Guild Wars 2

Project: Academy of the Mists

Newcomers to tPvP have limited resources for finding new friends and learning. In order to foster an environment in the tPvP community that helps new folks learn maps and hone skills while making new friends some members of the community are stepping up to try and make a difference and grow the population. To this end a public VOIP server has been established and we are seeking active PvPers that want to help by becoming active on the server and leading groups of new players.

The VOIP is C3 which can be downloaded at: www.downloadc3.com

Once you install simply search “Academy of the Mists” and you will find the right channel.

The server is public and all are welcome.

An in game guild has been established to help keep track of folks that want to take part either as trainers or learners, but guild activity is entirely optional. The point is to have a community effort to improve tPvP across the board.

If you are interested in assisting in the project then please post here, or you may contact me or ArcTheFallen in game. We are both NA players.

emon.1863 has graciously offered to help out folks in EU. Hopefully we can get some more players to help out across the pond too.

Don’t be shy. If you see me in game, then feel free to touch base. It may take a minute to get a response if I am in match, but I will get to you. Promise.

I look forward to seeing how far we can take this.

I consider myself a new to pvp in general. I am only pvp lvl 10, yet xP

If there´d ever be such a teamspeak server (or chat or… whatever), I´d definitely visit it… a lot :P
I´d really appreaciate to get more in contact with the pvp-(not-hotjoin)-community and get some advices on gameplay on certain maps.

I´d love to become better at pvp and to become a better player in general BUT I have no clue how I should do that.
Many people say that I should play some hotjoin but from what I´ve seem I think it´s no good foundation for the (more) serious kind of pvp I soon want to participate in.
Also, I think joining a solo queue is no good, either. I don´t really want to bother more experienced players with my low-level-ness

I really dont mind losing. Sometimes the opposing team is simply better. And personally, I think I can gain more experience from a loss, because I start reflecting on what I did wrong and try to be more careful the next time.

What truly discourages me is that I cant seem to get any pvp-contacts. Seriously, who wants to have a friggin lvl 10 pvp-noob in his friendlist?

But somehow I can´t believe that there are enough(/ any) veterans who truly want to help lower lvl players get into the (pvp)game…

Greetings from a pvp-newbie :P

A.NET should “snoop” on the Top 20’s most used characters and get their classes, post their traits and builds on an official A.NET build database so noobs like me and you could use them.

When both of the players are using the most optimized build there is, it will boil down to who uses the build perfectly or flawlessly.

Just a thought though.

Ive been tossing up whether to start a tpvp guild and teamspeak servers etc specifically for tpvp and pvp community in mind….while I do plan to push tpvp competitively….i’d love to have set days to hold events to teach new people including prizes etc…to teach basics….like 4 seconds to deca kitten ometimes > 14 seconds to cap….all the thief infiltrator arrow sweet spots….hold like fastest thief from point a to point b….etc

Yeah, I agree that´s a big issue right now, getting into tpvp is really a big problem as the whole tpvp scene seems to live upwards rank 40 and doesn´t want to have anything to do with the lowish noobs. Actually, after investing a bunch of hours into it, I managed to find some ppl that are willing to play with me (I´m r25), both r30+ and r10+ players, and on the weekend we managed to get a really good group setup working, besides two players with r34 and r26 we had everything from 16-25 and after a few hours we managed to beat groups with r40+ and r50+ ppl in it on a regular basis, the point were we encountered problems was when we got that high in the rankings that we had to face enemys like team paradigms ele and some of his friends, (but even in this match we managed to still get like 350 points). However, while we noobs had really decent success it´s still pretty much impossible to get into premades and with this getting to know more ppl to play with, all because of our lowish rank.

Besides, it´s really hard to even step up to get serious on tpvp, as all the great pvp players out there seem to have like their own vip community, where everyone knows each other and is everyones friend, and from the outside it looks like it is a closed community, everyones playing pvp only since game release and doesn´t want do deal with ppl who dont have that much experience.

You don´t even know how to start, you can either do hotjoins where everybodys just glory farming or you can get stomped in tourneys while solo queuing, as you won´t have a chance to find people that are willing to play with you due to the fact that every tourney loss can pretty much destroy ppls leaderboard rankings.

