Guild Wars 2

So I’ve recently given WvW a go. I’m only level 22 but I thought it might be like GW1 where you basically get level capped player/your level upped to the level cap so it’s all more-or-less fair.

From what I’ve seen so far basically there is tons to do and the map also needs exploring as well. Fair enough. However I still feel like I am missing a bit..

As I said I’m 22 scaled up to 80 now. I have all of my level best gear and etc. but I don’t seem to be able to stand a chance on anyone at all who is actually 80, or seems to be higher than me, but still scaled up to 80. The damage I do seems to be a complete pittance compared to those people… I won’t bother explaining my build. But I’m a 22 Warrior with Greatsword/Axe+Axe combo etc. Sometimes I seem to do tons of damage, and AoE wipe a ton of people.. other times I seem to do absolutely no damage at all. It varies so much…

Q: Is this normal? Is this because I am not actually 80, but instead 22 scaled up to 80? I realise everyone else has their traits, more skills and etc. Is this why it seems like I catch even ‘match’ others? I don’t stand a chance when 2 or more enemies attack me and I die in about 1-2 seconds… while other people seem to be able to take on 5+ people at once without even dodging or anything.

Q: How do I/we even win WvW? It seems that whenever the timer gets down to 0, even if I am on the winning side. Nothing at all happens… I don’t get any xp/money/karma etc… the timer just either goes to —:--:— or it resets.

Q: Why is everyone just ‘standing there’ on a fortress or whatever that we own? Why isn’t anyone capping anything? It seems like there are more people defending a place that the other team isn’t attacking. Rather than attacking another base themselves. Why is this? I don’t want to AFK at a base defending it for 25 minutes to get absolutely nothing.. is that the whole point of WvW?

Q: A few friends of mine said that WvW is hands down one of the fastest ways to level up. I quickly did 4 dynamic events and got basically half a level. But then for 20 minutes I couldn’t find or do anything and it seemed like it would have been just as fast to do PvE normally…

Q: Do I really seriously have to keep resurrecting all the way back at my home base right at the top (etc.) part of the map when I die? Can I really not resurrect closer to where the fighting is or something? It takes like 5 minutes to walk back to the fight… which I don’t consider fun at all and most of the time everyone has moved or died so I don’t even know where anyone is! Is there a way to resurrect closer to the fight? Or do I just have to hope that one of my alive teammates will resurrect me…?

Q: My friends also said that WvW is the easiest way to earn lots of money early on… but it only seems to be possible to get stuff that I can vendor or whatever from killing others.. which is hard to do because of the first thing I wrote here.. the gear that I get from ‘bags of loot’ doesn’t seem all that decent and the amount of money I get from selling it doesn’t even cover the repair costs for my armor. I think it’s really stupid that you should have to pay to repair your armor if you die in WvW. So how am I supposed to make money in WvW? Or is it not possible…?

Q: It seems like 4 games can go by (by this I mean when the timer resets 4 times) and we still haven’t captured any new bases at all. People are just still standing there in fortresses afking or whatever… why is everyone just wasting their time standing still doing nothing?

Basically apart from the dynamic events which are indeed dynamic because you never FHSDJGSHDGSDJ know where they are! That there is nothing more that WvW adds to anything except the experience of killing other players or in most cases, being slaughtered by other players and doing the odd dynamic event for a bit of xp and Karma etc…

It would be great if I always knew where the fighting was at so I could join in, and I didn’t have to always teleport right back to all the asura gates when I die… just to spend 5 minutes walking back again…

Thanks seriously very much for answering any and all help.

Per your first “Q” issue, having a full array of skills and traits at max 80 level is a huge bonus. And at 22 you haven’t even opened up your “Elite” trinket slots yet.

You should be running in a pack at your level, stop solo exploring … lol

I can give you a run down of what you should do in WvW.

A). Always follow the pack. Aka “The Zerg”.
B). Capture Supply camps/Sentry points and kill Dolyaks, they are easy way to obtain Xp/Karma/Money.
C). If a Keep/tower is being under attack, Use range weapons to attack the enemy For every 3 minutes, you get Xp/Karma/Money.
D). When fighting enemies, ( not alone ), Try to use aoe and hit as much enemies as possible. It will give u a greater chance for loot when they are dead.
E). Don’t try to die a lot.. Repairs are expensive. Be an expert at your class. Having utility skills help.

lvl80 is much stronger than lvl22 boosted to fake lvl80.

