Guild Wars 2

For the past 2 1/2 years players have been continuously asking the same question: “How do I become apart of a team?” Fortunately enough, there are mechanically sound players who want, and have the ability to invest the time to become a competitive player. While competing at a higher level is no easy feat, it is an extremely rewarding experience. There are tons of different ways to go about joining a team, but I’m going to supply you with a tried and true way of doing so.

1. Be mechanically sound:

This step sounds simple, but it goes further than beating the average hot joiner or solo queue player. With whatever class/classes you play, you need to be able to compete against the standard meta builds in rotation. In no way does this mean you need to win every 1v1 you encounter; nearly every spec/class has it’s counters. What this does mean, is that you need to focus on optimizing your build in team fights, small skirmishes, and 1v1’s. Being bursted down in a matter of seconds because you’re facing your counter isn’t a viable excuse. In a team based environment, you need to sustain yourself until you receive a rotation to you, or be able to successfully peel out of the fight with surviving.

Tips to increase your mechanical ability:

-Hot join/Unranked/Ranked. This may sound silly, but playing in hot joins increases your over-all map awareness. Naturally, you won’t receive any help from your team mates in this environment (if you’re going solo), so it’s up to you to sustain yourself to win your encounters, or simply survive them.

-1v1’s: This may sound obvious, but it’s one of THE best ways to improve your own abilities. My recommendation is that you continuously go heads up with whatever meta builds are current. You need to solidify your game play against your counters, as well as the fights that are easy for you to win. In a higher echelon of competition, nearly no fight, is an easy fight. Some of the best players that are around today have spent hours dueling friends and/or competition to hone their abilities.

-Watch streams/guides: If you’re having trouble dueling X class, then watch someone else who plays your class. See what they do, and how they do it. If you’re running a build that no one else runs, then it’s up to you to learn how to implement it. Maybe one day, you’ll be the one writing the guides or streaming.

Note: Remember, LOS (pillar humping) and resetting are widely used tactics to win fights. This game is about conquest (time), so you should learn to manage your time wisely. There are tons of builds/classes that you just don’t want to go heads up with, so remember to use your environment to the best of your advantage.

2. Start small:

Most people have the mindset that just because they can win all their fights, and they’re mechanically sound, means they should be on a top team, with top players. Unfortunately, this is an exception to the rule. Very rarely do you see someone new to the scene that is adopted into the competitive players’ community right away. So, what does starting small mean? It means playing with the people you enjoy, or humbling yourself, and joining those players you don’t really think are that good. Believe it or not, this is where you’re going to learn the most. You begin to understand the concept of basic strategies, rotations, and team synergy. Playing as a team is less about yourself, and more about the win. Where should you be when X is happening? What is your primary role to fill? What can YOU do to help your team? These are all simple questions that you’re expected to answer once you join/create a “top” team. I’ve personally faced many new teams that look more like they’re WvW’ing than playing Conquest. Don’t be these people. Different teams will have different strategies. Just because your strategy/team comp isn’t “meta”, doesn’t mean you should stop running it. Practice it, and make it work. Be proactive and learn your counters, and then learn how to react successfully to your counters. One day, your team is going to create the meta, and that’s an extremely successful feeling.

Tips on starting small:

-Sometimes, it’s good to run what the top teams are running to get your feet wet. Copy, and replicate what they do, then understand why they do it. The more over-all knowledge you have of the game will benefit you in the future.

-This is the phase where you learn how to synergize with team mates. Simply understanding the best positioning, rotations, and CD management can help your team secure a win. How can you peel for a team mate? Who do you synergize with well in small skirmishes? Can you clear a team mates conditions? Or, can you apply enough counter pressure to effectively peel? What is your primary role for your team, and how can you fill that role? Ask yourself these questions, and learn to apply them in game.

-Even though this is all for fun, sometimes you have to run what the team needs you to. If you only want to run one build, then you may actually become detrimental to your team. Generally, competitive players have fun winning, so they don’t care what gets them the win, as long as they get it. This point alone may help some of you understand that the competitive scene isn’t for you, and if so, there’s not a kitten thing wrong with that. At the end of the day, you have to enjoy playing the game. Whether that be beating the top team at the time, or slapping people around in hot joins.

Note: Don’t accept negative behavior as the norm. There are tons of teams who have been brought down by one player being continuously negative. If you can’t convince the player to be more positive, then it may be time for a roster change. You will NOT beat every team when you just start out. Take note of your progress, and learn what it takes to win.

3. Maintain your roster:

The longer you play with your team, the more synergy you will create. More often than not, this means X player will know exactly what your thinking in X situation. He/She will know exactly what to do, and when to do it, because you’ve practiced it a thousand times prior. There are tons of different scenarios in this game that require the use of “fast twitch” reflexes, and when it becomes routine, your task is easier to accomplish. You want to focus on maintaining a positive environment to promote growth, and room for change. Even if you’re losing, focus on fixing your mistakes. Instead of pointing fingers and beating yourselves up, ask yourselves what you could have done better in that situation/game.

