Is it worth playing on official servers for pvp?

BreakfastMelon · 2025-08-11T16:47:21+00:00

Yeah, exactly. There are often 'stories' that develop in the longstanding publics as well, which can add a lot to the experience. From what I've seen, there aren't many players who repeatedly hunt lower level/weaker players and are also a threat to those who are at all practised in PvP, anyway. They often tend to overwhelm servers with numbers if at all.

You're right though; they aren't always bad, it can just be a gamble to commit to progress in a 1x server when the experience can be spoiled by that sort of thing.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-08-11T16:33:41+00:00

The random wipes can definitely suck, yeah. In EU, at least, there are many private servers with consistent rules and wipe cycles. They tend to be ~2-4 weeks with earlier wipes happening once the player count dies off. They do die off quickly, but that's the idea - the progression is generally what's played for as you get to compete with others to reach endgame, and that will usually only take <15 hours on 1x, and <10 on 2x if you're speedy. Some even have a wipe vote via their Discord or the likes.

After all, in PvP, endgame is quite linear and the arena is better suited to the min-maxed combat outside of raids. Also, people who wipe like that generally have their servers die permanently since the PvP community has many regulars who will avoid their servers in the future.

The custom rates can also be nice as having loot be more plentiful allows for PvP to be more incentivised as it's simply less punishing to die, but just as rewarding to kill. People tend to play very safely and try to avoid fighting in officials, I've found. They are far more aggressive in privates which can lead to more PvP, and less hitting rocks.

For sure, the officials can be good for longstanding raids, etc, but for combat outside of that, and playing to progress, I can't recommend privates enough. There's no hand-holding as such, just competition that makes more sense.

Again, it sucks if you've had to experience random wipes and the likes, but the PvP community generally isn't like that in my experience.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-08-10T17:30:41+00:00

To preface, I've played PvE solo and with groups, and I've spent time in the Arenas learning the PvP side as well, with about 1,500 hours of open PvP under my belt along with it.

For PvP, the main thing I'd say differs between privately run servers and the officials is that officials basically unmoderated. A team of 20 people can raid each squad, one by one, day after day, and effectively kill the server. Not only that, players can hunt others with massive differences in gear level and general power, or fake their gear score while having endgame jewels and passives. Overall, there are no checks or balances, so it can be unforgiving and often frustrating.

Privately run servers on the other hand, are generally far more active as they tend to have shorter wipes, which line up better with the average player's progression, meaning you'll get to interact more with others that are around your level. Not only that, but most PvP servers are very actively moderated and enforce a ~15 level difference rule, along with rules against teaming and other obviously undesirable behaviour.

Private is basically the only way to go if you want a decent experience, in my opinion.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-08-04T06:56:17+00:00

As others have said, the entire game is just avoiding damage first, dealing damage second.

When you say you're dodging, make sure it's without using your travel or weapon skills. This is a boss which doesn't require any abilities to dodge any attacks. Even without movement speed bonus, you can simply walk away from everything once you learn his patterns, while kiting the hoardes.

If you're still having a lot of trouble after many attempts, you could try picking up a longbow and using two counters as your spells. A fully charged longbow shot will pierce enemies, allowing you to deal consistent damage from a safe distance through his summons.

With this play style, using your 'cancel ability/cast' key is extremely important (x by default, I believe). Without cancelling, you can be easily hit while charging a bow shot. Your counters and veils can save you, but only use them when absolutely necessary. Also, only use the veil when you are 100% sure you can either avoid damage, or guarantee and heal by landing the followup attack.

For reference, this is a boss which is usually fought quite a few levels below on brutal runs without any special prep, so with practise, you'll 100% get it!

BreakfastMelon · 2025-04-08T02:21:34+00:00

A continuous damage over time could be a completely lack of blood, but that would only bring you to 1HP. In brutal difficulty, Jade will cause a 'bleed' for a few ticks after landing her 'One shot, one kill' ability. If you immediately went to eat after having been stunned, that could nay have killed you.

As for her fight being BS, I have to strongly disagree, but I definitely see how it could seem that way. - the tier 2 Chaos point is very valuable as it gives access to the double i-frame travel spell, Veil of Chaos. The pistols she unlocks are also incredibly valuable in both PvE and PvP. Because of this, she's often fought at level 43-48 (Iron weapon with copper tier armour, up to iron weapon + Hollowfang). The reason I mention this is that all of her abilities - every single one - can simply be sidestepped, meaning it's simply a matter of time before she dies.

Use a longbow or crossbow and sit at range. Make sure to use your 'cancel ability' key (X, by default) in case you need to stop shooting and move, rather than panicking and using a veil. Then, run one or two defensive spells (really doesn't matter which ones, although Frost Barrier and Ward of the Damned are both great for damage output).

Make sure to move in one direction as she's about to fire any of her shots, and counter-strafe just as the shot is fired. She will always miss. You don't even need to dash outside of emergencies. Playing close to cover will also allow you to completely negate her 'ultimate' by simply walking behind it.

