A continuation of “Witching Witch Elves: The Misconception Pt.2″
The Dynamics of Tier Progression:
WAR takes the standard character progression model, starting a character at level 1 to work it’s way up to level “x”, and mixes it with a tier system. Due to the player vs player, coined RvR, nature of WAR the tier system is designed to group players within 4 brackets of 11 levels at an attempt to level the playing field for a player no matter what level he/she may be. As a player increases his/her level they will slowly advance tiers. Each tier provides new challenges to the player as new abilities become available for not only the player but also the enemy.
In Tier 1, levels 1-11, the Witch Elf has very limited access to her career mastery tree. She’s a shell of an archetype and has a handful of moves, including a silence. During this first phase of her career progression it seems as if her sole purpose is to stealth behind the back lines to attack the enemy healers with hope of a possible escape. Why wouldn’t she! She has high burst DPS, stealth and a silence. Also, most healers at this stage in the game have very little defense against her tactics. Truly new players will have not an idea of what to make of the Witch Elf when she pops out of stealth and can only hope that his/her teammates will be there to slide in to the rescue.
Tier 2, levels 10-21, the Witch Elf begins to dabble more into masteries. She can begin to make a decision as to where she wants to specialize; healer, ranged dps, or melee/tank. Her priority opponents from T1, healers and ranged DPS now have knockbacks. Enemy tanks have knockdowns and enemy melee dps can now chase her down faster than she can flee. The Witch Elf’s only form of CC comes in her opener-Enfeebling Strike, a CC mechanism by choice of her opponent. Enemy groups are becoming more organized dramatically decreasing her chances of survival on the enemies back line; that’s if she can make it past the front line due to the infancy of stealth and the ability for it to be seen through easily.
Tier 3, levels 20-31, at this point the the Witch Elf has enough mastery points to have made her way through most of the Carnage mastery tree. T2 has taught her that stealth is no longer a guarantee, and that dropping the back lines for a healer or ranged DPS only guarantees death. She starts to understand that the suicide missions of old will no longer work and that she will spend most of her time resurrecting in doing so. The Carnage mastery tree has fleshed out quite a few anti-melee DPS and anti-tank options. Knockbacks and knockdowns are so common that changing a target in mid battle is not uncommon. She can completely negate enemy armor if necessary, she can completely disable her enemy from attacking, and she can completely shut down an enemy from healing. She’s found that she has options and has to acclimate to the conditions of the field.
Tier 4, levels 30-40, the Witch Elf completely fleshes out. Her ability to take down another player solo is only in the form of isolated skirmishes. She’s no longer the stealth in, stealth out archeytpe of T1 and T2. She’s now become an enabler. That is, to enable the highest amount of damage to a single target in the shortest amount of time possible. She does this by precisely picking her targets and working against their weaknesses to allow her team to finish her opponent off, or to finish off an opponent that has already been well worked. Ideally, she plays more of a support role than that of an assassin.
The point is the Witch Elf class initially seems as if it serves the sole purpose of healer and ranged DPS disruption. Appropriately so as this is where the class thrives in the lower tiers, but as the class progresses it become more of a robust blend of a tactical support class; leading to my third and final misconception diffusion…
playing a Witch Elf is not for the feint of heart.
The Witch Elf class requires a lot of patience and dedication. A good Witch Elf takes her time to survey the field before attacking. Different situations call for different tactics. Sometimes it’s more beneficial to take out the tanks disrupting her lines. Other times it’s more appropriate to stay near the back of her lines protecting healers, which in turn are hopefully keeping the other DPS classes alive. Then, there are the times when she decides it’s necessary for her to make a sacrifice and sneak to the enemies back lines in hope to take out that cruical healer or ranged DPS that before she’s gibbed to death with no hopes of receiving a resurrection. The enablement of single target high burst melee DPS is her job, a good Witch Elf decides what that target is based on a quick decision from the information she has gathered through analysis, not because she’s expected to attack a specific archetype or prime target.
-Xo
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