Hello everyone and welcome to my guide. For those of you who are new to IC and have been losing most of your Gotham Heights (GH) games or even winning at first but wind up losing in the end, this is probably the guide for you. It\'s my first guide in over 10 years so my apologies if it doesn\'t compare well with other guides.

---

Before you do anything else, here\'s a few things you MUST do in order to play IC well/better:
[list]

LEARN the Meta

UNDERSTAND the Meta

LEARN the Meta

PLAY the Meta

LEARN the Meta
[/list]
(Did I mention to learn the Meta?)

Seriously, if you do not learn or understand what the Meta is all about, you\'ll have no chance, except through blind luck, of winning games. So for all of you who do not know what the MetaGame is, I\'ll be covering it under the Strategy section.

---

DOs and DON\'Ts

First a quick rundown of some basic points (for both new and advanced players) which I may or may not go into further detail later in the guide. Sorry if any of it sounds \"preachy\"...it\'s not my intent.

DOs: (the short list)
[list]

Play as a team. No one is a one man army.

Buy items. If you forget you won\'t be of any use to your team. If you are unfamiliar with items, buy \"recommended\" ones until you learn.

Hold your points. If you can\'t hold your points or if you leave the points unattended after capturing so that the enemy easily steals them, then you will lose the game.

Play your champ\'s role. E.g. If your champ\'s an enforcer, tank for your team and try to keep them from getting squished. That\'s what you are there for. That\'s your job.

Play appropriately. If ahead on control points, play defensively. If behind, play offensively.

Know thy enemy. Use TAB to see how your opponents are developing their champs and modify your own champ\'s development as needed.

Pay attention to the mini-map. Being able to react in a timely fashion as a team to your enemies\' tactics will usually win you the game.

Use your pings. Unless you are a supreme multi-tasker you\'ll find the easiest/fastest way to comunicate with your teammates will be with pings rather than the chat.

Have fun. Getting angry over other people\'s \"noob\" mistakes doesn\'t help you or the team...especially in chat.
[/list]

DON\'Ts: (the long list)
[list]

Don\'t build unbalanced teams. I recently played on a team that had 3 assassins, 0 support, 0 tanks (the lone bruiser wanted to be a 4th assassin), and 4 of the champs where ADCs. Needless to say, we lost the game.

Don\'t buy useless items. E.g. don\'t buy [[The Book of Eternity(2)]] (PD item) if you\'re playing as (AD champ). Seriously...it\'s been done and not as a troll.

Don\'t rush on ahead recklessly. You\'ll tend to die. Which is sad so don\'t do it.

Don\'t chase unless you know what you are doing. Seriously. There are right times and wrong times to chase and \"always chase\" definitely falls under the \"Don\'t Do It\" category.

Don\'t overextend your lane/yourself unnecessarily when laning alone without cams. You\'ll get ganked. HARD!

Don\'t engage equal/superior forces outside of a controlled point if there is one near you. Controlled towers (points) are your friends. They want to help you.

Don\'t tower dive. If you\'re just dipping in to harrass and pulling back out quickly then fine but, for the love of your champ, don\'t stand under the tower while it pummels you.

Don\'t try to do things your champ is not suited for. E.g. don\'t try to tank if you\'re an assassin. That\'s what bruisers/enforcers are for.

Don\'t be selfish. For example: If a teammate is lower on health than you, don\'t take the health for yourself. There are exceptions to this due to circumstances, but it\'s usually a no-no.

Don\'t steal kills from teammates unless the enemy is in danger of escaping. Guaranteed to have you dying all by your lonesome self for most of the game.

Don\'t be toxic. You\'ll piss off the team members who\'s help you need to win the game. If you\'re losing and can\'t win, explain nicely what they\'re doing wrong and what they should be doing instead. They\'ll be grateful. Or better yet, refer them to Dawnbase and ask them to read up.

