A guide to GW2's WvW PvP

Hey everyone, one of the big feature of GW2’s PvP system is WvW or World vs World. This is an open world PvP system with an element of siege warfare to it. If you have never tried WvW before, the system can be quite daunting so hopefully this guide will help you understand how it all works!

Getting There

Open up your Hero Window by pressing H, and then select the last tab (PvP tab). Once you are there, press the button called Go to the Heart of the Mists.

This will teleport you to the PvP lobby. If this is your first time there, you might be teleported the training area (a separate zone called Memories of the Past). In that case, you need to run north until you zone into Hall of Memories.

Once you are at the lobby, head to the Asura Gate just west of the entrance.

This Asura gate will port you to Lion’s Arch (Fort Marriner) and you will be facing a whole bunch of Asura gates. Now you have to becareful about which gate you head into as each Asura gate port you to different places. There is one that port you back to Hall of Memories, 3 gates that port you to the three Borderlands Map, and one gate that port you to Eternal Battlegrounds.

The basics

This section will give you a quick intro to each of the key features in WvW. You can find a more detailed discussion of each feature in the sections below.

Maps

The WvW map is a massive map divided into 4 sections – Eternal Battlegrounds (central map), and 3 maps called Borderlands. Each of the Borderlands map have a World’s name attached to it. Players in that World will have some home map advantage in a section of the that map. The only way to access each maps is via Asura Gates, there are no paths that directly connect the maps. Once you are inside a WvW map, you can also switch to other maps via Asura Gates at your home world’s waypoint.

Here is a large WvW map where you can see all 4 maps together.

Scoring points

WvW matches are persistent battles between three Worlds over a two week period. Every 5 minute, points are tallied according to the objectives that a World control across all 4 maps. These points directly go into the cumulative war score, which is erased every 2 weeks and used to generate rankings for the next match. Accumulating war scores will unlock special bonuses for all players in that World at certain thresholds. These bonuses will affect all players in that World regardless of their activities (i.e. PvP or PvE).

You can see how many objectives your World is holding and how much War score your World has accumulated by pressing the B button, which will open up the WvW window.

Objectives

There are three types of objectives you can find on the maps. Capturing these objectives will earn points towards your cumulative war score.

• Keeps (Stonemist Castle) – 25 points every 5 minutes (50 points every 5 minutes)
• Towers (10 points every 5 minutes)
• Supply Camps (5 points every 5 minutes).

Stonemist Castle is a massive keep in the center of Eternal Battlegrounds map. Holding this will earn your World twice the amounts of points compared to other keeps.

Towers and Keeps have walled defenses and NPC guards to hold off defenders. Stonemist Castle has multiple walls that need to be breached before you can capture it. Attackers and Defenders can deploy siege weapons against each other, causing damage to the walls, gates and enemy players/NPCs.

Supply

Supply is needed to build defensive upgrades for towers and keeps. Players wishing to construct a siege weapon will also need supplies. Supplies are generated automatically from the supply camps scattered around the maps. Supply camps will also send supply caravans at a regular intervals to nearby keeps and towers to stock up their supplies. Players can also carry a maximum of 10 supplies with them (about half the amount needed to build the most basic siege weapon).

Capturing enemy supply camps and supply caravans is a key strategic move. Doing so will limit the enemy’s defenses, preventing them from building structural upgrades and siege weapons to counter your attacks.

Siege weapons

Players can construct a wide variety of siege weapons if they have the blueprints (purchased from siegemasters at the entrance to the map or acquired as drops) or the structural upgrades. Siege weapons requiring structural upgrades are usually restricted to a given tower/keep and cannot be constructed offsite (i.e. Mortar, Boiling Pot of Oil, and Cannons). Siege weapons requiring blueprints can be constructed pretty much all over the map, allowing both attackers and defenders to use them to their advantage. Most siege weapons are non mobile once constructed but the Siege Golem is a mobile vehicle that players can ride to assault walls and gates.

Maps

Borderland Maps

All Borderland maps are identical, the home world have a waypoint at north part of the map while the two invading worlds have a waypoint at the bottom left and right side of the map. The waypoint and the surrounding fortification cannot be captured by the enemy players as they are guarded by Legendary Defenders that one shot players. The waypoints will appear as contested waypoints for enemy players, preventing their usage.

The basic layout at the bottom half of the map is fairly simple. There are two keeps at the left and right side of the map, positioning themselves at the interface between the bottom and top section of the map. There are also two towers, one near each invading world’s waypoint. Finally, there are three supply camps, one near each tower and the third at the bottom middle section of the map, between the two world’s waypoint.

Cross the lake, we arrive at the top half of the map. There is the citadel area that marks the home World’s waypoint. Right in front of the waypoint is a keep flanked by two towers. Since these towers and keep are close to the waypoint, it allows the home team easy reinforcement against invaders, giving them somewhat of a home world advantage. There are three supply camps as well, one each near tower and the third all the way at the top near the Orb of Power.

If you count up the objectives, each Borderlands map would have 3 keeps, 4 towers and 6 supply camps.

Orb of Power is a special orb that is only present in Borderland maps. It is initially located at the very north end of each map in a special place called Cradle of Power. This Cradle of Power is initially protected by an invulnerable force field that cannot be removed until you defeat the guardian – L83 champion Keeper of the Orb that deals massive damage.

Once the champion is defeated, the force field drops and anyone can retrieve the orb. Each keep you world control on the map has an Altar of Power where you can place the orb. You have a 15 minutes window to place this orb on this Altar before it returns to the Cradle of Power so make sure you world has a keep under control before capturing the orb.

