Guild Wars 2

Just wanted to create a thread to give tips to help those new to PvP.

This could include techniques, things you wish you knew, common misconceptions, etc.

I’ll start with something I learned recently.

Tech: Fake-Out Stomp vs. Mesmers
If you down a mesmer, you can fake-out a stomp (aka start stomp => hit back to cancel or whatever you use to cancel the stomp => restart the stomp) to bait out the mesmer’s downed cloak/short teleportation skill (skill 2). If you pull it off, most of the time the mesmer will appear within stomping distance and you’ll pull off the stomp. If you have shadowstep or a blink-type move, that’s even better. This could potentially save you a lot of time fighting against downed mesmers.

A dead player can still call a target. Just a nice, helpful little thing to do for your team as you wait for the respawn.

Common Misconception: Ranger F# skills
You can still use them when downed even though they are not in the GUI. So yes, you can interrupt with your #2 skill and then wolf fear and then command the wolf to knock down your opponent then switch pets to something else and so on and so forth. (OP imo)

Only one person can contribute towards capping a point.

In other words, stop following me when I backcap open points. >:|

Thing I wish I knew: Auto-Target Toggle
Want to RTL/Swoosh/Leap away from enemies instead of towards them? Turn off auto-target and from now on, click away from the enemy to de-target them and leap away! Get used to calling targets and hitting ‘t’ or the target button to lock on your enemy if you turn auto-target off.

Common misconception

The majority of pvpers seem to think that when you lose you must rage and when you win you must brag how pro you are and how much everyone but you sucks.

My advice

Get a grip of yourselves and play for fun. Play with people you like not just people you think are mega pro and worthy of being on your team. This way you will continue to enjoy the game for a long time. Keep the rage locked away.

O and block everyone who doesnt follow this advice (aka kittens)

Most of the downed interrupt skill have an cast time and animation. By learning these you can time your stability/invuln/blind etc to avoid the interrupt. If nothing else, dodging these then stomping again is usually faster than eating the interrupt.

Things I wish I knew: Warrior Vengeance Invulnerability
If you are downed as a warrior, popping vengeance will give you a short time of invulnerability. Use it to stomp a player instead of just dpsing him unless they are the thieves/mesmers/eles (hopefully you have sweet revenge traited).

“AdvanceSkillTarget” in the options is one of your best friends against minion classes…

If only it worked with stealth, lol.

Which one is the real one?

Are you having problems discerning between the real mesmer and his clones? Go to options and unclick “Show all enemy names” “NPC Names” and make sure to click “Show all player names”
Now you can see the real mesmer’s name tag. The rest is up to you.

tip: don’t play warrior it you want to be on a competitive team

^ Paradigm EU uses warrior in some of their comps.

Tundera.7956:

^ Paradigm EU uses warrior in some of their comps.

If you are good enough to find and then successfully use the few merits of the class, you won’t be reading a thread like this.

1: Mini-map and party interface are the most valuable assests given to a player w.o voice communication, LEARN TO READ THEM PLEASE!

2: DO NOT roam if your class has crap mobility.

3: Do not waste your time 1v1ing someone on a node for more than 40-60 seconds if you cant kill them quickly. Disengage and run to another node of you do not expect back up. (Pro tip from some friends which should be ingrained into every newbies head.)- “Aint nobody got time foh dat!”

Thank you.

Nice info all, this thread just made my fav list to keep checking back. like the one about the mes, and the one about more ppl capping, that is one thing that annoys the daylights out of me, seeing several ppl on same node with zero foes around. just to get personal points.

Things you wish you knew: Treb shots on Khylo
It takes approximately 3 seconds after you hear incoming for the treb to land. You cannot block treb shots—make sure you dodge them or take down that darn annoying trebber!

Things you wish you knew, but it’s easy to forget/use to your advantage: Respawn timer
Respawn timer resets every 20 seconds. So if you die at 8:00, then you have to wait 20 seconds, as opposed to 7:41 where it’d be 1 second. You can technically get pro at this and make kill on enemies near the 20 second marker, but it’s easy to get caught up in battle.

For tPvP, it’s a set time now, not in waves.

