Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone I’ve been playing WvW for a reasonably long time now and I must say I love it and bringing everyone together by becoming a Commander is something I’m completely interested in.

I know pretty much all the good stuff you’d look for in a Commander and I think I have those qualities yet before I cash out on 100 well earned gold I’d like to know about some of the more vague aspects I need to get my head around in order to do well at the job.

Thanks for any advice I get

There are numerous threads about the exact same topic. Try a forum search and google search, and you should get some decent results.

That said, there are a few things veteran WvW players might not be aware of tagging up the first time. For example, most of commanding pugs isn’t about micromanaging the zerg vs. zerg (though that is important too), but rather having keen map awareness and keeping track of how much approximate supply your zerg has/needs. I open my map every couple of minutes, and I usually play with two monitors with millenium up on the other screen. Map awareness is probably the most important aspect of commanding pugs. Also, while you’re playing by yourself, waypointing might be faster to get across the map. But when commanding, it’s usually better to run the zerg to the destination. Every time you waypoint, you need to wait a minute or two to regroup and you run the risk of losing a few stubborn idiots who refuse to wp.

A lot of other things will just come with experience. For example, toss rams on opposite corners of the gate, and place them as far from the gate as possible. Toss AC’s from the ground up onto the wall. Know when to push and when to back off. For example, if the enemy is in the inner of your keep, and the waypoint timer reads 1:30 or so, you should push out no matter how many you have and how many they have. Even if you die, the waypoint will pop by the time you die, and you might kill some of them. Learn to recognize when an enemy is weak/retreating and when an enemy is baiting you into a corner ambush.

There are also a number of nuances and small things you pick up as you go. For example, if you don’t know how many people an enemy zerg is fielding, treb something they value (a keep, a fortified tower). If the enemy decides to play treb wars 2 instead of rushing you, chances are good that you outnumber them.

There’s probably too much for people to just write down for you. The best way to learn is to just go out and do it. Ask some of your veteran commanders for advice, and I’m sure they’d be happy to teach you some tricks.

Thanks it’s good to know a lot will be learnt just by jumping straight in

Meh, just fork out the dough. You’ll make those 100g back fairly quickly (you can probably look in the bank and sell stuff for 50g).

Join a border at off hours, check if there is a commander online. If not, tag up and go nuts. You dont really have to command when few are following, just do the stuff you normally do. Look at it like practice. The mind of a zerg is fairly simple. Enemy in front, kill kill kill. Something that you can capture in front, capture it.

Being a good commander is a whole different level and require lots of practice, deep knowledge of all game mechanics, teamspeak/vent and not to mention trust of players.

In the end, what I truly need from a commander – a fun time. Many people always go “boooo commander wiped, cant do anything right :<” and then they ignore him. I dont care if a commander wiped, as long as he tried. kitten I’m so tired of cowards. If an enemy zerg equal your size is in front and stacks up, dont run into a bloody tower to “defend from an advantagous position” while half the zerg dies behind you. Stack up and meet them head on.

If players dislike you for doing that, you dont want them following you anyway.

This post actually gave me a lot of confidence to actually do it since I love people with this attitude.

I see a lot of new Commanders and they’re rarely given a chance before somebody fires an accusation at them whereas I stick with them. Somebody’s gotta give them a chance right?

Playing in both PUG and guild units, I have found that being vocal is the one of the keys to success. Players respond better to commanders who let the zerg know where the next target is, when they are skipping sentry, and what the general plan is for the zone. Don’t just move objective to objective. When you are successful in taking objectives while communicating, you will have better results giving commands in open field battles. That will give the PUGs a reason to follow you. The more players you have with you, the more likely you are to succeed. Success builds a good reputation, and the reputation will allow you to flexibility in the complexity of your commands. You won’t be able to get PUGs to properly set up a hammer train on the first day. Keeping them together under an unproven tag will be challenging enough.

That being said, here are some things I think help to establish your right to command:

1. Be in charge of siege. Throw all your siege yourself, at optimal positions. Let the zerg know that you will be throwing siege only. Always have superior siege on hand.

2. Control/ know your supply. Nothing will send a PUG running faster than seeing un-built rams at a gate while the zerg dps’ the door.

3. Don’t stack every 30 seconds. Save it for when you need it, not when you are moving unopposed to a camp or tower.

4. Be a teacher, but at the right times. If your zerg needs to practice might stacks, save it for after a victory, so morale is high. Parley that into a winning scenario where what you taught them is useful.