Once the orb is placed on the altar, your keep will gain 5% boost to maximum HP. Since there are three borderland maps, your world could potentially end up with 15% boost to maximum HP if you capture all three orbs.

Eternal Battlegrounds

Eternal battlegrounds is the middle map where all three worlds start off on equal grounds. There is a massive Stonemist Castle in the middle that three worlds compete to capture. It is a triangular map, with 1 keep, 4 towers and 2 supply camps on each angle, totaling 1 castle, 3 keeps, 12 towers and 6 supply camps on the entire map.

Objectives and Upgrades

Every objective you control have upgrades and additions you can purchase to enhance their defense against attacks by enemy players. For Stonemist Castle, keeps, and towers, upgrades come in two flavors: structural (anti siege weapons , better walls etc) and personnnel (better guards, more workers etc). For supply camps, upgrades and additions are only personnel since these camps have no fortifications. Purchasing upgrades and additions costs 3 kinds of currency: coins, karma, and supplies. Most upgrades can be purchased with just coins and supplies while a few others like waypoints will also require a little bit of karma.

Stonemist Castle

This massive castle in the center of the Eternal Battlegrounds gives out 50 points every 5 minutes to the world that controls it, effectively acting as 2 keeps in terms of war score contributions.

The supply depot can hold on to a maximum of 1100 supplies.

The following upgrades and additions are available to help defend the castle.

Keeps

Keeps give 25 points every 5 minutes and can hold on to 550 supplies. Three keeps are located on each map, totaling 12 keeps in the entire WvW map.

Towers

Towers give 10 points every 5 minutes and can hold on to 100 supplies. 4 towers are located on each Borderlands map and 12 towers are located on Eternal Battlegrounds alone, totaling 24 towers in the entire WvW map.

Supply camps.

Supply camps give 5 points every 5 minutes but more crucially they are the source of all supplies used for construction of upgrades and siege weapons. Supply camps have no fortifications and only features Personnel additions and upgrades.

You can only carry 10 supplies with you and keeps/towers/castle do not generate supplies themselves. Therefore, it is super important to protect the supply caravans from the resource camps to the nearby towers and keeps if you want to get defensive upgrades!

Siege Weapons – Defensive Weapons

Defensive weapons are used in keeps and towers to defend against sieges by the enemy. These are acquired from the quartermaster within the keep/tower and do not required a blueprint to build (but requires supplies and coins). There are three main types of siege weapons: Burning Pots of Oil, Mortars and Cannons.

Boiling Oil

Used at gates and walls to defend against invaders. It has two attacks – a burning attack that damage enemies and a tar attack that cripple enemies, slowing down their movement speed so they can’t get away from the door. Burning Oil is highly effective against Flame Rams and should be destroyed before deploying one.

Mortar

Mortar is an offensive weapon that can launch shells at extremely long range to bombard the enemy. How far the shell lands depends on how long you press down on the attack button. Pressing down on the attack button will show a progress bar, the long the progress bar is pressed down, the further the shell will land.

The Incendiary mode will launch shells that cover a smaller area but leaves behind a small fire in the area that will burn enemies standing in it.

The Exploding mode on the other hand, will fire shells that affect a larger area but the damage do not persist.

Cannon

Cannon is a long range defensive weapon great for taking out group of enemies.

Unlike the mortar, you get a targeting reticle you can use to select the area you want to bombard (this picture also give you an idea of the maximum range)

Siege Weapons – Offensive Weapons

Offensive weapons requires a Blueprint for its construction. These blueprints can be purchased at Siegemasters (there is usually one in the place where you first enter a map). The following offensive weapons are available: Arrow Carts, Ballista, Catapult, Flame Ram, Siege Golem, Trebuchet

Arrow Cart

Arrow carts are extremely useful against other players (especially if they are clustered together) and can be used by both defenders and attackers alike. It is ineffective against walls/gates. It costs 4 silver and 30 supplies to build.

Ballista

Ballista is a weapon that launch giant bolts at their targets, effective against players, gates, walls and extremely effective against siege weapons. Unlike other siege weapons, the Ballista will require a target to fire. It costs 6 silver and 20 supplies to build. 

Catapult

Catapult is a good siege weapon for taking down walls/gates and also handles itself well against a large group of enemy players.Like Mortars, how long you press down the fire button will determine how far the projectiles will hit. The supplies cost 8 silver and will require 50 supplies to construct.

There are two types of ammunitions available for this weapon: boulder or gravel. Boulder is just one large rock good for concentrated fire while gravel fire a bunch of smaller rocks great for spreading damage over an area. 

Flame Ram

Flame Ram is strictly used for breaking down gates (does not work on walls). It also have an attack that can burn nearby enemies. Make sure you destroy the enemy’s Burning Oil before deploying it or otherwise the Flame Ram may get destroyed pretty quick. The blueprint costs 4 silver and requires 40 supplies to build. 

Siege Golems

Siege golems are massive siege vehicles that players could build and ride to assault gates and players alike. They are the only mobile siege weapon but their movement speed is fairly slow compared to players. In additon, these golems have no ranged attacks. The blueprint costs 1 gold and requires 100 supplies to build. 

Trebuchets

Trebuchets are very long range siege weapon used to destroy walls from afar. The 4th attack (Load Tainted Cows) is only available on Trebuchets used in WvW. The blueprint costs 16 silver to purchase and requires 100 supplies to build. The max range of the weapon is 10000.