Wvw roaming

[Snorkar.9048]

I roam as power catalyst but it's like i can't find a weapon, i'm mostly going with spear when in groups but when i'm alone it like i can't find my playstyle

[fuzzyp.6295]

If you're looking for ranged power build for roaming, your only real option is to pick up a Fresh Air Scepter build.  Here is a super basic FA build you can use as a template: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAs2lFwcZesM2LWUXexPA-DWJYzRDfZ0WC0bBo2AA-w (edit: Firework Relics is the basic FA relic.)

Keep in mind FA has a higher than normal learning curve so it will be hard to play at first, but if you like ranged power spear you should be used to dealing with range pressure on a glassy build.

There are better options if you want to swap in more sustainy armor for weapons like Dagger, Sword or Hammer. You can check websites like metabattle to get a good idea of what the builds look like then tweak them as you get more experience with the class. (https://metabattle.com/wiki/Elementalist#www-roaming)

Edited September 1 by fuzzyp.6295

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I run sword/dagger weaver myself, but a strong case can be made for sword/focus for all the projectile management.  My worst matchup is harbinger, after all.  

[Bleikopf.2491]

Traits inform Weapons and Weapons inform Traits. 

If you cannot find a weapon for yourself, maybe take a look at the traits. I like Lightning Rod, so I play Dagger/Focus Weaver.  Catalyst profits from Combos and Auras, so D/D might fit for you. 

Alternatively, embrace the Ele mindset and become a master of all weapons and switch based on your needs lol. 

[RaveOnYou.2819]

i see some advices which gives me big laugh, lr dagger/focus weaver and sword/dagger power weaver lol. you will die in 2 sec almost all meta specs with these builds, even if you win matchup somehow, your opponent will easily run away from you. so dont listen everyone. your best choice is scepter fresh air builds either weaver or catalyst. however even those are not meta anymore.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

8 hours ago, RaveOnYou.2819 said:

i see some advices which gives me big laugh, lr dagger/focus weaver and sword/dagger power weaver lol. you will die in 2 sec almost all meta specs with these builds, even if you win matchup somehow, your opponent will easily run away from you. so dont listen everyone. your best choice is scepter fresh air builds either weaver or catalyst. however even those are not meta anymore.

Well, if you wanted argue over this, you could've just responded to us instead of giving us each a confused emoji.  

That all said, I've tried using most weapons in WvW.  There's good reasons why I don't use scepter, and why I use sword/dagger.  I just didn't want to go into them, but you're leaving us with no choice.  The biggest problem with scepter is that it offers nothing to prevent other professions from just chasing you down and clobbering you.  It has almost no control.  Harbingers will just match your range, willbenders will run you down no matter what mobility skills you use clobber you with little counter-pressure, warriors will leap then CC you to death, rangers will immobilize spam to lock you down and out-range you, engineers can pick either option, etc. and so on.  There's a few gimmicky one-shot builds in WvW, but I've found them quite inconsistent considering they peak at 900 range.  At that distance, enemies are already attacking you, or they're locking you down with CC.

The reason I use sword is because of the counter-pressure.  It has its own movement skills in fire and air, and it has evades in water/earth, making for a nice toolbox.  But sword hits hard, hits in an AoE, and when combined with other options that the professions have it can lay down some serious hurt.  I use weaver for things like Lava Skin, Twin Strike, but special mention goes to Pyro Vortex.  I've used Vortex to win 1v3 matches, because it upscales and does immense damage on its own.  The advantages that sword gives, alongside of weaver's barrier generation, lets me go toe to toe against those dreaded willbenders in WvW, and I frequently outright kill them. 

Coming to the offhands, the tossup between dagger and focus is really about offense and defense.  I chose dagger, because it offers great CC, area control, and more damage.  Earthquake and Updraft are excellent CC skills, Ride the Lightning is an excellent mobility skill, ring of fire provides more area control while also putting down convenient blast fields, and Churning Earth/Fire Grab are great for damage.  Water having access to Cleansing Wave and Frost Armor isn't too shabby, either.  All of that CC also acts as counter-pressure, and in group fights I'll chain them together to "capture" an enemy while my allies pummel him.  I bring up focus, though, because the greatest weakness of the off-dagger is that it has no projectile management.  That can be a big deal while roaming, since Harbingers are still everywhere.  Focus has Swirling Winds and Magnetic Wave to stop projectiles, as well as Obsidian Flesh for the rare invuln skill.  However, this comes at the cost of having no good skills in fire, no mobility, less area control, and no additional damage.  

[Zephyrus.9680]

IMO pure power cata is only for staff or spear in WvW. For everything else, Cata is more melee oriented because of the combo fields, which also makes dagger a better offhand than focus (for cata). If you definitely don't want any cele stats then I'd recommend scepter weaver (dagger or focus offhand) because ele in melee is too fragile for full power. 

