Fight on the Flag

We are amazed and awed at the amount of RVR we have seen on Phoenix Throne so far.

This map represents Friday night at about 6:30 p.m. Pacific time. FotF is headed into the fray!

As we slowly accumulate Annihilator and Conquerer gear, we are getting less squishy. We stood toe to toe with one of the better Bright Wizard bomb groups on the server. I am confident once we get equivalent gear that they won’t stand a chance.

Apparently our guild is getting a bit of a reputation (if only for the guild name). I discourage bragging on forums. It’s sometimes hard not to provide advice without seeming like you’re bragging. I don’t want to come off as arrogant (oh but on this server we did it this way and it worked).

But sometimes you really can’t help it. We had a keep defense that everyone thought we would lose. The tank wall was rather massive, though, and I had every confidence that we would prevail. That is, until the people on the tank wall left the wall to chase down people who got past /facepalm.

We steered them (in a not-so-nice way) to get back onto the wall and hold fast. We prevailed and chased them out of the keep!

I anticipate more fun today and Sunday.

On Saturday, Flags in Space made a journey to Bastion Stair, and most of us now have our crit weapons. Yay! After that, we ran a bunch of Nordenwatch scenarios. We stomped the pugs, but we got stomped by the Order premades.

The real fun came at night, when we decided to defend one of the many fortress assaults (I forget which one).

After that, we defended a keep with the rest of Destro in Chaos Wastes.

Initially we skirmished inside, but we saw the group bunched up (before this shot was taken) and decided to bomb them, old style. We wiped the advance force with the help of other Destro, but then a wave of Destro Order came over the hill and we retreated to defend. After the Destro force repelled the attackers, we took the northeast BO in Chaos Wastes.

Finally, we went to Caledor to have some fun. The fun turned into Destro flipping the zone.

We had a ton of fun Saturday, and things are looking up as we get gear and renown rank! It was painful but the road is sure to be smoother from here.

Order really knows how to assault a fortress. Yes, they pop cap the fort just like Gorfang does. And yet, Gorfang cannot assault a fortress unless nobody is there to defend.

Here’s why:

Check out that Order zerg at the zone line to Fell Landing. They are waiting for the first push to wipe. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out, guys. Really, the last time I saw a pop capped fort on Gorfang, the people who didn’t get in were pouting and screaming in region chat about the injustice of it all.

This is a seriously organized group of Order that we are fighting. All the more challenge for us here on Phoenix Throne.

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OMG Tier 2 was not happening at all on Skull Throne. Riamin instead checked Gorfang and for once, there was a significant Destro force running around. Woo!

But just as we logged in, we found our alliance warband was leaving the zone. Boo! They said there were too many Destro to fight. It makes me wonder if any of them remember how we fought when the server was new, Destro was overpopulated and Order was demoralized?

My bright idea to attack them when they were in the tunnel didn’t go as well as I planned. Instead we rushed to the north keep to take it. We waited for a minute or so, and once I thought they were well on their way to Gromril Junction, we started in on the door.

The Destro took Gromril Junction and we continued working on the door, sweating as the timer on the battlefield objective ticked down. Meanwhile I was trying to get the alliance warband to return. They showed up when the door was about 10 percent and we started in on the second door (at this point the keep flagged for the first time. Bug maybe?).

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It’s been a while since Order had their collective asses handed to them. FOTF was ready for yet another day of playing alts to find any semblance of RVR action when we heard of a couple of Destro warbands.

I didn’t take the threat seriously until they flipped Caledor.

The rest of the night I can only equate to how a battered woman feels when her abusive boyfriend returns after a long period away from her: skittish, excited and afraid at the same time. I remember the days when Destro zerged the server so hard that Order were demoralized and weak. Then a few server transfers brought more people to the Gorfang and the Destro had some infighting

After Caledor flipped, I put out the rallying cry in alliance chat and told people to join my warband and get in vent. At this point the Destro had already claimed Covenant of Flame. When Destro hit Drakebreakers we had a whopping two groups.

