Warzone Priority System by role:

 

DPS

1. MOST IMPORTANT: Objective of that warzone

2. Help another player complete the objective of that warzone

3. Kill and interrupt enemy healers

4. Kill enemy dps attacking your own healers

5. Kill enemy tanks guarding other enemies

6. DO NOT focus on doing a lot of damage instead of helping with objectives

 

Healers

1. MOST IMPORTANT: Objective of that warzone

2. Help another player complete the objective of that warzone

3. Keep yourself and your teammates alive

4. CC (Crowd Control/Stun) enemy high priority targets (healers or dangerous dps)

5. DO NOT stay alive instead of helping with an objective, it is ok to die sometimes, you can come back in 5 seconds

 

TANKS

1. MOST IMPORTANT: Objective of that warzone

2. Help another player complete the objective of that warzone

3. Guard teammates who heal

4. Taunt enemy players attacking your team's healers

5. Attack/Interrupt enemy healers

6. Use abilities which reduce the damage of enemy players

7. DO NOT leave people you are guarding because then it stops working. Support your teammates

 

OBJECTIVES OF EACH WARZONE (may include, but not limited to):

 

Huttball

Offense: Move the ball forward towards the enemy goal. This can be accomplished by running it, but passing it to teammates who are closer to the goal than you is much better (generally). Do not kill enemies who are very far from their own goal line, because this will send them across the map and put them in a position to kill your teammate who is trying to score. Guard and heal your teammate who is carrying the ball, all of your enemies will be trying to kill them. Stun enemy players who may be in a position to stop your teammate who is carrying the ball, this is particularly important around the goal line. If you cannot help your teammate try to score, then it is important to control the middle of the map where the ball respawns. This is important because if the ball respawns, you may be able to get an advantage by moving the ball before the enemy players can get back to attack you.

 

Defense: Kill the enemy ball carrier. Kill the healers healing the enemy ball carrier. Stun the enemy ball carrier, and the people healing them. Sometimes you may not be able to get back to kill the enemy ball carrier, it happens, so instead you should head towards the middle where the ball respawns and attempt to pick it up or stop the enemy players from getting it until your team can recover and come help.

 

Voidstar

Offense: The most important part of this is to plant the bomb by clicking on the door. If one of your teammates is already clicking on the door, it now becomes your job to find enemy players to stun (this way they cannot attack your teammate who is planting). If there are no enemy players around, then position yourself between the door and where the enemy players respawn from (this is above you in the middle of the map). You will want to stun them or knock them back to keep them from attacking your teammate who is planting the bomb. If an enemy is very far behind the next door that needs to have a bomb planted on it, then do not kill them. Just slow them down because if you kill them they are teleported closer to the doors that need bombs on them.

 

Defense: ALWAYS WATCH THE DOORS. No matter where you are fighting or what you are doing, always check on where the enemy needs to plant their bomb in the middle of the door. Sometimes enemies can try to plant a bomb while you are distracted. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS look at the doors. Call for help if you think you may die. It is better to call for help early before you die, this gives your teammates more time to move to the door that needs more defenders. It is more important to stay alive and delay a bomb being planted than it is to try to kill an enemy. If you buy your team an extra 5 seconds, then maybe the respawn door will open and you will get reinforcements.

 

Civil War

Attacking a turret: Attack the turret with the fewest number of enemies defending it. When attacking a turret which is currently controlled by the enemy, make sure you do your best to kill enemy healers by marking them and focusing them down all together. If the enemy healer is dead, then you can kill the other enemies much more quickly. When one of your teammates is capturing the turret (by clicking on it) it is now your job to find an enemy to stun so that they cannot interrupt your teammate. If you do not see any enemies, then go to where they land from their speeder trip. This is typically in front of the turret at the bottom of the steps on the side of the enemy ship. Stuns and knockbacks are very important because this can buy your teammate the time required to capture a turret.

 

Defending a turret: ALWAYS WATCH THE TURRET TO MAKE SURE NO ENEMIES ARE CAPTURING IT. No matter who you are fighting or if you are close to killing someone, watch the turret and interrupt enemies attempting to capture it. When learning how to pvp, it may be a good idea to keep at least 2 people at one turret to defend. This gives an extra set of eyes to watch the turret and look out for incoming enemies. Always tell your teammates if enemies are on their way to attack you. This is important because it allows your teammates to move to the turret you are at in order to keep your enemies from capturing it. Stunning your enemies and staying alive in order to delay their capture of your turret is also very important because it will give your teammates more time to reinforce your position.

 

Novare Coast:

Attacking a bunker: Attack a postion where there are the fewest number of enemies. Kill enemy healers so that it is easier to kill the rest of the enemies. If one of your teammates is capturing the bunker, you should stun/delay any enemies who are coming to stop your teammate. It is generally easier to capture the bunker closest to your respawn point. This is due to the fact that you are close to it when you respawn, but when your enemies respawn they are further away from it (and are not able to get back as quickly to stop you from capturing the bunker).

