Rookie question with WvW roaming..

[Joxer.6024]

Ok, so I am fairly new to all this, as it has been awhile (5yrs) since I last dabbled in WvW...how does one stay alive?

What I mean is I am running Harb, per Guildjen's build, and do "ok" but man o' man most times I get pwned. Now, granted most of this is skill level (me, none) but i do manage kills but most of the time their health just doesnt drop! I fought a Ren and was unloading everything and his\hers health didnt even budge!! What gives? 

Are there like uber strong builds that you just cant win against....or does it really come down to skill, aka mine vs theirs?

[devastoscz.9851]

Usually skill.

You don't necessarily want to "unload everything". Yeah you might catch people, but there are good players out there who will bait that "unload" from you, cleanse it and attack in the gap where you have no defenses. Learn to bait skills/dodges from your enemy, learn to kite, learn to use line of sight, the environment in your favor.

Also, consider that the best players out there usually have tried, if not actively play, EVERY class. EVERY build. So they know the usual combos, the cooldowns, the weaknesses and when to hit you.  If you ONLY play necro, only repeatedly dying will (eventually) give you that kind of insight on class matchups.

[UncreativeGreen.2019]

5 hours ago, Joxer.6024 said:

Ok, so I am fairly new to all this, as it has been awhile (5yrs) since I last dabbled in WvW...how does one stay alive?

What I mean is I am running Harb, per Guildjen's build, and do "ok" but man o' man most times I get pwned. Now, granted most of this is skill level (me, none) but i do manage kills but most of the time their health just doesnt drop! I fought a Ren and was unloading everything and his\hers health didnt even budge!! What gives? 

Are there like uber strong builds that you just cant win against....or does it really come down to skill, aka mine vs theirs?

Cele renegade is a pretty popular build, for solo/small man, only thing holding it back from being a better roamer is better/cheaper mobility. There’s two versions, Jalis and Ventari (both paired with Shiro… I guess there’s some mallyx lovers out there too but that’s more leaning into full condi ren or boon rips for group play) Anyways, as a harb you have a chance to beat the Jalis version, it’s a slow burn and a pain in the kitten, but doable. It’s the Ventari one where I’d just pack up my bags and leave… or swap to power reaper. The ventari bubble uptime just counters the living crap out of all you projectile shroud skills, pistol skills, and will even eat the thrown portion of elixirs. The Ventari cele ren was basically made to counter harbs … and the constant mech spam by 50% of the population before the nerfs awhile back… luckily the Jalis version is more popular, for some reason.

Edited June 6, 2023 by UncreativeGreen.2019

[Thomas.2564]

Welcome to the celebot meta. Strap in my boy. This current meta is fully focused on out sustaining ur apponent, then it is actually killing him. And this kind of juggernaut, boon puking mayhem is all u will encounter when roaming. Sry to say. 

[UncreativeGreen.2019]

2 hours ago, Thomas.2564 said:

Welcome to the celebot meta. Strap in my boy. This current meta is fully focused on out sustaining ur apponent, then it is actually killing him. And this kind of juggernaut, boon puking mayhem is all u will encounter when roaming. Sry to say. 

Minus the other half of the roamers who are all full zerk/marauder and then stat into extra friendship stats… you know all those high risk, skillful builds… that then get the risk removed as they chase you across the map 5v1… it’s pretty sad roaming content either way

Edited June 6, 2023 by UncreativeGreen.2019

[TheGrimm.5624]

9 hours ago, Joxer.6024 said:

Ok, so I am fairly new to all this, as it has been awhile (5yrs) since I last dabbled in WvW...how does one stay alive?

What I mean is I am running Harb, per Guildjen's build, and do "ok" but man o' man most times I get pwned. Now, granted most of this is skill level (me, none) but i do manage kills but most of the time their health just doesnt drop! I fought a Ren and was unloading everything and his\hers health didnt even budge!! What gives? 

Are there like uber strong builds that you just cant win against....or does it really come down to skill, aka mine vs theirs?

Your answer is a mix. Some will be build versus build, some will be skill. Know your build first, next know theirs. Know what you are strong against and weak against and adjust from there when choosing targets. When you lose, take a look at your logs to see what was going on to get a better idea on what happened so you can think of what to adjust or try differently next time. If you are into dueling, find a duel spot and try your luck from there for more practice. sPvP is an option there but your results will vary whne in WvW but its a matter of rotations and concepts it still works for more engagements in shorter time and hey, it pays better that WvW still, so two-fer.

