GW2 WvW Tips

I am by no means a pro, but I have been around the RvR block a few times.  WvW is really very similar, and I’m noticing a lot of very fundamental strategies/tactics ignored.

Defend!

Glumshanks the Ranger
WvW tips from Glumshanks the Ranger, Ehmry Bay Server.

When you take something, please defend it.  I don’t know where the mentality came from to take something and immediately have every person leave it.  All you do is create an enticing opportunity for the enemy to go take it back and gain karma/experience.  Leave a small task for there to guard the location, alert the zone to enemy movements, and upgrade. That leads me to my next point…

Upgrade!

Not a moment should go by where your supply camps, Keeps, Garrisons, and towers aren’t being improved. Increase the supply your caravans deliver (and defend them) so that you can use more supply to upgrade your keeps.  Hire extra guards; That way you won’t have an annoying thief sneaking in to the back soloing the camp.

On your keeps upgrade the doors asap, the walls, and get some cannons.  Cannons absolutely wreck attackers.  Don’t forget to place siege like arrow cards in a position where they are protected from Elementalist aoe but can still hit attackers on the door.

Oh, and please don’t take supply from towers.  Take supply from supply camps. Let the supply in towers be used for upgrades.  Once you have a very healthy supply, and sufficient upgrades, leave the supply in the tower/keep to repair the doors and walls.

Read on for more tips!

Don’t forget about the Dolyaks

It’s not enough to defend your supply camps.  You need to escort them.  This can be boring, but you make more of a difference ensuring supply reaches your holdings than you do being one extra body on a door.  Use swiftness abilities to increase their run speed.  A couple of people working together can give dolyaks a permanent run speed increase.

Mix up your siege weapon strategies

Far too often I see siege weapons being restricted to just the tradition near-keep attack and defense.  Try placing them at choke points.  A few well placed ballista on cliff ledges can wipe out 15-20 people in seconds.  A group of 5 people can make a huge difference this way.  Put trebuchet where the enemy isn’t expecting.  It is horrifying when suddenly you’re getting shelled from a location the enemy can’t see.  Use a spotter to help identify hits.

Try the other Door

There’s more than one door on a keep, folks.  Try the underwater gates sometime for a ninja attack, or go to the back door.  IF the enemy is heavily fortifying the front, chances are they’re newbs and won’t pay attention to an attack on the other side.  A little coordination tips the scales in your favor during an offensive siege — combine this with clever siege placement and you’re golden.

Don’t follow the Zerg

I know it’s tempting, but if you can manage to break away from the zerg with a group of 5-10 you can actually cripple the enemy forces.  Constantly harass supply camps.  This will cause Dolyaks to almost never reach their destinations, and will choke your opponents.  Ninja capture their orb, launch strikes on their towers, and be a pita.  nothing is worse than having to divert a huge force on defense to stop 5 people from making a difference.

Communicate

It takes little effort to type /team and let people know what’s happening.  If your chat is silent, you’re losing.  There are dozens of people in your zone who aren’t in a zerg guild, not on voice coms, and wondering where to go.  Be a voice that guides these people to the action.  Announce where a big fight is happening, say if you’re going to attack a keep.  A little “We’re on the north door of Dreaming bay” goes a long way.  You never know — you may be your server’s future leader.

  • nice points, I am loving it all so much. So many strategies to employ and this is only the beggining

    mixing up your siege strategies is the best, our little group took over a heavily defended keep by putting siege right at the back wall. Before the enemy even noticed we had overrun the walls.

    I also don’t really agree with the zerg comment.. by and large most should be inside of one but there should be a couple well coordinated groups harassing the back lines.

    One of my keypoints would be to immediately add supply if you see a construction going up, it is very easy to destroy siege just as they are deployed so led a hand. Or better yet a guardian bubble or mesmer feedback.

