Guild Wars 2

so wanted to make a character for roaming around when I dont feel like playing in large group fights. Decided to make a Mesmer and been playing around in sPvP but im getting owned. By owned I dont mean the guy has more skill than me. I mean I just die before I can even get clones up or dodge or do anything else to react. Also I dont know what the hell skill Maul is but its hitting me for 10k damage. Im doing good then all of a sudden Im dead. Same thing with Necros. Im doing good, they do something and then i get hit three times for 4k damage per hit and Im dead.

Im 100% sure this is a L2play issue on my part since Im still learning the class but Is that pretty much how its going to be if I run around solo in WvW as well? I dont even understand how to try and counter people if they can kill you in seconds. If its that bad I will just stick to the zerg.

Basically – nope. The gear/food/stacks in wvw allow for a lot more burst damage – you need good map awareness and fingers on stun breaker at all times. So you might think that since you are some hot kitten in pvp you will do ok solo roaming in wvw… nope, pvp generally in wvw just helps for knowing tells from skills. Builds and playstyle differ a lot. WvW roaming has its own learling curve.

I have to agree and say, Not even close.

Not only does it allow more burst, food, stacks, gear, but in my opinion is far more difficult than Spvp. There are cookie cutter builds, but if you meet someone skilled in their class while you’re not skilled in WvW Roaming but running a cookie cutter build you’ll probably lose. WvW also allows for far, far more build variety than spvp ever has or will.

Essentially yes but with longer respawn times.

more burst? so those rangers hitting me for 10k Mauls will be doing even more?

roaming is more imbalanced than spvp because gear isn’t normalized, there is food/condumables, wvw buffs, stacks etc. but yes, it comes down to personal skill level similar to spvp

1. Don’t use full zerk set.
2. Maul is so easy to avoid
3. L2P your class
4. l2p other classes so you know what to look for when fighting against them.

Also keep in mind that if you want to actually do something useful while roaming you have to make a build that is good for flipping camps as well as fighting other roamers.

I personally like using my engi for roaming. Perma swiftness, decent self healing and a crap ton of aoe for quickly flipping camps.

WvW is completely broken. In WvW it is the build only that determines who wins, it is even worse in that aspect than PvP. All this because of a massive power creep (Applied Strength and Fortitude, Ascended Gear, Food, Bloodlust) and sigil farming off mobs. Combat is completely dumbed down. Add to that ridiculous gear choices (Perplexity, Dire armour for example) and you are in for a fun ride.

The earlier claim that WvW is more difficult than PvP is highly contradictory to those bursty food buff/gear variety comments. As others have pointed out, that kind of power creep in WvW translates into WvW being easier than PvP.

The power creep has pushed the roaming meta, if there is such a thing, to the two extremes. On one end there are power builds with extreme burst damage, the other extreme bunkers like the p/d thief and blackwater mesmer that are almost impossible to kill 1v1, or even 2v1. Because most random encounters are also being fought over nothing more than who’s going to die, there’s no penalty for running away away or stealth spam.

No, because everyone just runs away from you.

Roaming is no holds barred no rules. Alot of people like to put 1v1’s and Roaming together but that just isn’t the case.

Roamer builds are generally the same not always.

Quick and dirty not exhaustive list of some of the current popular roamer builds are:

Thief – Lyssa runes are popular on all the thief builds out side of condition build which usually has perplexity on it.

10/30/30/0/0 with D/P and another weapon set. The complained about Perma stealth build with hidden killer trait.

10/0/30/0/30 S/D or S/P as the main set.

10/30/0/30 rare this is more s/tPvP meta. S/P or S/D as the main set

10/0/30/0/30 – P/D condition build

10/0/0/30/30 – Evade build with S/D

Necro – 30/20/x/x/x last 20 can be anywhere condition damage based build

Mesmer – x/20/30/x/x last 20 can be anywhere usually its 20 in domination, this is popular Prismatic Understanding build (PU) can be conditions (usually called blackwater) or direct damage or even hybrid.

