WvW for New and Old Players

ATTENTION: As I've been reviewing/revising older posts, I noticed that there were missing pictures and slideshows. I am aware of a few other blog posts that are suffering this as well. I am doing my best to fix these asap.

So you wanna get into WvW? Think that only joining the herd and following the tag around the map is the only thing to do? Don’t like the current tag on the map and wanna go PvE or something because there isn’t anything else to do? Think again. There are plenty of things to do in WvW AND get participation for your pips.

This guide will cover a lot of information for individuals to truly enjoy and make the most out of their WvW time. WvW is a game of knowledge and information, although the sources may vary. I will cover topics such as group terms in the battlefield, how to communicate effectively, strategies, and even provide pictures for towers and keeps. A lot of hard work has been put into this, so please utilize it and share.

One quick note: if you are interested in group play, find out if the people you are playing with are using any type of voice communication (comms). The most common types right now are Teamspeak and Discord. There are usually some steps in joining in on these, but it helps tremendously with communicating situations to other players. It's also faster than typing!

TERMINOLOGY

Supply

One of the most important things in WvW is called supply. It's used in pretty much everything. You use it to upgrade towers and keeps, repairing damaged walls and gates after a push has been made on your precious tower or keep, and it's used for building siege or building traps. Alright, where does this supply live? Supply originates from supply camps, but that isn't the only place you can get it. The places you can get supply are: camps, towers, keeps, citadel, EotM, and yaks themselves.

Now, camps generate 10 supply every 30 seconds and max out at 100 supply total originally, up to 300 if it survives to upgrade to T3. They push out yaks which take 20 supply to towers, 40 to keeps. If the upgrade of increased supply deliveries happens, then the yaks are taking 40 supply to towers, 80 to keeps. As you can see, camps are very important to keep control of! You can speed up the yaks with camp upgrades or you can escort them yourself by using AoE swiftness skills. The yak can be treated as another player since it can take boons/buffs from nearby allies. An enemy sentry cannot kill an allied yak, but it will get it pretty close.

Towers and keeps are the destinations of yaks. If yaks don't make it, they can't upgrade let alone provide supply to fix damaged walls or gates or even build defensive/offensive siege. When a group is starved of camps for supplies, generally a keep or tower has supply that can be taken. Hell, you can hop maps and get supply elsewhere, even EoTM! NEVER drain a tower or a keep of the supply inside. A lot of servers have a rule of thumb, but in general: tower shouldn't drop below 400; keep shouldn't drop below 800. The reasoning behind this is for defensive purposes. That amount of supply will provide enough for repairs (not fully but a decent amount) and for defensive siege building.

Sometimes, our friends in EotM will provide us a supply drop which is found in Citadel. This is an actual event that is triggered from a victory in EotM. Note that this doesn't happen in EBG. You can also hop into EotM, go to a controlled keep, grab the supply, then hop back into WvW.

Lastly, killing dolyaks can give you a chance to pick up 5 supply. You are also stopping supply from building up in towers and keeps of the enemies. Each yak that succeeds in delivering supply to a tower is giving 20 - 40 (depends on camp upgrade) and 40 - 80 to a keep (again, depends on camp upgrade).

Upgrades and Guild Claiming

If you are in a guild that has little to no upgrades, DON'T CLAIM ANYTHING. Only claim if you can offer something and will be there to protect it. Unless you have a +5 for your supply, because then it's cool. There have been numerous times where a guild improvement or tactic is needed, but no one is there to activate it as an option. Don't be that person.

Camps are one of the easiest objectives to upgrade. They have 2 yaks that go to 1 or 2 destinations each, depending on what towers/keeps are controlled.

NOTE: Tiers are noted as T0 - T3.

Upgrades:

-nothing available

-T1 (after 20 yaks)

-Caravan Guards - Adds 2 guards to escort the yak to their destination.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 100 (200 total).

-T2 (after 40 yaks)

-Additional Guards - Adds more guards to protect the camp.
-Guard Training - Increases the level of all guards in camp.

-T3 (after 80 yaks)

-Recruit Patrol - Adds guards to patrol the camp.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 100 (300 total).

Towers are one of the most overlooked objective. Usually these are easier targets for enemies due to a single barricade instead of a double, such as a keep.

Upgrades:

-nothing available

-T1 (after 20 yaks)

-Build Pot of Oil - Builds a pot of oil over all gates.
-Build Cannon - Builds a cannon on walls.
-Recruit Outfitter - Adds a general merchant in the tower.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 200 (300 in total).

-T2 (after 40 yaks)

-Reinforced Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Build Mortar - Builds a mortar for long distance attacks.
-Recruit Siegemaster - Adds a siege merchant in the tower.
-Additional Guards - Adds more guards to protect the tower.

