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Clusterfact

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Ok gang, this thread is in response to another thread of ours I recently read. The OP was asking about a certain phrase in a PVP setting, but there was no comprehensive thread containing that information. This information is vital for us as a PVP-oriented guild and everyone needs to be on top of their game.

My hope with this thread is that we can accumulate as much information as we can as a guild, find out the areas we are lacking, and then round us out for the future.

I need everyone who has two cents on PVP to post anything you know. This guide will be by the guild, for the guild.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


Getting Started:

Almost everyone in this guild will not be new to PVP, but for those of us who may be relatively new, PVP is an acronym for "Player vs. Player". PVP combat offers players an entirely different play style from PVE (Player vs. Environment) combat in that it factors in the human element. Not only do you have to know what you are going to do, you have to have a fairly good idea what your opponent is going to do and adapt to any changes.

Be Familiar with YOU:

This may be the Golden Rule of PVP combat. Nothing makes you feel more stupid than losing a skirmish and realizing that one ability you learned a few levels back would have turned the tide. This happens all the time; someone is not familiar with their character build/spec and they fail to utilize important skills.

An easy fix for this problem is to just sit back for a few minutes, read your abilities (and their tooltips) and think of interesting synergies between them (there are far more than you may think). Learning anything requires repetition -- your brain needs this to make connections!

Very few people will be able to jump into an unfamiliar role and dominate the first time around, and odds are, we aren't one of them, so why take the risk?

Be familiar with your opponent:

By familiar, I don't mean you need to be able to read your opponant's mind. In fact, one of the most exciting parts of PVP combat is NOT knowing what your opponent is going to do. Regardless, you need to be prepared for any commonly used crap he/she may pull.

What kind of class are they playing? What race/species are they playing? You can even tell what spec/role they are playing by paying attention to their gear. These are a few simple things that you can do to make PVP life a little easier. After a while, it becomes an almost primal instinct to know who you are fighting.

Be familiar with your surroundings:

This one pretty much speaks for itself. Know where your opponent may come from, where they may be going, etc. Not only can this keep you out of line of sight, but it may give you the element of surprise, which is a powerful weapon in and of itself.

A surprise attack will most often leave your opponent reeling to catch up in combat. This advantage is one that should never be given up freely and many skirkishes have been decided by whoever lands that first, unpredicted blow.

Be familiar with your team:

In the event that you are running with one or more people, make sure you have an understanding of what roles your teammates are fulfilling. Are you running with similar classes? What if your classes are polar opposites? You should have an idea of who your companions are, and what kinds of skills they might employ. Note: you do not NEED to know every nuance of your companions (it helps, but isn't necessary). You would be doing your team a disservice trying to memorize every last detail and failing to pull your own weight in the end. Try to learn basic rotations and combos that your team may utilize, but DON'T NEGLECT YOUR OWN CLASS!

Your Team and You:

Anyone who is part of a team is just as important as the next member. Do not get importance confused with skill. Sure, your team leader may be the most skilled PVPer on your team, but without his team, he is a target for abuse.

Paul Ehrlich, a well-known ecologist, proposed the Rivet Model of Community, which states that individuals affect each other greatly. Like the rivets on an airplane wing, when one rivet is removed, more stress is applied to the next rivet, if that rivet is lost, the effect continues until there is no plane wing anymore. View your team as the wing and its members as the rivets holding the wing together.

The Numbers Game:

When you are in a team, your greatest advantage is having numbers. One large, roving squad of maniacs are going to dominate any smaller group of individuals almost every time. In a deathmatch, this is probably the safest way to achieve team goals. Many scenarios, however, will not allow for much success in large groups. Your whole team can go capture the flag, sure, but who will protect your base?

Smaller groups are more easy to manage and allow for greater flexibility during mission-based PVP scenarios. These teams should be split based on the mission objective. Are you taking a point of interest? Dps and healers would be nice. Defending a point of interest? You should probably leave someone who can take a beating.

