Guild Wars 2

2. GENERAL STRATEGIES REGARDING FIGHTS/DAMAGE

Leaving the capturepoint principle aside let’s just think about strategies for the best possible team regarding damage and the fights. I won’t talk about classes per se in this paragraph.
Because you always need at least 1 bunker (guardian) Let’s look at the other 4 players.

There are some “tools” which we will use to analyze teamcompilations:

There are 2 types of damage:

• Powerdmg
• Conditiondmg

And in my opinion 2 mindsets on fights:

• We win fast. Kill them faster then they can kill us.
• We last longer. Kill them because they take too long killing us.

Which leads us to 2 different types of targets:

• Hardtargets
• Softtargets (usually glasscannons high dmg)

I’ts usually better to have more hardtargets. You die less fast and you have more options to rezz or stay on a point.

2.1. Balanced Team. 2cond-2power

2.2 The condition team 4 cond / 3cond-1power

2.3 The powerdmg team 4power / 3power – 1condition

3. ROLES IN A TEAM

Based on above I will talk about the different roles now and give some standard builds as guidlines.

3.1 The main Bunker

3.2 The closepointdefender

3.3 The decapper/invader

3.4 Hardtarget Teamfighter/Roamer

3.4 Softtarget Teamfighter/Roamer/Sweeper

There are many more possible builds this is just a general overview.

Just wanted to log in to say awesome work and amazing simple guide for beginners to spvp.

This should be sticky & Introduced inside the game via Mists tutorial Npc
Hope some dev´s read it soon.

4. Examples for teamcompilations

Cheese Mode

Eclipse

Full Power Team

Ten Seconds To Rage Quit

Infamous Five

The build I would love to play

I would really like to see:

Djangooouuuuuu

wtf do i do in soloq when i bunker far node 1v1 all game after capping it myself and them my team still loses because they are entirely unable to get even 1 other node even though 1 guy of the enemy team is constantly zerging me for no reason on far

I swear people with a barely 50% winrate shouldnt be in top 100 – godkitten minion master necro- kitten you if u read this

other than that good beginners guide – cheers

You could for the sake of completion put a role for the kittening ele there..

Ele has no roles in pvp currently.

Best thing to do is not bring an ele.

RaynStargaze.6510:

Djangooouuuuuu

wtf do i do in soloq when i bunker far node 1v1 all game after capping it myself and them my team still loses because they are entirely unable to get even 1 other node even though 1 guy of the enemy team is constantly zerging me for no reason on far

I swear people with a barely 50% winrate shouldnt be in top 100 – godkitten minion master necro- kitten you if u read this

other than that good beginners guide – cheers

Lets say the teams are balanced. Consisting of 1 Awesome person, 3 Mediocre, 1 Awful.

Their home point has 1 Awesome/mediocre from your team (I don’t know how well you rate yourself but prolly in one of those 2 categories) and the awful person from theirs.
The other 2 points have all 4 of their best players and the worst or second worst lineup from your team.

Now lets assume it isnt balanced, you’ve had bad luck and ended up with the worse team this round. Be that through skill levels or classes.

This is the nature of Hotjoin oh i mean Soloq. Just see it for what it is, better rewarded hotjoin ^^ Also it will hopefully improve over time as the system figures stuff out. But don’t get too upset it will always be a luck dependent thing, if you want security in who is going to be on your team do Teamq.

On topic it was a nice guide.

Coulter.2315:

RaynStargaze.6510:

Djangooouuuuuu

wtf do i do in soloq when i bunker far node 1v1 all game after capping it myself and them my team still loses because they are entirely unable to get even 1 other node even though 1 guy of the enemy team is constantly zerging me for no reason on far

I swear people with a barely 50% winrate shouldnt be in top 100 – godkitten minion master necro- kitten you if u read this

other than that good beginners guide – cheers

Lets say the teams are balanced. Consisting of 1 Awesome person, 3 Mediocre, 1 Awful.

