Guild Wars 2

Rune of the Revenant:

• +8 All Stats
• +5% Boon Duration, +5% Condition Duration
• +12 All Stats
• +10% Boon Duration, +10% Condition Duration
• +16 All Stats
• When Swapping Weapons, Legend, Attunement or Kit, gain +100 to All Stats for 3s. (Cooldown: 9s)

Rune of Rituals:

• +25 Toughness
• Duration of all your Wells is increased by 1s
• +50 Toughness
• Conditions and Boons applied by Wells last 25% longer
• +100 Toughness
• Enemies within your Wells move 50% slower.

Rune of The Harbinger:

• +25 Power
• +35 Toughness
• +50 Power
• +65 Toughness
• +100 Power
• All Shouts Remove 1 Boon from Nearby enemies

babazhook.6805:

Expeditios dodger. This 40 percent would apply to all swiftness correct?

I would suggest All Swiftness Applied to the Thief, similar to how the Tempest are getting increased Effectiviness from Protection with one of their Traits.

babazhook.6805:

Proposed potent posion would not do a lot. Poison used as a damage condition now and not just a heal inhibit meaning most will have ready access to the condition that go the poison route. 1 stack of poison is all it really amounds to.

I would suggest keep duration. Keep potentcy. Add to the trait "when posioning an enemy transfer one condition (10 second ICD on transfer)

Transferring Conditions isn’t something that’s very “Thief”-y, I’d say. It’s not something I believe that Thieves should have ready access to.

Poison is certainly a Damaging Condition, but its real strength lies just in the heal Debuff. This will make Poison coming from Thieves requiring more than 1 Cleanse to get rid of, which can be extremely Potent vs Classes who rely strongly on Healing to survive (D/D Eles, Bunker Guards).

Jana.6831:

Unload can be cast 3 times in a row. That would be 24 stacks of vulnerability without any more effort. So, I just need to spam unload, switch to D/X, stealth with blinding powder and get a backstab in for about 16-20k? I don’t like brainless weaponskills. Not saying that there aren’t any of them around, but I still hope those will be changed eventually.
No real opinion on your other ideas as I don’t use the traits, I only use my P/P against some world bosses.

Indeed, didn’t quite think of that. The Duration of the Vulnerability should be cut down so that stacking it using Unload alone becomes difficult, instead the Vulnerability will be there to increase the effectiviness of using Unload more than once on a target.

Moved Assassin’s reward down to Master and added some Health regen to Upper Hand, allowing said Trait to be a defensive choice for thieves, while Swindler’s Equilibrium will be the offensive choice and Don’t Stop remains as the go-to Mobility Trait.

Did a few changes, primarily to Guarded Initiation. It’s now useful both for Engaging and Disengaging enemies, meant to work as a trait primarily useful for Shortbow and Pistols. The Immobilize will let you engage and disengage without having to rely on Stealth.

Pistol mainhand

Vital Shot

• Now Additionally grants Vulnerability (1 Stack, 4s) in addition to Bleeding. With the changes to Vulnerability, this will help both Condi and Power specs.

Body Shot

• Now Cripples (4s) and Immobilizes (1s) The target rather than granting Vulnerability. This will Synergize with a changed Ankle Shots trait.

Unload

• Now stacks Vulnerability (1 stack, 4s) With every shot. Cost and Damage remains the same.

Traits
Grandmaster Trait: Potent Poison

• Instead of increased Damage, Poison applied by you will Apply additional Poison when it is Cleansed or Expires. (1 stack, 5s).
• ICD: 5s.

Master Trait: Ankle Shots – Renamed into Ricochet

• Pistol and Harpoon Gun Attacks will now Bounce to Additional Targets if the Enemy you attack is Crippled, Chilled or Immobilized.
• Number of Bounces: 2
• All Pistol and Harpoon Gun skills now have a Chance to Bleed (1 Stack, 8s) Enemies struck. This chance is increased against Crippled, Chilled or Immobilized Enemies.
• Chance: 33% (66% if Crippled, Chilled or Immobilized)

Minor Trait: Expeditious Dodger

• in Addition to granting Swiftness on Dodge, now also increases Effectiviness of Swiftness.
• Swiftness: Movement Speed increased by 40%

Minor Trait: Feline Grace

• No longer grants Vigor on Evade, but rather grants a Set amount of Energy on Evading an attack. Grants extra Energy if you evade with a Dodge.
• Energy gained on Dodge: 15. Energy gained on Weapon Skill Evade: 5. ICD: 3s

Maste Trait: Assassin’s Reward

• Moved to Master.
• Heal yourself whenever you use a skill that Costs Initiative. Heal yourself for each point of Initiative used.
• Healing per Initiative: 73

Master Trait: Guarded Initiation

• Landing an Attack from outside of the Range Threshold will Immobilize (1s) your target.
• Threshold: 600. ICD: 10s.

Grandmaster Trait: Upper Hand

• Gain Initiative (1) and Health on Evading attacks. You now Recharge Steal by a static amount when evading attacks with any weapon. (Previously on Swindler’s Equilibrium).
• Steal Recharge: 1s. ICD: 1s.
• Healing: 200. ICD: 1s.

Grandmaster Trait: Swindler’s Equilibrium

• Moved to Grandmaster.
• Increases Initiative regeneration while wielding a Sword or Spear. Additionally, Evading Attacks while wielding a Sword or Spear grants Might (1 stack, 10s). ICD: 1s.
• Initiative Regeneration: 1 Initiative every 10s.

I prefer the more down-to-earth, simple and practical look that usually comes with the Norn culture, so I designed my Elementalist’s outfit around that.

Vampires are a thing in the GW canon, just veeeeeery different from the western idea of a Vampire. See for yourself: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hopping_Vampire

Werewolves are superfluent because All Norn are basically Werebeasts from the get-go.

And ANet didn’t want your race to decide what Profession you should play, which is why there are no notable differences between the 5 races and also why you’ll never see any, either.

It’s perfect.

20s was way too long and unpunishing for Rampage. It allowed bad Warriors to miss with key Skills such as Seismic Stomp without suffering much punishment from it. Now they can’t.

The most similar skill, Lich Form, had 15s duration and 180s Cooldown from the June patch. So Rampage was simply brought in line with this, makes all the sense.

People seem to think sword would’ve been better than Warhorn.

There’s no gaurantee it would’ve been.

