Burning Isle
From Guild Wars Wiki
| Burning Isle | |
|---|---|
| |
| Region | Ring of Fire Islands |
| Environment Effects | Lava |
| Map | |
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Burning Isle is a Guild Hall introduced with the Prophecies-campaign.
Contents |
[edit] Map Features
[edit] Layout
The Burning Isle Guild Hall has two bases located opposite each other, separated by Lava pools. The Guild Lord is located on a dais with two Archers, two Knights and one Bodyguard. From the main area, there are three paths towards the rest of the map.
- A path due east from the main area will lead towards the opponents base, but Lesser Flame Sentinels are between both bases. Past these, only one Archer is left before the opponents Guild Lord area is reached.
- The main path goes slightly northwest and heads towards the flagstand. Going along this path is the fastest way to the flagstand, but the party will have to pass through a Lava pool before the main battle area is reached.
- An alternative to the main path towards the flagstand, first heads west and passes over the main path twice via a bridge. This route will not expose the team to Lava.
- This guild hall is inspired by the Ring of Fire Islands in Tyria.
[edit] Lesser Flame Sentinels
Lesser Flame Sentinels, hostile to both teams, guard the shorter, lava-filled route between the two bases. Although they die to Health degeneration around the 12:00 mark by themselves, teams wanting to split earlier can send a Ranger with Poison and a flat bow to eliminate the Sentinels without getting in range of their attacks. Protective Spirit helps defend against them as well. Flame Sentinels give 40 faction if killed by a player.
[edit] Lava
The lava on Burning Isle makes movement slow and hazardous by inducing Crippled and Burning Conditions. The conditions are applied every three seconds and last three seconds. Reduced Cripple runes and shield inscriptions can greatly increase your speed as you travel through the lava. Avatar of Melandru Dervishes can also move through the lava unaffected by the conditions.
[edit] NPCs
Each team has five archers, two footmen, two knights, and a bodyguard. See the map for exact NPC placement.
[edit] Strategy and Tactics
Due to the layout of this Burning Isle and its poor base defense, spike oriented teams as well as teams that favor 8v8 (or 7v7) battles are often using this Guild Hall. Furthermore, this map has several nasty choke points and is difficult to run flags on. One of the most reliable tactics against such teams, splitting, is hampered by the Lesser Flame Sentinels that are blocking the primary path towards the opponents base. Before an effective split can take place, these have to be removed from play. This usually takes a couple of minutes, and this time frame can be used by the spike or pressure team to score a few kills on the team that tries to stall the spike/pressure team.
[edit] Defensive Team
The outer three archers provide virtually no defense. They will be killed almost instantly by anything and provide virtually no snaring potential or extra damage. It is also extremely difficult to protect them from gankers without exposing yourself.
Unfortunately, the Guild Lord area is also quite vulnerable. Both outer archers are easily reached by a ranger with longbow or flatbow from a raised platform located to the west of the Guild Lord dais. The knights can regularly be pulled to the raised path or beyond. Finally, an attacking team can push up against your walls and be safe from archer fire and still cast inside your lord area. Finally, the res shrine is just a bit too far to be covered from inside the lord area and people who res are exposed and in a choke point as they try to rejoin the group.
However, you can use the terrain to your advantage a little bit. Monks can stay on the ground outside the lord area and kite around the lord area. This makes them difficult to hit for rangers and warriors and they can still heal the inner area. This is particularly effective with return. You can also sometimes bodyblock the other team inside your inner area, forcing them to take NPC fire without being able to pull out when they want to. Finally, if you do manage to push them out of your base, you can easily wipe the other team as they either have to push up and over the bridge (giving you plenty of chances to snare and kill them from the bottom) or they have to push through the lava, again taking damage and snares.
But realistically, Burning Isle is a defender's nightmare. This map is notorious for promoting gimmicks and spikes, and for good reason.
[edit] Offensive Team
The Offensive team has a substantially similar base as the Defensive team, although the offensive team's ramp into the guild lord area is solid (and thus cannot be hidden under).
[edit] Disputed Ground
The center area is defined by the following features: there are numerous dangerous choke points, the flagger is very exposed to a push or spike as he moves in the flag, and there is almost no possibility of retreat. Don't lose the 8v8 fight or else it is very hard to win.
Because Guild Wars lacks a true Z-axis, it is also possible to attack or bodyblock the upper bridges from the lower level.
The flagstand itself is only reachable through a Lava pool located in the north-northwestern corner of the map. Players placing the flag at the stand are quite vulnerable to attacks from a ridge that lies besides this Lava pool.
NPCs take the bridge and clump up insanely. They also can be aggroed from a safe position below the bridge.
