Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to get into SPvP, and I’m not particularly good at it on anything but a Necro, and I’ve never really been too involved in PvP in any other game before. What are some of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to being productive in an SPvP Match?

Honestly, hot joins are designed for jumping in and learning.

The most important thing I can tell you is don’t get discouraged. First week I had the game, I was ready to ragequit entirely because I was just getting roflstomped left, right and sideways. I didn’t have a good spec, wasn’t aware of the mechanics, ignored some of my utilities…etc. Every time I died I was baffled, I had no idea what was going on.

You’re going to get eaten alive while you’re learning. Try looking at other classes weapon skills via a skillbuilder (or just rolling one, going to the heart, and trying it out yourself) so you at least have an idea what they can do. Pull a spec or 2 offline instead of trying out your own to start.

As for specifics, its fairly easy. capture the point. Stay on point, try to kill your enemies, or at least fear them off point, then slow them so it takes longer for them to get to you. Everything else you’ll pick up in play.

Public matches:-

Do:-

- “tag” as many enemies as possible with damage so that when they die you get credit for the kill.

- run away to some other random objective after taking the point.

- rush the boss in the Forest of Niflhel – as long as you get the 25 points, who gives a kitten about anyone else?

- focus the tank in teamfights

- type “/laugh” after you finish an opponent – this will help to disperse the tension of the moment and after reading your jovial emote, hilarity will ensue for both teams.

Don’t:-

- take down the trebuchet in Khylo – who cares if they have a bit of “air support”?

- res teammates – they’re obviously skrubs if they’re downed so why help them? You’ve got important spamming of your “1” skill to get on with.

- play anything but backstab thief – no other burst build in the game compares to you whatsoever, so go crazy!

- defend points – points are for LOSERS. Sitting on them makes you look like a nerd. If you’re not mindlessly following everyone else around the map, you’re doing it wrong.

- use dodge roll. It’s a pretty useless game mechanic with no real effectiveness – holding down the “s” key is far more effective at getting out of enemy AoE.

- play support. What fun is the game when your job is helping other people? News for you pal – OTHER PEOPLE are LOSERS. You are the most important person on the map, so build to reflect that.

- bother with stupid stuff like amulets, sigils, and armor enchantments. These things are totally peripheral, and only super-TRYHARDS bother with them. You aren’t a boss if you can’t dominate skrubs without trying too hard on your build.

Box Face.2041:

Public matches:-

Do:-

- “tag” as many enemies as possible with damage so that when they die you get credit for the kill.

- run away to some other random objective after taking the point.

- rush the boss in the Forest of Niflhel – as long as you get the 25 points, who gives a kitten about anyone else?

- focus the tank in teamfights

- type “/laugh” after you finish an opponent – this will help to disperse the tension of the moment and after reading your jovial emote, hilarity will ensue for both teams.

Don’t:-

- take down the trebuchet in Khylo – who cares if they have a bit of “air support”?

- res teammates – they’re obviously skrubs if they’re downed so why help them? You’ve got important spamming of your “1” skill to get on with.

- play anything but backstab thief – no other burst build in the game compares to you whatsoever, so go crazy!

- defend points – points are for LOSERS. Sitting on them makes you look like a nerd. If you’re not mindlessly following everyone else around the map, you’re doing it wrong.

- use dodge roll. It’s a pretty useless game mechanic with no real effectiveness – holding down the “s” key is far more effective at getting out of enemy AoE.

- play support. What fun is the game when your job is helping other people? News for you pal – OTHER PEOPLE are LOSERS. You are the most important person on the map, so build to reflect that.

- bother with stupid stuff like amulets, sigils, and armor enchantments. These things are totally peripheral, and only super-TRYHARDS bother with them. You aren’t a boss if you can’t dominate skrubs without trying too hard on your build.

You sound like a right proper kitten.

adragon.1234:

I don’t understand basic irony

Box Face, that was pure gold mate, almost wet myself at several points whilst reading, nice one

Run with the group, join the zerg as much as you can.

