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 zerg build. 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. If you're not sure what to play, check out the class guide for inspiration.

Explanation of Worlds

The first time you log into GW2 you select a world, it is similar to what other games call a server or shard. The term server is often used interchangeably with world by the WvW community. This selection is only relevant for choosing your team in WvW and will not influence who you are able to play with in PvE. You can find your world by opening the world selection menu on the character select screen.

Using some of the methods in the guide may be improved by transferring servers, which costs 500, 1000 or 1800 gems based on how full the target server is. World transfers can be executed in the world selection menu.

In addition, worlds are temporarily combined in a system called World Linkings to help with population balance. Linkings change on the second Friday of every odd numbered month with smaller worlds being linked to larger worlds. You can find your world's linked server in the in-game WvW menu (default hotkey B) by mousing over the current score or server names (your team has a house icon next to the score).

World Discords

Finding a world'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 Call of the Mists discord and GW2Hub discord both maintain a listing of every worlds discord servers. Find your server and the server of the world linked to yours and join both.

Joining voice chat is not required to find when and where groups are running, but some groups do require joining to get an invite to their in-game squad. It is extremely unlikely that any group you join from a world's discord server will ask you to speak in voice chat, simply being able to listen to the instructions given by the group's commander is enough. The vast majority of groups you will join on voice in WvW are very nice and willing to help if you have any questions, but there are always some bad eggs. If you do have a negative experience in a voice chat don't let it discourage you from enjoying the game mode with other groups.

When and Where

Many players start their WvW experience by hopping into the maps and hoping a commander is running an open squad, but there are much more efficient ways to find groups.

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.
  • Desert Borderland is much more active on the NA region compared to the EU region.
• 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.

• 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.
  • Gw2matchup 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

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

Finding a guild

The best way to get a consistent group to play with is joining a WvW guild. There are a large variety of guilds in the game from casual to hardcore, so almost anyone can find a guild that fits their playstyle. Here are a variety of places to look for a guild:

• Team Chat - Simply asking in team chat will often get you directions to a casual or server guild
• Your world's discord - Most servers maintain a guild recruitment channel with listings for guilds seeking players
• The Call of the Mists discord has channels for EU and NA region guild recruitment
• The guild recruitment subreddit
• The official GW2 Looking For Guild forum

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 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)
  • Primetime: 02:00 - 05:00 UTC, 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)
  • Primetime: 18:00 - 21:00 UTC, 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/OCE)
  • Primetime: 9:00 - 11:00 UTC, 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.

• SEA (South East Asia)
  • Primetime: 09:00 - 12:00 UTC
  • SEA has a less definite prime time than other timezones due to the large range of timezones in the geographical region as well as the overlap with OCX and EU
  • 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.

What do I do if there are no groups?

Stone Mist Castle

During most times of the day you can find small groups of players fighting on the Eternal Battlegrounds (EBG) map between Stonemist Castle (SMC) and one of the teams keeps.

Solo Roaming

WvW is very playable alone, instead of a zerging build grab a roaming build. As a roamer you can capture camps, sentries and even towers to build your participation. You can also look to fight other roamers around the maps. If you find any friendlies you've enjoyed playing with you can always group up and roam that way as well! When learning how to roam alone its recommended you focus on towers without any upgrades and use a catapult to break in (you'll probably have to run back to camp for supply to finish building).

Tag Up

If you have a commander tag don't be afraid to throw it up while attacking an objective. Towers are a good target for a first time commander and you'll often find at least one or two teammates willing to help you capture one (especially if you open up a wall first!). This combines very well with solo roaming when you want to attack an objective, and you can always tag down when the objective is taken.