Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m hoping for advice/help on a build for WvW solo or small group (2-3) roaming. I’m looking for this build because I’m at 99% map completion, and though WvW will be my end game, at this point I’m trying to get map completion to make a legendary. My server rarely has the upper hand in WvW, so the places I need to get to are usually in enemy hands. Yes, I know I need patience, and I’m willing to wait, but I also like to do small scale stuff in WvW, so want to have some fun while trying to get the final 1%.

So, with that out of the way… currently I have 2 builds. One for PvE – full zerker using GS and axe/mace. One for zerg WvW -a CC type hammer and sword/WH build with zerker trinkets and Knights armor. I find in WvW roaming though that my zerk is not tough enough, but I don’t like lack of mobility and low DPS of the zerg build.

I don’t want to go conditions if I can help it because everyone runs with minus minus minus condition runes and food. So I guess I’m looking for a higher DPS, mobile build with decent survivability. GS kind of bugs me for WvW because the highest DPS function leaves me standing in one spot for too long. Sword doesn’t do much damage. I could really use some help and suggestions.

BTW I am not a PvP player. I am pretty bad at 1v1 against anyone who is half decent at it (bad nerves, always hitting the wrong buttons – I tend to panic; don’t even get me started on thieves and mesmers – argh I hate those fights). I do best in a zerg, BUT I truly want to get better at solo and small group fighting.

TL;DR… help please!

So here is something I came up with and maybe people can give me their thoughts. I was going for mobility, some toughness, condition reducers, and lots of ways to stun and DPS. The trinkets are those I actually have ATM. The weapons, armor, sigils and runes can be purchased. Please comment.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIEQRApe3ZjkOxwNPuOMxBEMDNEMuHUC1j5wNaDA-jEEB4ODimWGi4Am+AkIAI7ZIrpPRsCqIasqFYqSJV5KyaXAGcQmcw2xAeDKryAwMGA-w

you cant have a roaming build without any mobility imo. You need to have either sword or greatsword.

Fade.9124:

you cant have a roaming build without any mobility imo. You need to have either sword or greatsword.

Good point! OK, how is this?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIEQRAse3ZjkOxwpQuOMxBEMjrQDvHSC1j5wNaDA-jEEB4ODimWGi4Am+AkIAI7ZIrpPRsCqIasqFYqSJV5KyaXAGcQmcw2xAeDKryAwMGA-w

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that. If youre fear with conditions is that you won’t kill fast enough, or people will just shrug off your damage, let me throw you some of my experience roaming with conditions. When getting the jump on people, you can literally burst them down in seconds. Now i thought conditions were over time, not burst, how is this possible? Well with my setup, its extremely easy to get 3kdps from bleeds, and 1k burns, along with torment. That means most people will go down in 4-6 seconds.

If things ever go wrong for you, for w/e reason(more enemies, you made a bad move) you have a very low cool down leap and block to get ooc with, as well as being able to immobilize them when they chase.

Camps will take ~15sec to down all the guards, and a fully upgraded camp will take ~30 sec. Thats also a huge thing for roamers, being able to solo camps.

What will help you most at getting better at solo fights is to just keep at it. When you die, analyze what you could have done to prevent that and what your opponent may have done to counter you. Most servers have a fight night set up at the end of the week, which is just 1v1 duels against opposing servers. Go to that not only to participate, but watch what other players will do in certain situations. Go into a dueling arena in spvp and practice on other people. Learn what other classes can do and how they do it. Then think if ways to counter them while doing exactly what you want. Thieves and mesmers just take practice, and against a pretty skilled player will melt.

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that.

Thats not true… lemongrass poultry soup has an avarage of ~30-32s as buyout, ~27s as buyorder.
More important, if you farm the lemongrass for yourself (just park 2-4 highlvl chars in the eastern part of straits and collect the 5 herb patches with them when you start and end your gaming session – 10min max → ~10-15 lemongrass/run), buy the rest of basic ingredients and craft it yourself, you’ll pay about 7s (not counting the loss for not selling the lemongrass) per bowl.
In my opinion really well invested 10-20min for a roamer…

der don.9854:

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that.

Thats not true… lemongrass poultry soup has an avarage of ~30-32s as buyout, ~27s as buyorder.
More important, if you farm the lemongrass for yourself (just park 2-4 highlvl chars in the eastern part of straits and collect the 5 herb patches with them when you start and end your gaming session – 10min max -> ~10-15 lemongrass/run), buy the rest of basic ingredients and craft it yourself, you’ll pay about 7s (not counting the loss for not selling the lemongrass) per bowl.
In my opinion really well invested 10-20min for a roamer…

That’s good advice. Thanks!

You can just buy the bowl of poultry and leek soup, it is a great substitute for the lemongrass. It is only about 8-9 silver a pop and only -4% condition duration and 10 vitality less, a much better investment.

