Minecraft PvP is a pain to get good at. I’m sure some of us who have been playing for such a long time can agree with this. Countless hours spent just trial and error-ing, getting destroyed in 1v1s against those that are way better than us… then suddenly, Minecraft just went Imma do what’s called a pro gamer move and completely changed the combat system- you know, to give those who just started a chance.
All that said, there are only two routes you can choose- the Guess I’ll die route and don’t try to master the new PvP techniques, and stick to a Minecraft version that is almost 6 years old, or the no u route and completely master 1.9+ PvP and go back to your old life of destroying the dreams of little children who just downloaded the game yesterday.
Well, if you’re reading this I presume that you chose the second route so here we go:
Fighterzx_’s very unprofessional guide to getting better at 1.9+ PvP
Now I know what you’re thinking- Why would I want to listen to this measly Stone Rank when there are way better people to listen to? Like an Obsidian rank or a Moderator’s post? Well, you’re not wrong when you say that I’m not the best at 1.9+ PvP, but I’ve been destroyed so many times in Solo Skywars that I think I qualify to share some of my experiences and what I’ve learnt from them *pepe sad*
So let’s get started shall we?
1. The Attack Cooldown
Notice how when you spam-click that 7-damage diamond sword at an unarmored zombie it doesn’t insta-kill it anymore? Well, that’s because 1.9 introduced something known as the attack-cooldown, the thing that made everyone go
The attack-cooldown does exactly what it sounds like it does. Your weapons no longer swing at Mach-3 speeds. You now need to wait before your weapon, tool or even your fist comes up again before you can strike again. If you swing before it comes up, your weapon makes a sound like a constipated cat farting and does almost no damage to your opponent.
Now how do you adapt to it? First would be to enable the ‘attack-indicator’ setting, which can be found in the default Minecraft settings. The 2 options available are hotbar and crosshair. Now what’s the difference?
The hotbar option shows a little icon next to your hotbar that looks like the potion icon of the ‘Strength’ effect, which depletes and fills up whenever you click. When the icon is fully charged up, it means the cooldown is over and you can swing again for full damage. This option is recommended to those who are completely new to Minecraft 1.9+ PvP as the indicator is large and obvious, making it easy for beginners to adapt to the new style of combat after some time of practice through looking at that little icon every time they swing.
The crosshair option shows a small, light-gray bar under your crosshair, which shows up whenever you swing or direct your crosshair at an entity. Like the hotbar option, this bar depletes and fills up whenever you click. This indicator is more preferable for those who have started feeling comfortable with the 1.9+ combat cooldown and start finding the large icon next to their hotbar annoying. This option is more comfortable as it is compact and easily seen during combat, serving as a sort of ‘insurance’ that the player’s next attack will deal full-damage or half-damage, which I will explain a bit later.
Here are a few things you should know about the attack cooldown:
2. Strafing
I’ll admit it- I used to have a lot of trouble strafing myself. It is difficult to navigate your fingers properly, in the correct fashion, to successfully perfect a maneuver that can provide maximum damage while helping me dodge my opponent’s attacks. It has become ever the more important in 1.9+ PvP, considering you can no longer make your opponent defy the laws of gravity by making them float in mid air as you click them into oblivion.
In short, strafing consists of tapping your other movement keys (usually W,A,S,D. If you use something else… I don’t know what to say) while fighting, making your character harder to hit whilst you fight. There are many types of strafing. I will go over some of them one-by-one
Disclaimer: I don’t know if these names are accurate. I just named them based on what I see myself and what I deduced from them.
i. Straight-lining
ii. Shuffle-strafing
iii. A/D strafing
iv. Circle strafing
v. Crit-jumping
vi. S-Tapping
Additionally, yelling ‘Starburst Stream’ before you begin your combo helps with your confidence.
Any Sword Art Online weebs here? I’ve seen the Knight of Bloodoath clan on Cubecraft so you aren’t fooling me, bois.
