RyanB
Legacy of Elijah Guild Leader
Lots of great discussion on the event thread, but was hoping to have a more permanent WvW discussion thread to put basic info, discuss builds, etc. as more of us get into it and want to discuss strategies. Remember, no question is too daft; we'd love to have any and all join and are more than happy to help.
What is World vs. World vs. World?
WvW is a massive PvE/PvP mode pitting ~2,000 players from 3 server teams against each other across 4 maps, currently 1 week long. Matches restart Friday evening at 8 EST/5PST. The objective is to capture points, and lots of them. Every 15 minutes points are given to teams based on how many keeps and supply depots they control.
WvW has unique elements like siege weaponry, keeps with walls/doors, supply routes, etc.
- Getting there/Tutorial -
Hit B in game, click the big button up top, and pick a map. Eternal Battlegrounds or one of the other 3 maps. Also, there is a tutorial NPC as soon as you get there that gives you a nice tutorial; check it out!
- More info -
Rather than regurgitating everything that is on the wiki, I'm simply going to link it: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_world
Here's a quick look at what the maps look like: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/d/da/Noncb.jpg Each map has a spawn point. For EB, each team spawns in a corner. For their respective borderlands, they get a nice central spawn, where each opposing team spawns in the corner.
- Key/Movement Options to consider-
Frame Rate - If you've fought a big world boss and had frames drop, you should know that this can happen easily in large-scale fights, and can put you at a disadvantage to those with superior hardware. If you're worried about this, I'd highly recommend setting your graphics options to low. Game still looks great.
Target Nearest - If you didn't know, you can keybind to target the nearest enemy. I set it to C, since that is what default was on GW1.
Auto-attack - May consider having this off altogether, especially if you use target nearest. This can actually help you escape a fight by using your leaping abilities while running away to cover extra distance.
About Face - Panning a camera around takes time and can be disorienting, especially if frame rate drops. Binding this key (I use Z) allows you to consistently and bravely run away.
Dodging - Remember that if you are stationary, dodging will send you straight backwards. Very useful to back up or begin to get out of a fight.
Flip Jump - If you press dodge + jump at the same time, you will flip jump. This actually gives you a tad more forward mobility, especially when jumping off ledges. Looks awesome.
Even as a lumbering guardian, Dodge -> About Face -> Staff #3 -> Flip Jump again -> Greatsword Leap skill -> Save Yourselves!...covers a lot of ground.
- Simple tactics -
Capturing Supply points - Supply is important in WvW for building siege and upgrades, with is very important for both attack and defense. Protect your supply routes while denying your enemy.
When a supply point is captured, defender NPCs will spawn. These NPCs aren't too tough, though they tend to be of veteran strength. A single skilled player could take them out in theory, but by the time you did so you would probably be knee deep in enemy players. 3-5 players can capture most depots very quickly, so a party-sized team is good for this function. Any more than that and you should roll through easily.
Siege Weapons
I won't do these to death, but just know that different siege have very different uses. You can get blueprints from the siegemaster NPC at the map spawn, by the portals. They cost silver or badges of honor, which drop from enemies. You can also get them from killing enemies and from completing the jumping puzzles.
Arrow carts are cheap and very nice for raining down AoE on enemies from the wall of a keep.
Ballistas hit very hard to one small area, but need direct line of sight. They're also very good for taking out enemy siege.
Catapult does exactly what you'd expect it to. Nice for attacking keeps, as you can sit safely behind your lines.
Flame Ram is used pretty much exlusively for attacking doors. They are cheap, and do a ton of damage. Like, ~30 players worth of damage.
Siege golem are essentially mobile flame rams. Very expensive, but hit very hard, and just look awesome. 5 alpha blueprints can be turned into an Omega.
Trebuchets are long-range weaponry that fire 1,000-4,000 yards. Yeah. Attack another keep from the safety of yours.
Keep Defense
Defense doesn't require as many resources as attacking, and it's usually easy to get reinforcements through portals. High walls provide a lot of safety to peg enemies from, both with siege and AoE. Build to repair the door, work hard to keep flame rams and other siege off the door, and you should emerge victorious. Arrow carts are cheap and can actually net you a lot of money...by allowing you to rack up kills against a large enemy siege.
