Guild Wars 2

Sup guys! So, the last attempt I made for help crashed and burned and fell into thread oblivion in a matter of a couple hours. (Meh, happens.) Despite this, I’m still pushing forward with the initiative of getting more info out there for newer players which’ll hopefully help improve the overall quality of PvP matches.

That being said, I have a few questions for any experienced tournament player willing to lend a hand.

1. What’re the top 3 rules to pvp?
2. How do you decide on where to rotate and why?
3. How do you decide on who to target and why?
4. What are the biggest mistakes you see new players make?
5. What are the top 3 bunkers in your opinion?
6. What are the top 3 DPS classes in your opinion?
7. What are the most important roles for each class?

No trolls please, hoping to open an informative discussion.

KEY

Proc: To cause an effect. (Such as sigil of fire procs AoE damage on crit)

Rotate: To move to a point

Stomp: Kill a downed foe via “F” interactions.

Cleave: To cause damage in an arc/AoE. (Most sword autoattacks cleave, hitting up to 3 targets)

THINGS OF NOTE

• “if an enemy goes down, cleave the body. don’t try to stomp unless you know for sure you can get it. if a teammate goes down, learn when to try to res and when not to.” -VeeWee

• “Numbers…. Always match numbers (scenarios like bad 1v1s (engi v necro) you can rotate and +1 quickly but in general you want to match numbers)” -Backpack

• " Necros first because many are power and do a lot of damage, and mostly because you want to finish them before they can generate too much lifeforce. They are much easier to kill at the start of a fight. Thieves and eles next simply because if zerker they are easy to down. If on organized team going for guardian is a good idea too as they have the best rez mechanics." -Cam Ron.4170

(Responses From VeeWee)

top 3 rules to pvp hmmm. there’s not really rules but more like guidelines. i’ll list a few off the top of my head

• learn the maps and the secondary objectives. learn when and when not to use them. learn the spots where you can lose an enemy if you’re getting chased. if you have blink and/or phase retreat, learn the blink spots. supcutie has a really good guide on that.

• rotations. pvp is a numbers game. learn when to be somewhere and when not to be somewhere.

• if an enemy goes down, cleave the body. don’t try to stomp unless you know for sure you can get it. if a teammate goes down, learn when to try to res and when not to. generally you’ll want to try to get your teammate up but sometimes it can’t be helped if he’s fragile and/or the enemy team is hardcore cleaving.

• positioning. don’t overextend. if your bunker is on a point there’s no reason for you to be on it too, especially if you’re less than durable. try not to fight off point especially if you’re behind.

• your rotations depend on a number of factors such as where you are currently, where the team is, where the enemy team is, where the enemy thief is, etc. prioritize the points you have over the ones you don’t. know when a fight is lost and when to retreat. don’t over-commit to a point or secondary objectives. a good example is sending too many people to tranquility while all your points get decapped because you have too few people up top. your target should be someone overextending first. then work on classes that don’t have many escapes like necro or ranger. if you have enough firepower you can focus the bunker first because he provides a lot of team support and survivability. it all depends on your comp. for example focusing a thief might not be the best idea because of all the escapes he has, but if you have enough cc then he’s an easy kill.

the biggest mistakes i see new players make i already outlined. fighting off point, over commitment, multiple people stomping when no one is cleaving and the downed guy gets revived, overextending, etc.

(From Backpack)

1. Match Numbers, Regroup if you team wipe, Dont push fights you cant win

2. Numbers…. Always match numbers (scenarios like bad 1v1s (engi v necro) you can rotate and +1 quickly but in general you want to match numbers)

3. Squishiest target, or highest damage target (lich necro etc) Or whoever has low CDS, sometimes a low bunker guard that eats a lot of cleave is a good target

4. Sitting on Home when no one is there

Hiya just throwing my support for this thread; I only pvp for skins once in a while but I’d still like to contribute to my team; interesting read so far..

How do you decide on where to rotate and why?