Also name your sword- I name mine Chunchunmaru every game ‘cuz I choose the blacksmith kit. It helps when you have an urge to see that ridiculous name show up in the kill-feed every time. It still kills me every time when I see “Player was killed by Fighterzx_ using Chunchunmaru”
3. Hunger management
I don’t need to say much here, just this- Your doctor is lying to you. Apples won’t save your life in Solo Skywars. As healing in versions on Minecraft after 1.9 is dependent on saturation, stop eating foods with low saturation. Steak and Pumpkin Pie are the best foods available in Skywars, followed by bread and cooked fish. Don’t eat apples or cake unless you really have to. Those foods have low saturation and will barely heal you when you eat them.
Of course, golden apples are low key broken in 1.9+ PvP. If your hunger is down but above 8 full points, the saturation and regeneration combined from the gapple will pretty much fully heal you.
4. Utility Items
If you used to watch Professional UHC YouTubers back in the day you would know how important the Fishing Rod was to them. Those without one pretty much perishes instantly as they find themselves unable to hit such a goated fisherman. 1.9+ PvP does have a variety of useful utility items too, with its use being more significant than before since we now have that split second between attacks to use one without disrupting our attack sequence. Here I will go through some of these utilities and how to use them:
i. Flint and Steel
Fire-tick is annoying and deals damage through armor. You never know, that half a heart of extra damage might save your life. Fire damage also disrupts your opponent’s movements, making it harder for them to jump as the tick of damage will stall them midair. This makes an opponent who is on fire easier to catch up to, as well as breaking their combos when they are fighting. Those who do not use a low-fire texture pack will also suffer, as the fire animation will take up half their screen and make it harder for them to see and attack back. Currently there are little Skywars maps that make it possible to obtain a Flint and Steel, but the Pyromaniac kit gives a player one as well as other useful items.
ii. Lava Buckets
The upgraded version of the Flint and Steel and the bane of a lot of players’ existence. Personally I have an intense love for lava buckets, so much that I pretty much never go into a fight without at least one in my hotbar on the fourth slot, easily accessible with a click of my side mouse button which I have bound to it. Lava is useful for completely stopping an opponent’s movement, making them take constant fire damage as they swim through the melted cheese while you click them into oblivion. Lava can turn the tide of an otherwise unwinnable battle, as you can catch your opponent in it and back off, heal, before jumping back into a fight at full health while your opponent is on half or lower health. Lava buckets are readily available in Skywars chests in Normal and Overpowered mode.
iii. Snowballs/Eggs
See a player slow-bridging towards mid? Throw some of those snowballs or eggs and you get yourself a free kill. These throwables deal knockback but no damage, but throwing a large number of them at an overgeared opponent who is trying to chase you down will cause them to stumble, gaining you valuable distance to heal or continue looting and potentially getting a piece of gear or a weapon to give you an edge against them.
iv. Water Buckets
They do say that water is essential for all life, and in Solo Skywars maps like Candy which has a middle island that is a 20+ block drop that fact is definitely proven true. Being able to use a water bucket is an essential skill to learn, as this can negate all forms of damage- be it fall damage or fire-damage. I personally always make sure I have one at hand as well, as it can negate fall damage, extinguish myself if I get set on fire and potentially stall a player who is chasing me by placing one under me as I sprint-jump away, hoping they will be caught in it and be significantly slowed down.
v. Speed potions
These are the bane of my existence. Those who know how to use these effectively can strafe at Mach-3 speeds, zooming around you in circles and swinging over and over again, becoming almost impossible to hit. These are unobtainable in normal maps, but some maps such as Alien in Team Skywars and Canyon in Solo Skywars you will be able to find one in the brewing stand at mid. They are also obtainable through the Scout kit, which gives you 3- Use them wisely!
vi. Shields
Shields are a new item introduced in 1.9- but they are mostly useless and using one usually gets you killed. Here’s a fact most people are unaware about- The shield does not negate all melee damage, only 66% of it. Holding up a shield while getting absolutely pummeled with sword strikes will not keep you alive. Using one in combat is not recommended, as they are bulky and can cover a large portion of your screen. However, using one as you are getting rained with arrows can be useful, as they completely negate projectile damage.
