Can someone help me out?

[yoyoyouyo]

It seems like my guild is always losing in GvG, weve only played about 5 times and lost every one. I know everyone in my guild is strong and we usually win Alliance Battles, can anyone offer me some advice?:wave:

[ubard]

first of all, i'm sorry if i seem to talk to you as if you are utterly inexperienced, but you don't really say to much in your post and i'll just assume ;)

first of all, are you running any heroes or henchmen?

Teambuild / individual builds: What build are you running? you might want to supply the kind people here with your build, so that they might determine if it is quality stuff. The build is nowhere near as imporant as player skill, but a nifty team build helps. You might just be taking whatever character you feel is powerful into GvG, but player synergy is rather important. For an example, a hex necromancer doesn't fit nicely with 3 other warriors, since the hexes he applies will just be removed, hexers work best in groups. Check around on the net (here, gwguru, gwiki), and in observer mode for some tried and true gvg builds.

Be Aware: No matter what position you play, watch your surroundings. If 3 assassins appear next to you and start wailing away, don't just let your monks spam their heals on you and drain away their precious energy, "kite" away. Don't stand in tight formation while area-affect damage is raining down upon your poor little characters. Always watch your surroundings.

along the same lines, learn when to retreat and when to advance. A tactical retreat can mean the differance between victory and defeat.

Positioning! Battle "lines" are rather important in gvg, the enemy frontline (warriors, assassins, melee range characters.) should have to move through your midline (mesmers, paragons, elementalists.) to get at your teams backline (monks, sometimes ritualists.) This can be difficult to remember, but an experienced GvGer is always watching his positioning.

Team Communication: i highly recommend downloading Ventrilo, buying a microphone, and using it too relay information within a guild battle. (if you don't already do this.)

Learn from your mistakes: Discuss matches with your guild after playing them, win or lose. Try to discern what the reason for your defeat was. For an example, If your warriors were getting swamped with hexes, consider bringing Divert Hexes or Convert Hexes somewhere in your build.

Watch The Top-20: bored? hit B and bring up some observer mode games, watch them regularly for some insight into what the best players in the game are doing.

Remember that gvg is the highest-end pvp you can play in guild wars, and it does take some getting used to.

hope this post makes any sense at all.

cheers.

[Deford]

1) Alliance Battles are a joke: The level of competition in Alliance Battles is actually worse than the level of competition in Random Arenas. I'm not saying this to be mean, although it may seem that way, but winning alliance battles means nothing.

2) Use voice chat: this has already been stated but it is of the utmost importance.

3) Learn to kite: At the low levels of gvg everyone tries to monk hunt, so getting your monks up to snuff (positioning wise) is a priority. However, better teams will simply continually kill the weakest player on your team. It doesn't matter how good your monks are, if you don't kite from the warriors they will run out of energy and you will die.

4) Steal a build: I'm not saying don't be origional, but steal a proven build or two and learn how it works then make your own. It should teach you the basic rules like don't put a stance tank in your build or touch rangers or mending w/mo or any number of horrible builds. Don't try to steal one from here, you'd be better off looking elsewhere or just watching one of the 80-30 ranked guilds. If you go too high you'll (with a few exceptions) run into builds that only work because of the skill of the players. If you take a bunch of gvg noobs and try to run TE's old strength of honor/judges insight warriors build you will fail and not learn anything but if you try something simple and foolproof you'll likely learn something. (also stay away from caster spikes)

[yoyoyouyo]

Thanks guys, and ubard, I AM completely inexperienced in GvG, lol.

[Once Upon a Time]

Actually, you dont need voice comm. You can be top200 without voice comm, and without being in absolutely uber guild. Yes voice does help, but you can play pressure build which is good even without voice. If you're aiming for top10 yes you need voice, but as your guild is just starting out, if you cant have voice for some reason, it's no big deal.


I also have to repeat what was said before - Alliance Battles are not PvP. They are PvPvE with 70% PvE and 30% PvP. Or less. You dont learn how to PvP in AB. Random Arena teaches you 10x better on how to PvP, and if any of you are new, start there. Fort Aspenwood is also much better than AB to learn how to PvP (but because of leechers tends to be frustrating). I often use Fort Aspenwood to test builds, when RA doesnt do (too few allies).

Dont use Mending.

Dont solo GvG :) As other said - synergize. You have to work as a team, not as 8 completely independent individuals.

[yoyoyouyo]

thats actually true, teamspeak helps but not needed primarily.

[fallot]

Observer mode is your best friend. Watch matches until your eyes bleed. See the kind of strats guilds run on different maps. See the kind of builds they run. Copy some builds if you're not comfortable making one by yourself. Use PvP resources, there are lots (though not as many on this website).

The most important advice though is to play a lot of GvG. That's the best way to get better, the only real way perhaps. Experience is everything.

[Kailden Jera]

Practice makes prefection...

My advice? Practice more. You won't become good at GvG if you only play 5 times... Colect all the advices here (and in many GvG guides for that matter) and play more... Play 100 times GvG, with the same guildies of course. If after that you lose more than half of the 100 battles then you need even more practice.

Like Sun Tzu said: "If you know yourself but not the the enemy for each batle you won, you will surelly lost one other."

We can't win all the time.

[Once Upon a Time]

Just a note: many go to GvG after they spent a considerable amount RAing, TAing etc. It seems like you and your guildies suddenly jumped in GvG without have any prior PvP experience (AB doesnt count). So, it's not suprising you lost. Yes, you'll find many teams like yours, who learn how to PvP from the very start. But, be patient. You have to understand that you just started, and the main problem you will face is attitude "ah this is too hard". It's really not :) Be persistent. If you dont seem to like PvP there's no reason to play it ofc, but if the only problem is that you're not familiar with it yet, then go on.

In the beginning everything will be very confusing, as is with any form of new PvP. GvG maps might look big at first. Running flag will also be confusing .. "omg what am i supposed to do with it" or "what to do with guild thief" etc. It's natural, and you wont learn about it by reading about it, as much as playing.

[Almas Darksoul]

Voice comm isn't needed to reach good ranks, but if a team can reach, say, the top 200 without VOIP, they could probably easily reach the top 100 with it.

That said, the most important thing for a starting guild is probably a build that you are all familiar and ok with. There are quite a few posted around these forums and more can be found in other places online.

[nightrunner]

Voicecom might not be necessary to get into the top 200, but then again, neither is a coherent build. Why gimp yourself? Playing with voicecom will give you practice at playing together as a team instead of 8 separate players.