Not being sarcastic, it’s really what you’re supposed to do in spvp.

It will show you how the maps are constructed without getting lost at first.

It wil protect you from smaller fights where you lack experience.

It will give you the only kills you’ll get for a while.

It will show you how points are won.

It will give you acces to more glory points than going out alone.

In spvp you get little to no reward for trying to defend a point. It’s simply useles because when a group of enemies arrive, you won’t survive anyhow to stop them for any significant time.
‘Defending gets you nothing but killed in spvp’

I don’t agree with the strategy of zerging that I posted, but I do believe that’s the only sensible thing a new playe can do in spvp.

Box face made fun of it, but what he says is actually a result of what I describe as well.
The system just promotes zerging.

lol @ boxface

That was awesome Box Face. That should be stickied.

I’ll try to add something productive here. When you’re learning you’re definitely going to get stomped a bit – so make the best of that time. First things first – learn your strengths and weaknesses of whatever build you’re using. That’s so basic it almost sounds trite, but it’s true. If you’re not spec’d and geared for something, don’t try to do it in a match; you’ll just end up frustrated and not enjoying yourself thinking that you’re incapable of playing. I’m not particularly good at pvp in any game, but in this game I started paying more attention to what I could do with the build I was running and I’m having a lot of fun wit hit.

Definitely pay attention to important visual cues about who you’re up against – check out the profession icon when you target someone and learn to identify them without having to necessarily do that so you can tell what you’re getting into or what’s trying to get onto you.

After some time you’ll learn to associate those visual cues with what kind of behavior you can expect. The professions have a variety of builds, but some are the clear favorites for spvp so you’ll notice patterns in abilities and how they’re used against you or how they change in certain situations. Once you develop an idea of what other classes are capable of, you can think on your own abilities and how you’ll use them most effectively against each of them in either a proactive or reactive manner.

I’m not sure this all actually flows in a particular order, but I’d say once you’ve got the combat piece down (because you’re going to be fighting…) remember that these are point control based matches so don’t forget there is an objective besides running around chasing people down. Unless you’re strategically stalling opposition from getting to a control point, try to fight at or around those points. Learn the maps so you know how to quickly get between those points and can use the map and the gimmicks in each to your advantage.

I’d also recommend following another player around as you’re learning, not necessarily clustering up with EVERYONE else, but while learning find someone who looks like they’re capable of getting between two points without getting rocked or trying to take on people 5v1 because they have delusions of being a “ninja.” Find that person and stick with them a bit. You don’t have to message them to ask permission or make any special arrangements. But it will increase your changes for survival so that you’ll actually have time to download and process the information and see what’s happening. I mean, at the very least, maybe the other team will kill him instead of you!

When gearing and speccing yourself, keep in mind that when you are not alive in sPvP, you are hurting your team. Don’t devalue health and toughness under damage potential. This is a common mistake by most new PvP players in mmo’s. Damage over the entire match matters much more then damage over 5 seconds.

Get on YouTube/Google and look up some builds for your class. You can cusotmise it as you please later but you will almost certainly find a build that would take you a long time to work out for yourself. I would recommend finding a defensive bulid that can counter massive burst damage.

If you use the trebuchet, try using it correctly for once. It makes me rage when I see idiots grabbing it (which seems to be 24/7).

If you do not demolishing the map first (the house, the sewer pipes, etc), then you should get off it. By demolishing the map, it lets you see enemy players are they move around with the trebuchet so you can hit them (without it they can hide behind props) and it gives your team increased mobility (now you can jump over the pipe section and through the house).

Watch the mini map before going anywhere and keep an eye on the points, which are yours, theirs, contested, some logic will help you predict where you can go to give your team the numbers in a fight and score some kills.

If the enemy is turning a point let them have it, hook up with the the green dots instead. As a Necro your not going to 1v1 good players till you get really good at duelling, but you can help your team decimate people in 2v2’s and greater.

don’t neglect defense. A little toughness goes a long way. Defense spec’ed necros can be very powerful.