Never, EVER venture off on your own. One truly is the loneliest number and in the game of numbers, you WILL be over taken by any group not made up by a bunch of idiots.

Communication:

Just as in life, communication is the maker and breaker of team PVP combat. I cannot stress enough how important it is to talk to the rest of your team. Do not stop talking even if you are rocking the scoreboards -- I personally have been in PVP matches where the opposing team made a miraculous comeback because our team stopped talking halfway through.

Not sure what to say? Your team needs to know the "who", "what", "where", and "when". For the philosophers and psychologists of Pax Republica, the "why" may also be an appropriate discussion.wink

Important details need to be relayed as quickly as possible, and a system of abbreviations and slang words (both will be covered further on in this guide) will most likely be employed to ensure that the message isn't boggled down by language barriers or syntax issues. Here are good and bad example of how to communicate efficiently in a hypothetical Star Wars scenario.

Good: "2 imps HB inc"

Bad: "I believe there are two imperials heading this way. I'm currently in the Hanger Bay, so this could pose an issue for my health."

By the time the second message is put out, the opponent may already be on their way for the medical bay (all speculation -- don't quote me on those locales).

Note: Even PVPers without Ventrilo or a mic can still communicate as effectively. I obviously typed the above example, so not having a mic is a poor excuse for not communicating with the team.

I'm going to say this one more time -- Communicate!!

Team Management:

Every successful team has a team coordinator. The team leader should be confident with both her class and those she is leading. The class leader should also know all of the objectives of any story-based PvP scenario, and should be able to execute decisions quickly and effectively to insure a job well-done. To be a leader, one must be open to input on the status of the mission, tactics, or other ideas that may benefit the group. Being confident, but not headstrong is also a must for effective management of players in a PvP setting. Remember, leadership ability is not something you are born with -- it is a practiced skill!

Have Fun:

This is especially important for the members of Pax Republica. "Casual PvP with hardcore determination!" We are not here to make each other feel bad when we mess up because, let's face the facts, we won't have a perfect victory record, but we can work towards maximizing the amount of fun while playing games. Do your part and help add to the atmosphere of Pax Republica. After all, it's only a game!

PVP Terminology:

These terms are usually used to help communicate quickly and effectively. While some are used in a derogitory term for someone engaging in a particular style of PVP.

Griefer:: Someone who is currently and purposefully making another's life a living hell. Whether its by constantly stealing kills or resources, killing someone (who isn't a challenge) over and over, or sending nasty remarks, griefers are not nice people. Don't grief.
ex: "Griefers are not nice people."

Carebear: Someone who doesn't PVP. Often used as an insult.
ex: "Don't be a carebear, you joined a PVP server for a reason!"

HQ: Head Quarters/place to protect or spawn from.
ex: "Enemy in the HQ."

Tank: A character specialized for taken consecutive, often brutal hits.
ex: "The Tank is unstoppable with a good healer at his side."

Heals: The act of healing. Can also be used to refer to the healer.
ex: "The heals is giving heals to the tank."

DPS: "Damage Per Second", often used to describe a class build designed to put out as much damage as possible.
ex: "That ranged DPS is able to pull off 10k DPS!"

Aggro: Aggression/Attention of a hostile.
ex: "Heals has aggro!"

On Your Six: Meaning "6 o'clock". This refers to the military system of denoting the location of an enemy in relation to the person. 12 o'clock is directly in front, 3 o'clock to the right, 6 behind, and 9 to the left.
ex: "You have two imps on your six and one on eight."

AOE: Meaning "Area of Effect". Usually referring to an abilities damage range.
ex: "When surrounded by more than one enemy, sometimes the best course of action is to use some AOE.

CC: "Crowd Control" used to disrupt and control the tide of battle. Usually divided under snares/binds/roots, silences, stuns, mezzes and abilities that remove the target from combat (rfc)
ex: "The Jedi Consular may be able to specialize in CC."