Tip, if someone blinds you, press 1 a bunch of times to get rid of blindness before you go for the knockdown downed skill. Doesn’t work against d/p thieves.

Kitcat.1739:

A dead player can still call a target. Just a nice, helpful little thing to do for your team as you wait for the respawn.

Wanna bet they hotfix this in about three days?

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Common Misconception: Ranger F# skills
You can still use them when downed even though they are not in the GUI. So yes, you can interrupt with your #2 skill and then wolf fear and then command the wolf to knock down your opponent then switch pets to something else and so on and so forth. (OP imo)

As a Ranger I am downed by some players in one to two shots – I don’t find the downed abilities OP at all.

Demonsoul.9271:

Only one person can contribute towards capping a point.

In other words, stop following me when I backcap open points. >:|

It’s the personal points – and I have watched them go up – several people can get capping points, I am just not sure how many – there is a cut-off just like there is with the bosses if I am not mistaken.

if you click where the revive button will be, you will automatically revive when the timer is up

atheria.2837:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Common Misconception: Ranger F# skills
You can still use them when downed even though they are not in the GUI. So yes, you can interrupt with your #2 skill and then wolf fear and then command the wolf to knock down your opponent then switch pets to something else and so on and so forth. (OP imo)

As a Ranger I am downed by some players in one to two shots – I don’t find the downed abilities OP at all.

haha true true.

Things to knows: Necro DS Stomp counter
If you are one of those professions that can interrupt a stomp and you are facing a necro who tries to DS stomp you. Without even scouting whether he has stability on Death Shroud or not, time your interrupt for the last moment of the stomp animation. It could save your life (Death Shroud stability doesn’t last the whole stomp animation).

edit: This assumes the necro doesn’t have any boon duration increase. Otherwise consider interrupting them before they are in range of a stomp.

It’s always better to dps out a thief in downstate rather than stomp him. (Unless you can teleport-stomp).

Temple of the Silent Storm Buffs

Since it is the current map I figure this is appropriate.

Stillness spawns the first time at 11:30 and gives you double points from nodes you control.

Tranquility spawns at 8:30 and instantly gives you ALL 3 nodes.

Ferocity STACKS. If you get them both and then blast out 5 kills it can be a very big difference maker.

CC can be a huge factor in the group fight at Tranqility – Certain classes specc’d certain ways can CC an opponent off of the buff long enough for their team mate to complete the channel if they plan ahead and execute well. Think about how you might be able to do this. TIP – start on land and knockback, pull or fear your opponent into the water, then you can take advantage of your under water CC’s.

Tundera.7956:

^ Paradigm EU uses warrior in some of their comps.

they could win with 5 warriors vs most teams probably since its more about movement than skill

Foefire: Healing the Lord
Pretty much all ally-type heals work on the lord, even tome of courage. So if you know your lord is gonna get spiked down, whip out that tome and get that full heal channeled while your teammates make their way towards capping, killing enemy lord, or coming to help.

Tech: Guardian Spirit Weapon glitch
If your land utilities #2 & #3 are off cd and you are in water, you can summon spirit weapons placed in those slots without putting your land utilities on cd. So if you are on temple of silent storm or capricorn, make sure to take a dip before engaging in battle so you’ll have 2 spirit weapons and all of your land utilities! (shield & hammer suggested)

edit: Exploit, do not use

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Tech: Guardian Spirit Weapon glitch
If your land utilities #2 & #3 are off cd and you are in water, you can summon spirit weapons placed in those slots without putting your land utilities on cd. So if you are on temple of silent storm or capricorn, make sure to take a dip before engaging in battle so you’ll have 2 spirit weapons and all of your land utilities! (shield & hammer suggested)

This is a clear exploit and a fast route to getting reported. I don’t recommend it. And you are referring to Temple of the Silent Storm (no water on spirit watch).

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Tech: Guardian Spirit Weapon glitch
If your land utilities #2 & #3 are off cd and you are in water, you can summon spirit weapons placed in those slots without putting your land utilities on cd. So if you are on temple of silent storm or capricorn, make sure to take a dip before engaging in battle so you’ll have 2 spirit weapons and all of your land utilities! (shield & hammer suggested)

This is a clear exploit and a fast route to getting reported. I don’t recommend it. And you are referring to Temple of the Silent Storm (no water on spirit watch).