Engineer 30/x/x/x/x I am new to engineer so I am not familiar with all their builds yet but this is the condition build usually 30/10/0/20/10 with pistol/shield bombs or grenades. I am not familiar with power builds on engineer yet as mine is only 1 week at 80.

Guardian – 0/0/10/30/30 Healway bunker build
0/5/30/30/5 Altruistic healing dps with Sword/Focus and GS or Hammer.
0/x/30/x/x – Mediation Guardian the rest of the points can be anywhere but usually it stays around 0/5/30/30/5 is popular for mediations also.

Warrior – 0/20/30/0/20 or 0/20/20/0/30 Hammer or Sword or Axe. There is a few dps type shout builds out there or condition builds but I don’t know that. Bow is popular now cause people think they are playing sPvP and the enemy will stand in the fire. Mace,shield, hammer, longbow, axe, sword can all be used in power.

The condition warrior build is popular but I don’t know cause I don’t run condi on my warrior.

Elementalist – x/x/x/20/30 Dagger/Dagger Standard cantrip based ele build either bunker or burst.

0/30/x/10/30 seems to be the popular S/D or S/F build now

I don’t know anything about rangers. These above builds are just what you are more likely to run into on each of those classes when your out roaming.

There are no rules so you can be 1v2’d then 3 more show up to kill you. Key things are mobility, stun breakers, and condition removal if you can fit those in your build all of them or at the minimum stun breakers. Traveler runes are viable for mesmer and very popular as they can fit in a direct damage power or condition build.

It fun alot of ego driven people roam though so be prepared for party invites and duel challenges. I just don’t even bother anymore cause I usually can guess the conversation depending on the scenario.

Most Roamers respect duels if they see you 1v1. Alot of roamers come back for revenge kills. Alot of roamers builds are setup for 1v1’s usually.

There are some small man groups that don’t care and will run you over with 5 people kind of rare but it happens.

Some roamers jump up and down because you failed to kill them Warriors, Thieves, and Mesmers do this alot.

It’s fun just don’t let the ego get you. Alot of people like to try and tease and troll built more to run away then actually kill solo they want you to chase again Warriors, Thieves, and Mesmers are classes that you might find do this more often then other classes.

roaming is a lot about picking your battles.

oZii.2864:

Some roamers jump up and down because you failed to kill them Warriors, Thieves, and Mesmers do this alot.

I like to picture it as some sort of mating ritual dance.

sPvP is contained and you know your environment. Surprises are kept to a minimum.

WvW roaming is very unpredictable. Sometimes it is a 1v1 situation, sometimes at 3v1 and often a zerg just rolls by. Fights escalate constantly. Practically everything can be used against enemies including terrain, guards, siege, gates, etc.

If you want to find out who is the best player using a build, sPvP. If you want to constantly match player skill in an ever changing environment, WvW.

At a higher level they actually are very similar in my opinion. Then again I use spvp for practice and new builds and alts, though, so I don’t take it super seriously. But generally it is small fights with a chance at getting zerged.

In WvW stats and numbers can be more extreme, and you will see more stealth since holding a cap is generally less important. There are also more terrain differences and more chances at using LOS to your advantage.

The one thing though is that WvW can have many different opponents all at once. Up levels, roamers and those in zerg specs can all be encountered and they are all very different. Sometime you might find that you kill 2 or even 3 players at once, but maybe none of them had a one on one build and were all zerg specced.

So I would say that it is the same essentially but there is more of a chance for randomness in WvW.

Straegen.2938:

If you want to constantly match player skill in an ever changing environment, WvW.

Nope, there is little skill if any in cheesy OP builds which become avialable in WvW. Playing some stuff like d/p thief it’s basically impossible to die if you are carefull.

what people refer to as “roaming” is actually just ambushing random pugs with a few buddies and loling at them while they try to run away. People used to roam to find 1v1s which are now almost exclusively done in the OS, so apart from the aforementioned baddies trying to get ganks off, you wont have much success “roaming” or whatever the kitten that means in wvw.