[apharma.3741]

Here is what to expect when roaming:
You will find 3-10 people who will chase you across the map just to kill you while they keep mounting up if a few fall behind and others keep you in combat.
You will run into cele stat classes which ends up 2 muscle idiots smacking each other till the aforementioned 3-10 guys randomly turn up and kill whoever was on the wrong side of that skill equation.

Rangers either immobilizing you for an eternity, killing you in 1s with sic'em/OWP or just playing cele and see the second point about 2 muscle idiots smacking each other.
SUDDENLY ZERG....that also chases you for literally no reason and a few random people BM you.
You finally come across a person that's not playing cele, has no friends around and can't run to a nearby tower. Unfortunately, this guy drinks antifreeze and apparently forgot to equip the grey matter between their ears because they double dodged hit invuln then died in a few seconds to auto attacks somehow.

Welcome to roaming, enjoy.
Also, if you want to actually get better, get the armistice bastion pass and duel people, I'd select your teams and then do it away from the arena as some poor guys who clearly weren't loved by their parents do tend to interrupt duels for kicks.

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

12 hours ago, Joxer.6024 said:

fairly new to all this

there's your problem. All you need to do is keep playing, tweak your build as many times as you need and remember, YOU CAN AND YOU SHOULD BE RUNNING AT LEAST 2 DIFFERENT BUILDS AND GEAR!

[Thomas.2564]

9 hours ago, UncreativeGreen.2019 said:

Minus the other half of the roamers who are all full zerk/marauder and then stat into extra friendship stats… you know all those high risk, skillful builds… that then get the risk removed as they chase you across the map 5v1… it’s pretty sad roaming content either way

True, cause the celebots NEVER chase other players around across the map? 😂

Please stop putting certain type builds in specific category's, like its only the ppl playing dps builds that chase ppl around, wtf 😂

But in any case roaming is boring af. 

[ArchonWing.9480]

People who have dedicated builds to small scale often build either extremely glassy or high sustain.

The reason for this is natural. In WvW, most fights are not 1v1 and generally don't stay that way even if they are. This means you play with the assumption that other enemy players will join. The person that +1s you will generally be free to unload their burst on you if you are not careful.

So this means you can either burst quickly and kill players before they can respond, or you simply are just sustain heavy enough to withstand attacks from more than one player.

The nature of the battle changes. Against another glassy player, you want to kill them before they kill you unless you are bulky enough to take all the hits. But against another tanky player, unloading everything is often a bad idea and you will often die when you overcommit.

So basically, we build roaming builds to be able to survive being blindslided by several other players.

There are also players that build extremely tanky where you can not seemingly hurt them at all. Sometimes they're a distraction from a dps friend, and other times they just don't want to bother fighting you so they are just extra hard to kill. However, most of these do not have the damage to kill you, so do not panic and try to not target them first in a team fight. A lot of times they just want to keep you in combat so someone else  can kill you. Again, wasting all your cooldowns for that is exactly what they want to do.

Truth be told, due to all these shenanigans and the high chance of running into much bigger groups means most people you fight  will build tanky  take a while to kill for any of these reasons. Interrupting their heals and keeping them poison can help, but any approach requires you to know what you are dealing with.

So next time you run against an "unkillable" build, you should try to guess on what they're really planning, especially if it seems they don't have the damage to kill you.

You seem to be doing pretty good, since at the very least you can identify the class and spec you are fighting. And since there are so many, quite a few people can't actually do this. Pretty soon you'll be able to ascertain who's the real fighters, and who's just along for the ride.

There is a ton of variance in WvW. Sometimes you run into people doing dailies and they don't put up a fight, some other day you run into a veteran roamer and nothing you does seems to work. Gw2 can be a brutal game regardless, and it is quite magnified in WvW since it's no holds barred much of the time.

Edited June 7, 2023 by ArchonWing.9480

[Ronin.4501]

20 hours ago, Joxer.6024 said:

Ok, so I am fairly new to all this, as it has been awhile (5yrs) since I last dabbled in WvW...how does one stay alive?

What I mean is I am running Harb, per Guildjen's build...

