Ranger Nietzsche
16-01-2008, 06:06
Disclaimer
This guide was written prior to even the release of Factions and may contain some out of date information, I have updated it briefly to remove blatant errors.
Things this guide still needs:
-Introduction to Hero Battles
-Introduction to alliance battles
-General fact checking and elaboration
************************************************** ******
Guide originally posted by tarutaru with editing by Ranger Nietzsche for dated information.
************************************************** ******
After some requests and concerns, here it is! The official Guild Wars PVP Frequently Asked Questions Thread. If anyone would like to submit their own question and answer that you don’t feel was included or adequately explained, please feel free to post.
What exactly is PVP?
Well, PVP is the second component to Guild Wars, as opposed to what is commonly known as PVE. PVE stands for “Player versus Environment,” while PVP stands for “Player versus Player.”
Then what is the difference between PVE and PVP?
PVE, as you may already know, is mostly all about teamwork and getting through theme-based missions against computer-controlled enemies. PVP on the other hand, is like a sparing area between two different teams of actual players. There are many different types of PVP, including Guild-versus-Guild combat (GVG), Alliance Battles (AB), Random Arenas (RA), Team Arenas (TA), Heroes’ Ascent (HA), Hero Battles (HB), Training Arenas, Isle of the Nameless, and the Zaishen Challenges.
So, let’s start with Training Areas, that seems like the place that I would start, can you tell me about it?
First off, you need to know that with the recent update to Guild Wars, nearly all PVP areas are now located together. After unlocking Lion’s Arch in PVE, you can travel to the Great Temple of Balthazar by way of boat…this is the gateway to the PVP world. Or, if you would like, simply create a PVP-only character at the start-up screen and you will automatically find yourself immersed in the PVP environment. You might not want to start in Training Arenas right away, though. Isle of the Nameless is the place to go. Here you alone can go through an area similar to that of a PVE mission, with quests and all, to help you get accustomed to PVP. Play around there for awhile to get your feet wet, so to speak.
Okay, I’ve explored all there is to Isle of the Nameless, what about Training Arenas?
Training arenas are a great way now for you to use those skills you learned on the Isle of the Nameless and apply them to what PVP is actually like: one team versus another. These arenas give you some experience versus computer-controlled teams in all of the different simple arena types: Annihilation, Obelisk (commonly later called flag stand), and Priest. Annihilation is the most common PVP theme, as it simply requires you to defeat all of the members of the other team to win. Obelisk is like annihilation, except that there is a central stand that you can run an item to in order to give your team some sort of boost or bonus (this becomes much more important later on in GVG). Lastly, Priest is like annihilation also, except that periodically a 5th member of the opposing team, a computer-controlled monk-like character, resurrects all of the other team. But not to worry! Your team has their very own Priest as well. After winning in all the Training Arenas, you unlock the Zaishen Challenges for your Guild Wars account.
Oooh, Zaishen Challenges! Sounds like fun! Tell me more!
Okay, now that you have hopefully mastered the extreme basics of PVP, get ready for some harder challenges, like the name suggests! Grab a team, and get ready to fight on many different areas against many different types of computer-controlled teams (the Zaishen). You must win 5 of the 6 battles to successfully complete the Zaishen Challenges. Each type of combat is simple Annihilation, but can take place on a variety of maps, including Heroes’ Crypt, D’Alessio Arena, Fort Koga, Amnooon Arena, and Shiverpeak Arena. Each team that you face will certainly be a challenge, as they all have a central theme, or common style, to their builds.
Wow, it was a hard fight, but I did it! I unlocked the Zaishen Elite Challenge. What now?
Now you get to try increasingly harder teams, one after the other, same style and arenas as before. Try your best, and once you think you’ve got the hang of this PVP thing, you’re ready to move on up!
I’ve had enough of this computer-controlled enemy stuff, I want to fight other real players, where can I do that?
It seems like you are ready to tackle Random Arenas. Travel there via your map of the PVP world. When you think you are ready to step into battle, hit the “Enter Mission” button, and brace yourself! After a couple of seconds you will find yourself most likely in a familiar arena. Take a look at your party window. Those are your auto-assigned teammates. Quickly glance over the primary and secondary classes they are using, and try to get a feel for what it is like having certain combinations of classes on your team working together. Don’t despair if you loose your first couple of games! Many first players do. Once you get used to the fast-paced action, and win 5 in a row, you might discover that you have unlocked yet another place to venture, Team Arenas!
