Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing for a while now and I tried to learn how to, more or less, play each class by reading guides and practicing with them, even with that, I feel like I lack some knowledge because of the lack of online content to learn from so I would love if any pro/veteran of PvP could give me general tips of how to beat each class, I know that each class beats others differently but there are some rules that can be applied in general, an example of that would be answering questions like “If I play vs a Mesmer should I break the clones/images or should I focus down the player instead?”.

If you need any extra information about my experience I’ve played WoW for around 4 years as a Rogue, currently the classes I enjoyed most are Thief with a Daredevil Marauder S/D build (though I didn’t like that it’s treated more as an annoyer/offensive support rather than an assassin) and Guardian with a DH Meditrapper build since it has a lot of burst damage and I liked his kit in general.

Thanks in advance fellow players.

Besides few tricks like d/p thief short heartseeker+black powder combo, I think always the key is to do your best to read other player, and counter their skills using yours, which is very dependent on your and their build.

For example, in attacking clones or mesmer situation as you described, it is mostly not a good idea to hit them melee if they inflict conditions when they are destroyed. Or if you have endurance up and you are confident that you will dodge the shatter, you wouldn’t want to spend hard hitting skill cd on clone but use it on mesmer.

So for me it is always what you have vs what they have.

For mes if U got hard hitting aoe use it and break clones. It will bring there damage low. As dh use U’r traps for defence mostly, mesmer usuly fight in medium to close range becasu of shatter range.
As a thief u have harder work to do. The best strategy I saw and was super efective on me was hitting and vanishimg all the time. Most damage from my mes comes from confusion and torment so if u stay in my los U will get a lot of stack of this condis and then almost always U’ll be dead.

Espidow.1729:

I enjoyed most are Thief with a Daredevil Marauder S/D build

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG_YrnYpGv0_AIog3AKsVPc9GCg1w08uU

#promotingmyself

Learning to use the profession mechanic is probably the single most important thing that inexperienced players miss out on. Just using it even if you don’t know what you’re doing is going to help.

Well, this isn’t exactly what I was looking for since I was searching for some tips you can follow to beat every class but thanks anyway.

Here is a tip for you: look at the kitten mini map!

Way to many players just zerg mid (especially on legacy) and do not rotate to stop a decap or to get a free cap on far. Watching the mini map is key to outrotating your opponents but players as high as diamond seem to have a blind spot on theirs for some reason.

foste.3098:

Here is a tip for you: look at the kitten mini map!

Way to many players just zerg mid (especially on legacy) and do not rotate to stop a decap or to get a free cap on far. Watching the mini map is key to outrotating your opponents but players as high as diamond seem to have a blind spot on theirs for some reason.

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

To kill a mes, just avoid shatters. If it’s power GS they have one “fast” combo with mirror blade, just doge that and you’ll be fine if you watch your positioning, and take advantage of cleave/aoe to mitigate pressure if you know their c/ds are up and you’re not ready to react.

If condi just be aware of your surrounding, avoid the shatters, and pressure him after his c/ds.

To avoid a shatter be sure to doge forward into his illusions to mitigate the most damage. If they set up a triangle on you be sure to anticipate a shatter.

If you get Moad don’t panic, he can only hurt you if you let his shatters land, you have 2 doges and no class mechanics to carry the situation but it’s enough, if he whiffs any damage he can poke you with will be negligible and you can out heal it, presuming he didn’t have already really good pressure when you were transformed (low health, no doge, badly positioned.)

In the current meta it’s a waste to 1v1 any meta build on thief tho. Including condi mes, but you can wreck em easy in duel rooms lol

Note: i thought about posting this before, but didnt due to the list being incomplete, and some tips simply dont work for every situation. Might even be plain wrong.
The most important thing in all fights, especially as a thief is to adapt your style to every oponent individually.
“Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions…He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent, and thereby succeed inwinning, may be called a heaven-born captain.”
-The art of war.

