El dorado

[Elrojo]

Crash asked a good question in PMs regarding El dorado. It's a grey area for a lot of people due to the fact that for many months it never ran, so a lot of people have almost no idea what to do.

map layout

There is a general lay out when you look at the map. So it's pretty easy to see where people are, however most corner areas are up stairs, so the trap is you may run to somewhere and hit a wall and have to double back. I was lost for maybe 3-4 runs, then I sort of worked it out. If you consider the map with 5 zones you will generally organise yourself better. You have the middle zone where you spawn and come up the stairs and then 4 corner squares of varying layout but all with just one way (that I know of) to get up into each section. Once you work these out you basically have what's needed. Almost all fighting occurs in the areas between the spawn and the biggest clump of relics.

teams
Regarding teams, healing is king in El dorado. As usual temps are crappy on heals and big on DPS and tanks. So if you can heal this = win. Move the raid window and then just focus on who is taking damage. I normally take stock of who is tanking towards the front and who is at the back.. This way I know when someone is taking damage whether I can heal them or not. General rule though is to tell people they are moving too far away or dropping LoS reducing heals. Blood/fist is usually good and just use cold blooded for team and use single heals for others.

For tanks if you are beefy and you have a healer then you should be at the front line of defense. Have some hinders or impairs ready. Since most fighting occurs in bottle necked areas a beefy tank can really get some people quite damaged before they get to DPS and relics.

For DPS ranged is generally preferred for defense as the bottle necking almost ensures a loooooong run in exposed areas to even get to you and the relic.


The match itself is per phase.

Phases

1st phase is grab relics ASAP. Temps have one relic right in front of them up the stairs. So run straight and you see it. Usually this is uncontested. The 2nd we go for when you get to the top of the stairs and turn sharp right twice. There is a small enclosed room with a relic in the centre. This is contested so,you need to DPS or heal ppl. Usually 1-2 go straight and the rest go the the 2nd one. Lumies and dragons enter from the 2 openings in front and the the right in that small room so lay out some good AoE fire and push them back.

2nd phase (assuming we got 2). Is to run to the north west corner with the relics and plant them. Best to follow the crowd to see where that is. A planted relic in your proximity will buff you dependent on the relic. So is best to plant.

3rd phase is to defend. If we have 2 and the others have 1 then the longer we hold 2 the better. You only need to have more points at the end of the timer to win. While its longer, a win is better.

Optional variations do occur particularly with premades. Often if one faction has a huge skill/gear advantage they will gobble up all 4 relics. So then 4 relics held for 90 secs is a win. Regardless of score or time. If you drop one then the game goes back to score based.

Basic advice
Common pitfalls are rushing out of the dead zone and being camped. So sometimes it's best to run out of a different exit, or wait on a few temps to help. In a typical match the winners don't die much, so if you do you can find yourself stuck being ganked solo. So don't be too upset if this occurs.

I've have matches where I've had 40 kills and lost and others with 12 and won. Kills mean nothing. Don't rush out of healers reach to kill someone, all that will happen is their buddies will show up and kill you, now they are between you and your relic, which is a bad idea.

Eldorado is probably the best marks farm in game currently, can be very fast, very frequent and 20 for a win. So pays to get proficient. As usual premades will beat pug on almost all times. So not a lot one person can do to stem the tide if you are going wrong.

[Chrisax]

I agree with all Rojo said, very good job, and, also, definitely, Crash said very interesting things in a PM, so credit to him for starting this too.

There is nevertheless sometimes now a change to the initial phase:

Some groups send a "hunter" or a "screwer" to the spot of another faction's "stair" relic. The role of the guy is either to kill the relic looter if possible and get the relic (unlikely, still possible) or slow the picking up of the relic. A glance tank is good at this.

It doesn't matter the relic will be picked up eventually by the faction it "belongs" to: what matters is that this relic won't be owned immediately so the other faction can start scoring points while the "screwed" faction is not yet getting points. The difference will probably be only a few points but it's enough to have a winning edge.

