How do you stay map aware?

I am trying to increase my map awareness while both scouting and zerging. It seems there are some players that, whenever OJs pop across the map or a camp on the far side of map gets tapped, seem to know and vocalize it in comms within 5 seconds.

What do you use to increase your map awareness?What settings (either in settings menu or related to UI) do you make sure you have set for WvW related to map awareness?Any websites or things that could benefit someone with dual monitors (wvwintel and gw2timers both seem to have significanf delays)?

Right now I basically rely on map chat and my maximum sized mini-map zoomed all the way out. Occasionally opening the big map, but the animation delay doing this is quite annoying.

Thanks for the help!

@Saucy.2964 said:I am trying to increase my map awareness while both scouting and zerging. It seems there are some players that, whenever OJs pop across the map or a camp on the far side of map gets tapped, seem to know and vocalize it in comms within 5 seconds.

What do you use to increase your map awareness?What settings (either in settings menu or related to UI) do you make sure you have set for WvW related to map awareness?Any websites or things that could benefit someone with dual monitors (wvwintel and gw2timers both seem to have significanf delays)?

Right now I basically rely on map chat and my maximum sized mini-map zoomed all the way out. Occasionally opening the big map, but the animation delay doing this is quite annoying.

Thanks for the help!

you repeat what the first guy said as soon as you can so it looks like you're aware too!

For alot of players, it's the result of time and experience. If you've been playing for awhile you know the signs of impending zergs even before both of your southern camps flip simultaneously, outnumbered pops and ojs appear on south Bay.

There's lag, hair on the back of your neck standing up and of course rounding a corner to go after a sentry and seeing a sea of red.

As far as things a newer person can do in the meantime to become more map aware...

1) Learn your opponents styles (do they blob or have more havocs or a little of both)2) Learn which server's "play well" with which others and if they both dislike your server or one of your links3) Turn on capture announcements4) Watch for dots on mini map, these will be either from Watchtower, Friendly sentries or recentently flipped Keeps5) Before you go for an objective, look at surrounding objectives, camps, sentries, shrines, notice the RI, who controls the objectives, watch for white swords/contest on keeps and camps to gauge where the enemy is going.6) Watch how quickly camps that don't produce ojs flip, if they flip shortly after or even before white swords, you're probably dealing with more than 5 people.

If you have two monitors, or maybe a laptop or tablet laying around, you can load up something like https://wvwintel.com/. It will play audio alarms and such for some functions.

Solo roam.Be mindful about your goals on a map and an enemies.

• Objectives close to going up a tier
• Objectives close to losing ri
• Sentries
• Swords
• Yak count and movement
• Waypoint Access

You need to be using the main map to get the overall picture of the map.For the mini map zoom it in just until you feel comfortable being able to see yak and sentry movement and also the little white swords.

@"HazyDaisy.4107" said:For alot of players, it's the result of time and experience. If you've been playing for awhile you know the signs of impending zergs even before both of your southern camps flip simultaneously, outnumbered pops and ojs appear on south Bay.

There's lag, hair on the back of your neck standing up and of course rounding a corner to go after a sentry and seeing a sea of red.

As far as things a newer person can do in the meantime to become more map aware...

1) Learn your opponents styles (do they blob or have more havocs or a little of both)2) Learn which server's "play well" with which others and if they both dislike your server or one of your links3) Turn on capture announcements4) Watch for dots on mini map, these will be either from Watchtower, Friendly sentries or recentently flipped Keeps5) Before you go for an objective, look at surrounding objectives, camps, sentries, shrines, notice the RI, who controls the objectives, watch for white swords/contest on keeps and camps to gauge where the enemy is going.6) Watch how quickly camps that don't produce ojs flip, if they flip shortly after or even before white swords, you're probably dealing with more than 5 people.

or someone who can take down a low level camp fast. For example, my soulbeast can kill all npcs in a camp before the ring is up. If I have one other person with me it will flip within 3 seconds of showing swords. alone it’s a couple more seconds. ;)

@"Balthazzarr.1349" said:

@"HazyDaisy.4107" said:For alot of players, it's the result of time and experience. If you've been playing for awhile you know the signs of impending zergs even before both of your southern camps flip simultaneously, outnumbered pops and ojs appear on south Bay.

There's lag, hair on the back of your neck standing up and of course rounding a corner to go after a sentry and seeing a sea of red.

As far as things a newer person can do in the meantime to become more map aware...

1) Learn your opponents styles (do they blob or have more havocs or a little of both)2) Learn which server's "play well" with which others and if they both dislike your server or one of your links3) Turn on capture announcements4) Watch for dots on mini map, these will be either from Watchtower, Friendly sentries or recentently flipped Keeps5) Before you go for an objective, look at surrounding objectives, camps, sentries, shrines, notice the RI, who controls the objectives, watch for white swords/contest on keeps and camps to gauge where the enemy is going.6) Watch how quickly camps that don't produce ojs flip, if they flip shortly after or even before white swords, you're probably dealing with more than 5 people.

