Guild Wars 2

I’m tired of zerging and want to do some solo roaming. Any good classes that are good for roaming?

solo roaming has taken a bit hit with a lot of the changes auto upgrading and such has made it much harder. that being said I am still able to take camps with my Mesmer and with speed runes can get around quickly enough. Lots of stealth to avoid groups of roaming try-hards as well. Not sure what you are comfortable with but Mes takes a little time to get used to, but it does have it’s moments where it’s great.

I like the old bl’s better. Mes doesnt really suit my play style so I’ll give daredevil a try. You’re welcome to join me in netflix and chill, if you know what I mean

Ehhh, I’ve been seeing the following ranked from most sighted to least sighted:

DragonHunter
Reaper
Revenant
Tempest
Chronomancer

Daredevil with perma evade.

Druid zerk ranger. Pewpew like theres no tomorrow plus good heals. However roaming is quite dead after HoT’s launch so dont expect to get lots of fights like “we” had on old borderlands.

Um, to go with the current theme, I would say to bring a friend….

Just make sure he is on an opposing server. Ba Dum Tish

MithranArkanere.8957:

Jim Hunter.6821:

MithranArkanere.8957:

We need a series of NPC events to have something to do when there’s no other players, that are canceled if players do come.

No…… no we don’t. The PvE gimmicks and WvW being on auto pilot is a big part of why a bunch of us have quit roaming, the last thing we need is more of it.

Then you are calling ‘roaming’ to going around hunting lone players trying to get somewhere. That’s not roaming, that’s borderline griefing.

An actual roamer will take sentries, camps and other objectives with no walls, roam between those locations, scouting the routes between them, defend them from other roamers, and warn the map about larger groups. Not run around capturing where there’s nobody and avoiding each other like in some sort of convoluted musical chairs, or looking for newbies with a green arrow next to their level for easy targets like in some third rate mmo with PK enabled in starting zones.

But if there’s nothing going on in the locations you defend, you either go somewhere else, leaving your locations unprotected, or stay there doing nothing but wasting your time.

Leaving locations unprotected is not something that anything in WvW should encourage.

Waiting doing nothing is boring. And this is a game. And games are meant to be fun. So there should never any reason to wait doing nothing. There should always something to do.

But in a large scale map, you can’t be sure there will always be players everywhere. And you can’t disable the upgrades so the reason to be there is just pressing a button so it advances. That’s boring too.

So all that’s left to encourage players to stick in some place even if enemy players do not come is something else to do. And unless anyone can come up with something better, the only thing left are events against AI.

Giving a reason to stick to one place, when you arrive at an enemy point, it’ll be way more likely to have an actual fight because someone may be there. Then, when actual players come, the ‘PvE gimmick’ as you call it would simply go away like when remaining unfinished events fail when a meta-event advances, so players can focus completely on the enemy.

So killing other players in WvW is griefing and we should have more npc’s to fight……

Are you sure you wouldn’t just be happier in pve?

Benjaminmaz.3495:

I’m tired of zerging and want to do some solo roaming. Any good classes that are good for roaming?

Good roaming classes haven’t changed much. Classes you’ll bump into while solo roaming are mostly classes that can choose engagements, and have the option to disengage when they want to. Needless to say you’ll bump into thieves/daredevils and mesmers/chronos the most.

You’ll also bump into scrappers a lot, they’re a good 1v1 elite spec and have ways to disengage & reset fights. And Dragonhunters are aplenty, they’re good at killing unsuspecting, newish players who aren’t familiar with traps.

There are plenty of other classes that roam, I try to roam on my reaper. Unfortunately without reliable ways to disengage, you’re prone to get +1 or +zerg so it’s hard to find good roaming 1v1 or 1v2’s.

The new meta is to solo roam together with everyone else in EB.

Jim Hunter.6821:

[…]

So killing other players in WvW is griefing and we should have more npc’s to fight……

Are you sure you wouldn’t just be happier in pve?

Don’t start one of those void ‘PvE scrub’ arguments. WvW is both PvE and PvP. We have PvE gear instead the standard PvP gear. There’s NPCs to fight. That won’t change anytime soon no matter hot much anyone may dislike that. Why is that? Because of the same reason I already explained: There’s no way to make sure there will always be players. So there must always be something else to fight or instead PvE it’ll be PvFreaking doors and walls. So, right now the only solution is NPCs. Unless some genius comes with a better thing.

