Returning Player
Are you Shpongled?
[OTR] – Greck Howlbane – Guardian
Soraya Mayhew – Thief
Melissa Koris – Engie – SF for Life!
Soraya Mayhew – Thief
Melissa Koris – Engie – SF for Life!
Not too many changes indeed, Ranger has got a nice buff on their Longbow so their Rapid Shot hits fast and hard, how-ever luckily 99% of the Ranger I encounter either;
1. Shoot straight into Reflects.
2. Don’t CC before using Rapid Fire so the whole thing gets dodged.
3. Don’t actually know what to press when Longbow 2 is on cooldown.
4. Don’t swap to Greatsword when you’re in their face.
The other 1% really hurt though and bring multiple CC’s (Entangle, Dog-KD, Dog-Fear, Spider-Immobilize, Knock-back) and spike you down before you can say “Oh miauw!”
I haven’t played long enough to really know what’s changed over-time, but I’d say the most popular roaming builds currently would be;
Elementalist...Mainly use D/D for Roaming. If you see one wielding a Staff, it's usually looking for it's zerg. D/D is excellent for roaming due to it's escapeability, camp-clearing potential and 1 v 1 ability. It tends to run defensive traits, allowing multiple cleanses and vigor, but still packs quite a punch due to Might-stacking and Fury. Apply enough pressure/conditions on them whilst they're out of Water (Chill is amazing aswell, it more or less increases their weapon-swap cooldown) and they're going to struggle surviving.
Mesmer...Tend to be either Shatter or PU Conditions, Shatter can use a variety of weapons; Sword/any, Greatsword, Staff, but they all work the same, summon clones/phantasms and burst their opponent down before they catch them, Blink, Decoy along with any other utility to survive. When played poorly, you simply have to dodge when the clones run to you and you should be ok, a more experienced Mesmer takes a lot of practice to beat. PU plays more or less in the opposite way, they generally use Scepter/Torch along with Staff, their Clones apply conditions when you destroy them and they gain boons when they're in stealth, along with a lot of stealth this spec and slowly wear you down, luckily, you can also walk away from it very easily.
Necromancer...Roaming Necromancers are like meeting a celebrity, it's unlikely to happen. Either it's looking for it's zerg and is a Well using Powermancer made for ripping through an enemy zerg instead of solo'ing or it's the rare sight of a Conditionmancer roaming! If you're a Condition-spec yourself, I'd turn around, they just throw your Conditions back at you (Staff 4 transfers 3 Conditions and Dagger off-hand does about the same. Their trait + utilities can take care of boons quite effectively aswell (if the Necromancer turns black and throws a hand at you, dodge the hand if you value your boons.) They also apply fear in numberous ways, Death Shroud 3, Staff 5, sometimes in their Runes or Utilities, can be quite a pain to fight. Luckily, you can simply walk away from them if you want to.
generally play Conditions, though not exclusively. Toolkit is more or less a must for any spec; it has a pull (see a white electrical animation, dodge) and then smack you with a Pry Bar applying 5 stacks of confusion! With that kit most Engineers run either Bomb or Grenade Kit, Grenade Kit stacks a lot of bleeding easily, where-as Bombs pack a Knockback, some Confusion and overall damage, but with a delay, be careful to not get pulled into them. Shield adds some Daze and Runes of Perplexity (not the only viable rune, but the most dangerous 1 v 1 rune) adds even more confusion, be careful. 1-2 Knockbacks are also mandatory, don’t get lured/pulled to edges of Cliffs.
Berserker Gear, Sigil of Fire and Air, along with a skill that fires multiple arrows, inflict vulnerability and projectile finisher at 1200 range (more if specced) yet that hurts a lot when you don’t counter it. But enough has been mentioned about these above.
mainly run D/P though not exclusively. High burst, excellent mobility, nice blinds, multiple Shadow Steps, Boon-removal + Basilisk Venom. Strong build, but doubt it’s any different than when you last played. Don’t stand in blind fields, learn to predict their backstab and hurt them, but don’t expect a kill, they tend to escape.
tend to run Mediations for both offensive (Fury) as defensive purposes. Greatsword + Sw/Focus allows for high damage and decent survivability (for a mainly berserker equiped 10k base hp-class atleast.) Make sure you dodge their Whirling Wrath and don’t waste too many big hits on blinds and you should be alright.
Greatsword + Stun weapon (Axe/Shield or Hammer) to burst down unsuspecting foes extremely quick. Survivability comes from their utilities and high base-hp/toughness, allowing for (near) full Berserker gear for offense. Learn the animation of their stuns, if you manage to dodge those, Greatsword becomes a rather weak weapon.
Edit: No idea what I messed up with the spoilers.