Guild Wars 2

I’m looking to start a new character for some wvw roaming. I’m sure all classes have their pros and cons when it comes to roaming, but are there any that just dominate? I tend to like the high burst style over sustained.

Burst roaming is the textbook thief. Some go so far as the argue thief’s the best at roaming overall, but I wouldn’t say others aren’t worth a shot.

Thieves are excellent roamers, especially P/D or D/P builds.
Condition mesmers are also great roamers, and elementalists, despite the nerfs are still pretty effective as well.

I like thieves, mesmers, and eles as roaming classes; though i could argue warrior.

Nothing as fun as engineer roaming!

Do whatever. You can make it work.

IMO, roamers need mobility, and so, I recommend thief, ele, and warrior. Although, with the current state of the ele, I’d just go thief or warrior.

well played eles are absolute beasts

To be good at roaming, a class needs:
-Out of combat mobility
-A lot of damage mitigation
-At least 2 escapes
-Enough stopping power to kill an enemy (at least if you plan to SOLO roaming).
The reason for all these things is so that you won’t be destroyed the moment you see a zerg coming while you’re fightning and so that you will not get killed if a random thief joins the fight and Basilisk/Backstabs you.

Considered all the above, I would rate classes in this way:

1-D/P Thief (a good D/P thief NEVER dies, has one of the best OOC mobility in the game and can disengage at will).
2-Warrior, both condi and stunlock (high mobility and escapes, high tankiness, high damage)
3-D/D Elementalist (above average ooc mobility, great escapes with FGS, high tankiness. But very low damage).
3 (on par witht the above) – Condi Engineer (above average ooc mobility, nice escape with rocket boots, average tankiness, high AoE condi damage)
5 – Any not zerker Ranger (high ooc mobility, average escapes, above average tankiness, could be specced for high condition damage or very high tankiness)
6 – Mesmer (worst ooc mobility in the game, bad escapes, good damage mitigation, very high damage)
7 – Guardian (average ooc mobility, below average escapes, very high damage mitigation, very bad damage dealer)
8 – Necro (average ooc mobility, bad escapes, below average damage mitigation, high damage).

It’s really difficult not to get killed as a mesmer or as a necro when things get bad, despite being able to deal a lot of damage. Mesmers COULD take on more opponent while searching for a way out, but in open field both these classes will die.
Guardians, despite being a lot tankier, have the same problem: almost no way to escape death if a zerg catches up with you, although you will be really hard to kill. Terrible for solo roaming as you won’t kill anything aside from upleveleds or kittened people who die to your Retailation.

Rangers could be either tanky (but with more escapes than guardians) or condi damage dealers (way less damage than necro/engis, but nice escapes). Average roaming class.

hihey.1075:

To be good at roaming, a class needs:
-Out of combat mobility
-A lot of damage mitigation
-At least 2 escapes
-Enough stopping power to kill an enemy (at least if you plan to SOLO roaming).
The reason for all these things is so that you won’t be destroyed the moment you see a zerg coming while you’re fightning and so that you will not get killed if a random thief joins the fight and Basilisk/Backstabs you.

Considered all the above, I would rate classes in this way:

1-D/P Thief (a good D/P thief NEVER dies, has one of the best OOC mobility in the game and can disengage at will).
2-Warrior, both condi and stunlock (high mobility and escapes, high tankiness, high damage)
3-D/D Elementalist (above average ooc mobility, great escapes with FGS, high tankiness. But very low damage).
3 (on par witht the above) – Condi Engineer (above average ooc mobility, nice escape with rocket boots, average tankiness, high AoE condi damage)
5 – Any not zerker Ranger (high ooc mobility, average escapes, above average tankiness, could be specced for high condition damage or very high tankiness)
6 – Mesmer (worst ooc mobility in the game, bad escapes, good damage mitigation, very high damage)
7 – Guardian (average ooc mobility, below average escapes, very high damage mitigation, very bad damage dealer)
8 – Necro (average ooc mobility, bad escapes, below average damage mitigation, high damage).

It’s really difficult not to get killed as a mesmer or as a necro when things get bad, despite being able to deal a lot of damage. Mesmers COULD take on more opponent while searching for a way out, but in open field both these classes will die.
Guardians, despite being a lot tankier, have the same problem: almost no way to escape death if a zerg catches up with you, although you will be really hard to kill. Terrible for solo roaming as you won’t kill anything aside from upleveleds or kittened people who die to your Retailation.

Rangers could be either tanky (but with more escapes than guardians) or condi damage dealers (way less damage than necro/engis, but nice escapes). Average roaming class.

A well spec’d/played Mesmer is one of the top roaming classes. Far superior to engis and rangers at least. Being able to chain 15+ seconds of stealth is a much more effective way to escape a zerg than anything else. If a zerg can see you then some if not all of them will chase you. The only thing you must do is make up for the lack of swiftness by running rune of the centaur or air.

NineOnine.4327:

hihey.1075:

To be good at roaming, a class needs:
-Out of combat mobility
-A lot of damage mitigation
-At least 2 escapes
-Enough stopping power to kill an enemy (at least if you plan to SOLO roaming).
The reason for all these things is so that you won’t be destroyed the moment you see a zerg coming while you’re fightning and so that you will not get killed if a random thief joins the fight and Basilisk/Backstabs you.

Considered all the above, I would rate classes in this way:

1-D/P Thief (a good D/P thief NEVER dies, has one of the best OOC mobility in the game and can disengage at will).
2-Warrior, both condi and stunlock (high mobility and escapes, high tankiness, high damage)
3-D/D Elementalist (above average ooc mobility, great escapes with FGS, high tankiness. But very low damage).
3 (on par witht the above) – Condi Engineer (above average ooc mobility, nice escape with rocket boots, average tankiness, high AoE condi damage)
5 – Any not zerker Ranger (high ooc mobility, average escapes, above average tankiness, could be specced for high condition damage or very high tankiness)
6 – Mesmer (worst ooc mobility in the game, bad escapes, good damage mitigation, very high damage)
7 – Guardian (average ooc mobility, below average escapes, very high damage mitigation, very bad damage dealer)
8 – Necro (average ooc mobility, bad escapes, below average damage mitigation, high damage).

It’s really difficult not to get killed as a mesmer or as a necro when things get bad, despite being able to deal a lot of damage. Mesmers COULD take on more opponent while searching for a way out, but in open field both these classes will die.
Guardians, despite being a lot tankier, have the same problem: almost no way to escape death if a zerg catches up with you, although you will be really hard to kill. Terrible for solo roaming as you won’t kill anything aside from upleveleds or kittened people who die to your Retailation.

Rangers could be either tanky (but with more escapes than guardians) or condi damage dealers (way less damage than necro/engis, but nice escapes). Average roaming class.

A well spec’d/played Mesmer is one of the top roaming classes. Far superior to engis and rangers at least. Being able to chain 15+ seconds of stealth is a much more effective way to escape a zerg than anything else. If a zerg can see you then some if not all of them will chase you. The only thing you must do is make up for the lack of swiftness by running rune of the centaur or air.

It’s a pretty good list, but I would move mesmers up the list to second place, IMO. They have bad mobility, but they do have a lot of tricks up their sleeves to escape when running a heavy stealth build.

I solo roam on Guardian all the time. It’s pretty fun and fairly successful. Of course, your success might depend on how you define it… seeing as pretty much every other class can just run away from you if they really want to.

Recursivision.2367:

Nothing as fun as engineer roaming!

This times 1,000.