Guild Wars 2

I’ve been trying to find out for a while what the “go-to” small group wvw build is and i’ve been bombarded with dozens of builds. I just want a little help finding out which one is the best for small group/solo roaming in wvw.

The answer depends entirely on your playstyle, since everyone has different preferences for going into a fight. The popular builds involve mace/shield and Greatsword (damage), or longbow and swords (condition). Utilities vary pretty wildly, too.

Personally, my two sticking points were survivability and mobility, but I also wanted to take full advantage of conditions. So I went with this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAseRjkOtwxQGPMxBCkirUlzjkwEyrUQH7A-jU1AYLM0FCGTQkCEIKCChBj8Am8BzfQpwglDTahtIasqaBZNDm2EV3iYuBs4Q2cYvBi7IrSBAxGA-w

But see, thats just me. So first, find out what you’re comfortable with, then what your sticking points are. Someone’s bound to have a build that works around it.

Daniel Warren.4968:

Personally, my two sticking points were survivability and mobility, but I also wanted to take full advantage of conditions. So I went with this build.

If it makes a difference, I am usually roaming with a small group of 3 or 4, so survivability is really important. Basically, I’m looking for a build that has pretty good survivability to I don’t die on my group, but also enough damage to keep my own and help my team spike down targets.

Edit: Also, i would really want to use sword/shield, so would condition be my best bet?

Venguard.2640:

Daniel Warren.4968:

Personally, my two sticking points were survivability and mobility, but I also wanted to take full advantage of conditions. So I went with this build.

If it makes a difference, I am usually roaming with a small group of 3 or 4, so survivability is really important. Basically, I’m looking for a build that has pretty good survivability to I don’t die on my group, but also enough damage to keep my own and help my team spike down targets.

Edit: Also, i would really want to use sword/shield, so would condition be my best bet?

I’d go for a balance of condition and power / crit dmg to get the most out of the weapon set, since condition cleansing is The Thing To Do in wvw. My build gets 3000 bleed dmg from flurry at adrenaline lvl1, 600dmg burns from shield block, and still puts out 4-5k final thrusts and 900dmg chain attacks when it crits.

Also, GS works real well for condition builds if you use Forceful Greatsword, as might pumps condition damage along with power.

Here are 2 builds revolved around similar concepts of gear selection. PVT armor w/ Hoelbrek runes (or Melandru for even more survivability but less damage) and negative condition food for survivability, Unsuspecting Foe trait and Crit Damage Trinkets for damage output)
- Unsuspecting Foe gives you 50% crit chance on stunned enemies allowing you the ability to run PVT gear for survivability w/o losing much on damage. Make sure you get your crit damage increased though (i’m using mix of zerker and cavelier in my trinkets for this)
- Shield is traited for defense and stuns
- Hoelbrak runes + Negative Condition duration food gives you +Power and -60% total condition duration (good offensive/defensive rune set), Plus the might duration increase is nice and synergizes well with the Forceful Greatsword trait (if using GS).
- Cleansing Ire is used in both builds as well so conditions aren’t much of an issue
- War Banner is great for group support rezzes, you can be more selfish and take SoR if you wish

Greatsword & Mace/Shield
- 3s stun with Mace, swap to GS for 100blades is the basics
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKkN0e4kLVQ0;9;5JJ-T;139-08;229AC3m0SNV0qObSqObSo-F_VL55-V_u7vV0X5Y8ZG4L5230CN1c;9;9;9;9;9;9;14-6Z

Hammer & Sword/Shield
- Sword for some mobility and immobilization lockdown for group, Hammer to stun and Final Thrust below 50% hp on enemy for damage
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKkN0e4kLVQ0;9;59T-T;13;0089;129A6oW0WNV0qObSqObSo-Fd0-i2PW_u7vV0X5Y8ZG4L5230CN1c;9;9;9;9;9;9;14-6Z

You can (and should) take these ideas and adapt them to your own builds. Hope this helps.

My take on Hammer + Sword/Shield
- Sample principle as Katsu’s, just a different take on it.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4NKFM0U4NL-60;9;59T-T;13;0189;152An-V4CNV06TsW6TsWBBlc0-gYOW_u7vV0X5Y8ZG4La51V-70HV5aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;54-6i

Lots of very good build posted here. Gere’s my 2 copper. I mainly do organized guild raids and small group roaming. My build is Tanky/DPS using Hammer/Greatsword.

Tank/DPS

In Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzZtBmLBXZc
Frontline DPS – Decent Survivability – Perma Might/Fury – Long Hammer Stun

you could swap “Rending Strikes” with “Crackshot” on the fly and have a fun GS/Rifle Build as well.

If you know how to 1v1 – 1v2+, and definitely know your strengths and weaknesses as a warrior, this:

Skull Cracker 3.0 (that’s an sPvP build but works equally well in WvW roaming)

Titan’s WvW Roaming/Small Group Builds

For small group roaming, 4-8, this is the best build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJASRjcOtwZPGPMxCEkCNsKMFMiTBlQpwOqjUhwA-jUzAYLI0FABBiQAk+iYCcIrthioxqtxUmJVFLIbvhM5CzujkKFQELAA-w … of course after you get 25 stacks you want to use a Greatsword with Sigil of Impact for the 10% extra damage.

You have 23k health, 3k toughness + an extra 180 toughness from dolyak + an extra 150 toughness from support guardian, totaling ~3.3k toughness.

When you go for burst damage you have 100% crit chance, 2360 power, and 116% critical damage.

You can take out 1-3 people every 10 seconds with this build while taking very little damage and having high survivability/damage escape.

Your role will essentially be the leader, your job is to target the enemy(ies) without stability/protection and start bursting them down with the support of your group while also being able to take the burst of the enemy team.

You also have the role of being able to push back full groups of enemies while allowing your group to catch up on heals or cooldowns with efficient use of endure pain and dolyak signet. Not to mention the banner adds major damage to the whole group and allows a means of movement skills to a support guardian that has access to none.

The latest video showing this build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St8KUpNmu5M, around 1:40 is the first showing of this build, where we 3 v 7 the enemy with this build doing the bulk of the damage.

Really, matching a warriors build with a support guardian build will lead to an extremely effective group.