WvW guide feedback requested

I wanted to post a WvW guide mainly for my guild who is starting to get into it more now, but anyone is free to use it.  I know Spurxx did one for beginners which is much appreciated, but I wanted to take that a step further in an attempt to bring new players up to an advanced level more quickly.

I would like some feedback from you folks (most of whom have been playing longer than myself!) on its accuracy and completeness, and if a lack of either I would greatly appreciate suggested revisions!

Here is what I have so far:




World vs World in GW2 can be either the most rewarding and exciting aspect of the game, or the most frustrating. Which of those it will be for you depends on how you approach it. Ferguson's crossing is unique in that we have a relatively low, if not the lowest, population of all servers, yet pound-for-pound we are among the most skilled. Fighting outnumbered battles week after week has hardened us and taught us how to make the most of what resources we have – a lesson that higher population servers have yet to learn, and that we can and do use against them.

For example this week I can't count how many times we have completely wiped zergs twice our size or bigger, whether it be strategic siege placement and baiting the enemy into a trap, or even head on in open battle by keeping buffs stacked, splitting up the enemy forces, and wiping chunks of them out at a time.

To me, there is nothing more fun (and rewarding in loot bags) in GW2 than completely annihilating huge arrogant groups of red names that think they can steamroll over us with sheer numbers.  Sometimes they can.... and maybe that's a good thing because it keeps them staying arrogant and careless.

WvW is also a fantastic way to level up and to get loot. You get all sorts of item and weapon drops as well as badges of honor that you can use to buy powerful exotic gear and get discounts on ascended trinkets. You can even get exotic and ascended gear drops from enemies. It's also a fantastic way to earn karma and to complete daily and monthly achievements, meet new people, and get recognition for your guild.

But that's enough intro, let's get to the info!


If you've played WvW much you can probably skip this part, but I suggest skimming it anyway for anything you may not have known. If you're new to WvW and want to just hop in and start playing, here is what you need to know to get started:

I.Follow a commander. Commanders know the game and what to do, they just need the bodies to help them achieve their goals. Find a blue tag on the map and follow them closely. Do NOT leave the group to chase down an enemy. All you're doing is splitting your forces, making yourselves more vulnerable, and you're actually DAMAGING your allies. Here's why – all AoE skills in the game have a 5-person cap except siege. This means if you're all in one spot, enemy skills will only hit 5 of you max. By leaving the group, you don't take your share of the damage, leaving them to die faster. Simply standing with the group taking your share of the damage is the most basic and fundamental way to help your team. When you become more experienced at reading the map and overall strategy, you can start helping in other ways such as scouting, upgrading our properties, taking camps, protecting dolyaks, etc. In the meantime, follow a commander, closely.

II.Download Teamspeak. It's quick and free. Once you install it, just click connect and in the server address type fcgw2.ts3dns.com – put your guild tag before your name. Example: mine is [EDGE]Angel. Teamspeak has multiple channels and allows you to listen to your commander giving orders since there is no way s/he can type them all out quickly enough for you. This will help you quickly learn what and WHY you are doing what you're doing. It will save your life many times. Your guild can also get a free Teamspeak channel, just message one of the admins.

III.Reconsider your build. Look at your traits, gear, and skills. If you have been doing a lot of PvE then most likely you have a lot of self-oriented traits and skills that can be swapped out for more team-beneficial ones. Also, condition removal and toughness are much more important in WvW than they are in PvE. Look at the types of gear available at the armor merchant by the waypoint when entering WvW. Those are the most common and effective stats. Exceptions can be made but if you're clueless, start there.

IV.Use food. Food is an easy and cheap way to get special buffs. You can use food items in combination with things like maintenance oil or sharpening stones, so try to use both. Get foods that compliment your build. For example if you're normally high on crit % but you lost some precision by going a toughness build for WvW, then use oil that gives you increased precision as a % of toughness and vitality. This alone can often give you back the precision you lost by adding toughness. Sharpening stones would do the same thing, but for power. Get the potent version when possible – they last twice as long but do not cost twice as much. Food also gives you bonus experience points per kill.  As a general rule, use food to make up for whatever your gear lacks in.