Sword would have to compete with Staff’s redonkelous sustained DPS in PvE, not to mention the range, and against the Versatility of Dagger in PvP. If it’d be a High-end DPS weapon, it also wouldn’t solve the fact that Elementalists have to go full-on Defensive specs in PvP. (Water and Arcana are -still- Must-haves, Fire is only picked because of Blinding Ashes.)

They could’ve made it into a defensive main-hand (Similar to how Focus is a Defensive off-hand) but then you could forget about using it in PvE, and it’d probably be lacking in PvP from forcing the Elementalist into melee range in order to deal substantial damage.

Warhorn on the other hand opens up for an Off-hand that can add Sustained DPS and AoEs to a Main-hand/Off-hand combo, something Eles lack. (Look at Dagger OH and Focus. One is a versatile and balanced weapon centered around Spikes, Support, Mobility and CC, while the other is a Hyper-defensive, CC and Denial-centric weapon.)
However, if it’s not a High-end DPS weapon first and foremost, it’s probably gonna bomb unless it has some sweet trait synergy with the new Tempest tree.

We’ll see on Friday.

I like how people keep saying that Trahearne stole credit from the player character.

He didn’t steal anything, in fact he makes it Perfectly clear that he owes everything to the Player character, on multiple occassions. It’s just that the rest of the world seems to think he’s the big shot of the two of you.

It’s poor writing decisions that doesn’t cast enough limelight on the Player Character, if anything.

Also the fact that they try and make a Hero out of a guy who has SUPPORTING CHARACTER written on his forehead. I mean Trahearne is meek, reticent, scholarly and in no ways an actual fighter. There’s absolutely nothing wrong about the character in itself, but rather how that character is presented and the role he’s given. Trahearne’s the guy who should be barely holding his own against the big, scary enemy, succumbing to fatigue just as the Player Character comes around and tags him out, letting Trahearne pass out and rest while you personally proceed to kick copious amounts of behind. Sometimes, though, the writers got it all backwards instead.

Me? I’m personally happy that Trahearne was willing to deal with all the administrative stuff so that my Pact Commander can go out picking flowers, stomping rabbits to see if I can break 1.000.000 damage, dress up in a pink skirt and run around the Reach tossing rose petals at people, finally take some time to practice that awesome choir bell solo I dreamt about and generally be a total schtickwaffle to anything remotely resembling a quaggan when it happens to come my way.

The Horn might turn out a Hyper-offensive Off-hand meant for sustained DPS, something that the Elementalist is currently lacking. I mean, Focus is Hyper-defensive, while Dagger OH is a Balanced weapon mixing Spike Damage, Support, Mobility and Hard CC together.

Neither of those are actually “Optimal” for current PvE content, which is why we see Staff being used over any other weapon for Elementalist. Meanwhile, Scepter may be underwhelming but the DPS on Dagger MH isn’t too shabby, just that it pales in comparison with Staff. If Warhorn OH remedies that, it might very well be useful.

So I say, let’s see what the Devs have in storm for us. Pun intended.

I’m fairly certain at least 1 of the Signets with the Glint Legend will be a Movement Signet (Looking at the Wing here). So Couple that with instant legends and Shiro’s mobility, and they won’t be too slow.

Out of Combat, you can still use Hammer and Jalis, since you can switch Legends on the go like any other utility skills. In combat, most mobility seems to lie with Shiro.

I think Revenant will be fine.

Judging from the visuals, I’m gonna guess…

Heal Skill

• Passive Effect: Heal yourself whenever you Consume Energy.
• Active Effect: Heal yourself and gain the Dragon’s Scales, granting Protection to nearby Allies.

Utility Skill #1 (Wing)

• Passive Effect: 25% Movement Speed.
• Active Effect: Use the wings of the Dragon to rapidly fly forward, knocking down enemies in your path. Allies in your path gain Swiftness.

Utility Skill #2 (Blindfold)

• Passive Effect: Grants Energy Generation while in Combat
• Active Effect: Break out of Stun and gain Dragon’s sight, granting Vulnerability to and Revealing nearby enemies.

Utility Skill #3 (Chain)

• Passive Effect: Pulse Stability to nearby allies.
• Active Effect: Use the Claws of the dragon to damage and Immobilize enemies in front of you.

Elite Skill

• Passive Effect: You deal 2% more Damage for each nearby enemy.
• Active Effect: Call an Echo of Glint to aid you in battle. The Echo will breath on the target Area, Cleansing Conditions on allies and granting them Aegis, while Damaging and Fearing enemies.

Ok, I’m gonna adress this from the point of view of someone who follows meta:

FORGET ABOUT HEALING, THINK SUPPORT

FORGET ABOUT TANKING, THINK SUPPORT

Just by Choosing Guardian as a Profession, you immedietally choose to play a Support role, because Guardians are just that good at being support.

FORGET about wearing “Healing Power” Gear, it doesn’t matter wether you wear Zerker, Soldier or Cleric gear, you Still bring Support to the team. Even the most hardcore DPS Mediguard builds generally bring both Absolute Resolution and Indomitable Courage to a team fight.

Support is one of the 3 essential Components in GW2 combat, however it differs greatly from the support found in the Holy Trinity.
In GW2, Support is Pro-active rather than Reactive. You’re not there to turn the tides of battle with immense heals, you’re there to keep the tide from coming against your party to begin with.

The Guardian’s heals aren’t there as a failsafe button, instead they’re meant to sustain the team through the fight. However, Healing is a very low-priority level of support in PvE. As a Guardian, you can Blind Enemies, deal out Aegis, protection and Stability to allies like Candy, you’ve got access to the Second Best Projectile Defense of all Professions, you’ve got enough Condi Cleanse to last your team a lifetime.

Between the 3 cornerstones of Damage, Support and Control, only Damage is currently restricted by and to what gear you’re currently wearing, both in terms of Outgoing DPS and Mitigating incoming Damage. Support and Control are done just as well in Zerker as they’re done in Soldier. Cleric gear is useful in 1 instance, and that is PvP where enemies are smarter, faster and more relentless than the AI.

So don’t let the choice of gear divert your attention. As a Guardian, no matter wether you’re in PvE, WvW or sPvP, you’re still support first and foremost. It’s equally important, in PvE and WvW, to be Flexible and know when and where to bring which kind of Support. Projectile Heavy fight? Bring Wall of Light and trait Master of Consecrations. Condition Heavy fight? Bring Purging Flames and Absolute Resolution. CC heavy fight? Bring “Stand Your Ground!” or Hallowed Ground. Enemy attacks slow but with devastating attacks? Bring “Retreat!” and keep a finger on F3. Loads of Trash Mobs overwhelming the party? Spam Virtue of Justice and make sure to have the Radiance line traited.

