Episode 64: Basic PvP Tips and Tricks Redux

We've taken a look in the wayback machine at the fundamentals of PVP in Destiny 1 as part of our quest to git gud at Destiny 2. Spoiler alert: they still apply.

A Beginner's Guide to Getting Good, Part 1 - crucible Tips and Tricks

Let's say you just came into the Destiny franchise with D2, or perhaps you've been around for awhile, but you're struggling to adapt to this new style of PvP. You want to make a go of it, but there's so much info out there it's difficult to know where to start. I'd like to help out with that. Over the next couple weeks, we're going to take a look at how to become a better PvP player, starting from the very, very beginning. I can't guarantee you my guides will make it so that you go flawless every single weekend from here on out, but I can promise that your mechanics and understanding of the game will improve, and that's the first step to becoming a great player.

With that being said, let's start at the beginning. We're going to first talk about a couple of things you can do to prepare yourself for the Crucible, before even hopping into a game, and then we'll move on to a few basic tenets that you should follow one you're in a match.

FOR CONSOLE - Pick a control scheme that is optimal for PvP. I can't overstate the importance of selecting a good button scheme, especially if you are playing with a standard controller. Using anything other than Puppeteer or Jumper means you are handicapping yourself in the Crucible. I've already done a breakdown that explains exactly why, so if you'd like to read a more in depth version you can find it here, but the short story of it is that the default control scheme basically has you wasting a button. When you play multiplayer, emphasis should be put on how many of the necessary buttons you can press without moving your fingers off of the thumbsticks, as doing so prevents you from aiming for a brief moment. With the Default setting, clicking the right stick brings up Player Highlight, which is never something you should be using in PvP. Try switching to Puppeteer, which makes clicking the stick Crouch instead, and watch how quickly you can improve at slide-shotgunning and crouching while strafing. Jumper is a much larger departure from the Default settings and can take a little more work to get used to, but it plays especially well with people who use the aerial aspects of the game and want to be able to jump and aim at the same time. Either one that you choose, you'll notice an immediate improvement in how easy it is to do maneuvers that high-skill players use that previously appeared too complicated.
Play the meta, or the closest thing to it that you're comfortable with. When I say the meta, we all know right away what I'm talking about. MIDA or Antiope, Uriel's or Last Hope. Those weapons are listed there for a reason. The meta exists because these guns have the perfect compromise between ease-of-use and fast times-to-kill. You may really want to use your super cool looking Call to Serve in the Crucible, and there's something to be said for playing with a gun that you're comfortable with, but a weapon like that can only take you so far. When you do get to higher levels of gameplay, you'll find yourself landing all of your shots, playing perfectly, and still losing battles, and it's because the gun is letting you down. They both take 5 shots to kill, but MIDA can do it in 1.20s, while CtS takes 1.33s. The key is to find a gun you like within the meta, learn how to kill optimally with it (meaning does it take all headshots, or can I hit a couple body shots and still get the fastest TtK?), and then stick to it, practice with it, and get comfortable. If you really, really can't get comfortable with a weapon inside the meta, or you struggle to land critical hits consistently, you can use something more forgiving (Precision Scouts like Call to Serve or Nameless Midnight, Adaptive Hand Cannons like Better Devils, Adaptive SMGs like Foggy Notion or Riskrunner, or Lightweight ARs like Perseverance). They won't kill as fast, but they require far lower percentages of critical hits to get their optimal kills and their body shot times to kill are very fast. At low levels of gamplay, it can allow you to get your feet underneath you and a feel for the game, before you get comfortable enough to move on to more challenging (and more rewarding) weapons.
In terms of choosing a weapon, the good news is that at this point in time in the crucible (despite how the game has slowed down), the weapon classes are overall as balanced as they've ever been. You can basically pick any primary weapon class and find a gun that is competitive (maybe not at the very highest levels of sweaty gameplay, but at a high enough level to be usable in most Crucible experiences, including Trials). Keep that in mind when selecting a weapon. I've written a ton of guides on almost all the weapons out there, and I've included a few brief excerpts below to get you started in choosing some of the easier to acquire meta-weapons. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of recommended weapons, but simply a few examples of guns you can use. For full lists of weapons, you can browse my post history:

