Firebrand Solo roaming in WvW?

I recently saw a live twitch PvP 1 vs 1 tournament stream and was quite surprised to see that the eventual two finalists were both Firebrands and naturally the winner of the 1 vs 1 tourney was a Firebrand.Enroute to the finals, both won against mirages, spellbreakers, soulbeasts, daredevils etc.

This made me do a re-think of FB's viability in WvW solo roaming and dueling as I always thought they were more effective as a support class in WvW.But if the PvP 1 vs 1 Tourney was anything to go by, they are pretty strong solo duelers too!

Do you guys solo roam with FB in WvW and is it a viable choice in the current meta?Also appreciate if there is a build to share.

Link to the stream?

@"Ezrael.6859" said:Link to the stream?

The Finals match was around the 3hr and 30mins mark. Best of 5 between two Firebrands.One was Naru who lost. Not sure who the winning FB was but he was registed as Levikilla I think.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/340444460

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRApe8NnsADlDB2BDkCjl5Bbvl+SzpXoqBclCAA-jFxHABAcSA4TNgvfCAts/AA-wppl hate on shattered aegis but it does a TON of dmg. you could do sw/sh gs but mace 3 hits so hard its funny. if you cant live without valor I would drop radiance and go with marauder instead of valk.

@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"Ezrael.6859" said:Link to the stream?

That's private grubby, on FC now. Leader of It's nothing personal [love]

Winning match was a mirror match up. Two harrier builds.

@Bezerker.2379 said:

@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"Ezrael.6859" said:Link to the stream?

If im not mistaken grubby uses a Radiance, honor, FB trait setup with dodge heals, symbol heals etc. Harrier based with a lot of boon duration in wvw. I use a variant of his build and one i got from another PvP FB i know. Its a lot of fun but as usual suffers from mobility issues in WvW which is not as apparent in a PvP map setting. I prefer using my FB when im in a small group where my buddies can help keep some pressure off me.

I also play that build solo Q. And as stated above its much more successful in PvP (solo q) than in WvW in solo roam mode.

Radiance 3-3-3, Honor ?-2-2, harrier's amulet or mender, runes of leadership runes with boons or might duration.In WvW you can try but due to variance WvW/PvP: skills, ascended set, infusion, food etc Harrier it too fragile in my opinion, and slow.; at least it was for me. A mix with valkyrie/cavalier/cleric, why not celestial, runes and food on Boon duration would be better.

Edit: this is the Build on metabattle.

Not to be critical but those two in the video were heavily cheesing the small map zone with LoS, dropping down and going back up over and over. That’s going to be hard to do in WvW roaming. That’s not to say roaming is impossible with FB. I’ve seen some good players to do it with mixed success enough for me to think “how’d they do it?”.

So Harrier stats huh? Wouldn’t heavier dps stats not be better? I’m thinking of full Griever stats myself with radiance, zeal, and fb. What are thoughts on that?

@Lonewolf Kai.3682 said:Not to be critical but those two in the video were heavily cheesing the small map zone with LoS, dropping down and going back up over and over. That’s going to be hard to do in WvW roaming. That’s not to say roaming is impossible with FB. I’ve seen some good players to do it with mixed success enough for me to think “how’d they do it?”.

So Harrier stats huh? Wouldn’t heavier dps stats not be better? I’m thinking of full Griever stats myself with radiance, zeal, and fb. What are thoughts on that?

Not enought sustain unless you use honor or valor line. In wvw you cant rely on just your F2 tome and number 6 heal skill to heal you. You need to be meditations (valor) or dodge/aegis/symbol heals from Honor.

Otherwise you will be just a 1 burst wonder. Kill in first 2 sec or die. Anyone who survives your burst will kill you easily.

@Spartacus.3192 said:

@Lonewolf Kai.3682 said:Not to be critical but those two in the video were heavily cheesing the small map zone with LoS, dropping down and going back up over and over. That’s going to be hard to do in WvW roaming. That’s not to say roaming is impossible with FB. I’ve seen some good players to do it with mixed success enough for me to think “how’d they do it?”.

So Harrier stats huh? Wouldn’t heavier dps stats not be better? I’m thinking of full Griever stats myself with radiance, zeal, and fb. What are thoughts on that?

Isn’t that pretty much roaming in general though?