What are the Team Arenas?
This place is like the Random Arenas, only that you actually put a team together before the match begins, and fight against other hand-made teams. This arena is typically much more difficult, as guilds and friends research and play-test many very good builds that work together very efficiently here. But, do not despair! Advertise yourself, and have some fun trying to maybe put together a couple of teams on your own! By this point, though, you might want to search on your trusty GWOnline.Net forums to see others’ builds and what has worked for them, and try some of them out. After 5 consecutive wins in Team Arenas, you get to unlock the granddaddy of all PVP-dom, Heroes’ Ascent!
Cool, this place looks great! But I’m SO lost here, what do I do first?
Heroes’ Ascent is not like anything you have done before. This is the first time for most of you that you will experience 8v8 combat, as everything else up until that point has been 4v4. It will typically take some time for you to find or create a competent group, and you might not know or understand a lot of builds that people are advertising they are, or are looking for to join their team. Most of the advertisements you will see in the chat window will be for people forming FotM groups (“Flavor of the Month”). These builds come and go in time, and do take some getting used to. More permanent build types are referred to as "Balanced" and generally some form of them remain regardless of skill or map updates.
Holy cow, there are so many different maps and the battles here are NUTS, what is a new player to do?
Granted, Heroes’ Ascent does have a steep learning curve. There are nine total maps, all culminating with the prestigious Hall of Heroes. You will see some kinds of maps that are familiar, like Priest maps, or maps with an Obelisk. There are several new types here though, called Relic Runs, King of the Hill, and Capture Points. Relic Runs are like those flag stand maps you might have been in, except that instead of running your item to a central point, you try to run to someone else’s item and take theirs back to your own base. After enough are captured, or the time runs out, the team with the most wins. King of the Hill involves taking your Ghostly Hero to a central altar and attempting to keep your Hero on the altar for longer than the other team(s). Capture points is similar to Alliance Battles, and your team gets one point for each individual shrine they control every 30 seconds, at the end of the round the team with the most points win. In summary, the best you can do is keep plugging at it, and gradually reduce your level of ignorance as to each map’s in’s-and-out’s.
Back up a second. I heard you mention Ghostly Hero, and I happen to see him with us on the party window, and the other team has one too. What’s up with that?
Ghostly Heroes are, simply, like those Priests you had with you on the Priest maps, except much different. They can be taken with you, or ordered to stay by talking to them. They fight alongside you in battle, but cannot resurrect like your trusty Priest could. But, there is a nice advantage to Ghostly Heroes. First, if you kill your opponent’s Ghostly, all of your skills are automatically recharged, including those seemingly unrechargable Resurrection Signets! Also, you might notice that if you kill an opponent’s Ghostly, you get a Morale Boost, similar to that of killing a boss in PVE. This, just like PVE, gives you increased maximum health and energy. Many battles are won simply because one team gets a lot of Morale Boost (MB), with the other gaining too much Death Penalty (DP), the opposite of Morale Boost. Ghostly Heroes are also your only means of giving relics that you have captured to your relic captured count, and are the only ones who can actually capture an alter.
What happens when (if) I win the last map, Hall of Heroes?
Winning Hall of Heroes is not for the weak-minded, or meek at heart. It takes a lot or planning and strategy, or just a bunch of luck, to get to, never mind win, HOH. If you do win though, every single player in the game gets a message saying that your team won the Hall of Heroes. So needless to say you can gain a lot of honor and prestige by winning HOH several times. Also, after winning there are a couple of chests that pop up, giving each player on the winning team a Zaishen Key, as well as prizes in the form of gold items or Celestial Sigils. Celestial Sigils can be used to purchase a Guild Hall for your guild so that they may compete in a GVG match.
On a side note, I have been frequently noticing that I have been gaining things like faction and advancing title tracks. What’s up with this?
These are the rewards of playing PVP. You get various amounts as rewards for either scoring a unique kill, winning the match, and/or getting a flawless victory (no one on your team dies). You can spend faction at any friendly Priest of Balthazar to unlock fun stuff for your PVP account characters, including Runes, Weapon Modifications, Skills, and Elite Skills. You may only hold 10,000 faction at first, but you can increase this number by earning more ranks in PvP title tracks. The PvP-specific title tracks are Hero (HA), Commander (HB), Champion (GvG), and Gladiator (RA and TA).
