There are two types of Siege weapons: Offensive and Defensive Weapons. Siege weapons can only be used by the team that created them. When you equip it, it will change the first five skills on your skill bar. The opponents can attack, damage / destroy the structures. If the weapon is destroyed you can rebuild it.
To build an Offensive siege weapon you need a blueprint and some supply. You can buy blueprints from a Siegemaster NPC who is located within your “home base” area on each map . Blueprints are also available as drops from guards and dolyaks. Currently, blueprints cost between 4 silver and 1 gold depending on the type (info from BW2).
When you double-click the blueprint, your skill bar will change to a ground-targeted skill so you can select where you’d like to place the build site for your weapon. The construction site will appear wherever you click. Anyone in your team can help with the construction by adding their supply to the site. Each player can carry up to 10 supplies at a time. With the exception of the siege golem, all siege weapons are stationary and cannot be moved.
Offensive siege weapons:
- TREBUCHETS
Trebuchet Blueprints -Require 100 supplies, costs 16 silvers, range 10,000
Trebuchet are long-range weapons which primary function is to deal heavy area damage to walls and moderate damage to gates. A Trebuchet Blueprints in WvW can be rotated to face any direction, but keep in mind that it’s a very slow action. When opponents set up bunch of arrow carts you need something to attack the walls out of their reach – the trebuchet!Trebuchets have amazing range, but the downside is the fact that you’re not always able to see the aim. The range on these things is so long that you can end up firing into the fog in the distance, completely blind. That’s why you need spotters who will navigate your shots.
When placing a trebuchet try to find high, inaccessible areas. If you manage to place it higher than the target, it will have more range and the harder it will be for enemies to reach it. Trebuchets are expensive, they require 100 supplies, thus, place them in inaccessible areas and guard with several players.
Keep in mind that guardian’s projectile shields block catapult and trebuchet fire.
Firing cows with the trebuchet creates gigantic poison cloud that covers a large area, causing heavy damage to anyone that enters it.
Skill Description Range Cooldown Turn Left Press and hold to turn your trebuchet to the left. Fire Press and hold to fire a trebuchet shot. Hold down to shoot further 10,000 5s Turn right Press and hold to turn your trebuchet to the right. Load Tainted Cows *
Load Explosive ShotLoad decaying cows that explode in a poisonous cloud when they land
Load shots that explode on impact10,000 10s * Load Tainted Cows is only available in WvW.
- ARROW CARTS
Arrow cart Blueprints – Require 30 supplies, costs 4 silvers, range 2,500
These deadly projectile launchers can blanket a small area with arrows, easily cutting down flesh-and-blood enemies, but they are ineffective against walls and gates.The arrows have no physical trajectory. It means that even if the target is in the covered hallway, as long as you can see where you want to shoot and it is in the range, it will shoot.
Arrow Carts are untargetable from ground forces, but they are vulnerable to the Trebuchet.
If you want to defend something, set up the Arrow Carts in a circle and they will become a nightmare for the attacking force.As an engineer or a guardian you cannot use a Magnetic Shield / Guardian bubbles to reflect Arrow Carts shots because they’re an AoE effect not the projectiles.
Elementalists have a Meteor Shower skill which can target the Arrow Carts.
Skill Description Range Cooldown Fire Fire your arrow cart at the target area 2,500 3s Fire Crippling Arrows Fire your arrow cart at the target area. Arrows that hit cripple the target. 2,500 9s Fire Barbed Arrows Fire your arrow cart at the target area. Arrows that hit bleed the target 2,500 9s - CATAPULTS
Catapult Blueprints – Require 50 supplies, costs 8 silvers, range 4,000
A good choice for taking down walls and gates, catapults attack a larger area than arrow carts, so they can also be very effective in putting the hurt on a large group of enemies. You can load two types of ammunition in this weapon: Boulder a large rock and Gravel a bunch of smaller rocks. By default it fires Boulders, and if you want to switch to Gravel, just use the fourth skill on your skill bar.Skill Description Range Cooldown Turn Left Turn your Catapult to the left Fire Fire Boulder
Fire Gravel5s Turn Right Turn your Catapult to the right Load Gravel
Load BoulderLoad gravel in to the Catapult
Load a boulder in to the Catapult10s - BALLISTA
Ballista Blueprints – Require 20 supplies, costs 6 silvers, range 3,000
