Best (?) solo PVE Open World class/specs

[LaHuguu.9561]

The plan is to play PvE Open World (no strike, raid, fractals …) solo (or rarely grouping with weirdos if they happen to be around the same target as I am)

In your mind, what seems to be the best spec to :

• Destroy trash mobs, going fast from one group to the other, for doing map completion, meta-events, collection for endgame rewards (Skyscale, legendaries …) or farming AP in story instances AND
• Survive long enough for soloing Champions/Bounties and other hard bosse AND
• being able to swap from the first situation to the other depending on what fight is next. Like tweak some traits or change gear if you tend to plan on fighting a bounty alone (I think, you can’t be as powerful and as tanky to do both (or is it ? Is there a god emperor build that has endless durability and brutal damage that I don’t know ?)

 

I’m getting burnt out of my Riffle Mech that I’ve been playing for 300hrs (full Core story, full achievements on LWS2, LWS3, PoF and lot of “Return To” steps for the legendary trinkets done). Like when I’m farming or just roaming the map, I trait 331 full DPS on mech, I set the F skills on auto and I BLAST through the trash mobs, and when a more complex/long fight is ahead, I change to an alac DPS build with 222 mech trait, with more survivability and support if there are some weirdos around me.

 

I was considering Mirage with Staff/Staff build and Axe+Pistol build, and swap them when needed, or Scourge even afeter Torment rune nerf, or even Reaper.

I heard that pre-nerf condi Renegade used to be good, and now Vindicator seems to be good too. Soulbeast and Untammed feel nice. I don’t know much of Warrior though. And any thought on Guardian ?

Cheers

[Alcatraznc.3869]

Mirage S/S is extremely solid. You are basically under perma dodge while having perma alac 25 might and fury. Its only drawback is against trash mob where its killing time is on the low side but this is an issue all condi build suffer so it would be unfair to blame it on Mirage alone.

 

Renegade and Vindicator, Sourge are also solid option. But as a general rule, if you want to do solo stuff for open world you can just put condition damage and some toughness and vitality. Pioneer is often the default choice people would go for if they have the mean but celestial is also a good option. The rest afterward is tweaking based on your spec, like idk if you spec gets a bonus with vitality for instance you may want to use ritualist gear and so on.

[Mell.4873]

All good suggestions so far. I tend to focus on CC protection or stability.

Untamed due to Fervent Force + Stuns + Enhancing Impact = permanent 2 stacks of stability (untill they nerf it). You can stack most boon indefinitely in combat but in particular 100% Alacrity and 100% Quickness. You don't even need much boon duration and can still reset something like Frost trap for damage very easily.

Scrapper with a flamethrower can also provide you with permanent stability while just standing still. Along with this you have high super speed and quickness uptime. 

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Reaper is best choice among the three you mentioned. For fast trash mob cleanup you want burst, and that's what reaper provides while other two struggle with. Not to mention easy solo access to quickness, might, vulnerability and lotsa free crit chance from traits.

For bossing you'll need to toughen him up, but luckily that's not a tall order. Reapers have tons of sustain options that don't cannibilize their damage if needed. Traits, utilities, weapons, you name it.

For gear i would recommend something bruiser-ish since this spec has lots of free crit chance that lets you pick up something with defensive stats. Gear stats like Dragon, Marauder, Crusader, Cavalier or Valkyrie will work well here.

 

[taara.3217]

3 hours ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

Reaper is best choice among the three you mentioned.

Reaper is fun to play on trash but unfortunately far away of being the best choice for bosses soloing (in a certain sense it's not suitable option at all for such kind of content).

[Polar.8634]

i used power mirage for general pve its very fun with sword/pistol/gs,  not as strong as most classes but still my favorite.

other builds i all played and had no problems with solo champ bounties or group content: power reaper, cele catalyst,  power rene, power vindicator.

they all have options in traits to make them more tanky for more hard content, good self boon and good cleave burst.

if  you want some new experience take mirage or vindi, you can take sigil of stamina for fights with trash mobs, very satisfying. 

things like staff/staff mirage for sure are able to kill stronger bosses but for me are much less fun to play as damage is slow, you will spend much more time in general on trivial mob clear. i would swap for such a thing maybe sometimes when i need to kill some group content for achiev alone and maps are dead, but faster builds are more comfy for normal play

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

2 hours ago, taara.3217 said:

Reaper is fun to play on trash but unfortunately far away of being the best choice for bosses soloing (in a certain sense it's not suitable option at all for such kind of content).

