By: Trey Atwood
Part three of your guide to SWTOR, we will be discussing the different kinds of warzones, this part deals with Huttball.
What are warzones?
Warzones are matches of
player-versus-player games giving each team a goal to achieve and a deadline to
achieve it in. Warzones are great way to make fast credits, gain experience
points, get access to better post-level-50 gear once you’ve leveled your
character, and competitively game with other players as opposed to AI enemies.
As of right now there are four different types of warzones, each with their own
rules and goals.
With free-to-play out, there are a lot of people who don’t
know the first thing about warzones but want to play them. Learning by doing’s
a nice method, but a lot of players get frustrated when they repeatedly go into
matches where their teammates have no idea what to do. This basic strategy guide is filled with easy tips and tricks so that you can give your
team a competitive edge.
What is Huttball?
Huttball is essentially a game of “capture the flag:” you go
to the middle, get the ball, and take it to the enemy’s goal line to gain points
for your team. Once you score or if you throw the ball to nowhere, it returns
to its starting position in the center. Dying with the huttball at the hands of
an enemy gives them the ball. How your ball carrier gets there is up to you and
your class specification may play a role in that, but the main idea is usually to
keep the ball on your team and headed towards the enemy goal line. The Huttball
match ends when either one team has reached six points or the fifteen minute
timer runs out. If there is a tie or no goals have been scored, then the team
holding the ball wins.
Passing the Huttball
This is without a doubt the most
important aspect of Huttball: knowing how to pass is the difference between
winning by a landslide and a humiliating loss. When you queue into a Huttball
match for the first time, you will automatically have the huttball ability
placed in your quickbar (you can also find it in the abilities menu by pressing
“P”), passing the huttball works like an area of effect attack: wherever you
aim there will be a large circle around it and once you click, the ball will go
to someone within that circle (or if no one is there, back to the middle of the
arena in its default place).
Stealthed allies cannot catch the
ball, but if you throw it to them while they are in stealth and they become
visible by the time it reaches them, they can catch it.
Throwing the ball to nowhere when
you are about to die is also a good strategy to temporarily keep the other team
from gaining it.
The Ball Carrier
Ball carriers are (obviously) the ones who hold the Huttball. A ball carrier can
be of any class, but you generally want to pass the ball to someone on your team with heavy
armor or someone whose character is specialized in tanking (tanks are geared
for survivability, and while most are heavy armored, an exception to this would
be the Shadow/Assassin class, which can choose to either specialize in damage
dealing or tanking). Heavily armored Knights/Warriors make excellent ball carriers
because of their ability to jump to an enemy’s location, this should also be
kept in mind when you’re defending; if you see a Knight/Warrior ball carrier
and you’re in front of the goal line, either jump down or make sure that they’re
out of range to jump to you. Many times, however, you won’t have the luxury to
look for someone with heavy armor and will either have to pass it to any ally
you can or throw it to nowhere and hope that a teammate is near where the ball
will spawn in the middle of the arena. The ball is timed very particularly, so if someone you're passing to leaves the circle before the ball reaches they won't catch it: keep this in mind when trying to pass to people who are running.
Stopping the Ball Carrier
Every class in The Old Republic is equipped with a way to
slow or stop the ball carrier from advancing. Some classes like the Smuggler
will have more than others like the Jedi Knight. The key to stopping the ball
carrier is knowing the effect of your stun or slow and using it.
There’s essentially only one wrong way to do it: using your
stun while your enemy’s resolve bar is active. The resolve bar is a meter
around your enemy’s portrait (which you can see next to your quickbar when you
have them targeted) which measures their resolve, if you see a white bar slowly
going down it means that their resolve is active and that you are effectively
wasting your stun if you use it on them. After the bar has gone completely down
you can stun them again. The resolve bar builds after every time a character is
stunned, after which their resolve will automatically activate and make them
temporarily immune to stuns and other movement-impairing effects (this does not
mean the same as unstoppable; you can still kill them).
Traps
The arena in Huttball is filled with environmental hazards
that will stop you on your way to the goal line if you aren't careful, although
sometimes there isn't much you can do from stopping a trap from killing you
regardless of what you do. The word “traps” may be misleading though; they aren't going to pop out of a wall and instantly kill you, they’re in set
locations that won’t change and it’s fairly obvious what they’ll do.
Firetraps
Placed on the catwalks leading to the team goals, firetraps turn
on and off for equal amounts of time. They’re on alternating patterns with the
firetraps adjacent to them; when one of them’s on, the other’s off. A mistake
one might make is seeing an active firetrap and trying to go to the other side
where the other one awaits, only to find that in the amount of time it’s taken
you to walk there, they switch and you’re stuck in the same situation: the
solution is usually to wait it out if there’s no ally past the firetrap to pass
to. Firetraps are also a favorite method of stopping a ball carrier by either
stunning them while they’re walking across it or pulling them into an active
one that they don’t even have to be next to at the time. Be aware though that
touching the fire doesn’t mean instant death; if you have a speed boosting
ability that can be used it may be worth taking the damage if you can make it
to the goal line.
Acid pools
The acid pools are around the center area where the ball is
located, there are two of them that are placed so that you will have to run
around them (or if you’re using a Consular/Inquisitor, you can use your speed
boost to jump over them) when going for the ball at the start of each match.
They work similar to the firetraps; standing in them for too long kills you. This
is another trap that enemies can and will try to pull you in if they’re smart
enough.
Air Vents
There are two air vents on the ground on the left and right
of the default Huttball location, these also technically aren’t traps, but it’s
a gamble on whether or not you’ll die based on where they throw you once you
step on them; they may put you where you want to go, on the opposite side of
where you want to be, land you next to a firetrap, or anywhere in between. Air
vents randomize the location of where you’re thrown (always within the center
of the map though; you aren't going to score any goals using an air vent), but
they’re a good way to shake off melee-using pursuers because they aren’t as
likely to be thrown to the same location that you are. They can also just as
easily throw you into a mass of enemies.
Huttball is the game of the Hutts; it's slimy, dishonest, and deadly. Using whatever means you can to win is something that's told to you at the start of every match, so hopefully this guide has brought you closer to taking home a victory for your faction. Remember: weapons, name-calling, and cheating... are all encouraged!
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