Power Roamers

[Mhina.1827]

Hey Guys, 

Just wanted to check in and see what power based solo roamers you guys have been enjoying lately. I'm personally having a lot of fun on both S/D core thief and power mirage. Regarding S/D core, I understand that overall running something like trickery/acro/daredevil at this point is probably the most optimal way to run S/D, but for me core just feels a lot better. In any case, yeah power build lovers, what are you playing? 

[Codename T.2847]

I run FA fire air/arcane core Ele a lot. It's a pretty good build, I can take on most foes except the most spammy D/P thieves or the most blatant cele players, but there is a lot of sheet going on, probably even more than with Weaver.

Once you get good with Ele tho, the sky is the limit with your skill expression on this build : ) 

[Mhina.1827]

Just now, Codename T.2847 said:

I run FA fire air/arcane core Ele a lot. It's a pretty good build, I can take on most foes except the most spammy D/P thieves or the most blatant cele players, but there is a lot of sheet going on, probably even more than with Weaver.

Once you get good with Ele tho, the sky is the limit with your skill expression on this build : ) 

Thanks for sharing this, I've been wanting to try a power ele next for a while now, but it seems so intimidating at first. I've leveled them a couple times to try to get a good feel for it. Would love if you could share the full build/runes/sigils, etc but I understand if it's your secret sauce 😛

[Codename T.2847]

29 minutes ago, Mhina.1827 said:

Thanks for sharing this, I've been wanting to try a power ele next for a while now, but it seems so intimidating at first. I've leveled them a couple times to try to get a good feel for it. Would love if you could share the full build/runes/sigils, etc but I understand if it's your secret sauce 😛

Nah it's not a secret however obscure it might be^^

Fire traits: bottom, middle*, middle,

*sometimes bottom for yolo power duels

air traits: middle, middle, middle

arcane traits: middle, bottom, middle**

** sometimes bottom depending on whether I use earth armor or arcane shield

Weapons and armor are full marauder, on main I have it all ascended and with eagle runes. Celerity sigil on focus (important for setting up quick combos after CCs) and energy/cleansing on scepter depending on mood or enemi(es)

All trinkets are cele except for Back which is zerker. I like to play Eles this way, since I'm a big sucker for that ~25% boon duration I get with this setup. (Also the other extra stats can come in clutch sometimes too) 

Skills are ether renewal, earth shield, arcane shield and lightning flash. Elite is Tornado always

Earth shield can be swapped off if you don't like it, I love it and am honestly pretty good with it at this point so I couldn't imagine a build without it xD Lightning flash can be sometimes swapped off if you end up fighting warriors or some shït and end up needing 2 stunbreaks with stabi. So yeah there's a lot of flexibility to be had with the stats and the skills too, sigils and runes not so much. 

Usecase in a nutshell: engage with shield pull after porting into unsuspecting foe(s), after enemi(es) are pulled you can land Phoenix + convert fire aura + flame expulsion (by swapping to Air right after) pretty reliably. <---- This combo, the main one, can be naturally set up with Gale too, tornado too but a bit clunkier

If enemy retaliates with a channeled block you can interrupt it with Gale (except if you get shot down by Jesse Pinkman) 

If enemy has stability, preemptive or reactive, you gotta kite while spamming flamestrike/Hurl/blindijg flash, or going to water and hitting them with the Trident from Minecraft.

If all the CCs are not enough you can pretend to run and then about face while turning into a frickin tornado and knocking enemies away Storm from X-Men style : D (People NEVER chase with stability only escape with it. Keep this wisdom in mind.) 

Edit: holy smike I spent 25 mins writing this 

 

Edited April 28 by Codename T.2847

[TheGrimm.5624]

Power reaper is still solid and you have a mix melee and range options and good pull options. Also does well against its newest sibling Harbi. 

[SleepyBat.9034]

5 hours ago, Mhina.1827 said:

Hey Guys, 

Just wanted to check in and see what power based solo roamers you guys have been enjoying lately. I'm personally having a lot of fun on both S/D core thief and power mirage. Regarding S/D core, I understand that overall running something like trickery/acro/daredevil at this point is probably the most optimal way to run S/D, but for me core just feels a lot better. In any case, yeah power build lovers, what are you playing? 

Power Elixir Holosmith, Nade Holosmith, and SD Holo all play fine in WvW atm.

[Zepoolpe.9217]

5 hours ago, TheGrimm.5624 said:

Power reaper is still solid and you have a mix melee and range options and good pull options. Also does well against its newest sibling Harbi. 

