GvG How To thread

[KinkleKlaws]

After joining some of you in vent and noticing some interest in GvG, I thought I'd post this as a friendly guide for those not familiar with GvG. It is a totally different animal than your regular RA, TA, HA PvP. These are just helpful hints and tactics that I've collected that give a lot of the top guilds the edge in their matches. Please feel free to add to this as I'm sure there are quite a few things that I'm missing. And yes, this is a long post, but it's a read that's worthy of 5 minutes of your time if you'd like to get a head start on GvG.

Flag running: Usually you see two dynamics: a dedicated flag runner and chain running. The former is built more defensively than you usually see, with the expectation that the character will frequently be in 1v1 against other flag runners. Some runner builds are made to run away from conflict, others to win 1v1 battles. Chain running builds use no dedicated runner and instead have two or more players take turns running the flag. As a runner you should only stop running flags if your team has the flag stand AND you have a flag in your hands, or the other team has completely given up on taking the flag stand. You should be using heal party if your team needs it, but do not needlessly take part in the offensive. If you have the flagstand you have the advantage, and quickly getting the next flag increases the pressure on them to capture and stop you from doing so. When your team has a flag advantage and an extra flag you can either keep the flag in your hands, or drop your flag (preferably in a hidden spot by the flagstand) and join the attack. If the opposing team is going to recapture the stand, then you are to get it back immediately with the hidden flag and get another flag immediately. If your team is turtling you should make some attempt to get the flag stand back, it might force them to pull back from their offensive. Sometimes you will have to do this solo. It's worth mentioning here that some maps have a distinct built-in disadvantage to mass movement, which impacts you directly when you're running flags. The jade sea map has the coral and the lava map has the... lava. In the lava map in particular, it takes a painfully long time to run the flag from your base to the stand (between 75 and 85 seconds). It is imperative on these maps to not hesitate too much when running and also don't allow yourself to be detained for too long or it will mean an automatic morale boost for the opposing team. The obvious corollary to this is that if you're playing against a team in the lava map you should try to detain their flag runner if possible because 30 seconds of delay in the flag runner's path could mean a morale boost for your team. This is one reason why some air runner builds carry gale or water magic snares. Slowing their runner = increasing your advantage, but keep your individual goals in sight. The flag runner should know the GvG maps well, including front and back entrances of the starting base, as well as any alternate paths to the flag stand and environmental effects between the base and the stand. The flag runner should also communicate major incoming threats, particularly when entering and leaving the flag stand area. It's not a bad idea for the flag runner to announce when he's going to be charging through the fight so that the team can support him. The afore-mentioned chain running is a strategy by which the main flag runner only brings the flag to the flag stand area, and then has a different, often more durable character bring it to the flagstand. This decreases the chances that the flag runner will be killed (a warrior usually takes it for the last and most dangerous part of the way), and makes putting a single target call on the flag runner impossible. It obviously requires more coordination to do this.

Repair Kits: On catapult maps it's important to know where both repair kits are and when you should grab them. Usually somebody should grab your own repair kit right away and deposit it within your own base.

The Split: Splitting your team is frequently the best way to break a tough opponent. When you see a team is pressure or spike you should generally split the team right away, with the offensive half hitting the back door of their base and raping NPCs. Often the defensive team which stays at the flag stand will take losses, but this is expected. More often than not your opponents will attempt their own split, poorly, and get taken apart. You definitely want to know what your own split is BEFORE entering the match.

Adrenal Spikes: What you generally want is for both warriors to build up adrenaline on different targets, switching frequently. Then the primary caller will call a target and say "Spike in 4, 3, 2, 1", at which point both warriors should be at the target and unload on him. These builds always have a lead knockdown of some sort. Although it's called an adrenal spike there's always support assistance, either in the form of a lightning orb or a shatter enchants or whatever. This is what the "4,3,2,1" part is for. When there's a blackout mesmer in play this person should blackout a monk OTHER THAN THE TARGET at 1. Note that it's usually a waste of time to wait for both warriors to fully charge before unloading: in the time it takes to set up the Perfect Spike you could fire off two Decent Spikes which will pressure their monks nicely. Under almost no circumstance should you be already attacking the adrenal spike target before the spike goes off. If you are already attacking the target when it is called, switch off of it, then switch back when you spike. The giveaway of the adrenaline spike is the two warriors converging on a target. The only way around that is an assassin teleport skill, which is very gimmicky and has a high recharge; usually not applicable or viable. One of the delicate requirements of the adrenal spike is to make the movement not look like you are moving in to spike. Switching targets often helps alleviate this, not running directly to the target helps, not waiting for the very last moment to switch also helps. There is also an important point for the defensive classes. Spikes on your team will occur when the two warriors converge for a spike. A well timed blackout, gale, blindingflash, ward of melee, blurred vision, or any type of cripple can greatly hinder the timing and punch of an adrenal spike. Before we get too far into this, we must talk about...

