Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone!

First, before I try to explain the chart listed below I should probably say since I came to GW2 from SWTOR, I have had a VERY difficult time trying to find the “one” class I will play. In every MMO I’ve played, my friends would joke with me how I never would really set much time aside for an alt. That being said, I have leveled several 80’s now and have been testing them based upon my own criteria. The chart will list the results of this research which compares a few of my favorite classes and various builds. Now, before we go any further, you should know the following about this chart and what was done to get these results…

6 Months – The results of this report are based upon 6 months of events on “general” conditions. All characters were given exotic armor/weapons and ascended everything else. Results were tracked on each encounter so that an overall “average” could be taken. There ARE extremes in each where one class would greatly excel but I really wanted to find a middle area that one could expect in “most” cases. The breakdown was not done below “DPS” or “Condi” as I rolled most of those builds into those two areas. The weapon sets listed are those I used most of the time though several other combinations were also tested. Yes, I did some really strange builds for a while!
Objective – The goal I had when I first started doing this was to find “my” class/build. While I’m still not sure I’ve done that it does at least give me an idea of what direction I should focus on. While I do list several areas that data was tracked, my personal concerns are dueling, 1vx, and escaping. Even though other classes listed better overall, my personal selection would be the thief. /sigh…

WvW Results Only – I made no real effort to balance these findings with PvE or PvP. While I did spend time in each, I don’t feel that I have yet to get enough information to make a report. My PvP level is only 38 so…
Results are Opinion – That’s right. I don’t claim and scientific research on anything you’ll see here. Everything in these findings is based upon my own experiences. Those that made the list are the classes/builds I found to be most fun to play. While I did play Rangers, Guards, and Necro’s as well as several other builds of the classes listed, I did not enjoy them enough to keep them going for this report.

Skill Requirements – This is very subjective but I put in an “average” score on how difficult it is to master each class/build combination. While I am NOT a master at anything other than perhaps sleeping, I do think I have a good idea as to the skill level needed. Skill level was subtracted from the total score.

Anyways, the results (overall highest score) are as follows (check the chart for the complete breakdown):

1 Warrior – Conditions, S/W + LB. This class/build scored the best in most cases. While it’s not my personal favorite, the class/build does provide a great deal in several areas making it a good, solid choice to pick. I’ll warn you though, it can get pretty boring at times but winning is also nice…

2 D/D Ele – Celestial Build. I would not have thought this when I first started by the celestial D/D Ele is amazing in so many ways. Yes, it takes some time to build up some good memory on those combo’s but it’s very rewarding. There is something just amazing about using burning speed to rip through a zerg followed by a few CC’s. Look at all those bags!!!

3 D/D Ele – Condition/Perplexity. Ok, there are some strong feelings about these runes so I won’t even go into that topic here. I’ll just say that this class/build was a HUGE surprise on how much fun it could be. 3K+ armor, 1700 condition damage, and a crap load of heals? Yeah, it’s nasty. Seriously, don’t laugh until you give it a try. You’d be surprise on how many people fall for this…

4 Thieves – While the P/D condition thief came in at a close 4th, all the thief builds were about equal in their effectiveness. They are probably the best in dueling and can escape from just about anything! The one area they lack (from my opinion) is their ability to support a zerg. Either case, they are a ton of fun to play even if 50% of everything you’ll see in WvW is a thief…

Anyways, check out the report to see the full details!

First, let me say I am impressed that you spent the time and dedication towards making your data. It is likely to have taken a lot of work, and yes although you did mention much of it is subjective and catered towards what you believe, it can’t necessarily be dismissed.

Now, to further myself and everyone else’s understanding of your findings, I must ask the following questions since you did spend quite a lot of time with your study. Some is for clarification and could help us reach a better understanding of what you provided:

- What are the specific builds for the fields listed? It might be more informative if we had a rational understanding of traits, skills and other such things aside from just a brief simplification of whether a build was power or condi, and what weapons were used.

- What was the criteria for each field? Does Zerg combat mean huge blobs or anything above a 10v10?

Just a couple of details would help us understand where you come from.

Also really curious about what you came up with for S,H/LB for warrior. :P

The only thing is, the data is irrelevant. I am not suggesting this to take anything away from your effort FinalPatriot. but simply based on the fact that skill level and play style combined with varying trait choices will very easily cause extremely different results and experiences from one player to the next.

Interesting stuff. As Celestial D/D ele is going to be my next alt, good to know they are fun

Question, how does a sword/warhorn warrior have better mobility then a GS/Hammer?

What are those number based on?
Example:
I tried few matches using celestial ele in PvP and it was strong.
But the moment you put a foot in WWW you start noticing how extremely different the 2 game modes are.
Full celestial DD in WWW totally lacks damage despite the food buff.

