WvW Questions, Goals, and Aspirations

I will only cover a few things to start and others can chime in to offer more advice...

"-What to max out first for WvW skills/traits?"

I would suggest that you run with people for a little while, the fact that you are unsure is enough of a reason to hold out a little longer.  Things that my guildies are usually lacking in is Ram Mastery and Cata Mastery.  Both are important if you are playing offensive for PPT.  Even 10 seconds can be enough to clench a take on a tower or a wipe from an enemy group.   Many of our old commanders that are either not with us anymore or on leave would also suggest a few points into Guard Killer as if you are ranked enough in this can help burn down the lord and sentries in structures you are taking.  Build Master and Supply Master are also time saving abilities that should not be overlooked.  There are lots of options, unfortunately until you are well into the hundreds of points you are kind of worked into an offensive abilities set of traits or defensive like mortars or arrow carts.  Contact me in game and I can cover more on this, there are also many others that can help, just ask someone you see out there often.  Most of us are friendly. :)

"-Is my confidence/desire in commanding/shot-calling stupid and wrong?"

When I am commanding I don't mind some input, and really I don't mind any of it.  It depends though how it is said...  If you are always adding input in Voice chat or map chat, then there would be the question why you wouldn't just command.  But... If you recommend a few things here and there in voice, and maybe the rest to me in whisper, I would welcome that.  I may not run with it, but at least it allows people to follow one person and not get confused.  The more off the wall it is the better for me...  One of my favorite things to attempt to do is confuse the enemy, cause them to wonder what the ---- the enemy commander is doing and what will he do next?.  We might start by taking SW camp and tower, then someone throws out an idea like 4 manning a keep... Sure, lets go get NW camp tap Bay and then run all the way across the map and attempt taking Hills.  Of course this may be why I run the guild tag [EVIL] :)  It can work though as I am sure Fog can account to when he runs SoRC on Saturday nights and finds a few softened keeps on enemy BL's.  So to sum it up, it should be welcome to offer advice to the commander, but try to avoid the backseat commanding, whispering more often then though voice if it is often that you suggest is the best option.

Feel free to drop down to our TS room where I often sit or shoot me a message in game if you need more and it does get answered in the next few days here by others in our community.

Mistress Collisto|Molly Oakenheart|Lena Andersdotter|Heather Jones
Guild Leader of [JADE] www.Immortalizedin.enjin.com

Hello Shadowfurr,

You are of course free to experiment as each character has a separate WvW skill set you can use though sharing the same WvW skill points gain and maximum pool.  I imagine you could have a character focused on say golem mastery, another focused on guard buffs for roaming and others for whatever tickle your fancy.  

I however strongly recommend taking the following WvW skills first or when you have the points to spare:

Supply master lvl 4 (10points) - gives you the chance to get supply when you use supply (Ii.e. chance to get 6 supply when you use 1 supply)

Build Master lvl 1 (1 point) - spends 4 supply at a time when you build

Repair Master lvl 1 (1 point) - spends 4 supply at a time when you repair

Supply, build and repair mastery are very efficient points wise and are good for just about whatever WvW mode you are into, after which you could go into arguably some of the best WvW skills available:

Defense against guards lvl 10 (115 points) - Ability to get up to 5 stacks of the 50 vitality buff for killing guards.

Guard Killer lvl 10 (115 points) - Ability to get up to 5 stacks of the 20 power & 2 condition damage buff for killing guards.

Trebuchet mastery - drains supplies from each opponent hit at lvl 2 (15 points) and drains supply camps per hit at (60 points)

Arrow Mastery - excellent vs. small numbers especially when leveled.

Catapult mastery and Ram mastery - The former is efficient for the small supply needed by guild catapults while the latter is a must for heavies.

Jeff has some good advice. I'd recommend two ticks into Build and Repair Master. This does 6 supply at a time, so you only need two "hammers" to expend 10 supply (instead of 3) or 3 "hammers" to expend 15 supply (instead of 4). It's a very small marginal cost.

---
Karaoke (Loki | Oaky | Pokey | Smokey | Croaky | Cloaky | Soaky | Gnocchi)
Guild Leader - Super Mega Happy Fun Time [MEGA] - supermegahappyfuntime.com

Hi hi there!!!

