Guild Wars 2

What do you all think is the best class for roaming after the latest patch? I’m making a new character that I want to use primarily for WvW, and would like to hear what the community thinks would be the best class and type of build(power or condi) for this type of play. Note: I DO NOT give a kitten about zerging or aoe abilities, as I find zerging boring and unskillful, and would prefer a class for solo or small group play. If the class is good at PvE, that would be nice, but is not required.

Thanks,
Elitist

Also, I already have a thief, however, from what I’ve been hearing on the forum, thieves aren’t kings of roaming anymore. Are they still viable?

p/d thief or PU mes is the best 1v1 class

for best chance of 1vX’ing, engineer (due to being able to kite and do a lot of damage at the same time)

Sorry for being a noob, but what is a PU mesmer?

Ranger. Best 1v1 profession amirite?

Depends on what you want to do with it.

Solo and small group play is also very different. Solo you won’t want to be a support character, but a small group can make great use of one.

Thieves are the best at being able to go do things then run away. This is great for slapping yaks, scouting, supply trapping, tapping keeps, etc. They are good in small group comps for being able to down low hp players, steath finish, stealth revive, and help your party get away if needed.

Eng can do a lot of aoe damage while mitigating incoming damage and have good mobility/cc. This is great for things like quickly solo capping camps. Eng is also a highly flexible beast in a 1v1 or small group fight if played well.

PU mesmers are very good at 1v1, but their usefulness quickly drops the larger the group gets. – PU =’s prismatic understanding – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prismatic_Understanding

Guard/Ele I wouldn’t solo roam on (although I have in the past) but make for great support types which can really help a small group.

Mesmer, Warrior, Thief – not much beats these for roaming.

Mesmer is nice, but the poor swiftness uptime and lack of speed signet will drive you crazy unless you want to fork out for traveler runes. So I don’t run solo on my mes anymore.

I’ll throw my hat into the ring for engineer. The nade kit is extremely strong, provided you get good enough at landing the nades. And perma swiftness for 10 trait points is amazing.

Currently, the rankings would be;

1. - PU mesmer/Condition Engineer
2. - BM Condi bunker ranger/Condition Necro
3. - Thief
4. - S/D or D/D Ele
5. - Warrior
6. - guard and the aforementioned professions using any other build then what has been stated.

So, I really like the concept of an ele roamed, but are there any viable builds for them after the nerf?

Elitist.8701:

So, I really like the concept of an ele roamed, but are there any viable builds for them after the nerf?

D/D still works, jsut require more effort and crazy reactions

What about scepter/dagger?

p/d dire thief

It depends on what you want out of your build and whether or not it is solo or in a group. Thief can solo supply camps pretty quick and with the stealth will typically either win a 1v1 or run away, especially with D/P and utility stealth. Warrior probably takes supply camps the fastest solo including the time it takes to travel and then to take the camp. If the supply camp has no dolyaks, I can kill every npc on my warrior in about 8 seconds at the fastest from my first hit to my last hit. With two dolyaks I can sometimes get it in 12 or 13 seconds at the fastest. I’m a strong believer that if you are to run a solo roaming build, it has to be a build that can pull every single npc at once, run around the corner to ball them up, and then kill them all with some sort of aoe without dying or having to start running/dodging to extend your survival. If your build /profession cannot do that, then I don’t think soloing a supply camp is worth your time.

If you can handle slow, shatter mesmers are one of the best going. Condi bunker engis are very powerful but are a harder to master. Thieves are still powerful but plenty of classes counter them now.

Warriors are kinda meh. They can blow up crappy players and escape easy enough but are best in small or large groups. Skilled players have learned the big windups so they know what to avoid.

Signet Zerker ranger seems to be working very well too. Been running it for the past two days.

18k (high spike) cleave on maul isnt bad. And generally doing 5.2-8k on each maul (low spike). Not to mention. LB AA with quickness. Spamming 2.8k crits nearly as fast as rapid fire can fire.

Prysin.8542:

Signet Zerker ranger seems to be working very well too. Been running it for the past two days.

