Best Sole Specs for each class.

[Cheshire Rabbid.7430]

I'm trying to deiced what Specs for each of the class is in PvE content. This would be Mostly open world thought would like to see if they are able to run dungeon by self but that would be a starch. Looking to do DPS, power and/or coni. The one I'm for sure going to play as the Mechanist for engineer.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

In no particular order:  

Warrior: Spellbreaker can take Strength and Tactics to get a build that stacks an insane amount of might while also generating a massive amount of self-healing.  This regen, general fortitude, and amount of blocks make the Spellbreaker really well rounded.  If you want DPS, though, you'll go with Bladesworn.

Guardian: Willbender.  Power versions in particular can take advantage of all the virtues with little damage loss, giving the build several pseudo-invulnerability buttons that let it power through most situations.  You might have issues when fighting certain champions, as you'll eventually run out of defensive skills to protect yourself with.  

Revenant: Renegade, either condi or power is fine.  Biggest advantage renegade has is the only viable ranged weapon in their arsenal, which is the shortbow.  Otherwise the renegade has a good toolbox, great self-buffing abilities, and a decent sustain.  Though to note the Vindicator with the stamina sigil becomes the Bunny Lord in the overworld, but that will be nerfed out on October 4th.

Elementalist  Um... good luck with that.  If I were to pick one, it would be weaver.  The weaver has the best sustain and defensive options, but the disadvantage is that you can only really take advantage of these abilities while wearing Marshall or Celestial gear, which makes it have subpar overall performance.  The weaver is also quite complicated to play.  There's a fire-camping Tempest build that has decent damage and ranged abilities, however it's lack of innate defenses means that if enemies get ahold of you, you're done for.

Necromancer:  Just about any of them.  They're all quite tanky and have decent sustain.  If you want to have high damage, go with condition harbiner.  If you want more personal defense and an easier time, go with Reaper.  I usually play reaper with one hand now.

Mesmer: Virtuoso is the low skill option.  The damage upscales really well, and the self-sustain from the condi build is downright immense if you build for it.  However, the high skill option is Mirage, which is much more difficult to play but can be downright unstoppable if you're good at it.  For reference, I used Mirage to duo the Migraine achievement.

Thief:  This one is hotly debated, because there's a lot of different ways to play the thief.  For example, the large amount of dodges afforded by the Daredevil can make it incredibly hard to kill.  I use Daredevil to evade-tank the Sand Giant for fun.  You can run either power or condi with Daredevil.  Deadeye is less mobile, however the stealth spam lets you walk by (or rather, roll by) most enemies without having to deal with their nonsense.  Rifle is immobile, but offers incredible damage at 1500 range, killing most enemies before they get to you.  Rifle also has limitless projectile destruction, meaning it can solo ranged champions with ease.  Specter has the most statistical bulk and self-healing potential, while also not being locked down to any type of playstyle.  I guess with thief it is up to personal preference, but I'd wager that Daredevil is the strongest objective choice for what you're looking for.

Engineer:  You already know this one.  Though don't knock Scrapper too much, for it's self-barrier has let me solo dungeons with it in the past.

Ranger: You're on your own for this one, as I do not play ranger.  That said, I believe the answer is "any," since the pet can take aggro and solo most content for you.

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

3 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Elementalist  Um... good luck with that.  If I were to pick one, it would be weaver.  The weaver has the best sustain and defensive options, but the disadvantage is that you can only really take advantage of these abilities while wearing Marshall or Celestial gear, which makes it have subpar overall performance.  The weaver is also quite complicated to play.  There's a fire-camping Tempest build that has decent damage and ranged abilities, however it's lack of innate defenses means that if enemies get ahold of you, you're done for.

