El 23 de mayo de 2006 Arena.net publicó un reportaje sobre el clan Guild Wars Latino en su sección «Guild of the Week». El artículo original ya no se puede consultar, pero tenemos el formulario que se envió a arena.net con las preguntas, repondidas en inglés. A continuación os lo copiamos por si os resulta de interés.
1.- Member Information:
a) Pableras (Susy Axhelion)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Elementalist. Characters who use magic have always gave me and special atracction to play with them. But is my less used character in the game, normally I play as a monk, because I am pretty god at playing with monks and guild members realize it.
I also like playing as a Warrior and Mesmer, because they are the most dangerous enemies of the monk, so I like playing with them so I know how they will attack me when I am a monk.
– Gaming background: Rol games, strategy games, sports, chess. In Guild Wars I like most Pvp, but I also enjoy playing Pve.
– Position in the guild: Leader and founder of the guild. In our web I am forums manager and help [K]night when he needs.
b) [K]night (Knight el Protector)
– Location: Seville, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Monk. I began using monks, because of their very important role. I think monks can overcome an almost lost battle. But, despite lots of people think, monks are not easy to play. Hundreds of hours playing are required in order to optimize energy management, skills combos, and synchronization with other monks. In GvG, I usually play as a protection monk, supporting the two divine-boon monks, and casting group-wide spells.
– Gaming background: PvP mainly
– Position in the guild: Officer
– Why did you join the guild? I had founded the Guild Wars Latino website few days before Pableras founded the guild. So, I have been in the guild since the beginning. It was founded to add a gaming dimension to the website, as well as the forums and the game information.
c) Melon (Tuti Banana)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Domination Mesmer, I like most interruption skills but also the draining ones.
– Gaming background: RPG’S and in Guild Wars I like most Pve.
– Position in the guild: Officer
– Why did you join the guild? Because the leader was one of my best friends and told me to join his guild. I consider it a really good idea so I joined the guild.
d) Grotec (Angel Guerrero)
– Location: La Seu D’Urgell(Lerida), Spain.
– Primary/preferred character: I like most sword warrior, using Sever Artery, Gash and Final Thrust.
– Gaming background: I like both types (Pve and Pvp).
– Position in the guild: Officer
-Why you joined the guild?: It was a guild which have members that I knew from another game and from another webpage.
e) Calavera (Mak Skully)
– Location: Canary Islands, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: I have always been warrior, but in Guild Wars I prefer being mesmer. I like interrupting and draining the enemy. I believe I have advantage from other players when I play with mesmer, because I know so many players use identical builds so I only need some little time to think about an strategy to win them. For example, lots of mesmer use Migraine and Conjure Phantasm so I only need to use Hex Breaker to stop Migraine and later use Inspired Hex to release Conjure Phantasm from my character. If the enemy tries to interrupt me, I will keep on using inspired hex so the enemy run out of interrupting skills, by this time I can take away from me the enemy’s hex and continue draining him.
– Gaming background: My favourites games are RPG’s and Businnes Strategy.
– Position in the guild: Officer
– Why did you join the guild? Because some of my friends convinced me to start playing Guild Wars. They really begged me to join their guild 😉
f) Fuleiro (Arnika Ragis)
– Location: La Coruña, Spain.
– Primary/preferred character: protector or healer monk. Playing role: be the guardian of those who stay in the back of the battle.
– Gaming background: I like both types (Pve and Pvp).
– Position in the guild: Officer
– Why did you join the guild? Because I knew lot of people from another game (Diablo2) who were now playing Guild Wars.
g) Astroscuro (La Dama Del Dolor)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Warrior. I like to take the battle commands. My main objetive in GvG is calling the targets when in battle, trying to find those foes more harmfull to my team: Mesmers, spike beginners… I usually play with an W/E of axe but sometimes I change to sword. At this moment I am using a Hammer Ranger with pet, I think this one is more effective when kidding the enemy and making great damages.
– Gaming background: MMORPG
– Position in the guild: Officer
– Why did you join the guild? Why I have joined the guild: Friendship. I met some members of the guild at the meetings made by www.diablo2latino.com. When they started playing Guild Wars they invite me to try the game and I liked it. I am very happy of going on the guild and having the friendship of guildmembers, of those I met before and of those I have met in Guild Wars.
h) Lolo (Mari Tierri)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Earth Elementalist. I always use: Eruption, Earthquake, Aftershock and Crystal Wave, if someone stays alive after this combo I use Obsidian Flame and Stoning on him.
– Gaming background: I like both types, but I like most Pvp. I normally enjoy playing all kinds of RPG’S.