WvW is the slowest to level, whoever told you otherwise has no idea what he’s talking about. You will level at least 5x faster in PvE. There are people who play WvW for 20min, have a nice chain of events, and think that’s how it is in WvW all the time.

You can ressurect closer if your server built Waypoints in other Keeps. Or keep laying down hoping someone else will ressurect you. Or, you work on having almost permanent 33% Swiftness, but on low lvl your options are limited.

WvW is bad for gaining money. You can get 5x more in PvE, easily. Your friends have no clue what they’re talking about. A good run in WvW can get you nice amount of money but even then not more than you can get in PvE. Average amount of WvW profit however is nowhere near average in PvE.

You can know where the fighting is by looking at the Swords on the map. Other than that, you should know where the fighting is by asking in the team chat (ideally, people would be told from time to time), or going to Teamspeak.

Thanks a ton for the replies guys.

I know that I should be in a group, basically kiting enemies at my skill/trait level. But it’s really hard to find the zerg group. Especially if I die I have to go all the way back to the entrance. So even if I was with the group, if we all died no one can rez me. More or less no one rezes anyone anyway. I’m always rezzing people…

Thanks again for taking the time to read my lengthy post and provide help

LeijonaSisu.4760:

Q: Is this normal? Is this because I am not actually 80, but instead 22 scaled up to 80? I realise everyone else has their traits, more skills and etc. Is this why it seems like I catch even ‘match’ others? I don’t stand a chance when 2 or more enemies attack me and I die in about 1-2 seconds… while other people seem to be able to take on 5+ people at once without even dodging or anything.

A: Your gear compared to a full set of lvl 80 exotic gear and all the trait points/unlocked skills you have at 80 is the main reason why you’re seeing a major difference. I can’t speak on specifics to you in particular, as I don’t play a warrior myself..

Q: How do I/we even win WvW? It seems that whenever the timer gets down to 0, even if I am on the winning side. Nothing at all happens… I don’t get any xp/money/karma etc… the timer just either goes to —:--:— or it resets.

A: That timer only counts down to when points will be distributed to each world based on the amount on control points they currently own on all 4 maps. You personally only get the added benefits from the world benefits that your server has accumulated from these points.

Q: Why is everyone just ‘standing there’ on a fortress or whatever that we own? Why isn’t anyone capping anything? It seems like there are more people defending a place that the other team isn’t attacking. Rather than attacking another base themselves. Why is this? I don’t want to AFK at a base defending it for 25 minutes to get absolutely nothing.. is that the whole point of WvW?

A?: I’m curious about this because, personally, I don’t think ENOUGH people defend. Ever heard the phrase, “Defense is the best offense”? Too many times I’ve seen an upgraded keep with our orb in it just get waltzed into by invaders and ganked because no one was bothering to defend the kitten thing. To me, it seems the majority is just interested in zerg-capping then abandoning. Some feel that it’s better to let it go and just re-cap it later for more XP/karma/gold. It seems to be a major topic of debate right now and everyone has differing views.

Q: A few friends of mine said that WvW is hands down one of the fastest ways to level up. I quickly did 4 dynamic events and got basically half a level. But then for 20 minutes I couldn’t find or do anything and it seemed like it would have been just as fast to do PvE normally…

A: It comes and goes, if you’re only there to get levels and gold, you’re there for the wrong reasons anyway and you should probably be in a PvE zone..

Q: Do I really seriously have to keep resurrecting all the way back at my home base right at the top (etc.) part of the map when I die? Can I really not resurrect closer to where the fighting is or something? It takes like 5 minutes to walk back to the fight… which I don’t consider fun at all and most of the time everyone has moved or died so I don’t even know where anyone is! Is there a way to resurrect closer to the fight? Or do I just have to hope that one of my alive teammates will resurrect me…?

A: I kinda agree with you here, but there ARE waypoints that can be built deeper into the map if your server holds onto a keep long enough. Defense again.

Q: My friends also said that WvW is the easiest way to earn lots of money early on… but it only seems to be possible to get stuff that I can vendor or whatever from killing others.. which is hard to do because of the first thing I wrote here.. the gear that I get from ‘bags of loot’ doesn’t seem all that decent and the amount of money I get from selling it doesn’t even cover the repair costs for my armor. I think it’s really stupid that you should have to pay to repair your armor if you die in WvW. So how am I supposed to make money in WvW? Or is it not possible…?