And lmao to whoever said roaming takes more skill/is harder than spvp. Get out of those hot joins kid and start doing some tournaments for a bit and see whats really up.

roaming is very dynamic.
ultimately its about picking your battles.

youll definitely get your kitten kicked when you start but it becomes very rewarding very quickly.

Chaba.5410:

oZii.2864:

Some roamers jump up and down because you failed to kill them Warriors, Thieves, and Mesmers do this alot.

I like to picture it as some sort of mating ritual dance.

They remind me of overexcited chimpanzees. I’m sure they’re good at slinging stuff too.

Roaming on my ranger is prob the most fun I have in gw2 anymore. Yes I have 80s of ever class, so why ranger?

No one runs from a ranger. They all want to get the easy kill, which is fun when kill them.

@OP:

The answer is no. Specs that work in sPvP are not ideal for WvW roaming. You rarely run into a pure GC in WvW roaming either.

and I don’t know what tier you play in, but i’ll say in T1, you are lucky to find ANY roaming. Somehow the definition here is that roaming is 5 man groups.

Omnitek.3876:

Roaming on my ranger is prob the most fun I have in gw2 anymore. Yes I have 80s of ever class, so why ranger?

No one runs from a ranger. They all want to get the easy kill, which is fun when kill them.

Exactly, rangers dont have to search for fights, but the fights are searching for rangers!

I mesmer roam in wvw quite a bit… it takes a little time to find a build that you are comfortable using – sometimes the most convenient build is not the most fun to play build.

It all comes down to individual skill… plus in wvw, you have a lot more opportunity to sneak up on people unawares and basically gank them.

I very rarely use buffs… I find that 8/10 times I able to beat my opponent without them. It is only when I meet someone who is buffed to hell that beats me in a fair 1v1 that I will buff myself up for the rematch. That and when I am running with the zerg and the commander puts food down. But this is just me personally… I find it more challenging and more fun to beat people without buffs.

As for spvp… I don’t play it very often but when I do, I seem to have very few problems… it tends to be just when there are 3 of them against me that I run into any major difficulty. Of course you sometimes get stomped by a single skilled player… but that happens… there is always someone somewhere who is better than you. The main thing is having fun.

Just go to the Mesmer forums. There’s a lot of builds, advice, videos etc there. As a Mesmer you can be top dog in WvW.

@OP as for dying quickly – because of the extra stat points available in WvW (due to food, bloodlust, Applied Fortitude, guard leech, Ascended gear) you need to have more toughness/vitality than you do in PvP.

I believe the best starting point for wvw is still with soldier gear (PVT). And then you can mix in more damage as you get comfortable.

As others have said as well, you will most likely get outnumbered at some point, in which case you want to have a stunbreak, active condition removal, and some sort of gap closer to get away.

spvp is not like wvw and vice versa. Just plain no. The gear/food/buff all contribute to completely different specs in WvW as opposed to a limited number in spvp.

sPvP and WvW roaming are very different, the one is completly imbalanced, leaves no room to react to your opponents build (rock, scissors, paper), is a condition spamfast and revolves around keeping your enemies out of a circular area. The other one is WvW.

Slomo.1029:

sPvP and WvW roaming are very different, the one is completly imbalanced, leaves no room to react to your opponents build (rock, scissors, paper), is a condition spamfast and revolves around keeping your enemies out of a circular area. The other one is WvW.

Both are imbalanced, but I think WvW is even more imbalanced than sPvP, and both are condition spam fest exept for few burst damage build.

Conditions in WvW are far, far worse than spvp because of access to dire gear and food buffs. I used to roam and pvp about equal amounts but since SoR sucks now I pretty much just pvp and imo it’s more fun. A lot of time “roaming” is just running around for ~1 hour to find a decent fight and as soon as you do you just get rolled by a large group. If you like actually fighting other players on a consistent basis and not having to worry about getting blown up by conditions because you have the wrong runes/food buff then pvp is the way to go.

gpassucc.5961:

A lot of time “roaming” is just running around for ~1 hour to find a decent fight and as soon as you do you just get rolled by a large group. If you like actually fighting other players on a consistent basis…

QFT