Their home point has 1 Awesome/mediocre from your team (I don’t know how well you rate yourself but prolly in one of those 2 categories) and the awful person from theirs.
The other 2 points have all 4 of their best players and the worst or second worst lineup from your team.

Now lets assume it isnt balanced, you’ve had bad luck and ended up with the worse team this round. Be that through skill levels or classes.

This is the nature of Hotjoin oh i mean Soloq. Just see it for what it is, better rewarded hotjoin ^^ Also it will hopefully improve over time as the system figures stuff out. But don’t get too upset it will always be a luck dependent thing, if you want security in who is going to be on your team do Teamq.

On topic it was a nice guide.

well said!

still its very frustrating if u carry all game but your team is just entirely incompetent.

even more so when you know that the opposing team isnt very good (based on the bloody ranger who literally tried to kill me all game and just did nothing <3 very bad player ohh well)

Great guide! PvP community needs more people like this. =)

sticky this

/15char

Ele is just always the worse option to pick, but you can play it.

You can play a bunker ele as farpoint invader, which works pretty well. A warrioir can’t kill a bunker ele 1v1 and you also can draw 2 ppl and possibly even leave.

You can also play a softtarget glasscannon burster. But Mesmer and Thief is always better.

The problem of ele is a whole other topic

This all said; We (infamous five) Play with ele (Shaku) in top 100 ^^ gives us really hard times and another class (thief, mesmer) would probably be better.

But it’s fun to play non-meta with some success. Altough we would have no chance against an equally good team who plays meta..

So if you play ele and want to have a spot in a team play:

Farpoint Bunker/invader
Glasscannon (you have to be really good to be viable)

+1 sticky. I was just thinking that there is no decent strategy/tactics guide, just build reviews

Nary and Merlin could you delete your post for better overview?^^ would be nice. I wrote so much I didn’t tought I need more than 3 posts….

btw added example of teamcompilations.

I typically avoid posting, but Django you have done an AWESOME thing for this community. Thank you.

Thanks a lot, nice post!.

One question about the decapper/invader:

As you explain it, this is some bunker/knockback-class (probably everybod connects engi with this task), which should be able to bind 2+ ppl. Wouldn’t it be better to use a “decapper” also for deffing home point?.
My thoughts are, that it is still a bunker, which means he is qualified for this job, but he is also a decapper, which would probably “neutralize” an hostile decapper which attacks.

I see your toughts but you are wrong. If you want to cap the closepoint and bunker it you should play a class who can bunker + win a 1v1.

also even a decaper will get decapped vs another decapper.

a decapper binds 2 ppl because nobody can kill him fast enough. Either the team lets their close neutralized or they reinforce with another person.
if you are on close they can cap their close and push mid (that’s what they want). You wont probably even decap. Actually that is the counter to most decappers. Most of them just push far all the time. Give him your close and just play on the other 2 points once he is in a teamfight he is pretty useless. (dedicated closwdefenders. Spiritrangers are awesome in teamfights).

lets say you have this situation;
both teams have a decapper (doesnt even have to be a dedicated decapper teldo engi for example). Forest of niflhel.
both engis cap close. 4v4 at keep. After you capped close you run beach to see where he is running. He is also running beach and will go for your close.
what to do? If you run back with him thats the wrong decision. Because he will be able to decap you at some point leaving your team with 0 points and opponent with their closepoint.
you always want to provocate the situation where you fight on the opponent points. Meaning: fighting on at least 1 neutral and another point while you have capped one who ticks for your team. Its always an advantage. If you are loosing leave.

lets go back to the example. If you decide to push his far there are 2 options;

1. He follows you to defend; this is the best possible situation. You will be able to decap him at some point and your team can fight while you have 1 point ticking and the enemy none

2. He doesnt follow you and pushes; this is also no problem. You just “trade” points. Its always better to trade nodes rather than fighting on a captured one in these situations.
this trading game can go on for quite some time.

but to answer your question shortly:
- there are better fitted builds for closepointdefender
- there could be situations where it would be useful to have the decapper defend rather than decap
- he binds 2 ppl at least because nothing can kill him 1v1
- he should push far not defend close so you get the 1 point cap 2 decapped situation. (also if you go close you dont bind 2 opponents. And after you capped it you are of no use in mid )

Django.5923:

Introduction

This guide is aimed at spvp veterans and a little more advanced players to learn about and discuss teamcompilations. I will explain the roles in spvp and how a good teamcomp looks. I would like to see a discussion about the “best” teamcompilations below

(I will write another absolutely basic/beginner guide, where I explain the map layouts and the terms like “bunker” etc. and another guide regarding tactics for each map. This thread is only aimed at teamcompilations).

