Hi my name is Rasudin, and my spec is 20/30/20/0/0
First the reason I came up with this spec. I am a player that likes to do different things in WvW and during a course of a play session I can go from sieging to defending to roaming to zerging and I wanted to develop a spec that is flexible enough for all these situations. That is why I developed this spec. As you will see below I run different skills, weapons and traits depending on the activity I am currently participating in.
Sieging
Let’s start with Sieging I wanted AoE and a crap ton of it to throw at defenders on the towers, unfortunately other than the 5 skill on the longbow, our weapons really lack any use in sieging. That is why I went with traps for my AoE, I use the Fire, poison and spike traps along with Entangle that will root players up on the ramparts even from the ground below. So my typical rotation would be run to the tower, use Entangle then follow it with the fire, poison and spike traps and then use the longbow 5 skill, this will usually down all players caught in the radius. Being able to throw traps on the ramparts is essential for this play style and having the conditions last twice as long is a given, that is why going skirmishing 30 is a no brainer.
Defense
During defense, I found out that we have some very useful skills and traits. The Soften the fall trait in the Wilderness line is much underrated in defense and this is why. Jumping from the walls onto the defenders below will cause muddy terrain to spawn at your feet and root them in place long enough for you to lay down your traps and get back in the keep. This is what I change my skills to, I replace the Spike trap with Quickness to be able to cut my trap laying in half, and sometimes if there is a big zerg below, I will change from Entangle to Rampage as One to make sure I can get inside the keep without being CC’ed. Otherwise, I will keep Entangle and use it as a finisher to my rotation because that is when the muddy terrain will end its duration. And by the time I get back up on the ramparts, I switch to my shortbow to finish of all the downed enemies. This is extremely effective, since usually by dropping down on enemies they are caught completely by surprise.
Roaming
Next comes roaming with 1-2 other guildies, picking off solo’s or duos as they are running to re-inforce their zerg. AoE is useless in this scenario and single target damage is king that is why I will switch to my trusted shortbow and switch my traits from the trapping traits to Quick Draw and Honed Axes. Also, I will also switch all my trap skills for Quickening Zephyr, Signet of the hunt and Protect Me in case I’m being focused down. One last change that is very effective is switching from Steady focus to Predator’s Instincts which makes it very difficult for players to run away from my group. You will notice that I went 20 in Marksmanship for the piercing arrows, which is not very useful in this scenario but pays in dividends in zerg fight, which I’ll get into next.
Zerging
Lastly, Zerg on Zerg fights or what I like to call ‘please render already fights’ ,these are usually fought in 2 phases. Phase 1 which is skirmishing is just about targeting the lowest health bar in range and trying not to be on the first line for too long. In this phase piercing arrows and longbow really shine, I will also switch to axes if we are fighting in proximity. The Second phase is routing, that is when either zerg is running away and you are either trying to mop up or to survive, which in both cases traps are really good, let me explain. If the opposing Zerg brakes and is running, I will usually switch to my horn use Call of the Wild for speed and try to catch as many of the opposing players in my Entangle radius, I will then follow it up immediately with all my trap skills and the longbow 5 skill, this will down almost every one caught in the radius.