1. Know your team comp, know your enemy comp, pick your split. A lot of matches can be lost just by poor decision at the start. Some people love to rush far and 1v1 people but sometimes it’s more important to escort and secure home. There is a bigger chance for the enemy player to 1v2 at your home point than fall back to mid, just because it takes 1 person to capture doesn’t mean you don’t need an escort. If you catch the enemy running far, you are already at a favorable advantage. Either he dies to the two or you or runs back mid where you’ll give chase. If the target is bunker, send the escort mid and have the two sleep on point.
Mid is more important to win quickly as it allows safer rotations.
2. Watch the enemy retreat, don’t chase into bad positioning. I cannot say how often this happens, you get an enemy low on health, he runs away and you give chase! You are so focused on that low health you don’t notice his 2 friends right next to your low target. Before you can even press 6, you are smashed in being out of position, are downed with none of your allies around to help. Let your target live if it forces you into a bad position, in high level play you will never get that kill if you are in a bad spot.
It doesn’t matter how bad your target is, how much he sucks, the fact is, you got played like a scrub.
3. Home > far point. This is such a dumb common mistake that is played at diamond level. I remember I was 1 pip from Diamond, we destroyed at mid point and instead of my 3 allies running to secure home who was contested, they all chase to far to catch the two people low on health. This puts your bunker at a very bad position that can go very poorly. He can run to help home, but that leaves mid open OR at far point will be an outnumbered 3v4 without a bunker. The bunker could follow far but that means mid AND home is vulnerable.
You’d think it would be common sense, but the greed is strong. Let them flee away, take the chance to help home quick and run back for the second clean up.
4. Be the hunted, not the hunter. This is the game thrower and it’s done at every level of play and yet it’s so easy to avoid. Predict your enemies movements, if you believe you are about to be swarmed at your point, leave it. Watch the respawning, if you notice you just captured a point, the point you are fighting at WILL be in trouble. Calculate your enemy movements, don’t just calculate yours. This is not World vs. World, you don’t always have to meet your enemy, be prepared let your enemy come to you. If you let your enemy meet you, that means you are ready and in good position.
5. Leave your bunker to 1v1 or 1v2 depending on what he is fighting. Seriously, if you have the point or if it is not taken, just leave him. If you know that your bunker will be safe, you are not needed. Go help a point you can more easily secure. Let your bunker do his job and do your job to kill.
6. If you are a bunker, direct your team movement. Sounds bossy? Remember, he is the guy you always want in a fight and he wants you to be in his fights as well. If your role is to kill people, work with the guy who’s role is to keep you alive. I’m not saying bunkers are always great at moving their team but victory does fall a lot on their shoulders. If he thinks far is a great place to go, you rush far. If he is pinging mid, stop what you are doing to run back mid. If he wants you to rush home, you rush home. Work with the guy who wants to keep you alive and in return he’ll give you lots of kills, pretty simple.
7. Rotate often, do not get collapsed on. If you are fighting on a point for too long, you already failed. The longer you are at a point the longer you give the enemy team a chance to collapse on you. Rotate to favorable positions, if you find your team across the map you are in a spot to lose, falling back to secured positions is a good strategy, spending 3-4 minutes fighting on a uncaptured far point is a terrible strategy.
8. Retreat properly. When in trouble your top priority is to run to your bunker, wherever he is. There is no reason to juke away from your enemy and teammates, flee to the guy who can save your butt, no detours, no wrap arounds, make a straight path to him.
9. Own your mistakes. If you died do not blame your team, while sometimes things are their fault, take a step back and think if you did everything right. Because if you DID do everything right, you wouldn’t be dead now would you? Reflect and fix.
10. Multi-role. I am the best with my Elementalist, but if I get into a team with 3 cele druids, I am no longer needed. You can lose games all because everyone didn’t have enough damage or you didn’t have enough defense. If you are playing bunker mesmer, your team has 3 bunker eles and your next best class is your warrior? Get. Your. Warrior. It doesn’t matter how under the bar warriors are, you are already at a massive disadvantage with 4 bunkers. If you are good with power ranger, bring it, doesn’t matter if it is complete cheese, it will contribute more to your team comp. The same can be said vise-versa, get good at classes and be able to fill multiple roles.
I got to diamond from mostly SoloQing not because of rules 1-9, but because of rule 10. Yet, there are still a lot of people who stick to 1 class no matter what. Don’t do that.
(edited by Nova Stiker.8396)