Guild of the Week: I Seek Guild H K [香港]

I Seek Guild H K is one of the oldest and largest Chinese guilds active in Guild Wars. Originally formed as I Seek Guild [ICQ] in the American Region, many of the guild's members switched to their home territory with the recent release of Guild Wars in Taiwan. Since the switch, I Seek Guild H K has grown to nearly one hundred members and has consistently finishing in first place for its territory in the Guild Wars Factions Championship.

A competitive guild, I Seek Guild H K has a clear vision of its guild goals—mainly, to become the most respected guild in Asia and to represent Hong Kong based players by remaining in the Top 100 spots on the ladder every season. With its large number of members and goal of gathering the largest player base in Hong Kong, I Seek Guild H K may be an ideal fit for Cantonese-speaking gamers looking to break into the competitive aspects of Guild Wars in a localized setting.

PvP Game Discussion:

I Seek Guild H K has designed several new builds since the release of Factions; the one discussed here was created by guild member Baba Ging. The build revolves around six Necromancers. The first five are equipped with Oppressive Gaze, Vampiric Gaze, and Shadow Strike as their spiking skills. The sixth Necromancer casts skills that cause the targeted foe to suffer from Weakness. Oppressive Gaze contains a conditional damage modifier, so when a target foe is struck while suffering from Weakness, Oppressive Gaze steals additional Health from the target, further healing the Necromancers. The key to running this build a good target caller. A player who knows which characters to focus on and when, can lead his team to a decisive victory. Because of the quick recharge times on the offensive skills involved, fast and precise reflexes are needed to keep the called targets coming.

The attack chain begins with the sixth Necromancer, who casts his Weakness spell on the designated target, followed immediately by the other five Necromancers spiking with Oppressive Gaze and Vampiric Gaze. When the first target is dead, the team then immediately switches to the second target, and leads off their attack with a Shadow Strike, followed by an additional Vampiric Gaze. In this way, the build’s offensive switches off between Oppressive Gaze and Shadow Strike spikes.

This build has proven to be a success for the guild, as gauged by the ease with which the guild holds the Hall of Heroes during battle. I Seek Guild H K's alliance guild "LusT" also uses this build for guild battles, and has successfully climbed to the Top 30 on the world ladder against several top-ranked guilds.

Of course, like all builds, I Seek Guild H K's signature build suffers from some inherent weaknesses. The first involves the opposing team being able to see who the target caller is. If the lead skills that cause Weakness are interrupted, the rest of the damage chains will be ineffective and lessen the power of the spike. The second weakness—which can be one of the most difficult obstacles to surmount—comes into play when facing builds that focus primarily on interrupting because of this build's heavy reliance on spell casting.

Player Profiles:

Get to know some of the members of I Seek Guild H K.

• Handle: Scott Pippen
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: MMOs, FPS
  Preferred Character: I like all the professions, but I use Warrior the most in GvG. Most of the time I stay with the group, but sometimes I make the decision to split up the group and attack the enemy's base.
  Position In The Guild: Leader
• Handle: Baba Ging
  Location: Vancouver, Canada
  Gaming Background: FPS and RPGs
  Preferred Character: Mo/Me. They won't let me play anything else other than my Monk in GvG. I usually play as a main healer with Infuse Health in the group. I like it when enemies try to make a move on a spike, but fail to get the kill.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: I Anzie I
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: ARPG and RPGs
  Preferred Character: I play all professions in PvE but in GvG, I mostly play Mesmer/Monk. Energy denial and shutdown are my main focus in GvG.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: Lara Deviz
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: RPGs and FPSs
  Preferred Character: Elementalist/Monk. It's a position to control enemy movement and prevent enemies from doing damage. It's not a position mainly to kill the enemy flag runner, but for a flag runner in this build, it's good enough to flag and take part in attack and defense in a team action. Most of the time, Heal Party is a good skill to save the Energy of your Monks while running for the flag.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: Xell Evil
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: RPGs and FPSs
  Preferred Character: I can play most of the professions. Most of the time I play Warrior/Assassin using hammer for GvG. Usually I stay with the main group while Scott tries to attack the enemy base.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: Sith Mendi
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: FPS, RTS, RPGs and action games.
  Preferred Character: I'm usually responsible for keeping the team alive as a Monk/Mesmer, but I enjoy playing all the professions. When playing a Monk, I try to watch the field and opponent's skill monitors to determine how to defend. Tactics? Don't be nervous if you are losing.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: White Is Power
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: FPS, and RPGs.
  Preferred Character: Out of all of my characters, I like my Assassin and Necromancer the most, as I enjoy sneak attacks and spikes. I am one of the Mesmer/Monk players in GvG. I think the Mesmer is designed for PvP, and it is an essential profession in most builds
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: Little Bell
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: MMOFPS and MMORPGs
  Preferred Character: The only character I play is the Monk. Because I play a Protection Monk in GvG, all the things on my mind during the match are about removing Conditions and Hexes.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP Based
• Handle: Monk Liz
  Location: UK
  Gaming Background: Too many to list. Life is just like a game.
  Preferred Character: Warrior and Elemenalist/Monk mostly, but I do like all type of professions. Since I have three accounts, I have two characters of each profession . . . Yes, I like GW! I like the Warrior's heavy armor and constant damage; they give a lot of pressure in GvG, but they also need good support to back them up.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvP and PvE Based
• Handle: Lone Lee
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: Flight simulation, RPGs, soccer and driving games, turn-based strategy and FPS
  Preferred Character: Warrior, and nothing else!
  Position In The Guild: I was the founder of I Seek Guild on the American server
• Handle: Asurada Zero
  Location: Sydney
  Gaming Background: ARPGs. I love the style of RPG that is combined with action gaming.
  Preferred Character: Warrior—A realistic profession.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvE Based
• Handle: Astral Light
  Location: Hong Kong
  Gaming Background: ARPGs
  Preferred Character: Warrior. Why? Because I'm always being told to be the Warrior in GvG.
  Position In The Guild: Officer, PvE Based
• Handle: Faye Wind
  Location: Toronto, Canada
  Gaming Background: RPG
  Preferred Character: Monk. She is adorable yet has a strong personality.
  Position In The Guild: The only female officer, PvE Based. I listen to members' concerns and answer their questions. I love to take screenshots everywhere in the game.