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World versus World Guild Wars 2 PvP
Combat in Guild Wars 2 World versus World PvP involves hundreds of people, in three teams, each composed of an entire server full of GW2 players, fighting in huge battles on a series of gigantic maps in the Mists (GW2's world vs. world battleground). Each of the three teams will begin a battle in their home area called the Borderlands. Here they would have a "home ground" advantage, to deter enemy teams from invading their starting area.
The primary field of combat will be a fourth, central map called the Eternal Battlegrounds. This map has its own unique features, including a massive central keep that all teams will be seeking to occupy and control.
Here's a short video (2:50) showing the WvW map in Guild Wars 2 as well as some interesting screenshots of the stats and bonus screens (best watched in full-screen mode).
As well as the central keep there are a number of different battlefield objectives in Guild Wars 2 WvW that are designed to be contested and captured by large, medium, or small groups of players. Players can work together to capture keeps, towers and resource camps, such as logging camps and quarries, claiming them for their guilds, then fortifying and defending them against hostile hordes.
Each of these objectives are worth points for the team that captures it. The points total for each server is periodically tallied and added to their "War Score", which accumulates over the two-week length of a battle. As your War Score increases your world will gain access to additional bonuses or be able to strengthen the bonuses you already have.
GW2 systems designer Mike Ferguson puts it this way...
"To provide enough area to hold all these objectives and a wide variety of terrain, we needed to make some absolutely gigantic maps; four of them. These are the largest maps we can make in Guild Wars 2, and we use as much space as we possibly can in order to accommodate over a hundred people from each server fighting on every map. "
That's more than one hundred people per team on each map... over three hundred people fighting at once in what are sure to be epic Guild Wars 2 WvW battles where tactics will play their part instead of just brute force!
The downtime between these epic WvW battles lasts only a few minutes as, at the end of every battle, the final scores are calculated and server rankings are updated, with new matches between servers being created based on the updated rankings.Your world's score is based on how many objectives you hold, so running around in one huge group doesn't necessarily help your world nearly as much as it would to break into a couple of smaller groups so you can cover more area.
Speaking of groups...
Larger groups will be needed to capture a keep as they are surrounded by stout walls and sturdy gates and defended by tough NPCs and a "Keep Lord". When enemy players are defending the keep, it becomes even more challenging. Once the keep lord is defeated, your force has to hold the keep for a short time before you claim it for your server. Once you capture a keep, all gates and walls are repaired.
For medium-sized groups, there are a number of smaller towers placed around the countryside which have a lesser number of NPC guards and weaker fortifications, including destroyable gates and walls.
Small assault groups will be most effective against resource camps such as quarries or logging camps as they are less heavily protected than keeps and towers, with no walls or gates to breach.
Another form of group in Guild Wars 2 is the "Squad". Squads are a way for any number of people to band together for a common goal and are extremely useful in GW2 WvW. Squads are led by a commander, and that commander has the ability to talk to everyone in their squad in a chat channel that only the commander can talk in. Commanders can also place waypoints on the map that are viewable by all of their squad members. These waypoints tell the squad to do things like "attack here", "regroup here", and "bring supply here".The squad commander is self appointed. There is a one-time-use item that people purchase for gold that gives them the ability to turn on the Commander function at any time. When you become a commander, anyone not in a squad will see the commander icon over your head and can select you, by right-clicking on your portrait and selecting "join squad".When someone is following a commander, you can right-click on their portrait to join their squad and follow the same commander. There is no limit to who can be in a squad.
While they may be the smallest objective in WvW warfare, resource camps are vital to a team's success or failure on the battlefield. They create a universal resource called "Supply" which regenerates supply over time. Supply is used to build siege weapons, repair damaged walls, or purchase various upgrades.
Each objective in Guild Wars 2 WvW has its own supply depot and they will periodically send out dolyak caravans to deliver supply to nearby allied towers and keeps. Supply can be collected from that depot but only if there is some available. If there is no supply in the depot, you'll need to get some directly from a resource camp or escort a caravan so it can deliver more supply to the depot. TIP: It's important to protect the caravans delivering supply!
When a location like a keep or tower is being assaulted, the game tracks how many people are participating in that assault and, once it has been captured, the guild with the largest ACTIVE participation gets a minute after the capture where they are the only guild that can claim that objective. They can then display their guild's emblem on banners at that location and attach bonuses that provide benefits to anyone from their server who is in that area. These bonuses can give allies more health, improve stats, or increase the amount of supply that players can take from the supply depot at that location. Guilds can each claim one location at a time.There will be alerts that will communicate when an objective your guild owns is under attack. There is no quick travel though, you have to hurry there and hopefully make it before the enemy breaks through and captures it!
