Aim for the head mate

To the OP. I have been playing shooters for year starting with COD and Destiny is by far the worst pvp I have ever played. It is so bad it really needs to be reworked or disabled. So just do it for marks to upgrade gear. What makes it bad? The amount of one shot specials, the impact of heavy weapons, and general overall gararbage you have to endure. It is no skill pvp designed to create a wow factor with little kiddies who have not hit puberty. I don't mind dieing or losing to a skilled player. Typically, when I die in Destiny pvp it is "that was so stupid". Skill is not shooting someone with that ridiculous burning gun special or lobbying a target seeking missile. I would suggest playing Destiny for what you enjoy but pvp is not where this game shines. In fact, pvp is so bad in this game I would not suggest using the Destiny pvp experience as what all games are like in the genre. There are several skill based pvp games on the market and they are alot of fun. Destiny is a great game but pvp is utterly and completely horrible. So bad I believe they should disable it. So don't let something this bad (destiny pvp) change your outlook on an entire type of gaming. Shooters can be wonderful fun. I know skill less pvp sucks and it is a shame Destiny is so bad.

I had never played any PvP content -- NONE -- until Friday night. After that experience, I may never again. I feel like the author of the OP, but at least he'd played before. Worse yet, because of Bungie's f***-ed up decision to make Crucible content the currency of post-level 20 upgrading, the game essentially forces someone like me, a pure N00b at this feature, to have to play (against my will) and screw five other well-meaning and invested teamates by my sure incompency at a format with which I am utterly uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Incredibly, I played six PvP matches yesterday, hoping no one from my prior experiences would see my name on their team again, and to my shock my team won 3 of the matches DESPITE me. I wish there was a "rookie section" or something that permitted someone as bad and new to PvP as me to play and do minimal harm to my teamates. I want the Crucible currency, but it's absolutely no fun to simply wait to be cannon fodder. On the rare occasions when I killed someone, I think it was more luck than skill.

just an adaptability issue i had a huge learning curve coming from halo it takes time and frustration and lots of cussing and throwing of cats when they walk in front of your screen. but you will get better. (the layout of the maps doesnt help either. its all hallways and buildings with corners and ledges) only 2 open area maps

Are you using nothing but a shotgun and get really pissed when some -blam!-s super moves you.

How to be good at PvP? A really difficult question to answer... So the first thing you notice about Destiny is you have a tracker radar, this means you dont need to have the godlike reactions of those pesky 15-16 year olds. You can still win by outsmarting them, and hell, if we can't outsmart a 15 year old, we may as well give up! Firstly, learn the maps, the more you know the maps the better you will do. Learn where people spawn, this can easily be done by taking note of where you spawn and in what situation, then just apply it to the other team when you find yourself in a reverse situation. Learn where people like to go, I call these "high traffic" routes. Usually in the middle of the map, or a path between flag A and flag B. This is where lots of people will usually go, so you expect people to be there. Learn how people think, this is definately the hardest process as everyone plays different. However, once you get a lot of experience with this, you can quite easily predict what people are going to do. For example, someone randomly "disappears" from your tracker radar, it means they know you're coming and are sat around the corner with a shotgun or a fusion rifle waiting to one-shot you... Go a different way, use your super, grenade them, try to juke them out, anything but run in there like a clueless baffoon! Next up, learn to know which weapons are best for which situation, if you find yourself with a bad weapon for the situation, you will probably lose the gunfight, for example, you don't want to have a shotgun in hand if there's a possibility you might see someone at range in the next few seconds. You also need to recognise when a situation is good or bad to go for a melee. Melee hits do half HP and so they're very valuable, but that doesn't mean you should take 15 head shots trying to get it. This might all sound very obvious, but it actually ties into knowing the maps as well as keeping calm during an encounter. Lastly, of course, you will need what we refer to as "GunSkill". This is somewhat different from reactions, as you shouldn't need reactions with the tracker radar, you can be ready for a gun fight a few seconds in advance. The best thing about Destiny PvP is the person with the better gunskill with more than likely win an equal gunfight. If you've mastered all the above steps, you will find yourself in a lot more equal gunfights, and that's where gunskill comes in. Aim for the head, but don't start missing because of it. Yes you get double damage (or thereabouts) for hitting in the head, but you also get 0 damage if you start missing and throwing bullets past their shoulders. If you're not getting those yellow numbers, bring your aim down a little and make sure you at least hit them - this makes people start to panic, and someone who is panicing is less likely to be calmly shooting you in the head! You also might want to try and encorperate jumps, ducks, and straffing into your gunfights, the more you move left and right, the harder you are to hit, and then adding up and down movement instantly makes it 10x harder for them to hit you, especially if they're aiming for headshots. All in all it comes down to experience. Anyone can be good at FPS PvP, you just need experience on your side. I find that experience definately beats reactions in Destiny.

Dunno if I'm 'good' for your standards so feel free to check my stats before you judge whether my advice is good. Advice 1: Mastery of your super and stuff is good but the biggest thing about Destiny is you need to be able to predict the enemies. This starts of easier in Control because there are 3 key objectives that you and your enemies fight over. Clash gets harder and you have to factor in where you spawn, the map spawns, etc. If you can predict enemy movement, you can then judge through where they are how they might fight. Close quarters? Watch for the shotguns and fusion rifles. Mid ranged? They have line of sight? AR's, pulse rifles. Be careful. Ranged? Be prepared for snipers. And then, once you can predict the enemy, you will be able to analyse how the fight will be depending on YOU. If they're gonna be using a shotgun, maybe you can be there first. If they're sniping, avoid the lines of sight or shoot back. They're coming out of a small entrance? Jump above them with a shotgun and shoot then melee. I've gotten more than enough kills from pre-firing while ADS because I know full well that within the next second the enemy is gonna pass the corner (An overkill I got with a single rocket that I shot across the Bastion gap to a spot with no enemies in sight when i fired is a great example or timing things). Using your radar is basically REQUIRED to do good. Advice 2: You MUST be good at the basic game mechanics. 3D movement in Destiny is heavy; mastery of your jumps will be awesome since it increases where you can shoot from by a massive percentage. You can use shotguns, fusion rifles, rockets, LMG's but if you aren't good with them, what good is using them? Gunplay is also heavily important. The time to kill is fast, but it isn't near-instant. If you can juke the enemy better than they can, if you can hold your sights on their body - and especially their head - more consistently than they can, you WILL prevail. A mix of the two will make you play a whole lot better if you improve in these factors. tl;dr - start killing them before they know you're there, and kill people better than they can kill you If you want more specific tips or tricks feel free to reply of PM.

What I practice in are control matches. Where you can defend and brush up on skills at the same time. Work on aim and feel out the weapons. You aren't too detrimental to your team if you play with some awareness.