Don\'t be \"PRO\" in GH. I\'m not saying \"stay out of GH\". Just try to remember that until Turbine creates a \"tutorial\" or a \"training ground\" for noobs, GH is the ONLY place that noobs have right now to go and practice the game and character mechanics. If you can\'t stand noobs or noob mistakes, then your best bet for an enjoyable game would probably be to stick to CC.
[/list]

---

The Control Points

Before getting into Stratergy and the Meta, let\'s talk very briefly about the control points. The easiest way to refer to the points is by number, so this is what players do. Top is \"1\" and the rest are 2 through 5 clockwise from 1, so 2 and 3 are the points closest to the Red base and 4 and 5 are the points closest to the Blue base.

---

Game Strategy and Tactics

THE META! Not really, but close enough, lol. Originally this was going to be the strategy section and I was going to make a seperate tactics section but I changed my mind. I\'ll cover some tactics as it relates to the game start and the Orbital Cannon objective, but the rest you\'ll have to learn on your own since tactics are mostly dictated by your own unique playstyle and will be most fun developing on your own.

What is the main goal of GH? Control the majority of the points longer than the enemy team until their base blows up. As long as you control 3 or more points, the enemy base loses health, otherwise it\'s your base losing the health. That\'s it. This is your primary goal and EVERY decision you make as an individual champ and/or as a team should be in furtherance of this goal: Stay in control of 3 or more points.

SIMPLY PUT...The Meta is the \"correct\" way to go about acheiving the above goal. I say \"correct\" (in quotes) because other than what I have already mentioned and will outline below, there is NO correct way to play the game except that you have fun doing it. The easiest points to control are the 2 points closest to your base and top, so these 3 points are going to be your number one, over-arching, all-important priority. The 2 points closest to your enemy\'s base are the hardest ones to control. They can be capped and should be if the opportunity arises (but only if you already control your 3 priority points), but do not expect, or try too hard, to hold on to them especially against more experienced players. Just be happy that the enemy now has to waste valuable time/life recapping points that they should not have lost control of to begin with.

---

Let\'s have a long talk about the start of the game. There\'s several ways to open a game but the most common are 4top-1bot or 3top-2bot. The latter opening is done with the intent that after capping bot, 1 champ will rush top to help with the fight for top. Want to do it differently? Be my guest. Just remember that the point of the opening is to cap the 2 points closest to your base and top and keep them under your control as much/long as possible. Do anything else that doesn\'t conform to this goal and there\'s a good chance it will blow up in your face.

Now here\'s something I see happen often which *I* think is a big mistake. 4 champs go top but only 2 or 3 stop at the first point while the other(s) rush top using the speed boost pads. WHY? 1) The fewer number of champs capping a point, the more time it takes to cap it and the longer it takes for them to reach top. 2) It\'s not \"whoever reaches top first wins top,\" it\'s \"whomever wins the FIGHT at top wins top.\" 3) Ever heard the phrase \"there is strength in numbers\"? 4) Now your team\'s split up and the first one(s) to top will face greater numbers while the rest of the team files in in ragtag fashion behind you, instead of with a united and concerted front best suited to the serious team fight ahead.

So what usually happens when you rush top with a split team? a) If the first arrival(s) engage, they usually die, automatically losing the battle for top for the team due to now inferior numbers or, b) they don\'t engage and dance around the edges while the rest of the cavalry arrives, commonly finding themselves out of position when the fight starts, which usually ends up in an engagement that\'s uncoordinated, sloppy, and ultimately futile.
If you really want to rush top that badly, here\'s a gambit (risky) opening you can try that still conforms to the Meta and allows you to place 3 champs at top very fast: All 5 go top. 2 stop at mid point and 3 rush top. Once the mid point is capped, 1 rushes top and the other goes bot. Best used if one of the 3 rushing top has cams and the one at mid who\'s also going top, has teleport. Timing is key though. Ideally you want to start teleporting a few seconds before the point cap is completed, but if the cam hasn\'t been dropped yet, you won\'t be able to. Remember to send someone \"back\" as soon as possible after the fight at top to help bot lane since it will probably be pushed quite a bit towards your bot point due to using this opening. Good luck is all I can say if you try it.