I think there should be like seperate queues, one for tourneys that are just for fun and practicing, and a different one who actually counts for the leaderboards, and if you want to participate in the ranked tourneys you have to have like 20 wins in unranked tourneys.

Sorry for being the guy who wants to advertise a new effort. I recently started a guild called “Academy of the Mists” and I am recruiting honest, hardworking players to learn the meta of tpvp. Of course I am learning myself, but I am constantly looking at builds of powerful players and trying new team compositions to see the effectiveness of certain plays.

It’s not a guild for repping. It’s just to store names and organize sparring sessions (or if big enough 5v5 team face-offs). I often gather random members to tpvp and trust me, it’s a lot better than solo-q. Let me know if you are interested in getting more into tpvp and I can help you out!

@ ArcTheFallen
Awesome that you made a guild for that
I´d be interested … but it would be nice to know whether your guild is NA or EU x)

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Sorry for being the guy who wants to advertise a new effort. I recently started a guild called “Academy of the Mists” and I am recruiting honest, hardworking players to learn the meta of tpvp. Of course I am learning myself, but I am constantly looking at builds of powerful players and trying new team compositions to see the effectiveness of certain plays.

It’s not a guild for repping. It’s just to store names and organize sparring sessions (or if big enough 5v5 team face-offs). I often gather random members to tpvp and trust me, it’s a lot better than solo-q. Let me know if you are interested in getting more into tpvp and I can help you out!

Are u NA or EU?

Sorry guys, I forget about that confusion. I am NA!

Awwww I´m EU… But I think the idea for your guild is awesome

A guild would be good, and if you are trying to do that you should also consider inviting people who would be willing to mentor new tourney players, and give them a rank denoting that for everyone to see. The issue with this approach is that new players would not know such a guild existed unless you advertised it all the time, and even then it would only be seen on one server.

I honestly think it would be a decent idea for Anet to consider building in some functionality to help new pvp players. Perhaps create a region wide pvp newbie chat that is auto-joined in the mists. Give high ranked players the ability to flag themselves as mentors, and a way to see a list of all online mentors and the class they play.

Retaining and attracting new players is vital to helping the pvp scene pick up. In the meantime, I suggest you more experienced people try not to rage too hard at the low rank you might get in your solo/partial queue. I know it can be frustrating, but we don’t want to scare new players off of pvp.

Cero.5132:

Awwww I´m EU… But I think the idea for your guild is awesome

Thanks Feel free to write my name down if you have any questions on builds or tactics. I can’t necessarily help you in person, but I can definitelly explain some meta games in tpvp. Also, I challenge you to start your own Academy of the Mists there.

EU here too…. Is there something similar for EU? If not I´ld be willing to try to get something like this rolling, the only thing we would need for this are some high experienced ppl who would be willing to help us build this up, as a guild full of tpvp noobs without anyone to teach them wouldn´t be nearly as effective as it needs to be, maybe we could even try to make a EU version of your guild with the same name and get a sticky here in the forums to have a place to go to for new tpvp players?

If there´re any pros out there who would be willing to help build something like this pls step up

Nettle.9025:

A guild would be good, and if you are trying to do that you should also consider inviting people who would be willing to mentor new tourney players, and give them a rank denoting that for everyone to see. The issue with this approach is that new players would not know such a guild existed unless you advertised it all the time, and even then it would only be seen on one server.

I honestly think it would be a decent idea for Anet to consider building in some functionality to help new pvp players. Perhaps create a region wide pvp newbie chat that is auto-joined in the mists. Give high ranked players the ability to flag themselves as mentors, and a way to see a list of all online mentors and the class they play.

Retaining and attracting new players is vital to helping the pvp scene pick up. In the meantime, I suggest you more experienced people try not to rage too hard at the low rank you might get in your solo/partial queue. I know it can be frustrating, but we don’t want to scare new players off of pvp.

