Classes/specs for solo play

[Zei.6537]

Hey.

 

I'm looking for a class/spec which is comfortable to use in solo-play and has some kind of built-in, reliable self sustain. I've played Willbender, Firebrand, Mechanist and Virtuoso before but they didn't really click. I'm not a fan of Renegade and Scourge either.

 

I prefer ranged classes but melee is fine too.

 

Thanks.

[KingJake.6529]

If you like condition builds maybe you should try staff mirage. It is really good build in pve for anything. You can have good uptime of boons with your ambush skil (alacrity and might) l while still doing good dps. You can play it in instance content with full vipers gear but in open world I usually run  trailblazer you should be fine.

 

This is what I usually run in open world, the traveler runes are more of a personal preference thing but nightmare runes should be the best option for dps.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAYZlRwkYKsLmJWKP1PLA-zRJYkR1fZkZF0bKI/sUl0GA-e

[Scalacious.4139]

I mostly play double dagger spellbreaker in solo, who has a lot of built in sustain even in full berzerker from 'might makes right', which heals you if you gain might, which you do a lot as spellbreaker. And you heal for 4% of the critical damage you do, which basically is all of your damage, since you easily reach 100% crit chance.

My other solo profession is scrapper, who generates barrier if you deal damage, which is also a nice sustain.

[SlipLihte.1307]

All those specs mentioned have reliable self-sustain options built in, including aegis access, protection, blocks, invulns, heals etc. Shelter is an amazing panic button, and then you get to choose Renewed Focus  as well for example.

 

The main thing is to learn to use these tricks and absolutely not rely on tanking damage - only real spec that can do that to any extent is necro.

Edited October 13, 2022 by SlipLihte.1307

[Silent.6137]

13 hours ago, Zei.6537 said:

Hey.

 

I'm looking for a class/spec which is comfortable to use in solo-play and has some kind of built-in, reliable self sustain. I've played Willbender, Firebrand, Mechanist and Virtuoso before but they didn't really click. I'm not a fan of Renegade and Scourge either.

 

I prefer ranged classes but melee is fine too.

 

Thanks.

Go through MetaBattle's OW list and try out the 5 rating builds plus look through Weapons by Range for each class. There's probably a couple that you might like.

[Eros.6801]

@OP 

All the classes you mentioned are top pick for self sustain but each of them has many different builds

Revenant : Herald (Cele variant) has amazing self-heal with much easier playstyle and alot of boons uptime.

Engineer : Scrapper full glass cannon the self sustain comes under the form of barrier, the more numbers you hit the more barrier you get.

Necromancer : Harbinger (Trail or Cele variant) pretty tough and has perma quickness, fast pace combat.

Warrior : Bladesworn or Spellbreaker, both has amazing regen while doing big numbers at the same time but ofc war is all about melee. With the right build one swing from Bladesworn can heal you back 50% and Spellbreaker is just tough.

Mesmer : Mirage (double staffs or axe/staff) one of the best soloist in the game, able to maintain perma alac while solo makes it the top pick for any long solo fight.

Didn't like anything above ? you're out of luck  (づ￣ ³￣)づ

[Animism.7530]

On 10/13/2022 at 11:06 AM, Zei.6537 said:

Hey.

 

I'm looking for a class/spec which is comfortable to use in solo-play and has some kind of built-in, reliable self sustain. I've played Willbender, Firebrand, Mechanist and Virtuoso before but they didn't really click. I'm not a fan of Renegade and Scourge either.

 

I prefer ranged classes but melee is fine too.

 

Thanks.

Try Power Reaper. It has received considerable nerfs, but it is still a fun build to look at and play, as well as being simple and having access to the things you want. Lots of sustain (HP), blinds, AOE. 

I would keep your gear as close to raid/fotm designs as possible and can't recommend "tanky" armour sets, even for solo. It just isn't worth it. Strength runes and "might on crit" food can be very useful for solo, however. 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Animism.7530

[stormemperor.3745]

On 10/13/2022 at 1:06 PM, Zei.6537 said:

Hey.

 

I'm looking for a class/spec which is comfortable to use in solo-play and has some kind of built-in, reliable self sustain. I've played Willbender, Firebrand, Mechanist and Virtuoso before but they didn't really click. I'm not a fan of Renegade and Scourge either.

 

I prefer ranged classes but melee is fine too.

 

Thanks.

write "/mentor" done

[branwen.1049]

As others have suggested: Harbinger, Reaper, or Mirage all do pretty well in solo play -- as someone who tends to stick to metas with tons of people, or doing easier achievements / map completion when I'm on my own, I've found that any of those three tend to be my go-to when out in the world.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Giovanelli.6071

[Buran.3796]

On 10/13/2022 at 12:06 PM, Zei.6537 said:

I'm looking for a class/spec which is comfortable to use in solo-play and has some kind of built-in, reliable self sustain. I've played Willbender, Firebrand, Mechanist and Virtuoso before but they didn't really click. I'm not a fan of Renegade and Scourge either.

