Guild Wars 2

DISCLAIMER: I’m not against any kind of roamers. I think that roaming with a small group instead than blobbing up with pugs to be a real challenge, regardless of the buffs you have.

Just wondering: how do you roamers prepare yourself before you start your roaming session?

I’ve seen all kind of roamers, from those who don’t start roaming before they have their Bloodlust, Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude maxed (and Food buffs) along with Legendary weapons, to those who go around without anything (and are still darn good).

I know WvW is not meant to be balanced, but I always try not to give myself too many buffs, as they could screw up some 1v1 encounters.

Given the new Orb Buffs, since I am still in full Exotics aside from one Ascended Amulet and having no access to either Guard Leech or Applied Fortitude, I usually plan my roaming sessions like this:

1: if my server has 100 or +150 buff, I go around without anything (no food buffs, no bloodlust). I MIGHT consider applying food buffs if I’m fighting a 1v3 or 1v2 against some REALLY good opponents.
2: if my server has 50 buff, I might consider applying food buffs in some encounters, especially if going up against people with +100buffs or if starting an outnumbered fight.
3: if my server has no buffs, I usually max out my Bloodlust first (250power), and then start roaming. Again, if I’m facing people with +150 or +100 buffs, or if hugely outnumbered, I might apply my food buffs.
4: if roaming during prime time (very rare), I usually max out my Bloodlust regardless of the buffs and then move on, applying foods if the situation calls for them.

I think having somewhat “fair” fights to be really satisfying, despite the overall lack of balance in WvW (Perplexity runes, Dire gear, getting zerged). I personally can’t stand winning a fight if I have any kind of advantage over my opponent, so that’s why I would usually spare their lives (by not finishing them after downing them) and move on.

What about you? Come on, don’t be shy

Well they sure go forums and copy official fotm build.

WvW is war….there is no “fairness” in war.

Rigel.3092:

WvW is war….there is no “fairness” in war.

What’s that supposed to mean? Go back to PvE if you don’t want balance. Last time I checked, WvW is PvP (player vs player). I don’t know about PvE but PvPers don’t care about just winning. They want to win with a challenge. That means the possibility of losing which makes it fun and challenging. I have never seen a PvP game promoting unbalance as a core philosophy that was successful.

My preparation:

Go Into WvW
Roam

Thats it, no food, no Guard Lich or anything either (mostly as i dont have them)

^
/bow
I envy you. I always try to put myself on the same level of my opponents so that, if I win, they can’t say “you won because of this”; and if I lose, I won’t say “I lost because of that”. I simply want to say “I’m better/worse than you”. That’s the main reason I roam anyway, either to feel better for every (hopeful balanced) fight I win, or to learn something for every fight I lose.

Zephyrus.9680:

Rigel.3092:

WvW is war….there is no “fairness” in war.

What’s that supposed to mean? Go back to PvE if you don’t want balance. Last time I checked, WvW is PvP (player vs player). I don’t know about PvE but PvPers don’t care about just winning. They want to win with a challenge. That means the possibility of losing which makes it fun and challenging. I have never seen a PvP game promoting unbalance as a core philosophy that was successful.

Agreed. I wouldn’t feel good if I kill an upleveled

I just throw on my food buffs and go roaming I don’t think about if stuff is fair for my enemies because I sure as hell know they aren’t thinking about me.

Zephyrus.9680:

Rigel.3092:

WvW is war….there is no “fairness” in war.

What’s that supposed to mean? Go back to PvE if you don’t want balance. Last time I checked, WvW is PvP (player vs player). I don’t know about PvE but PvPers don’t care about just winning. They want to win with a challenge. That means the possibility of losing which makes it fun and challenging. I have never seen a PvP game promoting unbalance as a core philosophy that was successful.

+1

There is no fair. The only thing I do is if I see a 1v1 going on, I don’t engage.

This is silly. WvW is not balanced PvP. Do sPvP for it.

