Guild Wars 2

So I’m starting this topic because I play on a server where sometimes in the morning there are absolutely no commanders on at all and I feel like if we had one on there would possibly be enough pugs to get some stuff going. I main an engineer and consider myself to be a decent player, however I have zero experience commanding, and just wanted to get some opinions off here as I am thinking of buying a tag. So what makes a good commander in your opinions? What can I do to be a good commander? What makes one commander better than others?

All thoughts are welcome, and thanks for your input,

Zaragoz

The best advise I can give u especially for commanding pugs is to keep moving. Try to always be going to a place to cap, and avoid enemy zergs unless you are bigger than them. Try to keep your commands simple and direct, pugs are often turned off by complicated commands.

And running a tank build helps. If you are dieing a lot as commander the zerg will fall apart

Remember that any fortified tower you own on your server’s side in a border has a higher priority than a regular tower and SM when it is not yours or fortified.

Example:

After reinforcing/fortifying your captured towers you and your zerg decide to take a regular enemy tower (usually called paper if it is not reinforced).

When you get there, you put up a few rams or if you got a bunch of people with you, smash at the gate with raw force from your weapons.

When the enemy gate that you are attacking is at 50%, you suddenly get a report from your scout in one of your fortified towers that it is going to be under attack by an incoming enemy zerg.

What do you do?

You move directly to defend your reinforced tower because you can cap a paper tower anytime, while reinforcing towers can take time.

If you decide to ignore the report then you will lose the chicken (your fortified tower) while you get an egg instead (the enemy paper tower).

It takes time to fortify your captured towers because they require supplies, delivered by dolyaks, delivered from captured and protected camps.

Fortified keeps & Fortified Towers > Capturing enemy towers that got lower tier than your own towers.

You basically trade in a chicken for an egg if you don’t prioritize right.

Hope this helps!

Good info, keep it coming. Oh, and another question. I sometimes see a commander telling people to stack up for a supply count, does he have a program that tells him how much supply the people in his zerg have?

Thanks,

Zaragoz

/supplyinfo gives him information on how much supply there is.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Commander

That will help you a little…

The best advice I can give is to treat everyone with respect. It will get you very far in W3.

Avoiding enemy zergs will only make you a terrible commander, ‘oh look the enemy zerg lets run away like cowards and go pvDoor all night’ that’s such a horrible thing to do.

My advice is learn how to fight, learn each and every class ability so you know what to call for, assign guardian tome of courage groups for the most effective healing along side ele waterfields. Also when commanding never shout and be aggressive with your followers, be firm in your commands but respecting, pugs hate when commanders are shouting and balling their head off etc.

For the above If you have no relevant experience go shadow a top guild group who specializes in fighting ask to join comms and just explain ’ I am looking to become a commander and want to learn as much as I can’. Turning pugs into a deadly fighting force is what will make you a good commander not Pv’Dooring and avoiding the enemy zerg (you can’t avoid the enemy zerg forever).

A few other, more basic tips:

- Don’t ever take control of a siege while commanding.
This makes you immobile, also making your zerg immobile to stay with you, and if you need to act fast, you will be stuck on the siege and it will take time for the zerg to respond as well, often wiping you.
- Tell the elementalists to NOT drop down Static Field for speed boost. You got warriors with warhorns for the speed buff of the zerg, and the Static Field is valuable for AoE stunning your enemy zerg when approaching them. Having that skill on cooldown in a crucial moment when you need it is not fun.

Also, if your server has a community TeamSpeak/Mumble/Vent then get familiar with it and use it often. Follow other commanders and listen to their styles when they are capturing, defending, or just moving the group from point to point.

Be sure to type the voice-chat server connection info into /map chat a lot. It will help both you as a commander and also anyone following you if all can hear what you’re planning, and what you want from them.

Now, having said that, don’t neglect to type occasional commands or clarifications into /map chat for those who cannot or will not use voice chat.

IE: “Heading to Ogres.”
“Need a scout to keep watch at Hills/SM/NW tower”
“Stay with pin, folks”
“Rally at spawn now.”

Little things like letting your group know what you want or are thinking will make them more trusting of you and help to keep them together when you get into a fight.

Don’t have time to write a full essay, but something brief [EDIT: Lol this turned out to be quite long] …

First thing to do when you tag up is to be aware of the situation on the map. Which towers / keeps / SM are upgraded? Which are defended with siege, and if so, how many? This is important because upgraded possessions are (of course) more easily defended, and a few ACs go a long way towards holding off a larger enemy group.

