Guild Wars 2

So I was hoping I could get a few genuine suggestions on how to dip my toe into the wvw realm without being a total drag or detriment to my world. What would be a good first step into wvw for someone who is completely clueless about it?

I understand that there is a lot of sour grapes about the current state of wvw, yet I’d still like to familiarize myself with this part of the game.

Find a WvW guild on your server who is friendly towards new WvWers, ask to learn, and listen to what they have to say.

Most WvW server communities run a website forum and community teamspeak server. Find yours as they usually have tips and builds or like Sarika says join a WvW guild and speak with them.

Just being there is pretty much always a benefit at this point, though if you’re on a low-population server it probably will be pretty slow. I recommend learning in EBG because there are more people there (new BL’s are largely dead no matter what tier or server you’re on), and EBG is much simpler and easier to navigate.

If you’re not geared for durability or are playing a squishy class like an ele or thief, avoid being on the front line of a blob when engaging another one. Dying in the middle of combat where other players are involved can be a huge deal, as if someone gets even one hit on you, goes to downed state, but you end up getting focused and killed before he does, your death will rally him up and potentially make him better off than before.

That said, I suggest staying near the blue commander tag (usually blue = general pug commander) and just kind of getting a feel for the way combat approaches. Stay close to him and you should be okay. Always keep your eyes open for enemies and make sure not to wander too far away from allies. Tunnel vision on an objective or destination gets a lot of people killed. Once you learn the maps a bit better, siege placement, find people who may want to play with you often/join a WvW guild, you can work with them to flip smaller objectives either in a small group deviating away from the blob or do so alone.

If you see a large number of enemy invaders, shout out in map chat their approximate numbers and their server, and where they’re heading. This information is really helpful to leaders assuming you give them proper numbers. Don’t exaggerate, and make sure you list numbers. If you’re not sure, take your best guess or use more vague descriptors if you really have no idea, or if it’s a guild raid, you might be able to get away with the guild tag if you’re unsure of the numbers as well to give an indication of how big a force it was to those who have been seeing them around.

Don’t freak out over lost camps or non-upgraded towers. It happens.

Lastly, be very weary of incoming damage. The format is extremely fast. If you play sPvP, expect double or triple damage values and much tankier foes. Stats in sPvP are vastly lower compared to PvE/WvW. If you’re full glass, expect to die in one hit from a plethora of builds and classes if you get baited to take their burst.

Never underestimate full PVT (soldiers) gear, either. While you’re learning the ropes or even just a new class/build it’s never bad to have a backup set of tanky gear to help you survive while you experiment. Getting in right now isn’t horrible either. You’ll learn the new BL maps while everyone else is. If you spend the time finding the best routes and paths through the BLs you’ll actually end up ahead of some old players that haven’t taken the time to do all of that again.

It would help to know what server you’re on. I imagine you could find a contact in-game to show you the ropes, that way.

Log on, go into Eternal Battle Grounds, find commander, run with the commander for a while. If there are no commanders on, try EotM for a while. The game play is pretty simple but it really helps to be around other players for a bit first. Feel free to ask for help on map chat as well. Despite a few rotten apples most players are exceptionally friendly and welcoming.

Unless you are an extremely patient and tolerant person, avoid getting into 1v1 fights and small skirmishes until you have a little experience under your belt. Seasoned WvW players are flat out deadly and have seen all your classes moves before. Some players will cut you a lot of slack because you likely don’t have a high WvW title but others will actively hunt you since you are likely an easy kill for a while.

I guess this is still useful advice for a newcommer:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Profession-build-for-newbie-WvWer/4375827
(the wexp recommendations are outdated)

Thank you everyone, all the advice was very helpful. Wish me luck!

It’s depending which profession you play, but learning how to dodge is always a good thing. Keybind this ability, where you can reach it fast. Another helpful tipp is to look into the gameplay-option, and check what you need. If you have a range profession like you should test a little bit around the ground-targeting, there are other helpful options aswell. If you are following a commander, you should definitely go into their ts, otherwise you will miss important messages, for example map change or an u-turn. And you should always look around or otherwise you will be surprised by the enemy.

Join your realm’s Teamspeak server. I honestly cannot emphasize this enough. It should be your #1 priority to download it, find out your server’s TS and hop on when you see someone tagged up. You will learn a huge amount just from following a pin and listening for awhile.

If your first time: grab some soldier/knight/valkyr armors, weapons and trinkets and visit metabattle.com for a build. Go on teamspek and ASK. If you ask more, you learn more. You will enjoy it and wont be a lootbag.
First few times you will die fast. Dont be dissapointed.
Stay behind the commander.
Make your new build only if you play perfectly with the meta

I disagree. If at first you don’t succeed, die, and try again.

Playing some meta-scumbag build won’t make you a better player. Arguably it’ll make you worse, because they typically are exploitative and abuse a gimmick or overpowered ability.

As long as the build you’re playing is coherent, anything can work. And if it’s “sub-optimal” and you manage to pull ahead sometimes, you’re better than the majority of the people following such builds blindly.

Of course if you’re struggling in everything, you can tweak, but play what you’re best with or most interested in doing. Odds are is has a role, purpose, or some kind of viability in WvW. As long as you’re not a blatant liability and dying in situations you either shouldn’t be or can’t afford to be, there are no problems in death. Step back, learn from it, and keep improving, and you’ll be fine.

Miserymachine.7512:

So I was hoping I could get a few genuine suggestions on how to dip my toe into the wvw realm without being a total drag or detriment to my world. What would be a good first step into wvw for someone who is completely clueless about it?

I understand that there is a lot of sour grapes about the current state of wvw, yet I’d still like to familiarize myself with this part of the game.

Try to log into wvw during prime time and find pug commander tag. That is usually created for people like you, without real wvw guild to teach basics. Follow the pug commander for week or two around the map. If they use teamspeak, get it too, at least listen to it if you dont want to talk there.

If you get into grop vs group fight, try not to die. Don’t rush into frontline. Stay with the group and do ranged damage.

Always carry supplies. If you don’t have any, run to camp and get some.

Don’t place siege. Usually commander puts down siege. If there is no commander, other players may know good spots for it. Badly placed siege is just waste of supplies.

Try to improve your cannon/mortar/AC skills so you can defend structures. While no enemies are around, use those to practise just so you know how far they shoot.

If you want to do more off-hours roaming, it can be fairly tough alone. Try to find some other players to group up and take camps, perhaps empty towers. Remember, many players have done this for several years now and can be pretty bad at new players. Don’t be surprised if “you are such a noob, go away” happens, there are idiots everywhere.

You will die a lot. Probably more then you like. Everyone does.