My First Taste of PvP

So....being the total noob whose played for all of a whole week that I am...I decided to be bold and brave, and mosey my level 13 Necro/Mesmer down to the Yak's Bend Arena for my first taste of PvP.

I expected to be completely outclassed, outmaneuvered, and thoroughly stomped by veterans of the game who know every trick of every trade and are masters at strategy.

but honestly....it wasn't really that bad. I won some, I lost some. I was on some good teams, and I was on some bad teams.

I had fun. especially once I began to realize that joy that is the Curses Necromancer line. Once I started to unlearn the "Casters have to do direct damage" mentality that I have from other MMORPGs, and started focusing on Debuffing. I managed to thoroughly piss off one particular Warrior/Monk, because I hit him with Soul Barbs(while he was wailing on a teammate), and then proceeded to lay every Hex on my Spellbar on him (Empathy, Backfire, Diversion, and Suffering)for 20 damage per hex, Health Degeneration of 2, a 28 second recharge on his last used skill, 77 damage if he tried to heal himself, and 18 damage every time he swung his weapon. The guy chased me around the arena with tunnel vision for the entire rest of the match. I think he managed to kill me twice, and made a beeline for me each time I was resurrected by our Monk.

another fun moment was when I Re-Animated 3 out of the 4 opposing players, and the one remaining enemy was running all over the map from us like a bat out of hell. while I was chasing her with her 3 teammates in tow. curious noob question....when I use a Corpse Exploitation spell, does it prevent resurrection in PvP?

all in all, the PvP was a lot different, and a lot more fun, and easier to comprehend than I expected at this stage. I'm sure it gets a lot more intense at the higher stages, and I'm gonna work out at Yak's until I think I am ready for Big-Boy PvP.

No. You can still rezz after a necro uses your corpse (leaves me with a nasty feeling in my stomach though )

BTW, I'm glad you enjoyed PvP

Yessiry, a good necro is my warriors first target in the arena also

Whaaa? You mean PvP isn't a Quake-like gankfest filled with griefers and CS kiddies?? I've been LIED to!

I'm new to PVP too. I loved the Ascalon and Yaks Bend arenas...then I leveled past them, and hit Lions Arch. Now that is some hardcore stuff. I want my old arenas back.

I like being a necro as well, although sometimes I get unlucky enough to have the warrior wait for just long enough for me to be completely out of energy before he decides to step up to the plate... which is rough considering my lineup is more or less what keeps me alive in the scenario of a warrior trucking his way into my face.

When I first tried the Ascalon arena I was duly massacred.

But now in Lion's Arch things are going much better for my n/e... it's great fun! And I love armour of earth; it's a lot easier to withstand a warrior's attack, especially combined with insidious parasite, life siphon and enfeeble... hahahahaha. Until i have no energy :-(

Fortunatly the newbies/damn-right-ignorant players play just as much PVP as they play PVE..

so yea, playing PVP isnt that bad.. and as you say sometimes you get mullerd but sometimes you can muller them!

To be honest it isnt that much different in any of the PVP scenes.. I say JUMP IN THE DEEP END

with a PVP-only character you can pwn just as much.. its just that sometimes you will come across a team that is Pro... but even fighting these teams you can have heart pumping, adrenaline rushed battle to simply delay the inevitable

First time I played PVP I was shaking like a leaf with excitement

Well, welcome to the PVP scene... dont let those l33t Beta players moaning put you off

The Snowman

It wasn't the Necros I was annoyed by the most. After my first fights in Yaks I was like "wtf is with these warriors, they hit harder than Elementalists and are tougher to kill" Of course, that was until I started using Bane Signet + Banish. You can learn a lot very quickly by few spars, while I still consider myself new to PvP, I can say I got some hints from there. (such as "don't cast Hexes on me too early, I'll Inspire hex them right back Right now, it would probably bex Hex Breaker ) It's fun and relaxing, too bad next Arena is... where is it, actually? And I assume going there without high end stuff is somewhat suicidal.

Hehe... Have fun when you get into the "real" PvP aspects of the game. Hit the Tombs or GvG and you will get stomped as you predicted. But the random arenas are fun for a bit, and you get to play other players that aren't extremely experienced (most people that are very experienced rush through the game, not wasting time to stop at Yak's Bend and win a few matches).

Backfire on a warrior ? I'm glad you're starting to PvP but surely you can find something better to do with the 15 energy from Backfire considering you're lvl13 and don't have the full energy a lvl20 would. If you really want to slam a warrior in arena (and you can do this to many if they bunch up is) Enfeebling Blood, Shadow of Fear, Faintheartedness is the way to go. No one carries hex removal and certainly not multiple hex removal. Anyways glad you're enjoying the arena's. You'll see it gets even ''funner'', if that's a word, when you hit Tombs and GvG battles.

Yeah, until you try to get a pick up group and realise that every group wants you to have TS and doesnt understand the word "fun" or "game".

Id rather spend my time in arena than tombs, you get less aggro.

well...he was a Warrior/Monk, so I kinda figured he'd try to heal himself or cast some sort of Buff. like I said, I'm a noob.

and I didn't have any of those other spells on my Bar. Deathly Swarm, Animate Bone Minion, Soul Barbs, Suffering, Diversion, Backfire, Empathy, Res Signet).

it's kinda hard to pick the right skill combinations when you only have 7 slots to work with(assuming that Res Signet is an automatic)

W/Mo have a very very limited mana supply (20) and most of that they will use to atack you with.

at yoru level insidious parasite, life siphon, soul barbs, vampiric gaze, mark of pain, empathy, and well of blood if you have it for a heal or 2 is enough to smack down any warrior you see.