Among all professions, Guardian is possibly The only one that can adapt to protect himself and his party from any kind of enemy, just as long as he’s prepared for it.

I would suggest taking a look at http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki and read through the Meta Builds guide, and you’ll see that in all 3 Guardian metabuilds, they put a load of emphasis on Support over anything.

So if we’re assuming that S/A is gonna be the “Main DPS set” for PvE, then we can look into a complimentory set.

Hammer: High Burst Potential, could fill a similar spot as the LB for Rangers, i.e use 2 while running, followed by 3 and/or 5 before switching to S/A and keeping to it for the remainder of the fight.

Staff: Also burst Potential with 5, as well as the Projectile blocking on 3. Probably gonna be pretty niche though.

Mace: Niche use, possibly against walls you’ll see 3 being used for multiple blast finishers into a Fire field.

Sword Off-hand: Didn’t get a good look on the damage on 4, but if it’s worthwhile it might see some use in higher-level fractals or Arah. The pull could probably have some uses as well.

Shield: Might be all kinds of awesome, we don’t know yet.

Rune of the Revenant:

• +8 All Stats
• +5% Boon Duration, +5% Condition Duration
• +12 All Stats
• +10% Boon Duration, +10% Condition Duration
• +16 All Stats
• When Swapping Weapons, Legend, Attunement or Kit, gain +100 to All Stats for 3s. (Cooldown: 9s)

If we’re going for thematics, something like that above maybe?^

Nothing to say there couldn’t be specific Rune Sets applied to each of the Legends, though, as long as they work in a general spectrum for more professions:

Rune of Jalis:

• +25 Toughness
• +5% Taunt Duration
• +50 Toughness
• +10% Taunt Duration. Taunting an Enemy grants you Protection for 3s. (Cooldown: 20s)
• +100 Toughness
• +15% Taunt Duration. Taunting an Enemy grants you Aegis for 6s. (Cooldown: 30s)

Rune of Mallyx:

• +25 Condition Damage
• +5% Condition Duration
• +50 Condition Damage
• +10% Condition Duration. Chance when struck to grant Torment (2 stacks, 8s) to the target. (Cooldown: 15s)
• +100 Condition Damage
• When using an Elite Skill, Copy all your Conditions to nearby Foes. (Cooldown: 60s)

Rune of Ventari:

• +25 Healing Power
• +5% Boon Duration
• +50 Healing Power
• +10% Boon Duration. Applying Regeneration to an Ally Heals them for a small amount.
• +100 Healing Power
• +25% Outgoing Healing. Whenever you heal an Ally, heal yourself for 10% of the Healing. (Cooldown: 2s.)

Rune of Shiro:

• +25 Ferocity
• 25% chance when struck to cause your next attack to Siphon Health. (Cooldown: 25s)
• +50 Ferocity
• Siphoning Health from an enemy inflicts Weakness (4s). (Cooldown: 15s)
• +100 Ferocity
• +125 Power. After using an Elite skill, your next 3 attacks Siphon health. (Cooldown: 40s)

Eh, Revenant gets weapon Swap. Use Staff for Trash mobs and Sword for Bosses.

Knighthonor.4061:

Wyvern.5329:

So… how the heck does shiro not corrupt the PC… how the heck would they get shiro to help the player… how lorewise does that make sense?

Legends from the Revenant, are not the actual legends themselves. you are just invoking the powered of them out of memories from the Mist.

in reality you only channeling the Mist, not the actual legends themselves.

Beat me to it.

You’re basically summoning the Mists’ memory of Shiro, not his soul itself. Like an echo or a shadow that contains a fraction of his power that you draw upon, created from the legends spoken about the guy throughout time.

The Revenant has been stated to have some Anti-Heroic thematics, willing to draw upon powers that others would consider to be “Evil” or “Tainted” for the sake of the greater good.

I still think the duration should be reduced to 15 seconds, make the skill less of an “I-win” button and more of a Concentrated Burst. Currently, 20 seconds allows Warriors in Rampage to make more mistakes than they should realistically be allowed (Such as missing a Seismic Stomp) which in turn makes this skill look more dangerous than it is.

Another thing I dislike is that unlike Lich Form, which can be neutralized with projectile defense/reflection AND Blind, Rampage cannot be as easily stopped with Soft CC like Cripple and Chill because of the Swiftness and resistance to Chill/Cripple/Immobilize (Which, paired with Dogged March, is a bit too much IMO). Either the Swiftness or the Resistance should go, but not both.

Exedore.6320:

TheSwede.9512:

I would argue that the DPS race comes into play only after the First gate goes down, from what I’ve seen. This because the First gate is generally only Guarded by 2 Guards which can be easily dealt with by a single player.

Nope. It starts as soon as enemy players can reach your DBs after running from their spawn. If you only have two people with your DBs, it’s too easy to DPS them down with heavy condi pressure, AoE burst, or an elite like Rampage. Also, you need someone to disable the treb operator, since two treb shots and some heavy DPS in the lane will make quick work of DBs.

Exactly, but then they’re not using the 5-0 Zerg split. The more Players they dedicate to Killing your DB’s, the less they dedicate to defend their own, however. Different splits is good vs some, but worse against others.

For instance, if you’re running 5 on Zerg (With the DB’s) then the enemy will be able to halt you with 3 people, while you have 0 people attacking and killing the enemy’s DB’s. Losing just a single DB in this scenario means your Gate will go down faster than their Gate.

It’s really more dependant on how your enemy plays than how your team plays.

Some splits and their Pros and Cons (Disclaimer, this is only Before the 1st Gate falls):

DB Escort – Defense:

5-0
Pros: Full-scale Assault, you’ll take down everything in your path in split seconds, including the Gate.
Cons: Nothing on Defense, the enemy won’t have to send more than 2 people to your gate. Vulnerable to a 2-3 Split.

2-3
Pros: Beats out the 5-0 Split (But only if your Defense team is CC heavy) as you can dedicate 2 persons to CC enemy Players and 1 to Treb down the DBs.
Cons: If the enemy dedicates a Burst-y Character, or a Zerg has High Mobility Professions, they will easily Kill of your DB’s and return to their own lane. Vulnerable to a 4-1 split.