 

I think Celestial weaver keeps up pretty well for things like champion solos.  For example, here's a Balthazar solo in 45 seconds.  It isn't top tier damage, but that's better than most high-sustain builds perform in a champion solo.  If you wanted higher damage while maintaining high sustain, I'd choose Trailblazer over Marshal.  Here's the same boss in 35 seconds using Trailblazer.  When you start getting into the 20k+ DPS range in champ solos, that's definitely approaching top tier for sustain builds.

This is on a class that doesn't even have access to quickness, so if you add masteries like jade tech protocols and electromagical pulse you can ramp up the damage to the point where you don't even need high sustain to melt down champions such as we see here with a 23 second Balthazar solo in Viper gear.

Even if you aren't utilizing masteries for additional boons and supercharging your damage, the sword/focus kit carries an impressive amount of defense.  Here's an example of a forged maverick bounty solo in Viper gear.  Bounty champions have a lot more health than hero point champions, so there's no way to brute force them like we saw with Balthazar, but with all of the defenses available on condi weaver it's doable even in glass gear.

All in all, I'd rate it pretty high on the list of solo play builds.  Damage and sustain are quite good.  Its main limitations are its complexity and lack of range.

[Cuks.8241]

5 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

In no particular order:  

Warrior: Spellbreaker can take Strength and Tactics to get a build that stacks an insane amount of might while also generating a massive amount of self-healing.  This regen, general fortitude, and amount of blocks make the Spellbreaker really well rounded.  If you want DPS, though, you'll go with Bladesworn.

Guardian: Willbender.  Power versions in particular can take advantage of all the virtues with little damage loss, giving the build several pseudo-invulnerability buttons that let it power through most situations.  You might have issues when fighting certain champions, as you'll eventually run out of defensive skills to protect yourself with.  

Revenant: Renegade, either condi or power is fine.  Biggest advantage renegade has is the only viable ranged weapon in their arsenal, which is the shortbow.  Otherwise the renegade has a good toolbox, great self-buffing abilities, and a decent sustain.  Though to note the Vindicator with the stamina sigil becomes the Bunny Lord in the overworld, but that will be nerfed out on October 4th.

Elementalist  Um... good luck with that.  If I were to pick one, it would be weaver.  The weaver has the best sustain and defensive options, but the disadvantage is that you can only really take advantage of these abilities while wearing Marshall or Celestial gear, which makes it have subpar overall performance.  The weaver is also quite complicated to play.  There's a fire-camping Tempest build that has decent damage and ranged abilities, however it's lack of innate defenses means that if enemies get ahold of you, you're done for.

Necromancer:  Just about any of them.  They're all quite tanky and have decent sustain.  If you want to have high damage, go with condition harbiner.  If you want more personal defense and an easier time, go with Reaper.  I usually play reaper with one hand now.

Mesmer: Virtuoso is the low skill option.  The damage upscales really well, and the self-sustain from the condi build is downright immense if you build for it.  However, the high skill option is Mirage, which is much more difficult to play but can be downright unstoppable if you're good at it.  For reference, I used Mirage to duo the Migraine achievement.

Thief:  This one is hotly debated, because there's a lot of different ways to play the thief.  For example, the large amount of dodges afforded by the Daredevil can make it incredibly hard to kill.  I use Daredevil to evade-tank the Sand Giant for fun.  You can run either power or condi with Daredevil.  Deadeye is less mobile, however the stealth spam lets you walk by (or rather, roll by) most enemies without having to deal with their nonsense.  Rifle is immobile, but offers incredible damage at 1500 range, killing most enemies before they get to you.  Rifle also has limitless projectile destruction, meaning it can solo ranged champions with ease.  Specter has the most statistical bulk and self-healing potential, while also not being locked down to any type of playstyle.  I guess with thief it is up to personal preference, but I'd wager that Daredevil is the strongest objective choice for what you're looking for.

Engineer:  You already know this one.  Though don't knock Scrapper too much, for it's self-barrier has let me solo dungeons with it in the past.

Ranger: You're on your own for this one, as I do not play ranger.  That said, I believe the answer is "any," since the pet can take aggro and solo most content for you.

