Guide to Defending WvW Objectives

Introduction to Defending

Defending is an aspect of the game that's rarely used to its full potential. It's often called "under-powered" by some and "too strong" by others. With an understanding of the optimal defense strategies, a good defender can make sure both their allies and enemies are saying the latter instead of the former. This guide is an extensive walk-through on the basics of defending. It isn't an exhaustive guide to every possible siege placement, instead the goal is to teach the reader the fundamentals of defending and to help them approach it in a more effective way.

This guide is split into two parts, an Introduction and a Practical guide. The Introduction will tell you the basics: What build to use, which siege is good and how to use it optimally, and general miscellaneous information that will be useful to the aspiring defender. The practical guide is a step-by-step guide on how to defend with examples of situations you might face while trying to stop attackers.

If you prefer a video then check out Sheff's guide to defending which includes much of the same information.

Builds

Builds are an extremely underrated part of effective defending. The way some builds interact with siege is significantly stronger than others and there are obvious optimal choices for defending. Realistically there are only two good options for builds if you want to focus on defense:

Barrage Soulbeast

Soulbeast doesn’t need siege to be a strong defending build through the power of Barrage. This works great against smaller and uncoordinated groups, but keep in mind that siege is a very important part of being able to hold off large groups. While soulbeast isn’t useless in those situations, it is weaker than the alternative.

Renegade

Renegade interacts with siege in two ways that no other class can match.

1. Inspiring Reinforcement gives permanent Stability, this lets you be invulnerable to pulls from enemy groups and allows you to use siege from the top of walls with impunity.
2. Orders from Above gives significant Alacrity. While Alacrity no longer works on siege, it does work on Siege Disruptors. Siege Disruptors are very important for slowing down siege golems and nothing can compete with Renegade for throwing them.

In addition to whichever build you choose to use, if you want to maximize effectiveness you should have both zerg and roaming build/gear templates for whichever profession you end up playing. Use the zerg build when your groups come to defend and the roaming build when you’re between objectives so that you can fight small numbers of players alone.

Siege

Siege is the core of defense, the great equalizer that allows even a single defender to have an impact against any number of attackers.

Placeable Siege

Shield Generators (Shield gen)

• Counters Catapults, Trebuchets and ranged Golems
• Line of Sight works in an arc, not a straight line like normal profession skills
• Needs to be used in pairs to maximize impact
• Position by throwing from below to edge of wall

Despite being horribly underrated, the shield generator is the most powerful piece of defensive siege because of its skill 3: Force Dome. Force dome completely negates projectile attacks, including from siege, in its area. With multiple shield generators it is possible to reduce the damage from catapults, trebuchets and omegas to 0 damage indefinitely.

Basic shield gens do not share cooldowns with superior or guild shield gens, though guild and superior shield gens do share cooldowns with each other. This means that a single player can rotate between a basic and upgraded shield gen and have two separate Force Dome cds.

Shield generators should be placed in pairs and thrown from below walls so that only the edge of the hitbox can be attacked. It’s also useful to play shield gens behind gates to stop golems using their ranged attack. Shield gens can also be placed behind walls on the ground level to protect from point blank or poorly aimed siege without needing to stay at the top of the wall since Force Dome is large enough to extend to the outer side of the wall when targeted on the inside. Keep in mind that Force Dome cannot target an area including any shield generator, so minimize the amount of area on a wall occupied by them and place any on the ground level as far back as possible.

The final shield gen mastery point is bugged and causes Force Dome to only provide Stability once. Leaving the mastery at 4 of 5 is optimal for defense since attackers won’t build Arrow Carts and the pulsing Stability is very strong if friendlies fight inside the area.

Trebuchets (Treb)

• Best siege for killing other siege
• Counters Flame Rams
• Projectile starts above the siege
• Position behind gates to kill rams
• Very high possible positions to counter other siege spots

Trebuchets will, along with shield generators, form the bulk of an effective defense. With full mastery trebuchet shots deal 35110 damage to siege on a 5s CD. This is enough damage to kill Superior/Guild Flame rams in 7/14 shots, Catapults in 5 shots and Trebuchets in 6 shots. At least 1, but preferably 2 or 3 trebs should be placed behind every gate, they are your primary way to stop gate attacks.

