Guild Wars 2

RlyOsim.2497:

Prysin.8542:

Lack of mobility is not a huge deal aslong as the whole group sucks at mobility. However once one or more in the party is quicker then the rest, the party is doomed to fail

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Centaur
plus
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endless_Black_Quaggan_Tonic

perma-aoe-swiftness

People still use this? I find using food/stone every 30mins bothersome, centaur/tonic set up would kill any fun in the game for me.

Jayden Ennok.3687:

RlyOsim.2497:

Prysin.8542:

Lack of mobility is not a huge deal aslong as the whole group sucks at mobility. However once one or more in the party is quicker then the rest, the party is doomed to fail

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Centaur
plus
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endless_Black_Quaggan_Tonic

perma-aoe-swiftness

People still use this? I find using food/stone every 30mins bothersome, centaur/tonic set up would kill any fun in the game for me.

i use them in a mesmer in a 5 havok group. id rather have to click that tonic every 15s and have my fellow havokers in full dps builds than have to worry about swiftness among us. that said i definitely hear your point, it is a hassle, personal preference thing

RlyOsim.2497:

Prysin.8542:

Lack of mobility is not a huge deal aslong as the whole group sucks at mobility. However once one or more in the party is quicker then the rest, the party is doomed to fail

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Centaur
plus
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endless_Black_Quaggan_Tonic

perma-aoe-swiftness

Better solution
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBhOD7kRF6F0KWwfF4axAaCVvA47nWqu7gk9hP4XqH-TVCHAB3pEs5DCAAPAA30Bokyv10ME0+DGcFAQU9nAAIA7cnpz6M4oH9oH9oHt7bf7bf7bfSB81yI-w

This ranger build has so much stability that it can almost walk half a borderland before it runs out (47, 5 sec total). It has perma aoe swiftness, regeneration ticking for around 295/sec for allies. It has aoe vigor, aoe condi clear, water field, blast finisher and it can maintain perma 25 stacks of might on a BM pet (bird can burst for around 6-8k on squishes), and around 15 stacks on itself. Maul does around 4, 5k against zerk thief.

But for funz, stack drake with 25 might and fury then use F2. Seen it do over 12k to a zerk staff ele before. Drake is slow, but destroys camps due to its F2 being a bouncing attack that hits hard.

wew my first post on the forums after 2 years in the game, here it goes

since you chose ele and engi, i’d say engi offers the best high risk options for what you are looking do to (cele engi/ele are very strong, but medium risk at best)
i suggest running someting like VeeWees roaming build, similar to this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUpErlcxvLseRCbBNqxAqNIyOWlPfgAkUA-T1hHABFp8jn9HA4EA0megFV/JgHAAUKBJFAMLrA-w

key points of the build are extreme aoe condition pressure and medium sustain/mobility to handle outnumbered situations
it does have some hard counters (necro, high condition pressure, cc chains), thats why i would still classify it as high risk

problem with ele is, most high risk options (usually berserker based builds with fresh air) are countered by thief, which is bad for wvw roaming

also let me tell you a bit about typical wvw roaming:

• you will spend most of your time running around, flipping camps, sentries and mercenaries, avoiding the enemy zerg or getting zerged
• most enemies you kill will be either alone (mainly thiefs), running to their zerg, trying to run away in general, have builds optimized for zerging or are inexpereinced pvpers. all of them should be relatively easy to handle for your group, if you are as good as you think you are
• fights against experienced pvpers will always be hard no matter what and outnumbered fights you can actually win will be rare

this is just to show you that if you want to be an actually useful wvw roamer that helps your server, you dont have to worry about fighting as much. there are enough things you can do with your group no matter what classes you pick.

if you’re especially looking for outnumbered fights tho try defending supply camps (anywhere) or towers (low populated areas)

this is all just my experience ofc, others might disagree

In a duo scenario, duo thieves is pretty nasty and me and my thief buddies haven’t really encountered anything we can’t handle. I like ele for anything that isn’t mostly all thief. Despite the nerfs, their turn around is fantastic, and the nerf really just brought the big nerfs down by about 200 damage. Literally did nothing, and Lightning whip was a buff.
If you are roaming with anything other than thief or PU mesmer, I would recommend ele. D/D usually is not focused first because they are so annoying and have fantastic healing capabilities.
Engineer is good too, and if your group already has an ele, engineer is great for multi target conditions. Engineer and elementalist may be more difficult professions (ele especially) but they have a very high skill cap.
I know I will get hated on for this, but I don’t personally find ranger the best in small group unless the ranger is very very good. I think I’ve fought one like that. Overall, ranger isn’t the most group friendly profession, and where they are beneficial, they can be greatly outdone. HOWEVER, I would not say that I am opposed to rangers, I simply acknowledge that it takes a hell of a lot of skill for them to be in the upper tiers of roaming.

its more like a do or die type of thing when you roam with builds with low mobility.

TymX.8017:

-Axe-Dagger/Sword-Torch condi Ranger

As a ranger main, there is nothing more boring and overrated then condi ranger.
Try longbow + sword/XXX, where XXX is situational weapon. And you can 1v1 any1 who ever you desire, rangers are underrated. Sword and XXX brings a lot of mobility to ranger, and will separate a good ranger from bad one very fast.

I like to use 3 pets:
~ Wolf > fear skill
~ Spider > immobilize skill
~ Lynx > damage spike (if i know that i will not have trouble i replace spider with Lynx)

Always using longbow for berzerker build.