 

I disagree with most of what Bloor Red Arachnid wrote as being "the best" solo option. Which just means there is no right answer. 

If I had to pick one its condi Herald/Demon. Even though the rune of tormenting was nerfed together with some other nerfs its still practically un killable.

[Ashen.2907]

28 minutes ago, Cuks.8241 said:

I disagree with most of what Bloor Red Arachnid wrote as being "the best" solo option. Which just means there is no right answer. 

If I had to pick one its condi Herald/Demon. Even though the rune of tormenting was nerfed together with some other nerfs its still practically un killable.

I prefer renegade over Herald, but yeah, very effective.

[Ashen.2907]

29 minutes ago, Cuks.8241 said:

I disagree with most of what Bloor Red Arachnid wrote as being "the best" solo option. Which just means there is no right answer. 

If I had to pick one its condi Herald/Demon. Even though the rune of tormenting was nerfed together with some other nerfs its still practically un killable.

I prefer renegade over Herald, but yeah, very effective.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

2 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

I disagree with most of what Bloor Red Arachnid wrote as being "the best" solo option. Which just means there is no right answer. 

If I had to pick one its condi Herald/Demon. Even though the rune of tormenting was nerfed together with some other nerfs its still practically un killable.

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

[Ashen.2907]

1 minute ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

There is a huge difference between, "I disagree with you," and, "you are wrong." Disagreeing with someone is not a back-handed insult.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Just now, Ashen.2907 said:

There is a huge difference between, "I disagree with you," and, "you are wrong." Disagreeing with someone is not a back-handed insult.

Disagreement by definition necessitates that the other party is factually incorrect.  There is no difference between disagreement and being wrong.  

[Ashen.2907]

3 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Disagreement by definition necessitates that the other party is factually incorrect.  There is no difference between disagreement and being wrong.  

No.

Someone believing that you are wrong is not the same as you being wrong. 

If I state that the earth is round A flat earther might disagree with me. That does not mean I am wrong. 

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

1 minute ago, Ashen.2907 said:

No.

Someone believing that you are wrong is not the same as you being wrong. 

If I state that the earth is round A flat earther might disagree with me. That does not mean I am wrong. 

You changed the subject.  An declaration of disagreement is still, by necessity, an accusation that the other person is wrong.  Whether or not the other person is actually wrong is irrelevant to the nature of this relationship.  

[Cuks.8241]

27 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

Oh my so touchy. I never said you are wrong, I never insulted you. Your options are fine but I would pick different ones for at least half the classes. And someone would pick smth third. Thats it. 

[Ashen.2907]

12 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

You changed the subject.  An declaration of disagreement is still, by necessity, an accusation that the other person is wrong.  Whether or not the other person is actually wrong is irrelevant to the nature of this relationship.  

You said, "disagreement by definition necessitates that the other party is factually incorrect."

This is not true because the person stating that they disagree could be the one who is incorrect. A declaration of disagreement is a statement of belief. It is not an accusation.

[Buran.3796]

   In Revenant while I prefer Herald over Renegade and Herald is more tanky Renegade overall is the winner as has the advantage of 1) having a viable ranged weapon, 2) working well with both power damage, condition damage or hybrid and 3) can provide alacrity while being in any legend whereas quickness herald NEEDS to camp Glint and that hurst its dps as condi build (which is way stronger and tankier than the power build at PvE).

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

2 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

You said, "disagreement by definition necessitates that the other party is factually incorrect."

This is not true because the person stating that they disagree could be the one who is incorrect. A declaration of disagreement is a statement of belief. It is not an accusation.

You know what I meant.  Quit being difficult.  

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

2 hours ago, Cuks.8241 said:

Oh my so touchy. I never said you are wrong, I never insulted you. Your options are fine but I would pick different ones for at least half the classes. And someone would pick smth third. Thats it. 