Yeah, I agree with the additional functionaility to help rookies transition better. I am trying my best to recruit both new and skilled players. My guild ‘rankings’ are based on the player’s ‘main’ so people who are new can immediately know what someone plays effectively (or relatively the most effectively). I may rework the design if I incorporate a more organized mentor system. But normally, I just call out to whoever’s online into a room to spar. I can’t wait til I get a hold of my own customer arena x.x

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Cero.5132:

Awwww I´m EU… But I think the idea for your guild is awesome

Thanks Feel free to write my name down if you have any questions on builds or tactics. I can’t necessarily help you in person, but I can definitelly explain some meta games in tpvp. Also, I challenge you to start your own Academy of the Mists there.

Hehe thank you very much… And… founding my own “Academy of the mists” may sound nice, but I highly doubt that other players would accept a lvl 10 player as a guild leader/founder :P

I guess biggest problem is that new pvp player don’t read forum. There is Topic, where are listet players who is actually helping newbies (tpvp,hot join and 1vs1) base’d on theyr class.

Ofcource idea to make guild for pvp players ,where will be some instuctors is great. I would gladly help any new necro (guess there will be not much of them), so if you make EU guild, you can count on me )

Btw, there are a lot of topics where ppl are offering they help in tpvp)

Im on NA and have 2 accounts…I had originally bought the second one for EU but australian ping makes EU just a tad unbearable so xfered back to both NA. @Arc I’d love to be apart of something like this on both my accounts as I can use the secondary one to tpvp with new people and teach them the ropes get some mentoring happening.

And obviously have my main to push competitive tpvp. I actually do have experience in raid leading from WoW days. and Officer / Guild Leader etc too. That said it’ll also be a great opportunity for me to expand my experience in tpvp too as Im only rank 23

Acaro.4067:

EU here too…. Is there something similar for EU? If not I´ld be willing to try to get something like this rolling, the only thing we would need for this are some high experienced ppl who would be willing to help us build this up, as a guild full of tpvp noobs without anyone to teach them wouldn´t be nearly as effective as it needs to be, maybe we could even try to make a EU version of your guild with the same name and get a sticky here in the forums to have a place to go to for new tpvp players?

If there´re any pros out there who would be willing to help build something like this pls step up

I encourage you to collaborate with Cero and start a guild similar (or even exactly the same!) as this in EU. If you guys get a guild soon I can probably get a second account to help you guys in EU. Although I am in NA EST timezone. I am not sure how that translates to EU.

With guesting now reach out to each server shouldnt be hard =)

Zanthrax.6538:

Im on NA and have 2 accounts…I had originally bought the second one for EU but australian ping makes EU just a tad unbearable so xfered back to both NA. @Arc I’d love to be apart of something like this on both my accounts as I can use the secondary one to tpvp with new people and teach them the ropes get some mentoring happening.

And obviously have my main to push competitive tpvp. I actually do have experience in raid leading from WoW days. and Officer / Guild Leader etc too. That said it’ll also be a great opportunity for me to expand my experience in tpvp too as Im only rank 23

Sounds good! I’ll add you to the guild. Just to re-iterate, it’s a no-rep guild. So you can still have your responsibilities else-where 24/7. Whenever we are both online at the same time, I’ll set up a sparring session soon. I want to see your skills to get to know you better!

Zanthrax.6538:

With guesting now reach out to each server shouldnt be hard =)

Guesting isn’t powerful enough to let NA reach EU unfortunately. (as in we can’t guest there :\)

@Arc Sure thing honestly atm I have had my fill with PvE and WvW so all I actually want to do is tpvp….I’m quite happy to rep guild and help out with recruitment and hold events etc. Really try help the pvp community grow.

yea guesting will be good to help reach all NA servers hit each mists / lions arch up maybe with guild recruitment. /shrug.

Cero.5132:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Cero.5132:

Awwww I´m EU… But I think the idea for your guild is awesome

Thanks Feel free to write my name down if you have any questions on builds or tactics. I can’t necessarily help you in person, but I can definitelly explain some meta games in tpvp. Also, I challenge you to start your own Academy of the Mists there.

Hehe thank you very much… And… founding my own “Academy of the mists” may sound nice, but I highly doubt that other players would accept a lvl 10 player as a guild leader/founder :P

You’ve gotta start somewhere! And if you have quite a bit of people. I will get a second copy and head on over to help teach the basics, and then current ‘OP’ builds and then tactics based off my experiences.