Snare/Bind/Root: A CC ability that prevents the target from moving, but does not affect the ability to use abilities.
ex: "If you are trying to run from someone, a snare will buy you some time."

Silence: An ability that prevents the use of abilities.
ex: "Silence the Mage before he can cast."

Stuns: An ability that prevents both mobility and ability use. Usually the target can still be targetted during the stun.
ex: "Stun the mage then beat him mercilessly!!"

Mezz: A stun that will be removed should the affected target receive damage.
ex: "Watch your AOE! The boss is Mezzed."

RFC: "Remove(d) from Combat". Similar to a stun, only the target can not be targetted during the effect or any damage will remove the ability.
ex: "RFC the mage, but then cease fire. We don't want it getting loose again."

Peel: To intercept/stall aggro from another teammate.
ex: "Aggro on heals! Peel with CC!"

Tunneling/Focus Fire/FF To have many players focus on dealing damage to one target in order to quickly take out the target
ex: "FF on heals! Without him, they cannot win!"

Hard Swap To change a target mid-assault to setup a healer to be out of reach to heal a new target
ex: "FF on tank then hard swap for DPS."

Soft Swap/Pressure Applying fast damage to one target, performing a hard swap, and then after applying some more fast damage, perform another hard swap back to the original target.
ex: "If we can pressure the main DPS, we can perform a soft swap to the tank back to the DPS to throw off the healer."

PvP within Star Wars: The Old Republic

SW:TOR is not out yet, but we have had a few updates that allow us to further fill in some roles about the PvP community within the game.

Open-World PvP

Open-World PvP is exactly what it sounds like, players attacking other players around the map. There are very few rules of conduct when engaging in Open-World PvP, but that doesn't mean that your guild, Pax Republica doesn't have rules of engagement:

Griefing

The general consensus among the leadership of Pax Republica is simply "don't grief". Engaging in PvP combat with other players is encouraged, but repeatedly harassing another individual is not becoming of a member of Pax Republica or any other gamer for that matter. Be aware of how you may be treating other gamers.

Warzones

Warzones are instanced sections of map set aside for specific PvP engagements. There is ample cover and other hidey holes to interact with and the maps often have objectives to follow a certain theme. Some major themes are Capture the Flag and King of the Hill. These maps vary in size and maximum player size and there is usually a good match for every kind of PvPer.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is just a draft to the final copy and I emplore everyone who reads this to add anything PVP they can think of. This has a lot of potential to be a very fine-polished final product. I have a few guides around my home and I will be looking for them so I can add more to the terminology page. Looking for feedback for the betterment of the guild!


Last edited by Clusterfact on June 23, 2011 5:51 pm; edited 4 times in total
Kbrury

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Sticky lol.


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Clusterfact

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Yeah I tried to keep it as general as possible, and it will definitely be updated as new info on the classes comes out. If I missed anything feel free to speak up. I want this guide to be as complete as possible before launch.
TolinKell

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

This is very helpful Thanks Vaurus!
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Yeah, when Vaurus came to me with the idea in PM last night I'd have to have been an absolute idiot to say no to this idea! It's genius and this is the kind of contribution that will help us tremendously down the road! I like to think that regardless of how skilled a PVP'er you were in other games, this is a new game so it should help even and level out the skills across the board - so those of you new to PVP, don't worry! Just read This thread and you'll be good to go in terms of understanding the field!

Thank you Vaurus!!

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Stornskar

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Great job, this is an awesome idea. Snare/Bind can also be referred to as Root

Also, there is a difference between stuns and "mezzes." A stunned target can be damaged and still remain stunned; a mezzed unit is stunned, but damage will break the hold. One of the most difficult things for groups - especially with AOE classes - is have the coordination and discipline to NOT break the mezzes.


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inknform

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

nice work Vaurus Happy This guide is a great resource for those of us (incl. myself) that haven't played much PvP in a long while so it is a helpful refresher.