Positioning: Standard warriors in front, support in the middle, monks at the back rules apply. Players, especially warriors, should pay attention to their location relative to the rest of the team and pull back accordingly. In this vein you can get a lot of mileage out of pushing the enemy team out of this arrangement. Keep an eye out for enemies overextending into your backline and pressure them. This might force their monks to come up, at which point you can snare them and go to town. Another good strategy is to keep an eye out for a fat target running against a wall. With good communication you should be able to body block that target against the wall and hopefully take him out. A corollary to this is don't run against walls.

Building adrenaline (and general pressure): While your team is engaged with the other team warriors should be attacking. Unless you are in hex hell, with spiteful and clumsiness and spirit shackles and spirit of failure and blind, you should be attacking; there are very few times that you should stop putting pressure somewhere, but it is important to recognize those times. There are three things you need to consider when you are attacking targets, where the target is placed, the armor of the target (how soft the target is), and how much the target is kiting.

First condition, it is easiest to reach their frontline, next easiest to reach midline, and hardest to reach backline, this should be obvious.

Second condition, warriors take the least amount of damage from your attacks while casters take the most, again this should be obvious.

Third condition. NPCs (note: not henchmen) don't kite. With tracking errors pets barely move if you are on top of them. Warriors/thumpers are the next easiest to hit, closely followed by assassins. Some midline casters are great at kiting, but many are not, they are still more often than not less concerned with kiting and pre-kiting than monks. Finally, monks.

What this boils down to is finding a nice point in all three. Hitting pets is easy, but they take far less damage than casters and are not terribly vital. Hitting casters is a bit harder, but yields better results. This feeds into...

Forcing placement changes: When you pressure a midline caster they will inevitably fall back to the backline. (note: if they just fucking sit there and take it, then frenzy and kill the stupid motherfucker. A non moving, non hindered, constantly frenzy warrior can out DPS the HPS of a monk) While their casters are on the backline, their casters cannot help hinder or spike our backline. Constantly pressuring the entire midline back tends to also push the backline back. This leads to the enemy frontline being overextended, its hard to take advantage of this since your warriors are the enemybackline, but you did just push their whole team back, good job, your team just took the flagstand. If you pressure their frontline one or more healers will have to move to midline, a monk in the midline is great target. It is possible to pressure their backline, but this is risky. You put yourself out of your healer's range and usually their backline will kite you even further back, this makes you a target and unable to receive much of any support from your team. This type of move can take out an enemy monk and usually makes the whole team fall back. Know what your enemy team is capable of and know how much your character can take before you attempt to do this.

Calling Targets: The default target is a caster in the midline. The best target for a spike is someone out of position. A mesmer that has run to blackout one of our monks is grossly out of position, likewise for a ranger that has done the same. Just about any assassin that is currently attacking is going to be out of position. A monk that has wandered into the midline is out of position. A ritualist that isn't behind the backline is usually a good target.

Setting a pace: The target caller sets the pace for how often your team spikes. Do not be worried about everyone being perfectly ready for the spike. When the spike goes off hit the target with what you have, just an axe warrior using shock, a hammer warrior using crushing blow, and a lighting orb or energy burn will still put pressure on the enemy monks to heal. At the same time, if you call spike targets so fast that no one has time to recharge skills, build adrenaline, or recharge energy, then you will never have any good spikes.

Personally I am always looking for a target. Even immediately after a spike, I am looking for a new target. Sometimes I will go ahead and call a new target, even before I have adrenaline. It takes a little getting used to, but as a target caller you need to call targets fast enough to keep the enemy monks on their toes and give everyone enough time to make your spikes lethal.

Failed spikes: This will happen. It will usually happen when, for whatever reason, your team didn't put up a stellar spike or many times on wonderful spikes. Once your team's damage push is over and the target receives some heals, then the spike is over. There is a strong urge to push button and deal damage, but you will almost never be able to out pressure the target at this point; the enemy monks are focused on that target and have recovered from your disrupting skills while your team has expended adrenaline, energy, and skill recharge for that spike. If you continue to waste adrenaline, energy, and skill recharge pressuring when it is not going to kill the target, then your team is going to be less prepared for further targets. This applies to casters as well as melee.

Spikes against us: Don't freak out against spike teams. Spikes can kill you quickly but they can't do anything else as well as balanced teams can. For positioning purposes, spikers in GvG won't attempt to spike monks first. This means if you're monking don't keep yourself selected, and don't expect to be target #1 (This isn't RA anymore). The monks are hopefully playing backline and will be difficult targets, exposing the spikers to counterattacks. They're more likely to try and spike a warrior or caster first and get the surprise kill, then scare you into playing defensively. Don't do this. Pay particular attention to keeping the flag runner alive, morale is a large factor in GvG. Get in their faces with multiple warriors and damage dealers, and throw off their spike timing. Use whatever interrupts you may have and pressure damage to keep them from spiking efficiently. If you panic and try to hang back your whole team will get spiked down individually.