Condition build is still a strong build roaming build for warrior based on the fact that our bleeds last for an absurd amount of time. And you can always counter minus condition food with using plus condition food yourself. We also have pretty good burn up time and you can pop a sigil of doom in your weapons for extra condition damage. You are still pretty mobile and you tend to be a little more tanky then burst builds, although it may take a little longer to kill people.

Popular builds for roaming atm are:

Sw/Sw + LB condition build or Sword/shield + LB which is seen a bit less
Mace/Shield + Greatsword Tanky build
Hammer/Greatsword Tanky or berserker build
Hammer + Sword/Shield Tanky or berserker build

The stronger builds for roaming are probably either the Mace/Shield + Greatsword or the Hammer/Greatsword builds. Condition builds can be awesome too depending on the situation.

My personal favourite that I have the most fun with is the hammer/greatsword build (i find mace and condition builds boring).

This is the build that I typically use, it is more or less a standard roamer build but I switch some things out according to my preference.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|1.5g.h1l.0.0.0|2.5g.h17.0.0.0|1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r|2v.d19.2s.d19.3s.d1d.2s.d13.3s.d1c.2v.d13|0.k6a.u2a9.0.k58|16.1|5x.6b.6i.6g.6m|e

It has really high burst damage, especially with the hammer, great base defense as well as general survivability. 2,700-2,800 armor is great for tanking burst damage as well as soloing supply camps. Dogged March + Lemongrass + Shake it Off + Cleansing Ire has you covered against conditions. This build has significant vigor uptime due to vigorous focus and furious reaction in addition to the greatsword evade every 8 seconds.

I run 0/20/30/0/20 as I feel it is the most effective for me. For me, Forceful Greatsword is essential if you are using a greatsword because of all the might that you generate, extra mobility and lower cooldown on hundred blades. Most people use Unsuspecting foe as their adept trait in arms but me I am trying to get used to life without it, which really isn’t bad at all because this build has one stun. I use furious reaction for more fury and vigor uptime, but I guess you could use rending strikes as well.

I could not consider going any less than 30 defense with this build at all. Dogged March is amazing, Cleansing Ire is amazing and Merciless Hammer is amazing and are all major keys to the potency of this build. Having the ability to deal with CC that hampers mobility, extra condition removal and lower cooldowns and higher burst on CC is invaluable. And you gain an extra 5% power from toughness.

As for Discipline, most people opt for Warrior’s Sprint but I prefer Vigorous Focus with all the stances that I am using. 25% extra movement speed is nice but I feel that I already have enough mobility with the greatsword, balanced stance and signet of rage that I don’t really miss it too much. Plus the ability to dodge major attacks is very helpful. DotE is a no brainer, more damage please?

As for my skills, I typically run Healing Signet. It is usually the best heal that we have. Then I run endure pain, negating damage every 60 seconds is certainly helpful as well as the vigor I gain from using it. Balanced stance is probably one of the best utilities that a warrior has. Gives you swiftness, decent uptime on stability, a decent cooldown stunbreaker and the ability to quickstomp is invaluable. Most people use Berserker Stance as their last utility but as of late I haven’t really taken a liking to it. I feel as if I do not need the extra adrenaline regen, it does not remove conditions from you and this build lacks condition removal itself. Don’t get me wrong though it is a very nice skill and might even be better in certain situations. But other than that, that is why I use Shake it Off as a substitute. It is low cooldown, which means you can remove pesky confusion and bleeds quickly if they get too much for you and it also doubles as a stunbreaker. Notice how I have slotted 3 stunbreakers in this build so that I am also somewhat of a counter to other roaming warriors.

But overall, just find a build that is inherently strong for roaming and tweak it to your playstyle and liking.

Thanks for the advice killahmayne.

killahmayne.9518:

You can just buy the bowl of poultry and leek soup, it is a great substitute for the lemongrass. It is only about 8-9 silver a pop and only -4% condition duration and 10 vitality less, a much better investment.

Condition build is still a strong build roaming build for warrior based on the fact that our bleeds last for an absurd amount of time. And you can always counter minus condition food with using plus condition food yourself. We also have pretty good burn up time and you can pop a sigil of doom in your weapons for extra condition damage. You are still pretty mobile and you tend to be a little more tanky then burst builds, although it may take a little longer to kill people.

Popular builds for roaming atm are:

Sw/Sw + LB condition build or Sword/shield + LB which is seen a bit less
Mace/Shield + Greatsword Tanky build
Hammer/Greatsword Tanky or berserker build
Hammer + Sword/Shield Tanky or berserker build

The stronger builds for roaming are probably either the Mace/Shield + Greatsword or the Hammer/Greatsword builds. Condition builds can be awesome too depending on the situation.

