February 2023

Fresh Air Catalyst

Fresh Air Catalyst is a highly mobile dps roamer that provides excellent boon support to the team.  Catalyst is hard carried by Fresh Air in the Air traitline. Fresh Air not only buffs damage but allows you to constantly swap into Air Attunement to refresh the buff, generate near-permanent Superspeed, and drop your Deploy Jade Sphere off cooldown. Tip: Air Attunement lacks native combo finishers, but you can swap to Air Attunement during the cast of skills like Phoenix to get a Shocking Aura from a combo field. Your ‘Hard CC’ comes from Gale and Comet . Gale is especially good in mirrors against other Catalysts since it is unblockable and ignores Fortified Earth and Final Shielding . Keep in mind that all your CC skills can be reset to extend lockdowns. This is especially useful with double Gale to secure kills in…

Side Chrono

Side chrono is currently one of the simpliest and yet most powerful duelist. Using high boon uptime and conditions to slowly but surely kill your opponent. It excels against power builds but really struggles into conditions. This build relies on a very slow playstyle, rotating defensives. As a chronomancer most of your defensive also have an offensive effect. Most of your cooldowns must be used as often as possible but in the right way! On staff you will want to auto attack as much as possible and keep clones up to autoattack with you to pressure your opponent. Make sure to try to keep some distance as doing so, you do not want to directly trade damage with melee classes. Use Chaos Storm inside ofContinuum Shift to gain extra Phase Retreat. Try to be in melee range forPhase Retreat as…

Tactics Warrior

Tactics warrior is a core duelist build similar to Bladesworn  that takes advantage of shouts and Rune of the Soldier for self-sustain and team utility. Core warrior is not currently meta, but can hold many 1v1 matchups and be effective as a side-noder if played properly. This build is very simple to understand and execute, making it ideal for new players without access to expansions. Tactics Warrior does good damage by buffing itself with 25 might and unique modifiers like peak performance. Some of your hardest hitting abilities are your burst skills, Eviscerate and Arcing Slice , and Throw Axe which can randomly hit up to 8k. You can Might cap yourself easily with "For Great Justice!" and Forceful Greatsword , make sure to do so for large crits on your burst skills. Your basic combos all revolve around Bull's…

Terrormancer

Core terrormancer is a tanky alternative to other dps necromancer builds. Terrormancer offers great team utility and damage along with an enormous 31k HP pool from Carrion Amulet and a second health bar from Death Shroud . Fear is a special condition that makes opponents flee away from you, and this build is built around spamming it as much as possible. Terrormancer relies on chaining Fear and combining it with Terror to deal high damage while keeping opponents cc locked. Terrormancer also has high amounts of Torment and Bleeding and decent passive power damage. As a condition necromancer, one of your most powerful tools is access to boon corruption.  Feast of Corruption  and Weakening Shroud  all convert opponents’ boons into conditions and are powerful passive damage in teamfights. Save boon corrupts and strips to remove important boons like Stability or…

Sidenode Virtuoso

Virtuoso is a sidenoder heavily based on projectiles. It is an excellent matchup into condition-based builds and offers good utility and damage in team fights. As mesmer it has access to a potentially game-breaking elite: Signet of Humility. Virtuoso doesn’t have clones, instead, it stores up to 5 blades. Every core Mesmer skill that would usually give you a clone now gives you a blade, you also have access to Psychic Riposte, which is your main way to build up blades. Blocking not only stocks up 3 blades but gives you Quickness via Duelist's Reversal, which creates very interesting counterplays. Your main sources of damage are your Shatters (Bladesongs) Bladesong Sorrow and Bladesong Harmony, which you’ll want to use with a high amount of Blades to deal as much damage as possible. When you can’t use Bladesongs, cycle through your…

