Why absolutely everyone should spvp - even you!

Hey all,

Haven't posted for a while. Been kinda doing my own thing recently. Anyway, I recently (re)discovered spvp and quickly realized what I have been missing out on for a long time. Like many of you, I tried spvp long ago and realized it was not for me. Honestly, many spvpers are rude and spiteful and can really ruin the mood for all. Also, spvp matches are usually quite one-sided. Either you are on the winning side and you have no challenge, or you are on the losing side and have no chance. If you abandoned spvp as a gamemode, I don't blame you. 

Spvp has lots of problems, but even if all you do is pve, and you hate pvp of any kind, you should at least do spvp dailies for the great rewards. Doing just the spvp dailies can be done with one, maybe two matches. In fact, doing all the spvp dailies takes less time than pve or wvw dailies. The rewards are also great relative to the time involved. Before entering a match, simply pick a reward track that appeals to you. I usually stick with the dungeon reward tracks because I can get 1 or 2 exotic weapons per day that I can unlock for skins and dump in the mystic forge. Also, the ascended drop rate in spvp is quite high. I have gotten two ascended weapons in spvp in two months, which is a lot more than I ever got in wvw. Considering I have spent maybe 2% of my total gw2 time in spvp, and it got me one third of all my ascended drops, it seems like spvp rewards are relatively good. Most players believe spvp rewards are so good because anet wants to create more interest in the spvp tournaments.

Now you are thinking, I love the idea of nice loot, but I still don't know if I am comfortable going into those spvp matches with all those degenerates and miscreants. Well, you don't have to. When you open the browser for spvp matches, look for any match that advertises itself as for DAILIES. There are usually multiple rooms to choose from. Dailies rooms are basically pvp for pacifists. Enter and you will find people politely trading caps for points and getting their dailies done. It really couldn't be any easier to get daily chests. I hope everyone gives it a try.

Osu

Spvp recently paid off big for me.  I opened four weapon chests I had earned from the dungeon reward tracks and put the weapons into the Mystic Forge.  Got back a Dawn precursor---my first one after three years of playing GW2.

If you are starting in spvp, I recommend doing the hotjoin matches to learn the mechanics of the various maps.  Open the browser, as Osu explained, and look for a server.  Those who are serious about spvp should then move to the unranked arenas.  Once you reach pvp rank 20 (Dolyak), you can try ranked arenas.  Ranked arena gives out the same rewards as unranked, but has fewer maps.  There is no Courtyard, Skyhammer and Spirit Watch.

Some spvp resources:

http://qqmore.net/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPb2jY19oU

This last one cover rotations---where you should move during a match.

My favorite Twitch streamer:

http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram

Phantaram is a member of the Abjured currently the best team in spvp.  He plays elementalist, mesmer,  and guardian on his streams.  If you are just starting out in spvp, observe where he goes during the matches and you will quickly learn how to position yourself on the maps.  I do not recommend his opening at the start of a match---he likes to go to the far node which he can do because he is one of the best 1v1 players in spvp.

Thanks for posting this.  I have been looking for something different to do in the game and gave it a try.  It's really fun!  I'm not quite sure what I'm doing but I'm have a good time doing it.

I do the sPVP daily arenas because it's fast (for dailies), and very rewarding!   I'd much rather get exotics, nice skins, tome of knowledge and transmution charges than another (nearly useless) Writ of Experience.

If you feel you are ready for real spvp and not just farming the dailies, I suggest unranked arena over regular hotjoin matches for several reasons. 

1) The hotjoin matches can be entered and left at will so what happens is the people on the losing side quit, sometimes after their first death. This wouldn't be so bad, but once the sides become unbalanced, the autobalance kicks in and everyone on the winning side has an equal chance of getting moved to the losing side. So even if you fought hard to win a match, you could still lose in the end. Really, really frustrating. In arena, the only way out is by exiting the game. I have only seen this happen once, so you can expect most people to try their best win or lose.

2) Players in the arenas are imo much more mature and less likely to make rude comments.  

3) The awards are much better. Winning an arena gets you 1500 points, vs 500 from a hotjoin match.