– Position in the guild: Member
– Why did you join the guild? Because I have met many guild members before in some activities we have been doing since Diablo2.
i) Aythami (Tay Kazama)
– Location: A nice village in Gran Canaria, Spain.
– Primary/preferred character: I really enjoy being a Ranger. Im always improving new builds, using differents skills and equipment. I normally unlock skills in Pve mode, so I can use them in Pvp mode. I do normally not take attention to the pull in battles.
– Gaming background: At this moment I prefer Pvp gaming, because you have to overcome yourself to win every battle you play. In Pve mode I like running and looking for nice places or some statues. Pve gives me the neccesary equipment to play Pvp with the guild.
– Position in the guild: Member, but I am occasionally promoted to officer.
– Why did you join the guild? I joined the guild because a friend of mine was already in the guild, at the beginning I did not believe I can play with guild members as a team, but now If there is not guild there is not game for me.
j) Wolf (Wolf De Asgard)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: I really like being a warrior because I have to stay in first battle line and that is an exciting feeling for me. I like straight attacks to the pull, but they must be timely planned. I believe adrenaline skills are a nice way to compensate its low energy level.
– Gaming background: I think the way the characters are made give the game lots of possibilities to be played in Pve and in Pvp. Both types are really interesting, but in the story of the game there are some unclearly points.
– Position in the guild: Member
– Why did you join the guild? I am a boy who thinks that if we stick together we can do what we want, and I already know some many people from the other web (www.diablo2latino.com)I decided looking for its homonym in Guild Wars. I started soon to met nice people which help me a lot. Now I can treat them as friends.
k) Edu (Night Mistic)
– Location: Madrid, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: In PvP play, I usually support my team as a Monk. I love taking as a challenge to keep my guildmates alive, while I try to rest attacking when I do not use the skills. Any help is not big enough if you want to be a good monk.
– Gaming background: RPG, PVP
– Position in the guild: Member
– Why did you join the guild?
l) Quartz (Sir Quartz)
– Location: Cadiz, Spain
– Primary/preferred character: Monk, I like it because it is one of the most important characters in the game, almost any mistake can mean the death of one of the party members and probably the end of the battle, I think it is one of the most difficult characters to play with, you need to be aware of your energy, hexes, enchantments and the whole party health.
– Gaming background: PvE, MMORPG, Beat´em up
– Position in the guild: Member
– Why did you join the guild? I was member of www.diablo2latino.com and knew how was the people there, always wanting to have a good time so I did not think of it twice and got in.
2.- Guild Information:
a) Guild History – how old? Why was the guild formed? Which games have you played as a guild?
Guild Wars Latino’s history goes back to 1999. At that time, a Diablo II fansite was founded (www.diablo2latino.com). Through Diablo II, and through that website, a lot of Spanish-speaking gamers met, who shared lots of hours of fun and friendship – a real golden age. Nevertheless, most people ended up bored and they gave up playing diablo in order to begin playing other RPGs (like ultima online, sacred, WOW, lineage, ragnarok online…) – so they each took their own way. Other players kept on playing Diablo II.
On August 2005, a group of these ex-Diablo players decided to begin playing Guild Wars together, and to be able to remember that golden age. Thus, Guild Wars Latino was born and www.guildwarslatino.com community was founded, as a meeting point for all Spanish-speaking Guild Wars players, and to promote Guild Wars with regard to other games.
b) Do you have a guild philosophy? What does the guild aim to achieve?
GWL is defined as a friends guild. The main aim is fun, and we do all we can to achieve it and to spend some funny hours playing, even doing crazy things.
GWL is not an elitist guild. GWL does not want to be the number one in the ladder, or to get rank 12. From a competitive point of view, we are after a good enviroment in the guild, and to improve day by day, doing our best, trying to achieve new goals.
GWL is a mixed guild, and we play evenly PvE and PvP.
c) Why would a player want to join your guild? What sorts of players would your guild accept?
We have new join requests everyday, but unfortunately we cannot accept all of them. Unlike other spanish guilds, we are a stable guild, with a good atmosphere, and this is something very valuable. Furthermore, lots of people know us through the website and keep in contact with us.
d) Why did your guild choose to play Guild Wars?
We like many sides of Guild Wars. One of them is the fact that the player does not depend on objects to finish the game but on individual skills and ability to meet and cooperate with the rest of players. Objects and armor are good support for players, but they do not unbalance the game – Guild Wars players can finish the game without spending thousands of hours looking for an object.
e) How large is the guild?
