Guild of the Week: Disturbed Forces (DFx)
Disturbed Forces (DFx) formed in April 2001 as a collection of PvP players who desired some strong competition. Initially, the guild members played Diablo II and then progressed to Shadowbane, before finally moving to Guild Wars. Through all the different games, DFx performed well in tournaments and leagues. Currently, DFx is enjoying a high ranking on the Guild Wars ladder, having placed strongly in the top twenty for several weeks. DFx members are focused on improving their PvP ability while maintaining close ties of friendship and loyalty, which they feel is a very important factor in achieving success as a guild.
Observant players might note that Disturbed Forces is listed as "Disturbed Froces" on the ladder. This typo was made during the guild's creation and has yet to be fixed because members feel that it fits with their overall personality and play style; as a guild, DFx typically displays an amused and somewhat irreverent outlook.
Since it is a strongly competitive guild, Disturbed Forces uses the cooperative missions and explorable areas almost entirely for unlocking runes, skills, and item upgrades. The guild aims to achieve maximum flexibility for PvP character creation, and thus strengthen the guild. To that end, unidentified items are freely shared between members, ensuring that each player unlocks upgrades appropriate to his primary character type.
Strategy: PvP Play
Ask Disturbed Forces to name one the key reasons for the guild's success, and they'll likely tell you that it's keeping an eye on the prevailing metagame. For example, when they see other guilds using a lot of Air Elementalists for spike damage, they will adjust their build to include better counters. DFx members believe that having a deep knowledge of what your own skills are capable of, as well as those commonly used by your opponents, can elevate your gameplay above that of most opponents. Besides having a firm understanding of your own skills, DFx members stress the importance of being aware of the current popular strategies and counter-strategies, battlefield positioning, and the inherent strengths/weaknesses of particular tactics.
Strategically, DFx relies on identifying key members of the opposing team. Once they've identified the most important characters, they adapt their strategy to disable those key enemies. Understanding your opponent's build and taking steps to counter its most important members can give you a strong psychological advantage as your enemy tries to adjust its own strategy.
As you might have guessed, DFx members place a high value on the psychology of Guild Wars combat. Often, a psychological advantage can make the difference between otherwise equal teams. They commonly look for ways to upset their opponents, either by interrupting key skills or identifying and neutralizing key members of the enemy guild.
Disturbed Forces typically enters battle with a support structure of three Monks, and the members make heavy use of voice chat. The majority of the characters in the group equip support skills designed either to help their allies or to provide large-scale negation of enemy abilities. Another important DFx strategy: target calling and keeping enemy healers off-balance by quickly and effectively switching targets. This can cause an enemy Monk to waste healing on the original target.
PvP Quick Tips
When participating in PvP battles, DFx members offer the tips and strategies below.
Member Profiles
Meet some of the members of Disturbed Forces: