Guild Wars 2

Since there have been a few recent threads by people wanting to get into WvW and since whatever earlier advice threads there were are buried I thought I’d start a new one with some basic stuff.

If you are interested in WvW this game allows you to do it no matter what level you are.

Be aware that your stats get buffed to 80 but your gear doesn’t. This makes you a bit weak but it doesn’t make it unplayable.

While you are low level and unfamiliar with WvW you are probably best off staying with large groups rather than roaming with a group of 5 or so looking for small group fights.

Just because you are low level and can’t hit all that hard doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to the fights. Crowd control works whatever level you are, so do group buffs, heals, and whatever utility your class has.
In fact, one of the strongest WvW abilities in the game, blocking treb shots, can be done by a naked level 1 elementalist using a white focus. You can’t keep a tower wall standing all by yourself but you can make it take 2 to 3 times as long to knock it down (3 eles could protect a wall from a treb indefinitely).

Always carry supply. Always take it from supply camps when you go thru them, never from towers or keeps.

Build the siege equipment people put out. Don’t wait for others to do it, they may need to kill defenders first and they will be faster at it than you but everyone’s build speed is the same. If you can afford it carry some yourself and place it if needed.

Man siege equipment if you know what your doing (or even if you don’t and there is no one else around). They are easy enough to figure out.

Arrow carts do great damage whatever level you are. A handful of people using arrow carts can defend a tower against a much larger group.

Rez people right away. As long as it is safe enough so that you don’t get killed before you get them up you will probably be contributing more by doing that than you would be doing trying to get kills (and you get xp for it).

If you are worried that you are taking the place in WvW of someone higher level who could be helping your server more, if there is no queue, then you are not taking anyone’s place.
If there is a queue and you feel guilty about it, check if there is a borderland with no queue.
I wouldn’t really worry about it tho, if you are doing the things I said above you will be helping more than what a lot of people do in WvW.

If anyone else has any tips they want to offer I am sure newer players would appreciate it.

I’ll use this space to organize additions if any.

Here are some of my tips for low level WvW.

Level, health and damage scales up to level 80.
Rewards, such as exp/coin/karma/gear/BoH do not scale up.
Upgrades to keeps/towers are not scaled in any direction – they are a static cost.
Repairs do not scale up on gear because gear is not scaled.
Killing a player is not like killing a mob – getting kill credit for a player becomes much harder at the lower levels, but not impossible.
Levels gains are slower than PvE for lower levels.
Levels are gained noticeably quicker from level 60.
Resource nodes above 300 are extremely rare, except in Eternal Battlegrounds, but that is a later concern).
Badges of Honor rewards are scaled down to your true level = very rare.

So, overall, bring low levels in to WvW. Most of your advancement though will come faster from PvE and crafting until you reach about level 60.
Most of the time, below level 60, you will feel ineffective, but as long as you are doing damage to the enemy you are helping more than not being there. Now that queues are becoming a null consideration on a lot of servers, being there is more important than anything.

Additional:
In PvE if you do any damage to kill a mob you are rewarded. WvW is a mix of PvP and PvE due to the fact that you are fighting mostly players (as well as a few mobs) and does not reward you in the same way.
Kill credit can be hard to achieve at any level unless you do more damage than the other people around you. This will also impact your rewards at any level.
It has been reported that grouping can help to alleviate this issue to some extent (even for the level 80), as group dynamics for determining credit may be calculated prior to the individuals credit is determined.

Additional additional:
Don’t spend Badges of Honor on anything – keep them for your legendary weapon.

As someone who leveled almost purely in WvW, playing as a low level is not nearly as effective as 80(if you’re like me, roaming around looking for small fights and taking supply camps), however, low levels in a zerg are just as good as any level 80. OP’s advice is solid.

Doomdesire.9365:

As someone who leveled almost purely in WvW, playing as a low level is not nearly as effective as 80(if you’re like me, roaming around looking for small fights and taking supply camps), however, low levels in a zerg are just as good as any level 80. OP’s advice is solid.

OP’s advice is solid – no dispute there, some very good basic tips for what to do in WvW.
If you wish to level doing PvE stuff in WvW it will give you the levels at a slower rate than pure PvE, and be ready for enemy contacts while doing it.
If you have come to WvW to fight other players – group up and stay together, call targets, use combo starters and finishers effectively, and work as a single focused group, especially if participating in a zerg. This will help to maximise your rewards (exp/BoH/loot).

Most importantly, get in and have some fun at any level. You shouldn’t regret it.

Occam.9841:

In fact, one of the strongest WvW abilities in the game, blocking treb shots, can be done by a naked level 1 elementalist using a white focus. You can’t keep a tower wall standing all by yourself but you can make it take 2 to 3 times as long to knock it down (3 eles could protect a wall from a treb indefinitely)

Can you go into some more detail here? What do you mean by a “white focus?”

Raincrow.1840:

Occam.9841:

In fact, one of the strongest WvW abilities in the game, blocking treb shots, can be done by a naked level 1 elementalist using a white focus. You can’t keep a tower wall standing all by yourself but you can make it take 2 to 3 times as long to knock it down (3 eles could protect a wall from a treb indefinitely)

Can you go into some more detail here? What do you mean by a “white focus?”

By white he meant the rarity of the Off-hand Focus and use the defensive skills like Obsidian Flesh. If you stand in the way of the shot, it can’t hit the wall

Focus ability #4 for the elementalist creates a swirling wind that stops physical projectiles. If you have a treb or cata hitting your wall, put 3 elementalists (to cover cooldowns) on that wall rotating this ability and you’ve neutralized the treb until your team can take it out.

Camp a cannon or siege in an area that’s active – border land towers like briar and lake tower can see some hefty action- if you hold the keeps try upgrading towers for cannons etc and sit on an arrow cart or ballista-

When the enemy come to flip you’ll rake in kills and be far more effective and safe than out in front.

Raincrow.1840:

Can you go into some more detail here? What do you mean by a “white focus?”

Others have covered it pretty much but to make it more clear, by ‘white’ I meant the cheapest, lowest quality focus that you can buy from the weapon vendors (the ones that are found everywhere and mostly exist just so you can ‘sell junk’ to them).

Few elementalists use a focus as one of there main weapons but every elementalist should carry one in WvW and equip it when siege engines or a wall needs to be protected from enemy treb or catapult shots.

There is no need to buy an expensive focus or to keep it updated when you level if this is all you use it for. The cheapest one works just as well as any other.

You can get stats that are higher on a low level toon than you can get at level 80 in full exotics because of the way dynamic level scaling works with stats on gear. But if you are the type of player that is really stingy about spending money on leveling gear then this won’t apply.

If you do spend money on levelling gear then the main difference is that you lack specialization options until you unlock all your trait lines, utilities and elites but you can still man a siege weapon, pilot a golem etc. In a straight up fight you can roll face as long as you don’t require specialization to do it.

So for instance, as a low level Thief you can get comparable or better stats compared to a level 80 Thief in maxed gear, can take about as much damage and get comparable damage numbers from your attacks (assuming you can afford some or all of the key damage % traits you need), but you won’t have as many trait and skill points to to spend on perks and combinations of perks that allow you to specialize in certain ways.

i.e. If you have a level 35 Thief, you can’t bunker like a level 80 Thief can until you can put a boatload of trait points into Acrobatics and Trickery for super initiative and endurance gain. Thats one of the crucial means by which a Unicorn can prance around with prolonged Death Blossom/Dodge spam. You can spam Death Blossom too but unless you can max or near max both Acrobatics and Trickery, you’ll just run out of initiative and dodges sooner (until you can afford to buy the traits you need to make this type of specialization possible).

Thanks to everyone who answered my question!
Great thread by the way.

Can I ask an idiot question here, since it’s a newb thread and I might not be assassinated for being an idiot? (I’m a refugee from wow and it’s taking a while to get used to different game mechanics)

So: This is about getting PVP gear. I dinged 80 last night, leveled the last 12 levels by going 0-400 in tailoring and artifice on the basis that I could craft my own gear armour/staff/focus and only have to buy the daggeres (ele: d/d seems mandatory atm if not running staff support).

Most of the rest of the time, I was running with the zerg as a staff ele, following the instructions above – use boons/healing, res everyone, try not to die too often, keep a focus in the kit and use it when possible, give speed buffs, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I’ve come out with a handful of Badges of Honour but that’s it as far as gear goes. I haven’t finished my ‘story’ line yet – and, crucially, have never been near a dungeon. I grew to loathe dungeons in wow and avoided them like the plague and have every intention of doing the same here.
BUT – if I stay in the Wv3, how the kitten am I supposed to gear up? I have the yellow rare gear that I crafted, but it’s not going to impress anyone for long and I haven’t worked out yet how to get the jewels/runes/everything else for PVP.
Can someone enlighten me? Or point me to the info-posts?

thanks

S

Making gold in WvW is usually a slow process. You do need to run some dungeons to make gold. Most people run AC explorable and all 3 paths can be run in less than an hour. With Omnomberry bars, you can get 2+ gold in 1 hour’s work.

Is there no PVP way to grind gear as in WoW? (I realise the game is entirely different, but I’d rather assumed the ‘PVP only’ route was possible?)

thanks, though…

S

Also I would like to add, if you can spare the coins or decide to level on wvw for the most part, put your traits into defensive traits(toughness, vitality) and use CC and buff skills + invul skills.

These skills work at the same effectiveness as a full exotic lv 80 characters’ skills while the toughness you gain from traits will make you at least tanky enough to let you use them. If your build is full damge(power, precision) and you are not lv80 you will drop like flies to random aoe or literally a single shot from certain characters. If you are not alive, you cannot cc or buff allies.

Sapphic.3925:

Can I ask an idiot question here, since it’s a newb thread and I might not be assassinated for being an idiot? (I’m a refugee from wow and it’s taking a while to get used to different game mechanics)

So: This is about getting PVP gear. I dinged 80 last night, leveled the last 12 levels by going 0-400 in tailoring and artifice on the basis that I could craft my own gear armour/staff/focus and only have to buy the daggeres (ele: d/d seems mandatory atm if not running staff support).

Most of the rest of the time, I was running with the zerg as a staff ele, following the instructions above – use boons/healing, res everyone, try not to die too often, keep a focus in the kit and use it when possible, give speed buffs, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I’ve come out with a handful of Badges of Honour but that’s it as far as gear goes. I haven’t finished my ‘story’ line yet – and, crucially, have never been near a dungeon. I grew to loathe dungeons in wow and avoided them like the plague and have every intention of doing the same here.
BUT – if I stay in the Wv3, how the kitten am I supposed to gear up? I have the yellow rare gear that I crafted, but it’s not going to impress anyone for long and I haven’t worked out yet how to get the jewels/runes/everything else for PVP.
Can someone enlighten me? Or point me to the info-posts?

thanks

S

As a new Elementalist that also leveled mainly on crafting, I recommend you keep the rare gear for now. Try to get close enough to blanket the enemy front line with (staff) Fire 2 and 5, Water 2 and 4, Air 5 (air 3 if you see an enemy getting close… if they are breaking your front lines, they are usually chasing someone almost dead), Earth 2 and 4 (and 5 again if another enemy is close). If at any time you start receiving direct fire, or if the ae is starting to hurt, back off; if you’re still unhurt, start the rotation again. The more people you hit, the better your chance of getting a loot bag.

While recovering in the back, rez and use Water 3 and 5 to heal any that you can. Watch for loot bags, as that is where you’re going to pick up money and items to sell. Get a Black Lion Salvage Kit and salvage any yellow items you may get and save the Globs of Ectoplasm. If you can stand to do some dungeons, or even just some PvE in lvl appropriate zones, you will probably get a steadier source of yellows for salvage, as well as raw materials to use for crafting.

