Guild Wars 2 WVW server battles take 2 weeks, maps support 300+ players

By Robert Purchese Published 16 February, 2012

All characters adjusted automatically to level 80.

Guild Wars 2 world vs. world battles consist of three entire servers fighting against each other in battles that last two weeks, and rage on maps that support more than 300 players.

And anyone can play: characters are automatically adjusted to be "roughly equivalent" to a top-level, level-80 character.

If you win, your server ranking improves, and you'll be matched against server-opponents accordingly.

Systems designer Mike Ferguson explained world versus world battles on the ArenaNet blog.

Battles span four maps in an area called The Mists: three home maps called Borderlands - where each team has a home advantage - and one central map called the Eternal Battleground.

Each map has keeps, towers and resource camps, which create the universal resource called "supply". Capturing any of these improves your team/server's War Score.

Keeps are hardest to take. They've got tough NPC defenders, walls, gates and a boss lord. That's without human-controlled defenders.

You'll need a full complement of siege weaponry to break a keep: the options are Trebuchet, Arrow Carts (projectile launchers), Catapults, Ballistae and Siege Golems (a slow, robotic juggernaut). Building siege weapons requires "supply", which players can deliver. If you're defending, "supply" comes from caravans, which will need protecting.

Guilds can claim keeps and upgrade them. ArenaNet says a winning team will be one that breaks off into guilds and tries to obtain multiple objectives at once. The keep's structure can be upgraded by paying gold and then waiting for worker NPCs to do their thing. The keep's guards can be upgraded too, by paying gold.

You'll also fight over Orbs of Power, which are hidden in a special Cradle of Power keep at the heart of each team/server's Borderlands map. This will be guarded by a boss called the Keeper. But steal an Orb of Power and stuff it on an Alter of Power (available at any keep) and the abilities of all of your team/server's characters will be boosted.

While level 1 characters will be boosted to level 80, they'll not be as powerful as someone who's naturally risen through the ranks. A natural level 80 will have "a clear advantage", although the fight won't be over in one hit.

"So what's a low-level character to do? Anybody can man a siege weapon, help repair walls, or go hunt down enemy dolyaks, so even new characters can still be useful in the Mists - as long as they pick their fights wisely," explained Ferguson.

"Fights are rarely one-on-one affairs, so if you're just starting out, you'd be wise to find some teammates to fight alongside you as there definitely is strength in numbers."

You'll gain experience and new items during world versus world battles as well. Killed enemy players drop loot, but you won't lose any of your own if you die. All dropped loot will be level appropriate.

You can even convince NPC mercenaries and monsters to fight for your cause, such as ogres, stomp stomp stomp.

The Guild Wars 2 open beta begins in March.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Daeltaja #1 3 months ago

    Must....... resist........ AGH!

  • R63xd #2 3 months ago

    1. Have DaoC as reference when creating large scale pvp - Check
    2. No factions to avoid awesome balancing issues (Wintergrasp D: ) - Check
    3. Seemingly smart, well thought-out philosophy behind the creation of large scale pvp - Check

    on dat GW2 hype train yo :> Can't wait for this!
    Edited by R63xd at 16/02/12 @ 17:45

  • WJF #3 3 months ago

    Take my money, damn it!

  • Mazrim_Taim #4 3 months ago

    "The Guild Wars 2 open beta begins in March"
    At no point have anet confirmed that the March beta will be "Open", just on a larger scale.
    Edited by Mazrim_Taim at 16/02/12 @ 17:59

  • Raziel #5 3 months ago

    Waaaaaannnnnttt!

  • jimr9999us #6 3 months ago

    If they can pull this off GW2 will be the borg.

    But 300 in a zone? GL to them :)

  • Hivess #7 3 months ago

    Not "open beta", "public beta". That's different ;p

  • arcam #8 3 months ago

    This is going to be my first ever MMO.

