This map was one of the first to be added on to the base game. It is a bit of intermediary level between for what in the game's story was considered the first assault on the Elder Dragon Mordremoth- who is one of the main baddies in the game.
This area was actually a pretty nice innovation on the part of the developers as it involved the taking, defending, and holding of 4 castles in order to advance to the final boss as a team on the entire map. Initially people took and defended the 4 castles in the area, and would complete events in order to build large weapons such as burning oil pots and machines that are capable of firing massive barrages of arrows at invading monsters.
the four castles can be seen above and it is actually quite easy to travel from one to the other should they need backup
This was the idea behind the map. However, it should come as no surprise that the community quickly figured about a far more efficient way of doing the map since all 4 castles must be defended at different times. Also, it was determined that as soon as the individual clock for the "defense" timer was below 1 minute. It was no longer necessary to defend as the enemy is incapable of taking over with that much time remaining.
Therefore, groups of about 30 people are more than capable of holding the entire map without ever building anything and I have to admit, it does work much better although it is a bit boring.
Completing the Meta
The ultimate objective in this an most of the later maps added to the game is to complete the "Meta" which in this case is to defend the keeps for a certain amount of time, defeat the champions that spawn under the castles later, and then fight another sequence of 3 bosses in order to defeat the "Vinewrath" who is pictured over there. The Vinewrath iteself does very little in orchestrating the attack itself, but since it is a giant flower it is in charge of lots of bosses that can hurt you badly with the wrong tactics.
This fella, for example, is the Beekeeper and if you find yourself in those orange areas you better get out of them quickly as these "bosses" are normally quite capable of killing you with 1 or 2 hits. Of course your pals can always heal you but thin immobilizes them, therefore making them easier targets should the boss or his minions decide to attack them while healing you.
This map is relatively easy to complete now that the community has it figured out. I wonder how much fun it was to be one of the first people on this new map and not yet knowing the mechanics of how to defeat it. The community boards are absolutely packed with people discussing better tactics, and now it is pretty much understood how to do this level the most efficiently.
kudos to CommonTate for creating a comprehensive guide without it taking an hour
Despite the fact that this map was added quite some time ago, it is still very popular today. You will almost always see a group there. This is because since it has been figured out how to do the meta so efficiently you will almost always succeed and success = reward. It is extremely common to get 50 bags of loot or more from each run.
It is also quite mindless which can be a plus or a minus. I normally play the meta while i am also doing something else like watching TV. This could be considered a "grind" which is precisely what GW2 tries to avoid - but for some people that just want a bunch of bags this is probably the best way to do that (don't get excited though, most of what is in the bags is crap but there is always a chance of something great!)
PS> Guild Wars 2 is free to play and free to download. The only costs are mostly elective and as far as I can tell this is the best game as far as being able to have a look before deciding if you want to drop any cash on it.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/