Heavy Damage: Tricks of the PvP Trade Part 3

Heavy Damage is our weekly Tanking column – if you have suggestions of what you’d like covered, drop our resident Tank, Alec Bailey a line. Part 1 of this PvP roundup covering Huttball can be found here and Part 2 (Voidstar) is here 

This is the final installment of my “Tricks of the PvP Trade” series. It will be covering the offensive and defensive tactics I find useful in Alderaan Civil War (ACW) Warzone. The ACW Warzone is a three point capture and hold game. The three turrets constantly fire on the opposing team’s drop ship. The key to victory is to hold two points long enough to bring down the enemy’s drop ship and end the match. The turrets are usually referred to as left, right, middle; East, West, Centre;  or snowy side, grass side, and middle.

As usual I’ll break the strategies down to main points of intrest, explaining the tactics I use to help get my team the win. The main thing that sets ACW apart from the other Warzones is that your team will be playing offense and defense almost simultaneously the entire match.

Basic Strategies

Capture the Flanks! – Capping the flanks is the best plan of attack, but for some reason it is constantly over looked. Everyone wants that middle turret. I can’t figure why anyone would rush the middle turret over the flanks for the simple reason of an almost instant travel to the outside turrets through the speeders your team unlocks once the position is capped. This allows your team to react to which ever side is being hit the hardest by simply spawning and speeding straight to the turret itself. The middle turret takes the most amount of time to reach, which means you’re adding time to the gap of getting killed to reinforcements arriving.

Incoming! – Let your team know what is going on as often as you can. Calling out the incoming enemies seems common sense, but you would be surprised how often people think “It’s only one guy” then two or three stealthers pop and it’s over before they have a chance to react. Like with any team based game, communication is key – keep your team informed and on their toes.

Strong Side! – When my guild (Kan Kop) runs these together we send three people to the left side (Near side flank) and everyone else rushes the right side (Far side flank). This is a pretty decent strategy and works out more often than not. Usually we have a couple of strays (non-guildies or non-group members) who don’t listen and rush middle – even then they work out as a great distraction to the opposing faction. As a Tank and Guild leader I usually volunteer to guard the near side and kind of traffic control. Once near side is capped we keep two on and I start announcing to assault far side. Once both flanks are capped it’s usually a cake walk – just watch what side needs the help and reinforce once re-spawned.

Tank & Heals – A great strategy for a Tank to use is to find a Healer to stick with you on the original capped turret, because once you have your strong side in motion a good team will see it and could start rushing your capped turret. A Healer and a Tank can hold a few people off easily long enough to get some reinforcements.

As a Tank I try to use my pushes, pulls etc to keep opposing players off the turret caps. As with the other Warzones, use your debilitating skills as often as possible.

Troopers: when there is a group of enemies, keep your Explosive Surge debuff on enemies to help lower damage output.

Guardians: Force Sweep to lower accuracy.

Shadows: throw your Breach for its debuff and don’t forget your stuns. Keep your Guard on an ally for those defender points. Also try to throw your taunts as often as possible – as a PvP Tank your  job is to keep the enemy’s damage output on your teammates to a minimum.

As always stay frosty, and keep your team alive

May the force be with you!