Guild Wars 2

Hello,

Started tpvp about two weeks ago, gradually learned the basics and was just a bit below 50/50 till yesterday. In the last 48 hours or so I’ve gone 4-27, with a streak of 23 losses being particularly discouraging. I think my % fell from 45% ish to 20%, and every match plays out the same. Only play solo as most of my friends prefer pve/wvw.

Lots of questions:
-How to catch up when behind? In every single loss I’ve been in, other team wins the opening engagement mid/other key location and proceed to just build on the point lead.
-Zero communication. In 31 games only in two did people say anything of tactical relevance. Far more likely to have people talk about how they’re contributing much more due to their score while 3 people cap the same point. If you call out incs, the response is either no help, or the entire team comes and zergs the point. Not really sure what to do.
-How to damage bunker specs? I’ve run both the shatter and the phantasm builds, and even with zerker my damage is extremely underwhelming. If I’m defending a node it feels like I can only delay a harassing ele/guard/etc trying to take my point and can very rarely outright kill them within any sort of reasonable time frame (ie before other fights elsewhere wrap up and they’re reinforced.
-I’m sure this is more a mental thing, but how does one beat the “defeatist” feeling at the beginning? Definitely have a fair share of matches where the pre-game starts, you look around, and nobody has any sort of pvp title, and you see the enemy team and they’re all full of avengers and mercs and champion paragons and such, and after the match you see your team was really outclassed rank wise etc. Is there matchmaking?
-Cramped node fighting: What’s the best way to go about this as a mesmer? I’m thinking more of fights at say henge rather than keep. While I can land my shatters and such more easily, I’m usually unable to pressure the enemy in without taking massive damage in return.
-Skill choices: I run Illusion of life/TW/blink/portal, but without coordination it feels much worse than if I just ran moa and null field and such.

I switched to tpvp from hotjoin because hotjoin always felt like either a mishmash of numerically uneven teams (though i’ve learned 4v5s aren’t uncommon in tpvp either it seems) or a proxy for dueling arenas, but definitely feel really discouraged.

- watch some pvp videos, practice more. Skill cap in this game isnt really high so you will get there very soon if you try hard.
- build team from friendly/communicating solo queuers for less frustration
- there is nothing you can do about bunkers
- you will be always matched against much higher or much lower MMR team since there arent many people playing tpvp for obvious reasons
- dont take game too seriously

Well, hi there. Let me try to answer some of your questions

First of all, there is a matchmaking. Its rather new and not visible, but it is there, i think… or hope xD Nah, lets stay serious, Matchmaking is there but its quite new and therefore still unstable. Play pvp for 2 or 3 weeks and u’ll recognize that u get matched with player at your skill-lvl. (Not by Ranklvl, as Matchmaking does not only count the Rank, but also the Win/Loss ratio and vs WHO you lost.)

The best tip i, and every1 else can give u, look for a pvp group. Motivate your guildies or ask in the mists. Friendlist nice players u play with and dont hasitate to ask em for a group when u see them around. Try to get all members on a TS-server or some kind of other voice-communication. As soon as u got a Team u kinda know and u can communicate via voicechat the whole Team-coordination will get better and so will your Team.

And the last tip: Learn the classes by heart. Or at least the most common builds out there. Many player are easy to counter when u know what they are up to or what they will do next in a 1on1. Bunkers are hard to bring down, thats why thay get played at all, but it is possible. Just wait for em to have a good amount of skills on cd. And of corse, master your class. When u play shatter, time your shattercombo right, when u play phantasm take care of your positioning. Well, and if u just cant bring down a tank switch position with a team mate better suited for this fight. (Teamcoordination)

Well, thats kinda all, i think. Just have fun on the Battlefield and the success will come.

Kind regards
Lucifer

-How to catch up when behind? In every single loss I’ve been in, other team wins the opening engagement mid/other key location and proceed to just build on the point lead
Here is what you do. Normally, in every PVP map, they all have three points. In sPVP, the teams consist of 5 players each side. The objective is to capture and hold the point for as long as possible. If you see one point, they have so many players (3 out of 5 at the same point), then you know that the other two will be weak def (either 1/1 or 2/0), you can capture those two points. Assign one player to guard for each point and report any incoming attack. By doing so, you force the other team to split up or go for the other 2, that is your chance to capture back the point they are holding. Keep doing so and you can catch up pretty easy. Also, some PVP have a secondary objective, try to get those Objective done bf the other team and you will see your score close to them in no time.