Zanthrax.6538:

@Arc Sure thing honestly atm I have had my fill with PvE and WvW so all I actually want to do is tpvp….I’m quite happy to rep guild and help out with recruitment and hold events etc. Really try help the pvp community grow.

If you want to rep, that’s up to you and would be awesome. But unfortunately I will stand by my no-rep policy because it helps people afford joining a guild like this a lot more. I can give you some more permissions to edit the guild message if you want to hold events. Currently, I am just focusing on bettering our current members and possibly enrolling in the Master of the Mists tournament! (June 2ndish?)

NA, EST, would like to be a part of this…

edit: You don’t happen to have a TS account, do you?

@ Arc fair call I dont expect permissions etc straight away…I’d rather earn any promotions within guild. And yes…with my main account I’d so love to get a team together for some player ran tournies coming up. =)

Pixels.6532:

NA, EST, would like to be a part of this…

Got your name and will send the invite after work xD! Will set up a sparring session soon!

Zanthrax.6538:

@ Arc fair call I dont expect permissions etc straight away…I’d rather earn any promotions within guild. And yes…with my main account I’d so love to get a team together for some player ran tournies coming up. =)

Aha, dw everyone is on the same level. I’ll just give you message permissions so you can have better tools to inform guildies about events. Everyone else should be at the same level in terms of admin permissions otherwise. I only use guild ranks to display player’s ‘mains’ so people don’t have to ask all the time. But if you start writing vulgar messages on the guild window—that permission will be revoked of course :P

Arc, I’d be willing to join as a mentor both for my class and for general tourney strats. I’d even rep when I wasn’t playing with anyone else to help new players with questions, and advertise it on Anvil Rock if you aren’t already on that server.

Just yesterday I saw a couple new people on AR asking for a pvp guild exactly like this. I felt kind of bad that I couldn’t direct them anywhere.

Pixels.6532:

NA, EST, would like to be a part of this…

edit: You don’t happen to have a TS account, do you?

Unfortunately, no I do not use TS. Currently chat has worked the best for us and I have a mix of people who are too shy to use TS and some who are ok with it. If a TS is really necessary, I can look into it for the people who want to use it. (But I am one of those people who prefer chat :x). I’ve developed some quick ways to report information though through chat xD

@ Nettle….I pale in comparison to your skills but yes I’d love to do the exact same thing….learn and teach. Even better is this is the exact same type of guild I was planning to make myself / searching for for a very long time =P

Nettle.9025:

Arc, I’d be willing to join as a mentor both for my class and for general tourney strats. I’d even rep when I wasn’t playing with anyone else to help new players with questions, and advertise it on Anvil Rock if you aren’t already on that server.

Just yesterday I saw a couple new people on AR asking for a pvp guild exactly like this. I felt kind of bad that I couldn’t direct them anywhere.

Got your name down! Yeah, I feel there are quite a few people looking for a place to get more experience in pvping. Feel free to add them/let them know if you still have their names! Repping isn’t a must, but I’m grateful for your willingness to do so. I look forward to sparring with you soon!

@ Arc I definitely understand some people prefer not to be on voice comms etc….I do think voice comms are quite important. On that note I would also be happy to donate towards a teamspeak unless we could get ahold of one otherwise =).

btw this continual chat in forums is awesome =P really hope this kicks off into something special =)

Arc, thanks for putting this together… I’ll try and be on around 9:30pm EST tonight.

Zanthrax.6538:

btw this continual chat in forums is awesome =P really hope this kicks off into something special =)

Yeh, it´s really great It would be great for NA and EU to get more such beginner-friendly guilds.

But I fear we strafed away from the actual topic the op intended to address x)

Zanthrax.6538:

@ Arc I definitely understand some people prefer not to be on voice comms etc….I do think voice comms are quite important. On that note I would also be happy to donate towards a teamspeak unless we could get ahold of one otherwise =).

I may be able to get something from my primary guild. Otherwise we may have to default to mumble or raidcall which are free alternatives (if you dont’ mind spending bytes than $).

I’m glad to see the topic taking off.

@ArcTheFallen – I like your intent, but I don’t want to make this a “Join X Guild and Learn” effort. Guild sponsorship & support is good, but I think this will function better as a Community resource than a Guild resource. Multiple guilds with supporting the same resource will ultimately create more buzz and a more cooperative, less exclusionary environment in my opinion.