Auto Rifles
Precision
Origin Story - Kinetic
Pros - High range. Above average stability, reload speed, and recoil direction.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Very low aim assist and mag size. Low handling.
Time-to-Kill: 1.07s (8 crit 1 body ), 1.60s (13 body)
Rate of Fire: 450
Impact: 29 (23 crit, 16 body)
Range: 70
Stability: 46
Reload Speed: 47
Handling: 43
Mag Size: 32
Recoil Direction: 73
Aim Assist: 45
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Hitmark IS, Red Dot 2 MOA, Red Dot Micro
Magazine - Appended Mag, Flared Magwell
Set Perk - Rampage
Prosecutor - Energy
Pros - Very high range. Above average stability and reload speed.
Neutral - Average handling.
Cons - Very low aim assist and mag size. Below average recoil direction.
Time-to-Kill: 1.07s (8 crit 1 body ), 1.60s (13 body)
Rate of Fire: 450
Impact: 29 (23 crit, 16 body)
Range: 73
Stability: 48
Reload Speed: 50
Handling: 51
Mag Size: 32
Recoil Direction: 69
Aim Assist: 44
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Chambered Compensator, Corkscrew Rifling, Polygonal Rifling
Magazine - Slideways, Tap the Trigger
Set Perk - Hip-Fire Grip
Uriel's Gift - Energy
Pros - High range. Above average recoil direction.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Low aim assist and mag size. Below average stability, reload speed, and handling.
Time-to-Kill: 1.07s (8 crit 1 body ), 1.60s (13 body)
Rate of Fire: 450
Impact: 29 (23 crit, 16 body)
Range: 70
Stability: 45
Reload Speed: 46
Handling: 46
Mag Size: 33
Recoil Direction: 71
Aim Assist: 54
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Spark PS, Flash HS5
Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds, Steady Rounds
Set Perk - Tap the Trigger
Pulse Rifles
Lightweight
Nightshade - Kinetic
Pros - Above average stability. Very high reload speed and handling. High aim assist.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Low mag size and range. Very low recoil direction.
Time-to-Kill: 1.20s (3.33 bursts, 10 crits), 1.73s (5 bursts (15 body)
Rate of Fire: 450
Impact: 27 (20 crit, 14 body)
Range: 40
Stability: 59
Reload Speed: 62
Handling: 69
Mag Size: 30
Recoil Direction: 56
Aim Assist: 68
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Red Dot Micro, Red Dot 2 MOA, Rifle Scope ST
Magazine - Tactical Mag, Armor-Piercing Rounds
Set Perk - Kill Clip
Rapid-Fire
The Time-Worn Spire - Kinetic
Pros - Very high aim assist. Above average mag size.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Very low range and reload speed. Below average stability, handling, and recoil direction.
Time-to-Kill: 1.13s (4 bursts, 9 crit 3 body ), 1.67s (5.33 bursts, 16 body)
Rate of Fire: 540
Impact: 27 (18 crit, 13 body)
Range: 33
Stability: 54
Reload Speed: 37
Handling: 33
Mag Size: 36
Recoil Direction: 60
Aim Assist: 79
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Hitmark IS, Red Dot Micro, Rifle Scope SSF
