-Jeffrey-
New Member
With all the fuss about Hall of Monument reward points, many of you will probably want to advance your Zaishen title to rank 3 and your Kurzick title to rank 4 (The requirements to display statues for these specific statues). Two of the main methods by which people can attain Imperial (Can be converted to other faction types) and Balthazar faction include the PvP formats "Jade Quarry" and "Fort Aspenwood". One particular thing I like about these formats is that you still earn a sizeable amount of faction even if you lose, so don't worry if you aren't an expert straight away. Using Kurzick faction to raise the alliance's reputation counts towards the "Friend of the Kurzicks" title, while Balthazar faction is used to unlock skills or buy Zaishen Keys, which can be used to advance your Zaishen title track. One thing to note is that JQ and FA aren't as strictly Player vs Player as formats such as "Heroes Ascent" and "Random Arenas" are, NPCs form a large part of these and many strategies revolve around protecting or eliminating certain groups of NPCs. Because of this, it can often be more enjoyable than RA, which can be daunting to newcomers to say the least. I'm going to be focussing on Jade Quarry (JQ) from the Kurzick side in this guide.
Overview
The main mistake newcomers make in this format is by using their time killing every enemy player they bump into. While this makes some sense in PvE situations and FA to some extent, there are better ways to help your team in JQ. Another thing to realise is that resurrection happens automatically in under 10 seconds of dying and portals make traversing the map from the base quick and easy, so taking any resurrection skill would be a complete waste of a skill slot. Also realise that dying isn't an issue, unless you're defending a quarry.
The objective of JQ is for your team to safely carry 10 jade slabs from jade quarries back to your base. Jade slabs can only be transported by jade carriers (Kurzick Juggernauts and Luxon Turtles). There are 3 areas called "quarries" where jade slabs are produced - purple, yellow and green. These are marked as flags of their respective colours on the mission map (U) at the start of the game. The other flags represent "guard posts", which contain a group of rangers allied with the team that currently controls the post. Blue represents Kurzick, Red represents Luxon. Quarries must be aligned to your team in order to produce jade for your team. Killing all the NPCs at a quarry captures it, at the start of the game you need only reach the quarry before the opposing team to capture it. When a quarry is captured for the first time, a jade quarry will spawn at the quarry with a jade slab and begin carrying it to your base. When a quarry is recaptured, the carrier will walk from the base to the quarry to pick up the jade slab first. If a carrier is killed, it will respawn after some time. There are two key roles in JQ - capper (capturing quarries and guard posts) and defender (defends quarries). I will summarise these roles in this guide. As an easy yet key role, I would highly recommend capping if you're a beginner to JQ.
PvP characters are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for this, unless you're willing to find all the equipment and skills. If you haven't already done so, open up a mission map by pressing U while in the game and zoom completely out by scrolling your mouse wheel over it, then put it somewhere to the side. This is essential for effective play in this format.
To load a skills template onto your character, press K in-game to open the skills window. Click on the icon of a small blue disk on the top-left corner of this window and click on Template Code. Paste this into the part where it says "Template Code: ". You'll probably want to save the template before loading it.
Capper
You are a capper. Your top priority is capturing quarries and guard posts, turning every flag on the mission map into a blue flag. To achieve this, you must kill every NPC at the quarry or guard post. Do not attack any players unless you have your movement slowed by cripple or slowing hexes and you are unlikely to reach your destination alive because of this.
There are many builds that can be used to achieve this. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind would be Fire Elementalists, who often pride themselves in their ability to deal huge amounts of AoE (area of effect) damage. However, do you remember what I said about resurrection occurring in under 10 seconds after death? If I mention the skill "Death Nova", perhaps you will realise where I'm going with this. Kamikaze, suicide bombing, both of these terms mean running into the midst of the opposition and exploding. This is one of the most effect capping methods available in JQ.
