Guild Wars 2

What classes are good for roaming?

Any you can play effectively.

Solo or Small Man ?

Some classes excel more then others when it comes to Solo mainly because they can escape zergs better, they are faster, and some just have everything including the Kitchen sink built into their class.

Small Manning works with any class and like larger organized grp play is more dependant on the grp’s comp.

Regardless of what feedback you get, I think all classes can be great at roaming. I’d try them all out and get a feel for what suits you.

I myself like minion master, though 99% of wvwers would never touch the build

Pretty much what Jeknar said. Classically roamers have been the professions with the best escape tools like stealth, blinks, leaps ect. I’d say the least I see are Power Necro/Reaper. That doesn’t mean you can’t outplay people on one though.

You can do well on 1vs1 on a necro/reaper but like said above, no escape after entering a combat and on 2vs1 you will die always of they r not brain dead. all other classes are good roamers with utilitys to ayrvive and escape outnumbered.

Well, I’m not going to pretend all professions are equal. Here’s where I think each profession stands for solo roaming (considering only meta/optimal builds).

Top Tier
Thief
Warrior
Mesmer

Mid Tier
Ranger
Engineer
Revenant
Elementalist
Guardian

Bottom Tier
Necromancer

Best: Druid, Dare Devil, Warrior, Mesmer, Scrapper

Worst: Necro

Everything else is probably going to get run over by numbers but works otherwise.

Make sure you buy the HoT expansion. Pay a little money to get an advantage against people who didn’t pay.

Different classes, different advantages.
Play what you want/like to play or you just gonna hate it anyhow.

Knowing what you are playing, what your opponents are playing and the map you are playing on are the 3 components to roaming. Average in all 3 will put you above many players in wvw. Being great in 2 of the 3 will make being amazing in the other not so necessary.

In short,
Know the enemy builds you are fighting and the map you are fighting on, you can pretty much roam with anything in wvw then. Checking an enemies food goes along way.

Everything said here is accurate but I’d also like to add -

Although Necromancer is a bottom tier roamer, being skilled with the profession and having strong map awareness can make it totally doable. Once upon a time I did a lot of solo roaming on Necromancer and I know there are others out there that enjoy doing it even now.

While it will struggle to survive during outnumbered fights, anything besides Thief and Mesmer will die anyway if the group fighting them is determined enough to run them down. I’ve seen (and been) plenty of nike Warriors with tons of mobility, Rangers with staff/GS, Engi’s with Sneak Gyro and Toss Elixir S, etc. be chased down until they’re dead no matter how far they run. On Necro it just means you don’t have to waste your time running for 5 minutes only to get killed anyway.

Also note that the borderlands are often much better for solo roaming due to being larger and less populated. If you plan to roam on a Necromancer, it’s a lot more forgiving to do so there than it is in EBG.

I’d say some of the lists given here are pretty accurate as well.

Thief, Mesmer, Warrior, Ranger, Engineer are all top tier.
Revenant, Elementalist, Guardian mid tier.
And of course Necromancer bottom tier.

Often with their elite specs of course, but note that the top tier roamers all have solid access to stealth and/or strong mobility.

Thief, with quick reflexes, can disengage from anything at will. If you find yourself overwhelmed, you always have the option to gtfo and 90% of the time you’ll survive. That said, you should place discipline over survival if you ever plan to improve. Sometimes dying and learning something is better than running away.

Warrior stands out in that it fares quite well against pretty much anything. There aren’t really any builds that you’re going to have an uphill battle against if you choose to play Warrior. That’s not to say that it’s OP or better than Thief, just that it’s versatile.

Glassy Mesmer played well is an amazingly dangerous opponent that can total even bunker builds. It’s not as commonly seen as condition Mesmer but both and the many variants in between are very strong roamers.

Everything else is kind of second best compared to these 3 but are still absolutely relevant if played properly. I know more than a few Rangers, Revenants, Guardians, Elementalists and yes even Necromancers that probably win more outnumbered fights than the top 3 meta roamers. Which just goes to show, skill and understanding will take you a lot further than meta, meta is just the lowest effort for the same success.