PvP Discussion Thread

[Deleted]

A place for all PvP talk. Larynx gave me idea to create this, so here is collection of sPvP and WvW info. I know it is huge, I tried to break it into pieces to make reading easier.
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PvP GAME TYPES

• Hot Join 1v1 to 10v10: This is the casual side of structured PvP. A great place to experiment with builds, learn the maps, and try out a PvP game against other players. These games can be joined by the player mid match and can be left at any time. Players will be matched based on a similar amount of total Glory earned.
• Tournaments 5v5: These games will be accessible through a separate browser that will require 5 people to queue up for pvp together. Played on the same maps as the “Hot Join” games, the teams with the higher level of coordination and skill will have clear advantages.
• WvW: up to 2000 players. Three servers battle in the Mists. Players can siege structures such as Keeps and Towers with siege weapons, battle over resources, and win rewards for their world.

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STRUCTURED PVP

SCOREBOARD
The scoreboard panel keeps track of the points scored by each team during structured PvP matches. The objective is to be the first team to reach 500 points.

Points are awarded through holding capture points and kills. Each capture point location grants one point every two seconds. Each player kill grants ten points in Forest of Niflhel and 5 points in Battle of Kyhlo and Legacy of the Foefire. If neither team reaches 500 points, the team with the most points will be declared the winner after the 15 minute time limit.

REWARDS
The PvP reward system has a two-tier reward structure that involves Glory and Rank. Glory is a currency that players can spend to unlock reward chests stuffed with useful loot, while Rank is a measurement of your success in PvP. You’ll receive valuable reward chests as you climb in Rank.

STRUCTURED PVP AND CONQUEST MAPS
Conquest will be the only structured PvP mode available at the game launch. It is a is a game mode where players are placed in two teams, and must capture objectives and important location. The first team to acquire 500 total points wins the game.

Only three maps are currently known, but there are hints about other maps.

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BATTLE OF KHYLO

Battle of Kyhlo is a structured PvP map. It has three capture points and siege weapons as the secondary mechanic. Teams will gain points through both capturing and defending their control points as well as player kills.


In this map, mobility is king. Because of the close quarters and vertical aspect, teleporting skills and stealth are both very powerful tools to gain access to the central point. AoE is also very effective if you can catch several people in a hallway or ramp, causing significant damage to everyone within the radius. This particular tactic is fantastic for defending the lower level of the Clocktower.

Choke points


The slope up to the Windmill and stairs up to the Mansion are notorious choke points, especially if you only have melee weapons equipped. Ranged classes can cause huge damage to you on your way up or worse, will immobilise you and your group and rain down area of effect damage. Try to attack these capture points from both sides.

Trebuchet control is another important aspect in this map. Due to the extremely high damage that this can lay down having someone to man this weapon is critical to a good teams success. Almost as critical, is having someone on your team to harass the player manning the opposing teams trebuchet. Generally you will want a high burst damage character in this role.

Shortly:
- Don’t always stay together, split the team down to attack multiple points. Don’t be afraid to pair up or go solo and break away from the pack
- Use the Trebuchet, it deals massive damage and also knocks opponents down. The Windmill and the Mansion are on range, so you can provide support to your team who are fighting at capture points.
- Don’t ignore enemy trebuchet, destroy opponents trebuchet. This gives valuable time to secure capture points or kill anyone trying to secure the repair kit. Destroy their trebuchet even if they are not using it.
- Don’t camp the clocktower, clocktower is usually first target of trebuchets, you do not want to be there when they fire it. Get in, get it captured and get out (preferably through the windows).
- Don’t always fight, going into fight that you know will lose will only provide the opposing team. Heading in the opposite direction to another control point will stretch the opposing team and provide you with valuable points.
- Use the Clocktower roof, the highest point on the map allows you to gain a birdseye view of your surroundings. From here you know instantly who is at what capture point and where groups of opposing players are heading.
- Don’t standstill, you will be doing a disservice to your team by just staying in one control point. Covering an area, from Clocktower to Windmill or Clocktower to Mansion will be much more effective.

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FOREST OF NIFLHEL

Forest of Niflhel is a structured PvP map. It has three capture points and powerful NPC monsters as the secondary mechanic. Team will accrue points based on the number of captured positions as well as player kills. The team that slays either of the two NPCs that spawn will also gain 50 extra points.


Control of the large central area in this map will be key to success. The area just south of the keep is wide open with multiple routes leading into it from all directions. This area will be a critical battleground for large team skirmishes, and maintaining dominance of it will grant easy access to the two NPCs as well as the central control position. Because of the amount of points that they grant, prioritizing the boss NPCs will also be very beneficial. On this map it is possible to only hold one point for the majority of the game as long as you maintain control of the NPCs. Keeping spawn timers on the neutral bosses will also ensure you can gain the maximum amount of points from them.

