Guild Wars 2

I think there has been an age-long debate on whether the strongest roamers that have entered WvW are actually veterans from the PvP arena.

You generally see the good roamers sporting PvP wings or Dragon finishers. Those are generally seen as symbols of being a skilled fighter and awesomeness. Especially the Dragon finisher spike creating an unavoidable quake of terror in the opponents’ hearts.

What are your thoughts on this? Are the strongest roamers actually veterans from the PvP arenas?

No, not necessarily.

Pvp certainly lends itself to learning how to fight, but (1) moderate players can get those finishers through grinding, (2) there are differences in wvw vs pvp (larger terrain, more busted stuff, and fight sizes are often larger than pvp, even for a roamer).

That said, it honestly comes down to practice and aptitude in fights, and where you get them is less of an issue than how many you’ve had, imo. If someone has killed thousands of people in pvp, much of that experience is going to be transferable (and vice versa).

Also, roaming isn’t just about winning roughly even fights.

PvP Wings are NOT a mark of skill any more than WvW Rank Tiers are.

A good roamers needs,
average experience, a carry build, map awareness and determination.

Any thing above and/or in addition to those things will just make your play time miserable with opponents who will logout leaving the map dead, hide in walled objectives or outnumber you with 2:1 ratio.

Justine.6351:

PvP Wings are NOT a mark of skill any more than WvW Rank Tiers are.

A good roamers needs,
average experience, a carry build, map awareness and determination.

Any thing above and/or in addition to those things will just make your play time miserable with opponents who will logout leaving the map dead, hide in walled objectives or outnumber you with 2:1 ratio.

hey i like my rank of silver sergeant general commander…

No. As Justine has said, it’s about the same as WvW rank.

Skill is determined only by effectiveness in battle not by rank, title or possessions.

I’ve fought players with PvP wings, X Legend titles and all that other crap that were horrible. Just like I’ve fought players that looked like they were completely new and yet happened to be extremely skilled.

“Always assume your opponent is a genius until proven an idiot.”

The strongest roamers are those that prove themselves skillful in battle, regardless of aesthetics, titles, ranks etc.

You could stumble upon a warrior clad in legendary wings and diamond rank in WvW with his shiny dragon finisher from PvP but that doesn’t mean he is top dog in terms of fighting skill/prowess..

On the other hand you could come across someone who looks like a complete noob fresh out of the starter zone and they may very well hand your behind to you. (it’s actually quite entertaining doing this – players are more inclined to think your an easy target thus engaging combat with you).

Any sort of X Legend titles just means they have some experience in PvP before, it doesn’t make them good just a indicator of experience, or they’ve learned a bit about rotating in conquest. Legendary Wings and Dragon finisher don’t mean jack. Skilled Duelers and Roamers come in various appearances, normally good and skilled players know how to read opponent and/or make it hard for you to read them. They keep track of your CDs and don’t random dodge, unless they’re trying their best to predict a predictable insta cast ability like steal.

Well duh… roaming by definition require a strong PvP build, not nomad guard or soldier thief or whatever. Someone used to PvP with a well known PvP build will be superior to someone that can barely move without a commander telling him where to go and who to bomb.

This is like saying that the strongest PvEers are raid veterans.

I think for a lot of players it is bit other way around. For me as for many other i met back then in WvW guild, we started with pve, moved to WvW and started to pvp to improve our “skills”. It is probably generalization to assume that pvp vet is automatically a good roamer (not to mention there are lot of players that even after thousands of pvp matches are still not that great) however if person is indeed good/decent in pvp, they would do fairly good in wvw as well.

That being said, wings, ranks etc. do not represent skill in this game since we still don’t have a pvp and reward system that can determine skill. Just an example: some dude runs with bronze tag, oh he must be bad, right? Jokes on you, that guy is probably legend level that simply didn’t play for week or two. Or there is guy with say XY legend title – turns out it is one of those AP hunters that paid to get carried (yes, it was a thing actually).

The strongest roamers are the ones who dedicate themselves to fighting.