-T3 (after 80 yaks)

-Reinforced Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Recruit Patrol - Adds guards to patrol the tower.
-Guard Training - Increases the level of all guards in tower.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 200 (500 total).

Keeps are basically you're go to for a LOT of services. The garrison (main keep on your home bl) contains a mystic forge, while all keeps offer more NPC merchants than towers.

Upgrades:

-nothing available

-T1 (after 20 yaks)

-Build Pot of Oil - Builds a pot of oil over all gates.
-Build Cannon - Builds a cannon on walls.
-Additional Guards - Adds more guards to protect the keep.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 400 (700 in total).

-T2 (after 40 yaks)

-Reinforced Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Build Mortar - Builds a mortar for long distance attacks.
-Recruit Services - Adds a siege merchant, banker, and armor repair in the keep.
-Recruit Patrols - Adds guards to patrol the keep.

-T3 (after 80 yaks)

-Fortified Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Build Waypoint - Builds the waypoint.
-Guard Training - Increases the level of all guards in keep.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 400 (1,100total).

Stonemist Castle (SMC) is the GIANT objective in EBG that offers a pivotal point of taking other objectives. Basically, whoever holds SMC can take nearby towers and offer a refuge in the battlefield.

Upgrades:

-nothing available

-T1 (after 20 yaks)

-Build Pot of Oil - Builds a pot of oil over all gates.
-Build Cannon - Builds a cannon on walls.
-Additional Guards - Adds more guards to protect the keep.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 400(1,400 in total).

-T2 (after 40 yaks)

-Reinforced Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Build Mortar - Builds a mortar for long distance attacks.
-Recruit Services - Adds a siege merchant, banker, and armor repair in the keep.
-Recruit Patrols - Adds guards to patrol the castle.

-T3 (after 80 yaks)

-Fortified Walls - Increases the health and defense pool of the walls and gates.
-Build Waypoint - Builds the waypoint.
-Guard Training - Increases the level of all guards in keep.
-Storage Expansion - Increases the maximum supply by 400(1,800 total).

For all camps/towers/keeps/SMC (note, these may vary depending on WHAT the objective is):

Guild Claim Tactics:

-nothing available

-T1 (held for 10 min)

-Minor Supply Drop - Gives an option for 100 additional supply to be dropped.
-Chilling Fog - Provides a temporarily summoned chill which chills the enemies.
-Invulnerable Dolyaks - Makes yaks who are leaving invincible to enemy attacks.
-Dune Roller - Summons a dune roller in camp. Player transforms into it, adding increased mobility and siege damage.

-T2 (held for 30 min)

-Centaur Banner - Provides a banner that gives the wielder access to powerful offensive skills and a break bar.
-Turtle Banner - Provides a banner that gives the wielder access to powerful defensive skills and a break bar.
-Dragon Banner - Provides a banner that gives the wielder access to powerful offensive skills and a break bar.

-T3 (held for 60 min)

-Emergency Waypoint - Activating this creates a temporary and uncontested waypoint that allies can take.
-Invulnerable Fortifications - Activating this creates all walls and gates to be temporarily invulnerable to enemies.
-Airship Defense - Activating this creates a fleet of airships raining down bombs to take out the enemies, temporarily.

Guild Claim Improvements:

-nothing available

-T1 (held for 10 min)

-Sabotage Depot - Deploys bombs for the supply at the objective once captured by an enemy team, destroying all supply.
-Hardened Gates - Activating this makes all gates take damage from siege weapons, not enemy damage.
-Armored Dolyaks - Creates a higher health and toughness pool for the yaks.
-Packed Dolyaks - Yaks carry twice as much supply.
-Speedy Dolyaks - Yaks are grated superspeed.

-T2 (held for 30 min)

-Iron Guards - Grants Iron Hide to all guards, thus reducing their incoming damage by 50%.
-Hardened Siege - Activating this greatly reduces enemy damage to cannons, oil, and mortars, as long as it's from non-siege weapons.

-T3 (held for 60 min)

-Auto Turrets - Creates automatic turrets at all gates.
-Watchtower - Provides an eagle-eye view of enemy movements around the objective.
-Presence of the Keep - Provides double effectiveness of the keep's objective aura while within the perimeter.
-Cloaking Waters - Provides a stealth capability in the fountains of SMC for allies.

Siege Blueprints

Siege blueprints, or just collectively termed siege, are objects that can be built in WvW to apply damage to enemies or objectives. There are arrowcarts, ballistas, rams, golems, catapults, shield generators, and trebuchets. For each of these, there are 3 types such as regular, superior, and guild.

