Guild Wars 2

The gears in my head have been turning recently ever since these free transfers to low pop servers came into place.

Ferguson’s Crossing and Eredon Terrace both have received some transfers from higher end WvW guilds in t2. The first encounter I had with one of these guilds was an entirely new experience, a massive group clustered up together on top of each more, plowing through our masses together utilizing combo fields and tanky builds.

It was something completely new and shiny and quite a few of us were fascinated by the tactic. We’ve come up with out own countermeasures since then, but I haven’t had that much ‘strategical’ fun in awhile. Coming up with new strategies, ploys, tactics, etc.

So my questions for all my fellow WvW’ers in higher tiers. Mind sharing some of your tactics and strategies you use in different encounters? Expose your secrets and give us on the lower end something to play around with, maybe post some video of strats that you are proud of.

The end goal here is to learn, I forgot much we had to change our strategies around when the game first came out, being in t8 for as long as we have has stagnated our battles. So… teach me.

Sidequestion: Hypothetically, if I were to temporarily transfer to learn some new WvW strats, what tiers/servers should I be looking for to see the most variety?

Strategy #1

Create your own zergball to counter the other person’s zergball. That is the whole strategy involved lol.

…. and /endthread we have a winner. Though I was more looking for strategy, whether its group composition, siege placement, event handling, etc or a little of everything combined.

Maybe there isn’t much else different in higher tiers, it was worth an inquiry though.

Zergballs are pretty common at tier 3, 2 and 1, if you want to beat them the most easy way is to create your own zergball, and create a mentality of group focused builds, no kidding, also you need coordination, VoIP softwares like TS, Mumble, RC, Vent, etc etc.

Adapt and evolve, we don’t have a choice.

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

…. and /endthread we have a winner. Though I was more looking for strategy, whether its group composition, siege placement, event handling, etc or a little of everything combined.

Maybe there isn’t much else different in higher tiers, it was worth an inquiry though.

Well its a little more complicated then just creating your own zergball

Like the poster above me mentioned it is imperative that everyone in the zergball is communicating through a VOIP program. Also it is imperative that you have some sort of class composition and not just a bunch of rangers running around. 4-5 necro’s 7-8 ele’s, 5-6 gaurdians, 4 or so warriors, and 4-5 mesmers seems to work great. Now the strategy involved in beating a zergball is catching them off guard or using terrain to win. If its just head on zergball vs zergball it is imperative you have some sort of “death wall” call out over VOIP which means half the people CC the front of the zerg while the other half CC the back. You want to alternate static fields for ele’s which is their best CC other than frozen earth and plague form with Necro’s . For example plague one go now….plague two go now…static field 1 and 2 hit the back of the zerg static field 3 and 4 hit the front of the zerg etc. You also may want to make a melee front line and a range back line who both have two different commanders. Example…melee front line attack zerg from front while range back line cuts left and ranges them from the side. No one hardly uses portal anymore except in rare situations. Vale can be used going around corners and stuff but it is very hard to use in the open field now since culling has been fixed. Literally the most important thing in zerg vs zerg fights is getting your CC off before the other zerg gets their CC off and this is acheived through surprise by scouting the other zerg. IF you get your CC off first you basically win 100% of the time.

JQ tier 1 super secret zerg steam roller strategy…..Commander calls “food” and “eat up”….people drop food, everyone eats that needs it…Commander calls out “cast boons” or “boon up”….everyone casts so most everyone gets boons….then charge the other zerg. Not too complicated.

SilencingMachine.5049:

JQ tier 1 super secret zerg steam roller strategy…..Commander calls “food” and “eat up”….people drop food, everyone eats that needs it…Commander calls out “cast boons” or “boon up”….everyone casts so most everyone gets boons….then charge the other zerg. Not too complicated.

It is completely different when you are talking to people were meta changes aren’t forced upon them. Not to degrade any tier or server, but T1 is the most “adapt or die” tier. Calling “boon up” to someone who doesn’t have group boons or boon duration is pointless in a group fight. Simply put: the meta outside of T1/2 is worlds away from the meta in other tiers, especially T8.

From what I’ve seen so far in T8 is full glass cannon, small ops roaming groups then when a tower/keep is attacked, they group up. For example we held 4 major pushes of at least 70-80 SF last night with 15-20 at Bravost in EB. It isn’t as simple as “stack up and win”, builds, rotations, boons, CC and damage output all play an important part. You can’t just stack 80 people in 1 spot and expect to win if you don’t look at it on the micro and macro scale.

Advice: take a look at what you want to accomplish and organize your team to best suit what is needed. Also, guilds from T1/2 aren’t just going to say “here this is what you need to win”, we’ve all spent way too much time theorycrafting builds to just give away war secrets but put in the time and you will be rewarded.

Smokey offered a good and typical zerg v zerg attack sequence but that is only possible with great coordination, the right builds and the right classes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zM_sBiDWdzQ

pre patch, still works, with coordinate veils

also watch some of the recent RG, VoTF, Golden Horde vods posted, lots of good gvg and open field combat tactics

hmm..
zvz battles sound like typical 17th-19th century european armies.

what beat that? guerrilla tactics. winters.

insanemaniac.2456:

hmm..
zvz battles sound like typical 17th-19th century european armies.

what beat that? guerrilla tactics. winters.