A: Same answer as above. It’s possible to make great money in WvW but it’s not guaranteed. It’s way more volatile than PvE cash farming.

Q: It seems like 4 games can go by (by this I mean when the timer resets 4 times) and we still haven’t captured any new bases at all. People are just still standing there in fortresses afking or whatever… why is everyone just wasting their time standing still doing nothing?

A: Not sure what server you’re on, but on my server I hardly ever see that. People don’t wait in hour-long queues to just stand around and AFK once they finally get in.

My last thought is that WvW is there if you want to play it.. Hopefully Anet changes some things around eventually, but ultimately it is what it is.. I suggest you WvW more and get more involved if you’re curious about it. You’ll have a lot more fun with it if you’re engaged in what is going on instead of focusing on making cash/levels there. Cheers!

Hello there!
I’ve leveled many characters while WvW’ing so I’ll try to answer your questions as clearly as possible.

LeijonaSisu.4760:

As I said I’m 22 scaled up to 80 now. I have all of my level best gear and etc. but I don’t seem to be able to stand a chance on anyone at all who is actually 80, or seems to be higher than me, but still scaled up to 80. The damage I do seems to be a complete pittance compared to those people… I won’t bother explaining my build. But I’m a 22 Warrior with Greatsword/Axe+Axe combo etc. Sometimes I seem to do tons of damage, and AoE wipe a ton of people.. other times I seem to do absolutely no damage at all. It varies so much…

Higher level means better gear and, most importantly, more trait points. I wouldn’t play melee before level 80 if I were you. Grab a longbow and start dishing out AoE damage; I’m leveling a warrior right now and it’s working very well.

Q: Is this normal? Is this because I am not actually 80, but instead 22 scaled up to 80? I realise everyone else has their traits, more skills and etc. Is this why it seems like I catch even ‘match’ others? I don’t stand a chance when 2 or more enemies attack me and I die in about 1-2 seconds… while other people seem to be able to take on 5+ people at once without even dodging or anything.

Don’t expect to last long if people focus you down and try to stay with a rather large group (obvious, I know). At level 22 you don’t even have an elite skill yet. Sure there are times you can beat another player 1v1, try to aim for squishier targets like elementalists if you really have to.

Q: How do I/we even win WvW? It seems that whenever the timer gets down to 0, even if I am on the winning side. Nothing at all happens… I don’t get any xp/money/karma etc… the timer just either goes to —:--:— or it resets.

WvW matches last one week and reset Fridays at 8pm EST. You can see the current score by pressing “B”. The timer you see is the remaining time until the next point tally (every 15 minutes). Depending on how many objectives your server holds, you will see a number between +0 and +695 at the top of the screen. These points will be added to the total score every 15 minutes. You do not get karma or gold from that, you get it from dynamic events which work just like in PvE.

Q: Why is everyone just ‘standing there’ on a fortress or whatever that we own? Why isn’t anyone capping anything? It seems like there are more people defending a place that the other team isn’t attacking. Rather than attacking another base themselves. Why is this? I don’t want to AFK at a base defending it for 25 minutes to get absolutely nothing.. is that the whole point of WvW?

I can’t say for certain, but it might have been guild members who decided to watch over this area while others were doing something else. Reading the chat is very important (and very hard to understand at first) in order to know what’s happening and to follow enemy movement as well.

Q: A few friends of mine said that WvW is hands down one of the fastest ways to level up. I quickly did 4 dynamic events and got basically half a level. But then for 20 minutes I couldn’t find or do anything and it seemed like it would have been just as fast to do PvE normally…

That really depends. If there’s a very good group going on your team, running around and capping camps, towers and keeps without much resistance does give a nice reward for your minimal effort. If your team is struggling, then it will be harder to complete those events.

(continued in next post)

Q: Do I really seriously have to keep resurrecting all the way back at my home base right at the top (etc.) part of the map when I die? Can I really not resurrect closer to where the fighting is or something? It takes like 5 minutes to walk back to the fight… which I don’t consider fun at all and most of the time everyone has moved or died so I don’t even know where anyone is! Is there a way to resurrect closer to the fight? Or do I just have to hope that one of my alive teammates will resurrect me…?