Fame is a term used to describe the points in the Hero track, and is accumulated only by winning a match in Heroes’ Ascent. Consecutive wins gain you increasingly more fame per win, but it gets reset to 1 fame per win after you lose. After you get enough total fame, your character can do a fancy rank emote by typing /rank or /fame. At rank 3 you get a Deer emote, at rank 6 you get a wolf emote, at rank 9 you get a tiger emote, and by the time you reach rank 12, you get the god-awesome Phoenix emote.
Back up a minute, you forgot one last thing, GVG. What do I need to know about this?
GVG is the acronym for Guild-versus-Guild combat. It is 8v8, like Heroes’ Ascent, but much different. The maps are huge, have their own idiosyncrasies, and the battles involve a lot more. There is always a flag stand, that if you are “holding” it every couple of minutes, your team gains a morale boost. Battles are won, not by annihilating the other team, but by killing the other team’s Guild Lord. This bad boy is guarded by Bodyguards and many, many NPC’s. The Guild Lord has A LOT of hit points, 1920 to be exact, and has a special item called an Amulet of Protection, along with the common boss ability called “Natural Resistance.” Natural Resistance reduces the time of all timed conditions and hexes on him by half. The amulet is always on the Guild Lord, and prevents him from losing more than 50 health per second at the start of the Guild battle. But, the amulet gradually looses its power over the course of the battle, and by 15 minutes into the battle he can take a max of 250 damage per second. As you can imagine, killing the Guild Lord is a difficult task indeed. Winning GVG matches do not give you fame, but do give you hefty amounts of faction, and increases your Guild Ladder Rank. If you loose, though, you loose Ladder Rank. The top guilds in every region every several months compete in World-wide tournaments for cash and prizes.
Hey, thanks for this guide!
No problem. The best way to get good at PVP is to practice, practice, practice. And, of course, ask for our help here at GWOnline.Net for critique or criticism on any build ideas you have, or if you have any questions :)
This guide was written prior to even the release of Factions and may contain some out of date information, I have updated it briefly to remove blatant errors.
Things this guide still needs:
-Introduction to Hero Battles
-Introduction to alliance battles
-General fact checking and elaboration
************************************************** ******
Guide originally posted by tarutaru with editing by Ranger Nietzsche for dated information.
************************************************** ******
After some requests and concerns, here it is! The official Guild Wars PVP Frequently Asked Questions Thread. If anyone would like to submit their own question and answer that you don’t feel was included or adequately explained, please feel free to post.
What exactly is PVP?
Well, PVP is the second component to Guild Wars, as opposed to what is commonly known as PVE. PVE stands for “Player versus Environment,” while PVP stands for “Player versus Player.”
Then what is the difference between PVE and PVP?
PVE, as you may already know, is mostly all about teamwork and getting through theme-based missions against computer-controlled enemies. PVP on the other hand, is like a sparing area between two different teams of actual players. There are many different types of PVP, including Guild-versus-Guild combat (GVG), Alliance Battles (AB), Random Arenas (RA), Team Arenas (TA), Heroes’ Ascent (HA), Hero Battles (HB), Training Arenas, Isle of the Nameless, and the Zaishen Challenges.
So, let’s start with Training Areas, that seems like the place that I would start, can you tell me about it?
First off, you need to know that with the recent update to Guild Wars, nearly all PVP areas are now located together. After unlocking Lion’s Arch in PVE, you can travel to the Great Temple of Balthazar by way of boat…this is the gateway to the PVP world. Or, if you would like, simply create a PVP-only character at the start-up screen and you will automatically find yourself immersed in the PVP environment. You might not want to start in Training Arenas right away, though. Isle of the Nameless is the place to go. Here you alone can go through an area similar to that of a PVE mission, with quests and all, to help you get accustomed to PVP. Play around there for awhile to get your feet wet, so to speak.
Okay, I’ve explored all there is to Isle of the Nameless, what about Training Arenas?
