Sustain/tanky build recommendations for roaming/small scale?

Hello everyone,

I spend most of my time in WvW roaming, scouting or doing small scale stuff. I currently do it on a conversion holo but that has been getting a little stale for me. I wanted to reach out to the greater community in hopes of getting inspiration or recommendation for a new tanky/sustain build. Im not sure what sort are out there at the moment. I do not wish to use Condi Mirage or Boonbeast, as strong as they are. I do prefer tanky/sustain builds over glass builds as Im not the fastest with reaction time. Maybe something like a condi bunker druid? Or Firework Firebrand or Power Reaper (though I think mobility is bad with the last two).

Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated!

Well, literally any class can do this with proper gear and all defensive traiting. It really depends on what part you play in smallscale too, the ranged or the melee pressure while other back you up.

Some of the more insane smallscale sustains I've fought on my own sustain mirage hybrid are druids, spellbreakers and of course holos. There is a variant of stealth-less staff dd that seems to getting more popular lately as well, probably as a sideeffect to people using it in zerging. Weavers are the most flashy sustain since they are based on comboing, but they are very hard to play. If you want to challenge yourself go with that lol.

Core Warrior certainly can be quite tanky with good mobility and sustain on top of pretty solid damage output.

@Dawdler.8521 said:Well, literally any class can do this with proper gear and all defensive traiting. It really depends on what part you play in smallscale too, the ranged or the melee pressure while other back you up.

Some of the more insane smallscale sustains I've fought on my own sustain mirage hybrid are druids, spellbreakers and of course holos. There is a variant of stealth-less staff dd that seems to getting more popular lately as well, probably as a sideeffect to people using it in zerging. Weavers are the most flashy sustain since they are based on comboing, but they are very hard to play. If you want to challenge yourself go with that lol.

Thanks Dawdler! I'd like to be able to have a ranged set to poke and a melee set when things get up close. What sort of druids did you face, power or condi? I saw your post on another thread about Staff DD as well. Ill research into that one too. I looked into Weaver once...and went cross eyed. Props to whomever can pull Weavers off successfully...that is NOT an easy spec to master.

@Optimator.3589 said:Core Warrior certainly can be quite tanky with good mobility and sustain on top of pretty solid damage output.

Thanks Optimator! Yea, I've encountered some serious core warrior's out there and it was brutal. But tbh, I'd rather play with a HoT or PoF spec than vanilla. I was doing research into Spellbreaker but learned they got nerfed into the ground.

is for you sustain/tanky only the ability to facetank alot of damage or does it include the ability to avoid damage alltogether to begin with? because especially having greater range than your opponent will cause you to avoid most of what they can throw at you, praired with:

@Rysdude.3824 said:I do prefer tanky/sustain builds over glass builds as Im not the fastest with reaction time.i would say valk SA DE. (you did not exlude this along with C.Mirage / boonbeast :3)because due stealth you do not 'react', you control the fight. it has probably the highest sustain of any solo build if you include avoiding damage to it and as opposed to other sustain builds it also does give up rather little in terms of burst potential.

@MUDse.7623 said:is for you sustain/tanky only the ability to facetank alot of damage or does it include the ability to avoid damage alltogether to begin with? because especially having greater range than your opponent will cause you to avoid most of what they can throw at you, praired with:

@Rysdude.3824 said:I do prefer tanky/sustain builds over glass builds

as Im not the fastest with reaction time

.i would say valk SA DE. (you did not exlude this along with C.Mirage / boonbeast :3)because due stealth you do not 'react', you control the fight. it has probably the highest sustain of any solo build if you include avoiding damage to it and as opposed to other sustain builds it also does give up rather little in terms of burst potential.

Thanks MUDse! As much as Id like to say i dont facetank, sometimes I end up taking the hits by not reacting fast enough. DE has never crossed my mind actually and you bring up some great points. Its worth looking into, thanks!

@Rysdude.3824 said:

@MUDse.7623 said:is for you sustain/tanky only the ability to facetank alot of damage or does it include the ability to avoid damage alltogether to begin with? because especially having greater range than your opponent will cause you to avoid most of what they can throw at you, praired with:

@Rysdude.3824 said:I do prefer tanky/sustain builds over glass builds

as Im not the fastest with reaction time

.i would say valk SA DE. (you did not exlude this along with C.Mirage / boonbeast :3)because due stealth you do not 'react', you control the fight. it has probably the highest sustain of any solo build if you include avoiding damage to it and as opposed to other sustain builds it also does give up rather little in terms of burst potential.

