The comprehensive guide for roaming with Warclaw

Warning: this is not necessarily a proper guide. Though I'm sharing my insights it's probably gonna be a mix of a roamer's first impression, a rant and an analysis on Warclaw. This will also not cover group vs. group fights as I haven't done enough of them to really judge the implications.

Anyway, let's start by looking at how to best use your mount when you're in different theoretic situations (for the single enemies it is assumed they have a build just as good as fighting 1vs1 as you):

• Encountering a single enemy on a Warclaw: ride on or try to make the enemy dismount. Everything else makes you the single enemy on foot (next point) and puts you at a disadvantage.
• Encountering a single enemy on foot: ride on a bit and/or try to bait him into attacking you while staying mounted. You basically have the authority over the decision to fight or not, can safely choose your relative position in regards to your enemy or just make him spend resources on knocking your mount HP down (then dismount before you get CC'd) and enjoy fighting with a decisive advantage afterwards.
• Encountering multiple enemies on Warclaws: ride on and save dodges just in case.
• Encountering multiple enemies with some on foot and some on Warclaw: ride on carefully and be ready to dodge.
• Encountering multiple enemies on foot: ride on but it's probably a good idea to circle around them.
• Enemies attack your Warclaw: ride on and let some auto attacks hit you (dodge the big hits though!) now you can ride on while the enemies are sloooowwww.
• Encountering a real lot of enemies: ride on in the other direction.
• The map's not empty (aka there's the possibility of multiple enemies being anywhere): to minimize the likelihood of many hostile players catching up to you, stay out of hostile territory. Assuming the enemies have access to the Warclaw means as soon as you leave conquered ground most of the enemies you meet will have the upper hand in the Warclaw metagame. If you still like to venture into hostile territory to eventually contest (see below) or cap an objective and see an enemy on the horizon, consider retreating sooner rather than later. Even if the enemy's one you can take on as per the assumption of you both running comparable builds, the fact that the enemy has a respawn closer and can return a lot faster (potentially with more people) means you often will have to do the extra work of defeating your enemy multiple times or retreat anyway because reinforcements show up.

A few points about ranged and melee disparity when it comes to forcing people of their mount:

• Ranged burst is superb at dismounting people, however, mind that you're the one spending CDs to go through 3 dodges and 12k HP. If the enemy's ready to fight back at range or uses their dodges to come closer, have a backup plan. Also, damage fast and unexpected, otherwise the mounted player will just triple dodge which will often put them behind cover or out of range while you won't be able to catch up with non-mounted combat speed.
• The other side of the same coin: if the enemy's using a ranged build and you're melee, you can get a bonus on your "fighting vs. single enemy on foot"-advantage since you start with a free gap closer. This is especially noticeable on classes that otherwise have a harder time closing the gap (e.g. lacking frequent access to stealth, ports or gap closers with iframes).

On capture points:

• Since cap contribution for Warclaw riders got removed, contesting an objective is one of the best ways to force enemies to dismount while not having to blow CDs for it. Mind that only applies to single enemies though, as soon as there's another or an enemy NPC left in the circle you're just the single enemy on foot.

On Battle Maul:*Don't use it vs. upstanding (not downed) enemies. You're still mounted during (most of?) the animation, which means Warclaw still tanks damage, but you can also be dismounted during it. You can't dodge during the animation to cancel it. Also, while you're mounted you can't queue skills or dodge, so unless your timing after the end of the execution is impeccable there's always be a window of opportunity to attack when you stop being mounted. To put it short: it makes you vulnerable and it's not worth the little damage it does.

On sniff:

• While this skill looks interesting, mind the reveal is short, unreliable and doesn't work on stealthed enemies. Which is a shame because it theoretically is a good tool for scouting and could've become a good way to provide counterplay for permastealth and ambushes.

On chain:

• Not used much, mainly because the damage seems very underwhelming considering you have to invest supply and you're locked in place and out of all your skills.

