Identifying Builds In PvP

Introduction

In PvP it's very important to understand what you're up against, or who your teammates are. Indetifying the builds of your teammates in the pre-game phase is perhaps even more important, as your team's build choices could impact yours.

For instance if you're playing a support but the team already has one then it'd be wise for one of you to change builds, but if the other person is not so communicative or none of you understand that the other is playing support then you're in for an awkward match.

This is true for your enemies as well - knowing exactly what you're up against before they even pick a fight with you is an advantage. While getting 100-0'd by a shatter Mesmer in 1 second is a sure-fire way to find out that they're running a power-based burst build, perhaps a quick glance at their signets would've been smarter (and less painful). In this guide you'll learn what to pay attention to and how to read the signs.

Elementalist

Eles are on the weaker side when it comes to their core builds, most Elementalists you encounter are going to be on an elite spec. Seeing a core ele is already a sign that you're about to witness something unorthodox.

Core:

• Condition - click on them, check for signets. If they have Signet of Earth and a couple of other signets then they are playing a condi bunker spec with good sustain but low to medium damage and poor mobility. Suitable for smaller fights such as 1v1s.

• Fresh Air - Scepter, no signets, not even for the healing slot. High mobility, decent CC, big burst damage but very squishy. Plays as a roamer, wants to +1 fights and finish targets in seconds. Ranged casters.

• Core support - Staff or a Dagger/Focus set (and no signets). Inspect their weapons if they are on your team. Staff is the only core Ele weapon they carry on their backs so that one is the easiest part to spot.

Tempest:

• Support - Tempest is the go-to support spec of Elementalists in PvP, at least 9 out of 10 are going to be playing support so even from the elite spec icon you can make an educated guess. These tend to be Dagger/Focus builds. They can share auras, boons, do lots of healing and offer AoE cleansing for the team. Depending on their build they could be weak to either power or condition damage. If they are in Earth Attunement and you see a Stone Heart icon on the buff bar that means they run the Earth build which has lower cleansing but better defense against power damage.

• Power sidenoder - check out their buff bar and weapons. Signet of Restoration is a major giveaway that they're not actually support, as supports would run "Wash the Pain Away!" for group healing. If there's also a Signet of Air then it's probably some sidenode 1v1 power spec.

• Condition spec - same as core, if they run any condition signets like Signet of Earth then you're looking at a condi spec. These could be 1v1ers or hybrids that still offer some support during teamfights.

• Other - despite being their elite spec weapon, Warhorn is not popular on Tempest, at least in PvP. The only builds that run this tend to be Air magic builds, power or hybrid like the D/Wh Shocking Aura spec. This offhand is the only way of knowing outside combat.

Weaver:

• Condi sidenode spec - Sword, Signet of Restoration on their buff bar. This is the most common Weaver build. Fire Weavers will be looking for 1v1s and other smaller skirmishes. Good sustain, medium damage, uses Primordial Stance to burst.

• Fresh Air - Scepter/Focus, usually no signet in the heal slot as they play Glyph of Elemental Harmony. Freshweaver has excellent ranged burst damage, very high combat mobility, good CC. Rather poor sustain, especially against conditions. Fresh Air buff's often active on their bar, easy to tell in combat. Roams the map, seeks to +1 fights.

• Lightning Rod - Dagger/Focus, this is a melee focused CC-machine centered around the trait Lightning Rod. Much more likely to have a Signet of Restoration + Signet of Air combo than S/F Fresh Air. LR builds are easy to spot in combat as you'll see frequent lightning strikes whenever they CC someone, which also applies Weakness to the target. For them the best defense is a good offense, they don't have much sustain but their CC and Weakness spam keeps their enemies at bay. Stability is very useful to have against them.

Engineer

Core/all:

• Power - check their buff bar for Explosive Entrance, this means they are running Explosives. Usually a sign of a squishy but high damage power build.

Scrapper:

• Power - if they have Explosive Entrance expect a low sustain high damage build with either Grenade Kit or heavy point-blank AoE from gyros.

• Bunker - if the Explosive Entrance buff is missing there's a chance they are playing a bunker build. Be careful in melee especially when contesting a point as they're still able to do high damage by overlapping various AoE skills such as Acid Bomb and Thunderclap.

Holosmith:

• Power - expect Holosmiths to run high damage, low sustain builds. Condi and bunker holo are dead. They'll roam the map and attempt to +1 fights but better ones could also take some 1v1s. They're generally weak to conditions, but the Tools variant fares better against them. You can spot a Tools holo from their frequent but short duration Vigor procs.

Mechanist:

• Condition - check their buffs for Superconducting Signet. These are midrange jack-of-all-trades, master of none specs. Can perform a variety of roles, their damage depends a lot on their Mech and the Superconducting Signet. Low sustain, high mobility, decent damage in medium range to close range.

• Power - once again, keep an eye out for Explosive Entrance. Low sustain, high mobility, moderate ranged damage.

• Bunker - if none of the above mentioned signs are present, assume it's a bunker build. Low damage, medium sustain, sits on node and either stalls or tries to win over time. Destroying their Mech reduces their sustain and takes away their killpotential.

Mesmer

One word: signets. Most Mesmer builds run at least a signet or two, with some taking as many as 5. Which ones and when? That's what you need to learn to be able to tell their builds from a simple glance at their buff bar. While we can make some guesses even from a single signet, usually it's the combination of them that gives it away.

Core:

• Condition duelist - Signet of the Ether + Signet of Illusions + Signet of Midnight is the cornerstone of many sidenode Mes builds, often with Signet of Humility as the elite. On rare occasions there might even be a 5th one - Signet of Inspiration when it's a bunker build with heavy focus on boons. The most popular core build here is the Inspiration Condi bunker build.

