2v2 Tactics

The 2v2 Meta 

The 2v2 meta is to cross 1v1 your opponents individually for the most part, sniping or swapping targets at convenient moments with weapons or damage spells and then going back to cycling your own target. Combine the knowledge you have learned in 1v1 offense/defense with a higher awareness. 

The reason for this meta is forced by ruleset. 

In previous iterations of T2A, your GH cursor did not auto-cancel when equipping a weapon (it cancels on Outlands Arena), so syncs were the more viable meta, because a defending team who were either late in casting EXPs or could not disrupt their opponent’s EXP in the race to win the sync loading contest would simply just load a GH, then equip a weapon and try to damage their opponents into canceling their spells or interrupting the EB half of the sync while still having a GH cursor ready to heal themselves or the partner. You can cast a GH on Outlands in anticipation of a sync, but you can't swing your weapon without losing it. More importantly, in previous iterations the interrupt “cycle” type of system combined with 4 viable weapon speeds each with wide damage ranges didn't really exist, so the mana conservation wasn’t nearly as required when you consider possible dice rolls.

I like 2v2s because I think the skill ceiling is higher than 1v1s with the increased APM of everyone involved and all the factors to consider. Oug and I could win 10-15x 2v2 tournaments in a row against a handful of players we think are really good duelers, and that would probably never happen in a 1v1 scenario. There is much more optionality in surviving through the garbage RNG rolls in a 2v2 situation with communication than there is in a 1v1. It's still a factor, there's just some room to survive through the worst of it. Ultimately, man good 2v2s stalemate and just end from Sudden Death mode that are more up to dice than antyhing.

That said, I wish more players preferred 2v2s over 1v1s and that there were more winning teams.

But I Want To Sync

In this 2v2 meta, I would say although syncing is an option and can absolutely win your duels sometimes, depending on the team you are fighting, it will mostly be a subpar strategy overall.

Offensively, If you go for an EXP EB sync with your teammate and either of you is disrupted by the other team’s punch/MA and/or that team does heal through a full sync, you wasted immensely valuable mana that would have been better put behind initial weapon damage into cycles. If the other team lands a standard hit rate of ~50% or so from that point on, they likely have more mana to work with for cycling/EBs after your sync fails, and you will likely be pushed into a mana lock from needing to heal yourselves and unable to have the amount of mana needed to cycle your own opponent if you land large weapon hits.

Also take in mind, the damage range of sixth level spells on Outlands can be something like 19-32. I have even seen multiple 4 spell syncs from 2 players do under 89 damage, total, which sucks.

Again, like I said before, I think that maybe would be a different case if pre-casting GH was allowed in 2v2s, but I am not positive, the meta might still be best played as cross 1v1 when you consider the attrition tactics of disrupts, weapons and mana traps in the mechanics.

All of the above in mind, do what you want and what you have fun doing with your teammate, but EXP EB syncs will not result in consistent wins against "top" duelers in 2v2s, in my view. They can be effective with good damage RNG rolls and follow up weapon hits landing. Sometimes in a stale duel that drags on it can bring an unexpected wildcard win.

If any type of combo sync was viable, I’d say a 3-spell where one player has an EXP up and a team catches the other team off guard by turning that into a 3 spell sync of EXP, EB/EB + weapon damage would be a better option. Either that or silent EXP drop where you don't follow with EB and the other team doesn't notice and you go for weapon hits + 2 EXPs landing at the same time for an off-guard win.

Otherwise, if you want to go for syncs, maybe a cross meta is best of an archer/swords since you get the chance at that beloved ranged insta hit shot. Two archers can be viable but I think end up being at a disadvantage without a katana equivalent in certain scenarios related to cycling.

10 Strategies for 2v2s

The default state in 2v2s is just to keep an eye on all 4 health bars and the positioning of each player while you are each cross 1v1ing to determine your next cycle or surprise swap. 2v2s are great to build awareness, in my opinion. (I think Swords/Swords or Swords/Archer is best for team composition)

Here are 10 additional points or strategies to keep in mind:

1. In a standard 1v1 it would be much less common to waste mana on using an interrupt spell to disrupt your opponent’s EXP/EB casts. In a 2v2, if mana is good, you should prioritize attempting a weapon hit interrupt when possible, but if no swing timer is ready, you can drop a Harm/MA/Nox on a sixth level spell because it’s more important to prevent a player from loading EB/EXP in a 2v2 than a 1v1 based on the combined RNG factors and what I mentioned above regarding syncing and dice. You shouldn't always do this based on mana conservation.
   
