Crystal Saga Sengolia FAQ

Crystal Saga Sengolia Frequently Asked Questions by Kariba

Q: Dude, what? Where’s all this system-spam coming from? ? Crystals of Life reaching X%…? I am becoming enraged and confused!

A: Settle down. Those are the system-messages tied to The Sengolia, a battleground available for any player that reaches level 40 and up.

Q: A battleground! I am interested and wish to learn more. When and where do I sign up?

A: The event starts at 3:00 PM(Server Time), and then again at 7:00 PM(Server Time) a few hours later. In order to participate, you’ll need to visit the Battlemaster, located close to the vault in Starglade.

Q: Fair enough. So are there any goodies to be had?

A: Indeed! Each member on the winning team gets 240 honour, 20 bronze medals, 1 silver medal (with the option to earn more beyond the first), a hefty chunk of EXP and a very substantial 60-minute buff that increases offense, defense and experience gained by 5%. The losing team-members receive 80 honour, 10 bronze medals and 1 silver medal (also, with the option to earn more beyond the first), a good chunk of EXP but no buff.

Regarding the silver medals: you get one, whether you win or lose, and regardless of the amount of points you’ve scored during the battle. Every five minutes you spend in Seng during the battle will earn you 1 point; every kill you score will earn you 3 points. For every 25 points you score, you earn an additional medal up to a maximum of FOUR total silver medals. If you’d actually like to win Seng though, don’t let this side-track you!

Q: That sounds pretty good! I’ll just mosey over to the Battlemaster and OH GOOD GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE HERE!?

A: Ah – well, Sengolia only has room for a limited amount of players. In fact, given that there are only 30 slots on each team (for a grand total of 60 players), you’ll need to sign up real quick. And in fact, be there in time. Recently, this battleground has been known to fill up in mere seconds! Hitting the “/”-key on your keyboard will disable other players’ sprites, making the Battlemaster easier to spot (and reducing load-times anyway).

Q: Alright, I’ll try my luck! So are there brackets or something? I’m only level 40, and I don’t much care to get curb-stomped by high-level characters with all sorts of shiny gear.

A: Inside the Sengolia battleground, there is a “Fair Play”-effect at work; effectively meaning your stats will be boosted to a level where you’ll be able to compete with the high-level, high-geared characters. Take note though – your stats won’t be equal, and this Fair Play-effect only takes your existing skills into consideration. Those high-level characters will still have access to their high-level skills, so be mindful of that.

Q: But what if I do die? I hate repair-bills!

A: Who doesn’t? Fortunately, dying in Seng just means you’ll get sent back to the base, where you’ll regain your HP and MP in a matter of seconds. Once you’re filled up you’ll be ready to fight again. Your gear does not lose durability from dying while you are in Seng. In fact – fighting until you die, then zerging back is one of the most effective styles of gameplay in this battleground!

Q: Okay! So by a stroke of good fortune, I made it in. Now what?

A: As you enter, you’re placed into one of two teams; Demon (red) or Spirit (blue). Both teams are placed at the base of a small map, littered with towers, guardians and finally your team’s Crystal of Life. Those crystals determine the actual winner of the battle – if a team’s crystal is destroyed, that team loses. If neither team can destroy a crystal after one hour has passed, the battle is tied and both teams get the “loser”-reward.

Q: AN HOUR!? I need to use the bath-room! My friends are expecting me over in a few minutes! I’m bored!

A: Honestly, don’t come to Seng if you don’t have time to participate! The battle can take quite a while, especially if one of the teams decides to play defensively. What’s more, if you’re inactive for too long, you will receive an AFK-debuff and, after three minutes, you will be removed from the battle.

Q: Fine, I’ll hold it in. But, you lost me at “towers”. What about them?

A: In addition to the crystal, each team also has four towers set in fixed positions. If an enemy gets behind your team’s lines (effectively, the “line” would be the last remaining tower), this enemy receives damage over time, thus making sure you can’t storm the crystals immediately. It’s in team’s best interest to destroy the enemy towers as quickly as possible.

Q: Okay, and what about those guardians? What do they do?

A: Guardians are big, lumbering NPCs that seem mostly obsessed with fighting eachother. It’s easy to ignore them (and generally speaking, you might as well), but they can be pretty helpful in picking sneaky enemy players off of your towers. They can be very easily kited though, as they have very poorly scripted AI (sorry R2, it’s true). If you can burn them down with AoE-effects, great. If you can’t, then don’t bother.

Q: I need healing! I have taken damage, and I may lose my killstreak!

