Guild Wars 2

This thread is intended for sPvP beginners. My tips might seem obvious, but they are mistakes I see made over and over again by beginning and intermediate players (as well as myself!).

If anyone else has basic tips they would like to see added, let me know!

Tips for fighting:

1. Stay Moving: I cannot count how many times I see inexperienced players come to a complete stop to try and execute a skill combo. If you watch high tier players, it’s easy to notice one thing: They never stop moving unless they have an overwhelming positional advantage. Stopping moving while fighting is giving your opponent license to unload any skill he wants on you.

2. Watch Your Opponent, Not Yourself!: Watching your action bar instead of watching your opponent would be like trying to win a fist fight while looking into a hand mirror. To become proficient at fighting, you need to feel comfortable enough with your action bar and your keybinds to be able to be watching your opponent while you execute your skills.

3. Learn Your Specific Build: This point ties into the above points. If you haven’t played a lot with your build, you will have to look at your action bar to know what skills you can use. That puts you at a great disadvantage. Playing a build for a long time helps you to learn to nuances of it to a greater degree and be more effective.

4. Keybinds Are Important: It’s essential to find keybinds that are comfortable and work for your playstyle. These keybinds should allow you to be moving at all times while using any skill in your kitten nal. You also need to learn them well enough so that you never need to look at your action bar.

Tips for beginning tPvP:

1. Don’t Stand On One Point: Although capping and aggressively guarding one point seems like it might be a smart thing to do, it’s almost always preferable to be moving from one point to the next helping your teammates. The goal of conquest is to create uneven fights by winning 1v1s and 2v2s and then pressing your advantage to other points while your opponents are respawning.

2. Know Your Role: Knowing your role basically means knowing what your build and you are best at. Builds like spirit ranger and condition necromancer are best at mid fighting and home point defense due to their low mobility and AoE/support abilities. Highly mobile classes such as thief, warrior, and engineer are great for decapping points and briefly aiding the middle might. You would never want to fight at mid all game on a thief, but on a bunker guardian, that would be perfectly acceptable!

3. Far Point Is Dangerous: Unless you are sure of what you are doing, running far point is almost always going to be a negative for your team, especially if you are a beginner. Far point is always going to have passing enemy respawns and you will be isolated from the rest of your team. Losing a 1v1 on a far point allows the enemy to send one extra person to attack another point and can potentially wipe your whole team.

Great tips. I want to add a few more:

Only One Person Per Point for Full Cap Speed : I guess this is a hot join habit that some people don’t shake when moving up into Solo Q. It only takes one person to get the full cap speed on a node, so don’t follow someone to a point and sit on it with them if it is uncontested, especially in the beginning of a match.

Map Awareness: This is crucial to success in Solo Q. Since there isn’t much communication going on (if at all), it is still very important to know where your teammates are at all times. With the addition of enemy markers showing up on the mini map, you can see when your home point bunker is outnumbered and in need of help, or when an opportunity to decap far point arises.

Teammate Health bars : This goes along with map awareness. Pay attention to your teammates health bars at all times. If your mid point bunker is alone and is <50% health, that is your cue to get to mid and assist him ASAP.

Don’t Run into Outnumber Fights : This is just silly but I see it all the time. Example: There are 3 enemies that just finished downing one of your teammates at home point and you just spawned, DO NOT run into that point solo. You will die, you give the enemy team 5 more points, and you earned yourself an additional 15 seconds of not helping your team do something useful while you wait to respawn again. This is where map awareness also comes into play. I’ve seen the argument: “But I am keeping those people busy while the rest of the team can go cap/decap other points.” Wrong. It doesn’t work that way. You are just giving the enemy team an opportunity to regroup on you and make a push somewhere else.

Don’t Rage Quit: Just don’t.

for know what is a role? read this
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Team-Roles-everything-you-want-to-know

Forz.1725:

Great tips. I want to add a few more:

Only One Person Per Point for Full Cap Speed : I guess this is a hot join habit that some people don’t shake when moving up into Solo Q. It only takes one person to get the full cap speed on a node, so don’t follow someone to a point and sit on it with them if it is uncontested, especially in the beginning of a match.

Map Awareness: This is crucial to success in Solo Q. Since there isn’t much communication going on (if at all), it is still very important to know where your teammates are at all times. With the addition of enemy markers showing up on the mini map, you can see when your home point bunker is outnumbered and in need of help, or when an opportunity to decap far point arises.

Teammate Health bars : This goes along with map awareness. Pay attention to your teammates health bars at all times. If your mid point bunker is alone and is <50% health, that is your cue to get to mid and assist him ASAP.

