I'm garbage at 1v1s while roaming. What low-skill builds would you recommend to learn how to fight?

[Fungling.5742]

So, I love WvW, and I can be somewhat useful in larger engagements, but I'm just terrible at 1v1s when I'm roaming. I've got a thief and a mesmer so running away is always an option, but I'd like to get better at fighting. There's been some times that I've been able to get to one of our camps that the enemy roamer was taking, and I had the element of surprise and a couple of our NPCs there, and I'll still consistently get killed.

So, I'd like to put my energy and resources into a single build that I can roam with. If possible, I'd like it to be something that doesn't require a ton of crazy mechanics like swapping and timings and whacky skill rotations to pull off, so that I can also develop my fundamentals (getting better at dodging and basic endurance-management, or knowing what to expect from the enemies, for example). I've been looking at some of the things on metabattle and I'm honestly just not confident enough in my abilities to even know how to use an OP build if somebody gave me one gift-wrapped. I'm a dummy so I need to start with something dummyproof, and I'm not even smart enough to know which ones would qualify.

Any help?

[enkidu.5937]

@Fungling.5742 said:I've got a thief and a mesmer-> Daredevil with valkyrie gear, acrobatics + trickery, staff + sword / pistol (bow as an option)-> Condi Mirage with dire gear-> full bunker ChronoIf not done yet, you should keybind your dodge (double tapping WASD is just too slow).

@Fungling.5742 said:So, I love WvW, and I can be somewhat useful in larger engagementsSo whats your main class then? Warrior or Engi are also an option when you dispatch from your zerg.

[knite.1542]

Holosmith, condi mirage, boonbeast are are pretty good carry builds. I recommend looking at metabattle

[Shroud.2307]

Practice in duels will do a lot more for your skill than playing a faceroll build. Using something that's cushioned just makes it harder to transition to something that isn't when you decide to take the training wheels off.

When you're out and about, try giving a /bow to players you see alone or try joining a dueling circle. They often happen around SMC or near the southern most camp on the borderlands. Most people are happy to duel until your hearts content as long as you're not constantly swapping builds trying to counter people.

A few tips:Always assume your opponent is a genius until proven an idiot.It's better to improve as a player than to be boosted by mechanics.Never underestimate the value of terrain. Proper kiting can make the difference between winning and losing 100% of the time.Losing is not failing. Giving up is."If you're not dying you're not trying."

If you'd like to duel at any time, let me know and I'll happily oblige. I've always been a mediocre player, but I'm an experienced one. So I'm perfectly beatable for you and can teach you anything you need to know. Otherwise, just get out there and keep trying.

[Bigpapasmurf.5623]

If you want something less meta, I run a DPS Mirage build that typically does me very well in fights, even when slightly outnumbered.

[Doug.4930]

@"Fungling.5742" said:I'm just terrible at 1v1s when I'm roaming. There's been some times that I've been able to get to one of our camps that the enemy roamer was taking, and I had the element of surprise and a couple of our NPCs there, and I'll still consistently get killed.

So, I'd like to put my energy and resources into a single build that I can roam with. If possible, I'd like it to be something that doesn't require a ton of crazy mechanics like swapping and timings and whacky skill rotations to pull off, so that I can also develop my fundamentals (getting better at dodging and basic endurance-management, or knowing what to expect from the enemies, for example). I've been looking at some of the things on metabattle and I'm honestly just not confident enough in my abilities to even know how to use an OP build if somebody gave me one gift-wrapped. I'm a dummy so I need to start with something dummyproof, and I'm not even smart enough to know which ones would qualify.

Any help?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAQlZwuYWMKGKm0WavMA-zRZYBBBLGFM4geOjMVA9KB04BIgNwbpKRL-e

Run this.

Might seem a bit complex at first glance but trust me. The amount of passive damage mitigation this build brings to the table is simple incredulous.

This build is godmode, it is the king 1v1/roaming build at the moment. With just a little practice learning what your skills do and you should never lose.

Literally rolling your face across the keyboard with this build can win you some fights. It simply has too many MUST dodge skills that either stun lock you, or burst you. Its going to feel like you're running a full tank build.