I would argue here. Reaper has access to a wide array of defenses alowing him to take on bigger game. Yes you'll have to give up some damage (like picking death magic over soul reaping) but it can sustain a longer fight.
And having spectral grasp is more then "fun" on trash. It's BiS.

Other than Reaper Berserker might be worth looking into. Not so long ago it was a "rodeo profession" - get in there, and see how many seconds you last..

But recently it's been getting some major love from a-net sustain-wise to the point it's the best warrior spec for having windows of complete strike damage immunity. And the love bombing continues when on Valentine's day it'll get the new reworked Eternal Champion trait greatly increases both potency and your control over these bersker specific defenses (Savage Instict + Dead or Alive).

The cherry on top is that majority of things you need are all in one traitline. Berserker has power build options, condi build options and defense options. So it's easy to adjust to a given ecounter.

As for mobbing it's brain-dead simple. Offhand axe spin2win, or offhand torch + sword primal burst for some BBQ on the go..

Edited February 6, 2023 by ZeftheWicked.3076

[taara.3217]

19 hours ago, LaHuguu.9561 said:

• Destroy trash mobs AND Survive long enough for soloing Champions/Bounties and other hard bosse

+/- any Condi build.

20 hours ago, LaHuguu.9561 said:

being able to swap from the first situation to the other depending on what fight is next. Like tweak some traits or change gear if you tend to plan on fighting a bounty alone (I think, you can’t be as powerful and as tanky to do both (or is it ? Is there a god emperor build that has endless durability and brutal damage that I don’t know ?)

You can play 1 build (no need to swap/change traits, gear etc.) as Mirage.

Also previously I played 1 build as Herald (but last time I played H was about 1.5 - 2 yrs ago and have no information about it's current state). Cannot say for other specs because of having little or no exp.

[Warlock.2461]

Check out Lord Hizen youtube videos (he also has a Discord). He focuses on Open World builds. He also has a tier list not too long ago, but since then a few things have changed, which is noted in the comments. His recent Vindicator build is pretty amazing, but he has several builds if that's not your cup of tea.

[DeceiverX.8361]

How the hell has nobody said Soulbeast?

This is a stupid build for Open World.  You're basically perpetually spamming AoE damage with really good combat mobility from Bird F1 and high uptime/permanent uptime on Fury/Vigor and tons of might.

Swap out MMS for BM and run Troll Unguent and release the pet/bear to tank if you're soloing champions.  Swap pets when they're near death.  Drop Aggro with Longbow 3 while the pet takes aggro back.  Even just doing this on core ranger, you basically absolutely cannot die.  I was soloing HoT map champions as core ranger before they got nerfed on this build with like... five hours of ranger playtime.

Very basic framework, unoptimized on stats (just went for a simple 100% crit loadout, I'm not a PvE'er)

Gameplay pattern is swap weapons on cooldown and basically cast 5->4->2 on repeat.  It gives you a barrage pretty much every swap, and pretty much everything dies to cleaving RF/OWP.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMNlRw8gZiD9i1zskTVA-zRZYBRFFYLkPxgPl6ECRICCWB0yEwPPARxWPsIjCA-e

Honestly, you'll probably get bored it's so stupidly easy, but there's a lot of cooldown resets so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited February 7, 2023 by DeceiverX.8361

[AliamRationem.5172]

Sword/focus weaver.  It's fun, pretty strong burst as condi builds go, and has great sustain built into the kit with extra evades, blocks, and invuln.  As you can see in this video, I'm able to deal close to 20k DPS while simultaneously utilizing defense and CC skills to stay alive against this heavy-hitting champion.  If viper is too glassy, celestial or trailblazer also work great while having dramatically stronger passive sustain and you shouldn't lose much damage in practice because you won't need to play as defensively.

