Guild Wars 2

Is there a good guide anywhere that shows where exactly to best place siege in and around different keeps and towers for defensive use?

With the limited FOV and awkward camera placement on some of the weapons (plus trying to place them to avoid being instantly killed by magical wall-climing AOE), the “right” spot to put them isn’t always obvious (or even vaguely sensible, in some cases).

I did not realize, for instance, that trebs and catas placed in a courtyard can just shoot straight at the door and (apparently) the AOE goes “through” the door and hits everyone outside trying to get in.

In my limited time in WvW so far, I almost never see people make any effort to place siege in order to actually hold something we just took, so it’s rare that I get to see someone at work who seems to know what they’re doing. I did see a commander from GSCH siege up a tower very nicely yesterday, and later we beat back a sizeable zerg with just a cata and treb in the courtyard, and one AC up on a hill overlooking the gate.

Anyway, I wonder if anyone has done a video or screenshot guide showing, for the different types of siege weapons, the basics of “put X here, and then you can cover this and this area with poison cloud / gravel,” for the various tower and keep layouts.

I also had not realized before I played with a couple of them I found sitting around that trebs and mortars can be put in a tower or keep and hit a whole other tower or keep nearby. I assume that people use these so rarely in-game because you need a spotter and to actually plan ahead a little to make use of them. But these two weapons seem to have a lot of potential power if placed and used correctly.

it takes a bit of getting used to depending on the place and map. however here are some.

on arrow carts, don’t hastily put it anywhere on a wall. aoe will reach it. try to see if you can find stairs near the area, and place it on the edge farthest from the wall. that way, only the largest aoes can reach it, lengthening it’s lifespan for those crunchtime moments (if they can reach it at all). this however is best done with aoe skill upgrades so you’ll have better reach at the spot you want to fire. it also has an aoe that can go through doors and is very deadly and arguably op when radius stacked. it can also be put on top of lowlands vista roof(ebg) and garri (bl) making for a very effective lord room def.

ballista is a….uh, usually underwhelming siege weap. since it doesn’t fire an arc like the others, it has a poor angle of sight. with skill upgrades, range though is very effective. while it does pack quite a punch specially on siege weaps and is effective on straight chokepoints specially if partnered with ac. try to see if you can spot high places facing gates. for example, the northeast corner of overlook keep facing veloka tower in eternal bg. there’s also a spot high on a cliff in garri outergate in borderlands. my rule of the thumb before placing ballista is(as long as you have range upgrade), if you can click the object without a ballista, then a ballista can reach it where you’re standing.

trebs and catas are a bit more simple to plan as long as it can reach their target. just try to avoid placing the trebs on outer walls as possible to prevent easy aoeing unless there is a need. it might be best to partner it with an ac near it (again on edge of stairs) so it has minor defense help. trebs for example in valley keep in ebg placed at both inner wall sides can reach bravost and langor and their respective gates. even as far as danelon mine entrance.

siege weapons can also be placed on top of supply houses in ebg.

just basic suggestions
the rest, you’ll get it along the way.

I was researching on the exact same thing just now. Came across this thread :p
I found this esp. usefull:
http://core.gw2gt.com/training/commander-training/overall-defensive-siege.aspx

Would love to learn more about def in wvw. I find myself enjoying that aspect of the game.

One thing I was wondering about: with arrow carts, if you don’t have LOS on the gate, would targeting the wall on top of the gate still hit the enemies below?

Learn by doing and watching others.

Here is a nice door with 2 poison spitters that will send the poison far down the stairs for example + some AC placed so the omegas dont just walk over them.

Always make sure your AC is as far back on wall as possible and make sure they are as low on wall as you can or the Omegas will do short work of your siege.

its time for you to stop being a zergling and meet some real wvw’ers, young grasshopper.

the people that will teach what you wanna know only karma train when they feel like grinding some wxp. the rest of the time theyre being useful. go find them.

Hveps.4673:

Here is a nice door with 2 poison spitters that will send the poison far down the stairs for example + some AC placed so the omegas dont just walk over them.

Always make sure your AC is as far back on wall as possible and make sure they are as low on wall as you can or the Omegas will do short work of your siege.

Nice layout. With the AC in that position, how do you drop the target, since you can’t see over the gate? It seems like if it’s placed right, by definition you’ll have no line of sight to the zerg, so do you just drop the target in the air, like where the outer burning oil is, and then it hits whatever is right below?

BeemoNoir.5683:

One thing I was wondering about: with arrow carts, if you don’t have LOS on the gate, would targeting the wall on top of the gate still hit the enemies below?