Don’t Run into Outnumber Fights : This is just silly but I see it all the time. Example: There are 3 enemies that just finished downing one of your teammates at home point and you just spawned, DO NOT run into that point solo. You will die, you give the enemy team 5 more points, and you earned yourself an additional 15 seconds of not helping your team do something useful while you wait to respawn again. This is where map awareness also comes into play. I’ve seen the argument: “But I am keeping those people busy while the rest of the team can go cap/decap other points.” Wrong. It doesn’t work that way. You are just giving the enemy team an opportunity to regroup on you and make a push somewhere else.

Don’t Rage Quit: Just don’t.

These are good, thanks!

Nice tips but they are honestly a bit more on the advanced side. Someone who has just stumbled into Heart Of The Mists won’t even know what “far point” or “bunker” means, or what roles even are. All those are terms are created by the community but aren’t officially mentioned anywhere in the game.

One of the biggest barricades to learning ANY game, and I know this from experience (ironically) is figuring out what the hell all community-created terms/abbreviations mean.

For example when I was a Street Fighter IV newbie and started reading guides, I came across a whole ton of terms and then had to poke around the internet figuring out what the hell those words meant. Their definitions almost got “lost” in the countless threads/discussions surrounding the game where everyone brings it up, but everyone already knows what it means except for the poor newbie who wandered in :S

A contribution of my own (maybe not as basic, but it pops up every match):

Land that finishing stomp.

As you try to stomp a downed foe, players will often try to stop you. Some professions have an interrupt available to them in their downed state, others can move away from your stomp in downed state. And then there may very well be other players around that can try to interrupt your finishing move.

Stability, invulnerability, blind, aegis, quickness and stealth are excellent tricks to help land a stomp against interrupts. Mesmers, thieves and elementalists can travel in downed state, so for these: don’t waste precious stomp protection on the first try!

If you cannot protect your stomp in a team fight, it is often better not to stomp, but to use AoE damage instead. (Making it hard for opponents to ressurect their teammate)

And Wintel has a very good point. Perhaps we should make a list of commonly used terms?

How does priority cleaning works? And corrupt boons?

And why it seems vul have priority over burn?And Vul have priority over 6 stacks of torment?

Nebilim.5127:

How does priority cleaning works? And corrupt boons?

And why it seems vul have priority over burn?And Vul have priority over 6 stacks of torment?

That’s super-advanced stuff brah!

You should be able to kind of watch your opponent while also being able to kind of see your skill bar at the same time otherwise how would you know when a skill is off cooldown. You need to be able to basically take in the whole screen at certain times. Your character model and the skill bar only take up the bottom half the screen so it is certainly doable.

I would add to this and say, you can generally look at what type of conditions a person on your team is getting hit with, and tell what kind of enemy player is on that node with them. But why should anyone bother? EVERYONE can be seen on the minimap now!

Who cares about tactics anymore? Since you can see the enemy team on the minimap, one less thing to actively think about. Gone are the days of trying to predict enemy rotations. What a stupid, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb change.

Hey guys! Blizzard just made an update to SC2! Everyone gets maphack now!

Chicago Jack.5647:

I would add to this and say, you can generally look at what type of conditions a person on your team is getting hit with, and tell what kind of enemy player is on that node with them. But why should anyone bother? EVERYONE can be seen on the minimap now!

Who cares about tactics anymore? Since you can see the enemy team on the minimap, one less thing to actively think about. Gone are the days of trying to predict enemy rotations. What a stupid, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb change.

Hey guys! Blizzard just made an update to SC2! Everyone gets maphack now!

I disagree. In no way does this take away from the skill of the game. Also, this isn’t the thread to be venting about this so please, take this argument somewhere else.

Chicago Jack.5647:

EVERYONE can be seen on the minimap now!

I understand the frustration, but not “everyone” can be seen on the minimap, only those that are in combat and in view from one of your teammates.

Sure it takes away from the communication aspect in Team Tournies, but in Solo Q, I strongly believe something like this was beneficial since no one has time to spell out how many/what class/what point is being attacked in text while fighting. But as infantrydiv said, this isn’t the thread to debate these changes.

Let’s keep this thread alive with good tips for players so we can improve the player base and increase the likelihood of getting decent players on our teams!

Nebilim.5127:

How does priority cleaning works? And corrupt boons?

And why it seems vul have priority over burn?And Vul have priority over 6 stacks of torment?

The cleansing of conditions work on a “Last In, First Out” system. If you have 6 stacks of torment applied to you but someone applies vulnerability immediately after those torment stacks were applied, the vulnerability has the first priority of being cleansed.

