Ultimate Seeker Guide
By Virtual Witchcraft.
I want to preface this and say that this tutorial is built upon the Season-0 Release, using terminology and mechanics therin, and though I use it all to great effect, this may be suject to change and (hopefully) will not be nearly as applicable in a 6-v-6 format (assuming they balance the gameplay by removing broom stats and skill points).
Though many of you may not know me directly, I’m a rather fair seeker and I want to share all that I’ve learned within my time in the role. Please understand that my playstyle, like all playstyles, are unique and works well with a bit of practice. Additionally, remember that you should always kit your brooms and skill tree to your personal playstyle. But if you want to soar through the skies as I do, follow along!
For me, I play a rather aggressive and precise Seeker Game, prioritizing putting as much distance between the enemy seeker and myself. The closer I can get to the snitch, the faster I can hone in on it and capture before my opponent has the chance to build up their entire metre.
The evident weakness is that because I prioritise getting right behind the snitch, this leaves me with the narrowest view of my surroundings –normally, leaving you exposed to bumps and attacks from enemy positions. To counter this, set your zoom-out input to toggle and activate it when you begin hunting for the snitch. This will allow you to see players directly behind and to the side of you as well as gives you a much broader scope of the pitch.
With this at your disposal, cut off the snitch as much as possible, only accrue the rings you need to keep your boost alive –missing a few is okay but comes at a gamble. Know when to veer away from the path to get closer and when to stay behind to capture rings. When you manage to cut the snitch off, do your damndest to stick directly behind the flighty little thing and use your mouse (or joystick) input to keep making micro-corrections to keep ‘on-line’. If you do this correctly, you won’t have to worry about missing rings as they simply spawn around you at that point (which can be extra beneficial later on).
From here, practice timing your bumps. Any bump is a good bump; but the best bumps are tactical. Take time to consider the gap between the enemy seeker’s last-passed ring and the next one to come up. If you can knock the other seeker off before they get through the snitch ring, you have successfully stunned them and reduced their boost. Additionally, with a certain skill perk, this can be incredibly detrimental to them (more on that later).
There does seem to be a direct positive correlation between the ‘swing’ of your bump, that is the wind up in the strafe before you go to bump the enemy seeker, and the resultant bump forcing the enemy seeker off track. For the best bumps that send the enemy seeker flying way off course, either strafe or dodge to the opposite side and then swing back into the bump to land a much harder hit! Be mindful however, this will leave you exposed to bludgers and is best practiced immediately after the beater has missed their shot! Additionally, think of what area is best to ‘trap’ the enemy seeker in (usually behind goal posts or in the opposite direction of when the snitch takes a sharp turn).
Conversely, know when it is appropriate to dodge. Not every bludger requires an immediate launch in the opposite direction. On the contrary, sometimes a well-timed bump (missed or connected) or even a sharp drifting swerve can be enough to avoid the incoming ball-of-iron. Usually, many novice beaters will attempt to attack from the front, close the distance to approximately 50 feet or so, then launch the bludger at you. You can simply avoid these by veering in the opposing direction the beater is flanking you from (so if the beater is attempting to attack you from the front-right, veer forward-left and vice-versa). This is dependent on broom speed though (more on that later). Remember, don’t dodge too early, some beaters are clever and will send a slower bludger or the distance you travel at top speed may outstrip the incoming bludger.
Wait until the bloody thing is nearly maxing your ‘DOGDE’ indicator before making your move, and be careful of the boundaries of the map as that may cause the bludger to veer right back around and connect anyways. Direction will also play a factor, so try and be mindful of when and where the beater is taking aim at you with the red-arrow-icon. Note: not all bludgers give an indicator –particularly if they are rogue or coming from the front when not fully locked, keep an eye out for the dark spot with a red streak around it and be ready to move out of the way. Additionally, it may be easier to simply strafe and veer out of the way of enemy players as they (inevitably) attempt to converge on you and stop your pursuit in its tracks; but if you need to dodge, do so!
The seeker is only so skilled a player as its entire team. It’s easy for a seeker to have an ego, it’s harder for that seeker’s actual contributions to their team to match it. Remember, a great seeker is only one good tool in an entire toolbox. Having great chaser coordination, beater bludgeoning, and keeper kicking can help immensely on the pitch. So perhaps the greatest skill any seeker should have is COMMUNICATION. If you happen to use voice-coms, let your team know when you are switching to the role, when you have spotted the snitch, when you are in pursuit, any bumps you take or give, and always be cognizant of where your other teammates are at. The number of times I’ve won because my team was able to work together and prioritize knocking out the enemy seeker between goals far surpasses any amount of solo-queued fanfare I’ve experienced.
Now, I’m sure you’re probably wondering why I told you all of that before I got to the skill-tree suggestions and broomstick opinions. Well, that’s because no matter how artificially strong a player you are with those elements, if you do not possess the fundamental understanding of the role’s subtextual mechanisms, then you will still run into issues where you’re falling behind in the race. But without further ado, I will finally elaborate my build.
The broom! While there are many arguably great models at your disposal, I argue that the Firebolt still reigns supreme. This is a contentious take, I know; but the reasoning is sound, I assure you. The Firebolt is the only broomstick to max out Speed and Acceleration, meaning you can cover more ground than a player on any other model much quicker. Additionally, the health and stun modifiers lend itself well to an aggressive playstyle that is ready to take a hit or two (which seekers almost regularly do).
