Nearly every player I’ve encountered in sPvP plays a roamer. It is blatantly obvious why: it earns the most glory. A huge problem I’ve noticed with these roamers is that they are not equipped to kill/survive/escape another roamer.
NOTE: I will not comment on the ability to kill bunker players. I consider this to be outside the role of a roamer.
Hypothetical situation: I am a warrior trucking along to capture the Waterfall point. On my way there, a thief shadow-steps to me with steal, hits me with backstab, then heartseekers me and I am dead before I ever hit him.
Problem: I am dead. Reason: My build was missing key components.
Roamer Checklist:
1. Stun Break – Without this, the entire remainder of the list is pointless. You must be able to break out of a stun ONCE (multiple stun breaks can be useful, but are never necessary) in order to save yourself from further damage/disables. You will find that almost every good roamer can stun you once in a way that cannot be dodged.
2. Single-Skill Avoidance – The ability to avoid an incoming ability that you have identified as a threat is crucial. You actually already have two of these: your first and second dodge roll. You can never have too many! This category includes blocking, blindness, evasion, daze, and endurance-fillers but the most important thing is that they have an instant or near-instant cast to allow you to respond to incoming threats before you die horribly. If you use only or mostly dodge rolls, make sure you bring a counter to immobilize.
Most builds have at least four abilities that, if all are missed, result in a loss. If a thief misses his big signet-buffed attack and his initiative spenders and runs out of initiative, he probably won’t kill you (seriously, he won’t – thieves are not gods). If a warrior misses his Bull’s Charge, Hundred Blades, and Eviscerate, he probably won’t kill you. If an engineer misses his Net Shot, Toolbelt Grenades, and Jumpshot-Blunderbuss, he probably won’t kill you.
3. RUNAWAY – Every roamer will, at some point, encounter multiple enemies. It is incredibly important that you be able to get away. This poses the question: if every build can get away, why can’t everyone also chase? Great question! Be sneaky. If you’re as fast or almost as fast or burstishly faster than your pursuers, it buys you time to be sneaky and use terrain to escape. Great abilities that you may not consider that fall into this category are skills like Savage Leap, which allows you to skip across terrain in ways that other players cannot; Portal which, if left somewhere, is a guaranteed escape when you plant the exit; Slick Shoes + its toolbelt (probably the best one here); ranged immobilizes or cripples can also buy you a few seconds to escape.
4. Condition Removal – This one is tricky. The best condition removals are ones that allow you to remove conditions several times, but not everyone has the luxury of Mantra of Resolve. The most important thing is that you have enough condition removal to burn down a bar of conditions and hit the crucial immobilize, cripple, or chill. This can be one skill that gets them all off or a few skills that take a couple at a time. Either way, make sure you can deal with disable-based conditions.
5. Damage – Enough with the bad situations. You’re not just trying to survive, you want to blow stuff up. Everyone does! Do yourself a favor and spend the remaining utilities/traits on damage. It is ridiculously rewarding to be able to tear someone’s health bar down and stick a flag in their corpse.
Hopefully this is helpful. If people actually follow this, I know it will be because I know I honestly just don’t die to the things I see people complain about on the forums and it isn’t because I’m some kind of epic pro – I just bring all the right toys.