I’ve read reports of immobilize not being on this same system, but I haven’t tested it to be sure.

“Don’t Run into Outnumber Fights : This is just silly but I see it all the time. Example: There are 3 enemies that just finished downing one of your teammates at home point and you just spawned, DO NOT run into that point solo. You will die, you give the enemy team 5 more points, and you earned yourself an additional 15 seconds of not helping your team do something useful while you wait to respawn again. This is where map awareness also comes into play. I’ve seen the argument: “But I am keeping those people busy while the rest of the team can go cap/decap other points.” Wrong. It doesn’t work that way. You are just giving the enemy team an opportunity to regroup on you and make a push somewhere else.”

While i generaly agree wioth this its not a rule for everyone,some stealth/evade thiefs-stealth mesmers- bunker engis,wr and guardians are perfectly,capable of just doing this hold 2-3 enemies for 20-30 sec. It is risky but sometimes it paids of.
I have a rule that if i encounter a class/player that i cant beat 1vs1 i tell my team mates that i cant beat that guy and switch position with some1…
So thats my rule- dont go in personal duels just for vengence if u can avoid it…

“Don’t run into Outnumber fights” should not be applied to all scenarios.
For example, 2 opponents have just stomped ur team mate at the mid point and the capture bar is now left with just 25% to their full colour. If u turn back and wait for ur team mate,1 of ur opponent will stay and cap mid whilst 1 will chase u.
Sometime you have to run into the point,contesting it to stop your opponents from capturing it and hope that your teammate can reach mid in time to assist you. That judgement call will depend on ur survivalbility as well as other factors of course.

@deda and @Verdelet, I’d keep the “Don’t run into Outnumber fights” as a rule. In order to break this rule you need to have more knowledge about the game than a beginner would. Just leave it at that and mention that a number of these rules can be bent or broken once you get better or are running specific builds. Like far point assaulting.

Rule 0, the rule to break all rules. Unlocked after minimum 500 TPVP wins haha!

Feel free to edit this as you see fit, Inf, I am probably wrong in a lot of places. I know I missed a few too but I cbf trying to think of them right now… quote this post to get the code for the formatting if you want it.

Hmm. Great post, but I believe it could be written much shorter.
This would be sufficient:
Keep moving while spamming your skills, save your insane utilities for when you are about to die.

Wintel.4873:

Nice tips but they are honestly a bit more on the advanced side. Someone who has just stumbled into Heart Of The Mists won’t even know what “far point” or “bunker” means, or what roles even are. All those are terms are created by the community but aren’t officially mentioned anywhere in the game.

One of the biggest barricades to learning ANY game, and I know this from experience (ironically) is figuring out what the hell all community-created terms/abbreviations mean.

For example when I was a Street Fighter IV newbie and started reading guides, I came across a whole ton of terms and then had to poke around the internet figuring out what the hell those words meant. Their definitions almost got “lost” in the countless threads/discussions surrounding the game where everyone brings it up, but everyone already knows what it means except for the poor newbie who wandered in :S

lol advanced side? what about explaining combos, class mechanics, tricks, counters etc to new players? Nice newbie guide!

deda.8302:

“Don’t Run into Outnumber Fights

That’s why im allways left alone on mid as guardian… :P

Would like to add to the stomp/rezz point:
Watch your team mates! If one of them is downed, try to rezz!
BUT do not rezz if:
1) You are facing one/multiple opponents that are dealing dmg to you/the downed person. If you rezz and die during the rezz atempt, you loose more than you can win! This is very important in team fights, often a team dies compleatly when they trie to rezz up a downed team member!
2) The only enemy that tries to stomp is low hp… better kill him!
3) Someone is trying to stomp your mate and you can interupt the stomp, stop rezzing and interrupt! Of course keep rezzing if your mate is rezzed before the oponent can stomp (requires experience!)
4) You are alone and an oponent is starting to safe stomp ( – with stability or ele mist form) at the same time as you start rezzing… Sad situation because his stomp is faster than your rezz… two people are required to rezz if an oponent is stomping your mate. In this situation the best you can do is deal damage to the opponent to get an advantage in the following 1 vs 1.
5) If there is an oponent (no thief, ele mesmer – because they can avoide the stomp) also in downed state and you can safe stomp him, do it. But FIRST watch your mates hp, if he is almost dead, rezz him, because when the downed opponent kills him before you can stomp, he gets relly (is standing up again).

If you are ranger and got the elite spirit without cd, use it BUT start rezzing up, just in case your spirit becomes interrupted!