My personal favourite that I have the most fun with is the hammer/greatsword build (i find mace and condition builds boring).

This is the build that I typically use, it is more or less a standard roamer build but I switch some things out according to my preference.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|1.5g.h1l.0.0.0|2.5g.h17.0.0.0|1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r.1g.7r|2v.d19.2s.d19.3s.d1d.2s.d13.3s.d1c.2v.d13|0.k6a.u2a9.0.k58|16.1|5x.6b.6i.6g.6m|e

It has really high burst damage, especially with the hammer, great base defense as well as general survivability. 2,700-2,800 armor is great for tanking burst damage as well as soloing supply camps. Dogged March + Lemongrass + Shake it Off + Cleansing Ire has you covered against conditions. This build has significant vigor uptime due to vigorous focus and furious reaction in addition to the greatsword evade every 8 seconds.

I run 0/20/30/0/20 as I feel it is the most effective for me. For me, Forceful Greatsword is essential if you are using a greatsword because of all the might that you generate, extra mobility and lower cooldown on hundred blades. Most people use Unsuspecting foe as their adept trait in arms but me I am trying to get used to life without it, which really isn’t bad at all because this build has one stun. I use furious reaction for more fury and vigor uptime, but I guess you could use rending strikes as well.

I could not consider going any less than 30 defense with this build at all. Dogged March is amazing, Cleansing Ire is amazing and Merciless Hammer is amazing and are all major keys to the potency of this build. Having the ability to deal with CC that hampers mobility, extra condition removal and lower cooldowns and higher burst on CC is invaluable. And you gain an extra 5% power from toughness.

As for Discipline, most people opt for Warrior’s Sprint but I prefer Vigorous Focus with all the stances that I am using. 25% extra movement speed is nice but I feel that I already have enough mobility with the greatsword, balanced stance and signet of rage that I don’t really miss it too much. Plus the ability to dodge major attacks is very helpful. DotE is a no brainer, more damage please?

As for my skills, I typically run Healing Signet. It is usually the best heal that we have. Then I run endure pain, negating damage every 60 seconds is certainly helpful as well as the vigor I gain from using it. Balanced stance is probably one of the best utilities that a warrior has. Gives you swiftness, decent uptime on stability, a decent cooldown stunbreaker and the ability to quickstomp is invaluable. Most people use Berserker Stance as their last utility but as of late I haven’t really taken a liking to it. I feel as if I do not need the extra adrenaline regen, it does not remove conditions from you and this build lacks condition removal itself. Don’t get me wrong though it is a very nice skill and might even be better in certain situations. But other than that, that is why I use Shake it Off as a substitute. It is low cooldown, which means you can remove pesky confusion and bleeds quickly if they get too much for you and it also doubles as a stunbreaker. Notice how I have slotted 3 stunbreakers in this build so that I am also somewhat of a counter to other roaming warriors.

But overall, just find a build that is inherently strong for roaming and tweak it to your playstyle and liking.

can you please elaborate your playstyle got GS/Hammer? I’ve just started roaming with it recently and I have no clue what to do besides button mash!

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that. If youre fear with conditions is that you won’t kill fast enough, or people will just shrug off your damage, let me throw you some of my experience roaming with conditions. When getting the jump on people, you can literally burst them down in seconds. Now i thought conditions were over time, not burst, how is this possible? Well with my setup, its extremely easy to get 3kdps from bleeds, and 1k burns, along with torment. That means most people will go down in 4-6 seconds.

If things ever go wrong for you, for w/e reason(more enemies, you made a bad move) you have a very low cool down leap and block to get ooc with, as well as being able to immobilize them when they chase.

Camps will take ~15sec to down all the guards, and a fully upgraded camp will take ~30 sec. Thats also a huge thing for roamers, being able to solo camps.

What will help you most at getting better at solo fights is to just keep at it. When you die, analyze what you could have done to prevent that and what your opponent may have done to counter you. Most servers have a fight night set up at the end of the week, which is just 1v1 duels against opposing servers. Go to that not only to participate, but watch what other players will do in certain situations. Go into a dueling arena in spvp and practice on other people. Learn what other classes can do and how they do it. Then think if ways to counter them while doing exactly what you want. Thieves and mesmers just take practice, and against a pretty skilled player will melt.

What sort of condition build would you suggest to make short work of WvW bad guys? You mention your own setup. Can you share it?

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that…..

So, use the -36% condi food then?

Greatsword / Hammer
0/20/20/0/30
PVT armor with Melandru runes
Knights/Zerk trinkets and weapons
All signets

Will do you just fine for roaming and whatever else you want to do.

Chopchop.6354:

can you please elaborate your playstyle got GS/Hammer? I’ve just started roaming with it recently and I have no clue what to do besides button mash!