Ele has the lowest base HP and armor so any melee weapon needs at least some defense (cele) to not be instantly melted. Hammer or pistol probably want full cele. Otherwise you can still mix marauder/dragon pieces if you really want. With cele/mix in mind, almost every weapon can work for cata roaming. I've seen good cata players with sword, hammer, and pistol but those are rare. Dagger and scepter are more common. 

My personal preference is Dagger/Dagger. High mobility, cleanse, sustain, cc, but mid-damage. If you're interested in that you can check the roaming videos on my linked channel.

Edited September 3 by Zephyrus.9680

[RaveOnYou.2819]

10 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Well, if you wanted argue over this, you could've just responded to us instead of giving us each a confused emoji.  

That all said, I've tried using most weapons in WvW.  There's good reasons why I don't use scepter, and why I use sword/dagger.  I just didn't want to go into them, but you're leaving us with no choice.  The biggest problem with scepter is that it offers nothing to prevent other professions from just chasing you down and clobbering you.  It has almost no control.  Harbingers will just match your range, willbenders will run you down no matter what mobility skills you use clobber you with little counter-pressure, warriors will leap then CC you to death, rangers will immobilize spam to lock you down and out-range you, engineers can pick either option, etc. and so on.  There's a few gimmicky one-shot builds in WvW, but I've found them quite inconsistent considering they peak at 900 range.  At that distance, enemies are already attacking you, or they're locking you down with CC.

The reason I use sword is because of the counter-pressure.  It has its own movement skills in fire and air, and it has evades in water/earth, making for a nice toolbox.  But sword hits hard, hits in an AoE, and when combined with other options that the professions have it can lay down some serious hurt.  I use weaver for things like Lava Skin, Twin Strike, but special mention goes to Pyro Vortex.  I've used Vortex to win 1v3 matches, because it upscales and does immense damage on its own.  The advantages that sword gives, alongside of weaver's barrier generation, lets me go toe to toe against those dreaded willbenders in WvW, and I frequently outright kill them. 

Coming to the offhands, the tossup between dagger and focus is really about offense and defense.  I chose dagger, because it offers great CC, area control, and more damage.  Earthquake and Updraft are excellent CC skills, Ride the Lightning is an excellent mobility skill, ring of fire provides more area control while also putting down convenient blast fields, and Churning Earth/Fire Grab are great for damage.  Water having access to Cleansing Wave and Frost Armor isn't too shabby, either.  All of that CC also acts as counter-pressure, and in group fights I'll chain them together to "capture" an enemy while my allies pummel him.  I bring up focus, though, because the greatest weakness of the off-dagger is that it has no projectile management.  That can be a big deal while roaming, since Harbingers are still everywhere.  Focus has Swirling Winds and Magnetic Wave to stop projectiles, as well as Obsidian Flesh for the rare invuln skill.  However, this comes at the cost of having no good skills in fire, no mobility, less area control, and no additional damage.  

the problem with sword, it can be easily kited, animations are too long and telegraphed at least for fire leap, lightning leap provides no damage. you can evade with earth and water 2 but what next than, you need to put always pressure on target if you want to win with sword. it can work against opponents who accept clash even in that case celestial is better since most of the damage comes from sword is simply condis if you also use dagger offhand.

[igmolicious.5986]

11 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Well, if you wanted argue over this, you could've just responded to us instead of giving us each a confused emoji.  

That all said, I've tried using most weapons in WvW.  There's good reasons why I don't use scepter, and why I use sword/dagger.  I just didn't want to go into them, but you're leaving us with no choice.  The biggest problem with scepter is that it offers nothing to prevent other professions from just chasing you down and clobbering you.  It has almost no control.  Harbingers will just match your range, willbenders will run you down no matter what mobility skills you use clobber you with little counter-pressure, warriors will leap then CC you to death, rangers will immobilize spam to lock you down and out-range you, engineers can pick either option, etc. and so on.  There's a few gimmicky one-shot builds in WvW, but I've found them quite inconsistent considering they peak at 900 range.  At that distance, enemies are already attacking you, or they're locking you down with CC.

The reason I use sword is because of the counter-pressure.  It has its own movement skills in fire and air, and it has evades in water/earth, making for a nice toolbox.  But sword hits hard, hits in an AoE, and when combined with other options that the professions have it can lay down some serious hurt.  I use weaver for things like Lava Skin, Twin Strike, but special mention goes to Pyro Vortex.  I've used Vortex to win 1v3 matches, because it upscales and does immense damage on its own.  The advantages that sword gives, alongside of weaver's barrier generation, lets me go toe to toe against those dreaded willbenders in WvW, and I frequently outright kill them. 

