http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ul4j9pYBzU The Basics: -Alderaan has three turrets to capture. Capturing one will allow it to begin shooting the enemy dropship, which is how you achieve victory. All three capture points are worth the same amount of points. -The west capture point is generally considered the Republic’s “freebie” point because of the closer proximity while landing, and the little piece of debris sticking out of the ground allowing a minor shortcut for players coming from the Republic’s angle to get up. -The east capture point is generally considered the Empire’s “freebie” point because of the closer proximity while landing, and the little piece of debris sticking out of the ground allowing a minor shortcut for players coming from the Empire’s angle to get up. -It takes 10 seconds to capture a turret, and any damage dealt (even if it’s absorbed by a force shield) will interrupt the capture. -There may be multiple Alderaan matches going at once, and /pvp and /gen chats cross all of them, so before responding to a “HELP WEST” yell, make sure that person is actually in your warzone and not talking about a different one. The slightly-less basic basics: -The most basic, default, cookie-cutter strategy for Alderaan is to have 2 people take your “freebie” side, and have the rest of the team take and hold middle. Once you have two, hold them until you win. -Do not get greedy. If you have two points, just be content with a victory; don’t go rushing off for the third point hoping for a quicker victory. That will usually mean one of your points is very lightly defended and easy for the enemy to take — then not only do you not have all 3, you’re down to having only 1. -It is impossible to capture a point by yourself by stunning an opponent and immediately capturing the point. Your stun will wear off before you can finish capturing the point and you will get interrupted. -When you control one of the side turrets, a speeder will appear in your dropship on the same side as the turret you control. Ex: you control the west turret, a speeder will appear on the far western point of your ship. The speeder will disappear if you lose control of that point. -Up to four speeders can be on your ship at any time. The two in the middle will always go to the middle capture point. The far west one will always go directly to west capture point, and the far east one will always go directly to the east capture point. -The side-speeders are much faster than the middle speeders for defending the side points. -Defend on the point! Do not be tempted to go chase after that one meany-head Sorcerer who hit you with a dot and ran. Fight on the point; after all, he may have done some damage to you, but you’re the one winning the warzone. Don’t chase people away. If you’ve got a pull, though (vanguards, powertechs, assassins, shadows), feel free to yank them up to the point to kill them in retaliation. -Basic math can be determined to see how many turrets you need to win based on the score. -If your opponents have over twice as many points on their ship, you need all 3 capture points to win. -If your opponents have anywhere between half and two times as many points as you, you need 2 capture points to win. -If your opponents have less than half the points you do, you only need 1 capture point to win. The safest bet here is to all gather at one point and just defend it, though usually by this point you can control two no problem. -There is an underground passage between the two side points that goes under the central point. Use this if you’re at a side point and need to get to the other quickly. There are also movement speed powerups down there, so grab one if necessary. -There are no penalties for death. If you die defending a point over… and over… and over… and over… you’re probably one of the most valuable members of your team. Two people who keep defense-zerging a side capture point can hold off an uncoordinated group of 8 players for a long time, and they’ll probably rack up a good 5 or 6 deaths each with no kills. At the scoreboard at the end, remember that death counts are totally irrelevant. Mildly advanced tactics: -Defending one of the side capture points is significantly easier than defending the central capture point. If you die at a side capture point while on defense, all you need to do is take your side-speeder down to be there in 10 seconds for a fresh round of defense there. If you die while on offense at a side capture point, to return there you must take the central speeder and run from your central landing area — this takes close to 30 seconds to return to the fight. -There is an anti-spawn camping mechanic for Alderaan. Anyone who jumps up to the opponent’s central landing platform will be shot by the enemy’s ship (instantly killing them). This can also be used to annoy enemies below if you have a pull ability by pulling them up to your landing zone, allowing your ship to kill them. -Always account for “ninja” enemies. These are enemies who usually have access to stealth who might take a point while you’re distracted. Ninjas are one of the primary reasons to fight near a capture point on defense, and the primary reason to never leave a point totally undefended. -Don’t cry wolf for no reason. You don’t want five people running from the other capture point to help defend against 1 person, and you certainly don’t want to call for help and hog up teammates to defend against nothing. –If there are two of you at a point defending, and one enemy runs up, don’t go shouting for help in general chat. The two of you should (hopefully) be capable of handling one opponent. If you’re not, THEN call for help as he’s slaughtering you, and