Guild Wars 2

I’m aware it probably depends on my class/role(small group, zerg, etc.) but are there really any must-haves I should be going for?

Balista Mastery

applied strength and/or applied fortitude, supply mastery, put 3 in ram mastery and by that point you’ll have an idea of where you want to put the rest. You might want to start off with supply mastery since it costs so little.

Supply master and build master is always a must whether for zerging skirmishing or guarding

Applied strength and fortitude.
Build and repair masters.
Supply master.

Those 5 are a good base to start with, from there i’d fill in what siege you usually use. You don’t have to fill each line completely for them to be effective, there are times where putting a few points in each line is more beneficial, being able to use each kind of siege more effectively than mastering just one.

Supply Mastery Rank 4
Build Mastery Rank 1 or 2
Repair Mastery Rank 1
Applied Fortitude max rank
Applied Strength max rank
Ram Mastery rank 3
Siege Might max rank
Catapult Mastery max rank

I used to always start with 4 on supply, 2 on build/repair master…

Then if you are in a server that always have zergs rolling on and you are in this zerg, you should go for applied fortitude to increase your survival…

If you are more a person of walking in small groups or is stuck in a server that doesn’t have people to keep zerging all day, you should take some of the basic siege masteries because its problable that the others don’t have: Flame Ram mastery, 1 or 4 Catapult mastery, 1 or 3 Trebuchet mastery.

If you spend more time defending than attacking, you should rely on the masteries of defensive siege instead: 2 or 4 Arrow Cart Mastery, 2 or 4 Ballista Mastery, 2 or 4 Cannon Mastery, 3 Burning Oil Mastery (yeah I’m serious), 1 or 4 Mortar Mastery.

Some people might argue “What about Applied strenght?”. I personally find its benefit to be small for the ammount of points you have to spend on it (its 115 ranks for 100 power/condi, so less than 1:1) and that’s why I only put points on it when wxp became account wide (Now I have all the masteries I listed above, so I can spend these 115 points without thinking I’m missing somenthing).

If you mostly roam, spend your 230 points in the guard lines to get applied fortitude and guard leech.

If you mostly zerg, I’d max supply mastery and build mastery first. Then ram 3, cata 1 (cata 4 if you can afford it), AC 3, ballista 4, and treb 3.

Personally, this would be my order that I give out to my friends
Supply Master 4
Build Master 2
Repair Master 1
Catapult Master 1
Ram Mastery 3
Guard Defense Max
Guard Killer Max
AC 2-3
Finish Catapult
Finish Build Master
Finish Repair Master
Treb Master 3
Ballista Max
Go your own way from here.

Scionyde.2704:

I’m aware it probably depends on my class/role(small group, zerg, etc.) but are there really any must-haves I should be going for?

regardless of zerg or not

115 for the applied fort

then it gets into what do you want to do: small, zerg, both?

if zerg.. rams/AC/catas/siege might

is small.. applied str, fort

both.. both of those combined.

Everything is good depending on what you enjoy doing most. The only thing you should avoid purchasing is Supply Capacity which increases the amount of supplies you can carry. It sounds great, but for 5 extra supplies it costs 300ranks, which is not worth it until you’ve purchased all other upgrades.

Personally, I find Applied Strength, Applied Fortitude, Build Mastery, Repair Mastery, Supply Master, Siege Might, Siege Bunker, Arrow Cart Mastery, Ram Mastery and Cannon Mastery to be the best things to purchase. Although cannons are usually the first thing to be destroyed when a tower is attacked, if the enemy neglects to destroy the cannon, you have mastery and siege might, you can absolutely demolish an entire zerg in just a few shots. Everything else I mentioned is viable in a lot of different ways and I would highly recommend. Cannon Mastery is just a personal favorite that I only recommend if you don’t mind not being able to use it very often. But the times you can, it really pays off. Same with Burning Oil Mastery, actually. Although managing to use a pot of oil is probably even less common than a cannon, so just keep that in mind when spending your points on either of those things. It’s kind of like you’ll rarely ever get to use cannon or oil with mastery so it’ll be a pain, but the times you do get to use them you’ll laugh like a maniac. Driving away 50+ people with a cannon just by yourself is pretty satisfying trust me.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Everything is good depending on what you enjoy doing most. The only thing you should avoid purchasing is Supply Capacity which increases the amount of supplies you can carry. It sounds great, but for 5 extra supplies it costs 300ranks, which is not worth it until you’ve purchased all other upgrades.

Nah Supply capacity is very useful and I suggest getting some around ranks 600-1000.

Head straight to Applied Fortitude (2500 extra health) in Defense Against Guards. Don’t put your points anywhere else until you lock that in. It does require 115 WvW levels but that is very doable in a short amount of time.

With some rare exceptions that is the best WvW skill unlock in the game. It makes you tougher and makes downing you more difficult so your group is better.

