Soloing open world champions

Just some quick questions:

1. is power or condi better at soloing open world champions?

2. Which professions would work best at soloing these champs (i know that most people will answer that it depends on the champs. But what i really want to know is which prof has a better success rate to solo them)

3. Do you have any referrences for builds (armor stat, runes, sigils, trinkets)

Ps: im just trying to keep the game fresh for myself as ive done most of the game contents already. Thanks in advance.

It comes down to what you play as the best. If you main a Minionmancer, and have played a Minionmancer for a very long time and know how to play as one like the back of your own hand, you can probably solo a fair amount of PvE champs or even some Fractals.

I main a Chronomancer; and even after changing my build to a correct Boonshare support build rather than a more DPS based Shatter Spammer, I still solo a fair amount of Champs and Fractals when I'm straight up bored or no one's showing up to assist; because I have mained this class for almost a year and I know how to play it well in utilizing my dodges, blocks and healing to keep me from eating the dirt.

Condi is always amazing when it comes to fighting anything, but don't neglect your dodges and blocks if you have access to them. Condition only is as good as your time standing on your own two feet.

@Luckster.4076 Thnks for the quick response, i totally agree with you that to survive any encounter learning the mechanics is top priority. But If its not too much trouble could you enlighten me on your chrono boonshare set up to go one on one with those champs. E.g ur armor n trinket stats or even how u traited ur toons. Cheers.

What "open world champions" are we talking about here? There are different types. Regular/random champs are pretty easy to solo. Bounties or meta champs, a little harder.

@mnyonk.6134

As a Chrono Main, I wear half Minstrel, half Commander Ascended armor with Rune of the Leader in all slots. My trinkets are all commander. My weapons are Minstrel. Depending on what I am up against I will duel blade it, blade-shield it, blade-focus it, or if I'm desperate I use a greatsword for range.

As for Traitlines, I follow the same Chaos-Inspiration-Chrono traits that are displayed in the Snowcrows builds for a Support Chrono in Raids.

I am absolute garbage when it comes to DPS, so battles do take a considerable amount of time, but with my shatters, mirror, and Signet of Inspiration as well as my Time Warp and Continuum Split; the amount of various boons I'm pulling as well as quickness and alacrity to cut through the enemy is an absolute dream.

I am closing in on my first year here in GW2 having mained a Mesmer since Day 1 and I am only recently in the last few months learning how to play it correctly for PvE and otherwise; so it's most certainly not the easiest build to be running around soloing anything in.

But there is something absolutely satisfying about felling a champion solo while being just a big blocking speedy ball of purple.

And when it comes to the fractals I can solo in T1, my boonshare assists any NPCs I am with too, so I am capable of making them more powerful than they were really intended to be. (Urban Battlegrounds, for example, boosting the NPC charr with me and keeping them from being defeated the entire run)

Any other toon I just run away like a little girl because I have no idea what I'm doing. I need to learn how to play other classes effectively. It takes a lot of time to learn and understand your class with enough confidence to run around felling Champs alone.

@Luckster.4076 chrono does certainly has a steep learning curve , and in regards to dps, it doesnt mean a thing if i always got downed by those champs after every 3-4 hits. so your strategy is definitely better than going full zerker or full viper against those champs. Thankyou again for sharing with us ur solo build.

@"Dawdler.8521" erm not much of bounties but more like those champs from dynamic events, or one that are daily repeatable (HOT). I'm thinking of starting from this list: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_champions

You’ll learn that a green and blue isn’t worth your time, even if you’re that bored.

i just want the satisfaction. idk what else to do. So far ive great success with minionmancer nomad armor , sentinel trinkets with sigil of renewal to heal my minions on weapon swap. Currently testing it on HOT HP as we speak. so far so good. but there might be other better builds out there. wish me luck.

When we are bored, we go into fractals and train solo with some of those bosses. I prefer Skorvald (Shattered Observatory) because he can be extremely nasty especially on the higher tiers. Twilight Oasis is also pretty fun to do for a challenge, because the mini-bosses have very interesting attack-patterns. I prefer to test my builds there nowadays, Orr and Heart of Maguuma are no longer reliable training grounds. It is also a good place to optimzie reflexes and learn combos and rotations - if you use a meta-build, scrap this sentence.

If you are looking for solo-challenges, make sure to use a build with good access for healing. The good old guardian meditation build is still pretty effective in HoT and allows you to solo some of the Hero Challenges. Good strategy is always to stay ranged as long as possible and crush the break-bar when needed. Passive regeneration can also be utilized and help you to recover faster. In one of my engineer builds, I use passive regen when I swap from melee to ranged combat and manage to heal up without my heal-skill in few seconds. As you may assume, that is not a meta-build. In general, if you really want to do these challenges, you should consider replacing parts of your full-dps-gear for some increased survivability such as vitality or boon duration and probably replace that awesome damage-rune-set for something that grants extra heal or protection/aegis/barrier. Once you know the patterns of your opponents, you still can switch back to full zerk, but especially during the learning phase a more sustained approach might be the better choice.