 

Defending a bunker: WATCH THE BUNKERS TO MAKE SURE NO ENEMIES ARE CAPTURING IT. Always be looking for enemies who are trying to capture the bunker while you are distracted. When you see enemies coming to your bunker to attack, tell your team so that they can come help. Stay alive and continue to interrupt the enemies from capturing your bunker. When learning how to pvp, it may be a good idea to keep at least 2 people at one bunker to defend. This gives an extra set of eyes to watch the bunker and look out for incoming enemies.

 

In General: Don't just follow the rest of your teammates. Look to see where you are, and make sure that enough people are defending an objective. Understand that defending an objective is much easier than trying to attack an objective. If you have questions, then ask your team. Try to learn all of your abilities and know when to use them. You may have some special attacks or defensive abilities which can greatly increase your warzone effectiveness.

 

Good luck in warzones and I hope this helps some of you better understand what can help you win. Please feel free to add comments/suggestions.

Bump. Unless I'm way off, I think new people should read this. Maybe it belongs in the new player forum? The pvp forum is filled with qq threads which bury anything worthwhile.

I haven't read through this post in detail, but I m going to shortly and will probably have more comments, but I wanted to offer a small criticism.

 

Killing healers is very important and has a very high priority, but it's not always as high a priority as a lot of people think. It's priority goes down the more organized your team is relative to the other team. If you have 3 - and especially 4 - DPS trying to burn down a single target, it doesn't matter how good a healer is, he's going to die. Now, if the other team is organized enough to swap guard to a focused player and have two healers keeping him up, then you need to worry about the healers. When you're in a pug or something, though, those healers will probably need to go because it's really just one or at most two DPS on a given target and a healer can keep him up.

 

Now this is all really just background to my main point, which is that in certain situations targets other than healers can have higher priority - namely, DPS. If you're on offense on Voidstar, the healers should probably go first. However, if you're on defense on Voidstar and the other team has good DPS, you'd better darn well be focusing that DPS down or you're going to wipe and give up the door.

 

Again, it's all situational and dependent on the respective teams' levels of coordination.

I haven't read through this post in detail, but I m going to shortly and will probably have more comments, but I wanted to offer a small criticism.

 

Killing healers is very important and has a very high priority, but it's not always as high a priority as a lot of people think. It's priority goes down the more organized your team is relative to the other team. If you have 3 - and especially 4 - DPS trying to burn down a single target, it doesn't matter how good a healer is, he's going to die. Now, if the other team is organized enough to swap guard to a focused player and have two healers keeping him up, then you need to worry about the healers. When you're in a pug or something, though, those healers will probably need to go because it's really just one or at most two DPS on a given target and a healer can keep him up.

 

Now this is all really just background to my main point, which is that in certain situations targets other than healers can have higher priority - namely, DPS. If you're on offense on Voidstar, the healers should probably go first. However, if you're on defense on Voidstar and the other team has good DPS, you'd better darn well be focusing that DPS down or you're going to wipe and give up the door.

 

Again, it's all situational and dependent on the respective teams' levels of coordination.

 

I agree that there might be certain situations where killing the healers first might not be the best idea. However, I have an example that might illustrate this point pretty well from Novare Coast:

When fighting over the southern turret, which is situated on top of a hill, I will actually plant myself (gunslinger) right next to their healer and use my knockback to throw them all the way to the bottom of the hill. If I'm feeling especially generous, I will then throw a flash grenade on him and if he breaks that, legshot. This does two things: 1) he can't heal anyone but himself when he's down there, and 2) it separates him from his tank, rendering guard useless.

 

While the healer is stuck waiting at the bottom of the hill, the rest of the team can focus down targets with ease.

 

This is a great basic list of priorities that every new player should read since it should only take 5 minutes. Too bad many players are too selfish and will always just go for kills regardless.But for those of us that actually like to win...

I haven't read through this post in detail, but I m going to shortly and will probably have more comments, but I wanted to offer a small criticism.

 

Killing healers is very important and has a very high priority, but it's not always as high a priority as a lot of people think. It's priority goes down the more organized your team is relative to the other team. If you have 3 - and especially 4 - DPS trying to burn down a single target, it doesn't matter how good a healer is, he's going to die. Now, if the other team is organized enough to swap guard to a focused player and have two healers keeping him up, then you need to worry about the healers. When you're in a pug or something, though, those healers will probably need to go because it's really just one or at most two DPS on a given target and a healer can keep him up.

 

Now this is all really just background to my main point, which is that in certain situations targets other than healers can have higher priority - namely, DPS. If you're on offense on Voidstar, the healers should probably go first. However, if you're on defense on Voidstar and the other team has good DPS, you'd better darn well be focusing that DPS down or you're going to wipe and give up the door.