   

2. Communicate to your teammate everything your opposing player has loaded, most importantly every sixth level spell or GH. If you know the other opponent has a GH up, you aren’t going to waste time continuing a cycle on you rown opponent while they are damaged if they are going to easily get a heal from their partner. If you know the other partner has an EB up, you are going to work to keep your target from doing the same to help avoid a potential double EB+double halberd kill potential, or a gamble call where they drop 2 EBs and hope for 2 halberds directly afterwards. Same goes for EXP, you want to lower the odds of the other team going for a sync where you and your teammate potentially both miss your punches on their EB halves of the combo.
   
   

3. If the opposing team both have EXPs loaded, which should be rare if you both play properly, then go for punches or MA (I like to have one of us do each) on their EBs to lower the amount of spells in the full sync. Be cautious of “silent” EXP drops (which I mentioned above) where they sync drop the EXPs together without casting EB after and go for halberd hits. Look for the "twitch" movement of their character to catch when an EXP may have been dropped.
   
   

4. If the opposing team both have EBs loaded, you want to pre-cast GH, wait for or bait out their weapon hit, then use your GH directly after getting hit and immediately swing your halberd to trade damage. If you hit your return trade and the damage is substantial, they will drop the EB and go for a heal and you may even be in a position to cycle them and claim the offense. If you miss your weapon trade and they maintain to hold their EB, recast GH immediately after you swing and rinse-repeat. This is the safest method.
   
   

5. Some teams like to both pre-cast EBs and go for weapon hits like mentioned in #5. I prefer if one member stays defensive in those scenarios and just me or my teammate goes for a pre-casted EB. Some opportunities where you can pre-cast an EB are directly after poisoning your opponent when they go cure or when they are MH spamming or topping off smaller hits of damage with MH. The idea of one or two of you holding an EB is that if your halberd(s) connect (whether before or after in a sequence), you can drop the EBs and get a fast kill with either 2 EBs dropped + 1-2 weapon hits or 1 EB dropped + 2 weapon hits, assuming higher damage rolls and good RNG.
   
   

6. If you are in your cross 1v1 and can get your opponent to low damage and into a cycle and feel confident you can pull off a kill, tell your partner to go “guaranteed” cycle if they haven't used any small circle spells yet, and they can attempt the MA-LIT-Nox-Harm rotation to assure the other teammate cannot get a GH off. Whoever the teammate is cycling the enemy team’s healer, they may find openings to throw in a fatal weapon on the more damaged player between casting their guaranteed cycle spells. On the flip side of this, if your teammate is being interrupted with a cycle and you are the one nearing fatal damage, (or vice versa) you may find the only option is for both of you to stop trying GH and go MH spam as soon as possible to pull your life to a more reasonable number before attempting GHs again.
   
   

7. Often the opposing team in a 2v2 have such a hard time tracking what’s going on all at once that you can easily sneak in Bless casts while cycling them or directly after poisoning them and get up to 36 dexterity for better DPS. It’s better to do this when you have a clear mana advantage or they are in a panic situation where debuffing you would be a bad use of their time or mana.
   
   

8. If you get a chance to load a sixth level spell, don’t sneak drop it on your opponent’s target or vice versa until you can already see there is an advantage or are in a damaging cycle. For example, If I have an EB loaded and I see my teammate lands a huge halberd hit on his opponent and brings them into a cycle, I might toss that EB on his target and then immediately cast an MA or Harm to start a cycle back on my target in order to prevent them healing their teammate. You usually want to call this out to your teammate and give them a heads up to know they have some extra incoming damage to work with.
   
   

9. There are points in 2v2s where your enemy team will both have very low life and only one of them gets a GH casted. This is a great place for your team, because that player with the GH is forced to "make a decision". I think a lot of 2v2s end with this situation. Will they heal themselves or the other player? Normally you would think it would be on whoever is a bit lower, but it varies how teams choose this, and in this situation you want to just maintain offensive pressure despite the GH being loaded on their side and focus on your individual targets and not be concerned with which way the heal ultimately might go. Don’t hold back damage because of the GH, because whoever doesn’t get the heal is likely dead if you stay the course.
   
   

10. If you and your partner are meditating, call out a synced halberd hit attempt on whichever opposing player is closer to you as you come out of meditating. If you both hit, you could potentially have a player near death and then you both go into cycling your predetermined opponent's and now that team is in a panic situation.

Those are some tips that should help you, but per usual, it’s just practice that will create the most change. Feel free to DM me (extendedwheelbase) or Oug  (ougnation) to set up practice 2v2s for fun.

POV 2v2 Duel Session (Video)

I chose this footage of 2v2s because it has good examples of when to sneak a swap target spell, when to MH vs GH on partner, when to cycle vs. meditate, little mistakes on both sides etc. Also, it's very hard to find anyone who wants to do 2v2s, these are the first two players that asked to do some for fun in months.