HvH

[makkert]

I've played only HvH for a relatively short time. And will stop playing this format as soon as I hit my statue, because it's not that great fun. But some strategy discussion is always fun, so perhaps we can share some insights.

Since the insights are made with a specific build, I will list it because obviously my vision is clouded by the single build I played so far.
The general build I run is:
A/W shadow prison sin (myself)
R/P packhunter
Rit/N spirit/heal
Mo/E SoR monk

It's a pretty common build in HvH

1. BASIC TIPS
1) heroes are EXTREMELY vulnerable while moving. They lose any sense of AI they might have had in the first place. Snaring a moving hero means often easy kills.

2) Keep messing around if you are behind. If you are not making progress, try something different. Send an hero to cap something else. Try a 2-1-1 split if the 3-1 splits aren't helping.
Exception on this statement is fighting as center shrine at bombardment, where time will wear down the monks.
By several points behind, a chainkill is often the only thing that can turn the tide. Trying to force a kill 4v2 or 4v3 is a last ditch effort that if succesfull can turn the tide.

3) stall as much as possible if you have more moralepips then opposing player. this means keeping a good eye on how many heroes/ players are at each shrine. match them to stall.
You can respond the moment you see an hero split off for a shrine, so that the heroes just stand 1v1 at a shrine while still under your control.

4) if fighting fire ele, especially savannah, mark every hero some distance apart from each other.

5) micro manage
If a hero of yours is being attacked while moving, press his skills to make sure he DOES cast instead of falling down like a jackass.
shift-click to lock specific support skills if you want to help you out on request. If needed, make sure you target the RIGHT PARTYMEMBER before activating the skill (unless not targeted).
A good example is Brutal Weapon, which else will be cast on a monk as well by your hero. It has a long duration, the micro managing isn't too hard on this one. Another example can be an Enchantremoval so that it times with your attack.

6) if you make a kill, keep an eye out for the moment he resses. He'll be all alone till he reaches his team, and makes a vulnerable target that way. This especially works well with heroes.

2. CONTROLS
from my point of view, this is how I experience the 3 modes:

avoid combat
- kites better
- does not use skills that target enemies
- sticks within his flagmark radar
- will not assist in attack (wanding or whatever)

defensive
- stays more standing still
- uses skills also that target enemies
- sticks within his flagmark radar
- will assist in attack (wanding or whatever)

aggressive
- will not stick within his flagmark radar, but will assist in any attack you perform

3. KNOW THY ENEMY
Like all builds, they consist of generally easy recognisable templates. seeing the professions is knowing what they run.
A/W (player)

- shadow prison sin. on rare cases a different form of sin (i.e. Moebius strike)

A/Mo (player)

- signet spiker

W/X (player)

- hammerchains

Mo/X (player)

- often means the player wants to play positional games. often combined with 3 self-reliant heroes.

R/Mo (player)

- cripshot ranger. wants to play positional games, and control pace of game. imho often not as strong as the Mo/X player. Have seen only excellent players really pull if off.

R/P

- packhunter

E/D

- fire ele. Savannah Heat or Mind Blast. with Mirage Cloak, Mystic Regeration. some also pack Shield of Force / Vital Boon

D/Mo

- enchantspammer, basicly build up the same as the defensive enchantments described above. no real damage

W/R

- a rarity, but a war with Melandru's Resilience, Apply Poison and standard sword warrior stuff

D/A

- variant on D/Mo with shadowstep, usually Shadow Melt

D/P

- Ebon Dust Aura spambot

Rit/X

- spirits + support healing

Mo/E

- SoR monk (if there are 2 hero monks, the other is often Shield of Deflection)

4. MAPS

hero battles

1. Health Shrine. One morale regeneration. Party's Health is increased by 120 for each Health Shrine you control.
2. Health Shrine. One morale regeneration. Party's Health is increased by 120 for each Health Shrine you control.
3. Center Shrine. Two morale regeneration. To The Pain effect, all creatures have -10% Health and deal +10% more damage.
4. Mystic's Shrine. One morale regeneration. Summons a Mystic Mercenary to help you. She is a level 24 Dervish, who uses no skills. The mercenary counts towards a member of your team for capturing shrines.
5. Red Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.
6. Blue Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.

(thanks to guildwiki for the base info)

Basic map. No real plan for this, as it really comes with the flow. If possible, try to push an early advantage in shrinepips by taking the two right shrines while making sure you first cap center. If you aren't able to cap center as well, don't bother, because time is against you with the enemy capping NPC shrine. This tactic must also be abondend against teams that heavily play for positional games, where the NPC gives those teams an huge bonus on this map. There is nothing more annoying then fighting a 3 R/P + 1 Mo/X on this map of which the monk is any decent while they have the NPC. You can send or split up what you want, the only way out then is to kill the monk player. Which can be a pain in the butt.


