Best profession for clouding ?

[Evidev.3046]

Give me your opinions what profession best fits for me. I want

1. Not join squad
2. Have long range AOE
3. Can run away from Zerg if needed
4. enough defense to survive surprising strike

:)

[Evidev.3046]

It would be great if I can harass people with range CC or immob

[Caedmon.6798]

Grab a warrior with double axes and double mace ! :)

[Atomos.7593]

A well played roaming elementalist can do most, if not, all of these things. The key words here though are well played.

[Chaba.5410]

It's more about having a roaming build you can pick off stragglers with rather than a specific profession.

[OscLin.7253]

Sounds like you should play The Sims instead

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Chaba.5410" said:It's more about having a roaming build you can pick off stragglers with rather than a specific profession.Not only that, it's about being good with it. And a player can be good with the "worst" build according to general consensus.You got to know how to move, where to move, when to commit and most importantly, who to target. The tactics of a 360 degree cloud seems to be lost on 90% of pugs.

That said, anything with ranged will be easiest and if you want to be "group effective" in the cloud, you need some kind of pull. Overcoming the perma-stab is what kills zergs, in the long run it doesnt matter if you can kill your target, as long as they can be pulled out someone else can CC, do damage and pull them even further. Most clouders unfortunetly miss that fact and focus on just doing basic damage. Works against a pug zerg, futile against an organized group with supports that knows how to sustain.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

[lodjur.1284]

So you've decided that your playstyle is gonna be outnumbering smaller groups because fighting is scary and realized the best way of doing this is to play something ranged with high mobility. But the details of how to play like that still eludes you?

Well here is a handy guide on how to outnumber people, in case figuring it out is a bit hard.

1. Pick any bursty power builds, condi builds are far less effective at outnumbering. Alternatively, ignore doing any dmg and pick up only CC skills.
2. Make sure you're playing with 3+ blocks/hard evades/invulns.
3. Make sure you have a lot of mobility. Otherwise your pixels might get hurt.
4. Find at least 10+ likeminded players still somehow fail at clouding down smaller more organized groups.

Ranger, Thief, Dragonhunter and Mesmer are all common choices for this as they all can chain invulns/blocks while running away, but anything really works with speed runes.

[Baldrick.8967]

I think the OP was hoping for some click bait...

[Atomos.7593]

@Baldrick.8967 said:I think the OP was hoping for some click bait...

Hehe yeah. It could also be a complaint about some classes that they struggle against in disguise.

[Caedmon.6798]

@OscLin.7253 said:Sounds like you should play The Sims instead

And def buy All the expansions !

[Shroud.2307]

@"Dawdler.8521" said:Not only that, it's about being good with it. And a player can be good with the "worst" build according to general consensus.You got to know how to move, where to move, when to commit and most importantly, who to target. The tactics of a 360 degree cloud seems to be lost on 90% of pugs.

That said, anything with ranged will be easiest and if you want to be "group effective" in the cloud, you need some kind of pull. Overcoming the perma-stab is what kills zergs, in the long run it doesnt matter if you can kill your target, as long as they can be pulled out someone else can CC, do damage and pull them even further. Most clouders unfortunetly miss that fact and focus on just doing basic damage. Works against a pug zerg, futile against an organized group with supports that knows how to sustain.

This pretty much covers it.

Proper clouding is all about positioning and awareness. You need to develop an eye for the right spots to apply pressure, to read the body language of the zerg so you can situate yourself properly, and to pick targets that will be the highest value kills or that are the easiest to dispense of.

With that said, clouding also requires that the pugs around you are confident enough to stay aggressive without full on retreating as soon as they take a little pressure. You can't cloud with only a couple people that know what they're doing or you end up losing your kills to rallies and not being able to commit to applying damage because it'll mean you need to over extend.

As has been said, you can cloud with anything if you know how to play it. I often enjoy doing so with core Necro and can consistently do so without dying or taking much pressure because I know how to dance with a zerg.

I see some people being sarcastic in here and I know clouding isn't something some people enjoy fighting. The frustration is in the name because it's like swatting at a cloud, you swing and you're mostly hitting air while that same cloud disperses and surrounds you. A good one can over take a much larger group pretty easily, especially if the larger group thinks half their numbers won't be a threat to the tail it's constantly losing.Whether people like it or not, it is a valid strategy and it works at any scale whether you're outnumbered or outnumbering. The only caveat is that everyone involved stay aggressive without over extending. A cloud that's always on the back pedal or pushing too hard isn't really a cloud, it's just pugs without a tag.

[Riba.3271]

You can also ask people around you. Theres 99% chance they're already playing your playstyle.