Training arenas are a great way now for you to use those skills you learned on the Isle of the Nameless and apply them to what PVP is actually like: one team versus another. These arenas give you some experience versus computer-controlled teams in all of the different simple arena types: Annihilation, Obelisk (commonly later called flag stand), and Priest. Annihilation is the most common PVP theme, as it simply requires you to defeat all of the members of the other team to win. Obelisk is like annihilation, except that there is a central stand that you can run an item to in order to give your team some sort of boost or bonus (this becomes much more important later on in GVG). Lastly, Priest is like annihilation also, except that periodically a 5th member of the opposing team, a computer-controlled monk-like character, resurrects all of the other team. But not to worry! Your team has their very own Priest as well. After winning in all the Training Arenas, you unlock the Zaishen Challenges for your Guild Wars account.
Oooh, Zaishen Challenges! Sounds like fun! Tell me more!
Okay, now that you have hopefully mastered the extreme basics of PVP, get ready for some harder challenges, like the name suggests! Grab a team, and get ready to fight on many different areas against many different types of computer-controlled teams (the Zaishen). You must win 5 of the 6 battles to successfully complete the Zaishen Challenges. Each type of combat is simple Annihilation, but can take place on a variety of maps, including Heroes’ Crypt, D’Alessio Arena, Fort Koga, Amnooon Arena, and Shiverpeak Arena. Each team that you face will certainly be a challenge, as they all have a central theme, or common style, to their builds.
Wow, it was a hard fight, but I did it! I unlocked the Zaishen Elite Challenge. What now?
Now you get to try increasingly harder teams, one after the other, same style and arenas as before. Try your best, and once you think you’ve got the hang of this PVP thing, you’re ready to move on up!
I’ve had enough of this computer-controlled enemy stuff, I want to fight other real players, where can I do that?
It seems like you are ready to tackle Random Arenas. Travel there via your map of the PVP world. When you think you are ready to step into battle, hit the “Enter Mission” button, and brace yourself! After a couple of seconds you will find yourself most likely in a familiar arena. Take a look at your party window. Those are your auto-assigned teammates. Quickly glance over the primary and secondary classes they are using, and try to get a feel for what it is like having certain combinations of classes on your team working together. Don’t despair if you loose your first couple of games! Many first players do. Once you get used to the fast-paced action, and win 5 in a row, you might discover that you have unlocked yet another place to venture, Team Arenas!
What are the Team Arenas?
This place is like the Random Arenas, only that you actually put a team together before the match begins, and fight against other hand-made teams. This arena is typically much more difficult, as guilds and friends research and play-test many very good builds that work together very efficiently here. But, do not despair! Advertise yourself, and have some fun trying to maybe put together a couple of teams on your own! By this point, though, you might want to search on your trusty GWOnline.Net forums to see others’ builds and what has worked for them, and try some of them out. After 5 consecutive wins in Team Arenas, you get to unlock the granddaddy of all PVP-dom, Heroes’ Ascent!
Cool, this place looks great! But I’m SO lost here, what do I do first?
Heroes’ Ascent is not like anything you have done before. This is the first time for most of you that you will experience 8v8 combat, as everything else up until that point has been 4v4. It will typically take some time for you to find or create a competent group, and you might not know or understand a lot of builds that people are advertising they are, or are looking for to join their team. Most of the advertisements you will see in the chat window will be for people forming FotM groups (“Flavor of the Month”). These builds come and go in time, and do take some getting used to. More permanent build types are referred to as "Balanced" and generally some form of them remain regardless of skill or map updates.
Holy cow, there are so many different maps and the battles here are NUTS, what is a new player to do?
Granted, Heroes’ Ascent does have a steep learning curve. There are nine total maps, all culminating with the prestigious Hall of Heroes. You will see some kinds of maps that are familiar, like Priest maps, or maps with an Obelisk. There are several new types here though, called Relic Runs, King of the Hill, and Capture Points. Relic Runs are like those flag stand maps you might have been in, except that instead of running your item to a central point, you try to run to someone else’s item and take theirs back to your own base. After enough are captured, or the time runs out, the team with the most wins. King of the Hill involves taking your Ghostly Hero to a central altar and attempting to keep your Hero on the altar for longer than the other team(s). Capture points is similar to Alliance Battles, and your team gets one point for each individual shrine they control every 30 seconds, at the end of the round the team with the most points win. In summary, the best you can do is keep plugging at it, and gradually reduce your level of ignorance as to each map’s in’s-and-out’s.