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Chapters

• 1. General Strategies regarding capturepoints
• 2. General Strategies regarding fights/damage
• 3. Roles in a team

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1. GENERAL STRATEGIES REGARDING CAPTUREPOINTS

All the strategies for teamcompilations are based to effectively play on the 3-point-capture-system-maps (thanks captain obvious).
But actually think of it: You have 3 points (+ secondary objectives..) which give you points per second. So the team who has more points (nodes) over time wins the game. Simple as that.
All the teamcompilations come from different mindsets regarding the 3 point principle.

1.1 Play safe on 2 points

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“we just win the fights on 2 points”
This strategy usually involves 2 Bunkers. One on closepoint and one on the midpoint (usually). The last 3 players are Roamers. The idea behind this strategy is, that you have 2 ppl for each node, who defend it, while your damage dealers roam and you just win every fight.
If you manage to win teamfights well, this strategy proves very successful and is the most used strategy by teams in my opinion.
The whole teambuild should be based on teamfights. And you will only push far, after you won the fight for decapping it quickly and play safe on 2 points again.

1.2 Play safe on 2 while annoying them on far

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“We outnumber the enemy and win the fight due to our decapper”
You also play 2 bunkers (one watches mid, one close) but only 2 roamers for the teamfight. You have 1 class who is dedicated to decapping the opponents point
(NOT a thief who just leaves midfight to decap quickly).
This class is ususally a hardcore bunker and the opponent team has to send at least 2 people to their node (2v1) to get it capped. While you have a 1v2 on farpoint your team should win the midfight because you outnumber the enemy.

1.3 Annoy them on far while winning fast

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“We outnumber the enemy and win the fight due to our decapper”
Basically the same tactics as above. You just play without a dedicated closepoint defender. The idea is to play on 2 points, while the 3rd points ticks for your team. Meaning: Someone takes closepoint, you inc the midfight while your decapper holds them on far. If everything works out well, the enemy can’t really push your close (because they have to send 2 ppl to kill your decapper and then have problems in the midfight).

1.4 Just win fast

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“We just win the fights on 2 points”
You play only one midbunker, no dedicated closepoint defender and no dedicated decapper. You decap after you won the fights (or after somebody died, or your thief is low). You have 4 dmg roamers, move fast and win fights fast.

1.5 Bunker them

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“We just bunker everything”
There are teams out there who play with 4 or more bunkers (usually the 5th is a decapper which is also a bunkerish class.) The idea behind this is, that you inc every point. Keep them decapped and cap over time using knockbacks.

What about Legacy of the Foefire?

In solo queue I feel like most teams tend to rush mid too much. In those cases is pretty stupid to try to attack graveyard while 2 guardians are nested on it and your team has no bunkers.

In those cases, I think trying to push sides and keep thenì enemy busy on mid exploiting the tendency towards overrushing it a good idea. What do you think?

You are absolutely right. This guide is just in general. I will write a third guide about map specific strategies and openers

awsome guide…..we need this to be sticky^^

“The build I would love to play”

Omg my heart, it hurts!

I remember playing this comp nearly undefeated for a month and then the necro patch hit and all of our dreams were shattered.

I think this thread should be stickied though.

Thanks for making this man its great for the community… sticky plz? :P

Very good guide, BTW i think guide like this deserve to stay IN THE GAME , not only in the forum, because not many people read it.