V.CC and AoE and siege – These are the most important battle-winning factors of all. CC means “crowd control” which means stunning, immobilizing, chilling, crippling, launching your enemies to keep them in or out of a certain position. AoE means “area of effect” spells that damage multiple people. Siege includes arrow carts, ballistas, catapults, rams, trebuchets, golems, and in structures cannons, oil, and mortars. Each has a specific purpose that it is VERY good at, when used correctly. One arrow cart can be worth dozens of soldiers when used effectively. One flame ram can take down a gate faster than a dozen soldiers as well, and so on. You can wipe a group of 50 with a group of 15 if you CC off groups of them and AoE that group til their dead, rinse and repeat. You can wipe 50 with a group of 10 if you force them into a choke point, CC them to keep them there, while people on siege rain holy hell down on their group. WvW is about controlling their movement and wiping them out chunk-by-chunk.

VI.Taking Supply - Please do not take supply out of keeps or towers unless instructed to.  That supply is necessary for defending and upgrading.  Take supply from supply camps only, until you have a better understanding of priorities of battle.  Exception:  if we capture an enemy keep or tower take ALL the supply so they don't get it when they reclaim it.

I'm going to consider this a wrap for the crash-course to get you started, and move on to some more in-depth information.

Once you've got the hang of the basics of WvW, it's time to start becoming more aware of the strategy of the game.

POINTS – this could go under beginner section, but it's necessity more relates to intermediate and above players. Each of the 3 servers has its own Borderlands with 3 keeps, 4 towers, and 6 camps. In the Eternal Battlegrounds each server has a keep, 4 towers, and only 2 camps, as well as a single castle in the middle called Stonemist Castle controlled by 1 server. At the top of your screen there is a timer counting down at all times. This is a “turn” and each time it hits zero, points are given to your server based on what camps, towers, keeps, or castle you control at that moment, and the next turn begins. Camps are worth 5 points per turn, towers worth 10, keep is 25, and Stonemist castle worth 35.

Now you probably knew that already, so here is a very general strategy to looking at the map and understanding what is the priority objective at any given time.

Priority A – Our Borderlands. Our borderlands are the easiest to protect and therefore more valuable than properties in EB. A defensible tower is more valuable than an undefensible tower. A tower that is supposed to be ours is more valuable than a tower that is not. IN GENERAL, we should not worry too much about taking enemy territory unless our Borderlands are secure. A camp or 3 will get flipped now and again which isn't really preventable with our small population, but when camps are getting flipped keep an eye out for swords on the towers. It may just be a small group flipping camps, or it may be a larger group flipping the camps to get supplies to siege our towers and/or keeps. If our towers or keeps have recently been captured and we had to take them back, it is at that time that protecting the camps and the dolyaks are extra-important to get supply to re-upgrade our structures (this is also true in EB). Once the keep or tower is upgraded and has supply then the supply camps become less important.

Priority B – our EB territories. Note that we only have 2 natural supply camps for 4 towers and a keep. This takes a long time to get full upgrades in our structures, so holding those supply camps is extremely important. The “increased supply deliveries” upgrade should always be obtained unless we expect it to be flipped again soon or unless we already have plenty of supply (rarely the case).  For example we are currently in the northern part of EB - so if we hold Anzalia's and Mendon's towers without swords, upgrade the camp.  Same with Pangloss if we hold Veloka's and Ogrewatch towers.  Once the camp is upgrade we should get the NPCs on our side (dredge tunnels in west or ogre camp in east).  ***this is an example if we are in northern position but the same concept applies anywhere***  If small groups have been flipping the camps repeatedly, we should also order the upgrades for more and stronger guards. Some people can flip camps by themselves, but an upgraded camp takes a group. If a larg zerg is flipping our camps, however, this upgrade is useless and actually a waste of resources.

When a camp gets flipped someone should check out who it was. If it was a solo or small group, wait for the R.I. to wear off, flip it back, upgrade it, and stand around and protect it awhile. It if was a large group or zerg, expect an assault on the nearest tower(s) and get ready to defend them.

In general this also defines the basic offensive strategy. First take the supply camps to A) deny them the supply to defend, and B) gain the supply to siege. Resource control is one of, if not the most important factors in victory, right up there with battle skills and tactics.

