Spellbreaker - Magebane Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage, Control and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on February 26, 2025 and is up to date for the March 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

A highly mobile power WvW Spellbreaker roaming build with a nice mix of CC, damage and sustain.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Dagger/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Off-hand Sword over Shield - more damage in exchange for less CC and a worse block (but on lower CD).

• Staff over Dagger/Shield - this is a better defensive set, but much lower pressure.

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Guard Counter
  could make the build more tanky, but losing the Immobilize makes it harder to burst targets.

Specialization Variants

Strength over Defense also works. This is seen as less viable, but skilled players can make it work and it offers higher damage:

Variants

• Take
  Might Makes Right
  if you want to have a bit more sustain.

Equipment

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Demolisher

Ring
Demolisher

Ring
Demolisher

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Berserker

Shield
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Stats

• Replace the Dragon pieces with Marauder if you're NOT playing with a Precision rune, or if you're willing to trade some burst potential for higher consistency.

Runes

• Superior Rune of the Reaper
  - mix of defense and offense.

• Superior Rune of the Scholar
  - higher burst potential, lower crit chance.

• Superior Rune of the Brawler
  - better sustain without sacrificing much damage.

Relics

• Relic of Isgarren
  - passive damage boost that's easy to maintain.

• Relic of the Daredevil
  - better consistency on important skills, but overall lower burst potential.

Consumables

Food options

• Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak
  - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

• Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
  - a very strong defensive option which improves your endurance regen and adds a bit more damage. Even has synergy with dodge related traits.
  • Budget version:
    Bowl of Meat and Winter Vegetable Stew

Utility

• Superior Sharpening Stone
  or
  Tin of Fruitcake
  .

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Full Counter
  (FC) recharges your Burst skills
  Arcing Slice
  and
  Breaching Strike
  . Always try to use it when you can refresh their duration, except if you're under heavy pressure in which case you can use FC purely for defensive means.

• Always try to make sure Full Counter goes off: briefly move into hostile AoE spells, tank Mesmer clones or Ranger pets, etc.

• FC is both the best defensive and offensive skill in the build as it blocks, evades, grants Stability and performs an unblockable AoE damage/CC attack when triggered.

• Both burst skills and Full Counter cost adrenaline. If you only need a little more till you can use them then
  Versatile Rage
  can get you there.

General

• Settings: disable auto targeting, otherwise it'd be impossible to use skills like
  Rush
  for disengaging.

• Playstyle: this build is all about weaving hard hitting skills into chains of block and evade frames while tethering yourself to the target with
  Magebane Tether
  as often as possible. The combos aren't set in stone, rather you'll need to adapt based on what CDs are available. Minimize melee contact, dodge/block/evade as many things as possible, and spike targets when an opening shows.
  • Any burst skill can proc
    Magebane Tether
    , including
    Full Counter
    .
  • The goal is to maintain the tether as long as possible for the damage boost and
    Might Makes Right
    synergy.
  • Whirlwind Attack
    ,
    Arcing Slice
    , and
    Breaching Strike
    are your main damaging skills, everything else is basically a filler or something that's used to set up burst / survive enemy burst.
• Fast Hands
  reduces the CD of weapon swapping to 5 seconds, which keeps gameplay rather fast paced with minimal downtime. As a result you won't be auto attacking much unless you're cleaving a downed enemy.

• CCing a target removes a boon and deals damage/grants adrenaline via
  Loss Aversion
  .

• Thanks to
  No Escape
  whenever you Daze or Stun a target you also Immobilize them. This is especially useful with
  Full Counter
  which dazes targets and then recharges your burst skills, perfectly setting up your followup.

• All movement skills remove the Immobilized condition - list of movement skills in the build:
  • Greatsword:
    Whirlwind Attack
    and
    Rush
    . These two skills also provide excellent mobility both in and out of combat.
  • Dagger/Shield:
    Aura Slicer
    ,
    Shield Bash
    , and the burst skill
    Breaching Strike
    . The Dagger skills are also excellent gap closers.
  • Rampage:
    Kick
    ,
    Dash
    , and
    Seismic Leap
    .
  • Utility:
    Bull's Charge

Conditon cleansing & general survival

• Brawler's Recovery
  and
  Warrior's Sprint
  will be used to manage condition levels before resorting to mass cleanses.

• "Shake It Off!"
  (SIO) is both a stunbreak and a great source of instant cleansing.

• Kite, a LOT. You want to run out of harm's way using mobility skills as much as possible before resorting to major defensive CDs.

• Your best defense is a good offense - landing burst skills cleanses conditions and heals you over time via
  Adrenal Health
  and
  Cleansing Ire
  .
  • Full Counter
    counts for these too.

• Bull's Charge
  is great if you want to run away from pressure as it can build quite the gap while providing an evade frame.

Rampage

• Rampage
  is what you use when you quickly want to burst/CC a target, or desperately need mobility to either chase down someone, or run away from a fight. Bonus points if you manage to attach
  Magebane Tether
  just before using your elite.

• CC skills barely do any damage anymore, most of the damage in this form comes from autoattacks and
  Dash
  .

• Throw Boulder
  is a popular opener, allowing you to CC targets from range and then either follow up with
  Dash
  for burst damage or
  Seismic Leap
  to keep the CC chain rolling.

Related Builds

Strength Dagger (sPvP) - the Conquest PvP version of this WvW Spellbreaker Roaming build.