A: Adopting a hit-and-run playstyle where you pick off people, then sit around and beg for heals is one of the best ways to ruin your team’s chances of battle. First off, stop focusing on your killstreak. Second, as I noted a little while back, dying and reviving will heal you faster and more efficiently than spamming “heal plz” or sitting around hoping your health-regen will work its magic.

Q: Wait, but I’m only there to kill people, right? It’s vital that people in World Chat see how cool I am because I can maintain a killstreak, surely?

A: Absolutely not! While it’s true that in the Sengolia, the best defense is a solid offense, you should bring all of that passion and destruction to the towers and the crystals – not to individual players. Friends, family, personal grudges; none of that matters in Seng – the only thing that matters is burning down the enemy crystal!

Q: Okay, relax. Towers first, I got it. But what about the enemy that’s coming our way?

A: When you see someone of the enemy team coming up to you, it can be very tempting to meet them halfway to try and kill them. This is a distraction from your real goal: killing towers and the crystal. Individual enemies aren’t going to kill your towers, that takes a team-effort (and conversely: you aren’t going to destroy towers on your own as well; you’re part of a team!). Ignore kiters and runners, even if they hit you along the way. If you spot an enemy behind your lines, ignore them; the towers’ damage over time will kill them before they can do any serious damage.

Q: But what if they come as an army, then what?

A: Place a FEW defenders near your front lines, and have them defend the towers that are under attack – mages and blood-priests are ideal for this. It’s no use stacking all of your defenders there, at best, you’ll only need three or four defenders at the front line while the rest is crushing towers in enemy territory.

Q: I heard somewhere that is cursed to always lose. Is that true?

A: It absolutely isn’t. Don’t get sucked into the “Aww, I’m on the ‘bad’ team, I might as well give up!”-mindset. The players in your team are random. If anything, ANYTHING, there is the slightest kernel of truth in that the red team has to move from top-right to the blue team’s lower-left base – meaning they have to click slightly more because of the positioning of the text-boxes. As far as “curses” go, it’s pretty feeble, and should not stand in the way of victory.

Q: You have inspired me! Those towers, I will crush them beneath my mighty boot! What’s the best way to do this?

A: Aw, shucks. The best way of course is to target the tower, and wail away with your strongest skills. If the tower is defended, make sure to stay out of harm’s way if your class is ranged. If you’re melee-DPS, your best bet is to hit as hard as possible, then if you die, zerg back and repeat. If your team’s offense can overpower the enemy’s defense, you’ll destroy the tower (gaining some EXP along the way), allowing you to push on. Tip: Tanks, Wave works on towers!

Q: There’s someone behind the tower, but I can’t hit them!

A: Try using the auto-target function, “~” on your keyboard. Or ignore them and push on.

Q: I think I get the gist of this. Any last dos and don’ts?

A: Certainly! TO DO:

• DO: KEEP PUSHING FORWARD. Those towers and crystals need to go.
• DO: BUFF YOUR TEAM IF YOU CAN. Don’t get obsessed with keeping their health up if you’re a healer, graveyard-zerging is an art in itself.
• DO: MOVE AS A TEAM. There are no solitary heroes in the Sengolia.
• DO: KEEP PUSHING FORWARD. In cast it wasn’t clear before.
• DO: KITE, DISTRACT. R2’s Guardians may have poor AI, but sometimes that goes for people as well.
• DO: STACK MOVEMENT-SPEED. Equip the “Hellfire on Horseback”-effect if you have it, a little move-speed goes a very long way.

TO DON’T:

• DON’T: STACK DEFENDERS. A defensive play is doomed to end in a tie or a loss; if the best you can hope for is loss then you’re only wasting time. Defend, but sparingly.
• DON’T: GET DISTRACTED. Getting kited away by an enemy is one of those /facepalm-moments for the people on your team.
• DON’T: AFK. Again, you’re only wasting time and taking away a Seng-slot that could be filled by someone who really does want to participate. By AFK’ing at your base, you are almost guaranteed to lose, because you’re seriously crippling your team.
• DON’T: WAVE WHITE FLAGS/DECLARE PEACE-ZONES. There is no peace in Seng. There is no time for tea-parties. There’s towers and crystals to destroy. There’s a job to be done.
• DON’T: OBSESS OVER KILLSTREAKS. If you’re doing your job right, you won’t even notice those messages anyway. Dying is faster than healing.
• DON’T: OBSESS OVER YOUR TEAM-COLOUR. There is no “curse”. The GMs don’t care which side wins. It’s YOU and your team that make the difference, not the colour beneath your feet in particular.

And finally, DO: HAVE FUN :}