Guild Wars 2

With this new patch confusing much of the trait, ferocity, and WvW system, I am curious what everyone would rank as the most dominating of roaming classes, in general.

If there will even be much of a change at all.

Edit: And what I mean by WvW changes having an effect on roamers is the fact that, with combined WvW Ranks, more players will have the option for the WvW guard buffs. While not terribly dominating, it could have a small effect, possibly.

Anything condition-based.

I imagine condi ele with that new earth grandmaster will be quite a joke.

I’m partial towards Engineer, but it depends on the person and I’m just biased.

Best roaming class is the thief with the mesmer as a close second.

Thief has great mobility, can evade large groups with stealth, resets fights at will and is a very strong duel class.

The mesmer is hands down the toughest dueling class in WvW. Other classes can hold their own but the condi-spam mesmer builds are heavy bunker, loads of stealth, constant stacks of condi, blocks and blinks. Their condi application is constant and a by product of them just staying away from an attacker.

Thief and Mesmer are the best for roaming atm.

and certain warrior specs. Best straight line escape speed and can be specced for either good damage or strong condi + heal.

1. PU Mesmer
   Why? → Hands down the most frustrating class to fight. Mistakes on your side is heavily punished, mistake on the mesmers side is hardly ever punished.

1. Condi Thief
   Why? → most people expect a zerker 22222 DD thief. The condition spam throw them off their game and instead of being “in it for the long run” most people still think they can spike the thief down. They cannot.

1. BM Condi regen bunker Ranger
   Why? → Now with more healing then ever before. More durable pets. A pet that does what it is supposed to, when it is supposed to. This patch increased pet reliability and responsiveness to such a degree that it is hard to compare them to the pre-patch pets. Pets are now in a whole new league. You can trust them doing what you want, instead of praying that they may do it someday soon.
   Add this ontop of the well proven combination of heavy direct damage + strong condition application from a very evasive, mobile and fast healing class and you are in for a rough ride. BM Bunker running 0/2/0/6/6 will be the wildcard of solo roaming. The build is also very capable in small size havoc (1 ranger in a group up to 10 players)

I played full zerk Thief before patch with 10 30 30 0 0.
After patch I’m still using full zerk but with 30 10 30 0 0.

If I’m being completely honest, yes my DPS MAY be less (I haven’t properly checked yet) but I’m still getting great burst. still hitting 6k Cloak and Dagger, 8k+ backstabs. I’m more than happy to continue roaming on it.

With the new grandmaster trait in the Deadly Arts line, I get 3.3k~ power when I backstab from stealth and for a few seconds after. Still hitting for near 3k auto attack on dagger aswell.

style.6173:

and certain warrior specs. Best straight line escape speed and can be specced for either good damage or strong condi + heal.

Ehh… warriors are decent roamers but out classed by both thieves and mesmers. The problem with the warrior is that going with escape works against overall damage in most cases. Both thieves and mesmers get stronger by focusing on escape at least in the better roaming builds. Warriors are a far better anchor class though and perform outstandingly well in skirmish/large group play.

As for Rangers… they are still bottom of the barrel. They don’t have much escape capability when a fight turns at least not without a herculean effort with the sword, low condi removal, little ability to reset a fight and the apply conditions well below most other condi-bunker class builds. If this class is on your list, might as well roll the warrior and get a better overall designed class.

Straegen.2938:

style.6173:

and certain warrior specs. Best straight line escape speed and can be specced for either good damage or strong condi + heal.

Ehh… warriors are decent roamers but out classed by both thieves and mesmers. The problem with the warrior is that going with escape works against overall damage in most cases. Both thieves and mesmers get stronger by focusing on escape at least in the better roaming builds. Warriors are a far better anchor class though and perform outstandingly well in skirmish/large group play.

As for Rangers… they are still bottom of the barrel. They don’t have much escape capability when a fight turns at least not without a herculean effort with the sword, low condi removal, little ability to reset a fight and the apply conditions well below most other condi-bunker class builds. If this class is on your list, might as well roll the warrior and get a better overall designed class.

If condies is plaguing you run Survival of the Fittest and get 2 condies cleansed every 20 seconds + 7.5 sec fury every time you use muddy terrain. Use Lightning Reflexes and you get immob + 2 more condies cleansed. Use Entangle and you get 2 more condies cleansed.