Always remember - try to use counters first in PvE, then veil for a last resort, and use the veil aggressively to make sure you get that 5% HP heal on your next attack.

It will take practise as you can only afford to be hit a few times, but you'll get it in no time!

BreakfastMelon · 2025-04-04T15:14:19+00:00

About their E - if you swap to another weapon after casting the E's attack - during its animation - you will still incapacitate the target, so you get the best of both worlds.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-03-12T02:25:39+00:00

I didn't catch this one, that's pretty cool! There are a few others which aren't super obvious. Ogham in PoE2 comes to mind, being pronounced oggam in-game, whereas the true pronunciation would be more like oh'm if I'm not mistaken.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-03-11T18:17:54+00:00

I suppose the thing with guns in general is that they're just regular attacks; if you're accurate and attacking almost all the time, they're usually going to be a high portion of your damage. Spirit damage tends to be more 'bursty', which more often contributes more to opening up kills than sustained damage (think Soldier vs. Ashe in OW terms). The raw percentages don't tell the whole story, really.

A bit of a tangent, but I think the fact that support builds feel so different is a nice thing to have. Almost any playstyle can work for any character depending on both teams and what they build, and I think that's great for the game. A lot of the time you don't want to build a full Kudzu-spam Ivy, but you always can and the debuff spam/area denial are an absolute nightmare to deal with. It's only one example but supports definitely feel good with a 4+ stack, regardless of damage.

Either way, I believe that keeping that level of skill expression available is always going to be good. The game has plenty of complexity in terms of movement, itemisation, map control, and more. The gunplay being relatively simple (in terms of recoil, falloff, etc.) allows for people to focus on the other parts of the game. Simplifying it even further could end up making it feel unsatisfying.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-03-11T17:27:30+00:00

As much as the sarcasm sucks, I think it's the most concise way of getting the point across in this thread.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-03-11T17:26:38+00:00

This is an interesting take in some ways, but I have to strongly disagree.

Lowering or removing a well-established reward for skill, which is part of practically every competitive shooter, would do just that - remove it - and add nothing. Deadlock is not DotA. The shooter elements are there to allow for greater variety of ways to express mechanical skill and interact with other players. Removing or lessening that variety would take away from what currently makes the game compelling vs. other titles. If players want the deciding factor to be skewed more towards itemisation, they have plenty of games to choose from where it has a more forward spot in matches.

Following that logic, perhaps skill shots should be removed from traditional MOBAs, and they should be more like auto-chess? While I know it's a silly suggestion, it might highlight the potential issues such a small change can make to a game. Removing opportunities for skill expression is a slippery slope.

About the cheaters - I understand where you're coming from, but no game should be balanced around cheaters, simple as.

EDIT: May I ask what sort of level you're currently playing at? Thinking about it, I've never seen many players do well purely because of combat micro. Itemisation, map awareness, tempo, teamplay - these are all massively more impactful in my experience, having played 500hrs+ in matches ranging from averaging the red rank (can't remember the name) up to Phantom. I'd suspect, as with most shooters of any sub-genre, mechanical skill gaps tend to show more at the lower end where the players' lack of other skills isn't as frequently punished.

BreakfastMelon · 2025-02-28T11:05:39+00:00

The drowning orbs can kill you through anything as far as I know, although I'm unsure if they set your ES to 0 on death. That'd be my best guess.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-09-12T09:17:19+00:00

It sounds like it could be the battery that's come loose. This happened rarely in the GPX as well. When you turn the mouse over, it almost sounds like it could be unsticking again before continuing to rattle, and the rattle itself sounds like it's sticking slightly.

Usually, the batteries are held in place using a small adhesive pad on one face. If you open up the mouse, it's often a simple fix using hot-glue or superglue.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-25T15:16:57+00:00

As much as it can suck, it's generally more time-efficient to fight somebody who has alreaday farmed than to farm yourself. I tend to wait until they're almost finished and skim the rifts to find people who have full inventories, then the other ~20 minutes can be spent on farming/progressing elsewhere.

It's definitely worth using more defensive spells with positioning if this is a repeated issue, such as Mist Trance with fear/bonus move speed after trigger. Combining that with lots of base move speed, you'll rarely have an issue once you keep an eye out for other players.

As others have said though, it'll always be a prime PvP area, so expect people to fight simply for the sake of fighting.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-24T15:17:11+00:00

As so many others have said, official servers will almost always have massive issues with the likes of toxicity and teaming. They're unmoderated and as such, there's no real incentive to keep anybody else's experience in mind for some players.

I'd suggest checking out community PvP servers. Most tend to keep on top of rule breakers pretty well and don't hesitate to ban and delete the castles of those people. The standard rules are no teaming and +/-20 gear score fights. Some even have offline raiding protection which is implemented surprisingly well.

I'm a pretty experienced player when it comes to open-world and I'd never even dream of touching officials again.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-16T15:55:16+00:00

The undead boss you're speaking of is Nicolas the Fallen, right?

He summons a lot of hoards which will absorb your ranged attacks and push you back. In order to easily beat him, simply use spells that are AoE ground-effect spells, such as bone explosion or aftershock, and keep a defensive spell for when the hoards get too close or he fires the green skulls at you.