Now about classes. You can use almost everything, especially if you already have good experience on the class. It should be one with a decent range option and reflects or blocks. In addition active defenses are awesome, endurance regeneration is also helpful.

• Daredevil Power builds with either shortbow or dual-pistol for ranged option
• Deadeye Power build can be used to solo bounties
• Guardian/Dragonhunter with mediation works quite well, Litany of Wrath is awesome against those annoying mini raptors XD
• Guardian condition builds also work well
• Chrono of course. (seriously is there something this class cannot do? XD)
• Ranger of course, vanilla and druid.
• Necromancer power and condition work quite well. The immortal configuration (= 2x HP bar) is still effective. The condition approach takes some time to deal good damage though. You cannot burst the conditions fast, you need to stack them slowly. But the longer the fight takes, the more damage you do.
• Elementalist and Engineer can be avoided. Too complicated to bother with if you are busy fighting a thing that can almost 1-shot you with every move. If you main any of these, you probably have enough experience to decide for yourselves. Elementalist is just a giant glass-bazooka. Extremely powerful, but squishy. Engineer has a horrible effort/result ratio and requires insane rotations to deal average damage. It has some awesome sustain, but the more you use of that, the weaker you become. Holosmith is just another glasscannon, but with a very small learning curve. It is newbie-friendly, but I would not dare to approach a champion solo with that thing. Too squishy, too much damage-focused, little to no sustain.

Cannot say anything about Warrior and Revenant.

I play most of the classes, except for Revenant. And from my experience, condi mirage is the easiest spec to solo champions.I can play it in full viper's and if i know the champion and his damage tells i usually don't eat even a bit of damage. For some champions i need a staff for a bit of kiting (of course, while putting some conditions on cloack attack), but most of the time i stay on Axe/Torch (Scepter if i need some range) and just condi them to oblivion.Another eezy one is Reaper, just facetank tha shit out of them and GG.

@Gemnaid.4219 said:You’ll learn that a green and blue isn’t worth your time, even if you’re that bored.

It's been a few years since loot/rewards was a factor in my decision of what to do in this game

This is somewhat of a personal Gw2 hobby for me.. I enjoy soloing content that's designed for groups, I get a kick out of overcoming something alone that I shouldn't be able to.To answer your questions though.

@"mnyonk.6134" said:

1. is power or condi better at soloing open world champions?I'm going to say it really depends on your playstyle preference.. I've both Condi and Power characters that can solo various things.What I find more valuable though is non direct sources of damage.For example, Wells, Traps, Minions, Summons and Pets.. Also, NEVER!! underestimate the usefulness of things that can take aggro away from you, or limit the enemy's damage.

The general rule of soloing stronger enemies designed to take on groups is not to out DPS what you're fighting.. it's to outsustain it in any way you can.The methods and freedom you have to do this is to be fair very good in Gw2 and you'll have a fair bit of room to customize your stats and playstyle.For example you could run a Minion Master Necromancer with Soldier Stats and a ton of lifesteal and more or less facetank most things with fairly low risk of dying.Or you could run a Ranger with Glass stats and use your pet to take aggro while you hammer our damage with a Longbow keeping yourself out of harms way and manipulating aggro between pets and spirits with Stealth skills.Likewise you could run a Mesmer, Ranger or Thief build based around evading attacks or a Warrior with lots of blocks and CC.Basically it really comes down to what you can come up with and make work.

2. Which professions would work best at soloing these champs (i know that most people will answer that it depends on the champs. But what i really want to know is which prof has a better success rate to solo them)The champ plays a part but it's more to do with your own build and playstyle tbh.I've personally had more success on Necromancer and Ranger.. but others will say Mesmer or another class, It's really down to you what you want to use and how.

3. Do you have any referrences for builds (armor stat, runes, sigils, trinkets)Really depends on the class tbh.. As I said above there are various ways to pull off solo's and they can vary on a class by class basis and playstyes can differ greatly depending on how the traits and stats work together and what kind of tactic you're ultimately going for.My advise is to first think of how you want to play, what's more enjoyable to you?.. Do you like quicker, more skill based solo's? lots of dodging those big hits and dealing lots of damage.. or do you get more of a twisted satisfaction out of those slower low damage solos but knowing that there is nothing this boss can do to kill you :PThey're all fun in their own ways but it's upto you how you wanna do it ^^

I'll give some general tips though from my own tactics which might prove useful in designing your build.Facetanking method.Requirements: Tanky stats (Toughness + Vitality at least), high sustainability (Lifesteal, High Regen, Regular Healing sources), Lots or some CC potential.Pros: Hard to Kill, Can outsustain most enemies, Can take on large groups without fearing being overwhelmed and can escape if need be, Can potentially shutdown enemy with CC.Cons: Long/Slow battles risking interference from other players, Low damage and crits (can be somewhat aided by 3rd party sources (e.g. Minions, Summons or Pets)Personal preference for this method: Necromancer Minion Master, Full Soldier Stats+Dolyak Runes, Death/Blood/Reaper Traitlines, Dagger/Focus + Greatsword.