3-2
Pros: Beats out the 4-1 split, as you can easily burst down both Guard and Treb quickly.
Cons: With only 2 people on defense, a 5-0 Zerg will mow you down with relative ease unless the difference is skill and/or comp is remarkable.

4-1
Pros: Single man on the Treb, aims to kill the DB’s quickly with quick shots before joining the Zerg in their own Lane. Beats out a 2-3 Split unless the Trebber is squishy.
Cons: A 3-2 Split can ruin your day before you can say “Uncle”. A 5-0 split will mow you down without looking.

TL;DR – 5-0 Beats 3-2 and 4-1 | 2-3 Beats 5-0 | 3-2 Beats 4-1 | 4-1 beats 2-3

Some of my thoughts:

Skills

• I like that The Revenant can use the Blinding Truth “Blind-on-Heal” together with the Ventari Heal to Blind foes in an AoE every 2s, similar to Thief’s Black Powder.
• Hammer’s Spike Potential at Max range isn’t Horrible, as you can chain Coalescance of Ruin into Phase Smash and Drop the Hammer relatively effortlessly.
• Mace Mainhand needs an Update with the Condition changes being prevalent. The fire field created by Searing Fissure could stand a duration increase at the cost of longer CD (4s Duration with 4s CD, for instance).
• Staff’s “Punishing Swipe” is very underperforming and generally results in a waste of energy. Adding a short-duration Daze to it might make it more prudent to use for the sake of interrupting enemies.

Specializations:

• Venom Enhancement and Yearning Empowerment should be merged as a minor GM trait (Corruption), leaving room for a Trait that allows the Revenant to stack Damaging Condis reliably even when not using Mace/Axe. My suggestion:
  • Sadistic Infusion – Inflict Torment (3 stack, 8s) When inflicting a Non-damaging Condition on a foe. 10s ICD. This will allow Staff and Hammer to apply Conditions without having to rely on RNG.
• Invoking Harmony (Salvation) is a superflous addition to a bunch of already existing “Heal Others” buffs in the tree. I suggest it’s changed to aid the Revenant as well as his allies.
  • Invoking Harmony – Daze (1s) Nearby enemies when Invoking a Legend. ICD: 10s.

The revenant does not lack speed, guys.

It has Perma-Swiftness by Blasting their Lightning Field (Jalis #7) with Hammer #3 and #5, or Mace #3 (Bonus, the Field is long enough so that 2 of Mace #3’s Blast finishers triggers even in the open.)

Now, Mobility on the other hand…

1) Hammer is indeed very slow. Staff is Medium-Slow. Mace/Axe is pretty darn fast though.

2) Nope. Hopefully Shiro Legend will fix this.

3) Perma-Swiftness OoC by Blasting Lightning Field (Jalis Stance #7) with Hammer 3 and 5.

4) Staff #4 (2 Condis), Jalis #6 (3 Condis), Ventari #9 (2 Condis), Salvation Trait 5

5) Can’t comment, though Taunt doesn’t seem to make enemies run towards you instantaneously.

Soooo… Ideas?

Tornado (Cantrip)

• Create a Tornado at your location.
• The Tornado will Damage and Pull enemies within the Tether distance (450 Radius) towards it every Pulse and Cripple (3s) them.
• The Tornado will Launch enemies within itself (120 Radius) every Pulse, dealing Significant Damage.
• Pulses: 5 (Once on Creation, then every 3rd second)
• Duration: 12s
• Combo Field: Lightning.
• Combo Finisher: Whirl
• Activation Time: 1/4s. Cooldown: 120s.

Plague (Corruption)

• Surround yourself with a Pestilent Cloud that stacks Conditions on Enemies.
• The Cloud will Always Stack Poison (1 Stack, 6s) on Enemies with each Pulse.
• The Cloud will also Stack Torment (1 stack, 4s) on the Player with each Pulse.
• Poisoned or Bleeding Enemies are also Blinded (3s) with each Pulse.
• Crippled or Chilled Enemies are also Weakened (3s) with each Pulse.
• Pulses: 7 (Once on Creation, then Every 2 Seconds).
• Duration: 12s
• Radius: 240
• Activation Time: 1/4s. Cooldown: 90s.

Exedore.6320:

I guess I’m not explaining it well…

Here’s the scenario: 5 Doorbreakers and 4-5 players are pushing your base. These attacking players will buff, cleanse, and heal the doobreakers as well as CC’ing, disabling, and killing the defending players. Note that 5 DBs will kill a gate in under 10 seconds once they reach it.

If the defenders focus the DBs, the attacking players will eventually kill some or all of the defenders by the time all the DBs have died. The DBs will also have broken at least one gate. The attackers have the advantage, go back for supply, and spawn more attacking NPCs. The process repeats until the attackers are through the inner gate. Due to the supply depot changes, the defenders can’t really come back.

If the defenders focus the attacking players, the DBs have free reign on the gates. Even under pressure, the attackers can still peel off and kill the inner guards. The DBs break both doors and the attackers just need to respawn and push for the lord. The defenders don’t have time to amass their own NPCs.

I would argue that the DPS race comes into play only after the First gate goes down, from what I’ve seen. This because the First gate is generally only Guarded by 2 Guards which can be easily dealt with by a single player.

If all 5 players summon DB’s at the start, then have 2-3 Players break off to the team’s own first gate while a High Burst (D/P Thief/Power Ranger etc) and a Support (Guard or Engi) head for the enemy gate.
Provided that the enemy runs a Zerg of 5 on your gate, 2-3 people should be enough to slow them down remarkably while your Burst kills the Enemy Guard at the other Team’s first gate. (This might seem impossible, but a Mantra Shatter Mes, a Staff Ele and a GS/H Warr should have enough CC and AoE to hurt the enemy’s advance a lot.)

Then once either team’s First Gate is down, the 3 people previously defending joins the rush towards the enemy’s Lord. MI from Mes and Swiftness from Ele should have the distance scaled in no time.

Of course, this all depends on wether you have a Proper Team Comp for this situation. In PuG matches, Zerging is probably the best tactic to use, since it beats out most splits with relative ease.

States.6387:

TheSwede.9512:

The Trait Changes did absolutely nothing to hurt your so-called “Build Diversity”.
Go check Metabattle and you’ll see a dozen new builds under just about any category, then come back and say that Diversity’s dead.

They culled out or combined a load of traits that were useless (But for some reason forgot the Fall Damage Traits, though I suspect that has something to do with the coming HoT Content.) and streamlined the Specializations something neatly.