 

2 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

An declaration of disagreement is still, by necessity, an accusation that the other person is wrong.  Whether or not the other person is actually wrong is irrelevant to the nature of this relationship.  

By declaring that you disagreed with most of the things I said, you are calling into question both my competence and my integrity.  The only bit you offered is that you'd play herald instead of renegade.  No further explanation was given.  Basically you greeted this thread with "You're wrong about most things and I like herald.  Bye!" 

See, when Aliam posted here to disagree with my value judgement on Weaver, he explained why and presented an argument.  That's normally what people do.  They explain themselves.  In my very brief note on Revenant, I at least gave a short explanation why I picked renegade (good toolbox, ranged weapon, self-buffs).  I even made note of Vindicator, and the problem it will face soon.  You... were just confrontational, which means the logical conclusion to come to is that it is your goal from the start.  

[Rico.5710]

4 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

Dude, just stop already... all he said was that he disagrees with your decisions and that it comes down to preferences, so there is no real "right" answer. It wasn't an insult and you're taking this way too personal

[Stx.4857]

Warrior:  Power Bladesworn with cavalier gear.  Possibly condi Berserker in the near future.

Rev:  Condi Renegade

Guardian:  Condi Willbender, or Condi Firebrand

Thief:  Condi deadeye p/d or condi spectre

Ranger:  condi untamed, condi soulbeast

Engineer:  condi mechanist, power mechanist

Mesmer:  condi mirage

Elementalist:  condi weaver, condi catalyst, condi Tempest 

Necromancer:  condi scourge 

 

 

Those are the absolute best for open world soloing difficult stuff like champions, bounties, large events etc.   Obviously other builds or specs can work too.  I personally play condi holosmith.  But I know that mech is so much better, so I wouldn't list holo here.  Also note that for condi specs, Celestial gear is often just as good or better than trailblazer.  I just didn't want to list out separate Celestial specs.

 

 

[the krytan assassin.9235]

It kinda depends on your goals; how important is dps and how important is surviveability, what content do you aim for, how forgiving does the build need to be, is it solo or group content. 

 

For example when playing an ele i'd recommend cele  Weaver for high dps open world solo content, condi/power for open world group content. Cele Catalyst offers the best moderate dps with incredible surviveability. Cele Tempest for harder group content where dps doesn't matter to much. 

Condi often works better for Champions/legendary mobs, but its really bad for killing trashmobs. 

[Mell.4873]

I will take a stab and Ranger

Druid:

This is a bit a dead end for Solo capability since your damage will so low any survivability you will gain by having Celestial Avatar will just prolong your suffering. If you are dead set on using a Druid then don't use Staff rather go full condition duration(Vipers) with Shortbow + Axe/Torch.

Soulbeast:

Most of the Meta builds are fine except maybe the Hybrid ones. My personally favorite is the Condition Meta build since you can camp Shortbow without suffering to much of a DPS drop. This is not true for Power Soulbeast which suffers a lot if you stay in Longbow. You can also play the Rare stance share Soulbeast in Groups.

Untamed:

This is Rangers supreme survivalist since Fervent Force pared with any healing skill will let you survive an obscene amount of damage. The ranged options are rather limited but you can stack Spirits and cycle there active ability so fast you can tank Legendary Bounties. It is a class that takes a lot more practice to use especially if you want to play with Hammer.

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Ashgar.3024]

23 hours ago, Stx.4857 said:

Obviously other builds or specs can work too.  I personally play condi holosmith.  But I know that mech is so much better, so I wouldn't list holo here.  Also note that for condi specs, Celestial gear is often just as good or better than trailblazer.  I just didn't want to list out separate Celestial specs.

 

Cele Holo is better in my experience than Mec for soloing Champions, Better sustain and way tankier due to much better access to boons like Regen and Prot on top of Heat Therapy and Crystal Configuration Eclipse. For general openworld roaming either Power or Condi Mec works. Rifle Scrapper works surprisingly well too for that purpose.