Magazine - Tactical Mag, Accurized Rounds
Set Perk - Zen Moment
Scout Rifles
Lightweight
Manannan SR4 - Elemental
Pros - High reload speed, handling, aim assist, and mag size.
Neutral - Average stability.
Cons - Very low range.
Time-to-Kill: 1.20s (4 crit 1 body), 1.80s (7 body)
Rate of Fire: 200
Impact: 60 (44 crit, 29 body)
Range: 32
Stability: 46
Reload Speed: 57
Handling: 71
Mag Size: 16
Aim Assist: 72
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Candle PS, Impulse MS3
Magazine - Alloy Magazine, Steady Rounds
Set Perk - Explosive Payload
Sub-Machine Guns
Precision
Antiope-D - Kinetic
Pros - Very high range and aim assist.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Very low stability, reload speed, handling, and mag size. Below average recoil direction.
Time-to-Kill: 0.90s (10 crits), 1.20s (13 body)
Rate of Fire: 600
Impact: 25 (20 crit, 16 body)
Range: 63
Stability: 39
Reload Speed: 27
Handling: 26
Mag Size: 26
Recoil Direction: 90
Aim Assist: 58
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - GB Iron, SC Holo
Magazine - Ricochet Rounds, Tactical Mag
Set Perk - Kill Clip
Adjudicator - Kinetic
Pros - Very high range. High aim assist. Above average recoil direction and stability.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Very low reload speed, handling, and mag size.
Time-to-Kill: 0.90s (10 crits), 1.20s (13 body)
Rate of Fire: 600
Impact: 25 (20 crit, 16 body)
Range: 60
Stability: 46
Reload Speed: 24
Handling: 29
Mag Size: 27
Recoil Direction: 93
Aim Assist: 54
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Chambered Compensator, Corckscrew Rifling, Polygonal Rifling
Magazine - Slideways, Hip-Fire Grip
Set Perk - Dynamic Sway Reduction
Sidearms
Omolon Adaptive
The Last Dance - Elemental
Pros - Very high stability. High recoil direction and mag size. Above average handling and aim assist.
Neutral - None.
Cons - Below average range. Low reload speed.
Time-to-Kill: 0.73s (2.66 bursts. 7 crit 1 body ), 1.00s (3.33 bursts, 10 body)
Rate of Fire: 415
Impact: 75 (27 crit, 20 body)
Range: 36
Stability: 86
Reload Speed: 35
Handling: 57
Mag Size: 27
Recoil Direction: 97
Aim Assist: 70
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Target SAS, Tactic SAS
Magazine - Extended Mag, Armor Piercing Rounds
Set Perk - Moving Target
Last Hope - Elemental
Pros - High stability and mag size. Above average handling, aim assist, and recoil direction.
Neutral - Average range.
Cons - Below average reload speed.
Time-to-Kill: 0.73s (2.66 bursts. 7 crit 1 body ), 1.00s (3.33 bursts, 10 body)
Rate of Fire: 415
Impact: 75 (27 crit, 20 body)
Range: 41
Stability: 82
Reload Speed: 37
Handling: 55
Mag Size: 27
Recoil Direction: 93
Aim Assist: 70
Perks:
Sights/Barrels - Control SAS, FarPoint SAS
Magazine - Ricochet Rounds, Steady Rounds
Set Perk - Zen Moment