-Regular

-Purchased from siege master NPCs
-Purchased from laurel vendors
-Chests in WvW
-Purchased from the TP
-Ranking up in WvW
-Achievement chest rewards

-Superior

-From the Mystic Forge
-Purchased from the TP
-Ranking up in WvW
-Achievement chest rewards
-Purchased from Heroics Notary NPC

-Guild

-Purchased from the TP
-Loot drop in WvW (super rare)
-Crafted by a scribe and available in the guild storage

The difference between all 3 types are:

-Flame Ram (Range of 360 and AoE limit of 50)

-Arrow Cart (Range of 2500 and AoE limit of 50)

-Ballista (Range of 3000 and AoE limit of 10)

-Catapult (Range of 4000 and AoE limit of 50)

-Trebuchet (Range of 10,000 and AoE limit of 50)

-100
-120
-100

-Golem - both Alpha and Omega (Range of 225 and AoE limit of 10)

-100
-150
-50

-Shield Generator (See below)

-40 (Range of 2200 and no AoE)
-50 (Range of 3300 and no AoE)
-40 (Range of 3750 and no AoE)

Please note that superior and guild siege provides a +50% damage output when compared to the regular siege.

Contested and Swords

When an objective is turned to your color, there is a 5 minute invulnerability on the main NPC. This means that the NPC cannot take damage and it will hit you twice as hard. This is seen by a blue hue surrounding it. If this is a camp, DON'T START KILLING IF THE TIMER IS MORE THAN 1 MINUTE. There is nothing more frustrating than standing in a circle, waiting to cap and then enemy NPCS start respawning. Not. Fun. My general rule of thumb: solo means start at 1 min remaining, with others start at 30 seconds remaining. Depending on how fast you or your allies can take down the camp, sometimes you won't even "pop swords", notifying the enemies where you are. "Popping swords" means that objective has enemies attacking it, or "contesting it". If there are "OJs", that means there are more than 25 enemies of one side attacking. No one knows where the term OJs originated, but it is universally used.

OJs

Contested

Timer notification of an attack

Blue hue of a supervisor

Callouts

What the hell is a call out? How does one even effectively communicate what they see? Well, fret no longer, here is a great way to do it. Think of status informatics. What the heck is that you say? It's easy: the science of processing data for storage and retrieval. Too technical? Meh. I can try to put it a different way: Who, what, where, how many.

-Who: Who do you see? Colors are the best to use here. Since the matchups change each week, a lot of people can't remember who is what color or who is a bigger threat. Make it easy for everyone and call the color. If there is a vast majority of them in a guild, call the tag too. Some guilds are a bigger threat than others, thus a commander might not respond as quickly than others.
-What: What are they doing? Things like "clearing siege" or "dropping catas/rams" or even "golems!!!" helps communicate as to what is going on. Even if they are running by from a camp or something, they are aiming for something else. Groups don't just run around the map to do nothing. Also call out wall/gate %. It helps reinforcements gauge how much time they have before the threat level increases.
-Where: Where are you and where are they? Are they on the south side of bay? Maybe they're running by air keep and heading north. Use directions.
-How many: Numbers are key to either victory or loss. I'm not saying that you need to count every single person, but give an approximate number. If a commander responds with 15 people and the enemies are 30+, I'm going to bet that the enemy group is going to win. Let people know what they are going to respond to.

Now, how about some examples? Remember, don't panic when you see stuff happening. Giving partial information doesn't really help us.

-You see a bunch of reds running by set: "20+ reds running by set from ruins towards sec". Keep in mind that there are some people who use watercamp in reference to sec and vale to swc. These terms are from the tournament/season era so they're pretty common.
-You respond to a contested nwt: "10 blues at nwt. catas up on north side. wall 47%".
-You are getting supply at north camp: "need help at north camp. 3 greens on supervisor" or "need help at north camp. 3 greens. ring up."

As you can see, it doesn't matter what order you put your information or how you go about conveying the message. As long as you give the 4 main points in it, you're solid. Also, cardinal directions are great! Don't ping the place the enemies are going to or are at. Most of the time people don't remember the names of places, but cardinal directions are easy to remember. PLEASE NOTE: SET and SWT as well as SEC and SWC can go by other names. The reason for this is that no matter what Alpine map you are on, they have the same name. That doesn't follow true for the northern objectives. These southern objectives can be translated as follows:

-SWC = Vale (Bluevale Refuge / Redvale Refuge)
-SWT = Briar (Bluebriar / Redbriar)
-SET = Lake ( Redlake / Greenlake)
-SEC = Water camp (Redwater Lowlands / Greenwater Lowlands)

The rest of the objectives are named as follows with their correlation:

