The Guardians Gala has returned to new Eden. For those not aware, Guardians Gala is a celebration set up by the Serpentis Corporation. Your job is to crash the party and earn new skins as well as cerebral accelerators.The event is currently live and it’s been exciting to play. It’s received a lot of negative comments which I will address. But out of the gate, I can say that I’m enjoying it.
Observations
The following observations have been made;
- Sites are not gated, which means you can use any ship, yes this does mean you can crash the party with a Nyx or even a titan.
- There does not seem to be a difference in sites depending on security level. This means you will find the same sites in high sec all the way to null security for the basic gala sites.
- The waves and spawns are random, about 2-3 ships at a time a mixture of frigates and cruisers. the frigates web and the cruisers use target painters.
- NPC are showing advance AI behaviour. warping off 500 KM and then warping into range. They can also enter the site at a range before warping to you.
- NPC also switch to fighting drones, so keep an eye on any drones.
- The final boss is in a BS or BC. from the six events I’ve run, all have dropped a booster of some type and a skin. fireworks have also dropped in lots of 100.
- Boosters come in the form of +10 for 24 hours, +12 for 24 hours and a +10 for 72 hours.
- Boosters expire on the March 20, 2018.
Like the rogue drone sites, you can access the sites via the agency. It also states that completion of the sites counts towards point progress. There are two rewards chains which reward players for killing any ships in the gala and for killing a BC or bigger.
Rewards
The rewards are issued at the following point level;
- 100 points – Angels Arisen Firework.
- 300 points – 1 x Guardian Angels ‘Advanced’ Cerebral Accelerator.
- 500 points – 1 x Inquest ‘Eros’ Stasis Webifier MR-805.
- 700 points – 1 x Serpentis Inquest ‘Dripfeed’ Cerebral Accelerator.
This means that only one player will get the reward for completing the site. But multi-players can get rewards for shooting the guests. There’s also a higher level site, a VIP site which you should not attempt solo. The boss is a carrier and requires upwards of 5000 DPS to break the shield tank. The carrier uses waves of fighters to alpha strike unprepared players. Notably, see the losses from the first day of the event.
If you do plan on taking on the sites solo, the use of a carrier or above should be seriously considered. This will allow you to either deploy a combination of space superiority fighters, which can target the fighters or attack fighters to take down the fighters and finish of the carrier itself by applying the required dps to defeat the boss.
The event itself has received criticism, players dislike the random behaviour of the NPC. It was even reported as broken by players who tested the sites on the test server. What we are seeing is advanced AI behaviour. The rogue drones sites spoiled us. They were easy to autopilot and run risk-free. These sites I feel I have to keep the focus on what’s going on and I feel that I’m more at risk than I was with the rogue drones. My advice is simple, if you can run Level 4 missions, your ship should be able to handle the Gala sites. If you can’t, group up with other players and run the sites together.
Regarding Gala VIP sites, you should test your fitting first on the sisi server so you can gain an understanding of what to expect as well as testing your tank and damage output.