[ASP.8093]

imo, to be truly effective, you need:

• Range. Can't cloud going full melee. 900 range is only remotely viable if you're tanky as fuck.
• Good burst potential. If you're just tickling them, you don't really matter.
• AOE or at least piercing. Purely single-target damage will get body-blocked a lot.
• Some way to be effective through reflect spam. That means Unblockable projectiles or powerful non-projectile attacks (this is what meta boonball groups do as well, with their reliance on CoR/Phase Smash and necro Wells).
• Some way to survive when a tighter-comped group tries to pick you off. A stun break alone isn't quite enough because of CC spam, you want either full stability/invuln or a stun break that also repositions you out of danger (like Blink or Shadow Step).

[kash.9213]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Chaba.5410" said:It's more about having a roaming build you can pick off stragglers with rather than a specific profession.Not only that, it's about being good with it. And a player can be good with the "worst" build according to general consensus.You got to know how to move, where to move, when to commit and most importantly, who to target. The tactics of a 360 degree cloud seems to be lost on 90% of pugs.

That said, anything with ranged will be easiest and if you want to be "group effective" in the cloud, you need some kind of pull. Overcoming the perma-stab is what kills zergs, in the long run it doesnt matter if

you

can kill your target, as long as they can be pulled out someone else can CC, do damage and pull them even further. Most clouders unfortunetly miss that fact and focus on just doing basic damage. Works against a pug zerg, futile against an organized group with supports that knows how to sustain.

Sometimes I'll see someone get pulled out and immediately go for like a 3 pull ride down the road. Sometimes their body language says they've accepted their fate because they know their people aren't ready to risk a rush for them yet.

[HowlKamui.5120]

imo Ele. If you're poking zergs you'd be on your staff bar. But when you're roaming you just swap to your dagger/focus or whatever you work best with.

[Justine.6351]

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

[Shroud.2307]

@Justine.6351 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

DH is weak btw. Pls buff Longbow, ANet. 15k from 1500 range bad.Imagine having weak aspects of a class like everyone else, right.

[hunkamania.7561]

DH for sure

[anduriell.6280]

DH and Pewpew. For pewpew you need to go meme build thou (there is a gankbeast build in the ranger subforums which you can adapt for wvw) . Permastealth DE is also a good choice.

[Justine.6351]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

DH is weak btw. Pls buff Longbow, ANet. 15k from 1500 range bad.Imagine having weak aspects of a class like everyone else, right.

why the salt?not that I mind.

[Shroud.2307]

@Justine.6351 said:

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

DH is weak btw. Pls buff Longbow, ANet. 15k from 1500 range bad.Imagine having weak aspects of a class like everyone else, right.

why the salt?not that I mind.

I dislike DH, it is by far and long the most unenjoyable thing for me to fight, and it makes me roll my eyes when I see someone say DH longbow is weak which I've read more than once. The spec has gotten so many buffs and it continues to be an unrewarding thing to fight other than interrupting Wings of Resolve.

[Justine.6351]

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

DH is weak btw. Pls buff Longbow, ANet. 15k from 1500 range bad.Imagine having weak aspects of a class like everyone else, right.

why the salt?not that I mind.

I dislike DH, it is by far and long the most unenjoyable thing for me to fight, and it makes me roll my eyes when I see someone say DH longbow is weak which I've read more than once. The spec has gotten so many buffs and it continues to be an unrewarding thing to fight other than interrupting Wings of Resolve.

Funny I could salt about necros dumping marks on top of my head from 1200 range and corrupting every boon under the sun into condi.

[Shroud.2307]

@Justine.6351 said:

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@"SpellOfIniquity.1780" said:

@Justine.6351 said:

@Stand The Wall.6987 said:staff ele or burn guard are your best bets

Yeah certainly burn dh with its actionable block shield, teleports, immobilize, ranged aoe, huge damage oh and yeah invulnerability. More targets more good.

DH is weak btw. Pls buff Longbow, ANet. 15k from 1500 range bad.Imagine having weak aspects of a class like everyone else, right.

why the salt?not that I mind.

I dislike DH, it is by far and long the most unenjoyable thing for me to fight, and it makes me roll my eyes when I see someone say DH longbow is weak which I've read more than once. The spec has gotten so many buffs and it continues to be an unrewarding thing to fight other than interrupting Wings of Resolve.

Funny I could salt about necros dumping marks on top of my head from 1200 range and corrupting every boon under the sun into condi.

Go ahead. Maybe ANet will remove more corrupts and targets from Scourge Shades so people can have their boon balls :D.