Sd thief

vs

Warrior Our favourite tool is blind, you dont have too much access so you will be wanting to dodge insetad. Most warrior skills are relatively telegraphed, so that should not be a problem.
Outkite the invulnerabilities and specially the rampage. Keep your stunbreaks ready and, if the ymanage to stack some conditions on you, disengage.
They can quickly kill you if they got one good streak, so restetting the fight is the smarter choice.
Warriors lack in healing so take your time.
Id also recommend to maintain some distance between your assaults, infiltrators strike is your tool to go.

Guardian Avoid them. If you have to fight:
Dodge all trueshots, dodge binding blade. Never get hit by a test of faith.
Trigger traps prematurely with dodges or shadowstep. Leave dragons maw asap, if you cant just use bandits defense or maybe try to use flanking strike. Maybe it travels not too much distance and lest you dodge without hitting the walls of the trap.
Never fight inside of traps. If you assault them, make sure you have some backup health because you wont go in or out without getting hit.
Put enough pressure on them to drop some defensive skills and get out before they move to offense.
Poke them with shortbow if they are on a melee weapon, but beware.

Revenants Essence sap is very strong, be sure to hit them. Besides that madvisions video covers what you need to know.

Engineer tough fight. Avoid their passive pressure at all costs. Move in, damage, move out. keep shadowstep for slick shoes, if its one cd use bandits defense but dont move an inch. Only use projectiles if youre sure they dont have a reflect ready.
Try to preestimate when elixir s stops and immediatly put pressure back on. Hope to kill before they can reset. pretty hard with s/d tho I guess.

Thieves A thief v thief fight can be extremely interesting. If you are defending you should try to predict the inital burst. Your opponent will usually use steal to engage, if you can dodge that, you have a big advantage.
Dont let them stick at you, keep distance. Their gap closer is a projectile that can be evaded, yours is instant. Dancing dagger is usually not expected and can deal suprising amounts of damage if sigils are triggered.
Dont get hit by shadow shot, stunbreak asap and keep them in the defense and you have a good chance. Also avoid black powder by any means necessary. The blinds can decide the fight.
If a high health thief stealthes, they will be going for a backstab, you can usually tell when it will happen and intuitively dodge it.
If a low health thief stealthes, you can spam some detonate cluster in the area or even choking gas if you think they want to heal.
Choking gas+cluster bomb is also nice, sonce weakness really hurst most thieves.

Rangers Usually headshot is what they fear. You dont have headshot, so you will have some serious problems. Keep an eye out for the bristleback, try to take cover from arrows if you kite or disengage.
If you pressure enough for CA the first skill will be lunar impact, which will daze you. The second will be rejuvenating tides, and you will be wanting to interrupt it. If they are already on low health and you can deny this skill, they will be in trouble.
You also lack the typical leap finisher in the stolen skill. Instead consider cluster bombs in it if you are in dire need of health.

Necromancer Engage and disengage on demand. They cant follow you, they cant really heal themselves. If they are not able to kill you in one burst, they are in trouble.
Reapers shroud you can either run away and wait, or you can outkite on point, most skills are very predictable. Their favourite heal skill is easily interrupted if you have some free cc, if you can predict it you can even interrupt it with the stolen skill.
Just make sure they dont hit you too much, keep a stunbreak for the big freeze and beware the minionmasters, they can be annoying because you cant keep track of all the minions.

Mesmer Not much you can do here. A guard you can at least kite around or force to use some utility. A mesmer will just kill you 100:0. Even if you +1 and catch them off guard, you usually wont kill them. Its simply the strongest build for small scale combat. But you are slightly faster, so: just run.
And mesmers: if tomorrow finally gives us back the spot as your counter, im going to have revenge. And its not gonna be easy for ya.

Elementalists Finally. Keep pressure high, safe steal for eath or water overload. Watch out for their cc. Theres not much trickery in fighting eles. You stick to them, and deal damage. They run away from you and heal. Either they die, or they dont. If youre in a teamfight, consider choking gas. The regular poison application is hard to cleanse and the healing effectiveness can really matter.

