Guild Wars 2

I believe I have mediocre to decent knowledge about GW2 pvp mechanics including map, rotation awareness, meta and skills of each professions. I also know the general terms and strategies such as leaving people bleed and cleaving and other details that can really make a difference in game.

However what I still don’t understand is how can I get good in other ways that would help me become better pvp player overall, going above and beyond where I am. For instance on 4v4 fights at mid how can I make greater impact that would win the mid fight? As a power revenent (invoc/strength) what I generally do is bait their cd by using sword 3 in shiro and walking out of node while healing in glint towards my teammates to create more opportunities but I realized that these will not work in higher levels such as against pro league players.

While I believe that I can hold my own in skirmishes and somewhat unfavorable 1v1 match ups to a point where I can survive and call back ups pro league players tend to be the game changers in many ways that I cannot recognize. I tried to watch all their streams but the current match making either have them stomp the opposition to the ground or give them bad teammates that they cannot do much but survive.

What should I be doing in order to get good and ultimately be the difference in carrying the team?

Playing mesmer is always a good start

You can do pretty well on guard without knowing ho to play. Just get the medi-trapper build on metabattle.

I am glad to see someone ask this question. The best way to get better at the team fight is to first understand that all damage and such does not always have to go onto the target called. This is a big misnomer. For example if the target is blocking or dodging, invuln, etc you are wasting resources.

2) understand you class, your build, and your role. Learn how to use it in conjunction with your other 4 teammates. For example, you are playing a scrapper, use your combo fields to your teams advantage and not just your advantage.
Playing a druid, splash water fields on teammates and not just yourself. etc etc

3) learn how to disengage. Killing your teams target is meaningless if you get yourself killed in the process. Sometimes you need to withdraw some damage, because the team is putting counter damage. Or leave a fight because it will cost you more resources than you will win.

4) learn how to peel. This means learn how to redirect damage from the called target to other targets that are damaging your teammate. Typically this is stuns, snares, boons, etc. Huge tactic for keeping your guy alive longer than theirs.
5) Mini map awareness. You don’t want to be the guy rotating to a 1v1 that is already over. You could be somewhere else.

6) Anticipate enemy movement. If you know where they will be, you will know where to be yourself.

7) learn to play defensively. Your build should not just be about rotating through the skills. Each skill has a purpose, and most of the time they can be used offensively or defensively. For example, I can use endure pain or berzerker stance so I can apply more damage to my target. This would be an offensive application. Defensively, I could use them to save my life as well when under attack. Same skills different uses.

8) Only 1 person needs to stand on a node to control it. Do not put yourself in unnecessary damage. Healing is limited.

Here’s a couple pointers.

play enough pvp so you know which players are bad on their team and farm them all game

The best way to improve as a player is to take as many 1v1s as you can against players who you know are better than you and who will beat you. Fighting players who you beat does not really teach you anything. Yes, in the end you will lose but you will find that the more you do this, the longer you survive and eventually you will be able to beat that player. When you take these 1v1s, you should watch your opponents closely and look for their important animations. For example it is very important to dodge skills like both revenant elites, chill to the bone and reaper shroud 5, warrior longbow 5, skull grinder and a few more. If you fail to dodge skills like this you will not win a 1v1 against pro league players and other highly skilled people. Managing dodges and defensive cooldowns is one of the most important parts of fighting. It takes many games to learn to dodge important skills but when you do become able to, you will feel much stronger as a player.

This is what I did and I have gone from being absolutely terrible at the start of season 1 to a good player who can 1v1 anyone and knows where to go and what to do most of the time. In the past I always tried to take 1v1s against pro Rangers (I play ranger) and when I started doing this I always died or was forced off the node but now I can hold the cap forever against any ranger and I sometimes even win the fight against top-level pro league Rangers so I suggest that you also do this, OP.

Start recording your matches and watch the replays everyday after you get done. This is the best way I know to try to analyze each match and figure out what worked and what didn’t. This method is time consuming and tedious but I guarantee you that you will have much more data to work with going forward.

It´s mostly know your class and memorize your keys. I did more or less exclusively play one class (ele) for a year and think i am now decent(unfortuantely now this is not enough …). I usually know why i did just loose and think how i can adapt.
And while you learn you will also get a feeling about other classes you fight. Of course playing others and knowing their strenghts and weaknesses helps a lot but this might cost a lot of time most don´t have.