Another thing to consider aside from all the of previous advice, is when you're looking up various builds to try for WvW, be sure to specify that 1) you're looking for WvW builds, and 2) if you're looking for a roaming build versus a small group build versus a raid build. Oftentimes the builds you come across are for PvE or PvE Raids, which are going to be very different from what you'll want to run in WvW (remember that the skills in WvW have often been changed somewhat from their PvE versions).

Another tip is don't be afraid to ask other roamers you come across what types of builds they run. A lot of other roamers will be happy to share advice!

[oatsnjuices.1698]

It is better to get your builds from roaming videos on youtube. It seems that the build suggestion websites are generally wrong and get nothing right. You could try to chat up some harbs and see what they are running. Runes, sigils, and armor stats are as important as the build itself. There are allot of players that go to great lengths to squeeze out what they think is the best bang for dps verses sustain. Those roamers are the ones you want to talk to, or watch on youtube. Most roaming guilds are good to chat up, just watch for them to run a harb then ask, no harm in that.

 

Harb seems to be better in small scale due to its inability to get away, i suggest running with heavies that wanna smash things close and personal. You could make some friends, agree to just attack anything that moves, and that will make you better. Or, choose a more evasive class like ranger, thief, mesmer, or guard. Those builds are better solo roamers and can get away from the ones you want to avoid. There are harbingers that are just gnarly, but they usually stay close to a door or duel spot, i just don't see many roaming open field alone. Good luck and happy hunting!

For example, this may be good and the build is in the discription.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmlQjbFNq8c

This is his build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAYp3lhyUZWMPWLeWX6RTA-zxIY1om/QiUBkpMIWhgGHAA-e

Edited June 7, 2023 by oatsnjuices.1698

[Justine.6351]

4 hours ago, Thomas.2564 said:

True, cause the celebots NEVER chase other players around across the map? 😂

Please stop putting certain type builds in specific category's, like its only the ppl playing dps builds that chase ppl around, wtf 😂

But in any case roaming is boring af. 

Celebots don't chase usually because they expect you to stand there and beat on them.

[Emissary.3792]

Yep, every fight starts as 1v1 or 1v2 and then ends as 1v8 so successful 'roaming' generally depends on either having enough stats in the build to out face-smash 2-3x outnumbered fights (generally cele boon builds), or enough damage to quickly gank and then mobility to disengage at will (generally glassy builds), or a party of 3-8 like minded friends, or a friendly tower/keep that you can stand next to the door of and shoot arrows from.

11 hours ago, Thomas.2564 said:

True, cause the celebots NEVER chase other players around across the map? 😂

Please stop putting certain type builds in specific category's, like its only the ppl playing dps builds that chase ppl around, wtf 😂

But in any case roaming is boring af. 

Everyone chases, but glassy players on the 'traditional' roaming classes tend to be salty ego boys about how 'skillful' they are on their 'high risk high reward' builds while they do their 6v1 chasing. Also, they're running max mobility gank builds so they tend to be much harder to get away from, and they have a tendency to get their egos bruised if you ever win a 1v1 and will spend the rest of the night trailing you at a distance and +1'ing if you ever engage someone else.

[ArchonWing.9480]

7 minutes ago, Emissary.3792 said:

Everyone chases, but glassy players on the 'traditional' roaming classes tend to be salty ego boys about how 'skillful' they are on their 'high risk high reward' builds while they do their 6v1 chasing.

I imagine you must have run into those groups of 5-6 with one "superstar" dps and several lapdog supports that serve as expendable fodder when they get overrun so the superstar can run away and say they never died allowing them to make cringe videos on Youtube or something. And as for the rest you describe...

7 minutes ago, Emissary.3792 said:

they have a tendency to get their egos bruised if you ever win a 1v1 and will spend the rest of the night trailing you at a distance and +1'ing if you ever engage someone else.

Well, yea, you ruined their montage and disappointed all 12 of their twitch viewers which may or may not be real. There are people who think they are e-famous via Gw2 and will actually talk to you as such. I really hope they are meming but...

It's okay though. It's very obvious when they're on tilt and that just makes it easier. But sometimes it gets kinda boring and you have something better to do.

None of them seem to realize they are not entitled to content. If they want good content, then don't be a kitten.

Edited June 7, 2023 by ArchonWing.9480