PvP Builds with only Prophecies Skills?

I'm new to the game, I only have prophecies, and I'm not very confident in my ability to create builds myself just yet. How should I go about getting a solid bar that I can learn the basics of PvP with, when all the common builds around now require all 3 chapters?

Some background: I do a lot of RA, and I've gotten on some good teams, which is nice - in a solid group, after a few matches together I know when I mess up, what I can do better. But when I'm on a losing streak, in a different team every match, it's hard for me to figure out what went wrong. Sometimes it's obvious, but often, I just come away from losses confused - unsure whether my build gimped me or if I or my team just sucked that game.

Is my build really that important in RA? Or should I just experiment with what I have access to and focus on playing the skills I have well?

Backing up, should I just play with the prebuilt templates you start with as a PvP character? Perhaps my assumption that they weren't that good has been incorrect all along?

For the record I do have a Shock Warrior and an RC Bonder I've been playing with, but most of the other 'prophecies only' builds I could find on guildwiki were PvE focused.

Any thoughts on where I should go from here? Thanks in advance!

A shock warrior is an excellent starter PvP build. However, the shock warrior is really set up and meant to be used in a true team build (like a GvG or HA) where you will have monk support and a full, organized team. In RA, it is slightly less useful, simpley because it is a presure build (meant to do damage over time) and you have to rely on your teammates also doing damage and staying alive to really kill. Since that's not often the case in RA....

Those templetes used to be terrible. Luckily, they added new ones (that became the current ones) at the start of factions, and all the templetes now are at least deccent, though some like the Air of Enchantment smiter have been nerfed by skill updates.

A couple basic tactics to keep in mind in RA.
1) always carry a res sig and use it IMMIDIATELY.
2) Have good equipment. Make sure to equip runes and insignas properly. +energy radiant insignas are usually the way to go.
3) Bring builds that can counter anything. Now no build in GW can counter everything perfectly, but be concious of your choices. Assume that you won't have a monk on your team. Bring some way to counter hexes/conditions.
4) Be aware of who your opponents are. You can generally spot the bad players pretty quickly in RA. Focus on taking on the good ones who are the clear threat (the ZB monk, the interupt ranger, the RaO ranger/warrior thumper) first. Leave the warrior/ranger who is using a bow alone. :-) He won't be a threat and can be taken down quickly once the fight is over. Learning who is a threat and who isn't takes time and pratice.
5) Kite. If you are a caster and a warrior, dervish, or sin come up to you and start hitting you, move away (this is called kiting). Backing up and moving around while casting will decrease the damage melee enemies do to you, since they have to catch up to you in order to swing away. The more time they are running around harmlessly, the better.

This is the link to guildwiki.org's Tested PvP build list page http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Category:RA_builds . Check out the builds for RA and see if any meet your requirements. If you see any you like, make sure to print the page out, as the Build section is being removed on May 1st.

If a listed build uses any skills from another campaign, look for a Prophecies skill that gives the same type of effect and try it out.

Basically, for RA warrior, you need a snare skill to slow opponent down, speed up skill to chase someone who's kiting and DPS boosts. As Hawk said, bring a rez signet and, try to leave room for hex/condition removal.

Play around with your attributes until you are getting the results you want from your skills.

A warrior has a low energy pool and only 2 pips of eng regen, so add as much energy as you can through your armor and weapon set, and avoid anything that lowers your regen.

Thanks for the replies so far, some great tips here.

If anyone else has anything they might be able to add, I'm always looking for things to think about!