 

Again, it's all situational and dependent on the respective teams' levels of coordination.

 

No. You -CC- the healers and then focus the DPS. Otherwise you're just wailing on a DPS who won't die.

No. You -CC- the healers and then focus the DPS. Otherwise you're just wailing on a DPS who won't die.

 

You ever played on an 8 man rated team where you can get 4 good DPS on a single target? No healer(s) can keep him up, unless there is also a guard and an AoE taunt to help.

 

But again, it depends on respective team coordination levels. If you can only get one or two people on the same page, stunning a healer first can work great.

Edited July 27, 2012 by Skolops

You ever played on an 8 man rated team where you can get 4 good DPS on a single target? No healer(s) can keep him up, unless there is also a guard and an AoE taunt to help.

 

But again, it depends on respective team coordination levels. If you can only get one or two people on the same page, stunning a healer first can work great.

 

Wow, you must play horrible healers. 2 (even better, 3) healers can keep someone up versus 4 DPS just fine when you leave them alone.

Wow, you must play horrible healers. 2 (even better, 3) healers can keep someone up versus 4 DPS just fine when you leave them alone.

 

Well I must say I'm not too impressed with the DPS you're rolling with or against.

Letting healers heal is not really smart, regardless of how good your DPS is. When you throw a tank into the mix, those DPS are going to be less effective.

 

A shadow/VG can pull a healer away from the main group so he can't play hide-and-seek around a pillar, and it also removes the healer from his/her tank.

 

Isolate-->Kill-->Repeat

You ever played on an 8 man rated team where you can get 4 good DPS on a single target? No healer(s) can keep him up, unless there is also a guard and an AoE taunt to help.

 

But again, it depends on respective team coordination levels. If you can only get one or two people on the same page, stunning a healer first can work great.

 

under focus fire, many classes traditionally on the front lines and thus most exposed have at LEAST a 20% DR cooldown, a 15% DR adrenal. that's an additional 35% DR, with at least 10% more from sorc buff/armor including shatters. so 45% DR, + a guard (not including taunts) means 1/2 incoming damage mitigated to almost 1/4 total damage incoming. essentially reducing the efforts of 4 DPS to the output of 1 DPS. easily healed through. throw in a taunt, and its laughable.

I'll stay away from the DPS, healer, tank argument, but I wish every pvp noob would read the warzone tips. Things can get more complex to where those tips don't apply but for starting out its good stuff.

 

I'd only add as a final rule that follows all of the above: if a tactic isn't working, change tactics. Good teams know to counter the tips above. I've been on too many teams that keep beating their heads against a brick wall. And you quickly learn the hardest teams to defend against are the ones that change strategies faster than you can adapt to.

Excellent advice. Your only suggestion with which I'd take issue is in huttball, where you write

Stun the enemy ball carrier,

 

Isn't there a problem with pumping up the ball carrier's resolve? I try to kill the ball carrier, but I only hit him with Force Stasis if he is deep in his territory and likely to be killed before going very far.

Warzone Priority System by role:

 

DPS...Healers...Tanks

 

Your entire system is fundamentally flawed because you're missing a very important role: Utility. Entire specs revolve around it.

I was mostly writing it out for pugs and beginners. I agree that things may change depending on how coordinated your team is or if specific people take on specific roles if they are better at them. As far as utility goes? If you know your class/spec well enough to realize that you are helping your team by doing whatever it is you're doing, then I think you should keep doing it. As long as you can have utility AND watch a turret, then I'm good with it

I'd also like to stress that against any worthwhile opponents, DEFENDING IS EASIER THAN ATTACKING!!!!!

Your advice on playing defense in huttball is way off.

 

The key to defense in huttball has nothing to do with killing or attacking the enemy ball carrier. The most important thing by far is to be aware of the location of his TEAMATES, and make sure that NONE of them are in position for a pass, pull, intercede, etc..

 

The biggest mistake that I see in huttball by far is that people zerg the ball carrier, and then he simply passes, gets pulled, leaps, or intercedes to the goal line.

 

Think about it like this:

 

If you were playing football, what do you think would happen if you sent your entire defense on a blitz to the QB, and left everyone else wide open?

 

Yeah, sometimes you'd get a sac, but a QB who recognizes that you are doing this is simply going to pass immediately and then your team is completely screwed.

 

Obviously you still have to kill the ball carrier and his escorts at some point, but you should ONLY go full attack mode when you are positive that he has no way of quickly getting to your goal line.

Your entire system is fundamentally flawed because you're missing a very important role: Utility. Entire specs revolve around it.

I know you are not saying that killing healers is a mistake.

 

Could you spell out what you DO mean, because I don't have a clue.

Edited August 2, 2012 by SweetOldBob

Your advice on playing defense in huttball is way off.