Some old combinations no longer work, but in return we’ve gotten an equal amount of new combinations to play around with and test out.

Diversity is the exact same as before. Go ahead, name any profession and Stat combo and I’ll whip up 3 different builds for you, just like that.

Your honestly going to lie to yourself and say that limiting the way we trait our characters is not hurting the diversity in builds? Do you also believe 2+2 = 5?

Sure there might be more viable options for some classes now but that is because of buffs / alterations to some of the traits and not because of the way the trait system was revamped. If you were to remove the buffs/ alterations to the traits and then compare the previous trait system to the current one; you would easily be able to see the problems with the current one. And that is what i’m trying to address.

As for builds i dont need to give you anything because i know you cant build everything. The mettabattle website you think is so amazing contains a lot of builds for a couple classes while the rest have a few. Not to mention that many of the builds on there are all listed as “test” builds meaning they might not even be effective or useful. I mean what happened to the tanky necros? Surely if this new trait system has not hurt build diversity it wouldnt of completely removed a playstyle for one of the classes

Alright, one by one here:

1. For there to be Diversity, all options must fill some sort of function else they’ll be ignored and unused, otherwise those options are just dead ends that won’t lead to anything, least of all “diversity”. This was the case with many of the old and useless traits. In other words, Options != Diversity, while Viable Options = Diversity

2. More Viable Options, you say? Why, see my previous point. But I won’t say that Diversity has increased, though it hasn’t decreased either. It’s about on the same level as before.

3. The whole POINT of condensing traits together WAS to buff them so that they’d be more useful to players. So that we wouldn’t be stuck with a bunch of useless traits that noone ever used.

4. Metabattle doesn’t toss together every possible build there is for your convenience, they merely list the most efficient ones. If you’d actually Look Up some of those builds, you’d find that there are often several variations of the builds using different Utility Skills, Traits (Sometimes Specializations), Weapons, Runes and Sigils.

5. Tanky Necros? They’re in a better Place now than ever before. Try out Corrupter’s Fervor with Scepter and you’ll sit at +300 Toughness and -20% Condi. Duration. Or why not make a Minionmancer with the new 2 Traits that you need, which are both in the same Specialization and NOT spread all over the grid so that you had to spend half your points into places you don’t need.
Or you could try a Death Shroud tanky-build using Foot in the Grave and Unholy Sanctuary. Or why not a Siphon build with Wells and Daggers?

That’s 4 different builds-

TL;DR – Diversity remains the same as it ever was. Some builds are gone, new builds are available.

The Trait Changes did absolutely nothing to hurt your so-called “Build Diversity”.
Go check Metabattle and you’ll see a dozen new builds under just about any category, then come back and say that Diversity’s dead.

They culled out or combined a load of traits that were useless (But for some reason forgot the Fall Damage Traits, though I suspect that has something to do with the coming HoT Content.) and streamlined the Specializations something neatly.

Some old combinations no longer work, but in return we’ve gotten an equal amount of new combinations to play around with and test out.

Diversity is the exact same as before. Go ahead, name any profession and Stat combo and I’ll whip up 3 different builds for you, just like that.

I still think they should just let Healing Power decide Boon Duration, similar to how Ferocity is increasing Crit Chance.

Would give Healing Power that desired buff it’s been needing for a long time.

Lightsbane.9012:

TheSwede.9512:

Necro is a Backliner class, aimed to launch debilitating AoE damage, denial and condis with their Wells and Marks, they’ve been considered Zerg Meta for I don’t know how long alongside Elementalists. Your problem is running Daggers, a single target DPS/Defensive Condi weapon (Main/Off-hand respectively) in a Zerg where cleaves and AoE’s rule, on a squishy class with poor access to Stability and no Vigor.
Additionally, Necro has always been weak to CC, but just trait in Foot in the Grave for a 10s Stunbreaker and Voila, you’re not so easy to lock down anymore.

Reaper might become a proper Frontliner, with a Pulsing Stability from Shroud Skill 3 and access to -15% damage from Chilled targets and -10% damage from Poisoned Targets, on top of any Protection applied by nearby Guardians.

Also, Warriors are taken Because they’re kings of Lockdown with their Hammers. Mesmers are dragged along Because they’re specialists at debilitating and confusing enemy Zergs.

I agree and disagree with the backliner statement, as necro has melee daggers, and a sort of ranged axe.(only two power mainhand options or options in general outside of deathshroud) If you want to be condi? Yeah, be a backliner. It’s hard otherwise.

The good ol’ Wells Backliner Meta Build used Berserker or Valkyrie gear, along with Axe/Warhorn+Staff.

Staff is useful even in a Power build because of Putrid Mark which deals pretty decent AoE Spike damage and doubles as a Blast Finisher, as well as the Trait Soul Marks which lets the Necro stack plentiful Life Force at range for Bursts of Death Shroud Skill.

Mark of Blood stacks Regeneration on Allies, making it a supporting move for Frontliners. Chillblains stacks Poison and Chilled, reducing Healing and Movement Speed while increasing Cooldowns, destroying enemy zergling’s Healing -and- Rotations. Reaper’s Mark is an AoE interrupt and CC move that can save an ally in a pinch or keep harassing Thieves or Rangers off you.

Overall, the Staff’s usefulness isn’t limited to Condi Pressure from Bleeds and Poisons, it shines as Support and Control in large-scale encounters. Damage comes from Wells and Death Shroud, mainly.

Lightsbane.9012:

arenta.2953:

Lightsbane.9012:

BrotherBelial.3094:

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

Maybe… all of these years of neglect and nerfs are all part of something bigger? What if Anet plans to continuously worse as time goes until both professions are undesirable to the point no one plays them anymore so they have a reason to delete them and not worry about managing them in the future! :O

You don’t play WvW or sPvP do you. They are every where in those game modes. I should know. I play one.

necromancers are incredibly easy to lock down in both game modes. I should know. I play one.

if you solo yes

necros are ment to be with the zerg, providing a ton of AoEs, life steals, and crowd controls

specially on edge of the mists where those AoEs lock down paths very fast. with 3 necros you can stop an entire zerg (or at least send alot of them feared off the side falling to their doom)

the life steal has been epic as well(blood trait line) as i’m only lv 35 on my necro, and i’m playing in lv 45+ areas (not wise….but its pretty fun and challenging)

the only part of necros that fails atm(other than the nerf to the well….which i’m a bit sad about)
is the low durability of minions.

idk about spvp. but in WvW, a Necro’s vamperic aura, wells and marks, greatly benefits any zerg. (plus that fear wall. )
so much so you become public enemy number 1 of the enemy zerg

I run daggers on my necro, which will translate to greatsword in the alternate universe that HOT decides to appear in, so i run a frontline power build. any class with a lot of interrupts (warrior, thief, mesmer) that exploits them properly can easily lock down a necromancer even if i’m fighting 1v1.

