Siege Placement & General Tactics Videos

watched them both, good for people semi familiar w/ wvw and want to improve

a lot of the defensive siege in the first video kind of implicitly suggests you will have enough people to man all the siege as well, which just isnt the case for us. (on a related note, while very little of it is actually built in the video... too often the same is true). there are 2 good ballista spots i know he missed: the bridge edge over the southwest gate of garrison has a great view of the gate and is safe except from omega golems, and the corner of the supply depot nearest bay's water gate to hit catas on the tiny ledge in the water (not exactly a .. well known... tactic in our matches)

often when unable to amount significant resistance to a zerg sweeping through, gates with good ballista defense are a target at some point, and its quite easy to solo build a ballista in time to stall them for at least 5 minutes if you can reasonably predict their movements around the map. you cant kill them, but you can delay them a lot (or cost them their golems...), just as important to eating away at morale as a wipe.

Some nice info from Reddit World v World Strategy

Strategy:

Supply is everything.

• Supply determines who controls the siege battle (of which objective upgrades are an extension) and he who controls siege controls the map.
  
  Many people will assume numbers are everything in WvW but see how many zergs are successful when every type of siege is in play (check below video to see a raid wiped out instantly by six arrow carts).
  
  
• Never ever leave supply in an objective you are about to lose, as it transfers to the attacker. You should use it to upgrade, build defensive siege (both stationary and recipe), or if all else fails just to repair the wall/door being attacked to delay defeat.
  The more supply you leave for your assailant to capture, the more deadly they're going to be in their next attack.
  
  
• Never commit to an attack on a defended position without holding supply. In the case of larger objectives, make sure clear supply lines are available - you'll need to send small groups back to recollect as they use their supply. This is the way Dreaming Bay was won, we had supply lines and the defenders didn't.
  
  
  

Don't mass up, split forces

• It may be fun for a while to have your entire guild/alliance all in a giant ball rolling over every objective you encounter but when you face someone who's splitting forces you'll be losing the war even if you win all your battles.
  
  
• You want to optimize your attacks: use the number of people and supply that is exactly necessary to win. Anything extra should be sent to another objective / map. Don't forget to account for taking/holding supply lines and stopping reinforcements.
  

Play smart, know the game systems and take advantage of them

• Right now, there isn't a notification system when an objective is attacked, cross map. But assuming there will be one, have a handful of people who's job it is to send distraction signals by attacking objectives far from your actual target
  
  
• Enemies cannot way point to an objective under attack. Know exactly what is required to put something under attack and allocate resources to doing so on any objectives near your target. Make life hard for reinforcing defenders. 
  
  
• Know the details of the 'mini-dungeon' in the center map. This will be a very interesting aspect of that map and it should be carefully considered how players will use it in order to advance your own interests.

Tactics:

• The most valuable thing you can do in WvW as an individual is related to supply: Carry supply, generate supply (by taking camps), defend supply, defend siege, kill siege, kill supply carriers.
  
  
• Know how to hide. There will be many groups who just roll around from objective to objective ignoring anything that happens after they leave (primarily because they're focused on getting karma/exp not winning). If you see a zerg coming to a supply camp, let them take it while you wait behind a building with your party, then come out when they're gone. They'll get absolutely no benefit from it in the war.
  
  
• Carefully consider whether you should way point after dying. Remember, everyone can res, and everyone in your area gets a map marker showing your position. If your enemy is smart, they'll be cutting off your most desirable way points, and you don't want to do a long run. Especially in a situation where your supply lines are cut and you had some when you died, your allies will want to res you since it's unlikely you'll be able to get back in to the battle from outside.
  
  
• There are many abilities which are super effective in WvW. Many professions have mass resurrects, clipping areas (Guardian), and push/launches. While these are "nice" in PvE/PvP, they're incredible in WvW. There are many cliffs in WvW, cherish your launch skills. Dead allies at the bottom of a cliff can be much more costly to res.
  
  
• Arrow-carts can make incredible kill zones but don't think it's impossible to pass. Izzy Cartwright employed 6+ arrow carts to stop us from entering the Keep Lord room after we took the inner door on Borderlands West during BWE1, but we were able to get by using a mesmer to blink by then set up a portal. Here's the vid (first, us getting wiped then coming out on top). Hopefully this counter to arrow carts remains in release: folks manning arrow-carts will have to learn to watch very carefully for that exit portal.
  
  
• Don't bang on doors. Outside of very specific instances where it's more efficient to not use siege, it's always better to allocate extra players to gathering supply or stopping reinforcements. A rough estimate I made is for one flame ram hit it's about the same as 10 people attacking for 5 sec (cooldown of ram). That means if you have 2 rams going, for an investment of 10 more seconds of ram time (2 hits) you can move 40 people off of the door to do other things.
  
  
• On the same note, don't ignore defenders coming in. If 3 players carrying supply get in, that could mean an arrow cart you have to deal with. If 10 get in, that could mean a trebuchet out of reach that might stop your assault altogether.
  
  
• It might be obvious by now, but if not: don't attack a keep without first taking and holding the camps that feed it. If it's well defended, it will be crucial to drain its supply to zero asap.

Or, you could consider the one I am updating quite often.
www.fist-of-the-empire.com/GW2-WvW-Map.html#qcbl

From DevonCarver @ GW2 Forums

Discusion about the siege timer