Returning player - Class Advice (PVE Solo/Raids/Fractals - Nice to have: Decent at wvw roaming)

[Spie.5024]

Hi Everyone,

After a break from Guild Wars 2, I've returned and unlocked all but two PoF and HoT elite specs (Scourge work in progress and Weaver which doesn't seem to be my thing).Having unlocked my Skyscale and now looking to diversify the stuff I do in GW2, I want to work on other PVE stuff than just open world.For this I'm now at a point where I have to decide what class to build/invest my first set of Agony Resisted trinkets / armor on.(If it helps, so far I have already in ascended full berserker trinkets, full viper trinkets, some sinister trinkets and full diviner trinkets as well as one full medium ascended armor from before i quit)

I've looked at multiple posts and search history and it seems for this kind of goal, people usually recommend Guardian because it's somewhat easy to start out on and it's relatively cheap to gear a dragonhunter.While some people may not like this, I also enjoy taking on challenges in the open world by myself / solo.This often also involves fighting champions or maybe bounties (I'm not good enough like lord hizen to solo legendary bounties though cough cough).

In open world solo, I feel like there are a couple of things that I look for in terms of quality of life in builds:

1. A decent ranged weapon because sometimes it's just nice to have a ranged weapon and it's also nice to be able to kite in case i'm fighting a champion that hits really hard for example. I know Guardians can block for example but I generally prefer kiting. To touch briefly on why Guardian doesn't fit this for me is that Guardians always fight in their symbols so kiting stuff is super punishing when you have no way of keeping them in your symbols other than just making sure you time blocks and running in circles around them.
2. Some boon uptime (Permanent Fury and Might at the very least, and nice to have for champions are sustain and some form of protection)
3. I used to include enough CC to break champions or a condi build that can wittle them down but nowadays united waystation can offer ways to break bars solo I guess.

TL;DR Open World: Class with ability to put out 'reasonable' damage solo (with easy access to buffs) and the ability to play ranged without completely gimping your dps (I'm aware melee always does more damage though)

For Raids/Fractals:

1. Versatility: I don't have a preference for DPS or Support as I enjoy doing either. I do however enjoy the idea of having the versatility to have both a condi and a power dps build if it's ONLY dps (and no support build)
2. Pug Friendly: Be relatively decent for pugging as I don't have a guild static that does fractals so I have to pug my way up for now and thus at some point in the tiers, it will become difficult if people think my class is kind of garbage in fractals (I know this is often perception and can be avoided by a static but for my first class I'd like to be safer if that's possible)
3. I believe Mesmer and Weaver might be too complex to pick up and learn mechanics on as they are some of the more complex rotations I guess. This is however just a hunch on my end and I don't require the class to be completely braindead.

Lastly in general, I always loved stuff with low cooldowns or classes with some situational gameplay (adapt your rotation or your skills to what's going on at that moment or what the fight requires - I know this is probably the case for more than one class but I can imagine some dps specs don't care and just go for max dps in raids/fractals all the time).In that regard I enjoy versatility to think about what I need to deal with that situation (reflect, cc, heals, ...) as opposed to just going with the: Here are all my skills, hopefully you died before I die :cold_sweat:

Classes I didn't enjoy so far include:

1. Warrior - Find it a bit boring to play and the ranged weapons seem abysmal at best.
2. Guardian - Great versatility, condi firebrand is fun with the tome reset but i don't enjoy how the ranged weapons feel as sceptre still feels like playing melee with the dance around the symbol (auto also isn't worth using most of the time)
3. Elementalist (I mostly feel like a very squishy class with fixed rotations and the attunement swapping feels a lot like having to plan ahead rather than being able to react by something and the cooldowns on it to switch in and out of them made me not enjoy it so much).

Edit: goal is to play the same class in the different pve circumstances for now but I’m open to getting multiple armor sets and want to start grinding for legendary armor and weapons as well :)

Hopefully I provided some useful information to help me out on some recommendations to look into :)

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards and enjoy Guild Wars 2!

