Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I’m returning to gw2 and wanting to give WvW a good try this time around. I was wondering if someone could tell me what class is a strong solo roamer class to play in WvW. It seems like everyone says every class has something wrong with it. I was just wondering if someone could let me know a class to play that i could level up and have success killing yak escourts taking over camps etc. Thanks for your help.

Ele, Thief, or Ranger. Ranger is very potent in 1v1 if built correctly with a skilled player behind it, just know that you NEED a sword or greatsword to roam with it. Ele would be the strongest imo.

Edit: You are upscaled, probably not the best idea to roam then as any nonupscale with half of a brain will defeat you while kitten.

Going to have a rough time soloing camps underleveled.

IMO, probably roll ranger or thief:
Ranger:
-Has long range :P
-A great ally
-Traps extremely useful for yaks and camps

Thief:
-Has stealth
-Best mobility in the game
-High damage
-Good defense (NOTE: only if spec’d right. Do not run a 25/30/X build and expect to have good defense)
-Has stealth
-Has stealth
-Has stealth

EDIT: also, as Ind said, ele is a great choice (NOT staff ele). I would probably put them in order as

Thief > Ele > Ranger

I’m really conflicted between thief and ele though… Ugh. Two great roaming classes. :P I think it’ll have to come down to which one you prefer.

Scumbag Mawile.6384:

Going to have a rough time soloing camps underleveled.

^ also, this.

when you say a sword or greatsword do you mean that for a ranger?

Perfecthair.4190:

when you say a sword or greatsword do you mean that for a ranger?

Yes.

What do you guys think about engineers for a roaming class in wvw?

You can solo roam with any class.

Just some really cant get away from a zerg

I have been solo roaming my new mesmer and been having fun doing it. I don’t think it matters what class you have, they all have good and bad points, you should just pick the one you find most fun.

TallDan.6350:

I have been solo roaming my new mesmer and been having fun doing it. I don’t think it matters what class you have, they all have good and bad points, you should just pick the one you find most fun.

Honestly, this is probably the best suggestion.
I think that some classes have better solo specs than others do, but your playstyle might make, say, your guardian a better roamer than an ele would be. Anyways, you should be playing to have fun. Pick which class you like most, and we can help you from there to develop a soloing build. c:

All classes can roam but the easier one are probably thief and D/D ele. I say them b/c they can get away from zergs pretty good.

The classes that are generally considered to be the best roamers are the ele and the thief. The engineer and the mesmer also get an honorable mention in my opinion since these two are can be very good at 1vX fights vs players, but they lack the easy escape skills if you have too many show up or a raid comes by.

I’ve roamed on all of my classes listed in my signature area, I have the most fun on mesmer so I play it exclusively now.. but I think any class if played properly can roam the same as any other.

Thief. The reasons were explained by Arganthium.
The point is that only a thief can avoid easily zergs (obviously others can do it sometimes, but not as easy and frequently as thieves).
Anyone can practice roaming but thieves will avoid them very easily with a proper build.
Their survival in enemy field alone is much bigger than any other class.

Best regards,

Haltair, one of the Twelve Shadows

thieves also have good utilities like ambush, caltrops, shadow refuge and thieves guild which helps a lot when soloing camps. Once finished swap back to your stealth build, jobs a goodun.

Perfecthair.4190:

What do you guys think about engineers for a roaming class in wvw?

As a roaming engi player,y ou can build an engi to win 1 vs 1 or carry small scale fights… but you have no mobility, you have to know what you can engage and what you can’t beforehand, it takes experience and practice to know that (and if you get caught out, you die).
A thief or ele on the other hand is much more forgiving for a roamer- high mobility gives them the ability to escape when fights are going badly, you can afford to make mistakes as them and still do pretty well vs making a mistake on an engi (you will die)
Hope that helps a little

Roaming is not only about avoiding zergs. Its also very important to kill + stomp your enemies fast enough. If your fights last forever you wont kill anyone most the the times. Because chances are good that more players engage your fight the longer it takes.

DD Ele is great for avoiding zergs, but he deals mediocre damage. You wont kill any decent enemy fast. So at the end you will just trolling around while achieving nothing.

Thieves are great both in avoiding zergs AND killing fast enough to go in and out.

Warriors also have decent mobility + deal massive damage, but they are not that good in 1vs2+ because of missing protection/ regen/ blinds/ stealth and stuff like that.