Necro is a Backliner class, aimed to launch debilitating AoE damage, denial and condis with their Wells and Marks, they’ve been considered Zerg Meta for I don’t know how long alongside Elementalists. Your problem is running Daggers, a single target DPS/Defensive Condi weapon (Main/Off-hand respectively) in a Zerg where cleaves and AoE’s rule, on a squishy class with poor access to Stability and no Vigor.
Additionally, Necro has always been weak to CC, but just trait in Foot in the Grave for a 10s Stunbreaker and Voila, you’re not so easy to lock down anymore.

Reaper might become a proper Frontliner, with a Pulsing Stability from Shroud Skill 3 and access to -15% damage from Chilled targets and -10% damage from Poisoned Targets, on top of any Protection applied by nearby Guardians.

Also, Warriors are taken Because they’re kings of Lockdown with their Hammers. Mesmers are dragged along Because they’re specialists at debilitating and confusing enemy Zergs.

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Kitsune.1902:

TheSwede.9512:

People -already- whine about how Rangers Pew-pewing at 1500 range is “OP and unbalanced”, just imagine what a Thief popping in and out of Stealth every 3s at that range would do. At close range, it has the added risk of them having to be on top of you to backstab, you can counter with AoE’s and CC around your character. However, by each Unit that the Thief gains in Range, the Radius at which they can play around grows substantially. Just increasing the Range by 100 results in a 3.14*100^2 larger area for the Thief to hide in and to avoid counter-play. That’s 31 400 times bigger than before, imagine what’d happen of the “Backstab” radius increased from 130 to 1500 or even just 900 range.

Your math is completely flawed there, and the situations wouldn’t be quite that bad. For example if you made every 1200 range attack for thief to have a long activation time and self-root, it would change things a lot. Of course it would then feel pretty pointless for thief play style. But either way there’s plenty of ways it could be balanced.

The change from 900’ pistol to 1200’ rifle wouldn’t be quite so dramatic. You have to become visible in order to attack.. and you’ll remain visible for a while. The question is how long does it take for you between times you can consistently vanish, and how much head start you get to escape to random direction. The area isn’t really so important there, important is the 300’ longer attack distance itself (to counter, you have to be able to reach the thief from 300’ longer distance, before they vanish again and move too far for you to estimate where they went).

Sticking to the idea that Rifle gets a Burst, Backstab-esque Stealth Skill with 1200-1500.

The difference is bigger than you think, especially with burst type skill sets. The Pistols are a Condi Weapon first and foremost (used with Dagger Off-hand) and It’s Stealth Attack is a Multi-Hit attack and not Single Hit. They don’t deal in burst Damage in the same vein as Dagger does, which is the similarity I’m trying to push through here.

A direct damage fight and a Condi fight takes different amounts of time. Against a Pistol Thief, who lacks significant Burst, tenacity will eventually run him down once his Stealth skills come to a halt, not to mention the way the Stealth move is designed as a Multi-hit attack makes it all the easier to avoid the brunt of it even if the first and second hits home. The same can’t be said for a Burst Thief.

Now, imagine of the Urgency of closing the distance wasn’t there. Suddenly, the Thief has a much great Area to move about, an Area that is -impossible- to cover with AoE’s as a single Player, because they don’t Have to retreat, they can move sidesways and even beyond you, if they wish. Against a Melee Thief, you know that he will Always come up in Melee Range, that’s the Counter-tactics vs Thieves’ absolute stealth: Awareness. That awareness becomes Null when the Thief No longer needs to be in that required spot. The window for a Backstab is relatively small becuase of how the Thief must Position themselves. As the Radius increases, so does the Arc Length from which they can hit the desired Point (Back or sides).

Now, as a disclaimer, I don’t believe that a 1200 Range weapon couldn’t work for Thief. But a 1200 Range weapon as a Burst weapon with Single-Strike High Damage would not. If the theoretical Rifle was instead used as a Set-up weapon with Vulnerability stacking on its Stealth move, focused on weakening a target before moving in for the Kill, then it’d prolly work. Or if its Stealth attack was divided among several shots much like the Pistol or a Ranger’s Rapid fire. But in either case, I doubt that’d satisfy the people who want the Rifle for their Thief so they can be Snipers.

PS: I did mess up one part of the math, I concede. The Area wouldn’t be 31 400 Times as big, it’d just be 31 400 Units Bigger. It was 2am, my math is horrible then.

TL;DR – Thief’s superior Mobility, Stealth and Disengages make a Long-ranged Burst Playstyle impossible seen from a Balance Perspective.

Rangers have long range but nowhere near the Mobility of thieves and their disengagement options are very limited in that regard.

Warriors have long range but lack any form of utilities to support such a playstyle.

Engineers have long range but their attacks on that range are very slow and they also lack to mobility of thieves.

The only way a 1200+ Ranged Playstyle for thieves would be balanced would require ANet to curb their access to Stealth and Shadowstepping, which they obviously won’t because that’s not how Elite Specializations work.

People -already- whine about how Rangers Pew-pewing at 1500 range is “OP and unbalanced”, just imagine what a Thief popping in and out of Stealth every 3s at that range would do. At close range, it has the added risk of them having to be on top of you to backstab, you can counter with AoE’s and CC around your character. However, by each Unit that the Thief gains in Range, the Radius at which they can play around grows substantially. Just increasing the Range by 100 results in a 3.14*100^2 larger area for the Thief to hide in and to avoid counter-play. That’s 31 400 times bigger than before, imagine what’d happen of the “Backstab” radius increased from 130 to 1500 or even just 900 range.

We could, just for the heck of it, imagine that the Rifle Thief Doesn’t get a Powerful Burst a la Killshot from Stealth. But then people would whine because they don’t “Get to be a Sniper!”. Say a Stealth attack instead stacks Vulnerability dependant on range, people will still be all like “This Stealth Attack Sucks!” and “Change it to a Ranged Backstab or I quit!”. Maybe that’s not true for You who are reading this, but you can’t lie and say that most of the Pro-Rifle crowd isn’t after just a Ranged Backstab.

