Explaination of map lockdowns

All,

Having been with the T4 seige night warbands, I would love to have the explaination of how area lockdowns occur. I know that a certain level of Victory Points are needed, but now how they are garnered and in what time frame. An explaination of the following would be awesome!

1. How VPs are earned and at what rate?
2. What strats are used in the areas? T4 vs T3 vs T2...or are they all the same.
3. What are the minimum amount of bodies needed for each tier?
4. What defensive strats are used to deny Destro a lock?

Any other insights would be appreciated for budding WB leaders.

Thanks

There are 2 ways to lock zones. #1 Victory Points - When either order or destruction has gotten 65 Victory points. To reach 65 points you points from Battlefield Objectives and Keeps. Total points available for objectives is 45. each BO is worth 4.5 points each and each keep is worth 13.5. the remain point will come from Scenarios and Skirmish. If you have 100% of those they are worth 20 points each. So in theory you could have 85 total points to lock a zone. No how Scenarios and Skirmish is calculated I do not know for sure. #2 Domination Lock - A Dom Lock is when you have taken and guild claimed both keeps in a area for 2 hours with out interruption and held all the Battlefield Objectives for 30 minutes with out interruption. When going for a Dom lock you generally don't worry about the BO's until the keeps are under 1 hour or so. Once the keeps are under 30 mins to go, that is when you really have to protect the BO's. If the opposing side takes the BO and your side doesn't take it back it is a 45 minute wait. If your side does recover the BO the timer is reset to 30 minutes. How the Underdog plays into it the lock system is it reduces the amount of VPs or timers required to lock the zone. +2 Underdog: you need 60 Victory points or to Dom lock, both keeps claimed for 45 mins and all 4 BOs for 10 minutes. +3 Underdog: 55 Victory points and since that rarely happens I am not sure about the Domination timers. Hope this answers some of your questions. I am just not sure about you other questions.

2. Strats vary by zone. In general, you want to take keeps before you focus on BOs if you're locking a zone. (Though it's not ALWAYS bad to take one, but usually is to take two, before you get both keeps)... If you need more skirmish, it often helps to try to find the enemy forces, push them for a bit, then pull back to a defensive area, let them regroup, and push again. 3. minimum bodies? Uhh. I dunno really. Small groups take keeps, but to flip a zone might be harder, becaue... 4. Try to get multiple BOs coming up at the same time for them defend in opposite ends of the zone. This can force an opponent with a zerg to try to run across the map, which can be near impossible if they aren't organized.

I don't have detailed insights into the specifics, but I can offer up some rough general information... There are basically two ways to lock a zone - via Domination, or via Victory Points. Domination Lock... Is achieved by holding onto control of the zone for a certain amount of time. Each keep and objective has a time counter once it is captured (2hrs for Keeps, and 30mins for Battle Objectives I think). If all the Keeps and BO's are held long enough for all their timers to reach zero, the zone locks. I believe Keeps must be claimed by a guild for a Domination Lock to work, and if the guild loses their claim (either removes it or runs out of funds to maintain it), the timer will be reset, and then reset again when another guild claims the Keep. (you will often see Foghlada/Dannian rush to a zone, grab and claim both the keeps and exit to another zone without touching the BO's - this is often in preparation for a later Domination Lock. Since Keeps take so long to count down, he can keep destro busy in another zone for the next hour and a half, then return to take and defend all the BO's for the last 30mins it takes for all the counters to reach zero) Victory Point Lock... This one I don't know the specifics, but in general, the idea is to gain 65 victory points (measured very vaguely by the Blue/Red bar in the top right of your screen). Scenarios contribute to this score. Objectives contribute to this score when they are locked, and again when their counters reach zero. Keeps contribute to this score when they are captured, when they are claimed by a Guild, when they are successfully defended, and when their counters reach zero. Skirmish (players killed by other players out in the RvR lake) also contribute to this score. There is also a natural decay to the points earned after a certain amount of time. Underdog Bonus... I don't remember the secifics here, but basically, each time one side reaches the city, the other side gets a number of advantages once the City Siege is done (30mins I think, after the zones reset). These are represented by little green and red dots on either side of the Victory Points Bar in the top right. These advanages stack if one side reaches the city multiple times consecutively, and reset to normal when the other side makes it to the city. Advantages/Penalties include timers on Keeps and BO's, and the the Victory Points needed for a Victory Point Lock. Hopefully someone else with more indepth knowledge/memory will be able to fill in the specifics on the many gaps I left. Most defensive strategies for preventing an enemy lock involve stealing BO's out from under the enemy's nose. It's not an easy task, and can actually hurt your cause more than help it if the enemy are able to retake it before it is locked down (again, you will often see Foghlada/Dannain deliberately asking people to let Destro capture a BO, specifically for the purpose of being able to rush in and retaking it before the 3 mins are up). Ideally when stealing a BO from the enemy (who presumably heavily outnumber you if you are on the defense), you want to find a way to lure the enemy as far away from the BO you want as possible, so they have as little time as possible to respond when you take it from them. Another option is to ninja a Keep. Most players don't pay much attention to Keeps, as they take a long time to penetrate, which means they have plenty of time to respond if it is hit. A small group of no more than 3 people (I think), can quietly set up a ram and wear down the door without flagging the Keep as being under attack. Melee classes can potentialy even set up a Ram on the inner gate if the keep isn't specifically upgraded to prevent them gaining entry (Padlock, I think). Once the Gates are worn down to 5-10%, your forces can hit the keep and drop the doors in seconds, hopefully taking the Keep before Destro can respond. Just be sure not to kill any Guards if the Keep is Guild claimed, as it alerts members of that Guild to the guards death and exactly how many players are attacking the Keep - Unless of course you want to use this to pull the enemy away from a BO you want ;). Just a few thoughts, and barely the tip of the iceberg.

this info is all correct :D however its helpful to note that all of this will be changed in the next patch.

great info, especially useful to someone like me that has been away for almost a year. Any idea how far away is the release date for the next patch?

Probably pretty soon. Since they have shown their hand with the release of the patch notes, I would expect the patch to go live in 1-2 weeks. But thats just my guess...

» Edited on: 2010-11-04 06:03:00