Guild Wars 2

Hello cool ppl! As the title says, i’m looking for some Scout Masters/Veterans to get cool tips from. I’d like to use my Ranger as a scout in www.
Is there a certain route to make? Rules, etc…?
Anybody welcome, thanks!

I’m not sure about routes, but generally if I am scouting I look where I think makes sense for the enemy to hit, or just check out swords on the map.

At least as important as where to go is what to say. Always give numbers, even if its just a guess. Mention where they are, what they are doing (do they have siege up? What is the gate %?), what server and what guild if you can. If you can, whisper a commander if it seems you need help.

Some other things you can do when roaming/scouting are killing yaks, setting supply traps and manning siege as it can slow down or even deter a group looking for an easy cap.

Thank you very much for the tips!

Rules?

Do not die! Movement speed runes or sigil, lightning reflex, spike trap, muddy terrain is your friend in ANY build if you going to scout. Also a -50% fall damage trait is a very wise choice. You can make some impressive screenshots! :P

Everybody can run into an attacking zerg and shout on the teamspeak and die… The trick is that you survive and you can tell the ppl where they are heading. So tell the numbers, GTFO, change nappies then get back and follow the enemy zerg. This job is not for the kitten

That’s why i love it Thanks Aggro

check all doors at a keep that has white swords. Sneaky guilds will tap 1 door and make sure the scout knows it. Then be secretly ramming another door down while the scout has reported “oh it was just a tap”

I’ll tell you what I want to know as a commander consuming your scouting report…

1. Who: Which server obviously, but also the dominant guild tag if you can see one. If it’s mostly [TAG] rather than a mix of tags it changes how they fight and what I expect from them.
2. How many: Estimate. You can use “zerg” for anything 20+. The guild tag will also tell this to me based on what that guild runs with usually.
3. where: Closest objective or my tag position, and direction from it. Cardinal direction. “[TAG] zerg to the left” helps noone as there are 100 different directions for Left. “[TAG] zerg to southwest” has only one direction. If you can estimate range great but “near”, “far”, “by the gate” also work.
4. What they’re doing: Are the building siege? Are they moving toward me? away from me? toward an objective?

The last thing I ever want to see appear on a chat screen is “inc” with nothing else on it. You have enough time to type out a direction and a number. “inc w zerg” is enough if you’re pressed for time. “inc garry” is just as bad as there are 20 places a group can incoming on with the garrison. “inc garry water gate” tells me where so I can intercept with my zerg. If you tell me a number I know what to expect.

TL;DR (seriously?)
If you didn’t read any of that (too lazy didn’t read) at least know the elements of scouting reports
Who are they,
Where are they,
how big are they
what are they doing

Random things I don’t think people covered, just add this to your notes.

If you’re scouting for your guild, run a fake tag, so enemies don’t know who is going there or which guild is planning an attack.

Depending on the tier and discipline of an enemy zerg your looking at possibly getting right up to 1000 units near them(seen thief scouts who would go right into an enemy zerg for minutes at a time). If you can, find out which enemy is leading/commanding, try and get that info to your leader. Mostly, tail a good 2-5k units away from the enemy side and too the back kind of like a caster would in a fight, but at massive range. Slip in and out, use the ruins to move faster as zergs tend to move around them or directly straight through. Also, ruins let you get height views nicely, while running off to the edge of the map just doesn’t let you recover as easily and go right back to scouting. On that note though, sometimes, specially if the enemies caught onto your scouting, make up some really stupid long paths that don’t make any sense. If 20 enemies want to chase a scout from s/e camp to the minotaurs, LET EM, that’s your win.

As the guy above me said, “30 x headed west from s/e tower to s ruins”, is very quick and easy to type and informative. And follow up, check if that team goes s camp or to s/w tower, and keep the commander informed.

If you know your guild or map hopper zerg is going to a boarderland, pre scout. Run past your near keep (i’ll say hills), path somewhat like s/e camp, s/e tower, s hills, along west side of hills, n hills s/e garri, n/e camp, n/e tower and n/w garri. Repeat other side of map. Find out, structure tiers, seige, or lack of (for each gate), note where you seen enemies (on the field and scouts, note how many go to get a camp, how many scout each structure.) and which structures may have been forgotten about a bit (cannons and oil not built, partially dmged gates). Amount of supply, a 700 keep for ex. with certain siege up (reinforced/ cannons oil mortar i think) will probably mean someone is trying to wp that keep, it might end up being heavily defended or heavily demoralizing for an enemy to loose.Things like no mortars or AC’s to defend hills west cata wall, might be helpful to know too/

Get good at tagging gates, for my ranger I used swoop, double dodge to gate switch to sword, lightning reflex and sword leap out. I like tagging gates, learn to love it because I know how irritating and how much people absolutely despise someone who would waste time hitting structures just to make it look attacked or block wp’s. Also, be ready to block wp’s on demand (for commanders), and get good at feeling out and timing out 3 minutes, to try and keep keeps perma contested.

The spaces between keeps will be the sketchiest ones, basically around SM on the paths to each keep and between s garrison and the keep below it will be hotspots of people running down to their keeps or to reinforce zergs. Either way, don’t play around there if you don’t want to end up dealing with a duel or something. on that note, hiding near these places can let you know enemy numbers moving around (supply runners or dead run backs)

Ranger tip, lightning reflex, sword 2, about face, sword 2, switch to gs, swoop, massive gap maker if you need.

Stay slippery my friend.

The most important thing to remember as a roaming scout is to not lose your cool. Make sure you get accurate information. ‘X server at Z position’ isn’t good enough as that is literally useless garbage that your commander can’t use.

Contrary to what was said above, don’t be afraid to die. Because you should be dying a lot. Especially picking advantageous spots to observe enemy zerg movements, or simply using the time to type out detailed info to your commander (# of X server at Y position moving to Z with **] tag). Especially since repair costs were removed, not much point of trying to stay alive if it means good scout info given in a timely manner, which can mean the difference of defending that tower or losing it.

The only scouting report ever needed:

“INC 1+ That way —>”

Learn to use sentries to your advantage; they add a very high strategic value if you can get a good idea where the person flipping said sentry is going.

I often scout a zerg by following closely. Something I would never do in a Ranger. I use a thief for this work.

I also patrol which usually includes going to each keep/tower refreshing siege, escorting yaks and checking out swords on keeps/towers/camps. High speed movement is essential for this chore. My warrior is great at this but a GS and WH Ranger would work just as well I would think.

The last form of scouting that I do is to simply flip camps and sentries. Any class works decent so long as you are competent enough to drop an upgraded camp on your own. The ranger is more than capable although a bit slow on upgraded camps. There are no pre-programmed routes as I tend to set my route by camp timers from MOS.

Always keep and eye on dolys and sentrys, best indicators something is going on

Personally I roam around a bit aimlessly keeping check of the map and my surroundings from a distance, but I don’t recommend just keeping an eye on Dollies – rather the Sentries for any Snipers.

Look out for white swords at camps and keeps/towers, sometimes it’s just someone contesting when otherwise Orange Swords is the best indicator of any Large Scale Group movements, especially keep an eye on Bay and Hills Cata Spots, and the Ruins behind Briar and Lake.

Spotting and Tracking any sized Groups is best done with a Mobile Class as you you will need to avoid getting splattered, which happens alot to me -.-
Use Vantage points such as the high ground away from the Enemy groups, which helps prevents most Deaths unless you have a roaming gank group running around.

Oh and never say “Inc” in mapchat that will annoy alot of people, at least it does on my Server. “Inc” is far to vague and try to report accurate numbers of enemies if you can unless your PC can only handle low settings.