So many roamers in WvW are only there for the sentries/camps or +4 kills, it’s why they usually run or stare at you till someone comes and helps them.

It’s not sign of skill but yeah, I do notice that some godlike roamers used to be heavy SPvPers. I believe they got tired pf how restrictive spvp is, while WvW is much more fun and you can have any build you want.

I don’t tend to take seriously any of those “Nan-Nan Legends” show offs I encounter on WvW nowadays since I believe surprise effect is the best thing and showing what you can do to some potentially dangerous enemy is such a silly move

Although I dont spend THAT much time in WvW, when I do, I generally roam.
There is such an immense skill difference between players there, it’s almost maddening.

Although I’m not half-bad when it comes to sPvP (top 200 this season), I genuinely feel like my mechanics aren’t that good either. I main a D/P thief, so taking 1v1s generally isn’t my strongsuit. And yet I find myself winning 1vXs more often than not. Every once in a while you surely find a competent player….but those really are rare imo.

Strongest roamers are the ones who decided to play the right class and build. That’s all that matters in roaming.

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

The only way to find out if someone is skilled or not is to fight them. Never judge a book by its cover. :P

Most of the strong roamers I know do have tons of experience in PvP as well.

To be honest. It goes both way.

Some of the top PvP players did come from WvW (roamers). While some great roamers originate from PvP.

But later down the line. Those addict of fights usually get rank 80 in PvP and a somewhat high rank in WvW (yes roamers do get rank up, even if it is slower than zerglings). Those ranks simply tells how much time they spent in the game mode. And it is so easy to get both rank 80 and a silver+ rank in WvW that it is simply meaningless to look at nowadays.

NeXeD.3042:

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

To be frank. Roaming died a couple years ago. What is left is a cesspool for the most part with a shiny oasis once in a while.

Back when Obsidian Sanctum fight club existed…when Windmill was a hot spot and the spot near near south camp bridge had skirmishes happening 24/7…When taking north camp and getting instant response from roamers was a thing… That was the golden age of roaming. Epic memories were made during that time <3

Phantom.5389:

NeXeD.3042:

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

To be frank. Roaming died a couple years ago. What is left is a cesspool for the most part with a shiny oasis once in a while.

Back when Obsidian Sanctum fight club existed…when Windmill was a hot spot and the spot near near south camp bridge had skirmishes happening 24/7…When taking north camp and getting instant response from roamers was a thing… That was the golden age of roaming. Epic memories were made during that time <3

Awesome thing about this, is I still see S bridge dueling more often than I have the last 2 years. I miss the old Scantum fight club…those were epic times. Windmill i see on rare occasions (maybe 1 day every 4-6 months). I still WP when I see/hear that N camp contested (I mainly roam or at the most, lead havoc)

Titles and the Dragon Finisher don’t mean anything in terms of skill, it just means you play a lot of games.

I started playing a few months after release, and on-and-off I have a total of 1500+ ranked games. I also have a win-rate of 55-60% which is your average scrub. But most of those games I play Bunker Guardian, Bunker Warrior, P/P Nade Engi, and then D/D Ele (yes, I am ancient).

Since I generally only play to stay alive and work around the downed state (stomps, resses and interrupts), and in the Engi’s case take care to only rotate into +1’s for quick takedowns, I don’t duel much if at all; my rotations are okay, but 1v1 in an offensive role/to apply pressure I am absolutely terrible. I.e. I play builds that carry themselves.

I have limited experience with WvW, but the way you build for it is different since you’re not fighting around a node and you aim for mobility/personal survivability and won’t be speccing for bunker/roamer/support/teamfighter etc which sacrifice sustain for a specific function.

That said, a good player should be able to do well in PvP and WvW regardless, since good players adapt, understand mechanics, and if they have a Dragon Finisher, should at the very least know how to handle their class and use keybinds. I would say these players should be able to perform above a certain level.

P.S. Before the rank gain changes to make R80 not an endless grind, I was about R45. Still feel like a Tiger. I definitely belong there.

