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 July 09, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 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 Bar Variants

Weapons

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

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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
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Greatsword
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Dagger
Marauder

Shield
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Pack - it's like Reaper but a bit less tanky in exchange for offering higher boon duration.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar - higher damage.

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

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Vision - could replace either one of the Greatsword sigils for guaranteed crit on your opening burst each time you swap to GS. Has a bit of anti-synergy with Relic of the Daredevil however.

Relics

• Relic of Isgarren - higher burst potential.

Consumables

Food options

• - passive damage mitigation and great stats.

• - 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:

Utility

• or .

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 (Rampage), 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 the only stun break in the build, and one that comes with AoE condition removal. This skill has 2 charges: if you're under heavy condition pressure and the aforementioned 2 traits aren't enough, you're free to use one of the charges.

• 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.