Most of all its EXTREMELY forgiving. Most of its defense come from passive traits and boons.

The fact anet have let this build run rampant boggles my mind. It was hit with a small range nerf on holographic shock wave recently, but it still remains the undisputed roaming king.

So believe me, if you want to win fights and are new to roaming and want a build you can learn to play quickly and begin defeating opponents this build is the build you want. After about one week of learning this build, and you should never lose 1v1's.

[Fungling.5742]

@enkidu.5937 said:

@Fungling.5742 said:So, I love WvW, and I can be somewhat useful in larger engagementsSo whats your main class then? Warrior or Engi are also an option when you dispatch from your zerg.

Right now I swap back and forth between a Berserker and a core Necro. The Berserker is for when we need some full tank engage: Sentinel's gear + hammer, I don't do much damage but I can cause a lot of backline havoc and I'm pretty hard to kill. The Necro is for when we need some range damage (sieges and stuff): Dire stats + Staff / Scepter+Horn. This one I'm less confident in -- it seemed promising when I last played heavily (almost two years ago?) but the condi damage I come up with pales in comparison to what others do to me.

[Fungling.5742]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:Practice in duels will do a lot more for your skill than playing a faceroll build. Using something that's cushioned just makes it harder to transition to something that isn't when you decide to take the training wheels off.

While I do understand your point, right now I need something with simple mechanics. I can live with it not being an OP build, just so long as the fights last longer than they are now.

If you'd like to duel at any time, let me know and I'll happily oblige. I've always been a mediocre player, but I'm an experienced one. So I'm perfectly beatable for you and can teach you anything you need to know. Otherwise, just get out there and keep trying.

That's an awesome offer, and I may have to take you up on that. I'm on Mag server if that helps at all.

[Fungling.5742]

@Doug.4930 said:... and you should never lose 1v1's.

Oh, you should see some of the defeats I've snatched from the jaws of victory lately.

That said, I've long put off Engineers, but maybe it's time. Thanks!

[Doug.4930]

@Fungling.5742 said:

@Doug.4930 said:... and you should never lose 1v1's.

Oh, you should see some of the defeats I've snatched from the jaws of victory lately.

That said, I've long put off Engineers, but maybe it's time. Thanks!

hahahah

Trust me though, nothing beats this build in the current meta 1v1. Its also capable of carrying people in duo roaming or with a group of 3. This build puts everything else in the meta currently to shame.

[shadowpass.4236]

Here's a good Spellbreaker build you could run in WvW

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKwAEh7lZwSYjMMGKOWX+vfA-zVhYBhIsF10KwQQgDuUqKBasAyME6NCs7iQAJAiUPM7hg7fOJA0SVuWA-w

You can swap Sigil of Momentum out for Hydro or Agility. Either of them might be better I just like the way the stats look cause OCD.

Hydro is nice cause it slows people down into your guaranteed Arcing Slice crit but Agility helps you use Arcing Slice/Hundred Blades/Whirlwind super fast when swapping to GS. Personally, I think Agility would be the best.

Warrior is also the most straightforward class to learn in 1v1s. It rewards good timing, dodging properly, and has very basic combos that you'll need to learn. It's also tanky (relatively forgiving to play against both power and condi), has great mobility, and high burst damage/cc.

[enkidu.5937]

@Fungling.5742 said:

@enkidu.5937 said:

@Fungling.5742 said:So, I love WvW, and I can be somewhat useful in larger engagementsSo whats your main class then? Warrior or Engi are also an option when you dispatch from your zerg.