That's why I said "probably", but, you know most times its the 5 rather than the solo monster.

make it a habbit to look at different objectives before/after a fight, while sieging /after capping, during a cap. And every now and then while moving.Also be logical. Where do you expect the enemies to be? Whats the next locial step. Did you win the fight? Will they try to avoid you? Did you lose? How confident are they about keeping pushing your corner.Is there a known roaming squad on the map that keeps flipping camps? Where is their next logical position.Make sure you know which towers have the Watchtower tactic and which dont, so you know where to keep an extra eye

An account on every server

Just mainly press M to see whats contested and ask if anyone's near to check it or go check it myself if no ones responding.

you learn it thru experience but it helps to know the map and srructures.

reports always

location nos action

sample

sm south inner 20 red pvdibg.

choosing a landmark makes things easy

I press M every few minutes while walking and read chat.

When I'm out of combat there's usually a batsignal on the horizon showing me where my help is most needed.Doesn't everybody have one?

Like a lot of people said, its mostly from experience. Its not "just" map awareness, but situational awareness in general. Over time, you eventually start to learn your opponent's habits, movements, and most importantly their timing. Being aware of all the maps at the same time is also extremely helpful, when you're fighting someone prone to hop maps with their zerg.

Eventually you start to recognize signs working backwards. Most players aren't aware until AFTER something happens..... but observant players eventually piece together the factors that lead up to it. Like what flips, RI timers, how long it takes to move between objectives, OJs or Dots popping on the mini map (and then checking the map screen), etc. But this is just recognizing the normal flow of a match up.

The real super power is recognizing when something is "not normal". When the flow breaks, it means the enemy commander is up to something.... and thats when you really start to look for small clues to figure out where they went, or where they might be going. Value of targets, Sentries gone or flipped, WPs being tapped, dots NOT showing up (meaning they're avoiding detection)....... thats when you start to get suspicious, and the Scouts start looking for them.

1) frequently use the M key when following commander between objectives2) be aware of whats about to upgrade and where3) be aware of your opposing server playstyles for the matchup and how they are going to play vs you specifically (fighters vs fight dodgers)

Timers....look at timers on camps, look at sentries around them. If something flipped and its nearby sentry isnt taken, theres a good chance they are on their way to it.

If someone is at a sentry and there are yaks coming, bet your bottom dollar that they are going to stay around for another 20s to kill that yak...giving you time to either go to where you are headed, or to intercept.

@LetoII.3782 said:When I'm out of combat there's usually a batsignal on the horizon showing me where my help is most needed.Doesn't everybody have one?

Mine is the Robin signal because I usually die a few times on the way.

Some good advice already given.

If you are a roamer you should always keep those sentries flipped to your side. If you are blue as example and suddenly see them flip red in order, you can generally tell the direction in which that person/group is headed. Roamers on the other side also tend to follow patterns which you pick up on in time. if they flip NEC , North camp is likely next. The better roamers will also avoid that Northeast sentry taking the outer road to get to the North Camp.

Watch for dying Yaks. I will flip up the Map frequently and watch our teams yaks. If one suddenly vanishes there someone there.

Watch for the Outnumbered buff. If that pops up an enemy zerg can be preparing to take a major objective. When I see that buff go up and am on Alpine I head to Bay or Hills ahead of time. When the zerg hits the map in Alpine they often take either SEC or SWC first and i can prestage there to get numbers. On Desert they generally prestage for Air and fire.

As others mentioned you also tend to get a gut feel after a time. As example if you can not locate a zerg after that outnumbered buff appears near Hills or bay, they might be trying to strike up the middle towards your garrison or do a rush on one of your North Towers. When a larger zerg appears on a map where they outnumber an enemy, they very often like to target a t3 structure first hoping to flip it before a map call goes out. Oftimes people do not pick up on it until it too late from the defenders side. As such if that outnumbered appears I will port down right away to bay/hills fire/air before they can be contested and start probing around for them.

As a scout , once you spot that group your first job is to alert the map to their presence. if it a big enough group vastly outnumbering your own alert the team across all maps.

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@shiri.4257 said:

@Saucy.2964 said:I am trying to increase my map awareness while both scouting and zerging. It seems there are some players that, whenever OJs pop across the map or a camp on the far side of map gets tapped, seem to know and vocalize it in comms within 5 seconds.

What do you use to increase your map awareness?What settings (either in settings menu or related to UI) do you make sure you have set for WvW related to map awareness?Any websites or things that could benefit someone with dual monitors (wvwintel and gw2timers both seem to have significanf delays)?

Right now I basically rely on map chat and my maximum sized mini-map zoomed all the way out. Occasionally opening the big map, but the animation delay doing this is quite annoying.

Thanks for the help!

Isn't it the commander's job to stay map aware while we all mindlessly follow? C'mon, why do you expect us to pay attention while we blob?

use as other state another app to show you what;s going on map...