Hm, good call. I guess I’ll start a bug thread on it.

Tech: Thief ShadowStep Stomp
This one is pretty fun, and there are quite a few ways to do this.

Using ShadowStep Utility: Start the stomp, shadowstep as far as you can away from your opponent (behind him is always good) and then return when you are midway dropping down to get a stomp. This is especially good against Guardians. If you are facing another thief, you would save your shadowstep until he teleports.

Using Sword & Infiltraitor’s Signet: Use sword #2 to shadowstep to your opponent and start the stomp. Return using sword #2 again and then use the signet to shadowstep back to your opponent.

Using Sword & Steal: Use sword #2 and start the stomp and then sword #2 again to return to your original location. Then use steal to blink to your opponent to pull off the stomp.

Using Steal vs. Thief/Mesmer: If the mesmer cloaks early but reappears too far or if the thief chooses an unindentifiable location to teleport. Using steal can lockdown on them as long as you have them targetted so you can finish the stomp on them.

Using Infiltrator’s Signet: Same effect as using steal.

Tech: Death Shroud Stomp & Res
To DS Stomp, hit F1 and then your stomp key right after (as if you were rolling from key to key)—It has to be really quick in order for it to register and you will know if you pulled it off if you see the stomping animation.

To DS Res, do the same thing on a downed ally. You will pop DS and res. This helps in tanking enemies who spam aoes or like to focus on you while you res.

Earthmonkey.4326:

“AdvanceSkillTarget” in the options is one of your best friends against minion classes…

If only it worked with stealth, lol.

What is advanceskilltarget?

Mesmers stomping a thief. If you’re good you can pull this off and enjoy the look of surprise. Equip blink. When the thief teleports during the stomp and you have around a second left, you can instantly teleport to the new location to get the stomp.

I’ve done this so many times and it’s a lot of fun

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Things you wish you knew, but it’s easy to forget/use to your advantage: Respawn timer
Respawn timer resets every 20 seconds. So if you die at 8:00, then you have to wait 20 seconds, as opposed to 7:41 where it’d be 1 second. You can technically get pro at this and make kill on enemies near the 20 second marker, but it’s easy to get caught up in battle.

This isn’t true anymore unless you’re playing a custom server with respawn set for waves. The default in tourney queue is a set amount of time, though it was waves at one point early on.

Nettle.9025:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Things you wish you knew, but it’s easy to forget/use to your advantage: Respawn timer
Respawn timer resets every 20 seconds. So if you die at 8:00, then you have to wait 20 seconds, as opposed to 7:41 where it’d be 1 second. You can technically get pro at this and make kill on enemies near the 20 second marker, but it’s easy to get caught up in battle.

This isn’t true anymore unless you’re playing a custom server with respawn set for waves. The default in tourney queue is a set amount of time, though it was waves at one point early on.

Ah, thanks for the correction. Will edit above.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Common misconception

The majority of pvpers seem to think that when you lose you must rage and when you win you must brag how pro you are and how much everyone but you sucks.

My advice

Get a grip of yourselves and play for fun. Play with people you like not just people you think are mega pro and worthy of being on your team. This way you will continue to enjoy the game for a long time. Keep the rage locked away.

O and block everyone who doesnt follow this advice (aka kittens)

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Things to knows: Necro DS Stomp counter
If you are one of those professions that can interrupt a stomp and you are facing a necro who tries to DS stomp you. Without even scouting whether he has stability on Death Shroud or not, time your interrupt for the last moment of the stomp animation. It could save your life (Death Shroud stability doesn’t last the whole stomp animation).

This depends on the amount of boon duration the Necro has. If the Necro has 20 into death magic (20% boon duration) which is not uncommon, stability will last the entire duration (barring random server lag/de-syncing).

IMO, generally speaking, it is safer to CC the Necro ASAP to prevent them getting into stomping range to begin with, since they need to be in stomping range before activating death shroud.