 

The key to defense in huttball has nothing to do with killing or attacking the enemy ball carrier. The most important thing by far is to be aware of the location of his TEAMATES, and make sure that NONE of them are in position for a pass, pull, intercede, etc..

 

The biggest mistake that I see in huttball by far is that people zerg the ball carrier, and then he simply passes, gets pulled, leaps, or intercedes to the goal line.

 

Think about it like this:

 

If you were playing football, what do you think would happen if you sent your entire defense on a blitz to the QB, and left everyone else wide open?

 

Yeah, sometimes you'd get a sac, but a QB who recognizes that you are doing this is simply going to pass immediately and then your team is completely screwed.

 

Obviously you still have to kill the ball carrier and his escorts at some point, but you should ONLY go full attack mode when you are positive that he has no way of quickly getting to your goal line.

 

It's funny when the ball carrier drops down into the pit and everyone follows him in like lemmings. That person can just pass up or leap if he's got those skills, leaving everyone behind in the dust.

 

Too many players lack situational awareness. This might explain why most games end up 6-0. It's actually much rarer to be in a game where it's decided by a goal or final possession, whereas in real sports this is almost always the case. When I watch soccer, I don't expect one team to completely dominate the other in terms of goals (mostly because everyone sticks to their position). All it takes is a few good players to take the match by the reins and everyone else gets left in their wake.

This bump was inspired by my teammate 'guarding' the side turret in civil war....

 

If you are the only one defending a turret, for the love of god, do NOT go run into the middle of nowhere to fight someone. Your enemies can turn invisible! (it's called 'stealth') and they will ignore you completely and capture the turret, thus making them win.

 

Granted we should never leave you alone and always assume you are a bad until it is proven otherwise, but I digress...

 

Also, your points about huttball defense are definitely good ones. Waiting for a good time to stun the enemy ball carrier is important, for that explanation I would like to direct people to the sticky post about resolve. Enemy players who are in a good position for a pass must be addressed somehow, and you explained it very well BiggDirty. My goal was to convince my teammates losing (unintentionally) 1v1 duels across the map that their energy would be of better use stopping the enemy team from scoring.

A subtle point to add to the calling for help part is to try to be as specific when possible calling for help. For example, try to call out how many attackers you see coming, although there are many times that a stealther is sneaking in too. Tonite we lost a Civil War match on the very last tick 10-0 because I called in 1 incoming and 2 people came to help and we lost the mid node at the very last moment. I should've said to send 1 person to help, but oh well, that's how it goes.

 

I had a tank spec guardian w/ all my cooldowns up, but didn't want to take the chance that the 1 operative that i saw actually had a stealther w/ him. I held him off w/ all my cooldowns and medpacks and shields, but they just outplayed us. That definitely was a great game w/ lots of action ... mid changed hands at least 3 times!

bump before this goes f2p.....

new people: learning is ok, we've all had to do it...but please listen to people in game who know what theyre talking about.....communication is how pvp is won.

bump before this goes f2p.....

new people: learning is ok, we've all had to do it...but please listen to people in game who know what theyre talking about.....communication is how pvp is won.

 

BUMP for peets sake...bump...

Your advice on playing defense in huttball is way off.

 

The key to defense in huttball has nothing to do with killing or attacking the enemy ball carrier. The most important thing by far is to be aware of the location of his TEAMATES, and make sure that NONE of them are in position for a pass, pull, intercede, etc...

 

Oh, so *that's* what all my teammates were doing when I spent 30 seconds stunning, knocking back, attacking, rooting, and generally trying to stop that guy from coming down the ramp and scoring, and no one else from my team showed up to help! (That's a joke, and all this advice is really good, but sometimes it just feels like I'm the only one who's actually paying attention to where the ball is.)

 

I really have nothing to add, except I wish this post had been available when I started PvP, so I'll bump it again.

To the OP, good introductory tutorial of pvp. Probably a sticky would be nice. Also add somewhere that recruit gear is not an option but mandatory. And one last general tip, check your map to see what's going on and where your teamates are. For the rest, yes there are always exceptions but for a new pvp player is better to grasp the basics than start with the exceptions. Edited November 16, 2012 by MusicRider

...For the rest, yes there are always exceptions but for a new pvp player is better to grasp the basics than start with the exceptions.

 

Completely agree. A basic primer won't cover all events - and it shouldn't try, because it'll get confusing and too lengthy. You just have to accept it's going to be wrong in some circumstances. If it can help people grasp the essentials so that they can start functioning effectively quicker, it's done its job, and they can pick up and work out for themselves the occasions where it doesn't apply later on.

 

I can be wordy in my posts, but I reckon you could still strip the OP down a bit yet. Keep it focused. Too many clauses and caveats lose the central message.

Edited November 16, 2012 by Wainamoinen