Guild Wars 2

Starting from 1 actually, since I guess we get one ability point for free. My first (only) character is a warrior, if that matters (I assume it doesn’t, since the buffs from WvW trait lines are all very general benefits). Also, with account-wide WxP coming soon, I assume that I will want to focus on things that are most useful in any situations.

So, what are the most useful and most useless WvW abilities that I should rank up first (or ignore completely)? Guard damage? Survivability? Supply capacity?

Hi

I highly recommend you get Supply Mastery up to rank 4 1st of all. It is extremely useful, neutral and cheap to obtain. You will also get more XP / WXP for supply returns you get from it on builds/repairs as you advance, thus making your remaining advancement a little bit faster.

2nd, put 1 point into build master, and 1 point into supply master.

3rd, max siege bunker. it helps a LOT because you won’t be downed by ACs, cannons, etc. as often.

4th, go for guard stacks, it takes a very long time to max but its well worth it, both defensive and offensive.

5th, pick 1 type of siege, Ram or Catas if you are heavy and mellee, ranged siege if you are light / ranged, and max it.

6th, siege mastery, max ranks to further increase the effectiveness of your choice above.

What Tongku says, Supply mastery first, cheap in rankpoints and nice ot get some back when u spent em all, also swiftness, for the rest it kinda depends what you want to do, i like to scout and siege myself so am just getting all siege mastery to the max but other people like to roam and find fights so they go first for the guard stacks ( vitality and dmg bonuses )

Most Usefull.

• Guard Killer
  If maxed u get: 1 stack of Applied Strength on killing a guard, lord or supervisor.
  Each stack increases power and condition damage by 20 (max stack of 5, stacks are lost on death)
• Defense Against Guards
  If maxed u get: 1 stack of Applied Fortitude when killing a guard, lord, or supervisor.
  Each stack grants 50 vitality (max of 5 stacks, stacks are lost on death)
• Supply Mastery
  Spend 1 point: and get: Pick up supply faster.
  Spend 10 point: and get: Have a chance to recover spent supply when spending supply.
  So when u use your supply u might get 2-6 supply back.

Most Useless

• Mercenary’s Bane.
  Its 1-5% extra dmg to Monsters. (could become a bit usefill in EoTM since it has a ton more Mobs).

My Suggestion (if u wanne fight a lot)

1. Get 10 Points into Supply mastery.
   U will be able to pick supplies fast, get a speed boost when picking up or spending supplies. and have a chance to gain supplies when spending supplies.
2. Get 115 points into Defense Against Guards.
   For the 250 Vit bonus.
3. Get 115 points into Guard Killer.
   for the 100 Power & Condition Damage increase.
4. Get 30 points into Siege Bunker.
   Its 5% increase defense against siege.

If your still playing after u reached rank 270
Choose 1 of the 3 options:

• Build Mastery (Spend minimum 1 max 30)
• Repair Mastery (Spend Minimum 1 max 20
• Eny Siege Mastery. (max this that siege mastery out, then go to a nother siege.)

My suggestion if u wanne Defend.

1. Build mastery (spend atleast 1 point)
2. Repair Mastery (spend atleast 1 point)
3. Arrow Cart Mastery
   Spend 40 points Minimum.
   Spend 75 points if u want the extra skill.
4. Cannon mastery.

Ps: check this link to see all the mastery’s.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_Experience#WXP_upgrades

Really good suggestions and information. Thanks very much for the replies.

I was looking at the supply abilities since the how-to about WvW talks about how critical suppply is to everything. The supply>guard defense>guard killer ones sound like a good set to start with.

Go with Defense with guards first then Guard killer. Getting a total of 230 ranks is not a walk in the park so wasting even 1 point on something else pushes you to get 231 ranks. After 230 ranks, save every point there after for the two new masteries coming out very soon.

Anet has not released a date that they will refund rank points so you will be wise to save every single one past 230.

You can’t choose which order to upgrade until you figure out your style of play and build. I’d suggest actually not spending any of the ranks for maybe 15 levels. If you plan on roaming, then you definitely want the defense against guards followed by guard killer. If you are zerging, you actually want something more like:

Build Master R2
Ram Mastery R3
Supply Mastery T4
Catapult Mastery T1
Arrow Cart Mastery T2
Trebuchet Mastery T1
Repair Mastery T2
Arrow Cart Mastery T4
Catapult Mastery T4

However, it definitely depends on which siege you prefer to use. Ram mastery is WAY OP and ramming is way more common than any other siege so I’m very surprised that it was neglected by some posts above. It also depends on the build you use too, though. For a zerker set up, you will be less likely to sit on siege and may prefer the defense against guards and guard killer route. I have 30k hp on my warrior and got defense against guards but don’t really notice a difference at this hp. It makes a big difference for people who already have low vitality armor and a low health pool. Warrior has the highest health pool.

Radian.2478:

You can’t choose which order to upgrade until you figure out your style of play and build. I’d suggest actually not spending any of the ranks for maybe 15 levels. If you plan on roaming, then you definitely want the defense against guards followed by guard killer. If you are zerging, you actually want something more like:

Build Master R2
Ram Mastery R3
Supply Mastery T4
Catapult Mastery T1
Arrow Cart Mastery T2
Trebuchet Mastery T1
Repair Mastery T2
Arrow Cart Mastery T4
Catapult Mastery T4

However, it definitely depends on which siege you prefer to use. Ram mastery is WAY OP and ramming is way more common than any other siege so I’m very surprised that it was neglected by some posts above. It also depends on the build you use too, though. For a zerker set up, you will be less likely to sit on siege and may prefer the defense against guards and guard killer route. I have 30k hp on my warrior and got defense against guards but don’t really notice a difference at this hp. It makes a big difference for people who already have low vitality armor and a low health pool. Warrior has the highest health pool.