Unless your team upgrades the Garrison (north of the lake) or one of the two keeps east and west of the lake to have a waypoint, then yes this is the only way. Either you wait for someone to resurrect you, or you run back. If you go back to spawn, you can wait a bit and go out with a few other players so you stand a better chance if you encounter enemies.

Q: My friends also said that WvW is the easiest way to earn lots of money early on… but it only seems to be possible to get stuff that I can vendor or whatever from killing others.. which is hard to do because of the first thing I wrote here.. the gear that I get from ‘bags of loot’ doesn’t seem all that decent and the amount of money I get from selling it doesn’t even cover the repair costs for my armor. I think it’s really stupid that you should have to pay to repair your armor if you die in WvW. So how am I supposed to make money in WvW? Or is it not possible…?

Event rewards and loot scale with your level. It is possible to make money at higher levels, but it’s nothing compared to making money in PvE in my opinion.

Q: It seems like 4 games can go by (by this I mean when the timer resets 4 times) and we still haven’t captured any new bases at all. People are just still standing there in fortresses afking or whatever… why is everyone just wasting their time standing still doing nothing?

This is a question difficult to answer when we don’t know what was happening on the server at that time.

Basically apart from the dynamic events which are indeed dynamic because you never FHSDJGSHDGSDJ know where they are! That there is nothing more that WvW adds to anything except the experience of killing other players or in most cases, being slaughtered by other players and doing the odd dynamic event for a bit of xp and Karma etc…

Events are very straightforward in WvW. Here’s a list off the top of my head:

- Kill an enemy dolyak (supply caravan). All dolyaks are visible on the map at all times.

- Repel the enemy attackers: If the enemy (Players or NPCs) attack any objective you own, this event will trigger. If you kill something within the next three minutes, you get the reward. The event will pop again if the battle continues after the first three minutes, making long siege battles very lucrative for the defenders.

- Claiming land (sentries): Sentries are NPCs (Veteran Guards) standing at key points on supply roads and are represented by a flag. Killing an enemy sentry and then capping the point by standing in the colored circle will complete the event.

- Capping objectives (supply camps, towers, keeps): When assaulting enemy objectives, you first have to kill the Lord to be able to cap. Once the Lord is dead, a colored circle will appear and you will be able to cap once no enemy is found in said circle. Bigger objectives yield bigger rewards.

There are also some PvE events in the top corners of the map. Note that the rewards for escorting dolyaks have been disabled until further notice.

It would be great if I always knew where the fighting was at so I could join in, and I didn’t have to always teleport right back to all the asura gates when I die… just to spend 5 minutes walking back again…

WvW is all about a lot of people fighting battles all over the place, so communication is vital. It takes a while to learn all the abbreviations thrown around in the chat, but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to follow what’s going on and you WvW experience will be better!

Don’t give up!

edit: Bringing speed boosts makes a huge difference. Along with my longbow, I bring Sword/Warhorn for Charge and the Sword’s skill #2 to cover ground more quickly. Alternatively, you can bring a banner and use skills #3 and #4 on it.

LeijonaSisu.4760:

I know that I should be in a group, basically kiting enemies at my skill/trait level. But it’s really hard to find the zerg group.

Every server is gonna have their own standout commanders/leaders. Look on the map for the “Blue” dots roaming around. Usually these guys/gals will have a pack following them as they are easy to spot when you solo queue into a WvW.

Make a beeline for the closest Blue dot from your vantage point and follow them around.

In time you will recognize the true standout leaders that play the same time as you and you will eventually pick favorites to ride their coat tails, haha.

Thanks so much really guys. You’ve probably really helped a lot of first timers like me

You honestly have to ask questions about WVW?? I didnt have a clue when i went in just follow the zerg in chat, nobody can explain it, just do your own thing.

Basically, the smaller your group, the higher each member’s level needs to be. I ran a 5-10 man tactical group 3 in the party were less than level 55, BUT we did really well. We chose our battles, assisted one another, communicated over voip with ourselves and a map commander and stopped a few big pushes from gaining momentum.

Number 2; SIEGE.

It’s the great equalizer. Learn where and when to deploy siege and how long it takes to build it. 20-30 people fell to 4 of our arrow carts at hills south gate. They never got a ram off the ground.