Confused about pips, ticks, and participation tiers? Read on to learn more about how participation works in WVW, and the best strategies for making the most of your participation.
Participation is a WVW mechanic which lets you earn rewards, either through a WVW reward track or with skirmish tickets.
Participation is considered a passive reward. Loot which drops from enemies is considered active rewards.
To view your participation and pips, click B to open your WVW panel, then click the Skirmish Details tab (second from the top). This will give you a detailed score for the current match, and list your current match rewards.
The Tick
WVW is broken down into two-hour chunks called a “skirmish.” Each skirmish is further broken down into five-minute chunks called a “tick.”
At the end of every five-minute tick, several things happen:
- Points are awarded to your world’s War Score, based on how many objectives your world controls.
- You earn pips if you have tier 3 participation or higher.
- You earn WVW reward track participation points, plus bonus participation points based on your participation tier.
Pips
At the end of each tick, you earn pips. The number of pips you earn is based on several factors:
- Your participation. You will only earn pips from participation tier 3 or higher.
- Your world’s War Score.
- Your WVW rank. The higher your rank, the more pips you earn.
- +1 pip if you commanded a squad with at least 5 other players.
- +3 if you commanded a publig squad with at least 10 other players.
- +1 if you completed wood division the previous week.
- +5 for playing on an Outnumbered map.
The number of pips you earn will determine which reward chest you earn at the end of the skirmish.
You cannot earn pips in Edge of the Mists (EOTM). However, you can earn WVW reward track progress there, although it will take longer.
Skirmish Tickets
You get skirmish tickets from the reward chests that you earn from pips and participation. The better the chest you earn, the more skirmish tickets you get.
Participation Persistence
You will keep your participation when you switch characters, or if you travel between maps.
“I transferred to a new server and now I’m not earning pips”
To prevent abuse of the WVW world transfer system, you can’t earn pips in WVW after transferring to a new world.
After your transfer, you will have to wait for two WVW resets before you can start earning pips. WVW’s weekly reset happens every Friday, two hours after daily reset.
WVW Reward Track Participation
Many players don’t realize that your WVW reward track progress is affected by your WVW participation.
WVW reward tracks are designed to give players an additional reason to do WVW, since the rewards from playing WVW are notoriously small. WVW reward tracks give you something else to work towards while you WVW. There are 42 permanent reward tracks, plus five temporary festival tracks.
The most popular WVW reward tracks are:
- Gift of Battle (necessary for making many legendary weapons)
- Warclaw
- Guildrider Warclaw Skin
- Triumphant Armor (exclusive to this reward track)
How WVW Reward Track Participation Works
To complete a WVW reward track, you need to earn 20,000 points. Your points are awarded at the end of each five minute tick in WVW.
The number of points you earn is affected by your participation tier. The higher your participation tier, the more points you earn.
NOTE: Although you get participation points for Edge of the Mists, you get more participation points for working in core WVW maps. This means you can advance WVW reward tracks in EOTM, but it takes longer.
Potion of WVW Rewards
You also earn reward track progress when you consume a Potion of WVW Rewards. You get these from doing the WVW dailies. This means that if you are working on a reward track, you should always do the WVW dailies.
Reward Track Boosts
There are several boosts you can take to improve your reward track progress. The following boosts also stack duration, which means you should use as many of them as possible at the same time.
- World Reward Tracks bonus from Nathan the Bartender in your guild hall. (Requires the Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire expansion packs).
- Experience Booster
- Black Lion Boost
- Wintersday Boost from the Snowflake Gobbler (a Gem Store item available during Wintersday)
- Celebration Bonus from Celebration Boosters and Birthday Boosters
- WVW Reward Track Enrichment which you can buy from WVW laurel merchants.
Maximize your WVW Reward Track Participation
You can increase your participation by participating in events. Remember that participation has a decay timer, which means that you can’t just hit one enemy and then stand back while your squad clears the keep.
The most important thing to remember about WVW reward track progress is that you have to be on the WVW map when the tick ends. Reward track progress is only awarded if you are on the map at the end of the tick.