No disrespect to guerilla tactics, but both large forces and guerilla tactics work side by side and complement each other.

WvW is a take and hold type of meta. With a larger force, it is easy to take down and hold objectives more effectively and efficiently.

The OP is also interested in looking beyond just small fights but also at the possibilities of fights requiring team synergy and much larger amounts of coordination, so this reply is not answering his question.

BenL.5312:

insanemaniac.2456:

hmm..
zvz battles sound like typical 17th-19th century european armies.

what beat that? guerrilla tactics. winters.

No disrespect to guerilla tactics, but both large forces and guerilla tactics work side by side and complement each other.

WvW is a take and hold type of meta. With a larger force, it is easy to take down and hold objectives more effectively and efficiently.

both very true. why do we fight now like we do? weve had weapons developments that make it extremely unwise to put together large forces and charge. things like machine guns and bombs allow us to let a large group basically suicide into a few people. whats comparable in game? ballistas and arrow carts.

so 2 things:

-there is no substantial death penalty. we need to make it substantial ourselves and not just throw our faces at short reinforcement lines.

-50v50 can be all good and fun… but 45v50 isnt much different, and 5 people can take a tower instead while the 45 not only fight their best, but also stall as long as possible.

my point is that theres a reason european armies drifted away from large centralized forces marching around in nonnatural colors, and just saying “well guerrilla tactics work w/ zergs too” is just you deciding not to think about the problem and how you can improve. because when you actually use some of these tactics and win a battle with slightly fewer people than usual, your peripheral arm of people may succeed in their objective as well and actually get you tangible gains out of winning the battle instead of “welp theyre gonna respawn lets do it again”.

Hello,

pulsecodesgnl.3470:

Sidequestion: Hypothetically, if I were to temporarily transfer to learn some new WvW strats, what tiers/servers should I be looking for to see the most variety?

You would be looking at T1 or T2.

Zergballs or the superdense blitzballs relies heavily on mobility & surprise like the blitzkrieg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg). It’s a very dense spearhead that punches through enemy lines to distrupt and destroy. It is extremely effective and most conventional forces use this type of warfare even till this day.

If you have smaller numbers, the open field does not offer an advantage to your team. The enemy would have all the mobility and a competent blitzball driver would be unpredictable.

LIke the blitzkrieg, the blitzballs can be destroyed when you deny mobility & surprise.

One of the few ways to stop a blitzball with a smaller force is using a choke point defense. With enough ACs, necro AOEs, stuns, AOE block, I have seen 15-20 man completely wipe one of the top 3 guilds in GW2 fielding a larger force.

The key to to choke point defense the the use of advance scouting & early prep of siege and manpower much like how the blitzkrieg was stopped cold in the Kursk offensive.

insanemaniac.2456:

hmm..
zvz battles sound like typical 17th-19th century european armies.

what beat that? guerrilla tactics. winters.

Unfortunately that won’t work on blitzballs. Guerrilla tactics by insurgents are designed to disrupt logistics, patrols and softer targets away from the battlefield front lines (in real world warfare). In the game, this would work against camps, dolyaks, escorts, etc but not against blitzballs.

FW

Lance.5892:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zM_sBiDWdzQ

pre patch, still works, with coordinate veils

also watch some of the recent RG, VoTF, Golden Horde vods posted, lots of good gvg and open field combat tactics

It lost its sting when culling was removed. It still "works"but the players are only invisible for the stealth duration, not for the entire fight

As one of our commanders would say:

- Front line: hammer warriors, guardians
- Mid line: necros, support eles
- Back line: dps eles, mesmers

If you’re a thief, engy, or ranger go reroll a class that isnt useless.

Peetee.9406:

As one of our commanders would say:

- Front line: hammer warriors, guardians
- Mid line: necros, support eles
- Back line: dps eles, mesmers

If you’re a thief, engy, or ranger go reroll a class that isnt useless.

yeah try and find any other class than a thief that can burst 4 shots of blast finishers in less than 5 seconds. People these days would say any kind of crap just because they hate something or did not find anything useful themsleves in a specific thing.

I run my thief front of the line with a bow providing Retaliation, healing, regen, chaos armour and condition removal to our guards and warrs. At times we the thieves make a difference when we blast finish and bring back a zerg that came a bit more close to failing with the blast finishers rapidness. there is no cool down on it just initiative limit.

I hope you understand the role of a thief in a zerg now.

4 months mang

Yeah thieves still had the same role in a zerg 4 months back :-p

While thieves and rangers are not the “meat” of a zerg the thief blast finisher and the ranger healing spring are better than any other comparable skill from any other class by a mile. Those skills might not be necessary but valuable nonetheless.

I don’t know much about engis so I will leave that one to someone else.

When ever you have a supply surplus start building golems and sit them in your keep or spawn. Even if you don’t plan to use them that way when your done you can do one last rush or leave them there for the guys taking your place.

When ever you leave a map unattended make sure you tell people if you guys have a community ts tell some of the large guilds if you don’t tell people in lions arch include enemy army info and if the map is out manned if you are able send a guildy to say something ahead of time so they could relieve you.

Keep guildies in keeps and rotate new ones in every 15min for guard duty.