Guild Wars 2

I didn’t purchase HoT. I’ve also been away from the game for over half a year. I’m still learning about all the class updates, etc. My question is – Is it possible to be successful in WvW and not have bought the expansion? I could be dying easily in WvW right now because I don’t know what I’m doing anymore and my build is totally anti Meta. I’m hoping that is all it is. My fear is that I will find it hard to be successful in 1v1 situations, small group situations or even zerg situations without owning the expansion.

I play a lot with my support guard…
With the stability patch I can play again in zerg.
You can have good fight with old classe and win 1v1 against elite.
It’s depend on people playing in front of you

I also have a support guard with Cleric ascended gear. I might bring him back to PvP based on what you just said. I used to have a build that would heal people around me when I used shouts. Does that build still exist? This would excite me to know that I could play an old build without the expansion.

You can still win duels with stock classes and in small groups/zergs it become increasingly irrelevant, but most of the specs can be really strong and overall better than stock (well, assuming Anet didnt break them in the patch, which they incidently did).

That said, just buy HoT if you plan on playing the darn game seriously. You can argue the worth of a full €45 “expansion” but kitten it if you can be kitten d to complain after 2000, 3000 or 5000+ hours. WvW is a mode you could play for hours every day all year round.

What else are you gonna spend the money on? Hookers and booze? Pfff, just torrent that kitten.

If you are hesistant, try it out stock. You’ll find out pretty quickly how it is.

I came back after 2 years, played about a month (WvW included), enjoyed it enough again to buy HoT. I feel it’s worth it, but my suggestion is play for a few weeks, make sure the core game is still fun enough for you to want to stick with it, then decide if you want to purchase HoT. Some of the Meta builds on some professions ( a few at least) don’t even delve into the Epic roles.

The advice “you need hot to roam or be competitive” is a myth. I’ve won plenty of 1v1, 1v2, etc with old school necromancer, ele, and engineer builds. I don’t know much about the melee crew roamers though.

Just don’t get frustrated and accept that sometimes you will run into some insane build that HoT has catered to. For me, I’m terrible against tempest eles because it feels like they have 5000 boons and can regen like crazy. But for the most part, you should be fine.

It all comes down to practice for the most part and reading up on what your skills actually do and timing. Good luck bud!

It’s ill advised to not have HOT at this stage but you can try:

GS+Staff Guardian – virtues traitline , SYG are both core
Staff Ele – Just run Arcane + Earth + Water and use triple cantrips
Blood Necro w/ Wells
Warrior w/ Banner

Ill advised:
Core mesmer , because 25% permanent move speed & chill reduction
Ranger, because without druid it is much more fragile
Engineer, because scrapper is so strong in WvW due to hammer block/evade & stealth+blast gyros
Revenant , because you can’t play one
Thief, because Daredevil’s Unhindered Combatant / Bound+ staff skills and heal on dodge