Last time on Fist Full of Gil, we took a trip into the Wolves’ Den. This is the Team Deathmatch arena added in patch 2.1. The games are 4v4. The teams are forced to be 1 tank, 2 damage dealers, and 1 healer. I like this because it prevents the cheesy class stacking compositions that make the game harder to balance. Also, a healer will always be present on both teams, so it removes the painful experience of having no healers versus an enemy stacked with healing.
A few days after the stream, the pre-match time was reduced from two minutes to one minute. Two minutes was just way too long in my opinion. A basic strategy can be formed much faster and many players have macros to describe their intended strategy. Had that not been changed, I would have complained about it here, so good on Square Enix to handle it. Most of the games were finishing in a shorter time than two minutes.
I thought I did well in there, but there were some things I could have done better. I often forgot in what form I was when I switched targets, which caused to me to lose my Greased Lightning stacks more often than I should have. This dropped my damage output significantly. I also didn’t have Icarus Wings and Regain Feathers to recover my TP so I could Sprint after casters more often. Sprint takes all TP activate, and grants increased movement speed for 1 second per 50 TP consumed. Casters use their TP for nothing else, so they have a 20 second sprint every 30 seconds. I used my stuns too aggressively which caused my teammates to die needlessly at times. I should have saved mine to peel more often. I also got tunnel vision a few times in there.
I thought I made good use of Axe Kick to peel. In the very first game, that saved my healer from a quick death and turned the game around into a victory. I made sure to watch out for enemy players using Blood for Blood, which increases damage dealt and taken for quick switches. I did make sure to get my defensive abilities off before dying. I made good use of Weapon Throw except for the one caster who juked it by turning around when he saw the animation. Weapon Throw only removes Sprint and inflicts Heavy when it hits the back of an enemy.
I’ll make another run into the Wolves’ Den this weekend, so tune in at 8 PM Central on Sunday at http://www.twitch.tv/thenoobist. I’ll try to do better this week.