🤘

[Rider.6024]

so were just all gonna pretend that every build here aside from d/p deadeye doesnt get smoked by any decent cele player?

[Dawdler.8521]

3 hours ago, Rider.6024 said:

so were just all gonna pretend that every build here aside from d/p deadeye doesnt get smoked by any decent cele player?

Depends on whether we gonna pretend cele isnt about as much power as your d/p deadeye is?

Edited April 29 by Dawdler.8521

[Ronin.4501]

The only true power build I roam on currently is power Renegade. But we all have our own personal preferences. I could go full power Willbender but I've never built my builds around hit and run. And it all depends on what you're coming across on any particular day. Sometimes I'm forced to swap to something different depending on what opponents I'm facing most often that day (which usually means my favorite go-to condi mirage...but it's my own build, not the staff build everyone likes to run).

Edited April 29 by Ronin.4501

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

LB + Sw/Wh Untamed "one shot" sniper, brawly Hammer/Staff Spellbreaker, sometimes Sw/D or Sc/D Daredevil.

[Codename T.2847]

11 hours ago, Rider.6024 said:

so were just all gonna pretend that every build here aside from d/p deadeye doesnt get smoked by any decent cele player?

When I run into someone who (I think) is cele I just quickly switch to cele signet cata build from PvP with hotkey and watch them suffer 😄

[urd.8306]

Power DH and Power Virtuosa. Works great even against (many) cele builds.

[Mhina.1827]

On 4/29/2024 at 3:01 AM, Remus Darkblight.1673 said:

LB + Sw/Wh Untamed "one shot" sniper, brawly Hammer/Staff Spellbreaker, sometimes Sw/D or Sc/D Daredevil.

I've avoided ranger for a loooong time...but maybe I'd be interested in hearing more about that untamed build!

[Mhina.1827]

On 4/29/2024 at 1:29 PM, urd.8306 said:

Power DH and Power Virtuosa. Works great even against (many) cele builds.

Do you think power virt is superior to power mirage?

[Mhina.1827]

On 4/28/2024 at 7:52 PM, Rider.6024 said:

so were just all gonna pretend that every build here aside from d/p deadeye doesnt get smoked by any decent cele player?

Yep! 😄 As a mediocre power - only roamer, I've killed enough people of all ranks and class denominations to at least still enjoy roaming on power classes, even if they are subpar to their cele counterparts. 

[Vasdamas Anklast.1607]

Zerk Vindicator here. It's ok, until you run into cele builds or your average harbringer/virt/renegade with sb (who happened to love cele stats too). Then, you just want to shoot yourself in both knees, especially in 1vsX.

I've actually been collecting anti-cele meme guild names that roamers come up with. There is a lot of hate lol

Edited May 3 by Vasdamas Anklast.1607

[Gazrul.3086]

I roam as power Vindicator. It's hard, but fun. 

[pukish.5784]

cele is superior to zerker/marauder even with non condi builds. vallun found it few years ago.

[Vasdamas Anklast.1607]

21 minutes ago, pukish.5784 said:

cele is superior to zerker/marauder even with non condi builds. vallun found it few years ago.

Except for you don't get better results if you focus on power instead of condi damage on cele.

[urd.8306]

7 hours ago, Mhina.1827 said:

Do you think power virt is superior to power mirage?

To be honest I can't tell. I never liked the mirage gameplay and so I ignored that spec and rather try Chrono stuff than Mirage.

But I'm pretty happy how Power Virtuosa works.

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

6 hours ago, Mhina.1827 said:

I've avoided ranger for a loooong time...but maybe I'd be interested in hearing more about that untamed build!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POwEwE2osUWGbl5xcxxaRPeVi03D-DWRYBBlLGdfGHTTSw2ECZqo6VgUhIwsXFCQA/1MKnSAA-w

It plays best when you have two or three friends to roam with since it lacks a lot of the spammable escapes and gap closers of the best solo roaming/duelling builds. But it is definitely capable of taking down single unaware or distracted enemies. That's not to say it has no defences at all though, since almost your entire utility bar is dedicated to defence.