And that’s it for my personal PvP guide! I was inspired to do this after reading Power Ranger's post back in 2016 and mainly due to the severe lack of 1.9+ PvP guides available online. I do recommend you check out Power Ranger’s guide, and do tell me if you think I should add-on anything else in here!
THANKS FOR READING!
All that said, there are only two routes you can choose- the Guess I’ll die route and don’t try to master the new PvP techniques, and stick to a Minecraft version that is almost 6 years old, or the no u route and completely master 1.9+ PvP and go back to your old life of destroying the dreams of little children who just downloaded the game yesterday.
Well, if you’re reading this I presume that you chose the second route so here we go:
Fighterzx_’s very unprofessional guide to getting better at 1.9+ PvP
Now I know what you’re thinking- Why would I want to listen to this measly Stone Rank when there are way better people to listen to? Like an Obsidian rank or a Moderator’s post? Well, you’re not wrong when you say that I’m not the best at 1.9+ PvP, but I’ve been destroyed so many times in Solo Skywars that I think I qualify to share some of my experiences and what I’ve learnt from them *pepe sad*
So let’s get started shall we?
1. The Attack Cooldown
Notice how when you spam-click that 7-damage diamond sword at an unarmored zombie it doesn’t insta-kill it anymore? Well, that’s because 1.9 introduced something known as the attack-cooldown, the thing that made everyone go
The attack-cooldown does exactly what it sounds like it does. Your weapons no longer swing at Mach-3 speeds. You now need to wait before your weapon, tool or even your fist comes up again before you can strike again. If you swing before it comes up, your weapon makes a sound like a constipated cat farting and does almost no damage to your opponent.
Now how do you adapt to it? First would be to enable the ‘attack-indicator’ setting, which can be found in the default Minecraft settings. The 2 options available are hotbar and crosshair. Now what’s the difference?
The hotbar option shows a little icon next to your hotbar that looks like the potion icon of the ‘Strength’ effect, which depletes and fills up whenever you click. When the icon is fully charged up, it means the cooldown is over and you can swing again for full damage. This option is recommended to those who are completely new to Minecraft 1.9+ PvP as the indicator is large and obvious, making it easy for beginners to adapt to the new style of combat after some time of practice through looking at that little icon every time they swing.
The crosshair option shows a small, light-gray bar under your crosshair, which shows up whenever you swing or direct your crosshair at an entity. Like the hotbar option, this bar depletes and fills up whenever you click. This indicator is more preferable for those who have started feeling comfortable with the 1.9+ combat cooldown and start finding the large icon next to their hotbar annoying. This option is more comfortable as it is compact and easily seen during combat, serving as a sort of ‘insurance’ that the player’s next attack will deal full-damage or half-damage, which I will explain a bit later.
Here are a few things you should know about the attack cooldown:
- The sound your attack makes can also be an indicator of how much damage your swing is doing. There are 4 different sounds your attack can make- Weak hit, Normal hit, Knockback hit and Critical hit. As of version 1.16 of Minecraft, enabling Sound Subtitles in your settings can show you what type of attack you are doing every time you swing at an entity. If you are unsure whether you have the timings down correctly you can hop on the newer versions and try it out for yourself, paying close attention to the text shown in the subtitles to show if your attacks are correctly timed.
- Knockback is dependent on cooldown. This effect is more obvious when using a tool enchanted with Knockback. Spam-clicking an opponent will no longer send them flying off into orbit- You will now need to pay attention to timing. This is a fact a lot of people have begun forgetting. I’ve seen it countless times in Solo-Skywars, where a player at the edge completely recovers from the otherwise-fatal position just because their opponent began spam-clicking in hopes of knocking them into the void. I will explain how you can knock your opponents off with ease later.
