World versus World

This article is about the game mechanic. For the achievements category, see World vs World (achievements).

The four World versus World Maps

World versus World (also known as WvW) is a Player versus Player game mode where players from three different servers, or worlds, battle in the Mists. It features open-world combat on four large maps with up to several hundreds of players per map. In World versus World, players can besiege structures such as Keeps and Towers with siege weapons, and battle over resources, to win rewards for their world and prestigious World Experience for themselves.

Getting there

There are two ways to get into WvW:

• Press B (default) to open WvW statistics, then at the top select which world you wish to enter.

• Every home city has an Asura gate to Lion's Arch, where there are other gates leading to the WvW borderlands.

Participation

Stonemist Castle being besieged.

WvW is designed to accommodate players that would not normally participate in PvP. For instance, the high player limit means that a new player can get involved without immediately feeling pressured to contribute. In addition, objectives are available for a variety of group sizes, so players don't need to be members of dedicated guilds in order to be productive. There are also PvE objectives in the world such as skill challenges, events and jumping puzzles.

Player limits are based on the server resources being used. If too many players try to log onto a map, additional players will be placed in a queue (and can continue playing on other maps, including other WvW maps). The limit number is split equally between all three worlds.

WvW is accessible to characters immediately after the tutorial instance and players joining WvW will have their level and attributes dynamically adjusted to level 80. Skills, traits, experience and equipment can be obtained within WvW, so character progression can be done without ever needing to switch to PvE. Each character on an account has separate progress via World Experience, which can be used to unlock beneficial WvW-specific traits.

Players may leave or join WvW at any time with only a few restrictions:

• Players who are idle for a certain amount of time will be automatically removed from WvW, but can rejoin at any time.
• Players who attempt to join a map that is full can queue for a space while joining one of the other maps in the meantime.

Mechanics

The interface at the top of your screen shows when and by how many points the war score of your team will be updated.
It also shows the number of supplies you are holding.

War score

Structures

WvW matches take place across four very large maps containing four different types of structures. Every 15 minutes, the structures controlled by each world are totalled and added to that world's cumulative score. The aim of WvW is to achieve a higher war score than the opposing worlds by the end of a week of battle. The following table shows the types of structures, their distribution on the maps, and how many points each of them is worth.

	Resource camps (5 points)	Towers (10 points)	Keeps (25 points)	Stonemist Castle (35 points)
Green Borderlands (1st)	6	4	3	0
Blue Borderlands (2nd)	6	4	3	0
Red Borderlands (3rd)	6	4	3	0
Eternal Battlegrounds	6	12	3	1

For example, if a world owns six resource camps (30 points), eight towers (80 points) and four keeps (100 points), 210 points will be added to their war score every 15 minutes. At the beginning of each one-week battle, many of these objectives are neutral and must be captured.

Sentries

Across the World versus World maps are also minor

capture points marked by a flag. These are guarded by solitary Veteran Guards called sentries. Immediately when the point is captured the war score of the claiming world is increased by one.

Mercenary camps

Each World versus World map includes neutral NPCs that can be recruited to your world's side by completing a dynamic event to earn their loyalty.

Eternal Battleground

Three groups of NPC mercenaries are present in the Eternal Battleground: The Ogres (between blue and red), the Hylek (between blue and green) and the Dredge (between red and green). Helping out the mercenaries will result in them joining your servers side. E.g. saving Orgath Uplands from hostile harpies will result in Ogres joining your cause, thus attacking and reinforcing structures.

Borderlands

Giving 15 Giant Pearls, which can be found deep in the lakes, to the quaggan villagers recruits one of three quaggan villages. The Quaggan will send a pack of guards to a nearby Keep. One of these guards will create a storm with lightning that will damage players and siege weapons in the Keep.

Additionally, the Quaggan storm temple on the island in the middle of the lake can be captured by making sure no krait are present in the capture circle. When the island in the middle is captured, the Quaggan will send a pack of guards to capture nearby resource camps.

Defenses

Depending on the type of objective, there are a number of obstacles that must be overcome before it can be captured. The following table lists the defenses that each objective type possesses:

	Resource camp	Tower	Keep	Stonemist Castle
Guards	1	1	1	1
Walls/Door	0	1	1	1
Lord1	0	1	1	1
Inner walls	0	0	1	1

^{1. Champion Tower Lord, Champion Keep Lord or Legendary Castle Lord.}

Guards are capable of holding out against small strike teams, their main purpose however is to buy time and assist allied players.