Here is the skills template for the Bomber (Necromancer/Assassin): OAdTQ4CbGCNgOgpSBUOLSwTYCC
You'll also need a Superior Death Rune as well as a headpiece with +1 to Death Magic. You'll also need a minor blood rune and a minor soul reaping rune, filling the rest of your slots with health. Preferably you'll also want a staff with +20% to enchantments and as much reduction on Death Magic spell recharge/cast time as possible.
Death Nova causes damage to all foes near you on death. Dark Aura deals damage to all adjacent foes whenever you sacrifice health, which goes very well with Contagion. Contagion spreads any new condition that you gain to adjacent enemies as well as sacrificing health when this happens. The degeneration caused by these conditions can often finish off anyone who doesn't get wiped out by the initial blast. Putrid Bile causes a bomb when the target dies. Signet of Agony acts as a feeder to Contagion, while Touch of Agony kills the target faster, therefore triggering Putrid Bile faster. Dash is used to run past players on the way to the quarry.
If you really insist on a Fire Elementalist build, here's an example of one: OgVDMjyMPRAyKxoliM6F4CaB
In either case, you need to keep an eye on the Mission Map (U) to see which quarries need capturing. Only when at least the Purple and Yellow quarries have Blue flags should you start focusing your attention towards the guard posts. The most important guard posts would be the one beside the Purple quarry and the one south of the Yellow quarry.
At the start of the game, stand inside the green portal (centre). When the timer hits around 0:10, cast your enchantments. Also cast your enchantments every time you are resurrected and prior to entering a portal. Once you have been teleported, begin running in the direction of the quarry. Remember again that you should not be engaging with any enemy players unless you are highly unlikely to reach the target alive. When you are approaching the quarry, hold down Left-Ctrl. This shows the labels of all the enemies in view. Select the centre NPC at your target, which will always be one of the Luxon Wizards at a fully occupied quarry. When you're in range of the quarry, begin casting your skill chain on your target. This will be 4-5-6-7-7 on the Bomber build and 1-2-3-4-5-6 on the Fire build. You are likely to die, but as long as you cast most/all of your skills, then the quarry will be captured soon after death. After resurrection, check your Mission Map to see where the red flags are, then repeat to your heart's desire. If you're unable to capture a quarry/guard post after two consecutive tries, then it's probably too heavily defended and you should consider trying a different quarry/guard post.
Defender
You are a defender. Your job is to defend the NPCs at the purple or yellow quarry, making sure at least one survives. Possible tools include healing powerful enough to counter the damage dealt to a single NPC, or even preventing damage in the first place by carefully timed interrupts and enchantment removal.
This is really a matter of preference, depending on whether you prefer to play a healing role as a monk, or an interrupting role as a mesmer. Each role has its advantages and disadvantages.
Here is an example of a skills template for a monk role: Owkk0sPIEamkGRD4m2dV9w03O2NG
Your job as a monk is to keep both yourself and at least one quarry NPC alive at your chosen quarry. Protection spells should be used when a capper is approaching. Prioritise keeping a single NPC alive, you need only heal the only NPCs when the threat has gone.
For a mesmer, take a build similar to this: OQIkAgC7Aamz0LHkB6BEhiwO+GD
I haven't used in elite in that build because it wasn't necessary, but feel free to replace Cry of Frustration with Psychic Instability/Tease, or Shatter Enchantment with Shatterstorm. If you see someone approaching your quarry, use mistrust before they reach the quarry, which should cause the first spell to fail. If the target is a necromancer, then also use drain enchantment and shatter enchantment to reduce possible bombing effectiveness. Power drain and leech signet are your main forms of interrupting, cry of frustration should be used when more than one capper is approaching, or when the other two interrupts are recharging.