    Also Don’t neglect you stat priorities, unless you have some awesome escape capabilities you will want a fair amount of vitality and/or toughness.There is a lot of aoe and glass cannon builds will always be the first to go.. the dead add no dps

  • On Yak’s Bend last night we couldn’t even get out of our starting area in Eternal Battlegrounds! I was somewhat surprised when instead of waiting the hour or more in a queue that I’m used to I found myself instantly ported to EBG but I soon understood why when I arrived and saw that in the entire WvW map, EBG and all three frontiers, were blue from top to bottom. I think between us Red and Green owned maybe 5 keeps. All the combat I saw, which was a lot, was on the slope leading out of our gate, which was under seige.

    Not sure what strategy is going to make a difference until the matchmaker moves us all around if that’s a sample of how things are going. Last week, I have to say, there was an extended period when it was Yak’s that held all the map so I should probably just time my visits better…

  • Is there something like a WvW guide? If it comes to supply, upgrades, and all of that stuff I am clueless. When should you take supplies and when should you leave them. What should you upgrade and how and what does it cost? What are the benefits of these things…? hehe…

  • @Argorius – When to take supply? Any time from a supply camp. Although supply camps need upgraded too. Are you attempting to hold the supply camp so the towers and forts can be resupplied? If not, take it and run. If so, then you should upgrade the supply camp first.

    All points on the map except your starting zone need supply to upgrade. If they haven’t been upgraded first, leave the supply alone. That being said, if a fort hasn’t been upgraded, but the supply is maxed out and another caravan is on the way, take some and if you have the coin, also upgrade the fort if it isn’t already happening then go guard that caravan so it can replace the supply you just took. 🙂

    I also want to add, that PvE in WvW while killing enemy players has been the fastest way for me to earn coin as well as get better gear for myself. Granted, I haven’t gotten a nice bow or rifle yet to replace those that I have, but over all I couldn’t be happier hunting out here. Not to mention, the picking up the nodes along the way isn’t too shabby either.

  • I still haven’t done as much WvW as I have wanted to. Between queues and well just getting sidetracked I haven’t had much of a chance yet. The few times I have though I have had a blast even at low level. I am still of course playing with each class in a desperate effort to finally settle on a main. I keep saying I have decided yet I continue to play other classes.

    The one bright side of that is that it has given me a better look at exactly what each class is capable of. So when I am in WvW I better know what to expect when I go up against class X. Reading skill sets of other classes just isn’t the same as having actually played them. So while I haven’t been playing as much PvP as I have wanted to, once I get around to doing so I feel that my time hasn’t been a complete waste as I feel that my altaholic nature has at least helped me be better aware what to expect.

  • @Bhagpuss: I Feel for you. We’ve had the entire WvW map one color three times: Once we we had it all, twice when other servers did.

    Our matchup yesterday was the best we’ve ever had. The fight is really, really close. I hope ANet’s system picks up on this and realizes this is where we’re meant to be placed.

    @Argorius: Well I addressed some of that in my post. Always have supply on you, but take it from a supply camp. Upgrades are done at the upgrades NPC at each location. Costs vary depending on the location, but can range from 5s to some gold. As I also mentioned, upgrade walls, guards, doors, cannons, etc. There are no bad upgrades (although there are some that may be a priority — merchants after walls, for example).

    @Drathmar: Lol, I vaguely remember last night someone saying “Who upgraded this?!” and your response “oops”. What was it you upgraded?

  • Good tips. I think i’d really like to see some penalties in place for Zergs. Maybe they could introduce an “Army Penalty”. Once a certain number of 1 sides forces occupy an area, they maybe get a speed penalty for being under “Army Conditions” etc…

  • Me and mine are busy working on lightning guerrilla tactics. Hitting Dolyaks, turning over supply camps, and (when we’re feeling very ornery) taking towers well behind the lines.

    Our key point is staying mobile and not just taking every opportunity to kill and enemy – because when you attack them (or they attack you), a marker appears on the map, and someone starts tracking you.