Due to the wide open areas on this map, team fighting will play a much more integral role. Having a good mix of offensive and defensive players with plenty of CC will allow a team to dominate the center of the map. Defence of the outer points is much easier if you control the center due of the long routes that the opposing team will have to take to traverse the map. This also gives the added benefit of having control of at least one NPC. If you are attacking the center point remember that a team can easily be ambushed as they are attacking a NPC boss. The neutrals hit extremely hard and can easily kill a few people if they are CC'd or bursted down by a player. You can use this time to swiftly attack the weakened NPC to steal the points or use the confusion to assault an opposing control point.

Choke points


There are several choke points in Niflhel that are incredibly dangerous. These are primarily the tiny paths through to Henge and Mine that lead off from the centre of the map as well as the small openings through to the water ways, at the base of the westerly keep steps and before the river crossing at the easterly side of the keep. Being caught in either of these locations will leave you incredibly vulnerable, so be careful.

Shortly:
- Don’t forget the NPC’s, 50 points & team wide buff isn’t something to be ignored
- Don’t camp the keep, the Keep is vulnerable from all sides. It is more effective to capture it and move on than constantly trying to fight it out.
- Don’t get trapped in open play, area between both bases, near the beach, tends to have constant battle where you get trapped into a cycle of spawning, exiting and dying. It only gives opposite team free score. Leave through the exit towards the capture points and ignore zerg.
- Use caution, capture areas have height disadvantage. Have a spotter to call out when someone is approaching, kill the attacker and return back to the capture point.
- Don’t just use the stairs, use the rear path to the Keep. It gives height advantage and keeps melee out of play.

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LEGACY OF THE FOEFIRE

Legacy of the Foefire is a structured PvP map. It is a conquest map with three capture points and powerful NPC guards and guild lords as the secondary mechanic. Points are awarded through holding capture points and kills.


NPC guards and guild lords spawn at the beginning of each match in the starting zones of their respective team. In order to get to the guild lord, the enemy team has to take down a wall first. Walls can only be damaged by direct damage. Defeating the Lord grants 100 points.

- strategy coming when I have more experience about map -

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WvW

PvP battle between three different servers, or worlds. Players can siege structures such as Keeps and Towers with siege weapons, battle over resources, and win rewards for their world. There are 4 maps total, 3 Borderlands maps, and 1 Eternal Battleground map.

WvW MAP (click to see better)


BORDERLANDS
The Borderlands are three identical maps in World versus World, with each map belonging to one of the participating worlds. Players on their own borderlands get a small buff as a "home advantage".

Here is a typical Borderlands map where you can see how the resource camps, towers and keep are placed. Invading worlds have waypoints at the bottom left and right side of the map. None of the waypoints can be captured - they are guarded by legendary defenders that one shot enemy players. Waypoints are also unuseable by enemy players - they will appear contested to all but the world that owns that waypoint.


At the bottom half of the map, you have two towers, one near each inviading world's waypoint. You also have three supply camps, one near near tower and the third at the bottom middle section of the map, between the two world’s waypoint.

Moving up, you will see two keeps on the left and right side of the map and a third keep positioned almost in the middle of the map, right in front of the home world's waypoint. This keep is flanked by two nearby towers and since they are all near the home world's waypoint, it give them somewhat of a home map advantage. There are three supply camps at the top half of the map as well, one near each tower and the third all the way up in the north, near the Orb of Power.

If you count up the objectives, each Borderlands map would have 3 keeps, 4 towers and 6 supply camps.

Orb of Power
Each Borderlands map has a single Orb of Power. It is initially located at the very north end of each map in a special place called Cradle of Power. This Cradle of Power is initially protected by an invulnerable force field that cannot be removed until you defeat the guardian – L83 champion Keeper of the Orb that deals massive damage.

Once the champion is defeated, the force field drops and anyone can retrieve the orb. Each keep you world control on the map has an Altar of Power where you can place the orb. You have a 15 minutes window to place this orb on this Altar before it returns to the Cradle of Power so make sure you world has a keep under control before capturing the orb.

Once the orb is placed on the altar, your keep will gain 5% boost to maximum HP. Since there are three borderland maps, your world could potentially end up with 15% boost to maximum HP if you capture all three orbs.

ETERNAL BATTLEGROUNDS
Eternal battlegrounds is the middle map where all three worlds start off on equal grounds. There is a massive Stonemist Castle in the middle that three worlds compete to capture. It is a triangular map, with 1 keep, 4 towers and 2 supply camps on each angle, totaling 1 castle, 3 keeps, 12 towers and 6 supply camps on the entire map.


Stonemist Castle under attack of siege weapons.