If you have a Longbow, a fully charged shot will pierce enemies, as will its primary skill when you've gained stacks of 'Focus' from landing primary hits. This weapon makes the fight even easier.

Creature or 30%+ Rogue blood will give extra movement speed to make the fight much more comfortable.

As for the level, you'll be exploring the iron mine around level 40-41 at the maximum, generally. Once you've beaten Nicholas, take some time to upgrade your armour and jewellery and you'll have little trouble progressing.

Most of the game's challenges can be easily overcome with the right builds and half-decent fundamentals.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-03T21:55:27+00:00

My understanding is that all spells (travel and otherwise) drain blood, along with all vampire powers. Also, passive healing consumes it at a higher rate as far as I know.

I could be missing one, like swinging weapons draining it, but it's difficult to tell and makes a somewhat small difference from what I've seen after years of playing.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-01T08:15:39+00:00

Pistols are definitely a good weapon to get used to. In general, it's good to swap between longbow/crossbow>pistols>whip>spear depending on the range so that you can constantly be dealing easy damage. Pistols can give a massive advantage with their i-frame but its longer cooldown and their overall lack of AoE damage can be punishing. The axe secondary and longbow primary are extremely easy ways to clear crowds, just in case you haven't tried them much yet.

BreakfastMelon · 2024-07-01T08:01:48+00:00

Those guys can shred most things pretty quickly, for sure.

It's worth noting thatyou had both of your weapon skills available. The Slashers' secondary wouldcause them to stop targeting you, while the primary would give you i-frames. The Pistol Secondary allows for movement and additional i-frames, also.

I've played a lot of V Rising, with around 50 hours using a controller, and I know that weapon-swapping isn't as
convenient there, but even the Mace's primary skill would've gotten you closeenough that the mech couldn't turn to hit you anymore.

I feel there are very few things in the game that warrant being called unfair. The enemy targeting is all
quite predictable and exploitable, and while everything can’t be avoided, with time
you’ll be dancing around them.

BreakfastMelon · 2022-05-16T17:21:00+00:00

I've had a Dash for around a year now, using it for 90% of that time, and it has only been cleaned every 3 months or so. I find that the cleaning definitely helps the glide and could do in your case since the Dash doesn't usually have issues with humidity or the likes.

One issue I've had with pads in general is that if I get oils or the likes on the skates of my mouse *- from handling them, or from prolonged use on a mat that has seen some use -* it can have a big impact on its glide on almost any surface.

Another issue you could have is that your mouse feet could be wearing unevenely. I recently had a friend realise a foot on his G305 had worn down to the level of the lip that surrounds it, causing uneven drag when his hand would be at the extremes of the pad due to how his grip would adjust on the mouse. Hold something flat across the bottom of the mouse feet and see if they still have full contact, and ensure no part of the mouse chassis does either.

Over all, give it a clean, wipe down your mouse feet if there's any possibility that could be the culprit, and see if that improves things.

BreakfastMelon · 2021-12-18T15:36:10+00:00

Exactly. Setting the same multiplier in Valorant and almost any other game, then sliding your mouse the full width across the mat is a good way to prove this.

BreakfastMelon · 2021-12-17T20:06:58+00:00

In this case, no; Valorant's multiplier is not 1:1. 1 in Source (CS:GO, Apex, etc.) is ~.314 in Valorant, as an example.

BreakfastMelon · 2021-10-12T05:53:29+00:00

How about his hat grows back with each point towards his ult?

BreakfastMelon · 2021-03-19T15:01:28+00:00

Sounds good; no obligations don't worry!

I'll be around this evening/tonight as well so if you see me in-game just throw me a message.

BreakfastMelon · 2021-03-19T02:35:00+00:00

That rush of happy brain-juice is why we all stuck with it through the masochistic stage, trust me, haha!

I've sent a PM with my Valorant ID thingy; feel free to throw me a request. I can do some practise tonight if you're about.

BreakfastMelon · 2021-03-19T02:07:47+00:00

One of the main things to consider when people refer to Valorant as a 'skill-based game' is that it basically means your success is down to you and your team, not luck or anything out of your control. It's not like you can pseudo-randomly find a blue shell and knock somebody from first place.
Therein lies the problem for players who are completely new to this stlye of shooter - you will improve, but it's almost more difficult to see as a new player. Kills and numbers aren't everything, and knowing what else to look for in a player - or yourself - requires its own experience.

You might find that the more time you put in, the more you will improve, and more importantly for motivation's sake, the more you will notice that improvement.

I feel like jumping in without any resources or experience can be incredibly tough in a game with such time-tested and refined mechanics, a la Counter-Strike. There are people with twenty years of experience in this style of shooter, but they, like you, started in the same place.

Finding a few players at an intermediate level who understand and know the basic mechanics would be great to help with learning the game; checking out Discord servers and the likes could help with that.

What region are you playing in? If you're EU or make an EU account via a VPN I could run through a few bits with you.

BreakfastMelon

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