Ranged method.Requirements: At least one ranged weapon, Some form of ally mechanic that can take enemy aggro (e.g. Minions, Pets, Summons), At least one Stealth ability to break aggro, Certain level of player awareness so you don't run off a cliff or into a environmental hazard.Pros: Can run Glass stats for higher damage and crits, Can avoid damage entirely or at least most of the time, Good all round PvE build with decent dmg & survivability.Cons: DPS will be mostly limited to the damage of your chosen ranged weapon, Opting to go in melee is high risk high reward so be careful, limited class options.Personal preference for this method: Ranger Spirit Spammer, Full Bezerkers Stats+Ranger Runes, Marksman/Nature Magic/Wilderness Survival, Longbow + Sword/Warhorn.

Missed me method. (Not as familiar with this one personally)Requirements: Lots and lots of evade capability!Pros: High damage and crit potential, Evades most if not all incoming damage depending on player skill, Some tanky potential, Can potentially break from combat to recover or flee via distractions or stealth.Cons: limited class/weapon/skill choices, Highly suseptable to lag, Requires more skill and attention from the player, Mistakes can cost you dearly.Personal preference for this method: Ranger Skirmisher, Mix stats (Soldier/Zerker/Assasins)+Ranger Runes, Marksman/Beastmastery/Wilderness Survival, Greatsword + Sword/Dagger.

Sorry about the long post, hopefully it will be helpful to someone though.

These insights are darn awesome guys thankyou for answering my post especially the detailed guides you all have created i can definitely learn much from them. I just finished soloing all HOT HP with minionmancer and would like to say that it is very fun to solo them instead of going with a hp train as u can clearly see the mechanics i.e. the attack pattern that u normally wont when u r in a crowd. My current build : minionmancer. Nomad armor with dolyak rune. Sentinel trinkets and backpack. Nomad Dagger focus with sigil of frailty and hydromancy (to stack vulnerability for minions to attack harder) and nomad greatsword with sigil of leeching and renewal (a lil bit of lifesteal and aoe heal for minions on weapon swap). Also Notable trait i took was "unholy santuary" (regen health in shroud) , "quickening thirst" (faster dagger skill means faster life siphon) , "vampiric rituals" (wells now grant life steal and protection), "soul eater" (regen health while wielding GS which is nice cos rune of dolyak gives u health regen too so double health regen ftw!). I'll definitely gonna try your guides tommorow with other professions. For tonight, necromancer solo checked ! All HOT HP soloed and also potoni and friends. :) :) :) :) cheers all. Ty.

Feel Free to share your Solo Non-Meta Build in this thread to keep it goin :D . sometimes its nice to go off-meta for awhile. ^^

@"mnyonk.6134" said:In my opinion

1. is power or condi better at soloing open world champions?Power
2. Which professions would work best at soloing these champs (i know that most people will answer that it depends on the champs. But what i really want to know is which prof has a better success rate to solo them)Guardian
3. Do you have any referrences for builds (armor stat, runes, sigils, trinkets)Raid build for Guardian from snowcrows.com

I can usually solo most open world champs on my thief unless they have a lot of fast attacks. Warrior and power reaper are better at it by leaps and bounds though. On my reaper, especially since the reaper's onslaught quickness change, I don't find many generic enemies in PvE that I can't melt on my own.

The champs in OpenWorld can be very different whether they are in PoF maps or HoT map/Tyria. PoF maps especially needs boon rip (for power spec) and steady condi cleanse to face champs, other maps do not require that much.

1. Condi needs ramp up time while power can burst. I have never tried condi so I use zerker power no problem. If champs has break bar, the power burst is insane. If champ cannot be broken then both are viable, but with condi build you can use dire armor to be tanky af and still dumping respectable dps.
2. Profession with pets to take aggro is a huge advantage to take pressure off you (necro, ranger). Spellbreaker, however, need to get hit and he has no problem soloing. When in doubt I try those class. Warrior has insane 1000 toughness for 8s and 2000 heal after stunbreak in defense trait. Necro has tons of minion swarm a champ. Ranger can cheese pet resurrection.
3. I think going zerker power is fine as long as you take defensive traits and dont be afraid to blow big CD. Going tanky for the champ is not worth it since the damage you take will be roughly the same as time goes on.

Reaper. Once I got that spec the first thing I noticed is that I can now go toe-to-toe with anything in open world without dying. You just key-mash and watch the thing die while your health remains over 80% the whole time. I've both soloed and 'tanked' a lot of champs this way. It's why I got bored of Reaper and rarely use it.

Of all the profs I found my reaper minionmancer to be a champion killing God - Staff+GS, yes you heard right. Old school condi chrono with staff/sword+shield also was also untouchable. Druids and their kiting ability+sustain are right up there too. You can do it with other profs but for me I found those 3 to have a lot more breathing room. Some of the best solo fun I ever had was just storming through HoT points on my minionmancer - even before I got reaper.

I find Daredevil is very effective, because if you can't be hit, you can't die. Thing is, one mistake and it's back to the spawn node.