How to find a group in WvW

Introduction

So its your first time in WvW, or you're here reluctantly to grind out another Gift of Battle. With its 24/7 persistent battles the mist war can seem like a pretty empty place, but after reading this guide you'll be equipped with everything you need to know to find the epic large scale battles that the mode is known for!

Getting Ready

Make sure when you're looking for a group you find an appropriate build here. For a new player sticking to something in the meta category is recommended, but feel free to branch out if you have a favorite class.

Server Discords

Finding a server's discord is a great way to see when groups are running and looking for people, usually asking in team chat will get you a link. The GW2Hub discord also maintains a listing of every server discord in the world vs world section. Find your server and the server of the world linked to yours and join both.

When and Where

Maps

• Eternal Battlegrounds (EBG) is usually the most populated map, particularly for disorganized play.
• The Alpine Borderlands are next most active while the Desert Borderland will often have some activity during prime time.
• Obsidian Sanctum and Edge of the Mists are not used for normal WvW play and should be avoided.

WvW Reset

• The highest activity part of the week is directly after the maps reset on Fridays.
  • Each server will usually organize in their discord which commanders will go to specific maps.
• If you're not sure where your server is planning to play then Eternal Battlegrounds (EBG) and your servers home borderland are usually the safest bets.
• It is very important on reset to wait at the WvW portals in Lion's Arch or Armistice Bastion. Once scores reset to 0 you should spam the Interact key until you get into the map. Your screen will slowly turn black as error messages stack up, but this can safely be ignored.

[LA portal image goes here]

• You can determine which borderland will be the home borderland by looking at the score before reset. The highest scoring server becomes red, the lowest scoring becomes green and the 2nd place server becomes blue. In the highest tier matchup the first place server stays green while in the lowest tier matchup the lowest scoring server remains red.
  • This website is an easy way to see where your server is expected to be next.

Weekends

It may seem obvious, but particularly for those playing outside their regions prime time the highest activity part of the week will almost always be saturday and sunday. You can typically hop on at any time during the weekend and at least find a disorganized group running around.

After Relinkings

WvW worlds are relinked on the second friday of every odd numbered month. There is usually increased activity for a couple weeks after relinkings due to fresh matchups and team partners, making this a good time to play.

Timezone + Server

Does it seem like there is never activity when you're playing? Maybe you looked at the above methods and found you couldn't play during the times they talked about? It might benefit you to think about transferring servers. The wiki explains here how transferring works, but choosing the right server for you is the hard part!

GW2 has two regions you can play on, North America and Europe (There are Chinese servers, but unfortunately they are only accessible by mainland China residents). The region you pick will influence your ping to the game, but the closest server might not be the best place to play depending on your schedule.

• NA (North America) - 9pm - 12pm EST/EDT, 6pm - 9pm PST/PDT
  • While there are no language servers on the NA servers, most south american players do play there.
    • Some spanish speakers from North America choose to play on Baruch Bay on the EU region.

• EU (Europe) - 19:00 - 22:00 CET/CEST
  • Europe has national servers for French, German and Spanish speaking players as well as international servers.
    • French servers are Arborstone, Augury Rock, Fort Ranik, Jade Sea and Vizunah Square.
    • German servers are Abaddon's Mouth, Drakkar Lake, Dzagonur, Elona Reach, Kodash, Miller's Sound and Riverside.
    • The Spanish server is Baruch Bay

• OCX (Oceanic) - 7pm - 10pm AEST/AEDT
  • The majority of OCX players play on the North American region
  • The OCX community has a discord for their region that can help direct you to servers and guilds: https://discord.gg/HtGQbGHk

• SEA (South East Asia) - primetime
  • SEA activity is split between the EU and NA regions. Historically the NA region has had the majority of the SEA population but while many groups in the timezone still run on the NA servers there is also high activity on EU.
    • European players playing before their own primetime often end up overlapping with SEA primetime which helps to keep activity high, particularly on weekends.

• There are also third party websites such as wvwstats that track WvW activity.
  • Keep in mind these stats reset each week and are somewhat dependent on what matchup each server is in, but they can still be a useful tool in determining the right server for you.