Crossing

1. Battle Cry Shrine. One morale regeneration. Owning this powerful shrine makes your party move 25% faster, attack 15% faster, and recharge skills 15% quicker.
2. Cultist's Shrine. One morale regeneration. A Cultist Mercenary aids the owner of this shrine. He is a level 24 Necromancer who casts Parasitic Bond and Life Siphon. The mercenary counts towards a member of your team for capturing shrines.
3. Center Shrine. Two morale regeneration. To The Pain effect, all creatures have -10% Health and deal +10% more damage.
4. Mending Shrine. One morale regeneration. The Mending Shrine offers +3 Health regeneration for your party members.
5. Red Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.
6. Blue Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.

(thanks to guildwiki for the base info)
A common play that many players seem to make on this map, is going for the Culturist shrine. They send all 4 for Culturist, or send 2 teams, one for center shrine.
A general startplay from my side is basicly the oppposite.
I send 2 to Center Shrine, an independant hero to Battle Cry and myself to Mending Shrine. (don't have any self-heal, still close to my 2 healer.
The moment my hero is done capping Battle Cry, i send it usually to Culturist Shrine, which is often capped by enemy team then. A good watch on your hero is needed, to make sure it's not killed.
Shadow Stepping is a big thing on this map, the shadow step from Center to Cultist shrine is an easy one. (several form of teams abuse this to the bone with Shadow Melt, Shadow Prison, Recall).
Because of this, i tend to not set my heroes that are at Center Shrine on top of Center Shrine, but a bit too the left of the shrine. Still in range of the shrine, but not within shadowstepping range from the Culturist shrine.
If I need healing on top of Culturist Shrine, I will flag my healers just right of the Center Shrine.

Last point: to cap cultist shrine, players will walk though the base of their or enemy team. If they walk though your base and you can fight them there, a nice damagebonus is yours.

Desert Sands

1. Battle Cry Shrine. One morale regeneration. Members of your party move 25% faster, attack 15% faster, and their skills recharge 15% quicker.
2. Energy Shrine. One morale regeneration. All skills cast by members of your party cost 20% less to use.
3. Warsong's Shrine. One morale regeneration. The owner of this shrine gets a powerful Warsong Mercenary as an ally to his team. The mercenary is a level 24 Paragon, and uses Leader's Comfort and Blazing Spear. The mercenary counts towards a member of your team for capturing shrines.
4. Center Shrine. Two morale regeneration. To The Pain effect, all creatures have -10% Health and deal +10% more damage.
5. Red Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.
6. Blue Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.

(thanks guildwiki for base info)

I've come to the opinion that the NPC on this map is key to victory. A small trick I try to do is snaring the player at the start, and hoping that he didn't flag his heroes but simply has them following him. This will slow his entire team down, and give some extra time to take the shrine of the start (always flag your team before the timer hits).
The top 3 shrines are close to each other, and grant more moralepips toghether then the morale shrine which is way down south. And controlling the top 3 is quite doable with the npc shrine in control. With one guy extra, you can easy send an hero off to match any split they send to cap the battle / energy shrine. An alternative is keeping all your folks at npc shrine, and having one hero guard center shrine. which gives 3 pips once more, more then the 2 pips the other team will get.

In my humble opinion, this map might be even more gimped then The Crossing (which gets a lot of flack for the shadowstepping that goes around there).

bombardment

1. Health Shrine. One morale regeneration. Party's Health is increased by 120 for each Health Shrine you control.
2. Health Shrine. One morale regeneration. Party's Health is increased by 120 for each Health Shrine you control.
3. Center Shrine. Two morale regeneration. To The Pain effect, all creatures have -10% Health and deal +10% more damage.
4. Siege Cannon Shrine. One moral regeneration. The siege cannon fires every 10 seconds dealing 100 damage only to the opposing team of its owner.
5. Blue Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.
6. Red Base. Members of your party are resurrected every 30 seconds. The base has Base Protection, members of your party deal 50% more damage and take 50% less.

(thanks to guildwiki for base info)

This map doesn't know an extra NPC, and has its own laws. The bombardment damage can be quite nice that can cause a team to collapse fully. It is easy to get away from by flagging your heroes away from the center, but of course at price of giving up 2 pips of morale. Near the end, stalling is a viable tactic on this map, by holding on to the center shrine with all 4 players if that is enough for victory.
Generally the opening play is 2 to center, 1 to bombardment. the 4th player can be anywhere. Often this results to a stand-off between heroes at bombardment. As a shadow prison sin, the nice thing is that you can shadow step from bombardment to Center. You will have to walk to the center of the 'C' on the picture, and can then shadowstep to the Center Shrine.




...well...that's all for a first time write down.

[makkert]

looking back, it is suprising how much of this still upholds.
the differences I see now:
- hero battles map (first one) - NPC is key here as well. no question about it.
- the meta is pretty much screwed over. Mo/X teams have the upper hand with Shadow Melds to control the positional game. By the nerfbat swing to Shadow Prison / Siphon Speed , it took away the option sins had to play a tiny bit of position game the sin had.
HvH is a terminal sick child that no longer evolves around killing the opposing party, but mostly on positional games these days. Which is like the opposite from what I would consider what PvP should be about.