Back up a second. I heard you mention Ghostly Hero, and I happen to see him with us on the party window, and the other team has one too. What’s up with that?
Ghostly Heroes are, simply, like those Priests you had with you on the Priest maps, except much different. They can be taken with you, or ordered to stay by talking to them. They fight alongside you in battle, but cannot resurrect like your trusty Priest could. But, there is a nice advantage to Ghostly Heroes. First, if you kill your opponent’s Ghostly, all of your skills are automatically recharged, including those seemingly unrechargable Resurrection Signets! Also, you might notice that if you kill an opponent’s Ghostly, you get a Morale Boost, similar to that of killing a boss in PVE. This, just like PVE, gives you increased maximum health and energy. Many battles are won simply because one team gets a lot of Morale Boost (MB), with the other gaining too much Death Penalty (DP), the opposite of Morale Boost. Ghostly Heroes are also your only means of giving relics that you have captured to your relic captured count, and are the only ones who can actually capture an alter.
What happens when (if) I win the last map, Hall of Heroes?
Winning Hall of Heroes is not for the weak-minded, or meek at heart. It takes a lot or planning and strategy, or just a bunch of luck, to get to, never mind win, HOH. If you do win though, every single player in the game gets a message saying that your team won the Hall of Heroes. So needless to say you can gain a lot of honor and prestige by winning HOH several times. Also, after winning there are a couple of chests that pop up, giving each player on the winning team a Zaishen Key, as well as prizes in the form of gold items or Celestial Sigils. Celestial Sigils can be used to purchase a Guild Hall for your guild so that they may compete in a GVG match.
On a side note, I have been frequently noticing that I have been gaining things like faction and advancing title tracks. What’s up with this?
These are the rewards of playing PVP. You get various amounts as rewards for either scoring a unique kill, winning the match, and/or getting a flawless victory (no one on your team dies). You can spend faction at any friendly Priest of Balthazar to unlock fun stuff for your PVP account characters, including Runes, Weapon Modifications, Skills, and Elite Skills. You may only hold 10,000 faction at first, but you can increase this number by earning more ranks in PvP title tracks. The PvP-specific title tracks are Hero (HA), Commander (HB), Champion (GvG), and Gladiator (RA and TA).
Fame is a term used to describe the points in the Hero track, and is accumulated only by winning a match in Heroes’ Ascent. Consecutive wins gain you increasingly more fame per win, but it gets reset to 1 fame per win after you lose. After you get enough total fame, your character can do a fancy rank emote by typing /rank or /fame. At rank 3 you get a Deer emote, at rank 6 you get a wolf emote, at rank 9 you get a tiger emote, and by the time you reach rank 12, you get the god-awesome Phoenix emote.
Back up a minute, you forgot one last thing, GVG. What do I need to know about this?
GVG is the acronym for Guild-versus-Guild combat. It is 8v8, like Heroes’ Ascent, but much different. The maps are huge, have their own idiosyncrasies, and the battles involve a lot more. There is always a flag stand, that if you are “holding” it every couple of minutes, your team gains a morale boost. Battles are won, not by annihilating the other team, but by killing the other team’s Guild Lord. This bad boy is guarded by Bodyguards and many, many NPC’s. The Guild Lord has A LOT of hit points, 1920 to be exact, and has a special item called an Amulet of Protection, along with the common boss ability called “Natural Resistance.” Natural Resistance reduces the time of all timed conditions and hexes on him by half. The amulet is always on the Guild Lord, and prevents him from losing more than 50 health per second at the start of the Guild battle. But, the amulet gradually looses its power over the course of the battle, and by 15 minutes into the battle he can take a max of 250 damage per second. As you can imagine, killing the Guild Lord is a difficult task indeed. Winning GVG matches do not give you fame, but do give you hefty amounts of faction, and increases your Guild Ladder Rank. If you loose, though, you loose Ladder Rank. The top guilds in every region every several months compete in World-wide tournaments for cash and prizes.
Hey, thanks for this guide!
No problem. The best way to get good at PVP is to practice, practice, practice. And, of course, ask for our help here at GWOnline.Net for critique or criticism on any build ideas you have, or if you have any questions :)