    WvW Tip: People respond to fight signs on their map – particularly that shouty guy who’s trying to steer the zerg. Every server, on every map, has one. And to make a fortress look under siege, you only need to hit the gate once.

  • You have any suggestions for entering Solo? Is it best to just defend some dolyaks till you come across a raid party you can assist? Also what are the roles for the different classes?

  • @Wufiavelli: If I go in solo I would either look for the zerg and just follow along (even the zerg needs bodies) or play the role of look-out.

  • My problem with WvW right now is having no idea what to do and where to go, so naturally I search for the zerg. The map intro is does little to help.

    Until a few moments ago I had no idea how to up grade a keep, and still I’m not that clear on it, who do I talk to, how do I know if everything is upgraded, what can I upgrade, do I get experience for upgrading? etc…

    As far as defending, if I’m not receiving something for defending, upgrading helps, but defending a supply camp for 30min to see if someone will attack is a waste of my time with the limited time I have to play. I enjoy / prefer defending if something is happening but I’m not sitting around walking the wall if there is nothing going on or something for me to do.

    This is the best Realm vs Realm I’ve seen to date but I’m very lost.

    Is there a comprehensive guide to WvWvW yet?

  • The goal of WvW is simple: Control the most points to win.

    Hit “B” to bring up the WvW menu. You will see how many points your server is generating each point update phase, and you’ll see what type of installations you own.

    Enter a WvW zone and press “M” to bring up the map. You’ll see what is under attack if it has swords crossed over its icon. If it is your color, that means it is under attack. If there are orange crossed swords, a battle is going on in that exact location.

    Keeps, Towers, and garrisons use supply to upgrade. supply camps (tents on the map) provide supply to them via Dolyaks (big walking buffalo things). Upgrades make locations harder to take, so upgrades are important.

    Right now the map is resetting every 24 hours at 4pm PT. Soon (we hope) it will be every 2 weeks.

    I can answer any questions you have.

  • Do I upgrade the keep directly with the supply I’m carrying or do NPC’s do it over time as the Dolyaks arrive?

    Crossed swords can be misleading, I often arrive in a ‘cross sword’ area and no one is there either because the battle is over or some NPC was randomly chasing after someone who got to close to a keep that was just passing by.

    I know once I get into a couple of organized groups things will start to make more sense, however that seems to be a rare thing to find if your just jumping in solo initially.

  • @Vort: The supply you are carrying on you is used to repair structures and build siege weapons.

    Supply carried by Dolyaks into a location can be picked up by you, but if you leave it there the workers in the keep will automatically apply it and use it for purchased upgrades (purchased from the upgrades NPC)

  • A guild-led zerg has more cohesion than a random group of people & a commander.

    If no one is upgrading/defending it’s best to use the keep supply to fix the doors.

    If a world is actively repairing walls/doors, you can disrupt this process by taking their immediate supply camps and making sure their dolyaks don’t get there. Sure they’ll take it back but they’ll only get 100 supply. That’s a lot less than a dolyak.

    Beware the bystander effect. People assume other people are doing stuff. This is a natural effect in crowds.

    Small group skirmishing can be very effective but getting random people to stick together is hard. Guilded groups are much better.

    When the map is full of individuals operating for their own benefits it’s hard to get people to defend.

    It’s useful to know what guilds are operating on a map as guilds as the most cohesive groups.

    Beware the killzone on well defended keeps. Better to hang back and use siege. Be prepared to defend against defensive zergs but don’t chase them back into the killzone.

    Know when to cut losses and run, not chase & leave some stuff alone. A wiped zerg is highly inconvenient and destroys momentum.

    The southern keeps are difficult to take and hold unless you have far superior numbers. People are liable to get bogged down in an unending back and forth battle whilst you loose the rest of your holdings. This happens a lot when one southern world is trying to take the other southern world keep.