So we did what we FOTF tries to do best. We queued for Serpent’s passage.

The beatdown was humiliating and awesome.

What happened next is something that hasn’t happened in a long time. We got stomped. It’s hard not to get stomped when you have a full group of PUG in the scenario. Somehow Destro made everyone who was not level 40 stay out of the scenario queue and only let the pro players go in preset groups.

After our beatdown, we went to Drakebreakers, but Destro rolled through us like we weren’t even there.

Destro flood the inside of Drakebreakers Scourge.

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After Fight on the Flag got roflstomped in a Serpent’s Passage, we checked out the gear of our foes. Damn. Lost Vale gear. Fortunately we found that sentinal gear is a breeze to get. After a few hesitant tries, we got through Sigmar Crypts without wiping the second time we went. Warpblade Tunnels also seems easy. I’m not sure what everyone was complaining about.

It was so easy I was able to mock someone else’s guild name while we were pulling.

Fortunately we cleared both by Friday so we can PVP all weekend! Enough about that boring PVE. Order has been reliably pushing to Caledor recently. Yes, we do lock zones. That means we can go to Caledor Woods, by far and away our favorite scenario.

There was a whole lot more waving going on than this. I was almost embarrassed.

Basically for those familiar with T3 scenarios, it’s just like Temple of Isha, except you can’t pick up the ball that gives you bonus to DPS. It’s just one node to take over, and this is super easy with a coordinated group and someone yelling at nubs to kill healers and witch elves.

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The Destruction’s attempt to siege the Fortress was pretty fun. I had never been on a Fortress defense before, so I probably played too conservatively. Apparently the guards worked the Destro hard because many players didn’t have the proper gear.

Here is the Destro attacking Pelgorath’s BO in Dragonwake.

They tried one push and disappeared. After the Fortress siege ended, the Destro near immediately capped all of the keeps and Battle Objectives in Dragonwake. It was smart and coordinated.

Leaderboards and /wave report below.

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Saturday the Order capped Eataine and moved the fight back to Dragonwake. Sunday we continued the fray in Dragonwake. There were at least three Order warbands out, and mine was one of them. Click the screenshot for full effect.

I know as the underdog realm we must use strategy. That’s why I employed a new, radical strategy that is sure to help us win more battles.

FOTF started out the night with about a group and a half of people. We refused to admit anyone into the warband unless they were a healer, a tank, or brought one of those classes with them. I’m sure I ruffled a few feathers, but the wins we accumulated were worth the ire. We were unstoppable.

Now this is not to say that I won’t res or heal people outside of the warband, because I do. I support the realm. But I think the best way to support the realm is with a balanced warband. Would anyone PVE with an unbalanced group? Why should we PVP with any less?

The screenshots on which the above montage is based were the culmination of three attempts by Destro to take our keep (which they finally did at 12:30 a.m. Pacific time)

I hope Order will continue to support the balanced warband.

Saturday was, in a word, awesome! A group of us from FOTF and League of Light decided to stir up trouble in Dragonwake. All of a sudden it became an entire warband. The fights weren’t bad there, but eventually we got run out of the zone and took up residence in Kadrin Valley.

We traded BOs with Destro and often hit their force head-on.

To get the full effect of this large-scale fight, click the image. A new window will open with a full-size version.

I think Destro had far more numbers, but I think Order was more organized. Throughout the night we had several crashes to desktop. Very annoying, especially in the middle of a keep siege.

We did manage to take the northern keep and defended it for around 11 hours.

Dead Destruction… the best kind!

In the end we got tired and went to bed, but not before we formed an alliance with League of Light! The new alliance, called Flamberge Phalanx, is dedicated to RVR and organization.

It’s cool the way you form friendships even across realm lines. I’ve seen Rugbyrat often on the battlefield. He’s always willing to charge out and fight even if his team is hopelessly lost.

Here he’s trying to give Pylith a hug… I think… Be careful Rugby!

So anyway, on Sundays the Order tends to take keeps around noon eastern time. Why don’t we see Destro defending? My theory is they are all in Sunday School.

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