Strand of Ancients

Larísa once wrote that "PvP is a good, though frustrating way of training your awareness of the surroundings. To see your character isn't as important as to see what may occur to her". Completely true.

While it's far from the complication and preparation requirements of raiding, PvP need some skills. And it can teach you much more than just character management. Strand of Ancients, the new BG is an extraordinary place for observing the basis of riches.

While it's true for all BG-s that killing enemies help very little to wining, on Strands, it's more true than anywhere else. For those who have not seen this great BG, please take a look on the map:

• Attacker side starts at the white dots. There are 2-2 catapults there.
• These catapults are the most effective way to break the gates at green and blue
• At green and blue the defenders have 2-2 stationary cannons
• Blacks are graveyards, originally defender sided. When attacker captures them, cannot be recaptured
• If attackers take graveyard, the nearby shops (black-white) start to spawn catapults
• Attackers have to break through purple and red gate, defended by 2-2 cannons
• Finally they have to break yellow gate, than orange gate to win.

Holding green and blue gate is impossible, the attackers can always break through (unless 15 vs 3). So defense must prepare for this situation. Yet, I've barely seen any attempt for such preparation. All the defense players happily PvP at green and blue, while the attackers take the graveyards and using the new catapults at white-black to march all the way up, meeting little to none resistance.

It's most obvious that (assuming equal gear and PvP skills), defense can hold the fort forever. As long as they have the graveyards, the attackers spawn at the beach and have to move their catapults from the white dots up to the red and purple gates, while defenders spawn nearby and supported by their cannons.

Still, attackers usually win in no time, since there are barely gunners at the red and purple gates and never-ever any guards at the graveyards. The latter is extremely surprising, since the graveyards are great place for PvP for honor. If you stand on the southern side of the graveyard, the cannons can shoot at your enemy, but they are too far to get honor for their kills.

If you are not attempting to win, just watch this zoo of stupidity, you can laugh a lot. If you want to win (for marks or honor), I'd highly recommend to not enter alone. With even a couple of buddys who know where to fight, you can chain-win.

Before we would forgot, one can find lot of amusements in the dumbness of the attackers too. While it's less destructive (the attackers can't win if the defenders are not morons), it's even more ridicolous. There are 4 typical attacker stupidities (but they never get old):

• Attacking both sides instead of concentrating the power of all 4 catapults on one side. The HC version of this is when all people rides to the proper gate save for 2: the two catapult operators.
  
• When gates broken, not destroying the cannons, so the newly spawn catapults pass the gates with 50% HP, due to the happy cannoners.
• Ignoring undefended graveyards, spawning at the beach, riding up to the red and purple gates where they are grinded by nearby defenders.
  
• But the winner is undoubtedly: catapult-PvP. It's hard to believe that someone who is capable of turning on a computer would try to kill enemy players with the catapult, but you see it all the time. They rotate and backtrack in a futile hope to outmanuver a rouge or a warrior with a huge and slow machine with 20 yards dead zone (can't fire closer than 20 yards)

What this has to do with business? Most of the income comes from buying low and selling high. Such activity cannot be continued if the people have more brain than a vegetable. The biggest obstackle before a sucessful business is the thought: "It's stupid, no one will fall for that, not worth trying". For example "nobody will buy crystallized fire for 15G when eternal is 60". You, a thinking, calculating, theorycrafting, blog- and forum-reading person would never do that and it's hard to imagine that fellow human beings would do. We know ourselves and our friends and we believe that the rest of the people are like us.

No they are not! Watch them PvP-ing by the green gate while a single catapult is breaking yellow! Watch them wandering aimlessly with their catapult, trying to shoot at somebody! Watch them until you realize: they are not like you and your friends! And there should not be a day in your life when you miss thanking God/nature/luck/your parents for this.

After you realized it and thanked to the proper target, go and sell some crystallized fire!