I prefer ranged classes but melee is fine too.

   Given your own tastes and requirements I think that the best bet are either a double staff Mirage or a Thief with either pistol, rifle or scepter.

   The problem with Thief is that albeit versions of Daredevil and Deadeye with reasonable sustain exist, they make mostly single target damage, so are good for soloing bosses but a PITA  vs small groups. The Specter running scepter was a bit better in that regard, and had really high sustain, but it was heavily nerfed recently.

   So this gives us the double stage Mirage: according to Lord Hizen, which is arguably one of the best (if not the best) players at soloing PvE content, it ixs currently in the "S" tier, and just got a bit buffed with the last patch (so now is even better):

 

  Is rather easy to play, very powerful in both single target figths and vs mobs, and is ranged. In terms of sustain, is not like has tons of heals, but what has instead is lots of i-frames through evasions. Hizen has videos using Mirage to solo Strike Missions, which speaks volumes about how good the build is. Hope it fits your tastes... 

[Eponet.4829]

I've found Sword/Sword Vindicator very solid for solo play.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAwyJldQmMH6k1QpsHCl9RqsAqkp81fsC-zRRYBRHn/cQBlRtpQFVgtDA-e

 

Damage is pretty solid with good self-buffing ability, and running Devestation/Invocation/Vindicator Jalis/Legendary Alliance stance gives excellent self sustain between having three heal skills + devestation lifesteal, multiple condition cleanses from Blue Alliance Jalis and condition cleansing on legend swap, and the ability to dodge for ages between sword 3, energy meld and vindicator's ability to refund energy on dodge in order to buy time for cooldowns to come back up if really pressured.

 

Alternatively, I've also liked Deadeye a lot. It's better to run two build templates for it though. In either case, sustain is pretty solid from its 6% healing from crit damage and condition removal on hide in shadows and assassin's signet (though if you do use it you need to start hitting from behind/the side to get back to 100% crit chance while it's on cooldown, which is unreliable in solo play).

One that's Deadly Arts/Critical Strikes/Deadeye, taking deadly arts for a bunch of bonus damage and power modifiers from the dagger trait, revealed training and executioner. Deadeye actually has usable AoE from rifle skill 2, but since it costs initiative, you need to rely on ways to generate it.

It does a lot of damage with excellent self-buffing from Malificent Seven, but it's very single target focused. 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAQhjlFwwYisHmJO6L7vOA-zRRYBRNVF9cI1WKjaThKqATGAA-e

 

When there's a lot of weak AoE situations where targets are often dying before reaching max malice, I like to switch to a trickery/critical strikes/deadeye build. You lose ideal situation damage by dropping deadly arts, but deadeye's mark refreshes whenever your target dies, meaning that you can still get your might/fury generation without needing to reach max malice if your marks keep dying in 2 hits which is very common with regular enemies, and the initiative regeneration on mark as well as higher mark pool means that you can sustain rifle 2's AoE blasting for much longer without needing reliable malificent seven procs.

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAQhjlFwuYisHmJW2XnvOA-zRRYBRNVF9cI1WKjaThKqATGAA-e

[Nabbut.7480]

To effectively play solo PvE you need a steady infinite sustain, without gaps when you can be downed.

From my years of experience only scepter mesmer with stealth and clone spam, and core necromancer with minions and constant lifesteal/lifeforce/barrier gains are fitting into this.

[AliamRationem.5172]

2 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

To effectively play solo PvE you need a steady infinite sustain, without gaps when you can be downed.

From my years of experience only scepter mesmer with stealth and clone spam, and core necromancer with minions and constant lifesteal/lifeforce/barrier gains are fitting into this.

While mesmer and necro are great options for easy solo sustain, all classes are capable of sustaining indefinitely.  It also isn't the only way to approach solo play.  Most open world champions outside of bounties have low enough health that they can be brute-forced by high DPS on a build that isn't capable of sustaining indefinitely.  It's also possible to sustain indefinitely on longer fights such as bounty solos even in full glass gear and on classes that are notoriously "squishy".  That's more an issue of individual comfort level and familiarity with the class.

For examples of this:

Here's the brute force method soloing a heavy-hitting champion using a max DPS raid build for weaver with no defensive traits taken.  This isn't sustainable, but the boss dies so quickly he can't deplete my health bar.

Here's using a more defensive build (PvP-style fire/arcane rather than the raid setup using fire/earth) but still using full DPS viper gear on a bounty solo.  This boss has too much health to brute force like in the previous example, so I need to be able to sustain indefinitely.  But even in full viper gear that's possible.  I don't recommend it as playing defensively like this in glass gear defeats the purpose, but it's perfectly doable even on so-called squishy ele builds so other classes can certainly do this as well.