-NWC = Faithleap / Godslore
-NWT = Sunnyhill / Woodhaven
-NET = Cragtop / Dawn's Eyrie
-NEC = Foghaven / Stargrove
-NC = The Titanpaw / The Spirithome
-Garri = Garrison
-Hills = Shadaran Hills / Askalion Hills
-Bay = Dreadfall Bay / Ascension Bay
-SC = Hero's Lodge / Champion's Demesne

Two points I want to stress. One is that don't say something is gone until it has actually flipped to the enemies. So many times I have been involved with a retaliation in a tower or a keep where we end up winning after people have called the objective lost. Second one is to stop with the mindset of "oh, it's just paper". Not all people are capable of participating in zerg fights and look for the less stress on their PC. Also, you need to evaluate the whole picture. If the fight on a T3 Bay is going on with OJs and the enemies are still on outer, while there are 15 other enemies rushing into the lord's room on a paper Hills, honestly kicking the people out of the paper hills then having enough time to run back to Bay before they breach inner is perfectly okay.

Zerging

Most widely known type of WvW style. Follow a tag around and flip stuff or fight enemies. Usually both, maybe at the same time. Some tags will be an open group while others can be a closed group. That is the commander's choice - don't argue. If you get into an open group, stick with the tag. I cannot stress how important that is. Zergs are generally the largest groups on a map. These can take keeps or garrisons, even when they're T3.

There is an option to do some ops work within a zerg. Please only do this if a) the commander asks you to or b) you volunteer yourself as a scout. If either of those apply, by all means do what the commander asks. Also, make sure you get shared participation when doing off tag activities. Nothing ruins the fun of scouting an area for the commander and not getting "paid".

Some general terms that you might see:

-frontline

-mostly melee classes
-need to know where the tag is at 99.9% of the time
-need to be able to survive a lot of damage

-midline

-rarely seen but usually those who provide support for the frontline and can provide some guarding to the backline
-usually cannot survive a frontline push but isn't a backline caster
-provide some AoE
-can be those who focus out of position enemies

-backline

-mostly squishy classes
-provide that added support and some AoE
-can be those who focus out of position enemies

Havoc/Roaming

This is a group of people that are not big enough for a zerg classification. Usually, this group can take towers with no problem, flip camps, and poke some larger objectives to draw the enemies away from something else. Sometimes these groups form into a "gank squad" in which they pick off solo enemies that are running to an objective. They can also respond quicker than zergs (minus a sentry/scout). The reason why is because they generally don't have a long commitment to anything and can run quickly to check out what is going on. A commander tag may or may not be in this type of grouping. Sometimes these groups are just formed on the fly by the militia (aka random people following each other around), or they can be a guild coordinated group. These groups can also grow into a zerg. This group may be open or closed to the public, much like a zerg.

There can be the occasional solo roamer. These people are those who flip camps, flip sentries, kill yaks, and tap objectives. Most of the time they are pretty tanky and can dish out damage. If you come across one, be careful to not let your guard down.

Sentry/Scout

Sentries. Now, a sentry/scout can be a bunch of things. It can be someone who is in a zerg (see the zerging section earlier) or it can be someone who wants to just help out. Sentry/scout duty doesn't mean you sit in an objective and just wait for something to happen. Nope, not at all. Below is a list of what you can do:

-Tick siege (siege disappears after an hour of 0 interaction)
-Build siege (make sure you have adequate supply in the tower/keep before building)
-Repair walls or gates from a previous battle
-Make call outs of enemy movements (see the section before here on how to do call outs)
-Flip nearby sentry posts
-Escort yaks that are nearby (gives participation for your pips)
-Check out nearby objectives (ticking/building/repairing can happen at these as well)
-Throwing Siege Disablers on enemy siege to buy time for a response

I'm sure there are more things that can be done, but these are the only ones I can think of. Here are some pictures that outline the general area for each section, usually referred to as "our third".

Alpine BL

Desert BL

EBG BL

As you can see, there is a theme to the area you can take care of. These areas are prime in keeping the larger objective safe and easy to get to. In both the Alpine and Desert borderlands, the areas each consist of 2 towers, a main keep, 3 camps, and 4 sentries. For EBG, each sections consists of 4 towers, a main keep, 2 camps, and 4 sentries.

Tactics and General Gameplay

In a Zerg

Okay, so you've made it this far and you haven't lost interest. Great! Let's keep going then. If you decide to participate in a zerg, as in you have joined up on the tag and are in squad - STICK. TO. THE. TAG. PERIOD. End of story. There are so many things going on when a commander is leading a zerg, having people with them helps make or break engagements. There is a number that tells the commander how many are in squad, how much supply is in squad, and the little blue dots on the mini map tell the commander where everyone in squad is. Supply is needed to build siege and to repair walls or gates. I'm more focused on the siege building. A commander knows how much supply is needed for the siege they are going to throw down. If you are that little blue dot way over on the other side of the map (and you're not sentrying/scouting), guess what. You are screwing over that commander and everyone in that squad. That supply that you are carrying counts towards the amount that the commander sees. That supply could make or break a successful tower or keep flip. Don't be that person. Stick with the tag.