GS is used for mobility; hammer is used for CC. Get close with GS 3/5, knock them around with hammer a bit, then use either burst or skill 5 to stun, switch back to GS and skill 2. Once they’re moving again, carve through them (and any aoes they set) with 3 and then dash back with 5. Rinse and repeat until invader has been thoroughly pulped. Use Dolyak Signet for stability when you need it. Use GS 4 and hammer 3 to cripple when foes are running.

Kalarchis, that is awesome that you give that kind of good detail for tactics. Personally, I tend to button mash in PvP situations, whereas I use relaxed rotations of skills in PvE where I understand the mechanics of the mobs. Your explanation of how to use a build is appreciated, even though you left that for a different poster!

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that. If youre fear with conditions is that you won’t kill fast enough, or people will just shrug off your damage, let me throw you some of my experience roaming with conditions. When getting the jump on people, you can literally burst them down in seconds. Now i thought conditions were over time, not burst, how is this possible? Well with my setup, its extremely easy to get 3kdps from bleeds, and 1k burns, along with torment. That means most people will go down in 4-6 seconds.

If things ever go wrong for you, for w/e reason(more enemies, you made a bad move) you have a very low cool down leap and block to get ooc with, as well as being able to immobilize them when they chase.

Camps will take ~15sec to down all the guards, and a fully upgraded camp will take ~30 sec. Thats also a huge thing for roamers, being able to solo camps.

What will help you most at getting better at solo fights is to just keep at it. When you die, analyze what you could have done to prevent that and what your opponent may have done to counter you. Most servers have a fight night set up at the end of the week, which is just 1v1 duels against opposing servers. Go to that not only to participate, but watch what other players will do in certain situations. Go into a dueling arena in spvp and practice on other people. Learn what other classes can do and how they do it. Then think if ways to counter them while doing exactly what you want. Thieves and mesmers just take practice, and against a pretty skilled player will melt.

What sort of condition build would you suggest to make short work of WvW bad guys? You mention your own setup. Can you share it?

Sorry i thought i had it in my original post

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAscTjkOFvpQCPMxBCkCsUlzjkMFyrUMH7A-j0BB4iCi0CAUFRMHqIas1XFRjVJjIqWpETIgFrBA-w

If you can’t get ascended trinkets, just use rabid ones with dire armor. All this gear can also be purchased on the TP for like 20g, just search “Galrath’s” for the armor. Undead runes work just fine until you can get nightmare ones. (Nightmare armor looks amazing as a plus. Missile deflection is my new favorite trait for PvP, those LB zerker rangers, kills hot warriors, and pistol thieves will literally kill themselves.

can you please elaborate your playstyle got GS/Hammer? I’ve just started roaming with it recently and I have no clue what to do besides button mash!

in a roamer playstyle, ideally you want to play aggressive and keep pressure on your opponents. Hammer/Greatsword is one of the more deadly combinations in melee so you really want to stay in melee as long as possible, although there are always exceptions.

I usually like to initiate fights with the GS, gauging the enemy and what he is doing. When I get in range I usually like to throw out my #4 to cripple the opponent then use rush on him to close the gap. Then switch to hammer, try to land F1, 5, 4, 3 and 2 if I can. Depending on the situation I tend to stay on hammer, keeping in the enemy’s face as much as possible. A combo I like to use is F1 on hammer, switch to greatsword which triggers the hydromancy sigil and then hundred blade + whirlwind. Try to abuse that combo as much as you can, or use #5 on the hammer then do that. #3 on greatsword is also useful for evading attacks while also being offensive. You generally aren’t going to be using hundred blades unless in the combo mentioned above or somebody is really stupid to facetank you.

It is really hard to describe a playstyle to you but in general you want to keep a lot of pressure on the enemy as much as you can. Although there are always exceptions to that. Being patient sometimes and executing your combos correctly is the way to go but sometimes a balls to the wall mentality may also be needed so you don’t give a chance for your opponent to retaliate and keep him defensive forcing him to blow major cooldowns. Obviously however, you dont want to be fighting necromancers in their own wells, guardians in their own symbols, stepping on every thief or ranger trap you see, etc. Playstyle depends a lot on the situation, the class, build you are up against, etc.

Keeping that in mind, you need to keep an eye out for zergs or other players that may interfere and pull out, or lead people to more favourable terrain to fight on or to other people whom can help you out. However, this build isn’t suited to being passive although some fights may force you to do so. As long as you can unleash good combos in between being passive and kiting, it shouldn’t be a problem. Once you have a good hold on the enemy, don’t let up and give them a chance to sustain.

Rigel.3092:

Carpboy.7145:

That -40% condi duration food is nearly 40silver a pop, almost no one can afford to run that…..

So, use the -36% condi food then?

I use the -36% food myself, the difference in duration compared to -40% is negligible and it is much more affordable.