PvP Basics and When to Start

What is PvP?

Guild Wars 2's main modes are PvE, WvW, and sPvP. In structured PvP (sPvP), teams compete using separate PvP equipment settings.

Key features

• The main mode is 5v5 Conquest, a capture-point game.
• You do not need level 80 or expensive gear. After finishing the tutorial, enter the lobby through the PvP panel and set up your build. On a free account, PvP unlocks account-wide once one character reaches level 3.
• PvP adjusts your character to level 80 and unlocks the profession skills and traits available to your account.
• You can also use elite specializations from expansions you own.

How does it differ from WvW?

sPvP offers small-team matches using a separate PvP build. WvW involves attacking and defending objectives across large maps with your own equipment.

You do not need expensive gear

Choose your attributes in the PvP equipment panel. PvE equipment attributes do not apply in structured PvP.

How it works

• PvE equipment stats, runes, sigils, and infusion bonuses are ignored in PvP.
• Instead, select an amulet, rune, sigils, and relic in the PvP equipment panel.
• Your amulet supplies the main stat combination, with further bonuses from runes, traits, and other sources.
• Sigils are free to select; some runes require a 5-gold unlock.

You do not need to buy separate PvP armor. Keep the armor you already wear in your regular equipment slots and choose your attribute combination in the PvP equipment panel. Weapon types determine your weapon skills, so equip the weapons your build uses.

PvP Lobby: Heart of the Mists

Heart of the Mists is the PvP hub, where you can test builds, practise combat, and queue for matches.

Getting there

• Click the crossed-swords icon (PvP panel) at the upper left of your screen.
• Select Enter PvP Lobby to travel to Heart of the Mists.
• You can also use the asura gate in Lion's Arch.

Lobby facilities

Other areas

• Champion's Rest: a lounge accessed with a pass earned through tournaments or league rewards
• There is also a jumping puzzle hidden behind a waterfall.

Setting Up a PvP Build

Open H → Equipment and use the helmet icon to switch to PvP equipment. Select your amulet, rune, sigils, and relic here; set skills and traits in the Build panel.

Amulet

• An amulet provides your main attribute combination, such as Power, Precision, and Toughness. Stats from runes and traits also apply.
• Choose from the PvP list; most options are unlocked for free.
• Assassin and Sinister amulets each cost 10 gold to unlock.

Amulet examples

PvP Runes

• These are selected separately from your PvE runes.
• Choosing one rune set grants all six rune bonuses.
• Most are free; locked runes cost 5 gold each to unlock.
• A rune named after an elite specialization is not restricted to that specialization. Choose the rune your build needs.

PvP Sigils

• These are separate from PvE sigils, and not every PvE sigil is available in PvP.
• Some sigils have different effects in PvP.
• Set two sigils per weapon set, for four slots across two sets.

Traits and Skills

• PvP unlocks specializations from the expansions you own.
• Racial skills are unavailable in sPvP. Use profession skills.
• Unranked and ranked matches lock your build when the match starts. Set it up before queueing. In custom arenas, you can change it while out of combat.

Conquest: The Main Game Mode

Conquest is a 5v5 capture-point mode played in unranked arenas and regular ranked seasons. Ranked mini-seasons use other modes.

Basic rules

• 5v5 team matches
• Each map has three capture points.
• Each point your team owns generates one point every two seconds.
• Defeating an enemy player grants five points.
• The first team to 500 points wins.
• The time limit is 15 minutes. If time runs out, the team with the higher score wins. A tie at the time limit, or both teams reaching 500 points simultaneously, triggers overtime.
• Extra players do not speed up a capture; one player is enough.

Nine Conquest maps: ranked availability varies by map

Maps have secondary objectives such as bosses, trebuchets, and orbs. These can swing a match, but start by learning to capture and defend the main points.

Other Game Modes

Several other modes are available alongside Conquest.