Engineers are great for roaming and soloing camps while underlvled.

Mesmer. Killing people with a confusion build just feels like trolling. Yeah, some people know how to fight you, but they’re few and far between, and some will run away. But everyone who stays to spam their skills at you is as good as dead before the fight starts.

On top of that, the build is great in a zerg vs zerg. The enemy usually either blasts away, getting destroyed by confusion, burns all of their condition clears in the first 5 seconds of the fight allowing your zergs’ other condition builds to wreck them, or tries not to attack during the confusion, allowing your zerg to freely attack them without facing retaliation.

D/D Elem are mostly good at avoiding attacks and flee. They are hard to kill but they wont kill anyone with a resilient build or a brain. But if you like to fly solo and be able to take down low level clothies and run away its good.

Anything with an escape. As been stated many times, any class can solo. Honestly, in my opinion, all you need is a decent escape and experience with whatever profession you chose. Obviously some classes have better escapes than others but just like in any game, the more experienced player seems to win.

if u like be a coward, ur choise is thief or ele. just see if they can beat some1 in 1v1, they just run away. 0 respect for enemy
if u like be a real true man!!!oneone!!!! pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape. but in battle u can learn how to be a good player and kill 2 or 3 against u

drongas.4189:

pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape.

Xirin.8593:

drongas.4189:

pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape.

he can escape when centaur/air rune with phase retreat, teleport, MI and decoy but not all mesmers use it.

have and thief and ele. boring allways w/o deaths. and its not trolling:P

When I roll in my roaming group, its usually:

3 thieves
2 mesmers

OR

4 thieves
1 mesmer

We can basically take on loosely organized groups 2-3x our size as we both have great stealthy builds with some survivability. Stacking confusion + thieves ganging a couple of targets works wonders.

drongas.4189:

he can escape when centaur/air rune with phase retreat, teleport, MI and decoy but not all mesmers use it.

drongas.4189:

pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer

It’s also pretty hard to drive a nail into wood if you choose not to pick up the hammer.

Mesmers escape skills and mobility is one of the games strongedt, we have amazing trolling abilitys, safe stomp metods and enought dmg / survival to take on most situations.

/Osicat

You can roam as an eng with perma-swiftness on kits.

Engineer can roam pretty well and is reasonable at soloing camps if you do a bomb spec with perma-swiftness from kit switching. Bomb kit + double pistols will give you two glue traps to help throw off pursuers. Slick shoes will get a thief off your back and let you run (briefly) while chilled/crippled. Thrown Elixir U just in front of you will give you a wall of reflection or absorption to run through.

It’s not as good as a thief but it’s viable. I can usually escape a zerg as long as I notice them before 20 people are on top of me.

Perfecthair.4190:

Hey guys, I’m returning to gw2 and wanting to give WvW a good try this time around. I was wondering if someone could tell me what class is a strong solo roamer class to play in WvW. It seems like everyone says every class has something wrong with it. I was just wondering if someone could let me know a class to play that i could level up and have success killing yak escourts taking over camps etc. Thanks for your help.

Engineer. P/P engineer will roll almost any other build 1v1 and often 1vX if you’re good at it. As an engineer it is harder to escape than with a thief, but imho the combat ceiling is higher for an engineer than it is for a thief.

If the engineer isn’t your cup of tea (it isn’t most people’s) then go for a thief, its highly played for a reason – its easy to do above average with and it is very forgiving because of stealth (especially if you’re not full glass cannon).

Building a flanking group with friends of mostly thieves and rangers. Insane AE with thief shortbow + fire runes. Piercing shots with bleeds. Large AE Snares. Insane burst healing. Lots of group utility with AE blinds, AE roots, AE DPS, AE stealth. Strong escapes in swoop, stealth, etc. Each has a very powerful bunker build. Everyone has passive 25% movement signet if needed. Each can solo camps effectively.

As someone above said though, all that matters ooc movement speed options and a viable escape skill. Can’t go wrong with Thief, Ele, Ranger as these are your typical roaming gankers.

Now if you want a roaming brawler who dives in never dies and forces others to run? Mesmer all the way.

Ranger is good for solo/small skirmishes, but many feel they aren’t good for much else. I have yet to get past lvl 3 on any other class because I’m just lazy when it comes to lvling up, but it’s my impression that Ranger is at or near the bottom when it comes to versatility. In other words, you could pick another class that would do a number of things quite well, rather than just a few.