 

For Thief Specter is really good at soloing champions. For more general openworld roaming i much prefer Deadeye though as Specter has so much ramp up and so little power scaling. Payback coupled with Be Quick or Be Killed also make your utilities nearly spammable in that scenario which is really fun, including Thieves Guild if you kill stuff quick enough. Either Rifle or P/P works there. I personally prefer rifle since it has built-in mobility (About Face + Death's Retreat) which frees my second weapon slot to run Sword/Pistol to deal with Reflect monsters instead of having to run Shortbow but P/P+SB is a lot of mindless fun too.

 

Same idea for Rev. Cele Renegade is amazing for Champion killing but for more general openworld Herald's burst combined to its tankiness is hard to beat in terms of useability.

 

My 2c on the 3 Professions i spent a lot of time on.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Ashgar.3024

[crewthief.8649]

On 9/27/2022 at 1:07 PM, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I don't believe you.  You accuse me of being wrong, thus misleading and debilitating the OP in some way, then pull it all back by saying there's no right answer.  I think you're just being confrontational for the sake of it.  If you have a problem with what I say, explain it in detail.  This forum isn't the place for back-handed insults.  

Uh… what? He wasn’t confrontational in the least. Simply, he addressed the notion that there is no objective “best solo class.” There’s a real lack of maturity in your response, to be totally honest.

Edited September 29, 2022 by crewthief.8649

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

2 hours ago, crewthief.8649 said:

Uh… what? He wasn’t confrontational in the least. Simply, he addressed the notion that there is no objective “best solo class.” There’s a real lack of maturity in your response, to be totally honest.

He could've just said to the OP that there's no best build, but he didn't.  He could've just said that he liked condi herald, but he didn't.  He could've provided far more details to his claim, but he didn't.  What he did do was call me to this thread specifically to show that they're undermining everything I just wrote while providing no explanation as to why.  

[Diktator.8927]

1 hour ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

He could've just said to the OP that there's no best build, but he didn't.  He could've just said that he liked condi herald, but he didn't.  He could've provided far more details to his claim, but he didn't.  What he did do was call me to this thread specifically to show that they're undermining everything I just wrote while providing no explanation as to why.  

You're just amplifying the "issue" that doesn't exist. They said they wouldn't agree with most of your list, which is why they think there's no right answer to the question. 
To me it was a pretty clear and straightforward response. But you've somehow failed to understand what they were saying, and instead chose to debate over it.

They could've made their own list, and then someone else could've disagreed with them and made their own list, and we could go on and on like that. There is no universal answer to this question, though some picks obviously can be better than others.

I'd personally pick Firebrand over Willbender. Guardian is really squishy, and it relies on boons and active defense. Willbender kinda requires you to do damage to keep yourself alive, and is more difficult to play than Firebrand. Firebrand is just much easier and more versatile, while allowing you to use tomes to either heal yourself, buff yourself, deal dmg, etc. on top of having access to a ton of boons otherwise, via Mantras and stuff.

For the Revenant, I'd say Renegade and Herald are both great picks. I'd say Renegade being ranged is irrelevant, as you're mostly going to fight close range anyways, especially against harder enemies that take a bit longer to kill. Also if you pick the All For One trait, you'd want to be in range of your summons to get Protection. Both are one of the tankiest especs you could pick, if built correctly.

For Thief, I'd go with Specter any day. As you have said, you're relying on dodging and active defense on Daredevil. Specter can just tank damage, at least right now before the patch drops. Specter has Consume Shadows, which heals for a ton, or gives a large barrier, it has access to Shroud which automatically makes it more tanky, due to basically having 2 health bars. Overall it has a lot of tools that make it great for dealing with single target threats, like champions, bounties, etc.

 

For a lot of these choices, the gear, runes, and sigils also matter a lot.
 

Edited September 29, 2022 by Diktator.8927