Guild Wars 2 Structured PvP Guide – sPvP Builds, Map Strategy and Tips

Structured PvP is a Player versus Player mode, which allows competition on an even footing. There are two primary modes of play; tournament and hot join play.

Any character used to enter structured PvP will retain race and profession. The character will be given a fixed maximum level, and all skills and items will be available without the need to unlock them first. Scores are tracked on the scoreboard. Player statistics will be tracked and used to generate a player ranking.

Contrary to World PvP, structured PvP doesn’t grant rewards usable in PvE. On the other hand, players can earn glory and use it to buy better looking equipment from glory vendors. They also earn rank, which gives random pvp awards.

Note: If you can’t decide which profession to play, click on anyone of them from the list and read our in depth guide on them:

• Guardian
• Warrior
• Engineer
• Ranger
• Thief
• Elementalist
• Mesmer
• Necromancer

Guild Wars 2 Structured PvP

Now after that bit of introduction let’s dive into the sPvP system of the game. Here is a brief and comprehensive rundown of all things sPvP in Gild Wars 2:

What is sPvP?
It’s a 5v5 game of capture the points

Goal
To Get 500 points

How To Do That?

• Control more points than the enemy (1 point every 2 secs per point captured)
• Kill the neutrals (25 to 100 points)
• Kill the enemy (5 points)

Roles

• Defender- Defend Points from enemies assaults
• Roamer- Move quickly around the map to help as needed
• Attacker- Sneak behind enemy lines to capture the far point

In-Depth Roles

Defender  (2 of them) divided into two roles:

First Point Defender (aka Base Defender, Close Defender)

• Strong in 1v1 to defend against Attackers
• Good survivability to hold point till roamers arrive

Second Point Defender (aka Advanced Defender)

• Rushes to capture and hold mid point
• Typically support oriented with survivability or straight defensive
• Runs with Roamers or Attackers as needed

Roamers  (2 of them)

• Move around map to assault or defend locations.
• Must have swiftness on each (or group swiftness with 1 of them)
• Spread your damage around with something like 1 conditions based and 1 power based

Far Point Attacker (aka Striker) (1)

• Captures enemies base point
• Generally Bursty and strong at harassing targets
• Best 1v1 on the team
• Will move with Roamers as needed

Support

• Not a major role this job is generally intergrated into a roamer or defenders build
• AoE abilities
• Condition Removals (team wide)
• 1 member should be spec’d into support

Now lets get into the details starting with the first steps of:

Entering The Mist

The mists works as a PvP lobby much in recognition to the lobby in FPS games where you are able to join specific servers and have an overview of things.

The mists is not just an interface but rather a full environment where you are able to hang out with other like-minded people, setup your character, look at rewards and sign up for the different PvP types.

To enter the Mists you must navigate to your in-game interface and find the Hero Panel (H), select the PvP tab and click the ‘Go to the Heart of the Mists’-button

To access Structured PvP, you first need to go to the Mists by opening your Hero panel and select the PvP tab. Then you need to click on Go to the Heart of the Mists button to be teleported instantly to the PvP lobby. Furthermore, note that this button does not appear until you have completed the starting quest line.

Once inside the Mists you will be able to find a lot different NPCs. These include NPC’s Dummies for damage testing, NPC’s vendors with free PvP gear and NPCs with PvP reward bags.