If you do decide to go DE, just remember: Sentry and Watch Towers are your biggest enemies.

@Sleepwalker.1398 said:

@Rysdude.3824 said:

@MUDse.7623 said:is for you sustain/tanky only the ability to facetank alot of damage or does it include the ability to avoid damage alltogether to begin with? because especially having greater range than your opponent will cause you to avoid most of what they can throw at you, praired with:

@Rysdude.3824 said:I do prefer tanky/sustain builds over glass builds

as Im not the fastest with reaction time

.i would say valk SA DE. (you did not exlude this along with C.Mirage / boonbeast :3)because due stealth you do not 'react', you control the fight. it has probably the highest sustain of any solo build if you include avoiding damage to it and as opposed to other sustain builds it also does give up rather little in terms of burst potential.

ye often 1 player + mark is a harder fight then 3 players.

@Rysdude.3824 said:What sort of druids did you face, power or condi?The ones I've seen do best is power. But that might also be because condi is generally no threat to previously mention hybrid mirage I run on, thats why I never said condi mirage as an example - most of them tip over like rotten trees, not able to do much. It really depends on both attacker and defender though, I imagine condi mirages have easier time on say warriors. I just find condi overall slow.

I run with a sustain condi scrapper sometimes as well, but thats mostly because I like the mechanics out of old habit (I ran it entire HoT). Once you start doing more than 1v1 it become meh. Power and hybrid is meta today.

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Rysdude.3824 said:What sort of druids did you face, power or condi?The ones I've seen do best is power. But that might also be because condi is generally no threat to previously mention hybrid mirage I run on, thats why I never said condi mirage as an example - most of them tip over like rotten trees, not able to do much. It really depends on both attacker and defender though, I imagine condi mirages have easier time on say warriors. I just find condi overall slow.

Yea, its apparent in the first few seconds whether a condi mirage player is actually good or just being carried by the build. Power Druid I think would be a solid build. Especially similiar to the one that Donee runs. Probably made stronger by the Firework runes as well.

I run my reaper build regularly with friends, while it is far more face-tank oriented than most recommended builds in the game it does push out a decent amount of damage in an engagement. This build will let you tank a punch while returning the favor, But it is certainty more oriented towards small scale rather than solo. In terms of overall face-tanking I usually take between 150K vs other small scale to 250k against a zerg per fight.(Here is the link) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQFARnMbC12glbCebC0biFrBTKAEyKZxZwPYKkKEEDGBA-j1RBQBB4BAcIdArUJIAuAAJT53mU/JJ7PQKAKmpB-w

@"Redpawa.4108" said:I run my reaper build regularly with friends, while it is far more face-tank oriented than most recommended builds in the game it does push out a decent amount of damage in an engagement. This build will let you tank a punch while returning the favor, But it is certainty more oriented towards small scale rather than solo. In terms of overall face-tanking I usually take between 150K vs other small scale to 250k against a zerg per fight.(Here is the link) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQFARnMbC12glbCebC0biFrBTKAEyKZxZwPYKkKEEDGBA-j1RBQBB4BAcIdArUJIAuAAJT53mU/JJ7PQKAKmpB-w

Thanks Redpawa. Interesting build..good lawd all that vitality! Awesome, really. I love that Reaper can go so tanky. Is mobility ever an issue for you?

Celestial bunker druid. Just condi bunker Druid doesn't do enough damage without dropping NM. Pretty disgusting in duels and teamfights.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAnf8YnEqAlsgtsAWsCUtglJBzpyVBycw/0i6TtJAcqmAlMu0A-j1xHABhv/AAPBglU+NwJBwN9DJq+zcKBJFQgDtA-w

cele+marshal's weaver is pretty decent.

@"beatthedown.2651" said:Celestial bunker druid. Just condi bunker Druid doesn't do enough damage without dropping NM. Pretty disgusting in duels and teamfights.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAnf8YnEqAlsgtsAWsCUtglJBzpyVBycw/0i6TtJAcqmAlMu0A-j1xHABhv/AAPBglU+NwJBwN9DJq+zcKBJFQgDtA-w

Thanks beatthedown. That does look like something I am leaning towards! Ill give it a shot!

@Xterra.6172 said:cele+marshal's weaver is pretty decent.

Thanks Xterra! While I have nothing against ele's in general, Im not the best pianist with my keyboard so can't do that profession justice. I have fought them before though...quite brutal with all that sustain and evades.

