Guild Wars 2

Introduction

This guide is aimed at absolute beginners of spvp. I will explain basics, what your goal is, what you have to do , explain the map layouts and show builds.

1. The mists or; How to get started

Open your PvP tab (the two swords on the top) and click on “go to the mists”.
You are now in the PvP Area of Guild Wars. In this area you always are level 80 and armor is purely cosmetic. Runes are bought at a rune vendor (for free) and sigils at the weaponsmith.
The Amulet vendor sells amulets. In pvp you don’t have earrings, etc. Only 1 amulet with 1 stone.
You now have several options. At first I recommend you search yourself a good build to start pvping.

On my stream I always list all the current spvp meta builds:

http://de.twitch.tv/djangogw2

Now that you have built your build, I would try you test it on a golem until you feel somewhat safe.

Then open your PvP tab and click on the third called “game browser”. This is called “hot join”. If you just want to kill something and not really play the “real” pvp this is the place for you. I would recommend that you test your build here until you are about rank 10.

Please join a map with 5/5 teams not a map with 8/8 because then you can prepare for playing soloqueue and teamqueues. 8v8 is just stupid zerging and you will learn nothing.

2. rank? glory?

when you win you get rank and glorypoints. Glory is a currency spent on the gloryvendors in the mists for new armorskins or salvageable items.
Rankpoints give you a new rank with the time, which is displayed after a game. Each 10 rankpoints you will get a finisher.

I will link to wiki for more detailed information:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Rank
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3. The basics

“what to do on the maps other than killing people?”

Always remember; Play to win not to kill! Zerging is for wvw. You get more points, if your team wins.

The game mode is Conquest. The rules are:

- One point is gained every two seconds per captured point.
- Player kills award 5 points.
- The team who reaches 500 points first, wins.
- A game is 15 minutes, after the time runs out the team with more points wins.
- Every map has only 3 Points. 1 close to your “base” the “closepoint”. One close to their base the “farpoint” and the “mid”.
- Every map has secondary objectives, which we will see later in the map section.

These points are essential for winning a game. Some rules regarding capture points:

- you capture a point in 10 seconds if no opponent stands on it. If an opponent stands on it nothing will happen as you stand on the point.
- you decapture a point in 4 seconds if no opponent stands on it. If an opponent defends it you have to knock him off or defeat him to decapture it.

This said your primary objectives should always be:

- decapping points
- capping points
- defending points

To do all the above you have to win fights. So fight on/at points not somewhere on the map. You should only zerg the map if your team has more node points and you are winning.

4. “How and where should I move?”

You ALWAYS have to think like this:

“If I move there now, will my team have a disadvantage? Do I really need to move? Or does the opponent need to react on us rather than we on him?”

This said, always keep in mind that you are fighting 5v5. And there are 3 points on every map, what means you only need to have 2 points to win.
Helping your teammates winning a fight is always better then going somewhere else and pushing on 3 points (unless you know they loose even with you in the fight). Because if you go farpoint and they loose mid because of you (they had a 4v3 thus were outnumbered) you will get farpoint. But the map is empty! you are 2v5 at best on the map and they will overrun and “triplecap” you (capping all 3 points). So that 1 farpush from you could have cost your team the win.

Always think before you move

5. "But what is my role in the team?

As stated above you have to do 3 things:

- kill stuff (help defending/capping)
- Defend
- Decap

- If you want to kill stuff you should play a roamer (thief, engi, necro, warrior, ele, mesmer, dmgguardian)
- If you want to defend you should play a bunker (guardian for mid, ranger for sidepoints)
- If you want to decap play either a dedicated decap bunker (engineer, elementalist) or a really fast roamer to decap when nothing is on the point (thief and possibliy mesmer/ele)

Please read my second Guide for more information on what to do in your team

sPvP roles and teamcompilations

5.1 Stomping and rezzing

This is such a crucial part of spvp. If you go down you go downed. You may know this from pve. You then need to be “stomped” to be killed entirely.