How is “roaming” fair in the first place? The majority of targets who are downed are either uplevels or are zergers built for group play and trying to run to their commander, not built for 1v1 combat.

Just grab your nourishment and go.

I’m not a fair roamer.

It depends. I like to go out alone with nothing, but if what I encounter is always groups that are buffed to the bone, I build bloodstacks on my way. Though I have neither guard leech nor applied fortitude, and my foodbuff is mainly magic find boost.

I never fight anyone solo who is not buffed, unless he attacks me first. Same for upleveled. But I will attack anyone who’s hurting a Dolyak.

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Step 1: Buy dire gear.

Step 2: Equip relevant condi weapons

Step 3: 40% condi food

Step 4: Spam all your abilities and tell everyone on the forums how you are now an elite roamer.

style.6173:

There is no fair. The only thing I do is if I see a 1v1 going on, I don’t engage.

+1 for this

EFWinters.5421:

Step 1: Buy dire gear.

Step 2: Equip relevant condi weapons

Step 3: 40% condi food

Step 4: Spam all your abilities and tell everyone on the forums how you are now an elite roamer.

Dire gear isnt that greate at all, a lot builds/classes out there are stronger with apothecary gear^^

I’ve run into a number of Second Law guys who if you are out and get into a 1v1, they only hit you till downed and then run off. It so impressed me that I go out of my way to do the same any time I’m 1v1d with any of them. Was a nice standard to set and I hadn’t seen that prior to running into them.

I stopped farming for stacks ages ago and just let them come now with kills, but I never leave home without my -36% condition duration food on my mes or war. Otherwise my face melts off in 3 seconds thanks to the moar conditionz meta and that’s no bueno.

I dunno, just go in and roam… I don’t stack anything because the stacks come from killing the targets these days, I don’t have the patience to kill a few npc mobs. Also a bot on our server is is killing them anyways. And then just use my oils and use my food…

Jayne.9251:

I’ve run into a number of Second Law guys who if you are out and get into a 1v1, they only hit you till downed and then run off. It so impressed me that I go out of my way to do the same any time I’m 1v1d with any of them. Was a nice standard to set and I hadn’t seen that prior to running into them.

I don’t really get that. It seems needlessly cruel.. if you weren’t there to really defeat him, let the poor guy do his thing in peace.

It’s like mugging a guy but not taking his wallet after you stab him.

Ah I took it as a sign of respect myself, for a good long fight. It’s why I do it anyhow.

Edited to add: I don’t do this for every roamer btw, just the ones that don’t die in the first five minutes.

Go roam – watch potentially good action destroyed by zerg.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Speak for yourself. For me it’s the art of finding good fights. Good meaning challenging. So I’ll generally leave uplevels alone and obvious zergers like staff eles.

Your 2nd claim is only true after bloodlust and one of the reasons I don’t WvW anymore.

Also, most 1v1s are boring, until recently my build was optimized for 1vX rather than 1v1. I would rather push my limits with 1v2s, 1v3s, even 1v4s, 2vx etc… while dying most of the time. But ok that’s my idea of fun.

Half of the time I’ll just go and roam as soon as I’m into the map.

The other half only happens in certain matchups, cough cough Vizunah cough, at which point I stack absolutely everything I can because I know a simple fair 1v3 will be few and a far between, guard leech, fortitude, sigil stacks, swapping to other sigil once 25, food buffs…

That said I am 1 ascended backpack and 2 ascended weaps down from those micro-maximiser dudes.

Also:

Jayne.9251:

Jayne.9251:

I’ve run into a number of Second Law guys who if you are out and get into a 1v1, they only hit you till downed and then run off. It so impressed me that I go out of my way to do the same any time I’m 1v1d with any of them. Was a nice standard to set and I hadn’t seen that prior to running into them.

I don’t really get that. It seems needlessly cruel.. if you weren’t there to really defeat him, let the poor guy do his thing in peace.

It’s like mugging a guy but not taking his wallet after you stab him.