I got the strange feeling this is to difficult for a new player… :/
I trie again
Allways rezz your downed team mates, except you will die if you do so! If you can interrupt an opponent, that tries to stomp your team mate, interrupt him! If you can, use your stability while you rezz.

EDIT:
I think we forgot the MOST important thing… Communicate with your team! Try to figure out what they plan to do and what roles they are playing (bunker, roamer, far point asaulter, home point defender, ..). If you are not sure what to do, ask them where they want you to go and what they want you to do. But keep in mind, that they cant allways take your hand and tell you what to do. But if you are unsure, just ask “Where you need me?” or “You guys need help on close?”.

Incurafy.6329:

Feel free to edit this as you see fit, Inf, I am probably wrong in a lot of places. I know I missed a few too but I cbf trying to think of them right now… quote this post to get the code for the formatting if you want it.

Community Terms and their Definitions

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Community Terms and their Definitions

Generic PvP:

• PvP: Refers to the structured PvP found in the Heart of the Mists. Does not include WvW or other forms of PvP.
• Heart of the Mists: The PvP lobby area where you can change your build, organise teams, and talk to other PvP players.
• Spawn: The area where you are placed at the beginning of a match.
• Meta: The current state of the game in a broad sense that explains the most popular builds as a whole. For example, a “burst meta” would refer to a meta in which the majority of competitive players run builds with high burst potential and very little defence.
• Meta build: A build that is widely considered to be one of the best builds for use by a profession in the current competitive meta.
• Match Making Ranking: Someone with a better understanding of this will need to explain it for me.
• Leaderboards: Refers to the leaderboards found on the Guild Wars 2 website under the community panel. There is a leaderboard for both SoloQ and TeamQ (see “Game Types” for definitions).

Game Modes:

• Conquest: The current form of PvP, revolvs around capturing and holding certain objective points on the map. In this case, the objectives are the three control points.

Game Types:

• Hotjoin: The casual form of PvP usually reserved for less serious play. The leaderboards are unaffected by hotjoin servers and players are not given tournament rewards for winning a match.
• SoloQ: The “Solo Areana” tournaments. Players enter the arenas on their own without a team and are matched with other players of similar skill levels based on their MMR.
• TeamQ: The “Team Arena” tournaments. Players enter the areans on their own or with a pre-made party of players (full party not required). Teams are not matched by their MMR (CORRECT ME IF THAT’S WRONG), instead they’re placed together when two full teams (5 players) have been found and are ready to begin. Players a rewarded for a win with a Match Win Reward Chest which contains various rewards (usually PvP crafting materials and equippment).

Characters:

• Build: Everything that makes up your character, including choice of runes, weapons, sigils, amulet, traits, and utilities.
• Synergy: How well the various components of your build go together. For example, the 15 point minor trait Feline Grace (return 33% endurance) in the Acrobatics line of the Thief profession has good synergy with the 10 point adept Acrobatics trait Power of Inertia (add 1 stack of might on dodge).
• Theorycrafting: The mathematical analysis of game mechanics to discover the best strategies and tactics to maximise player effectiveness. Does not always use mathematics, almost always used to create the best builds.

Capture points:

• Home/Close: The closest point to your spawn.
• Mid: Usually located somewhere in the centre of the map.
• Far/Enemy home: Refers to the closest point to the enemies spawn.

Build Roles:

• Roamer: A fast, mobile build with a (usually) high burst potential. Their job is to “roam” the map and cause uneven fights for their team to take advantage of. The burst potential is (usually) required to quickly eliminate an opponent and swing a fight into their teams favour. Example classes: Thief, Mesmer, Warrior
• Bunker: A heavily defensive build that is purely designed to “hold” a point for as long as possible until help can arrive.
• Mid bunker: See bunker. Stays on the middle point for the duration of the match, does not leave it unless absolutely necessary.
• Home bunker: See bunker. Stays on the home point during various portions of the match, but will rotate to another point as soon as possible to assist.
• Far-point assaulter: A build specifically designed to harrass the enemy’s home point and attempt to neutralise or capture it.
• Team fighter: INSERT DEFINITION HERE
• There’s more but I cbf thinking of them right now.

Events:

• Twocap: Control two of three capture points at the same time.
• Threecap: Control all three capture points at the same time.
• Creature kill: Occurs when a player or team kills one of the two “creatures” on the Forest of Nifelhelm map.
• Treb kill: Occurs when a player or team destroys one of the two trebuchet on the Battle of Khylo map.

Tactics:

• Backcap: Capture the enemy’s home point with little to no resistance.
• A LOT MORE TO ADD HERE

Nice, thank you!