A necro curse hex build with [skill]Offering of Blood[/skill] should work fairly well. It would work better with Reaper's Mark and Reckless Haste, but I guess it'd be OK. Something with [skill]Faintheartedness[/skill][skill]Suffering[/skill][skill]Parasitic Bond[/skill][skill]Shadow of Fear[/skill][skill]Insidious Parasite[/skill][skill]Price of Failure[/skill][skill]Spirit of Failure[/skill]
A mantra of recovery/esurge domination bar uses only prophecies skills afaik. example:
[skill]Mantra of Recovery[/skill][skill]Diversion[/skill][skill]Shatter Enchantment[/skill][skill]Energy Burn[/skill][skill]Shame[/skill][skill]Power Drain[/skill]. MoR can be exchanged for [skill]Energy Surge[/skill]
The aforementioned shock axe
Or a Hammer Warrior. Try this bar:
[skill]Devastating Hammer[/skill][skill]Crushing Blow[/skill][skill]Mighty Blow[/skill][skill]Power Attack[/skill][skill]Frenzy[/skill][skill]Rush[/skill][skill]Healing Signet[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Devastating Hammer can be exchanged for [skill]Earth Shaker[/skill] or [skill]Backbreaker[/skill], though I wouldn't really recommend Backbreaker without [skill]Enraging Charge[/skill]. Power Attack can be exchanged for [skill]Hammer Bash[/skill] or [skill]Shock[/skill] if you want a second knockdown. (I'd recommend Hammer Bash because exhaustion HURTS on a hammer warrior)
You could make a decent sword warrior with [skill]Sever Artery[/skill][skill]Gash[/skill][skill]Final Thrust[/skill][skill]Frenzy[/skill][skill]Sprint[/skill][skill]Healing Signet[/skill][pretty much free elite slot][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
You could take anything in your elite slot. I'd recommend [skill]Hundred Blades[/skill]. It's not a good skill (horrible actually), but a warrior should stay offensive and HB is the only sword elite you can take. You can take [skill]Conjure Lightning[/skill] (or Flame or Frost) instead of Healing Signet for even more offense, though it kinda makes you depend on a monk on your team for survivability. You may not want that in RA. It's very fun to steamroll over people with 60 dmg autoattacks though.
I'm pretty sure you can make a ranger with [skill]Apply Poison[/skill][skill]Distracting Shot[/skill][skill]Savage Shot[/skill][skill]Crippling Shot[/skill]. No Mending Touch and Natural Stride will hurt though. (but those are four great skills)
Monking is pretty much impossible without Nightfall. The only viable Prophecies monk build, the Boon Prot, got nerfed a long time ago.
An air elementalist should work:
[skill]Air Attunement[/skill][skill]Elemental Attunement[/skill][skill]Blinding Flash[/skill][skill]Lightning Orb[/skill][skill]Blinding Flash[/skill][skill]Aura of Restoration[/skill][skill]Windborne Speed[/skill]
You can fit in [skill]Mind Shock[/skill] for Elemental Attunement if you fit in [skill]Glyph of Lesser Energy[/skill] for Windborne, or you can take [skill]Ether Prodigy[/skill] and [skill]Heal Party[/skill]. Not sure about that though. I think HP would be pretty crap in RA.

I think I covered all professions now. All I have left to say is GL HF and PM me if you have any questions.

Monks, Thomas. (Or I didn't read the thread where he said "no monks")

because a proph only monk blows in the current PvP meta. so many factions and nightfall skills outshine the proph only skills.

I know that. SoD maybe?

Wow, Thomas, thank you for all the info - that post alone will keep me busy for a quite a while!

Like I said, I have an RC Bonder build that I got off GuildWiki that uses all prophecies skills, but I still haven't figured out how exactly to make it work... mostly I just wind up dying, so I think it's probably me just being bad at kiting.

I'll start trying these out right away. I'm sure by the time I've exhausted what you've given me here, and variants of these bars, and anything I can find on Guild Wiki or GWshack or whatnot, I'll be ready to pick up Nightfall/Factions and start learning some more professions.

Thanks again, this is great!

Well, I wanted to give you a monk build, but the only one I could think of that doesn't use Gift of Health that would be able to keep you alive a bit was the boon prot, and that got nerfed to hell and beyond. Soul Wedding sort of 'revived' the boon prot lately, but that was full of factions/nightfall skills. (Scribe's Insight, Gift of Health, Remedy Signet/Signet of Malice)

The RC Boon bonder is one I hadn't thought of though. I used to get glad points in RA with that.


Basically, you just need to see what are good skills. The problem kind of is that Arenanet introduced a lot of skills that would have been considered overpowered back in the prophecies days (Zealous Benediction, Mending Touch, Dismiss Condition, Divert Hexes, I could give you a lot more and that was just monks), and now that kind of is the standard. That means with a prophecies only build you'll have a below-standard build most of the time. I tried to give you builds that kind of work around that 'increased standard'. It's a brilliant marketing strategy by Anet, because you're basically forced to buy all their products if you want to stay remotely competitive, but it hurts anyone who's not willing to spend $150 on a video game.
About that sword warrior, that was kind of popular after factions came out. People would run elites like [skill]Consume Soul[/skill] or [skill]Expel Hexes[/skill]. I think your best bet would be to run [skill]Bull's Charge[/skill] (why didn't I think of that?) or [skill]Battle Rage[/skill].

Again, GL HF and I'll see you in RA.