So, what I’m saying is not “we need more PvE”.

What I say is that there should be fun reasons to stick at certain locations and defend them. And that I can’t think of anything else other than events. Why? Because, again, there’s no way to make sure players will always want to go to every specific location at all times, so AI will have to do.

So, you could do things having supply camps that look like farms, quarries or lumbermills start an event next to them in which some NPCs do something like mining some ore, chopping some trees, harvest some crops or slaughter some cows. And they will be attacked by other NPCs in the meantime, like wild animals, bandits, skirtt, ogre and centaur raiders, etc. If the NPCs finish their thing, the location gets a bit extra supply, and the current upgrade get a little progress bump. If they are killed and can’t finish, the location goes slower for a little while.

So what would players do? After capturing the spot, 1-2 player stay behind, and help the NPCs. While they guard the spot, they won’t get bored as there’s something else to do. And if enemy players come, the ‘Help NPCs’ event is interrupted, and the ‘defend the location’ event starts right away. Defend the spot, the NPC event goes on. Fail, the enemy takes over.

Players will always have to be careful, because they may get distracted with the NPC event. And enemies may take advantage of that to do surpirse attacks. Surprise attacks are cool.

If done right, when you roam, you’ll encounter players more often on every location, as it’ll be more likely for each supply line to have at least a few players sticking around doing the events between the camps and the towers and keeps, instead going with the rest of the zergs mindlessly flipping locations.

The meta for roaming in WvW is the same it has been for quite some time, which is go find a game with actual open world PvP as opposed to the joke that is roaming in WvW.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Jim Hunter.6821:

[…]

So killing other players in WvW is griefing and we should have more npc’s to fight……

Are you sure you wouldn’t just be happier in pve?

Don’t start one of those void ‘PvE scrub’ arguments. WvW is both PvE and PvP. We have PvE gear instead the standard PvP gear. There’s NPCs to fight. That won’t change anytime soon no matter hot much anyone may dislike that. Why is that? Because of the same reason I already explained: There’s no way to make sure there will always be players. So there must always be something else to fight or instead PvE it’ll be PvFreaking doors and walls. So, right now the only solution is NPCs. Unless some genius comes with a better thing.

So, what I’m saying is not “we need more PvE”.

What I say is that there should be fun reasons to stick at certain locations and defend them. And that I can’t think of anything else other than events. Why? Because, again, there’s no way to make sure players will always want to go to every specific location at all times, so AI will have to do.

So, you could do things having supply camps that look like farms, quarries or lumbermills start an event next to them in which some NPCs do something like mining some ore, chopping some trees, harvest some crops or slaughter some cows. And they will be attacked by other NPCs in the meantime, like wild animals, bandits, skirtt, ogre and centaur raiders, etc. If the NPCs finish their thing, the location gets a bit extra supply, and the current upgrade get a little progress bump. If they are killed and can’t finish, the location goes slower for a little while.

So what would players do? After capturing the spot, 1-2 player stay behind, and help the NPCs. While they guard the spot, they won’t get bored as there’s something else to do. And if enemy players come, the ‘Help NPCs’ event is interrupted, and the ‘defend the location’ event starts right away. Defend the spot, the NPC event goes on. Fail, the enemy takes over.

Players will always have to be careful, because they may get distracted with the NPC event. And enemies may take advantage of that to do surpirse attacks. Surprise attacks are cool.

If done right, when you roam, you’ll encounter players more often on every location, as it’ll be more likely for each supply line to have at least a few players sticking around doing the events between the camps and the towers and keeps, instead going with the rest of the zergs mindlessly flipping locations.

Wow…. look guys, I found anet’s target audience. A ”WvW player” that feels like the one thing WvW really needs to be more successful is more Pve…

Clearly you are on to something, that’s why things like the grub event, the harpy, and the new bl are so successful….

I feel there is still a role for roamers in WvW, though it has changed somewhat, and find that Ranger continues to be a good platform for it. With the increase in actual choke-points with these (horrible) new BL maps, certain Ranger builds have new utility.

Anthrage.2519:

I feel there is still a role for roamers in WvW, though it has changed somewhat, and find that Ranger continues to be a good platform for it. With the increase in actual choke-points with these (horrible) new BL maps, certain Ranger builds have new utility.

