Guild Wars 2

Is going around reporting enemy activity such as zergs on the march or gathering forces considered useful our am I wasting my time typing?
Got any tips how to gather useful intel?

It is very useful, just make sure you keep things accurate. Sometime ppl see 2 mesmers a necro and a ranger an are like “OMG HUGE ZERG TO BAY” not realizing that all the red are pets and stuff. so get a decent head count and say “10 at greenbriar, with 2 rams”

You may get no response but that is because most guilds are on vent/mumble/TS and are probably communicating it and going to check it out.

so general rules:
- call out important things
- don’t over exaggerate
- give head count and siege count if time permits
- give proper location name (not “there’s a zerg over here”)

Also give cardinal directions. Where players are coming FROM is as important as where they’re going TO. “20-25 invaders inc to Bay NE outer door from East with supporting treb fire from garrison” is something I like to see. “OMG their whole zerg is at our keep” is completely useless.
Keep on scouting. The more info you give, the better people can respond.

give numbers and give a location.

don’t always expect people to show up

No it isn’t useless, buddy. People move off good intel, they just don’t send you a personalized thank you note each time.

The most important thing I can think to know is to leave your personal feelings out of it. Just give raw info. Give #‘s, direction traveled, any siege weapons, % left on your doors/walls. When I’m one man defending something I just type something like,“20+ Red @ _, no siege. Gate 90%”

You don’t wanna blog in the chat. Think brevity. Think specifics. You don’t want to demoralize the whole team by saying useless things like “OMG!” or “RUN!” Sometimes you even gotta exaggerate the health of your gate! Nobody will come running for a gate at 20%, but they’ll come for one at 50%.

You can even scout around for a target. Running up close to something will let you see how many supplies are inside it. Note the wall/door upgrades. Any siege you see behind the door. As a Norn, if I kill the door guards, I can look in and see if there’s a catapult back there.

If you’re one of those kids that are constantly typing in the chat, telling everybody about everything you see, you need to quit doing that. Sure, it’s just a game. Sure, most of you are kids. But if you listen to police radio chatter, it’s a good example of what kind of info is necessary to share. Imagine if it was full of feelings and emotions like WvW chat is. Imagine if people always said in 10 sentences what could be said in 10 words!

It’s good to see a thread like this after skimming through this sea of whines and complains.