Right now I swap back and forth between a Berserker and a core Necro. The Berserker is for when we need some full tank engage: Sentinel's gear + hammer, I don't do much damage but I can cause a lot of backline havoc and I'm pretty hard to kill. The Necro is for when we need some range damage (sieges and stuff): Dire stats + Staff / Scepter+Horn. This one I'm less confident in -- it seemed promising when I last played heavily (almost two years ago?) but the condi damage I come up with pales in comparison to what others do to me.Then I would also go for Berserker / Spellbreaker (see shadowpass above). You can even use one single build for Zerg fights and roaming, so you would be familiar with your build quickly, even if you don't play that much. You can easily start with a survival spec, like greatsword + sword / shield, discipline + defensive, gear with power + X + Y (where X +Y can be replaced with vita and toughness for the start with cheap soldier gear for badges of honor, and as soon as you are comfortable enough you can upgrade to crit chance + crit damage step by step with marauder / berserker gear).

Not sure how useful Tactics became after the last patch, but these older builds should give a good starting point. You can easily add more defensive stats and skills as long as you struggle with survival. (e. g. Rune of Durability, Sigil of Energy, Sigil of Cleansing)https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spellbreaker_-_DPS_Spellbreakerhttps://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Berserker_-_Burstzerker

[Shroud.2307]

@"Fungling.5742" said:

If you'd like to duel at any time, let me know and I'll happily oblige. I've always been a mediocre player, but I'm an experienced one. So I'm perfectly beatable for you and can teach you anything you need to know. Otherwise, just get out there and keep trying.

That's an awesome offer, and I may have to take you up on that. I'm on Mag server if that helps at all.

I'm on Anvil Rock right now so unfortunately there isn't any chance we'll be matched against each other any time soon. If you really want those duels though, we can always meet up in EOTM in the GvG arena. We'd both have to go a bit out of our way but, I don't mind helping out if you want to do that. Otherwise I'd say just keep a look out for willing duelists and see how long you can go in 1v1's without getting frustrated. Pay attention to mechanics and get to know your opponents. Everyone's different so some players are a little easier to exploit than others when you start to feel their "rhythm" so to speak.

[RedShark.9548]

You should pick a class and find somebody to duel, who knows your class reeeally well, and ask that person for tips and then duel him/her over and over and try to improve based on the tips you get

Edit: on a sidenote, bringing winds of disenchantment for your zerg is the best thing you can bring to a zergfight as warrior, berserker isnt rly helping in zegsfights.

[steki.1478]

Anyone who say that mesmer and engi are easy obviously have no clue how those classes work and die to them way too often to consider them easy (condi mirage can be faceroll though, but that's just one build).

Spellbreaker is by far the most forgiving dueling build, followed by core warr and soulbeast builds (whether it's through long range or very good sustain). Everything else will rely more or less on proper offensive/defensive combos, good reactions and knowing your class as well as your enemy's.

Yes many classes have 1-shot builds which could be considered braindead because you can do it with safety and disengage when it fails, but that has nothing to do with dueling or learning how to roam.

Playing full bunker builds is also a terrible idea because you're just delaying your death while enemy kites you forever since you have no pressure.

For easier roaming you want a good balance between offense and defense, which warr has by default since it can use offensive gear and have good sustain from skills and traits on top of high base health.

[Ghetx.1752]

@Fungling.5742 said:So, I love WvW, and I can be somewhat useful in larger engagements, but I'm just terrible at 1v1s when I'm roaming. I've got a thief and a mesmer so running away is always an option, but I'd like to get better at fighting. There's been some times that I've been able to get to one of our camps that the enemy roamer was taking, and I had the element of surprise and a couple of our NPCs there, and I'll still consistently get killed.

So, I'd like to put my energy and resources into a single build that I can roam with. If possible, I'd like it to be something that doesn't require a ton of crazy mechanics like swapping and timings and whacky skill rotations to pull off, so that I can also develop my fundamentals (getting better at dodging and basic endurance-management, or knowing what to expect from the enemies, for example). I've been looking at some of the things on metabattle and I'm honestly just not confident enough in my abilities to even know how to use an OP build if somebody gave me one gift-wrapped. I'm a dummy so I need to start with something dummyproof, and I'm not even smart enough to know which ones would qualify.

Any help?

Never use full zerk items.Get some survivability until you learn enemy abilities,cd's,counters etc.