Might be true if 75% of their shots weren’t being obstructed by the air in the new bl. On the other hand they are able to shoot through walls half the time now so I guess it balances out…

As a Longbow-using Ranger, believe me, I’m all-too familiar with Obstruction. It’s just another ANet failing Rangers need to mitigate with their play and positioning – sucks, but can be done to a degree.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Anthrage.2519:

I feel there is still a role for roamers in WvW, though it has changed somewhat, and find that Ranger continues to be a good platform for it. With the increase in actual choke-points with these (horrible) new BL maps, certain Ranger builds have new utility.

Might be true if 75% of their shots weren’t being obstructed by the air in the new bl. On the other hand they are able to shoot through walls half the time now so I guess it balances out…

@MithranArkanere.8957

Basically an WvWvWvE variant. I see advantages to it, and if done right could actually decrease the "PvE presence" outside of the actual events. Personally always wanted to see things like Centaur raids on structures when the maps are quiet. And if no one defends, let them slowly capture and neutralize objectives.

A simple system like:
* Map been quiet for X time
* Create an event at random camp
* Have centaurs attack the camp to neutralize it
* If players defend, go back and wait for new event
* If players fail, centaurs neutralize the camp
* If two adjacent camps are neutralized, event can spawn nearby tower

Not certain about keeps. Yes, No, or arguably let them take non upgraded keeps, but T3 keeps be to tough.

Benefits:
* Something to do on a dominated map
* Reason to defend/scout
* Make Off-hour dominance work to keep it
* More players about the map for this...
* Which makes more people to fight...
* That isn’t sitting behind walls with an AC

And when there starts becoming some activity on the map, say 2 different servers starts flipping each others objectives, the entire events can shut down until it’s been quiet again for X time. Example 15 minutes.

Waiting doing nothing is boring.

Agreed, this is a very important point. One of the reasons why defenders are so loved, is because most people just don’t want to, because they consider it boring.

Some repeated events, that would make defenders move a bit about on the map. And give them some rewards while defending or scouting, probably our two least rewarding play styles. And something decent for people wanting to play with up-levels to do and gain some XP.

And this could also be done while reducing the amount of pve mobs on the rest of the map in general, since it would replace most of the purpose of those.

Just play what’s fun for you OP. Though don’t stink at it, or I doubt you’ll keep enjoying yourself. Roaming meta historically have been professions that can safely go to any spot on the maps, take objectives fast, kill players and be able to disengage large groups. Disengage being king. Though people roam on all professions. And some players can do very well on ones with sub par escape methods with lots of practice and a generous amount luck. Like with base Necro w/spectral walk jukes or worm for example.

I think once more players have their Elite Specs all unlocked and learned well, Power Chrono will be dreaded imo. The potential for them is scary. And I think good Daredevils will make the kids cry. So many ways to make you miss your big dmg and leave anytime they please.

Tao.1234:

Daredevil with perma evade.

What exactly are you “evading” ? /sarc

Solo roaming? Yep, alive and well in all BL maps. You will wonder around, and be all on your own, the very definition of ‘solo’ and roaming’.

Take any class you like, any build- in fact, don’t bother with armor at all, as the likelihood is that you will fall asleep from boredom long before you see any enemy players.

As for the proposal for more pve, or pve events in wvw, please go back to the jungle. The last thing wvw needs is more pve or pve like gimmicks – what it needs are places where people can find each other to fight, not run around some convoluted map wondering if they will ever see any humans to fight.

Condition Damage and to make it as easy-cheezy as possible slap on a pair of Plex

Ravezaar.4951:

Condition Damage and to make it as easy-cheezy as possible slap on a pair of Plex

Good luck running around in very wide circles to get anywhere because you aint getting through those barricades.

Dawdler.8521:

Ravezaar.4951:

Condition Damage and to make it as easy-cheezy as possible slap on a pair of Plex

Good luck running around in very wide circles to get anywhere because you aint getting through those barricades.

Maybe you won’t. He should be just fine though. Those barricades are little more then a speed bump, and do not need much damage at all to remove from ones path.