Skyro.3108:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Things to knows: Necro DS Stomp counter
If you are one of those professions that can interrupt a stomp and you are facing a necro who tries to DS stomp you. Without even scouting whether he has stability on Death Shroud or not, time your interrupt for the last moment of the stomp animation. It could save your life (Death Shroud stability doesn’t last the whole stomp animation).

This depends on the amount of boon duration the Necro has. If the Necro has 20 into death magic (20% boon duration) which is not uncommon, stability will last the entire duration (barring random server lag/de-syncing).

IMO, generally speaking, it is safer to CC the Necro ASAP to prevent them getting into stomping range to begin with, since they need to be in stomping range before activating death shroud.

Great point, I didn’t consider this.

Things to know: Engi Condition Immune Trait
If you are facing an engineer and get a lot of ‘Immune’ messages that means that have traited to be immune to conditions when they hit 25% hp. This means conditions cannot be applied during this hp range—however, any conditions applied before then will still linger. If you are condition based fighter, try to figure out a way to do direct damage during this time and not spam conditions otherwise the engineer will normally stall long enough to regain it’s health.

bhagwad.4281:

Earthmonkey.4326:

“AdvanceSkillTarget” in the options is one of your best friends against minion classes…

If only it worked with stealth, lol.

What is advanceskilltarget?

I think it’s actually called “PromoteSkillTarget” in the menu(I think*), but anyways…

It locks your target when you use a skill on them. If you hit a minion by accident you won’t auto target the minion.

Earthmonkey.4326:

bhagwad.4281:

Earthmonkey.4326:

“AdvanceSkillTarget” in the options is one of your best friends against minion classes…

If only it worked with stealth, lol.

What is advanceskilltarget?

I think it’s actually called “PromoteSkillTarget” in the menu(I think*), but anyways…

It locks your target when you use a skill on them. If you hit a minion by accident you won’t auto target the minion.

Ah yes, I use this already

Recognizing Mesmer Sound Effects to avoid Blurred Frenzy
When a mesmer blinks, they have a distinct sound effect (hard to describe but if you have a mesmer you will know what I mean!) If you dodge right when you hear the sound effect, more likely than not, you’ll be evading a blurred frenzy (and the immobolize that comes with the blink).

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

This is a clear exploit and a fast route to getting reported. I don’t recommend it. And you are referring to Temple of the Silent Storm (no water on spirit watch).

Then they should now about it know since a Dev already answered in this thread(but he did not say anything about this).

Let’s wait a week. If it is not fixed in 1 week we can assume it is intended(until they tell us something different).

And if you’re a thief, use steal right before(like 0.1 seconds before) the stomp. If the mez teleported, this will put you right next to them again and won’t interrupt the stomp.

Downed State Interrupts you can react to
If you see a warrior raise his hand up for a split second, dodge backwards to avoid the knock down.

If you see a engineer raise his hand up for a split second, dodge backwards to avoid the pull cc.

If a necro puts his hand out and you start seeing a green aura building up, dodge backwards to avoid the fear cc.

Guards have a faster interrupt cast, so you have to dodge immediately when you see the hand go up. I usually guestimate when they’ll use it and bait it out since my reaction time is subpar.

Rangers have a faster interrupt cast similar to guard, so you would need to dodge immediately as the hand goes up. Same thing with guard, I usually guestimate when they’ll use it and bait it out since my reaction time is subpar. ALSO, the ranger’s interrupt skill is an aoe!—so if you and your buddy are stomping a ranger, it’s better for whoever is targeted to back out so if he does use his interrupt skill on them, only they will be hit.

Thieves, Eles, Mesmers do not have any interrupt skills in their downed state.

blind downed opponents before you stomp them.

for instance if you’re a engineer, drop a smoke bomb on them then stomp, they’ll miss their interrupt.

Follidus.8027:

ArcTheFallen.7682:

Guards is an instant cast, so by the time you see the animation, you will be knocked back—you have to bait it out or have stability or a stun breaker.

No it’s not. You can reliably react to the animation.

Oh, so there is a window? Okay, I’ll update it.