In either case, you'll want to use Fall Back! when the starting timer hits about 0:03 and when you are resurrected. This is used to provide you and your allies with a speed boost to reach the quarry quickly. At the start of the game, try to aim for the purple (right) quarry. If there's already a monk on that portal, try the yellow (left) quarry. Green quarry should not be a priority for defending. When you reach your quarry, use Make Haste! on the carrier juggernaut that spawn, and stay near the quarry. Use Make Haste! every time the carrier comes within range of the quarry to provide it with a speed boost. Should you die, check the Mission Map to see which quarries you currently own and make your way towards that quarry to defend it. Guard Posts should never be a priority for defending.
I hope you have found this guide useful and informative. Feel free to contact me in-game or dropping a post here if you require any help, even for things as simple as attaining the required skills.
Overview
The main mistake newcomers make in this format is by using their time killing every enemy player they bump into. While this makes some sense in PvE situations and FA to some extent, there are better ways to help your team in JQ. Another thing to realise is that resurrection happens automatically in under 10 seconds of dying and portals make traversing the map from the base quick and easy, so taking any resurrection skill would be a complete waste of a skill slot. Also realise that dying isn't an issue, unless you're defending a quarry.
The objective of JQ is for your team to safely carry 10 jade slabs from jade quarries back to your base. Jade slabs can only be transported by jade carriers (Kurzick Juggernauts and Luxon Turtles). There are 3 areas called "quarries" where jade slabs are produced - purple, yellow and green. These are marked as flags of their respective colours on the mission map (U) at the start of the game. The other flags represent "guard posts", which contain a group of rangers allied with the team that currently controls the post. Blue represents Kurzick, Red represents Luxon. Quarries must be aligned to your team in order to produce jade for your team. Killing all the NPCs at a quarry captures it, at the start of the game you need only reach the quarry before the opposing team to capture it. When a quarry is captured for the first time, a jade quarry will spawn at the quarry with a jade slab and begin carrying it to your base. When a quarry is recaptured, the carrier will walk from the base to the quarry to pick up the jade slab first. If a carrier is killed, it will respawn after some time. There are two key roles in JQ - capper (capturing quarries and guard posts) and defender (defends quarries). I will summarise these roles in this guide. As an easy yet key role, I would highly recommend capping if you're a beginner to JQ.
PvP characters are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for this, unless you're willing to find all the equipment and skills. If you haven't already done so, open up a mission map by pressing U while in the game and zoom completely out by scrolling your mouse wheel over it, then put it somewhere to the side. This is essential for effective play in this format.
To load a skills template onto your character, press K in-game to open the skills window. Click on the icon of a small blue disk on the top-left corner of this window and click on Template Code. Paste this into the part where it says "Template Code: ". You'll probably want to save the template before loading it.
Capper
You are a capper. Your top priority is capturing quarries and guard posts, turning every flag on the mission map into a blue flag. To achieve this, you must kill every NPC at the quarry or guard post. Do not attack any players unless you have your movement slowed by cripple or slowing hexes and you are unlikely to reach your destination alive because of this.
There are many builds that can be used to achieve this. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind would be Fire Elementalists, who often pride themselves in their ability to deal huge amounts of AoE (area of effect) damage. However, do you remember what I said about resurrection occurring in under 10 seconds after death? If I mention the skill "Death Nova", perhaps you will realise where I'm going with this. Kamikaze, suicide bombing, both of these terms mean running into the midst of the opposition and exploding. This is one of the most effect capping methods available in JQ.
Here is the skills template for the Bomber (Necromancer/Assassin): OAdTQ4CbGCNgOgpSBUOLSwTYCC
You'll also need a Superior Death Rune as well as a headpiece with +1 to Death Magic. You'll also need a minor blood rune and a minor soul reaping rune, filling the rest of your slots with health. Preferably you'll also want a staff with +20% to enchantments and as much reduction on Death Magic spell recharge/cast time as possible.
