Guild Wars 2

I just reached 80 last week and have been enjoying pvp. Without even realizing it I earned my first title in the game (Gladiator). But several aspects of the game control which don’t bother me in pve drive me crazy in pvp because it is so much faster. I am sure pvp players have worked out these issues in gw2.
1. How can I follow another player? I can’t find any auto-follow hot key so in many fights I seem to be just swinging at empty air.
2. Are there ways to avoid being knocked down continually? In some fights I seem to be on my back continually – and worse, my timers often start all over again. Yet I don’t seem to have any such knockdown myself (I play a GS Guardian).
3. Is there a way to have my main attack keep hitting without mashing the 1 key? The tool tip says “ctrl plus right click” to autoattack but usually this either does nothing or stops after a couple of swings. When I mash 1 I can’t use my left hand to use other skills. and when I use my mouse for skills I stop moving.
4. Is there a fast way to determine an opponent’s class? All I see in their tag is a name. Sometimes someone in my pug will say “kill the thief” but then I waste 20 seconds looking for an obvious thief.
5. I play mainly unranked and there seems to be very little group strategy. Sometimes someone says “I’m going mid” at the beginning but that may be it for the entire match. Is this just the nature of unranked groups? The maps actually seem well -designed for strategy.

Thanks for any tips you can provide.

1) following is on you to turn your mouse and keeps them in front of you so you can hit them with your attacks.
2) you are being hit by skills that stun/knockback so the only counter is to dodge, blind the enemy, use aegis, or run stability. Your abilities go on reduced CD to show the stun duration or full CD of they were cast before the interrupt landed on you.
3) have auto attack on, hit 1, if player is still in meele range the auto attack chain will continue on – no need to mash in this aspect. Continuing to press 1 is good sometimes to cleave people who come into meele when your targeted player is far say as those hits will keep the chain going
4) learn the class icons on the enemy skill bar, learn attack animations specific to classes, also learn to take targets called by teammates (forget the default button for this T I think?)
5) unranked/ranked are generally looked at as a place where people who know their class/role go to compete. Newer players would benefit from custom servers to learn their abilities and everything before stepping into unranked/ranked Q’s as their is often little communication as it is expected you know how to rotate and perform decently

I apologize in advance if this contains grammatical errors, I have large hands, and I’m typing this on a phone.

First thing that helped me alot was learning to wear my mouse as a hat. No, not on your head, but keeping the mouse pointer located in the general vacinity above your toons head. The center of the screen. Using the keyboard to strafe and holding the right mouse button down and turning with the mouse. This effectively makes the game a thurd person shooter/adventure game. This is very helpfull for aoe attacks, and for controlling your toon in a more fluid and reactive fashion. Aquiring and traking a target be omes easier once you learn this method.

The tab key allows you to cycle targets. Not the best thing when there are a lot of ads around like minions or engi turrents, but just if your mouse pointer in the center of the screen you should have an easyer time clicking to target

When playing other players it is important to understand that the best way to land big hits is to disable a players ability to move. CC abilities su h as pin down and knockdown allow attacks to be strung together making a “combo”
stability and stun breakers then act as a “combo breaker” this is an important concept to understand espe ially against or played as bursty builds.

Understanding what the other classes are without having selected them is an experience thing. Look at what the toon is doing. Only engis can make turrets mezmers are the only thing thats gonna be doing all kinds of purple everywhere. Warriors will def look the roll in heavy armor ( and prob have a longbow in their hand) determinh a toons proffesion with out having. Licked them is something you will learn as you go along.

When it comes to strat, if your not playing with friends you can try to communicate a strat to your PUGS but they may not respond or may even respond in a negative way be prepaired to just have to leroy jenkins it. A “safe” strat is to simply hold 2 points longer then the other team. If you can get around the map fairly quickly you should be able to help the rest of your team do this or ebeven do it on your own if you have to.

Just a little extra for you….. remember that the first person that is seen is uaslly the one that gets focused on for attacks. Try to run to battles behind someone, and if you are/get outnumbered on a node its uaslly time to go.

a pvp mat h changes very quikly and nothing is set in stone you will see people doing things that may not make imedeit sense. Example. .. not stomping a player. In some situations it is better to let a player try to rez just so you can wail on him and have 2 downed insted of one.

Remeber pvp is no holds bared killin so get in there and show no mercy group with friends and yall can have a great time. if you see me online feel free to ask me any questions and I will be more than happy to help ya.

Lyzandia.9135:

4. Is there a fast way to determine an opponent’s class? All I see in their tag is a name. Sometimes someone in my pug will say “kill the thief” but then I waste 20 seconds looking for an obvious thief.

If you have problems with that you could activate “Standard Enemy Models” to determine the classes.

Other ways are combination of weapons and armors, animations, ofc class symbol if targetetd …

Thanks. Tremendously helpful.

One question. Tip 3 was “have auto-attack turned on”. Does this mean the right-click and hold CTRL thing?

Its in the Game Options screen. Where you tweak your video and audio settings. Its on the very first page.

There’s a toggle “Turn Auto-Attack on” or something like that near the bottom.

Another tip, add a key bind the “Select Closest Target” command. Also, in the Options, under the key binds section. There is no key bind assigned to it by default. I bound to my “C” key, since that’s what it was in GW1.

Another “handy but often not used” command is the “Look behind you”. Its a good way to target someone if your being chased. Just “look behind” and click on them with your mouse.

Oh, and the “Call Target” function. Basically, if you have a target that you want your party to focus on. You target the enemy and hit “Ctrl-T”. This will put a target reticule above the enemy that your party members can see. (You will also here an audio of “Hit my Target” or something like that.) Then your party can tap their “T” key and they will switch to called target. It’s mostly used to point out the real mesmer from his clones.

Lyzandia.9135:

Thanks. Tremendously helpful.

One question. Tip 3 was “have auto-attack turned on”. Does this mean the right-click and hold CTRL thing?

Yes it does. But if they go out of rang and you swing 2 or 3 times at the air. The auto attack stops. You must hit it again while in range to re-engage ( unless you hit someone else near you while you are catching up with them). Also make sure in your general options you have “Stop auto attack upon target switch” turned off (It reads something like that). Otherwise when you change targets you will have to hit you #1 again to engage on auto swinging.

Thank you Ghost! That did the trick. Now I am finally hitting things in combat without mashing, and I have more time to plan strategic use of skills. Whew. Took me a long time to figure out something so simple!

Lyzandia.9135:

Thank you Ghost! That did the trick. Now I am finally hitting things in combat without mashing, and I have more time to plan strategic use of skills. Whew. Took me a long time to figure out something so simple!

Not a problem! GL out there!