Tip: you can attack through keep doors. This works especially well if you have a ranged AoE attack, because most enemies at the keep door tend to melee. This allows you to sit a bit back from the door while hitting them, but not being hit yourself. You also make it far more difficult for enemies to stand on the door if they are constantly being pelted in the face in addition to hit from above. By punishing their hubris, you protect your door.
Another fun tip: wards will also cast through the door. For example, I like to run to a corner and angle myself so that I can lay down a wall of reflection that angles through the door. This punishes enemies and protects the door by blocking projectiles.
If you do run up to the door for any reason, melee or otherwise, prepare to take a lot of damage. Protect yourself, get in, get out.
Attacking Keeps
Aside from the obvious "have lots of people", there are a lot of things you can do to improve your odds.
Flame Rams - these do a TON of damage. 2 flame rams will probably do more damage than the rest of the zerg combined.
Take out enemy siege - getting pelted by arrow carts from above? Bring a catapult or well-placed ballista. Siege is stationary, so take it out.
Punish enemy players - Same as above, don't let them simply rain down fire on you. Hit them with siege, aoe, etc. Reflect damage.
Cut off the enemy - This is a big one I don't see happen often. If the enemy's spawn point is in the southwest part of the map, and you're attacking the east side of a nearby keep, it's very easy for them to teleport/spawn and get into the keep to defend. Instead, get between them and maul them as they attempt it. Far better to fight them off on the ground with your superior numbers than allow them to collect in the safety of their keep.
Attack through keep doors - same as defense, don't be afraid to be up in their business. Punish those who would sit behind the door defending.
- Builds -
I'll put my specific guardian set-up, but in general you want to have as much range, aoe, team support, speed, and defense as you can. I know that's a lot to pick and choose, so just play with your play style. Just don't think that you can be a glass cannot and teleport into a large enemy mob. That doesn't work here.
- Consumables -
Consumables can be used in WvW for great effect, and many of them are very cheap. This includes boosters from Black Lion chests. Add power, magic find, whatever you want. This includes feasts as well - I like to carry feast of fire flank steak around. +100 power/70 condition damage/+10xp per kill for ALL players sieging or defending the area. Costs half as much as an arrow cart.
What is World vs. World vs. World?
WvW is a massive PvE/PvP mode pitting ~2,000 players from 3 server teams against each other across 4 maps, currently 1 week long. Matches restart Friday evening at 8 EST/5PST. The objective is to capture points, and lots of them. Every 15 minutes points are given to teams based on how many keeps and supply depots they control.
WvW has unique elements like siege weaponry, keeps with walls/doors, supply routes, etc.
- Getting there/Tutorial -
Hit B in game, click the big button up top, and pick a map. Eternal Battlegrounds or one of the other 3 maps. Also, there is a tutorial NPC as soon as you get there that gives you a nice tutorial; check it out!
- More info -
Rather than regurgitating everything that is on the wiki, I'm simply going to link it: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_world
Here's a quick look at what the maps look like: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/d/da/Noncb.jpg Each map has a spawn point. For EB, each team spawns in a corner. For their respective borderlands, they get a nice central spawn, where each opposing team spawns in the corner.
- Key/Movement Options to consider-
Frame Rate - If you've fought a big world boss and had frames drop, you should know that this can happen easily in large-scale fights, and can put you at a disadvantage to those with superior hardware. If you're worried about this, I'd highly recommend setting your graphics options to low. Game still looks great.
Target Nearest - If you didn't know, you can keybind to target the nearest enemy. I set it to C, since that is what default was on GW1.
Auto-attack - May consider having this off altogether, especially if you use target nearest. This can actually help you escape a fight by using your leaping abilities while running away to cover extra distance.
About Face - Panning a camera around takes time and can be disorienting, especially if frame rate drops. Binding this key (I use Z) allows you to consistently and bravely run away.
Dodging - Remember that if you are stationary, dodging will send you straight backwards. Very useful to back up or begin to get out of a fight.
Flip Jump - If you press dodge + jump at the same time, you will flip jump. This actually gives you a tad more forward mobility, especially when jumping off ledges. Looks awesome.