- Rezzing your teammates (and knowing when to rezz)
- Interrupting stomps
- Stomping opponents

Are crucial things for all fights!

Bring skills to save rezz your teammates! Bring skills to savestomp opponents (stability, invulnerability, blind)

Mind the downedstate abilities from all the classes to know how to “savestomp”.

Guard: A bubble which knocks everything in a radius. —> you need stability, invulnerability, to blind him when he does the attack, block or to port away and port back (shadowstep) after he did the bubble

Warrior: A projectile which interrupts you. You need stability, invulnerability, blind, projectileblock, block works. (port works if you are lucky)

Necromancer: A long fear. All of the above work (except port)

Ranger: A AOE interrupt. All of the above work (except port)

Engineer: A pull which interrupts you. Also a projectile. So all work including projectile hate.

Elementalist: Nothing works. You can only stomp after the mistform. So do dmg until he mistforms. Only stomp if you want him to mistform (to interrupt the rezzing for example)

Thief: Also nothing works, he can port and then stealth (if you start the stomp animation after he ported you can stomp him). Try damage!

Mesmer: He has a port. But you can fake the stomp (start the animation) interrupt yourself by moving wasd and then start stomping again. Most mesmers port themselves and then they spawn as soon as your stomp finishes and they are stomped (use stability to not get interrupted by other foes).

Know when you are able to rezz! Usually all the damage sits at the downed ally. Sometimes it’s better to take out damage than to join rezzing (or interrupting stomps). And sometimes you just can’t rezz because you would die also. Now when you can rezz! But ALWAYS try as fast as possible.

6. The maps

6.1 Forest of Niflhel

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Forest_of_Niflhel

The map consits of 3 points. Like every map. The midpoint (keep) is accessible via stairs and the highground trough the paths below the keep. As not melee class you always want to get up there.

The 2 NPCs, Svanir and Chieftain spawn all 3 minutes after being killed. The team who gets the last hit on them is rewarded for 25 points! If you are a fast roaming class with an instant skill (thief, ele) you should try to “steal” these npcs!
You can see if they are attacked by watching the minimap. When the icon moves they are attacked.

Please also mind the highgrounds on Mine and Henge! use them to your advantage. Also have in mind that the distance between these points and the bases are very short. So it’s a rather disadvantageous situation to push farpoint.

6.2 Legacy of the foefire

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Foefire

This map has a HUGE midpoint, that’s why fights are always pretty long on this map (you can kite really well). Also keep in mind the highground and try to kite the dmg

If you kill the Lord (destroy the gates first. Most of it is explained well enough in the wiki) you will get 150 points!.

Don’t EVER attack BEFORE your team has reached 350! it’s just a waste of time. In the time you attack your opponent will triplecap you and you will probably loose. The time it takes to do lord and get the 150 points almost always gets you a disadvantage because they can cap all points and defend (gives them more than 150 points probably).

6.3 Battle of Khylo

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Battle_of_Kyhlo

Mind the shift in Z-axis on this map. This provides very nice kiting abilities (knockdown, ports, etc.)

The trebuchet is crucial on this map! if you are a warrior, thief, ele or just see that nobody of your team is killing the opponent trebuchet go for it!

Letting your opponent shoot is always bad. Team who can shoot more usually wins the game.

Trebuchet shots can be dodged.

Common tactics is that a Mesmer with portal fixes the treb fast using the repkit.

6.4 Temple of the silent storm

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temple_of_the_Silent_Storm

Probably the most difficult map for beginners.

Think about the midbuffs as 4th and 5th point. They are crucial!!

The upper midbuffs doubles the points you receive from nodes. So if you have 2 and cap it you have 4 points for a brief amount of time!

the wiki explains the other basics really well.

I will talk about more advanced tactics in another thread, which I will write a few days from now. (will then be linked here)