Some more personal opinions / conclusions:

• Warclaw greatly discourages engaging in fights. You start a fight, you're at a disadvantage. While that seems "fair" in a ganker vs. zergling runnning back to zerg scenario, imagine two capable roamers meeting. You either do a respectful duel (but if they're roaming for PPT / war score atm they might not want to do this) or run past each other so each can cap an undefended camp. If you're the one initiating the fight you're handing the enemy extra 12k HP and 3 dodges. What in the past was and interesting, balanced and decisive encounter (which roamer moves on, who's sent to spawn?) is no more. Either someone bites the bullet or you just ride on and mindlessly cap the next objective. It's just never the wrong decision to stay mounted longer than the enemy, unless you're on a point, it has zero downsides and that needs to change imo.
• It's become too easy to avoid fights and stall. While I see the point of allowing people to avoid fights/ganks, this also enables waiting for backup and coming back for the kill. Many players, roamer, zerger whatever, will just stall with Warclaw or run when they don't have the advantage (or are not confident about fighting you). But then come back with more players on Warclaws. I don't see this as being healthy for the game mode, since the result is just less fights in general and more uneven fights with a greater difference in numbers. I know WvW has always been about having or creating the advantage (number, skill, terrain or build-wise...) rather than equal odds but I do think it is getting less enjoyable if you push it further down that road. Because in the end it makes your aptitude at fighting and becoming a better player less important. And learning to play better and applying those skills is pretty much the only long term motivation WvW has.
• Warclaw also encourages adding to already ongoing fights. This can make things more interesting or just end in having decent (aka even) fights ruined more often (compared to when going somewhere took longer). It's harder to pressure / zone out incoming players as well because (feel like sounding a broken record but whatever) 3 dodges, more mobility, extra HP (and instant stomp). So as the party that has to deal with enemy reinforcements you now have less ways to deal with what was already a challenging situation.
• The first 3 points are exaggerated in enemy territory which again skews the scale of balance in someone's favor. Warclaws should be a tool to get from enemy encounter to the next enemy encounter or objective, they shouldn't have that much of an impact on the encounter / resulting fight.
• Interacting with the Warclaw is just... not interesting. GW2 has an amazing combat system but as long as players are mounted their actions are so limited it's boring. If it was like an environmental weapon / kit you could at least fool around with those skills, trying to dismount each other in a little (standardized between classes) minigame and earn your "mounted advantage" that way. But I have the bad feeling the coming dismount skill will just be a simple hit and miss.
• The faster response time to defend objectives goes well in combination with the reduced effective HP of upgraded towers / keeps. However, spawn camps, which were viable targets for havoc groups are reached so fast from spawn now it's not funny anymore.
• Sniff needs a buff. I'm not a fan of the Warclaw's current implementation as you can probably tell by now but this skill's the only thing actually encouraging going out and fighting with enemies. I was exited to use it when I first read it. It's a tool for obtaining information and making tactical decisions based on them.
• Warclaw skews balance when it comes to positioning. Depending on players mounted / contesting / already in combat with someone else etc. This can even odds but also make them even more unbalanced. This again is not a completely negative point but it further changes the rule of the game and increases the disparity with sPvP and ANet already has problems balancing things differently for different modes.
• Finally another little plus point: I actually like the increased out of combat (!) speed. Speeds up the running part of the game. A shame it has so many downsides.

In my experience: Unless you got ranged burst or very high mobility you won't get many fights when roaming. I would love to go back roaming on my d/d ele however dismounting someone is close to impossible. Not enough burst for 12k mount hp before they triple jump away and you're stuck with in combat movement speed. Using my revenant even though I get to start most fights with low energy or a legend on cooldown until mounts get a skill that dismounts user and target and goes through evades. That way at least I get to fight someone in a player vs player mode.

When encountering 1-2 enemies on WC, dismount, bait a maul and remount. Then they’ll waste a burst to dismount you.