Guild Wars 2

Haven’t played in a year and I am literally melting in seconds out there even with what used to be my goto builds.

I have every toon maxed except thief/ranger….what survivable class/build would you recommend in the current game? I want to be able to be helpful but live long enough to do something.

Well, there are several options. In the elementalist forum there was this little gem:

here if you want a viable “healer” try this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMISLDWzAWPAfEGQAwIfFaCLxwBgCwDQUKA-T1BBABPqEEgLAAq6Ag+BAEq6PAu/gYK/IFArCjA-w

this is a healing/vuln builld with some decent damage. you wont get kicked out of dungeons with this.

traits:

Fire:
V- there is nothing better to get in this line for a healing type build unless you want a cantrip build in that case you can use spell slinger to stack might.
VI- to boost damage in fire attune.
XII- boost damage as time goes on.

Air:

VI- boost damage to bosses mainly

Water:

II- great with arcane power. gives 15 stacks of vuln in total. and arcane wave gives aoe vuln also.
VI- Punishes stupid AI good damage booster
XIII- for healing….

Utilities/ Heal:

Heal:
Obviously one would take AB for the blast finisher.

Utilities:

AW- for blast finishing heals might etc.

AP- ensures crits and gives vuln.

FB- for damage

Other utilites:

Fire axe- great for might buff and can be used for leap/ blast finishes

Cantrips- if you decided to go cantrips which are mainly defensive you would need might on cantrip in the fire trait line.

Gear:

Staff- because its the best at healing

Sigils- renewal for teh healz and acc for a decent damage output.

Armor- the mix of magi for armor and clerics for trinks gives:
Healing
Tough
Vit
Prec
Pow

This mix would be the best for maximizing PVE style gameplay for your “healer/damge-er”

Runes:

Runes of Alt will give you more healing power and might/fury on using a heal skill which if you use as a finsher will give even more buffs.

food/oil is for prec stat to boost damage.

gl

It has some goos sustain and a decent amount of damage. Also look at necros. They have some great sustain while being able to dish out some decent damage as well. But largely it depends on what you are doing in WvW. Solo or group roaming? Following the zerg? Staying a defending objectives?

I would say that your best bet would be to check out the profession forums for the specific builds and professions. There are usually at least a thread or two for WvW builds for roaming, zerging, defending, etc.

Hopefully that helps.

Your question seems a bit broad. There’s many different aspects from solo roaming, havoc, small scale combat, large group fights. Large scale fights are still centered around the GWEN meta (Guardian, Warrior, Elementalist, Necromancer) and have specific builds for each class.

I would suggest checking out metabattle.com for more information. That website is a great resource of different builds for all aspects of the game.

just regular wvw pug zerging mainly, not committed to anything more than that atm. Never heard of metabattle, I will check that out.

Thank you for the elem advice as well, I enjoyed my elem before so will check that out too.

I would agree that it is highly dependent on what you are doing. In a zerg if you want to live, you will probably be relegated to a support role. I classify survivable warriors and guardians as “support” in a zerg since they act as the meat shields to protect the dps classes. I do run with a GS on my guard to get some licks in now and then, but staff and altruistic healing is your friend for surviving (and for your party to survive) as a guard.

Also, I’ve been told several times that healing power is a useless attribute but I found it makes a huge difference in survivability, esp. with regen builds.

And I’ve noticed that condi damage is becoming more prevalent in WVW so you need decent condi clearing and stability to live and fight. If you are being melted down, I’m guessing its because you are being stunned and bombed.

Condition builds are very common among roamers but they are absolutely useless in a zerg fight. If conditions are killing you in a zerg fight it’s because you either do not have a correct build or you are not avoiding damage. If you are playing melee you need to have condition reduction runes. The days of condition cleansing from guardians and warriors through the use of trooper runes is over. The best runes you can get for both classes are Hoelbrak runes. If those are too expensive and you are just a “PUG” I would suggest melandru.

If you play a guardian, you should be in the 00644 meta build in a party with another guardian doing the same. If you play a warrior, you should be in the 00464/00563 meta shout build (with hoelbrak or melandru runes) or running a 00644 stance build (still have FGJ for fury.)

If you are playing an ele or necro, your survivability comes from maintaining proper positioning. Elementalists who use the elemental attunement trait should get into parties with other elementalists using the trait. Necromancers should try to get into parties with at least two guardians and one warrior.

Due to the party member priority of boon sharing, it is very important to get into parties so you can receive boons.

I’m not going to get into guardian stab rotations but setting up a stability rotation within your party is extremely important. Also make sure you work out which guardian is using the Strength In Numbers trait and who will use purging flames first.