18k (high spike) cleave on maul isnt bad. And generally doing 5.2-8k on each maul (low spike). Not to mention. LB AA with quickness. Spamming 2.8k crits nearly as fast as rapid fire can fire.

Almost no skilled player is buying the Ranger thing and anyone dying to one in a solo roaming fight needs to practice more. They are far too easily countered by any of the substantially better roaming classes.

Do some spvp and see which class you are most comfortable with. Roaming is just a glorified version of spvp.

Deli.1302:

Do some spvp and see which class you are most comfortable with. Roaming is just a glorified version of spvp.

Kinda, but you have far more building options in WvW. spvp is far too restrictive, only one neck and one gem… I’m sure it’s easier to balance with fewer stat options but come on… only 2? That’s the main reason I don’t sPvP… you can’t really hybrid at all there.

Prysin.8542:

Currently, the rankings would be;

1. - PU mesmer/Condition Engineer
2. - BM Condi bunker ranger/Condition Necro
3. - Thief
4. - S/D or D/D Ele
5. - Warrior
6. - guard and the aforementioned professions using any other build then what has been stated.

What rankings? o.O

Anyway, OP:
The “best” class for roaming, assuming SOLO roaming, is that one class which (in order of importance):
_enables you to avoid dying to the occasional zerg coming your way
_enables you to handle more than 1 opponent at the same time
_enables you to counter the most used builds used by other roamers
_enables you to solo camps effectively and quickly

Thieves (with Shadowstep and Shadow Refuge) actually are the best at disengaging and can usually deal with 1+ opponents (if they are dumb enough or are using full glass specs), can solo camps easily but are very, very weak against properly built Warriors and get roflstomped by Engineers, unless they are using P/D (which can result in a stalemate).
A Warrior who gets beaten by a Thief is either running condi (not viable for roaming imho) or is just bad.

Warriors can take camps really quickly and have insane mobility if they spec for it, but since you need both GS and Sw/x to escape a zerg (and that’s assuming you don’t get focused), which are weapon sets not really great for dealing with other roamers, their number is decreasing.

Mesmers take a while to solo camps, have good ways to escape a zerg (Mass Invis, Decoy) and when they spec for PU condi can deal with many opponents easily. However, they get hardcountered by necros but since necros are really bad for roaming they don’t have a true counter among roaming classes. Fights against D/P and P/D usually end in stalemates. Shatter mesmers have too many counters among roamers to be viable.

Engis are similar to PU, with the exception that they have slightly less surivability in 1vX scenarios and take far greater skill to be effective with than any retarted PU build, so that’s why there are not many out there. They get wrecked by necros too, but again, necros don’t usually solo roam. Camps can be taken quicker than a PU mesmer and their Stealth+Leaps are good for escaping zergs.

Rangers are good for 1v1, they take camp easily but can take a while to do so. Not really that good for escaping zergs (unless they spec for it, in which case they would be carrying wrong weaponsets for 1vX). They get countered by many specs though, unless the skillgap is really high. Condi Rangers (trap/spirit) can handle 1vX pretty well though, just not as well as an engi, a PU mesmer or a thief.

Necros are good at dueling (even if they get hardcountered by warriors) and 1vX, but they will die the moment a zerg spots them due to 0 mobility (with the exception of switfness, which is not enough). So that’s why you’ll rarely see a necro out there.

D/D Ele is still good, but people who are good at it are decreasing by the minute because of the high skill ceiling required. They solo camps quickly and can escape zergs easily with Fiery Greatsword. They are good against Thieves (maybe not P/D though), but they get countered by PU mesmers. Condi Engi vs D/D ele would be fun to watch though.

Guardians… If they spec for defense, they can easily manage 1vX but won’t really down anyone among them if the opponents are just a bit careful not to get killed by reta. They solo camps easily, but don’t have many ways to escape a zerg.
If they go for offense, they are just good for 1v1. In a 1vX, the moment a thief focuses on them they are screwed.

I think I’ve listed pretty much everything needed to make up your mind about roaming

what you need is escapeability and sustain. So this my experience from 1 jear of roaming on 4 different classes.

Thief
Warrior
Ele
Mesmer
engi / ranger
guardian
necro