A treb shot hits the ground at roughly 3000 range when fired at 0 power to flat ground. Since the explosion from a shot is a sphere you want to hit as close to the ground as possible to splash max range rams. There are some gates where this isn’t possible, but even hitting the top of the gate will splash most ram positions. Don’t be afraid to get creative with treb placement, there are a lot of siege spots for both rams and catas that can be cleared from inside a keep. Trebs should also be positioned to protect nearby towers in EBG.

Arrow Carts (ACs)

• High player damage
• Line of Sight works in an arc, not a straight line like normal profession skills
• Use to fill out siege cap after other siege is built

This is your filler siege once trebs and gens are finished. With a target cap of 25 and each player being able to be hit by a max of 2 ACs you want a minimum of two of these and maximum of 4 hitting any point. Most of the time 2 will be enough. Only the skill 1 is worth casting since the others are a DPS loss.

Like shield gens ACs fire in an arc and don’t need direct line of sight, they should also be thrown from below walls to the edge to minimize their hitbox.

Ballista (Balli)

• Useful for specific countersiege, especially against enemy ballista
• Travels further than listed distance if fired from a higher position than target

By far the most common thing you’ll need to use a bali against is an enemy bali targeting your defensive siege. They can be used to counter-siege catas as well, but trebs can usually do that job better. Still, there are some positions trebs can’t deal with but balis can, so they aren’t useless.

Catapults (Cata)

• Outclassed by trebs in most cases
• Has niche use for CC at angles trebs can’t reach

This is mostly just a worse treb, it has significantly less damage against siege and fills the same role. Catas do fire their projectile at a different angle to trebs, so they can be used to disrupt some positions that trebs can’t, but in general these are a waste of siege cap defensively.

Flame Rams/Siege Golems

• Have minor niche uses in combat, not worth building

Static Siege

Cannons

• Very high damage to siege
• Best anti-player siege in the game

Cannons are the only siege with a higher DPS against enemy siege than trebuchets. Their positioning makes them very easy for enemies to clear, but they have to be cleared before siege can be placed in their line of fire. Cannons are also the most powerful siege weapon against players and even a single cannon firing into a fight can easily swing it. While using cannons only use Skill 1, the others are not worth casting. Keep in mind that cannons have a large radius and can be aimed at walls and pillars to splash nearby siege or players. There are several keeps where an inner cannon can fire to outer or an outer cannon can fire into inner.

Burning Oil (Oil)

• Takes very little power damage with mastery and hardened siege
• Supply drain is very powerful

Similarly to cannons, oils are placed in an area fairly easy for enemies to hit. Unlike cannons however oil takes a very long time to kill. Be careful of condition damage since the mastery does not reduce condition damage taken. Spam skill 1 any time enemies are in range only using skill 3 when enemies are out of range of the 1.

Mortars

• Higher DPS trebs with forced placement

Mortars do the same thing defensively as trebs, but don’t count towards siege cap and fire in a different arc. It’s worth building them just because they’re free, but with a few exceptions they aren’t usually very useful for defending the objective they’re at. Mortars are notably good at clearing siege at nearby objectives on EBG. The DPS of mortars is extremely high so when you can hit siege with them they should be your first choice.

Ticks & Traps

Siege Disruptor (disabler)

• Strongest defensive tool other than actual siege

Disruptors are extremely powerful, but you are also at your most vulnerable as a defender when using them. Make sure to give yourself Stability to avoid being pulled and dodge away from the edge as soon as your cast is finished. Disruptors can be blocked by catapult mastery bubbles but the area of a disabler is slightly larger than the radius of the bubbles, so even well coordinated catas can be disabled by targeting the edge.

Target Painter

• This is the only bad Trick/Trap, don’t use it

Supply Removal Trap (supply trap)

• Can place extra directly behind an outer wall/gate that is about to open

Supply removal traps are cheap to place and have very high potential to disrupt attacking groups. There is pretty easy counterplay in the way of sending a player ahead of the group, but it often isn’t used which makes placing these worth it.

