Die Schwarze Kralle [SK]

Die Schwarze Kralle [SK] has left its trace in Guild Wars for quite a while now. The Guild was founded by three friends right after the release of Prophecies, but none of them are actively playing any longer. Becauseof this, a temporary assignment was turned into a full blown job for the recently appointed guild leader (she isn't really complaining). SK has 40 members at the moment and it is very important for them that there is no anonymity in their guild.

They are a mixed bunch of people, you will find father playing with his son, neighbours, friends, colleagues, hardcore and casual gamers among their ranks. Although most members met through the game, in many cases real life friendships have developed,and players go to visit one another.

The main focus of SK is on PvE, although the goals each guild member tries to achieve can be very diverse. It might be helping another member in completing his collection of green items, to help in getting his Cartographer title or just helping out in a mission. Whatever the task, there will always be members of the guild willing to give a helping hand.

In general their view on the game is that Guild Wars offers so many different ways to have fun, that there is something for everybody, and so their main focus is not on specific activities but instead on offering a broad variety of possible activities for their members. Members of Die Schwarze Kralle are active in the community and take part in all sorts of competitions and contests such as the ArenaNet contests or the "create a cover of a gaming magazine" contest.

Games within the game

One of the things that makes Die Schwarze Kralle special is the fact that they very often create their own Events. So if, in your travels on the Factions tutorial isle, you came across a bunch of valiant heroes dressed in their underwear, it's not the Shing Jea Chipendales - but it could be members of SK taking part in their Robinson Crusoe event. During the event, players had to start at the Shing Jea Monastery without armour and weapons and only three core skills, and find a way to finish the cooperative tutorial isle missions with master reward. This event created an even deeper bond between the players, because they had to work as one to get certain items or a piece of armour to cover their shame.

Another event they created was an easter egg hunt. Under the motto "if the egg can't get into the game, then the game has to get into the egg", they published Easter eggs on their webpage during the easter holiday. Each egg showed a scene from the game (with increasing difficulty), and players had to 'hunt' for the places in-game and provide a screenshot as proof they found it.

Birthdays of Guild members are also very important for SK. It is tradition that the happy birthday child can choose a birthday event of their choice. A very popular choice at the moment is a trip into the underworld or into the elite missions. They also may spend a whole evening hunting a specific boss mob, because the wish was to get the green item it drops.

PvE Discussion

At first they were rather tight-lipped about sharing some thoughts about how they play PvE with us, but after we threatened to send Nika over for a visit, they agreed to share some thoughts with our honoured readers.

The degree of planning always depends on the mission. They have played the Ring of Fire mission without monks once, because they had 8 other players who wanted to play the mission. As a result the Ritualist had to skill as a healer. It is important, in a situation like this, that each player is aware of the fact that he basically is responsible for healing himself.

If they play something like the Elite missions in Factions, they always do advance planning to talk about the Group-Build and the skills people should take with them, because it is very frustrating if, after a couple of hours playing the mission, you realise that you miss some key skills.

Sometimes a difficult situation calls for a spirited retreat. It might happen that the last surviving member of the party has to pull a boss mob into another group of enemies to recharge his resurrection signet so he can revive one of the monks. But there is no special tactic for a situation like this, it all comes down to creativity.

It is very important to not get too serious – putting blame on somebody is not really helpful. Many mistakes happen because of a lack of knowledge about the mission or how to play other professions. If, for example, a Warrior has played a monk or an Elementalist before, he will not again charge into a group of enemies before the energy of the casters is restored. And an Elementalist, who has played a warrior before, might use his AoE spells more sparingly because he knows how difficult it gets for the Warrior to control the aggro.

The reason why playing in guild teams usually works out better then in PuGs is that in guild teams people are aware of the role they play within a team. Classes which are not that popular like Mesmer, Assassins or smiting Monks can play an important part within the group – a concept that sometimes is very hard to explain to players in a PuG. They wish that more players would be daring enough to play something apart form the standard group builds.

The most important thing after you fail: Discuss what was the reason for the failure, and maybe change skills or even professions – but never change players!

Member Profiles

Meet some of the people behind the avatars:

Sheftu Engevis

Location: Hannover, Germany
Gaming Background: Realtime- buildup strategy, simulations – RPGs for the last 2 years as well. Since I know Guild Wars I do not have time for other games…^^
Primary Character: Elementalist or Necromancer – everything that deals damage from behind.
Position in the Guild: Leader

Loki Pestis

Location: Baden-Württenberg, Germany
Gaming Background: actually everything but round-based strategie games. GW is my first MMORPG.
Primary Character: Monk, primarily as a healer. In PvE I prefer a Monk/Mesmer with Energy Drain and Inspired Hex – because for a monk there is nothing more important than energy, right?
Position in the Guild: Officer

Zerales Grey

Location: Eimsbüttel/Hamburg, Germany
Gaming Background: I like to play RPGs, that's why I started to play Guild Wars. I prefer to play PvE, and the new titles created a big inducement.
Primary Character: My favorite is my Ranger. He is the oldest and most experienced of them all. I really like the flexibility a Ranger provides. I prefer to play an offensive Ranger, using Whirling Defense and traps right in the middle of the battle.
Position in the Guild: I am Officer and some kind of Guild institution.
Why I joined SK: Die Schwarze Kralle was my first guild, and it looks like I do not like to change guilds. None of the people who have been there in the beginning are left, but the guild has evolved in a way that I can only marvel at.