@"Rysdude.3824" said:Firework Firebrand

This build is somewhat questionable. If you are going to play Firework runes on guardian, you might aswell just run Core Mediguard or Dragonhunter (Which are very good builds for small scale).

However, if you still want to play Firebrand, I'll offer you my Harrier's Memebrand. It's just as slow as a Necro, but the sustain is huge, the damage is decent and you can even play as a group support. I'm currently running Firework Runes on it (for science), but Defender is definetely the best sustain potential for this.

The build still not final, but I don't think there is much to change other than Axe for Sword (Mobility instead of the pull), or the traits in Firebrand line (Run Mantra of Truth instead of "Stand Your Ground" and use Weighted Terms instead of Stawart Speed, or Archivist of Whispers instead of Liberator's Vow for more Tome uptime).

Yeah, you really don't want a glassy FB, too slow and ponderous.. Gotta be able to eat a wrench or two while fiddling with your tomes.'nilla gerd on the other hand...

@Jeknar.6184 said:

@"Rysdude.3824" said:Firework Firebrand

Thanks Jeknar! Curious, why do you call it a memebuild? I used to main a minstrel FB for zerg/GvG but never tried for roaming smallscale. The reason I mentioned Firework runes was mostly because of the movement speed. I guess the equalizer for Firebrand is that it can't catch a snail or outrun one. I would prefer axe over sword (just because I have Astralaria). I also saw another video that used Axe/Shield with GS (Astralaria and Eternity look great with each other) with a somewhat similar gear set up. I do like the extra vitality from Wanderers though. I've never used scepter before. How do you like it?

@LetoII.3782 said:Yeah, you really don't want a glassy FB, too slow and ponderous.. Gotta be able to eat a wrench or two while fiddling with your tomes.'nilla gerd on the other hand...

I hear the latter is amazing for burst damage and does well.

@"LetoII.3782" said:Yeah, you really don't want a glassy FB, too slow and ponderous.. Gotta be able to eat a wrench or two while fiddling with your tomes.'nilla gerd on the other hand...

I feel Firebrand kinda suffer the Elementalist effect: It's only good if you have healing power... But yah, Vanilla Medi have a pretty dumb burst currently if people don't dodge the Focus 5 or Glacial Smash after the JI.

I have a friend who run that ocasionally and I've seen he "accidentaly" one-shot a thief that was in stealth near his actual target (That actually dodged the burst).

@Rysdude.3824 said:

@Jeknar.6184 said:

@Rysdude.3824 said:Firework Firebrand

I call it a meme because it's what it is... It's just cheesy 1v1 build that will start struggling if focused by too many people and it have 0 mobility so the only thing you can actually catch is problably a Necro (although a Smart Reaper or a Scourge with Sand Swell will most likely outrun you too). The only way around that would be run Sword and Meditations, but at that point, you are better off going vanilla for superior burst and no reliance on healing power for sustain like Firebrand do.

As for the weapons, Greatsword is definetely the hardest hitter avaible without running Glacial Hammer and it work well with this since it's a Radiance Retaliantion build, but Firebrand is easily kited (even if you run Sw+Sh/GS) so I ended up opting for a ranged weapon instead. From the two options, Scepter was the winner although I'm not gonna lie: Staff AA Chain deal as much damage as Scepter's and it's tracking projectiles. Scepter won the choice tho due the immobilize on #3 and the fact that I can run Focus, which is also a great weapon.

If ur looking for tanky for small scale/roaming choose soulbeast boonbeast build or holo. U can stand infront of ur enemy laughing while it tickles u untill all their high damage attacks are on cooldown if u use ur defences right than burst most classes to 0 in seconds :) very low learning curve to both,just don’t try and do same on Core Engi unless u are very good on ur kb. With soulbeast while ur taking a few hrs to master the class u can just slap sic em on and pew pew cheese people from wall etc like most soulbeast do lol

@Rysdude.3824 said:

Thanks Redpawa. Interesting build..good lawd all that vitality! Awesome, really. I love that Reaper can go so tanky. Is mobility ever an issue for you?

Between fights I jump in and out of shroud to apply swiftness and charge forward giving near max swiftness uptime. Using that method I can outpace most classes as long as I have a steady stream of critters to refresh upon (I am nothing like a Daredevil or teleporting Mesmer of course). In fights I do lack in the mobility department compared to most builds however if needed I can easily replace a utility with Spectral walk or Wurm for the boost.

Condi-Evasion Dare Devil is fun. Acro-SA Power Deadeye is also fun if not a bit OP.