Teach me about keep sieges

[Duodenum]

Hi everybody.

I recently picked up the game again, after not playing for many years. I did get to 40 last time on a KotBS, but as i could not really remember what/how i was doing on that character, i decided to make a new WL, as i wanted to try out a dps class, since i have mostly played a healer/support in pvp games. It has been some chaotic fun so far and i have reached level 31 by solo queueing SC's and joining random open warbands for RVR.

But even though it has been fun, i'm not that certain of what i should be doing during keep sieges to be effective, or atleast not toally useless on a melee dps character. I would therefor love to hear your best tips and tricks for helping during a keep siege or defence.

I also have a few questions about some of the mechanics:

• I have an ability that allows me to enter the postern door of an enemy keep, but i have not figured out how this can be used effectively. If i go inside, i will just get crushed by the defenders, as i wont have any healer and tank backup. Is this mostly a WH or WL thing, to pick off isolated people, or can it be useful as a WL?

• Once the keep reaches 2 stars, rams and siege machinery becomes available. Is this just on a cooldown, or does it consume keep resources to spawn/fire? I once activated a destered cannon, but it said it was out of ammo. In order to shoot, do you need to get new boxes, or just spawn a new cannon?

• Using the ram seems like a tank job, while the healers are busy healing everyone. As far as i can gather, it is the job of a melee dps to buff the ram (Once i get the level for this) and guard postern doors in order to prevent more defenders slipping inside. Is this correctly understood, or is there something else that should be done, while the doors are broken down?

[Hazmy]

Welcome back!

1) - All Melee DPS can bypass doors to go through them, but this is only good in most cases if you have a tank to guard you from below as you run up the walls above them + having a healer spamming their Group Heal as that heals people through walls. Then you can harass people inside or on top of postern wall.

2) - 2 Star activates Ram, based on supplies people can also spawn Cannons to support it - Cannons have limited ammo that I think is restored every minute or so? Not sure, it's a new change. Save Ammo for shooting Oil!

3) - That's roughly it, but anyone can use the Ram, it's a good way to get free contribution and get better bags on zone lock. Tanks put protection on Ram, Healers heal it, Melee DPS buff its damage! You can also build your Morales as DPS if the defenders are dumb enough to keep attacking you! At this stage most kills don't matter or don't even happen - but you want to avoid giving out free morale charges to the enemy that they can use instantly when the door is down.

[Martok]

Hi everybody.

I have an ability that allows me to enter the postern door of an enemy keep, but i have not figured out how this can be used effectively. If i go inside, i will just get crushed by the defenders, as i wont have any healer and tank backup. Is this mostly a WH or WL thing, to pick off isolated people, or can it be useful as a WL?

I will take a stab at handling this one.

As a White Lion you can enter the inner keep and make it to the third deck safely but to accomplish this requires a bit of creativity. You need an active pet, then go in and hug the left wall, go up the ramp (which means you have to take a moment to kill two to four of the defenders), then get up on the second deck and push out to the edge of the wall. Here, target the Keep Lord and send your pet in to attack him. This gives you a window to run inside and up the ramps to the third deck. Here, just hang out on the edge until your pet resets and you are in.

The actual question currently is, why bother. At one time finding loners or AFK'ers in a keep was a common occurrence, which was fun. Over time the damage output of the keep guards was increased combined with increase to their aggro range (not to help in actual keep defense, but to hamper the stealth classes) while the total number of keep defenders was increased as well. All of this amounted to a drastic drop in the mortality rate of toons being picked off while standing around in a keep and, of course, a commiserate decrease in the amount of fun derived from playing a stealth class but hey, progress, I suppose.

As a White Lion, during a Keep Siege you can still get inside and make it to the Oil Platform and attempt to disrupt the defenders operations, but damn, I miss the days when you could be a true hunter/killer.

[Rubius]

The Wiki answers a fair few of these questions on the RvR guide, listed here:
https://wiki.returnofreckoning.com/Open_RvR_Guide

To also dive in a bit more specifically:

- Yes, cannon ammo gets replenished as your realm turns in boxes. You can also hover over your keep to see the current amount of these weapons deployed, and the current limit.

- You nailed it on Postern Blocking. This is a key part of sieges, and it can also be useful (if you have support) to try and scale the walls / secure the upper oil areas. This is less possible if the defenders have strong groups protecting it, but any hits you get on the oil in melee range will burn it down significantly faster than Range DPS.