Even as a lumbering guardian, Dodge -> About Face -> Staff #3 -> Flip Jump again -> Greatsword Leap skill -> Save Yourselves!...covers a lot of ground.
- Simple tactics -
Capturing Supply points - Supply is important in WvW for building siege and upgrades, with is very important for both attack and defense. Protect your supply routes while denying your enemy.
When a supply point is captured, defender NPCs will spawn. These NPCs aren't too tough, though they tend to be of veteran strength. A single skilled player could take them out in theory, but by the time you did so you would probably be knee deep in enemy players. 3-5 players can capture most depots very quickly, so a party-sized team is good for this function. Any more than that and you should roll through easily.
Siege Weapons
I won't do these to death, but just know that different siege have very different uses. You can get blueprints from the siegemaster NPC at the map spawn, by the portals. They cost silver or badges of honor, which drop from enemies. You can also get them from killing enemies and from completing the jumping puzzles.
Arrow carts are cheap and very nice for raining down AoE on enemies from the wall of a keep.
Ballistas hit very hard to one small area, but need direct line of sight. They're also very good for taking out enemy siege.
Catapult does exactly what you'd expect it to. Nice for attacking keeps, as you can sit safely behind your lines.
Flame Ram is used pretty much exlusively for attacking doors. They are cheap, and do a ton of damage. Like, ~30 players worth of damage.
Siege golem are essentially mobile flame rams. Very expensive, but hit very hard, and just look awesome. 5 alpha blueprints can be turned into an Omega.
Trebuchets are long-range weaponry that fire 1,000-4,000 yards. Yeah. Attack another keep from the safety of yours.
Keep Defense
Defense doesn't require as many resources as attacking, and it's usually easy to get reinforcements through portals. High walls provide a lot of safety to peg enemies from, both with siege and AoE. Build to repair the door, work hard to keep flame rams and other siege off the door, and you should emerge victorious. Arrow carts are cheap and can actually net you a lot of money...by allowing you to rack up kills against a large enemy siege.
Tip: you can attack through keep doors. This works especially well if you have a ranged AoE attack, because most enemies at the keep door tend to melee. This allows you to sit a bit back from the door while hitting them, but not being hit yourself. You also make it far more difficult for enemies to stand on the door if they are constantly being pelted in the face in addition to hit from above. By punishing their hubris, you protect your door.
Another fun tip: wards will also cast through the door. For example, I like to run to a corner and angle myself so that I can lay down a wall of reflection that angles through the door. This punishes enemies and protects the door by blocking projectiles.
If you do run up to the door for any reason, melee or otherwise, prepare to take a lot of damage. Protect yourself, get in, get out.
Attacking Keeps
Aside from the obvious "have lots of people", there are a lot of things you can do to improve your odds.
Flame Rams - these do a TON of damage. 2 flame rams will probably do more damage than the rest of the zerg combined.
Take out enemy siege - getting pelted by arrow carts from above? Bring a catapult or well-placed ballista. Siege is stationary, so take it out.
Punish enemy players - Same as above, don't let them simply rain down fire on you. Hit them with siege, aoe, etc. Reflect damage.
Cut off the enemy - This is a big one I don't see happen often. If the enemy's spawn point is in the southwest part of the map, and you're attacking the east side of a nearby keep, it's very easy for them to teleport/spawn and get into the keep to defend. Instead, get between them and maul them as they attempt it. Far better to fight them off on the ground with your superior numbers than allow them to collect in the safety of their keep.
Attack through keep doors - same as defense, don't be afraid to be up in their business. Punish those who would sit behind the door defending.
- Builds -
I'll put my specific guardian set-up, but in general you want to have as much range, aoe, team support, speed, and defense as you can. I know that's a lot to pick and choose, so just play with your play style. Just don't think that you can be a glass cannot and teleport into a large enemy mob. That doesn't work here.
- Consumables -
Consumables can be used in WvW for great effect, and many of them are very cheap. This includes boosters from Black Lion chests. Add power, magic find, whatever you want. This includes feasts as well - I like to carry feast of fire flank steak around. +100 power/70 condition damage/+10xp per kill for ALL players sieging or defending the area. Costs half as much as an arrow cart.
Last edited:
