Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen debates about which profession is the overall fastest in sustained movement on other forums (Search doesn’t show anything here, oddly enough). I’m interested in sustained, non-combat movement for map completion. (I’m rolling an alt to go for map completion for various reasons I’ve found with my norn main such as jumping puzzles lol)

It seems that the elementalist and thief are the favorite picks. I already have a low level ele alt and I’m pondering sticking with them.

I’ve never played a Thief but I am very interested in trying one since stealth must be useful when you’ve only interested in vistas and not fighting the mobs to get to them. (Plus they have rocking gear).

Engineers also get mentioned as well but they don’t seem to get as much support as the other two professions.

So which profession do people think is the quickest for marathon runs across maps?

I’d say Ele is the best if your goal is just to super speed your way through maps. They have so many different ways of granting swiftness that it’s easy to keep it up 100%. They also have a teleport and ride the lightning to add on top of that. You can really zoom around on an Ele, plus they have lots of aoe that thiefs don’t have, so they can get rid of a group of mobs quickly if you need it.

I agree, Elementalist can move really fast, constantly. And if you really want to make it easier in jumping puzzle, choose an Asura for your Elementalist.

Aye Elementalist, just be sure to turn off auto lock, nothing worse than riding the lightning into a random mob and getting combat crippled. Though thief is much better for the higher level areas where there’s a champion sitting on the skill point (invisibility for the win.) They can sustain 25% movement speed increase, not quite 33% but make up for it with 50% faster when invisible plus a few teleporting skills.

Dolan.3071:

Aye Elementalist, just be sure to turn off auto lock, nothing worse than riding the lightning into a random mob and getting combat crippled. Though thief is much better for the higher level areas where there’s a champion sitting on the skill point (invisibility for the win.) They can sustain 25% movement speed increase, not quite 33% but make up for it with 50% faster when invisible plus a few teleporting skills.

Heh, yeah I’ve already experienced the joy of suddenly going into reverse and hitting a mob when you use Ride the Lightning for movement

And I thought I heard that thieves could maintain the 33%+ movement max, but I’d have to look that up. Is that accurate?

Stealth does seem like it would be a great advantage avoiding mobs if you’re going for map completion. Although I suppose most professions could figure out ways of blocking or distracting a Champion long enough to get the skill point?

But thieves don’t get some of their juicy movement stuff until Tier 3 (Signet of Shadows and Shadow Step) unlike the ele who gets some at Tier 2 (Signet of Air).

Do people think that eles maintain their mapping movement advantage over thieves at the upper levels?

My vote would be on theif. Although ele is a great contender, especially since you don’t have to use a utility for 25% (although you can if you’re too lazy to get the 33%).

IMO, nothing beats the sbow IA. Especially when it comes to moving around in vertical sPvP maps.

Warrior’s not the fastest (by far – no 25% speed signet), but I love throwing up Swiftness (warhorn skill) and then using the Greatsword’s 3 and 5 skills (Whirlwind Attack, Rush) to cover 2k+ distance in under 2 seconds.

Ethics.4519:

My vote would be on theif. Although ele is a great contender, especially since you don’t have to use a utility for 25% (although you can if you’re too lazy to get the 33%).

Can you clarify what you being too lazy to get the 33% max? You mean being too lazy to use the ele skills that give Swiftness?

I imagine IA must be very helpful getting around PvE zones too. Shame it doesn’t work on jumping puzzles lol

Akaji.1296:

Warrior’s not the fastest (by far – no 25% speed signet), but I love throwing up Swiftness (warhorn skill) and then using the Greatsword’s 3 and 5 skills (Whirlwind Attack, Rush) to cover 2k+ distance in under 2 seconds.

Warhorn is immensely useful in WvW warbands but I’m inquiring more for the self-centered purpose of map exploration

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Ethics.4519:

My vote would be on theif. Although ele is a great contender, especially since you don’t have to use a utility for 25% (although you can if you’re too lazy to get the 33%).

Can you clarify what you being too lazy to get the 33% max? You mean being too lazy to use the ele skills that give Swiftness?

With enough boon duration and the corresponding traits in Arcana and Air (the one that gives boons on attunement and the one that grants fury and swiftness on aura use), you can cycle Frost Aura, Air Attunement, and Shocking Aura for permanent swiftness and fury.

do u know that passive movement signet doesn`t stack with swiftness?

none of you will run faster than 33%, swiftness overwrites all movement speed passive bonuses

the only exception as far as I know is a skill the engineer has that gives him a 50% movement burst for 2-3 secs, but that also doesn`t stack with swiftness

as to answer the OP the warrior has easy 100% swiftness, u just alternate press 2 buttons, warhorn and signet of rage both with cooldown traits, and also the easiest PvE killing

DoctorOverlord.8620:

I’ve seen debates about which profession is the overall fastest in sustained movement on other forums (Search doesn’t show anything here, oddly enough). I’m interested in sustained, non-combat movement for map completion. (I’m rolling an alt to go for map completion for various reasons I’ve found with my norn main such as jumping puzzles lol)

For sustained non-combat movement I’d have to say thief. I say that in spite of having used a 100% swiftness uptime ele for several months.

What the thief has going for it are:
Signet of Shadows: 25% passive speed boost (which is really quite comparable to swiftness). Enough said.
Infiltrator’s Arrow on the shortbow: depending on initiative-related traits, this can be used twice or thrice in immediate succession. In addition to being the teleportation skill with the lowest “cooldown” (measured in the amount of time to recover the initiative used – true even while untraited), is astoundingly useful for vertical movement (you can scale up staircases with it by firing at the floor above you – awesome for Cliffside Fractal).
Stealth: the utility of stealth should be immediately apparent. Combat speed is one of the biggest hassles in open-world movement, and stealth is the only surefire way to avoid it. Additionally, stealth can be an enormous time-saver for vistas, skill points, and POIs, especially in zones like Orr (without having counted specifically, I’d estimate off the cuff that about 1/3 of all skill points in Orr are places of power with a high-tier mob guard).
Dodging: on the off chance that stealth somehow fails you, thieves have access to a wide range of traits which enhance dodging (including a trait that refunds endurance after a dodge – effectively giving you 4 dodges instead of 2). Definitely not necessary to overall mobility, but the option is there.

Having played an elementalist, a quick outline of the cons:
Active rather than passive: To maintain 100% swiftness uptime, you will at minimum need to be constantly swapping attunements. This is easy, but tedious compared to a signet.
Traits required: While traits enhance a thief’s mobility, they are definitely not required. Elementalists require certain traits to maintain 100% swiftness uptime. They’re easy traits to pick up, but they’re necessary.
Certain traits must be avoided: You can’t put 15 trait points into Air Magic and reliably maintain mobility. The reason for this is that the Master-level Minor Trait (Electric Discharge – hits foes with a bolt of lightning when attuning to air) will often pull you into combat against enemies you wouldn’t have otherwise aggroed. It’s definitely doable to avoid this trait, but you’ll be excluding the lion’s share of the Air line.

@Blueshield – Thank you very much for that detailed explanation! You certainly make a good argument to roll a thief for this purpose, particularly on those cons about the eles when it comes to straightforward map travel. I appreciate you going over your reasoning (and especially for avoiding the use of acronyms like IA and SoS )

With enough boon duration and the corresponding traits in Arcana and Air (the one that gives boons on attunement and the one that grants fury and swiftness on aura use), you can cycle Frost Aura, Air Attunement, and Shocking Aura for permanent swiftness and fury.

I did not remember the Aura switching, thanks for the suggestion!