@Lonewolf Kai.3682 said:

@Spartacus.3192 said:

@Lonewolf Kai.3682 said:Not to be critical but those two in the video were heavily cheesing the small map zone with LoS, dropping down and going back up over and over. That’s going to be hard to do in WvW roaming. That’s not to say roaming is impossible with FB. I’ve seen some good players to do it with mixed success enough for me to think “how’d they do it?”.

So Harrier stats huh? Wouldn’t heavier dps stats not be better? I’m thinking of full Griever stats myself with radiance, zeal, and fb. What are thoughts on that?

Not really. When i play spellbreaker i dont have the burst to take someone out in a wombo combo 3 hit burst. classes like core guard, soulbeast, deadeye etc can be burst classes. But not all. Usually classes that can stealth or pew pew from range or have long range teleports can be "burst" classes. Exception being holo. Harrier FB doesnt have the burst potential that core guard has.

I created that build some time back in wvw specifically to see how it would perform as a roamer. As others have said, it suffers from mobility, but here's what that really means:

• Just about anyone can escape from you if you start to win the fight. This is especially problematic against ranged builds.
• Lets say you're stuck somewhere without a camp/tower/keep to retreat to, and you see a roaming group from draw distance ( >3600 units). They can very easily chase you down and kill you before you safely make it back across a gate (unless you waypoint).
• In 3v3 encounters and up, low mobility means lack of ability to peel when under pressure.

To expand off that third point: Firebrand doesn't have the long duration block or burst of mobility that DH has, or easy access to damage mitigation (protection, evades) and while the heal giving you aegis is nice in 1v1s to block those clutch single-hit bursts, it is near useless when you're getting focused by 3 or more players. A harrier's firebrand (or really anything that's not a minstrel firebrand) lacks the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to bursts. You have to do a lot of reads, trade bursts and make good use of your cc/blocks to survive which is not easy to do and even when performed at the top level it still falls short of core guard or DH.

That build works very well in pvp due to limited map size, LOS and overall lower damage, but doesn't work so well in wvw. If you have a group and you gear the FB a bit more towards healing it can still deal decent damage and perform well since heals are your primary method of sustain but at that point you may as well go full support.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:I created that build some time back in wvw specifically to see how it would perform as a roamer. As others have said, it suffers from mobility, but here's what that really means:

• Just about anyone can escape from you if you start to win the fight. This is especially problematic against ranged builds.
• Lets say you're stuck somewhere without a camp/tower/keep to retreat to, and you see a roaming group from draw distance ( >3600 units). They can very easily chase you down and kill you before you safely make it back across a gate (unless you waypoint).
• In 3v3 encounters and up, low mobility means lack of ability to peel when under pressure.

To expand off that third point: Firebrand doesn't have the long duration block or burst of mobility that DH has, or easy access to damage mitigation (protection, evades) and while the heal giving you aegis is nice in 1v1s to block those clutch single-hit bursts, it is near useless when you're getting focused by 3 or more players. A harrier's firebrand (or really anything that's not a minstrel firebrand) lacks the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to bursts. You have to do a lot of reads, trade bursts and make good use of your cc/blocks to survive which is not easy to do and even when performed at the top level it still falls short of core guard or DH.

That build works very well in pvp due to limited map size, LOS and overall lower damage, but doesn't work so well in wvw. If you have a group and you gear the FB a bit more towards healing it can still deal decent damage and perform well since heals are your primary method of sustain but at that point you may as well go full support.

Yeah, I’ve had similar experiences with a heal build I made up to try it out, but it wasn’t Harrier stats. I always ended up stalemated and never could kill anything.

@Arcaedus.7290 said:I created that build some time back in wvw specifically to see how it would perform as a roamer. As others have said, it suffers from mobility, but here's what that really means:

• Just about anyone can escape from you if you start to win the fight. This is especially problematic against ranged builds.
• Lets say you're stuck somewhere without a camp/tower/keep to retreat to, and you see a roaming group from draw distance ( >3600 units). They can very easily chase you down and kill you before you safely make it back across a gate (unless you waypoint).
• In 3v3 encounters and up, low mobility means lack of ability to peel when under pressure.

To expand off that third point: Firebrand doesn't have the long duration block or burst of mobility that DH has, or easy access to damage mitigation (protection, evades) and while the heal giving you aegis is nice in 1v1s to block those clutch single-hit bursts, it is near useless when you're getting focused by 3 or more players. A harrier's firebrand (or really anything that's not a minstrel firebrand) lacks the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to bursts. You have to do a lot of reads, trade bursts and make good use of your cc/blocks to survive which is not easy to do and even when performed at the top level it still falls short of core guard or DH.