The next question that needs to be immediately answered is: is there an enemy zerg on the map, and if so, can your zerg take them on? In some matchups you can assume that there is not just an enemy zerg on the map, but that it is more powerful than yours (e.g. if you’re SoS fighting JQ, you can pretty much assume that there is a JQ zerg on the map and it will annihilate yours in open combat). In others it is more even. If you + your teammates don’t know whose zerg is more powerful, you can risk an open field battle to find out.

Next: if your zerg is more powerful, then you should take the offense. It depends on how cruel you want to be. If you’re really playing to win (and at the cost of the lesser server feeling agrieved) then hunt down the enemy zerg and keep killing them, until they all rage quit the map, when you can take everything with impunity. Take possessions whenever you can, but prioritize killing the enemy. If you aren’t that cruel, then prioritize taking possessions, and killing the enemy zerg if they’re foolhardy enough to run into you.

If your zerg is less powerful than the enemy zerg, then you need to be more defensive. Avoid the enemy zerg at all costs. Select some core possessions on the map and prioritize holding them; anything else is a bonus. An example would be the home Garrison on your BL, or home keep on EB (of course if you already hold towers / keeps on the map, your priorities may differ). If you manage to take it, then stop offensive action and siege it up + upgrade it. Once that’s done you can move on to the next most important target (Cliff + Sunny on home BL, Veloka / Langlor / Jerri’s on EB). If the enemy zerg comes – and they will, since they’re stronger – you want to fight defensively from one of these sieged possessions. This doesn’t mean you’ll win, but you can hopefully hold and make progress on the map. If all else fails, change maps; this is basically an extension of “avoid the enemy zerg”.

Finally: talk to your teammates. Give them constructive advice, such as asking for numbers from a scouting report. Reminders such as to place water fields and reflects against ACs are helpful as well. Tell your teammates what you’re planning, for example if you’ve taken Umber and intend to move to Dan, say so on map chat. Teamspeak is great, but not everyone is on Teamspeak, and it helps to know what the commander is intending to do. If someone talks to you on map chat, try to respond. This gives your teammates confidence in you. If you lose their confidence, don’t expect people to follow your lead.

Have fun.

First… read this:
http://suntzusaid.com/book/1

Especially pay attention to chapter 3 part 8.

Ok now that you’re totally confused I’ll drop my advice. Results speak. You need to generate them to be a good commander. You’re only as good as the guys following you and if you generate results they follow you more and trust you more.

Start out by keeping your strategies simple. Engage zergs by the rule of what Sun Tsu said in 3.8. If your zerg is vastly larger split up. If your zerg is even engage em. If your zerg is smaller evade them.

Above all relay your plans to your group in say or team chat. If you can use your server’s public VOIP (teamspeak, mumble, etc) all the better. When you want to take a camp tell em “we’re going to take X camp”. When you want them to build siege “build this X”. Remember to drop reminders of common strategy… “eles meteor shower the wall”, “fire fields blast finish”, “water fields blast finish”, “stay tight on the tag”.

Finally have a thick skin. You will get trolled. I guarantee it. You must not lose composure at all even if you’re getting facerolled by an 80 man megazerg. Remember the part where Sun Tsu tells you to balk at the enemy’s plan. If you know they’re going to hit your keep in eternal, hit theirs first. It stonemist too. Stonemist is the big distraction in the middle of the map that lets you move around it.

If you can, find a guild who needs a commander. Having a guild presence gives you immediate strength in numbers to rally pugs around.

Finally… be prepared to have an alt of every class and to make a kitten load of superior siege. I once dropped 10g worth of siege in a night. You will be poor (money wise) as a commander but you’ll get kitten done.

Let your results speak for you and have fun!

dont have time for long response but learn to read the maps closely and often and high awareness is key. use choke points but dont get caught in them. try to keep enemy in siege range but dont get yourself caught in heavy siege. stay very mindful of supply. simply learning how, when, and where to place siege can take a whole lot of practice by itself.

the best way hands down though is to get in TS or whatever your server uses and follow the best commanders and listen closely to them. most of them will gladly explain why if you ask them. most servers’ veteran players welcome new people with good intentions and will teach you willingly.

Bero.2193:

Avoiding enemy zergs will only make you a terrible commander, ‘oh look the enemy zerg lets run away like cowards and go pvDoor all night’ that’s such a horrible thing to do.

My advice is learn how to fight, learn each and every class ability so you know what to call for, assign guardian tome of courage groups for the most effective healing along side ele waterfields. Also when commanding never shout and be aggressive with your followers, be firm in your commands but respecting, pugs hate when commanders are shouting and balling their head off etc.

