A PVE Players Journey Into PVP: Guild Wars 2

This is my character. I look at least a little intimidating, right? I’m a Guardian. We are hard to kill, hit hard and have a lot of supportive abilities to help our allies. Now, when I say ‘we,’ what I mean is every other Guardian ever, but not me. I’m terrible. If I’m on your server and I enter World Vs World PVP, I’m truly sorry for the immediate drop in team ability.

During my Guardian’s journey from the simple and stress-free level 1, all the way through to the end at level 80, I’ve found myself mainly in PVE, where I’d fight AI beasties and bosses, and though I sometimes required the help of a friend through certain things if I was struggling, for the most part I was a competent player, even in the one dungeon I’ve done so far, dying less than I thought I would and actually using my supporting abilities effectively. With that, when I hit level 80 I thought suddenly “what do I do now?” PVP was the answer given by a more seasoned friend. So I hit the tab and clicked on the button to allow me to enter WvWvW, three servers fighting it out in massive battles to control land, supply points and in the centre of it all, Stonemist Castle. This would be amazing.

This is where I started; a nice little introduction to what I’d be seeing - less AI and more actual players. In fact, I was surprised by the calmness, I was expecting to be thrown headfirst into a large scale battle, supporting my new internet friends and giving grief to the French and German players on the opposing servers, instead I had a little respite and some time to shop for new..  well, repair my current equipment as it’s all I could afford. Then I was ready to explore this new land.

On leaving the safety of the starting area, I noticed the buff that meant I took no damage was gone and immediately felt vulnerable. I stood awkwardly swiveling my camera around desperately looking for the person who would appear from nowhere and kill me. There was no-one. My allies had pressed forward already and there wasn’t a single enemy to be seen, just an AI Drake enemy. Some practice! I went swinging at the level 80 Drake when three of his brothers came from under the water. The four of them proceeded to murder me right there, at the bottom of the steps outside the starting area. A kind soul was goodly enough to revive me with only a slightly embarrassing ‘lol’ in the chat box.I paid more money to repair my freshly broken gear and decided to leave the Drakes alone.

Running around the Drakes this time, I followed a path where I saw a couple of friendlies and that’s where I first saw it - the reason I was here, the reason I was terrified to turn corners - ‘Riverside [DE] Invader’. A German player was running on his own and it seems only I had seen him, as the two players I was following ran a different way. My moment to shine, I thought! I charged at the enemy with all my best attacks. He proceeded to stun me, lock me in place and destroy me, leaving me dead in about four seconds. I teleported the 20 or so feet back to base and once again repaired my gear, dejected.

This went on for a further 20 minutes. Run out, die, waypoint, repair gear, run out, die.. until I finally found my calling. Be a nobody! I found a group of about 40 friendly players and followed them like a lost puppy. When they assaulted something I jumped in the middle, attacked the wind ferociously a few times, felt accomplished then backed off and let them win things for me. I was getting Badges of Honour (what is used to buy PVP items and gear) and loot, and that’s all that mattered. Whether or not I was actually  doing anything to directly impact outcomes, I was getting involved and it felt good.

It taught me something rather quickly after my initial death-fest - PVP isn’t about me, it’s about the team you’re on. Stick with a group and you’re much less likely to die, even a player as bad as myself, I died twice in the hour or so I was running with this group, but I got more than enough loot, money and badges to make it worth the effort. There was never a dull moment, and since you can go into WvW from level 2, I’m thinking of levelling a character exclusively in the Battlegrounds.

Speaking of the Battlegrounds, there’s a particular jumping puzzle in there that also lets you get some badges and loot and the like. It almost made me break my keyboard, and I think I seriously fatalitied my mouse because of it, but I digress, that’s a different story. PVP is something I’ve always avoided out of fear of being terrible, but there’s an intangible something in Guild Wars 2 that can make even the most useless of players like myself feel included and, dare I say it, useful. I’ll definitely be continuing my forray into it and hopefully - one year - I’ll evolve into a decent player.