So after playing with my guild for a while and seeing all the different strategies our team and others use to accomplish different tasks, I’ve noticed some classes are better positioned than others to contribute usefully to siege efforts. Note that I’m not talking about killing other players, but specifically about class skills, abilities and mechanics which make a noticeable difference to the battlefield (the guys you want to have around) and feel really rewarding, like you’ve contributed, to the player using them.
The obvious king is the portal. The mesmer portal is probably the most powerful skill in the game when it comes to WvW. It is often the one play that will make or break a siege. A good mesmer portal can put you back into a recently lost keep, it can get you out of a losing fight in a keep lord room and up onto higher grind to bunker down or it can get you through a choke point that’s being hammered with siege and AoEs and behind enemy lines. They can used to flank, to retreat, to portal golems, the list goes on. Playing a mesmer in WvW with portal on your bar can make you the MVP of the map. Without a team behind you it is just another skill, but a well used portal with a co-ordinated group to back it up can be devastating.
Elementalists have Swirling Winds which can be used to protect siege and walls from treb or catapult fire. This is often the difference between which side will be successful in counter trebing the other.
Several pull skills will help take players off of a wall (like scepter 4 or Scorpion Wire) and there are several skills which reflect projectiles and alleviate pressure on your zerg when facing off against another zerg (such as Sanctuary, Wall of Reflection, traited scepter 4 etc).
Some glasses are incredibly good at scouting, thieves especially with their IMS signet, shortbow 5 and frequent stealth, but other classes have easy access to perma swiftness like eles and engineers.
Necromancers can be very good at area denial with their marks. Guarding that catapult besieging Hills keep’s north gate is much easier when you have the narrow pathway up there covered in marks. Ranger traps can also be good for this, although you need to use several utility slots to do it. Advanced notice of a stealthed thief or a mesmer on their way up can be quite useful.
We also have classes which have good AoE abilities which can be great for hitting things (such as arrows carts, or players) behind the outer edges of the wall. Meteor Shower, Glyph of Storms, grenades, wells, all of these skills can be incredibly important for pressuring the enemy team off of the walls to alleviate pressure on the people sieging the gate. They are also often the easiest way to siege weapons which are big threats to your towers and keeps.
At first glance WvW seems to be a zerg fest dictated by siege and individual actions, but after playing for a while (or across multiple classes) you will sometimes find some very useful niche that many of the classes have that becomes invaluable while besieging. Some classes, however, seem to be lacking in ways to contribute to siege efforts outside of manning siege or fighting off the enemy zerg. Some of the examples I gave above are a little weak to say the class is invaluable, but portaling and siege protection are some of the most powerful contributions you can make to WvW and they are dictated by what class you are. It would be nice if ArenaNet would look at how siege works and how individual classes contribute to it through their unique tool kits. Playing a ranger and either manning siege, running supply or fighting off the zerg can become very unrewarding, especially when you see other classes portaling into keeps, pulling mobs off of walls or protecting the siege equipment.
I want ArenaNet to introduce more class specific ways for us to make an impact on the siege effort outside of the zerg, using our class’ abilities. It currently feels like some classes were given far more useful ways to contribute to siege than others. It’s not at the point where I would roll a mesmer or ele before any other class, but I do think WvW is a lot more fun when you have a unique and class based way to contribute to a siege. Besieging is a lot more fun when you have something interesting you can be doing if you are not on siege.