Through the proper use of condition reduction food (lemongrass), condition reduction runes (hoelbrak), and condition reduction utilities (purging flames) conditions won’t be a problem in a zerg fight. On top of all the condition reduction, warriors traited for quick breathing can remove crowd control conditions and convert conditions to boons. The Charge (warhorn #4) ability also affects up to 10 targets. This means not only your entire party, but five other people have crowd control conditions cleansed off them.

To add to survivability as a melee, you need to have an energy sigil on each weapon so you receive an extra dodge roll on weapon swap. It is import to know how to conserve your dodges so they are not wasted. Dodge rolling completely avoids incoming damage. Make sure you never dodge roll to try and catch up to your pin, always save your dodges to avoid damage.

Healing should come from blasting water fields and not the water field itself. This is why warriors use their hammer burst and warhorn #5 ability inside water fields. One of the reason why many guardians use a hammer over a greatsword is because of the low cooldown of the hammer blast finisher.

I see too many people with the, “well my build does this attitude.” It’s not what you do alone in a zerg fight, it’s what your entire group does together that matters. Guardians need to be weapon swapping and empowering together. Melee need to blast the same water field together. Necros need to be dropping their bombs together. It’s working together as a team that helps you survive fights and kill the enemy.

Well Crius, maybe I am too casual to enjoy WvW these days then. I do appreciate the guidance though. Seriously I just want to log in and have some stupid fun, I remember being able to do that before. Perhaps the game has passed me by.

Well, I only talked about zerg fights and how to survive covering GWEN meta classes. You’re not going to go toe-to-toe with an enemy melee train as a medi-guard, you will be dead on inc. It is perfectly fine to roam around and do small scale combat on a medi-guard.

Thieves have no place in a zerg fight however they are great to use for harassing the enemy backline. You should not have a shortbow out spamming #1 on the enemy melee train, you should be picking off that elementalist who gets out of position. Rangers since the infamous ranger patch have become one of the best hard counters to thieves. If you love playing a ranger, you can protect your backline from thieves (remember to sic ‘em.) If you don’t want to play the meta shout warrior build, you can play a backline destroyer and team up with your thief.

If zerg fights aren’t your thing there’s plenty of options available, whether you are a hardcore or casual player.

mako.2431:

Well Crius, maybe I am too casual to enjoy WvW these days then. I do appreciate the guidance though. Seriously I just want to log in and have some stupid fun, I remember being able to do that before. Perhaps the game has passed me by.

It is still very possible to be a casual player and enjoy WvW. I play a ranger mostly, and am very casual, and I have a heck of a fun time in WvW. But I have also spent some time experimenting with builds/trait setups and reading a lot on suggestions for my character. Just spend some time cruising the web looking at different suggestions for your character, and then don’t be afraid to mess around with some different builds until you find one that fits your playstyle. It doesn’t take that long, even for a casual player, and once you find something that works for you, it sure increases the fun factor.

Best of luck!

Pug / militia zergs will always have trouble surviving vs organized/guild zergs because of all the details listed above. If at all possible get in TS so you can hear your cmndr as he will call for water and the like and will help you avoid the bursts better.

If that isn’t possible, stick as close to the tag as you can and try to get general sense of the empowering/stability/attacking/healing cycle going on.

Back to your original question though; check out the meta builds for guard and warrior for survivability; My guard doesn’t win many 1v1 fights, but I don’t lose many either; It can be quite funny having 2-3 enemies trying to bring your guardian down as you slllllooowwwwly make your way to a safe point.

roaming I use the s/f earth build (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Diva-s-Condi-Signet-Build-Video-Added-1). I fought 4 guys last night and dropped 2 of them but was unable to stomp b4 they took me out. For the zerg I just switch to staff and play support.

mako.2431:

Well Crius, maybe I am too casual to enjoy WvW these days then. I do appreciate the guidance though. Seriously I just want to log in and have some stupid fun, I remember being able to do that before. Perhaps the game has passed me by.

Mako I know what you mean about just wanting to have some fun.

For what it’s worth, I’m a pretty average player when fighting other players, but I find that I live a lot longer running a bomb kit engineer with lots of blindness. I went 6/0/6/0/2 for traits, and used elixir-infused bombs which makes your bombs AoE heal. Also get the auto smoke bomb dispenser trait so that you drop a smoke bomb if you get CC’d.

For utility skills I use all gadgets.

This also gives you the minor trait that automatically recharges your healing (#6) skill when your health drops below 25%. This is one of the best minor traits in the game IMO.

Ranged enemies will still give you trouble with this build but you can tank melee enemies pretty well.

Plus, the bomb kit is just awesome.

My two cents.

Full pvt warrior with energy sigils. Sword/shield + gs double endure pain, doly sig, balanced+defiant stance + traited stability. Melandru runes+ condi food.
0/0/6/5/3 traits. If you die with that build you deserve it. When we fight against pug zergs i always se a dozen of this escape guys