[Astyrah.4015]

@Spie.5024 said:Hi Everyone,In open world solo, I feel like there are a couple of things that I look for in terms of quality of life in builds:

1. A decent ranged weapon because sometimes it's just nice to have a ranged weapon and it's also nice to be able to kite in case i'm fighting a champion that hits really hard for example. I know Guardians can block for example but I generally prefer kiting. To touch briefly on why Guardian doesn't fit this for me is that Guardians always fight in their symbols so kiting stuff is super punishing when you have no way of keeping them in your symbols other than just making sure you time blocks and running in circles around them.
2. Some boon uptime (Permanent Fury and Might at the very least, and nice to have for champions are sustain and some form of protection)
3. I used to include enough CC to break champions or a condi build that can wittle them down but nowadays united waystation can offer ways to break bars solo I guess.

TL;DR Open World: Class with ability to put out 'reasonable' damage solo (with easy access to buffs) and the ability to play ranged without completely gimping your dps (I'm aware melee always does more damage though)

deadeye rifle, ranged, self sustaining 25 might and fury, good life steal (invigorating precision), decent CC (via basilisk venom and kneeling rifle 2) -- for kiting you take silent scope instead of premeditation so you can dj-spam while on the move with stealth on dodge -- play it right and you're basically immortal.

as for damage it can do about 17k average dps when kneeling and doing dj spam on full berserker gear + food with no other buffs other than the 25might and fury you generate yourself -- with full group buffs you can do as much as snow crow's raid build for rifle deadeye if you build it that way.

For Raids/Fractals:

1. Versatility: I don't have a preference for DPS or Support as I enjoy doing either. I do however enjoy the idea of having the versatility to have both a condi and a power dps build if it's ONLY dps (and no support build)
2. Pug Friendly: Be relatively decent for pugging as I don't have a guild static that does fractals so I have to pug my way up for now and thus at some point in the tiers, it will become difficult if people think my class is kind of garbage in fractals (I know this is often perception and can be avoided by a static but for my first class I'd like to be safer if that's possible)
3. I believe Mesmer and Weaver might be too complex to pick up and learn mechanics on as they are some of the more complex rotations I guess. This is however just a hunch on my end and I don't require the class to be completely braindead.

Lastly in general, I always loved stuff with low cooldowns or classes with some situational gameplay (adapt your rotation or your skills to what's going on at that moment or what the fight requires - I know this is probably the case for more than one class but I can imagine some dps specs don't care and just go for max dps in raids/fractals all the time).In that regard I enjoy versatility to think about what I need to deal with that situation (reflect, cc, heals, ...) as opposed to just going with the: Here are all my skills, hopefully you died before I die :cold_sweat:

for instanced content, i know you said you didnt enjoy it but, a good choice is guardian (Dragonhunter or Firebrand) with both specs very much welcomed in t4 pugs or raids. guardian has power dps, condi dps, support, healer builds.

a second choice would be ranger with soulbeast being pretty good for fractals and druid or soulbeast which is widely accepted in raids as healer or dps respectively. power soulbeast has a meta build that includes longbow use as part of the burst so you have a longrange option as well if you can't melee. ranger has both condi and power dps builds (with soulbeast) and a healer build (druid)

[Spie.5024]

@Astyrah.4015 said:

@Spie.5024 said:Hi Everyone,In open world solo, I feel like there are a couple of things that I look for in terms of quality of life in builds:

1. A decent ranged weapon because sometimes it's just nice to have a ranged weapon and it's also nice to be able to kite in case i'm fighting a champion that hits really hard for example. I know Guardians can block for example but I generally prefer kiting. To touch briefly on why Guardian doesn't fit this for me is that Guardians always fight in their symbols so kiting stuff is super punishing when you have no way of keeping them in your symbols other than just making sure you time blocks and running in circles around them.
2. Some boon uptime (Permanent Fury and Might at the very least, and nice to have for champions are sustain and some form of protection)
3. I used to include enough CC to break champions or a condi build that can wittle them down but nowadays united waystation can offer ways to break bars solo I guess.

TL;DR Open World: Class with ability to put out 'reasonable' damage solo (with easy access to buffs) and the ability to play ranged without completely gimping your dps (I'm aware melee always does more damage though)

deadeye rifle, ranged, self sustaining 25 might and fury, good life steal (invigorating precision), decent CC (via basilisk venom and kneeling rifle 2) -- for kiting you take silent scope instead of premeditation so you can dj-spam while on the move with stealth on dodge

For Raids/Fractals:

1. Versatility: I don't have a preference for DPS or Support as I enjoy doing either. I do however enjoy the idea of having the versatility to have both a condi and a power dps build if it's ONLY dps (and no support build)
2. Pug Friendly: Be relatively decent for pugging as I don't have a guild static that does fractals so I have to pug my way up for now and thus at some point in the tiers, it will become difficult if people think my class is kind of garbage in fractals (I know this is often perception and can be avoided by a static but for my first class I'd like to be safer if that's possible)
3. I believe Mesmer and Weaver might be too complex to pick up and learn mechanics on as they are some of the more complex rotations I guess. This is however just a hunch on my end and I don't require the class to be completely braindead.