 

[Zyreva.1078]

12 hours ago, DeceiverX.8361 said:

How the hell has nobody said Soulbeast?

[...]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POgAMNlRw8gZiD9i1zskTVA-zRZYBRFFYLkPxgPl6ECRICCWB0yEwPPARxWPsIjCA-e

Honestly, you'll probably get bored it's so stupidly easy, but there's a lot of cooldown resets so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Soulbeast (and Untamed) can be great for solo PvE, but that build is garbage, sry.

Low dmg, low defense aside from hoping pet distraction is enough to not get hit, which does not always work. Builds like this are the reason "bearbow ranger" is such a meme.

It would be much better to just go for the standard power soulbeast build (skirm/bm/slb) with axes and a secondary weapon of your choice, and simply replace 1 or 2 utility skills with defensive skills and change runes and sigils to self buffing ones (pack rune, strength sigils, ...). That's for merged gameplay. If you want to have a pet active, untamed is the way to go now.

Edited February 7, 2023 by UmbraNoctis.1907

[Buran.3796]

   Celestial Mirage if you plan to fight mostly at range and play a more relaxed, mid to low input keystroke x minute.

   Celestial Vindicator for a pure mele build able to facetank most of punish (aside from mechanics able to deliver over 25k single hits through 2.9k armor) but with a higher keystroke output.

   They are not super fast but are super safe and very forgiving. Condi Vindi could tank the Balrog from Moria... 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Buran.3796
typos

[Gaiawolf.8261]

There are a few classes I really like playing in open world and across various game content.

 

Firebrand

This is my favorite class for most of the game, because it's so capable and versatile.

Pros:

1. Amazing AOE condition damage with good burst.

2. Versatile, powerful boon support. King of quickness, aegis, and stability, plus it can provide every other boon at 100% or on demand as needed, except alacrity.

3. Great damage mitigation with a lot of cleanses, healing, and stun breaks. Can play tanky or offensive. 

4. Shines when joining a group of other players.

Cons:

1. Low mobility.

2. Not the best self sustain for champs when solo, unless you give up DPS.

3. Tome rework has a lot of hidden CDs/ICDs. 

Mirage

A really fun clas with a lot of counter play, stealth, and sustain.

Pros:

1. Insane sustain with staff against mobs and champs. Can solo almost anything.

2. Good burst with axe. Tankiness with sword, but lower DPS. 

3. Fun stealth, evasion, and mobility. 

4. Can play at range or melee. 

5. Good support options for groups. 

Cons:

1. Not the best DPS without giving up a lot of its sustain. 

2. Mistakes are punishing.

Deadeye

A cool class that lets you play the sniper archetype or traditional thief gameplay with plenty of stealth.

Pros:

1. Great power DPS, especially against single targets.

2. Excels at range but can also play close range with sword/pistol or p/p.

3. Highly mobile with a lot of stealth.

Cons:

1. Not the best AOE, and can be awkward against mobs.

2. No real support for groups. 

3. Mistakes are punishing, but has good escapes. 

 

Virtuoso

A fun, aggressive class with good mobility and sustain. 

Pros:

1. High DPS with great bursts. 

2. Can play ranged or melee and power or condi. 

3. Mobile, with great evasion and blocks. 

4. Same profession as mirage so you can switch between both. 

Cons:

1. Same as mirage and has less sustain.

I also like the engineer classes, but don't have any real builds I gel with yet. 

 

[Dahkeus.8243]

Look up Lord Hizen’s vids on YouTube.  Overzealous memes aside, he posts some really good builds for open world solo and has good insight on classes that do well.  His warriors build in particular are great.   The Bladesworn one is amazing if you have the ability to get Cavalier gear and use waystations to carry break bars.  The Spellbreaker one is solid too.

[MarzAttakz.9608]

I'm using Hizen's staff/staff mirage build currently (used his Renegade build before battlescars and torment rune nerfs) and for Champs or tough content it's very good. Not the most engaging rotation though and at most solo I'm seeing around 7-12k DPS sometimes up to 14k depending on the encounter.

