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source: http://www.betacake.net/2011/08/star...exclusive.html

The purpose of this guide is to cover some basic and not-so-basic aspects of Huttball.

I originally posted this last phase when many of the dynamics were different. I will steadily revise the guide, so far I have removed things that no longer apply.



Basics
Huttball is football. Your objective is to get the ball across the opposing team's goal line.

The opposing team's goal line is on the opposite side of the field. Do not take the ball toward your own goal. Look up at the ceiling. Be sure the colors are those of the opposing team. The game is more chaotic now and it is possible to get confused.

The score board in the upper right has a round icon under each team's name. The team with the icon is the team who currently has possession of the ball.

Possession of the ball transfers from one team to the other when the ball carrier dies and there is a player close enough to the ball at the time of death. Do not die with the ball. Passing the ball is the best way to avoid this. Passing is so important that it has its own section.

The player with the ball has a bright column of light on them. If your team does not have the ball, then you should be somewhere near the ball carrier. If you are off somewhere else, you're really not helping your team as much as you could be.

Hazzards. Hazzards are there to help you offensively and defensively. The fire wall is the most critical. Running through it places a DOT on you. It is not instant death if you have healing, use cooldowns, etc. Being knocked into the fire wall however is much more lethal. Fire walls are on timers.
There is an ability that you receive called Throw the Ball. It's an icon of a green ball. When you activate this ability, it places a targeted AoE on your mouse. Move the target icon so that it covers a team mate, then click again. The ball will pass to your team mate.

Do not die with the ball.

When out of combat you may use the standard sprint ability.


Throw the Ball

Throw the Ball should be on your hotbar by the time the match begins. If you do not see this icon do the following:

Open your abilities.

Go to the general tab

Drag it on to your hot bar.

The ball places a snare on you.
The ball seems to have a damage effect, more testing is needed to determine the exact mechanic.

These two elements exist to encourage passing the ball. Both can be overcome by healing and certain class abilities.
The ball flies through the air much farther and faster than anyone can run with it.

Do not run in a cluster. Run ahead of of the carrier and pass to each other.

You run at full speed without the ball.

Throw the Ball has a 30m range. It cannot be used while you are stunned. It can be used to throw the ball to people on a higher or lower platform. This is very important.

If you place the target on a team mate it will pass to that player. If you place the target so that it does not overlap anyone, you will ground the ball. Grounding the ball forces it to reset in the center. You must not die with the ball in your possession otherwise the ball immediately goes to the closest enemy player.



Offense
The ball carrier starts moving toward the enemy goal unless they are low on health. If they are low on health they should immediately pass before they are stunned and killed.

Sage/Sorcerer should shield the carrier and run with them. You want to heal the carrier and use your AoE knockback and stuns to keep pressure off the carrier. You have the ability to pull a team mate to you. For Sorcerers this ability is called Extrication. This should be used to pull the carrier back to you in case they get pulled away or knocked away.

[A word on Extrication]
Many times players who are not very familiar with the game claim that a player without force leap somehow cheated to have force leap. Or they think one of their team mates has pulled the enemy carrier to a better position out of stupidity. What's happening is a Sage/Sorcer pulled their team mate to themselves with Extrication.

The other team members should move ahead of the carrier to the best position they can so that they can receive the ball. Pass the Ball does not work well if you have no one to pass it to. It works extremely well when you pass the ball to someone who is already past a hazzard for a much quicker score.

Grounding the ball. If you are going to die and none of your team mates are in position, you should throw the ball to the ground. This will cause it to respawn in the middle. If your team is thinking and working as a team then they should see that you are in trouble. If they can't reach you or save you, they should already be heading to the middle to grab it. They should even tell you to ground it or you should tell them you are about to ground it. Do not die with the ball.

Killing players
It is not a good thing to kill as many players as you can while on offense. Doing this teleports them to their goal line which is where your carrier is headed. Unless your carrier has a protector or can protect themselves with shield and AoE knockback, try to slow down defenders instead.

Knock them into the pit but leave them there with snares and blinds. DO NOT kill them. You are only doing them a favor if you do.

If you must kill someone, kill DPS. This seems counter intuitive but hear me out. Killing a healer takes a lot of time if they really don't want to die. They have the CC and panic buttons to make this take a long time. Also, if a healer is coming at your carrier, the likelihood of your carrier being stunned and knocked off into the pit is dramatically higher.

If the healer is good, they can keep you tied up while they're DPS is getting the ball back. Death of the carrier is the way your team loses the ball. Getting the DPS off your character gives your team time. In the zergish nature of the game right now, the less focus fire your carrier takes, the more time they have to keep the carrier up with their 3 second big heals. Effects like trauma make it harder for healers to singlehandedly save someone.

Ball carriers. The people who are best at running the ball are the ones with force speed. Second best are people who are difficult to kill.



Defense
Nothing is cheap or cheesy. Nothing. If you adopt this mindset you will have the proper killer instinct to win.

If your team does not have the ball, do all that you can to impede the carrier. Stun them, pull them out of position, snare them. Your secondary objective is to kill the carrier to get the ball back.

[/B]Suicide. The spawn point is on the platform above the goal line. There is no respawn timer. This means that if you are out of position after a possession change and the other team is advancing the ball in your territory, suicide is your fastest option.

It's an instant teleport.

It's a full heal.

When you are conflicted about doing this, see item #1.

Kill the carrier.

Stun the carrier. Stuns do not break on damage, even if it's coming in from 6 players in a zerg.

4B. Use an AoE blind before you begin your damage spike. This will let you get your damage in before being knocked back or otherwise CC'd. This will also delay healing from the people running with the carrier.

No kill is as important as the carrier. Not even the healer attempting to support them. In a 12v12 match with Trauma in effect, a healer cannot outheal focus fire from 5+ players.

Fire walls.
Stunning and snaring on the fire is a tactic. Classes with AoE snare like Guardian and Juggernaut should use this immediately after applying a blind if it's up. Offense likes to run in a pack with the carrier and will follow them over hazzards to not get separated. When snared, you can see 2 or 3 people die at once because of the new fire wall timers.