Lastly in general, I always loved stuff with low cooldowns or classes with some situational gameplay (adapt your rotation or your skills to what's going on at that moment or what the fight requires - I know this is probably the case for more than one class but I can imagine some dps specs don't care and just go for max dps in raids/fractals all the time).In that regard I enjoy versatility to think about what I need to deal with that situation (reflect, cc, heals, ...) as opposed to just going with the: Here are all my skills, hopefully you died before I die :cold_sweat:

for instanced content, i know you said you didnt enjoy it but, a good choice is guardian (Dragonhunter or Firebrand) with both specs very much welcomed in t4 pugs or raids. a second choice would be ranger with soulbeast being pretty good for fractals and druid or soulbeast which is widely accepted in raids as healer or dps respectively

Thanks for the clear explanation.Hmm ideally I’d like to play the same class in group and solo open world (ok to do different builds and armor sets obviously).So guardian is really not my cup of tea.Is there a way to efficiently build the ranger for solo play as based on your clarification it seems the second most versatile besides guardian?

[Astyrah.4015]

@"Spie.5024" said:Is there a way to efficiently build the ranger for solo play as based on your clarification it seems the second most versatile besides guardian?

if by solo you mean open world and metas + events, the longbow raid build would work in the openworld you may need to swap some marauder pcs in for a bit of tanky-ness for solo-ing champs or just be in berserkers and rely on others to hopefully tank for you =). if you prefer condiDPS you can swap a few trailblazer pcs in there for open world if you want to be able to solo champs and such

[Astyrah.4015]

wait for other opinions though, im pretty sure i heard revenant is another good profession for solo play and it's use as alacrigade (in fractals and raids) is very much meta but i don't play that class so i can't comment on it.

[dubs.2396]

To be Lord Hizen just put trailblazer, tormenting runes, and choose the trait parasitic contagion on your scourge. Boom you can solo all the legendary bounties.

Even though I love my scourge for the above, if you are pugging... Better off picking something more meta for pugs as you mentioned The class the fits all your criteria though is revenant.

Open world: Shortbow offers ranged. You can play a power variant with battle scars that does insane self healing for soloing bounties. You could also play it as trailblazer for a condi solo variant. Both can be as tanky as the scourge listed above. Also, if you want boons.. herald is swimming in them.

PVE Fractals: Playing it with diviners to provide alac is basically a must have in every single fractal group. By far one of the easiest roles to pug on. Just check the LFG at any given time. There will be T4/CM groups asking for it. Also, it's super easy to learn to play it at a decent level. Hard to master. But, you can provide great alac uptime and CC with little practice.

PVE Raids: Power alac above is only 10 man source for raids. Due to the strength of chrono and the need for slow uptime, condi rev is very much sought after in the meta. Condi rev does competitive damage. The shiro variant is relatively easy to learn. With 2 condi revs that swap one trait (righteous rebel or RR as seen in LFG) a squad can have permanent slowuptime and alac. Less common but still strong is heal alac. On fights that you need to swap off condi rev you can play power herald. Not insanely high on the benchmarks but provides completely sufficient DPS for pug raids (25k+). Also can fill niche roles like handkiting on Deimos.

WvW: Condi Herald is easily one of the strongest roaming builds for 1v1 and does really well into outnumbered fights. Quite tanky, good boon strip, great self healing, good cc, good boon uptime, destroys camps. Easy to play. Hard to master.

I have legendary armor on my revenant and use every template.

1: Power Herald2: Divined Ren (alac)

3. Harrier Ren (heals)
4. WvW Condi Herald
5. Open World (Power Ren or Condi to keep it fresh)
6. Viper Ren (condi dps or RR)

TLDR: Rev fits all your criteria and is desired in every content in the game in the current meta. OP if you are interested in builds or how to use the above, just DM me or message in game.