There are two good ways to place these: either directly covering the most likely place enemies will come to attack or, if your enemies are likely to try and avoid traps, place them near the most likely siege spot, but off to the side. Since the radius on these traps is quite large but the trigger is only a small area you might get lucky and have someone going ahead of the group miss the area to trigger the cap then hit the full group when they arrive and spread out more.

Target Painter Trap

• Cover areas you won’t personally be scouting often

These are a very useful part of the defenders arsenal. You only get one of these, so make use of it by placing it in an area you won’t be watching to catch enemies trying to sneak up. Otherwise place them the same way as supply traps.

Miscellaneous

Game settings and keybindings

• General Options -> Camera - Set Vertical Position Near, Vertical Position Far and Field of View all the way to the right

This change makes it easier to target over walls and other obstructions.

• General Options -> Combat/Movement - Set Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range to ON

This makes it easier to aim ground target area of effect (GTAoE) skills like Barrage, Force Dome and AC attacks

• Keybind and use Snap Ground Target or Toggle Snap Ground Target

This is a very useful setting for Shield Gens and ACs, it lets you center their ground targeted aoes on your target. This allows you to target things that aren’t in your line of sight. Make sure not to use snapping while throwing siege disablers, since it’ll make them harder to use.

Positioning

While using siege, especially on top of walls, you are vulnerable to enemy AoEs and pulls. To avoid this interact with siege from the maximum possible range and position yourself behind terrain as much as possible.

Inventory

Having stacks of siege on hand allows you to quickly throw it when needed. Keep as close to a stack as possible of Arrow Carts, bShield Generators, Trebuchets, Ballista and Siege Disruptors. Keep some Supply Removal and Target Painter traps as well. While guild siege is optimal, superior siege is extremely cheap and good enough for most situations. There are a few cases where Superior is a significant downgrade though. Guild Arrow Carts cost 25 supplies to build, as opposed to 30 for a Superior. 25 is the maximum supply taking supply from a claimed Keep with the Presence of the Keep tactic and 5/5 Supply Mastery, meaning one load of supply is enough to fully build a guild AC but not a superior AC. This is a significant time save, especially if you aren’t presieging.

Permanent Portable Provisioner

The Permanent Portable Provisioner can be purchased at any Outfitter in WvW and allows you to quickly purchase siege, tricks and traps. The siege prices are typically more expensive than the trading post, though not particularly high. The trick/trap prices are as good as any other source. Keeping a provisioner in your inventory is a good idea in case you run out of anything you need.

Scouting

The first thing you need to do when you see an enemy group is to call out their location in squad/map/team chat as soon as possible so that allies can start moving to help defend. Include as much information as possible as concisely as possible. A skeleton for a proper callout is: [Number] [Server] [Guild Tag] [Objective] [Borderland] (Except for Map Chat) [Siege] [Objective Location + %]

So if around 30 players from the [TA] guild had put 6 rams on the north outer gate of hills on the green borderland and the gate was at 80% health remaining the callout should look something like:

30 red [TA] Hills GBL, 6 rams north outer 80%

Don’t feel like you need an exact enemy count, a rough guess is fine, though your team may be annoyed if you call them to defend against a number much smaller than what you called out. If information changes feel free to keep making callouts to update your team on the situation if necessary. In general you should be able to solo defend against any group less than 20, but feel free to call it out anyway.

WXP Upgrades

Because of how central siege is to defending gameplay, it's pretty important to have enough World Ranks to purchase mastery in all of the most critical siege skills. The WvW Ability Points Guide has a section on where to spend points first as a defender

Tactics

This is an optimal loadout for tactics for each objective type considering that the objective is being actively defended by at least one player. There are other options for objectives that aren't being closely watched which are discussed below.