The guild has 40 members. At the moment we do not recruit any new member, but we do allow entering our friends that decide to try Guild Wars. We prefer joining up level 1 players who we can have a good time with, rather than play with unknown rank 6 players.
f) How do you see the guild evolving over time?
The guild is following an ascending path and we haven’t topped out yet. When we began playing, we were few people and begginers, and we even had the 8.500th position in the ladder. At that time, nobody believe in us, but we kept together, and bit a bit we began to climb the ladder, we improve our competitive side, and new members joined us – ex-Diablo players and other people we met in Guild Wars.
The most important thing in GWL is our soundness. Our members are very close because of friendship, and this is what help us to keep improving. Many members of GWL only play with our guild, and they would give up playing Guild Wars if the guild was dissolved.
3.- PvE Game Discussion:
a) How does the guild approach PvE in Guild Wars? Do you place a higher priority on any aspect of PvE such as mission or quest completions, exploration or looking for new equipment?
Many guilds do not play Pve and they only do PvP play. We believe that not playing Pve is like missing a 50% of the game.
Normally when there is not so many guild members on-line, we try to help everyone from the guild doing cooperative missions or game missions. There are also two days of the week exclusively reserved for Pve playing, like going to Fissure of Woe or Primieval Kings Tomb or even doing really difficult missions, like Ring of Fire or Glint’s Mission ones.
Some members who have completed the game, dedicate some time to explore Tyria’s map for incredibly enemies, or some strange places of unusually beauty.
b) When attempting missions, how much planning do you do beforehand? If you fail a mission, what might you do to try to improve your chances on the subsequent attempt(s)?
We have two days exclusevely for Pve game playing, so we use our forums to propose our members and everyone who is registred in the page, all kind of activities, like going to Sorrow’s Furnace or capping elite skills.
If we fail in our proposal, we try to reduce the number of henchmen for the next time or even we try changing some character’s secondary profession we have.
c) Does your guild have any tricks they use while in combat, such as aggro management?
Our trick is not to draw more number of enemies from those that we can kill and never try to run to the next warp or to the next cinematic.
Our priority in combat is that our members who got unlimited resurrection must be alive most of the time, they are also the first who are being healed by monks, an should stay in the back line during battle.
d) Can you share with us any noteworthy accomplishments or interesting stories that your guild has had while playing through the cooperative content?
We have many stories, but we remember one like the most mythical one: One day we went to Fissure of Woe because one guild member wanted to buy a fissure armor part, when we were fighting against the enemies some of our members realized that they were wearing Halloween’s Pumpkin Crown as helmet, but we continue playing and finally did the necessary missions to reach The Eternal Forgemaster.
e) Could you describe a situation where your guild has used good strategy and/or tactics to escape a sticky situation? For example, finding yourselves overrun when an extra group of monsters is mistakenly ‘pulled.’
Remember one in Thunderhead Keep, when we reach the city at the end of the mission, someone pulled all the enemies who were in the city directly to us, so we decided to put 3 characters in every stair doing body block while the two monks(one of them with level 14) stay in the back with King Jalis. They were three or four minutes of intense battle, but it worked really well.
The trick is to think fast, if you do you can overcome any situation.
f) Are there any ‘tricks of the trade’ you would like to share?
g) Does your guild have a favourite region/part of the world? Why?
I believe we all have different thoughts about this question, but our favourite places are those who are covered by snow, there are so many beautiful places and zones.
We also find some Fissure of Woe and some Kurzick scenaries as marvelous places.
I believe we choose those because of the enviroment and the sounds, because they are wonderful and even at some times they seem so real. When watching this places some of us feel like if we were dreaming.
4.- PvP Game Discussion:
a) Detail a couple of team builds the guild has used. The more detailed the better ;). Why did you choose a Protection Monk instead of a Healing Monk, for example? What was the goal of the build? Did it work as expected, did you improve on the original concept … if it failed, why do you think that was?
Our clan is caracterized for trying so many different build and improve them to the maximum. It is not an «static» strategy but a dynamic one. GWL members prefer thinking about a new and personal build than copying and existing one from another guild. Actually every guild usually use Ether Prodigy & Heal Party, or a domination Mesmer/Elementalist with Foes Against Enemies, or a Crippled Shot ranger with Apply Poison. Almost every guild from above rank 500 has the same build, copied from other guilds, and GWL prefers creating a build of their own, it would be more ineffective, but we feel really proud of it when playing.
GWL GvG build:
– 1. – Warrior/Necromancer: Berserker Stance, Sever Artery, Gash, Final Thrust, Charge!*, Healing Signet, Plague Touch, Res Signet.
