Guild Wars: Leet Sauce

Holy shit! Natural Stride was down and I was in trouble. Low on health and energy after a long running battle when an enemy Ranger comes around the bend and started pecking away at me. Had to get TU up or I was going to degen to the mat, but the guy was right there and I knew he was just waiting to unload his Distracting Shot. I couldn't sacrifice Antidote Signet, that had already eaten up his Savage. I was trying to strafe and dodge his shots when, suddenly, it came to me. What did I do? Hit Unguent even though I was begging for an interrupt. Because that's exactly what I wanted. It was a sucker play. I watched my opponent's bar, waited microsecond after precious microsecond for him to cast D-Shot and, then, waited even longer for it to slowly finish. When the arrow was in the air, I hit the cancel button, blew my Unguent which was nearly finished and let the dinky arrow plink off me. Then I hit the TU button again and finished up, giving me enough health to outlast the other guy in our degen duel.

Now, I know, it's just the old cancel dance. Nothing that any good player shouldn't be able to do. But the thing is, I haven't. That's the sort of thing I used to be able to do, of course, but these days my reflexes are dull and my instincts blunted by the years. I am so rusty it's not even funny. This weekend's been the first PvP I've played in months. But the game slowed down enough that I was able to think of that plan and execute it in the span of a few seconds. And that wasn't the only amazing play I pulled off in the course of that game. I was just in the groove the whole match. Taking out two opponent, psyching out a Warrior doing the cancel dance with me, kiting away from certain death, pinpoint interrupt accuracy, and more. It was the best match I've had in a long, long time.

The thing that, to me, is inflating my ego here, making it seem like, you know, with a little hard work and a lot of practice I could be right there again, is that I'm outdueling people. It's the reason I play the Ranger, of course. You have a hard or soft counter for everything out there and, one on one, are a load to handle. But even though I think there's a bit of build advantage, you still have to outplay people to win when you're squared off out in the middle of nowhere fighting over a shrine with someone else trying to sneak around and cap. I live for those moments because I don't tend to lose them. Whatever class, even other Rangers, I'm not afraid to square off. I look forward to it. I get amped up for it. Because I know I'm more likely than not to walk away with a notch on the scorecard. It means dancing the delicate dance. The one made up of of cancels and interrupts. Of kiting and degen. It's a deadly one but I'm rather getting the hang of it.

Not to say I'm perfect or anything. I have problems in larger battles with getting "lost". When everyone's running around and I'm switching between targets trying to figure out what to do, who to interrupt, who to attack, that sort of thing. And I'm not good enough about spreading around the Poison, keeping everyone degening - I tend to pick a target and camp too much. And, of course, give that target away completely by attacking before interrupting. Lots to work on and I have a long way to go, in other words. And given the level of competition, bragging about shooting fish in the newbie barrel isn't exactly impressive. But I'm not the only experienced PvP hand out there and although I'd really like it if we could face off more often, I'm doing pretty good when it comes to the tougher opponents, too.

But it's the moments like this one that remind me why I play. That encourage me to keep on going. Through all the bad ones. The frustrating losses. The bone-headed mistakes. It's the feeling of accomplishment. A sense that I'm slowly but surely scraping off that rust with every victory. The promise that this particular match might have been my best one to date, but if I keep playing it's going to keep sliding down the list. That's why I'm pumping my fist. That's why I'm slapping myself on the back. That's why I'm heading back in again.