Guild Wars 2

Prologue
or
What is the purpose of this wall of text?

For those of you, who see themselves allready as “pro’s” in WvWvW, the following might be not that much interesting. You may skip and head on to the next thread. The people I want to adress here, are the newcomers and those who are just curious what is going on in WvWvW. I want to encourage them to give it a try and to not give up when things are confusing and sort of disencouraging. I think the best way to do so is to tell them my personal experience.
This is not a guide in the true meaning of the word, but it might help you handling things that lay ahead.
Please keep in mind, that all the following is totally personal. I do not speak for my server (Elona’s Reach), I do not speak for my guild.
Other people might have completely different opinions on the subjects I will handle.
All I hope, is to make you curious enough to give it a shot yourselfs.
Because, all the flaming and hating in many of the threads concerning WvWvW aside, it is a whole lotta fun and you might miss something if you skip it.
That said, let’s kick it and start with

The beginning

I didn’t start WvWvW right from day one for different reasons. First, I am a member of a guild that exist since the ancient days of DAoC. We went through many MMO’s, including WoW, RIFT, SWTOR and GW1, for sure. So I tended to experience GW2 side by side with my fellow-members, and that meant we went through PvE stuff the first weeks. Not that I mind, we had loads of fun.
But it was allways clear that sooner or later we would join the battlefields, because all of us had great hopes in that part of GW2 (remember – we have been in DAoC for quite some time).
After about two weeks in the game we started with WvWvW, and this is how it was to me:

I hopped in and the first thing I thought was : Dayem, these maps are BIG and confusing. How am I ever supposed to get a grip on that? But I am a tough little Asura, so I went for it and just started running around and keeping my eyes open. By then we used to be in our guilds TS, and we all were perfectly fine with it. It still was playing with my guildies, and we were sure we could contribute as a small group rather than joining the WvWvW TS that was posted in the map chat every 15 minutes. Needles to say, we got our a**sses kicked pretty frequently, not because of the TS, but because we had no clue how to fight in WvWvW and we met others that were allready a few weeks ahead experiencewise.
Elona was a mid-bracket server at that time, and looking back I can say, Elona was right were it belonged.
Me, I simply had no idea what the supplycamps were good for, why everyone wanted to lay hands on these mysterious orbs, and why people got mad at me when I went out to kick the worms butt. I made a fool out of myself by asking what this blue sign on top of one char meant (no, it was not the “looking for group” sign) and when there was a command in mapchat saying “everybody to the hill, we have massive income”, it took me some searching on the map to just find that dayem hill. When I arrived there, the party was over, most of the time.
You see, I had lots to learn. Thing is, I was willing to.

Getting into it
or
things I had to learn

As you could allready see, I was the perfect noob back then, but I also knew :
Everybody starts as a perfect noob, it’s just up to you to change that state of yours.

What I did, was: I started reading the forums. I learned basic things about WvWvW, and I learned basic things about playing a thief in WvWvW. I digged through guides of all kind, I got a taste of the flaming and hating you will only find on WvWvW forums. Most of those flames were not meant in a friendly “let’s poke the opponents abit” – way. Most of these flames were written by immature kids with no respect for other players or servers, trying to make themselve look like the unbeatable masters, who got kicked to the dust just by cheating, hacking, outnumbering. Sounds familiar to you? Right, this didn’t change and never will, you better learn to live with it. What you CAN do about it, is not hopping on that train, be a role model for mentally younger gamers/posters.
Back to the battlefields:
I learned about those Dolyaks, I learned why to check this strange barrel-symbol on top of my screen, and I learned why supply-camps are so important if you want to win a fight or keep a garrison. I learned why it is no good idea to take supplies from inside the towers and why it makes sense to pay a visit to those strange toads living in the middle of the see evey now and then. I learned the map. I learned a lot about playing a thief effectively (and No, I never played glasscannon, and never regretted this decision) in WvWvW. I learned were to place those trebus and the other siege weapons. I learned about those orbs and the jumping-puzzles…
You see, I learned a lot, but rest assured, it didn’ take that long, all it took was a certain degree of dedication.
After about two weeks of constantly beeing in the battlegrounds I was sort of an average-player.
But the most important thing I learned was : if there is a TS were the majority of the players are – move your bloody a** right there.
To me this decision changed my gaming experience totally.
All of a sudden, I understood much better, what was going on, why Ze Zerg is on a special destination, what they want to achieve there and how they are trying to do so.
You think, all this comes to you by reading and posting in the map chat? Frankly, I thought so too, but it is flat out wrong.
My biggest mistake, looking back, was to join that TS not right from the beginning.
My advice to you is: join the TS, mute the micro and just listen. I am not talking hours here, I am talking days, Trust me, you will not regret it.