Anet should create tutorial (with simple video too) to show how to play correctly conquest mode in pvp, there is a very lack of infos for new players, this is one of the main problem for pvp community.

I think you should update this based on the nerf on Dec 10th which also includes new healing skills. Such as the s/d thief is getting nerfed and such. Unless you feel it will stay the same even after the nerfs. As mesmer is getting a buff/op healing skill and so on. I feel that all these builds/classes you listed aren’t going to be as good in this composition after the nerf.

Btw awesome post. Sticky for sure.

Nice guide. The great thing about it is that it is easy to understand so beginners can understand it

Thx guys.
I realised (while playing with my pve guild) that many pve’ers would like to start with pve but have no clue what so ever. And the game provides not enough info to understand it (sadly). I hope this helps.

I will today:
- add all current builds to the lists for the sake of completion.
- write the third guide regarding tactics\openers on each map.

in future:
- i will keep this up to date all the time (like i do with the builds on my channel).

So to answer you cush. I will try to always change this thread so that it fits the current state of game.
it’s still work in progress. I don’t have that much time at the moment :p (project deadlines)

ok i didn’t found time today I will do it some other day

Bump sticky plz

i dun play team arena but i feel very strongly that this is a very good guide for people who wish to explore team arena!

thanks!

such guides need to be inside the game itself!!!!

thank you guys. I will update/ write the new guide on thursday probably.. Not much time due to “finals”

Ok super made a really good video which explains what i wanted to do in the second guide So thanks for taking that work from me. I will tough keep this updated as it is about compilations and not rotations/movement on the map for each map

bump for good guide.

Best post

request sticky

by the way what does inc mean? O_O

“Someone takes closepoint, you inc the midfight while your decapper holds them on far”

inc = in contesting? as in battle on the capture point?

Requesting a sticky indeed, this post gives me tears of joy!

Thanks guys, I made a somewhat beginners guide with a “glossary” where I explain the terms look it up and tell me if you think something is missing. I want to make 1-4 guides to cover the whole of pvp.

I think many people would like to pvp but it’s really hard to learn and just jump in

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/A-Guide-to-sPvP-0-Beginners-Guide/first#post3326168

btw “inc” is explained there ^^

I really didn’t find any time, christmas and stuff, but I will follow up with a “mapguide” and movement guide for each map (niflhel, legacy, khylo and temple).

It’s sad how posts like this fall so quickly when so many other posts that are based upon blaming the aspects of the game for one’s own shortcomings stay so popular.

Unfortunately, this speaks volumes about most of the community here. =(

Use mesmer. Let mesmer tank 3 other players. Your 4 other players can easily overwhelm the other 2 players at enemy team. Win.

Nice to see this kind of post when 3/4 of 1st page is only whine threads (even if the whines are legit)

Phantaram.1265:

“The build I would love to play”

Omg my heart, it hurts!

I remember playing this comp nearly undefeated for a month and then the necro patch hit and all of our dreams were shattered.

I think this thread should be stickied though.

Your team comp was very good for sure and you won ALL teams before the june necro patch.

But what you probably forget is Xeph getting one shoted by Mogow on most fight engage.Well anything in Car Crash comp could kill your mesmer , they had nec , s/D thief and valk arcana ele
Then u were outnumbered , and loose the fight.
Hopefully teldo was here to win some 2vs1 :o)

I hope this meta leaves with the new patch.. So tired of it…

Nice one, Django. Great guide.

Nice job Django! This topic should be fixed.

Thanks for taking the time to write this out.

Offguard build has elected 20% recharge of signets, yet has no signet equipped. Despite this being an obvious oversight, to an otherwise very good guide I am quite sure people will actually follow this build to the letter and not change the trait or swap shelter out.

Does power necro have a place?

i really dont get why this guide still is not sticky

Very nice guide thanks.

lol
now the pug dont make sorry if lose a fitght
ehmm 4 MM necro + 1 bunker/decapper its a team who ppl can easy play
or 5 spirits ranger team who need only coordination
or 3 hammerchain war+ 1 bunker + 1 decapper
just know what to do