Basically you select your target and do the following:

1. Open on Smokescale with Ranger Unleashed on Sw/Wh - Hit smoke field and blast it with Call of the Wild to go into stealth, optionally use Pounce and/or Serpents strike to stack stealth and adjust distance to the enemy.
2. Unleash your pet and Swap to Longbow, get into position, hit Signet of the Hunt and Unleash Ranger again. At this point you should have your Opening Strike ready, your next 10 attacks are unblockable, and your target has no idea what is about to hit them.
3. Open with Multishot - it should hit for 8-10k against most targets, it is hilarious to watch squishies spaz out in panic when they suddenly go from 100% to less than 50%
4. Immediately follow up with Point Blank Shot and Rapid Fire, the PBS will trigger Enhancing Impact giving you quickness, so the Rapid Fire will come out extremely quickly. It is normally overkill against most stuff, which is going to be dead within the first half of the attacks.

Once you're comfortable with that opening combo you can start to command your pet too, actively using Smoke Assault in tandem with your opening attack. It usually ends in one of two situations, either your enemy is dead, or they panicked and spammed their escapes and defensive skills to evade or negate your Rapid Fire. Leaving you in the advantageous position having only used one utility and still being at a safe enough distance to make decisions on your next moves. If you want to press the advantage and be aggressive you can immediately swap to Sw/Wh and use the ambush to daze, gaining more quickness, and also hitting for easily 6k+ since you got fury from weapon swapping giving you another opening strike.

On the defence you've got two stun breaks, your elite gives you Stability and Resistance, you can scrub a full rack of conditions and make yourself invulnerable for 3 seconds while you use your Sword skills to make distance. You can also use the smoke field defensively, and you have multiple projectile denial bubbles on the pet unleashed skills and turtle. If you're good you can make use of Enhancing Impact defensively with PBS and Call of the Wild for additional stability when needed.

The biggest downside really is sustained defences and staying power, you can usually escape a sticky situation where you get focused but you lack the spammable low cooldown cleanses and evades that some other classes have. Despite being quite mobile a persistent thief or willbender can catch up to you, but that's usually your own fault for putting yourself in that situation. That said I have successfully outrun multiple pursuers from the sentry next to the duelling spot in alpine borderlands all the way back to the SE spawn before.

I find this build to be better than the Sic'Em sniper Soulbeast because that first attack is so huge that even if the enemy does react quickly enough to stun break, evade, or immunity frame the follow-up they are still missing a big chunk of their health. You also don't have to dedicate multiple utility skills just to do damage. The downside being that it is more APM intensive and has a higher skill ceiling in my opinion.

I feel this could be run even more glassy if you wanted, full berserkers and a damage relic if you feel really confident in your abilities and don't need that extra move speed from swiftness.

[Lucy.3728]

On 4/28/2024 at 6:20 PM, Codename T.2847 said:

Weapons and armor are full marauder, on main I have it all ascended and with eagle runes. Celerity sigil on focus (important for setting up quick combos after CCs) and energy/cleansing on scepter depending on mood or enemi(es)

I take it your weaponset is scepter and focus.
A second set you sometimes switch to?

What relict? I like the speed one but I dunno what swiftness upkeep your setup has.

(Last time I played ele in wvw is like 12 years ago [hello soldier equipment ^^] and nowadays I play ele only in festivals like dragon bash)

[Codename T.2847]

20 minutes ago, Lucy.3728 said:

I take it your weaponset is scepter and focus.
A second set you sometimes switch to?

What relict? I like the speed one but I dunno what swiftness upkeep your setup has.

(Last time I played ele in wvw is like 12 years ago [hello soldier equipment ^^] and nowadays I play ele only in festivals like dragon bash)

Yes SC/f usually. Sometimes I jump on double daggers, but then I switch off one with air to zephyr's boon, which almost plays like cheap willbender

since I have one with air on my build I use deadeye relic (10% damage increase after using cantrip skill [which are 4 out of 5 skills usually]) 

[apharma.3741]

2 hours ago, urd.8306 said:

To be honest I can't tell. I never liked the mirage gameplay and so I ignored that spec and rather try Chrono stuff than Mirage.

But I'm pretty happy how Power Virtuosa works.

I've played both and I'd say it depends.
Power mirage has a lot more cleave with split surge and outside of shatters, also beams are not reflected. It's also a bit more mobile for running away.
Power virtuoso is very good if you're with a few people to spike someone out as the shatter is more reliable and ofc unblockable because you would never run without that trait.

The main drawback with mirage, chrono and core is that against anything that vomits AoE damage the clones can often die as they spawn or die before exploding on the enemy. Make no mistake, damage is crazy high now and these things only have 2.4k health and the same toughness as you.

As for what I play, I tend to play a variety, Power mirage, virtuoso, marauder scrapper, the obscenely broken WB and on occaison DE when I just want to be (more of) an a**hole. I play other classes but not always power and not really longer than to get a feel for them.