Well, at that time Elona discovered the nightcapping. Another server used to wipe the floor with us during nighttime, and we faced a real problem.
What happened was: we organised. maps got “handed” to special guilds, guild leaders had serious meetings and talked strategies. Aside that, one result was we started building up a nightforce. Astonishing enough, it worked out immediatly.

Elona rising
or
the astonishing success of an average server

What Elona did, was this: we started scouting, we improved the communication between the maps, we learned using tactics other servers used against us with success (famous example: mesmer portals, wich some of our commanders improved to an astonishing grade of perfection, in the middle of a big fight, e.g.).
What also happened was: The structures in general got better and better. Commanders got better, more and more people joined the TS, the discipline got better. We were rewarded with a constant way up the ladder, resulting in even more motivation and better gameplay.
Honestly, nobody really thought we could make it to T1, until it really happened.
What I did that time was: scouting (no baggies for me but I never felt useless). Defending towers (not that much fun, but also very important). capping supply-camps (did I mention, they are important?). And kicking a** when I felt like having some fun. Through the weeks my personal gameplay had improved a lot, and by than I was able and willing to pick up a fight even when beeing slightly outnumbered. I did learn: it’s not allways the number, it sometimes is the balls.
Talking bout numbers: nightcapping was allready a big theme in the forums at that time, and for good reason. We got nightcapped, we did it ourselves, we learned that with no nightshift it doesn’t matter how “good” you are. No nightshift, no win, simple as that.
When Elona realised that there might be a chance to even make it to T1, we invented a constant nightshift, there was no way around it.
Lucky us, with the rise of our server we had a growing income of WTJ, and that indeed helped a lot.
On the other hand, looking back, it somehow stopped the constant evolution of Elona.
I mention that, because I see a lot of posts and threads concerning this exact issue nowadays, but be aware: lot’s of new players on your server will not only do good.
My personal experience, when Elona was about to make it from T2 to T1 was this: Hordes of immature kiddies floating the TS, almost destroying the structures we had developed over the weeks. Brambling about weapon skins and letting each other know about their fight against this necro down there at the ruins. Lots of new kids on the block hopping the TS with the ultimate plan to win at hand and not willing to just shut up and listen to what the commander was saying. Important commanders not able to join in because of massive qeueing.
Those were the days when my nerves became rather thin, and I am known as a polite person.
I tell you that, because I want you to be prepared.
If you are member of a server on the way up: be prepared. The WTJ will come and they will cause problems.
Just keep in mind: they will leave, too. Sooner or later, rest assured.

Well, we did make it to T1, we even managed to win the first week. We learned that there was no massive canadian nightshift on french servers (unlike many warnings we received before meeting them on the battlefield), and we also learned that the two french servers do not work together against a third (exception: the final day of the matchup, but by than it made no more difference, to us that was). Don’t be fooled by all those it’s 2v1 threads – not just concerning bracket 1 – 95% of them is trolling or misunderstanding of WvWvW strategies.

Epilogue
or
where we are, where will we go

Elona paid a price for the T1 efford. Commanders were exhausted far over the limit – and with no good commanders you are lost. Players were out of fuel, too.
We simply didn’t have the manpower to keep up that constant nightshift, plus many of us needed sort of a break now that we “made it”.
The result was: we got kicked outta T1 straight.
This leads me to another point:
Keep it cool, fellowplayer. Dont push it over the limits of yours. You might loose all the fun you had the weeks before. At least that is what almost happened to me. You are not T1? So what?
Did you come here to be T1 or to have fun and balanced competition?
Ask that question to the man in the mirror, when you find yourself with shadows around your tired eyes.

Elona by now is in the fitting bracket, as I see it. I have fun and that is what I came here for.
Let me quote Marv here:
“The killing? No fun. Everything before the killing will be a gas.”

You made it all through that wall of text?
Respect.
You can make it everywhere, even out there on the battlefields.

Greetings

Poke Menot
Asura thief
Elona’s Reach