For the above If you have no relevant experience go shadow a top guild group who specializes in fighting ask to join comms and just explain ’ I am looking to become a commander and want to learn as much as I can’. Turning pugs into a deadly fighting force is what will make you a good commander not Pv’Dooring and avoiding the enemy zerg (you can’t avoid the enemy zerg forever).

If its tier 1 or 2 maybe 3 I would agree with you. From the way the op talks I would infer he/she is in a lower tier. From my experience the best way to loose Ur zerg is to wipe a couple times. The more casual the player the faster they will abandon. If the map isn’t qued the best way to break down the enemy is to keep them moving. If you just smack into them at ever chance you get they don’t have to move to find you. If you keep them moving they will break down then you can turn on them and destroy them piece by piece

If its tier 1 or 2 maybe 3 I would agree with you. From the way the op talks I would infer he/she is in a lower tier. From my experience the best way to loose Ur zerg is to wipe a couple times. The more casual the player the faster they will abandon. If the map isn’t qued the best way to break down the enemy is to keep them moving. If you just smack into them at ever chance you get they don’t have to move to find you. If you keep them moving they will break down then you can turn on them and destroy them piece by piece
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I’m not in tier 1, 2 or 3 I’m from Aurora glade EU server which is silver league and was ranked 13th before leagues. Wiping will lose the rubbish/lazy players from your group, which is always a good thing because they only hinder your group by being rallybots, by no means am I saying take a group and go wipe to the enemy.

I agree on the movement thing aswell but avoiding enemy zergs only empowers the enemy more and gives them confidence to strike at your towers and keeps more, wiping the enemy multiple times destroys their morale and allows your group to move more freely around the map.

I agree wiping the enemy is the best way to deflate moral but can also be the hardest way at times. But this is more of a tactical debate than a what’s right or wrong. I’m guessing you re someone who ggoes right after the enemy. I’m more of a small ball person , preferring to take camps and towers while nibbling away at keep supplies.

On a side note I know y Ur name is so firmilure now. I use to play on ag

Communication is the most important thing for a commander.

Anyone can lead a zerg around mindlessly capping things, but to be a good commander, you need to keep everyone informed at all times.

• Use a VOIP if you can. Encourage others to do so if you do.
• Remember that using VOIP is not an excuse to ignore chat.
• Use /team chat for strategy only, keep other conversation to /main chat.
• You don’t need a squad to lead, but it can be helpful. Don’t expect players to join your squad without being asked to.
• Use /say chat for information that only pertains to the players around you. There’s no need to confuse distant players with things like “incoming” or “build here”.
• If your next target isn’t obvious, tell your group in /say or /team chat.
• If you see that a keep or fortified tower is under attack, find out if it’s trebs, rams, just a tap, etc. If others are already there, they’ll usually be willing to scout it and let you know.
• If you don’t want people to throw down siege, say so.
• Tell people what you want them to do. It seems obvious, but many commanders don’t do it. “If you don’t have ram mastery, give rams to those that do. Half take supply camp while we take down tower gate, scouts to the south and west, the rest hit the gate and defend the rams. CC any players that try to enter the tower.” Maybe not so verbose, but that sort of command prevents everyone from either autoattacking the door or leaving the rams unguarded while they get the camp.

But there are plenty of other things to learn too.

• Put your server’s benefit before that of your self. You can be selfish when your tag is off.
• Even if you aren’t commanding at the time, you can use your tag as a distress signal. This works really well when an enemy zerg hits a tower or keep and you happen to be the only one there.
• Know when you need to defend, even if it means halting an offensive strike.
• If you just claimed an objective that has hiding places, tell people to sweep it, and set an example by helping sweep it. Spread out and it’s only a 30-60 second job in keeps or Stonemist and 5-10 seconds in towers.
• Don’t slow your group down by harvesting or chasing after a single player.
• Unless you own everything, ignore the overgrown grub and arboreal spirit.
• Bring food! Dropping trays/feasts of food is a good way to empower your army and reward them at the same time. Be careful to put these in protected locations though, they only last for five minutes, but any player can use them.

Also, don’t overuse your commander tag.

• If you’re afk, your tag should be off.
• If you’re banking, selling, manning a trebuchet, or doing anything else that involves standing around for more than one minute, your tag should be off.
• If you’re just following another commander, your tag should be off. Exception: Multiple commanders in one spot generally means “We need people here and now!”

And finally…

• Know when to go to sleep. It’s tempting to continue the fight until victory is secured, but don’t burn yourself out.
• Remember that if you have a bad day of commanding, take a break, pick yourself back up, and put some fear in the hearts of your enemies.

