Siege instances

There may be instanced locations within otherwise open-world castle and node sieges, where specific groups can participate in small, short duration objective-based battles that will affect the overall outcome of the siege.

What we were talking about was how during castle sieges or node sieges, you're going to have certain instanced locations where it's only going to be a group that's designated to participate versus another group while the siege is happening. And I know in the past we talked about well how do you plan to incorporate these more objective-based waypoints as part of these larger events; and say that not only is it going to be a complement of numbers or in the overall grand kind of battle perspective, but there's also going to be opportunities for smaller more niche groups to participate in more focused objective capturing. And a part of that is going to be small very short, kind of ten minute long instanced battles where groups can go and participate against other groups that are defender versus attacker; and the outcome of which will influence certain aspects of the overall battle while that's still occurring in the background. – Steven Sharif

Node siege objectives

Each node has a number of districts, depending on its stage.

• Districts are taken by defeating a "raid boss" guard NPC in that district.
• If attackers take over a district, they gain that district as a respawn location.
• Attackers can kill the quartermasters to increase the respawn times of the defenders while reducing their own respawn times.

Defenders can assault the outposts of the attackers to hinder them.

• Destroying the headquarters of the attacking army is a victory condition for the defenders.

Attackers may not be capable of deleveling a node. Instead they may carry out precision attacks to disable specific service-oriented buildings within the node. These buildings can be targeted with siege weapons and bombs.

As the attackers are sieging a city you know they have obviously a win condition- a win objective- but additionally there can be casualties from a structural standpoint during that process. So let's say if the... attackers were to not succeed in completely destroying the node they could still affect damage across multiple types of buildings that are present within the node, which disables services for that those citizens and also will require some type of reconstruction effort on behalf of the citizens. – Steven Sharif

Castle siege objectives

As a Siege rages on, there is a sense of territory and progression through the battle. These are represented through Control Points, and each side starts with a few already owned. Others are present, but neutral. As Control Points are captured by one side, that side gains a temporary buff and an increase to their spawn rate. The other side will find that their spawn rate has decreased and their ultimate victory condition has been pushed just a little bit further from their reach. The spawn areas also have a portal which will allow the side that owns it to teleport to any Control Point that side owns - perfect for backdoor shenanigans.

• Attackers capture waypoints in the castle's architecture to diminish their respawn timer and increase the respawn timer of the defenders.
• Defenders can counter-play by attacking the siege headquarters of the attackers to diminish their declaration flags and increase their respawn timers.
• Legendary NPCs will be present as commanders that act like mini raid bosses within the defending and attacking armies. Killing these provides added benefits, such as certain types of drops that grant battlefield benefits to either side.
• The ultimate objective for the defenders is to survive during the timed period of the siege, which is approximately 90 minutes in its first iteration.
• If the attackers reach the inner keep of the castle, a guild leader (or one other delegated officer) must cast a 3 to 5 minute cast to seal ownership of the castle.
  • Casting time is diminished based on the number of waypoints captured during the siege.
  • There's an opportunity for any guild leader in the attacking alliance to capture the castle for themselves, despite what may have been agreed upon prior to the siege.

There's an opportunity there for perhaps backstabbing in the throne room where one guild is like yeah you know we agreed to get to this area but we had a change of heart in the middle of the battle. – Steven Sharif

See also

• Castle sieges
• Node sieges
• World PvP
• Combat