Now, the Question is What does Melee Staff bring to the Thief? Well…

• The Prospect of Decent direct AoE Damage (Currently, the highest pressure the thief can have is Cleaving with a Sword Main-hand.)
• The prospect of Good AoE Pressure in the form of AoE DPS (Again, the Shortbow is primarily a Utility Weapon, no current builds use it for anything but Movement, Unblockable Poison, Blast-Spamming or in the odd case Venom Appliance)
• A Two-handed Melee alternative, which the Thief Currently Lack.
• A chance for ANet to showcase new animations instead of rehashing old ones.

Granted, Off-hand Sword could possibly, and probably, grant these same boons. But Melee Staff is something fresh and new, in comparison, and makes me more interested in the Elite Spec as a whole because I wonder what new kind of Mechanics they’ll get as a result of that.

Ok, what if it’s something like this:

Warhorn Skill #4 Calls down a Storm depending on Attunement.
Warhorn Skill #5 Lets you Move called Storms around to targeted Locations, or if used before designate a starting position for the Storm.

While passive, Storms cause impairing Conditions (Burning, Chilled, Weakness, Cripple), but when you move them, enemies caught in their wake are struck with CC (Daze, Immobilize, Stun, Knockdown)

Suddenly, the Elementalist has access to a load of AoE Denial and CC, and won’t be forced into Staff for such endeavors, allowing them to run Scepter or Dagger instead.

Short answer: Everywhere. There’s nowhere in the game where you don’t benefit from having an Elementalist along.

PvE: Staff Elementalist has the highest Personal DPS by camping Fire and Spamming Fireball and Lava Font off Cooldown. Scepter/Focus Elementalist with Lightning Hammer is a very powerful party buffer by Blasting Fire Fields for Might and Fury.

PvP: Dagger/Dagger Celestial Elementalist is pretty much a must in any organized team due to their incredible support and damage. Staff Celestial Ele is also a very solid choice for more team- and node-based play.

WvW: Staff Eles again. With their incredible Supportive abilities, access to 2 Water Fields and multiple Blast Finishers and being the only Profession with a Lightning Field, they make up a solid foundation in the backline.

If you’re looking for builds, I suggest hitting up
http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki for all your building needs. Checking gameplay videos are also very useful.

Here’s my take on the situation:

Thick Skin should gain the “Adrenaline-on-Hit” portion of Cleansing Ire and either have it’s Threshold reduced to 75%, or the Base Toughness gain upped to 150 Toughness while over 90%.

Cleansing Ire should instead grant Increased Resistance to all Damage dependant on Adrenaline Level (3/5/7%) and Cleanse 1-3 Conditions when you hit with a Burst Attack. This will make this skill more of a Tactical Choice for the Warrior than an Insta-cleanse key. This might prompt it to change place with Sundering Mace and become a Grandmaster trait, but considering noone’s gonna pick Sundering Mace anyway that isn’t much of a deal.

Fast Hands is fine where it is, and should definitely not be made baseline considering the current state of the Game with too many Instant-Reward “On Swap” Sigils. If ANet takes a look at these “On Swap” (Primarily Earth/Hydromancy) and change them to function like say Leeching or Intelligence (Charges added to your next attacks when swapping weapons) and allow for these to be Consumed if an attack is Blocked or Misses, THEN Fast Hands can be made Baseline imo.

Exotic Crafted Lvl 78 Backpack + Lvl 65 Embellished Brilliant Jewel:

32 // 18 // 18 + 21 // 13 // 13 = 53 // 31 // 31

Exotic Lvl 80 Backpack + Lvl 80 Exquisite Jewel:

22 // 16 // 16 + 25 // 15 // 15 = 47 // 31 // 31

As seen above, The lvl 78 Backpack with a Lvl 65 Rare Jewel has a whooping 6 extra Stat points over the Lvl 80 Spineguard with a Lvl 80 Exotic Jewel. The difference is really negliable.

Dungeon- and Fractal-specific Achievements and Meta-Achievements. Rewards for individual Achievements would be Dungeon Tokens, Ascended Mats, Weapon/Armor Boxes etc.

The Meta-Achievement would award the player with a Mystic Forge Recipe that lets them create Ascended Dungeon Armor through the following recipe:

• 1x Dungeon Gift
• 1x Ascended Crafting Component 1
• 1x Ascended Crafting Component 2
• 1x Vision Crystal

For example:

• 1x Gift of Baelfire
• 1x Deldrimor Steel Chestplate Panel
• 1x Deldrimor Steel Chestplate Padding
• 1x Vision Crystal

Would create a Chest of Baelfire’s Ascended Chestpiece, which lets the player choose between Zojja’s Breastplate (Berserker), Forgemaster’s Breastplate (Rampager) or Occam’s Breastplate (Carrion).

The regular achievements could be all manners of achievements, such as “Clear Dungeon in X amount of time” or “Clear the Wisp Puzzle in the Swamp Fractal without triggering a single trap” or “Defeat Lupicus without Allowing him to eat a single grub”, dependant on which Dungeon it is.

I think they should do like this:

Chill: Reduces Cooldown and Movement Speed by 66%

Cripple: Reduces Movement Speed by 50% and Leap Distance by 33%

Chill is already an incredibly powerful condition, while Cripple in comparison is lackluster. This will make Cripple more useful in that it’s the best way to deal with enemies trying to disengage from a fight, while Chill will be better for ruining overall combat mobility and utility.

You’re making a few common newbie mistakes here, OP:

1. You assume that Aegis is the be-all, end-all in terms of Damage Mitigation for Guardians. You couldn’t be more wrong. Guardians have plenty access to Blinds, Blocks, Protection, Stability, Vigor, Healing, Immobilize, Wards, Projectile Defense and Condi Cleanses. They have so many ways to effectively null incoming damage and attacks that they’re one of only 2 Professions in the current PvP Meta that can afford to use the Berserker Amulet effectively. (The other being Thief, who can stealth and reset a fight while having the best Mobility in-game.)

2. You assume that the Passive effect of Virtue of Courage is the real pull behind this Profession Skill. Also wrong, the Passive effect is only there to assure that the Guardian enters combat with a free block. The real power behind this skill is an Instant Failsafe that can be activated at Any time to Block an attack aimed at you or your allies. If used right, this skill is a Game changer and one of the reasons Guards are always part of a good line-up when Team Fights are expected. Not only that, but it can be Traited to Grant Stability to allies as well, which conversely reduces the Cooldown of the Passive effect to 30s.