Camp Tactics

	Tactic	Improvement
T1	Invulnerable Dolyaks	Packed Dolyaks

Tower Tactics

	Tactic	Improvement
T1	Minor Supply Drop	Hardened Gates
T2	Dragon Banner	Iron Guards1
T3	Siege Dampener2	Watchtower

1. Hardened Siege is stronger in an actively defended objective, but that isn't usually towers
2. Use Emergency Waypoint on outer towers and all desert borderland towers

Keep Tactics

	Tactic	Improvement
T1	Minor Supply Drop	Hardened Gates
T2	Dragon Banner	Hardened Siege
T3	Emergency Waypoint1	Presence of the Keep

1. Siege Dampener on EBG Keep

Stonemist Castle Tactics

	Tactic	Improvement
T1	Minor Supply Drop	Hardened Gates
T2	Dragon Banner	Iron Guards
T3	Airship Defense	Presence of the Keep1

1. Cloaking Waters is fine too

Notes on tactics choices

Packed Dolyaks vs Speedy Dolyaks

Packed Dolyaks count as 2 yaks for upgrades and run at 50% of the speed of Speedy Dolyaks. Since they can be sped up by superspeed or swiftness from players to match the speed of Speedy Dolyaks there is no reason to use Speedy Dolyaks.

Hardened Gates vs Sabotage Depot

Feel free to use sabotage depot on an objective that you aren’t going to keep, but hardened gates helps you defend and sabotage doesn’t, so if you’re going to defend you should always be placing hardened gates. Additionally it’s a common opinion that hardened gates isn’t useful because it only works against player damage, but player damage against gates can be extremely relevant and gates are the most vulnerable place to attack against a skilled defender making good use of shield generators so even a small time to kill reduction is helpful.

Minor Supply Drop vs Healing Mist

200 supply is a lot, if it's an objective you ever want to build siege in or repair this choice is not close, but on a side objective that you expect to fall but might want to fight over Healing Mist is fine.

Dragon Banner vs Other Banners

Dragon has two big advantages over the other banners, massive burst damage instead of sustained DPS like Centaur and very high Quickness output. Those two things combined are much stronger than what Centaur and Turtle have for winning a fight. The turtle banner arguably has some defensive utility since skill 3 can make gates/walls immune to damage, but the uptime is low and you can’t use siege while carrying one so it isn’t really worth it.

Hardened Siege vs Iron Guards

iron Guards is fine in an objective that isn't being actively defended. In an actively defended objective walls are almost impossible to attack due to Shield Gens, so gates are the only place an attack should be able to succeed. With that in mind, Hardened Siege on the Oil and Cannons will slow attackers down more than Iron Guards will on the lord. If the attackers don't clear all of the Oil/Cannons, you can simply use them to break all the attackers siege or drain their supply. The oil in particular takes almost no power damage while used with its mastery and Hardened Siege active. In addition, if the attackers do reach the lord on an actively defended objective they'll almost certainly clear any siege that's been built up, making the objective much easier to break on future attacks, so its in an active defenders best interest to stop the attackers at the structure and not the lord.

Siege Dampener vs Emergency Waypoint

The response time to inner towers from the spawn waypoint is very close on maps other than desert. As long as it's not pulled late, Siege Dampener will always delay siege long enough for a group to run from the waypoint and gives a much better chance of keeping the wall/gate intact. Emergency is better on towers that won’t be scouted frequently or are very far from spawn, as in desert or the southern alpine towers.

Practical Guide to Defending

Setting Up

Defending is all about preparation. The better prepared you are, the less effective attackers can be. Your main goal as a defender is to kill the attackers siege before they can break any walls or gates to get inside. If that fails you want to delay attackers as long as possible until more defenders can arrive to help. It takes very few, often only 1 player, to stop attackers from breaking inside but many defenders to fight an enemy that has broken in, so avoid letting them break in at all costs. As a defender you have a simple plan to follow:

• Choose your targets
• Presiege
• Set traps
• Scout

Choose your targets

It’s impossible to defend every objective alone, so your first step in defending is deciding what you’re going to defend. As a general rule of thumb, this is a list of sets of objectives you can effectively defend alone on each map:

• Red EBG Keep + Veloka
  • Usually also Ogrewatch + Mendon’s
• Green EBG Keep + Aldon’s + Jerrifer’s
  • Usually also Wildcreek + Klovan’s
• Blue EBG Keep + Bravost + Langor
  • Usually also Quentin
• Stonemist Castle
  • Usually also your entire side of EBG
• Fire Keep + Earth Keep
• Air Keep
• Home Borderland Hills + Garrison + North East Tower
  • Usually also North West Tower
• Bay
• Enemy Borderland Hills + South East Tower

There are two main reasons why defenders need to pick their objectives carefully:

1. Pre-building siege is the biggest advantage defenders have over attackers. If you spread across too many objectives, it becomes extremely difficult to build and maintain siege.
2. The faster a defender is at an objective the less likely an attacker can break inside. If you need to run across the map to get to an objective you’ll probably end up getting there too late to stop the attackers.

