Guild Wars 2

Which Profession is best suited for DE farming when there is a mass zerg (i.e. which is best for AoE spamming)?

You really shouldn’t choose your profession based solely on farming DEs, it should be based on what class you find the most fun. However, in my experience the best classes with strong, instant AoE attacks are Warrior, Guardian and Elementalist.

Also ranger with the trait that allows them to place traps where they want.

Everyone has AoE of some type. It really doesn’t take much to farm these events, so there’s not much limitation on profession for that. Just bring the right weapons for the job.

Ridley.3691:

You really shouldn’t choose your profession based solely on farming DEs, it should be based on what class you find the most fun. However, in my experience the best classes with strong, instant AoE attacks are Warrior, Guardian and Elementalist.

Unless ANet plans on making all classes equally viable for DE farming, I’m going to need a toon for farming.

I’ll give warrior a shot – thanks.

Just don’t make a Mesmer and you should be fine.

I think Mesmer and Necro are the only two that might have problems, now that I think of it. Necro DoT AoE might take too long to give credit.

Ridley.3691:

Just don’t make a Mesmer and you should be fine.

Yeah, a little late (like 80 levels or so late) for that. Hence why I was asking about a DE farming toon.

As a mesmer, I’ve found SW+Focus with a 20/20/0/0/30 shatter spam build to be the most effective build for mesmers in DE’s, though it pales compared to what I see other professions do.

10235218 thread about that. Really, use kittening search button.

…and warrior wielding ballista is best to tag.

Well, consider that most of the farming bots are Rangers. Probably a pretty good clue there.

Elementalists seem to have the fastest tab target AOEs, hence takes the least effort.

Rangers require more fussy targeting and problematic pet behavior.
Melee classes (warrior, guardian etc.) – not – Longbow AOE is too slow, mobs are dead long before the animation completes.

Other melee AOEs requires your toon to move on top of the mobs, much slower than tab targeting.

The Elementalist is the mean around which the entire game has been designed.

It is the hardest class to mess up.

Seriously, roll one, run a few hearts in the human starter zone, you will see what a face roll class it is in 10 minutes or less.

For me the hands down best combination is a direct damage spec sword/warhorn and axe/axe warrior. Basically you use warhorn for constant swiftness to move between events and reach mobs (including using savage leap constantly) and then mowing through mobs with whirling axe and cyclone axe.

Here’s how to farm with a Ranger. Run axe/horn. Make sure auto-targeting is enabled in your options. Find the spawn point and spam the hell out of your #1 key.

Our longbow #5 skill is no good for most Orr DE farming. The cast time takes too long and most of the time, you don’t see the mobs because they die too fast. Plus it has a long cool down.

Using the axe #1 skill has been the best option for me so far.

There are some events where my warriors cleans up on loot if I use the right tactics.

There other events where the the warrior is average at best.(penitent camp for instance.)

ONLY penitent camp-event at primetime proofs what the best farming classes are, everything else is just fooling around!

Because in the end it boils down to players spamming area-damage on the mob-spawns also in other events, killing them before they even become visible on short range.

I have an engineer and my experience is similar to Ghoest: in an event where NPCs can at least move a little (while already being vulnerable) instead of going down instantly in one spot my area-damage gives me plenty of loot, at penitent camp though my grenade-spam might only get me a few skulls or other white trash (usually running with 150 – 160 magic find).

Heard from an Elementalist in my guild that he can do quite better (with the right skills).