For trash clearing I swap out to staff + axe/pistol or axe + pistol/torch, switch two traits and change from Celestial to Viper's and DPS sits around 6-8k because things are dead before the condi's stack higher. If I don't want Condi then I use the Greatsword Farmer build from MetaBattle I think it was.

I'm planning to try Hizen's recent Power Vindicator for a more active playstyle but don't have legendary heavy at the moment so it's taking much longer to put together.

[Warlock.2461]

On 2/9/2023 at 6:32 PM, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

Mirage

A really fun clas with a lot of counter play, stealth, and sustain.

Pros:

1. Insane sustain with staff against mobs and champs. Can solo almost anything.

2. Good burst with axe. Tankiness with sword, but lower DPS. 

3. Fun stealth, evasion, and mobility. 

4. Can play at range or melee. 

5. Good support options for groups. 

Cons:

1. Not the best DPS without giving up a lot of its sustain. 

2. Mistakes are punishing.

 

@Gaiawolf.8261 I notice you mention group support as a Pro. Can you explain a little on what kind of group support Mirage can you give? Do you (or anyone else) happen to have any builds for this you'd share?

 

I've been looking for an open world Mesmer build to play in a duo that can give some group support/heals and do good enough damage. So far, I'm been looking at a Chrono build on the Mesmer forum, but I am curious if the Mirage would work--and how it stacks up vs Chrono in damage and support/healing.

[Waffles.5632]

As others have mentioned, when it comes to open world, Mirage is still king.

There are other classes almost on Mirage's level, but Mirage can safely solo everything in open world with the most ease and it is pretty much welcomed in any large group, like strikes/raids/metas. In fracs tho not really.

 

Videos of Mirage in Open World against Bosses:

 

 

 

So I run half cele/half vipers, but you can go all cele, it doesn't really matter.

Runes of Torment are kind of a must because it gives you regeneration which is something you need to have on because of chaos trait line. Cele gear + runes of torment can be pretty expensive to acquire however the trade off is you literally become a Mirage God.

Here is Cele Mirage in a bounty :

 

 

Here is Cele Mirage vs Trash :

There is no other class that plays this way IMO. No other class where you can really go a whole fight and not get hit. An illusionary acrobat is how I like to describe Mirage.

 

Here is a rather old video because it was made before some Mirage changes, however the build still plays exactly the same. Press buttons, summon clones, dodge and ambush, everything dies.

The Video:

 

There are TWO changes that are siginifcant.

First is rune of torment used to heal you on torment application, hence immortal mirage (didn't matter if you got hit back then, Mirages can stack 40+ torment so they would always heal back to full) but NOW it gives perma regen as long as you keep applying torment. This frees up the Mirage Trait line to go from renewing oasis (regen on dodge) to self deception (clone generation anytime a Mirage skill is used, like jaunt)

Second is staff ambush used to just flat out give 8stacks of might, now it is 2 stacks of might PER CLONE, so you always wanna try to have 3 staff clones up and then spam ambush, however this build is always generating clones.

I feel kinda bad linking a rather old video, but it's still relevant for open world IMO and it explains a looooooooot of what makes Mirage so effective. Enjoy!

Here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAYdrlRwwYSsLmJW2P9vOA-zRRYVRBzM4CpnQIsEIzKw7BA-e

 

My personal record with this build is 71 stacks of torment solo:

 

Keep in mind they changed the way the break bar debuff worked, so that 29k tic of torment is no longer really possible solo. Bosses used to take something like 100% more condition damage for ~5secs after their bar was broken, but this got nerfed to something like 10% more condition damage for 10 secs or so. I just want to be transparent as some of these videos are several years old at this point.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Waffles.5632

[Gibson.4036]

On condi mirage, you don’t need to choose between s/s and axe/pistol. You can run staff and axe/pistol. This means you can get in close for the extra damage of axe, then juke away if you need some breathing room on a tough opponent. Having pistol helps with breakbars.

It feels great to play, being able to choose range or melee on the fly, and the mobility to choose where you want to be at any given moment. In spite of being condi, it feels very bursty.

Its the only spec I run no defensive stats because it’s so good at avoiding damage. I started off with a mix of trailblazers and vipers, but quickly went full vipers because the tough and vit just weren’t necessary.