  • BlinkeredAxis #9 3 months ago

    It's been a while since I played GW1, which is a terrific game. This one looks pretty amazing - hope it is as good as it looks. They are a quality developer, so it probably will be.

  • IXSpAcEMoNkEyXI #10 3 months ago

    In the words of Barry Manilow: 'Baby I want you now!' ;)

  • Tyranix #11 3 months ago

    If Arenanet pull all they're promising off this game will be legendary. Everything I could have ever asked for in a game (not just an mmo)...gorgeous graphics but not computer breakingly so, roleplay elements, pvp that's more than just a deathmatch, dynamic pve, colourful races...I could go on for ages.

  • Scopeh #12 3 months ago

    300 in one zone? Wintergrasp springs to mind..and we all know how that ended.

  • Dizzy #13 3 months ago

    Sounds ace.

  • Nasty #14 3 months ago

    Sounds a bit like WAR RvR. This a good thing. RvR would have worked if it didn't have some massive exploits that were never fixed and idiotic server imbalances. Supposedly massive two week battles were reduced to a 15 minute zerg.

    Hopefully the level normalisation and other stuff will make this WvW stuff a bit more fun

  • scoop #15 3 months ago

    Bring it!

    Already feels like a cool breeze in an over-crowded room stinking of stale sweat.

  • sherpa1984 #16 3 months ago

    Damn, this feature would be the main selling point for the majority of MMO games but for GW2 it seems to be just one more.

    Wasn't fussed about it a couple years ago... Now it's almost a certain pre-order.

    [EDIT]

    Hang on a minute. 300 heroes in one zone. 300... No... surely not...

    Edited by sherpa1984 at 16/02/12 @ 19:45

  • Vyggo #17 3 months ago

    This brings back good memories from Warhammer Online.

  • cherrypie8029 #18 3 months ago

    I like the item of the two weeks sieges and i think it's handy that lv 1 get boosted to lv80 and can join theses sieges. :o)

  • HeNiCiDe1988 #19 3 months ago

    hahahhaa TOOO AWESOME wish I could pick this up be great , is it what they doing when the beta released?
    Edited by HeNiCiDe1988 at 16/02/12 @ 21:05

  • evilbert #20 3 months ago

    Will you be handing out beta keys for this, EG?

  • Harmonica #21 3 months ago

    Don't really like the fact that there's such a vast upscaling to player characters going on. Sure, it would be crazy if newbie characters were useless, but it would also mean that the vets need to do their job and help the lower ranks out. Oh well, the rest sounds pretty awesome. Sort of like what M&B does with the cRPG and Strategus mods.

  • R63xd #22 3 months ago

    @Harmonica AN have said that WvWvW is intended for a more casual audience, fun for everyone no matter what, i'm pretty sure there will be 'lowbies' spread out across all 3 servers evenly somewhat, and imo as far as issues go, this is the 'best' one to have when working with large scale pvp :D

    And heck, to counter-balance this issue, the server matchmaking should keep the hardcore servers together so the more casual servers shouldn't have to worry about getting rolled every week by the 'Stormscale' servers :p

    The 'serious' structured PVP lies with the hot-join & tournament play :]

    Personally looking forward to both!

  • WinterSnowblind #23 3 months ago

    @R63xd They've also said here that they expect Guilds/more serious players to tackle the bigger, more difficult objectives, like taking the forts.

    More casual players can hop on and help out just thinning the enemy numbers or disrupting trade caravans, etc.

    Also, your level just really isn't important in GW2. It seems to cap out quite quickly and you're lowered back down when returning to earlier areas. The game's getting a lot of hype now, but there are certain features like this that a lot of the ex-WoW/TOR players probably aren't going to get into. There's no grind, no treadmill and no e-peens to show off, besides actual skill.

  • killuminati2911 #24 3 months ago

    WvW= Well...very..Well :)

  • Spekingur #25 3 months ago

    All you people talking about Warhammer Online obviously never played DAoC.

  • Sikosh #26 3 months ago

    I hardly ever get on the hype train... but...