Our camps should be upgraded when there's not a major zerg in our areas. Next our towers close to spawn should be upgraded. Then a few AC's put in them. AC's are more important during defense than reinforced walls, however, an AC is just a waste of supply if they can break in before we get there to defend. As we get higher population and someday can have people camping the towers, then AC's may become a #1 priority over upgraded walls, depending on the location.  When our keep is upgraded with mortars, often the mortars can reach the gates of our towers and can single-handedly defend.  Several times just this week a zerg came to steal Veloka's from us, and I hopped on our north mortar and destroyed their rams and killed a few of them (apparently, since I got bags), and they ran away.  ONE PERSON preventing Veloka's from being taken.  That's the power of mortars - do not underestimate.  Also, they were trebbing our Hills keep in our BL late at night... I asked for a spotter, hopped on a mortar, and wiped those trebs out in no time at all.  Do not underestimate mortars.  Build that upgrade in the keep whenever possible.

Priority C – if our BL and EB areas look good, it's time to steal some points. Chances are if we are in good shape, our enemies are battling each other. See who is getting hit by checking where the map swords are and claimed territories, and start by flipping the camps farthest away from that battle. Hurry, grab supply, and quickly siege their tower while they are still in combat on the other side of the map. Do not expect to be able to defend enemy territories that you claim. Flip them to get the points, drain their supply, and move on. This becomes a game of speed. If you can flip their stuff faster than they can reclaim it, you're winning, and so while you aren't trying to “keep” it, it's still good to drain its supply and have 1-2 people on AC's in the tower to slow them down immensely in recapping while the rest of the zerg caps more stuff.  

Once they realize you are flipping multiple things they will probably meet you head-on soon. This is where advanced battle tactics come into play. Usually the advanced tactics will be dictated by your commander but sometimes there isn't one, or maybe you want to become a commander, so I will cover advanced tactics later on in the next section. Until then, let's go over a fundamental principle of battle:

COMBOS & BUFFS:

A stacked, buffed group is easily 3-5x stronger than a scattered, unbuffed group. Combos are an essential part of GW2 – most notably might (fire) and healing (water). Many skills in their description will say something like “combo field: fire” (or water, or air, or earth). Using that skill creates a temporary field, and any ally can use combo “finishers” within that field to create special combo effects. The most common is to “blast fire” before a battle. This means someone casts a spell that says “combo field: fire” and then everyone who is able use a skill that says “combo finisher: blast” - A “blast” finisher gives an AoE boon based on what kind of combo field it was. So if you “blast” a fire field, you give AoE stacks of might (power and cond dmg) to nearby allies. This goes hand in hand with Guardian's ability to “Empower” - with blasting fire and empower, a group can easily gain 25 stacks of might which is a HUUUUUGE damage boost. A skill that says “combo field: water” can be blasted to give AoE healing to nearby allies. Air gives swiftness, and earth gives retaliation, but these are not often used in battle. Elementalists are the best for combo fields. I am a Dagger/Dagger elementalist and I can create fire fields and blast fields with my earth skills, but I always carry a staff so I can also create water and air fields. If I'm the only elementalist in the group I'll just keep the staff on for that reason alone. Re-look at your class skills and see which ones are combo fields as well as combo finishers. Besides blasts, there are also leap and projectile and whirl finishers that have different effects but those are more or less individual than group-oriented effects.

MESMERS

Mesmers get some special attention because of their unique skill set. Mesmers can hide inside a claimed tower or keep, and if undetected, they can later portal their forces inside to very quickly take it back without having to siege the walls down. When taking a tower or keep, you should always check for mesmers before leaving. Conversely, if you are about to get a tower or keep taken from you, a mesmer can try to hide inside somewhere to later easily flip it back without sieging. Portals also have a very useful battle application – one is often called a “portal bomb” - it's a fantastic way to flank the enemy or take out enemy siege. The mesmer places a portal with the group, and the group stands still and waits while the mesmer runs to set the other portal either behind the enemy or on the siege, etc. When the portal opens, everyone hops through and mows down the enemy where they did not expect it. This can also be especially useful for getting past a choke point, or even more insidious, portaling unexpected siege golems onto a gate. Note: mesmers should use their Time Warp elite skill on siege golems when they're hitting the door to melt that door down much faster. Time Warp is arguably the best Elite skill for group play in GW2.