@OP Roll DH thats step 1. Step 2 find a good DH meta build Sep 3 practice the build in hotjoin. Step 4 ranked and win because DH op. Trust me it will work. If you wan’t 1 vs 1 you can’t get good over night. You have to put in more hours than your opponent with 1 vs 1 practice and trust me some 1 vs 1 no life this game so gl. I would recommend getting good at something in real life.

suffish.4150:

The best way to improve as a player is to take as many 1v1s as you can against players who you know are better than you and who will beat you. Fighting players who you beat does not really teach you anything. Yes, in the end you will lose but you will find that the more you do this, the longer you survive and eventually you will be able to beat that player.

+1

Spartacus.3192:

suffish.4150:

The best way to improve as a player is to take as many 1v1s as you can against players who you know are better than you and who will beat you. Fighting players who you beat does not really teach you anything. Yes, in the end you will lose but you will find that the more you do this, the longer you survive and eventually you will be able to beat that player.

+1

If you are going to practice 1 v 1, make sure you practice on Point.

If you cannot get a better player to fight you 1 v 1, get two others of your skill level and practice 1 v 2, again on point. Remember, not all fights will be fighting others to decap/capture points. You will often find yourself fighting 1 v 2 to hold a point, while you wait for some one to +1 you.

And a big one that I think has not been mentioned. Know when to stomp, when to cleave and when to raise. Each one is situational.

This a good thread. It would be great if someone made a post on how to PvP that could get stickied. Or add more info to the already stickied post about getting started in PvP. Perhaps a link to a guide with info on what the best things to do are.

Wolfric.9380:

It´s mostly know your class and memorize your keys. I did more or less exclusively play one class (ele) for a year and think i am now decent(unfortuantely now this is not enough …). I usually know why i did just loose and think how i can adapt.
And while you learn you will also get a feeling about other classes you fight. Of course playing others and knowing their strenghts and weaknesses helps a lot but this might cost a lot of time most don´t have.

After playing rev in ranked/unranked matches for 250+ games and playing pvp for about 2 years in both pug and teams I think I have somewhat sound understanding of rev including skills, match ups, jukes and other details. I have not really lost many 1v1s but yesterday I faced Toker in rev match up and I got demolished. If I lost to other Rev it is mostly due to my own mistake but against Toker I literally got crushed and I want to know how I can improve as a player not only in 1v1 but in team fights as well because he was literally carrying the team into the another level.

TheFamster.7806:

Wolfric.9380:

It´s mostly know your class and memorize your keys. I did more or less exclusively play one class (ele) for a year and think i am now decent(unfortuantely now this is not enough …). I usually know why i did just loose and think how i can adapt.
And while you learn you will also get a feeling about other classes you fight. Of course playing others and knowing their strenghts and weaknesses helps a lot but this might cost a lot of time most don´t have.

After playing rev in ranked/unranked matches for 250+ games and playing pvp for about 2 years in both pug and teams I think I have somewhat sound understanding of rev including skills, match ups, jukes and other details. I have not really lost many 1v1s but yesterday I faced Toker in rev match up and I got demolished. If I lost to other Rev it is mostly due to my own mistake but against Toker I literally got crushed and I want to know how I can improve as a player not only in 1v1 but in team fights as well because he was literally carrying the team into the another level.

The difference between you and him is probably something like 5000+ games. I mean, that’s pretty much it. There’s a world of experience difference, he probably just predicted your probable next moves knowing your cooldowns and remaining energy amount and interrupted every one of your channels.

I mean, if you want to get on his level, quit school/your job and play nonstop and you might be able to catch up in a year or so.

Vicky.4563

The difference between you and him is probably something like 5000+ games. I mean, that’s pretty much it. There’s a world of experience difference, he probably just predicted your probable next moves knowing your cooldowns and remaining energy amount and interrupted every one of your channels.

I mean, if you want to get on his level, quit school/your job and play nonstop and you might be able to catch up in a year or so.

LOL so true. I faced Toker on his rev (me on mine) in unranked a couple weeks ago. I felt so honored to be demolished by him (joking of course). Not joking about the getting demolished part. My only satisfaction was i got lucky and sniped/stomped him after he was low on health from a previous fight. He proceeded to kill me half a dozen times after.

Play and learn all classes, so you know what are you facing

Learn how to rotate

Learn to indentify the dangerous class to target

Duels Duels Duels Duels

Just play and play.

play condi mesmer or reaper
collect free wins