Also this usually destabilize the faction that doesn't see its relic picked up, and splits it in two groups, making the looting of the central relic close to impossible.


Last thing is: many people just don't listen and you find yourself almost alone in center while 8 guys are following the looter of the stairs" relic...

[Crash]

Thanks for the write up, fellas. I'm sure I'll have more goofy questions for you once I can dig in more.

I'm not in a position to do so atm, but I eventually want to develop a topographical map of the zone. There must be ways to exploit El Dorado's map on a much deeper level than SH or The Foo. Using perches against melee villians, creating intersecting fields of fire from partial blinds, using knockbacks to forcibly separate an enemy group from its healer, etc.

This will obviously be labor intensive, but should be fun. My small exposure to El Dorado has me excited about it. Fusang was always about numbers & rudimentary communication. Stonehenge was mostly about gear and team build synergies. But El Dorado seems like it has potential to stay fresh as tactics evolve.

Correct me if you disagree, but ED seems like the first TSW PvP zone where strategy is king.

[Crash]

p.s. - Can someone please get me a good screen shot of the map from inside a match?

edit: I'm also wondering if El Dorado is popping on test live. It would be nice to spend time mapping while not in a "real" match.

edit #2: Assuming we roll into ED with a 5 man pre-made, what's the best mis? 1 tank, 2 heals, 2 DPS/support?

[Chrisax]

I'll make a screenshot.

On test server, I don't think there are many ED runs, except if there is an update or something motivating special runs.


You combo for a team makes sense totally. The tank, though, is more to serve the whole raid that a team alone but it can indded help a team in some situations. Two healers are mandatory; it's good if they (or one of them) can generate some extra damage or debuffs whne healing is not critical, or to terminate an enemy. A range DD (or both DD) can help as we often face now lumis and drags with assault rifles, spamming bullets and hinders all over. Everyone, if it doesn't waste their build, should maybe (?) have a way to counter range at least sometimes (like the Blade teleport or the Fist jump)

[Bredin]

So far for me it seems that ED is a complete crapshoot based on what other templars you wound up with in the match. Yes a pre-made solves that, but can we pre-make an entire ED raid?

[Chrisax]

Except last night which was really bad (being third + everlasting rounds: worst combo), ED is still the fastest way to get Black marks, by far.

Templars are very irregular while Lumis are more stable. We rank from totally lame to really nice, depending on... I don't know what really.

Can we make a full raid? I never saw any ED raid force entirely made by one cabal, by far. I'm not even sure we could have two teams entering the same round.

But if we have several people... then things change because we can talk, move together, and show there is a will, a tactic, decisions, DIRECTIONS
.
The attitude of Templars is often "why should I care because no one else cares except maybe one guy?!"

If I say at the beginning of an ED round "one gets the stairs relic and all other center", this will rarely work. If a few people start replying "OK, I'll go center / yes i'll get the relic / cool I'll spam heal center / etc" suddenly everyone or almost wakes up.

Unless FC revamps Fusang, ED is the best way to get purples at the moment.



Capone: I have your screenshots, I'll post them asap.

[Crash]

Cool. Thanks, Cx.

As for premades in ED, I think even a five man squad would help. We can lead by example. People would catch on, right?

Edit: we could also try to coordinate with another 5 man premade w/ someone like Primal Instinct.

[Chrisax]

Here are your maps, Crash. I've been a bit zealous:

(Click on thumbnails for full map)


Basic map



Contour of structures



Contour of structures - other method



Computer-interpreted relief map



Computer-interpreted relief map with grid

[Crash]

AWESOME, Chris. Thanks a bunch!

[Elrojo]

PI will NOT allow you to premade with them.

Unless on a VERY odd occasion you may be allowed to attend THEIR premade, but you HAVE to have TS3 to voice and be prepared to be largely ignored.

[Crash]

Well that stinks. It wasn't like that for SH. I used to get asked quite a bit.