Engagements with the enemy is scary? Well I hate to break it to you sweetie, but you're in WvW now. If they are not on your side, they are the enemy. If you are afraid of dying, you shouldn't be here. Afraid of pushing with the tag? That's silly. You need to know how to play what you're running. If you are a squishy character, pushing full front in force is most likely going to get you killed. If you are a ranged character, stay behind and off the tag a little. Ranged players do best when you are a little bit off the tag, that way you can see things from a distance and adjust your attacks accordingly. Now on the flip side, if you are a tanky character, by all means push with the tag. Hopefully the group has a decent organizer of the groups and everyone has some helpful synergy going on in their parties. Most chances are that if you die, the tag will die shortly after if not before.

Now, here is where it can get "tricky". You gotta know where you are in the battle and you gotta know what your status is. If you find yourself not near the main group and your health is dropping like crazy, you might want to think of what you did wrong. Positioning is key here. Even when you are not in a zerg, knowing where you are in relation to others is key. Generally, having the higher ground is ideal. Having escape routes is ideal. Not being super weak is ideal. You get the gist.

In a Havoc/Roaming Group

Decided a zerg is too much for you or your pc? No problem! Havoc/roaming groups are pretty fun and pretty versatile. They can be a smaller pressure group with the main zerg by joining up with the tag but breaking off for intense tactics (I've heard this termed "voltron" or "voltroning"). These intense tactics usually deal with coordination from both groups that entail putting pressure on an enemy zerg. Think of it as you and another tag are staring down the enemy zerg, but you are both in your own groups. Usually you would flank the enemy zerg with the other tag going the opposite way.

Not wanting to partake in that kind of scenario? Okay, how about utilizing the group for doing prep work? Havoc/roaming groups can go ahead of a zerg and start dropping siege and building it before the zerg shows up. They can also start attacking something else on a map (usually something way more important to the enemies than what they are attacking at the moment) to pull the enemies away from an objective. If you get really bored or ballsy, you can even attempt to take an objective to see response times or if you can get away with capping it.

Whatever you do, make sure you know what you are in for. If you are in a closed havoc/roaming group, generally that means that you are working with others and all are on the same page of coordination. Synergistic builds are generally used and having eyes and ears are vital to either living or dying. If you are in an open havoc/roaming group, you may not be in the squad (tag may or may not exist in a squad) and you are generally playing with players whose skill levels are unknown. These types of havocs are usually the ones that form on the fly and are aiming to flip objectives. Positioning is key and knowing when to run away is vital. If you see a giant enemy group coming and your havoc group is cata'ing a tower, most likely your havoc group will not win that engagement. Pull off and regroup or port.

When it comes to camp flipping, there is a small trick to it. Since the group is smaller than a zerg, you can wait until a camp's timer comes down to 30 seconds before attacking it. Why wait? If you start attacking it before then, you are going to be stuck waiting for the timer to cool down off of the supervisor, whilst popping swords, NOTIFYING the enemies that "hey, there's enemies here". Then there is the chance that enemies respond to that camp, thus preventing you from actually flipping it. Just wait for the timer. Also, take out the scouts first and foremost. They really jack up your timing with their almost constant blinds and cripples.

As a solo roamer, most of this can apply to you. Especially the camp flipping part of notifying the enemies of where you are. You are also free to join in groups for a little bit and then break off to do your own solo roaming thing. Whatever you do, make sure to do callouts when needed.

As a Sentry/Scout

Most of this was covered in the previous section, but I'll reiterate on key points. You don't have to just stand there in an objective. There are other objectives that you can cover as well as flipping sentries and camps. Those little sentry posts help notify enemy movement because they get marked and show up as a little orange dot on the map. If a zerg is seen at one of these things, the chances of them heading up to one of your objectives is high. Do your callouts!

The PPT Game

A matchup is a week long event. It starts on reset and goes until the next reset. Depending where you live in the world, this varies - but it is always the same time for you. This matchup is broken down into 2 hour periods called "skirmishes". After 84 skirmishes occur, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd placements are determined. Whoever came in 1st goes up a tier and whoever came in 3rd goes down a tier.

Every 5 minutes, the PPT (points per tick) cycles. This number adds up into the skirmish. Below is a list of PPT values.