3. Guardian has lower Health than Necromancer, but in return they have Heavy Armor which is a substantial bonus to Survivability. Also, Guardians have all the aforementioned ways to mitigate, while Necro has barely any of those in the same capacity as Guardians. Necro and Warrior may be able to soak up more damage by facetanking it (Barely), but facetanking anything on GW2 is a Horrible idea. You dodge attacks, you blind them while they wind up, you cripple and immobilize them so you can kite, you conserve Healing and Cleansing for when you need it and you Pop Aegis either as a Last Resort or as a Clever form of setting up a counter-attack.

A few ways they can make the Reaper more Supporting:

Terrify – Activating this not only Fears nearby enemies, but also Grants the Stability Stacks you had to nearby Allies for Twice their Duration on you. Suddenly, Necros have a “Stand your Ground!” of their own.

Rise! – Instead of summoning Jagged Horrors, this is instead a Rally skills that Damages nearby Enemies, Rallying 1 Downed Ally within range for every enemy struck. Cooldown would have to increase, of course.

Chilling Force – This Trait has been considered too powerful as it is, so instead I suggest a change. Instead of granting the Reaper Might and Life Force every time they strike a Chilled foe, Chill now instead causes the enemy to take 5% Additional Damage and the Duration of Vulnerability and Weakness is increased by 50% against Chilled enemies.

“I can outrun a centaur!” (Because it has to be here)

“This rose has thorns, and here they are!” (You know it!)

“These things should come with a warranty.” (Asura when Minion dies)

“Now they’ll feel my Turbulence!” (Asura on Air attunement)

“How many ales have I had?” (Norn on Confusion)

“Urge to Kill… Rising!” (Human on gaining Fury)

“Executing Escape Plan!” (Asura on Fear)

And here are some quotes from Lord Faren:

“If you scoundrels bleed on my fine apparel, I am sending you The Cleaning Bill!”

Lord Faren: “The rest think it’s bad form to have a dragon festival in the middle of a dragon war.”
Lady Kasmeer Meade: “I understand it’s a delicate subject, but isn’t the council always at each other’s throats?”
Lord Faren:“Only when they’re not trying to stick knives in each other’s backs.”

And from Canach (And Anise, the snark is real with these two):

Countess Anise: True, you are only one among her thousands of children. Not as dear as her firstborn, like our heroic Pact Marshal.
Canach: It may be wiser to focus such commentary on someone without a violent criminal history, Countess.

Canach: Do you treat everyone you encounter like children?
Countess Anise: (laugh) You are a delicate flower, aren’t you? So easily bruised…
Canach: I have a thick skin. I also learn from my missteps. For example, you fooled me once with your illusions, so now I wonder if you’re truly as young as–
Countess Anise: Do not finish that sentence. Not here, not ever.
Canach: At least, a substantial response.

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta.

They might, however, design encounters that are more difficult to deal with using Zerker gear, or simply more efficient to deal with through use of other gear. We can only speculate on this but it’s safe to assume that anything ANet throws out will probably be completely doable in Zerker gear still.

What if Warrior gets Minion Skills?

Spec called Commander. Get Pistol Off-hand and can call in Medics, Archers, Standard Bearers, Demolitionists, Phalanx troops and as an Elite, Racial Heroes like our fabulous friend Lord Faren! Adrenaline is replaced with a Morale Bar that increases the Effectiviness of Utility Skills, old and new.

(I’d personally, honestly, forgive ANet if they give Warriors Minion Skills, if Lord Faren is one of them. We were the best Buddy Cop Duo in the Reach back in Personal Story Chapter 1!)

(Ok, I probably wouldn’t forgive them for it, but you bet I’d still run around with Lord Faren everywhere.)

I’ve currently got 16 characters, 2 of each Profession, for the sole purpose of having 1 with Elite Specialization and the other without. I have at least 2 of each Race, with the exception of Charr. I have no Charr. I just can’t into Charr for some reason.

Generally, I gear one for Dungeon Meta and the other for Thematics or sometimes WvW meta. Saves me bagspace and nurtures my altaholism something stupidly.

Short Answer:

Offensive Buffs: Elementalist. Plenty of AoE Might and Fury to go around by Blasting Fire fields, which they have plenty of.

Defensive Buffs: Guardian. Protection, Regeneration, Aegis, Stability, the whole package.

Thanathos.2063:

So if you have an enemy that attacks 1x per second, he will miss 5 times (because there are 5 pulses, 1 each second, that blind him).

If there is an enemy that is kinda slow and only attacks 1x in 5 seconds, he will only miss 1 time (or maybe two times) because he first gets a few pulses blindness and removes all blindness with his attack.

If there is an enemy that attacks twice a second, he’ll miss once each second and hit you once each second, because blindness gets renewed only once a second.

PS: 5 enemies is the max amount. If you only have 2-3 in it, it’s fine too, isn’kitten
But usually, if you have many mobs, you should use something like dagger/dagger. Pistols are more useful for a single heavy mob.

Slight correction: Black Powder Pulses every other second in addition to the first pulse. Meaning 1 Blind on Creation, 1 on the 2nd Second the field is up and 1 on the Fourth. The field lasts a total of 4s.

Also, Sword/Pistol is the best set for fighting against Large Mobs of Enemies on a Thief, due to Pistol Whip and Black Powder. Shortbow if you need to kite, due to Cluster Bomb and Disabling Shot. Dagger/Dagger is for stronger, single targets.

Ranger:

The Power Roamer/Zerg Skirmisher build uses full Zerker setup and can make do with the same Runes as the Dungeon Meta Ranger, you’ll just be switching Traits around and swapping out Sw/A for GS in WvW.

Thief:

A D/P Roamer uses Zerker gear, same as the PvE Meta. Again, just switching traits around should be enough to be viable in either spot.

Zerker gear us merely The most Efficient.

All of those PvE builds work with Soldier gear, Knight Gear or even a Cleric/Magi/Nomad setup. They’d just be less effective than going Zerker.
Zerker, once you’ve reached the skill level for it, will do the same job faster is all. If you’d rather get a Soldier set or run around with Condis, that’s your call, while solo’ing it really doesn’t matter much.

Furthermore, you can complete just about any content using WvW zerg builds, and the Roamer/sPvP builds are generally great for solo’ing as well (Bar some exceptions, such as Bunker Guardian.) Zerker, in PvE, is only if you’re aiming to be as efficient as you can be.