Most strong roamers also play a lot of spvp, but it wasn’t always the case.

At the begining of the game, wvw roaming/dueling was a lot more active and it was a lot easier for a decent player to find good fights and opponents of roughly the same skill. Meaning that you could get a lot of experience and improve your mechanical skill by simply roaming. Right now, it’s different, a decent fighter in wvw will have a very hard time finding a good fight or dueling partner by roaming and because of that, it’s a lot harder to improve.

In spvp, because there is a matchmaking algorithm that at least try to match player by skill, and that fights are pretty much constant during a match, it’s a lot easier to improve your mechanical skills.

Right now, if you want to become a strong roamer, you are ‘forced’ to play spvp, or to find friends willing to duel you over and over.

Phantom.5389:

NeXeD.3042:

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

To be frank. Roaming died a couple years ago. What is left is a cesspool for the most part with a shiny oasis once in a while.

Back when Obsidian Sanctum fight club existed…when Windmill was a hot spot and the spot near near south camp bridge had skirmishes happening 24/7…When taking north camp and getting instant response from roamers was a thing… That was the golden age of roaming. Epic memories were made during that time <3

I know it is bit off-topic, but do people roam at all nowadays and where do people duel (if they duel at all)? I haven’t touched wvw in ages outside of dailies and killing randoms that tried preventing me from doing said dailies o.o

Phantom.5389:

NeXeD.3042:

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

To be frank. Roaming died a couple years ago. What is left is a cesspool for the most part with a shiny oasis once in a while.

Back when Obsidian Sanctum fight club existed…when Windmill was a hot spot and the spot near near south camp bridge had skirmishes happening 24/7…When taking north camp and getting instant response from roamers was a thing… That was the golden age of roaming. Epic memories were made during that time <3

yeah i havent roamed in liked two years… so thats the time im talking about. My statement stands.

my WvW roaming improved a lot when i went into sPvP and did a ton of matches. Just getting into a lot of fights with diff classes plus duelling servers helps a lot when you come across them in WvW. When i first started WvW i found that i wasnt getting enough skillful fighting experience due to the amount of ganking and zergs running around.

By playing 5v5 sPvP i got to do a lot of “small scale” fighting. It improved my WvW fighting ability a lot.

And keep in mind this past season you gained pips even if you lost, so someone could lose ~200 games straight and still get the ascended wings.
…
…
…
…I got my ascended wings this season.

If I hadn’t of gotten bored with conquest 3 years ago I would have done more than get my wings and leave.

NeXeD.3042:

Phantom.5389:

NeXeD.3042:

Cant say one way or another, but in my experiences the builds are different some of the strategies are different.

IN MY EXPERIENCES when i did do both alot typically i had no problem beating any roamer i encountered on a power necro.

To be frank. Roaming died a couple years ago. What is left is a cesspool for the most part with a shiny oasis once in a while.

Back when Obsidian Sanctum fight club existed…when Windmill was a hot spot and the spot near near south camp bridge had skirmishes happening 24/7…When taking north camp and getting instant response from roamers was a thing… That was the golden age of roaming. Epic memories were made during that time <3

yeah i havent roamed in liked two years… so thats the time im talking about. My statement stands.

I feel you. WvW roaming is still random encounters in the end. I had a whole friend list made of the good roamers… We would tell each others on wich map we would roam for the day and it was amazing. Sadly this friend list died down with time and I have to admit I don’t roam that much anymore.

For my experience, I tried to like PvP when roaming died down… Sadly the fights are simply not the same. Most people just play tanky builds and I simply can’t get the adrenaline rush I had when roaming vs high risk high reward builds (it is not really their fault… it is just how Conquest is meant to be played). Last time I played PvP (back in season 3 I believe?) I could kill my way up and face legendary players on a roaming build (core warrior zerker (amulet, not the elite spec) build of 2013 with bullrush still slotted instead of the boring full stance berserker elite specialization). I only played like 1 or 2 weeks each season before I got bored :’(

I wish there was a more fight oriented mode in Spvp…