Any tips for a new-ish Doomer?

[ViviDotBee]

Hey there, I'm Vivi. I'm someone who has always liked Doom, especially the classic games. I would spend hours and hours messing with gameplay mods in GZDoom and watching decino but it wasn't until last year till I beat Doom 1 in PRBoom+ and I started Doom 2 this year. I beat D1 on UV but decided to do D2 on HMP since I just wanted to have fun but I'm currently stuck on Gotcha! dying a lot as well as getting handed to in previous maps. I was wondering since this forum is probably full of many Doom veterans if you would have any tips to help me improve. I'm hoping to get good enough to tackle the expansions and map packs. Maybe get into speedrunning?
I know about infighting and circle strafeing being my best friend, I use them but I'm still having a tough time. Whenever I have to pistol start when I die is when things get hard, having all the weapons makes it easy. Anyways, thanks for any tips or help you can supply and thanks for reading :3

[ViviDotBee]

Oh yeah I also forgot to mention, if you have any recommend beginner maps or wads for me to try after I am done with D2 I would love to hear them!!

[DSC]

12 minutes ago, ViviDotBee said:

Oh yeah I also forgot to mention, if you have any recommend beginner maps or wads for me to try after I am done with D2 I would love to hear them!!

There have been many threads here over the years asking the same question. Try searching for them in the search bar and see what is recommended there! For example, I found this one from 2022:

 

[ViviDotBee]

4 minutes ago, DSC said:

There have been many threads here over the years asking the same question. Try searching for them in the search bar and see what is recommended there! For example, I found this one from 2022:

 

Oh sorry, I didn't suspect a forum would have a search bar and didn't notice it haha. Thanks for the help!!

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

3 hours ago, ViviDotBee said:

Oh sorry, I didn't suspect a forum would have a search bar and didn't notice it haha. Thanks for the help!!

Just as a heads-up, basically every forum has a search feature. Not saying that to be sarcastic, I know forums aren't popular these days.

[ptrdoom]

I've been using this post and played through the wads mentioned, I ended up reaching moonblood so far.

Edited January 22, 2024 by ptrdoom

[Li'l devil]

3 hours ago, ViviDotBee said:

I beat D1 on UV but decided to do D2 on HMP since I just wanted to have fun but I'm currently stuck on Gotcha! dying a lot as well as getting handed to in previous maps.

Play on HNTR then. As for pistol restarting, if you don't like it, just save at the start of every level and load if you die.

[faceplant641]

6 hours ago, ViviDotBee said:

I know about infighting and circle strafeing being my best friend, I use them but I'm still having a tough time. Whenever I have to pistol start when I die is when things get hard, having all the weapons makes it easy. Anyways, thanks for any tips or help you can supply and thanks for reading :3

 

Cool thing about Doom is how versatile it is with approaches to playing it.  Everyone's got their own way of playing wads.  Personally, I like to play continuously and pop the Save key the moment a new level starts.  It's definitely makes for an easier time than the hardcore pistol-starters have, but especially in modern wads that do the episodic thing with occasional forced death exits, it feels right to me.  Also in Skillsaw wads when there's always a couple medikits right next to the exit.