-Camp

-T0 - 2 points
-T1 - 3 points
-T2 - 4 points
-T3 - 5 points

-Tower

-T0 - 4 points
-T1 - 6 points
-T2 - 8 points
-T3 - 10 points

-Keep

-T0 - 8 points
-T1 - 12 points
-T2 - 16 points
-T3 - 20 points

-Castle

-T0 - 12 points
-T1 - 18 points
-T2 - 24 points
-T3 - 30 points

As you can see, the larger the objective, the more points your server gets. The longer you hold that objective, the more points your server gets. A lot of people will have callouts for objectives that are T0 or T1 and get a response of "oh, we can get it back later". Don't do this if the situation doesn't call for it. Objectives only get higher value by being held for longer durations. Now, time to describe various situations for this. If you can easily farm the enemies in an objective that they broke into, you can raise the PPK. Even if it flips in the end, the amount of enemies killed help contribute to a higher score which can raise the PPT higher than just keeping them out. Plus, more loot! If an enemy zerg is pressing into a precious objective (such as a T2 or T3 level), breaking into one of their precious objectives draws them away to defend what you're breaking. Set up a farm in there and you raised the PPK and saved your objective. Whenever doing things like this, ensure that you are ready for a fight. The point of this is to farm them inside their objective, not get rolled over in a one push. Don't get discouraged when you do finally lose that fight. During that engagement, you only allowed them a warscore of like, 50 - 70 while you earned the server a warscore of 100 - 150. IF the situation allows it, let the enemies flip lower tiered objectives (T0 and T1). This keeps them interested in continuing their takeover, even if you've wiped them several times over.

There are other ways to earn points for the PPT. This starts to bleed into the PPK (points per kill) aspect of WvW.

-Killing or stomping an enemy - 2 points
-Killing or stomping an enemy with borderland bloodlust - 3 points
-Killing an enemy yak - 1 point
-Escorting a yak - 1 point per destination

Yet again, not a significant number value is seen here, but they do add up over time.

To best play the PPT game, you need to know a lot of information. You need to keep an eye on the timer, the skill of the group you are playing with, what objectives you want to aim for, and enemy movements. Object of the PPT game is to flip things so that they can't be flipped back before the 5 minute timer cycles. For me, I honestly use a tablet or another computer screen that has the overall timers on it in one screen. This helps me see where the enemies are and the timing I have for the PPT game to work in my favor.

When looking at what camps to flip, keep this in mind: prioritize. All camps have a timer on them if they just flipped in the past 5 minutes. It takes some time to run towards the opposite side of the map, so if a camp says it has 2 minutes left on it, you will most likely get there when the timer is about done. If you are worried about enemies coming after you, use the power of misdirection. This is also great to deter enemies from responding to another objective if a smaller group is attacking it. For example, a havoc/roaming group is cata'ing Bay and the main zerg is fighting the enemies between Garri and Bay. It's a 50/50 shot that the havoc/roaming group will at least break down both inner and outer walls before the enemies learn of what is going on.

Defending Your Stuff

This section will give a brief idea of how to defend your objectives. A general prioritization for what is important to not important is as follows:

-Home BL

-Garrison
-Hills
-NET
-NWT
-Bay

-T3 objectives on EBG

-Our keep
-Surrounding towers (any of the 4 in our 3rd)
-SMC

-BL that has a keep or has something that is upgraded

-Any keeps
-Any towers

-Lower tier objectives on EBG

-Any towers

-Enemy objectives that we own

-Anything located in the enemy territory

Camps

Building siege in camps is an okay idea, but if you are going to be faced by a larger group than what you have, don't even bother. The recharge rate of ACs and ballistas are just way too slow to deal any actual damage to moving targets. Building an Omega golem will be great, mostly for the sole purpose of delaying enemies from defeating everything while allies respond. Building traps are also a great idea, primarily the supply removal traps. Stick those on the choke points of camps and around the supply huts themselves. It will keep the enemies supply starved and delay their hostile takeover.

Upgrades to use if you claimed a camp:

-Packed Dolyaks (closeby objectives)
-Speedy Dolyaks (far away objectives)
-Chilling Fog (gives an edge in fights)
-Invulnerable Dolyaks (keeps yaks alive on their routes, also great if they stay in camps)

Towers

Towers seem to be one of those neglected objectives. It's nice to have them but a lot of people seem to not see them as an important objective. If played right, you can EASILY defend a tower, as long as you have the manpower to assist :)

On the Alpine maps, all towers have pros and cons for defense. Oils and cannons act as an "extra health" for gates against enemies. The oil has a 600 range and an AoE limit of 50 while a cannon offers a 3,750 range and an AoE limit of 50. That's a lot, especially coming from siege that spawns with tower upgrades. Even though the skills are slow to fire and the cooldowns suck, they can put some serious pressure when you need to push enemies off. If you ever find yourself in need of rebuilding one of these, timewarp can help make it go faster.

