LAST UPDATED: 03 May 2008

PvP plays a major role in making Guild Wars the game that it is – so much so that ArenaNet themselves, the developers, have described Guild Wars as a CORPG (Competitive Online Roleplaying Game).

Breaking into the world of PvP is often falsely perceived as extremely tough by players who have never delved into it. The fact is that all skill levels have been taken into account, allowing almost anyone with a basic knowledge of the game to play some form of PvP.

* A basic knowledge of the game
* PvP characters
* Types of PvP
* My advice
* What you’ll need for your first battle
* Other important information
* Links you may find useful

I strongly recommend you read through the full guide before deciding on your plan of action. Important information is scattered throughout the guide, as it is difficult to explain certain things without explaining others first.

 A BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE GAME

Many factors have to be taken into account before deciding whether or not you are ready for PvP:

Controls

If you don’t know the basic controls – learn them! PvP is often unpredictable, so you never know when you may need to open a window! Most boxed copies of Guild Wars ship with a miniature map of the keyboard, which I advise you stick on the wall near your PC or keep on hand until you’ve become accustomed to the layout of the keyboard.

The role of my profession in the game

Each profession is unique and can play various roles. Knowing your profession is extremely important for a PvP player. For example, a Monk can heal, protect or even damage other players. You’ll need a good idea of what your character is capable of.

PvE experience

The biggest mistake you can make is simply jumping into PvP the first time you fire up Guild Wars. I’ve witnessed first-hand how this can totally ruin the game for someone. Why? You won’t know how anything works, meaning you won’t be effective. When you aren’t effective, you tend to get frustrated or bored.

I’d personally advise you to finish at least one campaign before deciding to venture into serious PvP. Of course we all have different abilities and talents, but you should know whether or not you’re ready for PvP when the time comes. Playing the arenas along the way is a great way to build up PvP confidence, which we’ll deal with later in this guide.

Have I played any other games similar to Guild Wars?

Chances are that if you’ve played a game that is similar to Guild Wars you’re going to have a far easier time learning how to play compared to a completely new player to the genre!

The beauty of Guild Wars is that it’s very casual-friendly. Why should I have to level a character if I want to PvP and know how to?

On the character creation screen you are presented with two options:

Roleplaying character

Creates a level one character of your choice.

PvP character

Creates a level 20 character of your choice with a perfect weapon and some skills

PvP characters a great way to save time and money!

The current list of battles available is:

* Random Arenas
* Team Arenas
* Heroes Ascent
* Alliance Battles
* Hero Battles
* Arenas
* Guild vs. Guild
* Competitive Missions

First you’ll need to know how to access the Battle Isles. With a PvP character you will automatically be transported to The Great Temple of Balthazar, located in the Battle Isles. Press "M" to map your way around. A roleplaying character on the other hand can access the Isles by pressing "M," then clicking on the small boat icon located somewhere on your map and selecting The Great Temple of Balthazar. Simply hit the Travel button once you've made your selection and you'll be zoned into the Battle Isles.

Now let’s deal with each one seperately…

Random Arenas (RA)
Two teams of 4 are randomly selected and pitted against each other.

Deathmatch – The point is to annihilate the opposing side. The team with the last man/men standing is the winner

Kill Count – For three minutes teams are allowed to kill each other freely. After those three minutes the team with the most kills wins the match. If the kill count is equal, the next team to make a kill wins (sudden death).

NOTE: Once you have won 5 consecutive battles in the Random Arenas, Team Arenas will be unlocked. You can travel there via a marker on your map (M).

For more in-depth information, visit this link.

Team Arenas (TA)

Teams of 4 are formed in the Team Arenas outpost. Two teams battle each other.

Kill Count – Teams are allowed to kill the opposing side for the allocated time period. If the kill count is equal once the timer runs out, sudden death is initiated where the next team to land a kill wins the match.

Annihilation – To sum it up, your team needs to kill all members of the opposing team and any NPCs of theirs (there may or may not be, depending on the map). Some of these matches involve an NPC priest per side that will resurrect each party every two members until he is killed.

NOTE: Once you have won 5 battles in the Team Arenas, Heroes Ascent will be unlocked. You can travel there via a marker on your map (M).

For more in-depth information, visit this link.

Heroes Ascent (HA)

Teams of 8 are formed in the Heroes Ascent outpost. If your party wins, you gain Fame points towards the Hero title track. Certain levels of this title track allow you to perform special emotes using the /fame command in the chat window.

When entering battle for the first time with your party, you have to battle against a set of NPC characters. Your party will gain a morale boost depending on how quickly you kill the NPCs. Once you have your morale boost (or none depending on how quickly you killed the NPCs!), your party is put into the queue for battle against another team. There are 10 arenas in Heroes Ascent, each with their own objectives.