Team Deathmatch (TDM): 2v2 / 3v3

• Best of five: win three rounds to take the match.
• The aim is to defeat the opposing team.
• Overtime disables healing, applies Revealed to prevent stealth, and fills the map with a damaging field from the edges toward the centre.
• Four maps: Hall of the Mists, Courtyard, Asura Arena, and Auric Span
• Available in ranked play during PvP League mini-seasons between regular seasons

Push

• A single capture point starts in the middle of the map and moves toward the enemy base while your team controls it.
• Push the point to the enemy base to win. Otherwise, the team with the farthest push wins when time expires, unless the trailing team controls the point and triggers overtime.
• Contesting the point builds Mortal Contest, increasing incoming damage and reducing incoming healing. Push also reduces healing, barrier, and boon duration granted to other allies.
• Jade Consoles boost your team's damage, while the Cannon Controller bombards the moving point.
• Map: Sunjiang Backstreets
• Permanently available in custom and unranked arenas, and available in ranked play during Push mini-seasons

Stronghold

• A siege mode introduced with Heart of Thorns
• Objective: defeat the enemy team's lord.
• Gather supply and hire archers and doorbreakers to attack the enemy base.
• Channel to summon a Mist Champion.
• Map: Battle of Champion's Dusk

Murderball

• Map: Courtyard
• Each kill grants 20 points; holding the orb earns additional points based on position.
• An alternative mode mainly played in custom arenas

Unranked vs Ranked

The two main matchmaking options are unranked and ranked.

Matchmaking system

• Both modes use Glicko2-based matchmaking ratings.
• Factors include rating, rank, party size, profession, ladder position, and dishonor.
• Queue alone or with up to five players for unranked Conquest. Regular ranked Conquest allows solo or duo queue.

Map voting

• Once a match is found, players have 15 seconds to vote among three randomly offered maps.
• The final map is chosen randomly, weighted by vote count.

Placement matches

• Play 10 placement matches at the start of a ranked season.
• Starting rating: (previous season rating + 1,200) × 0.5.
• In your first season, you start from the default rating.

PvP Rank

Playing PvP earns rank points (RP) and increases your PvP rank. This measures accumulated play and is separate from your league division, which reflects rating.

Nine rank tiers

• A new rank finisher unlocks at each ten-rank milestone, providing a finishing animation for downed enemies.
• Ranking up awards a Rank-Up Chest: Small at ranks 2–9, Medium at 10–29, and Large at 30+.
• Reaching rank 20 unlocks Ranked Arena, the main early milestone.

PvP League and Seasons

Playing ranked matches takes you into a PvP League season.

Season types

• Regular season: Conquest, running over several weeks
• Mini-season: a shorter season between regular seasons, using 2v2 or 3v3 Team Deathmatch, or Push. Check the PvP panel for the current mode.

Divisions (rating tiers)

Pips: Season Reward Progress

• The following pip rules apply to regular Conquest seasons. Mini-seasons have different reward tiers and some different conditions.
• Win: 10 pips
• Loss: 3 pips
• Top stats: +1 pip
• Near victory (at least 80% of the opponent's score): +2 pips
• Platinum bonus: +2 pips per match
• Legendary bonus: +4 pips per match
• Losses also grant pips, so you can progress toward season rewards even while learning.

Regular season reward track: six tiers

• Cerulean → Jasper → Saffron → Persimmon → Amaranth → Byzantium (repeatable)
• Completing the first Byzantium requires 670 pips in total.
• Rewards include gold, Shards of Glory, PvP League Tickets, Transmutation Charges, and dyes.

Inactivity decay

• After 72 hours without ranked play, your displayed rating begins to decay by 100 every 24 hours, up to 700 in total.
• Matchmaking still uses your rating before decay.
• Decay affects leaderboard placement.

Leaderboards

• The cumulative match requirement increases by 15 for every week of the season.
• The final requirement depends on season length. An eight-week season, for example, requires 120 matches.
• First place in a regular season earns God/Goddess of the Arena. Titles are awarded through the top 250, and the top 25 also receive a two-week Champion's Rest pass.

Rewards: Reward Tracks and Season Rewards

PvP has two reward progression systems: regular reward tracks and season rewards.

PvP reward tracks

• Reward track progress is shared across your account.
• Each track requires 20,000 points, split into eight tiers of five rewards.
• Only one track can be active at a time. Switching tracks preserves your progress.