Andreas Delany

Location: Berlin, Germany
Gaming Background: I only played offline games most of the times before I discovered Guild Wars. Guild Wars was my second online game, the first one was a browser game I played for a long time.
Primary Character: I prefer my Warrior or Ranger. Many people underestimate the Warrior, because they see him only as a tank. I love to be in the heat of the battle, taking the fight to the enemy – in an organised way.
Position in the Guild: Officer (2nd oldest)

Dragonson Magnifico

Location: Franconia, Bavaria, Germany
Primary Character: I prefer Elementalist – Fire to decimate hordes of enemies, air to specifically target a single opponent, earth and water for support or special objectives. I only play PvE – I love our quests and missions.
Position in the Guild: I am an Officer of die Schwarze Kralle.
Why I joined SK: Well, why did I join? My son actually introduced me to the guild, and (from my perspective of course) now I play in the best guild of the world Part of this is because we do not actually have goals – apart from having fun and helping guild members.

Oberon Von Avalon

Location: Vienna, Austria
Gaming Background: Guild Wars was my first online-RPG. I basically played every RPG available, and Guild Wars was able to become one of my favorite games because of the awesome graphics and smooth gameplay.
Primary Character: The one and only character with which I finished both campaigns (Prophecies and Factions) is my Warrior, Oberon von Avalon. He is my oldest character and the one I love the most. I love to be on the frontline – most of the time as a contagious warrior – and beating up the opponent with hammer, sword or axe (and giving my own monks a hard time ^^).
Position in the Guild: I am a simple member of Die Schwarze Kralle.
Why I joined SK: I feel very comfortable in this guild, because they cover all of my interests. I prefer PvE, but do not mind the odd PvP battle. We also play for fun, there are no obligations, and you can find really good friends in this guild.

Nashi

Location: Germany.
Gaming Background: RPGs, some FPS
Primary Character: Necromancer – a very versatile class. I love to play minion master with Mark of Pain and Barbs. Ranger – it doesn't matter if you play a trapper, interrupter or a simple damage dealer, there is always a place for a Ranger.
Position in the Guild: Member. I am in charge of the guild gallery.

Eary Kuraschka

Location: Nuremberg, Germany
Gaming Background: I play more PvE than PvP, but if I am on the right team, I like to play PvP just for fun. I do not take PvP too serious. Guild Wars was my first MMORPG.
Primary Character: I prefer to play minion master, more than anything else. But I also use the support skills of the Necromancer.
Position in the Guild: Simple member – I love to help other people.
Why I joined SK: I left my old guild because for me most of the members where to young. Then I met Die Schwarze Kralle – and now I have a new Guild Wars family.

Noywen Faloth

Location: Mönchengladbach, Germany
Gaming Background: I prefer PvE, but cannot go long without a decent PvP match.
Primary Character: I prefer Ranger, although I like to play Monk or Elementalist as well. In PvE I mostly play with a flatbow and read the wind as preparation to cause conditions on the enemies. In PvP I play a Ranger/Assassin with dagger- and survival skills.
Position in the Guild: I am a member of Die Schwarze Kralle.
Why I joined SK: I was thinking of joining for quite a while, but I was member in another guild I did not want to leave. When things changed, there was no other guild I would have liked more to be a part of.

Hypocrite

Location: Niedersachsen, Germany
Gaming Background: Guild Wars was my first MMORPG. I was fascinated by the concept of an MMORPG, and especially if you are part of a good guild, you see the advantages of the genre, because you can play your favorite game together with a bunch of nice people.
Primary Character: My Monk "Kill the Priest" is not the oldest character in my little collection, but the one I play most of the time. He is my "multi active/passive prot heal and 55HP Monk. You see, I play him in all kind of ways, so it never get's boring. I also like it that with a Monk it is rather easy to find a group. You can also help a lot of people being a monk, because usually there is a shortage of Monks ^^. In the Elite missions there is always somebody looking for a Monk, so there is always something to do.
Position in the Guild: I am an ordinary member (I mean what does "ordinary really means – isn't it ordinary to be "ordinary"?) of Die Schwarze Kralle.
Why I joined SK: For SK the focus is on PvE, an in my personal opinion, I think the PvP part of the game is really good, but I can only truly relax when I play PvE and have fun together with my guildmates.