Once a team has won a number of battles in the various arenas, they are sent to the Hall of Heroes. The winners here receive item drops from a chest.

For more in-depth information, visit this link.

Alliance Battles (AB) <required Guild Wars: Factions>

Guild may align with the Kurzicks or the Luxons. Hit the “G” button if you are in a guild (a guild with a guild hall is required to access Alliance Battles). Your guild’s allegiance will be displayed at the top of the window.

Depending on your guild’s allegiance, you will fight against Kurzick or Luxon players. To visit the Alliance Battles outpost, simply press the “G” button and click on the “Guild Hall” button. You will be taken to your guild’s Guild Hall. There you will find an Alliance Battle NPC who will take you to the correct outpost when you speak with him.

At the outpost, you can create a team of 4 or join a team that needs more players. Once your team is filled up and has entered battle, you will be combined with two other teams, forming a team of 12 players. The opposing faction will consist of 12 players too.

Objectives – Throughout the map (press the “U” button for a mission map) there will be various shrines. The objective is to capture and hold as many shrines as possible, since you get points every 7 seconds for the number of shrines you hold. In order to capture a shrine, simply stand in it. You will notice a bar filling up slowly. The more players standing in the shrine, the quicker that bar will fill up. Once the bar has filled up completely, your team will have captured the shrine and a number of NPCs will spawn to protect it from the opposing side. Note that if you are standing in the shrine along with another player from the opposing side, neither side will be able to capture it. If, however, another player from your team were to join you in the shrine, the shrine will slowly start to be captured by your side and vice versa. In other words, the team who outnumbers the opposing side in a shrine captures it!

In the middle of the map there is a Resurrection Shrine. If your team holds this shrine, you and your team mates will be resurrected here instead of in your base. This central location is generally favoured as a resurrection point compared to your team’s base.

Note – running into the opposing side’s base will get you instantly killed, so stay out!

The first team to reach 500 points wins the battle.

For more in-depth information, visit this link.

Hero Battles (HvH) <requires Guild Wars: Nightfall or Guild Wars: Eye of the North>

A player enters battle with three of his/her heroes and fights against another player and their heroes in this form of PvP.

In order to unlock Hero Battles, your character needs to have unlocked three heroes. You can travel to the outpost using your map (M) or by hitting the “H” key, clicking on the “Account” tab then selecting “Travel to Hero Battles.”

Hero Battles are similar to Alliance Battles in the way that you need to capture shrines (see Alliance Battles above for explanation). The first team to reach 20 morale points (obtained by capturing the shrines) wins.

Players may participate in ranked and unranked matches. If you choose to partake in the first, your wins and losses will be tracked and your standing will be played on the Hero Battles Ladder.

When you win a Hero Battle, you will receive a point towards the Commander title track.

For more in-depth information, visit this link.
For information on the Hero Ladder, visit this link instead.

Arenas

There are various arenas throughout the Guild Wars world. Today there are far less than there used to be due to the closure of many. There are still some, however, and are a great way to practice PvPing as a low level character.

Examples of these arenas are those situated in Ascalon City and Shing Jea Arena.

Guild vs. Guild (GvG)

Teams are formed in a guild’s Guild Hall. These teams consist of 8 players. Your team will be pitted against either another team in your guild or another guild, depending on various options you choose.

The main objective is to kill the opposing team’s Guild Lord before they kill yours. Another way in which to win is by getting all members of the opposing side’s death penalty to 60%.

For more in-depth information, visit this link.
For information on the Guild Ladder, visit this link instead.

Competitive Missions <require Guild Wars: Factions>

There are two competitive missions: Fort Aspenwood and The Jade Quarry. Each has their own winning conditions.

For more in-depth information, visit this link.

MY ADVICE

As a beginner, Random Arenas or Alliance Battles are your best bet. In Random Arenas you won’t have to worry about finding a team. Alliance Battle teams are usually formed via random invites too. Alliance Battles have the added benefit of there being 11 other people on your team instead of the 3 in Random Arenas, meaning that there will be more than enough people to pick up the slack for you as a beginner.

Guild Wars is a very skill-based game. What does this mean? Well, unlike many other games of its type on the market, you are rewarded for knowing how the game works rather than for how long you’ve played or the rarity of your character’s items.