---

There\'s only one other objective besides the control points in GH and that\'s the Orbital Cannon located at the center of the map...and here\'s where most inexperienced players lose the game. Most inexperienced players seem to be under the impression that he OC is something you drop everything for and go center to have a huge fight with the enemy over...even when they\'re controlling less than 3 points. Wrong. Let me say that again: WRONG! You ONLY go all in on the OC if you already control 3 or more points. Here\'s why:
[list]

It takes a long time to cap the OC.

The huge brawl that always breaks out just makes capping the OC longer.

Control over the center can swing back and forth between teams several times before finally getting capped.
[/list]
AND.....
[list]

The whole time the battle for center is going on, whichever team is controlling less than 3 control points, their base loses more and more health.
[/list]
So how do you want to handle the OC situation? Here are the 2 different scenarios your team can find itself in and what to do in each:

A) If you control 3 or more points, send all 5 champs center. Keep an eye out for your all important 3 core points though. If you see someone trying to backdoor any of your 3 main points, peel some champs from center and chase them off. Remember: the 3 points and your control over them is ALWAYS paramount to whether you get the OC or not. This way, THEIR base is losing health while you\'re duking it out during the long fight/cap time, not yours.

B) If your team is controlling less than 3 points, send 3 champs (preferably ranged) center to harrass/distract/peel the enemy. Basically anything to slow the capture of the OC without getting yourself killed. Don\'t. Get. Killed. If you\'re killed you\'re not slowing, you\'re feeding. It happens, even to \"pro\" players, but try not to. In the meantime, the other 2 champs (preferrably the fastest 2 on the team) will be attempting to capture any/all unguarded points beginning from the important 3 onwards. Best case scenario is you still control the 2 points closest to your base, in which case the 2 cappers should go 1 top and 1 to the enemy mid point. The better a job the 3 champs at center do, the more time the other 2 champs will have to do their work. If one of the 2 cappers gets confronted by the enemy, run. Don\'t stick around to fight (unless you\'re absolutely possitively sure you can win) and try to run in the direction of the other team mate that\'s capping a point so if you get chased you can double-team him when he gets there. If one of the champs at center manages to peel an enemy and gets chased and the chaser decides to peel off to defend one of the points getting capped, the chase-ee should turn around and start chasing the chaser in order to either 2v1 them at the point or to \"convince\" the chaser to resume the original chase. Once your team has control of the majority of the points (preferrably 4 points) and 2 or 3 teammates are still alive at center, both cappers should immediately go to center (if it still hasn\'t been capped) and punish the enemy for taking so long to cap center (and the whole time the fight\'s going on the enemy base is losing health).

Either way, when everything is said and done in the center, You should either, still be OR be back in, control of 3 or more points. If you lost the center, defend your main 3 with either a 3top,1,1bot or 2top,1,2bot distribution. The former is preferable since if the enemy decides to go all in on your low point, your team at top can always \"Back\" to base (don\'t stop to buy items unless you can do it in under a second...do it later) while the other 2 can do their best to slow them down until the cavalry arrives.

---

Closing statements

All of the tactics I\'ve described above have been with the best case scenario that all team members are alive and available to fight. Obviously, this isn\'t always the case. In those situations where circumstances are less than ideal, just do your best to stick to the main plan as much as possible. With luck and teamwork, you may find that you managed to come out ahead despite the plan\'s execution being less than perfect...and that\'s what will make you a better team member in the end.

I hope somebody actually finds this guide helpful in some way. Have fun. :D

---

Acknowledgements and Suggested Resources:

Since I am not an expert player (faaar from it) and IC is my first MOBA, most of the information I gathered for this guide I learned by watching Twitch streams of some very good IC players who actually take the time to explain the whys and wherefores of playing the game. I recommend to all beginning players to do the same. You won\'t regret it. I also recommend the other beginner\'s guides that can be found here on Dawnbase. Here are the links for some of them:

http://www.dawnbase.com/tutorial
http://www.dawnbase.com/guides/newbies-guide-to-their-first-games-of-infinite-crisis
http://www.dawnbase.com/guides/soundbytes-cc-jungling-guide-for-beginners