Same question I have. I also thought I saw comments either in map chat or on the forums that since the most recent patch ACs were nerfed and now you get “obstructed” a lot of times, because they tried to put in some LOS checks but borked them up. I believe I’ve seen people say that now even if you can clearly see the gate from your position manning the AC, you may get “obstructed” because the AC can’t “see over” the stupid little ledge on the edge of the wall. I haven’t gotten a chance to test this out myself yet.

BeemoNoir.5683:

I was researching on the exact same thing just now. Came across this thread :p
I found this esp. usefull:
http://core.gw2gt.com/training/commander-training/overall-defensive-siege.aspx

Awesome. Pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Thanks very much.

No they all hit just fine.

What is not show in the picture is that there is a Treb on wall behind me that tap shots stairs infront of gate. And the 2 poison spitters will destroy any siege except Omegas instant.

Rams are not used on t3 keeps here so here is a picture of a BAD placed AC and one of what happens to BAD placed AC

Hveps.4673:

Learn by doing and watching others.

Here is a nice door with 2 poison spitters that will send the poison far down the stairs for example + some AC placed so the omegas dont just walk over them.

Always make sure your AC is as far back on wall as possible and make sure they are as low on wall as you can or the Omegas will do short work of your siege.

Since our server is finally green for a change, I had a chance to try out your suggested layouts. The AC placements seem to work out ok, and I got them tucked onto the side of that one wall corner as you show.

The two trebs at the bottom of the stairs just don’t seem to work at all though. I set them up right on the spots you have shown there, but all they do is throw the shot straight into the wall in front of them, with no effect (i.e., no poison cloud appears). I can’t seem to find any power setting that will actually land the shot anywhere useful, or get it over the wall to the outside.

Am I missing something about this placement?

I got lucky somehow the other day with a placement in the lord’s room that was at just the right spot to lob cows “through” the door, so that the poison cloud would form right on the outside. This was with a tap shot (no hold time). When I tried again the next day, I don’t think I can find that exact spot again, so my other placements haven’t been as useful here.

Heezdedjim.8902:

The two trebs at the bottom of the stairs just don’t seem to work at all though. I set them up right on the spots you have shown there, but all they do is throw the shot straight into the wall in front of them, with no effect (i.e., no poison cloud appears). I can’t seem to find any power setting that will actually land the shot anywhere useful, or get it over the wall to the outside.

I fiddled around with those two trebs some more and found that if the target arrow is pointed at the middle of the door openings on either side of the gate, then the cows will be thrown “through” the grilles above those doors and will make it out onto the stairs outside. It seems like if a straight on shot doesn’t go through, then the answer is just to work the angle back and forth a little until the shot hits an “open” space in the geometry.

With a third treb sitting in front of the supply hut beside the lord’s room you also can tap shot the area right outside the door, so together these trebs can keep the entire approach to this gate covered in poison. If the one by the supply hut has a problem getting shots through the door, just twiddle the angle right to left a little until the shots hit the “spaces” in the grill just above the door and get through to the space outside.

It seems to work pretty well; or at any rate the trebs were a bit damaged but all still in place when I came back in the morning. I assume from the damage to the trebs that there was some sort of attack in the wee hours that got through the gate, but not in enough force to flip the keep.

The trebs are on the ground and not the stairs at all even though the picture looks like it. Any shot should cover stairs in poison and if they manage to break the outer door both treb will be hitting anything between the 2 doors including siege.

the trebs might take minor damage from necro death shroud #4 but that will take an hour to kill the treb.

If the poison spitter is not delivering the poison and damage it is placed on stairs i think.

Maybe i should have linked picture of the watergate treb in valley keep for giggles that is a tough cookie to place.

Hveps.4673:

Maybe i should have linked picture of the watergate treb in valley keep for giggles that is a tough cookie to place.

Someone stuck one up at the vista in the green keep in EB yesterday, to counter-treb enemy siege that was set up on the plateau at Jerris. It was fun watching everyone scampering up and falling off 10 times to get to the top, until they got a mesmer up there to portal supply to the top.

Hveps.4673:

The trebs are on the ground and not the stairs at all even though the picture looks like it. Any shot should cover stairs in poison and if they manage to break the outer door both treb will be hitting anything between the 2 doors including siege.

I’m pretty sure I put them with the green circle all on the floor; at least when setup the legs and base looked like they were in the same place as yours. Maybe I’ll try a little further out from the last step next time.