It's a good idea to pick objectives that will see a lot of action because they are both more fun to defend and going to generate more score for your team. Side keeps on enemy borderlands are ideal, as is SMC. Since EBG is the most active map defending the home side is usually a solid choice when you don’t control SMC.

Presiege

This is the defenders biggest advantage, effectively infinite supply to set up siege before the attackers arrive. Your goals, in order, should be to set up:

1. 1 Trebuchet on each gate
2. Shield gen pairs spread to cover all walls + gates
3. Additional trebs to cover cata/treb spots, 1-2 extra trebs per gate if siege cap allows
4. Arrow carts to fill siege cap

Repeat this process for any objectives you want to hold, but remember that without a defender at the objective to use siege, none of it will slow attackers down. Keep in mind that siege needs to be interacted with once every hour or it will decay and despawn. Because of these reasons you may want to limit siege to only the essential treb/shield gens.

Set Traps

Your supply removal trap should be placed at the most likely place for an enemy group to attack while your target painter trap should be placed wherever enemies are most likely to approach that is furthest away from where you’ll be scouting. You can only place one of each type of trap and they will be removed if you change build template or leave the map.

Scout

Once your objectives are set up the final step in preparing to defend is to find the enemy as soon as possible when they reach your objectives. Stay close to whichever objective is either most likely to be attacked or is most difficult to get to quickly and keep an eye on your map.

There are a few important things to keep an eye on via your map:

White Swords

White swords appear whenever a Wall or Gate is damaged while below 98% hp or when an objective lord NPC is put in combat. There is no delay on their appearance and they last for 3 minutes.

Orange Swords

Orange Swords appear whenever 25 or more players are in combat in the same area

Objectives that change control

If you click on an objective quickly after its captured, you’ll be able to see which guilds have the ability to claim it. This is usually enough information to tell which group was at the objective.

You can take time to quickly flip camps near your objectives, but only do this when you’re confident that no enemy will arrive soon. Commanders can give shared participation to players in their squad so that they can avoid participation decay while scouting. Feel free to whisper to commanders and ask for shared participation, explaining to them that you are scouting and which objectives you are defending and almost any commander will be happy to do so for you.

Defending Gameplan

After the enemy shows up the game plan changes:

1. Call out the attack
2. Siege Disruptor as much siege as possible
3. Use Shield Generators (if applicable)
4. Use profession skills (Barrage/Inspiring Reinforcement)
5. Use Trebuchets (if applicable)
6. Use Arrow Carts

Call outs

The first thing you need to do when you see an enemy group is to call out their location in squad/map/team chat as soon as possible so that allies can start moving to help defend. Include as much information as possible as concisely as possible. A skeleton for a proper callout is: [Number] [Server] [Guild Tag] [Objective] [Borderland] (Except for Map Chat) [Siege] [Objective Location + %]. This might look something like:

30 red [TA] Hills GBL, 6 rams north outer 80%

Don’t feel like you need an exact enemy count, a rough guess is fine, though your team may be annoyed if you call them to defend against a number much smaller than what you called out. If information changes feel free to keep making callouts to update your team on the situation if necessary. In general you should be able to solo defend against any group less than 20, but feel free to call it out anyway.

It is also helpful to turn your commander tag on to show allies where to go to. Red is the customary color for scouting, you can turn it off once another tag shows up or the attack is over.