Do NOT play Dare Devil. The mobility is intoxicating and makes every other class sluggish and unresponsive. Unfortunately it is one of the weakest fighting classes in the game right now so most of time you will be avoiding Reapers, Dragon Hunters, Druids, Scrappers, etc unless you can +1 the fight.

I have been running Scrapper rather successfully. Ridiculously tanky with decent escape, mobility and still retains some big hits. Still feels really slow compared to the Dare Devil.

I solo roam on the TP. There’s an awful lot more PvP with people undercutting and stuff to take advantage of.

coglin.1867:

Dawdler.8521:

Ravezaar.4951:

Condition Damage and to make it as easy-cheezy as possible slap on a pair of Plex

Good luck running around in very wide circles to get anywhere because you aint getting through those barricades.

Maybe you won’t. He should be just fine though. Those barricades are little more then a speed bump, and do not need much damage at all to remove from ones path.

I am getting the distinct feeling that you keep defending everything about the border, yet you never actually played on it and experienced the new mechanics.

Jim Hunter.6821:

MithranArkanere.8957:

Jim Hunter.6821:

MithranArkanere.8957:

We need a series of NPC events to have something to do when there’s no other players, that are canceled if players do come.

No…… no we don’t. The PvE gimmicks and WvW being on auto pilot is a big part of why a bunch of us have quit roaming, the last thing we need is more of it.

Then you are calling ‘roaming’ to going around hunting lone players trying to get somewhere. That’s not roaming, that’s borderline griefing.

An actual roamer will take sentries, camps and other objectives with no walls, roam between those locations, scouting the routes between them, defend them from other roamers, and warn the map about larger groups. Not run around capturing where there’s nobody and avoiding each other like in some sort of convoluted musical chairs, or looking for newbies with a green arrow next to their level for easy targets like in some third rate mmo with PK enabled in starting zones.

But if there’s nothing going on in the locations you defend, you either go somewhere else, leaving your locations unprotected, or stay there doing nothing but wasting your time.

Leaving locations unprotected is not something that anything in WvW should encourage.

Waiting doing nothing is boring. And this is a game. And games are meant to be fun. So there should never any reason to wait doing nothing. There should always something to do.

But in a large scale map, you can’t be sure there will always be players everywhere. And you can’t disable the upgrades so the reason to be there is just pressing a button so it advances. That’s boring too.

So all that’s left to encourage players to stick in some place even if enemy players do not come is something else to do. And unless anyone can come up with something better, the only thing left are events against AI.

Giving a reason to stick to one place, when you arrive at an enemy point, it’ll be way more likely to have an actual fight because someone may be there. Then, when actual players come, the ‘PvE gimmick’ as you call it would simply go away like when remaining unfinished events fail when a meta-event advances, so players can focus completely on the enemy.

So killing other players in WvW is griefing and we should have more npc’s to fight……

Are you sure you wouldn’t just be happier in pve?

BOOM! right into the CoF p1

WvW are made for MASSIVE PLAYERS VS PLAYERS BATTLES, not to see who kills most npcs, queue for stronghold if you are looking that, there are plenty of door busters and archers to kill

Jim Hunter.6821:

[…]

Clearly you are on to something, that’s why things like the grub event, the harpy, and the new bl are so successful….

The reasons nobody does those have nothing to do with them being “PvE”:

• Their rewards are crap. You will often get more hero badges flipping a camp that killing the grub. The highest stack I’ve ever got from that thing was 3 in the chest. 3. For killing a freaking champion with legendary stats that…
• …takes too long and too many people. You need a zerg to do them in any reasonable time. And zergs should not be wasting their time with something that…
• …has nothing to do with any of the WvW battles. What I suggest are reasons to stick around locations. Guarding them, looking out for enemies, making some time with siege against attacking enemies until help arrives. Those events are reasons to leave locations unguarded. Pointless.

Now, if the grub, the arboreal spirit and some third creature added to the third corner (e.g.: a large wyrm) didn’t take so long and so many people, and defeating them turned them it into a siege beast that will go to the closest enemy tower and start attacking its gate, then maybe it could be a bit worth it. Because it’ll have something to do with the fight.

Same with the skritt and centaur camps in alpine, capturing those should give you mercenaries that go raid the nearby camps and towers if enemies have them.

Veteran events? Defeat the veteran, the veteran follow you around for a while, helping you fight.