It’s really more like mugging a guy and not stabbing him after you take his wallet. Or tbh it’s even more like defeating an opponent and sparing him to live and fight another day, having asserted your fighting (1-spamming) prowess.

WvW is still PvE. sPvP is PvP.

I use food 90% of the time in WvW since it’s such a great asset.

I generally don’t think much about the Bloodlust buff since it doesn’t really affect my play-style.

Guard Leech is something I pick up along the way. It’s easy to gain and easy to lose so no point in investing too much into it.

Immolator.5640:

Also:

Jayne.9251:

Jayne.9251:

I’ve run into a number of Second Law guys who if you are out and get into a 1v1, they only hit you till downed and then run off. It so impressed me that I go out of my way to do the same any time I’m 1v1d with any of them. Was a nice standard to set and I hadn’t seen that prior to running into them.

I don’t really get that. It seems needlessly cruel.. if you weren’t there to really defeat him, let the poor guy do his thing in peace.

It’s like mugging a guy but not taking his wallet after you stab him.

It’s really more like mugging a guy and not stabbing him after you take his wallet. Or tbh it’s even more like defeating an opponent and sparing him to live and fight another day, having asserted your fighting (1-spamming) prowess.

How’d you get me talking to myself there? lol. Misquote! gasp!

Zephyrus.9680:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Speak for yourself. For me it’s the art of finding good fights. Good meaning challenging. So I’ll generally leave uplevels alone and obvious zergers like staff eles.

Your 2nd claim is only true after bloodlust and one of the reasons I don’t WvW anymore.

Also, most 1v1s are boring, until recently my build was optimized for 1vX rather than 1v1. I would rather push my limits with 1v2s, 1v3s, even 1v4s, 2vx etc… while dying most of the time. But ok that’s my idea of fun.

Pushing your limits versus X, not so obvious (but still zerger builds), and avoiding challenging 1vs1 builds (sPvP) —→ Check.

Reztek.7805:

Zephyrus.9680:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Speak for yourself. For me it’s the art of finding good fights. Good meaning challenging. So I’ll generally leave uplevels alone and obvious zergers like staff eles.

Your 2nd claim is only true after bloodlust and one of the reasons I don’t WvW anymore.

Also, most 1v1s are boring, until recently my build was optimized for 1vX rather than 1v1. I would rather push my limits with 1v2s, 1v3s, even 1v4s, 2vx etc… while dying most of the time. But ok that’s my idea of fun.

Pushing your limits versus X, not so obvious (but still zerger builds), and avoiding challenging 1vs1 builds (sPvP) —-> Check.

Not necessarily. There are a lot of people roaming with 1 or 2 other players. And even if it is zergers builds, fighting 3vs1 is harder than fighting 1vs1 against someone spec’d for that, at least from my personal roaming experience.

To the OP, I used to think just like that. But since I assumed that I was always gonna get 3vs1’d at least, I started using perplexity runes, food at all times, and slowly farming wxp to level my masteries.
Looking for fair fights is just a waste of time in T1. Closest thing I got today was a 2vs1 against 2 hammer warriors, so you get the idea.

I don’t believe in gimping yourself or giving mercy ever, not because I am some kid who gets off on “pwning noobs”. To me it shows lack of respect, and while I understand it’s not the intent of most people who do I just think it defeats the challenge of things in games.

You play the game and I assume as a self-proclaimed roamer, you are looking for good fights, because as numbers decrease skill becomes more important. I would love to fight you on an even ground, but I would love it more if you had the advantage via stat boost (power creep). Sure it would be great if I were to fight you 1v1 and won and your buddies decided to stay out of the fight to be “fair” but that wouldn’t get my heart pumping. I rather 1v3 you and your buddies and try to figure out how to win, even if it means only killing one of you before going down myself, or if I decide to escape because I assessed the situation is way to unfavorable on my end.

To that end, I would give you the same courtesy, to challenge you. I won’t drop my stacks, tell my friends to back off or in anyways not push my character to the best it could be to give myself some sort of percieved fairness in the match.