The only real downside to arena is the queue. If you are super-impatient, it might not be for you. However, I find that the 2-3 minutes of matchmaking plus a minute delay before the match start is not that much of a delay considering it sometimes takes me 5-6 tries to find a hotjoin match worth joining.

Also keep in mind that your gear is a dead giveaway as to your gw2 experience level. People tend to target anyone wearing low-level gear (I know I do) as an easy kill so beginning players should think about having some higher level skins or even an outfit unlocked before they play any spvp mode.

Osu

P.S. PuaHone, i hate you! ;)

Hmmm.

Sounds good.  Maybe I will give this a shot!

Btw, pve and wvw builds are rarely optimal in spvp. If you want to get some good ideas on builds that suit your playstyle, you can find them here http://intothemists.com.

Another good site that features the current meta build is http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki.

Thanks for posting this.  I had no idea about the daily rooms.  (Nice to see you posting too, Osu.)    Now for my question....

I tried to join one of the daily rooms.  All it let me do was spectate.  How do I join the match rather than watch?  There was 12/20 in the game.   When I tried to play, I went to another match.  I don't get it. 

There is a website that allows players to track their spvp match history and stats:

http://gw2efficiency.com/account/pvp

An API key is required to use the site.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:API_key

Here is the topic on the official GW2 forums where I found this information:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/pvp/lost-8-in-a-row

There are posts by the user Pimsley with images showing where to get the API key from ArenaNet's site and a sample showing his match history and stats.

I think 12/20 means 10 people are playing and 2 are spectating. Regular (numbered) servers have max 10 combatants and 10 more can watch. Not sure why you were moved out.

The hotjoin rooms are kinda annoying. You see a list of current matches with the current occupancy, for example 8/10, which means 8 out of 10 spots taken. If you try to join the match, it may be full when you get there because other players were a bit quicker than you. If you actually want to enjoy your spvp and not just get the dailies done, I suggest you get good enough that you feel confident joining an arena match. Hotjoin is just plain frustrating. They really need to show the current points per side in addition to the occupancy. Sure I want to join a match if there is an open spot, but not if one side has 450 points and the game will be over in 15 seconds.

Did you know?

If you are doing your dailies in a daily room, you are in the winning team and volunteer to go to the other side, you still get your daily <class> win!! :D

ArenaNet will be improving matchmaking for pvp:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/pvp/Updates-to-Matchmaking

YAY! I hate being the noob that always dies a horrible death in the hand of the dragon finisher enemies :p

Finally figured out how to join in a daily room.  It certainly isn't intuitive nor easy.

I got a soldiers ascended armor chest from one of the many chests I got TT 3 TT

I'm so happy I could cry!

Thanks for posting. I had abandoned pvp but this inspires me to hop back in!

I'll place this here since it is pvp related. 

Dulfy posted the following statement on Legendary crafting on GW2reddit:

• For crafting the precursors you will need to do various activities like PvP as you will need Shards of Glory from PvP and Memories of Battle from WvW etc.

This is from a discussion on day 2 of Twitchcon.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3mi5y2/twitchcon_day_2_panel_2_legendary_journey_notes/

So if you're interested in crafting a precursor for a Legendary weapon, you have another reason to start doing spvp.

Kitty, yeah I know you can get the win points for volunteering to switch sides, but I don't want to get ganked for the next 5 minutes so rarely do. It's just too depressing.

BTW, for those of you who just want to get their dailies done for max points in min time, I suggest joining a hotjoin daily room that is in the skyhammer map. That's where I get my class daily when it is for a class that I have little experience on. I see people farming kills by running to the area below the mid (B) cap and hitting a couple enemies before jumping to their death. Also, most of the daily rooms will specify that a certain color always wins, make sure you switch sides before the game finishes. When the winning side points get to like 450, click on the score bar on the top of the screen and click that little arrow icon to switch. That way, all 20 players "win." It's a super cheese way to get your dailies done, but if this is the only time you spend in spvp, I think it is a victimless crime.

Ooh! PvP is fun! Great for a steady source of transmutation stones (i love skins!) and really nice fight training for WvW #2v1RoamLife.