Coming to the offhands, the tossup between dagger and focus is really about offense and defense.  I chose dagger, because it offers great CC, area control, and more damage.  Earthquake and Updraft are excellent CC skills, Ride the Lightning is an excellent mobility skill, ring of fire provides more area control while also putting down convenient blast fields, and Churning Earth/Fire Grab are great for damage.  Water having access to Cleansing Wave and Frost Armor isn't too shabby, either.  All of that CC also acts as counter-pressure, and in group fights I'll chain them together to "capture" an enemy while my allies pummel him.  I bring up focus, though, because the greatest weakness of the off-dagger is that it has no projectile management.  That can be a big deal while roaming, since Harbingers are still everywhere.  Focus has Swirling Winds and Magnetic Wave to stop projectiles, as well as Obsidian Flesh for the rare invuln skill.  However, this comes at the cost of having no good skills in fire, no mobility, less area control, and no additional damage.  

Dagger/dagger may be slightly better if you're concerned with mobility, but sceptre/dagger + lightning flash and/or mist form is usually good enough to escape most fights. Sceptre has rock barrier in earth, which gives 4s of resistance, aoe blind from blinding flash in air, and aoe chill from shatterstone in water, while dagger offhand has access to insta-cast frost aura in water (to slow anyone attacking you via chill), an excellent dash with ride the lightning in air (detarget before using to run away from enemies), as well as an evade/knock with updraft in air (even better if you turn and cast so you flip away from pursuer). Running a build with access to swiftness OR blasting lightning fields (if running catalyst or tempest, you have access to these through air sphere and overload) and relic of speed also gives you near superspeed run speed. Sceptre also has the MASSIVE benefit of range, which means you can keep pressure on opponents while running away without having to be close enough that they can hit you.

[Rocker.2906]

Not really power but as others have said, D/D cata with cele stats can be quite good for roaming and taking 1v1's. In group play I guess Spear is fine or you could tryout aurashare tempest...

[Velkix.6825]

Any power ele is a free bag for experienced players. The only choice for ele as a roamer is cele. Scepter is the best choice in general, and dagger is more power based.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

I play "power" dagger/dagger weaver, and I don't have that many issues. On contrary dagger/dagger with unravel has many tools : projectile block, 2 frost auras, shocking aura, a lot of dashs, cleanse/heal, CC ...
But yeah, therer's a trick : all accessories are Celestial. Sadly it is quite "mandatory" for so many reasons : so low durations on weakness and vulnerability, on fury, prot, etc, low base healing, and obviously low armor and HP. 

But melee weaver is my "main" since Pof, when it was OP AF at the time; I had years to learn and optimise; I'm not sure I would recommand it now.

[Exzen.2976]

5 hours ago, Velkix.6825 said:

Any power ele is a free bag for experienced players. The only choice for ele as a roamer is cele. Scepter is the best choice in general, and dagger is more power based.

That's not true. Power ele is most definitely not a free bag in the right hands. Granted it is hard to play well and other classes/specs are better and easier, but you can still be effective on power ele.

Edited September 4 by Exzen.2976

[Velkix.6825]

8 hours ago, Exzen.2976 said:

That's not true. Power ele is most definitely not a free bag in the right hands. Granted it is hard to play well and other classes/specs are better and easier, but you can still be effective on power ele.

One simple question, do you think you can survive when engaged with a skilled thief?

[scerevisiae.1972]

just run one of these builds TBH: https://guildjen.com/gw2-wvw-builds/

also watch exzen's vids for FA weaver gameplay if you go with that, though it is definitely a high skill floor & cap build.

[Santo.2419]

7 hours ago, Velkix.6825 said:

One simple question, do you think you can survive when engaged with a skilled thief?

Actually, I’ll actively hunt that stealth spamming thief as a FA s/f weaver. Any time they show their face I’m putting them through a storm of immediate damage and stuns. I’ll give that they get away a lot, coz well, that mobility if they are good. But I can ruin their good time.

I’ll often see them griefing people and having a mob of people trying to catch them, then when I ruin their fun they become obsessed coming back again and again, lol

[Exzen.2976]

13 hours ago, Velkix.6825 said:

One simple question, do you think you can survive when engaged with a skilled thief?

Yes. I regularly do and kill them. 

[Nimrod.9240]

No love for core ele, huh. I cant be the only one roaming on core surely?

[Dapinchi.7920]

3 hours ago, Nimrod.9240 said:

No love for core ele, huh. I cant be the only one roaming on core surely?

Just because we love ele does not mean we're actual masochists.

[Codename T.2847]

13 hours ago, Nimrod.9240 said:

No love for core ele, huh. I cant be the only one roaming on core surely?

I used to : D