Guild Wars 2

I began thinking about what the point of a keep was in GW2.

There seem to be only two advantages of a keep (aside from scoring):
1) To gather otherwise scattered people in a known area to combat an enemy force (or zerg, if you must). A counter-zerg.
2) To be able to predict that the enemy force will do a specific thing (i.e. we know that their objective is to attack the Keep Lord) and by knowing this set up siege against it.

If your gathered people[sup]1[/sup] are significantly outnumbered, you tend to lose, regardless of which side of the wall you are on.

This is where siege comes in. Defensive siege is the game-changer, but the surrounding circumstances often mean that it is not constructed (lack of supply camps, lack of carried supply, lack of willingness to “waste” blueprints, lack of faith in your already mentally-battered comrades).

When defensive siege is not built, it is the case that in the words of the famous meme: stronger side is stronger. This is very much a case of snowballing, the rich becoming ever richer, trickle-up economics, a self-fulfilling prophecy, take your pick.

The ONLY way to flip the odds is with defensive siege (mainly ballistas). Learn it, use it, always and often.

I wonder, though, whether it is too expensive in terms of supply requirements or too rare in it’s drop-rate that people cling onto it as though it is precious – more so on the servers who lose a lot because they get destroyed in the jumping puzzle.

[sup]1[/sup]I am aware that some teams can beat “zergs” with their “l33tskills”[sup]2[/sup], but these tend to be in the minority and that’s fine.

[sup]2[/sup]and mesmers.

Without defensive siege, and the knowledge to properly place/use it, a keep or tower is just a prison you lock yourself into on purpose. You sacrifice nearly all of your mobility and unpredictability for the safety of walls.

And yet, I have personally watched a decent sized zerg just crumble when they beat a keep door down only to eat 2 ballista bolts as soon as they crossed the threshold.

My primary problem is that I don’t yet know when the best times are to drop siege, and where the best spots are to place them. I keep blueprints in my bags, and drop siege when it’s asked for, but I’m really not good at placing or using it.

Any pointers?

To tear enemy small zergs of 15-30 ppl into shreads at supply camps .. to place only low lvl players at ballistas to achieve that .. to demoralize enemy before the actuall battle for your own domain begins .. Art of War .. beuaty in it´s fullest ..
.. practice makes perfect .. yet if you´re successful – you never want to stop “practicing”.
Hope it helps.

Totally agree, and we will probably see more if it ever stops despawning after it is built. We built a ton in Hills last night, about 30 minutes later it starts getting attacked and we ran back. 1 ballista and 1 arrow cart left. Everything else was gone.

remove all siege,let it be pure pvp , ty

SPVP is the other way, sounds like what you were looking for when you accidentally clicked WvW.

PinCushion.7390:

My primary problem is that I don’t yet know when the best times are to drop siege, and where the best spots are to place them. I keep blueprints in my bags, and drop siege when it’s asked for, but I’m really not good at placing or using it.

Any pointers?

Keep an eye on how other players place the siege and you’ll pick up the most common placements. For instance, Catapults behind doors will help destroy rams that are placed too close. Ballista placed so that they’re either A) quickly built to take down a siege or pointed down a hallway tend to be pretty common.

The problem is there isn’t much reward / fun in defending, let alone making supply runs to set up defensive siege.

Most people roll a class they enjoy playing and go into WvW expecting to use that class to fight the enemy. I didn’t roll a ballista class at character creation… why would I want to play one in WvW?

Different perspective, at times I quite like defending, many people, including some Commanders on Gunnars Hold specialise in turning camps/towers/keeps into killing enemy deathtraps.

There is great fun for me in placing siege in a manner to counter the enemies attack. Defensive siege is a great way to turn the tides, boost morale or even have a memorable last stand. Not all defeats are morale crushing either, at times a small group of the Irregulars gets left behind enemy lines to hold off the enemy as long as we can while the main force goes of to capture the distracted enemies holdings.

In the end, we die. But not after making the enemy pay for every inch of land they took :-)