Watch the map!!!  Also, this website if you click on our "live map" will show you the timers on flipped territories (although I find them to be often delayed up to 1 minute)

mos.millenium.org/na/matchups

I could go on all day, but it's time for some:


Guild Wars 2 battles are a combination of fundamental battle tactics + game mechanics. A knowledge of both is required to be a successful commander. A seasoned real-life combat general won't get far without understanding game mechanics, nor will understanding game mechanics get you far without understand battle tactics.

Teamspeak: You cannot take full advantage of anything I'm about to go over if you don't have people listening to your commands. Some may be intimidated to come into TS so be gentle and welcoming and explain how and why to get in. If they refuse, at least let them know they need to stay close and tight with you at all times and not get distracted or chase as that is a common enemy tactic to split up the group to wipe us out.  Having a translator is a good idea when possible - someone who is in TS, uses a ranged weapon, and can type fast to relay messages to the group.  The translator may not even be in the battle, but rather standing idle somewhere map-chatting what you're saying.  

Basic battle strategy: We know that AoE's other than siege hit only 5 players max so keep the group stacked up. Before entering a fight vs an enemy group, stack up behind a corner when possible, check for enemy placement and if they have siege, decide where you can hit without being choked, flanked, or sieged out of your mind, have your group blast fire and/or empower, countdown, and head in, leading your group. As you approach the group have everyone use stability. If the group is smaller than you just push through them, CC their escape, and wipe them. Otherwise, push right into them and cut a portion of their group off then mow that group down asap then stack back up. This usually means pushing straight into the center of their group, then pushing left, right, or back. If your group has stability and lots of might and you picked a smart location not to be flanked or heavily sieged, you should have no trouble wiping out chunks of their numbers. Once you push in and out and blast a water field to heal, then rinse and repeat. If your group gets caught off guard or flanked before you were ready for a battle, RUN to a nearby hill or corner or choke point where you can stack up and regroup.

Winning in zerg vs zerg comes down to staying out of heavy siege, avoiding getting flanked, and then having lots of might and stability, splitting and CC'ing their forces, and mowing down chunk by chunk until there's nothing left but dead bodies.

Did I mention Teamspeak yet? It's extremely difficult to lead a less-than-seasoned group effectively without them being in teamspeak to hear your commands in real-time. As the commander, you probably want to take push-to-talk off so you can more effectively give commands during battle. Use a noisegate if possible to eliminate the sounds of typing and other background noise from sneaking through.

Commander Etiquette

Do not get mad at someone who is clearly trying. Ignore someone who is being negative. Report someone who is trolling (i.e. building lots of golems just to waste our supply - after you've nicely asked them to stop and they continued of course).

Be humble. Do not claim victory as yours but praise your followers for their efforts. Do not blame your followers for defeat but apologize to them for your mistakes. If you break these rules, you will quickly have no one to follow your tag and you basically spent 100g on a useless icon.

Always look closely at the map. Do not get greedy and take something just for fun while leaving our BL and EB areas unprotected. Example: Do not take our entire zerg and spend an hour sieging an enemy keep in their BL, while we meanwhile lose every camp and tower in EB.

Coordinate with other commanders. If there is another commander tag up in the map, make sure it is necessary and we have the numbers for 2 commanders with 2 objectives. If we do, coordinate those objectives with the other commander(s). If we do not, one should drop his/her tag to create a cohesive group. If another commander makes mistakes, do not tell them in map chat, whisper them privately about it or talk in TS about it politely and constructively. They did not make a mistake on purpose and you were not always so wise.

Promote WvW and Teamspeak. Spam it, live it, reward it. If you have a tag then you must enjoy teaching and leading players, so get more of them!

If you don't like being a leader, don't get a tag. A tag is not something to show off how much gold you have. If you want to do that, get a legendary weapon or awesome skins or something, but a commander tag is for those who enjoy leading and a good leader, in my humble but educated opinion, has the qualities I am describing.