Guild Wars 2 Commander Camp -- Starting Your First Squad in World vs. World

-- Commander Camp is here. It's time to dig deep into the process of being a World vs. World commander, and discuss how to be an effective and entertaining leader across the borderlands, whether it's for PPT, fights, or just havoc with friends. I can't even begin to guess how many videos there's going to be in this series eventually. A lot, for sure, and I hope that even if this first video is relatively basic, you'll stick around as we get into the finer details of commanding a squad in WvW.
-- Before Commander Camp, I was a guest on Quietly's Say Chat podcast, where we talked about commanding in World vs. World. You can find those podcast episodes here: • Say Chat Season One
-- Socials:
twitch.tv/sheffplaysgames
VoDs @ / @sheffplaysgamesvods
Discord @ / discord
-- Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:32 Commander's Compendium, Starting a Squad, and Appointing Lieutenants
03:42 Choosing a Class to Command On
05:22 Setting Goals For Yourself
06:12 Making Good Parties
07:25 What Makes A Commander Good
08:33 Next Topics In The Series
09:21 Outro
-- Housekeeping:
I've got two points for you down here in housekeeping. First, I'm not really that wealthy in the grand scheme of things, but I do have /some/ gold that I can offer if your only obstacle to commanding is that you can't afford the book. DM me on Discord and we can get that resolved.
And second, I am more than happy to make time to play with people who are new to commanding, or review footage, or discuss any topics about it. Same as above -- just ping me and ask. If you want to improve, let's make it happen.
-- Music Attribution
Merry Bay by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/zwe36x
Morning Routine by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - CC BY-SA 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/24bkbw
Neon Drive by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-yt
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - CC BY-ND 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/pto3rz
Distant by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-sc
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - CC BY-ND 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/track/lka93o
Celestia by Ghostrifter bit.ly/ghostrifter-yt
Creative Commons - Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported - CC BY-ND 3.0
Free Download: hypeddit.com/0n24dv

[@aimrob3]

Excited for this content!

[@zero0O0z]

I’ve been waiting for a video like this. It’s refreshing to get a video that teaches are niche but important area of the game. Plz keep the series up!

[@sheffplaysgames]

Next weekend -- I'm generally able to do one of these every two weeks, with the way that real life is. :)

[@eldrevo]

Just the series I needed. Was curious about dipping into the wvw commander role for a while. Thanks!

[@DrOctawius]

Awsome stuff

[@re_brandon]

This is great timing! I've been playing WvW lately for my Legendary weapon and have actually been enjoying it a lot! Probably won't command anytime soon, but good to see how things should flow as I follow one! :)

[@sheffplaysgames]

That's how they got me too.

[@thegray0]

thank you, more of this please

[@sheffplaysgames]

Within the next 72 hours -- I'll be recording the audio for the next installment later tonight.

[@Alicekyte]

Great video, waiting for next parts!! always wanted to try to be a commander, but never got the courage

[@sheffplaysgames]

Next part should be late Saturday or into Sunday, covering positioning as a commander. Still working out some of the finer details of the script. :)

[@ringthatkill]

Loving this series, i javent played in forever and the game looks great. Would like a video on good spots to place siege.

[@sheffplaysgames]

That's in the pipeline, but I'll do you one better -- if you do come back, Rediche made an excellent BlishHUD marker pack for WvW that has a ton of different siege spots in it: www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/xywx7o/introducing_the_ultimate_world_vs_world_marker/

[@ringthatkill]

@@sheffplaysgames ah I dont use mods, but thank you!

[@sheffplaysgames]

@@ringthatkill took me a little bit to get to it, but Commander Camp 3 is a look at siege placement in and around Bay. Hope it's what you were looking for!

[@ringthatkill]

@@sheffplaysgames thank you! I'll check it out this weekend!

[@xPrudency]

I think alot of commanding now in my experience is based off of gaining reputation in your server. People gravitate more toward a well know commander. As a new commander it's harder.

[@sheffplaysgames]

It's *very* hard. For the last month or so I've been following some smaller tags and public tags, to get a feel for it, because I'd like to figure out how you can get some rep as a commander and get people following you regularly. But when you're first starting out, yeah. Expect to be very small for awhile.

[@TeamD3ath2]

play in your servers off time as well. lots of small groups and solos running around in off time that still end up team fighting but have nobody to follow. ever a poor commander can be better than a blob of people sitting at 1200 range

[@sheffplaysgames]

That's a really great point. :)

[@browolf]

This is great! Also what's your commander spellbreaker build?

[@sheffplaysgames]

Something like this, but your build should be tailored towards your group, so don't take it as gospel and adjust it to your own liking. :) gw2skills.net/editor/?PKyEIiNssAmI7jZxOxU+y+ZB-z1IY6om/MyUKEzKQjDAA-w

[@browolf]

@@sheffplaysgames I've been commanding on standard support spellbreaker build which is ok but might try yours as well. I only chatmand and it's more of a skirmish group than a full on fight squad even with 30+ people but I think people are intimated on a server with a lot of voice fight commanders. IMO it doesn't have to be done like that. can play more strategically than just fighting for bags.

[@zer0homer]

Bro's releasing trade secrets to democratize commanding? Instant sub and like from rank 530+ shying away from commanding outside of odd ppt runs late in the night.

[@sheffplaysgames]

PPT is commanding too -- we'll cover it a bit here, but it is a bit less complex than fights, and it's not my personal expertise. :)