OBJECTIVES AND GOAL OF WvW
There are three types of objectives that are available for capture on the WvW maps. They are the keeps, towers, and supply camps. The central map, Eternal Battlegrounds, also features a massive keep called Stonemist Castle that give additional points for capture. Every 5 minutes, all the objectives that a world controls are counted and points are generated which are added to the cumulative war score for each world.

The cumulative war score is erased every two weeks and used to generate rankings for the next match. Along the way, there are certain war score thresholds that when reached will unlock temporary bonuses for everyone from that world for both PvE and PvP activities.


SUPPLY
Supply is used for constructing siege weapons, upgrading structures and repairing damaged walls&gates. Supply is stored in Supply Depots in resource camps, towers, keeps and Stonemist Castle. Players can interact with any (friendly) supply depot to take up to 10 units of supply from it, as long as depots is still stocked.

Resource camps produce supply and automatically send out NPC dolyak caravans, which restock friendly nearby structures with 35 or 70 supplies per run (depending on the level of the caravan). Supply caravans can be intercepted by enemy players. Resource camps feature their own supply depots, which refill over time.

Supply caravans can be upgraded via the resource camps' upgrades. Without upgrades, they can be easily killed by a lone player. If you kill an enemy supply caravan's dolyak, you can loot supplies from them.



SIEGE WEAPONS
Requires a Blueprint for its construction. These blueprints can be purchased at Siegemasters (there is usually one in the place where you first enter a map). Building requires supplies.

	Arrow cart: fires a volley of arrows, dealing significant damage to players but weak against structures. Blueprint cost: 4 silver Supply required to build: 30
	Ballista: fires a giant bolt, dealing heavy damage to structures and players in its path. Blueprint cost: 6 silver Supply required to build: 20
	Catapult: great for dealing with walls, gates, and clustered enemies. Blueprint cost: 8 silver Supply required to build: 50
	Flame Ram: rams gates at close range, dealing heavy damage to it. Blueprint cost: 4 silver Supply required to build: 40
	Siege golem: slow and short ranged but capable of dealing significant damage. Blueprint cost: 1 gold Supply required to build: 100
	Trebuchet: long-ranged rock thrower capable of dealing significant damage to players and structures alike. Blueprint cost: 16 silver Supply required to build: 100

DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES
Acquired from the quartermaster within the keep/tower. Do not require a blueprint to build, but requires supplies to work.

	Cannons: have a pretty good range. It rotates where you place a skill’s target. This weapon can be used against a group of enemies, and as a additional ability you can freeze the enemies or cause the opponent to bleed..
	Mortars: long range weapons. You can load two types of ammunition: Exploding Shells and Incendiary shells. The Exploding Shells will make a huge fire cloud but it will promptly disappear, while the Incendiary shells will make a small fire explosion but it will last a few seconds.
	Boiling pots of oil: placed above gates and walls. Are effective against Flame Rams. There are two attacking skills: an oil skill that drops burning boiling oil which causes significant damage and a tar skill that decreases player’s movement speed

Shortly:
- Keep the supply flowing: You need it to upgrade your camps, towers and keeps. You need it to build siege weapons. You need it to repair gates and walls. Every world that wants to succeed should make sure that they keep their supply camp & caravans safe. Make sure that you have your personal 10 supply with you.
- Stay with the group: In order for towers and keeps to be taken, you are going to need a large group of players. You just aren’t going to take a keep with 2 people in prime WvW hours, feel free to do it against the night watch. Watch your chat or search your map for the Squad Commander and join the squad.
- Defend what you control: You don’t need 100 people in the tower to defend it, usually 2-5 will hold it. Here is where you can leave the group play if you want to, and form a smaller party of defenders. Share the cost of upgrades between all the defenders. Simply put, you buy 1 upgrade, someone else buys another. When the attacking force does come stay up front and harass them with ranged attacks or defensive siege weapons.
- Trebuchet’s/Mortar’s need spotters at longer distances. You will most likely be firing into fog if you shoot it at long range, so make sure you have a spotter to tell you where the ball of destruction landed.
- Siege weapons don’t move and they can’t be taken down. Don’t waste a lot of money and supply just taking 1 little tower.
- Monsters in each map have a chance at dropping blueprints, so run around and kill them if you don’t want to buy one.
- Don’t run around with the Orb of Power unless you know where you are going.
- Don’t forget to take towers and keeps in your guilds name. Your guild will get influence from players defending it.
- Expect to run around a long time until someone upgrades a keep with a waypoint.
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I hope this helps and encourages people to play and talk about pvp here.

PS: I would really love to see some good elementalist pvp videos, since I just found that profession on BWE3. I can link some good mesmer stuff later.

[Ynna]

Great post, if a bit lengthy.

You know what I was thinking while doing sPvP? It would be great if the hot-join games had different option in terms of number of players. Especially if 5v5 was an option for random skirmishes.