KICKER.3874:

do u know that passive movement signet doesn`t stack with swiftness?

none of you will run faster than 33%, swiftness overwrites all movement speed passive bonuses

the only exception as far as I know is a skill the engineer has that gives him a 50% movement burst for 2-3 secs, but that also doesn`t stack with swiftness

as to answer the OP the warrior has easy 100% swiftness, u just alternate press 2 buttons, warhorn and signet of rage both with cooldown traits, and also the easiest PvE killing

We know. If you read the past posts you would see we constantly refer to the 33% max movement bonus. And what engineer skill do you mean? There is a Thief trait Fleet Shadows that allows 50% movement while in stealth. There is a skill that gives 50% movement??

Also the discussion is not about merely maintaining 100% swiftness (33% max movement). As Falunel points out eles can do that, I’ve seen thief builds that can do the same. I expect all the professions can continually maintain swiftness.

The discussion turns instead to who can move the fastest with the use of the skills as well as Swiftness. Eles have various abilities like Ride the Lightning, Lightning Flash and Fiery Axe.
Thief players maintain that Inflitrator’s Arrow combined with Initiative renewal traits is superior for movement. Warrior’s have leap skill but general they are never mentioned as being able to use them to the degree that eles and thieves can use theirs.

i have already tested it with a guild mate… we did a race^^
in non-combat mode Warrior is faster for sure
super easy permanent swiftness With Signet + Warhorn and the Warhorn cures crippled, immobilized and chilled
+ 4 Movement Skills:
Sword – Savage Leap (skill 2)
Greatsword – Whirlwind Attack (skill 3) + Rush (Skill 5)
+ Bull’s Charge
in addition to that: if you run Shout Warrior you can easily remove all the conditions that slow you down in case you get in combat

but in combat mode ele is faster because warrior has cooldown on weapon swap then while ele has always the same cooldown for attunements switch..

And Stealth is really no big advantage in PvE because EVERY other class can use consumables to get their skill points or to rezz their allies in stealth without wasting any skill

Orangensaft.7139:

i have already tested it with a guild mate… we did a race^^
in non-combat mode Warrior is faster for sure
super easy permanent swiftness With Signet + Warhorn and the Warhorn cures crippled, immobilized and chilled
+ 4 Movement Skills:
Sword – Savage Leap (skill 2)
Greatsword – Whirlwind Attack (skill 3) + Rush (Skill 5)
+ Bull’s Charge
in addition to that: if you run Shout Warrior you can easily remove all the conditions that slow you down in case you get in combat

but in combat mode ele is faster because warrior has cooldown on weapon swap then while ele has always the same cooldown for attunements switch..

And Stealth is really no big advantage in PvE because EVERY other class can use consumables to get their skill points or to rezz their allies in stealth without wasting any skill

Very interesting! I haven’t seen the Warrior brought up often as a contender for best movement.

Out of curiosity, which professions did you race against and was it across a zone with mobs or just a flat out race in a city?

Also I’m not that concerned with getting Skill Points themselves, but rather clearing the challenges for map completion which is why I’m asking about the best profession for exploration.

Falunel.7645:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Ethics.4519:

My vote would be on theif. Although ele is a great contender, especially since you don’t have to use a utility for 25% (although you can if you’re too lazy to get the 33%).

Can you clarify what you being too lazy to get the 33% max? You mean being too lazy to use the ele skills that give Swiftness?

With enough boon duration and the corresponding traits in Arcana and Air (the one that gives boons on attunement and the one that grants fury and swiftness on aura use), you can cycle Frost Aura, Air Attunement, and Shocking Aura for permanent swiftness and fury.

Exactly. Thank you for clarifying while I was away.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

Orangensaft.7139:

i have already tested it with a guild mate… we did a race^^
in non-combat mode Warrior is faster for sure
super easy permanent swiftness With Signet + Warhorn and the Warhorn cures crippled, immobilized and chilled
+ 4 Movement Skills:
Sword – Savage Leap (skill 2)
Greatsword – Whirlwind Attack (skill 3) + Rush (Skill 5)
+ Bull’s Charge
in addition to that: if you run Shout Warrior you can easily remove all the conditions that slow you down in case you get in combat

but in combat mode ele is faster because warrior has cooldown on weapon swap then while ele has always the same cooldown for attunements switch..