[ASP.8093]

How do you feel about Revenant?

It's a pretty polarizing class because you don't get to pick your individual utility skills, but it's also a really strong class with a good variety of builds. Hammer is a slow long-range (1200) weapon with good Power AOE burst. Picking Renegade gives you access to Shortbow, which is a mid-range (900) hybrid-damage weapon with a nasty condition burst and pretty quick cooldowns.

Alacrigade (Diviner stats) is a pretty standard support build in Raids and Fractals. The go-to support build for PvE, providing group Alacrity, a bunch of CC for breakbars, and incidental abilities as needed. Pretty much always in demand.

Hybrid (Viper + Nightmare runes) Renegade is a very strong damage-dealer PvE, you get great DPS against big targets and melt weak stuff fast enough that the emphasis on condition damage isn't much of a problem. (Pretty good personal Might, which you get great value out of because you're making use of both the Power and Condition Damage parts of it, perma-Fury and an extra +33% crit chance on top of that.)

A set of tanky Condi gear (Trailblazer + Tormenting runes) allows you to play your Herald or Renegade as a really durable bruiser in PvE or WvW. You've got a great combination of condition burst and pressure, strong CC, and massive personal sustain. I've soloed a bunch of HoT champions with this pretty easily. People rage about these builds on the WvW forums because they can be incredibly hard to kill. (Herald has better sustain thanks to Infuse Light, Renegade lets you use Shortbow as a ranged weapon.)

Hammer Herald (Marauder/Berserker + Scholar or Strength runes) is a mainstay in WvW zerging because you drop big AOE bursts on groups. (Pretty good personal and group Might, Fury and Swiftness on demand, you can easily build for 100% crit chance.)

You can play a bursty glass-cannon Power Herald or Renegade for WvW roaming as well.

---

Alternatively, on the other end of the spectrum…

If you really just want to go wild with ranged DPS, Deadeye might be a good fit. The typical Rifle build has a simple DPS rotation, good personal Might generation, 95%+ crit chance, and you will routinely see absolutely massive damage numbers in your combat log. Solo thieves in PvE also have surprisingly high sustain if you play with Invigorating Precision (you're healing like 20% of all damage you put out! just don't get one-shot or CCed to death and you're golden, basically). AOE damage is tolerable, too, if you take Shortbow as your second weapon and abuse M7 to spam Cluster Bomb.

Daredevil also has a decent Fractal/Raid build with the Staff. I find that it feels kinda weak solo but it's strong and easy to play if you're getting tons of Might and Quickness from your friends.

Both Daredevil and Deadeye are very strong in WvW roaming as well. Rifle is strong (though a bit more one-note than in PvE), Dagger/Pistol and Sword/Dagger are both hard-hitting and versatile weapon sets, and Shortbow packs a ton of utility.

I play Deadeye as my main character for PvE exploration, story, and achievements, and WvW roaming, and I really, really like it. (I tend to run Healbrand instead in PvE group content, or Revenant builds in group WvW.)

I'm not the greatest player in the world, but I went on a boss-soloing binge for achievements recently (trying to get a bunch of emotes and skins), and one thing that happened a several times was that another player would drop out of the sky, start waling on the boss, and then die 15 seconds later when their full-DPS build just couldn't take the pressure while I just kept on chugging along on my full-DPS build with one stunbreak on my skill bar and a single trait for healing.

[Spie.5024]

Thank you everyone, I think the revenant sounds pretty much up my alley! The fact that utilities are pre picked or tied to a legend I’m not too bothered by as I can switch legends as well to suit certain situations.The condi trailblazer variant does indeed seem perfect to take on champions in open world.

Mostly checking if there is a good way to build it for power dps (solo or in a group) because playing condi in core tyria for my map completion is going to be a bit rough I guess with structures not taking condi damage.

[PepperMint.8509]

@Spie.5024 said:Mostly checking if there is a good way to build it for power dps (solo or in a group) because playing condi in core tyria for my map completion is going to be a bit rough I guess with structures not taking condi damage.

You can play both power herald and ren. For herald, just go sword/sword with shiro+glint. Herald offers perma might, fury and swiftness which are really good for open world. For ren, you can go sword/sword and shortbow with shiro + kalla. Shortbow + impossible odd is op in killing trash mobs. You move fast. You kill fast from range.