We had a very interesting invasion in Windsward last night, and learned quiet a bit. I was tabbed to be the caller and to get everything setup and I decided to take a different approach then normal. We incorporated several changes I’d seen in videos from other guilds invasions as well as things I had read both here and elsewhere. We were going to take a more dramatic swing at different tactics then we have in the past.
For the initial setup we only removed one person, a level 57 from the army and the rest of the time was spent moving people around to create a new dynamic within our groups. I wanted to put more meat on each gate, that is people on the ground and fighting. We setup group 1 as the sole guns group, and asked them to be alert and ready to move from gate to gate as needed. They would move to gates that were getting hit the hardest and while they could help on the bosses, we asked them to keep the bombers from overrunning our crew while they fought.
We then took group 10 and made them a floater group- heavy on the DPS and ready to go help any gate focus bosses down rapidly. They were a sharp crew, and I told them to pay attention to the boss callouts and move around as needed with little to no direction from me. Heavy on the haste pots, they geared up for war. We placed groups 2/3 on gate A, 4/5 on gate B, 6/7 on gate C and 8/9 on the back gates.
The first 4 waves went off without a hitch. Group 10 started moving around as bosses appeared, and gates took very minimal damage. It was clear at this point however that a few strays were going cause problems, as they weren’t on voice and didn’t read army chat. We had 3 extra people, all on the guns and causing some chaos. They did not help with reloads and were not on the gates where they should have been. I caught 1 of their names and he will not be in any invasion I run going forwards, if anyone has the other 2 names I would appreciate that info as well. The chaos they caused might have ultimately been what broke our back on this invasion as you will read below.
Wave 5 started rolling in, and it was clear that the floating group was paying dividends as bosses would appear and fall in very rapid order! The guns were doing a great job at this point of not just damaging the bosses, but taking care of the bombers that tend to spawn behind the bosses and cause problems. As wave 6 rolled in we were staying well ahead of the curve and still preventing the bosses from stacking up at the gates.
Many of the gates actually had additional rest periods between later waves around the 15 and 18 minute mark. This gave most players chances to restock on mines and haste pots and catch their breath! The repair crew even stated they had never seen an invasion go so smooth early on, and were able to help on the guns a bit longer than normal.
Once wave 7 started though, our cracks began to show. The gun crews were finding empty repeaters and ballista from the stray people who weren’t following commands. The skulls started spawning, and the first pair lost their eyes reasonably fast. Group 10 was putting in one hell of a valiant effort even splitting up at one point to move on to another gate once the one they were on was nearly cleared. This is where our repairs crew started getting very busy, and our strays caused more issues by being wasted slots in our army. We needed their help at the gates they were assigned to, as all 3 front gates were essentially 9 man groups- gates B & C each giving up a man for repairs, and gate A having me calling the shots and being less then 100% combat effective. I believe Gate C wound up hit the hardest as 2 of the 3 strays were from it, leaving it as the shortest staffed.
The final wave (8) rolled in around the time we broke the 25 minute mark. It was at this point the skulls kept their eyes for far too long, and bombers started reaching our gate crews. Things were getting very chaotic and we started taking heavy gate damage. Group 10 fell back inside after the first gate fell and started trying to clean things up… but it was all for naught in the end as other gates started falling. With just over 3 minutes remaining, we finally went down.
It was a tremendous effort and we have many things to take away from it-
#1 The floater group does NOT need a healer, the healers already at each gate can keep them up. Make the group a full high DPS setup. (bow preferably) They can single target focus a boss down and move around rapidly as needed. Having them mostly dictate their movements worked last night, but definitely requires a crack group that can pay attention to comms while doing their job.
#2 For our gun crew we need a bit more focus, especially in the later waves. This wasn’t fully their fault as I said, because they were hit hardest with the 3rd issue below. Maybe towards wave 7 & 8 we need to consider having a person or two peel off the gates to help?
#3 I feel we need to start maintaining a black list of outsiders we do not allow back into our invasions. The strays last night proved to be too chaotic and distracting, especially late in the invasion when every persons actions really started to matter. We need to call these people out during the invasions and make sure they either get in line, or on the list so we don’t have to deal with them again. The margins of error are close enough we cannot afford wasted slots!
#4 We need to make sure our repair crew is setup for ranged damage so they spend less time chasing cow blobs, and aren’t subject to them spawning bombers and other mobs inside that take more time to deal with.
#5 Guns groups- Need to spread evenly between the gates to start and never move clear across the fort. They should only slide 1 gate to each side from where they started. This would save wasted time and prevent them from ever having to run across more than 2 gates. This will give them up to 3 people on one gate for focusing fire
This was the deepest we’ve made it into an invasion I was a part of, possibly the deepest we’ve ever made it? We were very close last night to cracking the code on these things and if we can tighten up a few things and keep unhelpful players from eating army slots up, I do believe we can start to beat these things!
As a roaming group I was constantly going inside to stock up on haste pots and mines. Was very helpful when the big boys started showing up at the gates