At the end of the day what would you prefer? always fighting on even ground or have fights up and down the hill, how do you know you are the best you can be at your class if you never challenge yourself and others?

If your the type of person who needs buffs before entering a fight, you won’t be very good at roaming, unless you bring some friends to babysit you. Roaming is just wandering PvP, most of us run from one camp to another solo-capping(or small groups) but it’s all about walking around looking for someone to fight. I think I speak for all roamers when I say the objectives we complete, are simply to pass the time between duels/fights. You don’t need orb buffs or friends babysitting you or a zerg nearby to start roaming, just go looking for a fight and deal with the consequences. The consequences being getting run over by random 60 man zergs, having that same zerg chase you 75% of the way across a map, and getting beat by players that are either better than you or outnumber you. If you don’t like that, then go back to the zerg or PvE or whatever it is you do like, respectfully.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Untrue. I always engage a 1v2 or 1v3, even if the odds are against me. If things become too bad, I’ll just disengage (being a thief I know how to disengage really well).

And I agree with most of you guys: I don’t attack Staff Eles or Upleveleds if they don’t attack me, but I will kill anyone attacking a dolly, a sentry or a camp.

I often let people live. Especially solo roamers, or people who willingly get away from a group to fight me. In most 1v2 encounters I usually let the last standing guy live so that he could rez his teammate.

And of course, to roamers, objectives are just for the sake of doing something between each fight: I don’t “like” capturing a camp or killing a sentry.

It looks like there are a lot of nice roamers here

I put on my food buffs and grab my stacks as I go, then swap to my normal weapon set. Those buffs are just another set of tools, ones that everyone has easy access to. And I expect my opponents to use all the tools at their disposal. Why wouldn’t they?

On letting people live… Please, if you beat me then just kill me. I don’t want to sit there for 5 minutes bandaging myself up. It’s nothing but an awkward delay. Not going to be insulted if you finish what you started.

Were you one of the ones I had a duel with last week when we were matched hihey?

I’m actually an odd roamer. I use it mostly to scout. But that’s when I find most of my 1v1s or 1v3s (although I find 1v3s much harder EU side — just means room to improve )

But yeah I’m actively doing stuff for the server while I roam, including flipping stuff. The fights just come along with that. Although sometimes I’ll spoil myself and schedule an actual duel, but that’s maybe once or twice a day, if I’m lucky.

I’m sorry but I disagree with everyone who says that they think it’s cowardly to use food buffs/stacking sigils. While I won’t go out of my way to get stacks I find the use of food and sigil has nothing to do with how well you play. That is another means to having stats, not neccesarily more stats, but just stats that is helpful to your build. Not using it simply because it “might” give you an edge over someone who doesn’t (which in WvW almost everyone brings food) doesn’t make sense, do you also wear all blues/greens/yellows too in case you might run into that few people who are so casual they just don’t even bother to get exotics?

So many white knights here. WvW is about Asymmetric Warfare. How are you ever going to reach rank 230 all on 1v1 and not stomping people?

I solo roam in tier 1, mostly capping camps. When I see uplevels or people fighting, those are free kills and wxp. I basically take every advantage I can get. But I guess people play on their own time, they can do whatever they want. Still, pointless to wear that like some badge of honor in WvW. I actually think it’s more honorable and in the spirit of gaming to try and beat your enemy the best you can within the rules of the game.

However, I bet white knights in WvW also make great forum warriors. Can’t wait to brag about how honorable they are. Saved so many poor dolyaks from bad guys, etc.

I’ll use food at first because many of my builds require me to do so to be effective.I also stack the guard bonuses, but my primary objective when roaming is dolyaks, camps and sentry’s. The faster I can do them, the less likely a zerg is going to roll over me in the middle of doing so. I also enjoy taking on players, while I respect the idea of a fair fight I have other priorities, and if they want a fair fight they can invite me to their group and ask for a duel and I’ll remove my stacks and go at it.