This biggest problem with the Ranger is a substantial part if your damage is supposed to come from your pet, but it’s squishy (unless you put a lot of points into Beast Mastery) and stupid, and good players normally just avoid its damage.

Not trying to derail this into another Ranger qq thread, just stating what many others have already observed about the class, and my own experience.

drongas.4189:

if u like be a coward, ur choise is thief or ele. just see if they can beat some1 in 1v1, they just run away. 0 respect for enemy
if u like be a real true man!!!oneone!!!! pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape. but in battle u can learn how to be a good player and kill 2 or 3 against u

I’m a mesmer and could probably escape very easily lol. I personally like to stay and fight unless it’s too big of a group lol. I feel like any class could get away if they’re good enough and utilize their strong points. I do agree that most thieves are annoying but most stay and fight until they did their 2 seconds of burst and die lmao

As you define roaming to be solo yak/camps, I think thief. If things go bad, you stealth, go off, and restart.

When thief is roaming and the zerg happens by, thief can slip off. Thief also has a nice role of scouting locations and coming out alive. Scouts are not of much use if they get spotted and stomped.

While Ranger can take down camps easier, thief can slip off if things go badly or the enemy shows up.

Thief is THE roaming class. Second one would be Ele, but this is way superior.

Necromancer solo roam!!!! Level one up an feel my pain.

Can someone link the most OP build they can think of please? I’m mainly looking for something that doesn’t require me to make use of team work or communicate and will be so disgustingly overpowered that my enemies will vomit all over there keyboard before they have a chance to react to me. Thanks in advance.

-Sincerely casual mmo player who is waiting for the next wow update.

Omne.4603:

Can someone link the most OP build they can think of please? I’m mainly looking for something that doesn’t require me to make use of team work or communicate and will be so disgustingly overpowered that my enemies will vomit all over there keyboard before they have a chance to react to me. Thanks in advance.

-Sincerely casual mmo player who is waiting for the next wow update.

In my personal opinion look into the following:
- shatter confusion memser (can take on 2-3 medium skilled people easily)
- shattercat mesmer (can burst one person really really fast)
- DD ele (Free roam, never die)
- HGH engi (high utility and might)
- Confusion engi (high utility and condition damage)

I personally don’t find thiefs that effective especially with culling removed.

Which of these lets me spam 1 to win? I need that one.

Omne.4603:

Which of these lets me spam 1 to win? I need that one.

If you’re trolling… well done.

If not, you are asking the wrong question. If you are looking for a an easy OP class, and don’t invest the time to understand your class and other classes you will loose. No matter how OP (real or perceived) the build is.

Combine the HGH and Confusion Engi.

Q: Whats a strong WvW roamer class to roll?

A: Thief

Nuff said

MrChandMan.8253:

Q: Whats a strong WvW roamer class to roll?

A: Thief

Nuff said

Agreed. But not the only ones.

What I’ve mostly learned from this thread is people do not understand how to play ranger.

No escapes? Lightning reflexes? GS#3? 1hs#2? Shared anguish/hide in plain sight?

Its absolutely amazing to me anyone who has played ranger extensively say they aren’t good 1v1. I excell in small skirmishes and 1v1 its extremely rare I get put down.

Learn how to play the class before you put it down. At least two different thieves I dueled yesterday were asking about my build because they’ve never seen ranger played that way.

I won’t delve into specifics here but PM me if you want any info. I’m full bunker with canines running only melee weapons for small group play, its stupid hard to hit me.

Linkisdead.9647:

What I’ve mostly learned from this thread is people do not understand how to play ranger.

Good Rangers are a pain to fight. They’re up there with bunker-style Engis, etc. Just hard to put down.

I think the issue is that most Rangers don’t even know their own class. Seems like almost every Ranger in WvW uses LB almost exclusively. My guess is that LB+SB Ranger appeals to a lot of players due to the ease of play (you see a lot of threads asking “What class should I play if I’m not good at video games?” Ranger is always the most suggested due to pet tank + ranged attack). You don’t even see Warhorn+1h anymore after the Signet of the Hunt buff.

I’m always shocked when a Ranger doesn’t swap to a melee weapon when you’re right on top of them. They keep spamming LB while trying to frantically turn to keep up with strafing and dodges. That might even be a reason why GS/Sword Rangers are so hard to fight for many people…they’re so rare that no one has much experience fighting them.

drongas.4189:

if u like be a coward, ur choise is thief or ele. just see if they can beat some1 in 1v1, they just run away. 0 respect for enemy
if u like be a real true man!!!oneone!!!! pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape. but in battle u can learn how to be a good player and kill 2 or 3 against u

That’s not being a “real true man”, that’s just being ridiculous.