And Stealth is really no big advantage in PvE because EVERY other class can use consumables to get their skill points or to rezz their allies in stealth without wasting any skill

Very interesting! I haven’t seen the Warrior brought up often as a contender for best movement.

Out of curiosity, which professions did you race against and was it across a zone with mobs or just a flat out race in a city?

Also I’m not that concerned with getting Skill Points themselves, but rather clearing the challenges for map completion which is why I’m asking about the best profession for exploration.

I only did a Race versus Ele but im pretty sure that thief isnt faster (only 25% faster run by signet and the shortbow teleport or the daggerskill 2 but you can only use 1 of these because both need your initiative…)
we did it in WvW Borderlands on a very long distance without any mobs or other enemies…

Like i said i think as soon as you are in combat warrior is not the fastest class anymore
…still permanent swiftness but only movement skills from Sword or Greatsword (maybe with the warrior trait that reduces weapon swap cooldown for 5 seconds you can still use both weapons effectivly while in combat)
but i think ele has a small advantage in movement then (but considering control effects and conditions warrior may have an advantage because he can have more condition remove witht he right build and he can have easy stability with a trait + a skill)

but i dont think it makes a big difference if you only need it for world exploration (i would just take the class that i want to play ^^)

Engineer with Speedy Kits trait and any kit (but med kit works best … you can just keep hitting 6 and you won’t unequip the kit, it just re-equips it.) Med kit also includes a stimulant that grants swiftness if you want a break from having to reequip the kit as soon as the buff wears off (which means you can stack swiftness to the maximum time cap easily over time.)

Warrior can easily maintain constant swiftness but that’s about it. Also correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t it much simpler to just sit in air attunement and use windborn speed (staff) and the healing glyph? I can’t remember if they made it constant or not.

Dolan.3071:

Warrior can easily maintain constant swiftness but that’s about it. Also correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t it much simpler to just sit in air attunement and use windborn speed (staff) and the healing glyph? I can’t remember if they made it constant or not.

It’s not just maintaining constant swiftness since it seems that all the professions have tricks to do that. It seems to come down to who has the most useful teleport/jump abilities like Infiltrator’s Arrow (thief) or Ride the Lighting (ele) and warriors certainly has some of those.

So far I’ve heard votes for ele, thief and now warrior. The more this gets discussed the muddier it gets lol

Considering the thief is meant to be the “mobile” profession they do alright, you can build quite a decent sprint thief:

shortbow for infiltrators arrow, 800 range tp (won’t get full 900 without stopping)

Hide in Shadow: Stealth and condition remover, keeping you out of combat and passive speed going OR Withdraw, quick spin use and spin to hurl yourself forward also removing any move speed impairing effects.

Signet of Shadows: 25% passive runspeed boost out of combat
Shadow Refuge: Stealth preventing you entering combat and allowing you a lengthy period (if you wait the few seconds) of direct travel with no issue of getting hit
<Free slot> Recommend either Signet of agility for condition removal and endurance recharge, shadowstep for another occasional tp or infiltrators signet for more initiative for SB or occasional targeted TP.

Throw in Expeditious Dodger for 2s swift if you dodge an enemy, Fleet Shadow giving +50% movement while in stealth and 30 trickery for fast steal (another targeted warp) plus Thrill of the Crime (10s swiftness on steal) which can be activated without an enemy around for just the boons.

And in general you have a very movable character who also has the benefit of being able zip behind champions and Orr statues, throw down Shadow Refuge and commune/loot/harvest without being attacked and THEN run back without any aggro.

Can’t maintain swiftness I grant you but the times you can get it will help (not heard of it not stacking with signet, I’ve definitely been faster than members of a full swiftnessed team with it)

Aura DD Elementalist is by far best

If you want a constant speed boost, get a warrior traited into discipline for the out of combat speed boost, use a warhorn, and have signet of rage equipped. There you go. 100% uptime on being faster than anyone else.