Fort Aspenwood (mission)


 * This is a Competitive Mission entry. For information on the locations, see Fort Aspenwood (Kurzick) and Fort Aspenwood (Luxon).

Fort Aspenwood is a Competitive Mission where the Kurzicks must defend Master Architect Gunther from the attacking Luxons until he is able to complete a super weapon, Vengeance of the Gods.

General Mechanics
Fort Aspenwood is a base defense/base attack mission, where the Kurzick must defend Master Architect Gunther from the Luxons so he can complete the super weapon, Vengeance of the Gods. The Architect's progress to completing the weapon is tracked as a percentage complete, slowly incrementing over time. If this reaches 100% the Kurzick team is victorious. If the Architect is killed before then the Luxon team wins.

Each side is a team of eight players randomly assembled from those waiting in the Fort Aspenwood (Kurzick) and Fort Aspenwood (Luxon) staging areas. Players are resurrected automatically and receive no death penalty.

The Fort Aspenwood map is based in Fort Aspenwood and land in front of it. The fort features three layers of defensive walls with doors made of Amber. The first and second walls have two doors, the inner-most layer has only one door. There are five teleporters on the map. Two are used by the Luxons to exit their base, two are used by the Kurzick to exit the fort from behind the second wall, one is used by the Kurzick to travel from the innermost keep to behind the second wall. The Kurzick players spawn in the fort itself, the Luxons on a hill opposite the fort.

The map is divided into Orange and Purple sides. Each side features an inner and outer gate guarded by several Kurzick NPCs; two elementalists on the outer gate, two necromancers and an elementalist on the inner gates. Each side has a Kurzick gatekeeper who can repair the gates of the side they represent. There are also assorted other defensive Kurzick NPCs throughout the fort. Each Luxon side has a Siege Turtle Commander, a Siege Turtle and four Luxon Warriors that accompany the turtle, attacking players that attack the turtle. There is also an Amber mine for each side. The innermost gate and the center mine furthest from the fort are Green. The green gate is guarded by Kurzick NPCs; a Juggernaut, two mesmers and an elementalist. The Kurzick gatekeepers and Master Architect Gunther stand behind the green door in the innermost keep. All of the mines are initially held by Luxon NPCs, but may be taken by the Kurzicks during play.

In play the Luxons talk to the commanders to start the siege turtles moving towards to the Kurzick base so they can destroy the gates and get to the Architect. The Kurzicks must claim the amber mines and run amber to the gatekeepers to repair the gates as they are destroyed and defend the fort.


 * Mines and strategic points are captured by killing the enemy NPCs at that location (Only the Luxon Commander needs to be killed to capture the purple or orange outposts).
 * Gates are breached when the NPCs guarding it are killed. The NPCs between the outer and inner gates, the ranger positioned right in the center is not a guard NPC, and does not need to be killed for the gate to fall.
 * Gates are rebuilt when amber is given to its respective Gatekeeper (one for purple, one for orange). They rebuild innermost first, and any Gatekeeper will repair the Green Gate.
 * Gate NPCs are resurrected when the gate is rebuilt.
 * Gate locks are used by Kurzicks to take down a gate and to put it back up (providing at least one of the gate's NPCs are alive).
 * Gatekeepers Radik and Poletski cannot respawn once killed, and the gates on their respective sides will be permanently beyond repair if taken down.
 * Luxon commanders need to be alive for the turtle team to respawn once they are destroyed. Killing the commander does not kill the turtle team.
 * Weapon production speed can be increased by the Kurzicks by taking amber to the Architect.

Preparation
While the teams are randomly assembled, there are several things you can do to prepare for this mission
 * Talk with others waiting to enter the mission, get an idea of what people doing/aren't doing
 * Choose your skills to be able to fill a role (whether Luxon or Kurzick) in the mission
 * Don't bring a Signet of Capture or resurrection skills, as they are useless in this mission

Mission Objectives
Protect Master Architect Gunther until he is able to complete the Vengeance of the Gods.

Secondary to this but key to ensuring the primary objective is fullfilled the following objectives should be pursued;
 * Capture the amber mines.
 * Run amber to the gatekeepers to repair gates.
 * Run amber to the Architect to speed the completion of the Vengeance of the Gods.
 * Kill or disable siege turtles.
 * Capture the Luxon command points.

Common Roles
There are several roles (but certainly not the only ones) that will always help your team out:
 * Gatekeeper - Usually a monk, uses the gate to protect themselves from a direct attack, while keeping the NPCs in front of the gate alive.
 * Amber Runner - Focuses on picking up amber from the mines and running it back to either Gunther if the gates are up, or a gatekeeper if the gates are down. Speed is key here.
 * Turtle Interrupter - Sitting on a hill in the keep to keep away from the melee, uses interrupts to keep the siege turtles from firing, while the other party members are killing off the turtle's support.

Strategies

 * Take and maintain control of at least one amber mine as soon as possible. Try to ensure that Kurzick has at least one amber mine at all times.  Luxon players spawn after death at these mines if they hold them, which makes holding them important defensively.
 * If it seems that there isn't anyone running amber consistently, run amber. Repaired gates and renewed NPCs are critical to the fort defense.  However running amber once the green door has been breached is difficult as the gatekeepers will not accept amber if they are attacking.
 * Remember that you are on the defensive. Use spirits and protect the NPCs on the gates to impede enemy advancement. Set traps around doors to slow down advancing forces.
 * The turtles are mobile siege weapons, destroy them quickly. Degeneration is particularly effective but hexes, high-powered attacks and life-stealing spells are also effective against them. Normal attacks are useless due to the turtle's monster defenses.
 * Try to keep the Luxon warriors from the siege turtle team alive for as long as possible once the siege turtle is killed as this will prevent the next turtle from spawning. There are some places on the map where the warriors can get stuck which can indefinitely stop turtles from spawning.
 * Killing commanders can change the course of the battle, but this is less important than ensuring the current turtles die and the gates are repaired.
 * If you go through a gate using the gate lock ensure you aren't followed by a Luxon player and close the door behind you.
 * The green mine is a difficult position to get to but it yields Refined Amber Chunks which are more effective than Raw Amber from the closer mines.

Mission Objectives
Get to and kill Master Architect Gunther before he is able to complete the Vengeance of the Gods.

Secondary to this but key to ensuring the primary objective is fullfilled the following objectives should be pursued;
 * Capture the amber mines to prevent Kurzicks from running amber.
 * Protect the turtles.
 * Assist the turtles in destroying gates and the Architect.

Strategies

 * Gain and maintain control of the amber mines. Doing so will allow you to resurrect there, and will prevent the Kurzicks from repairing damaged gates. Amber can be run from either mine, so try to keep both.
 * Talk to the commanders to order siege turtles to breach the gates. Protect the turtles with hex and condition removal. The turtles will kill most players and NPCs in two siege hits.
 * Retake the commander positions but only when you need to. It may be possible to defeat the Kurzick side with a single set of turtles.
 * If you destroy the NPCs at the gates before the turtle gets there it moves onto the next set of NPCs much faster. Area-of-effect damage is particularly effective for this.
 * Placing traps directly on the base of where Kurzicks are teleported to can severly slow down the speed at which runners can mine Amber.
 * Your opponents will be playing defensively, bring enchantment and condition removal.
 * A well-placed Edge of Extinction spirit can trigger a mass amount of NPC deaths, possibly resulting in the deaths of all NPCs in the Kurzick fort.