Effectively, this is a broomstick made for a seeker who will get tackled, bludgeoned, kicked, or bumped, but can peel off and recover ground whilst simultaneously avoiding an additional oncoming attack if flown wisely. The sole downside is that (erroneous to the source material) the Firebolt is low in agility, to the point that maneuver speed and dodge cooldown are left lacking. However, this can be countered by increasing your strafe sensitivity and Y-axis camera tilt and knowing when and how to drift in tight turns. If you use a similar playstyle to me, then your own personal abilities can compensate for what the broom lacks.
As a secondary broomstick, the Nimbus line is provides necessary speed, acceleration, and greater boost efficiency and overall agility than the Firebolt, allowing it to be a comparable model without sacrificing too much in the speed department. Cleansweeps and Shooting Stars both provide the same acceleration, but pale to the overall speed, meaning you can get outstripped and fall behind if you’re not careful. As hinted earlier, because of the high acceleration and top speed factor of the broom, often you can outfly most oncoming bludgers if it’s coming from directly behind you, only becoming an issue around tight corners and immediate reversals from the snitch.
How to use this broom effectively then? Tighten up on your dodging and bumping mechanics as explained above. This is essential. YES, the broom lends itself for a player to take a few hits and be fine, but you should never rely on that. Do NOT fall complacent to the idea that ‘you are going to get hit’, there are many matches where you can not get hit once if you are a clever and dextrous flyer. Any stun, any bump keeps you off the snitch, and you must not allow that to happen. And though the Dodge cooldown is not great on Firebolt, if you use the other tactics explained above in place of dodge, you’ll hardly ever encounter an issue.
Now skills! These are the most varied and lend themselves to a more personal approach. Where I feel the broomstick offers objective advantages, I believe skill trees to be more subjective. If you are to follow my guide above and want to test out my personal flavour of flight, then I recommend the following:
- Seeking: (2/6)
- Defense: (2/6)
- Disruption: (6/6)
This may seem shocking, given how much I prioritize speed of capture, but again, I feel a seeker’s tactics, habits, and capabilities can actually win-out against an artificial boost to snitch metre and boost energy.
Within ‘Seeking’ most of what the skill entails is increasing the rate at which your metre fills, however this can be combatted by the ‘Metre Thief’ skill in disruption, allowing a bumping player to leech the progress from their opponent if they manage to make contact. I have successfully brought a snitch race back from nothing, keeping my opposing seeker at bay with regular bumps, all whilst building my metre quickly by flying directly behind the snitch, and snagging the gold at the very end more frequently than not –much to the shock and dismay of the other team. What I find necessary in this category is the prolonged ‘Snitch Ring Buff’, filling your boost metre and compensating for the mediocre boost efficiency of the Firebolt.
Within Defense, since we do our best to stay right behind the snitch anyways, I see no reason to try and expand that range unless you have a tendency to lag behind your adversary –just remember, you can only capture the snitch with a full metre and within approximately 5 feet of the snitch itself, so weigh the pros of a farther metre build with the cons of capture’s limitations. What I find important is ‘Dodge Speed Boost’. In higher-level games, it is all too common for the opposing beater to send bludgers at you as soon as they summon or snags ‘em.
Once you manage to learn that dodging sweet spot (often varies depending on the beater’s playstyle), you can now gain advantage to the other team’s desperate attempts to stop you! The remaining pips in this category aren’t really suited to the seeker’s priorities –as sending a bludger back to the enemy beater may actually lend itself to putting the bludger back in their hands to send right back at you and requires you to take damage with thick skin also only benefitting you if you get hit often. Remember, prioritize NOT getting hit and keeping close to the snitch!
Which brings us to Disruption!
Within Disruption, if you are an aggressive player, this skill tree is for you. As bumping is the seeker’s second-most-used ability (dodging coming out on top), it makes sense to invest in it (even if you outstrip your opponent as it stands). Sure, the bump damage is fine, but we’re focusing on the honing bump, which practically guarantees (within reason) a hit, the metre theft that can turn the tide in most any game, and most importantly ‘Snitch Ring Blocking’. This last one is the most important and lends itself strongly to my personal success. If you manage to knock the enemy seeker off course long enough for another player with whom you communicate can clonk and stun them longer, alongside the stun modifier of the firebolt, you can cause the opposing player to trail significantly behind you. And if you manage to get just behind the snitch, then the ring will disappear in the marginal second it appeared after you fly through it –causing, in part for the enemy seeker to continue to lag behind and not even have a chance to catch up. It’s tactical, it’s cruel, it’s effective. The seeker’s most glaring weakness isn’t their skills versus the other seeker, instead it’s not getting to play the role as it’s intended in the first place.
Alternatively, I have found great success in a more ‘on-brand’ approach with:
- Seeking: (6/6)
- Defense: (0/6)
- Disruption: (4/6)
All of which focuses on metre building as quickly and efficiently as possible, but as explained before, leaves itself open to metre-theft and should not ever be used to compensate for lagging flight.
Secondary to all of the above, in this 3-v-3 format, I also advise improving your chasing skills, as you will not be able to play seeker for the majority of the match and don’t want to be a detriment to the rest of your team between snitches. For more information on that, please refer to another person’s guide… as I am not great at chasing!
Happy flying and see you on the pitch!
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