Guild Wars 2

I currently play on NA servers and have played from tier 1 to 4. It’s starting to get stale and I’ve been told that EU is a bit ahead of NA in terms of meta and “skill”. I would like to go on a EU tour, so my question is which servers offer a thriving GvG scene and open field fights? (I’m not a PPT player nor will I play NA timezone so forget about recruiting for that purpose).

I think Aurora glade has the best gvg groups in the EU. They have many guilds that I would call very good. But the problem could be that most of them are EU based and do not gvg in your prime time?

Great gvg guilds are all over EU. What you should do is forget about a server, get the guilds names all over, and apply on their sites. Then choose a server depending on your guild preference !

Any of the TOP 17 servers from Visunah Square to Miller’s sound has some great gvg guilds. If you want a guild oriented server you should probably avoid:
Desolation (my server)
Jade Sea (French)
Vizunah Square (French)

These are the most pug / militia oriented servers.

But I think you wrongly attribute skill with just gvg or guilds. Pickup groups lead by a great commander can use solid tactics: use chained portals and veils, double dodging, killing enemy tail and flanks, do faint attacks, use traps, stack for buffs, wait patiently to lure in the enemy into the combat area where we choose them to be. All it needs is server wide TS and discipline.

For example, despite our server Desolation is mostly just PuGs (because almost all WvWvW oriented guilds have left), we can still do pretty well considering our current very low numbers and have our PuGs win against enemy guild groups, because we have some amazing PuG commanders. But it all about numbers. Last night, which was reset, we had no queues. Well, at some point there was a 1-5 minute queue to EB, but in general no queue to EB. Almost all the people in pve, you cannot expect miracles. We are of course #1 in pve in EU.

Thank you for you input so far. I should have been more clear on what I am looking for as well as offer some details about myself.

I currently play NA primetime, however, with certain changes to my schedule I will be playing EU prime 3-4 times a week instead of NA. My knowledge of EU guilds is limited hence I’ve come to ask for your input. Some guilds I can name are EXG, GD, IRON, RG, but the server is also an important factor in my decision making process. Deniara, as you say, skill does not revolve entirely around GvGs and Guilds. The server I am on now has a good share of commanders capable of taking PuGs and delivering the performance of an organized guild, we have 3 of those in my current guild.

The reason the server is also important besides the GvG guilds is that I don’t like to be entirely dependent on a guild to get my share of WvW. Where I am right now, we have little EU presence and lack commanders in this timezone to get a decent group going. By this very token, I will find myself playing NA whether I want to or not some nights but I don’t want to be in a situation where I’m one of the few people online and the only thing to do is PvDoor.

So I suppose creating a priority list is better.

1. GvG scene/Server with combat oriented guilds and PuGs
2. Server emphasizes open field combat during EU prime
3. Widely used community TeamSpeak or whatever VoIP
4. Optional: In an ideal world, NA also has open field battles and is not a game of night capping

PS: My stay will not be permanent, which is why I have not gone to guild leaders. I seek a stronger meta to play in, new and challenging opponents (open field and GvGs). I’m a seasoned melee class theorycrafter and player that wants more 15v15s, 20v20s, 30v30s, I’m just tired of 60-80 man zerglings and opposition that rather take a camp than get their hands bloody.

Thanks for your time.

Tell you what, go to http://www.gw2gvg.com/guilds, and take a peak. Good GvG guilds on my server are.. dF, PAIN (German majority), SOUL, PunK, Kale. Other great GvG guilds on EU that I know of are TUP, VII, DAWN, FURY (Aurora)..EXG (Deso)..GD (Elona-German)..Mya (Gandara-German)..siN (Baruch-Spanish)..CoN, IRON, INC [Polish] (Gunnar’s)..etc etc and many more.