Situational 2nd set sword/XXX vs:
sword/dagger ~ thief, mesmer, warrior, guardian, necro, engie
sword/axe ~ ranger, ele

If you prefer shorbow builds, you can check trapper build.

oscuro.9720:

I know I will get hated on for this, but I don’t personally find ranger the best in small group unless the ranger is very very good. I think I’ve fought one like that. Overall, ranger isn’t the most group friendly profession, and where they are beneficial, they can be greatly outdone. HOWEVER, I would not say that I am opposed to rangers, I simply acknowledge that it takes a hell of a lot of skill for them to be in the upper tiers of roaming.

This is very true, if ranger does not know how to react perfectly he’s dead, if they focus ranger, and he does not kite long enough, huge spike of a group is gone with it. Rangers are underrated, specially now where words did spread mouth to mouth about rangers how “bad” and “none-supportive” they are.. but no one did really check the patch-notes:) I still agree with you that ranger requires more skill then any other class, because ranger is the class that does not forgive mistakes, one cooldown and you are gone if enemy takes that advantage.

Ranger is good for roaming and havoc groups up to 15 players. Meaning, ONE ranger can have a noticeable effect on groups up to 15 people. They can do this either through boon support (protection spirit, shouts and warhorn), ressing (elite spirit/broken shout), or sheer DPS in the form of condi or direct damage nukes.

However, ranger relies heavily on cooldowns as it does not have excessive number healing skills such as other professions.
The day that ranger gets a reliable secondary heal on a reasonable cooldown that is not its healing skill, then the ranger will be near perfect.

Incase you wonder what i am talking about, its stuff like Mug on thief, healshout on warriors, guardian F2/meditations/AH, ele waterdagger 5/evasive arcana, engi kits/elix gun 5. Stuff that in itself is not stronger then the heal, but allow you to prolong your usage of healing skills by a few seconds, or restore some HP after being spiked right after healing.

Strongest possible build if played to the highest skill level when roaming is P/D thief, hands down. You can 1v2, and 1v3 fairly regularly, with the occasional 1v4. You should never lose a 1v1. The amount of conditions being put out + stealth + SA heals is extremely powerful.

Doomdesire.9365:

Strongest possible build if played to the highest skill level when roaming is P/D thief, hands down. You can 1v2, and 1v3 fairly regularly, with the occasional 1v4. You should never lose a 1v1. The amount of conditions being put out + stealth + SA heals is extremely powerful.

Sadly, probably correct. Although I daresay you might have some issues going up against a regen/condi ranger running LB and s/d. With rapid fire tracking through stealth and the might stacking potential, plus the insane regen, you’ll end up with 20 stacks of vuln and 20 stacks of bleed + cripples, poison, torment, all sorts of crap that like p/d thief can be applied and reapplied in seconds that would be difficult to deal with.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Doomdesire.9365:

Strongest possible build if played to the highest skill level when roaming is P/D thief, hands down. You can 1v2, and 1v3 fairly regularly, with the occasional 1v4. You should never lose a 1v1. The amount of conditions being put out + stealth + SA heals is extremely powerful.

Sadly, probably correct. Although I daresay you might have some issues going up against a regen/condi ranger running LB and s/d. With rapid fire tracking through stealth and the might stacking potential, plus the insane regen, you’ll end up with 20 stacks of vuln and 20 stacks of bleed + cripples, poison, torment, all sorts of crap that like p/d thief can be applied and reapplied in seconds that would be difficult to deal with.

well played condi ranger in general is a though fight for a thief, mainly because the ranger can, and will, be able to reapply large numbers of damaging conditions faster then the thief can get rid of them, on the contrary, PD thief relies heavily on bleed stacking, and with the passive condi removal of rangers, a thief will have issues doing much to the ranger.

DP is stronger vs rangers due to backstab spikes, PD is weaker.

Again, build is all that matters, either you go with the right one, or the wrong one. There is a counter to almost every build in existence

I’m telling you condi ele is the strongest

You guys don’t read

I would agree with your assessment that thief is a no go, since enemies will be less likely to focus on you. The last thing you need is for your wife to get annoyed because the enemies focus on her while you are in stealth and when she dies you flee combat.

Engie looks good due since it has a lot of tricks, area effect abilities. Engies tend to get focused and they are good vs thieves.

As far as your wife goes, bearbow is the simplest (though I would replace the bear), though it is tougher to deal with a thief, never mind multiple enemies on those builds – but then again you have a lot of conditions. She could offer the ranged pressure so when they charge you, you and your friend can chew them up. Enemies will likely focus on her 1st though. Longbow ranger is also good vs mesmers and condition thieves.

She could also pick a condition build with regen which would make her a lot tankier and could provide your group with swiftness/regen if she takes Nature’s Voice trait as opposed Survival of the Fittest. In one sense this build is more forgiving due to the regen and higher armor, on the other hand you don’t get sit back and spam 2-1-1-1-1-2 as the build generally involves more frequent weapon swaps.

Trapper Ranger is usually found in a condition build. There’s no rule to say she has to run 3 traps. She can take 2 traps and 1 utility for survival.

Hands down PU Mesmers and Thiefs (perma stealth is quite good in evading attacks in 1vs5 or more… Solo always sucks unless you get a deer you can kill to get up again… i know 2 Thiefs who managed a 2vs10 once 2vs5 isn’t really special for them… so i say after all Thiefs are the best roamers stealth and their mobility makes them unkillable well played. And you cannot kite what you cannot see.

Since the OP is going to essentially be “babysitting” two others, I’m not sure Thief is the best choice given that one of a Thief’s greatest strengths is the ability to pick-and-choose their fights.

If he is “babysitting” two others, he won’t be able to do that unless he wants to just leave them to die.

Additionally, unless the two with him are going to provide perma-swiftness, the Thief is not aiding the group in the mobility department … further reducing their Trio’s ability to pick-and-choose their fights.

That being said … being able to Shadow Refuge your group can be nice.