Death Nova causes damage to all foes near you on death. Dark Aura deals damage to all adjacent foes whenever you sacrifice health, which goes very well with Contagion. Contagion spreads any new condition that you gain to adjacent enemies as well as sacrificing health when this happens. The degeneration caused by these conditions can often finish off anyone who doesn't get wiped out by the initial blast. Putrid Bile causes a bomb when the target dies. Signet of Agony acts as a feeder to Contagion, while Touch of Agony kills the target faster, therefore triggering Putrid Bile faster. Dash is used to run past players on the way to the quarry.
If you really insist on a Fire Elementalist build, here's an example of one: OgVDMjyMPRAyKxoliM6F4CaB
In either case, you need to keep an eye on the Mission Map (U) to see which quarries need capturing. Only when at least the Purple and Yellow quarries have Blue flags should you start focusing your attention towards the guard posts. The most important guard posts would be the one beside the Purple quarry and the one south of the Yellow quarry.
At the start of the game, stand inside the green portal (centre). When the timer hits around 0:10, cast your enchantments. Also cast your enchantments every time you are resurrected and prior to entering a portal. Once you have been teleported, begin running in the direction of the quarry. Remember again that you should not be engaging with any enemy players unless you are highly unlikely to reach the target alive. When you are approaching the quarry, hold down Left-Ctrl. This shows the labels of all the enemies in view. Select the centre NPC at your target, which will always be one of the Luxon Wizards at a fully occupied quarry. When you're in range of the quarry, begin casting your skill chain on your target. This will be 4-5-6-7-7 on the Bomber build and 1-2-3-4-5-6 on the Fire build. You are likely to die, but as long as you cast most/all of your skills, then the quarry will be captured soon after death. After resurrection, check your Mission Map to see where the red flags are, then repeat to your heart's desire. If you're unable to capture a quarry/guard post after two consecutive tries, then it's probably too heavily defended and you should consider trying a different quarry/guard post.
Defender
You are a defender. Your job is to defend the NPCs at the purple or yellow quarry, making sure at least one survives. Possible tools include healing powerful enough to counter the damage dealt to a single NPC, or even preventing damage in the first place by carefully timed interrupts and enchantment removal.
This is really a matter of preference, depending on whether you prefer to play a healing role as a monk, or an interrupting role as a mesmer. Each role has its advantages and disadvantages.
Here is an example of a skills template for a monk role: Owkk0sPIEamkGRD4m2dV9w03O2NG
Your job as a monk is to keep both yourself and at least one quarry NPC alive at your chosen quarry. Protection spells should be used when a capper is approaching. Prioritise keeping a single NPC alive, you need only heal the only NPCs when the threat has gone.
For a mesmer, take a build similar to this: OQIkAgC7Aamz0LHkB6BEhiwO+GD
I haven't used in elite in that build because it wasn't necessary, but feel free to replace Cry of Frustration with Psychic Instability/Tease, or Shatter Enchantment with Shatterstorm. If you see someone approaching your quarry, use mistrust before they reach the quarry, which should cause the first spell to fail. If the target is a necromancer, then also use drain enchantment and shatter enchantment to reduce possible bombing effectiveness. Power drain and leech signet are your main forms of interrupting, cry of frustration should be used when more than one capper is approaching, or when the other two interrupts are recharging.
In either case, you'll want to use Fall Back! when the starting timer hits about 0:03 and when you are resurrected. This is used to provide you and your allies with a speed boost to reach the quarry quickly. At the start of the game, try to aim for the purple (right) quarry. If there's already a monk on that portal, try the yellow (left) quarry. Green quarry should not be a priority for defending. When you reach your quarry, use Make Haste! on the carrier juggernaut that spawn, and stay near the quarry. Use Make Haste! every time the carrier comes within range of the quarry to provide it with a speed boost. Should you die, check the Mission Map to see which quarries you currently own and make your way towards that quarry to defend it. Guard Posts should never be a priority for defending.
I hope you have found this guide useful and informative. Feel free to contact me in-game or dropping a post here if you require any help, even for things as simple as attaining the required skills.
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