PvP guide
Hey guys,
Let me start this off by saying that I have never played pvp in AL. I have entered CTF / TDM 3 times in my whole life because I know that there is no scaling of gear so it is already not fun in the first place. But that's another topic. Anyway, this isn't a guide on how to counter rogue with X setup as mage or how to counter razor shield. This is a guide on basic / advanced pvp theory that applies to almost every pvp game in the whole world. When we talk about pvp, we talk about the metagame. If you look at a game like WoW / LoL, the pvp is extremely developed because of the advancing metagame, the time that people have put into it and the sheer amount of players playing it. I know AL is no WoW, but the pvp concepts will remain the same. This is more so a guide on the various concepts that exist and how you can employ them to improve, and less so a guide on how to actually improve. Once you can visualize what you need to do to improve, then your gameplay will increase tenfolds because then you are not playing games just to play them, you are playing them to improve.
So hear me out, let me know your opinion and offer your advice below
1. Mechanics - Mechanics are what most players use in this game to win. They're basically what defines the game. Simple mechanics are like, having the warrior carry the flag because he's the tankiest member. Advanced mechanics are having a pre-set combo that reliably one shots people because you time your skills correctly with your CC and you squeeze in autos during your downtimes correctly. When you have good mechanics, you know which fights you can win, and you know exactly how much damage you can take or dish out at any moment. You never miss your skills because you know the range and where it hits. Mechanics are what make a good rogue deadly, or a good warrior annoying as me on the forums.
How you can improve on mechanics is by playing hundreds, if not thousands of games. I can't think of any clever ways to exercise your mechanics but I know that some people use the daily stories to test out their damage or something. That's an example of practicing mechanics. If this is unclear, then imagine you are a professional swimmer. A swimmer gets better by working on his technique, by doing specific exercises to perfect his various techniques. He might go to the gym and bench press an hour everyday so he gets more leg strength. If you are constantly missing your opener, like your fireball then practice that skill hundreds of times against AI until you never miss them.
A bonus on mechanics is counting cooldowns and knowing the cooldowns of the enemy team. If you know when their CC / damage is up then you will be a god amongst men because you will be able to react appropriately to every situation. I'm guessing that the hook thing on warrior has a decent cooldown because it seems kind of op so when the hook is down then take advantage. Maybe it's a weapon proc, who knows XD.
2. Decision-making and Game Sense - This is a bit abstract. Decision-making and game sense is the art of positioning correctly. It's what allows you to predict where everyone is and adjusting your position on the map accordingly. It's predicting that a mage will open with his fireball so you counter it properly. If you have really good game sense, then you're never caught in a bad position like a 3v1 and you're always ready for the rogue that ambushes you. With good game sense, you can begin to make decisions that will be favourable to your team. For example, if 3 people on the enemy team bumrushes your friend on the left side of the map, and the flag is on the right side, then you understand that their flag will not be highly contested. They kill your friend, but you take their flag. If you kill 2 people on their team but you lose 3, then you are at a disadvantage and you should aim to employ a defensive position to defend your flag. Otherwise you might lose more players trying to contest their flag. Then you might ultimately lose your flag. I can think of hundreds of scenarios in other games where game sense and decision making has allowed one team to overcome another team who had superior mechanics or items but I don't know much about AL, so no more examples.
How you can improve on decision-making and game sense is by actively thinking about the game that you are playing. If you die, you should aim to understand why you died. If you lose your flag, you should understand why you lost your flag. Always count and consider the positioning of the enemy team in relation to yours. Of course, the only way to improve on this is to play many games. If you are hardcore, record your games on bandicam or twitch so you can replay them with your team and review what went wrong. Once you understand what happened, then you will be less likely to be making the same mistake.
3. Metagame and Optimum building - This is the science of the game. This is deeper understanding of the game by knowing what skill builds work well together, what ratio of stat points is good, etc. Rudimentary exploitation of this is seen by some rogues using loki instead of your typical mythic pet, or mages making stunlocking combos. Just because someone told you that mages should go all int or rogues should go all dex doesn't mean that they should. Mages in fact work much better if they play support / medic kind of role that tanks well enough to survive burst damage and putting out heals and damage at the same time. That's just my opinion and my experience from other games that a hybrid tank build is often much better and efficient. Then again, I don't play pvp so I don't know what's more efficient. What I'm saying is that people tend to be sheep and follow the top players in terms of builds but then there is no innovation. Aim to be clever and find out new ways to play, because I can assure you that there is no correct way to play. OP stuff will always be discovered. So don't do X because JaytB said so. Do it because you understand why he said so. (Sorry I don't know any prominent theory crafting players except you JaytB)
A really important league game is going on right now, so I am going to stop here. I also can't recall what else I was going to say, but these 3 concepts are more than enough to propel your gameplay to that next level shiz.
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