Secondary Mechanic: NPC Bosses

There are two NPC Bosses in the Forest of Niflhel.  Each one is located in a small cavern area on the upper right and upper left of the map.  The team with the killing blow will receive a 90 sec boon of +50 to all stats (need confirmation on the duration) and 25 points added to the overall score.  This secondary mechanic can heavily influence the game turning a seeming loss into a win by denying your opponent a boss kill.  Each NPC respawns  3 minutes after its death.  This can lead to some confusion if the bosses die in a staggered timeframe.  While the bosses are challenging (-ish) they can be soloed but it is often more efficient to kill them with multiple people.  A kill can take anywhere from 1 minute to as little as 7 seconds depending on the number of attackers present and the traits and build of the participants.

There are differences between the two boss’s abilities.  These can be seen in detail in a guide by Lyr.  The major difference between the two is the speed and intensity of attacks.  Svanir puts out a steady stream of medium high damage while the Chieftain does a medium amount of damage while having a large spike of damage with Kick which also appears to stun the victim preventing them from negating any subsequent damage for a period of time (needs confirmation).

 

Tips Tricks and Techniques

There are a number of alternative routes to any Capture Point.  Many of them involve jumping over some obstacles or features to cut down on travel time.  Hoping over the low guard rail on top of the keep will allow you to skip the steps completely allowing you to leave the keep faster to another objective and can potentially allow you to skirt enemy players coming up the stairway.

Remember, swimming is a great way to relieve stress during sPvP

Niflhel has a small bay between the two bases.  This water feature allows underwater combat as seen in this screenshot.  Truth be told I have NEVER seen anyone use it, probably because it would require you to invite the enemy out for a swim.

Next Tip: STAND ON THE POINT!  Okay, this is a bit of a generalization but the number one mistake I see is people defending point will let their point get neutralized while fighting out of the Capture Point.   You only have a 4.5 sec window to block a neutralization of a point.  “But but but . . . I might die!”  So what.  A bit callous, but defending is hard and really it should be left to classes and builds suited for this activity.  If you aren’t the above mentioned uber class well you will just have to make due.  If you still control the point, making sure you hold onto it until help arrives is your primary concern.  Your death will result in a 10 point gain for the enemy, to negate this you only have to prevent the neutralization for 20 seconds which surprise, surprise is enough time to arrive at any point from almost any other point in the map even with swiftness boons. 

The next tip is similar, DON’T STAND ON THE POINT IF SOMEONE IS ALREADY THERE!  It doesn’t capture faster and in reality it puts you at a tactical disadvantage.  Control Points are exposed, flat, and small.  The small part makes you susceptible to AoE or piercing attacks giving your enemy an advantage.  Go scout ahead, go gain some high ground, prepare some traps/marks/kits/turrets, or move to another point if your teammate is fine holding the point.  If an enemy pops up they will have to go through YOU first before they ever get near the capture point.  The only time you should ever have two people standing on a capture point is if there is a serious possibility of one of you being downed, knocked out, or finishing off an enemy(situational only).

Didn’t take my own advice!

This tip comes with a lot of caveats though.  Use your head, if the choice is between certain death and blocking a neutralization, fallback.  No biggie.  Make use of knockbacks to get the enemy out of the control point and then make sure to lock them down with a stun/immobilization.  If the enemy isn’t fighting in the control point then you don’t have to either.  It makes you vulnerable to be required to STAY in that point.  Just keep your eye on it so no stealth caps happen. 

 

The worst happens and you lose the point.  Its grey little circle mocks you from the top of the screen, you can feel it sneering at your incompetence, and you could have sworn it whispered something anti-semitic.  Don’t let that little worthless grey racist get in your head.  You just got a new job!  Screw with the enemy and block their capture of the point.  This is a great job.  You have a 14 second window to stand in the circle and bring the capture clock to a grinding halt.  You can weave in and out of this point and make a 14 second capture easily turn into 60 second capture.  You are here to stall the enemy or get them to make bad choices.  Bad choices such as fighting off the point, letting you push the capture point back to your side, or blow cooldowns to kill you while you nimbly hide behind the copious amount of cover available around the capture point.  The best thing to do here is to drop an AoE on the ground right over the capture point.  Make them have to pay through the nose for their decision to stand in your former Capture Point.

 

guild wars 2 pvp capture point

It is totally not creepy to hide in a crypt for the sole purpose of ganking.

Cover is an amaizing tool in PvP, but not just Line of Sight cover.  Try to stand in the shadows if you can.  If you have ranged attacks there are a number of places where you can engage the enemy where they will have a difficult time seeing you.  Examples include small rock formations with tree cover in the front center paths between the spawn points or the dark recesses that look like crypts, in the massive intersection at the center of the map.  If you can get to those places before the enemy sees you it provides great cover from attacks and hides the direction of your attacks to prevent the enemy from countering them.

This is the most important tip that I will ever give in PvP.  Cherish this secret, hold it close to your heart, whisper it in reverence to your team.  Go get a pen, or a stone and chisel.  Go on, I’ll wait.  Ready? Good.

 

DODGE

 

All the time.  Running somewhere?  Dodge to get there a little faster.  Enemy shooting at you, dodge to find cover.  Boss coming to smash you in the face?  Dodge to the side.  If you ever, EVER die with a full dodge bar you have officially not properly played your profession.  This is by far the most wide ranging skill that will help you in every aspect of GW2.  It is so important there are whole Golems designed with the sole function of teaching you to dodge. 

If that horse wasn’t dead yet I’m about to make sure it is.  Dodge with purpose.  Did you dodge an enemy attack?  Hurray, you smashed your directional keys in rapid enough succession to achieve the effect of my 4 year old repeatedly tapping the “W” key because it’s the best letter.  Situational awareness is king in PvP.  Not just in GW2 but any competitive game.  Are you near to cover?  Dodge toward that.  Don’t dodge into the Greatsword wielding, Colossal loving, recently left by his wife and looking to take it out on someone Warrior who also thinks Asuran’s are crimes against nature.  Just thought I’d clear that up for you in case you weren’t sure.  If you just dodged chances are you don’t have to hit it again right away, the dodge bar isn’t infinite.

The next tip: Check out your rear. No . . .not like that you pervert.  Your six, directly behind you, you know that area Thiefs like to stand and stab you repeatedly from?  Yeah, that place.  So many players rarely make use of the “camera”.  If you noticed GW2 is a third person game and thankfully they have given us control over the camera to pear around corners, get better angles, or spin around while you are bored.  You can also use it to check your rear while you are making a well calculated retreat.  This can aid you in dodging an attack coming from behind, checking the range of enemies, or setting up a slow to waylay your pursuers.  Moving the camera manually is a bit of a pain in the butt.  However, ArenaNet has blessed us with the ability to Hotkey the Look Behind functionality.  There is currently no default key (WTF ArenaNet!? Why, why make this so great feature and hide it from me?) so you will have to set it up manually.  While you are in there you may also want to set up the Hotkey for Turn Around.  Huzzah! There is a whole key set up to flip you around 180° to bring the smackdown on those guys chasing you.  The turnaround is fairly fast, but I suspect that manually spinning your character in the air a little over 90° will give you faster and better results in a highly competitive game for reasons I won’t get into right now.