Ballista is one of the best quickly-built weapons. This siege weapon launches giant bolts that can pierce their target, dealing large amounts of damage to players, gates, and walls alike. The placement is very important, thus, try to choose effective and defensible location. Ballistas are good for attacking stationary enemies defending a wall because they require a target to fire.Skill Description Range Cooldown Fire Fire a ballista arrow through approaching enemies. Does double damage to siege weapons 3,000 2s Fire Shattering Bolt Fire a ballista arrow that splinters on contact, bleeding nearby targets. 3,000 10s Fire Reinforced Shot Fire a reinforced ballista bolt. Does bonus damage to siege equipment 3,000 40s - SIEGE GOLEMS
Siege Golem Blueprints – Require 100 supplies, costs 1 gold, range 225
Siege Golems are slow but powerful weapons which primary function is to deal damage to gates. In world vs. world you can build your very own golem to smash things for you. The Siege Golems are extremely slow (~60% move speed compared to a player) and don’t have ranged attacks, thus, they are easy to kite.Skill Description Range Cooldown Punch Punch 225 Whirling Assault Spin your siege suit forward, knocking back enemies. 400 12s Shield Bubble Engage the Hazmat suit’s shield bubble. 1,000 30s Pull Launch the Siege suit’s fist to pull an enemy to you 800 30s Eject Eject from the Siege Golem - FLAME RAMS
Flame Ram Blueprints – Require 40 supplies, costs 4 silvers, range 360
Flame Rams are short-range weapons which primary function is to deal heavy damage to gates but unable to damage walls. His secondary function is to burn and knock back nearby players and NPCs. On the other hand, Flame Rams are vulnerable to attacks coming from the walls like Burning Pot of Oil. If I remember correctly Flame Rams do about 8k damage to doors.Skill Description Range Cooldown Ram Ram target with a forceful attack. Does extra damage to gates, knock back enemies 360 Flame Blast Vent fire all around the ram, burning enemies. Burning 2s:1,985 Damage 450 15s
To build an Defensive siege weapon you need a Structural additions and some supply. There are two kinds of Structural upgrades: those that improve the keep walls (Structural upgrades) and those that add additional structures (Structural additions). You can buy Structural additions from a Quartermaster [Upgrades] NPC who is located near the supply depot. Structural additions consume supply as the structures are built by workers.
Each objective has its own supply depot that sends a dolyak caravan out to deliver supplies to surrounding towers and keeps. If you use up all supply in the depot, you’ll need to escort adolyak caravan so it can deliver more supply to the depot.
The list of Structural Additions:
- Build Pot of Oil — Adds a pot of boiling oil over the door.
- Build Cannons — Adds a cannon to the walls of the tower.
- Build Mortars — Build a mortar on the walls.
Defensive Siege Weapons:
- BOILING POTS OF OIL
Boiling Pots of Oil are placed above gates and walls. As we stated previously, these weapons are effective against Flame Rams. There are two attacking skills: an oil skill that drops burning boiling oil which causes significant damage and a tar skill that decreases player’s movement speed.
Skill Description Range Cooldown Pour Oil Pour boiling oil to damage foes 600 3s Pour Tar Pour tar to cripple enemies 600 10s - CANNON
Cannon is a defensive weapon with a pretty good range. It rotates where you place a skill’s target. This weapon can be used against a group of enemies, and as a additional ability you can freeze the enemies or cause the opponent to bleed.Skill Description Range Cooldown Fire Fire an exploding cannon ball at the target location 3,750 3s Fire Grapeshot Fire grapeshot to Bleed enemies 3,750 10s Fire Iceshot Fire an ice grenade to freeze enemies at the target point 3,750 20s - MORTAR
Mortar is a defensive long range weapon. You can load two types of ammunition: Exploding Shells and Incendiary shells. By default it fires Exploding Shells and if you want to switch to Incendiary shells just use the fourth skill on your skill bar.
The Exploding Shells will make a huge fire cloud but it will promptly disappear, while the Incendiary shells will make a small fire explosion but it will last a few seconds.Skill Description Range Cooldown Turn Left Press and hold to turn your Mortar to the left. Fire Exploding Shells
Fire Incendiary ShellsFire 5s Turn Right Press and hold to turn your Mortar to the left. Load Incendiary Shells
Load Exploding ShellsLoad Incendiary Shells
Load Mortar Shells10s
Guild Wars 2 Wiki – Siege Weapons
Reddit – Dev: Arrow cart nerf coming
Reddit – WvW PSA: Trebuchets are awesome
Reddit – Golem action
Thanks very much for all the information and work you put into this. Great stuff.
Something I haven’t been able to find anywhere: when defensive weapons are destroyed by attackers how do you get them to reappear? Do they just reappear after a short time? Do the castle’s workers have to build them again? Do you have to buy them again? Is there no way to speed up the process?
Also, I know you can buy arrow carts and ballista, etc. and place them on the walls, but is there any way to pick a spot for a defensive cannon to be placed and built? In the beta I thought I remembered a way to place cannons on the walls and them build them manually by carrying supply to them.
They are repurchased through the upgrade vendors in the building you are defending