Guild Wars 2

I want to lead a group of 5-10 people in wvw. what does a small group like that do? how do i do it?

Take camps, kill yaks, pick off stragglers trying to rejoin the zerg, attempt to take weak towers or just attack em for distraction/fun, flip mercenaries

My main suggestion is to avoid the enemy zerg(s)

Voice communications are very important to most commanders. If you haven’t already, download Mumble or whichever voice comm client your world uses most and ask around for information you need to set up an account. Just quietly listening to the conversation will teach you a lot.

You will also want to learn the map you will be playing most often very well so you know without looking what is north of you, west of you, etc at any time without opening the big map. Learn the nicknames your commanders use for the locations.

First off, Never look nor care about the total score, stop playing for PPT and server pride and just play an open world pvp game to have fun. Dolyaks, Camps, Mercs, towers are just there to set up the fight scenario you are about to create. Remeber youa re looking for a fun fight for you and your friends. Score and the winner is decided by off hour coverage, not anything your team does or doesn’t do.
Decide who you want to fight – other 5 mans, ninja trios, 10-20 man blobs, or full on zerg busting. Decide where you want to fight, open field, in camps, inside of walls, in water, above or below your enemy. Build your team to bring the skills you need.

Now just go out and kick kitten .

And just jump in and start playing. I think a lot of people are hesitant to try WvW because they don’t know what to do. You pick it up quickly and the mistakes you make are not a big deal.

I have to say I disagree with Ballads in the ‘never look at the score’ comment. It’s a very defeatsist attitude to simply say that final score is entirly decided by off-hour coverage. I’m not saying that it doesn’t very often work out that way, sure, so don’t think I’m naive. However, I just don’t like the “it’s not my problem” attitude. “So my server loses, bah, nothing I could have done at all to help so I just roamed and ganked.” This is NOT a very patriotic way to play.

I know the game is about fun, but can’t it be about both? I for one love running with whatever commander/zerg is going, but if I can see a useful strategic objective that I can get on my own or with 2/3 others, I’ll quietly call out for helpers and go claim it.

How many times has a garri or an EB keep been lost simply becuase the defenders were ultimately supply-starved. I did that. My little camps which may not mean much per-tick could make or break a Hills attempt. My flag-flipping gives me an early warning system for a possible attack somewhere else. On the other hand, careful avoidance of flag-flipping when appropriate lets me confuse the enemy as to my group’s location.

As for point contribution, never underestimate the possibility of a good ninja. 4 people (of which I was one, not commanding) with 2 golems flipped four towers, one keep and had a jolly good shot at garrison before the enemy got around to blobbing us to death. It was a fun run, and who knows, we may just have been the tipping points that made us second instead of third that week.

TL;DR ….. Sure, don’t obsess about the points and whether you are 1st 2nd or 3rd, don’t let it ruin your experience if you are losing. But for heaven’s sake FIGHT anyway!! Cap whatever you can! Stop people flipping your camps! One person or a small dedicated group can make a difference.

But you don’t have to believe me, of course. I just like to do the rousing speech thing

As for the other L2P WvW suggestions, all good ideas. (especially the ‘nicknames’ of places thing!) My fave tip of the day – LEARN what to do in a golem before you drive it. Cliff-fallers and portal-missers just annoy the team.