Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Just wondering if I could get some advice with regard to where I would be best served honing my skills. I’ve currently got 400ish hours on the game, but would still readily admit that I’m far from mega-capable in either single-player or team PvX. GW2 is, admittedly, not only my first MMO but my first real PC game; up to now I’ve been far more of a console hound. Even so, in spite of my hour count, I feel like I still need to work on my builds and talents so I can contribute more effectively to guild and team play.

Generally speaking, would it be PvE or PvP (WvW inclusive) that could be recommended as an appropriate sphere of practice?

PvE, I was thinking originally. But given that the AI is arguably less challenging than the players who can think, strategise and adapt on the fly (which was the reason it appealed to me as an arena of practice in the first place), I was thinking that the learning curve might be too slow, or that the practices I learned in the course of such practice might be too scenario-specific.

On the other hand, I’ve dabbled in PvP before, (and while it’s not really my thing, strictly speaking,) and my fear is that the players who completely outclass me will annihilate me too quickly to actually learn anything useful; i.e. that the learning curve will be too steep and alienating.

What’s the best way to proceed? If PvE, what zones / instances / instances are best used for practice? If PvP, how do I learn to adapt to the often steep competition inherent to the format?

Thanks for your time.

i was wondering the same aswell, i hope someone could answer this

First off, realise that PvE and PvP tend to be two completely different beasts. PvE enemies usually have much higher health pools and unique attacks that require use of positioning, reflexes and skill combos to triumph over. PvP, on the other hand, tends to come down to the proper build and knowing what tricks in your PvP build to use at the right time. Spike builds, for example, work very well in PvP, but they are not as effective against PvE Champions since their massive health pools means the Champion will likely just absorb your burst and then one-shot you because you have the constitution of wet paper.

For PvE, I’d suggest starting by learning how to solo multiple normal enemies to learn what are effective ways of dealing damage and mitigating damage when odds are against you. From there, move up to soloing Veterans, multiple Veterans, and Elites. Eventually, try your hand at soloing Champions in the open world. Builds that are capable of soloing Champions are usually ones that can be brought into just about anywhere in PvX (although some may be viewed as less efficient than others.) It will likely also teach you things like making use of fields, skill combos and skill rotations.

For PvP, start by trying your hand against the AI enemies in the Heart of the Mist. When you can kill those enemies with ease, try joining Hotjoin. Hotjoin is where players try out experimental new builds, so don’t worry about being new. Nobody really expects anything out of Hotjoin. The objectives are mostly simple enough that you can figure out what to do by following your teammates, and within a few matches you’ll start to notice the little tricks people use to give them small advantages in fights.

Solo Queue and Team Queue are the next two higher steps up from Hotjoin, and you should try heading there once you feel that Hotjoin isn’t really giving you a challenge any more. I myself still haven’t gotten skilled enough to try Solo Queue.

WvW is kind of a blend between the two. Skills and conditions that don’t normally see much use in PvE become quite crucial in WvW, like Immobilization or movement skills. However, because it’s quite easy to get rolled over by a stampeding zerg on their way to a Tower or Keep, or roflstomped by an experienced WvW roamer with 5 stacks of Applied Strength+Fortitude and 25 stacks of Bloodlust, the battlefield there tends to be less about skill than it is about mass numbers and taking advantage of good opportunities after stacking the odds in your favour.

However you practice, one of the major things to remember in GW2 is that avoiding damage at the right time is key to survival. You should be practicing that ideal even when you don’t need to (so it’s 2nd nature). There is no tank and there is no continual healing (sans some regeneration), avoiding damage (especially HUGE damage) is the key to surviving.

Thanks for the excellent advice. I’ll definitely give those a try, and hopefully (fingers-crossed) I’ll start seeing some progress.

Cheers~

I’d say start with PVE. Learn timing, distance, and managing conditions and boons. Try setting self-imposed challenges for yourself, like minimizing the damage you take through blocks, blinds, and dodges until you can fight veterans without taking a single hit. Or try experimenting with ways to do the most damage with your skills (like manipulating distance so that you can use spin attacks into walls, knockback or pull enemies to group them up for AOE attacks, keeping them in damaging fields for as long as possible, etc.). Then move to WVW and learn what to expect from actual players. You’re usually going to be in a zerg, so it can be hard to see exactly what’s going on, but in smaller engagements you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t, at least in a vague sense. Finally, move to hotjoins just to get the hang of PVP, and when you learn the maps and their mechanics and how to predict enemy movement and basic builds and their counters, try solo queue, which admittedly isn’t much better than hotjoin at the moment. Just my two cents’ worth. If you want any help with strategies or tactics, whisper me in-game; I take Sun-Tzu’s lessons about warfare seriously and like to use his ideas as a teaching tool to help people get improve at thinking smarter and playing better in GW2.

Good info. I’ve been wondering about this as well. Thanks for posting.