This is a beta guide that I’ve been working on. I haven’t gotten sufficient chances to use the strat and tweak it, but feel free to comment on it, tell me I’m full of BS, etc.
[RET] recently ran up against a guild in Tier 2, which used culling as an offensive tool to great effect. After bashing our heads against them for a bit, I began to determine how they were using the culling system to their advantage. The new culling system is, frankly, awful, and I release this guide in order to put players on the same playing field, and in hopes that this guide will eventually become useless due to culling changes.
Why it works
Culling is now proximity based. Previously, characters who were rendered would remain rendered unless they left the field of vision for a specific gameplay reason, such as stealth or natural distance (about 3000). However, the proximity of culling (specifically, the distance at which you are guaranteed to un-cull an enemy) is now roughly 1600 range. By roughly moving in and out of this range, you can effectively remain near invisible until making an attack. Of course, the downside to this fact is that you have issues rendering the enemy as well. In theory this is a perfectly balanced state of affairs, if and only if everyone understands the mechanic.
Note
Culling is peculiar in that if no one is in your immediate proximity (INCLUDING ALLIES), distant objects will not be culled regardless of number.
The basic method
You use a canary, or blood god sacrifice, in order to determine where to drop an AoE. The canary’s job is to act as a forward scout who renders the enemy. Preferably the canary should have a commander tag. when attacking, the Canary suicides into the enemy line, and gives the order for a massive aoe attack on their corpse, which is guestimateable through the minimap. As mentioned above, the main force should remain roughly 1600 range away from the canary in order to avoid an enemy attack. We’ve recorded some video of this strategy as proof of concept. * (Video pending. it’s hard to get a good video because, well, culling utterly ruins fraps sometimes.)
Details
Your canary is best a mesmer, thief, or guardian, or otherwise excellent at 1v1 fights with great mobility. Mesmer’s have an obvious advantage in this, but given the mobility of most pbaoe, a mesmer portal isn’t a must have. It wont make a huge difference, but your canary should have a baller as hell computer. There’s nothing to stop you from using more than one canary. If you have individuals who suck at aoe and don’t have important support roles, they might as well hang out with the canary; most fights are over in five seconds and are performed with no ability to single target.
Techniques
If your main force can see someone, you’re far too close (unless you’re attacking). This opens you up for an attack more than it enables you to perform an attack. The mobile force will generally render the other side first. The only situation in which your main force should begin rendering the enemy is when you are performing an attack.
Mobile pbaoe is mandatory. Lightning flash/churn is currently the most popular form of this, but there are equally effective methods such as guardian judge’s intervention + spin to win. To VERY limited effect, canaries can use 1500 range to poke at an enemy force.
Multiple canaries to the north, east, west, and south are obviously a good idea. For ease of movement, reference to non-cardinal* positions is not recommended.
Footnotes
- No pun is intended, given that canaries are not, in fact, cardinals.
Zoel – GM of [coVn]
