After playing a good chunk of about 10 hours of pure WvW on Saturday, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the siege weapons.

I ended up selling all my gems for gold and bought at least one of each siege weapon blueprints.

First, siege weapons are imperative for success on the battlefield. They will make or break a team. They are what will not only allow people to be faster in their attacks, but also allows less people to do more damage. In defense they are mandatory, simply put.

When we are playing for real at launch. Once we have a good gold flow coming in. It should be required that all members at all time carry supply with them and blueprints for siege weapons. Particularly arrow carts and battering rams which are cheap in supplies.

Battering Rams- Cheap and effective. One of these should always be put down to take down a door. Their main danger is oil from the defenders. You shouldn’t place one until the oil is taken out.

Catapult- A good midway weapon that’s good for distantly taking out a door without costing as much as a trebuchet. It has very little use in defense as it cannot shoot short range and is not easy to aim at faster moving player targets.

Ballista- These rock. I doubt many people used it much. But this weapon will kick ass when it comes to attacking or defending. Attacking, it’s great to use to target and attack enemy weapons on the wall, particularly oil pots. In defense it will be great to attack enemy siege weapons. It’s advantage lies in that one does not have to aim it, just target and it will fire at the target.

Trebuchet- Little experience with these, but a few other guildies used these for devastating effects against enemy fortifications and enemies themselves. You can throw rocks and cows, the cows poison and damage foes. Great for clearing out walls of defenders. Their disadvantage is that they have to be placed a good distance away and thus will have to be guarded to avoid flankers from taking them out. Expensive too.

Siege Golem- Little experience with these as well, but they are much better at taking down gates than a battering ram does, it still has the weakness to oil pots as rams do. The supposed advantage of siege golem’s is that they can be moved and reused, however they are incredibly slow. It’s my view that speed is imperative when it comes to attacking any fortification, hitting a place as fast as possible before more defenders arrive. Dragging along a siege golem will only slow us down, so I don’t see much use out of them as they are so damn expensive for both blueprints and supplies.

Arrow Carts- Dear god do these things kick ass when you have a bunch of them on the walls. These are the king of anti-infantry defense. With these, 5 defenders could easily defeat 20. They allow you to cripple and bleed your targets, slowing advances and wearing the attackers down. Because of their effectiveness, they should be carried by everyone. They can even be used for some awesome on the field defense. I remember in one battle we took a hill and used it to attack an enemy force below us. Not very useful at all against enemy siege weapons.

Oil Pot- Always upgrade and add this. These things are amazingly fun and effective to drop on the heads of all the melee classes pounding on the door. They can also take out siege weapons fairly easily, so they will be targeted often.

Cannon- Didn’t get to use one at all in a battle. I imagine they will be useful to cause extra damage and take out siege weapons.

Mortars- Another weapon I didn’t use in the battle, but many guildies used these to great effect damaging other fortifications from our own. They have huge range and cause a lot of damage. Their main drawback is that they take awhile to learn and to zero in on a target. But, a trained mortar man will kick major ass.

So yeah, take these as you will, I thought they’d be the best I could contribute to any brainstorming. Post your own thoughts and experiences too!