Voice chat is great, encourage its use.
Not everyone will use voice chat though. Type as much as you can, at a bare minimum where you’re going and what you’re doing. Ignoring those people not on voice is just hurting yourself.

Try and keep in mind why people are following you. A lot probably are just in it for the rewards. If there is not enough payoff, your zerg will start to dwindle.

When possible, pause before objectives. This will allow stragglers to catch up.

Have thick skin and patience. People will screw up and/or be complete idiots.

learn the flow of supply in the map

a zerg without supply does nothing. structures can only last so long without it. understand the opportunity cost between raiding 2 different places for supply to keep going.

youll see our vet commanders try to yoink supply from enemy territory whenever possible, blatantly, instead of our own.

be active or at least aware in chats/voip as much as possible (partially so people get to know you, partially so people know youre using info they provide)

+a lot of whats already been said

There are two things you have to figure out and learn. One is the strategic aspect of how and when to take camps/towers/keeps and the other is open field battles. The way I learned was to follow several of the commanders around for days, if not weeks, at a time. I took what I learned from about 3-4 different commanders and applied all their strengths to myself.

I’ve learned you need to be quick in movement and thinking, fearless, have the correct build, use a VOIP system with your server, remind people to eat food, and to call out things early for anybody that might be lagging behind.

Bero.2193:

Also when commanding never shout and be aggressive with your followers, be firm in your commands but respecting, pugs hate when commanders are shouting and balling their head off etc.

Man, you have not seen some guilds (one in particular) in BG. Their commanders shout and scream and make the entire TS channel laugh as we wipe enemy zergs.

FIRST & FOREMOST do not ask others to do something you yourself are not willing to do. (think sweeping a keep/escorting yaks/building&repairing siege).

As you can tell Communication is KEY to good commanding. It does wonders being on a voip for yourself and those following you. Why? easier/quicker info gathering/spreading tell that to folks and x amount will join up. If you have people who are vets/following you ask them to help you spam it to get more people on.

When moving to hit/defend link where poi/directionally on map where you going in map/team/say & on ts. (if you have folks with you it does wonders if someone can step to help link so you can keep on the ball). Zooming your mini map out the whole way or near to watch for swords in a great area around you helps understand the situation you can/should be tackling. Try to get in a practice of popping open the full map here and there to check how it is going on your AND the other BL’s. This gives you a great idea of how things are going, and where the other servers zergs might be vs yours (remember A LOT of servers have floating zergs). With this ALWAYS be asking for info when you see swords pop up and you are no where near.

Do not take the trolls/whiners in your map/team chats to seriously they will always be there. It is a matter of growing a thick skin and or ask them get a tag and show you how to (i find once i ask that (never mind others on map) they usually shut up.

Finally i find it is important to always give POSITIVE enforcement to those following you after a zerg crash &or tower/keep assault, keeps their moral up and makes them want to continue going even when the going gets tough. (mind after wipes you might lose a lot of your fair weathers ><, shrug it off and try to keep it going people will come i find after you can cap 1-2 things.) When you lose which is going to happen till people to regroup and say we can nail them NEXT time, and or say how fun that loss was because of w/e happened during it. ( I know I have had some fun losses of keeps / field fights where we held against a superior force for longer then we should have and everyone wanted to go again. )

If you can manage all this after learning /shadowing the mechanics of siege placement/usage. How to move your force against others then you should be fine, remember FAILING is part of LEARNING.

I know i do this a lot and it makes everyone who plays with me think i have a Tag which since i am lazy and can do more then enough with team/map/say/voip. Its a great misunderstanding to have, more so if you can gain this before you start. Since people will already be aware of you and trust you. Take into account even with this it will take a bit to have people be familiar with you and your commanding style.

Hopefully this helps… Good Luck on the field may many bags rain at your feet.

As a commander you need defense and survivability. Damage is not important for you. Start commanding in Eternal Battlegrounds first or if your own BL is not being held, go there too. Command at times when there’s people on but no one commanding. This is a situation where if you mess up, it doesn’t harm your server as much because they don’t have a commander without you anyway. Commanding on Friday where you are mathematically stuck in your position is good too because people don’t care as much if you mess up. Make sure you have T3 ram mastery and then you can drop one superior ram and man it to take down a gate in 1 min 40 sec while your group is small and still needing to build up more players. Avoid the enemy zergs if they are bigger than you but fight them if they are close or smaller in size. Drain enemy supply when you don’t intend to hold what you cap. Be more willing to defend upgraded stuff than unupgraded stuff.