WAR Stratics Guide to the Pyramid of Settra

The newest map for Wrath of Heroes can be a bit overwhelming. It’s similar to Black Fire Pass, but different enough to allow more strategies to develop.

When the map starts, there are six relics spawned in the outer circle of the center room of the Pyramid. Players rush out of their spawn location to the middle room, grab relics, and transport them to their treasure room, which is always a left turn from the spawn area. Four additional relics will spawn one at a time every 90 seconds. The 4 relics spawn at exactly 13:30, 12:00, 10:30, and 9:00 left in the scenario. The relic will spawn next to the statue in the very center of the room.

Each treasure room has two approaches. One directly from the center room and one from the stairs behind the treasure room. Standing on an enemy treasure chest will allow a player to steal a relic after standing on it for 5 seconds. Only one relic may be taken at a time. A player may only hold one relic at a time.  The order of players to steal from a treasure chest when multiple are standing on it is first in, first out.

Points are tallied every 5 seconds in the game, at 14:55, 14:50, 14:45, and so forth. A team receives one point for each relic in the treasure chest. Unlike the other three maps, no points are given for kills.

Now onto the meta-game.

The map requires your team to split. Some members will be attempting to steal relics from other teams, while others will defend. Also players will have to be ready for the additional relic spawns every 90 seconds for the first six minutes of the game. At initial hero selection, remember that the first six relics are in the middle for anyone to take. It’s a footrace. The goal is to grab the 3 relics closest to your spawn before the enemy can get them. It’s common to see very unbalanced teams at first and then they’ll balance out later. Common picks for the initial race are Nethys, Ikkrik, Drulg, and Bax. Volrik, Felicia and Ilanya are also common at the start of the map since they can deny an enemy relics on the ground with pull, knock back, and knock up respectively. Some teams like to use Olwyn at the start since she can’t be pulled, knocked back, or knocked up. Gromril armor is tough to take off after all.

Teams then split up into two different roles, attackers and defenders. Attackers go get relics from other teams. Defenders protect the relics already owned by a team. Note that since points are not awarded for kills, there is nothing to dissuade attackers from constantly suicide running into a base to force a defense. Also an attacker that temporarily takes away a relic only to get killed and have the same team return the relic did not fail at his job. While the attacker had the relic, the defender was not getting points from it.

Attackers need to be quick and/or resilient. A tank Nethys is one of the best options for this role. Use Rapidity or Acceleration with Endless or Eternal Knowledge and either Warped or Hardened Flesh or Desperation or Temerity. The cool down reduction makes her sprint available more often and the movement speed bonus has great synergy with the sprint. The third tactic helps her survive long enough to grab a relic from an enemy stash. Bax is also excellent for this role, although Flee, a chance to sprint on being hit tactic, would likely be better than cool down reduction on him. Drulg is a good attacker, especially with his alternate 5 Overwhelming Bellow and Momentum, which increases the duration of his Bull Charge, and Endless/Eternal Knowledge, reducing the cool down of those abilities, but he is a little squishy and needs some support. Ikkrik is also a good choice, but remember that hitting Smoke Bomb makes you drop a relic you are carrying, so have someone with you to pick it up if you get in trouble. Olwyn is good attacker if the enemy is using defenders with crowd control. Lucian can be a good attacker with Rapidity, Flee and Vigor. Kindly enough, all three of those tactics are in his mastery tree.

Defenders keep a players off the treasure chest completely, prevent an enemy from escaping with a relic, or just kill an opponent quickly to make him drop the relic. Ilanya is an excellent defender. She has amazing burst damage and a knock up to prevent a player from getting to the chest or escaping with a relic. Felicia is also an excellent defender. Use (Massive) Blasting and Cripple or Maim on her to make it difficult for an enemy to stand on the chest or get away with a relic. Volrik is excellent for defense with his pull, root, snare and heal debuff. He needs someone to help him with damage, but not many can defend quite like Volrik if he gets that help. Amenadresh is a great defender since his dots can prevent escapes and the armor debuff will help your team deal with the tanky attackers like Bax and Olwyn. Conrad with his alternate 5 Divine Cleansing is also a great defender when dealing with attackers that use staggers to ensure escape with a relic like Nethys and Drulg. Good luck trying to escape with a rune with Aessa around. Between her snare/root and Pounce or Fetch, it’s probably not happening.

Here’s a non-wall of text version of the last two paragraphs.

The perks Massive Smash and Unholy Ward can also be invaluable on defense. Feel free to replace a tactic with one of these perks. Glowgob is Glowgob. He’s almost always useful anywhere.

In the case where a team has no relics, or if a team is majorly behind in relic count like the others have 4 each and that team only has 1, defenders should go support attackers in taking relics.  If the center screen message pops up saying a team has 5 relics, and the others have 0 or 1, both teams should abandon all defense and attack that team. If a team ever gets the 7 or 10 relic message at any point in the game, the other teams should immediately abandon all other efforts and attack the dominant team.

Watch this video for more information:  http://youtu.be/56io7wjyiOM

Discussion thread: http://6v6v6.com/topic/375-pyramid-of-settra-match-commentary-ft-tarelther-and-gaarawarr/