- Critical hits require your cooldown to be full. Critical hits do still exist in 1.9+ PvP, the only exception is that attack cooldown plays a major role in it too. This makes critical hits a bit harder to time and re-master. As you all should know by now, achieving a critical hit deals about 50% more damage in addition to your base-attack, but requires you to be falling while dealing the hit.
2. Strafing
I’ll admit it- I used to have a lot of trouble strafing myself. It is difficult to navigate your fingers properly, in the correct fashion, to successfully perfect a maneuver that can provide maximum damage while helping me dodge my opponent’s attacks. It has become ever the more important in 1.9+ PvP, considering you can no longer make your opponent defy the laws of gravity by making them float in mid air as you click them into oblivion.
In short, strafing consists of tapping your other movement keys (usually W,A,S,D. If you use something else… I don’t know what to say) while fighting, making your character harder to hit whilst you fight. There are many types of strafing. I will go over some of them one-by-one
Disclaimer: I don’t know if these names are accurate. I just named them based on what I see myself and what I deduced from them.
i. Straight-lining
- A PvP style focused completely on offense. Holding down W and your sprint key (default is set as Ctrl but I advise you change it) and hitting your opponent periodically based on your attack cooldown. This is a PvP technique commonly only seen in those who have just begun playing, as the style is so completely predictable that it is easy to dodge.
ii. Shuffle-strafing
- A simple and easily-mastered method of PvP. This technique consists of tapping all 4 movement keys as you hit, making your character move in a small wobbly circle on the spot as you hit your opponent. This style is not common, as it is easily mastered and predictable, making you easy to hit when your opponent manages to get close. So far I’ve only seen 2 or 3 players do this during my 3 years of Cubecraft Skywars experience, all which even an average player like me is able to defeat.
iii. A/D strafing
- Exactly as it sounds. Holding A as you hit your opponent once, then switching to D right when you land your hit, making you move left and right as you land blow-after-blow on your opponent. This PvP style was all the rage back when 1.9+ PvP first got introduced, as it was simple yet effective against your average player.
iv. Circle strafing
- A PvP style that is a perfect blend of movement and aim. This process consists of the player holding down the W and A/D key and moving your mouse while hitting the opponent periodically, making them hard to track and keeping the opponent in the center of an oddly-shaped circle. This can be quite effective, as the ones stuck in the circle will find it difficult hitting the player who initiated the combo if their aim is not at least decent.
v. Crit-jumping
- An annoying and truly frightening PvP style. Consisting on jumping and landing full-blown, hard-hitting critical hits on your opponent, this style is strong and difficult to master as it requires insane aim and timing. But once the PvP style is mastered, you will find it difficult to break their chain of pain without getting at least a sizable chunk of your health depleted. A large number of players with a Cubecraft level of over 70 play in this style and it is truly frightening seeing a full team of them jumping at you like rabid bunnies, shaving off your health and your will to live like the Sizable Hare in Re:Zero.
vi. S-Tapping
- Finally, we have my personal favorite style of PvP. Emphasizing on the use of Knockback hits, this style is quite effective against your average Minecraft player. Sprint towards your opponent and hit them once, dealing a successful knockback hit and disrupting their movement, then swinging again while they are in mid air, dealing an additional chunk of damage. Hit your S key to step back a bit before restarting this ruthless combo again. This style is mostly dependent on timing and requires little aim, though moving periodically and changing directions before you hit again helps with making yor movements more unpredictable.
Additionally, yelling ‘Starburst Stream’ before you begin your combo helps with your confidence.
Any Sword Art Online weebs here? I’ve seen the Knight of Bloodoath clan on Cubecraft so you aren’t fooling me, bois.
Also name your sword- I name mine Chunchunmaru every game ‘cuz I choose the blacksmith kit. It helps when you have an urge to see that ridiculous name show up in the kill-feed every time. It still kills me every time when I see “Player was killed by Fighterzx_ using Chunchunmaru”
3. Hunger management
I don’t need to say much here, just this- Your doctor is lying to you. Apples won’t save your life in Solo Skywars. As healing in versions on Minecraft after 1.9 is dependent on saturation, stop eating foods with low saturation. Steak and Pumpkin Pie are the best foods available in Skywars, followed by bread and cooked fish. Don’t eat apples or cake unless you really have to. Those foods have low saturation and will barely heal you when you eat them.