I just hope I can jump back into WAR soon...
Clusterfact

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Stornskar wrote:

Also, there is a difference between stuns and "mezzes." A stunned target can be damaged and still remain stunned; a mezzed unit is stunned, but damage will break the hold. One of the most difficult things for groups - especially with AOE classes - is have the coordination and discipline to NOT break the mezzes.


I've updated the guide with AOE and Mezz. Thanks for the feedback! Happy
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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Take what you will from all this stuff I wrote it for a thread o here requesting pvp tips. Its all my personal opinion if any of it makes sense feel free to add it to your main post.

As a tank pvper (mostly in warhammer online which I played to the endgame) your focus is being on the very front line barreling into the enemies trying to get them to focus on you. A useful tactic I like to use is get a healer to just spam heal you and then dive through the enemy towards their healers, in a heated pvp fight if your healers die your done so they enemy will most likely fall back to protect the healers as they fall back they become vulnerable and dps guys take them down.

As a melee dps pvper (also exped in warhammer) there are basically two paths the "burst" dps and regular dps, I play burst dps so I will cover that first. With a burst dps you can do insane damage to one target for about 10 seconds after that if they are not dead you are not going to kill them. The key to a burst dps is to try to maximize your efficiency by attacking in a group almost no one can stand against three geared burst dpsers so your best bet is to stay with your group of dpsers and without straying to far from your healers and go marauding from target to target. Be careful though as burst dpsers tend to have a bit lower health than other dpsers. With regular dps the strategy is a bit more straight forward, all you need to do is get to the front lines and pound away on the nearest enemies. My strategy when playing with a small group is to do my tank rush like I talked about above and then follow with 2-3 regular dpsers to just kill kill kill this will hasten the enemies retreat and let you unleash some serious damage on them as they fall back.

One last tip: Don't attack a tank when you can see an unprotected healer just spam healing him 30 feet away. I see this every day and it is extremely annoying they will never kill that tank no matter how hard they try so always remember to try to be a smart pvper.

Disclaimer: All this is from my personal experience and may not actually be the best advice.

For the more tactical side of pvp all I can say is don't be consumed by the rewards ie if you have a choice between waiting for a loot roll at an keep that isn't under attack or choosing to abandon the roll and defend the keep under enemy attack for potentially no reward choose to defend because in the end its all about having fun. That situation is something that can take a highly organized huge group and just make it fall apart because half the people would rather sit around waiting for a moderate amount of exp then go and actually pvp.

Also remember ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE GROUP LEADER if the lead says we are taking this objective you do that you can chip in and say hey maybe we should go to this one instead but when it comes down to it do what the leader says a divided group is a weak group and if your leadership has no real power because no one will listen to them then your group is doomed to fail as an unorganized rabble. So the bottom line is group organization is every thing!!!! Don't let the group fall apart.

One last tip don't be afraid to step up and lead a group in pvp it might seem hard at first but if you stick by your decisions and keep some semblance of order you have done a good job.


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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

Great info...Good idea...And guys when you PvP - My favorite rule is - Have Fun Mashing The Opponents Face In!!!


-Ares


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Well done Vaurus, this will be a great guide.


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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

REd spy in the base....I mean enemy inquisitor in HQ
Mudkipzs

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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

bookmarked Happy

This is pretty useful - I've done a bit of PvP though nothing heavy but I recognize most of the terms bar a few from my general geekery Happy





A side comment off topic; I'm new here and I feel very at home with the 'geek humor' and just over all atmosphere here.

I've lurked a few other Guild Forums for ToR before choosing and I just like how everyone here is on the ball and their posts and sensible, relevant and to the point.


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Mudkipzs wrote:


A side comment off topic; I'm new here and I feel very at home with the 'geek humor' and just over all atmosphere here.

I've lurked a few other Guild Forums for ToR before choosing and I just like how everyone here is on the ball and their posts and sensible, relevant and to the point.


Glad to hear it Mud! We're pretty happy with our community here Happy


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re: PVP: Tactics and Terminology

very helpful :D


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