Give us some way to practice PvP

@therev4n Personally I think it's the same as with any game.. practise makes perfect, and there is no substitute for the real thing :) No AI enemies or bots or anything can match a player, take a break if you are discouraged and when you feel up to it try again! Look back at how the fight went and think 'what if I did this' 'perhaps I shouldn't have done that', best way to improve :)

I don't use the sword lunge personally I think it's far too easy for the enemy to dodge, and like you experienced, charging it up and performing it makes you very vulnerable.
Find a gun which suits your play style most too, I like the sniper personally but the blunderbuss I think is still the best PvP option?

I too suck at this game, particularly the PvP part of it. However, instead of complaining about it (not saying you are) I just get on with it. I practice my cannon shots by aiming at rocky outcrops on islands or at sunken treasure ships. Then I try and do the same as my ship is moving. I practice my sword/guns on snakes, skeletons and sharks. However, the only way I am really going to get better at PvP is just to jolly get on with it and get into fights with other players. Practice makes perfect, even for rubbish players like me. I am still rubbish at it but better than I was xD.

Same thing in Elite Dangerous. For almost a year I avoided any form of PvP, even with AI ships. Then one day I decided to "git gud" xD. I attacked weaker ships and built my way up to tougher ships. I am now Dangerous, rank, almost Deadly rank. The top rank of Elite is in sight.

I know it's pretty obvious, but the best way to get better at PvP is to fight other players. You can practice on bots all you want, it won't be the same thing.

Get your ship and crew, gather supplies and gunpowder barrels from a nearby skeleton fort and simply look for other players. You will die, it will suck and maybe you'll feel embarrassed by some of the defeats, but this is how you do it.

You'll see that you will gain confidence and improve the more you practice.

@therev4n said in Give us some way to practice PvP:

Give us some way to practice PvP

There is a way. Play the game.

why would RARE make a way for you to practice PVP when you can just go find another ship with players and practice on them. I mean cmon man, seriously.

Like most PvP games when I feel like my game is a bit off try switching a tactic? Use different weapons? Try jumping more/less. If you suck up close try fighting from a larger gap. The thing is most people suck at some form of PvP but excel at others and they play to their strengths. I'm much better at range (and the sword seems broken and choppy sometimes) so I try to keep enemies at range and I win almost every time. Up close its closer to 60/40 against.

@therev4n said in Give us some way to practice PvP:

Some of us, yes myself included, are not exactly crack shots. Some of us just can't seem to get this pvp thing down as well as others. No matter how many videos we watch. No matter how many hours we have in game. Some of us just have a hard time with players. There's no shame in it. I'm not complaining. I just want something, anything other than skeletons to help me get better taking out players. It's rather annoying thinking you get the upper hand just to get cut down and get the dreaded and borderline trollish deck roll laughters. At the very least, allow xbox players to aim that sword lunge better. Maybe I just flat out suck but I have yet to hit a player with it, like at all. They just jump out of the way and then cut me down with it when I can't move. I try not using it and well still get cut down. I feel like I am missing out on a lot of the game because I am just not a strong PvPer. Feels like I just bring my crew down because they can't rely on me in combat. I love the game, but at this point almost feel like I should just stop playing because I just get so mad because I can't seem to kill anyone that's not climbing a ladder.

Yes, go ahead and burn me at the stake for this. Believe me at this point I am more than accepting I just suck at this game. Love for the game only gets you so far man. Til that last guy gets you for the third time in a row and he just makes it look so easy.. You're just left with broken confidence and catch yourself questioning why you even bother to keep playing.

honestly the best thing to do is pick a play style and stick with it. My personal favorite is the sword and pistol now since the blunderbus was weakened. All it takes is 1 shot to the torso and a 3 sword slash combo and you will get a kill. If you are having a hard time aiming I still suggest the blunder as it can still insta kill, the trick that works for me is not using the aim down sights and rush them and when you are practically inside them and can smell the grog on their breath you fire, Point blank with all pellets hitting will still kill if not quickly bring out the sword and finish them off. When in a sword fight the block button is more important then the slash tbh, It will negate all damage and stagger back use the block+forward jump to close the gap and slash away.

The best way to be good at PvP in this game is to be good at other games imo, similar to PUBG. You won't learn to be amazing at aiming in this game because there's not enough aiming to do.

Playing PC is also smart, I saw a thread that said it's a 4% difference in aim, but those are just statistics, PC is really OP because of how aiming works. Xbox players must start moving and stop over a longer duration of time whereas I move my mouse about 10-12 cm because it takes 20-25 cm to a do a 360 (this is called cm360 which is used as a reference point to keep your aim consistent between games, there are calculators for it)

But anyway you shouldn't need insane aim to beat most players. Most players use Cutlass/Blunderbuss for PvP, but this is not meta. Pistol/Blunderbuss can easily counter this, running around with a Cutlass out makes it really easy to predict what you will do (run up and melee) so don't use it. The eye of reach is also garbage in most circumstances.

Gm/sometimes top 500 Overwatch PC player here, I came to this game because Brigitte/Hanzo broke Overwatch.

arrggg, i could sure use some practice. i got in what seemed like my 1st prolonged pvp fight with a pc player, and it wasn't pretty. with the skull fort almost complete they came for us. as she swam to our ship i lined up 1 pistol shot for a hit, then took some damage. as i carefully lined up my kill shot BAM, i got hit from underwater. after that it was a long and depressing string of hop shots that never missed. 15 minutes later or so we actually ran them down and managed to sink their ship! i got my hands on the fort key and tried swimming away, but that was short lived. i can live with the fact that mouse/keyboard players are playing a different game than i am (at least until they make cross play optional), but why so accurate rare? even if the player is incredible and lines up every shot perfectly, these guns were notoriously inaccurate. its probably too late now, but some random bullet spread should have been built in to the flintlock and blunderbuss. (i'm not talking a shotty pellet spread). end rant

@therev4n I think they should give an option for PvP practice with crew mates. Better than ai and you still get practice.

This really belongs here: https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/57995/mega-thread-balancing-exploration-and-player-combat-part-5