Curse

Riotgear · Dec 07, 2007, 01:40 AM // 01:40

I'm posting this in response to the recent rash of misguided threads in an attempt to Promote Quality(tm) among misguided PvP beginners, to explain some of the obscure policies that affect them, and to get things going in the right direction.

IF YOU WANT TO POST YOUR SINGLE-CHARACTER BUILD:

There are a couple places you can post it:
- If your build is designed for the Random Arenas, post in the Random Arenas thread here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10172048
- If your build is designed for Fort Aspenwood or Alliance Battles, post it in the Alliance Battles section.
- DO NOT post your build if you are unwilling to accept criticism of it.

DO NOT post your build in the main forum, or in one of the other subforums, or the PvP Skill Discussion forum. There is a reason for this:

Solo builds are suitable for three places: Random Arenas, Fort Aspenwood, and Alliance Battles. All three of those places are filled with players that are simply not very good (i.e. ignore conditions/hexes on them, refuse to switch targets, etc.). Because they're not very good, you can find success there with some pretty bad builds. After all, you don't really need to be good to beat a bad opponent, just not as bad.

Most builds that come out of those formats are bad for that very reason. If you've invented a build from scratch for those formats, there is a very good chance that part of why it works is because you're facing bad opponents. If that's the case, it is very likely that the build is not very good to begin with.

Most of the time though, people get very attached to these builds and refuse to listen to advice on them, even when they're very flawed. The purpose of posting them winds up being less about gathering improvements and more about showing it off, and when they're heavily criticized, the creator refuses to accept that criticism, and the thread either dead-ends or turns into a flame war. This is why there is a policy against creating these threads.

IF YOU NEED A SINGLE-CHARACTER BUILD:

See the previous section, the same guidelines of where to post and check apply, and why posting those requests outside of those areas is discouraged.

PvXwiki has a good collection of tested builds to get you started:
http://www.gwpvx.com/

HEROES ASCENT, GUILD BATTLE, TEAM ARENAS, HERO BATTLES:

Heroes' Ascent, Team Arenas, Guild vs. Guild, and Hero Battles are team formats where you can easily control your entire team's build. Your opponent can too, so you need a good team build there!

Since nobody is capable of performing the huge number of roles needed there by themselves, and picking an arbitrary build may leave roles unfulfilled, it is impossible to even guess the effectiveness of a single character unless you know what team build they will be in. This is why only complete team builds are acceptable in those sections.

ARE YOU NEW TO PVP?

Your opponents are going to be decked out in maxed-out equipment, and by creating a PvP character, you can be too! There is no reason to let your roleplaying character's sub-optimal equipment or lack of skills limit you in PvP. Just make a PvP character and that problem goes away!

Balthazar faction to unlock skills can be earned in the Random Arenas fairly easily, any skills you learn and any upgrades you acquire on your roleplaying characters become immediately available to all PvP characters.

If you're new to PvP and need advice, you absolutely must accept a few things:

- First, you need to be willing to accept advice, including criticism. Criticism can be harsh, ranging up to "what you're trying is a bad idea, start over." If you are unwilling to abandon your plans to follow the advice of more experienced players, then you shouldn't be asking for advice in the first place.

- Second, do not resist "cookie cutter" builds on principle. If you want to win, you need to play what wins, not something inventive that doesn't perform as well. There are a wide number of proven builds out there that suit a wide variety of play styles, so find something you like that works!

- Third, you need to understand that many things effective in PvE work differently in PvP. Do not expect your PvE build, even something similar to it, to work in PvP. Monsters are dumb, they stand in meteor showers and attack people with 75% block stances on them instead of squishier targets.

Where to go for advice depends on where you're looking for advice for. If you want to get started in advanced formats like HA, GvG, or TA, don't hesitate to ask how! If you're trying to get into Random Arenas, Alliance Battles, or Fort Aspenwood, see the previous sections.

Wasteland Squidget · Dec 07, 2007, 03:50 AM // 03:50

Good thread. Stickied.

TheOneMephisto · Dec 07, 2007, 04:02 AM // 04:02

Applause. Too bad no one actually reads the stickies. But still, if people would only read and follow this, a huge amount of unnecessary and bad threads/posts could be avoided.

Riotgear · Dec 07, 2007, 04:57 AM // 04:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOneMephisto

Applause. Too bad no one actually reads the stickies. But still, if people would only read and follow this, a huge amount of unnecessary and bad threads/posts could be avoided.

Say you're a frequent FA player and want to post your build. Find me the stickies that tell you where to do that. Ready, go!

I don't think the current presentation of the policies is very intuitive, so that's why I made this: One obvious thread with very clear directions and explanations for everything. We'll see what happens.

Llint · Dec 07, 2007, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Any possibility on double sticky-ing this? Maybe triple? Its THAT important.

I knew that this thread was important before even reading the context - the title said enough.