Notes on WvW
Miscellaneous notes on WvW tricks

[b][u]Combos:[/b][/u]
- mesmer teleport fields should be coordinated to mass zerg points (i.e. mesmer scouts)
- elementalists + engineers are essential due to grenades ("Detonate All") having a blast finisher that combo with [url=http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cross-profession_combo]combo fields[/url]
- blash finisher bonuses affect up to 5 players per blast, prioritizing squad members first (hence just need 1 grenade engineer per group but 1 staff elementalist per squad)
- [url=http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lightning_Field=Lightning field[/url] (staff ele Static Field) = 10 seconds of Swiftness, unlimited duration stacking
- [url=http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Water_Field]Water field[/url] (e.g. staff ele Geyser/Healing Rain) = some amount of healing, for healing the flame ram operators
- [url=http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fire_Field]Fire field[/url] (e.g. staff ele Lava Font) = 3 stacks of Might, instantly 25 stacks of might
- mass stacking of Swiftness via Lightning field combo allows you to move entire groups from one end of the map to the other with Swiftness buffed the entire time
- 25 stacks of Might effectively doubles your damage against doors; my autoattacks went from 50 to 110 - compound that with entire groups and auto-attacks actually do a decent amount of damage to doors (compared to 8019 per flame ram hit)

[b][u]Useful classes:[/b][/u]
- staff elementalists
- grenade engineers
- bubble guardians

[b][u]Squad compositions:[/b][/u]
- elementalist for combo field
- remaining whatever (preferably rangers with warhorn or warriors with utility trait "For Great Justice" for the crit buffs)

[b][u]Group requirement:[/b][/u]
- 1 commander per group
- at least 1 grenade engineer for blast effect (2 or 3 preferred)
- healing spec'd staff elementalist for healing flame ram operators with "Healing Rain", "Geyser", close range "Water Blast" autoattacking, and "Tornado" elite for defence
- bubble spec'd guardian for flame ram defence and healing and "Tome of Courage" elite
- banner spec'd warrior to drop down banners for buffs and "Battle Standard" elite

[b][u]Siege equipments:[/b][/u]
- 2 flame rams per door
- catapults to break down walls ONLY if door is too well defended, otherwise, waste of supplies
- position multiple arrow carts at Keep Lord and stairs choke points if defending
- arrow carts are target AoE but go around doors (meaning from behind the doors, you can rain arrows on players right in front of the door)
- ballistas have longer range than arrow carts but have a longer cooldown and larger supply cost - only use for destroying other siege equipment or to attack pansies
- casting Fear near the doors will fear flame ram operators (and everyone else nearby) off - stability does NOT protect against Fear
- golems are completely useless and a waste of money and supply (unless you've already taken over the map and are bored)

[b][u]Orb of Power:[/b][/u]
- every server map has one "Orb of Power" (1 per map, 3 orbs in total)
- orbs default to the home server, spawning north of the top-most supply camp, residing on an "Altar of Power"
- the orb can reside in either the top supply camp or in either of the two side keeps
- if the orb is removed from the top supply camp, it must be placed in a side keep within (15?) minutes by a player or else it will reset back to the top
- if you want to get an orb on an enemy map for your server, you must 1) capture a keep on that enemy map, 2) defeat the defending orb champion right under the orb point, then 3) bring it to your captured keep's Altar of Power by foot
- if you want to rescue the orb on your home map from an enemy server, you must 1) invade the enemy keep, 2) destroy the keep's Altar of Power, 3) prevent the enemy team from placing the Orb back onto their Altar
- orb recapturing prevention usually entails one team member picking up the orb and running for his life, staying alive until the reset timer runs out
- the Champion Keep Lord of a enemy keep that currently holds an Orb of Power cannot be damaged until the Altar is destroyed (by player attacks/etc.)
- make sure to spike kill all mobs in keeps area as staggered respawns will just slow the capture process/make it impossible if they're killed too slowly
- I do not know the respawn rate of the enemy keep's Altar - that needs to be investigated
- these orbs give a cross-map buff to all WvW members of the orb-owning server
- each orb gives +5% HP and +50 to all stats (as of the moment)
- owning all three orbs (i.e. orb in top supply camp in your home map and orb in server-owned keep in both enemy maps) results in +15% HP and +150 in each stat - its a pretty significant buff

[b][u]NPC help:[/b][/u]
- help the NPC points and they will help attack capture points
- NPCs break down keep doors for you, but only the first level of doors (pretty good still)
- they're veterans so they do pack quite a bit of punch, and they just respawn and return to attack the same door if kept allied
- some of the NPCs attack through underwater passage ways - I am not familiar with all the entry points yet
- I do not know which camps correspond to which capture point - needs investigation

[b][u]Jumping Puzzles:[/b][/u]
- do all four jumping puzzles every day
- 1 in Eternal Battleground, with a portal inside each every keep (open dungeon so there will be some fighting inside)
- 1 in each map (3 total), accessible by anyone, hidden behind a waterfall in the northwest corner of the map
- there are the highest level mining mats and gear shards inside these instances
- rewards are a few silver, some blue/green equipment at your level, some seige equipment blueprints, and 10+ badges of honour (just the badges alone are worth it)
- mesmers themselves have infinite "resets" due to being able to constantly portal to previous "safe" points
- for speed runs, one mesmer go to each point, jump down/return to rest of group, then portal everyone forward
- necros can place fear wards to make enemy players fall off ledges/jump points

More to be added as things popup...