5. Keep positive. Saying “Get on my tag or we lose SM!” isn’t as effective as “On me, gonna wipe them in the Lord’s Room.” Or, “Hurry up or we lose Anz”, compared to “Throw swiftness, we will pin them on the gate!” (Side note: never blame your zerg for a wipe. Say they did pretty good, or the enemy got lucky.)

To be clear, all of this comes from a zergling’s perspective, not the commander’s. Learning the strategic and tactical maneuvers will improve with time and practice only, but getting a zerg to follow will actually give the chance to practice those skills. Having more numbers is a large tactical advantage, so getting the PUGs to pull together can be your best strategy for successful command. However, you can’t rely on being Cool Ranch alone to get them on tag.

My 2 cents, hope it helps.

Great tips all taken into account thanks

You should probably have sufficient individual skill to duel most zerglings and win. Also that helps to keep you alive in larger fights while maintaining good positioning.

Don’t make commanding into rocket science. I’ve watched so many commanders with a number advantage get wiped because they try to be way too technical and split their forces.

Meta favors zerging so be willing to zerg. If you have more people than your opponent just smash them in the face and collect bags.

Start off by tagging up only when your server has people on the map but no one commanding. Don’t count guild groups as people on the map because they are already organized and don’t count as people who need to be commanded. Tagging up in these situations where your server needs a commander but no one is commanding will be the best for your server since it’s a situation in which you are minimizing the chance of harming your server because a mediocre commander is better than no commander in many situations. If people on the map understand that you are tagging up because no one else is, they won’t be as angry at a mistake you make since you are kinda serving as a temporary commander to keep people from leaving the map until a main commander returns. It’s easiest to generate numbers in Eternal Battlegrounds because the enemy borderlands have a lower population and people will be less likely to follow you if you don’t have name recognition. Of course, you want to build up that name recognition. A safe way to do so is to be in your own borderland and defend keeps and stuff. You can keep your tag off and watch over a keep and a zerg is coming to the keep you can pop your tag on (even when another commander is on) and say “zerg of 35 (server name) right on my tag.” Then keep your tag on throughout the whole defense and that is a safe way to build name recognition since you don’t really have to do anything or take credit for a loss that way.

Edit: it’s also better to start off commanding on reset day (before reset) since no one typically cares what happens if anything goes wrong. It’s also probably better to command when your stuff is not upgraded, that way if you lose it, people aren’t as bothered.

Nice advice thanks was already considering when would be the best time I could tag up to start with

Ragnarawk gave you good advice.

Who do you respect as a commander? What do they do differently than other commanders?

Teddy Roosevelt once said (Paraphrased) a bad command followed by strong action is better than a good command done to late or no action at all.

If you are going to push, push. Don’t stall, don’t stop. Once you have made that decision its very hard to retreat.

Start your commanding debut with at least 4-5 people you know who will help you. Make sure you have someone to drop those fire fields, someone to do that veil, someone to be that wall at the right time. Success breeds success. And if you are prepared, get people set up with supply before attacking, get those guys at your back, you have a better chance at that success. Each time you win you will find more people following you.

Get a feel for what your pugs will and wont do. It is SEVERELY difficult to get people to pre-drop siege and keep it refreshed for a new commander as a for instance. Quick drop of outer siege…you can do that. Zipping through keeps and refreshing on the way to hitting the enemy on the open field…you can do that.

Sitting in one place for hours because you need to? That’s near impossible without being one of those big names on your server. Try to use scouts at major points and move to where you can do damage. Fight open field when you can and siege up when you cannot. This aint optimal but it may be all you can do. Do whats fun. Give people an enjoyable experience and they will join you again. Do that enough times and your running a zerg, and you probably don’t need to turtle anymore anyhow.

Sentries and Dolyaks are road signs. Use them as ways to create as well as avoid fights. You can usually get away with killing the dolys without drawing attention, but the sentries will absolutely point the direction that you are going. Want that attention? Kill em. Don’t want it? Trying to flank? Trying to outfox a larger force? Don’t.

Try to keep an eye on supply timers. This game is all about logistics. If you cant win in the open field you can still win via attrition, or on defense via keeping those supply paths open and upgraded.

GL in your endevours.