-Zero communication.
Not just you but the same for everyone else when they join solo.There is no solution for that except you make a premade team with proper Voice Communication (Teamspeak, Mumble,Ventilo,etc…)

-How to damage bunker specs?
You can’t kill any Decent Bunker 1 on 1. On the other hand, they can not kill you either given you are not messed up at anytime. The best way is to call out for back up and with 2vs1, the win will on your favor. Another thing that you did wrong is holding a point while being a Zerker. Guarding point is Bunker Job, Zerker jobs is to join the fight and make sure the fight end in your favor.

Hope this help.

I can say that my wins went up when I changed from trying to kill people to just trying to outsmart them and cap points (speed and stealth). Kind of fun hiding patiently when they take a point and then I slip in and take it right back, then speed off to the next point and cap it as well.

The learning curve in this game is absolutely atrocious.

The fast pace, the lack of cast bars, the visual mess of teamfights, the lack of details on what killed you and the absence of any decent tutorial area make the game an absolute nightmare to become decent/good.

As for actual advices… Keep an eye open on the minimap to see where your teammates are, the points that are contested and your teammates health bars. It will allow you to decide where you are the most needed and if you’re running into a lost fight. Being in the right place at the right time is already 70% of the victory. But it all depends on your teammates:p :p :p :p

Technical skills – aka how well you master your build – will come by playing.

This game’s all about communication. And in group fights, its a mob mentality. Outnumber the other team (so being in the right place at the right time is important, hence communication).

Once in a group fight, just work on getting your chain of attack that you have memorized, and have your stun and condition removal ready. The most important thing that happens really is not during the fight, but at the downed stage. At some point someone will get to the downed state (either your team or theirs), you need to work out also how to stomp effectively or rez effectively. This is pretty much the most important thing, and why premade’s do so well against pugs.

If you solo queue, be the one that talks.

If you let everyone sit and say nothing….they’ll continue saying nothing.

Even if it’s just stuff like “3 inc henge”. When you do it, others often follow suit. Makes a huge difference. It isn’t going to get you the win against a good premade but it’ll be the difference between winning and losing in pug vs pug.

Thanks for all the advice!
I went from 20% to 60% after a bit more communication and a small bit of grouping.
Back down now to 25% though after having eight 4v5s in a row. One of which was one where person who invited me to a group and queued up was the one who never entered -_- No clue really what to do in the face of 4v5s.
On a side note, in all the games I’ve played these past few days on Temple, only once has the team not leading at the 3? minute mark ish not one the game. Certainly feels inevitable, even with the 8:30 Tranquility buff in place. Is this just perception? Additionally, should everyone go for tranquility or no?

Theres 2 areas I personally define for improving yourself….macro play and micro play.
I define macro play as things like map awareness learning the in and outs of each map what professions can get where, where are the thief infiltrator hot spots etc, spawn timers on secondary objectives, knowledge of enemy teams position and learning when to help team fight…when to pressure their nodes when to only decap and then return to team fight etc….

IMO thats a big one the decapping part. Takes 4 seconds to decap total, 14 seconds to cap total. Often you’ll find it more beneficial to quickly decap a point to return to the team fight to clean up crew etc.

Micro play I refer to as the intricacies of professions, combat and neutral mobs etc. Learn what skills each professions has learn when to dodge when to use your blinds dazes, kiting blocks practise reading their moves predicting etc the rough ranges of their skills to stand and position yourself accordingly. Similarly with neutral mobs like svanir….they have a predictable skillset, you can practise on them in the heart of the mists so learn their moves and plan a specific way to 1v1 them. =)

In solo que its all about following your teammates around because they aren’t going to follow you. When people mention that when you lose the mid fight at start of game you normally lose its because they finish 1 guy, then 10 seconds later another guy and another guy, so your team will all be roaming by themselves and easy pickings for 2 guys or more to gank you. Which leads to your downed and someone tries to help you, you get finished and then 10 seconds later they are down. You pretty much have to be good at evaluating situations.

Also you have to look at yourself and play how your build is made, if your dps you need to be in teamfights, let the bunker take some damage so hes fully targeted before you engage. And if your bunker your objective is to get people to attack you, draw more people to you and hold the point as long as you can.

Theres nothing you can do about 4v5 except backcap and try and get as many glory as you can. make the game worth it even though your most likely to lose. Oh and stick with the team because your going to find yourself in 1v2 or 1v3 situations a lot.

Oh and that one guy is right, you should master soloing svanir and chieftain in hearts of mist. Know when there knockdowns are going to happen so u can dodge or interupt them.

Almost forgot, when you notice someone just tearing up your team, like a hgh engy or a staff ele, target them and annoy them, you will be helping your team a lot even if you eventually die from them because those guys make a huge difference when not targeted.