Guild Wars 2

What are the best professions for running around and farming events? I assume having perma swiftness and strong AoE is mandatory? So I guess that leaves Mesmers out right away.

I think Thieves with shortbow is the best way to farm events. That is my personal opinion anyway.
The thief can get very fast around the battlefield, and the shortbow has incredible AOE capabilities for event situations.
Moreover, because a thieves abilities are limited by initiative and not by cooldowns means that you can burst several AOEs when you need it and recharge initiative while waiting for the next pack of mobs.

Elementalists come in second. While they have awesome AOE as fire with staff its not as good as the thief with a shortbow, as explained.

Thieves as mentioned above, and Rangers with barrage/traps can tag many mobs easily, and move quickly with speed-boosting signets.

I also found that the Asura skill Radiation Field is useful as well.

Out of all the classes I have max 80, Warrior is the best. Does the most damage, can tag a lot of enemies with AoE attacks on Greatsword and Axe/Axe. Autoattack on greatsword does A LOT of damage AoE. This is crucial when farming events with a lot of players, cause you need to do a certain % of damage to get the kill and make it drop loot.

Thiefs are a close second, but don’t come anywhere near the efficiency a warrior has when it comes to farming.

In order of best to worst (in my opinion):
Warrior
Thief
Ele’s: Long startup on AoE attacks. Also huge cooldowns on them.
Mesmers: I can farm with them, but not enough AoE skills. Also, mediocre damage with autoattack
Guardian: Got some AoE attacks, but not nearly enough as other classes.
Rangers: Only thing good is Barrage and traps, rest is single target. i.e. not the best for farming
Necromancer: This one is the lowest because mine is setup as condition damage. Condition damage is damage over time, and when having to ‘tag’ a lot of enemies quickly in zerglike events this causes the problem that you don’t get kills/loot, because of not doing enough damage before the enemies die.
Engineers: The one class I don’t have level 80.

Oh, and for the permaswiftness. All classes can have permaswiftness, so that’s not something you have to consider (Yes, even Mesmers with Runes of the Centaur).

Pretty much any class that can do high DPS and/or AoE.

Having tried several professions, my favourite for event farming is Engineer with dual pistols, and the Coated Bullets and Speedy Kits traits.

Don’t listen to those folks above, guardian is THE best and will get you the most gold/hour

Guardian has the best aoe, speed and mobility in the game. If you are farming events, it is a must to use greatsword and staff.

Staff is great because it’s auto attack is a spammable aoe, up to 5 targets. The 2nd attack, orb, is also an aoe that passes through mobs (so it works best when coming across a line of enemies) 3rd is an aoe placeable (which can be traited to last longer and have a bigger diameter) AND it gives you swiftness. 4th is a skill that stacks might and can heal you – best reserved for when there is a break in the action. 5th skill is great for stacking mobs, making it easier for you to aoe as many as possible.

And then you have the greatswords. 2nd skill is a high damage aoe that can hit a good number of targets. 3rd skill is a leap aoe, and can be used to blind enemies as well, increasing your survivability. 4th skill is an aoe placed underneath you character which can also be traited to last long and be larger. 5th skill is a pull, and used in conjuction with the 2nd skill, can be good when mobs are spaced out.

And how about the utility skills? Well, you have two utility skills that give you swiftness, and when stacked with the staff 3rd skill, you can have perma swiftness.

There is also a skill that teleports you to targeted enemies and burns everyone in the vicinity. This is great for mobility and helps you make a lot of gold.

Guardian is one of the few classes that can tag two different waves of mobs simultaneously and excel both as ranged and melee. It is clearly superior to the warrior, whose best combination is GW/dual axe.

Oddly, only one other mention of engineer and that was an aside about not having one yet. I think my Engineer is best at tagging mobs and packs of mobs with the grenade skill. 6 AOE skills including a poison field, and if traited, you get the extra chain lightning attack from the tool belt. Swapping between grenades and flame thrower gives you massive AOE fields to easily tag anything with enough damage to get credit. I spend more time looting between mobs with him than any other toon thus far.