With WvWvW changing from daily
resets to week long matches, I
thought I’d post a few basic
concepts to help players who may
be confused about the goals and
mechanics of WvW. I don't profess
myself to be a WvW master, but
here's a run down of what I have
learned.
Like most PvP scenarios in MMO
games, there’s more going on than
just finding noobs and slaying
them. In WvW there are two ‘greater
good’ assets that help your world in
various manners; The Orb of Power
(
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/
Orb_of_Power ) and Control Points
(Keeps, Towers and Supply Depots).
Controlling an Orb of Power offers a
stacking 5% HP & 50 to all stats
bonus to all players in WvW, and
overall Control Point ownership
increases the points your world
gain, which has a number of
outside of WvW bonuses.
The Maps: There are four WvW
zones: Three Borderlands (http://
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/
Borderlands), which all share the
same map layout, and the Eternal
Battlegrounds (http://
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/
Eternal_Battleground ). Each world in
your matchup has it’s own
Borderlands, and each Borderland
contains an Orb of Power. The basic
goal for each Borderland is to
control the Orb.
Controlling the Orbs: When the
match resets, all worlds start with
control of one Orb. It is located at
the Cradle of Power, at the very
north of your home world’s
Borderland. There are a few fairly
weak NPCs who will defend the Orb
for you, but they are very easily
overcome by even a small force.
Once the Keeper of the Orb is
defeated, the opposing worlds can
take the Orb and attempt to move it
to a Keep or Garrison under their
control, transferring the Orb HP &
stat bonuses to their players. Orbs
can only be stored in four locations:
The initial Cradle of Power, the
Home World’s Garrison and either
of the Keeps on the east and west
side of the map (Located as so:
http://i.imgur.com/JkfYS.jpg ). While
the Orb is unseated, you should see
the location of the Orb in real time,
on both your minimap and the full
screen world map. (This seems to
be buggy and/or exploitable leading
to the map not displaying it’s
location, in these cases Team and
Map chat should be used to
communicate the Orb’s location to
your team.) The Home world can
not move the Orb at the start of the
match, and the Orb can never be
moved by the team that controls it.
If you want to move the Orb, you
must wait for an enemy team to
take it and take it from them.
At the start of the game, each
worlds goal should be to secure the
Orb in whichever Borderland you’re
playing in. If you’re in your Home
World’s Borderland, you should
expect that both of the opposing
worlds will be moving to take the
Keep on their side of the map
before moving up and taking your
Orb from you. If you’re in an enemy
team’s Borderland, your goal
should be to do the same, take a
location that you can store the Orb
and then obtain the Orb. With
control over multiple Orbs, you
offer your world the greatest bonus
you can towards your world
winning your match up.
Eternal Battlegrounds: While the
EB doesn’t offer anything that
affects the overall WvW power of
your realm, many players view EB as
‘the place to be’. Inside the EB each
world has roughly one third of the
zone that’s fairly simple to own, and
the center of the map offers you
find Stonemist Castle, which offers
your realm a greater points bonus
than a smaller Keep, or Tower, but
controlling the Castle is easier said
than done.
Upgrades & Siege Machinery: With
the switch from 24 hour resets to
week long match ups, be prepared
for the ‘meta-game’ of WvW to alter.
While under the 24h resets fostered
a Zerg vs Zerg vs Zerg gameplay,
you’ll likely find that people will
become more willing to part with
their cash to upgrade the Keeps and
Towers they control, more willing to
set down more defensive siege
machines and, in general, play more
defensively. At this point, ignoring
defense can lead to your world
unable to leave the spawn point, as
your opposition chose to defend
and upgrade while your world got
left in the dust, unable to attack
even the lowliest Supply Camp.
Each WvW zone has vendors who
will sell you plans for a seige
machine for silver, or in exchange
for Badges of Honor (If you’re
unsure of the use of each Siege
Machine, you can find out what
they’re good for here: http://
wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/
Siege_weapon ). You can also obtain
random plans from the Jumping
Puzzles in each WvW zone.
Communication and Awareness:
From what I have seen, this along
with ignorance to what’s going on
lead to most people being confused
about why their world is losing their
WvW matchup. While the winning
worlds often suffer from the same
problems, they generally will have a
guild, alliance, or a player willing to
take the reins and do enough
directing to get things done. Think
about what’s important to your
world, think about what you would
do to take, or defend that objective
and prepare to counter it. And
double check if that Commander
icon you’re following knows what
they’re doing (I’ve seen a very, very
low level Commander running
around; don’t assume that they
spent 100g on the book because
they’re good and know what they’re
doing).
I believe those to be the key points
to WvW that aren’t obvious. I didn’t
delve into much strategy, as that’s
going to vary dramatically between
worlds, and up to you and your
comrades to put together.
The biggest growing pain we’re likely
to see this week will be the slow
realization that ZergvZergvZerg isn’t
going to be the winning formula,
and if success in WvW matters to
you in the least, you’re going to
need to start playing more tactically.
And, finally, if you see players flying
around, or doing otherwise game
breaking exploits, do your best to
have fraps at the ready, or take
screenshots of them doing it. Please
email your information to exploits at
arena dot net to help them identify
and close the loopholes a small few
players are taking advantage of.
Hopefully I haven't made any grave
errors, but please let me know in
the comments and I'll revise my
mistakes/misunderstandings.