That build works very well in pvp due to limited map size, LOS and overall lower damage, but doesn't work so well in wvw. If you have a group and you gear the FB a bit more towards healing it can still deal decent damage and perform well since heals are your primary method of sustain but at that point you may as well go full support.

Very eloquently put. Exactly what i was thinking in my head but didnt write down.

@"Arcaedus.7290" said:I created that build some time back in wvw specifically to see how it would perform as a roamer. As others have said, it suffers from mobility, but here's what that really means:

• Just about anyone can escape from you if you start to win the fight. This is especially problematic against ranged builds.
• Lets say you're stuck somewhere without a camp/tower/keep to retreat to, and you see a roaming group from draw distance ( >3600 units). They can very easily chase you down and kill you before you safely make it back across a gate (unless you waypoint).
• In 3v3 encounters and up, low mobility means lack of ability to peel when under pressure.

To expand off that third point: Firebrand doesn't have the long duration block or burst of mobility that DH has, or easy access to damage mitigation (protection, evades) and while the heal giving you aegis is nice in 1v1s to block those clutch single-hit bursts, it is near useless when you're getting focused by 3 or more players. A harrier's firebrand (or really anything that's not a minstrel firebrand) lacks the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to bursts. You have to do a lot of reads, trade bursts and make good use of your cc/blocks to survive which is not easy to do and even when performed at the top level it still falls short of core guard or DH.

That build works very well in pvp due to limited map size, LOS and overall lower damage, but doesn't work so well in wvw. If you have a group and you gear the FB a bit more towards healing it can still deal decent damage and perform well since heals are your primary method of sustain but at that point you may as well go full support.

I happened to fight a FB roamer recently (admittedly very rare) and apart from the first round when I guess he wasn't expecting what he went up against, he won against me quite easily after.I found him to be quite tough to go up against.He was using a GS + Sword build. Would that help out in the mobility aspect?

It was at the 9 min mark in the video below. Only showed 2 of our fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaHYGzduxOE

@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

@"Arcaedus.7290" said:I created that build some time back in wvw specifically to see how it would perform as a roamer. As others have said, it suffers from mobility, but here's what that really means:

• Just about anyone can escape from you if you start to win the fight. This is especially problematic against ranged builds.
• Lets say you're stuck somewhere without a camp/tower/keep to retreat to, and you see a roaming group from draw distance ( >3600 units). They can very easily chase you down and kill you before you safely make it back across a gate (unless you waypoint).
• In 3v3 encounters and up, low mobility means lack of ability to peel when under pressure.

To expand off that third point: Firebrand doesn't have the long duration block or burst of mobility that DH has, or easy access to damage mitigation (protection, evades) and while the heal giving you aegis is nice in 1v1s to block those clutch single-hit bursts, it is near useless when you're getting focused by 3 or more players. A harrier's firebrand (or really anything that's not a minstrel firebrand) lacks the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to bursts. You have to do a lot of reads, trade bursts and make good use of your cc/blocks to survive which is not easy to do and even when performed at the top level it still falls short of core guard or DH.

That build works very well in pvp due to limited map size, LOS and overall lower damage, but doesn't work so well in wvw. If you have a group and you gear the FB a bit more towards healing it can still deal decent damage and perform well since heals are your primary method of sustain but at that point you may as well go full support.

Sorry I'm only responding after patch day... things have changed now but:

Yes! GS and Sw/sh is exactly what I roamed with. I found that to work best. The main reason for word was actually for fury, but now that axe can give that too, you may not need sword. Even with GS/sword though, you can get stuck. sword 2 and JI (which majority of firebrands don't take) require targets.

Also, in that fight, you beat that firebrand using a combination of a build that is effective vs. him, and also reading him skillfully. The appropriate counterplay for most builds would have been to kite a little bit further out of his distance, or throw up a block after they come out of a tome, or close the gap on you (FB has no unblockables) but that wasn't really an option since you're playing necro.

If you really like the build, it's honestly very fun to play, requires more skill than most guardian builds and I encourage you to try it. It's excellent in 1v1s if you're in either a duel, or are okay with forcing your opponent to flee, but isn't so great at chasing or getting kills against most roamers.