Mesmer can run away with any build almost as well as thief and beats any ele in dueling without much effort at the same skill level.

Thief is one of the easiest class to use in WWW even more than warrior… (that is the reason you can kill some thieves in WWW), while people agree is somehow more skill intensive in PvP.

And many other inconsistencies.

The issue in considering after only 6 months (and not even focusing a profession) the results of www fights, is that its extremely hard to understand the skill level of your opponent to get reliable data.

I’ll only speak about mesmer:
- Our builds are not differentiated by general key words, like DPS, stealth… That doesn’t say anything about how the build is. We have our own vocabulary: Shatter, condi PU, power PU, lockdown, phantasm…
- It’d be interesting if you had tested the most popular and successful mesmer builds. Condi PU with Staff-Scepter/Torch, Hybrid PU with Sword/Torch-Scepter/Pistol, or the typical shatter with Sword/Torch-GS.

The rest, If this helps to you to chose the best build, then good for you.

Well, I think parts of the data are telling.
It does show that certain builds are just easier to master. Warrior being exceptionally simplistic to do exceptionally well.
On the other hand, I suspect that part of your not picking certain classes is going to come from the familiarity of the playstyle.

+1 this post,

althought, i dont see a S/D / SB high evade teef, a Worker Warrior ( shout healing S/W Hammer, CC ) or any necro stuffs

I would love to see you do a rating system on how well classes balance group synergy with the metrics you’ve posted

I also dont really agree with some of your ratings for the viability of some of these types in zerging, but that’s another matter. (unless 5 is the worst score in your rating system)

Hamster.4861:

+1 this post,

althought, i dont see a S/D / SB high evade teef, a Worker Warrior ( shout healing S/W Hammer, CC ) or any necro stuffs

I would love to see you do a rating system on how well classes balance group synergy with the metrics you’ve posted

I also dont really agree with some of your ratings for the viability of some of these types in zerging, but that’s another matter. (unless 5 is the worst score in your rating system)

Hmm… all i see is COLOURS …

Ok, because ya’ll made some interesting questions, I’ll see if I can answer them w/o causing even more questions in return…

THE BUILDS What I tried to do was take some of the more popular builds for each class and break them down into DPS and Conditions. From there, I used these builds in solo roaming, small groups, roaming blobs, and then point defense. Some of them just excelled in one situation more than others. Lemme get my list of the builds tested and then I’ll post them here later this evening. There were a few hybrid builds tested with the Warrior and the Mesmer which I can post as well. They didn’t really stand out enough to note them here but both were great for roaming or with small groups. They pretty much were below average in everything else.

S/W Mobility for Warriors It may not make much sense initially as to why I rated this higher in mobility than GS/Hammer or a similar build. Where the details came down was that a Warrior that uses the warhorn traits gives you a really strong reduction in the CD of that weapon. As such, you pretty much have constant swiftness. Combined with sword #2 and it’s speed, leap, speed… From point to point on a map, the combination of the sword/warhorn ended up be quicker than anything else. Warhorn #5 also was a nasty trick to use on folks trying to stop you.

Mesmer For the Mesmer I tested several variations of the shatter builds (FUN!) along with condition (perplexity) and the ever hated PU builds. I also tested one sword/torch + GS hybrid build that used mostly power gear with a few condi items. It was a bit strange but very strong in roaming. Overall, the shatter builds were a blast to play but like unto the D/D thief, there wasn’t too much room for mistakes. As for PU builds, I still think they are the king of dueling as you really get the ability to control the fight and wait for the target to make a mistake. Of all the PU based builds, my personal favorite was the S/T + GS. Yes, I didn’t much care for the staff even though it’s an amazing weapon. GS just has some amazing animation…

Sword Thieves In only tested sword thieves for about a month and got bored with it. Because of that, I didn’t think I should rate them..

Rating System As an example, the ratings for dueling were based upon the class/build I was playing and then notes on every duel I had. I made sure to duel just about everything under the sun so that way the specific results of each battle would begin to show a general average. The problem though was in some cases it was very much a case of rock, paper, scissors. What I did though was mark down the exact build of the target and then 1, try to counter/survive, and then 2, try to kill them as fast as possible. The idea was to see just how many ways each class was able to use some sort of skill to avoid damage or to just take down the other player. Obviously, some skills were not uses because, well, they just suck.

Celestial D/D Ele I’ll post this build later but it’s not a clear “celestial” build. It does mix and match other armor items/weapons but overall, celestial is the base. With this build, I found it key to match-time the burning speed with lightning flash. A programmable mouse really helps!