Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed time and time again a lot of people do not know how to properly play in WvWvW, or a lot of new people join in and immediately declare they have no idea what to do. What I’ll attempt to do is start a bit of a primer for those new to WvWvW or those who have tried it, and don’t get it. Going forward I’ll refer to WvWvW as W3.

Warning, this is pretty long

1.) It’s not about the zerg: You may be tempted to join in the massive cluster of characters running from point to point, but there is much more strategy to W3 than many realize. Zerg’s seem appealing, but there are ways to counter them with minimal numbers which I will get into more detail below. What I suggest, break into smaller groups, form teams with others, and cooperate for objectives. Don’t just run around like a flock of sheep.

2.) Always carry supply: Every structure repaired and every siege weapon deployed requires supply. To get supply, head to the nearest captured camp, run to the pile of boxes and press F. Never take it from a Keep or Tower if it can be helped, as a stockpile is always needed for upgrades. Supply is the key to holding and taking all locations, so make sure you carry your share of 10 supply at all times. To build siege (blueprints are bought at a siege master) you need to use the supply you have in conjunction with other players to complete deployment of everything from a ram to golem. To use your supply, run to a deployment site, and press F. You will dump your supply into the deployment site and contribute to the war effort.

3.) Long range Sieging: Banging on doors is not only boring, but gets you killed. The key to taking any keeps or towers in long range siege, preferably from high ground. A lot of the key keeps on a map are surrounded by key towers which can be used against them. I’ll use Stonemist in the Eternal Battleground as a prime example. It is surrounded by several towers, 2 per server that are all in within range of trebuchet bombardment. Lets say you are on the bottom right of the EB, I believe that should be the blue server, try setting up a trebuchet in Durios Gulch. From within the walls of this tower, you can bombard Stonemist with relative safety as any enemy forces will either need to counter siege, with a trebuchet of their own, or take the tower. I should note however, that when bombarding using trebuchets, aim for the walls, not gates. Both trebuchets and catapults are extremely effective against a wall, but only do about 50% damage to gates.

4.) Defensive Siege: This is where arrow carts and ballista come in handy. Set the arrow carts on walls, preferably facing every possible direction an attack can come from. Ballistas are a bit trickier as they require a line of site, so place them on high ground. You can usually find a good spot In most captured points. Arrow carts are good for AOE defense, whereas ballistas deal massive single target damage, so use both in every defensive situation as the combination of the two will help you in most situations. Use of this defensive siege will allow a smaller number of defenders to fight of a larger force. I’ve held a supply camp from 35 invaders, with only 6 people using several arrow carts and a single ballista for over 40 minutes before being finally flanked and overrun.

5.) Capture everything: Take points for your server. Everything from camps, patrol points and Keeps. They net you the most coin, exp and karma, so they are your primary objective. Killing players should only be a means to that objective and in no way your primary goal here.

6.) Backdoors, backdoors everywhere: Learn where back doors are. All major keeps have a hidden entrance, or multiple gates that usually go undefended. Don’t just attack the central entrance or the one closest to you. Even the garrison has an entrance in the water of each borderland. The 3 keeps on the EB should also each have 2 hidden entrances, find these, learn them, and use them. During the BWE I’ve had small groups of 8-10 breach an underground gate of a keep, breach the next gate and take the keep lord all while the defending team were busy at there main door. It’s difficult to describe the locations of many of these spots, and I don’t know every one of them, so I leave it to you to discover them.

7.) Spawning: Don’t just run straight out of your waypoint in every battleground. There are exits to either side. If you run straight, you are likely to run into a bunch of unfriendlies waiting to kill anyone wandering on their own, or a massive zerg fest that goes nowhere. Taking side exits lead you to one of 2 camps on either side of your waypoint, and provides a viable means to capture them if you don’t hold them, and also provide an excellent opportunity to either flank a zerg, or take other points. Use them, and use them often.

8.) Jumping Puzzle: I’m not saying here to do them, they do offer nice loot, even siege weapons, but if your server needs help, ignore them. These should only really be done if your forces secured a good chunk of the map and things are quiet.

9.) Escorting: Dolyaks carrying supply to towers are very important. Protect them, but don’t mindlessly follow them. The rewards have been disable as they were exploited, so, if you run by, keep an eye out for enemies, kill anything that may be on them, but don’t just follow them. I usually just take a quick look, and run off to capture points. Upon completion of their supply delivery, you will still get an event completion, but you wont have wasted your time doing nothing for the whole time. All I can stress is, just keep an eye on them, but don’t waste your time following them. You can also speed them up with speed buffs, so I suggest using that to get supply to objectives faster. They are also important to your enemies. If you see an unfriendly Dolyak, kill it, and do it fast.

10.) Use your skills for the greater good: There are a lot of useful skills that work really well for WvWvW. Necros and some of the other classes can pull defenders off walls for instance, or Guardians can use their bubbles to push enemies off bridges, or block access to keeps by using the bubble outside a gate. Take advantage of your classes strengths.

Feel free to add to this if you would like. These are all my personal observations and my opinion on proper strategy in W3. They have done me well, and will benefit the community if more people are aware of them. You will quickly learn alot can be done without zerging around for 3 hours.

I Apologize for the wall of text.

Good Post – I think everyone could gain something from reading it if they want to take W3 seriously.

Great post. This should be stickied.

I was about to post something similar to this, but you did a better job than I.

Anyway, I wanted to add my own points.

Remember, Sunspears Never Fight Alone: Always try to find other players with similar goals to you, ask in team chat, state what you intend to do and if you get any whispers invite them. Just dont spam chat, no one likes a spammer.

When possible, stick near allied NPCs. 2v1 or is a lot easier than 1v1.

Do NOT go for SMC, unless you have good control over the supply. Not only yours, but also theirs. Remember, supply can be used to repair gates and trying to take SMC when the enemy has excellent supply income will result in a battle that will probably never end. Many Zergs may sooner or later go for SMC, they are just wasting their time.

Unless you have excellent survivability, be very careful when you get in close and personal in big battles. You are no good to your team if you are dead. Get in close and you will get a lot of attention from the enemy. And you may drop in a matter of seconds.

Dont underestimate control abilities and movement enhancing abilities. They can make the difference between life and death both for you and the enemy. A dead player has to go back to the nearest spawn point, unless ressurected.

Dont ressurect the moment you died, observe the situation you are in, if your group wins the battle they will probably ressurect you.

As the TC said, small groups of even 3 can do serious damage to an enemy faction dephending on how you play. A small group of 3 can easily take supply camps, intercept Dolyaks, ally with the 3 subfactions and other smaller (but not necessarily less important tasks).

If your party gets defeated or if you get defeated while you are alone while in nearby territory your server controls, watch the direction your killer(s) went after defeating you. Alert your server through team chat of where they are headed and hopefully your server organizes a defense force to counter the enemy.

Always pay attention to the map/team chat.

I tried to avoid the whole chat thing above. It can get confusing to figure out who knows what they are doing sometimes. I’ve tried to organize people on Janthir, but always have 5 other guys firing off conflicting commands. Unfortunately, without a way to stress peoples experience in WvW chat will likely continue to be a bit of a pain.