[Dawdler.8521]

@steki.1478 said:Anyone who say that mesmer and engi are easy obviously have no clue how those classes work and die to them way too often to consider them easy (condi mirage can be faceroll though, but that's just one build).Hence why most refer to the condi mirage specifically. Or as I like to call it, the noob filter. It is very strong against people that have no idea how to fight mesmers or condi and chances that your enemy fails on at least one of those points is large.

[Baldrick.8967]

Play thief and learn to 'keybind' (ie macro) so you can fire off 5-8 hits in under 0.05 seconds and disappear back into stealth if that didn't work. then shout 'l2P' at people and claim you are using muscle memory if anyone asks or accuses you of using a macro to chain skills. One day they might fix this with an internal cooldown between skills but that's very unlikely.

Then learn to dodge like the ground is on fire and if all that doesn't work, join up with some more stealth abusers...

Some of the other suggestions above also have merit if you don't feel like bouncing around like the easter bunny.

But 'balance' is a joke so whatever you play expect some cheese to come along.

[thehipone.6812]

Here's my current build, which I intend to try to counter the most popular stuff out there - especially holo and condi mirage. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAsiZlVw6YiMPGJW6OrLfA-zVJYkRHfpUQCkTIkZB0dE410ciPNA-wSkills are the basic core terrormancer stuff. I'm sure others will quibble with choices, but gear and traits are meant to turn fights into long, dragged out, sustain-fests and avoid one-shot type deaths. I find that these types of fights are best for learning how to fight other classes, what their skills do "realtime", and how players usually use other build. As you learn the toolkit, perhaps you dial back some of the defensive stuff or replace the runes/sigils if you like.

High toughness and ready access to weakness and boon corrupt helps with direct damage stuff like holo. You're going to learn that they often cast photon skill 3 as soon as they get close enough after activating forge and you are going to be ready to corrupt the stability into fear. You can also steal their boons with interrupts on staff due to sigil (which has no cooldown in WvW, so if you can manage double up interrupts through a corrupt and the fear mark you get all their boons!)The death magic traits and melandru runes (yes, those) help mitigate condi mirage through incoming condition damage reduction, incoming condition duration reduction, and reduced stun, helping you survive and try to overwhelm their relatively limited cleanses with your own conditions, as well as the two transfers to send their junk back to them.

The unsung hero is shroud #5, tainted shackles. The holo's last ditch effort to survive will often be toss elixir S for stealth - you're going to anticipate this, stay as close as possible to reveal them with shroud and hit them with a final fear to down them. Same with mirages who run desperate decoy or the prestige - I simply don't think people expect to be revealed by a necro and you can take advantage of that.

Regardless of what build you play, think about how you engage the other class and what your plan is. This means you need to understand your build to the core and what the good/bad matchups are for you and how you can try to win each. For example, for some other matchups on my terrormancer : Meditrapper I have unblockables in your marks and lots of corrupt to outsustain them and will win through condi pressure. Bursty ele specs often run the stances give stability trait, that you're going to corrupt and use to fear chain kill them once you get a few other condis on them. Celestial eles you will /bow and realize that the matchup is a draw. I seem to win a lot vs. the magebane spellbreakers, but the resistance-heavy SpB build is a loss for me unless other player is terrible, same most core war. Soulbeast I need to find cover pronto and not let them pew pew with longbow while being opportunistic with corrupts and weakness to outlast them and kill with a fear lock, Axe SB feels like a close matchup so far. Thieves I'm leverage their aggression to try to bait into thinking that I"m a poor, defenseless necro and try to kite to lure them close, hit them with a few condis when they close, and wait until they stealth - at which point I can hit shroud, skill 5 to Surprise! reveal then 3 to fear and unload whatever I can on them - not an easy fight, but that's my plan and many die to ticking condis after the reveal burst, even if they manage to re-stealth. Rifle deadeyes I know I'm pretty much screwed because they can maintain range and have tons of stealth, so I head for allies/objective knowing that I can survive a couple of shots.

I wrote too much, but you get the idea.

[Fungling.5742]

@thehipone.6812 said:I wrote too much, but you get the idea.

