My Constructive Rage?

Hi webbertons,

A friend of mine showed me this video (seen below) and I about pewped my pants from crying, laughing and raging so hard that I decided to write a blog about it.

A lot of people would die to be in the press beta. I know, I for one, would  have loved to be able to be in it, making videos to help promote the game. I hope Arenanet picks some more PvP scentric press in the future. By this, I mean skilled PvP press. Players who have played PvP games and have something to show for it to some extent. I am not a huge fan of seeing PvE players, or subpar PvP players, trying to show off and explain PvP.

I know..."Elitest" moment, but seriously, it's frustrating to watch and really gives people a negative vibe. I wouldn't want to watch myself doing that either, nor would I want to subject anyone to watching that. I've realized in all the rage that I'm having from watching this video there's content I can express that could help future PvP game reviewers.

Even if you aren't a total PvP pro, you'll notice quite a few issues with this video. I don't want to hate on the person who made this video, so I will keep this as general as possible while still giving you some examples from the video.

Read your abilities. Have some idea of what they do, and try to use them wisely.

In the above video, the player is missing his elite ability - the far right ability in the "0" slot. Never go into combat without a key ability. These ulti-type abilities are a huge aspect of gameplay. If you've watched any of the PvP matches that some of the A-net developers have done, you'll note that this ability is really important when you get in huge battles or tricky situations.

Use your heal and use it wisely. I'm not sure what spec this fellow was, but even if he only had one heal, there were key moments where he had his main heal up (slot 6) and he was low health for a long period of time.

Try to learn to not click your abilities; this leaves your mouse free for movement and situational awareness. Use your mouse to constantly look around and face your enemies and or the direction you need to travel. Using the above tip, use your mouse to help you guide your direction and turn instead of using WASD. WASD should be used to move and strafe, not for turning.

All of the above issues are visible by watching the video. I also never saw him dodge. Dodging seems to be a major aspect of PvP in Guildwars 2, allowing you to move quickly out of bad situations and allowing you to evade some major spells. I don't believe I saw him do this once.

Take time to look over your HUD. Make sure you know where all the important bits and pieces are. If you don't know what something is, test things out until you figure out what it is used for and what it represents. If you still don't know, mention that. Make it known to your viewers that you're not certain what it is and also note that you hope the developer fixes that or makes it more apparent. 

At the beginning, he opens the map to see who has what objectives. This is a bit unnecessary because the objectives are in the upper middle area of the HUD. Perhaps, he just wanted to show us the map, so I'll let that one slide. 

He calls someone a guardian at about 7:17 when he clearly had him targetted and the guy was obviously an engineer. A lot of times, he seemed unsure of who his enemy was when he had them targetted. Other times, he was right, but there should never be a moment where you are guessing who your enemy is. In Guildwars 2, from what we can see so far, they have icons above the players head that tell you what class they are. Notice the engineer icon above the player at 7:17. 

He states several times that you need to finish downed enemies, but never once does he actually finish the enemy. You can see that it says, "FINISH THEM! [F]" He just continues to swing at the enemy or shoot his arrows. I don't think he realized how to finish off the downed enemy. 

Situational awareness will help you make the right decisions. This bit is a combination of all of the above. PvP players need to be able to assess a situation and react to it. If you have all of the above down, this is what you should be working on next and continuing to improve upon it.

After watching the video, do you agree with my tips? Have something to add or have any comments and opinons you'd like to share? Toss them down in the comments seciton. I'd love to know what you think. 

<3 x 9001,

/Maggie