PVP skill usage?

[hackGU.5760]

Pls remove if this is in the wrong place. 

New player here and im trying to wrap my head around pvp combat. From what I can tell there doesn't seem to be a set order or plan when casting skills.  For example I play necro and from what I can tell if I'm using staff I'm just suppose to throw down every single mark as soon as it's off cooldown. Is this how it's meant to be played or is there a strategic approach that I'm missing? 

[codedbykush.2019]

Google Gw2 Meta builds, their guilds are quite good to get started and tweak yourself.

[Rogue.8235]

In PvP, you can spam everything off cooldown all the time.  That's good enough for silver and, if using a meta build, low gold.  At higher elo, players will easily counter your skill spam because you are entirely predictable.  If your only tactic is to throw skills at someone, they know what you're going to do at any given moment and can play around it.

 

What you should be doing is knowing everything in your build completely.  After that, you must know what the enemy builds are and what they want to accomplish.  Then, you must be able to identify where you are most useful at any given moment for your team.

 

Once you got the decision making down, fights are about knowing when to use your skills.  

Example: Enemy has their defensive cooldowns up and ready to go.  Bursting them with skill spam would be horrible as they can just defend it and counter when your cooldowns are are running.

Using you're powerful skills, then immediately stow-canceling to prevent the cast is good.  The enemy may dodge in anticipation, and now they just wasted a dodge.

Timing your CC skills around the enemy's defensive cooldowns is a must.  Don't waste them by spamming.

Knowing when to leave the fight is key.  Don't fight to the death just because.  That only helps the enemy team.  Knowing when to back off and regroup, or back off and reposition, or back off and lure enemies into chasing you (wasting their time) are all key decisions you must be familiar with.

 

PvP wis more about decision-making.  AKnowing how to fight is a given.  If you just spam skills off cooldown, you aren't even at the "Knowing how to fight" level, much less knowing what to do level and making good decisions level.  

 

In short, 

No you do not just throw down skills off cooldown.

No you don't usually preplan your skill usage because you must be effectively adapting to the enemy.

Skill spamming is a sure way to lose.  Never adapting away from set skill rotations is a sure way to lose.

Proper cognition is the way to win.

[ASP.8093]

Generally, you want to be making use of all your cooldowns on both weapon sets. That doesn't quite mean spamming everything out as soon as possible, but, all things being equal, more pressure, more CC, and more group buffs are better.

 

As you learn your class and others, you should get an eye for:

1. How and when to burst someone (put your biggest damaging skills on them without them being able to dodge it or mitigate it).

2. Which of your skills inflict CC, and how to use them to put set someone up for a burst (from you or your whole team).

3. How to secure a kill for your team using cleaving attacks, CC, and Poison.

4. How to survive when the enemy team is focusing you.

 

 

Some specific examples with necro staff skills:

 

Skill #3 (Chillblains) applies Poison and Chill. These conditions will reduce an enemy's ability to heal and reposition, making it easier for you and your teammates to secure a kill.

 

Skill #4 (Putrid Mark) hits pretty hard (in a Power build, e.g. if you're using Berserker or Marauder amulet). If you see someone who's low on health and they've already used some dodges, that's a great time to try to kill them.

* It also creates a Blast Finisher. Go back to Skill #3 — see how is says "Combo Field: Poison?" Poison Field + Blast Finisher = Area Weakness. So if you hit your enemies with 3->4 you'll give them a debuff that reduces their dodging and attack damage. This goes great with the Chill you're already getting from Skill #3.

* Putrid Mark also moves conditions from you onto enemies, so you can use it to cleanse if the enemy has put some nasty conditions on you.

 

Skill #5 (Reaper's Mark) can put Fear on up to five people. This is a CC effect. If they don't have the Stability boon or use a stun break skill, they'll be forced to run away for 1 sec. Which is enough time for you or your teammates to hit them with a big follow-up attack. You'll also interrupt whatever they're doing, which becomes increasingly valuable as you learn other class' animations and timings. Some tricks you can try with this:

1. If you see multiple enemies piling onto a single teammate, interrupting them or forcing them away can save the player.

2. You can use the forced movement to try to push enemies off a capture point.

3. CC can prevent enemies from stomping your downed team members or ressing theirs. Reaper's Mark is particularly useful for this since it's an area effect.

 

[Rogue.8235]

23 hours ago, ASP.8093 said:

. How to secure a kill for your team using cleaving attacks, CC, and Poison.

4. How to survive when the enemy team is focusing you.

 

I just want to emphasize these two things.  These are so very important.