Asrat.2645:

Note: i thought about posting this before, but didnt due to the list being incomplete, and some tips simply dont work for every situation. Might even be plain wrong.
The most important thing in all fights, especially as a thief is to adapt your style to every oponent individually.
“Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions…He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent, and thereby succeed inwinning, may be called a heaven-born captain.”
-The art of war.

Sd thief

vs

Warrior Our favourite tool is blind, you dont have too much access so you will be wanting to dodge insetad. Most warrior skills are relatively telegraphed, so that should not be a problem.
Outkite the invulnerabilities and specially the rampage. Keep your stunbreaks ready and, if the ymanage to stack some conditions on you, disengage.
They can quickly kill you if they got one good streak, so restetting the fight is the smarter choice.
Warriors lack in healing so take your time.
Id also recommend to maintain some distance between your assaults, infiltrators strike is your tool to go.

Guardian Avoid them. If you have to fight:
Dodge all trueshots, dodge binding blade. Never get hit by a test of faith.
Trigger traps prematurely with dodges or shadowstep. Leave dragons maw asap, if you cant just use bandits defense or maybe try to use flanking strike. Maybe it travels not too much distance and lest you dodge without hitting the walls of the trap.
Never fight inside of traps. If you assault them, make sure you have some backup health because you wont go in or out without getting hit.
Put enough pressure on them to drop some defensive skills and get out before they move to offense.
Poke them with shortbow if they are on a melee weapon, but beware.

Revenants Essence sap is very strong, be sure to hit them. Besides that madvisions video covers what you need to know.

Engineer tough fight. Avoid their passive pressure at all costs. Move in, damage, move out. keep shadowstep for slick shoes, if its one cd use bandits defense but dont move an inch. Only use projectiles if youre sure they dont have a reflect ready.
Try to preestimate when elixir s stops and immediatly put pressure back on. Hope to kill before they can reset. pretty hard with s/d tho I guess.

Thieves A thief v thief fight can be extremely interesting. If you are defending you should try to predict the inital burst. Your opponent will usually use steal to engage, if you can dodge that, you have a big advantage.
Dont let them stick at you, keep distance. Their gap closer is a projectile that can be evaded, yours is instant. Dancing dagger is usually not expected and can deal suprising amounts of damage if sigils are triggered.
Dont get hit by shadow shot, stunbreak asap and keep them in the defense and you have a good chance. Also avoid black powder by any means necessary. The blinds can decide the fight.
If a high health thief stealthes, they will be going for a backstab, you can usually tell when it will happen and intuitively dodge it.
If a low health thief stealthes, you can spam some detonate cluster in the area or even choking gas if you think they want to heal.
Choking gas+cluster bomb is also nice, sonce weakness really hurst most thieves.

Rangers Usually headshot is what they fear. You dont have headshot, so you will have some serious problems. Keep an eye out for the bristleback, try to take cover from arrows if you kite or disengage.
If you pressure enough for CA the first skill will be lunar impact, which will daze you. The second will be rejuvenating tides, and you will be wanting to interrupt it. If they are already on low health and you can deny this skill, they will be in trouble.
You also lack the typical leap finisher in the stolen skill. Instead consider cluster bombs in it if you are in dire need of health.

Necromancer Engage and disengage on demand. They cant follow you, they cant really heal themselves. If they are not able to kill you in one burst, they are in trouble.
Reapers shroud you can either run away and wait, or you can outkite on point, most skills are very predictable. Their favourite heal skill is easily interrupted if you have some free cc, if you can predict it you can even interrupt it with the stolen skill.
Just make sure they dont hit you too much, keep a stunbreak for the big freeze and beware the minionmasters, they can be annoying because you cant keep track of all the minions.

