Guild Wars 2

Hey guys I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips in commanding PvM/wvw? I’m very interested in starting to get people together and organise such things but before I started I was wondering if anyone could spare me some tips wether they are from experience of spending Time in a commander group often

Tag up and lead your new minions off the nearest cliff.

I really don´t get why there would be even more commanders needed sorry….

Puls.5867:

Hey guys I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips in commanding PvM/wvw? I’m very interested in starting to get people together and organise such things but before I started I was wondering if anyone could spare me some tips wether they are from experience of spending Time in a commander group often

I have never commanded, but I have observed some things from commanders on my server (JQ).
- If someone else wants to pin up, let them (ESPECIALLY in WvW). This will show people that you are not hard headed or arrogant.
- Use TeamSpeak for WvW.
- Be open to criticism and don’t get angry or upset when something doesn’t go your way.
- Be consistent. Most of the commanders I see in WvW most importantly, are those that command often enough to be recognized by the general population. People will hold grudges against you in WvW if you are a crappy commander, so make the first impression the best.
- Provide food

Those are some tips, good luck!

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but….

I would suggest you don’t start commanding in WvW until you no longer need to ask for tips….
The best way to learn, is to play WvW and learn from the commanders you follow, you will soon learn what’s good and not so good.
You need to understand the basics of the battlefield and what you need from each of your soldiers before you ever tag up. Not to mention knowing the maps backwards!!
It’s very easy to get a bad rep as a comm, and a lot harder to lose it!!
Good luck with you endeavours though.

I’m not a commander myself, but when I follow in WvW I often take mental notes of what separates the more successful ones from the mediocre/bad in terms of success, communication, and directing a group or zerg of random players.

Having a teamspeak is good so you can direct a lot smoother without as much typing.

Understand that not everyone will be in teamspeak, so use say/map chat to communicate orders with the non-teamspeak players. Sometimes you can have someone with you in teamspeak that relays the orders to say/map chat for you, so you can just use voice chat and focus on moving around/other commander things. Be flexible about it if you are running around with a bunch of random players, the more that hear the orders/plans the better.

Intricately learn the maps you intend to play. I suggest knowing multiple approaches to attacking each objective and when it’s a good time to try each approach.

Also keep an eye on your own following of players during long runs. If several people start falling too far behind, it is generally good to pause or find a corner to hide around so you can keep your army together. Group supply check, stack some static field/blasts, and move on from there.

As a quality of life thing, some like to take a 2-5 minute break after continuous treks to give themselves and followers the chance to clear inventory, grab a quick snack, use bathroom etc. Make sure to announce whenever you have to afk or leave so someone else can tag up or people know that you will be back in a moment.

Being an experienced commander, be sure to understand the limitations of your group. If they have difficulties stacking, don’t push into a larger group, because that takes organization. However, if your group is organized PUGs, who know how to stack, field and blast efficiently, and are all adequate survivors, you can push further into a group that is larger than yours. That is very important to know. Additionally, be sure you have enough siege (I buy 100 at a time of each siege type except golems). Asking your Zerg for siege placement is unreliable. Finally, know siege placement. Placing siege in the right spots can make defenses, or open world battles turn in your favor (I.e. Place a ballista in the middle of a Zerg fight that gets built quickly and starts ripping apart the enemy)

The thing that irritates me most about some commanders is them not realising that not everybody can hop on TS, and they fail to put any instructions or directions in /say or map chat. It’s frustrating to constantly see the commander disappearing with no warning because they’ve waypointed back to the citadel, then headed off without waiting for anyone to catch up. You don’t need to wait for 10 minutes for an entire zerg to join you, but keep a general eye on the numbers of people following you, and let some of them catch up to you before you run off again!

Also, the best commanders communicate with each other, checking on the other’s position, what they’re doing etc. They also takeover from each other smoothly and co-ordinate times they display their tags so people don’t get confused.

Just a couple small tips…I don’t command myself, but I can tell you what makes it easier for the people following and helps separate a good commander from a bad one.

One of the EB commanders on my server that I follow probably 95% of the time is on very often and commands very well to the point that I actually prefer him to others that come in from time to time.

He knows the maps very, very well AND knows exactly which spots to go to next to each objective to drop siege without it getting destroyed by the enemy. That’s something that you can only learn through experience. I’ve seen some commanders drop some siege in some strange places only to get destroyed right away.

He also actually stops occasionally when running and waits for the tail to catch up. This is HUGE for people who get behind or people who are slow and fall behind the group and find themselves unable to catch up or get swiftness anymore (I have a mesmer, it’s painful). Last night I ran around an EotM following a commander who didn’t wait for anyone and it really was not fun. Instead of a blob, it was like the world’s longest snake.