I go for points I think are uncontested because im fast as shlt and backcapping wins soloq. If someone is bunkering a point, then Ill roam nd make it a 5v4 elsewhere on the map

How do you decide on who to target and why?

Necro, thieves, ele. (guard). Necros first because many are power and do a lot of damage, and mostly because you want to finish them before they can generate too much lifeforce. They are much easier to kill at the start of a fight. Thieves and eles next simply because if zerker they are easy to down. If on organized team going for guardian is a good idea too as they have the best rez mechanics.

What are the biggest mistakes you see new players make?

2 people capping a completely uncontested empty point. Kinda anets fault for rewarding them with points for that stupidity though.

What are the top 3 bunkers in your opinion?
Guard, Ele, Engi

What are the top 3 DPS classes in your opinion?
Thief, Mesmer, Ranger (single target). Ele, necro (aoe)

Ty! Will be adding certain quotes into the OP

Gonna give this a little bump in hopes to gather and collect more words of wisdom for a future article.

Avoid going for “road kills” i.e. kills that happen between nodes. Kills give very little amount of points by themselves so over-commiting like that can lead you to fall behind further or lose the advantage.

If the enemy goes down outside of the point and you have the means to tank their downed state damage it might make sense to let them wither instead of stomping to keep the numbers across the map uneven for longer.

What’re the top 3 rules to pvp?

Not so much tips for pvp, but still something everyone, new and old, should abide by imo.
1. Don’t be a jerk to your opponents or teammates, it’s just plain rude and a hamper on the quality of spvp
2. Don’t leave a match unless you absolutely HAVE to. (and if you think you’ll probably have to, it might be a better idea to hold off on queueing.)
3. Focus on capping the nodes, not just killing the enemy team. no matter how skilled you are, if you’re focused on just trying to kill people, you’re gonna have a bad time.

How do you decide on where to rotate and why?

Whether you should rotate or not depends on your mobility and what the other team is doing from match to match. is their team a lot of slow classes and they never have someone at far? try decapping it whenever you get the chance. an enemy thief just died and no one is near home? start heading to a spot where you can see if that thief is heading there.

Also make sure you pay attention to classes and numbers. don’t enter a 1v1 where you’re gonna lose, and don’t try to cap a node where you’re in a 2v1.

How do you decide on who to target and why?

In team fights, generally the squishiest, for obvious reasons (and obviously power necros since they’re always at risk of pulling a lich)

What are the biggest mistakes you see new players make?

Too much time fighting people and not enough time capping nodes, along with zerging. worst mistake I see is 4 people going off a node to chase a single player down. It happens a lot

What are the top 3 bunkers in your opinion?

d/d ele, shoutbow warrior, and engineers.

What are the top 3 DPS classes in your opinion?

depends on what you mean. highest damage without concern to defense, or best damage dealers with means to prevent being blown up the second someone blinks at them? I’ll assume the latter.

Meditation Guardians, Shatter mesmer, and Sword/Dagger thief.

What are the most important roles for each class?

Note that I don’t play Engi, Warrior, or Mesmer, so I’m just saying what I appreciate the most from them. I’m also going by some of the most popular builds, obviously you can trait for something completely different.

Warrior – for the most part, bunkering nodes and providing team support via shouts/banners
Guardians – Excellent teamfighting potential, turning the tides of 2v2+ in their favor.
Thief – mobility, to quickly get to home/far to decap or defend.
Engineer – Bunkering nodes or helping out in teamfights
Ranger – decent team support via bursting down targets, along with easily pulling people away from nodes with ranged damage. and if traited, can easily bait into a hard target with decent survivability, since nowadays, it’s assumed you’ll be glass.
Mesmer – Decapping nodes and bursting down opponents effectively.
Necro – supporting teamfights with wells/plagues/lich forms etc, along with good 1v1 potential with bunkers like d/d eles
Elementalist – Bunkering nodes and decent mobility when required

Note that i’m by no means an expert at spvp, this is just my opinion.