I want to let this marinate for a little and think on how to execute from here. If the thread maintains a bit of interest, then maybe we can get this going soon.

I’m thinking that a free voice service might be a good way to go for this purpose. Maybe C3? It isn’t well known, but it is free and has decent functionality.

@ Arc I have never delt with setting up servers for voice comms I just assumed they were all paid for….and subsequently dont mind either way. I’m just used to teamspeak as most guilds I’ve been in use that now.

Cero.5132:

Zanthrax.6538:

btw this continual chat in forums is awesome =P really hope this kicks off into something special =)

Yeh, it´s really great It would be great for NA and EU to get more such beginner-friendly guilds.

But I fear we strafed away from the actual topic the op intended to address x)

Yes, true @OP sorry! I’m going to look into teamspeak tonight and see if I can get a public server for pvp players so we can have the ‘voice’ hub you mentioned or something similar.

Edit: and this would be for both NA and EU so they can at least share information with each other.

@myrm. You definitely raise a good point about pushing more community than guild….but I think you’ll find it isn’t as big of a premise because of the fact you may have multiple guilds. Thats my take on it anyway….but what you raised is definitely something noteworthy =)

l´ld found a guild with the same name on EU now if you´re fine with that, just wanted to ask for the guild shortcut you have as you didn´t say it yet.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

I’m glad to see the topic taking off.

@ArcTheFallen – I like your intent, but I don’t want to make this a “Join X Guild and Learn” effort. Guild sponsorship & support is good, but I think this will function better as a Community resource than a Guild resource. Multiple guilds with supporting the same resource will ultimately create more buzz and a more cooperative, less exclusionary environment in my opinion.

I want to let this marinate for a little and think on how to execute from here. If the thread maintains a bit of interest, then maybe we can get this going soon.

I’m thinking that a free voice service might be a good way to go for this purpose. Maybe C3? It isn’t well known, but it is free and has decent functionality.

I’ll look into our viable options in free voice support for pvp mentors/newbies. I’ll post my findings later tonight! (Prob should get back to work now LOL). But yes, the intent of the Academy of the Mists is moreover to start an organized effort. I don’t want to force people to join the guild in order to learn but I do want to have that organized structure for people who are interested in being a part of something that’s easily available when you log on.

But yes, will post voice server options later tonight which will include their prices/availibility and setup details.

Acaro.4067:

l´ld found a guild with the same name on EU now if you´re fine with that, just wanted to ask for the guild shortcut you have as you didn´t say it yet.

[AOTM] simple enough :P

Yeah absolutly, this game needs better tool to improve connections between people. I don’t know if it’s better to create ingame tools or create a dedicated website for tpvp (a spot where to find tpvp updated builds, video tutorial, streamers link, forum, general chat, single player profile, infos about your pvp status like gwshack.info etc) but we need absolutly social tools to create new party or looking for good players easily.

emon.1863:

I guess biggest problem is that new pvp player don’t read forum. There is Topic, where are listet players who is actually helping newbies (tpvp,hot join and 1vs1) base’d on theyr class.

Ofcource idea to make guild for pvp players ,where will be some instuctors is great. I would gladly help any new necro (guess there will be not much of them), so if you make EU guild, you can count on me )

Btw, there are a lot of topics where ppl are offering they help in tpvp)

Well, I´m one of these necros as example, as I aknowledged a lot by watching vids and reading the forum and pracitsing a lot I think I´m able to play the class to same degree and actually really love the utility our fears as terrormaner offer in team fights, but what would be like really, really great, would be if we could get on a ts together and you watch me on spectator mode playing and point out the things I´m doing wrong

And good idea with the players helping new players thread, I´ll message them if they want to participate in this.

Alright, I’m off now, but I will send invites to anyone who posts when I get back from work around 6 EST. Possible voice server options will be posted following some sparring sessions as well.

@Markphilips….having a gw2 tpvp orientated website similar to, ( while i do hate it ), skillcapped.com or something like that from WoW. Would be awesome….but i swear to god if someone monetizes it i’ll cut them. -_-

The guild name is already in use, the guilds are probably cross-region wide, so I´ld need an invite to the guild by you