~Keripo

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[b][u]WvW experience with Team Legacy [TL][/b][/u]

Last Thursday was the WvW all-call from noon til 9pm. I only got back from work after 7pm, but played til 10pm. During that time, me and a squad of other RQs ran with Team Legacy [TL] in WvW, representing Boris Pass server. Team Legacy has at least 30 members currently in alpha but they've been in alpha for quite some time (at least 5 were in when I first joined) and they've pretty much mastered WvW  - they were part of the main driving force in Anvil Rock painting the map red prior to the wipe (outside of them, LoTD, Cata, Oo, and maybe a few I forgot to name, everyone's pretty bad).

Here's a map for reference. Its the wrong map but its a high res map where you can see capture points by name. I will use the names in this map in this post (but know that we were actually attacking the Yak's Bend blue map with different names)

[img]http://www.hammerfistclan.com/forum/attachments/f191/1532d1332136688-wvw-map-point-values-t28jn.jpg[/img]

Here's what I recall from memory. Order of some details may be mixed up:

I logged on a bit past 7. 3 RQs in vent channel with 10 TLs. I drop down.
They just finished taking over the Boris Pass map (it's all green).
"Regroup at Yak Bend's waypoint, stack on me, we start in 2 mins" ~Freelancer (TL leader)
Everyone teleports to Yak's Bend map's waypoint, stands ontop of the commander badge'd player.
"Line up across me, RQs stand behind and make your own squad"
There's roughly 9 TLs and 3 RQs including me. We make our own squad.
"Everyone from left side to xxx, you're Group 1. Everyone from xxx to the right end, you're Group 2. RQ is Group 3."
"G1, capture Bluevale Refuge supply camp. G2, Hero's Lodge. G3, follow G1."
"Once finished, G1 and G3 cap Bluebriar tower, G2 capture Redwater Lowlands, then all meet up at Sunnyhill tower."
We quickly cap the supply camp, then attack Bluebriar with 2 flame rams. Quick zerg in and finish.
"G2, Redwater Lowlands. G3, Faithleap. G1 start attacking Sunnyhill with 1 flame ram"
G2 screwed up and ended up running with us to Faithleap. G1 backtracks and goes capture Redwater Lowlands. Someone points out the swiftness blast combo with engineers along the way. G1 uses it to almost meet up with us in time for the attack.
We build 1 flame ram. Need supplies for second.
"G2 run to Faithleap for supplies. Rest stay here".
Engineers are spamming grenade combo fields, giving everyone 25 stacks of might. I quickly found out that TLs are pretty good at listening to instructions cause I never got any stacks of might by standing close (meaning all squads were in blast range). I also learned that if I cast my own Fire field (with Lava Font), my squad (or the only other RQ who was paying attention and standing beside me) got the blast bonus. Autoattacking + flame ram quickly takes down the doors and we cap the point.
"Strip the tower of supplies, stack on me for swiftness buff, then all attack Dreadfall Bay"
We accidentally group up around the NE gate instead of the N. NE gate is better due to being closer in direct run to Faithleap supply camp, but with these numbers, doesn't matter much.
2 flame rams. We break through, there's a few Yak's Bend defenders.
"Kill the defenders, build a second ram, and capture the point fast before they return"
We zerg in and mow down the Champion Keep Lord. A bunch of new players kept dying to the red circles. Fast capture.
"Strip the keep of supplies, then stack on me outside the NE gate".
We regroup.
"Countdown and Swiftness grenade blast"
Somewhat disorganized due to some people just running off instead of stopping for the swiftness stack (it was decidedly not worth it for the short run).
"The Garrison has only 200 supplies. We only build 1 flame ram"
I'm sure Freelancer has done some kind of cost-benefit calculation here (when I asked why just 1, he said its not worth the supplies) which I don't get and will need more investigation into. Might be that we didn't restock from a supply camp or tower. Not sure.
No invaders surprisingly. This keep had the Orb of power so we had to destroy the Altar first (fast destroy). Took a bit longer to capture since twice part-way through capturing a mob or two respawned since they were killed earlier than the rest during the orb destroying time.
At this point, a third squad of TLs had formed. They were assigned G3.
"G1 The Godsward, G2 Astralholme, G3 Hero's Lodge, Red re-capped it. Meet up at Cliffside"
Big fail on RQ's part here. Some of my group split up with G1, some with G2, Lethe (I think) and I went with G3 to where we were supposed to go. Some fuss in vent (combined with TAKBonez with more questions/unnecessary commentary), but ended up capping everything and meeting up at Cliffside already door broken through by the time we arrived).
"Strip supplies, cap Etheron Hills"
Same procedure. Somehow they lured the Keep Lord to the bridge and killed him there, then stormed in and quickly destroyed the rest of the NPCs. No respawn troubles this time.
"Strip supplies, cap Redlake tower (last non-captured point)"
New build comes up. Some jokes about a speed run. People call it a night.

In 3 hours, (almost) the entire Yak's Bend map was green. After that, those who stayed on recaptured Redwater Lowlands and then went jumping puzzling. I finished my first puzzle with much help from Freelancer who was carrying a guildie through via mesmer portals (I literally just followed along)

~Keripo