Healbreaker

Healbreaker is a variation of support warrior that combines instantcast healing from Vigorous Shouts with the utility of the Spellbreaker profession. Healbreaker is overshadowed by Heal Tempest and Support Guardian in the current meta, but it provides unique advantages and buffs that can make it situationally useful. Your main source of healing comes from Vigorous Shouts , which is an instant heal on each shout use. Healbreaker has access to four shouts – "For Great Justice!" , "On My Mark!" , and "Shake It Off!" are all instant cast, while "To the Limit!" has a cast time. Most of your value is going to come from using shouts for their AOE support to keep your team healthy over longer teamfights, but you can also take advantage of your shouts being instant cast to quickly re-sustain allies by combining skills like Call…

Curses Harbinger

Curses Harbinger is a powerful teamfight build centered around boon corruption and massive conditions damage and coverage. Harbinger fills a damage role in a team and pairs well with a support guard or tempest as it can be vulnerable to getting focused. The majority of your damage comes from Dark Barrage and your auto attack Tainted Bolts  in Harbinger shroud. Always make sure you are auto attacking in shroud to get maximum value from your quickness uptime and the damage output. Having high Blight can improve your skills. Devouring Cut will cost you 5 blight for 5 Torment and extra damage. Same for Voracious Arc but for a cost of 10 Blight. Elixir of Ambition is a press to win button, it gives you every boon of the game and applies every condi to each enemy you hit. You want…

Power Willbender

Power Virtues Willbender is a high-mobility roamer that excels at skirmishing through offensive support in form of Absolute Resolve and Indomitable Courage, outnumbering and sticking to targets given its high mobility via Judge's Intervention and Advancing Strike amongst others, while providing powerful area pressure when contesting the capture point or cleaving a downed enemy through the likes of Whirling Wrath, Whirling Light, Symbol of Resolution and Symbol of Blades. Therefore, taking advantage of your mobility and burst damage is mandatory to get maximum value from the build. If you want to maximize your burst for survivability, you can also swap your Marauder Amulet for Berserker Amulet. Atypically compared to other PvP roamers, Willbender heavily relies on modifiers to reach its full damage potential. Willbender’s important sources of damage amplification are Resolution (activating Retribution and Righteous Instincts), Aegis (activating Unscathed Contender), and…

Fire Weaver

This bruiser build offers a good balance of sustain vs damage. Gameplay of fire weaver revolves around fire traitline which offers some sustain from condition cleanse and good damage increase through burning applications and extra power stat. Every time you get a Fire Aura you cleanse conditions on yourself. This applies to any source of Fire Aura, like Fire Shield or attuning to Fire Attunement. Your healing mainly comes from using blast finishers in your water field from Riptide and dodging in Water Attunement or Earth Attunement thanks to Evasive Arcana (dodging in Water Attunement will also cleanse a condition). There are many different ways to blast your water field but the main way is to: Start in Water Attunement/Earth Attunement Riptide Magnetic Wave Swap to Earth Attunement Earthen Vortex You can also use a leap out of a Water…

Power Renegade

Very good roamer build with good mobility, strong damage output, and good self-sustain. It’s not the easiest build to play, but when mastered, can be difficult to counter. Energy management is a very important aspect of Renegade gameplay, as lack of energy usually results in death or retreat. Good energy management will mostly come through practice. Energy management is slightly different on renegade because of Charged Mists meaning you want to get below 10 energy before swapping legend. Most of your burst damage comes from Sevenshot (+Impossible Odds if possible). You want to hit it as often as possible. To reliably land Sevenshot use it with CC: Scorchrazor Forced Engagement Jade Winds but be careful when using this as it cost a high amount of energy A good amount of pressure you produce will come from Shattershot auto-attack, the rest…

