Guild Wars 2

Regardless of balance and fun game mechanics (I do honestly like the combat of this game!), playing pvp can be so frustrating. Lots of stealth, lots of teleports, NPCs, clones, and invulnerabilities of all types.

I like to think that I’m a decent player, but there are way too many times where I feel that I couldn’t have done anything. Felt too powerless or choiceless to my death – even in an unbiased situation.

I rarely feel this when I play competitive in other games, where I just think “wow, I need to get better” instead of “I was powerless here”.

Just needed to get this off.

sPvP is entirely different than the rest of the game. Saying you are pretty good at the game, yet are getting very frustrated at pvp might just mean you are good at the PvE aspect. The rotations, class match-ups, cooldown management, etc. is totally different. I hate to say it, but learn to play better,

Get a meta build from metabattle.com – bam, you’re not powerless anymore, just need to get better.

There are a few important things you can do to improve your game.

1) Play other classes.
Even if you don’t plan on playing all of them; try playing the few that interest you. Level them up (nowadays its slow to unlock things), or go into heart of the mists with a few meta builds. Among them there may be the ones killing you. Learning how other classes play and work is pivotal to success in 1v1 or 1v2.

2) Learn to use the minimap.
The minimap is INVALUABLE for pvp. No good player ignores the minimap. Positioning for a team is often the deciding factor in who wins team fights, and the game. Knowing where you should be, will leave you feeling good, because you helped your team and won the battle.
Do not fight people 1v1 if you can’t. Leave a point, run and outnumber the enemies with your teammates. Don’t be a turret, and wait for your enemies to come to you. Although there are some exceptions to this. Again, prioritize team positioning, and more of your encounters will go well.

3) Build somewhat defensive,If you feel yourself getting killed easily by your enemies. For the classes that you don’t want to play yourself, you can learn how to counter their skills by experience, but only if you survive long enough to understand their build.

Good luck and feel free to post specifics (build/professions). A lot of people here went through the same feeling when they started pvp. These are the basics I can think of. Aside from keybinds and dodging properly, but those apply to PVE as well.

It’s really all about knowing what your facing. I queue solo in ranked a lot so I have to know my rotations and what I can and can’t do as a shatter Mesmer. If you’re having problems against mez my name is in the signature give me a shout if you’re NA or pm me and we can set one thing up for EU. Once you get used to spotting the real Mesmer makes the fights easier.