Pay attention to your Loadout. What mods do you have? What type of armor are you running? Try to play to your strengths with your mods and choose ones that will help you out.
First things first, let's toss out the idea that our Guardian has to look sexy. Figure out which of your abilities or weapons you are using the most (or feel like you need help with) and then pick mods that compliment them. Feel like your Kinetic weapon has some wild kick to it? Kinetic Counterbalance. Feel like your solar grenades aren't recharging fast enough? Solar Ordnance. Striker melee too slow? Arc Impact. Health not recovering fast enough? There's a mod for that too (and Resilience and Mobility). Maybe you're annoyed by the slow reload speed of a weapon. We can fix that with mods. Honestly, my only complaint is we only have 5 mod slots, when I'd be happy with twice that number. If you want a really solid breakdown on Mods and what they do specifically, as well as what armor they come on, please feel free to check out this guide here.
For example, I currently run a Kinetic Counterbalance mod, and as much Resiliency as I can get across all my characters, and then push everything else towards recovery. I used to have a set of armor for each subclass that cooled down my grenades. The differences may only be minor, but when added together it can make a very nice compliment to your playstyle (this is different from Destiny 1, where tiers and perks could completely change the playstyle).

Now that you've got your controller, weapons, and armor set up accordingly, there's one more thing to do before you hop into the Crucible.

Get into a party. Its more fun playing with friends, and you'll have more success. This was important in Destiny 1, but in D2 it's an even bigger factor. Playing with a group can be the difference between victory and rage quitting. I understand this is a hard thing to do for a lot of people. Not everyone has friends that are on when they are, and not everyone likes playing with other people, but the truth of the matter is you'll have a lot more success playing in a fireteam. If you don't have friends to play with, there are a ton of great resources out there that can help you find people to play with, including: /r/fireteams, /r/CrucibleSherpa, The100.io, the Bungie.net recruitment forums, Destiny Tracker LFG, and Planet Destiny LFG. Don't want to put in that effort? At least consider joining the game chat when you finally do get into a game! Even Quickplay relies heavily on communication, timing, and teamwork, and playing with other people who you can coordinate with makes everything run so much better and more smoothly. Plus, talking to other people in game can help you to learn callouts and how to communicate mid-battle, two skills which are necessities at higher levels of play. Too much effort to even get into gamechat? Run next to a blueberry and pretend you can communicate with them telepathically.

So, we've covered four things that I think are vitally important before you even get into a game. Now let's move on to a few basic pillars of Destiny PvP gameplay that you can take to heart.

Things to focus on in game.