– 2. – Elementalist/???: Eruption, Stoning, Obisidian Flame, Earthquake, Crystal Wave, Aftershock, Glyph of Energy*, Res Signet.
– 3. – Necromancer/Mesmer: Spiteful Spirit*, Defile Flesh, Rigor Mortis, Conjure Phantasm, Desecrate Enchantments, Rend Enchantments, Ethereal Burden, Res Signet.
– 4. – Monk/Mesmer: Divine Boon, Contemplation of purity, Reversal of Fortune, Guardian, Mend Condition, Remove Hex, Mantra of Recall*, Res Signet.
– 5. – Warrior/Elementalist: Sprint, Dismember, Axe Rake, Penetrating Blow, Executioner’s Strike, Gale, Water Trident*, Res Signet.
– 6. – Ranger/Mesmer: Dust Trap, Barbed Trap, Flame Trap, Oath Shot*, Mantra of Resolve, Dodge, Storm Chaser, Res Signet.
– 7. – Monk/Mesmer: Divine Boon, Contemplation of purity, Reversal of fortune, Guardian, Restore Condition*, Inspired Hex, Drain Enchantment, Signet of Devotion.
– 8. – Monk/???: Protective Spirit, Reversal of Fortune, Word of healing*, Dwayna’s Kiss, Purge Conditions, Convert Hexes, Holy Veil, Heal Party.
This is the most used build by GWL on GvG playing. Most skills can be changed depending on who takes control of the character, and we usually change some little skills from the base build, sometimes the Warrior/Elementalist takes Eviscerate an not Water Trident, we change the earth elementalist for a fire one or bring a Hammer Ranger with pet, it is really a dinamic build.
This build was thought for an 8 vs 8 attack. Warriors charge adrenaline, and make a coordinate attack to the pull. One warrior has always some knock down skills and especially uses them on the enemy flag-bearer, by this way we can obtain morale boosts in critic times of the GvG battles.
Elementalist’s role is making zonal damage, and simultaneously weak most enemies, so the rival monks do not know who to heal first. 1 or 2 enemies usually stay alive after the elementalist combo, but they have low life and are easily killed by the rest of the team.
Ranger’s role is to get flags and trap the flag pedestal zone, so the rival flag-bearer easily dies if he tries to put the flag into the pedestal. Ranger uses 3 stances, 2 are for running and the other is for not to be interrupted. The ranger is a support character, and he puts traps in strategic places and easily kills careless enemies. This character controls time left for morale boost (own morale boosts & enemy morale boosts too).
The Necromancer is a versatil character. Necromancer can easily kill enemie’s NPC or pet by casting Spiteful Spirit on them which also prevent the enemy warriors to attack our allies. This character also use Ethereal Burden on the enemy flag-bearer which contributes to obtain morale boosts. It is third role is to clean up the pull from enchantments so the warriors can easily kill it.
Even thought this build was created for an 8 vs 8 attack, lots of times GWL splits in two groups of 4 people, an attack group(Numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4) and a defensive one(Numbers 5, 6, 7 & 8)
GWL normally splits in two cases:
-If the enemy splits.
-If the enemies are using a spike build.
When enemies use a spike build, they coordinate a simultaneously attack to one of our members, normally this is really fast, so monks do not have the choice to heal this ally. Some guild prefers using an Infuse health monk, but we prefer using the Reversal of Fortune monks, so we have more chances to stop the spike.
But the most efficient way to defeat this spike enemies is to split the group. Is an easy concept, spike groups are effective if they stay all together but if they have to split and start rushing over us, they finally get lost in the map, and they cannot get the control of the flag pedestal, defend their base and attack ours all at the same time.
When playing against spikers the most important thing is to avoid getting into casters casting zone or into rangers arrows range. The trick is to keep on running until they make a really bad mistake, so they finally lose the battle.
b) What things do you do to try to enhance your play as a team? Voice chat, target calling, pre-match practice?
The trick is to think as a team. Those who have used many professions/characters should really know his allies weak points. Improving the use of the build and using the build as a real team is the way to success. To do this we always use voice chat.
It is also useful recording played battles, so we can talk about them later. We use forums with this purpose, analyze battles, see the most common errors trying not to repeat them in successive battles, it is also useful to see the actually group hits.
c) When in combat, how does your guild prioritise targets (Monks first? Mesmers first?) and goals (eg when would you try to capture a relic?)
During the battle we rapidly analyze enemy build, paying attention to the skills they are using, we try to neutralize those which represent a clearly threat or those who are the most important of the rival build, for example, a Minion Master Necromancer in the rival team will be our first priority.