This is silly. You should give yourself every advantage possible. If you aren’t feeling challenged with them, it’s wvw; go find a bigger group to fight. If you are gimping yourself in the hope of a “fair” fight, you don’t understand roaming, and would likely be happier in a spvp duel server.

Disagree roaming is roaming I like the unpredictability of roaming and no set rules which is why WvW appeals to me so much.

You can have your own set imaginary rules that you follow so you can tell your friends in VOIP or invite the enemy to party or come on the forums and keep as a ace card that you killed someone when you had no food or bloodlust or w/e. In the end that only serves yourself and requires other people to hear you tell the tale but the majority of the people you killed or got killed by probably won’t care.

Another note food can give your build away before the first skill is cast. I don’t always hover over enemies food but if I know I’m going to engage in a impromptu 1v1 I’ll hover over the buff to see what I’m dealing with. I build mostly to fight everything as best I can on my classes so I can know what to expect. Certain classes it matters a little less than others but you can get a general idea.

If I see +40% condition duration on a thief I know its condis, if I see it on a necro it could be hybrid but mostly assume condis, ele with precision food or stacker I think glassy, or doesn’t have 10 in Air with zephyr’s boon etc…. you can get alot of information from someones food and stacker buffs its not viable to always hover but the information is there in a 1v1 scenario.

I go in, apply consumables and roam.

I think the perception of bloodlust is exaggerated in small encounters. It’s really not that big a difference outside of zerg fights.

oZii.2864:

Disagree roaming is roaming I like the unpredictability of roaming and no set rules which is why WvW appeals to me so much.

You can have your own set imaginary rules that you follow so you can tell your friends in VOIP or invite the enemy to party or come on the forums and keep as a ace card that you killed someone when you had no food or bloodlust or w/e. In the end that only serves yourself and requires other people to hear you tell the tale but the majority of the people you killed or got killed by probably won’t care.

Another note food can give your build away before the first skill is cast. I don’t always hover over enemies food but if I know I’m going to engage in a impromptu 1v1 I’ll hover over the buff to see what I’m dealing with. I build mostly to fight everything as best I can on my classes so I can know what to expect. Certain classes it matters a little less than others but you can get a general idea.

If I see +40% condition duration on a thief I know its condis, if I see it on a necro it could be hybrid but mostly assume condis, ele with precision food or stacker I think glassy, or doesn’t have 10 in Air with zephyr’s boon etc…. you can get alot of information from someones food and stacker buffs its not viable to always hover but the information is there in a 1v1 scenario.

Sorry, I really am that juvenile; it hat to be done

Reztek.7805:

Zephyrus.9680:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

roaming is, in essence, the art of avoiding fights you will lose and pursuing fights you will win.

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Speak for yourself. For me it’s the art of finding good fights. Good meaning challenging. So I’ll generally leave uplevels alone and obvious zergers like staff eles.

Your 2nd claim is only true after bloodlust and one of the reasons I don’t WvW anymore.

Also, most 1v1s are boring, until recently my build was optimized for 1vX rather than 1v1. I would rather push my limits with 1v2s, 1v3s, even 1v4s, 2vx etc… while dying most of the time. But ok that’s my idea of fun.

Pushing your limits versus X, not so obvious (but still zerger builds), and avoiding challenging 1vs1 builds (sPvP) —-> Check.

Good troll. What I mean is that there are so few 1v1s that were challenging or fun that I just switched into a more AoE/sustain build because the real fights were 1vsX. Pretty much the only 1v1 I’ll disengage from is a good condition necro because there’s about 0% chance of me beating one. Why would I care what builds they’re running 1vsX? Going to be a fun fight anyway.

Also it’s amusing that you think sPvP builds are the strongest 1vs1 builds in WvW.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Jayne.9251:

I’ve run into a number of Second Law guys who if you are out and get into a 1v1, they only hit you till downed and then run off. It so impressed me that I go out of my way to do the same any time I’m 1v1d with any of them. Was a nice standard to set and I hadn’t seen that prior to running into them.