My full list:

Defense Against Guards: 10
Supply Mastery: 4
Build Mastery: 1
Repair Mastery: 1
Guard Killer: 10
Ram Mastery: 3
AC Mastery: 4
Cata Mastery: 4
Siege Bunker: 5
Siege Might: 5
Treb Mastery: 3
Cata Mastery: 5 (final level)
Ballista Mastery: 4

Supply Capacity is pretty awesome but not until a player can lock in the full 300 WxP levels to get all 5. If you are part of a skirmish group, you may want to go after that sooner but not before Guard Killer on this list IMO.

The list above is the same as mine, except I don’t recommend Defense Against Guards until after Supply Mastery 4 and Build Mastery 1.

The reason is:

It will take roughly 100 hours (very rough, with boosters and zerging through edge or something even faster, pulling defense/scouting/etc duty, much much longer) to get the levels required for Applied Fortitude buff.

That’s a lot of time in which the Supply Master proc will give a huge amount of extra supply to your team. That’s a lot of time you’ll be spending building siege, so doubling your build speed for a single point makes sense as well.

Spending an extra 10(ish) hours without an additional 2500(possible)HP is better IMO than spending 100+ hours without adding any benefit to your team (beyond what a rank 1 would).

Also, with regards to siege skills, find out what skills are under-represented by your guild/allies. That way when your commander calls for someone with a 4 or 5 in that skill, you can be one of the two or three that has that skill instead of one of the 20 or so that has the other skill.

Have at least one common defensive and one common or uncommon offensive siege skill. I realize that technically all siege can be used both ways, but typically AC’s and Ballistas are used for defense and rams and catas and sometimes trebs are used for offense. I’ve used all of them both ways, but I am referring to more common usage here. The reason I say have a common defensive skill, is that if you are relying on your trebuchet skill for defense, most of the time the place you run to defend won’t have a trebuchet, but it likely has arrow carts and possibly ballistas.

Get to rank 1315 and you wont have a problem deciding where to put your points

Assassin X.8573:

Get to rank 1315 and you wont have a problem deciding where to put your points

Or 1015, while you will be spending all the other 300 on supply capacity.

Is siege bunker that useless?

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Is siege bunker that useless?

5% minus damage is kinda… meh… And its 75 rank points which can be better spent elsewhere first.

Isaac.6041:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Everything is good depending on what you enjoy doing most. The only thing you should avoid purchasing is Supply Capacity which increases the amount of supplies you can carry. It sounds great, but for 5 extra supplies it costs 300ranks, which is not worth it until you’ve purchased all other upgrades.

Nah Supply capacity is very useful and I suggest getting some around ranks 600-1000.

I’m currently rank 831 and still haven’t spent a single point in it. Guild +5 OP.

Isaac.6041:

Well you definitely want it before mercenary’s bane.

Nah… Mercenary Bane help solo the camps without needing to flip the mercenary camp…

Get build/repair up a bit then go Defense Against Guards it crazy op as it give you 250 vitality

Jeknar.6184:

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Is siege bunker that useless?

5% minus damage is kinda… meh… And its 75 rank points which can be better spent elsewhere first.

Siege Bunker is only 30 points which is why it is ranked where it is on my list. Siege Might is 75 and worth getting but not before a slew of other choices. Both skills are what I would classify as nice to have.

Still some what new to game, only rank 320 so far. Roles: Solo roamer (player hunting, camp flipping, supply disruptions, scouting), havoc groups and some support for warbands.

AC 5
Supply Master 5
Build Mastery 1
Cannon Mastery 5
Repair Mastery 1
Supply Capacity 3

Will probably focus on more siege next.

I like a mix that can support both a solo position and group support. People usually have ram and cata mastery since those people will more likely be in the warbands attacking objectives. AC and cannon come in more handy for soloing or defending. With the increased supply and mastery you can get an AC deployed solo in 2 trips typically. Great for slowing down an enemy warband or zerg while your side is getting in position. Have found builds that allow for solo flipping of camps without any points in guard skills so haven’t used them at this point, more worried about the real people vs the NPCs. And now being able to re-trait on the fly, have even more options. Good hunting!

Canons border on the useless against a decent commander. They are good for a few seconds but I wouldn’t dump a bunch of points in there until Applied Fortitude and a host of other more protected siege bonuses are raised. ACs, cata, treb and balista are more useful even in defense most of the time.

I would also point out that AC5 is sort of a waste. It has a long cooldown and isn’t worth the asking price early on. Supply Mastery 5 is also a waste as the buff lasts seconds and not long enough to be meaningful most of the time.

Cannons are questionable, but people tend to be lazy. If they see no defenders they will err on the side of least resistance and drop rams on a door vs a cata or treb. If your current role is to scout for defense its a great way to get them off the door while your side forms up. Course if the structure has’t been upgraded then all bets are off. But I have found cannons to be available more often then expected in defenses.

The AC5 does have a long cooldown, agreed. That said if you use toxic shoot 3,4 shots in you catch a lot more people trying to trigger their heal and end up dropping them faster since their heals were debuffed. Comes in more handy when you are firing in a support role of a warband on warband fight. Firing into the back lines when people are pulling back from the first engagement catches a lot of people when they are trying to trigger their heals. It also has a longer range and an increased AoE to help in that role. The revealing bit is lackluster though. 2 cents.