To capture a structure the Lord has to be defeated. The Lord is at the center of the structure, in case of Towers and Keeps, inside the walls. In these cases, the only way to attack the Lord is to bring down the walls or gates first. Mesmers can portal players past walls, but there has to be a breach for the mesmer to enter in the first place. After defeating the Lord of the structure, a capture circle will appear. Alive or downed enemy players (that are not invulnerable nor invisible) or NPCs inside the capture circle prevent capping.

Structures can be upgraded to make them even harder to capture.

Siege weapons

Primary article: Siege weapon

Siege weapons are environmental weapons that can be built to accomplish a particular purpose. For instance, arrow carts and cannons are very effective against clustered enemies, ballista at destroying enemy siege equipment, and trebuchets for breaking down doors and walls.

Player damage is severely limited against doors, and zero against walls. Therefore siege weapons are an integral part of capturing a walled objective. With the exception of the siege golem, all siege weapons are stationary and cannot be moved.

To create an offensive siege weapon, a player must use a blueprint purchased from a siegemaster to create a build site. Construction is performed by spending supply at that site and once construction is completed, the siege weapon can be used. Blueprints may also be obtained through jumping puzzles in the Mists, WvW map completion or as a rare loot drop. While manning a siege weapon is based on a "first come, first served" basis, the player who put down the blueprint can always man the siege, even if another player is already manning it. In this case, the non-owning player is removed from the siege weapon. Golems are the only exception to this.

Additional defensive siege weapons can be acquired through structure upgrades. These siege weapons do not require blueprints.

Spawn points

Spawn points are waypoints on each of the battlegrounds. There are two types of spawn points; those which provide permanent access and those within objectives.

Each World versus World map includes three permanent waypoints, one for each team, to allow basic access to the map regardless of which team is dominating. These waypoints cannot be used by other worlds and are housed in structures protected by Legendary Defenders. Each spawn point includes a set of NPCs where players may repair their armor, sell loot or buy blueprints. There are also several paths out of a spawn location.

Other waypoints are within objectives and can be added through structure upgrades. These waypoints are to provide fast travel, thus allowing easier access across the map. A waypoint cannot be used if the objective it is housed in is under attack.

Enemy players

Killing an enemy player in WvW will result in experience and loot. Loot often includes Badges of Honor but is otherwise randomly generated; the defeated player does not actually lose anything through being defeated, but they still take durability damage as with any other death. Killing other players also contributes to a player's monthly achievement goals. As a result, combat will usually occur when attacking or defending an objective.

The names of players from other worlds are not shown. Instead, they appear as "<world> <rank>". For instance, a player from the Darkhaven world at World Experience Rank 3 will be "Darkhaven Invader". Guild tags are still shown, appended to their name.

Supply

Supply is a special resource in WvW used for the following:

• Constructing siege weapons.
• Repairing the doors and walls of towers, keeps and Stonemist Castle.
• Purchasing structure upgrades from a Quartermaster.

Each tower, keep and castle has a stockpile of supply that is replenished by supply caravans delivering from resource camps. Stockpiled supply can be collected by players, each of whom may carry a maximum of 10 units (15 through Art of War). Supplies do not show up in your inventory, but you can see the number of supplies you carry at the top of your screen in WvW.

A stockpile of supply will allow defenders to keep their doors and walls repaired or to place defensive siege weapons. Similarly, attackers need supply to construct their offensive siege weapons. Supply is therefore the basic resource around which WvW revolves.

Guild claiming

Whenever an objective is captured, any guild may claim it. A claimed objective will display its guild's banner and benefit from any Art of War Upgrades. Guilds can claim only one objective per map. A guild cannot claim an objective as long as the respective guild claiming NPC is under the effects of Righteous Indignation that lasts longer than 1 minute.

Breakout

When a team owns no defensible objectives (Tower, Keep, Castle) on a map for a full tick, it will be offered a breakout event. The events are started by champion-grade charr NPCs with the surnames of Siegecrusher or Siegerazer located near the spawn point. After ten players gather near them, everyone will receive 10 supply and they will then proceed to the nearest tower. Once there, a pair of capture zones appear. If the attacking team can hold these for a short duration, the NPC places partially-built arrow carts, ballistae, and catapults in the area, each with a protective bubble that protects them and allies inside from damage for two minutes. Once the gate is down, the NPC will join in the charge to capture the tower. A supply dolyak also joins the event, and should it survive until the tower is captured, it will add 100 supply to the tower.