Power Reaper

Reaper is the teamfighter with the highest damage potential, relying on Chilled to always be in range to hit its abilities. The idea of this build is to use Reaper's Shroud to get kills. Therefore, you will first have to build up life force. You want to stay outside of fights until you have enough life-force. Start every fight on staff. Chillblains should be used first so hitting every other mark is either, then Reaper's Mark right before swapping to axe to make sure to hit Spinal Shivers and Ghastly Claws. Keep in mind that Dread gives you Quickness when you apply Fear. That means Spectral Ring and Reaper's Mark can be used to speed up your combos out of shroud. Tip: Spectral Walk isn’t just a stunbreak… reactivate it if you’re being chased to teleport to your original location.…

Side Mirage

Side Mirage is a duelist build based on Confusion to burst your opponents. Side mirage is a duelist build. It has decent impact in a teamfight however it has much more value on a sidenode. Most of your damage comes from Confusion under the form of a burst, as well as your staff clones casting Winds of Chaos. Below is the perfect burst, a few abilities can be skipped but Cry of Frustration is mandatory: Phantasmal Warlock precast Chaos Vortex (use the following skills at the end of the cast) Jaunt Mirror Images Cry of Frustration Chaos Armor Note that you can also use Magic Bullet to ensure you hit all of your burst. Between bursts you can use every other cooldown to survive and slightly pressure the enemy. Illusionary Counter should be used as soon as you can as…

Interrupt Mirage

Interrupt Mirage offers high condition damage and good disruption through interrupts, despite being a roamer, it can also sidenode if needed. What makes this build unique is Power Block, which puts enemy skills on a higher cooldown and apply Weakness when you interrupt a skill. Knowing important skills to interrupt like a heal or elite can easily secure a kill and win a teamfight, so knowing the animations of important abilities like Lich Form or Glyph of Renewal is vital. Mirage gains access to Ambush Skills, transforming your auto-attack into a different skill for a short while after each dodge. On this build, you will have access to Mirage Thrust on Sword, which will be used primarily for mobility, and Imaginary Axes while on Axe, used mainly for damage. Use your Dodge carefully. Dodging for damage on Axe is a bad…

Core Ranger

Core ranger is and for a very long time has been a good 1v1 build with decent team fight pressure and good survivability when outnumbered. Your main damage comes from your pet and Maul, but generally, you would want to keep your distance while using Ricochet and Winter's Bite until you have an opportunity to swap to a greatsword. When you are able to get closer to perform your damage combo from greatsword, you should use Maul followed by Hilt Bash (preferably from behind as it will stun rather than daze) and use Maul again. The main combos you can use with this build are Smokescale’s Smoke Cloud and Swoop for Stealth. Instead of Swoop you can also swap pets to use Lesser Call of the Wild through Clarion Bond. It can allow you to either get a good Maul…

Grenade Holosmith

Build offers great damage and high mobility in form of Superspeed you get from Crystal Configuration: Zephyr by spamming Holo Leap when moving around. Try to stay between 100-150 heat, in order to maintain Might stacks allowing for higher damage output and more Regeneration when leaving holo forge. Your main sources of damage are Engage Photon Forge and Grenade Kit, primarily Grenade Barrage and Shrapnel Grenade, the latter is generally used in combination with Magnetic Shield -> Magnetic Inversion into Radiant Arc and Shrapnel Grenade. The rest of the skills in Grenade Kit should be used as such: Grenade is a filler, used to continue pressuring your opponents while keeping distance Flash Grenade used as more of an entrance and exit skill, you would use it as you enter grenade kit as well as when you exit the kit for melee range…

Trapper Dragonhunter

Mobile, very bursty build with access to Stealth. For experienced players, this build can be very easy to counter with simple spatial awareness, blocks, dodges, or evades. But in lower ranks, it can wreak havoc. This build gets value from its really high range damage from the longbow. You can (and should) amplify your damage by using Spear of Justice, as long as your target is tethered, they will take a lot of extra damage. You want to use it before any other damage spell but be careful not to miss it. Superspeed from Rune of the Trapper will be your main mobility tool, that mobility paired with Stealth from it can be used both offensively and defensively, be careful though, as every trap deals damage when an enemy walks in it so you will get revealed. From your longbow skill,…