try to stay alive as long as possible. After the match, determine why one person was beating the snot out of both of you and try to find a solution. Advanced Tactics: -When ninja’ing a point, try to position the console between yourself and your enemies. Not only can they not target (and shoot) you through the console if they manage to spot you, which will force them to run around, but they also can not see your nameplate or health bar. This makes you much more difficult to see and react to. -When defending a point, if there are two or more of you, try to spread out to have all angles of the console covered at all times. Position one of you on either half and just spin the camera toward the console every now and then to check for ninjas. -When defending a point, if you are alone, you can run around like a crazy man to ensure no ninjas are coming, but that’ll get really boring and tiresome after a while. While on the side points, you can also stand on top of the console to get a nice 360 view. –To jump onto a console, you need to have a speed boost (regular Sprint works, so if you’re out of combat that’ll help.) Face the console away from the center area (so face the console dead-on west if you’re at west, or face it east if you’re at east.) Run toward the console and use the small bump in the brown square-shaped plating under the the console to get just enough height to stand on top of the console. Note that you can still be hit by melee attackers and you can not use portable cover up there, but the better view is generally worth it. Plus let’s face it, you’re probably bored, so a little parkour to pass the time is good. -When taking your “freebie” point at the beginning, it’s wise to send two people. One to run straight for the point and cap it, the other to run interference. Anyone from the opposing team who tries to go for you should be CC’d (snares, roots, stuns, blinds, pulls, knockbacks, anything) to buy time for your ally to capture the point. This will also let you know if your opponents are using any unorthodox strategies (like zerging both sides at the beginning and ignoring the middle altogether.) Super-advanced tactics: -DPS-oriented commandos, mercenaries, gunslingers, and snipers defending the middle point should be up on the higher level. Not only does this provide natural Cover for smugglers/agents, but it also has extra perks. For one, even if you’re not using your Cover ability, you can not be pulled down from there by vanguards/powertechs/assassins/shadows. Second, enemies can not jump up to you, since they’ll just hit the railing and fall back down. Third, you have a good view of the battle area and are still in range of the console. DPS vanguards, powertechs, sages and sorcerers can also make use of these mechanics, though you often have to be in the thick of things to really do damage as those classes. Also note that you can not see the entire console from your angle, so a teammate will still want to watch the other side. -If you clear a capture point of enemies but know reinforcements are coming, have one person capture and the rest should run interference. For example, if you are assaulting the East capture point as the Republic and have just killed the last person there, one person (who isn’t afflicted by DoTs) should capture the point from the south side while the others run to the base of the stairs on the north side. When enemies land, *immediately* CC them, then kill them. Your goal should be the capture point, not the enemy. -When defending a side point, try to die in a staggered fashion. That may sound weird, but pretty much, try not to all die at the same time. Use the PvP healing items to buy yourself a few precious seconds if you’re being zerged while you wait for your dead teammates to return (via the side-speeders) to help defend. Also if you get focused first, it might be in your best interest to die quickly and respawn rather than drag it out and risk all of the defenders dying at once. –Likewise, on offense, try to kill all of the opponents at around the same time to prevent a constant stream of irritating reinforcements. It only takes one weak AoE to interrupt a group of people capturing a console. -Damage-over-Time (DoT) abilities will interrupt captures. Make HEAVY use of this. If your opponent is trying to capture a point, throw out some dots if you feel like you’re about to die. This will usually buy you a few more seconds to return to the point and defend. -Delayed-blast abilities (like Sticky Grenade and Explosive Dart) also work well here. -While on the subject of Sticky Grenade and Explosive Dart, if you’re hit with one right before you kill the last guy, run AWAY from the console. You’ll just interrupt everyone when it explodes and you’re next to them. Lastly, a couple little things… -Yes, defending a side point sucks if nobody attacks it all game. It’s boring and the Medals system effectively penalizes you for it, but it has to be done. At the end of the game when it’s time to hand out MvP nominations, be sure to think about the poor bored guy who’s been sitting at West, warding off ninjas and keeping an eye on your capture point. Give him a commendation so he feels better about it. -Never give up, never surrender! I won’t argue about the merits of letting your opponents just win if you’re getting steamrolled. That doesn’t mean you should stop fighting though. Zerg them! Remember, if you do 50k damage in a warzone and get that medal, you still get all the commendations, valor, exp, and credits for it at the end of the game even when you lose. Not only is it fun to charge head-first into a group of enemies guns blazing and lightsabers flailing, but it’ll also get you better rewards in the end. |