Starting a breakout event towards a structure that is already owned (e.g. when the players take the structure first, without using the breakout event), causes the NPC to walk towards the tower. Once there, no capture zones will appear, the NPC will simply add supply to the already owned tower.

Rewards

WvW stats and bonuses

Killing players and guards will award you with World Experience and possibly a bag of loot. These bags contain random items including Badges of Honor. In addition, gaining ranks of World Experience rewards a chest containing Badges, coin, and an item. Specific rewards may be obtained by exchanging Badges of Honor to NPCs located in the WvW maps.

Power of the Mists is awarded to players in PvE and WvW based on the war score of their home world. It includes bonuses to health, gathering and crafting among others. A player will receive the bonuses of their home world even when guesting on other worlds.

L.80 Gold Contribution (Capture)

Event Type	Exp Bar	Silver	Experience	World Experience	Karma
Castle	26%	9.8	66,680	750	1,700
Keep	21%	7.84	53,344	600	1,360
Tower	10.5%	3.92	26,672	300	680
Camp	5.3%	1.96	13,336	150	340
Sentry	2.6%	0.98	6,668	75	170
Dolyak	1.3%	0.49	3,334	38	85

L.80 Gold Contribution (Defense)

Event Type	Exp Bar	Silver	Experience	Karma
Castle	5.3%	1.96	13,336	340
Keep	5.3%	1.96	13,336	340
Tower	3.9%	1.47	10,002	255
Camp	2.6%	0.98	6,668	170
Sentry	?	?	?	?
Dolyak	?	?	?	?

Miscellanous

Event Type	Exp Bar	Silver	Experience	World Experience	Karma
EB Dredge	5.3%	1.96	13,336	150	340
EB Ogres	5.3%	1.96	13,336	150	340
EB Hyleks	5.3%	1.96	13.336	150	340
Weather Node	5.3%	1.96	13,336	150	340
Temple of Storms	5.3%	1.96	13,336	150	340

Matching of worlds

Worlds in WvW are matched up based on their ranking using a modified Glicko rating, so that high-ranked worlds will battle other high-ranked worlds, and low-ranked worlds will battle other low-ranked worlds. This attempts to ensure that every world has a fair chance of winning matches despite differing levels of player participation or skill.

Each matching (or tier) contains 3 worlds. Within each tier, the highest ranked world will play as green, the second highest ranked world as blue and the third highest ranked world as red.

Leaderboards for WvW rankings are updated online for both North America and Europe.

Jumping puzzles

Each map contains a jumping puzzle; the Mistwrought Vault in the north-west of each borderlands, and the Obsidian Sanctum in the eternal battlegrounds, accessible from each keep. The Mistwrought Vault is achievable each day on each of the maps. Doing one does not lock you out of the other two. At the end of each of the four puzzles is a chest that rewards some equipment, siege blueprints and badges of honour, as well as the associated achievement from completing it. They are also notably difficult to complete because they are shared across the competing worlds, forcing players to encounter hostile players while trying to navigate through the puzzle.

Weekly WvW reset

The North American WvW matchups will reset every Friday at 6:00 PM PDT, which is 01:00 UTC Saturday, and the European matchup will reset at 18:00 UTC.

At reset players will see a dialog that shows the end score and it states at which position your server is. After a short while they will receive a warning in yellow text that states reset is in motion and they will be sent to Lion's Arch. Approximately 15-20 minutes later, players will be able to enter WvW again.

Note

Bug:

In the red area of Eternal Battlegrounds, the tower Veloka Slope, has the word reinforce instead of repair on one of the walls.File:Reinforce.jpg^{[verification requested]}

Trivia

• The amount of points awarded for holding Stonemist Castle was reduced from 50 to 35 points in the September 14th, 2012 update. This was done because Stonemist became easier to capture, because the Legendary Castle Lord was moved to the lower floor (the initial placement of the Castle Lord on the second floor resulted in abuse of Arrow Carts, firing from other floors into the lord room).
• Orbs of Power were removed in the November 1st, 2012 update.
• Before April 17th, 2013, WvW matches reset on Saturdays at 00:00 UTC.
• The inspiration for World versus World came from Dark Age of Camelot's realm vs. realm battles.
• World versus World is referred to as the Mist War and Battle for the Mists by in-world NPCs.

References

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The Mists

World versus World

Eternal Battlegrounds • Borderlands (Green • Red • Blue)

Structured PvP

Heart of the Mists

Conquest

Battle of Kyhlo • Forest of Niflhel • Legacy of the Foefire • Raid on the Capricorn • Spirit Watch • Temple of the Silent Storm