(edited by Gandalf.5803)
Contemplation on the way of armour
As long as they’re decently thought out, most builds aren’t directly better or worse, they just depend on your playstyle. I can comment a bit on your builds and tell you which one I’d prefer.
Your first build looks somewhat confusing. You spec for direct damage but bring flamethrower, which has negligible direct damage on pretty much everything besides the 2 attack. You did spec for the +15% trait, so I assume you intend to use 1 and 2 a lot, with net shot setups. I don’t think this is optimal if you’re looking for damage, but it can work.
Rifle as a choice leaves you incredibly vulnerable to people who jump on your face, which is a common thing in wvw roaming. Due to rifle’s 2 and 4 functionality, you might do well in a duel, but I can’t see you faring well if you get ambushed from behind while in a fight. You have no stunbreaker, med kit heal takes twice as long to cast as healing turret, and your only condition removal is antidote. Between Rocket Boots and Jump Shot you have decent mobility though, so I would say that the first build has a higher chance of killing people, especially if they decide to run away, but it’s also more likely to be killed due to giving up shield and not taking enough defensive utilities such as tool kit or elixir S. Duels will be about if you can kill the other guy fast enough before he can retaliate, and 1vX situations will be hard. You might end just running away if outnumbered.
Your second build features bombs, something I’ve never been a fan of for solo roaming, but you could possibly make it work between smoke bomb for stealth and magnet for the pull. Bomb kit also makes for a great spacing tool, because as I’ve said before, most wvw roamers tend to favor melee and jumping onto your face, which plays right into your hands if you set up bombs properly. Static Shot, bomb kit, and tool kit shield let you have a decent amount of defense and you’ll probably win if you kite melee enemies properly, but you’ll have very limited defense or offense against enemies who choose to kite you at range due to giving up shield and choosing to run bomb kit. You’ll likely have trouble with rangers and condition-spamming pistol thieves. Due to the AoE nature of the skills and the defense provided by tool kit, you’ll manage better when outnumbered, but your mobility is worse. You have a decent escape in smoke bomb → blast finisher.
Personally, I would stick with the second build and run condition damage gear. It has decent tankiness with AoE control and damage. It has a nice stealth combo that can be used in a lot of ways. I might alter the build a little to be more resistant to conditions, maybe switching out OH pistol for shield as well, but that’s your call.
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with the first build either. However, you might consider swapping out acidic coating or deadly mixture for fast acting elixirs and taking elixir H. This will allow you to build more might stacks, have more uptime on elixir B boons, and also give you access to protection, regeneration, and vigor for more durability.
As for your gear, I think you have it setup alright for the first build, although you might consider using carrion gear instead of rabid gear for that second build. This would give you a better toughness-vitality balance, which could increase your survivability since you don’t have significant healing output and minimal condition removals.
It would also improve your direct damage without taking away from condition damage, which can be valuable for the bomb and toolkit. You will lose a fair bit of critical hit chance (about 17%), although you do not have very high crit damage anyways, and your fury boon should keep you around 50% crit chance. You’d have to do some math/testing to see if this would actually create a DPS increase though. There are not carrion accessories/backpacks, so you can keep those as rabid.
Also, do not use both a sigil of generosity and sigil of battle. Both of these have a cooldown, and will thus conflict with each other. If the sigil of battle procs due to a swap, it will trigger it’s cooldown of 20 seconds. During this period, sigil of generosity is also on cooldown, even though it didn’t proc. Alternatively, if sigil of generosity procs, it’s cooldown will be active for 10s, meaning sigil of battle will not provide might stacks during that time. Additionally, sigil of generosity will proc even if you do not have a condition to be removed, possibly wasting the cooldown, and it is also the most expensive sigil in the game. You may want to try using a sigil of bloodlust or corruption for more damage, or a sigil of accuracy for better crit chance.
What build would be best to bring to Wvw roaming? I tend to avoid zergs and usually run around alone or with a friend capping camps and harassing other roamers.
If you are looking for solo roaming builds, I’ll list three that I’ve used before, in case you want something else to explore:
1. Dual-pistol roamer #1: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqalspSXH5SfF1LJRIFFG/gKkXRPeMln8nCsF-jkCB4MCh0CA0HIkIgpQFRjtIsIasKZER1qbYWdAGxMa1CBsYNA-w
This build is fairly well rounded, having both good damage output by way of HGH and carrion gear, additional durability through a good vitality-toughness balance, access to protection and regeneration, healing recharge at 25% health, and condition removal through elixirs. The toolkit also provides good defensive utility and additional confusion stacks. The main form of damage is condition damage, but you have significant direct damage as well due to the carrion gear.
If it’s lacking in anything, it would be burst mobility and a lack of combo field potential. The condition duration food is rather important for this build as you will hit the 50% threshold with it. The altruism runes also work well with the automated medical response trait, although some people opt to get boon duration stacking runes.
2. Dual-pistol roamer #2: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqalspSXH5SfF17IBoH6Nv8V0jHT5J/pAbB-jkCB4MCh0CA0HIkIgpQFRjtIsIasKZER1qbYWdAGxMa1CBsYNA-w
This one is similar to the first build, although it has less defensive utility, traded out for better range and piercing attacks. This one has a bit more applications in group fights where you need to control your distance and have multiple targets to hit. I’ve used it in ZvZ a fair bit, and it can be much more effective in that context than the first build. It may not be as good for solo roaming simply due to the loss of the defensive utility. You can also swap out the rifled barrels trait for modified ammunition to gain extra damage, which will sync nicely with coated bullets and carrion gear. The altruism runes work well in group scenarios as well.
3. Static Discharge: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pqdH5STF17IxoHkuzbG0D7mX/+pAbB-j0xAYrgQUCCRAM5VEN2ibR0Y11YKXioapAiYMA-w
This is a cookie-cutter static discharge build, although some people don’t like taking adrenal implant or hair trigger in it. It might seem like an odd choice for solo roaming, but it can be quite effective if done right. It’s not a one-trick pony build, but you can lose pretty badly if things get screwed up. It also doesn’t deal as well with groups as the dual pistol roamer builds might, but if you’ve got your own group then you can basically pick people off like a thief would.
And yes, I realize those all use toolkit, but hey, it’s a good kit.
Thank you guys for the indepth answers. The first build is a mistake, it should have same utilities and weapons as the second one. meaning pistol-pistol, bombs, toolkit and rocketboots. THe only difference between the builds is the armour (should i take carrion or rabid, for a roaming cond. build w bombs and toolkit).