Run Optimization and You

[clickeverywhere]

Introduction

Hey guys, ClickEverywhere here with a guide on run efficiency. With the ubiquity of tomes and barrels these days, the game is no longer a question of success or failure, it is a question of how quickly success or failure is achieved!

This guide will be helpful to you if you have ever asked yourself these questions:

1. Why is this run taking three hours?
   
2. Why are we holding last on wave 2 for ten minutes?
   
3. How can I contribute to the team if there is no room for me to slash/shoot/throw?
   
4. Why are we holding last on wave 19 for twenty minutes? What's going on? Why are people dying repeatedly and why am I tabbed out reading reddit while they are doing it?
   
   

Even if you haven't asked yourself any of these questions, you should read this guide. This guide is intended to give players tips on how they can waste less time, kill more Nords, and ultimately get more loot. The knowledge you glean from this thread is applicable to any mode and any map. You might even find yourself applying what you learn from this thread in real life!*

Why is run optimization important? NordInvasion is a team game. Servers can accommodate 16 players. If you play inefficiently, you waste not only your own time, but the time of 15 other players. You may say "but NordInvasion is a pastime. Its very purpose is to waste time!" Well, some people can't afford to invest that much time into a single run. Some people have to sleep or have work. They may have hopped onto a server with two hours to spare thinking "it's only a hard run, how long could it possibly take?" while you go on to betray their naive expectations by going AFK when half the team has died so that barricades can be tomed in yet no one is uses a tome and then everything despawns and now the team fails to kill Ragnar!! The slower a run goes, the more likely players are to tab out and not pay attention.

*You won't actually be using these tips in real life.

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General Tips

1. Use TeamSpeak if you are able to. It isn't necessary for you to speak as long as you can follow orders or react properly to situations involving breaches or wraiths, but it is a bonus if you can give useful feedback and information to the team.
   
   
2. If you bring in a support item, use it. Don't bring it in and just drop it somewhere on the ground expecting someone else to place your barricade or use your medic box.
   
   
3. If there is no dedicated healer for your team, use 3 medic boxes at the end of each wave and then refill them along with your other ammo. This way, the team will not have to wait in line to heal.
   
   
4. Use medic boxes. The DPS of the team is correlated with how risky each attack will be. If your team is at full health, they will be more willing to continue taking risks and finish off the wave faster as a result.
   
   
5. Do not overcrowd slashing spots. If there aren't enough slashing spots for your team, it is likely that you should widen the shield line. If there is one shielder, you can usually have two slashers. Two shielders allow for three slashers. Three shielders allow for five slashers. There are exceptions when you add in pikemen with long weapons.
   
   
6. Understand your team composition. If your lineup is commando heavy, build your barricades accordingly.
   
   
7. Do not overcrowd shooting/throwing spots. This leads to a phenomenon known as double peeking, which gets your allies killed and actually decreases the speed of the run. If there are no more good spots to throw or shoot from, you should instead do one of the following: heal the team with medic boxes, shuffle the tomes and barricades so that they do not despawn, or reinforce the barricades.
   
   
8. You should never be standing idle between waves. If you have time to be standing around you could be building barricades, shuffling items, toming for more barricades/barrels/tomes, or moving on to the next wave. Someone is usually holding the last bot. Don't force him to spend 30 minutes doing it.
   
   
9. Do not do things mindlessly. Evaluate and re-evaluate the situation whenever you can as situations tend to deteriorate very quickly when you're not paying attention. The most important thing is having the ability to adapt.
   
   
10. Use the score screen (default key: tab). Players should be checking this screen frequently to check whether you are close to the end of the wave and to quickly ascertain the health of the team.
    
    The score screen will inform your decision making. Will the team be okay for the next wave? Should a tome be used? If the majority of the players on the top of the scoreboard are dead, it's a good time to tome. High DPS is necessary for a fast run. If one or more of your shielders are dead, it's a good time to tome. Do not muck about in indecision about toming, but make sure that you announce your intentions so that other living players are prepared. Each player should be able to come to these conclusions individually.
    

Role Specific Tips

Archers and Players in Ranged Roles

1. Archers can refill their quivers by taking the ammo off of fallen Nords. Do this between waves rather than hogging the ammo refill box. The arrows you pick up will be the same quality as those of the first arrow you pick up. The type of arrow you are using will be shown by the quiver on your character.
   
   
2. If you are a class that does not have the luxury of refilling your ammo from the corpses of fallen foes, you should begin your ammo refilling as the wave winds down. If there are only four bots left visible, not every archer/crossbowman/pikeman on the team has to try to kill them. Get a headstart on refilling your ammo instead.
   
   
3. Give feedback of what you see to the team. Players on the ground can use information of what you see to determine their best course of action.
   

Slashers and Shielders

1. If there are 6 commandos on your team, adjust the size of your shield wall accordingly. Using three shielders is more efficient than using only one because it allows for more spots from which other players can slash. Furthermore, you lose fewer barricades because more attention is focused on the shields.
   
   
2. A staggered shield wall can be a lot more effective than a straight shield line. In most cases, it can give a better angle to attack from and can compensate more slashers.
   
   
3. Decrease your idle time as much as possible. Follow shielders out and try to understand what they are doing. Remember to always leave room for retreat. Do not stop moving in areas where players will be exposed to ranged fire. If the shielders set up an impromptu shield wall at the front, they will need slashers.
   
   
4. When it is the end of the wave, go out and hold last so that the shielder can repair. If another slasher has already taken the last Nord, look for barricades that haven't been placed and reinforce the barricades as needed.
   