Earning progress

Track types

• Repeatable: tracks such as Glorious and Legacy Armor can be completed repeatedly.
• One-time: tracks that can only be completed once.
• Dungeon track: repeatable dungeon rewards are consolidated into the Tyrian Dungeon Explorer Track, which awards dungeon weapons, armor, and Tales of Dungeon Delving.
• Festival tracks: repeatable tracks available during their festivals.
• Mist Champion tracks: unlock a track for 15 gold, then complete it to unlock the champion.

Increasing progress with boosters

• Experience Booster: +50%
• Guild PvP Reward Track Boost: +3~10%
• Celebration Bonus: +10%
• Different bonus types can stack. Boosters do not increase instant progress from items such as potions. Custom arenas have a daily progress cap of 5,000 points.

Season rewards (ranked only)

These are the totals for completing the first Byzantium in a regular Conquest season. Repeating Byzantium does not award further PvP League Tickets.

• 560 Shards of Glory
• 400 Ascended Shards of Glory
• Up to 100 PvP League Tickets per season
• 83 gold, 85 silver
• Transmutation Charges, dyes, armor boxes, and more

PvP League Ticket

• PvP League Tickets come from the season reward track. They are separate from climbing rating divisions.
• Spend them at the League Vendor in Heart of the Mists on:

• Mystic Clovers (limit of five per week)
• Wings
• Mini llamas
• Ascended salvage kits
• Relics, hero point unlock scrolls, and other items: individual items may require expansions, achievements, or additional currencies.

The Ascension: Legendary Back Item

The Ascension is a PvP legendary back item. Complete the Path of the Ascension collections within Year of the Ascension Parts I–IV, then combine their rewards with other crafting materials in the Mystic Forge. It is account-bound and allows attribute selection.

Automated Tournament (AT)

Register for Automated Tournaments (ATs) in the game. Registration opens 15 minutes before the start: the party leader selects Enroll, then every party member accepts.

Tournament types

Entry requirements

• A full five-player party for daily, weekly, and monthly Conquest tournaments
• Monthly Conquest requires all five party members to have at least 100 Qualifying Points (QP) each.
• Registration opens 15 minutes before the start. Conquest ATs need at least four teams. Changing maps after registering but before the tournament starts cancels your registration.

Rewards

• Play every match in a daily AT to qualify for participation rewards of 5 QP and two PvP Reward Potions. If your team qualifies for a placement reward, it receives that reward instead.
• Higher placements can award titles, Champion's Rest passes, Mystic Coins, and more.
• Top Tournament of Legends rewards include a Legendary Choice Box and permanent finishers.

The Dishonor System

Leaving matches or going AFK can result in a dishonor penalty.

Causes of dishonor

• Failing to accept a match or otherwise missing the ready confirmation
• Leaving or disconnecting and not returning before the match ends
• Being removed from the match for being AFK

Penalties

• Dishonor immediately blocks unranked and ranked queueing for a period.
• Repeated incidents lead to longer timeouts.

Keep playing when someone else leaves

• A teammate leaving first does not excuse your own departure. Stay until the match ends.
• Rating-loss protection and dishonor are separate rules. Even if an opponent leaves, do not abandon the match before it ends.

PvP Terminology

Learning these terms makes team chat and map calls easier to follow.

Map locations

Actions

Roles

Common Misunderstandings

“I need level 80 and good gear before starting PvP.”

You do not need to wait until level 80. Keep your existing armor and equip the weapons your build uses. Select your amulet, rune, sigils, and relic in the PvP equipment panel, and skills and traits in the Build panel.

“Better PvE equipment makes me stronger in PvP.”

PvE equipment attributes, runes, sigils, and infusions do not carry over. Keep your existing armor and choose your attribute combination in the PvP equipment panel. Weapon types determine your weapon skills.

“Lots of kills mean I am playing well.”

Capturing and defending points is the main goal in Conquest. Watch your team’s control of the map as well as your personal score.

“Core professions cannot compete in PvP.”

Some core builds, including guardian and necromancer builds, are competitive. Choose a PvP build that uses the specializations available to you.

“I need to buy PvP runes and sigils as items.”

Sigils and most runes are free. Some runes cost 5 gold to unlock in the PvP panel. You do not need PvE runes or sigils from the Trading Post.

“Ranked is always harder than unranked.”

The modes use separate matchmaking ratings and have different player pools. Unranked can feel harder depending on who is queueing and when.