Guild of the Week: Capita Cerberi (CC)
One of the largest and most active German guilds in Guild Wars, Capita Cerberi also holds the distinction of being one of the oldest. Established in April of 2004, the guild now stands forty members strong, and many have been with the guild since the beginning. Still others have come to the guild by way of mergers—from smaller guilds looking to engage in guild-versus-guild battles more often.
CC started as a predominantly cooperative-play guild. Since then, the guild has expanded to cater to players who enjoy all aspects of the game—from braving the depths of the Underworld to facing rival guilds on the field of battle.
Already looking forward to the changes Guild Wars Factions will bring to the game, Capita Cerberi has begun planning the formation of an alliance with befriended guilds like Milites Mortis Elties (MiMo) and Clan Brotherhood (Bro). Their motivation? Simply put, they eagerly anticipate the chance to claim the world as their own.
The Heisenberg Build
CC has played with a great variety of builds and tactics in the past, such as "hit-and-run" and split builds, among others. However, the Burning Isles proved to be a difficult challenge to overcome. On this Guild Hall, CC could not hit-and-run or split as intended. That is, until the Assassin came along.
Capita Cerberi extensively tested a new build in the Guild Wars Factions Global Free-For-All PvP Weekend Event. It places a heavy reliance on one of the new Factions professions, the Assassin. This build is called the "Heisenberg Build" in reference to German physicist Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Actually, CC members call it the "Recall Split Build" internally, but by their own admission, the new name sounds a lot cooler, doesn't it?
Offensive Squad:
Defensive Squad:
For Either Squad:
Tactics
Every character or location to which a player can Shadow Step when dismissing an Enchantment such as Recall or Aura of Displacement is internally referred to as an "Anchor" by CC. Since the tactics used for playing successfully vary between the different Guild Halls, the strategies given here will apply specifically to the Burning Isle—the reason this build was created.
The entire Offensive Squad places Recall on the final Ranger/Assassin in the build. Additionally, all characters on the Offensive Squad as well as the final character place another Recall on the Monk/Assassin. The Monk/Assassin doesn't place a Recall on himself, but on the Necromancer/Monk. This leaves you with two Recalls maintained by all characters in the Offensive Squad and one by the final character.
At the beginning of a battle, the Defensive Squad (sans the Monk/Necromancer) moves to the flag stand to show some presence. The Offensive Squad runs toward the Flame Cursed Sentinels. There, the last character gets a Protective Spirit and a Guardian by the Monks.
The Monk on the Defensive Squad then runs back to rejoin his squad. The last character runs by the Sentinels, and as soon as he is within casting range of the second Sentinel, he uses Dark Prison to shorten the time to reach the enemy's base. When he is safe, the rest of the Offensive Squad dismisses their Recalls. What this leaves you with is four characters in the enemy's base and an anchor (the Necromancer/Monk) in your base to whom you can retreat.
The Necromancer then begins spamming Order of Pain and Heal Party. The Ranger/Assassins heads straight for the Bodyguards while the Monk/Assassin places an Anchor inside the enemy's base using Aura of Displacement. When the enemies realize that their Guild Lord is under attack, they will most likely make a quick retreat to their base. Since you're probably not a match for them, you should retreat to your base. First the Monk dismisses his Recall, sending him back to his anchor, the Necromancer/Monk. Then everyone else dismisses their Enchantments so that they Shadow Step to their Anchor, the Monk.
The Defensive Squad then places the flag, and the Offensive Squad will still have an anchor inside the enemy's base—the Aura of Displacement. Essentially, this leaves you with the tactical advantage in that you can take action according to how your enemy reacts to your moves.
Another advantage of Recall is that as long as you have enough time to dismiss it (for example, the enemy is not a spike team, or their spike is not executed very well) your Ranger/Assassins can overextend and run straight for the enemy's backline. If they find themselves under heavy fire, they can just dismiss Recall, Shadow Step to their anchor (best that it be a Monk), and then recast Recall while being healed—before returning again into the fray.
While some may feel that the skills used in this build are overpowered, there are also some notable disadvantages as well. First, the Monk/Assassin is lacking in Energy-management. Should you find yourself in a straight eight-versus-eight fight, you may run into trouble quickly unless you can mitigate damage with your Assassin skills.
Additionally, making the most of Shadow Step requires skill, as you cannot teleport through certain obstacles, and it is necessary to have enough space around the anchor—otherwise, you will teleport against the next wall. CC feels that once these skills are better understood by a greater number of players, they will eventually become just another part of the ever-changing metagame.
While CC only had three short days to develop and test this build, they already see great potential in the new classes and had a lot of fun surprising their enemies with the new gameplay mechanics.
Member Profiles
Get to know some of the members of Capita Cerberi.