Tips for playing WvW & Emotes FTW!

So I've had the thought rattling around the back of my head that I really should write down somewhere all the things I forget & wish I didn't in game like how to:

Hide your UI by pressing Control + Shift + H
Take a screen shot hiding your UI = Shift + Print Screen

Then I came across a post on Reddit.com called What are some things you wish more people knew about WvW which gave me the inspiration to make my own lists of stuff & paraphrase some of the reddit post. I am making the assumption you have played WvW and have some basic understanding of how it works and know how to acquire siege blueprints etc.

• Build siege weapons when they're thrown down by your team, if no one has supply then go get it from the nearest supply depot, the siege item will knock down the wall / gate much faster than you ever will

• Now that you have siege in place make damn sure you heal the players operating the siege weapons, if you're not aware in order to use a siege weapon you cannot access your skill bar so cannot heal / shield yourself so these guys need your help

• When building arrow carts DON'T put them in the middle of a wall (like in the pic below) or on the outside edge, yes you will have a better field of vision & be able to target enemies better but you will be taken out by enemy AOE in 5 seconds. Run around & find a spot that is right on the inside edge that you can just target the gate but can also target some of the field & you're golden

• You CAN create trebuchets in Garrison that hit DB and you SHOULD create at least 3 & you SHOULD ask another player to act as a spotter to let you know where & what you are hitting

• You DO NOT need to stay within the circle to control a point after killing a scout / taking a tower to get a successful event notification, too many times I see 10 people standing there doing nothing when they could be porting back to base to move on to the next location

• Only skirmishes or battles involving more than 5 players will show up on the world or mini map so a 2 v 2 fight will go un-noticed by a zerg just like a 5 man party running around a map capping scouts etc will be invisible unless visually sighted

• If you keep or tower is being attacked don't use the supply to repair it unless you are positive you are going to lose it, use your own & other player supply to build arrow carts etc to kill the enemy. If you repair the wall they will only damage it again so put it another way siege defeats an attack while repair slows the defeat

• Quaggans are not useless! Their camps in the borderlands only require 15 pearls (which you can find in the lake keep & stockpile to use whenever you like) or Krait kills to gain allegiance which is only a few minutes effort then the camps can cause weather events in their vicinity which can heal allies or damage enemies. Another good thing about this is not many players like fighting underwater so you tend to be left alone, and, because the Krait are not killed very often you tend to receive the max bonus xp from each kill

• You can join your Commander's squad by opening your map & clicking on the Commander's blue arrow & Join squad message should pop up. Communication is huge in PvP so every little bit helps

• You can 'link' locations in chat like you can weapons or mats the benefit there is if someone is new to PvP and do not know where events or locations are clicking your link in chat automatically opens their map & shows them where they need to go / where you are

• On the point of being new, don't be hesitant to call out in chat if you see enemy moving to or from somewhere but do add which server they're from & the number you see


• If you are not going to defend a Supply Camp you should drain it's supply & an easy way of doing this is to drop a ram or 2 & build it using the camps supply. Why do this? Because if the camp has no supply the nearby keep or tower that your team is attacking will shortly be in shitzen!.

Now for the most important content - Emotes!

/beckon          /bow                  /cheer              /cower            /cry               /dance          /kneel

/laugh             /no                    /point               /ponder          /salute          /shrug           /sit

/sleep             /surprised          /threaten         /wave             /yes

Leveling in GW2 = WvW ?

I've found there are large numbers of blogs & posts offering their opinions on how best to level a character in Guild Wars 2, the one's you may find value in depends on what you like about the game.

For myself I've never been a crafter, in WOW I crafted items as a result of researching how I could deal more damage or saw others with items which I could apply to my inventory or gear, such as engineering & making bombs or mines or rocket boots etc so while it is viable to boost a character in GW2 20 levels by levelling 2 disciplines in GW2 I cannot be bothered.

Grinding or farming is always a viable option in almost every game where you go out & kill off beasty after beasty then checking out all the different items that you've looted, working out which items can be salvaged into what base material and in the process gaining XP and a bit of currency from what you vendor / trade / auction off. 

Problem with this scenario in GW2 is if you repeatedly kill the same mobs in the same area you will quickly receive ZERO bonus XP so you can't go to your favourite hidey hole off the beaten track to safely & mindlessly turn the countryside into a graveyard, instead you must constantly move from location to location hoping that someone else isn't doing the same thing just over the horizon in front of you.

I could list a few other ways but I'll jump straight to what I do which is World Vs World PvP or WvW which depending on the group of players you are mixing with can net you big XP, Karma & Coin.

The key is completing events by taking key locations within the battleground, assaulting an enemy scout will result in one of those event notification messages popping up (like the one above) likewise taking a tower / supply depot and also defending a tower / supply depot etc will net you more notifications & goodies.

I played this morning for an hour which went by in the blink of an eye picking up 2 levels, dying twice so cost me 2s in repairs or so but picked up some nice karma & a fistful of badges from those nasty enemies. WvW is THE easiest way to gain your monthly achievement in my book.

I'm not saying this is the best approach or that it will even appeal to you, perhaps you'll try it & react like I did to crafting & run away but you should at least try it out & if worse comes to worst you can still forage like in PvE which might be an attraction to you.