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Final Words

If there are any tips that you'd like to share, please comment in the thread. I'll update the thread with more tips as I think of them.

EDIT 2014/03/20: Fixed up introduction and conclusion. Incorporated a few tips from comments.

[Mr Killer]

Nice guide click i have a tip to suggest, for slashers, archers, and pikemen u guys should go juggle if u cannot find a spot to shoot or slash or just when you are slashing or shooting to step out and juggle really quick it can be really helpful even if u just juggle cades, tomes, and med boxes

[VM_Sargent_X]

Team Speak.  It is really useful if experienced players can get into Team Speak with the people organizing the run.  This makes it much easier to let them know what they need to do and answer any questions they have.  It also is required for a quick Ragnarok Run  Though a Hard Run can be done quickly without TS if the people know what they are doing. 

[madjsoh]

you forgot to add the part about siphoning through 70% (maybe 80% now) of the maps which take 3-4 hours to complete no matter how efficient the team is and that your better off flipping the map in order to optimise run efficiency

[-Perception-]

Oh dear, prepare for a massive amount of misplaced cades incoming.. 
Maybe if you tell 'em to place any spare cades ever so often, you should give them a guide on how to place the cades properly to prevent cadewall abominations, as they can often be found on normal servers.

You also forgot to write sth about the good old toming problem, half the team dies for useful stuff, and those few that remain alive just stand around being idle, waiting for hours til finally someone feels like dropping a tome..

[human_being]

you forgot to add the part about siphoning through 70% (maybe 80% now) of the maps which take 3-4 hours to complete no matter how efficient the team is and that your better off flipping the map in order to optimise run efficiency

No good team needs 4 hrs for a rag run. That's just not true.

[Maroon]

It's not always a good idea to keep placing all the barricades still unbuilt, as having some packed up back-up barricades in case something goes wrong is almost never a bad idea.

[Deer]

Thanks click. I laughed, i cried. I felt joy, and horror. One thing that could cause problems...

    Follow shielders out and try to understand what they are doing. If the shielders set up an impromptu shield wall at the front, they will need slashers. 

.
In some situations this can be dangerous for the shielder; especially with the way some people slash (not knowing when to backup/ blocking the shielder from getting back into a safe place). I know that these are things that should be done, but in some situations they are advanced tactics and should be done with caution and more knowledge of how the shielding AND slashing roles both work ( and how they need to work together).
<3
Also ts can be crucial in a quick rag run. And one more word of advice at the end that you should, add, "if you dont know what youre doing, dont act like you do." Some people that really havent been playing very long, are getting really cocky lately ( coming into rag runs with no support on a hero class character and proclaiming, "i know how this is done!")

[clickeverywhere]

you forgot to add the part about siphoning through 70% (maybe 80% now) of the maps which take 3-4 hours to complete no matter how efficient the team is and that your better off flipping the map in order to optimise run efficiency

This guide is intended for general efficiency tips. Of course, your overall time will be faster on maps like Swadian Castle or Hidden Cave compared to maps like Swadian Bay. But players can still reduce the time it takes even on maps that are generally considered slow. Maps can take longer than necessary due to poor team optimization.

It's not always a good idea to keep placing all the barricades still unbuilt, as having some packed up back-up barricades in case something goes wrong is almost never a bad idea.

That is true. But you should not have 10 barricades lying on the ground to be shuffled if you can help it. It does depend on the map. Some maps have a narrow area where the barricades will be effective while others have a wider area. It's better to use them before they despawn if you can help it. I know of games where tomes despawned, and those are more important than barricades.

In some situations this can be dangerous for the shielder; especially with the way some people slash (not knowing when to backup/ blocking the shielder from getting back into a safe place). I know that these are things that should be done, but in some situations they are advanced tactics and should be done with caution and more knowledge of how the shielding AND slashing roles both work ( and how they need to work together).
<3

I suppose I should add "do not block the shielders from escaping the sight of ranged Nords." Charging the Nords can be an effective strategy if done at the right time and with the proper number of commandos. In hard mode especially, from waves 1-12 you can usually safely charge near the end of the wave to clear out remaining archers/ranged.

You also forgot to write sth about the good old toming problem, half the team dies for useful stuff, and those few that remain alive just stand around being idle, waiting for hours til finally someone feels like dropping a tome..

This is actually one of the reasons why I started this thread in the first place. Too many players do not react to what the team is doing or what is happening. Chalk it up to poor awareness or being tabbed out. It's a problem that needs to be fixed. Players shouldn't have time to tab out between waves because if you're not preparing for the next one, why save last? It has happened before that the team would die in preparation to tome and the remainder of the players who didn't die would just be standing around. Even worse, a wraith would spawn from the first tome used and the remaining 6 living players all die to the wraith because they don't know how to handle it.

If you join a well-run event (in recent memory, some Tricksters/WS events) there will be a constant stream of toming before waves like Ragnar, Thor, or Odin. Players spawn in, drop their barricades, and die within 10 seconds while those who do not bring in barricades are either saving last, building barricades, or toming. This is how it should be done. All of this is best coordinated on TeamSpeak but even without TS it can be done through in-game chat.

[madjsoh]

[quote author=madjosh link=topic=24420.msg170850#msg170850 date=1395290967]
you forgot to add the part about siphoning through 70% (maybe 80% now) of the maps which take 3-4 hours to complete no matter how efficient the team is and that your better off flipping the map in order to optimise run efficiency

No good team needs 4 hrs for a rag run. That's just not true.
[/quote]

we're talking about pub teams...i have seen and been in 4 hour rag runs on maps such as coastel raid, swadian temple FUS the list goes on