No event in WvW should be a pointless waste of time away from the war. All should have some sort of advantage in the war on success, getting one more source of score, speeding up upgrades or supply lines or giving movement advantages, enlisting help, … anything, but something.

Hey don’t knock Charpy brah.

Also it seems nobody has kited the grub into Bravost. And personally, I think the Dredge and frogs worked fairly fine and same with Siegerazer— they’re a small strategic location that doesn’t affect much. I can’t say the same for gate destroying lasers…

ArchonWing.9480:

Hey don’t knock Charpy brah.

Also it seems nobody has kited the grub into Bravost. And personally, I think the Dredge and frogs worked fairly fine and same with Siegerazer— they’re a small strategic location that doesn’t affect much. I can’t say the same for gate destroying lasers…

Dredge won’t attack bravost anymore, it’s been at least six months since you could do that

I never liked siege razor, dredge or frogs. Dredge and frogs feel like a chore and the events scale horribly for roamers.
Siege razor was too easy for large groups to abuse. There was nothing worse than a group 2-3 times your size starting razer, managing to pull off a clutch defense, kill razer, and then watch them WP to spawn and come back with razer again…. and again…

Yea, if the target audience is for those like Mithran, I’m finding another game.

I came for the fighting of other players and stayed for the fighting of other players.

And I am definitely considering leaving because of the lack of fighting of other players.
BL’s are dead. Half my server quit the format altogether and many of those quit the game. What was 24/7 action with reasonable player counts, amazing havoc and meaningful fights has turned into our enemies blobbing EBG and us getting crushed because nobody finds fun harassing the new BL’s which is what our server (and my guild) did to get fights, disperse enemy forces, and win outnumbered.

Now it’s just a complete joke and the community is completely fractured.

And this is just why I’ve been advocating multiple *different* maps for a while now.

Make one pure PVP map with NO npc’s or AI’s at all, not even a lord on a cap circle or a siegerazer, heck lets even skip services, people can go to ebg for that.

And make one map like the one MithranArkanere.8957 suggest above.

Instant magic! People can go do what they want when they want it ! Poor Jim won’t have to see a single NPC again in his life, and you can still pull some new pve’ers into the other map to start learning about wvw.

Instead of saying that the *entire* WvW Must be A or B, make it A+B+C+D and make it so you can pick how you want to play. Instead of being stuck with 3 identical maps, that used to be semi-poor-rip-offs of EBG, and now is semi-poor-rip-offs of Maguma.

No wonder the Dev’s can’t figure out what the players wants, no single player agrees on any single thing.

/rant
/vent-frustration
/zen

The new meta for roaming is to not do it. Having only one map that can provide reliable fights is rather lousy, as the enemy’s 5 man gank group will be after you the whole time you’re on it.

Not to mention everyone is playing either bunker 1v1 builds that are boring to face or builds reliant on stealth to engage/disengage, or both. (That’s called scrapper). Also a bunch of Revenants running around, which is actually a fun fight. A bunch of terribad Dragonhunters thinking they can pull me into their traps. And a bunch of Daredevils who dodge, dodge, dodge, and miss one dodge and die.

Basically, roaming is dead. I find a fun fighter to duel, or I just zerg. And this is coming from a person who has roamed for 2 years. It’s pretty sad.

joneirikb.7506:

Make one pure PVP map with NO npc’s or AI’s at all, not even a lord on a cap circle or a siegerazer, heck lets even skip services, people can go to ebg for that.

That’s called Obsidian Sanctum.

Current meta for roaming in bl is autorun ele without armor and weapon. Why ele? Because lowest health.

The meta is almost exactly the same minus, revs and the new specializations; whch still surprises people, unless you PvP daily, because in PvP, you get to play vs most professions in there and need to switch up tactics. You can’t 1v1 certain classes nevermind 1vx players, that know what they’re doing.

Condi and high mobility classes rule, groups with coordination and the right classes work, especially if you synthesize stealth and buffs together; like boons, heals and cleanses , although fighting random pug groups, you don’t really need that.

Also many people have always preferred roaming on EB, simply because the old alpine borders were still a distance to run across and you wouldn’t find any fights apart from the south ruins; which were also the old/new GvG spot. Even then most people left there are usually just people upgrading structures. capping camps or border hopping zergs.