At the Tailoring Master, google the different sets that recipes are sold for Intricate Gossamer Insignias, and figure out which Insignia you want to use. You can actually make the (Exotic) version of the (Rare)s that you made, which are a step up. Each insignia is going to require 5 Globs of Ectoplasm and 5 Armored Scales (or another component depending on which insignia you want), so you will need 30 total of each. You can either farm for these, or get them off the Trading Company. Either way, you’re going to need to invest some time either in WvW or PvE. An example of what you will be able to make: http://www.gw2db.com/recipes/7814-knights-exalted-coat

Good luck!

Thank you! – had just switched to Daphoenix’ d/d build and was planning on running it w staff, but will look at some serious staff builds and go back to evil-monster d/d later on…

thanks for the tips on tailoring and exotics. I’ll head out and get a Black Lion Salvage Kit asap.

and then back to the BL

many thanks

S

I just finished a warrior leveling primarily in WvWvW. My tips to lowbies:

Stack toughness. Put all your traits in to toughness first. It doesn’t make a big difference, but enough of a one that you don’t feel squishy all the time.

Food and mechanic wrench Buffs – You can buy the Halloween ones still for very cheap.

Go for more of a support role for while. (I leveled as a banner buffer.)

Pretty much everything else the OP and others have said.

Armor and weapons are very cheap. You can get upgrades from 1-70 for about 3 silver a piece. I usually upgrade about every 5 levels because it is so cheap. I focus purely on defensive stats. Lets face it, you aren’t going to kill a level 80 anyways. Going offense is just gonna make you die faster. Defense makes a huge difference. I was playing an elementalist and catapults were almost one-shotting me. I almost quit playing the class because of how squishy they were. It is one of the hardest newbie classes to play. After I bought the defense gear, it became a lot more manageable to WvW.

Sapphic.3925:

Is there no PVP way to grind gear as in WoW? (I realise the game is entirely different, but I’d rather assumed the ‘PVP only’ route was possible?)

thanks, though…

S

There is a PvP way to grind gear.
Save the karma you get from capturing towers etc.
There are vendors in Orr that sell exotic gear for 42,000 karma per piece.
It’s what I wear, I have never even gone into one of the dungeons or finished the storyline.
Look up karma armor sets on wiki to find which kind you want and where the vendor is. [I play a d/d ele and I wear the Balthazar set with altruism runes]

I bought my daggers with badges of honor and jewelry from the tradepost.

my advice would be stay out of wvw until you gear/level up.

you just become free kills for the enemy.
I have killed thousands of low levels just by pressing 1.

Low leveling WvW tips tlrd;
-Use siege equipment. Stats don’t matter when you’re using a ballista/cannon/whatever.
-Stay within the safety of the zerg.

Something that the OP stated but can be applied to everyone:

Siege is much MUCH more effective than a player can be, no matter what level.

Also, another tip for anyone, especially lower levels, if you’re running through a tower/keep, please “Use” the siege for just one second. This is called “ticking” so the siege doesn’tdisappear. Siege disappears after 3p minutes of inactivity.

Escorting yaks matter! Yaks bring supply to keeps/towers to finish upgrades. A tower with wooden gates/walls is a free tower for the enemy essentially. A keep without a waypoint is that much more easier for the enemy to control your forces over.

Bunzy.8674:

my advice would be stay out of wvw until you gear/level up.

you just become free kills for the enemy.
I have killed thousands of low levels just by pressing 1.

I disagree. Unless EB and all 3 borderlands are queued having one more person of any level is better than not having that person.
There are so many thing that they can do that contribute to server success even if they are relatively easy kills.
They are one more load of supply to build that treb your trying to throw up fast, one more person on an arrow cart, one more set of eyes to alert about attacks (give numbers, location, and whether they are putting up siege, please), one more body to dilute AoEs, one more person casting AoE heals on the rams, one more person casting immobilize on the d/d ele divebombers, one more dolyak killer, etc.

DivineBeing.2086:

… if you’re running through a tower/keep, please “Use” the siege for just one second. This is called “ticking” so the siege doesn’t disappear…

I suggest renaming this practice…it should be called “tickling” the siege.