Mortars are a slightly different story. There are good mortars and then there are bad mortars. Below is a list of well placed mortars, away from easy AoE damage. Usually, these are placed in hard to reach areas.

-Alpine's NET
-Alpine's SWT
-Desert's NWT
-Desert's NET
-Desert's SWT
-Desert's SET
-EBG's Mendons
-EBG's Anz
-EBG's Jerri
-EBG's Langs
-EBG's QL

Deploying siege such as acs and ballistas are pretty. In a later section, I provide a basic idea of defensive siege placements in towers. As long as the supply is plentiful or if the situation is in dire need, go ahead and build away. If you choose to do so, building an Omega Golem for the lord's room is okay. This applies for the same reason as stated in the camp section above - it helps delay capping and gives you more protection for the time being. You can also build a treb on top of most supply huts since it can hit most enemy cata sites without being hit by the catas themselves.

Upgrades to use if you claimed a tower:

T1

-Hardened Gates (buys time)
-Minor Supply Drop (gives extra supply)
-Chilling Fog (gives extra time for a response in help)

-Iron Guards (increases time required for killing NPCs)
-Banners (helps put up a fight)

-Watchtower (ALWAYS use this - it helps show the enemy orange dots nearby)
-Emergency Waypoint (aka EWP since it provides a portal for 40 seconds)
-Invulnerable Fortifications (gives invuln to walls and gates for a good bit of time)

Keeps

Keeps are one of the biggest objectives people look at in WvW. Besides providing one of the highest ticks for the PPT game, these suckers can provide a great fast travel station. There are pros and cons of each keep in defensive strats.

Bay is the western keep on the Alpine maps. It's super easy to attack, mostly from long ranged treb shots spawning from SWC and SWT. It has quite a few gates which are the easiest to take down with siege. Best option for this is to get it to T3 and keep it like that. Building defensive siege on inner is the best situation for keeping it from enemies. If you build defensive siege on outer, usually it is for deterring smaller try-hards. An example of this is when a group builds catas on outer SE wall, having 3 acs firing upon them will generally make them think twice about their choice.

Hills is probably the most impenetrable keeps in this game. Depending on how the map is, responding to Hills over Garri might be a tough choice. The strategic placement of already placed siege that occurs with upgrades is amazing. The cannon that is located on the inner center wall can hit the north outer gate. This can take out rams and golems, or at least hit them for some serious damage. The south outer cannon that is located on the east side is SUPER hard for enemy AoEs. This means that the cannon can apply some nice pressure to enemies below. There is also the fact that Hills is the only keep that has 2 outer gates for entry. Gates are much easier to take down when compared to walls.

Garrison comes in as a tie for most important keep on the Alpine maps, with Hills being a close second. The cannon near the inner water gate can hit pretty much everything in the choke point at outer water gate. It's also up high and can't take enemy AoEs easily. The mortar on the SE wall can be turned 180 degrees and tapped to directly hit the outer water gate as well. The only thing that tends to put Garri before Hills is that its closer to spawn and that it gets supply from 3 camps rather than 2.

When it comes to the Desert map keeps, these things are monstrous in comparison to others. The outer perimeters are pretty hard to defend against because everything is pretty spaced out. The outer siege is mostly there to deter the little groups and slow the larger groups. Inner is more of where the defense is at. For most servers, the outer is usually monitored and managed with whoever is there at the time. Best defense is honestly on inner walls or on the lord itself.

The keeps in EBG are pretty well defensive no matter where. Outer has great cannon and mortar placements and if the enemies break outer, they gotta fight inner next. Inner is where most of the fights are decided. For red keep, the NE inner mortar and sole North mortar can both hit the south outer gate. For green keep, the inner SE mortar can hit the outer north gate, as well as the 2 outer mortars that are near that same gate. The inner mortars can hit the outer gates while the outer mortars can hit the inner gates as well as some outer gates. That last scenario, however, proves to be a hard-to-gauge-distance. It is beneficial to try at first though since mortars provide a large AoE of damage.

Upgrades to use if you claimed a keep:

T1

-Hardened Gates (buys time)
-Minor Supply Drop (gives extra supply)
-Chilling Fog (gives extra time for a response in help)

-Iron Guards (increases time required for killing NPCs)
-Banners (helps put up a fight)

-Presence of the Keep (doubles the guild objective aura)
-Emergency Waypoint (aka EWP since it provides a portal for 40 seconds)
-Invulnerable Fortifications (gives invuln to walls and gates for a good bit of time)

SMC

I'm going to put this plain and simple - SMC is awesome. I know a lot of people say it's just this giant target that everyone aims at, and they're right, but there is reason behind it. SMC is really easy to defend when you have the bodies and the siege. Well placed siege that is away from enemy AoEs is vital to keeping SMC yours. Check the pictures to see where siege placements are for best results. If you are playing the PPT game, then a T3 SMC is crucial to success. There are offensive siege places that offer a nice, slow breakdown of enemy towers which allow easier and faster capping abilities of allied groups. In the end, SMC is worth to defend.