It is important to attack first characters who have 60 defense armor( Elementalists, Mesmers, Necromancers & Monks) they are normally easily killed. When making a call, we look for this kind of enemies. An example of a nice pull is: a Mesmer who comes near to our monks to use Blackout in one of them, because he is really far from his monks and can easily get killed.
It is also very important to keep the rival flag-bearer away from the flag pedestal, so we can win morale boosts and let us put big pressure on rivals. When enemy flag-bearer reaches near the flag pedestal we start knocking him down, slowing him down and also he get all the damage from traps so he gets killed and we get a morale boost. Normally we have another flag to put it into the pedestal in case the rival flag-bearer success in putting enemy’s flag. By this way, the rival flag-bearer will be always running from the pedestal to his base and in his way to the base he will be also knocked down, crippled and slowed down.
d) Could you describe a situation where you have used good strategy and/or tactics to extract your team from a sticky situation? For example, finding yourself between two enemy teams who both choose to attack you.
In most occasions we have been overcame by the rival team in GvG battles. When this happens, we do «B» plan, get back into base and stay with bodyguards and trying to keep alive most of our NPC’S till minute 30, to have some chances of winning the game. Most of the times death penalty is compensated by having two bodyguards, the guild lord and the archers, and some of the enemies who try to enter to kill us got themselves killed by our NPC’S.
With this tactic you can even win some GvG you thought you were going to lose.
e) Which type of PvP (Tombs, Arena, GvG) does the guild generally prefer to play, and why? If GvG, what Guild Hall does the guild prefer, and why.
We like most GvG battles. At Hero’s Ascent there are lots of teams that are only looking for easy fame, so they play iways, spikers and repetitive builds, making the game boring in that aspect.
We like most The Isle of the Dead. It is the ideal hall for our flag-bearer to put lots of traps around the flag pedestal. It also allows us to see the enemies movements, making it easy for us to split into two groups.
This hall got also the smallest respawn of the game, so it is easily to do zonal attack there.
When enemies resurrect, the respawn is full of traps and the Elementalist stay in the center and starts doing his combo skills. The rest of the team will do Body Block so the enemy cannot escape this mortal trap:
f) Any ‘tricks of the trade’ you would like to share?
…
g) Do you have any stories of a particularly memorable battle? What made it such a great experience for your guild?
In some occasion we fought a guild which sometimes was one of the ten tops of the guild ladder, but ladder reset put them in a lower rank than ours, so we got to fight in their hall, the Warriors Hall.
The battle was really hard, it was 25 minute and both teams had already used res signets and no team has won a morale boost. In 28 minute 2 of our monks get a 60% death penalty so we have lose them and the rivals started entering our base and we got to fight there.
We take a desperately way, and throw the catapult into our base, and try to get out of the «projectile» reach. This tactic was really dangerous, but it worked, and we killed all the enemy team some seconds before «Victory or Death». We also take control of the flag and run to the enemy’s catapult and throw it with the result of killing the rivals NPC’S an also their flag-bearer. The battle continued near the flag pedestal, where our NPC’S were giving us some advantage from the rivals, but we only have one monk alive, so we keep that monk alive, and wait for the moral boost, resurrect the other two monks with our res signets.
Even with our three monks alive, this part of the battle was really really hard, because of our death penalty. We reach 35 minute and both Guild Lords start fighting one against another. In an amazing moment near the end we finally killed rival monks and finally get out enemy’s guild lord.
5.- Other Discussion:
a) Does you guild organise in-game activities other than simple participation in game play? For example, guild meetings or social events.
We monthly do a Guild Wars and Diablo2 members meeting. They last long, for so many hours, starting on the afternoon and finishing by dawn. Here you can see some photos from those who came to the meetings.
b) What can you tell us about your guild’s unique feature?
We believe the guild’s unique feature is friendship and the relationship between members. We have been playing the same games for lot of time, and most of we have met each other in person. We have been together since the beginning and we are continuing like that, we may have some argues, but they are leaved behind for the next meeting where we resolve them drinking some cool drinks and having dinner.
The meetings we do are really important for guild members. Some of them travel so many miles to get where the meeting is done.
c) What was the inspiration for / story behind these features?
From some time in the past we have been blessing Mr Green god. Mr Green god is an emote which shows a green man with and enormous and comical smile, that emote makes us having good times, forgetting our problems and always smile at life.
Mr Green is present in our diary life, it helps us to find solutions to work, university and school problems. We have made t-shirts and wristlets with its image.
In fact, people call us «frikis» (freaks) for doing these things, but we bless Mr Green.
Blessed Be Mr Green!!!!