Ballista
Stats
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Supply cost | 30 |
| Range | 3,000 units |
| Damage type | Physical (high single-target) |
| Effective vs | Other siege, exposed players, gates (in volume) |
| Ineffective vs | Walls, scattered targets |
What it does
The Ballista is a direct-fire weapon — line of sight required, no arc. It hits hard on a single target. While the Arrow Cart is the queen of zerg-shredding, the Ballista is the king of counter-siege. A single Ballista can destroy an enemy Catapult or Arrow Cart in 2–3 well-aimed shots from outside their effective range.
It's also one of the few siege weapons where individual aim matters — you can manually lead a moving target to land critical hits.
Skills
- Skill 1 — Spear Shot: high single-target damage. Standard counter-siege fire.
- Skill 2 — Triple Shot: three spears in a wide cone. Use against a tightly stacked group or to land at least one hit on an evading enemy.
- Skill 3 — Anti-Personnel: small AoE explosion. Useful for clearing players standing on a gate.
- Skill 4 — Wall-Crusher (Superior only): bonus damage vs walls and gates. Stacks well as anti-structure when you have a row of ballistas.
Placement
- On Tower / Keep walls with a clean line of sight to enemy siege positions — your 3,000 range out-reaches their 2,500 (Arrow Cart) and lets you snipe in safety.
- On hilltops near contested objectives — many maps have terrain you can shoot from at higher elevation, which helps line of sight.
- Behind merlons — pop out, fire, drop back. The merlon body-blocks return fire from enemy siege.
- Avoid ground-level placements — ballistas need a clear lane and are vulnerable to flanking havoc squads at melee range.
Counters
- Another Ballista at equal or greater elevation will out-trade it.
- Catapult arc fire from behind cover — the catapult lobs over a wall to hit the ballista.
- Trebuchet with its 10,000 range simply out-distances the ballista.
- Stealth gankers — a thief or mesmer can teleport in and burst the operator before they realise.
- Reflects and Aegis — projectile reflects (Wall of Reflection, Feedback) bounce the ballista's spear back at the operator.
When to build one
- You see enemy siege being placed on an objective you defend.
- The enemy is setting up a long siege of your Keep — kill their catapults before they punch through.
- You need to break a Tier-3 gate quickly — 4 ballistas with the Wall-Crusher trait can outpace a single ram.
Skip a ballista when:
- The enemy is a moving zerg (use an Arrow Cart for that — wider AoE).
- You don't have line of sight to anything important.