“lol better face an entire army with my profession that’ll die within the first 5 seconds of combat!”

Linkisdead.9647:

What I’ve mostly learned from this thread is people do not understand how to play ranger.

No escapes? Lightning reflexes? GS#3? 1hs#2? Shared anguish/hide in plain sight?

Its absolutely amazing to me anyone who has played ranger extensively say they aren’t good 1v1. I excell in small skirmishes and 1v1 its extremely rare I get put down.

Learn how to play the class before you put it down. At least two different thieves I dueled yesterday were asking about my build because they’ve never seen ranger played that way.

I won’t delve into specifics here but PM me if you want any info. I’m full bunker with canines running only melee weapons for small group play, its stupid hard to hit me.

Finally the class gets the attention it deserves.. I’m a pure ranger (don’t have that many other characters at lvl 80 even) and roam a lot in WvW..

I always have a shortbow equipped, but when not in combat, I use warhorn (speed buff), quickly switching to greatsword (GS#3 = speedy). And should I then get into unexpected combat, I have at least my GS and SB..
When entering expected combat, the secondary weapon is the LB. Why? It works perfectly against those stealthy types we encounter nowadays. When a thief goes in stealth, just barrage his shadow refuge or barrage around you (so he won’t come to backstab you that easily). LB#4 is awesome to keep melee at range, and then switching back to SB you can bleed, cripple, poison, evade and gain swiftness, confuse/interrupt..

Needless to say I’m a Power/Precision/Cond dmg build? And I don’t get downed that often in 1v1 (or 1v2). Of course, much depends on the skills of the opponent, undoubtful..

Also, capping camps is done in 2 minutes at most. Especially important when roaming, you don’t want to show those crosses around the camp icon for too long, hence reinforcements might arrive and bring you down..

Yeah, I love my ranger..

Tribio.8531:

Linkisdead.9647:

What I’ve mostly learned from this thread is people do not understand how to play ranger.

No escapes? Lightning reflexes? GS#3? 1hs#2? Shared anguish/hide in plain sight?

Its absolutely amazing to me anyone who has played ranger extensively say they aren’t good 1v1. I excell in small skirmishes and 1v1 its extremely rare I get put down.

Learn how to play the class before you put it down. At least two different thieves I dueled yesterday were asking about my build because they’ve never seen ranger played that way.

I won’t delve into specifics here but PM me if you want any info. I’m full bunker with canines running only melee weapons for small group play, its stupid hard to hit me.

Finally the class gets the attention it deserves.. I’m a pure ranger (don’t have that many other characters at lvl 80 even) and roam a lot in WvW..

I always have a shortbow equipped, but when not in combat, I use warhorn (speed buff), quickly switching to greatsword (GS#3 = speedy). And should I then get into unexpected combat, I have at least my GS and SB..
When entering expected combat, the secondary weapon is the LB. Why? It works perfectly against those stealthy types we encounter nowadays. When a thief goes in stealth, just barrage his shadow refuge or barrage around you (so he won’t come to backstab you that easily). LB#4 is awesome to keep melee at range, and then switching back to SB you can bleed, cripple, poison, evade and gain swiftness, confuse/interrupt..

Needless to say I’m a Power/Precision/Cond dmg build? And I don’t get downed that often in 1v1 (or 1v2). Of course, much depends on the skills of the opponent, undoubtful..

Also, capping camps is done in 2 minutes at most. Especially important when roaming, you don’t want to show those crosses around the camp icon for too long, hence reinforcements might arrive and bring you down..

Yeah, I love my ranger..

The problem with ranger is how boring they are. While I’m overstating it a little, they really don’t do much but run around in circles auto attacking. They do have very strong escapes though so I don’t know what others are complaining about. Swoop alone is amazing, but ranged snares, traps, and knockback/evade are all great. Only class able to escape better than a ranger would be an ele or thief.

Rangers I just feel are too dependent on condition damage and bunker builds. Even if you went all glass and acknowledged you’d be 2 shot by everyone, they still don’t gain any real damage for doing it. Only option is like full apothecary regen bunker builds while running around auto-attacking.