Mesmer Not much you can do here. A guard you can at least kite around or force to use some utility. A mesmer will just kill you 100:0. Even if you +1 and catch them off guard, you usually wont kill them. Its simply the strongest build for small scale combat. But you are slightly faster, so: just run.
And mesmers: if tomorrow finally gives us back the spot as your counter, im going to have revenge. And its not gonna be easy for ya.

Elementalists Finally. Keep pressure high, safe steal for eath or water overload. Watch out for their cc. Theres not much trickery in fighting eles. You stick to them, and deal damage. They run away from you and heal. Either they die, or they dont. If youre in a teamfight, consider choking gas. The regular poison application is hard to cleanse and the healing effectiveness can really matter.

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, they’re explained from a thief point of view but it doesn’t matter, I feel like I can adapt it for other classes, many thanks!

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

Not all thieves are bad tho… Some people are actually really good as thief and more valuable than most team mates I come across.

sephiroth.4217:

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

Not all thieves are bad tho… Some people are actually really good as thief and more valuable than most team mates I come across.

While thia might be true you are assuming the thief is a better Player than the oponent. He is assuming they are equal or close to that.

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

The problem with that stupid mentality is that people start to belive it, and how are thief players going to get better if that is all they think of ?

Fat Disgrace.4275:

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

The problem with that stupid mentality is that people start to belive it, and how are thief players going to get better if that is all they think of ?

It’s not dueling or team deathmatch, it’s conquest. There are far better ways for a thief to get better and contribute than trying hard to fit other roles.

The quickest way to do well with your class is to duel. After that it is learning proper rotations in the match. Recognize that as you play each class/build your role could change.

As a tempest/support its best for you to stay in team fights. I like to play it safe and keep mid and home if a tempest is on the team. Most people these days will try and cap far when they hold 2 points already. Pro tip, if you are gonna go far make sure you don’t die otherwise you are not contributing, eventually forcing the mid fight to be uneven as well. Avoid situations where your team forces you to be a bunker by yourself if you play tempest. You make a decent bunker, but it makes the other fights harder to win.

As a thief its important not to get too caught up in a fight, always being mindful of opportunities to kill enemies (jump on enemies that are below 50% health). Running from a 1v1 you won’t win is more beneficial for your team in the long run.

Its all about figuring out the strengths of your build and how to play to those strengths.

Check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/gw2esports

Olrun did an amazing job some time ago and compiled lists of top tips for some professions and in specific matchups.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Fat Disgrace.4275:

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

The problem with that stupid mentality is that people start to belive it, and how are thief players going to get better if that is all they think of ?

It’s not dueling or team deathmatch, it’s conquest. There are far better ways for a thief to get better and contribute than trying hard to fit other roles.

I know that conquest is not based on how many people can you kill but when I play Thief I feel like mostly every time I encounter someone alone I have to run away that’s why I wanted to know tips about 1v1 since in team fights things are more chaotic and I know more or less what to do in them.

Espidow.1729:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Fat Disgrace.4275:

mysterion.1276:

Espidow.1729:

Thanks for the tip but I’m looking for advice of how to fight in a 1v1 scenario vs each class not about how to play in general, but again, I thank you for the tip.

You should never 1v1 as thief unless you have no other choice.

The problem with that stupid mentality is that people start to belive it, and how are thief players going to get better if that is all they think of ?

It’s not dueling or team deathmatch, it’s conquest. There are far better ways for a thief to get better and contribute than trying hard to fit other roles.

I know that conquest is not based on how many people can you kill but when I play Thief I feel like mostly every time I encounter someone alone I have to run away that’s why I wanted to know tips about 1v1 since in team fights things are more chaotic and I know more or less what to do in them.

Is the point neutral/owned by your team? What class is the enemy? Are they fresh, or did they just come out of a fight?

If the point is owned by the enemy team don’t waste your time.

Class matchups can vary per person. If the enemy still has half HP from a previous fight, use that opportunity.

Half of thief is knowing where to be, the other half is knowing when/how to blow people up.