 

[Gaiawolf.8261]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:29 PM, Warlock.2461 said:

 

@Gaiawolf.8261 I notice you mention group support as a Pro. Can you explain a little on what kind of group support Mirage can you give? Do you (or anyone else) happen to have any builds for this you'd share?

 

I've been looking for an open world Mesmer build to play in a duo that can give some group support/heals and do good enough damage. So far, I'm been looking at a Chrono build on the Mesmer forum, but I am curious if the Mirage would work--and how it stacks up vs Chrono in damage and support/healing.

The mirage build listed above gives consistent might, alacrity, and fury through AA and ambush skills. You can also give aegis, resolution, and swiftness with Staff 5. In top of that, mesmers have access to a few support and cc utility skills you can swap in as needed. 

[zakkles.4158]

Mirage (axe+pistol/staff) is probably your best bet. Any condi build will lose out to bursty power builds for clearing trash mobs, but the axe burst isn't all that terrible. (If you can't live with it you can gear a power virt for another template and swap as needed.) In return you get insane survivability and enormous damage ramp for champions.

 

Other builds that do similar things are cele firebrand, trailblazer weaver, power untamed, condi herald. Again, most of these classes have better options for dealing with trash mobs (e.g. condi firebrand, power weaver) but should be fine to run everywhere.

[Warlock.2461]

Has anyone played Open World Herald or Scrapper recently--care to share a build? I've been looking for an open world quickness provider for playing with a duo partner. If not for the quickness requirement, I'd probably go Tempest for Open World---feels really good. I have been trying Firebrand, but it feels a bit squishy (this may be user error), so that's why I'm looking at other options. I know Lord Hizen listed Herald as D tier for Open World and Scrapper as C tier--along with Firebrand. But that video is a few months old, so I'm not sure if that's still accurate. If that's true, there's no good Quickness Provider Open World spec. Boo. Anyway, thanks!

Edited February 17, 2023 by Warlock.2461

[HowlKamui.5120]

IMO any thief build that's on zerker/marauders with the Invigorating Precision GM trait. Good damage, and you have lifesteal for survival. IMO it's best because it has high damage. I don't like going for celestial or defensive stats in open world if there is an option to do more damage and still being able to survive, so lifesteal made sense.
 

Invigorating Precision:

You are healed for a percentage of outgoing critical-hit damage. This healing is increased while you are under the effects of fury."

 

Personally, I prefer the DE for the permanent quickness on trash mobs because of Be Quick or Be Killed. I use bow auto-attack for the bouncing arrows with quickness (great for tagging), and it's your choice for the swap. I've solo'd champ bounties and Heart of Thorns hard bosses with it. 

 

Be Quick or Be Killed:

Gain quickness when marking a foe. Your power and precision are increased while under this effect.

Edited February 17, 2023 by HowlKamui.5120

[Dixa.6017]

I think people are sleeping on the power of untamed atm. 

[Gaiawolf.8261]

14 hours ago, Warlock.2461 said:

Has anyone played Open World Herald or Scrapper recently--care to share a build? I've been looking for an open world quickness provider for playing with a duo partner. If not for the quickness requirement, I'd probably go Tempest for Open World---feels really good. I have been trying Firebrand, but it feels a bit squishy (this may be user error), so that's why I'm looking at other options. I know Lord Hizen listed Herald as D tier for Open World and Scrapper as C tier--along with Firebrand. But that video is a few months old, so I'm not sure if that's still accurate. If that's true, there's no good Quickness Provider Open World spec. Boo. Anyway, thanks!

If you are having trouble staying alive with qFB, try this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABc+t7lVwkYPsOmJW0SvvTA-zxIY1on/QSQGkpQIcFgYHAA-e
If you need more quickness, you can swap MoL for SYG and the elite mantra for FMW. Also replace Weighty Terms with Stalwart Speed or Legendary Lore. This is generally a more efficient setup, but has less cleanses, stab, and stun breaks. 

If you find yourself still too squishy on some mobs, you can replace Radiance with Valor, but that's a fairly hefty DPS loss. Very tanky though.

Finally, when you get more comfortable with the build, you can try replacing Honor with Virtues for more DPS but less sustain.