I don’t really get that. It seems needlessly cruel.. if you weren’t there to really defeat him, let the poor guy do his thing in peace.

It’s like mugging a guy but not taking his wallet after you stab him.

It’s a respect thing from fight clubs. If you have a good fight, bow or salute and move on. Sometimes that player will party req and you’ll get some more fun duels that way.

Zephyrus.9680:

GrandmaFunk.3052:

seeking fairness is pointless since a 1vs1 where both parties have stat equilibrium will happen just about never.

Your 2nd claim is only true after bloodlust and one of the reasons I don’t WvW anymore.

So for the first 12 months of the game, all your battles were always against L80 with full exotics, ascended trinkets, food buff and mech buff?

get real, the majority of WvW characters out on the field do not even have 100% BiS

1. Enter WvW.
2. Food buffs
3. Roam. I get corruption/bloodlust/perception stacks as I get them, cbf to stack them most of the time.

Jayne.9251:

Were you one of the ones I had a duel with last week when we were matched hihey?

Maybe! But if you were to tell me your server and the class you were using (along with the race and sex) I might recall more I “duel” with a lot of people, so it’s hard for me to keep track of them.

I agree with oZii: I like WvW roaming because you never know what’s going to happen. All this incertainty, along with the risk of getting killed if you are too focused on your fight to notice a zerg incoming, is what makes WvW roaming more entertaining than sPvP duels.
Not only that: I personally don’t like WvW “scheduled” duels: I am using an all-purpose build, which enables me to kill the majority of classes while surviving even the hardest encounter. And that’s why I use that in WvW.
In scheduled duels, most people change their traits and skills in order to fit their opponent. And that is not the WvW spirit, not for me at least. That’s why I don’t usually accept duels unless I’m really, really bored: I prefer to pick my opponents and duel with them along the way. And if you are a Staff Guardian, shame on you for roaming with a support build.

I’m not a white knight. I simply enjoy being respectful to my opponents, especially those who willingly engage in an open field fight rather than going back and forth from their tower/camp.

hihey.1075:

Jayne.9251:

Were you one of the ones I had a duel with last week when we were matched hihey?

Maybe! But if you were to tell me your server and the class you were using (along with the race and sex) I might recall more I “duel” with a lot of people, so it’s hard for me to keep track of them.

lol you trying to pick me up! O.o

Sylvari, Piken, mesmer .. remember I was asking for duels last week in our match thread? Had quite a few scheduled ones and a couple of impromptu ones, wondered if it was you

Lert.6287:

Go roam – watch potentially good action destroyed by zerg.

Sadly, yeah! No amount of food or the much maligned Bloodlust is gonna help with that.

I’ve also only met one honourable enemy, in all my time roaming. I therefore don’t fight fair myself, and will even stoop to emotes when meeting particularly annoying enemies. With my old fingers and slow PC, if I happen to stomp the annoyance, I’ll even emote-camp the corpse for a while. If I’m out-“manned,” but holding my own I’ll even stop fighting to /laugh just before they down me. If the fight was good, I’ll stomp and /bow as a sign of respect.

If it’s an obvious noob or uplevel, I’ll /wave and be on my way. If they still attack, see the previous paragraph.

Kontrolle.3514:

Dire gear isnt that greate at all, a lot builds/classes out there are stronger with apothecary gear^^

Actually it is. Dire is a cheap armor set that hardens a target against direct and condition damage while amplifying condi damage. It also has CD as its primary stat which is very nice.

I am not saying Apoth isn’t good on some builds as it clearly is, but by comparison Apoth armor has CD as a secondary attribute and requires a build to take the healing stat. The healing stat point for point is not as good as either toughness or vitality in most builds. Healing is best used on builds that have a lot of toughness and condition management which makes it somewhat limited.

Preparing my roaming sesion – mango pies and maintenance oils, get one stun breaker and repair armor (if damaged). Otherwise just ignore bloodlust/guard buffs (i don’t have them) and hope i don’t run into a stunlock party or the zerg.