This is the first issue of the Lockdown Weekly News, and I'm very excited to announce that it's here. Boy I'm so excited, I could just spam Proto Gun all day long in RLD!

Ahem, pardon me there.

Kicking off the news this week, we have the leaderboard.

1. The Exceeds – 34,715
2. Aimless – 28,662
3. Aurum – 22,514
4. Rigorous – 19,187
5. Dark Guardians – 16,282
6. Angels of Exceeds – 16,038
7. Echo of Silence – 13,589
8. Warriors of Legend – 8,474
9. Impervious – 7,589
10. The Terminators – 7,423

Seeing as how this is the first issue of the news, I am disregarding any past appearances on the leaderboard streaks, including #1.

As you can clearly see, The Exceeds beat Aimless by over 6,000 points, but this was not done so easily, as a stalemate occurred between them and Aurum in the midweek at 22,000 points, but eventually overpowered them and skyrocketed to #1. But, was this legit?

In the leaderboards, you can look at the #6, the Angels of Exceeds. As the name suggests, there is a high chance that this is an alt guild. Now, back in the days of the tyranny of The Jempire, their so called "minions" were competitive against them, but during the matches I've spectated between The Exceeds and their "angels", I saw no competition between them at all, it was just fun goofing around in GvG.....but how can this be? Mawashimino made a blog a while back regarding this matter. Some guilds alt just for fun, some do it because they want to fight eachother, some want to boost, ect. Do you find this as an underhanded tactic, or do you find this simply just to be for fun?

Now, onto the main point: Mist bombing.

One of the biggest support roles in all of Spiral Knights, mist bombing is taking one of the five status bombs (Ash of Agni, Venom Veiler, Voltaic Tempest, Stagger Storm, and Shivermist Buster), walking around, and placing them across the field to inflict enemies with statuses, making them very supportive. In GvG, two of these bombs are used moreso protectively, these being the Voltaic Tempest and the Shivermist Buster, while the other three, the Venom Veiler, Ash of Agni, and Stagger Storm, are used more as bait for fighting purposes, to weaken the opponent.

Earlier in the week, I was spectating a game of Echo of Silence Vs. Aimless. EoS won that much, and they would have by a landslide, but Aimless still got 255 points, more than half of what they needed. After interviewing Sconesy, a co-spectator, he informs me that they were able to dodge the VT spawn campers around their base by status walking. For those unfamiliar with this tactic, status walking is putting on a set of armor (maily mercurial), to get around the effects of a bomb. Since status bombs inflict minor statuses, the lowest point of strength status wise, you can be generally immune to them at a certain point of resistance. Doing this, you can walk through a bombers Area of Effect and attack them directly. After asking Sconesy's opinion on the matter, he tells me that status walking is a risky move, sacrificing defense, or even buffs to ease the elimination of a single hindrance on the enemy team. Do you think this is a real risk in the world of GvG, and do you think it's slightly discouraging for the bomber being targeted?

A main support bomber uses their wide-spread AoE to make certain parts of the map inaccessible, this is known as Area Denial among players. While this can sometimes be used to tempt players to walk into it just to get to the enemy, it can also force users to walk around it, and avoid that support completely. Do you believe that status bombing can sometimes do more harm than good? Pawsmack, an officer of Dark Guardians is the first I’ve interviewed to actually have experience status bombing, and believes that there is no discouragement in getting pounded by guns and walkers when you’re helping your team. And after all, isn’t that what you seek in a team orientated PvP like GvG LD? What accomplishments do you draw out of knowing you contributed?

I interviewed Perronius, a debuff bomber from Echo of Silence. I asked him how status bombing can be used against you. He believes the number one prevention of successful status bombing, is getting gunned down. Specifically from the antigua or pulsar lines, this can be very annoying as it continually cancels your bomb charges, preventing you from getting your bombs off, leaving you wide open. He also says that damage is no concern if you can weaken your opponent while doing so, and that interruption is the biggest concern. What are your thoughts on this, do you believe that interruption is more a concern than taking damage?

And that wraps up this weeks news concerning mist bombs. Join me next week when I discuss a common topic I see these days in lockdown, in Issue 2: Acheron, or Acheroff?

Special Thanks to:
Sconesy,
Pawsmack,
and Perronius.