to say, I cannot enjoy the game if it does not run
smoothly.
From the viewpoint of
actual gameplay, i.e. objectives, and in comparison to all other Warzones, Huttball, requires the most cooperation
among the individual team members. That can be quite an enormous problem when
playing with a random group that did not agree on a strategy beforehand. This
is exacerbated by the constant need to look around in order to detect people on the
ledges and coupled with the aforementioned technical constraints makes for a
very frustrating experience.
(5) Voidstar
The final Warzone, the Voidstar, is a derelict Imperial Battle
Cruiser believed to contain the schematics to a powerful weapon and both the
Empire and the Republic are racing to take control of the vessel and access the
secrets stored in its memory banks. My criticism of this particular Warzone can
be summed up by one word: boring. Admittedly, it is the most “action-packed”
Warzone with nearly constant fighting and hardly any “downtime” but it is also
not very elaborately designed. One team has to breach through doors that the
other team is guarding. B O R I N G! Also, the sound that plays when the doors are finally breached is more than annoying!
As far as I can see, the
easiest strategy for the attackers is for all players to focus their attacks on
one side, thereby overwhelming any resistance. Should the enemy team manage to
fight back, a single stealth class can sneak over to the other door and place
the detonator charge without the enemy being any wiser. The defenders can split
their group evenly and try to hold off the attacker’s approach. Normally, they
do not all attack the same door at the same time.
Regarding victory
conditions, I must admit that I honestly do not know how the game calculates each
team’s progress. There's a timer and once it has run out someone is declared
the winner. That is all I can make of it so far. I would gladly hear some
insights as to how exactly this works.
Generally, I can say that,
much to my own surprise, I actually enjoy PvP in SW:TOR. I would never
have thought this possible. But the daily mission coupled with the fact that
Warzones reward players with both XP and credits really make them a viable
alternative to planetary questing which is why I became interested in them in
the first place. Additionally, the low level PvP vendors – who can now be found
on each faction’s capital world – do sell some very decent looking pieces of
armour. Now if only people were starting to actually defend their Healers all
would be good.