From what i can read i see our friends have covered your questions in more expertise i currently have,

My recurrent advice will always be, never forget to fight with your "heart" best thing ever for me at least,

And enjoy :D

-Greenstone[WF]

-Greenstone "Big Green Guy" / Richard Ryder "The Crimson Nutcase" / Viridis Caedo " Green Death" / Walla Quilcai Tuta "Necro Inka"
[VIG][HnB][Ren]

"Wars Come And Go, But My Soldiers Stay Eternal"

"In Hood We Trust"

It depends on what you are doing.  If you are commanding, I suggest the following as your first steps:

Supply mastery, maxed out.    Siege sites are invulnerable for long enough to flask build an arrow cart under fire. (15 points)

Flame Ram mastery - 3 ticks.  That gives you the speed boost on ramming. (30 points)

2 ticks in both building and repair mastery (9 points total)

After that, I would do the following in whatever order you use more of siege (ie you love acs, or love trebs, or whatever)

2 ticks treb (15 points)

1 tick cata (5 points)

2 ticks ac mastery (15 points)

2 ticks ballista (15 points)

2 ticks cannon (15 points)

For the two "stack" skills, don't go halfway.  Their greatest use is all the way at the end (115 points for each one).

Finally, think about what skills your usual playmates have.  For example, in my guild, three people have 1400+ ranks, and full mastery in everything.  That means that I don't have golem mastery because we won't be driving that many golems across a map, and I can use my points in other ways.  Work together and cover more situations based on your combined masteries, as opposed to everyone have the same limited set of masteries.

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Archangels Haven [HALO] - WvW Command Team. Purchaser of the Golems. TS Administrator.

Thanks you all for the information and advice.

Been ranking up supply, build, and repair mastery.  I am still low rank, so I didn't have many points to work with, but the change in supplies efficiency was noticeable to say the least.

Leo Kraum, the sneaky, super thief that sometimes likes to mess around and not take anything seriously.
Founder and Guild Leader, Legion of the Mistfire Blade [MIST]

fight like squirrel!

I have a good amount of points to work with, which you will slowly start to gather as you play more and more WvW. How I usually spend them on characters are:

• 2 points Build Master
• 2 points Repair Master
• 4 points Supply Master

From this point it becomes up to what I plan to use the character for. My commander character is set for:

• Max points Guard Killer
• Max points Defense Against Guards
• Max points Siege Bunker
• Max points Siege Might
• Max Supply Master

I also have a few points in siege weapon masteries such as rams, ballistae, arrow carts, and others. I put these points in because, as a commander, I should be encountering a lot of guards which allow me to increase my power and condition damage and more importantly my vitality through maxed out Guard Killer and Defense Against Guards. I am built to live, not to do damage, so maxed out Defense Against Guards is important to me. Same with Siege Bunker and Siege Might, they increase my damage while using as well as defense against siege units. Supply Master is maxed out so I can throw siege down without it being taken out immediately before those running with me can build it.

As for commanding, I am hesitant to tell you that you should, but I will encourage you to keep playing WvW to understand what classes are good for what tasks, and how best you can assist your commander. I am a defensive commander with offensive capabilities, meaning I will defend targets and maps but can also go on the offensive against enemies. Things that you need to memorize are siege placement, which you will always learn about new places for siege to go. There is no guide to where all of these are from my personal experience; I figured them out mostly through experience and having siege placement suggested to me throughout the past year.

As for suggesting commanders and volunteering to take them yourself, I applaud you for this but want you realize that at some points commanders need you as a player more so than an objective. A fight can quickly turn if the commander does not have enough supply or players with them to achieve what is necessary. Too often I have had my group run off on me to take objectives that I was not planning for, be it stopping at a tower or a camp after trying to make it clear that we're jumping onto the map to ninja a keep.

I don't want to discourage you from commanding, it is a noble cause for anyone to want to lead their server to greatness. But it is tough, and you will get beat down at times from the enemy and your own group. Even as a commander I do what I will suggest to you; follow other commanders, listen to their strategy and try to understand what they want to accomplish. Follow commanders who want to take objectives, and follow commanders who are looking for fights. Listen to instructions, get a feel for what you should be calling out for as a commander, be it water fields, bumper skills, empower, etc., and experiment with your own small group of friends.

Against large forces, bunker down in one of their objectives and hold it with siege. Taking a northern tower is a good way to bring a fight to you where you can wipe groups under waves of siege such as arrow carts, ballistae, catapults, door trebs, and whatever else you have the numbers and supply for. This breaks their moral, increases your group's moral, and gives you and your group some loot for your trouble. It's also good practice, I feel, in the use of counter siege.

Professor Bannister, engineer

Alright, so after having spent the past two weeks playing WvW and attending - I think - every single WvW event on the calendar, I still feel dead-set on picking up a tag.  It's expensive as an entire kingdom... But I've commanded havoc groups a few times now (rather successfully) without a tag, and it always falls apart when/if we change maps and I don't have someone tagging for me.  

I took you guys up on some of your points and tips for speccing into certain things, and it left me with a thinly-spread - yet effective - skill set.

Leo Kraum, the sneaky, super thief that sometimes likes to mess around and not take anything seriously.
Founder and Guild Leader, Legion of the Mistfire Blade [MIST]