PA has announced some very large scales changes that should shake up the NW scene if and when they get patched to our live server.
If you are interested in reading these changes link is NW Changes Global Labs.

With this in mind I wanted to make a guide on how to manage Defense teams.
For my background, I with the help of my alliance/guild mates manage the Defense team for Arcane Alliance.

Q) How many members does your defense team need?
A) In my experience at minimum a well staffed defense team needs at the minimum (1 per annex + 2 extra) as def team.
So for example if you build a base with the following
1) 2 Flame towers
2) 1 Hwacha
3) 1 Elephant Factory
4) 1 Cannon Factory
 Your defense team should be (2+1+1) for annexes +2 extra = 6

Q) Why do I need extras when all the annexes are already taken care off?
A) To be fair you can just not have the extras if your base is under 0 pressure or your guild/alliance is not at max attendance for the NW.
But having extras serve the following purpose
1) They are responsible for restarting/status update of your annexes.
Annexes like Flag/Elephant/Cannon Factory have a build timer. If you don't collect the output of these annexes when they are ready you lose valuable time.
You might just lose nodewars cause people did not collect flags in time and you are playing 1 flag down for no reason. This is extremely critical and easy mistake that gets made very often.

2) They are responsible for rebuild attempts while keeping all your annexes functional.

The extras depending on situation along with other guild members are responsible for minor/major rebuilds while your defensive structure stay manned.

3) They are responsible for upgrades.

If the person who is suppose to man the flame tower or hwacha is the one upgrading it , then you are losing functionality of the basic FT/Hwacha during that time.
Apart from this depending on the tier of NW there will be barricades that need upgrading.

Q) What is the requirements for joining defense teams/ Who should I take in defense teams?
A) To be extremely honest most of the time defense teams are seen as after thought and new/inexperienced people are thrown into defense. This is extremely poor way of managing defense as without a good defense team there is no winnable fight.

Personally for me the number one requirement for defense team is the ability to communicate fast, preferably on mic. Gear requirements are generally relaxed for defense
teams to intice people to join but at the end game when everyone is geared someone still needs to manage defense team.  You need to get people who are smart, can communicate fast and most important be present during your Nodewar schedule everytime. Consistency is important.

Q) What materials should defense team members carry always?
A) While most of the time anything related to the base is left to the defense team, its every officer/QM responsibility to carry atleast enough material to upgrade 1 annex
and 4-5 annex rebuild tools.

You need a good spread of the following
1. Barricade Upgrade material per upgrade.

10x Iron Ingot

10x Melted Copper Shard
2. Enhanced Hwacha /Flame Tower

10x Iron Ingot

10x Melted Copper Shard

4. Annex Rebuild tools.
5. Fort repair material.
Impeccably Polished stone -NW
Fine Blackstone Powder - Siege.

I hope that this short introduction on how to start managing defense teams will help you guys have more structure during NW/Siege.
If you have any questions that you would like to ask feel free to ask here or message me in game.