Tips for maintaining a roster:

-Do your best to keep spirits high. Laugh about the beating you just received and push your pride/ego/kitten to the side. I know this is easier said than done, but it will help in the long run. There are many teams (top teams even) that have disbanded because they didn’t know how to take a loss. Focus on being humble, and this will be easier to accomplish.

-Prevent from pointing fingers too much, or belittling other team mates. If X player is dying too much, think about how you can help them sustain themselves. This is a team effort, and if you focus all your attention on one person, they may close off.

*-Keep drama out of the team. Seriously, this destroys teams. *

-At the end of the day, if one player just isn’t cutting it, or they can’t devote enough time to it, etc, etc, make it a democratic vote. Ensure that all players are on board with the decision to replace X player. Naturally, you will create friendships and bonds with your team mates, and kicking a player may tarnish that for everyone. It could be the beginning of the end for your team.

4. Scrimmage/record your game play.

This step is about finalizing your progress as a team. This is where your team sits back and reviews their past performances. What could they have done differently? Could they have rotated quicker? Is a strategy change required to beat X team? You may never understand the value in reviewing your own performance unless you actually do it. At certain points, you may actually ask yourself “WTF was I thinking in that scenario”. You have to be open to criticism and feedback to be successful in this community. Naturally, players will downplay and trash talk your team if they don’t recognize your names. This is ok, because all this really means is that a bunch of “no-names” just destroyed some players who have “earned their stripes”.

Tips for increasing overall team performance:

-It’s helpful when a player or two streams. Not only does your name start getting out there, but you can go back and re-watch vods, or even ask viewers for help. At some points, you may even get some top tier players in your chat that will guide you or help you out.

-The natural thought process is to not scrimmage the top team. “We’re going to implement this new strategy and team comp and blow the competition out of the water.” This mindset most likely won’t work. There’s tons of unforeseen circumstances that happens in games, and one of the few ways of identifying them are to actually put it to practice. So, my suggestion is to swallow the pride and scrimmage your competition. Trust me, it helps.

5. Screw a top team, you have your own now.

Just kidding…. Kinda. At this point, your name will probably floating around the scene. You may get team invites, or people will want to pick you up if you become a free agent. Just remember, there’s usually no team more fun than the team that brought you to this point. Maybe it didn’t work, or your team had to go it’s separate ways. But, if you’re considering leaving your team for a better one, keep it in the back of your head that the grass may not always be greener on the other side.

This guide was a little general, I wrote this after a night shift and lost a little bit of energy halfway through. Nonetheless, I hope this helps. Keep your heads up, and good luck to you all!

thanks for this guide!

informative and helpful!

especially the “be positive” part.

This is a great guide. Thanks for being a helpful member of this community.

Oh, sweet! Thanks, Grouch. ^^

Thumbs up!
I should stream more again, sigh.

Great post. The reality is structured PvP in any game that’s worth playing is going to be catering to a niche group who devote much of their free time to the sport.

I have often wondered why e-sport gaming hasn’t evolved to model the real world a bit more. For example, in the real world take Baseball for example. You have corporate teams, minor and major leagues, etc… Each have their own pyramid for championships leading to a winner being crowned. It’s a concept of leagues (some private and some sponsored). To make this analogous to GW2, in sPvP GW2 world essentially there is just one major league (well multiple major leagues if you divide up the International servers). This is great for the hardcore devotes, but it leaves a huge gap for those who can’t devote as much time but still want serious sPvP. Does the 36 year old who plays Baseball competitively in a local league love the game any less than someone who’s playing in the Major Leagues? Not necessarily, but given his skill and limited time to further develop his skill he could never enter MLB, but he does have that local league which lets him compete and have just as much fun…. In the GW2 sPvP world there is no counterpart to this and there really should be.

Technically it would be challenging to implement. There’s all kinds of questions such as "how would we stop an advanced hardcore player from grieving the minor leaguers for fun… While all solutions have their vulnerabilities much could be done on that front. For example if you implemented this sort of leaguing, once a player is qualified as a member of the top tier league. Their account is marked so they can not create a character to compete in the lesser leagues. If a player were to just buy a new account for the purpose of grieving simple safeguards to qualify them (if after a string of battles they consistently out perform everyone else in their league then they get promoted and can not reenter the minor league). If someone is caught grieving they could be banned… My point is technically it’s not that hard to get reasonable safe guards in place to enable a leaguing system. If such a system were ever implemented it would really open up the sPvP side of Guild Wars 2.

Omg my old senpai from back in the days VAIN! Awsome to see ur still playing man ^^