After a couple days noobing it up, this feels like very sound advice.

I don’t see myself doing a whole lot of roaming actually because I suck 1v1 and probably will for the foreseeable future.

Mostly what I wind up doing is finding a blue tag and trying to stay with whatever zerg is running; so lots of re-capping towers and keeps, and only rarely going out solo to sneak around getting my map completion done or knock down a couple of sentries for the dailies.

I am running all PTV gear except berserker weapons and probably will stick with that for a while, until (if ever) I feel like I have enough skill to make something else more useful. At the moment I am traited 30/0/20/20/0, for lack of any better ideas, so I also have ~30k HP. I was using GS/Bow to start out, but I think Hammer/Bow seems like a better combination for zerg fights because stuns and more AOE.

After I get Supply Mastery 4, I think I’ll put 1 point each in build and repair masteries, then wait until 15 to decide what to do next. I am liking the siege path you suggested, because I did wind up spending kind of a lot of time hanging around after fights building carts and oil pots and stuff.

I see the virtue of the guard defense / guard killer lines, but with already having a high HP build (and being kinda likely to die fairly often anyway), and not being much of a roamer except for just sneaking around and doing map completion, now I think the stacks will be of less use to me than the logistics buffs.

How useful is the Supply Capacity line? It seems inviting when I find myself running back and forth to the supply depot constantly, but it’s sooooo expensive. Also, I it seems like a ton of points for only like +5 more supply total (50% more, but still . . . 100 points).

Radian makes a very good advice i just would like to add why i never advice siege mastery’s to new people.

When i was still playing i had Arrow cart, Catapult & Ram mastery and i never used them. The fact is in a zerg of 30+ players there is a big chance that u don’t get to be able to use a siege. And that there are more people with those mastery’s because they are playing WvW longer.

@heez
The Supply capacity line is very expensive. to max it out it cost 300points.
+1 = 20points
+2 = 60 points
+3 = 120points
+4 = 200 points
+5 = 300 points.

Go full zerker
Put all points into Guard stacks

As to the siege masteries and having an opportunity to use them in a random zerg your with ZhouFusion is right. In my guild group though we have a set of 5 people with each mastery maxed so we always have someone on that is the best at that type of siege and sometime multiples. Everyone knows who these people are and they know when we drop that type of siege they will be manning it. We also have a priority among the set so we know who among the 5 will be the first on ram or cata or ac etc.

Like some already said. Wait until you know what you like to do in WvW. Here some information on the different skills

Useless :
Mercenary Banes (Nobody really need that)

Guards :
Defense and Killer. They need 115pts each to complete. Its a nice buff, especially if you roam and don’t die a lot. If you zerg, they still add a nice buff, but more useful option out there.

Siege Mastery :
Don’t start with those, but this will come rather quickly if you start to play WvW on a regular basis. Find which siege you better use and stick with it. If you play usually with the same people you can choose a mastery that your group lack. Otherwise here some tips. Arrow Carts is for defensive gameplay, Ram is for a character with survivability, Trebuchet is for people that don’t mind attacking a tower from a safe spot during several minutes alone, ballista is not a great choice (its useful in specific time only), catapult is a great choice for any character that follow the zerg. Canon, Mortar and Boiling Oil can be good, but not as starting choice. Usually you are expose when you use them and they can be destroy pretty easily. You also need to upgrade the tower/keep before having access to them.

Siege Bunker : a good choice is you plan to attack a lot with the zerg. Otherwise keep it for latter.

Siege Might : Don’t start with that, but its a great choice once you fully upgraded 1 Siege Mastery.

Supply Capacity : Don’t start with that. It take 300 pts and don’t give you that much of an advantage. Its a really nice thing to have but you won’t feel that you evolve as a character, especially at the beginning, since it take so much time to max it.

Supply Master : its a good start. A few points only, you won’t regrets it.

Repair and Build Mastery : I like to put 2 level on each. That way it take me 2 shot to repair or build something with 10 supply. This should be your first or second choice. Don’t go father than 2 level at the beginning, since it won’t really change anything except if you have 15 supply on you.

So my advice is :

1-2) 9pts in Build/Repair Mastery
1-2) 10 or 15pts in Supply Mastery
3-4-5) 1 Siege Mastery (you don’t need to max it, for exemple the 5th level of AC is pretty bad for the number of points)
3-4-5) 230pts in both Killer and Defense Guards if you roam
3-4-5) 30 pts in Siege Bunker if you follow the zerg but see that there is always someone with mastery or don’t really want to use any siege that much.

By this point you should have enough experience in WvW to have your own idea of what is better for you.

supply master to 4 points
max build master
max defense against guards
max guard killer
max siege bunker

at this point you should be experienced enough that commanders can trust you with siege so go with which ever one you like most.

supposedly there’s is new reinforcement master and assault master coming out so you might wanna save for those.

Fuzzion.2504:

Go with Defense with guards first then Guard killer. Getting a total of 230 ranks is not a walk in the park so wasting even 1 point on something else pushes you to get 231 ranks. After 230 ranks, save every point there after for the two new masteries coming out very soon.

Anet has not released a date that they will refund rank points so you will be wise to save every single one past 230.

This post right here! If you plan on being in ANY fight go straight to Applied Fortitude and do not pass Go. Applied Fortitude is that good.

You could take Supply Mastery between Applied Fortitude and Guard Killer but that is the first time I would consider taking it. Supply Mastery yields a net of 1.5 supply every 10 which can help but isn’t going to impact much. It will have almost zero effect if you solo/skirmish.