Upgrades to use if you claimed SMC:

T1

-Hardened Gates (buys time)
-Minor Supply Drop (gives extra supply)
-Chilling Fog (gives extra time for a response in help)
-Sabotage Depot (something for consideration if you have the supply and will lose SMC)

-Iron Guards (increases time required for killing NPCs)
-Banners (helps put up a fight)
-Auto Turrets (helps delay the building on gates) (most of the time not used due to effectiveness)
-Hardened Siege (helps protect the siege that comes with the upgrades for a little longer) (most of the time not used due to effectiveness)

-Emergency Waypoint (aka EWP since it provides a portal for 40 seconds)
-Invulnerable Fortifications (gives invuln to walls and gates for a good bit of time)
-Airship Defense (lots of AoE damage)
-Cloaking Waters (makes the group invisible to the enemies for a decent amount of time)

OJs and WP Contesting

This is going to be pretty easy to explain and once it's been explained, it's going to make sense. If an objective shows it's being contested aka white swords, there is a chance a small group or less will respond to check it out. Maybe no one responds. After the 5 minute cooldown is off, the swords go away. If the swords show back up after that initial contesting period, most chances is that there are enemies attacking and/or committing to that objective. There are periods of time where there are tappers. It's best to always check. OJs can be a misdirection as well. If you see OJs on the map and there is another objective or 2 that are being contested, find out if someone is attacking them. It's a shame to lose a T2 or T3 objective to 5 or so people.

WP contesting is one of the most annoying things to encounter. It forces you to go somewhere else, thus taking longer to respond to anything. Most popular cases are contesting a keep while a close objective is being attacked. An example is having Garri tapped while Bay or Hills is under attack. You have to port to spawn and run all the way to Bay or Hills just to respond. It's super annoying because it removes any fast travel option to where you want or need to go.

Bringing the Offensive Out

This section is going to bring out the basics and some advanced tactics for offensive gameplay. I'll be putting them in a list form with an explanation.

-Tap things

-Misdirection is one of the best tactics that any server can do. It spreads the enemies and makes it harder for them to respond when there is a commitment where they don't think one is.

-Contest waypoints

-This prevents enemies from responding and regrouping faster.
-Doing this when the group is really far in a tower or keep helps out SIGNIFICANTLY. You will most likely succeed in flipping that objective due to the enemies having to run further.

-Be aware of your surroundings

-Don't stand there and wait for the enemies to gather and push out. That's stupid, especially when the enemies outnumber you by a lot.

-Don't overcommit

-Pretty sensible. See above for reasons.

To find out more of this, check out Taking the Borderlands by Force. Also, there are maps in that post to help figure out offensive tactics!

Maps of Things to Do

Maps for Breaking Down Stuff

Each tower and keep have breakable walls and gates. Below are images of each with color coding over the breakables.

Desert BL

Alpine BL

EBG

Maps for Siege Defensive

Each tower and keep have siege that get built as it upgrades, mostly T1 and T2. Below are images of each location for these. There are also ideal spots for building defensive siege. Those are shown as well.

Desert BL

This has to be one of the unloved maps in WvW, just like EotM. Because it is so vast in size, there are benefits for holding down your objectives - no one really wants to play on this map and take your things. Use it to your advantage!

Upgraded Defense

Built Defense

Legend: catapult, ballista, trebuchet, shield generator, golem, arrow cart.

SWT

Fire Keep

NWT

Earth Keep / Garri

NET

Air Keep

SET

Alpine BL

The traditional maps of WvW. These are basically cookie cutter maps with a few renamings of objectives. See the sections above to find out names and the used terminology most players utilize while making references.

Upgraded Defense

Built Defense

Legend: catapult, ballista, trebuchet, shield generator, golem, arrow cart.

SWT / Briar

Bay

NWT

Garri

NET

Hills

SET / Lake

EBG

The "main" map that a lot of people either love or hate. This map is generally the most que'd map and that all forces have an equal share in it. The largest objective, SMC, is one of the biggest targets people aim for. Once captured, it is best to hold onto it since it provides a large advantage strategically for you.

Upgraded Defense

Built Defense

Legend: catapult, ballista, trebuchet, shield generator, golem, arrow cart.

LL Keep

Aldon's

Klov

Jerri

OL Keep

Anz

Mends

Vel

Valley Keep

Langs

Durios

Brav

SMC

Maps for Supply Routes

Desert BL

Alpine BL

EBG