This isn't a twitch shooter, so don't play it like one. Twitch shooters are games which have a very fast time-to-kill, and players can rely almost entirely on reflexes to win engagements. Headshots are often unnecessary, and the person who acquires their target first usually wins. Perhaps the most well known example of this style of game is the Call of Duty series (the earlier versions more than the later games). On the opposite end of the spectrum are games like Halo. With a very slow TtK, Halo is all about precision and gunskill, and being the first person to shoot doesn't always mean you'll be the victor. Destiny is much closer to the Halo side of the scale than to the CoD side. Times-to-kill in this game in general hover between 1.00s and 1.20s, which means that, even after you've landed the first shot, your opponent more than enough time to fight back or run away. Reflexes alone won't make you a great player here, so you'll need also need a solid combination of strategy and gunskill. Trying to be the fastest person in the game will most of the time result in you getting yourself into situations you can't escape from. Sprinting from point to point, charging around corners, basically being the Flash in PvP is a surefire way to rack up a whole bunch of deaths. You need to slow down, be more cerebral, and play with some thought behind it. Think about where the enemy is, and what the best way to attack is. Speaking of, this plays right into point number 2...
Use your radar. It's basically omnipotent, and you should almost never be surprised if you can get good at reading it. I know it looks a bit confusing, and it doesn't show you exactly where an opponent is like it would in Halo or CoD, but it's a powerful tool once you understand it. The pie slices light up as enemies approach, starting first with the ring around the outside, then a pie slice, then the circle around you means they're basically at point blank. If the color is bright red, it means they are on your level, if it's faded red it means they are either above or below you. If multiple pie slices are lit up, then multiple enemies are within range. Learn to keep an eye on this, but don't just stare at it. Use it to help inform your situational awareness. Players can temporarily disappear off of it if they crouch or go invisible, so look out for those tricks.
Pay attention to where your teammates are. The teamshot meta is real in D2, and if you ignore it, let it be at your own peril. You need to have an idea where all three of your teammates are at all times, and not just to help clean up people they've already hurt. If you see teammates in an area and they aren't in combat, you can use that knowledge to narrow down where the enemies can be. Likewise, if you see where teammates are engaging enemies, you know where they are and can figure out a good path around them to flank or assist, hopefully while the enemy is focused on your allies. If your teammates run into a room and begin engaging enemies, you can use this as a distraction to slip in yourself and clean up some kills, or, if they get obliterated pushing through a choke or into a lane, use it as a warning to not go that way! Sticking near to your teammates (maybe not attached at the hip, but within line of sight) is one of the best ways to rack up points in D2 right now. Even if you don't necessarily engage the same enemy, it will often prevent multiple enemies from singling you out during a battle.
Learn when to run away. What happens if you didn't take the above advice, or your blueberry is just awful and fell off the map? If you're outnumbered and/or low health, get out of there. Minimizing deaths is key to success. Often times, the number of kills you get per game will actually go up if you run away and live to fight again (less time respawning and running back to engagements, more time for kills). This is truly one of the key aspects of Destiny gameplay that I see so many people struggling with. If you're in a bad situation, run away! Don't peak back out at the team hardscoping a lane with MIDA, don't stay in a gun battle that you feel like you're losing, and don't feel like a coward for retreating! There is absolutely no reason to stay in a bad situation, other than just pure stubbornness or misplaced determination to get a kill, even at the cost of your own life. Running away and living to fight another day is of much more use to your team than staying and taking a death. If you're dead, you gave the other team points and you now have to waste time respawning and getting back to an engagement. Staying alive means continuing to help your team, and denying the enemy an advantage, even if you had to back away.
Control power ammo crates. This has always been one of the new most important aspects of the PvP landscape, and it's even more powerful in D2. Denying opponents power ammo for a single round can swing the tide of the game in your team's favor. It doesn't matter if you don't like using your power weapon, or if you aren't good with it. If you have a chance to take the power ammo from your opponent, do it, even if you might not get a single kill. You're mostly doing this to stop the other team from getting it. If you have shotgun ammo and your opponent does not, you now have the option to be far more aggressive than they do, and you can dictate the pace of battle. If your team has two players with power, and their team has none, you've just made it much easier to get map control, much easier to get kills, much easier to build supers, etc. It can basically snowball into domination if it's played correctly. In terms of power ammo etiquette, I generally prefer not to group up with teammates who are already sitting on it. If someone is there, I say let them get it, that way you don't form a cluster and present an easy target to a roaming opponent.
Use your super. Don't just sit on it waiting for that sick multi kill at the end of the game. Due to the way cooldowns work in D2, it is possible to get two supers a game if you're doing well, as long as you don't sit on the first one. The way I look at it is: if you get 1 kill with a super and don't die, it's a victory, and a panic super that saves your life is not a wasted super. This was one of the things that, as a new player, I struggled with the most. I always wanted to save my super for a triple on a control point or use it to smash people waiting around power. Those things are great, and I'm not suggesting that you use it the second it fully charges on some guy who you could have killed anyways. What I'm saying is that if using your super, get a kill, and make an orb or two for your team, that's a win. Your teammates will now get their supers more quickly, which in all likelihood means more orbs for you down the road, and possibly a second super. Likewise, if you panic and use it, but it kept you alive when you would have died, even if you only got one kill, it was a worthy reason to burn it. Keeping yourself alive is the name of the game, after all, as you can continue to pressure the enemy and assert map control, and using your super is just another way to do that.
Learn the maps. Private matches will be your friend here when they drop in early 2018 (hopefully), but for the most part this comes from experience in Crucible (although you can improve the pace at which you pick info up by reading this article, and this breakdown is a solid example). Map knowledge can be the difference between a good player and a great one, since knowing where to flank from, which lanes the enemy will choose to push or choose to camp, where the choke points are, and callouts are all standard parts of high level gameplay. There are a ton of great maps out there that can help you to learn this, but the best way to figure it out is just to play. Maybe organize some private matches with friends, or play some rumble with the express purpose of trying to survive while looking around.

Bonus Tip: Aim for the upper-chest/chin area with your primary weapons. It'll help to make sure you're more consistently hitting the head while being flinched/fighting recoil.

Podcast, Guides and SGADestiny Massive BreakdownsNovember 20, 2017pvp, crucible, tips, fundamentals, adviceComment