1) Keeping your teammates alive with Tree of Life and Resurrect is critical if you want to win, but you should never map these abilities to the shoulder buttons. Instead, simply perform a quick cast (highlight the ability in the menu and pull the right trigger) when necessary. Why? Because you should never use either of these abilities during a firefight. You’ll be dead by the time your Tree grows, and raising a teammate just so he can get cut down or bleed out doesn’t help anyone.

2) Most people’s natural inclination will be to find a combination of weapons and abilities that works and stick with it. While this isn’t a bad idea, your team needs you to experiment, especially if changing your approach will counteract the other team’s strategy. Think of it as an advanced version of rock-paper-scissors: each specific combination of characters, magic, tech, and weapons is powerful against (and vulnerable to) certain other combinations.

3) If you find yourself under attack while running with the Artifact, don’t forget that you can drop it and fight with a more powerful weapon. Though this may seem obvious, it’s more important to stay alive than it is to hang onto the Artifact. You can always go back and get it, but only if you live through the encounter.