Of course, golden apples are low key broken in 1.9+ PvP. If your hunger is down but above 8 full points, the saturation and regeneration combined from the gapple will pretty much fully heal you.
4. Utility Items
If you used to watch Professional UHC YouTubers back in the day you would know how important the Fishing Rod was to them. Those without one pretty much perishes instantly as they find themselves unable to hit such a goated fisherman. 1.9+ PvP does have a variety of useful utility items too, with its use being more significant than before since we now have that split second between attacks to use one without disrupting our attack sequence. Here I will go through some of these utilities and how to use them:
i. Flint and Steel
Fire-tick is annoying and deals damage through armor. You never know, that half a heart of extra damage might save your life. Fire damage also disrupts your opponent’s movements, making it harder for them to jump as the tick of damage will stall them midair. This makes an opponent who is on fire easier to catch up to, as well as breaking their combos when they are fighting. Those who do not use a low-fire texture pack will also suffer, as the fire animation will take up half their screen and make it harder for them to see and attack back. Currently there are little Skywars maps that make it possible to obtain a Flint and Steel, but the Pyromaniac kit gives a player one as well as other useful items.
ii. Lava Buckets
The upgraded version of the Flint and Steel and the bane of a lot of players’ existence. Personally I have an intense love for lava buckets, so much that I pretty much never go into a fight without at least one in my hotbar on the fourth slot, easily accessible with a click of my side mouse button which I have bound to it. Lava is useful for completely stopping an opponent’s movement, making them take constant fire damage as they swim through the melted cheese while you click them into oblivion. Lava can turn the tide of an otherwise unwinnable battle, as you can catch your opponent in it and back off, heal, before jumping back into a fight at full health while your opponent is on half or lower health. Lava buckets are readily available in Skywars chests in Normal and Overpowered mode.
iii. Snowballs/Eggs
See a player slow-bridging towards mid? Throw some of those snowballs or eggs and you get yourself a free kill. These throwables deal knockback but no damage, but throwing a large number of them at an overgeared opponent who is trying to chase you down will cause them to stumble, gaining you valuable distance to heal or continue looting and potentially getting a piece of gear or a weapon to give you an edge against them.
iv. Water Buckets
They do say that water is essential for all life, and in Solo Skywars maps like Candy which has a middle island that is a 20+ block drop that fact is definitely proven true. Being able to use a water bucket is an essential skill to learn, as this can negate all forms of damage- be it fall damage or fire-damage. I personally always make sure I have one at hand as well, as it can negate fall damage, extinguish myself if I get set on fire and potentially stall a player who is chasing me by placing one under me as I sprint-jump away, hoping they will be caught in it and be significantly slowed down.
v. Speed potions
These are the bane of my existence. Those who know how to use these effectively can strafe at Mach-3 speeds, zooming around you in circles and swinging over and over again, becoming almost impossible to hit. These are unobtainable in normal maps, but some maps such as Alien in Team Skywars and Canyon in Solo Skywars you will be able to find one in the brewing stand at mid. They are also obtainable through the Scout kit, which gives you 3- Use them wisely!
vi. Shields
Shields are a new item introduced in 1.9- but they are mostly useless and using one usually gets you killed. Here’s a fact most people are unaware about- The shield does not negate all melee damage, only 66% of it. Holding up a shield while getting absolutely pummeled with sword strikes will not keep you alive. Using one in combat is not recommended, as they are bulky and can cover a large portion of your screen. However, using one as you are getting rained with arrows can be useful, as they completely negate projectile damage.
And that’s it for my personal PvP guide! I was inspired to do this after reading Power Ranger's post back in 2016 and mainly due to the severe lack of 1.9+ PvP guides available online. I do recommend you check out Power Ranger’s guide, and do tell me if you think I should add-on anything else in here!
THANKS FOR READING!
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