MithranArkanere.8957:

joneirikb.7506:

Make one pure PVP map with NO npc’s or AI’s at all, not even a lord on a cap circle or a siegerazer, heck lets even skip services, people can go to ebg for that.

That’s called Obsidian Sanctum.

Considering how little action there is in OS, I guess it would need something to make itself relevant for the Match-up. Some way of gaining points, that you would have to fight for, so people actually want to go there.

PU perma stealth mesmer exploting the new bug roaming around tagging the walls of SM and keeps once so it gets contested and zergs can’t waypoint to anywhere but the farthest waypoint.

MithranArkanere.8957:

Jim Hunter.6821:

[…]

Clearly you are on to something, that’s why things like the grub event, the harpy, and the new bl are so successful….

The reasons nobody does those have nothing to do with them being “PvE”:

• Their rewards are crap. You will often get more hero badges flipping a camp that killing the grub. The highest stack I’ve ever got from that thing was 3 in the chest. 3. For killing a freaking champion with legendary stats that…
• …takes too long and too many people. You need a zerg to do them in any reasonable time. And zergs should not be wasting their time with something that…
• …has nothing to do with any of the WvW battles. What I suggest are reasons to stick around locations. Guarding them, looking out for enemies, making some time with siege against attacking enemies until help arrives. Those events are reasons to leave locations unguarded. Pointless.

Now, if the grub, the arboreal spirit and some third creature added to the third corner (e.g.: a large wyrm) didn’t take so long and so many people, and defeating them turned them it into a siege beast that will go to the closest enemy tower and start attacking its gate, then maybe it could be a bit worth it. Because it’ll have something to do with the fight.

Same with the skritt and centaur camps in alpine, capturing those should give you mercenaries that go raid the nearby camps and towers if enemies have them.

Veteran events? Defeat the veteran, the veteran follow you around for a while, helping you fight.

No event in WvW should be a pointless waste of time away from the war. All should have some sort of advantage in the war on success, getting one more source of score, speeding up upgrades or supply lines or giving movement advantages, enlisting help, … anything, but something.

You mean like the quagans did before they removed them from alpine map in favor of the garbage bloodlust ruins. I can agree with you that making those PVE events worth while in the war is a good idea. But they turned everything into one big pve k train just like the stupid EOTM map. There has been tons of great ideas on how to make WvW better but the people at arenanet love the zerg k train. So that’s what we get.

New maps are nice, but too large. They should have replaced EBG with a single copy of the new map. That will startle everyone and make it new. Now, leave original borderlands as they are and, wait for it, remove the option to queue for the former EBG map and force all players to access WvW via their respected servers borderland map. Yes, to enter the new very large HoT WvW map you must first enter your borderland map to gain access. And while there the only supply you can get is from the towers and camps you control.

War isn’t just about killing an opponent. You must have supply and disrupt theirs. No supplies, no food, no bullets, no fighting. Might as well do cart wheels because you can’t do anything without supplies. Moving, defending, fighting, through the borderlands allow this.

Now, having said this and probably everyone saying no way by now, you are basically providing a flow. With a flow comes a path. With a path comes a road well traveled. With a road traveled, well, bad guys roam and do mean and nasty things to you.

For WvW to work in the long run you can have the borderland maps but they must be the entry point to the larger map in the middle. They must allow scouting, disruption, access, and rewards. A way to the bigger prize. Both of which yield risk and rewards.

And let us not go down the road of what 3 large maps do to the lower populated servers…

I’ve been roaming around with a guild mate or 2 during off peak NA hours. We’ve actually encountered a few other roamer out there in the past few days. However, we did notice the circular rotation we (and the enemy roamer) settled into going around the map, flipping shrines, camps, sentries. After a couple hours, well, we just stopped the k train and logged off. We did get challenged by one other enemy roamer, but after we fought him we didn’t see him again. We even stopped for a few mins and waited on the other k trainer behind us, thinking we might catch up, but I guess they paused too when we paused.

Do not roam alone, because i never see solo roamers since HoT, if you solo roam you will face mostly small groups, if you see anything (borders are empty in these days)

I use my Scrapper and my Condition Revenant for roaming, i roam mostly in a 2-3 player Group.

And get some stealth reveal, roaming is still the playground for stealthing groups.

I’ve seen some REALLY good druid roamers around