Capturing objectives in GW2 WvW can provide bonuses for everyone on your server, as well as any rewards you get for your character. Everyone benefits by holding on to territory during the battle, so get out there and hold on to as many objectives as you can!
Orbs of Power - Capture the Flag in Guild Wars 2!
Sure to appeal to those like myself who love capture-the-flag objectives, Guild Wars 2 World versus World uses a special artifact known as the "Orb of Power". At the start of each battle, there is an orb in each Borderlands map which is owned by the home team. It is stored in a heavily guarded location known as the Cradle of Power, which is guarded by a fearsome NPC known as the Keeper of the Orb. By defeating the keeper, players can remove the orb from the cradle and take it to one of their own Altars of Power, which are located at every keep in the Borderlands. Once in place, this will provide a boost to the entire team.WARNING: Once an orb is removed, players have but a few minutes to place it at one of their own altars or it will be returned to the original Cradle of Power!
GW2 WvW Weapons of War
Everyone has the ability to build siege weapons in Guild Wars 2 WvW. All you need to do is buy a blueprint from your Siegemaster NPC, choose a site to build the weapon and add enough supply to finish the construction. TIP: Blueprints are always available to purchase with gold from a siegemaster, but you can also find them as drops from guards and dolyaks.Anyone on your team can add their supply to the site to help with the construction. WARNING: Be sure to have enough people to defend the site during construction phase as it's an easy target for enemies!
To help breech these defences, players in Guild Wars 2 WvW combat have the ability to use siege weapons such as :
Trebuchets : Launches huge, flaming balls of destruction from long-range.
Ballistae : Fires giant bolts that can pierce their target, dealing large amounts of damage to players, gates, and walls.
Siege Golems : A slow-moving asuran golem that smashes things at close-range.
Catapults : Good for taking down walls and gates, or a tight group of enemies.
Arrow Carts : Launches multiple arrows which can blanket a small area. Good against flesh-and-blood enemies, but ineffective against structures.
As well as the weapons above there are also mortars, cannons and pots of boiling oil to be found in keeps and towers. You don't have to buy blueprints for these stationary keep weapons, but you will need to have enough supply available to build them.
Upgrade Options for Structures and Personnel
Each objective in GW2 WvW offers the ability for players to purchase upgrade options for their structures or personnel.
Towers and keeps offer structural upgrades and personnel upgrades, while resource camps offer only personnel upgrades. Each upgrade requires supply, although it's spent a bit differently depending on the type of upgrade you purchase.
Structural Upgrades : Strengthen the defenses of a keep, making them much harder for enemies to destroy. You pay the gold upgrade cost immediately, and then worker NPCs will gather the required supply from the keep's depot as they build the upgrade. Only workers are able to spend supply on a structural upgrade, and the upgrade only completes once enough supply has been spent to build it.
Personnel Upgrades : Affect the NPCs at your objective, allowing you to hire more guards or raise the level of any guards in the area. You pay the supply and gold cost up front, and then you must wait for a period of time before the upgrade is completed.
Mercenaries for Hire
Each GW2 WvW map contains a variety of mercenary camps populated by some of the minor races from Tyria. These mercenaries are independent but may be willing to assist your war efforts in return for you helping them first.
For example, a group of ogres ask for your help in protecting their camp against constant harpy assaults and in return, they go rampaging toward the nearest enemy objective or send out patrols to help you hold on to your territory. TIP: These mercenaries won't fight for you indefinitely, but they can help turn the tide of battle, and are worth recruiting whenever possible.
One of the most attractive aspects of Guild Wars 2 World versus World PvP is that it is so easy to participate in. You can just join the battle using your normal GW2 PvE character, regardless of what level you are as players all fight at the same level. Any character below level 80 will be adjusted so they are roughly equivalent in power to what they would be at level 80. You'll also continue to gain experience and new items as players you kill will drop loot for you just like slain monsters in PvE. (Note: the killed player doesn't lose any of their own equipment). Any gear that is dropped for you will be appropriate to your actual level giving you the opportunity to improve your character's weapons and armor as you fight in WvW!
If you have 45 minutes to spare here's a video showing WvW action and some serious "LEEEEEROY" moments. At the 20 minute mark you can see a siege golem in short-lived suicide mode!
Not being a hardcore PvPer from GW1 (stopped after getting Bambi), I'm really excited by the latest Guild Wars 2 World versus World PvP scenarios. I can imagine there being a number of "super-guilds" who lead their respective servers into battle while smaller guilds get to carve out their own niche areas within those battles. I simply can't wait to give this a whirl!
The downtime between these epic WvW battles lasts only a few minutes as, at the end of every battle, the final scores are calculated and server rankings are updated, with new matches between servers being created based on the updated rankings.Your world's score is based on how many objectives you hold, so running around in one huge group doesn't necessarily help your world nearly as much as it would to break into a couple of smaller groups so you can cover more area.