Siege Disruptors

Disruptors are extremely powerful, but you are also at your most vulnerable as a defender when using them. Make sure to give yourself Stability to avoid being pulled and dodge away from the edge as soon as your cast is finished. Disruptors can be blocked by catapult mastery bubbles but the area of a disabler is slightly larger than the radius of the bubbles, so even well coordinated catas can be disabled by targeting the edge.

Shield Generators

If the enemy is attacking with catas or trebs then shield generators are the only defense you need. With two players it is possible to maintain uptime on Force Dome to block shots indefinitely. If the enemy siege is at an awkward angle under the walls or below terrain, use your preferred method of Snap Ground Target to Current Target while targeting the siege to land the dome directly on top of it. During the duration of force dome feel free to leave the shield gen briefly to use other siege or skills, just make sure you’re back on the next gen before the dome expires.

Profession Skills

If you’re playing ranger, keep in mind that using or leave siege in combat procs Quick Draw, so play around that with Barrage. Use Snap Ground Target to Current Target to make Barrage easier to land.

Inspiring Reinforcement lasts 5s and grants stability for 6s (with 100% boon duration) per pulse on a 10s cd. As long as you press it every time the 10s CD ends you’ll have permanent stability pulsing underneath you while using siege.

Trebuchets

For gate trebs, spam the attack skill without holding it at all. Keep your shot type on Bloated Putrid Cow and open with that as enemies approach a gate. Alternate between the two types of shots until rams are finished building, then focus on Corrosive Shot until the rams die. Remember that you can swap shot types as soon as you release a shot, while the cooldown on skill 2 is ticking. You may need to aim the treb to the left or right to hit the rams, make sure to look at your combat log so you can see if a ram is being hit.

If you’re trying to use a more abstract treb then it may take a shot or two to dial in the exact amount of power needed. It’s usually good to start at around 50% of max and adjust from there unless you already have a general idea of how much to use.

Arrow Carts

ACs are your filler siege, use them the same way you use shield gens, typically in-between casts of Force Dome. Snap Target to Ground Target is very useful for landing ACs on tricky siege spots.

Defense Scenarios

The enemy is using…

Flame Rams

If cannons or burning oil aren’t killed either can easily and quickly kill rams, so even competent attackers need to spend time clearing these. Trebuchets can kill rams in 7 hits, 14 if the users have stability for every hit. Even 1 treb can clear rams before a fortified gate breaks, with 2 or 3 it becomes very easy.

Flame Rams with Shield Gens

This is the second hardest siege to defend against, but luckily it requires a lot of supply and can only be used by very large groups. You will need allies to respond and help defend against this if you want to successfully hold off the attackers. Focus on killing off the shield gens first so you can use trebs to stop the rams. Make sure to land a disruptor on the rams to slow down their damage.

Point-blink Catapults

Shield generators completely shut out the damage from catapults. When placed point blank a shield generator placed safely on the ground behind a wall can place its force dome through a wall to shut them down with no counterplay.

Long range Catapults or Trebuchets

With long range catas and trebs shield generators need to be placed on the wall to prevent splash damage from breaking the wall. This also works against every cata position that uses Z axis placement to splash into the wall. When possible keep your shield gens to the side of where cata/treb shots will be aimed to avoid splash and allow extra shield gens to target the area.

Siege Golems

This is the hardest siege to defend against. If the enemy brings enough they will break inside. Disruptors completely disable golems for 20 seconds, so they can be held off if you have several players chaining disruptors on them. If you’re playing renegade stay off siege and keep Alacrity up via Orders from Above to reduce the disruptor cooldown while waiting for help to arrive. Trebuchets deal ~17k per shot damage to golems, but they’re much more difficult to clear than rams because they can move and have very high HP pools.

Ballista/Skills/Barrage to clear siege

Ballistae and most profession skills can generally be countered with good siege positioning, though some may be able to slowly clear out siege with enough casts. Barrage is a worst case scenario for a defender. Make sure your gate trebs are built as far back as possible and have backup shield generators below the walls to block point-blank catas or poorly aimed long range catas/trebs. If the attackers are using long ranged catas/trebs and clearing shield generators off walls with Barrage there isn’t too much you can do, but you will have slowed them down by forcing them into that position. Hope that you have allies online to come help you defend by the time they break in.