Though items do not play a huge role, they play a role, meaning you’ll want to gear your character properly. This is a fairly simple process:

* Make sure your character is wearing maximum armor. Depending on how you want to look, obtaining max armor ranges from fairly cheap to extremely expensive.
* Get yourself a perfect or near-perfect weapon. I strongly advise refraining from the latter. These too come pretty cheap depending on your profession. Of course, the type of weapon you use will depend on your character attributes (if you don’t know how these two go hand-in-hand your knowledge of the game isn’t sufficient enough for PvP yet…keep playing! You’ll get there eventually).
* The right skills! Each profession has thousands of possible builds. If you’re in need of a little help try PvXWiki

Balthazar Faction

Obtained through killing other players and winning battles. You can exchange this at a Priest of Balthazar (located in your Guild Hall and most PvP outposts) to unlock skills, items and heroes for your PvP characters.

PvP characters

A newly created character of this type will need to be kitted out. This can be done at no cost. Simply press the “I” button and then click on the “PvP equipment” button. Skills can be placed in your skill bar via the Skills window, which is accessed via the “K” button. Don’t forget to adjust your attributes!

Check back here often as the guide is still a work in progress and nowhere near finished! Hopefully this will answer some questions in the meantime :)

LINKS YOU MAY FIND USEFUL

GuildWiki

Official Guild Wars Wiki

PvXWiki

Any chance we can get this stickied when I'm done? I find there are quite a few posts regarding PvP, so having a basic guide and post where people can instead ask their questions will help clean up the forum :)

Fix the colors. The purple one is hard to read, the red one isn't nice, the green is by far too light and the purple blue is also hard to read; stick to white thanks. PvP characters should be presented more, such as unlocking skills and equipment. You should go much more in depth on every arena if you want this stickied, or at least I think so; there is hardly any reason to post such basic information, not without the slightly more in depth one. Go through the various titles obtained too and some other information such as how to enter HA and GvG. Often HA requires rank and GvG requires guild and so on.

Summary: You should go much more in depth in pretty much everything you went through here. Also if you want it stickied add "- sticky please" to the end of the title so the admins recognize it faster.

Hence this

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Originally posted by Lydon
Check back here often as the guide is still a work in progress and nowhere near finished! Hopefully this will answer some questions in the meantime :)

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and this

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Originally posted by Lydon
Any chance we can get this stickied when I'm done?

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The colours look perfectly fine in Safari...they probably show up lighter or darker on different browsers so I've taken them out. I'll find another way of making it easier to locate different sections.

I'll read through it more carefully some day, maybe but the first thoughts that sprung to mind were those above and also posted as a help for you to make this a more complete guide. Also you should add more about what essential for every arena when it comes to most important part of Guild Wars: builds. For your convenience I'll write together a basic outline of my basic knowledge I've acquired from playing the game and doing too much theory crafting at PvX.

• Random Arenas (RA): It's random, therefore you never know if you'll be playing with a monk or not, bringing a form of self-healing is a good idea. Since you will be fighting against only four players counting on AoE skills tend to be bad idea; foes won't clump together.
• Team Arenas (TA): This is fairly much like RA when it comes to playstyle, with the exception that you here can rely on your monk/healer. Forming a team and the synergy between the different builds in that team is essential for your success, running PuG's (pick up group) tends to be a bad idea due to that. TA revolves very much around a few basic setups, the most common being: Warrior (Shock Axe), Ranger(Magebane Shot Ranger), Necro (WoD, Wail of Doom is sometimes replaced by Corrupt Enchantment) and a Monk (WoH). Of course the meta varies, however this setup of professions has been pretty much constant for a long time now.
• Heroes Ascent (HA): Everything is about the team's build setup here, and to succeed you need to have a coordinated pre-made build. Some things to consider is that the monks setup is in 99,9% of the times the same. When designing builds for this area take in consideration a few major things.
• How fast is the spike? A too slow one will be stopped.
• How much damage does the spike deal? It should deal around 700 damage and include a deep wound, at the least.
• How much defense does your team got? Two monks will be wiped in a matter of seconds, you need eles' with wards, paragons' with shouts, ritualists' with some heals and so on.
• How much condition and hex removal does your team have? Should you lack either of this you will most likely be rolled over by a team featuring it, and you can count on encountering the most things in HA.
• Enchantment removal, does your team have it? If not your spike will most likely fail because of a monk using pre-prots, i.e. skills that will prevent it in one way or another.
• Alliance Battles (AB): Builds should here focus on one thing only: to quickly move across the map and take out the various shrines, this is easiest done by using AoE attack skills.
• Hero Battles (HB): You need builds your heroes can use on their own and these should also have a basic amount of survivability. Sorry I don't know much about this place in particular, I've not bothered to check it out just yet.
• Guild vs. Guild (GvG): Defense is essential here. Most teams will a minor fortress of their own and that's what you need to have in order to survive here. Other important things to remember is that you need to have a runner to run the flag.

I'm not very good at HB and GvG and I've got a slight overkill of knowledge about HA, but overall the rest is fairly good.