• Power shatter - these run fewer signets or sometimes none at all. While they can make use of both Signet of Illusions and Signet of Midnight as utilities, most of the time they can't make room for both as Blink + a mantra will take priority, leaving only 1 slot. If you see both of those signets together that's almost certainly a condi build.

If you get to inspect them the weapons could make it obvious, with power builds running Greatsword with Sword and condi taking Staff with Scepter.

Chronomancer:

• Condition bunker - these run wells which means no signets (or 1 signet at most). Chronobunkers are very durable with low damage and a bit of group support.

• Power shatter - look for Signet of the Ether and Signet of Illusions. Shatter Chronos are extremely dangerous but equally squishy, capable of ending fights in an instant if they go unchecked.

Mirage:

• Despite being one of the weaker elites in PvP, Mirage has outstanding build variety due to its design. We can use the same rules that'd apply to a core Mes - 4 or more signets equals bunker/1v1 spec, but telling which one's power and which one's condi just from their signets might be difficult.

• A lone Signet of Illusions usually signals a burst build with low sustain that's meant to roam the map and +1 fights, but Mirage has both condi and power burst builds.

Virtuoso:

• Condi - now this one gets a bit tricky. Virtuoso has inherent synergy with Signet of the Ether so most of their builds tend to pick up Inspiration and a bunch of signets. Both condi sidenoders and power burst builds could go for as many as 3-4 signets.

• Power - slightly more likely to opt for 1 utility signet instead of 2.

Necromancer

It's hard to determine a Necromancer's build out of combat but they have plenty of unique combat related buffs to help us identify them at the start of a fight.

Core/All:

• Signet spec - Signet of Vampirism + Signet of Undeath combo makes this easy to identify. Despite running Spite these are relatively high sustain specs as far as Necro builds go with above average healing and Life Force management. Not very popular outside WvW but it's worth remembering. Usually they sacrifice some of their teamfight potential to be able to 1v1 better.

• Blood Magic spec - in combat look for a Vampiric Presence icon among their buffs. These Necromancers use Blood Magic to boost their sustain and might have Ritual of Life which makes them better at reviving allies. Every attack they do also does a bit of extra armor ignoring damage.

• Death Magic spec - check for Carapace stacks, same icon as the Armored Shroud trait. DM is another sustain focused specialization, they gain extra defenses against every type of damage.

• Minion Master - this is the only build that'd play any minions other than Summon Flesh Wurm. Even if they don't have any minions out when you spot them in a fight, they run both Blood and Death Magic which you can identify using the methods discussed above. Despite 2 defensive lines MM Necros can do quite a lot of damage and perform any role from 1v1s to teamfighting. Killing their minions significantly lowers both their sustain and their damage but the minions explode when killed and leave behind an AoE field, so watch out for that if you're in melee.

• Regular condition build - no signets, no minion army. Still relatively tanky because of Blood Magic and shroud, this is a teamfight build with lots of condition damage and boon removal. Terrormancers use Fear chains to burst targets as their Fear deals damage every second, so Stability and stunbreaks are important to have.

Reaper:

Guardian

In sPvP Guardian is a profession of extremes. Either a great support that's hard to kill but has no damage, or a complete glasscannon with high burst. Sometimes their elite spec already tells the whole story.

Core:

• Support - only supports would run Signet of Mercy so that's all you need to look for if you need to decide if they are one. This is true across all Guardian specs.

• Power - no signet, 1 twohanded weapon (Hammer or GS, never both on the same build). Low sustain, high burst. Watch out for Mighty Blow on Hammer and Whirling Wrath on GS. They love bursting from a distance by teleporting in during these two skills using Judge's Intervention.

Dragonhunter:

• Almost all of them run the Power Trapper build. Very squishy but plenty of active defenses, they even have Stealth access. DH is a major threat to other low sustain specs but doesn't fare too well against bunkers. Dangerous in both melee and ranged combat.

Firebrand:

• Returning player from 2017, please be patient.

Willbender

• They only have one build, highly mobile melee spec with lots of damage.

Ranger

Core/All:

• Power with Marksmanship - click on them and look for the Opening Strike buff, it's a passive that comes with Marksmanship. They tend to have low sustain but very powerful bursts, especially on single hit attacks like Maul on Greatsword as Marksmanship is great at stacking up modifiers to make their next hit stronger.

• Condition - it's easy to spot a condi Ranger from their pets, at least one of the two is likely going to be a bird ( Eagle or Raven). Condi rangers tend to be durable 1v1ers who might be capable of doing some rather strong burst combos. They often have access to stealth and lots of Immobilize which they use to set up kills.

Warrior

Berserker:

• Power - if they have Signet of Might and Signet of Fury they're playing an extremely high burst damage spec with 0 sustain. Top priority target if they are on the enemy team, try to peel for them if they're on yours.

• Condition - with no signets assume they are running a 1v1 condition build.

Spellbreaker:

• Support - click on them and look for the Marching Orders buff. This means they are running Tactics, any other build would run Defense or Strength. Usually have a Warhorn offhand too. Expect lots of AoE healing, barriers, some cleansing and an AoE rez.

• Condition - look for a lone Signet of Rage. Power would play Rampage, support would take Banner. Condi Spellbreakers are extremely tanky duelists with medium damage and low mobility.

• Power - if you see an empty buffbar, they are power. Could be duelist or teamfighter.

Bladesworn:

• Power - the only Bladesworn build in PvP right now is a power damage one with shouts. Can be fairly durable but they're very susceptible to CC chains and their kit offers a level of support for their team, both healing and cleansing. Medium damage with unblockable bursts that they have to charge up standing still.