Nah, write all you like, this sort of stuff is perfect. I'd found a very similar core necro build in a few places and was trying it out before committing to Scourge. The theory was that I wanted to have longer fights where I could give the condition damage a chance to do its job. So, dire stats and bleed stacking. Unfortunately it's hard for me to know in the middle of a duel how well any of that is actually working. The only thing I can say is that so far it's been giving me longer and more competitive fights than anything else I've tried, but in the end the result is usually the same, and I don't feel like I've learned enough to know how to get better.

[Fungling.5742]

@Baldrick.8967 said:Play thief and learn to 'keybind' (ie macro) so you can fire off 5-8 hits in under 0.05 seconds and disappear back into stealth if that didn't work. then shout 'l2P' at people and claim you are using muscle memory if anyone asks or accuses you of using a macro to chain skills. One day they might fix this with an internal cooldown between skills but that's very unlikely.

Then learn to dodge like the ground is on fire and if all that doesn't work, join up with some more stealth abusers...

Some of the other suggestions above also have merit if you don't feel like bouncing around like the easter bunny.

But 'balance' is a joke so whatever you play expect some cheese to come along.

Like, I understand that for a game like GW2 (and specifically WvW) there's so much complexity that it's hard to achieve good balance, so I'm not going to complain about getting destroyed by somebody's cheese holo engineer build. That's fine. I'm just looking to get incrementally better and right now it feels like doing that requires simplifying things, or else I'm just going to be trying to learn too much stuff at once.

[Sovereign.1093]

liking the berserker axe shield gs or hammer.

fun for me.

not as tanky as spell breaker but fun.

[Jake Orion.2049]

@"Fungling.5742" said:Like, I understand that for a game like GW2 (and specifically WvW) there's so much complexity that it's hard to achieve good balance, so I'm not going to complain about getting destroyed by somebody's cheese holo engineer build. That's fine. I'm just looking to get incrementally better and right now it feels like doing that requires simplifying things, or else I'm just going to be trying to learn too much stuff at once.

Just out of curiosity, is it you're typically getting one-shotted because you are not paying attention or you are actively engaged in the fight and they still manage to "blow you up"?

Also, and I know it sucks, but you REALLY have to pay attention of what you are fighting against. Fighting against a competent Mirage or Daredevil can be tough for even experienced players like myself. I still haven't figured out how to beat the clones of a Mirage, but I have been learning to focus on the character that is acting differently from the clones.

[Fungling.5742]

@Jake Orion.2049 said:

@"Fungling.5742" said:Like, I understand that for a game like GW2 (and specifically WvW) there's so much complexity that it's hard to achieve good balance, so I'm not going to complain about getting destroyed by somebody's cheese holo engineer build. That's fine. I'm just looking to get incrementally better and right now it feels like doing that requires simplifying things, or else I'm just going to be trying to learn too much stuff at once.

Just out of curiosity, is it you're typically getting one-shotted because you are not paying attention or you are actively engaged in the fight and they still manage to "blow you up"?

On the necro, what usually happens is one of the following 2...

1) I last about around 10-15 seconds in the fight, their health might be anywhere from 25% to near-full, and then I'm suddenly stuck without cooldowns or life-force with which to shroud. At that point I'm usually dead within another 10-15 seconds. The way I see it, if I've got an enemy down to 25% and I can't finish them off, I'm garbage and need something more braindead easy.

2) I get killed or lose 75% of my health in one rotation. This is a bit less frequent but it does happen sometimes. These ones concern me less -- if I'm outclassed then I'm outclassed, no big deal. It's the fights that I should win but still lose that really eat my lunch.

Also, and I know it sucks, but you REALLY have to pay attention of what you are fighting against. Fighting against a competent Mirage or Daredevil can be tough for even experienced players like myself. I still haven't figured out how to beat the clones of a Mirage, but I have been learning to focus on the character that is acting differently from the clones.

I will admit that usually I go a bit all-in with my abilities, and that means I'm not really in a position to suss out exactly what the enemy is bringing to the fight.

[Fungling.5742]

Incidentally, just a huge thank you for all the responses thus far. I'm learning tons here.