Guild Wars 2

Tired of unbalanced, boring spamfest battles? Tired of getting outplayed by auto-procced traits that took zero thought to use? Interested in quick thinking, perfectly balanced combat? THEN RPK IS FOR YOU

What it is:
RPK, or Rock Paper Killshot, is a fun and dynamic player made game mode that capitalizes on the principles of risk vs reward and outplaying your opponent; a chess match of abilities! THE MIND GAMES ARE REAL. Not only is it very well balanced, but it is fun to watch, easy to pick up, and fun to shout cast.

It was heavily inspired by Dragon Arena in Guild Wars 1.

What you need:

1. 2-10 Warriors split into even teams
2. A Rifle, Mace and Shield
3. Valkyrie Amulet
4. An open arena (Between spawns on Forest is great, and so is center node on Foefire.)

Rules:

1. NO ARMOR is allowed. (this is crucial!)
2. Everyone must equip a valkyrie amulet.
3. No Asuran characters are allowed, (turn on standard models in your arena).
4. All builds must be checked prior to the match for equality. It only works if everyone runs the exact same build.

Game Layout:

Teams will begin on either side of the arena in a line. After a countdown by a moderator, the teams may attack each other using all abilities at their disposal.

Once an enemy team has COMPLETELY stomped out the other team, the round is over. Teams can play to the winner of a best-of-five.

The Build: Everyone runs the same build!

1. Rifle, Mace/Shield
2. Valkyrie Amulet
3. Scholar Runes

Valkyrie amulet is used to prevent regular skills from doing too much damage (no precision), and gives the user a greater health pool for intense fights.

Utilities:
Defiant Stance, “Shake it Off”, Signet of Fury, Bulls Charge, Battle Standard

1. Defiant stance is a highly skillful heal in this game mode: use it at the correct time and you get a full heal, use it at a poor time and you lose a great deal of its effectiveness.
2. Shake it off is the only stun break, and there are a lot of ways to get CC’d, use it wisely!
3. Signet of fury for more adrenaline gain.
4. Bulls charge for a gap closer and CC (easily dodged, but effective when landed)
5. Battle standard is used for ressing teammates who go down, but it has a long cast time and you can’t dodge while using it!

Traits:

Discipline: Top, Middle, Bottom

The discipline trait line is taken to increase player damage and match dynamics. Fast hands allows players to swap quickly between weapon sets, increasing access to counterplay skills.

1. Crack Shot: Reduces rifle recharge and allows for greater adrenaline gain.
2. Destruction of the Empowered: Do more damage!
3. Burst Mastery: Do more damage!
   (***Note: we want to buff the damage of killshot very high to allow for high risk, high reward gameplay.)

Defense: Top, Bottom, Middle

The defense trait line is taken to increase counter play by giving the player reflect on blocks, and increasing adrenaline gain.

1. Shield Master: Reduces cooldowns on shield as well as granting reflect while blocking. (This is one of the core traits to this game mode!)
2. Sundering Mace: Reduced mace cooldowns, vulnerability for more damage.
3. Cleansing Ire: Faster adrenaline building, clearing vulnerability (Note, we did not want to give out any easily used defensive abilities like Last Stand. Rousing Resilience COULD potentially be placed here instead of CI.)

Arms: Top, Top, Top

The arms trait line contains some of the most crucial traits in the game mode.

1. Berserker’s Fury: More damage and more adrenaline. (not much more to say).
2. Unsuspecting Foe: 50% crit chance on stunned foes! This trait makes it to where you can inflict great damage with abilities besides burst skills, IF you manage to land a stun. This is why we took the Valkyrie Amulet.
3. Burst Precision: 100% crit chance from burst skills! All of your killshots will hit 15-18k, and all of your skull cracks will hit 5k.

The traits in this build are completely designed around high risk, high reward gameplay. Each ability has a unique counter, making it extremely balanced offensively and defensively.

Why it works:

1. Its really fun, its easy to pick up, easy to follow (shoutcasting!) and it is very balanced.
2. To make a long story short, there is a counter to everything, and everything has a counter. The entire point of this game mode is to outplay each other, without any cheap mechanics. It can be played 1v1, or it can be turned into a very complicated team game.
3. Every skill that does sufficient damage requires creative thought to land, and every defensive ability can be turned offensive. This is a game mode BASED ON SKILL

Here are a couple interesting combos that have arisen while playing this game mode:

You bait the enemy into a killshot and reflect it with mace 2 or shield 5 at the last second, only to have your opponent reflect it right back at you! Double reflect, dodge!

Your teammate is forced to use his stun break, but gets knocked down after wards and the enemy is about to killshot them. What do you do!? Step in front of your CC’d teammate with shield 5 to reflect the killshot back at the enemy!

Q&A Section:

Q1: Won’t everyone die too quickly to damage?

A1: No! There are a ton of ways to avoid damage in this game mode, and there are tons ways of supporting allies! You must work as a team. If an enemy is killshotting one of your teammates, THEY CAN’T MOVE, killshot them back!

Q2: Won’t teams just play completely defensively and never die?

A2: This would be an issue if it weren’t for the fact that offense and defense in this game are so connected. It takes risk to win! Defensive teams will never be able to output enough damage to kill the other team. And sooner or later, a team will make a mistake, which brings about interesting gameplay.

Q3: Won’t the team that gets the first kill always win?

A3: Absolutely not! The downed state brings about very interesting mechanics. Most of the time, it is too dangerous to stomp out opponents. There is an interesting dynamic that happens during a stomp. One team must find a way to get their teammate up while avoiding damage, and the other team must find a way to execute a kill while avoiding the other team’s damage. Vengeance also plays a major role!

It is also not unheard of to 2v1 in this game mode if you outthink your opponent. Comebacks can happen at any time!

Conclusion

Give it a try! Get some friends together and play this game mode! It is very easy to get going, and very fun to play. Get in teamspeak together and coordinate plays! Before long you will all be laughing and talking about strategy. There are literally hundreds of different amazing plays that can happen in this game mode. Go for it!

Please feel free to comment about any changes you think should be made. Keep in mind, everything has been fleshed out already, and there are very specific reasons why certain traits weren’t chosen.

Also, feel free to suggest a new name for the game mode. Thanks!

Mail me in game and we can get some matches going!